So, Matt has had a couple of moments where it is, before combat, looking like the players are FAR outmatched. Aaand someone’s fave purple character paid for not doing the mental maths. I feel that is how he makes it clear that you PROBABLY don’t want to take the baddies on.
My fav Matt surprised moment isn’t the party going into a fight they shouldn’t have, but how Travis decided to get them out of a tough fight in Nicodranas in Campaign 2. Totally sent campaign in a new but fun direction. Bonus that the next episode was live on stage and the cast got to play dress-up.
The party’s search for a guy named Marius lead them to the Nicodranas dockfront at night. Marius was parleying with some pirates, which of course led to a fight. A fireball and Thunderstep later, the city guard joined the fight too. Not an the player’s side (or pirates).
Noticing they were starting to get overwhelmed, the party decided to retreat… by stealing the pirate ship. Which sent the campaign in a completely new and fun direction and allowed them to wear pirate costumes on-stage for the next episode.
It was also mostly Tavis’s doing that locked them in that direction of “escape”, but also made sense as Fjord (his character) had a whole sailor background. It ended leading directly into Fjord’s individual story arch.
I believe Matt said later during a Talks Machina or something that he did not think of that option when we was setting up the fight before stream, but that it’s exactly the kind of crazy player decision that he loves.
I just love the: oh, we need to retreat. I know! Let’s steel the pirate ship.
My players did something similar in one of our campaigns. Though in their case the ship they were already on was attacked by pirate and I’d REALLY underestimated the difficulty. My players slaughtered the pirates and decided to take their ship instead of just ride on someone else’s. The core plot of that campaign was really location agnostic, so I didn’t mind at all.
So, Matt has had a couple of moments where it is, before combat, looking like the players are FAR outmatched. Aaand someone’s fave purple character paid for not doing the mental maths. I feel that is how he makes it clear that you PROBABLY don’t want to take the baddies on.
Sometimes that attempt to communicate misses.
My fav Matt surprised moment isn’t the party going into a fight they shouldn’t have, but how Travis decided to get them out of a tough fight in Nicodranas in Campaign 2. Totally sent campaign in a new but fun direction. Bonus that the next episode was live on stage and the cast got to play dress-up.
My memory is a bit rusty, which event are you referring to?
Spoilers Season 2 Episode 35 Dockside Diplomacy
spoiler
The party’s search for a guy named Marius lead them to the Nicodranas dockfront at night. Marius was parleying with some pirates, which of course led to a fight. A fireball and Thunderstep later, the city guard joined the fight too. Not an the player’s side (or pirates).
Noticing they were starting to get overwhelmed, the party decided to retreat… by stealing the pirate ship. Which sent the campaign in a completely new and fun direction and allowed them to wear pirate costumes on-stage for the next episode.
It was also mostly Tavis’s doing that locked them in that direction of “escape”, but also made sense as Fjord (his character) had a whole sailor background. It ended leading directly into Fjord’s individual story arch.
I believe Matt said later during a Talks Machina or something that he did not think of that option when we was setting up the fight before stream, but that it’s exactly the kind of crazy player decision that he loves.
I just love the: oh, we need to retreat. I know! Let’s steel the pirate ship.
My players did something similar in one of our campaigns. Though in their case the ship they were already on was attacked by pirate and I’d REALLY underestimated the difficulty. My players slaughtered the pirates and decided to take their ship instead of just ride on someone else’s. The core plot of that campaign was really location agnostic, so I didn’t mind at all.
Ah right. It honestly felt so natural I didn’t really think about that.