Tabletop Escapades - Episode 2

Ian, I love you man, but your getting up and sitting down and getting up and looking at the camera is distracting as hell.

Daniel Ray

Darn it Lars I was saving that GRAIN!

Rken Blade

Where are these grains?!

Law is hilarious

mar

Please speak into the mic or speak up. Ben and Ian are difficult to hear half the time and if the volume is all the way up Huber's screams hurt.

Tony

You can actually enter all the character sheets into Roll20 and have the Spells show up with full explanation in it.

Olf Himself

This is my first exposure to any D&D game, and I gotta say that the job of Dungeon Master requires so much creativity, and Ben leading the game is great

I have to agree with most other people that Roll20 is taking away from the game. Otherwise it's great as usual.

Chris Georgaras

I too would throw some money at a piece of "Lars had grain!" merch! XD

Gan Khef

An idea: y'all should digitize these cool spell cards you bought and show them on the shared screw.

JackO Trade

OMG. Lars ! Had! Grain!??!

Unfortunately i only got to play D&D once when i was 15. Never seen Tabletop Adventures and i didnt think i would care much for a D&D show. Boy was i wrong! People are getting shot with arrows, wizards are running away and diving into the brush, theres a bad guy in a tree or is there a bad guy in a tree, telepathy, cats and a mysterious bag of grain!!! I cant wait for whats next :)

Ozzypinapple

Lars. Had. Grain.

Tygre

This hurts so bad without Elyse :(

D.M. Deyo

Sorry, I seem to be to stupid to structure my wall of text with patreons input-methods. :(

Hello guys, I am a fan of your escapadous adventure since season 1 and really appreciate Bens motivation to visualize the tactical sides of combat. However the most beautiful side of DnD is building worlds out of ones very own imagination, painted by the DM's flourished articulation. Roll20 seems to hinder this aproach. Ben has to concentrate on dragging players towards trees or the end of the world and therfore looses time, which the whole group could otherwise use to keep the flow rolling. For me personally, combat has always been one of the weaker sides of your tales. I dont mind any jokes-out-of-character, I think they really loosen the mood, but those over-technicall discussions "you cant reach that tree, its 29 yards away and you can only run 25" interrupt the storytelling process. That doesnt mean that I want you guys to succeed in any interaction you plan to do but thats where a great DM like Ben comes into play, who can always judge, when he could give the group some lenience and when to show strictness. Same for all those perception-and-what-so-evere rolls. Sometimes I get the feeling, Ben only lets player succeed on a roll of 15 or higher. Of course there are modifiers to show a heroes strengths and weaknesses, but I wouldnt mind at all, if a seasoned fighter could show feasts of strength on a 5+ while a Mage would need for the same a 10+ or 15+. And especially those aforementioned perception rolls really slow combat down. When our heroes get shot at for 2 full rounds, maybe the story's fluidity would profit from a gradually decreasing number they have to beat with their perception-rolls. At the very least they could locate 1 of their enemies with the 5th supbar roll in a row. But I dont want to frown all day - I am really excited how your adventure turns out over the following weeks. Brad Ellis' voice impression is great, I am looking forward to learning more about his character. Kyle Bosman seems to mimic his character from s1 a bit, but makes up with his great acting performance . Michael Huber's new character seems better suited for group play - nevertheless, his lawful good (?) orientation will surly lead to some hilarious catastrophies in the future. And Ian Hinck has probably the most difficult job conveying his characters persona in a convincing manner while managing audio simultaneous. This episode his telepathic teasing felt a bit stiff, but I am sure he will find the spot where he feels most comfortable - maybe we can get some internal dialogs with the demon-deity he came in contact with? Maybe it interrupts his main-characters decision in a kind of alter ego way? Whatever you guys plan to do, I am sure, it will be fun. I really i appreciate the work, creativity and energy all of you - and of course specially Ben - invest, in order to give your audience great entertainment. Love and Respect, Stephan

So I've watched the episode a few times now and I'm starting to warm up to the idea of using roll 20. It do have it's advantages. I mean if we compare it to using nothing, like in the first episodes of TA, we get rid of all the confusion of where the players are and what the surrounding looks like. Secondly if you compare it to the whiteboard used in some later TA episodes it's quite the improvement since it's a lot easier to edit player and enemy positions. In addition you can also see enemy health and how much "mana" the players have. These feel like valuable additions as in combat you would see your enemy weaken and get a grasp of how much more "damage" he could take. And seeing the parties mana I think could be interesting to the audience. What I think is the problem with how it is right now is that they're in forest but there's only five or so trees. I'm not saying it needs to be super detailed but the general/big structures and such should be represented. You'd think there would be tree a bit further back or to the side to take cover behind for instance.

I love the show, and followed Tabletop Adventures from the start , but I have 2 critics. It feels like Roll20 is only limiting imagination and using it slows the game down - I think the show would be better without it. Also I find it weird when Ben tell the players what they're thinking and feeling. Shouldn't that be decided by the players?

Can you tie Ian to the chair? Or at least to avoid passing in front of the camera. Can't Ben and Ian switch place?

Rui Fidalgo

Any way these episodes can be 90 minutes? An hour isn't really enough time for a good DnD play through.

Chris Georgaras

Love this! Need longer episodes, always ends too soon! And my God kyle, you weird selfish cat person! So funny

6:11 - Do not interrupt Ben or his hidden anger will punish you)))

awesome episode! couple recommendations: longer episodes and either larger maps or a dif program to depict the visuals of scenes (noticing kyle immediately ran into an invisible wall lol)

Man. I really did miss this show. Episodes aren't as weighed down buy rule checks as the first few episodes of Adventures were. Also, as usual, the chemistry is on point. Brads a great addition.

