#Noshir why

[raniamich]

I've been thinking about this "I'm looking forward to getting to know you better" from Rajan all day. I adore him and Elsie but I am also an average Savagrimm enjoyer and it just breaks my heart that they didn't get the time they needed. Thinking about Oscar spending eternity in the same place he perished hurts me but the thought of him still being out there, somewhere, somehow just makes it even worse

I'll be right back, need to cry in the corner

[seanflnnerty]

Downfall: Part Two

[elemental-plane]

i love how we never got like confirmation on what elsie and raj were but everyone saw them and immediately deduced they were a divorced couple and i think that's the funniest thing ever

[punkrockgenasiashton]

Just saw that 4 Sided Dive doesnt have Adubakar, Nick, or Noshir on it and that makes me sad. Like, dont get me wrong, i love Tal, Ash, and Laura, but at the same time, I REALLY wanted to get some takes and info from the guests.

[felrend]

“I must go”

[flourishing-toxicity]

NO ONE WAS GONNA TELL ME NOSHIR DALAL IS RAIN???

[math-rocks-and-lizard-bats]

Aabria is trading, we don’t trade in this game Aabria, no no no

[waittiz]

Rare occasion of Fan Art Friday (though I rarely do fan art ever these days.) An annoying man from the animated series The Owl House. I'm not absolutely sure what it tells about me when I have two absolutely favorite characters in that series, and while the other is a total sweetheart, then there's... Adrian Graye. But seriously, even if he is a horrible person when thinking about the way he acts towards his subordinates (and the kids), he's also such a diva and joke that in a way you really can't truly hate him (or can you? I can't.) Besides, do persons to be taken seriously wear a dang jumpsuit in public??? It was kinda interesting to try to fit a humanoid character from an animation into my own style. I've usually drawn fan art only from Pokemon, so this was something new. I'm not absolutely happy how it turned out and I anyway feel pretty critical about my art at the moment, but I figured it's anyway better to try to finish this rather than not finishing anything. The broken glass/mirror background was also kind of a happy accident. I found a nice tutorial for broken glass effects the other day, but wasn't able to find it again so I improvised something. Adrian Graye Vernworth (c) Disney

[rcris123]

not that i disagree with ur overall point but karlachs va, samantha béart, is mixed jamaican, not white

I didn't know that, thanks for letting me know. She's white-passing and I assumed, so I take fault for that

Tho its still the same issue as casting Noshir Dalal (Japanese-Parsi) as Charles Smith (Black-Native).

[raniamich]

Inspired by @incorrect-candela-obscura 's post, I've made another mistake 😭

[melymigo]

Noshir, why?😭

I love Noshir and how he engages with the series and the fandom; some of his replies on X are hilarious.

[fanfictrashdump]

Oh, so we're not waiting to make us all cry this time??

No, you're just going to give me a sad Wildmother who is missing her girlfriend and wondering why this wasn't important enough for the Law Bearer to show? ("You were going to be my reward at the end of this." Fuck you, Tal. I love you but fuck you.)

You give me the Everlight, desperate to save someone, a follower, after not feeling a prayer for so fucking long? ("How are you here?" "It was the Plan." Ashley, you damn goddess. You made me AND Noshir cry!)

You give me a pissed celestial who is angry at the gods, wondering why they were made if only to be killed and killed again? ("With deference to thr hands that move creation, if you wanted to make us to serve the gods, you should not have made us good")

Fuck this... the gods have fucked up but also... my heart wants them to win.

[edelgarfield]

i think the final episode of cr downfall is an extremely good case study in why level 20 combat is nearly impossible to run well. the situation is partially compounded by the fact that the players have only had a few hours with these characters, so they're not super familiar with all of their abilities/spells, but I think even ignoring that there were a lot of super frustrating things about that encounter both for the players and the DM.

it perfectly shows just how tough it is to balance difficulty at that level. there are so many absolutely devastating abilities that it takes a lot of time & knowledge of the game to create an encounter that both provides a challenge while still being fun for the players. whole encounters can be determined by a single dice roll. that's true of all encounters to some extent, but because of how strong enemies have to be at that level, if they get one or two good hits it can very easily result in a TPK.

like just for example, if SILAHA hadn't been stunned, he would've been able to fire off Meteor Swarm in round one, which would've trivialized the rest of the fight. But because he was stunned, the whole party very nearly died. If something had incapacitated him again and he wasn't able to cast Meteor Swarm when he did, they very likely could have lost the fight.

