Friendship is Dragons
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Page 610 - Backseat Gaming
Author Notes:
My thoughts on it? I'm the wrong person to ask. When I like a show, I tend to accept every episode positively, even the episodes the majority doesn't like so much. I'm satisfied by a few cool moments, some worldbuilding, and the continued exploration of characters I've come to like. I recognize and appreciate a good story well told, being a scholar of storycraft as I am, but I also have a lot of patience for a show's low points.
Not that any of that applies to my opinion of Episode 100. Suffice to say I loved the episode and how utterly insane it was, and how it still tied all the crazy plot threads into a narrative with a satisfying conclusion. I didn't have any major headcanons at risk here (not that I have many period, just interesting campaign ideas), but I figure that if you've ever been concerned about how the show handled the precious background ensemble, well, that was probably the worst we'll ever get. I think we'll survive.
In other news, we've got a side-series for Fallout is Dragons on the way called Mawlers Take Manehattan, an AU slice-of-life thing we're doing to pad out the time one of our players is gone for the summer. It'd normally be going up in the regular FiD slot today, but this week was insane. Probably tomorrow.
Hello, longtime lurker. Did you ever had a case where players basically took over from the GM?
The original idea had been that in the wake of Darth Vader & the Emperor's deaths in Episode 6, there was a power vacuum left open for new Sith to rise to power. Two of the players in the party were Dark Jedi - who I assumed would eventually work together to become the new Dark Master and apprentice.
However, what actually happened was the quote-unquote "Master" of the two went power-mad and tried to kill off everyone else in the party in order to prove himself to an NPC Dark Jedi Master.
The whole campaign lasted 6 sessions while I acted as judge and intermediary during the scheming and inter-party combats. We had lightsaber duels, a starship that got sabotaged, a gunfight in a nose-diving starship (same ship I mentioned earlier), an epic crash scene, a hunt through the city, and a chase where the parties involved leapt from speeder to speeder. Of course, there was plenty of backstabbing and subterfuge involved as well - and all in all, I felt that I had very little control as a GM.
That typed though, my experiences in that game, they make for one heck of a story.
The campaign I am currently running has evolved into a 4.5-way philosophical duel among 4 PCs (the .5 being a player's allied character, who the player plays and does not always agree with the main PC; think of it as if Twilight's player played Spike too).
A recently ended campaign I was a player in, went off the rails in the first arc and the GM repeatedly said after that he was just providing plot in reaction to what we did. He had intended us to visit Zebrica on a field trip to get established and maybe have an excuse to learn Alchemy, not to start off unleashing a Zebrica-consuming spirit who, in the end, we would turn into a giant tree charged with restoring all that it destroyed and then some.
And those are just the strongest examples from this year so far.
The winner is the planet pinball.
Congratulations to Someone. (No that's the name he used)
I'm also giving the prize to Specter. First time I heard of sugar used as a non posion weapon.
To both of you I'm giving you both a shard of the Elemental crystal mountain.
Inbred it into the weapon of your choice, and it will be powered with your inner element.
Good job to both of you.
Now my darkness will rain upon the heads of my enemies, as I become the death incarnate.
... I mean, I'll use this power with responsibility and care...
Become the new grim reaper.
Even with a tablet, I still miss things.
This guy has been taunting you since you met him, always one step ahead of you, and the one time you beat him, it turns out that he is not left handed.
The moment comes. The DM says the word that strikes either fear or excitement.
Overkill.
No overkill that hurts you or your comrades, or for the other side, they get caught in it as well. (How can you enjoy the victory if your dead as well)
I remember an old adventure long ago where the players were fighting off one of the head leaders of the Illuminati. They managed to smuggle a small tactical nuke into his office. And set it off.
Never. Saw. It. Coming. :D
The insult to injury is that the players calculated the damage: 6.5 million points. I think there isn't a system where that kind of damage isn't pretty much overkill.
That's part of what makes Disgaea awesome.
What did the "Holy Paladin" Blood Moon do before they were shunned by their deity?
Flood a small hamlet village (and everything else down the path for fifty miles).
