Tag: taz

zenosanalytic:

princetpenguin:

chalkunderstars:

princetpenguin:

umbraastaff:

umbraastaff:

i dont know anything about party comps but the IPRE crew was 1 cleric, 1 fighter, and 5 whole wizards, can someone make fun of it for me

thank you all

fighters 1
clerics 1
wizards 5

someone who is good at party composition help. we keep dying

less wizards

no

They obvsl spec’d for endgame content u_u

tags from zenosanalytic:

The Adventure Zone The McElroys D&D frivolous reblogs the joke is that for most of D&D’s history wizards were absurdly weak at low levels like 2 hp die if a rat scratches them weak but unstoppable worldending god killers past lvl 19 who had access to spells that could make them into to better warriors/clerics than actual chars of those classes or high lvl monsters or could just summon armies of monsters in a single round if they didn’t feel like just mazing or vaporizing or incinerating or calling down a flipping meteor to crush someone instead but anyway

tazdelightful:

sturdydenimblue:

tazdelightful:

sturdydenimblue:

You’ve spent your whole life locked in libraries and studies, learning about the world around you without ever entering it. You’re filled with jealousy of those who do. Your past sins are sloth and envy. How do you plead?

sloth/envy strikes me really hard as code for depression/anxiety disorder double whammy u feel me? Griffin also describes Barry as ‘always nervous.’

also the implication that a middle aged dude who’s lived a pretty sheltered life is suddenly going into space? sounds a LOT like a mid life crisis.

Barry: *literally hops onboard a rocket ship to escape the fact that he spent 20 years collecting degrees not leaving any meaningful impact on the world* 

Contrast with Lup’s “I did this world and kind of… crushed it?” *leaves this stink planet*

LOVE THAT CONTRAST! that dynamic! Lup who’s older and experienced and has done things, seen things! Barry saying he looks up to her, calling her the love that defined and redeemed him! it’s so GOOD

i’m working on my Barry character study rn and he’s just a MESS…i love him so much. he’s never been particularly good at people or emotions but he becomes defined by the love he feels for his family and it literally sustains his humanity! the growth! is so good

His character arc is to become an undead monstrosity powered by love and i think that’s beautiful

miamaroo:

Okay, so like, here’s the facts. Lucretia had to figure out new lives for Magnus, Taako, and Merle with only the ability to take away information via the Voidfish.

As we know, Taako just got hooked up with his show, feesibly without any further erasing needed. I headcanon that the original Merle from Faerun died as a baby, so Lucretia only had to erase the fact that he died to place her Merle with this plane’s version of his family.

But Magnus insists that he was born and raised in Raven’s Roost. And as far as we know, no one ever questioned him on it. So how can Lucretia give him a lifetime at Raven’s Roost if she can only erase something?

The answer: she erased the fact that he’s a stranger. Maybe she wrote down “Magnus Burnsides is not from around here” onto a piece of paper and threw it into the tank without really thinking it through. Because now it’s not just the people of Raven’s Roost who is pretty sure Magnus Burnsides has been here his entire life even though evidence suggests otherwise. everyone in Faerun has this vague sense that Magnus Burnsides has been a vaguely familiar face in these parts for a long time, even if they can’t quite place why.

Magnus tells a barkeeper in Bradybuck that this is his first time here and the barkeeper doesn’t say anything, but they’re pretty sure Magnus has been stopping through here their entire life. Maybe they’re wrong, but either way his familiarity makes him easy to talk to, if not downright comforting to be around.

What I’m trying to get at is that one of the stranger side effects of the voidfish’s static is Magnus’s rustic hospitality.

miamaroo:

Inspiration tells the listener what they need to hear exactly when they need to hear it. The voidfish’s song is, in part, bardic magic. Therefore, I propose this:

Not everyone got the full story on the day of story and song. Maybe someone relates more strongly to other dwarves, or maybe the mothers of the world needed to hear about other motherly figures

But depending on who you are, you got a different version of the stolen century. Everything from the perspective of Magnus, the story portrayed as an epic romance, emphasis being placed on the scientific perspective

Bards start popping up, making it their mission to get as complete of a version of the story as they can. Scholarly circles debate the validity of each one since, well, everyone remembers it differently. The song becomes a subject to study all on its own

People start jokingly saying that the bird whose perspective you saw the most of is a personality type. Magazines give you desserts you might like based on what bird you are. If you’re a Lup, you’re known for your tenaciousness and caring nature. Future generations who didn’t see the song can take quizzes to determine which bird they are, or even base it on their star signs. If you’re edgy, you say you’re John. Nobody is named John anymore. Comedians make John jokes and pretend to not understand why everyone is offended.

