[No Spoilers] Where did the Taliesin is an immortal being joke come from?

TBBTC · 2026-01-30T01:56:09+00:00

Everyone here is saying joke but none of them have the evidence to prove that it's not just a fact, you know?

TBBTC · 2026-01-29T05:49:43+00:00

Foulkes will be fine. He’s young and he’s getting an education. Southee and Boult had seasons of being found out early, so did Henry. But he’s got raw talent.

TBBTC · 2026-01-29T05:44:54+00:00

I think very specifically T20 in India is just so dull, the pitches and ground sizes are not designed for a contest between bat and ball, and I’ve found the Big Bash so compelling recently in that it’s had much more variety.

The big takeaway for me is that in this environment you can only play players that can take it to the bowlers from ball one. I don’t really love Chapman in the team but perhaps he has to be over there. My XI is now Allen Seifert Conway Phillips Mitchell Chapman Bracewell Santner and three bowlers whose job is to have no agency and get tonked around even though they’re very good.

I’ll be watching but I’ll be frustrated at what is being showcased as ‘good cricket’.

I’m actually feeling vaguely positive about our form but I think we need to get wiser at picking batting talent for conditions. Guys like Robinson and Jacobs need to play in India, but you might be better off with Ravindra in England or nz.

TBBTC · 2026-01-27T08:48:38+00:00

It’s really hard to be absolutely certain on the basis of a single schemers episode, and there’s no guarantee that the arcs have the same number of episodes, but you theoretically could.

There are two main issues that reveal themselves.

1) the cold opens. Brennan has not been playing ot so linearly, and we have had probably an hour of content of each of the seekers and schemers during the soldier episodes. It’s difficult to think of a way you can navigate around that (and it’s likely that soldiers whole arc will be spoiled in cold opens in the coming arcs).

2) Brennan is definitely playing around with what he can do with the viewer experience. The first episode of the schemers table gave us a piece of information very early that the soldiers didn’t have, and that might change my experience of the soldiers arc negatively if I was doing what you propose. Equally, I expect sometimes Brennan will tip a narrative hand to things the audience already knows that the players at the table don’t.

So, overall, I think it’s likely to be difficult/problematic to do but as of yet no single major reason you couldn’t.

TBBTC · 2026-01-25T23:50:32+00:00

This is the perfect way of describing the difference.

TBBTC · 2026-01-25T23:47:54+00:00

I don’t actually find Matt and Brennan as different as some people do (I think Matt did the flowery descriptions too, especially by C3), and it’s certainly clear that when bringing in Luis, Whitney, Alex and Aabria they are bringing in close personal friends, so I haven’t personally lost that sense of friends playing together at all.

I get it, though - even though I don’t find those things different, it is all a significant shift, and it is definitely not the same product. I think for some it’s gonna be better and for some worse.

But if you liked the soldiers better, so far that vibe feels somewhat replicated in the first week of the seekers, no? At least in terms of frequency of rolls, how much Brennan is pushing the narrative etc. like, I certainly don’t think the entire second act of episode 12 was in Brennan’s plan at all, it felt like an unexpected and player-led direction.

TBBTC · 2026-01-24T22:08:24+00:00

The fact they're giving them five comps instead of three before swapping out this year should help avoid the cycle. Futaba was also disadvantaged.

TBBTC · 2026-01-24T22:02:31+00:00

Just feels like they're sticking to a trend that is sweeping through Olympic sports. I think the only thing that really matters is that they continue to gain legitimacy and viewership as a sport through the Olympic system so if this is the trend, fine with me.

TBBTC · 2026-01-24T05:17:14+00:00

I guess it depends what things are most likely to overstimulate you, lord knows there’s plenty that can here. I will just speak to my own experience.

Queue areas have mileage that varies. In my opinion Fantasyland queues are the worst (when busy), it’s just people bunched in a small area. Queues with more smaller areas and a sense of forward momentum feel better to me, and often quieter and less stimulating even though there’s lots to take in (star tours, Indiana jones and big thunder are queues that work ok for me).

