VINES TRIED TO EAT MY DICK (The MacElroys Play D&D)

A thread for discussing podcast The Adventure Zone! You can listen to all the episodes here: http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/adventure-zone

Please tag spoilers with arc title or episode number for fans who have not caught up yet.

 

I started listening to this three days ago because Critical Role has made me want to consume ALL THE D&D GAMES. ALL OF THEM. I only became aware of it thanks to some pretty art of Taako in a dress, and thought. Okay, I'll give it a look.
I'm now up to episode 10. It's so quotable. It's hugely fun. I don't even mind the half-way 'please give us money' break because if I could, I would. They're funny as hell.
I only became aware of Monster factory maybe a week ago thanks to @rainbowbarnacle and now I am just in love with these people :D
I fell in love and knew they had me to the end in episode 4, during the Here Be Gerblin's Arc.

Spoiler: ep 4

Magic Brian I can't fucking handle him I'm so sad he's dead

 

Taako is the absolute best oh my god. He's like a fusion of Grog and Scanlan from Critical Role and I fucking adore him.

 

oh nooooo, another hilarious podcast to listen to (this looks so good and also will probably solve my "loves the concept of D&D but is scared of people" problem)

 

Also recommend Critical Role, which is literally hundreds of hours of voice actors playing D&D and is just. The best @u@

 

!!! thank you! i'm probably also going to check out achievement hunter's heroes and halfwits, but that looks...less like what i'm wanting :p

 

I can't get into Critical Role because I don't have the attention span. I've tried, the characters are great, but every episode is like a feature-length movie and there are approaching a hundred of them. TAZ runs an hour and a half at the absolute longest, so it's easier for me to fit into my schedule.

Never seen Heroes and Halfwits. My limited experience of Achievement Hunter is "pretty funny if you can ignore the low-level background radiation of shitty, offensive jokes" and I'm aware that not everyone can or would want to.

@cassikat maybe also try Friends at the Table? That's probably next on my list, the StreamFriends play Dungeon World.

Anyway, back to the subject of this thread. Taako is fucking great. He's an amoral asshole with a giant ego and extremely skewed priorities, but he's too self-centered and lazy to actually be evil, and somehow it wraps back around to charming?

 

(BURSTS IN) listen to friends at the table it's great. but probably don't start with dungeon world (s1, "seasons of hieron") unless you don't mind extremely shitty sound quality -- I recommend listening to the new set of "Marielda" episodes first, and then going back if it grabs you.


... But yes The Adventure Zone. It's so much sillier than FatT, and yet it makes me feel emotions frequently!! These damned McElroys!!!

taako is my fave bc of the intersection of his extreme stupidity and Justin getting fed up at the others and being sarcastically insightful in taako's voice, which clash delightfully.

 

When trying to reconcile Taako's high Int/Wis scores and his actually-pretty-good ideas with the way Justin roleplays him, I always think of this quotation on Zaphod Beeblebrox. "[It was difficult] to distinguish between him pretending to be stupid just to get people off their guard, pretending to be stupid because he couldn't be bothered to think and wanted someone else to do it for him, pretending to be outrageously stupid to hide the fact that he actually didn’t understand what was going on, and really being genuinely stupid. He was renowned for being amazingly clever and quite clearly was so—but not all the time, which obviously worried him, hence, the act."

 

that is SO APPROPRIATE, omg.

 

I got to the title quote earlier, and I'm on ep. 25 now

Spoiler: ep 25

"It might surprise you to know that when planning this battlecart encounter I did not expect Taako to summon a spectral unicorn named Garryl."

 

Oh and also

Spoiler: Murder on the Rockport Limited

I nearly fucking died laughing at every interaction with Jenkins, but the panultimate confrontation played off the build up of the gag so fucking perfectly, and I fucking adore it when the dice enable that

 

Spoiler: ep 25

is that fucking shark tank a james in the giant peach reference
i feel like it is
the spinning inside mouth? yeah
i love these people

 

I'm so glad there's a thread for this now. (Is thread the right word?) Taako is so relatable and my favorite character in anything ever.

 

Thread is right, yes!

Man, Taako is my straight-up favorite but Magnus is growing on me. He's a good dude.

 

I really wanted to put "the last time we were in an elevator vines tried to eat my dick!" Into the out of context quotes thread but now everyone will know the context, which I think defeats the purpose. This podcast is super quotable, gold stars all around. What's your favorite npc? I really liked Jenkins especially after spoilers happened. I also like Lt. Hurley (sp?) she sounds super cute.

 

How could I ever possibly choose a single NPC? Well. Hurley is wonderful. Klarg is great too. Garryl is I guess not technically an NPC because Justin plays him. NO-3113 is lovely.
OH GOSH, I almost forgot about Angus! And Killian! Augh, there are too many fun characters. Remember Graham, the Juicy Wizard?

 

Graham's great, can't forget him. I just remembered about the town of tom bodetts though, with their tom bodett wives and tom bodett children. They're my favorite now just because it's really funny they exist in story.

 

Spoiler: petals to the metal

GLORIOUS MAD MAX LESBIANS I HOPE THEY ARE PLANT SPIRITS NOW

 

I have been listening and chuckling even through my shitty week.

Also if people like DnD podcasts, they should check out Tabletop Escapades! It's a bit more serious than this one, but it's still a lot of fun and ridiculous things happen and if you watch the YouTube vids their expressions are great and sometimes a big floofy dog appears.