#The Adventure Zone

[hollow-head]

Responses to the most frequent comments on my Dungeon Meshi/TAZ crossover doodle

Laios and fair food

2. Taako cooking for real

3. Encounters with plants

(hello, in the manga, the pollen comes out the mouths)

bonus

[dreamsy990]

oh boy i sure do hope theres no arsenic in that chicken!! ^-^

[robinante]

-poll incoming at the end of this ramble-

Instead of having a SuperWhoLock trifecta, the modern online loser has a clusterfuck of interest that are always one degree of separation away from forming one large, dorkish singularity of online entertainment. The significant pockets of the cluster fuck are as follows:

Dropout TV

Critical Role

The McElroys

Polygon

Watcher

The Try Guys

Smosh

Starkid

There are likely other pockets in the clusterfuck, as well as semantic arguments to be had over which pockets overlap too much to count as single entities, or arguments over which pockets shouldn’t count as entities at all. There are bound to be discrepancies seeing as I pulled all of this information out of my ass.

With this in mind, take a look at my handy dandy poll. If you choose one of the numbered options feel free to specify in the tags, and add anything you think I missed :]

[m0nomercy]

sapphic ship a day for lesbian visibility week!!

carey and killian from the adventure zone balance!!

the first actual play podcast i got crazy invested in i love these wives <333

[b0nk9]

Montrose pretty

[deep-risk]

https://jill-035.tengp.icu/t/A3twgLJ

https://jill-035.tengp.icu/t/A3twgLJ

[austinramsaygames]

Thinking about Actual Play series and how there are 4 parts that IMO determine if people will want to listen to it.

1. High Concept: this is what the show is about narratively. Setting, plot, characters, themes, all the stuff you'd find in written fiction.

2. Performance: how compelling are the actors involved in the show? Are there suitably funny voices? Do they all have good chemistry? Is there buy in to the High Concept? And so on.

3. Production Quality: Bad mics and poor volume balancing between players can easily take some listeners out of the story. Some of this can be fixed in post, but it's always better to start with the best raw audio you can. That's the baseline stuff but some shows also add music (whether as theme songs or for ambience) and sound effects.

4. The Rules: the most unique part of Actual Play as a format. What rule system are the performers using to inform their performances? The rules place limits on how well the High Concept functions. If you try to tell a story where all the characters are super heroes but you're using Delta Green, there's going to be some friction (which of course could be the basis of the High Concept but absolutely needs to be accounted for).

Different listeners will have different priorities for each of these, and even within them. Really liking one of these aspects within a show may allow a less enjoyable one to get a pass.

For example The Adventure Zone's Balance season is something I listened to every week. I do not give a single shit about D&D actual play and am pretty ambivalent on the High Concept but the audio quality is great and the performances are stellar.

Another example: Friends At The Table's Autumn In Hieron has frequently bad audio quality but the great High Concept of the two diverging parties and the setting, combined with the good performances makes it stand out. Also doesn't hurt that I was interested in Dungeon World.

I don't think I'm saying anything groundbreaking here, but it may be useful for those interested in actual play, fans AND creators, to consider when starting a new show.

More thoughts like this from me on my Patreon! Patrons get early access to my game design work and thoughts. Just $1 a month!

[threat-into]

https://rebecca-497.suduso.com.cn/my/WUARx7B

[kleeo-exe]

Duck "It's a Nickname" Newton

[beckpoppinscosplay]

"But unfortunately, you know, just... life finds a way... or death, I guess, the goddess of death."

"In this case specifically, yeah, death."

-the adventure zone: balance

🖤💀🖤

Big shout out to the TAZ comics for making kravitz fabulous with fuchsia flower colored accents and giving me mental permission to really dip deep into the purples of traditional mourning wear for my version of the raven queen.

📸 by iroun.photos

[blorbo-gerrymandering]

Round 2

Propaganda Under The Cut

Senshi:

Carries the fanservice so the girls can be safe. You ge boobs. You get taint. Old man panty shots (respectfully). Also, an amazing cook, everything he makes turns out incredible even when people are disgusted by the ingredients they end up loving it. Lives in harmony with the environment his home is in, making sure to always mantain balance. Truly the man of all time.

Beard

hot dwarf + good cook + everyone loves him

Taako:

cool-ass wizard

[nonebinary-leftbeef]

Scam likely has extremely similar vibes to Garfield the deals warlock so uh. I’ve kinda been imagining scam likely as an anthropomorphic cat this entire time

[knightforflowers]

oh god, you’re gonna get it, you’ll be sorry that you messed with me

[itsjustjelly]

Currently trying to pick up a new dnd/ttrpg campaign to get into and listen to while at work, if anyone has any suggestions of ones you like, I am accepting anything, honestly the nicher the better bcs I've listened to a lot of the more popular ones.

Here are ones I have listened to/plan to listen to/refuse to listen to/can't listen to, just so you don't recommend any of these:

Have listened to-

TAZ Balance

TAZ Amnesty

TAZ Graduation

Critical Role Campaigns 1 & 2

Fantasy High (Freshman and Sophomore year)

Unsleeping City

Tiny Heist

Mistfits & Magic

JRWI Riptide

Blood in the Bayou

JRWI Convergence

Fated Five

Dungeons and Daddies

High Hopes Low Rolls

Anime Campaign

NADDPod

The Encounter Table (up until the split)

Rusty Quill Gaming

Fools Gold

Dungeon Meshi (not a campaign but its similar enough in vibes that I felt the need to include it)

Sword AF (plan to listen to season 2 when it releases)

Ones I either started and lost interest in, or just don't wanna watch/can't watch-

Critical Role Campaign 3

A Crown of Candy

Escape from the Bloodkeep

The Seven

A Starstruck Odyssey

A Court of Fey and Flowers

Burrow's End

Prime Defenders (got so many spoilers I lost interest)

Fantasy High Junior Year (paywall, plan to watch later)

Neverafter (paywall)

JRWI Apotheosis (paywall, been meaning to watch but I cancelled my subscription during their hiatus)

The Suckening (same as above)

Legends of Avantris (wanna watch but I have no idea where to start)

[nireleet]

some good moments from recent Taz v drac

[chryseis]

FYI every purchase of any of The Adventure Zone music on Griffin McElroy's Bandcamp will be entirely donated to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund for the rest of 2023. His music is set at 'name your price', and the McElroys are also going to match the donations.

If you've listened to even a bit of any TAZ campaign, you surely know what a fantastic musician Griffin is, and there is no better time to purchase his music than now.