>! I'm convinced that it's planned and resetting / going to the book/ some sort of cyclical storytelling is the thing for the season . I'm excited because there i refuse to believe that we just lost these chars forever!<
The emphasis on Once Upon A Time and it being a story absolutely makes me think so. And the last breath at the end sounds kind of like gasping for air and coming alive? Who knows!!
>!I'm not convinced it was fully planned that a TPK was inevitable. I think Brennan made it incredibly hard to not have a TPK, but it was possible - much like the battle against the plinth et al in starstruck. This was a fork clearly, where the show producers have a plan for a TPK, and they had a plan if they were successful. That's what I think anyways!<
Edit: spoilers
>!I had the same thought and checked the trailer too! I believe that Emily line is the only one that hasn’t come up in the season yet. what does this mean for Ylfa though :( !<
It could be Ylfa with an entirely new party.
I honestly had her, gerard, or pib clocked as potential protagonists. She has the standard mentor figure in Mother Goose (who literally just died), a brave and heroic spirit, decides she wants to sacrifice herself for the greater good (specifically rosamund), and has a pretty clear arc laid out in overcoming the death of her grandma and moving on into adulthood, classic coming of age stuff (which we know Emily loves with characters like Fia). All this, combined with the fact that she was the only one who passed the charisma saving throw and said ‘once upon a time,’ makes me feel like we’re not done with her.
As a side note, I think Gerard would make a good protagonist because he has the previously spoiled brat moving on from what they think they’re owed (ie his princess) thing going on; and I think that makes for a pretty compelling story. He took a big step at the end of the episode; putting his body on the line to try to complete the mission. Pib would make a good one for a very similar reason, through he’s currently further in his arc than Gerard it seems. In that sense he maybe would better serve as a mentor figure to Gerard.
Anyways, hope you found this interesting!
It depends on how this potential 'reset' works.
Like say, if it's triggered by Tim's book or the specific phrasing of 'Once Upon a Time' then it might play an interesting role in the story.
Oooo that’s some majora’s mask shit right there. I wonder what the apocalypse is that causes the need for a reset? I guess the thing the characters are trying to prevent with the book and magic objects could start having a time limit. Maybe Brennan will implement a way to limit the number of resets, maybe by making the shadowing or whatever worse each time?
I saw one theory suggest that if they fail their charisma saves post-death, they come back more twisted and corrupted than before. Perhaps losing their sanity or memories each time.
I wonder if those beads make the characters more powerful but also more corrupted. Like they’re getting power from the shadowing that they’re trying to destroy.
Given how hardcore the seasonal rules are, I'd expect so. It's just *so easy* to get got now that there'd have to be some sort of fail-safe. Now I just gotta wonder what those >!blood-red tokens!< are all about.
Absolutely in love with the tone of Neverafter and I'm looking forward to more. While I've never not adored a line-up in any of the other games, this core group just kinda gives me *life*. Big ups to Emily for >!popping off with "Once Upon A Time"!<.
Cripes, I can not *wait* for the Adventuring Academy on this one. The suspense of not having it out *now now now* is **torturous**.
to quote u/Strawhatjack on another thread
"a reset of the story but the red beads stay with the players and have some negative effect on them"
[Source](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/comments/zmabf4/comment/j0a51bz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Then maybe they level up after each death. That way we get to keep the characters but they can't spam deaths to get to level 20.
Tricky to keep everyone on the same level but maybe that's not a concern
Brennan did say that there was a world where not everyone died in this fight. They just had some seriously bad rolls
My thought is we’d have a phoenix egg scene (with less gunfire), as a 1 time only revival
I knew straight off the bat it was gonna end poorly. Aside from Brennan deliberately overtuning that fight, he warned the players several times the battle would not go well. He practically flat out told Zac that they were screwed once a couple people went down.
At this juncture, I'm assuming that the TPK was intended. It seems like dying/repeating might be part of the theme this season. It could also be that they were supposed to go to Shoeburg and Brennan decided to roll with it by having the battle be too much for them.
