The Adventure Zone: Ep. 31. The Crystal Kingdom - Chapter Three

January 14, 2016 12:24 PM

Having survived an encounter with their deadliest foe yet, our heroes take a moment to reflect on some of Faerun's most prodigious scientific achievements. Later, the trio is forced into a deadly test of intellect, and you can probably guess how well that goes. Merle does some pest control. Magnus makes a token of friendship. Taako enjoys some "Taako time."
posted by Cash4Lead (11 comments total)

I like the robot voice stuff.
I assume that sort of stuff is mainly done in post?

I was pretty impressed that they got the logic puzzle.

Also Taako's "I try and make it look like I'm helping" bluff roll is classic Taako, and confirmation that the Taco quest continues.
I really enjoyed his obsession with the sandwich and stating "If this spell takes more than one hand I'm not doing it, I'm not putting down my sandwich to help"
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:25 AM on January 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

Fantasy Justin was great, as was Travis' irritation at Fantasy Justin.
posted by maxsparber at 8:06 AM on January 15, 2016

That robot voice genuinely creeped me out as it got irritated with the adventurers' attempts to circumvent the quiz. I'm also curious if it was done in post. It probably was but I could see it having been prepared in advance. I'm pretty sure they sped up the puzzle in post because I can't imagine they were able to understand it at that speed in one listen. In any case they're doing some very inventive stuff in this campaign.
posted by Green With You at 11:39 AM on January 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm 99% sure Griffin's editing is what's making this so consistently enjoyable. I've tried my hand at a few other tabletop RPG podcasts and none of them are as smooth as TAZ and leave in waaaay too much table talk and uninteresting bits. TAZ leaves in enough to make me feel like I'm part of the game but not so much that I'm tamping my foot. I'm sure Griffin read the puzzle again and I'm sure the other guys spent a longer time working it out but we only get the exciting bits.

This show has really grown from a side project and become, I think, THE example of how great an RPG podcast can be.
posted by Tevin at 12:33 PM on January 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

In this official D&D podcast, Griffin talks a bit about all of the editing he does to make the episodes flow better. He mentions that he cuts out entire combats, which I found surprising. He said that they were good for the players/characters, but didn't necessarily move the plot forward or contain any entertaining goofs.
posted by X-Himy at 9:00 AM on January 16, 2016 [6 favorites]

Whoa, thanks for posting that X-Himy; I would have never found that on my own. Something to look forward to listening to come Monday.
posted by Tevin at 7:53 PM on January 16, 2016

I love the effort Griffin puts into the music, sound effects, and now voice effects. It never occurred to me that he was editing so heavily as to cut out entire combats - it's a credit to his editing skills that stuff like that goes completely unnoticed!
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:31 AM on January 18, 2016

Also don't miss this Pitchfork article about the show and Griffin's music.
posted by umrain at 9:04 AM on January 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've listened to this episode twice now and I'm so pleased with it. Taako refusing to get into the elevator, "I will use a spell slot, I don't even care," running around "like Michael Jordan" when the elevator shrank, Hodge Podge, Angus saying "Oh, that's happening, huh?". All of this. They were in such good form in this episode.
posted by gc at 6:26 PM on January 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

One of my favorite things about this week's story is that if Merle would have succeeded in squishing the cockroaches when they were tiny (and IIRC, he was the one who wanted to squish them), they maybe wouldn't have had to face it later.
posted by drezdn at 8:21 PM on January 23, 2016 [1 favorite]

Did Clint say there was a statue of George M. Cohan?
posted by drezdn at 9:35 AM on January 30, 2016 [1 favorite]