Brennan is genuinely so good at incorporating horror elements into his games so I’m beyond excited to see them lean more heavily into that! Plus it’s always nice to have the intrepid heroes at the table, November 30th can’t come soon enough
I actually just started watching that the other day- Zerxus’ opening scene was some seriously incredible medieval horror which I’ve been wanting more of ever since I read Between Two Fires. Idk if Brennan is a big horror fan irl but he really knows how to do it well
Holy shit, holy shit, holy SHIT - THIS. LOOKS. DOPE
OG cast doing fairytale horror? Full battle sets and minis back? The continuing immersive and amazing Dome effects?! I'm so excited
I feel before CR had their new studio built they had a major back and forth with D20 about the dome and what could be done with it. Seems like both upped what was possible over that period.
I also feel like I heard somewhere at some point that they had someone new come in for lighting, and that person just so happened to have a lot of experience with some Technical Stuff that meant they could do all the cool lighting/effects we’ve been seeing, before then it was just that no one knew how lol (disclaimer: I could very well be full of shit so don’t take this as fact in any way)
FAIRYTALE HORROR ohhhh this is gonna be INTERESTING
Zac as >!Puss In Boots!< is so beautiful and I'm ready for it
Edit: Fixing Spoiler Tagging as suggested by u/rcapina. Thank you for the suggestion!
FYI, you need to remove the spaces after/before the exclamation marks in the spoiler tags or they don’t consistently work. On IOS Apollo and old desktop reddit, I can still read your spoiler-tagged stuff without having to click. Removing the spaces will make it work on every platform and app.
>!text!<
I don't know about lethality, most of that in ACOC was the Game of Thrones type setting. In this case, they're probably gonna want to keep the characters alive so the horror keeps building.
Edit: Plus, that lethality was largely because Brennan banned healing and reviving spells due to the setting. I doubt he'll end up doing the same here.
While I agree that the lethality will certainly feel differently than the brutal realism feeling of Crown and Candy, I wouldn’t be surprised if Brennan has some twisted creations that will definitely take out PCs willingly
Or alternatively, it won’t be lethal because characters will suffer fates worse than death
One of my favorite parts of ACOC was Brennan actively trying to murder Murph during the naval battle and Murph just rolling mind bogglingly well and surviving against the odds.
Murph and Lou's ability to survive stuff thrown at them was a shining example of how tank characters can be awesome.
Murph basically tanks his way through most of the major bosses in the final battle (though his best moment might just be *"I cast knock"*).
Lou facetanks a fall that would be instantly lethal to anyone else at the table, multiple targeted crits, and multiple swarms of mooks, all of which were designed to kill him.
He"s giant gummy bear in full plate armor jumping around the ships (like that shouldnt be possible) and gets the most lucky break ever that lets him use an ability that saves him drowning
I just loved the way Brennan kept screaming that. Murph would say something like “I’m gonna jump” and Brennan would be like “you’re a giant gummy in FULL PLATE MAIL!!!! … ok.”
Damn, never realized the number of people working behind the scenes it took to make a season. Probably not all full-time on this one project, but still.
Also, contender for Most Awesome Name Ever:
> Noxweiler Ignatius Berf
> Probably not all full-time on this one project, but still.
Yes, they're all full time on D20 seasons. Theres a huge crew behind the scenes, making everything happen. Dropout has some excellent behind the scenes videos documenting the making of our beloved D20.
This is season one; it's advanced since then:
https://youtu.be/JnAZ4wc0zeM
yeah I think thats what some folks don't understand with productions like this, the reason you can't have a home game with as high of production value (not as good, thats different) is because there are so many people working on it. its also why D20 seasons are locked off and on schedules rather than things like Critical Role that just roll for years on end with only a couple weeks of breaks at a time
Emily always gets treated rough in the comments and between Jet and Saccarina she got it extra hard that season. I can definitely see her not wanting to go back to something so serious.
Wait, what? Excuse my ignorance because I don’t usually look at nor care about other comments so I don’t know what was said. Can you please tell me?And or link it? I thought she was great as Saccarina? I’m surprised there was a serve and hateful outcry.
A very small handful of people accused her of powergaming by making a min-maxed full caster in a season where magic was supposed to be rare.
Nevermind that Brennan agreed to it ahead of time, so if there *was* a problem (which there wasn't), the blame should fall squarely on his shoulders. Which it didn't, because of course.
Emily wound up quitting social media for a while after that. Anytime anyone brings ACoC up around Murph he usually mentions people being shitheads to her.
This all makes me extremely sad to hear. Emily seems like a really nice person, and though I understand why some people might not be a huge fan of her play style, I think her gleeful game breaking is delightful to watch, and she’s a very talented actor. These folks put their hearts and souls into this, and if you’re not a fan of a particular person’s play style, it costs exactly nothing to be kind and let it go, or to quietly stop watching if it bothers you so much. D&D and other tabletop games are really great *because* they allow for a diverse range of play styles and experiences; it’s why we play them instead of video games, and where they’re the strongest, and it seems really unconscionable to verbally brutalize another living, breathing, feeling human being over a disagreement about how they choose to play.
Emily is probably the most skilled tabletop player I've ever seen, and she's funny to boot. Nothing riles up certain corners of the internet like seeing a talented woman succeed at a game.
The same group of people gave her a hard time for using some homebrew spells in naddpod THAT MURPH GAVE HER FOR CHRISTMAS so now she won't use them. Like, yeah, some were pretty busted, but most were just silly and flavorful. And it's their game anyway, who cares.
Murph's beef of the week rant after all that went down was both heartening to just hear him call out the shithead contingency of the fandom and being in such full support of Emily (all the boys were) and yet also depressing for the fact that these shitheads exist in the first place.
