Episode 112 — Red Afro

[telegramsam 92]

 

No matter how much niceness it's couched in, wishing for a TPK is still creepily aggressive. It's like if someone came up to you after a stand-up comedy show and said "Hey, I'm a big fan of you, but could you set all your notebooks on fire?" Things take work to create and wishing it would all flush away isn't exactly a sociable way to express you don't care for its direction. Okay, off to go do what I'm actually good at (blowing in cartridges and drawing unicorns).

 

Sorry, I don't think I did a very good job of expressing myself there--I was joking about rooting for the giants. It just seemed like that was the direction the campaign happened to be going in, and I had resigned myself to accepting it. All that I really hope for is a change of direction. I said this in the other thread and I'll say it here: I like this show. I've looked forward to it every Wednesday since it came out.

 

I didn't mean to make you feel like we're coming down on you guys. I think some of us are just frustrated with the campaign's lack of direction. For a lot of us, this is all the D&D we get in life--I for one don't have any friends who are up for playing and I'm not about to just scope out my nearest hobby shop to join a group of people I've never met before. So when your heroes start getting bored with it, it's kind of disappointing. Anyway, my apologies. I just hope you guys can get a little more of a narrative going at some point.

[SensiiMiller 29]

Well, without Lyra, the bird will never come back.

 

What I find a little hard to deal with is, other than surviving from episode to episode, I don't see a real goal for the group. There might be one, and I somehow missed the episode where it was explained.

 

If Blaine needs a goal, consider adapting a Clint Eastwood movie to the game.

For example, if he adopted a Dirty Harry story, the group would be looking for a killer. Or, Unforgiven, some giant whore got cut up, and the group is going to get the guy who done it. Or Eiger Sanction...well, maybe not that, because I have no idea what that was about.

 

But, when everything that moves is out to kill them, always, it just seems repetitive.

 

Having said that, our weekly dnd sessions go from 6pm to 11 pm, so when it is broken into 1 hour chunks, maybe it just seems slow since we do in one night what this group does in a month. Plus add the time that is spent joking about other stuff, maybe Blaine is moving them toward something.

[Shampoodler 1489]

This is madness and I feel like someone really needs to say this:

 

The Eiger Sanction is about an art history professor and mountain climber who doubles as a professional assassin and is coerced out of retirement to avenge the murder of an old friend.

 

I hope that didn't come off as too critical.

 

 

[AndrewGould 53]

I'm really not trying to tell you guys how to play...

Yeah you are.

 

It's okay - I do it too.

[SublimeBW 59]

Great episode! The bear had me laughing my butt off in my cube and almost had me grabbing a pencil and paper for some horribly done fan art (maybe this weekend). Then we get to the ass-hat bikers (that I feel have some distant dickhead relation to the 6th Graders in South Park) and poor Lyra gets crushed. I hope that those blasted blue-butt-munchers get what is coming to them. Next episode should start with a battle cry of WHAM-DANGO! and then a pounding on those biker douches, maybe Dag can cut the schwanz off one of the giants and use it to kill the other.

 

As a side note, I see that some people are rooting for a TPK and that would make me sad. I really enjoy the characters that have been developed and would be sad to see them go.

[Razor Boy 152]

I feel like Gerry wasn't done figuring out how to play Winter, so Rick & Steve were able to fill in the gaps with "creepy weirdo Phillip-Seymour-Hoffman-from-Happiness-voice guy."

 

But Sarah/Lyra had grown to be my favorite player/character in Blaine's game, so I was nervous when the switch came. A few episodes in, and I was really happy to hear that Dan was doing such a good job with the character. I still miss the hell out of Sarah, but I was happy that Lyra didn't go anywhere.

 

Until this past Wednesday. Fuckin blue dicks.

[nrkist 71]

As long as we are discussing the current campaign and a TPK.

 

We have a full-time NP crew again. They have a good chemistry now. This current 'campaign' started off as a danger-room with Blaine considering how much player shuffling would take place. Ironically, Blaine's first ep was definitely the strongest. Blaine needs to play more characters and setup more situations that don't immediately appear to be confrontations. That's hard now with GIANTS, ALIEN LAND, and the fact that the group already burned so many bridges and the players are pretty used to be directionless and just wandering into the next confrontation Blaine sets up. They have nothing else to do!