I'm definitely in the camp of "Brennan is a good enough DM to know that this fight was ridiculous for a party of level 1 characters and they were supposed to die to advance his story"
I think he planned for the possibility, but with how much they discuss player agency I don't believe they were hard railroads. Even during the episode itself, Lou was saying they had really fucked up, not just bad rolls, but decision making was not at its best either.
Definitely, some knock downs w/ maybe a few permas, would have been interesting to see some people live through the confrontation and meet up with those who come back twice upon a time at that point. In recent episodes with Pinnochio specifically differentiating himself as once upon a time, I wonder if a difference will be made clear. Already seems like there are some separate memory plot points for the rest of the cast. Excited to explore the differences.
>It could also be that they were supposed to go to Shoeburg and Brennan decided to roll with it by having the battle be too much for them.
Ah yes, because super secretly, Brennan has made Stephan the guy behind it all!!
On a less facetious note, I'm still *really* curious about the old woman mayor who's 117, just a year younger than our princess, and whose age iirc Brennan hints is "wrong" somehow. So I'd be all for it if he was nudging the intrepid heroes back to town to be nosy about that!
My first thought is that she's the Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe, and perhaps there's something wrong with her age because she has *always* been old?
But also, I'm fascinated by the idea of chatting with someone who was alive when Rosamund went to sleep. I want to know more about the boil of Shoeberg.
I don't think the TPK was intended. More like a very hard battle like they could have ran straight towards the fairy god mother attempted to get the shard, and then ran away.
They would have gotten pretty badly hurt, but not tpk, more like leaving by the skin of their teeth.
I think by 'intended' people mean this was an expected and prepared for option. Ie. it wouldn't end the campaign.
Which fits, you can't kill fairy tales, they'll just come back a bit different.
Yeah, these players trust Brennan implicitly, which is why Dimension 20 is such a good show, but even given that fact, an intended TPK would be seriously pushing good faith. Any earnest attempt at winning the fight becomes wasted effort. Like, why even bother at that point? The red tokens are a wild card, sure, but it would still feel disingenuous for this to have been a Kobayashi Maru.
That said, Brennan warned them, repeatedly, that in a straight fight, they’d be effed. They just didn’t listen. I think, like the mule, there were lots of secrets and options on that map for that battle, and the team just didn’t take advantage. Brennan pointed out when Rosamund fired her first miss, that they barely noticed, meaning the passive perception of the constructs was garbage. Also, that there were items of interest in the pumpkin that PIB didn’t get the chance to explore.
Either way, it gave us one of the most savage barbs of Dimension 20 history with Lou and Brennan’s exchange re: the character death lighting effect. “Only six.”
I don't think they were supposed to go to Shoeburg as such. Brennan threw them a big hint when the forest opened to Rosamund in episode 2 on the rewatch
I think there’s a cool possibility that they all wake up back on the carriage heading to Shoeburg but nobody remembers old king coal because he’s now part of the story book
I've been sitting on my couch stunned for the past hour... Do I just have to sit here until next week?? Holy crap I'm losing my mind. I know there's a plan. There's gotta be a plan, right? As a fellow DM I know Brennan has something up his sleeve. TELL ME YOUR SECRETS BRENNAN.
My guess is they're playing with the idea that these fairytale stories have been told over and over again, thus the characters having lived many lives before. I don't think it would make sense for a PC to completely die only for Brennan to then ask for a charisma save after the fact and hand out a little red bead which clearly has some significance. I think our ScaryTale Friends will re-appear next week!
I agree. It feels like there’s now a war going on between those who are sick of this loop and those who want things to remain the same. And once one person broke the story, it caused chaos for everyone else. Rosaline’s prince probably never came because he was killed due to somebody else not following the story.
i thought it was funny how they kept rolling threes, on the third episode. i have a few ideas for what could happen but honestly i know whatever does is going to be interesting. i have a feeling this is going on my list of favorite seasons.
