#naddpod listening

[playerkingsley]

“we’re cool once you get to know us, but then there’s another dip after that, and then it trends up”

—calder kildé with the most relevant take on d&d parties

[beaulesbian]

"The world should have protected you, but you have been asked to protect it. What an honor. What an injustice." - NADDPOD, Bahumia campaign ep. 97 (x)

[charlilil]

Wait, you’re saying I can have one of these?

[yoursonlucifer]

the thing about emily axford as a player is that she rolls fine but whoo boy does she know how to play. theres a couple posts on here about murphs bad luck rolling vs emily "being able to roll a nat 20 on command," but that's just not true. emily rolls pretty middling, but she's very good at strategy, more often than not meaning that she is able to add buffs to rolls or have them work out even if she doesn't roll Great; we gotta give credit where credit is due, which is to emily's strategy and not to her rolls

[operationslipperypuppet]

the last standard feels like a murph encounter and that’s part of why it rules

[chompe-diem]

hey. don't cry. audible smile in brian murphy's voice when he says "...but it's good when your friends look out for you" ok?

[whamber]

dressed in Melora's best

[rooolt]

the fact that Murph didn’t plan Kenna having a crush and it was improvised in the moment is so funny bc he was like “well of course she likes girls”

[moolymac]

if you like: you should listen to:

if you like: you should listen to:

if you like: you should listen to:

if you like: you should listen to:

[playerkingsley]

the comedy of errors that’s been duck team’s trip to the feywild so far has been incredible. every d&d party that goes there has to a. get almost immediately struck by a random affliction, and b. unnecessarily torment one of its denizens

[b1gwings]

A CELEBRATORY FIGAYDA FOR THE FHJY ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THEM AGAIN!!!!!!!!

btw, ppl should reference jojo poses to draw their fav ships more often in my humble opinion.

Commission Me ^_^

(poses i referenced below the cut :) )

[super-sucklet]

listening to a d&d podcast with only one woman on it like i know she gets the most vile shit said about her online.... stay strong queen 👑

[sideblogdotjpeg]

not being able to listen to the new naddpod episode while everyones postingabout it is like being a sad little street rat with his face pressed up against the glass looking into a house with the food all laid out on the table and please let me in by god. anyway in the meantime.

[hyydraworks]

Wanted to try some opossum friends.

[operationslipperypuppet]

thinking about the honor moonshine gives to the brother who died decades before she was even born.

how she dragged him back from the brink in a day and a half.

how she made a deal with a man known as the betrayer, just to free him from his pact.

how she sprinted, leaving her friends in the dust, to make sure he didn’t die in grimhawk.

how she, slowly but surely, reset who pendergreens was, teaching him and learning from him, how when her brother said “get help” to him, she was that help.

how she waited, didn’t tell her mother about him right away, but told cobb first, so cobb would know that things wound up okay.

how she changed her fighting style, to include paw paw, because of how her brother used him in battle.

she’s the best part of him and she’s the best part of every crick out there. but in a way he brings out some of the best parts of her.

[thevalleyisjolly]

There’s a weird recurring take in D20 fan circles that Zac doesn’t play “complex” characters and that people are just waiting for the day when he “finally” plays an asshole, which kind of baffles me.  Quite apart from the idea that only morally grey characters are complex or compelling, are you sure we’re watching the same show?

In Fantasy High, we have Gorgug, an adopted biracial teenager whose journey includes realizing his self-worth, coming to terms with his rage (literally), seeking out and navigating new relationships with others (his birth parents, the Bad Kids, Zelda), and discovering what he’s capable of. 

From The Unsleeping City we have Ricky, a second-generation Japanese-American, who has a very personal struggle across two seasons between doing the dutiful/sacrificial thing for other people’s benefit and expressing his own needs, wants, thoughts, and feelings; it’s a very particular exploration of immigrant generations and the relationship between the sacrificial model of your ancestors and the culture you grew up surrounded by which emphasizes the self.

There’s A Crown of Candy and Lapin, whose snark and one-liners are honestly less interesting than the way he engaged with and sought to understand religion and faith; the different yet similar ways in which both the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Church exerted control over their followers, and the search for spiritual meaning beyond these figures/institutions.

Then there’s Cumulous, whose every character aspect navigates a space of tension - the ultimate war guy who made himself hardened (literally) and pragmatic to get the job done but who also remains soft and caring and empathetic at the same time; wielding the power of death without glorifying or giving into it; the cousin who both is a member of the family and yet who remains at somewhat of a distance from the centre; a literal warrior-philosopher who is single-minded in battle and quietly thoughtful about the mysteries of life and death outside of it.

As for actual assholes, we have Norman Takamori in A Starstruck Odyssey, a bitter man who is the living embodiment of both the Superior Orders excuse as well as scapegoating.  On a side note, the amount of absolute vitriol and double standards which people threw at Norman during ASO for being an unapologetic asshole -and he had less than two full episodes of screen time- kind of underscores the calls for Zac to play a “real” asshole.  Zac can and will play whatever type of character he wants, but is fandom really ready for him to play an asshole if that asshole doesn’t have a secret heart of gold?

From the same season, we have Valdrinor/Skip, who starts as the “prince running from his destiny” archetype with a dash of brain slug possession, has a humorous yet oddly profound exploration of what humanity is and what it means to be human, and springboards from there into “wait, who am I really and actually, why are we doing things (brain slug possession) this way when there are other ways to engage with the universe.” 

Most recently in Neverafter, we have Pib, who apart from the fascinating meta element of being a literal character archetype, constantly straddles the line between self-absorbed self-interest and putting himself on the line to help others; his repeated demonstration of both at various points throughout the season is a subtle yet intriguing manifestation of free will and choice-making in a story all about lacking free will and agency.

So, I mean, lack of complexity where?  Does a character need to be an asshole in order to be deep or compelling?  And because I’ve heard this specific rebuttal quite a few times now, does a character need to vocalize their innermost thoughts loudly and frequently in order to prove their complexity?  If a character is “less vocal” compared to other characters, does that mean they lack interiority? 

Also, other people have brought this up before, but I am once again asking that people remember the difference between fictional characters and real life people.  Zac playing one (1) himbo on the show does not make him a himbo in real life, nor does it make him incapable of creating or playing complex characters (especially as said himbo is himself an extremely complex character), nor does it make him a lesser player than other cast members.  You don’t have to find all or any of his characters interesting or complex, but can we stop conflating character with player?