Second Opinion Reviews

Second Opinion #2: Titansgrave Review

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Ian R Buck and Ian Decker discuss Titansgrave: the Ashes of Valkana.

Links
  • Titansgrave | Geek and Sundry
  • Titansgrave – YouTube
    • Overview

    Titansgrave: the Ashes of Valkana is a video series featuring a group of minor celebrities playing through an RPG campaign.

    • Setting
      • Love the combination of science fiction and fantasy!
      • [Buck] Of course I was inclined to root for the technological solutions.
      • A world with ancient evils that haven’t been seen in millennia is a fun trope. Makes me think of A Song of Ice and Fire.
      • [Decker] I agree with Buck on the melding of Fantasy and Sci-fi themes- it was cool to see! I appreciate that there was still a love of good beer! I do wonder how more of the political systems worked though- although Wil created a vast world and introduced many characters, he didn’t really develop things like the society that they were in as much as I would’ve liked.
      • Story
        • [Decker] I wish that more things had been explained- there were things, like Lemley’s amulet and why her family was despised, that were never answered. I also felt that it was a bit short, but I’m also used to novel-esque stories.
        • Time for a sequel!
        • Characters
          • Most of the characters had quite a bit of depth. This was intentional, of course, because Wil had each of the players come up with major and minor goals for their characters.
          • Most of the characters were well-specced for combat, except for S’Lethkk
          • [Decker] I think that it helps for the PCs to have good actors behind them as well- that makes for some fun characters. I wish that Wil had kept up the whole character keeping secrets from others thing later into the story as well- it would’ve made for some interesting interactions.
          • Players
            • Looks like a fun group to play with!
            • Wil Wheaton
              • Did a great job coming up with the whole setting
              • Went to the effort of incorporating the player characters’ backstories into the missions they were going through in the campaign
              • [Buck]Seemed a little heavy-handed in guiding the players through the campaign
              • [Decker] I agree a bit, although I also think that he did a pretty good job of improvising and working with what the characters wanted to do along the way (5 gold and a party). The story was definitely a bit railroaded, although he did include a few choices for the characters to make, which is always nice.
              • Laura Bailey
                • She was great! She got really invested in her character, Lemley.
                • [Buck] I’m always impressed with people who have to play a character with low intelligence, because they have to reign in their own ideas.
                • Hank Green
                  • He had a really well developed backstory
                  • [Buck] He is too snarky for his own good. Wil had to punish him in the game a few times.
                  • [Decker] No such thing as too snarky… that may have just been part of Ankia.
                  • Format of show
                    • 40 minute episodes felt pretty good.
                    • [Buck] Maybe 30-35 minutes would have been ideal.
                    • [Decker] I would’ve gone the other way to 1hr episodes. I thought that it felt like the story was getting clipped short in a lot of cases.
                    • The intro was really long, and we started skipping it
                    • Production quality
                      • Love the bottom third they have when someone rolls dice! Especially since they change the numbers when somebody makes a mistake with their math.
                      • I enjoyed the art style- big brush strokes leaves some “smeared” details, but that fits well with the noir and dirty feel of a lot of the setting.
                      • RPG system
                        • Looks really fun!
                        • Using three dice pushes most rolls towards the middle of the pack. Bell curve, you know.
                        • The stunt points counter this by making even regular rolls a bit more exciting
                        • Combat seems mostly balanced- sets up both PCs and NPCs for success
                        • Spellcasting seemed almost underpowered- many of the spells had not as much damage as the other weapons, both melee and ranged
                        • Armor damage reduction for all characters was really nice!
                          • Attributions

                          Free Music Archive: Beat Doctor – Organic (electric edit)

                          This episode of Second Opinion has a Fringe episode. You should really listen to The Fringe #353: SO #2 — Cold, Dead Fingers!

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