And another thing about SILAHA and The Emissary being stunned for so long; being stunned or otherwise incapacitated is one of the worst positions to be in as a player. Every round in that encounter was extremely long, which is often the nature of encounters at that level. If a player is stunned or has to skip their turn for some reason, they can be sitting at the table unable to do anything for an hour or more. When you're playing D&D professionally, it's not a huge problem, like Abubakar & Noshir are at that table as part of their job, they're playing partially for the audience's entertainment. That's not to say their enjoyment doesn't matter, but it's a very different situation from a casual D&D player with a full-time job who plays for 3 hours every other week. For most players, getting stunned for most of an encounter just isn't fun, and many DMs will refuse to use any moves that risk taking players out of a fight (Banishment is a notorious one).

because of the wards, the fight was obviously intended to get easier over time, but even without that, the combination of Emhira's Maddening Darkness and Silaha's Meteor Swarm were absolutely devastating. Like Brennan Lee Mulligan is one of THE BEST professional DMs, playing D&D is literally his job, and even he misjudged the pace of the encounter. Like there were a lot of moving parts, but also adding obstacles/puzzles/etc to fights is part of how you keep the game interesting, and if even Brennan can't accurately predict how a fight is going to play out, there's no hope for your average DM who plays casually while working a full-time job.

[stargazer-writing]

SPOILERS FOR CR: DOWNFALL

Have to be up early for work so I only caught from when Ashley's character was introduced to when Noshir was revealed, but I kind of like how these characters already seem to be sort of leaning into a mortal, messy aspect of these gods that they're representing. Like we've seen in CR already that Pelor isn't always the most benevolent or understanding god, but Ayden is feeding the starving and healing the sick. The Raven Queen is often depicted as distant and serious but Emhira seems more down-to-earth. Melora is usually depicted as motherly and Asha is clearly angry and intense and a little feral. And it's still very early into this series so all of this could be contradicted but I think it kind of drives home a point that I think parts of C3 have been trying to make so far in that yes, the gods themselves can be selfish and intense and uncaring, but the things they represent and the ideals they embody are what people put their faiths in and is what will really be lost if Predathos is freed.

idk I just really like complex fake religious ethics in this magic world. A little bummed so far that none of the PCs are an avatar for the Betrayer Gods since the lore says they also helped take down Aeor but it's still early and I trust the players and Brennan to at least have an explanation for why they don't have avatars if nothing else

I'm absolutely hyped for this series and if it's even a shred as good as Calamity I'll be stoked

[chiakery]

Regarding Downfall cast:

I'm sure many critters are excited to see Brennan as DM again and to experience Ashley, Laura and Taliesin as players in Calamity-set adventure. I saw so much love towards Noshir when he played in Candela (all of it deserved - he was fantastic) and we had a sneak peak of Abubakar on 4SD and as moderator during London Comic Con panel.

But, my guys, some of you are not prepared for the level of nerdiness Nick Marini is going to bring to this table. He's nerdy to the bone. Um, Actually questions hold no power over him. He admitted he's writing an epic poem about his home campaign simply because his PC is writing something like that about their adventures. And he has some experience from said home campaign (also DMed by Brennan, btw.) when it comes to playing in a world of flying cities.

Seriously, go watch the Adventuring Academy episode with him (it's available for free on yt if you don't have Dropout) and you'll get why I'm so excited for Nick being a player in Downfall

[blackmosscupcakes]

I was so zoned out when I watched his Candela circle that I barely followed it, but NOW I am absolutely seeing why everyone was in love with Noshir.