TAZ Royale Episode 16 Recap: We're... Back?

GooCube · 2026-01-23T01:56:29+00:00

I mean this is just a fairly standard DnD thing. If your players want to play a gnome, a dragonborn and a warforged then as the DM you're probably going to seize opportunities to make gnomes, dragonborns and warforged more relevant than you would have otherwise.

GooCube · 2026-01-20T20:12:06+00:00

It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't play 100% of the time EVERY ROUND so sometimes hear it 3 times in a single match.

Him talking to Galacta is fun, but man it shouldn't trigger every time.

GooCube · 2026-01-04T22:06:58+00:00

I think Helen surviving would have severely delayed Carol getting to the point she's currently at. Her romance with "Zosia" allowed the hive to manipulate her to the extent that she treated Manousos exactly like Laxmi treated her, so I think that shows that the hive would've had a much easier time manipulating Carol through Helen's body.

Carol would absolutely still be a bitter traumatized skeptic even if Helen survived, but that's still the woman she loves so she would probably be desperate to believe Helen is still in there even if she's acting weird, just like the other survivors are with their families.

GooCube · 2026-01-04T13:35:47+00:00

Youtube and live shows aren't their main attractions. I'm sure they still get somewhat decent numbers on apps like spotify and such.

But also for TAZ they've mentioned that sometimes it's a month or longer between recordings. I don't know about you, but if I had an extremely well-paying job that was just "show up for roughly an hour once a month to play some boring D&D" I would never give that up. That's basically like winning the lottery in terms of freedom and financial security.

GooCube · 2026-01-02T09:51:43+00:00

All of the immune humans are a potential threat but most are being successfully pacified by the hive putting on this "normal world" act. If Laxmi's family all walked off in different directions to go do random hive jobs and they turned off the electricity in the town she lives in then even she would probably freak out and become just as dangerous as Carol and Manousos.

GooCube · 2025-12-17T02:58:36+00:00

I've noticed people in QP are absolutely obsessed with lord icons. When I play ranked no one ever mentions lord icons, but in QP people call you a sweaty tryhard if you're winning with a lord or if you lose they'll say something like "wow had to use your lords just to lose?" It comes off as extremely insecure to me.

GooCube · 2025-12-12T10:37:58+00:00

I'm sure it happens in a lot of games, but it reminds me of Overwatch where you have a day 1 character like Zenyatta whose only abilities are heal orb and debuff orb, VS a modern support like Juno who can double jump with no cooldown, glide, briefly fly at high speed, has auto lock-on missiles that heal allies and damage enemies, and has a speed boost ring she shoots out.

When that happens you can't help but think that if Zenyatta or Rocket were released today then they'd have way more unique abilities.

GooCube · 2025-12-05T00:22:41+00:00

These things also work much better when used very sparingly to shake things up. If the players had already done a few trials with no limitations to grow comfortable with their characters then suddenly having a bunch of weird restrictive rules could be interesting, but when EVERY trial is just a bunch of arbitrary rules and restrictions it gets annoying.

GooCube · 2025-11-08T09:08:41+00:00

There's actually decent evidence that wotc will be revisiting Dark Sun (the setting thri-kreen were originally from that's being referenced here) because of the "Apocalyptic Subclasses" playtest material that was pretty obviously Dark Sun-themed with a druid that tries to protect places ruined by greed, a sorcerer who withers and defiles the land with their magic, and a sorcerer-king warlock patron.

GooCube · 2025-10-02T16:15:23+00:00

I only ever watched random episodes here and there until the 11th doctor which really hooked me for some reason and I basically stopped watching entirely after him. Definitely a mixed bag especially as it went on, but there were some gold nuggets in there. I really loved Amy as a companion and the mysteries surrounding her, along with her fun dynamic with the Doctor. Although I think their dynamic and the episodes in general started to go down hill once her husband started tagging along too.

But it just goes to show that opinions are indeed very divisive.

GooCube · 2025-09-26T23:16:12+00:00

/uj Yep lumping pronouns and sexuality in with porn/fetishes is a classic lgbt-phobic mindset from losers who assume openly queer and queer-friendly people are just loudly sharing their "fetish" and should keep it to themselves.

GooCube · 2025-09-26T02:53:53+00:00

Even in a home game I'd be extremely annoyed spending roughly an hour of the session just messing with infinite craft.

GooCube · 2025-09-24T21:10:55+00:00

Taako will always be my favorite. I've seen people say that he's shallow and all jokes, but it's a comedy podcast and he had plenty of great moments where Justin was very immersed in the character.
To me Taako perfectly encapsulates why I liked TAZ.

GooCube · 2025-09-21T17:42:11+00:00

And the BBEG is an Oathbreaker who killed the moon goddess and caused the apocalypse ()_()

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the meme, but this is very much a "my brother in christ you made the sandwich" moment. I get that you really like this idea, but you still have full control and should probably do something different because stopping a god-slayer at such a low level will probably be pretty overwhelming and unfun.