Betty Smith puts in place a legal framework for dealing with otherworldly beings. Briggs re-engineers the financial flows ready for conversion into soul-backed exchange units. Pat Lyman constructs a subtle X out of treacle toffee somewhere near Sicily and summons Mr Jackal there to file his counter suit against a trumped up claim against pyramid inc. Dr Von Steel fires his orbital laser/Anti-Business metal rail gun HAMMER.
Result: Failure. Smith's and Von Steel's hearts are ripped out and they are consumed by otherworldly fire. Pat is coerced into signing a contract allowing Mr Jackal to posses his body whenever he feels like it.
Killing Mr Jackal, head of pyramid Inc - plan B:
Mr Jackal is lured into Pat's body with the offer of tasty souls. Pat is moved to a robot body constructed by Baron Aegis von Eisenhower for the duration of the encounter. Caracal pumps the Pat-Husk full of drugs so that Jackal is tripping balls when he turns up. Dr Steel and his team ANVIL pump him full of several rounds of anti-business metal bullets with toxic debt payload. Caracal punches him in the nose.
While this is happening Pat and Von Eisenhower draw upon the power of business, crackling arcs of synergy boiling around them. Pat casts Dressed for Success - ensuring he looks the part for the fight with Mr Jackal. Von Eisenhower casts Function Follows Form - which makes anything perform the task it looks like it ought to. Mecha-Scarab Pat combines all six limbs into a synergy cannon which he levels at Mr Jackal. At this stage Mick Fig turns up driving a stolen company car which he ramps into Mr Jackal at the same moment Pat unleashes his synergy blast.
Result: Success! Jackal is killed. Mick dies in the blast but with no afterlife to go to his soul possesses a hot rod. Pat takes over pyramid inc and becomes a robot god of death.
Anyway, one of my party members was a gnome cleric who had just gotten an attack that 'forces the target to the ground' He used this attack on the golem and got a nat 20. The DM being a nice guy gave me a reflex save to get out from under it before I was crushed. I rolled a 1.
Then the following exchange happened;
I asked "How much damage?" thinking I'd be alright.
"Well, you'll take 1d4 for every 10 pounds."
"Ok, how much does it weigh?"
"9 tons... it's an obsidian golem."
"So that's... 1800d4..."
"But that attack was a crit so... 7200 damage."
another party member spoke up "7210, it has thorns." At this point the party scrambles to check their sheets to save me when the DM inturrupts them by asking me what my stealth roll was. As the Dragonborn was the only one who could see me, he was the only one who was allowed to check and see if he could.
He had nothing.
After the battle the DM awarded the rest of the party 7210 exp.
And that is how my rogue became the party tank. By taking more damage in one hit than the dragonborn ever did in his life.
Pretty much my thoughts on the episode right there. It was just glorious to behold and it was the first episode in a while to actually make me laugh out loud the whole time. Clearly one of my favorites for this season, if not the whole series.
My wife is a big Doctor Who fan, but not into Pony. She squee'd pretty hard at the doctor when he showed up with the scarf and shouted Allons-y!
But I don't care what my analytical side says. I loved it and want them to go even bigger for episode 200. Or better yet, episode 150.
Me. Me all over. I especially enjoy the world-building and learning little things or backstory about a character.
~And yeah, episode 100 was a blast from start to finish!~
So followup to my post on Thursday
How many of us on hear have Aspergers syndrome ? ( I do )
Aj and RD: wont even be a contest.
twilight; -wearing first place medal- no kidding. So how was tieing for Last?
I don't care. It's nice to be pandered to. Especially if it's only 1 or 2 episodes out of 100.
Uh, yeah dude, that's the whole fucking point! How obvious and telegraphed does a joke need to before nerds understand that's it's a joke?
Anyway, Freshchips, thanks for more fun comics and such.
So, yeah. Awesome comic, love them all. Stay awesome.
"Hey, I can just summon his ghost"
He just got summon ghost spell so it completely slipped my mind. I flipped a coin to decide if he actually was dead, guy was summoned, questions answered.
I consider myself a good storyteller, but its much more rewarding when the players handle the actual approach to a problem