HunterJE

I'll start by saying clipping nails in public is disgusting and despicable. That said, the level of freak-out over touching nail clippings crack up. It's not like there's anything there you wouldn't touch, say, shaking a hand...

Well, if we're applying physics, the ants would collapse under their own weight and couldn't breathe, so... (Insect respiration operates on principles that don't scale much larger than, well, three largest real insects. And the seemingly amazing proportional strength of ants has to do with the fact that muscle strength increases proportionate to cross section-the square of linear dimension-while weight increases with volume-that ids, the cube of linear dimension. This means as you scale up weight increases much faster than strength.) Fortunately, we're in a world with wizards and magic.

I was generally aware of Posehn's work, and was a pretty dedicated Earwolf listener when NP came out; when it first came out I though, "huh, that sounds fun, and I miss having RPGs in my life." The next time I had a gap in my podcast roster checked it out and was hooked. So my in was primarily comedy.

Have only listened to the intro, but had to jump in here to say: I love the bullshit. Brian hit the nail on the head—NP very much has the cadence of what in my experience a good home campaign with people who enjoy each other's company. If I wanted to just hear no-nonsense, uniterrupted, start to finish gameplay with everyone taking things super seriously, there are a million dry, gameplay-focused "live-play" podcasts out there I could listen to. I don't. I listen to Nerd Poker, where I can hear a bunch of talented funny people have a lot of fun and occasionally roll some dice.

And wow, there is the exact us-versus-them attitude that creeps people out. Hint: The fact that this attitude creeps as many people out as is evident from all the posts above, maybe it's not really your best bet, brother.

A telling quote from the AoC website, from the section advertising their so-called "charm academy": "How to use body language to 'break through her shell'. Did you know that body language is your most important tool to build attraction? We’ll show you 3 ways to use non-verbal cues to make her melt with desire..." This is pretty typical of the kind of claims the site makes. The implicit attitude is that women are a puzzle to be solved, a shell to be broken; that there are special techniques that will "make [women] melt with desire." Rather than a meeting of equals forming a mutual attraction, you are promised methods to make women be in to you. You are told you are entitled to this, and that if only you can unlock this secret all the women will suddenly realize they've wanted you all along.

Treating them like human beings and not objects of conquest to be tricked and defeated, maybe?

Not a drawing, but fanart nonetheless, in memory of one of the great missed opportunities of the current campaign: (Additional info -- other than the barrel and the fish, the model utilizes Micah Bauer's "C6" design ethos, which uses six common lego parts to create small scale lego mecha; legs are borrowed/modified from Bauer's CAB 320 Walker design, rest is original. Much love also to BrickLink for facilitating bulk purchase of individual lego parts in desired colors, not to mention a lego fish of all things!)

I don't get this party's priorities at all. "Let's see, stick around and find out why and how a bunch of fish built robot suits and are invading a continent, or go to a vaguely described place whose only known characteristics are 'the rocks are different colors' and 'lots of shit happens there?' That second one definitely sounds more interesting!" I'm sure Blaine will manage something fun here too, but what could have been... One other thing--can the party just stop trying to assuage their guilt by pretending the roc is their "friend?" Anyone mind controlled into doing your will isn't your friend, they're your slave. If you really think the roc is flying you all over creation (or for that matter not eating you) out of friendship, take off that crown and see what happens. (All this of course should be taken as commentary on player character decisions and not criticism of the show--great and enjoyable as always.)

Bring on the "I stab their heads off" merch! Also can't believe that wasn't the episode title.

Not a running thing yet, but the humorous advice show My Brother, My Brother, and Me ran a special episode where they played D+D 5th, and have made noises about turning it into a recurring thing. The episode can be found here: The Adventure Zone Takes a bit to get underway (but certainly no more than the average Nerd Poker) but OK play and super funny. Hoping they can find a way to make this at least a monthly thing. Note: This is technically an episode of a show with a back catalog of over 200 eps, so if everyone laughs and you don't think you heard a joke, it's probably a running gag, just pretend you got it so nobody is the wiser.

Good to see Blaine back, better to see Blaine win, great to hear Nerd Poker listed as his main credit in the intro/bio section! I think Blaine is handicapped by his style, because he'll get three or four points-worthy lines in on a single buzzer, and usually only get points once. If he could manage to bite his tongue and buzz in again he would do even better in this meaningless competition...

I just hope they stick around because I have a plan for icthy-mech fan art that I have to wait for some supplies for, and I want it to still be relevant...

Totally on board with the bottom line--I dint have a problem with eating on mic, but it's something a large minority of podcast listeners have problems with. That said, starting off a complaint with a laundry list things you could complain about but won't isn't necessarily the classiest move...

Also, fun episode, hope they stick around to figure out what this invasion is all about, have a feeling the motivations of these fish are more complicated than meets the eye...

Dammit, Brian, the origami money were rats, you know, like from the show? Without that connection whole thing comes across kind of weird. Hey, at least he upped my donation by five bucks in the telling...

So I might have missed something at the top,* is this in-continuity or a "what-if?" I'm guessing the latter, but if the former I wonder how Blaine would have dealt if, for example, Dag actually had cut off Winter's arm? Retcon a magical prosthesis? Also, what is it with Gerry's characters and bad things happening to limbs? He should just roll a torso next time. Also, really appreciated sincerity-corner at the end, very touching. * :edit: Nope, went back to check; Blaine got so far as to call it "sort of a weird preque--" before he was cut off by a tangent, and never got back to exactly how this fits into continuity.

Brian confirmed at the post show meet and greet that they did indeed record a last-minute show yesterday, which should be out shortly.

Wonder how that's possible with Brian on tour (happen to know because I have tickets to see him in Seattle tonight)...

Says an obvious troll.

Almost took umbrage for half a second, then remembered the name of the show

Glad to know I'm not the only one who totally starts his Wednesday with a force-check of the podcatcher, was brutal not seeing the new rip, and been checking back every half hour or so all morning... not sure how I'm getting through the hump of the week if it didn't show soon. (In seriousness, no real complaint about an awesome free show being a little late, look forward to what's next when comes...)

As much as I'd love to see Gerry back, I kind of like the idea of Winter being the rotating guest character. Also, it warmed my heart to hear Lyra finally successfully hide in shadows. Had to happen eventually!

I for one actually enjoy chatty-DM. I guess it might in part be that I really like funny-people-hanging-out format podcasts in the first place, and enjoy the talent on this program, so some occasional D+D to boot is just icing on the cake.

The negotiation over die roll results between Sarah and Blaine was priceless. I also absolutely love the Loony Tunes approach to D+D Blaine brings to the game; the pratfalling skelly bit was a perfect response to the kind of silly over-preparation of "door-opening-procedure."