The birds become folkloric figures. The birds themselves become folkloric types. Purchase a book of fairytales, and the human heroes are all named Lucretia and Magnus. All the clerics are Merle’s, the leader-types Davenport. Lup and Taako went up the hill to get a pail of water.

In some places more remote than others, it’s spiritual. You invoke the name of the Lover to guide you in your love, the Peacemaker when you stand on the break of war. Widows place lavenders on the graves of their lost loves and ask Magnus how he coped when he lost it all

(If you look on TV, there’s a three stooges comedy of an elf, a human, and a dwarf bumbling their way to saving the world. It’s a phenomenon. Goofy lines they never said in real life get attributed to them. In a few years, someone makes a dark, serious version of their story and calls it subversive)

In many years, you can read feminist, Freudian, or even post-modern interpretations of the song like it is any other story studied in schools. Every eight grade class has to read an anthology of various tales from the song. It becomes a chore the way reading the Odyssey is today, but there’s always those moments when you hear a certain tale and you think, yeah, this one’s mine.

No one gets the same version of the story. They hear what inspires them at that moment to pick up their weapons and fight back the encroaching darkness. From its conception, the titular song is like all other epics, all other legends that influence our culture to this day— ambiguous, malleable, and adaptable

abracafuckko:

I think one of my absolute favourite things about TAZ is that Griffin got to write a campaign in which the three free agents, the three moving parts that he relied on to make his story work, were the three people he knows best in the whole universe. People talk about Griffin’s story being ‘on rails’ but it’s not. It’s just that – unlike most DMs – Griffin can predict his family’s behaviour in advance in a way most people couldn’t hope to do. If he were playing with a different group, the story never would have turned out the way it did, but because he knows his family, he could fairly accurately predict the big decisions.

He writes a voidfish into the story, because he knows his brother is kind to animals, knows he’d never leave a sentient baby jellyfish on a planet about to get eaten, not even narratively. He’s not writing Travis into a corner, Travis would never consider doing anything else. He writes Taako a sister – a best friend, a twin, a soul mate – because he knows that Justin is a big brother to his very core, knows that his instincts will always fall in line with sibling loyalty and devotion, even when he’s playing an aloof elf who doesn’t care about anyone. He writes his dad into the trickiest position of them all – facing true horror, sitting across the table from the end of the world – and he knows that his father will respond with compromise and understanding, with love and joy and compassion, because he’s seen that grace in his father his whole life. Griffin was betting on those qualities that he already knew his family possessed, and it was the safest bet he ever made! Because they were amazing, and he always knew they would be.

souridealist:

people talk a lot about getting the mcelroys on critical role and whether or not they’d break matt and honestly? I think matt would be fine. matt has been doing this for many years of many different players’ bullshit and he actively enjoys it when his players throw him a curveball. (also he has a serious advantage that Griffin doesn’t, to whit, he isn’t their shithead little brother and therefore it is unlikely to be as fun to make him Mad.) he can run with whatever they throw at him, it’ll be great.

no, what I think would be the biggest problem is Matt frantically scaling his encounter difficulty down mid-battle as he realizes that he made an extremely bold assumption about their grasp on the mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons.

penny-anna:

penny-anna:

penny-anna:

penny-anna:

penny-anna:

Lucretia had definitely had taako’s elderflower macarons before the candlenights episode like they’re one of his signature recipes and she had loved them for 100 years 

BUT she also knew that they were his own, secret recipe that no-one else knew so she was like ‘hmm ok if i eat one i have to be sure to react like i’ve never had one of my favourite macarons before, if he thinks i’ve had them before he’ll get suspicious, ok Lucretia just… act… natural’ 

& long story short that’s why ‘hot diggity shit that is a baller cookie’

Lucretia, mentally: nailed it

Taako: haha the whole recipe is in my book!!

Lucretia: …

Lucretia: this pretense has been wholly unnecessary 

*later*

Lucretia: *leafing through a newly purchased copy of taako’s cookbook trying to commit to memory which of his recipes she can and cannot admit familiarity with* okay okay okay this is fine okay

*still later*

Lucretia, sweating: *pointing at recipe for a dish taako made almost every week on the starblaster* hey taako… this looks… good… could you make it??