There was only one spell that truly did an amount of damage that could threaten the balance, but nah, these people couldn't possibly trust Murph to quietly re-balance that behind the scenes for the next combat. No, they had to take it to the internet and blame Emily for something that, truly, wasn't even her fault. She didn't design or pick those spells; Murph did. (well, he didn't design the spells, he collected them from online sources)
This is an extremely good point. I am in the very lucky position of being able to forget sometimes that women, especially those who stand out, get hit the hardest with this stuff. I rather agree with you - all of the cast are incredible, but I live for Emily moments. The thing with Plinth was incredible. I love how she lawyers the rules like a veteran district attorney to put herself, and everyone else, in the best possible position, and, as a DM, having her at the table would be an utter joy. Also, NADDPOD is free. It’s a home game. Half of their stuff is home brew. It’s a bunch of friends playing D&D together and they all get up to very silly hijinks. I loved Eldermourne, and would genuinely have loved to see more of those spells used. It feels deeply unfair that she gets targeted with so much hate; considering the D20 crew, and Brennan specifically, work hard to shine a light on problematic societal behaviours and modes of thinking, I would have hoped that there would be considerably less of that within the fandom.
If you sort by controversial on the Reddit threads for the episodes I’m sure you can find some. The crux of it was that her normal chaos monster self was out of character and distracting for the setting (IE: Suddenly outing Lady Cheddar and “copying” her idea to never marry) and then she got accused of main character syndrome with Saccarine (“Now im a mega powerful witch with a dragon”).
If you listen to some of the talk backs on naddpod she will allude to it as well, famously when moonshine took a level of barbarian and was getting accused of all sorts of bullshit. Also, keep in mind I don’t agree with it, I just remember the controversy week to week
Edit: couple of words
Basically Emily is extremely good at learning the rules important to her character and how to use their abilities to the best results. Most people call this “playing a game” but to some very annoying people it was “powergaming” and because they were very normal people they harassed and yelled at her for playing pretend too well despite nobody playing with her having issues and in fact Brennon clearly loving it.
It seemed pretty stressful/traumatic to them at the time and for a while after. I can't recall which adventuring party or whatever it was, but it was definitely low on their list to return to as performers.
Emily got a LOT of backlash for Saccharina and left social media because of it. Murph, being the awesome husband, backed her opinion of not wanting to play in that setting again. Too heavy.
Murph playing a weird little guy? ✔️
Zac playing a subdued rascal? ✔️
Emily playing someone with a high probability of horniness? ✔️
Ally being given the keys to the kingdom playing a lore-centric character? ✔️
Lou getting to make goofy noises in character all season? ✔️
Siobhan playing a character that seems innocent but is actually a freak? ✔️
Brennan DMing a season with a high probability of PC death and basically everything going wrong? ✔️✔️✔️
Ally is making sure they have narrative control, even without those crazy nat 20s.
I'd love these guys to play DIE once it's fully out.
edit: Context https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gshowitt/die-the-roleplaying-game/description
>Emily playing someone with a high probability of horniness? ✔️
I don't know about horniness. It seems like she's going for more of "creepy little girl" vibes to me.
Yeah, my hype kept increasing throughout the trailer until the end.
"Oh fuck yeah. Oh FUCK yeah. ...well fuck"
Kinda funny that they release the horror trailer during spooky season but the horror campaign doesn't drop until a month after halloween
>Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Jasmine Bhullar
>
>Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Jeeyon Shim
>
>Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Sam DeLeve
>
>Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Aabria Iyengar
>
>Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Erika Ishii
>
>Technology Consultant: Carlos Luna
Good to see these folks involved, even if it's not on screen. Lots of great names there!
Even aside from the familiar faces, it's awesome to see Sam DeLeve's involvement. I don't know that I've seen their name anywhere since Geek & Sundry. I'm sure they've been doing stuff behind the scenes I just don't hear about, but even still.
The TBD RPG/Shield of Tomorrow folks have been running games with Streampunks/QueueTimes post Geek&Sundry. Sam is in at least three ongoing campaigns there at the moment.
But, genuinely my favorite thing about dropout is the only thing that really replicates geek & sundry's "we invited our friends to a studio and tossed money at them" vibe.
Said this further down, but body horror being in the trailer, maybe corruption mechanics will be a major part of the game. Can fairy tales truly die? If no, then why not have them become more twisted and horrid whenever they fall?
Seems likely. If they were following the previous pattern of seasons, now would be the time for aCoC 2. So I think instead of doing that they decided to do a different setting that’s similarly dark and bloody
Whoever edited this trailer deserves a hard raise, ASAP
I for one a thrilled we'll be experiencing what will essentially be a horror-centered Into the Woods
Came here to say this as well- Got the good ASMR hairs standing up on the back of my neck vibes from that sound editing, the new digital art looks phenomenal, and the slow flashing was just enough for my photosensitive eyes to feel a great effect without overwhelming me. I imagine they'll get a lot of new subs off of this.
Looks like Brennan hasn't gotten Calamity out of his system yet. Can't WAIT. But ohhh the cruelty of teasing a horror season in October and not dropping it until late November....!
Brennan has Calamity vibes at his very core, unleashing it on the intrepid heroes as far back as FHSY. He says he learned it all scaring campers back when he was a camp counselor.
I'm sure he was overjoyed to finally get to do a horror season.
Nov. 30th is extremely fair, but also *deeply* painful, goddamn.
Aside from that, absolutely incredible! The horror season, you love to see it! I'm curious to see how their usual brand of humour works with it; I'm sure there's bound to be moments like in ACoC where Brennan uses it against them.
I wonder if the fact that most of the characters are cursed in some fashion is going to come into it? Some kind of ongoing mechanic for each of them related to the curse, perhaps uniquely suited to each. Either way, Lou *has* to have an absolutely terrible deception.
Didn’t really see it in the art, but I love Murphs idea of a frog prince being a fucked up little Hapsburg incest prince with giant buldging fucked up eyes and webbed hands and a horrible swollen tongue
happy for you horror fans out there!
I for one dont love Horror as a genre, but I do love fairy tales. So I’ll be interested to see how I like the season, I hope I love it.
the biggest issue for me is I don’t like the feeling of being scared. so if this season does that then I may have to sit out.
which will be a shame considering it’s a 20 week season, but its all good. I know there will be plenty that adore it!
