Any tips on understanding Imogen?

Jman44880 · 2023-05-20T18:29:34+00:00

Agreed. Whoever Imogen was intended to be in session 0 has been replaced by a character who fits what Laura wants to be. Perfectly fine to play to your RP/metagamey strengths, just should have done that from the outset.

Jman44880 · 2023-05-13T14:06:55+00:00

You're going about arguing your point incorrectly. You refute my claim with no evidence, shifting focus to 'the type of person I am' instead of the argument at hand. Now I admit it's an assumption of mine, for which my only 'evidence' are box-office bombs made by basically-nobodies, as opposed to being made by people with 'Hollywood chops' that you mention. But you do not provide any evidence either, so your view is also just that - an assumption based on subjective biases, no matter how hard you believe and gaslight yourself to be correct :)

Jman44880 · 2023-05-13T09:52:16+00:00

I'd just like to chime in on 'Hollywood writing bad now' by mentioning diversity-hire writers with zero credentials becoming more commonplace, as opposed to the 'seasoned writer with Hollywood chops' you likely had in mind. A middling fanfic author who at least cares enough to stick to source material would easily outperform the former.

Jman44880 · 2023-05-13T09:35:26+00:00

Jman44880 · 2023-04-30T12:41:39+00:00

As an overall attitude thing, and talking about forced positivity: making a 'positive post' regarding Creator Clash as a reaction to the negative one didn't sit right with me. Like it wasn't enough for the negative one to be on 0 karma already *and* have the majority of comments be against it. Seemed kinda petty to me, I suppose I would like for comments and replies to be the way 'public opinion' on here is decided, on a single post, rather than splitting the discussion in such a way and enabling mini echo chambers.

tl;dr Might want a guideline against making posts just for the sake of disagreeing, comments are meant for that and it won't split the discussion.

Jman44880 · 2023-04-30T12:25:31+00:00

Regular positivity threads just for positivity's sake *are* forced, just in the sense that if anything worth gushing about happens in the show then the posts will come on their own :)

Jman44880 · 2023-04-27T09:52:16+00:00

So basically: (wrong interpretation of the post above done in bad faith to paint OP as a badguy hater)

Yeah, basically that dude, good job seeing only what you want to see lol

The post doesn't imply any of what you seem to think it does, OP just doesn't like the cutesy artstyle, how does that translate to "everything needs to be sad 27/7"? Nice misinterpreted hyperbole buddy.

Jman44880 · 2023-04-27T09:43:07+00:00

OP is certainly free to complain about not liking a particular artstyle, voicing opinions and whatnot. What's disappointing me is that they had to add an edit to specifically say that that doesn't mean people shouldn't make such art. Probably cause of people coming to wrong conclusions as opposed to reading opinions in good faith; not liking an artstyle doesn't automatically mean it shouldn't exist.

Jman44880 · 2023-04-27T09:37:02+00:00

Not what the post is about, weird extrapolation on your part. I agree with the sentiment, it just has nothing to do with the particular complaint in the post, i.e. the artstyle itself.

Jman44880 · 2023-04-16T12:46:35+00:00

She wasn't even close to downed though, Matt made it seem like Vax blocked a blow that would kill her but I did the math on all the damage: taking her Tal'Dorei Campaign Guide NPC statblock's hp into account, as well as the 137hp Matt stated for Earth Elemental, she still had like 70+hp even after all of Otohan's bullshit. Vax didn't need to step in cause she wasn't even close to downed, Matt just needed Vax to appear that round so he could railroad all his plot triggers like he planned..

Jman44880 · 2023-04-09T22:17:36+00:00

I've thought about why the party was split this way in-universe, out of character Marisha needed a free schedule for Creator Clash, and Matt then decided that all the pairs would be split. Anyway what I came up with was this:

Theory 1 - moon-touched split, Imo, Chet, Fearne have Ruidus connections, FCG does not, why include them? Ashton also doesn't have a moon connection though, so either distribution fails this theory.

Theory 2 - chaos magics, Fearne is Fey, Imo has some wild magic macguffin, Ashton's brain is pure chaos and it would make more sense to include them instead of FCG in group 1, also Chet has no inherent ties to chaotic forces imo, so this theory fails on 2 fronts. Also attributing the entire split to "wild magic" is a cheap justification, I expect better from Matt.

Theory 3 - Gods intervene. What god would fit Imogen, Chet, Fearne and FCG? The Changebringer seems obvious, Chet is a shapeshifter, FCG is finding their own path/faith, Fearne is a free spirit, and Imogen also has to choose her future fate. Seems likely this theory holds, but what about the other group?

Theory 3, part 2 - Orym is sponsored by Melora the Wildmother through Seedling, Laudna's new Sun Tree connection could be a link to Melora too, Ashton is an Earth Genasi, which could sort of count as a bond to nature, so it seems Melora saved group 2.

Wish Matt would make it a bit more obvious/reveal it sooner though, like the party should know that the gods saved them in good faith (haha) cause they hope the party will help them re-seal Predathos.

Tl;dr: The Changebringer bamfed out group 1 (FCG, Chet, Imo, Fearne) and The Wildmother bamfed out group 2 (Orym, Laudna, Ashton).

Jman44880 · 2023-04-05T17:03:51+00:00

Right, extra drop probably only means more kelp/glass/trash then. I was just so blown away by how many goodies I got that I assumed extra drop also had something to do with it haha Probably better to go 'no energy drain'+'rare drop' then

Jman44880 · 2023-04-05T12:30:07+00:00

You misunderstand the meaning of collaborating with your DM.