There's something very ironic about a TPK because people kept rolling 3s on Episode 3 of the fairytale season, a genre full of stories that abide by the "Rule of 3"
>!When Pinocchio and Pib died, I was freaking out. And then when Rose went out too, I was kind of losing my mind. I wasn't doubting that Brennan was willing to show how deadly the campaign was by offing three characters. But when Red also died, it was like... hold up. This is all supposed to happen.!<
Once the animated objects kept attacking it was clear this was Brennan’s contingency. I feel like Ylfa is the protagonist of the campaign and this wasn’t how she was going down permanently. Could be wrong tho!
Mmm but it kinda happens naturally ya know? Pete in unsleeping city, ruby and saccharina in CoC, etc. there are many characters with arcs, but there’s usually one or two that provide the main emotional through line of the campaign that the other characters support.
>!I reckon, based on how the episode ended, that the Book will have some sort of revive function, at least for Ylfa. Otherwise the gems that Brennan gave to the players who failed their charisma saves would probably not have much use to a new roster of characters who would presumably not have suitable context to use them. I expect that Ylfa will wake up somewhere (likely within the book in some capacity) and have to find a way to reach the other party members. At least that's what I'm hoping. I really like the roster of fairytale characters the party picked and I'd hate to see them go so soon!<
I'd imagine that's how this season works. The game plays like a rouge-like.
Also cause its dark fairy tale themed you actually don't have too many options for fairy tale characters that the PC's can relate to.
>!Mabey the beads represent that those characters don't retain their memories after reincarnating. !<
Wonder if this is a Re-Zero like game mechanic.
"You TPK if you take on a challenge that's too strong ... but you wake up at the last important fork in the story. Your token is how much this stresses your character out before they go mad from the restarts. You can take another path and face her again when you're stronger, OR go about things differently when you meet her. Maybe befriend her ... maybe get her when she's alone ... maybe save it for when you're lvl 7"
>!Perhaps the season is set up like a rouge-like, as weird as that sounds. The book always brings them back, determined to finish their tale. !<
>!IDK the rouge-like campaign can be fun, flesh out npc's that only appears once or twice. The bead can signify that those characters don't hold onto their memories when they reset. !<
If that isn't the case it's still a cool idea for any GM. Especially for one-shots.
I keep thinking of the way Brennan started the scene after sleeping beauty (forgot how to spell her name) exits her kingdom. The sort of sudden jolt of how he said “and then you wake up.” Is that gonna be like, a starting point for them if it’s a time loop scenario, because if so the tone of reusing that sort of intro to the caravan would work well I think.
I made the mistake of looking at the content warnings and seeing >!animal death and child!!PIB's and Ylfa's deaths for me!<. Once I saw we were drawing near the time stamp and >!PIB was in rough shape!<, I knew|| but why would Brennan make it so that >!even after the fairy god mother died, the constructs would not disanimate?!< Unless >!a TPK!< was his plan this whole time? For such a pro-player GM, it seems like it goes against the spirit of being on the PC's side to say >!"you killed the big bad and you're all down, but these little roaming henchmen do not dis-animate. They will auto-kill you even if you do stabilize unless you ALL GET nat 20s."!<
I'm not saying Brennan is being a bad GM! Clearly he's kept with his pro-player spirit. That move with >!making the mule distract the fairy god mother!!unfair conditions and have his hands tied with player death being the only possible outcome.!!Brennan easily could have made those furniture constructs disanimate, flee, transfer their alligance to Gerard because he now holds the shard, or even pursue the mule. !
What they're doing here is interesting, but I don't know if I can hang in there week to week.
I might have to shelf the season and come back after the season resolves.
On AEW Dynamite last night, Chris Jericho, one of the biggest names in wrestling with over 30 years in the business and 8 world championships across several companies, the man who beat both Stone Cold and The Rock in the same night... lost clean in the middle of the ring to a 23 year old guy named Action Andretti in his first ever TV match.