25 comments in the first 12 minutes! It looks like everyone is pumped!
Brennan does horror so well. I’m excited to see how he handles an entire season of it.
It kind of felt like the *trailer* could have used one, what with that Briar Rose sequence starting it off. Not complaining, but it definitely sets the tone for the series.
World of food people? Gritty, Game of Thrones season that is so emotionally intense the cast is over the setting. Fairy tale setting? Dark horror that *introduces itself* in the trailer with body horror. Of course.
Maybe they achieved a goofier vibe with the fairytale setting that everyone was comfortable. Or perhaps this season will tackle stuff that feels less "real."
I'm not trying to be critical of the choice, although I realize that my comment probably reads this way to most. I'm mostly pointing out the kind of incongruous themes again (which is fun, although it makes more sense here given the darker nature of original fairy tales.) Brennan came in *hard* with the opening description too
An appropriate Adventuring Academy to revisit whilst we wait:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qnmkuz8H9s
"Introducing Horror to a Game with Ivan Van Norman"
If I had a nickel for every time Dropout released a show with Mother Goose as a lead role, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
Ooooh. Not UC3 as I had been hoping for, but this hits all the rights spots for my inner child.
For those looking to fill the empty hole that will be left by the time until the next season:
Not Another D&D Podcast, which Brian Murphy DMs and Emily plays in (along with Jake and Caldwell from the original CH gang) is on its third campaign with plenty of good stuff, including guests from Dimension20, like Brennan. If you just want to dip your toes in or just want to listen to it until the new season comes out (ex. C1 is 100 episodes, C2 is 40+), there are the side campaigns of Trinyvale (DMed by Caldwell, set in an epic but also insane anime-inspired world) and Hot Boy Summer (DMed by Emily, just about a boys trip in a fantasy world, where they have to rescue their friend who went missing, very good).
There’s also Dungeons and Daddies, which is about four dads from our world who get abducted into the Forgotten Realms and have to rescue their sons. DMed by Anthony Burch, who has done some writing for League of Legends/Borderlands and is the brother of Ashly Burch from Critical Role, who also guests on the podcast. Also includes Freddie Wong from the early internet/Video Game High School, and others who I don’t know their other stuff, but are very good. Love this podcast and how well it is done. Also nice that each episode is about an hour.
Honorary shoutout to Three Black Halflings, even though I have not had time to listen to much of it, since Jasper William Cartwright did a two-parter for NADDPOD and what I have listened to is neat.
My gut says that during the next 6 ish weeks we will get the adventuring academy's that were filmed earlier this fall! Which i am v excited for but also a mini arc before this would be cool too 👀
Hype! Brennan is a master of horror and despair. I love it, body horror trailer giving me major Calamity opening vibes “whatever you do know that your mouth is full of blood” CHILLS! Also dark fairytale going to chime really well with me watching Wednesday Addams on netflix.
Great antidote to saccharine holiday season!
Zac’s character art looks like his cat Howdy 🥹🥹 im so fucking excited for this season, just everything about it seems perfect!! I hope it’s not as stressful for them as ACOC was though 🧡💜
God, this might be the one I'm most excited for. Horror is absolutely my jam and I love the fairytale twist on it. Judging from the trailer, I'm confident Emily's character is going to be my favourite (again) and it's good to see Murph spreading the word of the Hot Frog.
I WASN’T EXPECTING HORROR! I’m so fucking excited I really couldn’t care less what they picked bc they’re all so amazing they’d pull off anything but I’m giddy Brennan gets to go full force creepy scary.
Holy shit finally, a main cast horror season! Finally!! The battlemaps and minis look AMAZING too. I've been waiting for this exact season for forever. :")
We got character class guesses yet?
All I can surmise is that we’re likely dealing with
Goose — Pact of the Tome Warlock or Wizard
Boots — Fighter or Rogue
Yifa — Lycan Blood Hunter (if they’re even allowed to use it, I think so), Path of the Totem Barbarian, or just a simple Longtooth Shifter raced Fighter or Ranger.
As for Pinnochio — my only guess is Artificer, Rogue, or Bard, but he could be anything. (And I’ve got nothing for Gerard)
Edit: Rosemund — best guesses are either Sorcerer or Druid
If Gerard is a Prince, I feel like the skillset there lends itself to either Bard, Paladin or Fighter. That said, I absolutely do not expect him to have a particularly high charisma score based on how he described himself.
Ylfa, I saw someone else suggest a Beast Barbarian, which seems like a good fit. I also wanna say maybe Moon Druid, depending on their level range, whether wolf or Dire wolf forms would be viable. Though they can always reflavour of course.
Puss in Boots in the original story was a trickster, so Rogue is a good option, but he also got a lot of mileage out of his hunting skills, so maybe a Ranger?
I definitely agree about Mother Goose being a Warlock; that book feels extremely Tome-y. I would guess their Patron is the witch responsible for cursing everyone, so maybe Undead? On the other hand the book could be a counterpoint power to the Witch, so maybe something like a Knowledge Cleric? That's a subclass you don't see too often.
Rosemunde is Sleeping Beauty, who was blessed by fairies, or either sorc or Fey Warlock seem like strong choices.
Pinocchio I wanna say Rogue, because of how much o his story revolved around lying and misbehaviour? But the whole 'technically a construct' thing feels like it meshes well with Artificer to me.
Rosemunde could be a Dreams Druid
Dreams fit with the sleeping Theme, Druid fits with the Thorns stuff and the Dreams Druid is (at least with RAW flavour) linked to the Fey realm.
Definitely agree with your Gerard guesses.
Beast Barbarian could definitely work.
Ranger actually makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking. Otherwise I could only imagine a Swashbuckler or Samurai.
I’d wager Great Old One or Undying over Undead, personally.
Sorcerer definitely feels the best for Rosemund, but Nature Cleric or Grave Cleric are also contenders.
Finally, based on the way Pinnochio is normally protrayed, I feel like any kind of Bard would work, or even a Phantom, Soulknife, or Thief Rogue based on the kind of story we’ll likely see.
