This is sort of a placeholder for episode 50, which has yet to air as of this writing.
I'd like to point out that Chris Perkins did an AMA on the Dice, Camera, Action subreddit right here.
I can't believe I forgot about it!
I don't want to spoil everything, but here are the things that I found most interesting from this AMA:
Crossover: The Waffle Crew might run into members of Force Grey and Acquisitions, Inc. in the not-too-distant future.
Favorite Moments: His favorite events of the show so far:
- Evelyn thinking she ate a baby.
- Diath's nasty encounter with the gallows.
- Strix falling in the snow or polymorphing Duke Zalto into a chicken.
- Paultin befriending Simon.
Svardborg: Chris says we'll be seeing frost giants before the end of the season. That frost giant lair in the book is very wide open, I can't imagine what the heroes will do.
Ravenloft NPC: One NPC from Barovia will pop up soon. He says that it is also possible that the group will go back to Barovia. That would be pretty crazy, right?
Episode 50
We are 50 shows in and I'd say it's been very good. I learned a lot about DMing from Chris Perkins. I've probably said it before, and I've never expressed it in a way that I'm happy with, but here it is:
There are no good DMs. I don't mean that literally. Chris is great! What I mean is that it is literally impossible to multitask well enough to handle everything a dungeon master needs to do to run a game correctly. Here's some of the things that Chris and all of us have to do during a session:
- Have an adventure ready.
- Know your material!
- Be prepared for the group to go off on some wacky tangent.
- Give accurate descriptions, which is harder than it sounds.
- Know what your monsters can do, and what certain spells do.
- Monitor the mood at the table.
- Know when to move on and when to zoom in on scenes.
- Make sure nobody's being ignored.
- Avoid being too harsh or too lenient.
- Helping shy players play their way while keeping rambunctious players from stepping on other people's toes.
- And of course, run a game people want to show up for!
Judging from these online shows, people are choosing to focus on pacing, keeping the game moving. I can tell you that prior to 2012 or so, it was rules accuracy, big time. Most groups that I saw were rules-first, and by gawd you would sit at that table while people flipped through books and quibbled over finer points for a good portion of your evening.
Dungeon Masters: So I think what we have on this show is a great model for DMs, a sort of reality check on how a game can flow. You can learn from Chris's ideas and choices. It's also nice to see a group that plays a lot. It seems like most groups in real life don't really get together that much to play the same game, the same story over months and years.
Players: Players who watch this show can observe how you should behave at the table. To me, this waffle crew is a very good assortment of players because they are, by and large, unselfish. Usually it is the selfish player that ruins the entire campaign and kills groups.
Episode 50: Episode 50 takes place tomorrow on twitch. The group just unleashed a primordial so it should be a pretty momentous occasion. I find Anna to be absolutely hilarious and she's been on fire the last few weeks, so that's what I'm looking forward to the most.
The Stream of Annihilation: This show will lead into the Stream of Annihilation, which is next weekend. This event includes the waffle crew, who apparently will be somehow involved in an adventure linked to the new storyline. We might get some kind of clue tomorrow.
Whats the New Adventure? There is a fair amount of speculation on what the new storyline is. There's a guy named Prakriti in this thread who laid it out really nicely.
I'm going to try to watch and write about as much of that stream as possible. I think I'm going live-tweet my thoughts, so feel free to check out my twitter right here.