The Adventure Zone: The The Adventure Zone Zone: Amnesty Wrap-Up!
October 24, 2019 1:46 PM - Subscribe

We're answering some questions about The Adventure Zone: Amnesty in this bonus episode, and talking very, very briefly about our next season! It's called Graduation, and it launches next week!
posted by Tevin (10 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
after this episode it would be nice if people stopped talking about griffin railroading the player characters in Amnesty, he was extremely clear that he had very little planned in advance and most of the story was driven by the choices the characters made, which he sort of said in the last TTAZZ but less explicitly. i do hope he releases that bonus content he was talking about, i would be interested to hear some of his behind the scenes DM notes and such
posted by JimBennett at 10:44 PM on October 24, 2019 [4 favorites]


They really should put out a whole Campaign Sourcebook after each season of TAZ. It was really interesting hearing them hash out some of what they considered their missteps in Amnesty.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:21 AM on October 25, 2019


This was an interesting listen. I dropped out of Amnesty pretty early on (I believe I made it to around episode 10) after I decided that I was not feeling it. I was never really sure why I was finding it unsatisfying and I think that this TTAZZ provided me an explanation: The analogy about trying to start a new relationship at the same level as the high point of the previous relationship and it not working. Hearing that they became aware of it and did some course correction is making me consider going back and trying the arc again, even though I have a vague knowledge of pretty much the entirety of it.

I’m excited for Graduation.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:58 AM on October 25, 2019


The analogy about trying to start a new relationship at the same level as the high point of the previous relationship and it not working.

I was wholly aware that this was why Amnesty had a slow start for me, but I still stuck with it because it wasn't that dissimilar to how I felt during Balance, except that with Balance, it was that I wasn't really feeling much emotional investment for a good long while, but the goofs kept me more than entertained enough not to mind that my actual emotional investment was pretty low. When I actually did become wildly invested in Balance, somewhere around halfway through, it happened fast. So I stuck it out with Amnesty anticipating something similar. And I did end up reasonably invested in Amnesty, if not nearly as much as Balance.

For me, what was missing in Amnesty was the level of free-wheeling goofs, and pushing against the boundaries of the D&D game system. Plus I never really clicked with the Monster of the Week system. I'm happy they're returning to D&D for Graduation.

All that said, I still really liked Amnesty, and I think it's worth a listen. Parasite Unseen, I think it'll probably benefit from a faster listen of the complete campaign (I definitely did not keep good track of NPCs and plot developments when I listened in chunks of like 3 episodes every few months), so if you've got the time, you should give it a shot.
posted by yasaman at 12:59 PM on October 25, 2019 [4 favorites]


FWIW I was also super turned off by Amnesty at first and warmed to it more toward the end. I was never as excited when a new episode of Amnesty dropped the way I was when there was a new episode of Balance. Amnesty is very much the classic "sophomore slump" where a group tries to replicate their initial success, doesn't quite nail it, but learns a lot about what makes them successful.

I'm very excited for Graduation too. I think they've learned a lot about how to grow a story and they'll approach it in a much healthier way than they did with Amnesty.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:59 PM on October 25, 2019


Y'all I really enjoyed Amnesty pretty much the whole way through. It did feel a bit linear at times (more like a radio show than improv), so it's interesting to hear them talk about how they felt it was episodic and like they didn't know where it was going.

I am giving Balance a shot but I still don't understand what the stakes are or what the overall shape of the story is, 2/3 of the way through. There are some really delightful segments though (last half of Rockport Limited is gold; the business with Merle's arm in Crystal Kingdom, omg). Maybe because I've never played D&D before?
posted by esker at 8:10 AM on October 26, 2019


I really enjoyed Annesty and I’m not sure anything will ever be funnier than Duck’s freak-out about helmets. I think my main gripe was actually wanting more of all the bits of story Griffin had clearly set up but that they never got around to.
posted by nonasuch at 5:06 PM on October 26, 2019 [5 favorites]


> I think my main gripe was actually wanting more of all the bits of story Griffin had clearly set up but that they never got around to.

Me too, but I guess that's common across all well-constructed fictional worlds: Whether it's a movie, novel or RPG there are always going to be bits that help the creators build the story without making it into the story.

I was surprised to hear that they had planned Ned's death (albeit not how it would happen). That makes it an even more interesting event in some ways, but also kind of disappointing since it meant that they had intended (albeit maybe inadvertently) making his solo activity late in the arc more or less meaningless.
posted by ardgedee at 3:01 AM on October 27, 2019


I know it wasn't all that possible what with the direction the story took and them both being Griffin's NPCs, but I wanted to know so much more about the glorious FBI Agent/Bigfoot love story of Barclay and Agent Stern. Alas, in the absence of any episodes about it, I'm just gonna have to ask for it for Yuletide.
posted by yasaman at 11:35 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]


Honestly a little disappointed that they're going back to D&D, but I'm sure whatever comes up will be a giggle.
posted by entity447b at 5:56 AM on October 31, 2019


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