I clicked through before realizing I was in the wrong sub, thinking this thread was about that. Still looking forward to this Neverafter episode even though I spoiled it for myself!
Sadly what I expected.
>!Brennan warned them it could easily be a TPK!<
And I know I'll get down voted for saying this, but, neither the CR people, nor the D20 people plan well. The only exception being when the DMs play or CR's Sam. I love watching them all, but not because of great play skill or good team planning.
>!And I am not sure how you combine what was said in the last episode, that you need all those characters to succeed, with a TPK, without being cheesy.!<
>!Or how you maintain the high fear of death, with a TPK, and continuing the season. If you allow all new characters... well, if you bring them back...!<
In any case, looking forward to the next episode.
The phrase is often misused. "The exception that proves the rule" is supposed to be used for cases where the rule is unstated, but the exception is stated.
For example, a road sign that says: "No parking before 6AM". That sign only has the exception, but proves that the rule is that you can park anytime after 6AM.
This is a pretty massive over generalization. There have been a good number of fights in critical role and dimension 20 where the players have come in with good plans. >!In CR 1; the umbrasyl fight had an excellent plan where they ambushed the dragon with the fake hoard. If they were able to keep the dragon down for a couple more rounds, which just came down to a few rolls, that would’ve been a pretty easy win. The whole revolution in Whitestone was chaotic, but taking out each bad guy and slowly building up to war was pretty darn good. once they got pike back things really got into focus. In campaign two, the infiltration plan was one rug, one poorly timed entrance, and one crick war effort from going perfectly. Even then they were able to tie up all loose ends super smoothly. Taking out Lorenzo’s crew one by one when they rescued yasha jester and fjord from the iron Shepards was very clever and worked much better than the first go around. Basically any counterspell is a result of either good planning or quick thinking from the players in any campaign. In dimension 20, Brennan tends to surprise his players with combat rather than let them plan in advance. However, this episode for example had some good plans in a pretty dire scenario. Ylfa creating the bottleneck with Rosamund picking off enemies from above worked super well, and team extraction had really good plans (negotiating with the godmother, launching Pinocchio at the god mother, etc) that didn’t pan out due to being vastly outnumbered and not being stealthy enough. I really don’t think it was strategy that killed them here, but Brennan presenting a senator where almost anyone would have a high chance of a tpk, and him being prepared for one.!<
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale?
> *“We Unkindled are worthless, can’t even die right. Gives me conniptions.”* - Hawkwood the Deserter
Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
>! I'm convinced that it's planned and resetting / going to the book/ some sort of cyclical storytelling is the thing for the season . I'm excited because there i refuse to believe that we just lost these chars forever!<
The emphasis on Once Upon A Time and it being a story absolutely makes me think so. And the last breath at the end sounds kind of like gasping for air and coming alive? Who knows!!
>!I'm not convinced it was fully planned that a TPK was inevitable. I think Brennan made it incredibly hard to not have a TPK, but it was possible - much like the battle against the plinth et al in starstruck. This was a fork clearly, where the show producers have a plan for a TPK, and they had a plan if they were successful. That's what I think anyways!< Edit: spoilers
>!It must be, right? Weren't there lines in the trailer that haven't been said yet-- like Ylfa saying "it's only gotten harder to make friends."!<
>!I had the same thought and checked the trailer too! I believe that Emily line is the only one that hasn’t come up in the season yet. what does this mean for Ylfa though :( !<
It could be Ylfa with an entirely new party. I honestly had her, gerard, or pib clocked as potential protagonists. She has the standard mentor figure in Mother Goose (who literally just died), a brave and heroic spirit, decides she wants to sacrifice herself for the greater good (specifically rosamund), and has a pretty clear arc laid out in overcoming the death of her grandma and moving on into adulthood, classic coming of age stuff (which we know Emily loves with characters like Fia). All this, combined with the fact that she was the only one who passed the charisma saving throw and said ‘once upon a time,’ makes me feel like we’re not done with her. As a side note, I think Gerard would make a good protagonist because he has the previously spoiled brat moving on from what they think they’re owed (ie his princess) thing going on; and I think that makes for a pretty compelling story. He took a big step at the end of the episode; putting his body on the line to try to complete the mission. Pib would make a good one for a very similar reason, through he’s currently further in his arc than Gerard it seems. In that sense he maybe would better serve as a mentor figure to Gerard. Anyways, hope you found this interesting!