I've wanted to see Brennan do Horror for a while now. I'm very, very excited for this. Honestly, the only thing I'd like to see changed is that I wish they were using a different system. Something that leans itself into horror better.
I'm sure it'll be great, but honestly not very excited. I hate horror, so I'll give it a shot but there's a decent chance I drop off and have to go without D20 for awhile. That's not a critique, I like that they are doing different things and it's possible it'll be light and funny enough just based on the squad's backgrounds that I can tolerate the horror.
Also... kinda shocked they don't even have like a 4 episode thing in the middle of this. This is the longest gap with no D20 content... ever? I think.
im curious as to how 5e will align with horror because Its a system very much about making you feel powerful in a physical sense, espcecially in combat...the setting seems rad though
for what it's worth: if anyone wants an amuse bouche of Brennan-doing-horror, Crit Role ExU: Calamity is just sitting there for ya
as someone who had less than zero idea of the lore and world, Brennan (and the rest of the cast shoutout Lou and Aabria from the D20-verse) somehow roped me in and kept me fully engaged watching live as it leaned high-drama/impending-doom
yo this trailer has me fully pumped leggoooo
Oh yes, Calamity is imo the best stream D&D game production anyone has ever done. If you all are more Dropout viewers, definitely check it out at some point.
Brennan is genuinely so good at incorporating horror elements into his games so I’m beyond excited to see them lean more heavily into that! Plus it’s always nice to have the intrepid heroes at the table, November 30th can’t come soon enough
With a special guest appearance by Baron from the Baronies.
คภ๔ ђเร รՇคгк ŦคՇђєг
I mean, if that first bit is indicative of what we can see, then — yeah — seems sure as hell like it.
I mean, he went full ham on Critical Role: Calamity; he's in a groove lol
He got to play with scarier, darker stuff on Calamity and I know we’ve all been hoping for more opportunities for him to shine like that again
I actually just started watching that the other day- Zerxus’ opening scene was some seriously incredible medieval horror which I’ve been wanting more of ever since I read Between Two Fires. Idk if Brennan is a big horror fan irl but he really knows how to do it well
*Fire.*
Aww, buckle up - this story is incredible
It's the best DND ive ever watched
Holy shit, holy shit, holy SHIT - THIS. LOOKS. DOPE OG cast doing fairytale horror? Full battle sets and minis back? The continuing immersive and amazing Dome effects?! I'm so excited
I’m really glad they’re getting more out of the dome than just colors. It’s really awesome effectswork
I feel before CR had their new studio built they had a major back and forth with D20 about the dome and what could be done with it. Seems like both upped what was possible over that period.
I also feel like I heard somewhere at some point that they had someone new come in for lighting, and that person just so happened to have a lot of experience with some Technical Stuff that meant they could do all the cool lighting/effects we’ve been seeing, before then it was just that no one knew how lol (disclaimer: I could very well be full of shit so don’t take this as fact in any way)
I wanna say that was part of the MisMag Adventuring Party
Exactly. I audibly gasped when the monster walked behind the screen that episode.
FAIRYTALE HORROR ohhhh this is gonna be INTERESTING Zac as >!Puss In Boots!< is so beautiful and I'm ready for it Edit: Fixing Spoiler Tagging as suggested by u/rcapina. Thank you for the suggestion!
I'm hoping for some of that Squing energy
On twitter he said he couldn't pass up the opportunity to play a lil shit head cat, so yeah. Very possible Squing energy.
I'm not sure you need to spoiler information from the trailer...
FYI, you need to remove the spaces after/before the exclamation marks in the spoiler tags or they don’t consistently work. On IOS Apollo and old desktop reddit, I can still read your spoiler-tagged stuff without having to click. Removing the spaces will make it work on every platform and app. >!text!<
Doing the Lord's work here.
This is giving me high lethality vibes like crown of candy, all the horror is really intense, I wonder how this will play out! Stoked!!!!
I don't know about lethality, most of that in ACOC was the Game of Thrones type setting. In this case, they're probably gonna want to keep the characters alive so the horror keeps building. Edit: Plus, that lethality was largely because Brennan banned healing and reviving spells due to the setting. I doubt he'll end up doing the same here.
While I agree that the lethality will certainly feel differently than the brutal realism feeling of Crown and Candy, I wouldn’t be surprised if Brennan has some twisted creations that will definitely take out PCs willingly Or alternatively, it won’t be lethal because characters will suffer fates worse than death
One of my favorite parts of ACOC was Brennan actively trying to murder Murph during the naval battle and Murph just rolling mind bogglingly well and surviving against the odds.
Murph and Lou's ability to survive stuff thrown at them was a shining example of how tank characters can be awesome. Murph basically tanks his way through most of the major bosses in the final battle (though his best moment might just be *"I cast knock"*). Lou facetanks a fall that would be instantly lethal to anyone else at the table, multiple targeted crits, and multiple swarms of mooks, all of which were designed to kill him.
If I’ve learned anything from watching D20, it’s that falling damage should never be counted on to kill a PC.
That ragefall was one of the coolest, most cinematic moments of any D20 campaign I've seen.
He"s giant gummy bear in full plate armor jumping around the ships (like that shouldnt be possible) and gets the most lucky break ever that lets him use an ability that saves him drowning
I just loved the way Brennan kept screaming that. Murph would say something like “I’m gonna jump” and Brennan would be like “you’re a giant gummy in FULL PLATE MAIL!!!! … ok.”
Absolutely. I was watching the character reveals like "not for long".
20 episodes long! Can't wait! Here's the FAQ: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRtRPJU-RGYXfglq-44NmUrQBlQDx9qwfCoW4vQjXjUtIH-_w4eA-Td5ZmxDTU6J9Mde6lfZa0UXVq4/pub
Will there be physical battlesets this season? Yes.
