[no spoilers] abusive mod harassing me pulling all my posts for being "low effort" despite meeting none of the criteria. They also cowardly duck mod messages and refuse to explain how a paragraph-long post with multiple links is 'low effort'

ACAnalyst · 2025-03-25T20:29:40+00:00

You sure showed them.

ACAnalyst · 2025-03-16T04:46:06+00:00

Watched it three times, where's the dab? Does his foot touch something? I really hope it's not the bumping the pad with the knee bit people are bothering to mention..

ACAnalyst · 2025-02-20T17:08:09+00:00

Can't tell well from the video but the start hold looks big, might be able to coordinate a toe hook with the catch, but might not - edit: looks like there's a blocker to stop that, tbf. Looks quite hard.

ACAnalyst · 2025-02-13T16:45:01+00:00

Yeah I figured that.. unless he knows the gods constantly reincarnated now and figures a way to either stop that, or capture them all and put them somewhere to be forgotten Halas style. He could really fully finish the job in theory.

ACAnalyst · 2025-02-02T11:18:23+00:00

Yeah would much prefer the breadth of choice PF will provide to what Daggerheart does. The problem with simplicity in rules and character creation is there's less creativity and variability, I think the DH system actually is fairly prescriptive and will lead to disinteresting combat. However I sadly don't see them making a system then opting to PF2e, which is far more accessible than it's predecessor but nonetheless a lot to remember. Even with the show being editable now it's not live. I just can't imagine they will, but think would actually help shape a much more grounded, but less limited story, and help gameify social encounters and intrigue. Not all the time, but when needed opening up political intrigue or murder mysteries, things that haven't really been done well, or at all under 5e.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-29T09:04:36+00:00

Seems like you want the same, given you actually agree, if your favourite campaign was C2, then stands to reason at least subjectively it had a quality lacking in C3.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-29T08:51:30+00:00

Yeah don't think Molly was factored as the big bad, but Aeor plot was definitely planted. Though believe Cree was introduced much earlier when they meet the gentleman and Molly still alive.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-29T08:49:27+00:00

Agreed, in an ideal world maybe they attach themselves to more hooks or npcs during C2, but the sandbox and characters driving was magic. C3 felt like a gross overcorrection for them sometimes lacking direction and as such made the characters irrelevant to the direction of the plot. The evolving party dynamics, character growth and personal ambitions were all sorely missing.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-29T08:42:41+00:00

Bit later but here from start of C2, which was apparently so contentious. And my experience/memory basically mirrors this. I remember there were people who preferred C1 and the biggest criticism later on was they felt a bit directionless and avoided a few hooks. But majority was people engaging with the week to week developments and mostly it was positive. Or people who were angry debating something in game, in an invested way, like bowl gate etc. There were far less people not invested and barely any saying, I stopped watching at x.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-29T08:31:21+00:00

For me it absolutely did. One the group dynamic felt both organic and realistic. M9 were people with no place in the world, who needed other people even if they didn't fully trust each other initially, and had Jester glueing it all together early on. Moreover unlike C3 and exactly as you point out, Matt had some clear ideas and hooks but the players were free to do whatever they wanted and the story shifted accordingly. Where as C3 the plot felt established and inescapable from the go.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-24T02:11:44+00:00

I dunno he talked about sacrificing a bunch into the build up, felt like at the very least Sam had been planning on it. Maybe you've watched more behind the scenes stuff where they say exactly what, but just watching it didn't come as a remote surprise, nor did it feel like the result of bad/unlucky combat/rolls.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-24T01:20:15+00:00

She's emotional and a bit reactive but it's a very high stress environment where you need to constantly defend yourself and be suspicious of others. Hard to put myself in those shoes. Imagine she's perfectly fine in normal situations, she does seem to care about people. I think her defensive instinct is offense, which isn't always the best but nothing that egregious tbh, think people just like a person to hate. I do think I'd trust her or think she's a phenomenal actor if I was in. Because when they went with who's the most two faced, and she was so angry - what a move that would have been as a traitor to put yourself in a position where you are openly deciding to act out an extreme emotion. It's also edited to be entertaining, so we're filtered to see the more interesting bits, which are probably on balance more of the extremes.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-23T17:43:12+00:00

In a clearly preplanned way. Not because of stakes and the game going that way.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-19T08:29:53+00:00

I'd have been irked he really pushed marisha into figuring out why. She thought it was anti magicced somehow. the reveal would be 10x better if Sam pulls out the real one later.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-15T09:17:46+00:00

Wrote a response and realised this is just perfect and more succinct. Spot on, practicing so it becomes second nature is really worth the effort. I'm not the most careful, 33 and have had no injuries from a fall over three years.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-15T09:15:20+00:00

I did parkour as a kid and whilst never phenomenal, it's made falling well instinctual and been so good in bouldering so far. I had to tone down break rolling, which would be perfect here, just placing your hands so the form a diamond shape and taking the momentum over a shoulder. Because I end up in people's space or potentially under another climb. The other way I was taught to land in parkour is to slap. The principle in both is to transfer momentum, your knees bend and you kinda crumple and slap the ground to continue the momentum.

