And card shop D&D tends towards lowest-common-denominator D&D. You get all the powergamers and combat fiends kicked out of their friends’ games.
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Sure. Actually upon reflection I don’t know what we’re talking about. Except that however unique our playstyle is (I mean, obviously it’s literally unique, but like, it can probably be classified in some way that makes us closer to some groups and further from others - and it’s my intuition that we’d be on average further from a larger number of groups and closer to a much smaller number), it fukkin rules. Speaking of: thanks for being so good at running our campaign, unsorted txt files and all. It’s massive fun and it’s directly responsible for me shifting a whole lot of my leisure time towards thinking about tabletop and I love all you guys.
oh I’m just talking about how dnd games have tended to homogenize a bit more with the advent of popular podcasts and video series like critical role and the adventure zone, but we’re still far away from a place where there’s a “wrong” way to play dnd
that being said, this is mostly me having an internal dialogue with the shortcoming of the ‘old school renaissance’ types acting like there was a special way dnd used to be played that they’re trying to anthropologically extract from the way old dnd modules were written. There wasn’t one special way dnd was played that was lost with time, especially from pre-internet days. Every group played the game differently and every group honestly still does though this has narrowed a bit because of how much easier it is to see how other people do things. That’s of course not to say the rules are ‘meaningless’ or ‘optional’, I don’t feel like rpgs work as well entirely free-form, but nerd games are a social activity; mechanically structured conversations. Especially a game like D&D which isn’t thematically focused or coherent, every successful group is playing their own ‘version’ of the game because the interactions of personalities and tastes matters as much as the rules. We emphasize different parts of the rules. I don’t spend too much time on combat or crunchy mechanics but I think a ton about introducing difficult (or at least, interesting) situations.
I want to thank all the players for being great players! My entire DMing ‘philosophy’ is to just support the players in doing cool stuff and it wouldn’t work if you weren’t all creative and clever every session.
edit: apologies for the stream of conscious text wall.
EPISODE 4 is LIVE as HELL
I think this is my favorite one so far guys. Not that it means a hell of lot when you’re only four episodes in
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It’s Ven’s favorite for sure!
Let’s ride that single character trait into the ground!
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I just started listening to this and started giggling uncontrollably when the ALF theme started playing. Literally having a coughing fit now thanks
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Holy shit I should listen to our own eps some time
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Okay almost done with the cast after some grocery shopping. Glad I got the shoutout as you said your rolls, feels good to be an influencer. (Thanks for listening!!!)
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Episode five is here! Finally!
It’s a little shorter, but a nice big chunky one is coming next. Due to what’s been going down, we haven’t gotten around to doing the Sheriff election yet. Please go to the poll (in Tulpa’s post above) and vote!
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EPISODE SEX
There’s a fight in this one! With a Dark Souls plunging attack!
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fuuuuck yeah i’m excited
this has become my most-looked-forward-to podcast
i still feel called out every time someone says their roll out loud
but in a good way
It was a good call, Clint
Official thank you to Clint, the Only No Rangers Allowed Fan
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About halfway through this, and I had a thought while you were talking to the mushroom people.
I really like y’all’s willingness to approach unknown characters, like the kobolds and the mushroom people, with open mindedness and little or no violence (as long as they are not undead), and it got me thinking about how, because it’s a game, there’s no real risk of any consequences. You have the option to be optimistic and respectful because, who cares? So why aren’t more games like this???
I mean, there’s Undertale whose explicit point is that, as a player, you wield all the power and therefore have the responsibility to use violence sparingly if at all, but it moralizes that point so much that it’s hard to swallow. And there are explicitly non-violent games as well. But I wish there were more games that allowed you to use violence but encouraged a sense of wonderment and respect towards other living beings.
I guess your standard CRPGs tend towards this, but I honestly find those to be so much of a chore that I don’t want to play them. I guess this is just me.
But anyway, just a thought that I wanted to put somewhere. Great DMing and playing folks. I’m still in the middle of the mushroom conversation so please don’t kill them!!!
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There are a couple “quests”/hooks early on in Torment 2 that are very much in this spirit. You are semi-encouraged to do violence to weird creatures but why do that when it’s more fun to try and communicate with them?
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One of these days I will play that game, and also the original, and also all the other CRPGs people love.
One of these days…
Oh yeah I also wanted to mention that I love the alienness of the Kobolds and the Mushroom Folks (you know how it goes). It reminds me of Star Control 2 I guess? Something.
Anyway uh
yeah i am a fan sorry for getting all fan-ish
please like and subscribe to my new youtube channel, No Rangers Allowed Theories: For The True Fans
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No Clint you’re supposed to ask them to like and subscribe before you’ve said anything yet! That’s the mark of a true YouTuber master
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Hey guy’s howzit goin!!?? !
Before I get started, please li
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The erol otus art in sc2 is a huge inspo for me personally
I want to say more about the diplomatic leanings of the group but I am so fortunate that this group happens to line up with my own pre-occupations about not encouraging “kill em and take their stuff” attitudes
Dnd is an escapist game but it can be a game of fantastic adventure that doesn’t hinge itself on Uncharted levels of callous violence…
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Admittedly I struggle against the dnd rules pretty often and a lot of the structuring on my end is having more interesting rules for all the non-combat checks and a lot of my prepwork is thinking through temporary rules for non-fighting stuff and not actually scripting “content” as it were.
This will be perhaps most obvious in the next ep but I just want a skill check to be as engaging as an attack roll. I’m working on actually using the few tools afforded to make them better (adv/disadv and inspiration)
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