The Adventure Zone: Amnesty - Episode 7
April 20, 2018 7:28 AM - Subscribe

The Pine Guard heads to the scene of last night's attack to gather valuable intel about the latest abomination -- but end up finding much, much more than they bargained for. Aubrey sees the unseen. Duck helps with the laundry. Ned takes a dive.
posted by Tevin (17 comments total)
 
Has anyone else been annoyed with Travis these first two episodes since Season 2 started? Travis is probably my favorite of the brothers, and I don't dislike Aubrey. However... I feel like Travis has been pushing to make funny happy, that he keeps interrupting other people's scenes, and that his "Look at ME!"ism has just been really overwhelming. It really hit me during Ned's scene with the FBI agent.

I wish Dust had been the second season - it was the best of the arcs, Travis as GM would have had enough attention to feed his narcissism without it taking over, and we would have actually gotten to hear cooperative story gaming. I love these guys, and the stories they make together, and maybe I just need to give it time, but when Travis keeps jumping into everyone's scenes and it's not funny, and when Griffin is basically monologuing and you can tell he's reading it off a script, I just miss the old days, you know? Thank goodness for Justin and Clint. Although, Justin drew Beacon and we didn't get to hear Beacon! Good for Clint for climbing up the ladder. It was a dangerous move that made absolutely no sense, and thus was classic TAZ.

Bah. I guess I'm just venting. I'm almost caught up with One Shot and A Woman With Hollow Eyes, Campaign is my date night podcast, and anything else I'd have to start at the beginning. I guess I'm just a little disappointed not to have my good good TAZ fix. They've worked so hard to get to Season 2, and they forgot that the most important ingredient was flying by the seat of their pants. Forced humor and overplanning won't get them what they had.
posted by booksherpa at 11:36 PM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I’m genuinely digging this so far. I’m okay with pre-written scene-setting because I kind of compartmentalize the show as basically just a serial drama that happens to include improvised elements, and there’s no reason to prevent the scene-setting from being done in as polished a manner as possible.

Travis… could be better, though, yeah.
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:09 AM on April 21, 2018


I noticed that Travis was doing the same thing in the first Amnesty story. It felt then like he was overcompensating because there weren't that many natural laughs in that arc, both due to Griffin sounding stressed & the characters being often split up) and he was just trying to keep it light. I kind of feel like the same thing is happening now. Griffin still seems to be in too serious a frame of mind to do the type of thing they normally do on MBMBAM. Whereas on that show they're like 3 puppies playing together, on this show Travis is still a puppy but Griffin is an old cat. And Justin is an old dog. Clint is also a puppy though.
posted by bleep at 2:22 PM on April 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


I'm really digging this water monster! It's so simple, but it also seems insurmountable and creepy.

And, I gotta say, if anyone is going to foon (?) into a water monster, it's going to be Ned.
posted by meese at 10:26 PM on April 21, 2018


Oh! And Duck just standing there, holding the sword! That was such a great moment.
posted by meese at 10:27 PM on April 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I know! That was such a perfect character moment. Like, sometimes it feels like they’re playing to provide the most satisfying drama possible, rather than to “win,” and that was absolutely one or those moments.
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:20 AM on April 22, 2018


Duck: Does not smoke, does not Vape.
Ned: Smokes the occasional cigar, does not Vape.
Aubrey: Blasts cotton like a nuclear power plant.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:52 PM on April 22, 2018 [4 favorites]


Has anyone else been annoyed with Travis these first two episodes since Season 2 started?

No.

Travis as GM would have had enough attention to feed his narcissism without it taking over

Waht?

They've worked so hard to get to Season 2, and they forgot that the most important ingredient was flying by the seat of their pants. Forced humor and overplanning won't get them what they had.

It's only the second episode since they select this as the Season 2 arc. Also, what is being overplanned? Are you saying that this is scripted, like pro wrestling?
posted by Groundhog Week at 4:04 PM on April 22, 2018 [3 favorites]


I'll give Travis a pass for interrupting as he was in the room with Griffin this episode. It's part of the brothers' schtick that Travis often has these throwaway lines that the other two just gloss over, but that's harder to do when you're in proximity.

The other big change that is leading to a different tone is that Amnesty is set in some version of "The Real World." One of the fun parts of Balance was all the verbal japes the Boys would give NPCs. Given that said NPC could be a talking elevator, artificially aged witch with her own moonbase, or furious gnoll, it was a lot easier to roll with it - the unreality of the setting played into the unreality of the characters' behavior. While Amnesty has monsters and magicians and talking swords an all, it is much more grounded in the Real World, which makes the japes seem off in the addition of a bit of chaos (Travis' specialty) more disruptive.