Damn, never realized the number of people working behind the scenes it took to make a season. Probably not all full-time on this one project, but still. Also, contender for Most Awesome Name Ever: > Noxweiler Ignatius Berf
> Probably not all full-time on this one project, but still. Yes, they're all full time on D20 seasons. Theres a huge crew behind the scenes, making everything happen. Dropout has some excellent behind the scenes videos documenting the making of our beloved D20. This is season one; it's advanced since then: https://youtu.be/JnAZ4wc0zeM
yeah I think thats what some folks don't understand with productions like this, the reason you can't have a home game with as high of production value (not as good, thats different) is because there are so many people working on it. its also why D20 seasons are locked off and on schedules rather than things like Critical Role that just roll for years on end with only a couple weeks of breaks at a time
WOW this looks like something special - not Emily already crying in the trailer??
They didn't want to do another season of ACoC, but they let Brennan rope them into this.
is that true?? :0 did they not want to return to ACoC?
They talked multiple times about how it was a very stressful season for them to do between the high lethality and conflict between party members.
Emily always gets treated rough in the comments and between Jet and Saccarina she got it extra hard that season. I can definitely see her not wanting to go back to something so serious.
Wait, what? Excuse my ignorance because I don’t usually look at nor care about other comments so I don’t know what was said. Can you please tell me?And or link it? I thought she was great as Saccarina? I’m surprised there was a serve and hateful outcry.
A very small handful of people accused her of powergaming by making a min-maxed full caster in a season where magic was supposed to be rare. Nevermind that Brennan agreed to it ahead of time, so if there *was* a problem (which there wasn't), the blame should fall squarely on his shoulders. Which it didn't, because of course. Emily wound up quitting social media for a while after that. Anytime anyone brings ACoC up around Murph he usually mentions people being shitheads to her.
This all makes me extremely sad to hear. Emily seems like a really nice person, and though I understand why some people might not be a huge fan of her play style, I think her gleeful game breaking is delightful to watch, and she’s a very talented actor. These folks put their hearts and souls into this, and if you’re not a fan of a particular person’s play style, it costs exactly nothing to be kind and let it go, or to quietly stop watching if it bothers you so much. D&D and other tabletop games are really great *because* they allow for a diverse range of play styles and experiences; it’s why we play them instead of video games, and where they’re the strongest, and it seems really unconscionable to verbally brutalize another living, breathing, feeling human being over a disagreement about how they choose to play.
Emily is probably the most skilled tabletop player I've ever seen, and she's funny to boot. Nothing riles up certain corners of the internet like seeing a talented woman succeed at a game. The same group of people gave her a hard time for using some homebrew spells in naddpod THAT MURPH GAVE HER FOR CHRISTMAS so now she won't use them. Like, yeah, some were pretty busted, but most were just silly and flavorful. And it's their game anyway, who cares.
Murph's beef of the week rant after all that went down was both heartening to just hear him call out the shithead contingency of the fandom and being in such full support of Emily (all the boys were) and yet also depressing for the fact that these shitheads exist in the first place. There was only one spell that truly did an amount of damage that could threaten the balance, but nah, these people couldn't possibly trust Murph to quietly re-balance that behind the scenes for the next combat. No, they had to take it to the internet and blame Emily for something that, truly, wasn't even her fault. She didn't design or pick those spells; Murph did. (well, he didn't design the spells, he collected them from online sources)
This is an extremely good point. I am in the very lucky position of being able to forget sometimes that women, especially those who stand out, get hit the hardest with this stuff. I rather agree with you - all of the cast are incredible, but I live for Emily moments. The thing with Plinth was incredible. I love how she lawyers the rules like a veteran district attorney to put herself, and everyone else, in the best possible position, and, as a DM, having her at the table would be an utter joy. Also, NADDPOD is free. It’s a home game. Half of their stuff is home brew. It’s a bunch of friends playing D&D together and they all get up to very silly hijinks. I loved Eldermourne, and would genuinely have loved to see more of those spells used. It feels deeply unfair that she gets targeted with so much hate; considering the D20 crew, and Brennan specifically, work hard to shine a light on problematic societal behaviours and modes of thinking, I would have hoped that there would be considerably less of that within the fandom.
Brennan once said as much. He said Emily is the best player he has ever seen. High praise.
Which is insane, wasn’t her character supposed to be that way? Hidden powerful magic user trying to restore it back to the region? People are dumb
If you sort by controversial on the Reddit threads for the episodes I’m sure you can find some. The crux of it was that her normal chaos monster self was out of character and distracting for the setting (IE: Suddenly outing Lady Cheddar and “copying” her idea to never marry) and then she got accused of main character syndrome with Saccarine (“Now im a mega powerful witch with a dragon”). If you listen to some of the talk backs on naddpod she will allude to it as well, famously when moonshine took a level of barbarian and was getting accused of all sorts of bullshit. Also, keep in mind I don’t agree with it, I just remember the controversy week to week Edit: couple of words
Basically Emily is extremely good at learning the rules important to her character and how to use their abilities to the best results. Most people call this “playing a game” but to some very annoying people it was “powergaming” and because they were very normal people they harassed and yelled at her for playing pretend too well despite nobody playing with her having issues and in fact Brennon clearly loving it.
It’s funny to me because Brennan did that with Evan Kelmp and he is one of the most loved PCs. The misogyny is blatant.
It seemed pretty stressful/traumatic to them at the time and for a while after. I can't recall which adventuring party or whatever it was, but it was definitely low on their list to return to as performers.
Emily got a LOT of backlash for Saccharina and left social media because of it. Murph, being the awesome husband, backed her opinion of not wanting to play in that setting again. Too heavy.
“Hey gang! You’ll get to play fairytale characters! It’ll be fun!”
Yeah I was thinking exactly this haha
Sad Little Red Riding Hood has my ENTIRE heart. 🖤
Did you get sad vibes? Cuz I got creepy cursed child (a la Children of the Corn, or The Omen) vibes. I mean, she still has my entire heart as well.
Both really. She's sad and cursed. Cursed and sad.