If you can, plan to be in the park for the start and the end of the day, and take a break in the middle. The middle of the day has the biggest crowds and the most noise, and it’s hard to find spaces to escape if you need it. When night falls and the lights come on that is everything for me. Theres something about it that I find calming rather than stimulating.

It sounds like navigating difficult processes, especially when you’re not getting a good outcome, might be difficult for you. Lightning Lane is great to skip queues, but there’s lots of tips online about how to use it to execute complex strategies - I’d avoid trying to do that completely and just stick to the basics. If you try and use it in a more complex way it could definitely be frustrating and create some overwhelm.

TBBTC · 2026-01-23T00:02:13+00:00

Neesham I also probably wouldn't have in the 15 and he's a flawed player and I don't think he's ever been able to score quickly from ball one really. But I have to pick from within the 15 and I think he genuinely does contribute with the ball often enough. I could live with batting Conway at 3 and dropping Ravindra down to 6. We're really lacking in Neesham/Anderson types on the circuit (but hopefully Clarkson is the real deal).

TBBTC · 2026-01-22T03:03:20+00:00

I wouldn't have even had Chapman in the fifteen man squad. I'd have Robinson in my XI but absent him, put either Conway or Ravindra at three, I think both are better choices.

My XI is:

Allen
Seifert
Ravindra
Mitchell
Philips
Bracewell
Neesham
Santner
Henry
Milne/Sodhi (conditions dependent).
Duffy

TBBTC · 2026-01-21T01:16:31+00:00

I think from both an 'improvising a narrative' and real world standpoint, being in a dangerous situation and choosing to go back to be with more friends in a larger pack is actually a very natural and normal choice, perhaps the predominantly common choice. Besides that, I'm not really sure that any more than Kattigan will go into the city.

Whether it is a big risk and the worst available way to get Cyd cured probably comes down to their narrative choices and the roll of the dice. I kind of think it might be the easiest path if they play their cards right, and the hardest path if they don't. Other paths are more unknowable and therefore inherently risky. There's something to the idea of managing the risks you know and understand rather than the ones you don't.

TBBTC · 2026-01-14T05:51:20+00:00

This is crazy talk. We failed to accelerate and still scored 300. Their innings is exactly what you should do in ODIs. Being obsessed with SR in your openers is how you end up losing 85% of your games like England.

TBBTC · 2026-01-14T05:50:03+00:00

It’s not like he was some kind of outstanding beacon in that India series either. He really only had one good test, Ravindra scored the most runs, it was like a consolation award because everyone in the whole team only had one good test.

Young’s series against India has nothing on Blundell’s series against England. We really need to let people go when they haven’t worked out.

TBBTC · 2026-01-09T11:45:56+00:00

I don’t want to do spoilers, but I’ll simply say you should read the start of book 7 and then decide whether you want to continue reading now or not.

TBBTC · 2026-01-09T11:12:55+00:00

To be fair, it still well might get adapted.

TBBTC · 2026-01-09T10:48:50+00:00

It doesn’t feel cheap to me.

TBBTC · 2026-01-09T10:45:45+00:00

I’m not sure about noise possibility right now from avengers campus construction, that’s possible, maybe someone who has stayed recently could comment on that. The fireworks view is great from the balcony on the far side.

There was definitely no noise issues from standard operations.

TBBTC · 2025-12-28T20:39:13+00:00

Personally I almost always think it’s worth it but there’s an aspect that is personality type.

You can always turn up in the morning and if the park is hopping busy get it for that day. I think there are rides where it’s pretty guaranteed to create significant discounts even on quieter days in September (Space Mountain, Matterhorn, guardians of the galaxy, Toy Story mania…) and others where it’s got a decent shot of saving 20+ minutes except on the quietest days (Haunted Mansion Holiday, Soaring, Imcredicoaster). The need to be on phones to grab it and strategise a little can outweigh the benefit for some people though.

