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

I have managed to make it some way into Episode 2 with the help of TAZ Transcribed. I keep looking and looking at the list of story arcs, and I still find it implausible that the thing I am listening to could in fact be this other thing that everyone is excited about.

 

I got to this thread's eponymous scene in Crystal Kingdom and

Spoiler

idk why but it was just. deeply funny to me. like easily the funniest scene so far. Taako noping out, Taako putting more effort into pretending to help than he probably would have needed to to actually fight, making an illusory sandwich because he's so loathe to use his real one...

 

Yeah, the first few episodes are very dnd 101. It picks up pretty quickly once they get past the pre-written stuff and Griffin starts writing his own story, but it definitely takes a while for them all to settle in.

 

it takes about 3-4 episodes before he starts writing it himself, iirc?

 

Pretty much, yeah!

Spoiler: more detail, some spoilers

They start out with a preexisting adventure called Lost Mine of Phandelver. Some things are changed early on, mostly names. The changes primarily start happening after Klarg's cave: after defeating Klarg, the handbook calls for a buncha side quests in and around Phandalin before moving on to Wave Echo Cave (I'm assuming Griffin cut this for length, and also because Merle being related to Gundren makes the map accessible immediately). Wave Echo Cave is very, very large, and a lot of possible encounters were skipped. Killian and the grinder were entirely created by Griffin.
Magic Brian's name in the handbook is Nezznar (lol) and the encounter with him plays out a little differently, specifically there were originally more spiders. The gambit he plays at the end was originally part of an encounter with a doppelganger rather than with Brian himself. Also, Nundro is the remaining survivor rather than Gundren.
After defeating Brian, we are all the way into original content!

 

headcanon: Garfield the Deals Warlock is a mercane. yes, i know that's a Pathfinder creature, not 5e. and that page says that mercanes are LN, while Garfield is CLEARLY LE, but in any intelligent race surely there's variations in alignment.

anyway now i want to introduce Garfield the dimension-hopping mercane into my own pathfinder game.

 

I'm Terrified

 

I love this.

 

GtDW will always be at least vaguely catlike to me. As much as I like this headcanon, I just can't get behind it.

 

He could just be a 10 foot tall Garfield.

 

Just started the Suffering Game. Thoughts...

I saw a tumblr post once where OP was like "I started listening to TAZ and I have a hard time believing this is the same thing my friends are so excited about" and then subsequent reblogs are them going "oh. OH. I understand now..." I laughed a little then but I really get it now, lmao.

With as little spoilers as possible--I think part of the issue is that it started out as a goofy comedy thing and it felt like only half the group was on board with...playing a character rather than fooling around. This may be because I roleplay myself but seeing Griffin put a lot of effort into his NPCs and then 2/3 of his players interact w them in a way that is clearly "im doing this to give my little brother/son shit on a meta level" rather than "this is a thing that is funny AND makes sense for my character to do" was...frustrating.

I feel like Crystal Kingdom was around when Magnus and Merle started feeling like actual characters rather than vessels for their players' lulz, I guess. And that's practically halfway through, so I can see why it's kinda hard to get that far if you've been drawn in by all the fanworks to begin with and have expectations.

Idc if a character is an asshole but they've gotta be an asshole in a *consistent* way, I guess.

Also the first TTAZZ answered a lot of things that were bugging me, like "Why give your character an alignment if you're not going to follow it", etc.

Spoiler: important question re: crystal kingdom, minor spoilers

ok so if Magnus ripped off the cockroach mandibles and then got in the elevator, did they grow proportionally to him and leave him with giant cockroach mandibles or was he standing there holding teeny tiny bug parts in his gigantic hands? Did he mount them on his wall on a tiny plaque? I must know.

 

I finally got to the finale and now I can officially Click All the Spoilers in this thread, brb

 

several things

>I cried at least 5 times during the finale
>goes back and watches fan music videos and BURSTS INTO FUCKING TEARS AGAIN

Spoiler: spoips

Spoiler: specifically these vids but if you have more plz shove them in my face

Noelle... Q_Q

I freaking love when story arc specific NPCs/side characters get finale cameos it's the best kind of rush

Hurley and Sloane were great but my fav was Cassidy...........she always cracks me up.

So many Lucretia feelings. I just. really relate to characters that want so badly to do the right thing and look after people that they fuck up SO BAD ok.

Lup is amazing and I love her and I love every rendition of the scene where she fucks up Edward's shit. Almost feel a little sorry for him, but not really.

I don't know if this was intentional but I've never really seen it acknowledged in fiction that (barring like...a very small developmental chance i think) the only way you get identical twins of different genders is if one of them is trans. I thought that was kinda cool.

I got a huge Young Wizards vibe (probably unintentional but) from the scenes with Merle & John. Good shit.



I still WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THE COCKROACH MANDIBLES

Edit 1: I listened to that one Lunar Interlude w the eclipse around the time of the eclipse in North America this summer so even tho i'm sure they probably had cool sci fi shades all i could picture was everyone wearing those shitty paper eclipse glasses. including the Director.

Spoiler

making her slapfight with Magnus 50x funnier

Edit 2:

Spoiler

My brain interpreted "YOU'RE DATING THE GRIM REAPER!?" as "I thought my boyfriend and I turning into immortal liches sustained by the power of love was the most Goth Romantic thing ever but you just HAD to one up me, didn't you??"

 

@Enzel gods the Hey Brother one gets me in the heart every single time.

Spoiler: discussion thereof

especially two scenes: Barry's tearful rage in his lab, and Lup reaching out to her brother as he forgets her
it hurts so good

 

http://www.maximumfun.org/adventure-zone/setup-adventure-zone-commitment
New arc new arc new arc

 

I just started the ep but BOYS BE NICE TO YOUR DAD :[

 

Spoiler: commitment ep 1 spoilers/liveblog

i love remy. what a good boy. what wonderful legs. a good good bouncy nerd boy.
OH BOY TRAVIS'S CHARACTER
NADIYA JONES LONELY TECH GIRL
HELL YEAH I'M DIGGING THIS
biochem and biotech major hell yeah this is my jam
YO I LOVE HER

 

Spoiler: more of the same

YO JUSTIN IS A GOOD

i have no idea what i think remy looks like but i love irene i love her so much i love nadiya so much

 

Oh the track art for this transition ep is pretty

 

Heck yes I'm caught up and can start posting in this thread.

I'm still having finale feels even though I listened to it two or three days ago.