Critical Role: A Tangled Web

September 10, 2019 9:24 AM - Season 2, Episode 77

The Mighty Nein must determine their next step as they learn more about the powerful figures from Caleb's past...
posted by booksherpa (4 comments total)

Sometimes one comes back from a week in the desert with a renewed sense of direction and a well-rested mind that has had ample time away from the routine of daily life to ponder what to do next, and sometimes… sometimes this.

Matt is now dealing with the less-than-satisfying aspects of high-level Dungeons & Dragons: checklists of before-bed scrying targets, mysteries turning into text adventure-style "guess the verb" attempts to use just the right phrase to get the near-omniscient nature goddess to find the McGuffin for the PCs, enough available spell slots for sending that all NPCs need to be on-deck at all times, teleport shrinking the world down to just its major points of interest, etc.

These are always going to be issues that a dungeon master will need to address in a high-level game but they do tend to be more pronounced when the players don't have an immediate goal in front of them and they're flailing around trying to get something to connect. To his credit, Matt had answers for everything the players threw his way this week but it felt like both he and they were feeling their groove had been thrown a little bit off. My own group just got back around the (digital) table again after a week off and I fully sympathize with the feeling (or maybe I'm just projecting).

Overall, I'm looking forward to what comes next. I've been hoping for a while that the group would spend some time outside of the dynasty and it will be nice to revisit some old faces. And after a week away, it was a pleasure to see the players again.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 2:34 PM on September 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

Jester's whole "Hi Dad!" message utterly broke me.

Matt is now dealing with the less-than-satisfying aspects of high-level Dungeons & Dragons: checklists of before-bed scrying targets, mysteries turning into text adventure-style "guess the verb" attempts to use just the right phrase to get the near-omniscient nature goddess to find the McGuffin for the PCs, enough available spell slots for sending that all NPCs need to be on-deck at all times, teleport shrinking the world down to just its major points of interest, etc

Yeah, I can see this.. although I think his players are, at least, not taking the piss with their scrying. This was a slightly odd episode in that they're searching for The Next Plot Thing, but in general they're pretty careful in not just asking the goddamned GM what to do next (which I appreciate)
posted by coriolisdave at 2:40 PM on September 11, 2019

"Are We Still Wanted Here?"

I thought that was a veeeeeery interesting question because the dealings of Vox Machina in Zidash have included (but not been limited too);

- Releasing a Water Daemon/Jinn(?) that was running the entire sewer system for the city !?!
- Threatening and possibly sending into exile a high ranking City Official who was harassing Ruby/Jester's Mom
- Attacking the City guard at the docks and stealing an entire merchant ship with crew

So yeah. Various parties within the city might still want to have a vigorous word with them!
posted by Faintdreams at 6:04 AM on September 12, 2019

I think all that happened in Nicodranas, not Zadash? Which is not to say that the Mighty Nein have not fucked shit up in Zadash, but not that particular and specific shit in that specific place.
posted by darchildre at 8:09 AM on September 13, 2019