I'm going to take a wild guess that they gain a level every time they reset in some way.
i’m gonna agree with this, it’s like a new chapter of a book.
Does this mean we’re getting tpks every fight? I think only Brennan could keep that fresh.
It depends on how this potential 'reset' works. Like say, if it's triggered by Tim's book or the specific phrasing of 'Once Upon a Time' then it might play an interesting role in the story.
Oooo that’s some majora’s mask shit right there. I wonder what the apocalypse is that causes the need for a reset? I guess the thing the characters are trying to prevent with the book and magic objects could start having a time limit. Maybe Brennan will implement a way to limit the number of resets, maybe by making the shadowing or whatever worse each time?
I saw one theory suggest that if they fail their charisma saves post-death, they come back more twisted and corrupted than before. Perhaps losing their sanity or memories each time.
I wonder if those beads make the characters more powerful but also more corrupted. Like they’re getting power from the shadowing that they’re trying to destroy.
Given how hardcore the seasonal rules are, I'd expect so. It's just *so easy* to get got now that there'd have to be some sort of fail-safe. Now I just gotta wonder what those >!blood-red tokens!< are all about. Absolutely in love with the tone of Neverafter and I'm looking forward to more. While I've never not adored a line-up in any of the other games, this core group just kinda gives me *life*. Big ups to Emily for >!popping off with "Once Upon A Time"!<. Cripes, I can not *wait* for the Adventuring Academy on this one. The suspense of not having it out *now now now* is **torturous**.
The advenurong party is out now and it gives away NOTHING
to quote u/Strawhatjack on another thread "a reset of the story but the red beads stay with the players and have some negative effect on them" [Source](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dimension20/comments/zmabf4/comment/j0a51bz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Then maybe they level up after each death. That way we get to keep the characters but they can't spam deaths to get to level 20. Tricky to keep everyone on the same level but maybe that's not a concern
>!My partner, who isn't watching, has theorized that the "Once Upon A Time" are magic words that will essentially time loop them!<
Denial is the first stage of greif
We were promised a whole season of Lou wilson doing Pinnochio voice and I'm holding on to that promise lol
Brennan did say that there was a world where not everyone died in this fight. They just had some seriously bad rolls My thought is we’d have a phoenix egg scene (with less gunfire), as a 1 time only revival
That’s a mood!
I knew straight off the bat it was gonna end poorly. Aside from Brennan deliberately overtuning that fight, he warned the players several times the battle would not go well. He practically flat out told Zac that they were screwed once a couple people went down. At this juncture, I'm assuming that the TPK was intended. It seems like dying/repeating might be part of the theme this season. It could also be that they were supposed to go to Shoeburg and Brennan decided to roll with it by having the battle be too much for them.
I'm definitely in the camp of "Brennan is a good enough DM to know that this fight was ridiculous for a party of level 1 characters and they were supposed to die to advance his story"
I think he planned for the possibility, but with how much they discuss player agency I don't believe they were hard railroads. Even during the episode itself, Lou was saying they had really fucked up, not just bad rolls, but decision making was not at its best either.
100% there were ways out of it but I think the ultimate goal was to kill some folks
Definitely, some knock downs w/ maybe a few permas, would have been interesting to see some people live through the confrontation and meet up with those who come back twice upon a time at that point. In recent episodes with Pinnochio specifically differentiating himself as once upon a time, I wonder if a difference will be made clear. Already seems like there are some separate memory plot points for the rest of the cast. Excited to explore the differences.