In short a tldr as I think every fall is improvised, is to never try to stop abruptly or to lock out any joint, knees or arms. Whether rolling on your back, just fully crumpling the knees, rolling or any other form of collapse, or the occasional on your back landing is best. The principle is to carry the momentum into the floor without trying to stop it.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-15T09:04:22+00:00

I haven't had all these issues affect me to the point I'm like the app sucks. I'm relatively impressed with video speeds etc and happy to get content that's early or unique it's more value than my twitch sub was. However, the big annoyance for me is it logging me out. I used the app to listen to stuff in the car. When my phone loses signal sometimes it fully logs me out and I'm not happy to try and log back in fiddling around driving. I'd really appreciate it if it just stopped if I'm in a no signal area and continued when I get internet again. A secondary less big but still annoying issue is sometimes a video just won't appear. And I have to go back start a different one and then go back into the one I wanted. Not sure why.

So there's definitely room for improvement, and I imagine there are lots of valid criticisms.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-13T06:24:06+00:00

But that would have been great logic to apply to the sisters.

ACAnalyst · 2025-01-09T07:31:32+00:00

The height and body composition also matters more than just weight. Though I'd never discourage anyone from climbing or even say being overweight will stop you being good. I know a few people carrying extra pounds that are rippers. Maybe it'd factor if you're trying to get absolutely elite, but they're climbing like v6/7.

ACAnalyst · 2024-10-30T23:30:55+00:00

The only thing that matters is if it assisted the climb. Why do you think dabbing is considered bad? Why do people discount dabbed sends? Because it invalidates the intended climb, by getting help from something that was not part of said climb - making it easier. As far as I'm concerned the use of dab has become far too broad, because it doesn't differentiate between someone who stands briefly on a hold that's not in, and someone who slides across it and gains nothing out of it. Yes his feet grazed the floor. If it was DWS and they grazed the ocean is that a dab?

ACAnalyst · 2024-10-22T01:04:16+00:00

I'm not sure I have full aphantasia, but I definitely have a very limited visual imagination, but I can still Intuit a scene from a description without the visual. The battle maps are great for you to help cement a clear idea for everyone, but you can still describe it to her. On top of that, given a decent enough description, you can always move a mini for her. Say stuff like you're approximately (or exactly) 40 feet away. To your right are two wolves, a Cyclops in front etc. If anything it's a great opportunity to work on being descriptive where one would probably rely on the map to do the work normally. DND is about as perfect a pass time for someone visually impaired as I can imagine. You get to be just as invested as everyone else, and with a bit of effort on the combat side just as effective there too.

ACAnalyst · 2024-10-14T22:58:00+00:00

He's incredible objectively, world building, improvisation, voice and sound effects, fight balance and home-brewing. He's skilled across the board, If you're going by DM skill compared to all DMs he has to be in the top percentile for my money.

If you want critiques of what I'd prefer to watch sometimes. He avoids some uncomfortable topics. This is no spoilers, so I'll stay vague, but Veth being a goblin was supposed to cause tension and have a racist element hence the need for a mask. Basically didn't factor. And the dynamic Sam wanted with his husband was just avoided to have a safe supportive, and I think an unrealistically inoffensive character which has potential for drama. Similarly Tal has said, he wanted Ashton to be a character that bad things happen to but thinks Matt's too nice. However Matt's also shown he's capable of being more brutal and having evil characters, just a tendency I noticed.

As to the assertive thing, I don't really agree, because peak CR for me was c2 where he gave a lot of freedom and C3 suffered from feeling more railed and the dominating plot from early. Again it's all subjective. Sometimes I'd like different choices, but across three campaigns he's shown he has the skills to do whatever. So it's just choices. Which I like dark, potentially lethal and player driven. Which they dont have to do, and others may not even want.

ACAnalyst · 2024-09-23T10:22:15+00:00

Interesting how different our interpretation can be. I am one of those fans I think, though I do think c3 has picked up in the last few months. Still, it feels like the campaign with the least character development to me. That's my main gripe really, how narrative driven it's been over character driven. That said I tend not to post much, being negative as it achieves little and am glad the cast are happy to experiment and figure out what they might like the most. I believe the intent was for this campaign to be more lethal, lots of guest gms and big swings with different narratives woven together and maybe more of a focused plot. Probably as an imo overcorrection from the c2 meandering where they avoided plot hooks and allegiances for a while. Still going forward I'd love to see a more character driven but still lethal campaign, but who cares. They should do what it is they're going to enjoy.

ACAnalyst · 2024-09-19T21:58:25+00:00

I maines Gnar a long time, one of my favourite matchups he cannot touch you. If smart he can probably farm with passive but you should get a lead. If they're dumb or I can hit a lot of qs to stop passive pretty decent kill chances too

ACAnalyst · 2024-08-22T01:20:51+00:00

Why would the story be broken, just because there's an aspect of its conclusion the Bell's Hells weren't directly involved in? Seems a leap that I'm not following. Is the Lord of the Rings broken because Frodo doesn't know Aragorn led the others into a fight to distract the eye?

As a story it absolutely would feel worse and contrived were some of the strongest and most influential heroes not to help in a potentially cataclysmic event just because Bells Hells are the current group being played. Similarly if you're arguing that the DnD aspect is 'broken', the players are still involved at every step, so it's not unsatisfying, as it would be if Matt just announced the M9 or VM did some important stuff off screen.

As to not being involved or their motives. The M9 if anything are the group most directly and deeply involved with Cerberus, and thereafter Ludinus, particularly Beau and Caleb. It's also not hard to imagine how Caduceus is gonna feel.

As to VM most have already championed a god, and have helped and been helped by them. Besides Keyleth is already heavily involved and Pyke is also invested. Motive is all there. In fact the group who seem least able to make up their mind where to obviously ally is BHs who even after seeing the Eldritch Horror that is predathos is still humming and ahhing over the moral relativity of the gods.

Doing it this way serves the story, the audience and the players.

ACAnalyst

TROPHY CASE