I love this team. Hilarious episode. Also, I could see myself spending money on something with "Lars Had Grain" printed on it.

God, I love this episode. I cannot wait for next week.

This series is seriously awesome. Quickly becoming my favorite of what you guys do. I've never watched the old GT D&D show but I might go back and do it now. I do have some feedback though. This moves incredibly slow, which is fine, I get why. But waiting a whole week just to have the story progress a teeny tiny bit is sort of painful. If you guys could make the episodes a little bit longer, or release episodes more frequently, that would be perfect. Awesome job overall, can't wait to see what's next!

Right on the money=>" I think increasing the frequency with which you drop episodes, rather than increasing the overall length of the episode, would be preferable." Alex M Pagano

Dai Nguyen

I only watched a few of the OG series over on GT, and I'm not a D&D player. However, I'm loving this series so far. I'd like to weigh in on the negative comments I'm seeing on this thread: - I think the length of the show is perfect. It's a little intimidating to think about an episode lasting longer than an hour or so. This "podcast length" is perfect. There are two downsides, obviously: 1) accidentally spoiling things during a live stream that happened during the session you actually recorded 2-3 weeks ago, and 2) having so much material that the story moves at a glacial pace. If necessary, I think increasing the frequency with which you drop episodes, rather than increasing the overall length of the episode, would be preferable. - I enjoy your group's use of Roll20. Decreasing mistakes / confusion / burden on Ben ("Wait I thought that enemy was behind the bush" "No he was 5 feet left of it" "No I'M 5 feet left of this cart", etc) is a solid argument for using it. It also really helps me, as a viewer and D&D n00b, to get the full picture - with the visual summary there, I can focus more on using my imagination to SEE Huber's character stumble upon his chi, or FEEL the icy grip of Ian's character's spell, rather than where people are. I think y'all do a great job of not leaning on it too much. It would be a bummer if we felt like we were watching the screen the whole time, but if you keep up the roleplaying you do during combat (i.e. your character's accents, conversations, personal ruminations, etc.), then it's a non-issue. Great work!

I kinda get the feeling someone is going to die pretty soon, I'm interested to see how they handle it. I hope anyone who dies just makes another character or something.

I love Roll20, there's so much cool stuff you can do with it.

Olf Himself

Told my D&D pals about this, hoping they'll be supporters soon!

Mason Victoria

First time ever witnessing a D&D game (and obviously I have never played) ... this is awesome!

I also think Roll 20 is very much limiting the rollplay. Sometimes the dungeon master needs to be able to bend time and space. Hell, the most epic battles in Tabletop Adventures (c) wound not be possible with Roll 20. It also makes the group more focus on tactics (as: like a turn-based tactics rpg) than characters and rollplaying. Lastly, I think many Patrions listen to this show, making things like "the enemy is..... here" much less awesome than an epic description by Ben. Could you please reconsider the use of Roll 20?

Awesome. This is my first experience with D & D of any kind and I'm really enjoying it so far. Have you guys considered just showing the audience the screen but hiding it from the players? I'm just thinking of the scenario when they fight a boss and instantly know how much HP it has when they see Ben input the damage. It makes sense for the audience and Ben to know, but might give the adventurers a big advantage.

New t-shirt - Lars Had Grain - or maybe better, just "LARS" in the LOST font...

Kevin Weaver

I got the feeling that Ben just want to wipe out the entire group so the assassins can kidnap them.

Wicky "Pokkuti" Salsa

This show is just too good! Roll 20 feels a bit limiting of the imagination at times though, like how the space behind was just empty. Maybe it's just something to get used to but I can't help feeling like the environment gets a lot more empty/sparse and generic. The intro/outro music is great, gets me so hyped!

This is the best show. It's amazing. I wish it was longer.

Revalow

At the end of this adventure I believe Ben will be drinking Vodka straight out of the bottle :D. But seriously, I LOVE IT!

Yeah, I would use it sparingly. And that's coming from a guy that used roll 20 for hundreds of hours.

#LarsHadGrain!!!!!!

If you listen closely, you can hear birds chirping in the background - it kind of contributed to the forest atmosphere, but maybe just shut the garage door next time ... :)

Camian

About one hour definitely feels a little too short. Maybe they should aim for solid feature-film-length episodes of around 90 minutes each. If they still want to shoot two episodes in one sitting, maybe they could have lunch in between the two parts?

Camian

Great episode. Law with the dart!? The cat eyes?! Lars had grain!? 😂

Oh man, I lost it with the Lost zoom-out about Lars' grain. :) Would have watched another hour more, things were just getting started.

Ville Ranto

HYPE

Carson Khuu

The length is perfect. And it's soo epic! It's if I'm watching a movie!

Danni-H4

I still feel you should consider doubling the length of these episodes if possible next time you guys get together and shoot, especially since little to no editing is involved, since the group takes their time with everything. Doesn't even have to be exactly 2 hours. Just end an episode when it feels more natural, like at the end of an encounter or right before a new one starts. Would really help the presentation of the show compared to now where it's been two episodes and the very first combat encounter isn't even over yet.

MBUN

#LarsHadGrain

I loved it! Time to watch again!

Liana

Can we get a wiki or something where we can keep track on the adventurers stats and possible the lore of the episodes?

Maxime Jonckheere

Just started watching, and I already have a question: Law only has 12 AC? I wonder what his stats look like, because that's really low for a level 1 monk. I'm interested to see how he's going to play a monk who doesn't go full dexterity and wisdom.

I can say it again - waited so looong for episode 2!

Is there any plans on releasing an audio version of tabletop escapades. I need it in my life

Hmm. I'm not feeling the computer screen stuff too much. Things are more exciting when there's more scope for imagination. Though It'll probably grow on me.

Death stare by the dungeon master :D

Dan Sebring

Double post oops