Duel-Geon Masters

No matter who wins this Geon Duel, Keith & Andrew whip up DND delight in their first podcast - Ars Technica

DUELGEON? More like MULEGEON -- listen to the braying of these two jackasses in yet another DND podcast – Podcast Pauly

DuelGeon Masters Keith & Andrew dually lead the story in this duel to be The GeonMaster – TTRPG Aficionado

HIGH STAKES NEGOTIATIONS PAY OFF IN DIVIDENDS – DND Quarterly about #DuelGeonMasters

But this episode just has too many good moments- finding the dagger, Martin’s disappearance, AND OF COURSE our negotiating REAL GAME DETAILS AS THEY ARE HAPPENING.

AT THE SAME FLIPPING TIME. It's so good

#BIGUPYOURSELFALLDAYEVERYDAY

YOU GOTTA #BIGUPYOURSELF! As an artist you have to BIG UP yourself.

AND THE REST? It’s just solid. I love it when I make something—anything—and I look at it and I go “oh yeah, no, that’s a good representation of what I’m capable of.” Big up yourself.

AS ALWAYS EP 5 INCLUDES SOME BIG ACTS FROM from MAESTRO Keith

TO PEOPLE SAYING THAT MY FEBRUARY 6th POST WAS ABOUT SEX please note that IT WAS NOT!!

Episode 5 - Martin’s Malevolent Ministrations Duel-Geon Masters · Episode

ALL of this brings me to Episode 5 AKA Martin's Malevolent Ministrations AKA one of my favorite episodes (and overall DNDing) EVER aka SPOOKY ACCENT SEASON

Happy Valentine's Day IF YOu'RE INTO THAT SORT OF THING

REGARDING SAILOR MOONISMS. LIKE BRO, IF YOU ARE PLAYING A GOOD CHARACTER AND YOU DON’T USE AT LEAST ONE ROUND OF COMBAT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO PROCLAIM PUNISHMENT IN THE NAME OF THE MOON ARE YOU EVEN DNDing?

PLUS IT'S KIND OF THE START OF SAILOR MOONISMS

EP 4 HAS IT ALL

An improvised space that Keith also takes and runs with, Colfax’s explicit character growth, baddies named Matilda & Starfish, letting the dice decide important story deets, Keith’s MURDER of RAW.

It’s all there

DID I MENTION THAT OUR PODCAST IS ONLY AN HOUR LONG? It's a great listen while folding laundry, commuting to & from work, or making a rich and flavorful Sunday gravy.

Just a great bite sized chunk of time that really speaks to people afflicted with the short attention span disease

Episode 4 - Take Hjolrim to Church Duel-Geon Masters · Episode

So YEAH ep 4 is where pieces just start coming together. The episode slaps. HARD

SO that’s the bad and also the ugly. The ugly of our podcast is actually also the beautiful because you get A BEHIND A SCENES LOOK at our creative process, which can be a little bit messy because this is the first time we’ve ever attempted anything like this

Process above all, bro

THIS HAPPENS A FEW TIMES WHILE RECORDING and it’s not awful but it really stands out to me when I’m editing. A moment where one of us is asking a question and the other person, now DM of the Joint Story, kind of sidesteps or gives a non answer

Let’s back for a second- the good the bad & the ugly. The good is that we are finding our stride and ep 4 sets up some absolute BANGERS of future episodes. The bad is that it’s obvious we aren’t on the same page about some important story details - this comes out in Hjolrim's vision

This is all to say that when Keith uses ‘Command’ in a way that is explicitly forbidden by the rules, I let it roll because it’s clever and cool and thematic and I believe that there is more to challenging your players than a hard combat

If you know what I mean ;-)

also DND IS NOT A BALANCED SYSTEM SORRY NOT SORRY

IT ISN’T

LIKE A QUARTER OF ALL SPELLS AND ABILITIES ARE BASED ON THE WRITINGS FROM THE 12th CENTURY FROM THE MAD MONK IBUAUS the GAUNT in his TREATISE ON WHY THE WIND BLOWS

LOOK IT UP, N00b

It’s possible that Keith gives more leeway because it’s a podcast, I give the exact same amount of leeway that I do in all of my games because rules are only there to help keep things balanced, but if everyone is special than (sorry Pixar's Incredibles) everyone is also having oodles of fun

Ep 4 is where stuff starts really clicking. It’s also the place where we start taking larger and larger steps away from RAW. Coincidence? I personally LOVE a lot of DND rules but also feel like strict adherence to RAW is madness

Just to be REALLY really clear, while I respect and adore Keith’s commitment and roleplaying acumen, he still used this podcast to do incredible psychic damage to me. On one hand: wow, that’s amazing. Your commitment to hurting my feelings is commendable.

On the other hand, ow, my feelings :-(

Episode 4 - Take Hjolrim to Church Duel-Geon Masters · Episode

SPEAKING OF OVER AND OVER AGAIN, DAMNIT please allow me to introduce Episode 4 – Take Hjolrim to church. In this Episode…. Hjolrim goes to church.

BUT LIKE definitely bad gameplay. Leaving loose ends is never recommended in a wargame where the bad guy could just go to the hyperbolic time chamber and return multi-classed with a power level OVER 9000

Like, leaving villains alive is ABSOLUTELY bad game play but it’s something that we did over and over again and WOULD DO OVER AND OVER AGAIN AGAIN if given another opportunity DAMNIT

This is just a fact about DND’s construction – good, bad, or indifferent. MY POINT is that we were able to play with a little bit more subtlety and chicanery than you might want to in a traditional campaign or when you have more people at the table.

Because DND is a combat system masquerading as a storytelling system, and because you solve the majority of your problems with combat, ‘murderhobo-ing’ is just going to happen. You want to play capital G Good adventurers, but you also got to recognize that there is gonna be a river of blood