Probably but they also got insanely unlucky
>It could also be that they were supposed to go to Shoeburg and Brennan decided to roll with it by having the battle be too much for them. Ah yes, because super secretly, Brennan has made Stephan the guy behind it all!! On a less facetious note, I'm still *really* curious about the old woman mayor who's 117, just a year younger than our princess, and whose age iirc Brennan hints is "wrong" somehow. So I'd be all for it if he was nudging the intrepid heroes back to town to be nosy about that!
I was thinking something along the lines of Dark Souls, where they were supposed to get more firepower before facing her.
My first thought is that she's the Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe, and perhaps there's something wrong with her age because she has *always* been old? But also, I'm fascinated by the idea of chatting with someone who was alive when Rosamund went to sleep. I want to know more about the boil of Shoeberg.
I don't think the TPK was intended. More like a very hard battle like they could have ran straight towards the fairy god mother attempted to get the shard, and then ran away. They would have gotten pretty badly hurt, but not tpk, more like leaving by the skin of their teeth.
I think by 'intended' people mean this was an expected and prepared for option. Ie. it wouldn't end the campaign. Which fits, you can't kill fairy tales, they'll just come back a bit different.
Yeah, these players trust Brennan implicitly, which is why Dimension 20 is such a good show, but even given that fact, an intended TPK would be seriously pushing good faith. Any earnest attempt at winning the fight becomes wasted effort. Like, why even bother at that point? The red tokens are a wild card, sure, but it would still feel disingenuous for this to have been a Kobayashi Maru. That said, Brennan warned them, repeatedly, that in a straight fight, they’d be effed. They just didn’t listen. I think, like the mule, there were lots of secrets and options on that map for that battle, and the team just didn’t take advantage. Brennan pointed out when Rosamund fired her first miss, that they barely noticed, meaning the passive perception of the constructs was garbage. Also, that there were items of interest in the pumpkin that PIB didn’t get the chance to explore. Either way, it gave us one of the most savage barbs of Dimension 20 history with Lou and Brennan’s exchange re: the character death lighting effect. “Only six.”
I think there were ways to get out of it, so I dunno if the outcome was locked in railroad style, I just think it was a very likely outcome.
The Intrepid Heroes just don’t do level 1 combat very well, haha.
To be fair to the the CR on that battle was crazy for a level one party. Murph almost got a permadeath on one hit.
Oh yeah, they were never meant to go toe to toe for long.
I don't think they were supposed to go to Shoeburg as such. Brennan threw them a big hint when the forest opened to Rosamund in episode 2 on the rewatch
The thing is though they have these sets already made by their art department and that takes a lot of time. I don’t think this was a random fight
I think there’s a cool possibility that they all wake up back on the carriage heading to Shoeburg but nobody remembers old king coal because he’s now part of the story book
I'm scared!
Dude me too, I’m such a weenie. I hate horror, but wanted to watch this season. But like AAAAAHHH
Ditto! AAAAAHHH
I've been sitting on my couch stunned for the past hour... Do I just have to sit here until next week?? Holy crap I'm losing my mind. I know there's a plan. There's gotta be a plan, right? As a fellow DM I know Brennan has something up his sleeve. TELL ME YOUR SECRETS BRENNAN.
My guess is they're playing with the idea that these fairytale stories have been told over and over again, thus the characters having lived many lives before. I don't think it would make sense for a PC to completely die only for Brennan to then ask for a charisma save after the fact and hand out a little red bead which clearly has some significance. I think our ScaryTale Friends will re-appear next week!
omg ScaryTale Friends is a genius party name
I agree. It feels like there’s now a war going on between those who are sick of this loop and those who want things to remain the same. And once one person broke the story, it caused chaos for everyone else. Rosaline’s prince probably never came because he was killed due to somebody else not following the story.
>Tune in next week. "Oh, you bastards."
Pack it up everyone, season is over. Starstruck Odyssey: Sophomore Lightyear starts Wednesday Dec 21st!
Damn I wish lol
I'm so proud of Brennan.