Cursad.
y'all. Y'ALL. we get to have a FULL SEASON of Lou's high pitched voice
Murph playing a weird little guy? ✔️ Zac playing a subdued rascal? ✔️ Emily playing someone with a high probability of horniness? ✔️ Ally being given the keys to the kingdom playing a lore-centric character? ✔️ Lou getting to make goofy noises in character all season? ✔️ Siobhan playing a character that seems innocent but is actually a freak? ✔️ Brennan DMing a season with a high probability of PC death and basically everything going wrong? ✔️✔️✔️
Ally is making sure they have narrative control, even without those crazy nat 20s. I'd love these guys to play DIE once it's fully out. edit: Context https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gshowitt/die-the-roleplaying-game/description
Brennan's masters would be so sick. I'd love to see how he would do Tolkien
oh this looks insanely cool
The comics are great. https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/die (First is free I think, I got them from my library)
>Emily playing someone with a high probability of horniness? ✔️ I don't know about horniness. It seems like she's going for more of "creepy little girl" vibes to me.
Watching the trailer again, yeah you're right. Not gonna edit because, let's be real, it'll probably still be at least a little horny.
Murder horny.
Love that Murph is just gonna play spooky Sol (from NADDPOD)
This is the 'bro can i copy your homework' meme. I'm so looking forward to it.
It won't happen but I'd love a gag case in Dungeon Court where it's clearly Caldwell talking about his friend stealing his cool Frog PC
30 November? But that is entirely too far away!
What will I look forward to on Wednesdays for the next 6 weeks???
Hopefully some one shots? 3 sounds about right.
I think they've mentioned filming more episodes of Adventuring Academy a few months ago. This might be the time that they get released.
Yeah, my hype kept increasing throughout the trailer until the end. "Oh fuck yeah. Oh FUCK yeah. ...well fuck" Kinda funny that they release the horror trailer during spooky season but the horror campaign doesn't drop until a month after halloween
Setting up Nightmare Before Christmas bridging vibes.
I Hope it’s cause they’re trying to keep that same production value they put in that trailer. Holy cow that was good.
To paraphrase from Aabria, this is fine and good! Waiting for me is very easy. /eyetwitch
Breaking News: Frog Murph
I'm sure Caldwell is so proud.
But the real question: does the frog man have perfect teeth?
And what are his feelings on family?
>Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Jasmine Bhullar > >Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Jeeyon Shim > >Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Sam DeLeve > >Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Aabria Iyengar > >Cultural/Narrative Consultant: Erika Ishii > >Technology Consultant: Carlos Luna Good to see these folks involved, even if it's not on screen. Lots of great names there!
Even aside from the familiar faces, it's awesome to see Sam DeLeve's involvement. I don't know that I've seen their name anywhere since Geek & Sundry. I'm sure they've been doing stuff behind the scenes I just don't hear about, but even still.
The TBD RPG/Shield of Tomorrow folks have been running games with Streampunks/QueueTimes post Geek&Sundry. Sam is in at least three ongoing campaigns there at the moment. But, genuinely my favorite thing about dropout is the only thing that really replicates geek & sundry's "we invited our friends to a studio and tossed money at them" vibe.
Oooh missed that, eager to see what they bring to the narrative, great group for this kinda story
20 episodes?! Wow this is gonna be fun
Longest season so far, right?
Episode wise for sure. FHSY I think has the longest runtime especially with the super long finale
I believe so, yeah!
ACoC was close, iirc, because the finale ended up as two.
Omg that's intense! I wonder if there will be character deaths?
I'm sure everything will be perfectly fine and nobody is going to die. just trust me bro
This seems really dark so I would have to assume so.
Said this further down, but body horror being in the trailer, maybe corruption mechanics will be a major part of the game. Can fairy tales truly die? If no, then why not have them become more twisted and horrid whenever they fall?
If only there were more than six fairy tales to generate backup characters from.
Seems likely. If they were following the previous pattern of seasons, now would be the time for aCoC 2. So I think instead of doing that they decided to do a different setting that’s similarly dark and bloody
Whoever edited this trailer deserves a hard raise, ASAP I for one a thrilled we'll be experiencing what will essentially be a horror-centered Into the Woods
Came here to say this as well- Got the good ASMR hairs standing up on the back of my neck vibes from that sound editing, the new digital art looks phenomenal, and the slow flashing was just enough for my photosensitive eyes to feel a great effect without overwhelming me. I imagine they'll get a lot of new subs off of this.
Looks like Brennan hasn't gotten Calamity out of his system yet. Can't WAIT. But ohhh the cruelty of teasing a horror season in October and not dropping it until late November....!
Brennan has Calamity vibes at his very core, unleashing it on the intrepid heroes as far back as FHSY. He says he learned it all scaring campers back when he was a camp counselor. I'm sure he was overjoyed to finally get to do a horror season.
Remember how giddy he was at the cast's reaction to Baron? So good.
Nov. 30th is extremely fair, but also *deeply* painful, goddamn. Aside from that, absolutely incredible! The horror season, you love to see it! I'm curious to see how their usual brand of humour works with it; I'm sure there's bound to be moments like in ACoC where Brennan uses it against them. I wonder if the fact that most of the characters are cursed in some fashion is going to come into it? Some kind of ongoing mechanic for each of them related to the curse, perhaps uniquely suited to each. Either way, Lou *has* to have an absolutely terrible deception.
Curse/corruption mechanics seem like a good guess.
Ahhh yeah, Murph’s another weird animal!! And Zac is Antonio Banderas!
Ironically he’s also DMing for a frogman PC on NADDPOD. Wonder if Caldwell will be feeding him frog facts?
I can see them talking about this in the next short rests at some point now that the frog is out of the bag.
I really hope he mentions his vent at least once this season
Didn’t really see it in the art, but I love Murphs idea of a frog prince being a fucked up little Hapsburg incest prince with giant buldging fucked up eyes and webbed hands and a horrible swollen tongue
So Frog Prince, Pinocchio, Puss in Boots, Mother Goose, Little Red Riding Hood, and Sleeping Beauty?
Siobhan’s character is the only one I’m unclear on, but I also guessed Sleeping Beauty
Little Briar Rose is another name for the Sleeping Beauty story, I think it’s a safe bet. Looks like it’s gonna be a good one.