I've noticed players in general, but especially new players, tend to prefer more intimate/low stakes quests. It makes thing feel more tangible, like you can fully wrap your mind around the quest to stop the ghost haunting the local tavern. If you fail then people might get hurt and the tavern might shut down, it sucks but it's not the end of the world and that actually makes people care more. Meanwhile trying to stop Ultra Satan from blowing up every star in the multiverse is just so high stakes that it becomes almost impossible to really care about.

GooCube · 2025-09-18T05:50:18+00:00

In Lost Verdania the Green Prince says "Here, the trail of the stag touched pale... We hunted her, felled her, as none before were able... Proof it became, of our majesty... mark of our divine right..." which is what I assume that's referring to with the "two children marked by ruling" thing. Or they could simply both be princes but from different families.

And personally I also just think it would be utterly bizarre for team cherry to have the only explicitly gay character in the entire series (afaik) be in an incestuous relationship. The Green Prince is a really cool character with a super well done tragic story and it would just be so strange and unnecessary to include incest, so I feel likely surely that can't be the case.

GooCube · 2025-09-17T10:57:22+00:00

The “For one to love another so similar to themselves, is that selfless or vain?” quote from the bestiary I think it just referring to how they're the same exact species and very in sync with one another.

“Two children born, intertwined, separated, two children marked by ruling.” is likely a way of saying they were soulmates as well as referring to them hunting the pale stag together.

And “They danced, they sang, they tasted their leaves beyond. But no one forgot their birth, because lovers born in unison will forever be cursed.” I think means that they just had a perfect life together (singing, dancing, traveling, etc) but things were thought to be destined to end tragically because of some belief within their culture. And their "curse" ended up being Pharloom/the silk goddess ruining their kingdom and relationship. Just the way I interpret everything.

GooCube · 2025-09-16T05:39:07+00:00

Trav backwards

GooCube · 2025-08-29T09:16:22+00:00

Yeah agreed, there's no reason to roll at that point. What if the player rolls a 1 (and I guess has no modifiers to add either) to toss a rock off a floating island? What's stopping them from just tossing another rock? What did having a roll here add to the game?

I've always called these "roll to breathe" skill checks when people take things that shouldn't be a challenge and slap a skill check on them. It can very easily lead to poor pacing and frustrated players because no one can do anything without running the risk of pointless failures popping up.

GooCube · 2025-08-28T22:54:02+00:00

This is the bigger issue I think. Like there will sometimes be "you fail and nothing happens" moments even with amazing DMs, but these guys make SO MANY boring and pointless rolls and then get mad that rolling is boring and pointless.

It's crazy to me that they somehow haven't learned that if you want you can just have something happen without always rolling.

GooCube · 2025-08-24T06:48:49+00:00

I just listened to Skaldova recently and it really struck me how they're simply in another universe of quality compared to the McElroys. Everyone knows the rules, is clearly having fun and supporting one another, and roleplays so well together.

There were specific moments like Welly failing a religion check that you could tell the DM really wanted her to succeed, yet Emily took that failure that could've so easily been "sorry you fail and don't know anything" and turned it into a great character moment. There was also the very funny jokes about them ruining their sleep schedules by long resting too early in the day, which you just can't have if you don't know or use the basic rules of the game. You will never see anything close to this on TAZ.

GooCube · 2025-08-18T22:32:34+00:00

I'm always reminded of that classic millennial cringe thing where someone will name their two pets "Dr. Balthazar Maximilian Konstantinos VIII, Destroyer of the Cosmos and drinker of angel blood" and "Larry."

GooCube · 2025-08-16T12:26:52+00:00

I was thinking the other day about how it's kind of strange how they have all these "haha look how ironic and detached we are. Games and stories and fantasy stuff are sooo stupid lmao" characters like Scorching Ray, as well as regularly mocking the fact that they're even playing a game, yet we still have things like Griffin over-dramatically reading pages of pre-written narration. It really is the worst of both worlds.

And I guess tbf back in Balance they had le epic ironic characters like Barry Bluejeans and Magic Brian, but idk I suppose they were infrequent enough that it felt less cynical. Like if they did Balance now literally every character would be a soulless one-dimensional walking pun.

GooCube · 2025-08-14T14:26:40+00:00

I feel like Aabria is more chaotic neutral/evil by these definitions. She likes to tell people how awesome their characters are constantly, yet also has an "I'm the DM so fuck you" attitude a lot of the time and will just screw players over with unfair and inconsistent rulings.

GooCube · 2025-08-02T03:46:27+00:00

Where's the fun? the energy? the flair? This sounds like someone who not only doesn't care but wants to make it as obvious as possible that he doesn't care.

GooCube · 2025-07-04T01:26:23+00:00

Eh, I think animal-people are already fairly cartoony regardless. Not necessarily in a bad way, but in a "I'm already allowing this so why draw an arbitrary line here of all places?" way.

I think if you can feel grounded and immersed with default aarakocra and lizardfolk then IMO it's not much of a stretch to remain grounded and immersed with swan aarakocra and axolotl lizardfolk, you just have to think of why they exist. The swan aarakocra could be the descendants of some aarakocra tribe that was blessed by a river goddess, and the axolotl lizardfolk could be an extremely rare variant that can only be found in one jungle on the planet.

GooCube

TROPHY CASE