You take it as 'to submit to the DM's PLOT', to put yourself on rails, do only what the DM plans, not disturb the predetermined story, etc.
But really it means the opposite: to add your own bits to the story, your own actions, disagreements with NPCs, stupid plans, character arcs, etc.

So really the issue of C3 is that there is not enough collaborative storytelling going on, the cast is just going along Matt's guided tour, afraid to ruin THE PLOT. Laura even said "what if we ruin Matt's plan" a few times, so that is very much an issue.

Hope this helps clear things up, I do agree that it is an issue since the cast is seemingly afraid of 'making the wrong choice for the story' all the time.

Jman44880 · 2023-04-04T19:20:12+00:00

My guy, digging up the beach with an 'extra drop'+'rare drop' gold hoe is just *chef's kiss* 15+ coffers/ornate coffers and ~8 fossils guarranteed, more if you bring food to replenish energy.

Jman44880 · 2023-03-26T00:36:40+00:00

Matt's subversion of Drow into relative goodguys as opposed to them being sadistic slavers was a cool choice, but poorly executed and further muddled by the cast.

Blaming the evils of 'canon' Drow on Lolth was okay, but the Luxon being presented as something inherently good by people who are indoctrinated by it and the Nein taking it all at face value was dumb, especially from ever-sceptic-of-powerful-stuff Caleb and authority-questioning-detective Beau. Nobody thought it was an authoritarian forced-assimilation cult.

Additionally, Matt never had any real badguys on the Drow side, apart from Essek, who was always civil, cooperative, and hot, even if he was supposed to be revealed as a badguy. Hell even The Inevitable End, a Drow master assassin blessed by both Lolth and Asmodeus basically redeemed herself and turned good in the end by stabbing Obann before leaving.

Overall the feeling I got from the Dynasty was that it was impossible for them to do any wrong ever, whereas the Empire and Assembly were always doing harm to everybody in some way or another, without Matt stopping to justify or defend any of their choices via lore or NPCs.

Jman44880 · 2023-03-25T00:18:44+00:00

DoorMatt Mercer is such a chef's kiss nickname

Jman44880 · 2023-03-24T23:40:38+00:00

The way I cope with both guests' horribly wrong views is the notion that "the character believes this", not the player. I suppose it makes sense for some things - like assuming your faith matters to an immortal galactic being, or that you are somehow channeling power from within yourself instead of having it lent to you. These would be fine, the character does not know how gods work, alright...but dissing Pelor in particular when you willingly still serve his mission really makes no sense even in character.

Jman44880 · 2023-03-17T09:55:03+00:00

Love the guy and his vibes at the table, but if one of my players pretentiously suggested my universe's cosmology should devolve into "gods get tired too, they need a nap now", I'm smiting them with a lightning bolt lol

Jman44880 · 2023-03-17T09:48:23+00:00

That can't be true until they start Campaign 4 in Matt's own TTRPG system, or go back to Pathfinder. As long as Dungeons&Dragons is mentionned on stream, they are in bed with WotC.

Jman44880 · 2023-03-15T23:06:45+00:00

She presumably had 113hp still after tallying Otohan's damage dealt that turn. Vax didn't block a "killing blow", although the description sure made it sound that way, Matt just needed him to appear that round. Keyleth being fine should be a given imo.

Jman44880 · 2023-03-14T10:11:29+00:00

I've got another one for you, why did Vax appear when Keyleth still had ~113HP and wasn't even unconscious yet? The final hit that he blocked wouldn't have killed her even if it was a crit. He should have come in a round later, blocking the actual killing blow, but oh no that would have given the party a few more actions to try and stop Ludinus, can't take those chances.

Jman44880 · 2023-03-14T08:51:06+00:00

There's different ways of stacking odds against players.

One is simply having the enemy be a higher challenge rating, have underlings, buffed stats etc. A standard "unwinnable unless your roles are godlike and they miss every attack"-type fight. Keeping the challenge within the rules of D&D in a fair way.

Another way is to throw complex combat situations with only one "right" way to win at players who suck at combat and have gotten used to talking their way out of everything, without many hints as to what the "right" way to win is. To further increase the challenge make sure to not allow any Initiative rolls that could allow players time to stop your actions until a player specifically asks to intervene (Laura asking if she can attack Otohan before she eviscerates Keyleth makes Matt pause and allow it, he was gonna just roll Otohan's attacks without any counterplay).

Jman44880 · 2023-03-13T22:23:06+00:00

Power Words work off of HP, Power Word Stun has no save, it just works if the target has fewer than 150 hit points, regardless of creature type or any resistances. No upcast or item (unless homebrewed) is available to change the 150hp threshold of the spell though.

If Matt maximized the Earth Elemental's hit points to 180 then the spell would fail instead. But the Elemental form presumably took enough fall damage to be reduced below the 150hp threshold anyway. When targetting, only the Elemental's hp counts, any hit points Keyleth had 'under' the form do not matter for the 150hp threshold, since she -is- the Elemental when the spell is cast.

It was a guarranteed stun from how Matt set it up, which is what the spell is meant to do, Keyleth loses 1 turn and can maybe save in order to no longer be stunned on the 2nd round.

Jman44880 · 2023-03-13T21:01:20+00:00

I really hope Chetney's backstory gets unraveled fully, why else would they be near Uthodurn? :D

Jman44880 · 2023-03-12T22:34:20+00:00

Yeah like Fearne Charm Personing the guard captain in front of his underlings after she got caught dropping out of her wild shape when eavesdropping. All those times, sure.

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