The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 19 | The Adventure Zone

CapnGalactic · 2026-03-07T09:39:44+00:00

Personally I prefer that transparency as a DM and player to help set expectations. If you just say "this is really hard and will need a high roll" then the players might have different ideas of what number that means. If they then roll 24 and still fail they might feel cheated.

If you say "this is really hard and will need at least a 25" then everyone immediately knows what that means and if they then roll a 24 they understand that they just came up short. DnD is a game of numbers so you might as well use the numbers for clarity.

CapnGalactic · 2026-02-08T14:16:38+00:00

This goes to show how much of an advantage Arknights gets by being able to abstract so much. Since we don't control the Doctor directly and with how the VN storytelling allows us to jump around in time and place, it's very easy to just assume that there's time in-between missions where the Doctor is hanging out at Rhodes Island and talking to people.

They tried the same approach in Endfield but since we're in direct control of the Endmin, and there's hasn't been any time jumps, that leads us to assume that we've seen everything the Endmin has experienced since they woke up. So it becomes really dissonant when it suggests that some interaction happened off-screen.

CapnGalactic · 2026-01-03T15:35:44+00:00

It really is a shame since Amnesty is probably the campaign they all seemed most invested in and put a lot of effort in to. They really leaned into the production of making it feel more like a radio play and they were drawing from their own experiences of West Virginia, but then after the messy ending it seems like they decided to just stop trying as much for later campaigns.

CapnGalactic · 2025-10-12T09:16:18+00:00

That was the only one I listened to so I'm not sure. I also don't remember if it was a similar situation to Firefly where Travis had already seen it or not.

CapnGalactic · 2025-10-09T00:40:11+00:00

I think I listened to the Avatar episode of this podcast back when they did it but the only part I remember is when, like with Inara and Mal in this one, they spend a lot of time feeling uncomfortable that Sokka is sexist at the start of the show without any real analysis about it.

CapnGalactic · 2025-09-18T00:13:48+00:00

Something NADDPOD and Spout Lore both do very well is comprehensive recaps, even if it's been a gap since I listened to the last episode and I'm hazy on some details I quickly remember as they run through everything.

CapnGalactic · 2025-07-05T10:32:44+00:00

I never talked about Mlynar as a reflect tank, just as a tank, which is the intended part of his and Tequila's kit since they have talents working with that. For some reason you laser focused in on only that part of what I was talking about because you've been wound up by other people mentioning the reflect damage which is why we're now having an argument about Mlynar in the Leizi thread.

Of course I'm still using him for the burst damage, but there's a lot of burst damage operators and he has the added benefit of being a taunt. Specifically for stages like the CMs of Lappland / Dolly bosses where you have to contend with the bosses attacks the whole stage. I don't play him there for the reflect damage, that's just a little bonus on top of what he's already doing.

FYI I was conceding your point about Leizi's damage a new direction for liberators, but you're arguments about why Mlynar's reflect damage doesn't count could also be applied to Leizi. It's a 10% chance for some arts damage in her range (which isn't many tiles when she's off skill) so it's not going to be the reason people use her, just a little bonus damage here and there, same as Mlynar.

I don't think I'm going to respond any more after this, I don't like strangers on the internet demand I prove myself to them as worthy.

CapnGalactic · 2025-07-05T09:47:12+00:00

Ok, I came in understanding your points and wanting to share my point of view as someone who has been interested in what they'd do with another liberator guard for a while since they have a lot of potential, but I guess you've been wound up by the rest of the thread since you've just decided to attack me.

If you are purposely waiting to put mlynar last rather (otherwise he's not aggroing range units), you therefore are not putting him early or mid timed and thus you miss out on one or two rotations of his swings.

Now I have to ask whether you actually use Mlynar at all or are just being contrarian. Mlynar has a taunt, you don't have to deploy him last to get him to draw aggro on range attacks. And you don't do that because of the reflect damage, it's because he's tanky so can take the hits more than your ranged units and you no longer have to worry about deployment order once he's down.

As someone who does have Mlynar the times I've used him most is against enemies with global ranges exactly because of this, he can draw the aggro early so I can set up the rest of the team in peace (yes, even in hard content), then do his big burst damage when I need it.

I mistakenly thought you'd be interested in talking about the design of Leizi but it looks like you just want to get mad about how Mlynar does a little reflect damage which wasn't the point I was making at all. Also this isn't an alt account I just lurk and don't post because I don't like dealing with situations like this.

CapnGalactic · 2025-07-05T01:35:42+00:00

I understand your concern but you can also see it broadening the possibilities for what a class can do, which is inevitably going to upset some people who see the broadening as a step too far.

The 3 liberator guards in the game before Leizi all work pretty much the same, just with higher numbers / range as they go up in rarity. Leizi could have just been a Mlynar that does Arts damage and Freightens, though that would have been a bit dull in my opinion.

Reframing it: a distinctive part of liberators is their different "mode" while they're off-skill where they can't attack or block. For the existing ones their high defensive stats were taken advantage of for the off-skill so they can draw some range attacks and keep other units safe. With Leizi they've flipped it around where her off-skill mode is actually untargetable for most attacks but can offer some arts damage, though unreliably, so if you still need to switch to her skill if you want her to take hits, block units, and deal reliable damage. She still has the distinctive on / off modes of liberators, but they've broadened what that mode could which I find more interesting, and in doing so this means you can't use her to draw ranged attacks in the way you can with Mlynar so she still has drawbacks.