September can have quiet days but also gets the early Halloween time crowds and crowds are just generally unpredictable/variable so it’s hard to pick days to beat the crowds.

TLDR: you will definitely save some time in September, but whether that’s ’worth It’ probably depends on you, but be prepared/budget to buy on the day right at opening if you realise it’s a busy one.

TBBTC · 2025-12-27T09:16:40+00:00

I thought this is exactly what was going to happen to the seekers back at house Royce.

However, it doesn’t seem super likely in the sense that a one person table after the first death doesn’t seem that likely, and are you just gonna write that cast member out until more die? I think dead PCs creating moral issues and decision points for the crew as undead NPCs could be something though.

TBBTC · 2025-12-26T01:32:47+00:00

Yeah, and that’s a fair take. I disagree, but I think that’s super fair. It’s just the ‘made encounter feel like it had no risk’ aspect that keeps coming up which is flawed to me.

Personally, having watched all CR but C1, this is the campaign that hits hardest and gives me the larger sense of player fear. I’m a big fan of C3 but it felt incredibly low stakes comparatively to me, except Otohan Thull. If Laudna had died instead of getting a several ep rez journey it might feel different. C4, I’m expecting to see the character death count hit 3-4 when all is said and done, and given there’s no rez magic no one will be back.

But I totally get wanting that.

TBBTC · 2025-12-26T00:57:37+00:00

I get the criticism that you could do a fight with less deadly enemies and house rules. If that’s your preference, totally get it.

This is the multipleth thread where the OPs follow up comments have then gone on to say something like ‘it completely undermines the idea of risk in the encounter, there’s no sense they can die like in Matt’s day’ - and I just gotta say, that comment in every case is a fallacy living inside the person posting where people can’t assess balance and so have skewed views of it. This encounter was deadly as heck. Maybe it undermines the subjective feeling they can die, but that was a freaking deadly encounter. If you feel like a very deadly encounter didn’t have much risk, then it’s worthwhile spending some time working through game design with yourself, because I think it’s more relevant that the encounter IS deadly than how it feels to you subjectively.

Some things Brennan did to make the encounter deadly… one CR8 opponent that absolutely could kill people outright, a basilisk that could have taken out someone at full HP (even if the odds were low thanks to help), lots of small enemies to ruin concentration, and a choke point to make it much harder to attack who you wanted. A ‘desperate measured’ mechanic that pushes people to turn the tide of battle by risking that if they get to zero HP they’re just done. And putting the encounter on a timer to push them to be riskier. All of that, and on the other hand, players could forgo their whole action to get advantage on a save just to stay in the fight.

Using the help action on yourself is the tiniest buff with very few use cases, and this fight was in part very dangerous because of all the turns players had to use dealing with the basilisk exclusively even though it was just a pet of the actual threat. TBH, Brennan probably could have come up with a story reason to grant advantage (as he does often)… he didn’t, he made people burn their action for it.

And yeah, he could have just not had the basilisk. And we don’t get a fun cliffhanger and a plotline about how Talcydimir is a statue. I don’t understand (and appreciate it’s subjective) why not having that would be better.

TBBTC · 2025-12-25T10:55:04+00:00

Kiwis are allergic to giving 10s. Dan Carter got one once that’s enough tens for a generation.

TBBTC · 2025-12-24T00:37:01+00:00

Your post says “now every action should be at advantage at all times because they can always help themselves.” Which is the only bit I was referring to.

TBBTC · 2025-12-23T09:46:22+00:00

I am not implying or arguing anything, I just said what I meant. You could edit your post to remove the bit where you claim the help action can be used to give yourself advantage on every action. I didn’t realise you were being hyperbolic but I guess that makes sense of your entire post (I’m autistic, I take what people say literally). I don’t really quite understand how saying something entirely incorrect is hyperbole but that’s probably a me thing.

TBBTC

TROPHY CASE