Taako, drinking a milkshake, only half listening: do i look like i work for free

Magnus: why don’t you just make it yourself there’s instructions right there

Lucretia: um

Taako: the director’s a terrible cook

Lucretia, panicking: how do you… know that..

Taako: i can smell it on you

roachpatrol:

The Director leans forward over her desk, her face drawn and intent. “So I suppose you’re wondering why I called you three in h–”

“Actually, Madam Director,” Taako interrupts, “I’m wondering how you got this lavender tea so right.”

The Director blinks. “I simmer the lavender blossoms in a saucepan with water and honey, because I’m not a fucking barbarian. Twenty minutes, dash of vanilla, the whole thing. Anyway–”

“It’s good tea,” Merle pipes up.

“Thanks, Merle. So–” 

“Hold up, hold up. Holllld up.” Taako actually raises his hand. “How– okay, I mean, what the hell, that’s exactly how I make lavender tea, how’d you know?”

“I know everything, I’m the Director.”

“Are you spying on us?” Magnus says, suddenly interested. 

“I can, uh, no, I can’t confirm that, or, deny, that horrific breach of employer-employee confidentiality. I probably just know that stuff because of all the cool superpowers you get when you’re in charge of a secret moon-based operation.”

Merle waves his hand enthusiastically. “Hey, what’s tattooed on my butt!”

“Kenny Chesney, which I know on account of you came into my actual office with your whole entire ass hanging out.”

“It was like three quarters, max,” Magnus says. “Hey, what’s my favorite tea?”

“You think tea is for chumps.”

“I do,” Magnus says, earnestly pleased. 

“Does anyone have any non-tea related questions?”

Merle waves his hand again. “Do you know about our secret st—“

“Taped under Magnus’s bed. Yes.”

“Aw,” Magnus says to his tea. 

“For someone with such extensive woodworking proficiency, I really thought you’d have, like, a secret drawer somewhere,” the Director says thoughtfully. 

“Hey, taped under the mattress is a classic,” Taako says. 

“It’s very, mm, very college hijinks, reminiscent, very Animal House.”

“Bullshit, you never watched Animal House,” Merle says.

“I may— I might have. You don’t know.”

“Name one— name one scene! Just one! Gimme a quote!”

“I don’t have to, because I’m your boss. Can I get back to telling you about your new incredibly important mission to save the whole— basically the whole entire world, already, or do you want to waste more time playing Fantasy fucking Trivia?”

The three Reclaimers look at each other, and then Taako uses mage hand to pour himself more lavender tea. 

“What’s Merle’s favorite tea?” he asks, grinning, and the Director drops her face into her hands. 

“Chamomile,” she says, in the grave, sorrowing tones of one who must bear the unbearable, year after thankless fucking year. “He thinks it’s sexy.”

blue-mood-blue:

There’s only one Light of Creation, even if it’s collected multiple times. It’s called “the” Light of Creation, and the IPRE doesn’t end up with a cargo hold filled with incredibly powerful orbs of light. It’s always the same single piece of creation that slipped out of the creator’s hands fell out of place.

So what removes the Light from the IPRE or the Hunger when they get to a new world? Why is it always falling at the beginning of the year?

The story is linear. The IPRE’s perspective is linear. From the outside, it seems like one year in each world, happening one after the other and resetting the physical forms of the crew each time. But since each of these years happens in a separate dimension, consider: they’re happening simultaneously, in the same year.

The “reset” at the beginning of each year is not really a reset – the IPRE is returning to the beginning of the same year, at a different physical location. The Light always falls at the beginning of the year because it’s only just been misplaced; it’s gone when they reach a new location because it has to fall again, because the year is at the beginning again. The “one after the other” perspective of the crew isn’t wrong, it’s just a different way of ordering the experiences that is easier for the mind to understand. Seeing all of that happening at once would be devastating – it was devastating for Maureen, who saw all of those worlds at once and the one consistency between them.

There is still a century of experiences, but in a layered whole that’s only broken when the IPRE moves past that one year. They only had to restore the Light and defeat the Hunger on a single world to save them all, because all of these dimensions are connected: if there’s only one Light and only one Hunger, only one victory is needed.