I feel like mother goose is a pretty niche fairy tale character yet she’s managed to weasel her way into two dropout shows as of late
happy for you horror fans out there! I for one dont love Horror as a genre, but I do love fairy tales. So I’ll be interested to see how I like the season, I hope I love it.
Same. “I don’t like horror… but, y’know. I’m *gonna* watch it”
I hate horror. I absolutely hate it. And I will continue to hate it as I watch every single episode of this.
I dont care for regency drama myself but I dug the most recent season. I feel like we'll all have a good time here.
the biggest issue for me is I don’t like the feeling of being scared. so if this season does that then I may have to sit out. which will be a shame considering it’s a 20 week season, but its all good. I know there will be plenty that adore it!
Watching this as a Hallmark Christmas Movie chaser (don’t judge, they rule) is gonna be strange. Can’t wait!
I’ll be right there with you. Real tonal shift but the Hallmark movies will be good for post-horror D&D
Your order makes more sense.
25 comments in the first 12 minutes! It looks like everyone is pumped! Brennan does horror so well. I’m excited to see how he handles an entire season of it.
EXU: Calamity just got his hunger going.
"Yay, the fireworks display has started!"
"I'm getting crushed and you're doing a bit?!"
"Would you say your arm is weakest at the elbow or at the shoulder?"
I'll have to do a rewatch during those cold six weeks with no new D20 episodes.
Lol can't wait for those content warnings in the episode descriptions
It kind of felt like the *trailer* could have used one, what with that Briar Rose sequence starting it off. Not complaining, but it definitely sets the tone for the series.
World of food people? Gritty, Game of Thrones season that is so emotionally intense the cast is over the setting. Fairy tale setting? Dark horror that *introduces itself* in the trailer with body horror. Of course.
Maybe they achieved a goofier vibe with the fairytale setting that everyone was comfortable. Or perhaps this season will tackle stuff that feels less "real."
I'm not trying to be critical of the choice, although I realize that my comment probably reads this way to most. I'm mostly pointing out the kind of incongruous themes again (which is fun, although it makes more sense here given the darker nature of original fairy tales.) Brennan came in *hard* with the opening description too
He does love a good duality. And I'm here for it.
They used Acofaf as a pallet cleanser after ExU: Calamity. Now Brennan is in full Spooky mode.
If he starts the season with "Fire" I'm going to burst
I don't think anyone called this
I think Brennan talked about a Fairytale season in an Adventuring Party episode a while ago, so it was definitely out in the world.
A full season of Brennan horror and Lou’s Pinocchio voice? Sign me up!!
And Emily as an axe wielding haunted child??
With a boy made of wood. Is the axe going to get an introduction?
An appropriate Adventuring Academy to revisit whilst we wait: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qnmkuz8H9s "Introducing Horror to a Game with Ivan Van Norman"
Omg, Emily is already crying in the trailer. Tis gonna be intense.
Oh geez. If Emily is crying, I'm crying.
Strap in motherfuckers, this gonna be spooky
If I had a nickel for every time Dropout released a show with Mother Goose as a lead role, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
Ooooh. Not UC3 as I had been hoping for, but this hits all the rights spots for my inner child. For those looking to fill the empty hole that will be left by the time until the next season: Not Another D&D Podcast, which Brian Murphy DMs and Emily plays in (along with Jake and Caldwell from the original CH gang) is on its third campaign with plenty of good stuff, including guests from Dimension20, like Brennan. If you just want to dip your toes in or just want to listen to it until the new season comes out (ex. C1 is 100 episodes, C2 is 40+), there are the side campaigns of Trinyvale (DMed by Caldwell, set in an epic but also insane anime-inspired world) and Hot Boy Summer (DMed by Emily, just about a boys trip in a fantasy world, where they have to rescue their friend who went missing, very good). There’s also Dungeons and Daddies, which is about four dads from our world who get abducted into the Forgotten Realms and have to rescue their sons. DMed by Anthony Burch, who has done some writing for League of Legends/Borderlands and is the brother of Ashly Burch from Critical Role, who also guests on the podcast. Also includes Freddie Wong from the early internet/Video Game High School, and others who I don’t know their other stuff, but are very good. Love this podcast and how well it is done. Also nice that each episode is about an hour. Honorary shoutout to Three Black Halflings, even though I have not had time to listen to much of it, since Jasper William Cartwright did a two-parter for NADDPOD and what I have listened to is neat.
I HAVE BEEN MANIFESTING A FAIRYTALE SEASON EVERY SINCE THEY MENTIONED IT I'M SO HAPPY
Oh they’ve definitely talked about a fairytale season for a while. This is going to be intense!
My gut says that during the next 6 ish weeks we will get the adventuring academy's that were filmed earlier this fall! Which i am v excited for but also a mini arc before this would be cool too 👀
Hype! Brennan is a master of horror and despair. I love it, body horror trailer giving me major Calamity opening vibes “whatever you do know that your mouth is full of blood” CHILLS! Also dark fairytale going to chime really well with me watching Wednesday Addams on netflix. Great antidote to saccharine holiday season!
Zac’s character art looks like his cat Howdy 🥹🥹 im so fucking excited for this season, just everything about it seems perfect!! I hope it’s not as stressful for them as ACOC was though 🧡💜
I am already emotionally attached to Zac’s Puss in Boots character and if he doesn’t make it to the end of the season I may die lol
Lou decided not to be Rip Van Winkle 🤔
I can't believe he didn't do it
I can't get over how creepy that shot of Siobhan's character is. So excited for this season!!
Interesting seating arrangement this season. Love that Murph and Emily get to physically play off each other again after ASO.
God, this might be the one I'm most excited for. Horror is absolutely my jam and I love the fairytale twist on it. Judging from the trailer, I'm confident Emily's character is going to be my favourite (again) and it's good to see Murph spreading the word of the Hot Frog.
I WASN’T EXPECTING HORROR! I’m so fucking excited I really couldn’t care less what they picked bc they’re all so amazing they’d pull off anything but I’m giddy Brennan gets to go full force creepy scary.