This is because we as the listener have some grounding in the way normal people behave. No way would a swim instructor unload a pool full of seniors - even if they were complaining about the cold - to head off to a hot spring. No way would a bunch of seniors go along with a change to their routine. I know this because I know seniors and I know people who run community programming. If this were an orc with a bunch of swimming goblins? I don't have any context for that, so, sure, whatever, they could want to go to a hot spring.

While this is just a show and we really should just relax, behavior outside the expected Real World norms does create a bit of frisson that I can't help but pick up on and sometimes that's going to drag me out of the moment. I suspect Griffin is aware of this, thus his increased reluctance to Yes And and play along with the hijinx of the moment, which ends up just drawing more attention to it sticking out like a sore thumb.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:30 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]


I think it's fair to both say that the episodes are now missing the sort of spontaneous comedy that made the early episodes of their fist season really memorable and that Travis seems to be overcompensating for that.

I do sometimes miss their incompetent nonsense when they started the show, but it's no longer that, and I am not listening for the goofs.
posted by maxsparber at 8:52 AM on April 23, 2018


Also, Monster of the Week is on sale on Amazon today (the 23rd), if you want to follow along at home.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:28 AM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm loving this arc so far. The way Justin just whipped up those potentially fascinating neighbors of Duck's on the spur of the moment was a masterclass in character creation. Between Taako, Augustus, and now Duck, Justin has built quite the Murderer's Row here.

Also, it's off topic, but this "Opening Credits" animation for Dust blew my mind, so I wanted to share it with y'all.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:41 AM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]


If I helps, I absolutely don't listen to this show as if it's something happening in the real world, I listen to it like it's a Monster of the Week TV show circa 1997. Would that pool scene play out that way in the real world? Of course not. Would it play out that way on a bad 90's monster TV show? Sure, why not?

It's true that the factual correct pretext to get people out of a building as quickly as possible is "Gas leak." As it worked out, though, the narrative required that they get these people out of the way and their bullshit idea had good rolls to back it up. That's how it is with Actual Play podcasts: it doesn't matter how brilliant your group is, they're always going to go with the first stupid bullshit idea they think of and hope the rolls carry it through.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 3:42 PM on April 23, 2018


This is because we as the listener have some grounding in the way normal people behave. No way would a swim instructor unload a pool full of seniors - even if they were complaining about the cold - to head off to a hot spring. No way would a bunch of seniors go along with a change to their routine. I know this because I know seniors and I know people who run community programming. If this were an orc with a bunch of swimming goblins? I don't have any context for that, so, sure, whatever, they could want to go to a hot spring.

You're not wrong, but it did lead to some really funny moments of Duck insisting that he'll carry everyone's clothes out.

I'm enjoying, this, and not having any problems with them at all (I'm glad Harris Bonkers has been absent). I'd say that I still wish they'd lean into the system a bit more: I think Griffin could have punished the boys a bit more harshly when they failed, and succeeded, to add a bit more peril to a fight where no-one actually got hurt much. I think there were several moments where he could have made them roll (getting Clint out of the pool for instance) where he didn't. I do feel strongly that if you tell someone, several times, that the most important thing to not do is get in the water, and then one of them gets in the water, you should probably do something , even if they rolled really well to get in the water.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 3:05 AM on April 24, 2018


I am really digging this so far. Completely agree that it makes more sense to understand it not as true real world, but daft tv show real world; all the properties the game is in homage to take ridiculous liberties with realism.

I somehow still have a very hazy grasp on which brother is which; I think this has helped me becoming too focused on any one of them dominating things, which I would be prone to otherwise.
posted by ominous_paws at 1:50 AM on April 26, 2018


Goodness me, I love Clint McElroy so darn much.

Griffin: This is probably super-obvious, but it is vitally important that you stay out of the pool.

Clint: Cool, yeah. Totally. So... I’m going to ‘PHOON immediately.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 6:49 PM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]


While this is just a show and we really should just relax, behavior outside the expected Real World norms does create a bit of frisson that I can't help but pick up on and sometimes that's going to drag me out of the moment.

I think it's incredibly hard to run a good RPG session without allowing "real world" logic to take a firm third place behind game logic and narrative logic. Players are going to come up with crazy ideas and then roll well, and it's no fun for anyone to piss on their chips by telling them that what they want to do isn't logically justified and so they can't do it.

If people want neat and satisfying narratives that always make logical and tonal sense, there's a world of fiction out there. Listening to people play an RPG is never going to be a honed experience with all the stupidity and inconsistency edited out.

I do worry that expectations of what the Adventure Zone is capable of being, given what it actually is, have become somewhat inflated.
posted by howfar at 10:02 AM on May 9, 2018 [2 favorites]


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