Critical Role: The Genesis Ward

April 26, 2021 12:21 PM - Season 2, Episode 135

The Mighty Nein plunge deeper into both Aeor's ruined depths and its endless mysteries as they continue to chase after the elusive remaining Tombtakers...
posted by nubs (6 comments total)

Okay, I have to admit, after all the talk about Matt throwing shiny distractions in front of his players last week, I'm still amused that he was able to do so with what was essentially an office supply closet.

But yeah! Doing an interesting megadungeon delve can be difficult - there's a tendency, especially in older D&D modules, to make everything incredibly dangerous, which just teaches the players to not want to interact with anything and rush through as quick as possible. Which is a little disappointing if you put work into making things cool and interesting. But Matt's managed to make the tension between exploring and just speedrunning real - some of this stuff is useful, some of it is just really interesting, but they're still on a timecrunch and the more time they spend in any single place the more likely that something will kill them.

I'm excited for the possiblity of the Lucien fight (here's hoping Lucien didn't set a trap at the bottom of the landing, he might have gotten the idea from someone recently), but I can't get myself to be angry at the possibility of finding out more about the destruction of Aeor.

That being said, if they run out of time before doing a second Hero's Feast, I'm worried that Laura is going to shank someone.

(Also, Essek 100% has it bad and is also definitely planning on dying down there)
posted by dinty_moore at 2:37 PM on April 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yes, this is a great example of how to do a mega dungeon crawl - there is danger and weird shit. Some of that weird shit might be helpful if you take the time to investigate it, but you are also up against a clock in that if you don't move fast enough, something apocalyptic might happen. It's a great way to create tension.

Things did not end with Charlie at all how I thought they would.
posted by nubs at 8:16 PM on May 1, 2021

You know, in retrospect, I really should have seen Veth's robot horniness coming. And yet . . .
posted by dinty_moore at 7:41 PM on May 3, 2021

Charlie, we barely knew ya!
posted by Iteki at 9:44 AM on May 4, 2021

Having a dungeon crawl going against a clock is hard of course, because of a puacity of player resources and how that mixes in with the five minute adventuring day.

Even here at 14th level the trick has to be they're chasing Lucien, who presumably also has to long rest, so they are allowed SOME, and he even threw in a rest machine.

(Ofc this is also not "real" megadungeon exploration, it's still very linear. I don't think Matt ever really gives them more than a one-room detour off the critical path in any of the adventure areas. Though there are more interesting shapes, like the forgetfulness island which was a hub-based location, or the Happy Fun Ball's possibly long looping paths.. HFB is probably the closest thing to a true dungeon but even it is kind of carefully avoiding presenting lots of branch choices.)
posted by fleacircus at 2:11 AM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I think it'd be hard to do a true megadungeon on something that is as narrative-based as Critical Role, not without making it its own miniseries.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:53 PM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]