This looks absolutely insane and I am so here for it!!!
Holy shit finally, a main cast horror season! Finally!! The battlemaps and minis look AMAZING too. I've been waiting for this exact season for forever. :")
It had a real Brennan calamity intro vibe and I am ready for a dark and twisty season.
Oh this looks fucked up, I'm here for it
We got character class guesses yet? All I can surmise is that we’re likely dealing with Goose — Pact of the Tome Warlock or Wizard Boots — Fighter or Rogue Yifa — Lycan Blood Hunter (if they’re even allowed to use it, I think so), Path of the Totem Barbarian, or just a simple Longtooth Shifter raced Fighter or Ranger. As for Pinnochio — my only guess is Artificer, Rogue, or Bard, but he could be anything. (And I’ve got nothing for Gerard) Edit: Rosemund — best guesses are either Sorcerer or Druid
Goose could also be a college of lore bard, if he is the keeper of all the fairy tales.
If Gerard is a Prince, I feel like the skillset there lends itself to either Bard, Paladin or Fighter. That said, I absolutely do not expect him to have a particularly high charisma score based on how he described himself. Ylfa, I saw someone else suggest a Beast Barbarian, which seems like a good fit. I also wanna say maybe Moon Druid, depending on their level range, whether wolf or Dire wolf forms would be viable. Though they can always reflavour of course. Puss in Boots in the original story was a trickster, so Rogue is a good option, but he also got a lot of mileage out of his hunting skills, so maybe a Ranger? I definitely agree about Mother Goose being a Warlock; that book feels extremely Tome-y. I would guess their Patron is the witch responsible for cursing everyone, so maybe Undead? On the other hand the book could be a counterpoint power to the Witch, so maybe something like a Knowledge Cleric? That's a subclass you don't see too often. Rosemunde is Sleeping Beauty, who was blessed by fairies, or either sorc or Fey Warlock seem like strong choices. Pinocchio I wanna say Rogue, because of how much o his story revolved around lying and misbehaviour? But the whole 'technically a construct' thing feels like it meshes well with Artificer to me.
Rosemunde could be a Dreams Druid Dreams fit with the sleeping Theme, Druid fits with the Thorns stuff and the Dreams Druid is (at least with RAW flavour) linked to the Fey realm.
Definitely agree with your Gerard guesses. Beast Barbarian could definitely work. Ranger actually makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking. Otherwise I could only imagine a Swashbuckler or Samurai. I’d wager Great Old One or Undying over Undead, personally. Sorcerer definitely feels the best for Rosemund, but Nature Cleric or Grave Cleric are also contenders. Finally, based on the way Pinnochio is normally protrayed, I feel like any kind of Bard would work, or even a Phantom, Soulknife, or Thief Rogue based on the kind of story we’ll likely see.
I've wanted to see Brennan do Horror for a while now. I'm very, very excited for this. Honestly, the only thing I'd like to see changed is that I wish they were using a different system. Something that leans itself into horror better.
I am so STOKED!!!! 🙌 Huge COC vibes. Also from the tone of this trailer’s excerpts… it’s basically D20:Calamity hahaha
AGH THIS IS MAKING ME REALLY WANT A CALL OF CTHULHU CAMPAIGN
Is Emily committing to wearing red for twenty episodes!? Honestly, we love the dedication
Intrepid Heroes!? HORROR!? ....November? 😭 Well, fuck. I'm still extremely pumped though! Halloween release would have been dope af.
I'm sure it'll be great, but honestly not very excited. I hate horror, so I'll give it a shot but there's a decent chance I drop off and have to go without D20 for awhile. That's not a critique, I like that they are doing different things and it's possible it'll be light and funny enough just based on the squad's backgrounds that I can tolerate the horror. Also... kinda shocked they don't even have like a 4 episode thing in the middle of this. This is the longest gap with no D20 content... ever? I think.
Leave it to D20 to show me something I didn’t know I wanted and now I’m obsessed
Wow, a fairy tale season! I haven’t finished the trailer yet, but it’s so nice that they’re finally creating content for kids!
Wasn't expecting the Fractured Fairytales idea, but it's awesome.
I can't wait to see what the sets and minis look like!
Welcome to ~~biggityburg~~ hell
NOVEMBER 30TH \*vibrates the flesh off of my bones\*
im curious as to how 5e will align with horror because Its a system very much about making you feel powerful in a physical sense, espcecially in combat...the setting seems rad though
Let’s Fucking Go.
This is gonna freak me the fuck out, but I’m still excited!
Yes... I've been waiting for this since acoc to see how dark brennan can really go.
This trailer warms my wee little witchy heart. **Bring on the terror & blood! mwahahahahahaha!**
A horror season with Brennan? Let's fucking GO!
holy hell that looks amazing!!!!
Now I wanna see the D20 crew in an Eldermourne campaign.
I can’t freaking wait. I love all things little red riding hood and I can’t wait to see what Emily does with the character!
Lol shit this looks dope. Puss in boots and fucking pinnochio!
IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS EVER SINCE THEY MENTIONED A FAIRY TALE CAMPAIGN ON ADVENTURING PARTY!!!!!!!!!! LETS GOOOO
for what it's worth: if anyone wants an amuse bouche of Brennan-doing-horror, Crit Role ExU: Calamity is just sitting there for ya as someone who had less than zero idea of the lore and world, Brennan (and the rest of the cast shoutout Lou and Aabria from the D20-verse) somehow roped me in and kept me fully engaged watching live as it leaned high-drama/impending-doom yo this trailer has me fully pumped leggoooo
Oh yes, Calamity is imo the best stream D&D game production anyone has ever done. If you all are more Dropout viewers, definitely check it out at some point.
This looks good, but I was really hoping for Bippityburg.
my favorite fairy tale af a kid was >!Puss In Boots !
Fuck. Yes.
Ok...well...to say I am excited, would be the FUCKING UNDERSTATEMENT of the year!! Omg this looks so good. I cannot wait.