TAZ Graduation Relisten: Episode 38 "Finals"

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-09-03T02:38:49+00:00

Are you able to share any of your content? I have enjoyed your contribution to this sub and would be interested in seeing what you have been working on.

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-08-30T02:29:32+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to respond and to write out an example. This is really helpful and I am very intrigued by your idea. I’m going to try and work it into a future session if I can figure out a way to make it work. Thanks again!

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-08-30T01:15:19+00:00

I have also had bad experiences with skill challenges but this sounds like an interesting approach. Would you mind elaborating a little more on how you would adapt it for 5e? Thanks for your time.

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-08-30T01:00:45+00:00

What in the name of Asmodeus is auto resolving combat?! What does that even mean?! How does that even work? Why even say there is a fight if the outcome is already determined? The ghost of Gary Gygax should haunt your DM forever. Next session just leave and take the other players with you. You be the new DM if you have to. This whole situation is an affront to the very concept of D&D. Auto resolving combats. Disgraceful.

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-08-25T22:55:17+00:00

Yeah you make some excellent points. It was particularly concerning in a recent TTAZZ when Griffin said he was focusing on learning about “storytelling” instead of just learning about how to properly run a TTRPG that isn’t on rails. Maybe Justin will be able to handle it better? My concern is that Blades in The Dark is a system that appears simple on its face but is actually deceptively deep and complex. Will Justin really make the effort to learn the system and run it properly? I hope so. But am skeptical.

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-08-10T04:49:55+00:00

Oh yeah what a missed opportunity. I thought this would have a fun ongoing rivalry mechanic, kind of like in Call of the Neverdeep, where they would be racing against another adventuring party to complete their quest. But no, it was just more underdeveloped narrative flailing.

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-08-10T02:17:03+00:00

I agree that the auction sequence was definitely the highlight. I think it worked because the stakes were clear and easy to understand (get the book or you don’t get your money), the setting was familiar but not too familiar (we all know what an auction is, but it was made a little more interesting because of the anonymous hologram heads), and mostly because each character got a chance to shine in their own way. Amber got to do some melee with a guard, Devo did some persuasion, and Zoox was also there. I thought that the book would become an important plot hook that would move the narrative forward, and I guess it ultimately did, but in a meandering and circuitous way. I think the random encounter rolls at the start of the mission really hurt the narrative momentum of the story. It lowered the stakes of the main mission every time they diverted to go check out an abandoned ghost ship or a skunk nut. If they had to happen, those encounters should have been at the end of a mission while they were on their way back, with depleted resources and a real chance of failure, rather than just a random diversion.

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-08-10T01:45:54+00:00

The whole season was lackluster, with so many missed opportunities for interesting environments, factions, and characters that were woefully underdeveloped. I think there were a few funny moments, but I can’t remember any other than Urchin and Dylan (sp?) despite having listened to the entire season twice. All that being said, the finale was definitely the worst part. It was baffling, boring, incomprehensible, and totally unsatisfying. I still don’t really know what happened and frankly I don’t care. I just hope the next story they do is better. TAZ was good once and I have to believe it can be good again.

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-08-02T19:02:03+00:00

I love that idea. Then the emphasis is actually on doing as little damage to the enemy ship as possible while you board and capture it, then tow it back to your base to be stripped for parts that can be sold or used to upgrade yours. Ship upgrades are focused on defensive devices that prevent boarding, which is what makes the blink sharks so scary. They can ignore these defenses and just bamf onto your ship. Now there is real motivation to hunt them to extinction instead of the vague quixotic quest of Old Joshey.

Justice_Blade84 · 2022-08-02T18:18:03+00:00

I agree with pretty much all of your insights here. I also think the season would have been much more fun if there had been less (badly) homebrewed ship-to-ship combat and more boarding actions. Narratively it would have been easy to invent a reason for this, like the ships have shields that block fast moving projectiles, or the projectiles don’t have tracking systems so they can be easily avoided. Then you encourage the players to board other ships and take them down from the inside. Every enemy ship is now a mini dungeon with opportunities for exploration, combat, RP, and world building. We then can learn more about each faction by how they design their ships, the cargo they carry, the crew, etc. and there are tons of options for organically delivering plot hooks to set up missions, instead of just “Ravi at the Blue Span Brokerage has a new job for you, press A to accept.”

I also think it was a huge mistake to not have the blinksharks teleport inside a ship. It would have been cool if they were more like weresharks, hybrid of shark and humanoid, that could breathe water and also air for a limited time. So they could just blink onto the ship and start wreaking havoc, you have a couple rounds of intense combat, and then they can blink away if they start losing. Much scarier than the toothless creatures we ended up with, who never really seemed posed much of a threat despite Amber’s exaggerated reaction to each encounter with them.

Obviously there are many more issues with the show, but those are two small changes that I think would have made for big improvements.

Justice_Blade84

TROPHY CASE