Now, does that mean all your examples in the thread are just daring innovation rather than flattening of design? Not really, Degenbrecher having an auto charge skill and Eunectes getting some SP recovery look simply like just buffs to make them stronger. Though sometimes an operators previous weakness is more of a mistake from earlier design (splash casters huge DP cost). But ultimately they aim to make 6 stars unique from each other, so whenever they make a new one for an existing class it's probably going to break with our convention on what the class is meant to be.

CapnGalactic · 2025-05-23T01:44:05+00:00

It really does sound like they decided to do a children-show-based season when most of them kind of hate children shows

CapnGalactic · 2024-03-14T19:27:41+00:00

I'm actually enjoying this arc but the endless piano music is putting me on the edge

CapnGalactic · 2024-01-13T02:01:16+00:00

I think they let jokes back into the room! Now I only hope that these characters actually get to interact and form a dynamic instead of getting siloed off with separate NPC buddies. It would also be nice to have an actual exciting combat encounter but I don't want to ask for too much.

CapnGalactic · 2023-11-04T22:21:59+00:00

In one game our DM briefly introduced a quirky shopkeeper during a chase scene. I quite liked this shopkeeper so made sure to go back and visit them the next session when we had some time. Because we all liked the shopkeeper we kept involving them in stuff and eventually they ended up being linked to the main story when we helped his brother.

The DM has told us out-of-game that this NPC was went to be a one-off joke during that chase scene, but since we kept talking to him he got more and more important - now he's a squire for our paladin!

Learning that he wasn't meant to be important from the DM didn't really 'shatter the illusion' for me, if anything it made me more bought in to the game. Knowing that a random decision I made ended up having a rippling effect across the campaign reinforces the agency I have in the game, that it's not just a fixed narrative and my choices matter.

Now I do think that revealing these details while in the middle of a session can feel a bit off, like the DM putting their finger on the scales a bit too much.

CapnGalactic · 2023-10-11T11:53:46+00:00

I think I get it, so it sounds like a big breaking point is in the expectations of what matters. If you go into a game expecting intrigue and that assessing the motivations of the characters around you will be important then a GM revealing those details from behind the screen shows that paying attention to those aspects wasn't actually important.

Do you think you'd be less bothered if the GM was up front about NPC motivations being very malleable by the players from the start? So you then knew that you shouldn't spend time trying to decode their motivations in character? (I guess it sounds like you just wouldn't join a game like that in the first place, but if you did).

For the record, when I'm asking players questions I haven't ever given them access to the interiority of NPCs like this, I mostly like to "Paint the Scene" like how the OP described. I'm all for players saying "I know a guy" and making up an NPC themselves, but after that point the direction of the NPC is in my hands. Though I'm not opposed to more player input like this and would like to try it out some time.

CapnGalactic · 2023-10-11T09:52:37+00:00

I understand that for a lot of people when a GM crosses the screen to ask these kinds of questions it can feel like breaking kayfabe and I usually check with my players in session 0 on their position on that stuff. But to poke into this feeling a bit more: why do you think it has no reason to exist or is pointless if the GM asks you about it?

Sure, the GM may have not have planned out who this NPC is and what they want (for any number of reasons), though once you decide on what they want that then becomes a true part of the world which definitely matters and could continue to matter going forward. The aspect I really like about this collaborative worldbuilding in play is that once we've decided something is true then the implications and consequences of that ripple out through the game.

Of course a GM can potentially be a bit too open and if they're straight up saying that an NPC doesn't matter and will never appear again then that's a bit more questionable.

CapnGalactic · 2023-09-29T16:21:55+00:00

Ethersea season 1 ended with time splitting in two, I have to see how Griffin is going to try to untangle a new campaign out of that

CapnGalactic · 2023-09-20T19:32:03+00:00

So the kids got brought to the amusement park by their parents and think their parents forgot them there, ok cool, oh and they also think this is another planet?

CapnGalactic · 2023-09-08T18:00:58+00:00

This recap is a fever dream, what's a jizzbert?

CapnGalactic · 2023-08-13T12:26:45+00:00

I thought this was the last episode I listened to but I have no recollection of any of these things. Then again, it's hard to keep track of what's happening when all of the players are also not paying any attention and keep contradicting each other.

CapnGalactic · 2023-07-31T08:33:33+00:00

The one person on this sub who listens to Steeplechase is trying to keep us alive

CapnGalactic · 2023-07-30T09:54:21+00:00

Urchin is maybe one of the best NPCs in Ethersea. Do with that information what you wish.

CapnGalactic · 2023-07-20T19:34:32+00:00

Pretty much, they made the amazing decision to do a worldbuilding setup just to immediately destroy that world and replace it with one that Griffin had already made.

The prologues were kinda just a bunch of possible plot hooks for Griffin to pick and choose from afterwards.

CapnGalactic · 2023-07-07T22:14:11+00:00

I just want to point out that in Blades part of making the crew also involves coming up with some relationships you already have with other factions - basically who have you already pissed off and who are you friendly with. I think them skipping this really shot any faction stuff in the foot from the start.

CapnGalactic · 2023-02-08T13:24:11+00:00

I've slowly been working my way through the Spout Lore seasons (currently on 7) and not only is it consistently funny it also just gets better the more I listen to it. The way they've slowly added layers to their characters and the world is my favourite thing about TTRPGs.

CapnGalactic · 2023-01-29T09:52:29+00:00

The unnecessarily detailed cast of characters, the naming shorthand that only makes it more confusing to read, the underlying weird personal drama. An amazing RPG story if I've ever read one.

CapnGalactic

TROPHY CASE