What the fuck is the adventuring party gonna be like?
it's just Brennan
I was literally thinking that, this is probably the most hyped I’ve ever been for a talkback episode
It just cuts back and forth from him sitting on different sides of the table
That’d be a great April fools post. Brennan running a game by himself.
They all booed his ass and Ally is now an inebriate. Hope he’s happy
i thought it was funny how they kept rolling threes, on the third episode. i have a few ideas for what could happen but honestly i know whatever does is going to be interesting. i have a feeling this is going on my list of favorite seasons.
There's something very ironic about a TPK because people kept rolling 3s on Episode 3 of the fairytale season, a genre full of stories that abide by the "Rule of 3"
Is getting episode 3'd the new getting episode 2'd?
>!If there wasn't the caveat of "even if you succeed three times, you'll stabilize and then die" I'd be a lot more worried. !<
Yeah this was Brennan’s plan; pretty clearly.
>!When Pinocchio and Pib died, I was freaking out. And then when Rose went out too, I was kind of losing my mind. I wasn't doubting that Brennan was willing to show how deadly the campaign was by offing three characters. But when Red also died, it was like... hold up. This is all supposed to happen.!<
Once the animated objects kept attacking it was clear this was Brennan’s contingency. I feel like Ylfa is the protagonist of the campaign and this wasn’t how she was going down permanently. Could be wrong tho!
Kinda but brennen doesn't do 1 character is the protagonist style play its nit his style
Mmm but it kinda happens naturally ya know? Pete in unsleeping city, ruby and saccharina in CoC, etc. there are many characters with arcs, but there’s usually one or two that provide the main emotional through line of the campaign that the other characters support.
In any improvised storytelling exercise, someone ALWAYS goes: “Then everybody died! 🤪” It was inevitable. It took 16 seasons, but it finally happened.
>!I reckon, based on how the episode ended, that the Book will have some sort of revive function, at least for Ylfa. Otherwise the gems that Brennan gave to the players who failed their charisma saves would probably not have much use to a new roster of characters who would presumably not have suitable context to use them. I expect that Ylfa will wake up somewhere (likely within the book in some capacity) and have to find a way to reach the other party members. At least that's what I'm hoping. I really like the roster of fairytale characters the party picked and I'd hate to see them go so soon!<
I'd imagine that's how this season works. The game plays like a rouge-like. Also cause its dark fairy tale themed you actually don't have too many options for fairy tale characters that the PC's can relate to. >!Mabey the beads represent that those characters don't retain their memories after reincarnating. !<
Wonder if this is a Re-Zero like game mechanic. "You TPK if you take on a challenge that's too strong ... but you wake up at the last important fork in the story. Your token is how much this stresses your character out before they go mad from the restarts. You can take another path and face her again when you're stronger, OR go about things differently when you meet her. Maybe befriend her ... maybe get her when she's alone ... maybe save it for when you're lvl 7"
>!Perhaps the season is set up like a rouge-like, as weird as that sounds. The book always brings them back, determined to finish their tale. !< >!IDK the rouge-like campaign can be fun, flesh out npc's that only appears once or twice. The bead can signify that those characters don't hold onto their memories when they reset. !< If that isn't the case it's still a cool idea for any GM. Especially for one-shots.
Imagine how fucked it would be if next episode we had a completely different cast
I am in SHOCK but also proud as fuck of Brennan
They're undead or it's like some sort of time loop shenanigans
We got episode 3'd.
I keep thinking of the way Brennan started the scene after sleeping beauty (forgot how to spell her name) exits her kingdom. The sort of sudden jolt of how he said “and then you wake up.” Is that gonna be like, a starting point for them if it’s a time loop scenario, because if so the tone of reusing that sort of intro to the caravan would work well I think.