 

I hope this signals a turn. I think Dan's Lyra was always going to die when the new group started to establish and take form. Dan is really invested with this group, and he's really good, and he probably wants this to start moving forward in plot. In short, Dan has already rolled up a while back, while Blaine built something a little meatier that would revolve around his character's introduction and create a real campaign level plot. When Blaine was ready, he gave Dan's Lyra her pink card, and Dan was too excited to await his imminent death, and executed himself by taking a ridiculous and silly risk resulting in Lyra's impossibly unavoidable death that both the player and GM wanted anyway.

 

Just a theory...

 

Edit: Oh, two other things I forgot to state/mention. I don't think this suggests a TPK, nor do I believe that is what should happen. I think this signs the introduction of a truly 'Dan' character and a focal plot that Blaine started building when the group solidified. Secondly, I think Blaine's goofy Color Continent is a jab at the truly horrendous Bandworld books, where the world exists in concentric rings of colors...for some ineffable reason...that has no impact upon the plot...

[LostCauze 10]

I hope we bump into a worthy antagonist soon, or find something of a satisfying goal. I still love this show hard, but i wanna feel invested like i was when we were dealing with that soulsnatching pyromancer. That was fun ánd badass, now it's just fun.

[Trogdor 37]

I started using the "5 room dungeon" idea to structure my adventures. It helps me when the PCs decide to stop screwing around and get down to business.

 

Here's a link:

 

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=156

 

Or just google "5 room dungeon" if you don't trust links from strangers

[Hairy1701 19]

Hello fellow adventurers! Just finished bingeing the entire show, what a ride! Great job everyone. I haven't played since I was twelve, and that was basically reading the Robotech RPG and thats it. Now 18 years later, thanks to Nerd Poker, I managed to set up a three man team I get to throw giants and goblins at as the GM. Our first game lasted 8 hours, and it felt like no time at all, so much fun! Keep up the great work.

 

P.S. For me all the changes that happened awhile back are still fresh, so Id like to say, Sara, Sark, and Jerry, you will be missed. Dan and Steve you guys are great keep it up!... Ken, Brian, I didn't mention you yet, so there you go... Oh and BLAINE, more commercials!

[AnimatedBeaver 253]

Welcome to the boards and to D&D, Hairy! Nerd Poker was my intro, too -- had never played a tabletop RPG in my life 'til the year before last, but when I started listening to this show they made it sound like so much fun I had to check it out. I now have awesome D&D game-days, inspiration for artwork and a couple'a new friends, so thanks, Brian & Friends!

[Hairy1701 19]

Thanks AnimatedBeaver, I hope this is just the beginning. 112 episodes has given me tons of inspiration for DMing, I feel like I'm gonna kill the fellow newbs I'm playing with, by getting them in over thier heads, but we're all learning as we go. Can't wait till tomorrows episode... They do come out on Wednesdays, right?

[Dan Telfer 266]

Yep! Wednesdays. Thanks for listening Hairy! So awesome to hear you're playing because of the podcast.

[Hairy1701 19]

Thanks Dan! Can't wait to listen. Keep up the great work.

[Bever Hopox 371]

Better moment: Whamdango or the Butthole Bugle Bear Blast?

[Dan Telfer 266]

Make a poll! But I think Whamdango will win.

[TexBelmont 20]

I would vote for Whamdango. Putting something in a bear's butthole is clearly great, but going for your own butthole is what sets a proper Whamdango apart. One of the funniest, most creative moments in all of Nerd Poker.

[AndrewGould 53]

I started using the "5 room dungeon" idea to structure my adventures. It helps me when the PCs decide to stop screwing around and get down to business.

 

Here's a link:

 

http://www.roleplayi....php?number=156

 

Or just google "5 room dungeon" if you don't trust links from strangers

 

I've been following Johnn's roleplayingtips newsletter for many years now. Well worth it.

[nrkist 71]

I would vote for Whamdango. Putting something in a bear's butthole is clearly great, but going for your own butthole is what sets a proper Whamdango apart. One of the funniest, most creative moments in all of Nerd Poker.

 

 

What?! C'mon...that was a big bear. If we want to get down to brass tacks and buttholes....like...c'mon...the giant bear clearly has a superior diameter of buttholiness. I can't believe we are even discussing this. Nerd Poker moderator, please delete this thread.

[Dan Telfer 266]

Nerd Poker moderator, please delete this thread.

 

... or there's a poll.

[nrkist 71]

Dan...I don't care who your dad is, OK? Mr Telfer may have allowed for discussions regarding the logistics of various buthole executions, but he was a remenant of an older day. This, I will not be having. It's goddamn 2000 and something!

 

"...or there's a poll"

 

Where does it end with you man? I bet you can't wait for me to work that 'poll' into my next tongue-in-cheek bit of wordplay.