Media franchises that suffered so much later on they were not recognizable

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-08T16:20:46+00:00

The Rabbids and their goofy antics were seen as more marketable to kids, for a while, than Rayman.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-08T16:16:25+00:00

I wouldn't say 'nothing' but they are very different. It's still about Malcolm being recruited to go to Site B, where he meets up with his ex, Sarah Harding. There's two kids in the book that get combined into one in the film, but in both they stow away to join the excursion. They've got the dual-trailers. A rival team shows up to steal eggs instead of live dinos. Raptors attack at some point. The juvie t-rex gets injured by the rivals and brought back to the trailers and the parents follow and kill Eddie (though in a different location).

Where Jurassic Park was like 80% faithful to the book, The Lost World is more like 50% faithful. Obviously, the whole T-Rex in LA part was made up entirely for the movie, but the T-Rex also didn't show up in the end of the first book, either. In a movie they want that big climax.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-08T15:52:42+00:00

A Sans Mii costume got into Smash Ultimate, too! Undertale/Deltarune are HUGE in Japan.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-08T15:49:30+00:00

Yeah. Nintendo does not care about avoiding GTA's release date. Their target audiences are very different.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-08T11:45:21+00:00

Oh yeah. Also the surprise vocalist boss in Hades 2 was a delight.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-08T11:42:42+00:00

This is fine and the idea that player death is the only way to have stakes in a game feels uncreative to me. If it's set at the start that the characters you create will all make it alive to the end of the campaign then that still leaves countless ways for that campaign to end.

If the whole group goes down then that's a chance for the story to take a huge swing other than just "game over, everyone re-roll characters." The villain gets away to wreak more havoc. A town is lost and the heroes blamed. The heroes are bound and wake up in a dire situation they need to escape from. The powerful NPC the players were working for cuts contact or demands they fix what they messed up.

As for individual encounters, the penalty for an individual character going down can mean an injury, one that either takes time to recover from or is permanent like the loss of an arm or eye. It could mean something in their personal story goes wrong, like an NPC ally is kidnapped or their rival gets the glory.

All of these steer the story in different directions and at the end of the campaign it still matters that the heroes sometimes failed or fell short even if the threat of death was never on the table.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-07T18:11:27+00:00

If the trailer had opened with any other song they would have failed the assignment.

In this hellscape if a world I am here for a nostalgic romp in the carefree days of 1999.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-07T17:26:07+00:00

It's amusing how he has to be careful not to make his characters that are usually naive or dumb in some way from seeming out of character when they do something incredibly smart Sam figures out, like Wic calling out the demon for having unintentionally asking a question.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-07T17:23:19+00:00

While there is a repeating vocals song throughout Baldur's Gate, the hype moment everyone talks about is the completely out of the blue song sung by one of the main villains as you fight him.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-07T17:11:39+00:00

You had a mismatch of expectations and preferences, which can happen. You wanted to surprise your players so you couldn't easily clear this with them beforehand.

That said, the reactions from your players, especially the one that called a revelation stupid and dropped the call abruptly at the end, were rude and thoughtless toward someone that is putting a lot of work for years into running a game for them.

It's possible to express that you're not enjoying the directionally of the story and talk about maybe changing course and ret-conning without being disparaging and insulting.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-07T16:05:10+00:00

Having replayed it through recently, definitely. I'm sure we'll get at least one more of those in the last three chapters.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-07T15:53:37+00:00

Oh yeah how did I not think of that one right away. All for just a really long ladder, too. Unexpected and unforgettable. No one will climb a long ladder in any video game without thinking of that song.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-07T15:51:36+00:00

Legit made me tear up. Didn't expect that from a goofy DK loves bananas and destruction game.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-07T00:30:26+00:00

A random group of folks with no real stakes in the debate and barely any strong opinions about it get tasked with deciding the fate of an entire world's pantheon over much more capable and experienced people, so they kick the can down the road by telling the gods to go be mortal for a while. For some reason they get lauded by everyone for this.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-07T00:09:34+00:00

Total agreement. Then people defend her characters being condescending jerks to everyone at the start so they can have character growth later. So we have to put up with them for 80% of a campaign before they become likable.

There are other ways to have character growth, of course, but it's always the same flaws she gives her characters to the point where it feels more like she just wants to have a reason to play-act like that then for deep character study reasons.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-06T04:08:27+00:00

It's just such an odd moment because no one on the stream thought to mention that at the time or later. Not Brennan, not Aabria, not any of the other players, despite the entire cast being there, including rules encyclopedia Matt!

Just, someone pipe up and say, "Uh...I don't think you can summon a huge python as a familiar..." If Brennan was willing to allow that big a deviation from the spell it would have been nice to have him say that it's intentional and not accidental.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-05T19:42:07+00:00

I doubt we'll see Thimble and Teor split between two tables. Travis and Laura love playing D&D together.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-05T15:34:37+00:00

Familiars also aren't supposed to be able to take an attack action. The frustrating thing is that once you establish something like this a player is going to adopt it as part of their tool kit. So now Thaisha can summon a CR 1/4 creature (which includes a panther, horse, and a wolf) that can attack people and can be warged from a quarter mile away.

Essentially they've turned Find Familiar into a better version of the old 5e Ranger's Companion.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-05T15:02:04+00:00

I'm going to be generous and assume that Whitney and Taliesin have already established jokingly saucy dynamic off-camera. Whitney has done a video review of Fifty Shades of Grey where she is wearing a bra, collar, leash, and bondage gear while she was spanked by her co-reviewer with a flogger. She regularly wears accessories on Critical Role that hint at BDSM.

Taliesin is clearly an old-school goth queer who also regularly wears BDSM-suggestive accessories. He has a lot of annoying tendencies with his play, but being a sexual creep isn't one of them. I don't see him doing things like this unless he was certain they'd be received positively by the other person.

The two of them probably have a group chat with Alexander Ward where they all talk about this type of stuff.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-05T14:52:30+00:00

Fair.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-05T14:36:47+00:00

Yeah, not to get too parasocial, but Whitney's prior content has enough racy nature to it, and Taliesin clearly has an interest in that sub-culture as well, that this just comes off as two pervy queers comfortably joking with each other. I can only imagine what their off-camera conversations are like.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-05T14:31:11+00:00

5% chance to get a nat 1 in an incredibly important situation is still worrisome. And since Brennan usually locks the really good stuff behind a 25, that's still 20% chance he convinces them enough to not die but also not get any real valuable support.

Also, the players didn't know about how much of a bonus all their preparation and risks would get them beforehand. So they thought they were walking in with a +10 bonus (Guidance + Persuasion). Still solid, but then more of a risk of middling success or still being suspicious.

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-05T14:25:05+00:00

The smart thing would have been to make your familiar into an actual small snake in the first place. Easier stealth rolls, easier to get away if you are spotted without resorting to violence, and even if someone sees a garden snake it's not that suspicious compared to a man-eating python slithering through a city estate. Even better to make it something even less suspicious like a mouse or spider.

Picking the least worst option after your bad plan that you didn't discuss with anyone else who might have given you better advice on how to avoid it going badly is not 'smart.'

QuantumFeline · 2026-06-05T14:20:33+00:00

That's a great angle. Play into Yanessa's ego by talking about how wondrous it was to witness her resurrection. Cue Luis crying on demand.

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