I have been SO BUSY that it took ages to finish Calamity and then longer to catch up on this post & respond, but! Calamity! I felt a little guilty saying it until I watched the triple-DM roundtable and saw how enthusiastic Matt was about what's going on in EXU, because Calamity is probably the best thing that CR has ever done. Not said lightly! It's 100% my favorite thing since C1 and probably the best, most accessible, most successful and breathtaking, work they've ever produced.
A lot of it is Brennan Lee Mulligan and his phenomenal DMing style, and how his DMing marries to Matt's worldbuilding. The rest (other than, like, good players, obvs.) it is a product of format: higher-level characters in a short runtime with a foregone tragic conclusion means that it hits the ground running and never ever stops. And that's how we get characters & arcs like Zerxus. There's so much freedom for powerfully bad (but character-lead) decision making when no one is worried about a long-form campaign. It's so freeing! So committed!!
I have a friend that's really into one-shot TTRPGs like Ten Candles, and I think the draw is the same: In a limited game with a foregone tragic conclusion, tragedy is the win conditon. As a result, bad decisions and tragic outcomes are the narrative rather than stalling it. Which, it turns out, is really compelling and cathartic!
I loved that for all the characters tbh, especially Laerryn, god I love Laerryn. But we're very similar in that Zerxus and Asmodeus was exactly my thing. I just felt so blessed. You're absolutely right: a lot of media wants to introduce that dynamic and then defang it for whatever reason. The fully-fanged version was a pleasure.
I'm secretly glad that Mulligan's other work is, AFAIK, paywalled and primarily humorous; if it were just one of those things, I'd probably be diving into another DND podcast and there are like ... only so many hours in the day.
But I really enjoyed Calamity. Relistening to it via the podcast (as per your other post) is a great idea, actually! I may do that! I imagine it only gets better and it was just so, so good.
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2022-07-09 05:05 am (UTC)A lot of it is Brennan Lee Mulligan and his phenomenal DMing style, and how his DMing marries to Matt's worldbuilding. The rest (other than, like, good players, obvs.) it is a product of format: higher-level characters in a short runtime with a foregone tragic conclusion means that it hits the ground running and never ever stops. And that's how we get characters & arcs like Zerxus. There's so much freedom for powerfully bad (but character-lead) decision making when no one is worried about a long-form campaign. It's so freeing! So committed!!
I have a friend that's really into one-shot TTRPGs like Ten Candles, and I think the draw is the same: In a limited game with a foregone tragic conclusion, tragedy is the win conditon. As a result, bad decisions and tragic outcomes are the narrative rather than stalling it. Which, it turns out, is really compelling and cathartic!
I loved that for all the characters tbh, especially Laerryn, god I love Laerryn. But we're very similar in that Zerxus and Asmodeus was exactly my thing. I just felt so blessed. You're absolutely right: a lot of media wants to introduce that dynamic and then defang it for whatever reason. The fully-fanged version was a pleasure.
I'm secretly glad that Mulligan's other work is, AFAIK, paywalled and primarily humorous; if it were just one of those things, I'd probably be diving into another DND podcast and there are like ... only so many hours in the day.
But I really enjoyed Calamity. Relistening to it via the podcast (as per your other post) is a great idea, actually! I may do that! I imagine it only gets better and it was just so, so good.