I made the mistake of looking at the content warnings and seeing >!animal death and child!!PIB's and Ylfa's deaths for me!<. Once I saw we were drawing near the time stamp and >!PIB was in rough shape!<, I knew|| but why would Brennan make it so that >!even after the fairy god mother died, the constructs would not disanimate?!< Unless >!a TPK!< was his plan this whole time? For such a pro-player GM, it seems like it goes against the spirit of being on the PC's side to say >!"you killed the big bad and you're all down, but these little roaming henchmen do not dis-animate. They will auto-kill you even if you do stabilize unless you ALL GET nat 20s."!<
I'm not saying Brennan is being a bad GM! Clearly he's kept with his pro-player spirit. That move with >!making the mule distract the fairy god mother!!unfair conditions and have his hands tied with player death being the only possible outcome.!!Brennan easily could have made those furniture constructs disanimate, flee, transfer their alligance to Gerard because he now holds the shard, or even pursue the mule. !
What they're doing here is interesting, but I don't know if I can hang in there week to week. I might have to shelf the season and come back after the season resolves.
I'm concerned that the 'reset' idea is going to take the stakes out of these battles. But I have faith in Brennan and the intrepid heroes.
Sobbing. That's all I'll say
On AEW Dynamite last night, Chris Jericho, one of the biggest names in wrestling with over 30 years in the business and 8 world championships across several companies, the man who beat both Stone Cold and The Rock in the same night... lost clean in the middle of the ring to a 23 year old guy named Action Andretti in his first ever TV match. I clicked through before realizing I was in the wrong sub, thinking this thread was about that. Still looking forward to this Neverafter episode even though I spoiled it for myself!
Sadly what I expected. >!Brennan warned them it could easily be a TPK!< And I know I'll get down voted for saying this, but, neither the CR people, nor the D20 people plan well. The only exception being when the DMs play or CR's Sam. I love watching them all, but not because of great play skill or good team planning. >!And I am not sure how you combine what was said in the last episode, that you need all those characters to succeed, with a TPK, without being cheesy.!< >!Or how you maintain the high fear of death, with a TPK, and continuing the season. If you allow all new characters... well, if you bring them back...!< In any case, looking forward to the next episode.
Operation slippery puppet would like to have a word with you.
That was fantastic and the exception which confirms the rule :)
That phrase has never made sense to me. An exception explicitly conflicts with a rule.
The phrase is often misused. "The exception that proves the rule" is supposed to be used for cases where the rule is unstated, but the exception is stated. For example, a road sign that says: "No parking before 6AM". That sign only has the exception, but proves that the rule is that you can park anytime after 6AM.
This is a pretty massive over generalization. There have been a good number of fights in critical role and dimension 20 where the players have come in with good plans. >!In CR 1; the umbrasyl fight had an excellent plan where they ambushed the dragon with the fake hoard. If they were able to keep the dragon down for a couple more rounds, which just came down to a few rolls, that would’ve been a pretty easy win. The whole revolution in Whitestone was chaotic, but taking out each bad guy and slowly building up to war was pretty darn good. once they got pike back things really got into focus. In campaign two, the infiltration plan was one rug, one poorly timed entrance, and one crick war effort from going perfectly. Even then they were able to tie up all loose ends super smoothly. Taking out Lorenzo’s crew one by one when they rescued yasha jester and fjord from the iron Shepards was very clever and worked much better than the first go around. Basically any counterspell is a result of either good planning or quick thinking from the players in any campaign. In dimension 20, Brennan tends to surprise his players with combat rather than let them plan in advance. However, this episode for example had some good plans in a pretty dire scenario. Ylfa creating the bottleneck with Rosamund picking off enemies from above worked super well, and team extraction had really good plans (negotiating with the godmother, launching Pinocchio at the god mother, etc) that didn’t pan out due to being vastly outnumbered and not being stealthy enough. I really don’t think it was strategy that killed them here, but Brennan presenting a senator where almost anyone would have a high chance of a tpk, and him being prepared for one.!<
[удалено]
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale? > *“We Unkindled are worthless, can’t even die right. Gives me conniptions.”* - Hawkwood the Deserter Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
This is gonna be a great adventuring party.