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Post by centaurofattn on Sept 5, 2018 23:02:50 GMT -5
I decided to give the podcast a go and it's been interesting for learning how D&D works. Is the whole podcast just a big silly D&D game? Are there other topics (aside from the short ads)?
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Post by dmikester on Sept 6, 2018 13:14:39 GMT -5
I decided to give the podcast a go and it's been interesting for learning how D&D works. Is the whole podcast just a big silly D&D game? Are there other topics (aside from the short ads)? Well, first off, this podcast is not a good way to learn how to seriously play D&D. They play very loose with the rules and eventually reveal in behind-the-scenes episodes that they occasionally cheat dice rolls in order to keep the story going. They also eventually, after completing the Balance arc (which is what this Experience is based on), move to a different and much simpler system that they feel is better for their needs. I do think, having DMed myself, that Griffin is a brilliant DM, and I can also appreciate how complex and difficult D&D can be to manage correctly; there are so many different rules to keep track of. I'm a much bigger fan of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing system, which I've recently gotten heavily into and have been GMing on a semi-weekly basis. In terms of the podcast itself, the history is this: The three brothers (minus their dad) started a weekly podcast back in 2010 called My Brother, My Brother And Me (MBMBAM as it's more commonly known); the premise is that the three of them give terrible/funny advice to people who send in questions. They also browse Yahoo Answers for inane and funny questions and try to answer those as well. That podcast has both been amazingly long-running (they're at over 400 episodes now) and has become a big deal, with major celebrities becoming repeat guests on the show and the brothers frequently hosting live shows of it around the country. There's also a television show of MBMBAM about to enter its second season. That show is extremely varied, with them talking about all sorts of topics related to the questions that they get. All of them have also all become full-time professional podcasters, and they have all kinds of different shows (for example, they have one that I haven't listened to called Sawbones which is about discussing topics and developments in the medical industry). Around a hundred episodes into MBMBAM, one of the brothers had a baby and needed to take paternity leave, and so they recorded a random episode to fill in the gap and decided for fun to record a session of D&D with their dad and call it The Adventure Zone (the Zone thing comes from them jokingly calling their mid-episode advertising spots in MBMBAM "The Money Zone"). That first episode was actually them playing through the scenario included in the most recent D&D Starter Set called Lost Mine of Phandelver, designed for first-time D&D players. They ended up enjoying it so much that they decided to create a whole new podcast for it and keep it going, and thus The Adventure Zone was born and of course became a giant thing in and of itself.
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Post by Todd on Sept 7, 2018 10:27:36 GMT -5
I'm hearing of tracking numbers and rumors of tracking numbers.
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Post by dmikester on Sept 7, 2018 11:27:32 GMT -5
I'm hearing of tracking numbers and rumors of tracking numbers. I have indeed received a tracking number. I was not notified by email however; had to go to the actual order on the MPC page to find it.
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Post by thegenii on Sept 7, 2018 11:36:45 GMT -5
Tracking number to nowheres ville for me as well.
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Post by Todd on Sept 13, 2018 0:08:28 GMT -5
At first blush, this is all paper, and little more than an escape-room-in-a-box. The format appears to be "solve a puzzle, get a soundbyte from the podcast guys". There is possibly an error in the first lesson, where it appears the same symbol represents two different letters. Of course, that might be relevant later, and not be a mistake at all. From the perspective of a first game project by the Adventure Zone people, I'm sure it will be well received. There was clearly a lot of thought and care put into tying a story and puzzles together. From an MPC perspective, this feels cheap compared to the high standards MPC had previously set for themselves. Maybe that's part of the joke, and maybe my perception will change as (if) I work through and when the final mailing arrives.
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Post by centaurofattn on Sept 14, 2018 15:40:19 GMT -5
When doing the inventory check, I found something not on the list at the bottom. Standard? Or did it perhaps fall out of one of the envelopes...?
Regrettably, can't seem to hide spoilers on my phone for some reason, but it's wrinkly paper, folded in half. Has type on it but don't want to say what it is just yet.
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Post by centaurofattn on Sept 15, 2018 0:07:25 GMT -5
There is possibly an error in the first lesson, where it appears the same symbol represents two different letters. I thought that too at first, but then I realized there are differences, just not super distinct differences. My challenges were: M has a shorter top line than W in the second language, and F and V in elfish look like M and B but with an apostrophe thing. I've done the activity part and just haven't managed the riddle part. Edit: I had it right, must have clicked the wrong buttons or something last night.
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Post by thegenii on Sept 15, 2018 10:40:16 GMT -5
Received yesterday. It looks like an activity kit for children along the lines of something sold in the discount area at Barnes & Noble.
I have the same wrinkly paper at the bottom as well. Since all the envelopes were sealed with snot glue, I didn't think it had fallen out.
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Post by dmikester on Sept 16, 2018 1:07:42 GMT -5
Well, I've only solved the first puzzle, but I'm very happy with what this is for the price. I'm trying to ignore The Adventure Zone tie-ins (which so far are delightful by the way, especially the bonus item not included in the packing list) when critiquing this and just focus on the experience. It's very different than anything the MPC has done of course, but it feels like an experiment and one that I'm enjoying quite a bit. I'll consider it more when I get farther along with the puzzles, but for a first mailing, there's certainly a lot of interactivity, and at least in the first puzzle the code breaking was solid and lightly challenging both for the similarities among certain runes and that there were proper names. Just a note for people who may be stuck on the first puzzle: I suspect, though perhaps I'm wrong, that there's a big typo in the riddle. I believe the word "spell" shouldn't be there/should be replaced with a different word. I could be wrong, but the correct answer doesn't really make sense with the riddle.
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Post by centaurofattn on Sept 16, 2018 1:41:51 GMT -5
It could be a strange way of referencing what you need to do. As in "how do you ____." I was more saddened by the subject verb agreement issue at the beginning haha
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Post by centaurofattn on Sept 16, 2018 16:22:23 GMT -5
My thoughts now that I've completed the first mailing: It IS very different than what we are used to. Some aspects felt cheap (ie mostly paper), and the activities weren't all super difficult, but I did find the storyline a little comedic and it was fun to unlock more story as I went through the lessons. There were some fun twists on traditional puzzles, and I was occupied for a while. I did end up using a pencil on most of it for sanity sake, but hopefully can erase it to reset it for my partner. For the cheaper price compared to other experiences, I think this was decent. I'm excited for the next box.
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Post by spudman on Sept 23, 2018 9:17:30 GMT -5
I could use a bit of help getting started with. Can’t seem to get the rune reader to decode anything. Is there a way to enter a space between words?
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Post by centaurofattn on Sept 24, 2018 22:13:08 GMT -5
I could use a bit of help getting started with. Can’t seem to get the rune reader to decode anything. Is there a way to enter a space between words? Each time you enter something it's only one word (though later it may not actually be words). No spaces.
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Post by spudman on Sept 25, 2018 7:58:51 GMT -5
I could use a bit of help getting started with. Can’t seem to get the rune reader to decode anything. Is there a way to enter a space between words? Each time you enter something it's only one word (though later it may not actually be words). No spaces. Thanks for the help! I still can’t seem to get this to work. I type the runes for the first 2-letter word and hit send. I get the “WakWa” rejection sound. I type the entire first line and get the same result. Is it important to touch the individual rune in cells with multiple runes? I have tried that and same result. I have gotten the Hey Student Call Me to work runes with no problem. Just a bit frustrated at this point. I assume that this should be relatively easy.
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