#i'll freestyle the seasoning tho i think

[aniseandspearmint]

*looks up smoked sausage and potato recipes*

Oh, yeah that one will do. I will NOT however be using eckrich sausage because they're awful ant taste like they're made of old mustard, fake smoke, and sadness.

[downwithpeople]

finished counter/weight

it wasn't bad!

most actual plays do about 0.5 systems - they nominally use dnd 5e but mainly just do freestyle rp. it's wild to hear someone kitbash together what, 6 fucking systems? multiple groups of players operating at multiple levels asymmetrically? what a big swing! it's so fucking ambitious! i don't even know if it's a good idea!

the big downside of the variety in systems means that a huge chunk of the airtime is spent explaining, discussing and negotiating mechanics. the mechnoir portion was the absolute worst for this and i think part of what made the first session or two so rough was the players just not understanding the game or how to effectively use their characters. the benefit of this immense variety of systems is...i don't know? maybe it's fun to play? i didn't feel like the extended kingdom interlude was that interesting and i would have definitely preferred the events of that to be relayed to me in a 10-minute convo rather than negotiated through another system where the players seem barely cognizant of the stakes.

i found it very difficult to understand what was going on with the setting. a lot of setting names are thrown at you very fast and at this point i still don't know if i could confidently describe all of the big movers and shakers in the setting. still not 100% on who the rapid evening are, who diego rose was, who most of the big corps are and why they matter. i don't hate any of what i learned but i'm not sold on the divines in general. rigour is cool because i understand what rigour is and does. i don't get how righteousness works, nor any of the divines which aren't a giant robot. even at the end, when they were saying shit like 'ooh grace won't like that' i still didn't understand what that meant or why it mattered. maybe i'm just too stupid. that said, the parts that i did understand i thought were pretty decent.

i liked the chime and i liked the cast. audy was cool and had some great moments tho as i said, still don't know why their status as a divine matters. aria seemed like an insanely poor fit for the group but i like ali acampora as an entertainer so it balances out. mako was consistently delightful and the introduction of larry was my favourite character beat in the season. cass didn't make that much of an impression on me and it was too easy to forget they were royalty. i think austin should have laid down the law super hard in the first session and been like 'hey you guys are criminals, you are mercenaries, you do crimes for money, be on that wavelength' instead of like, however the fuck he described their deal with orth.

big fucking mistake: the custom XP triggers he worked out. podcast or no, do NOT ever give players a mechanical incentive to play suboptimally. players already play suboptimally; the mechanics should lead them by the nose into optimal play strategies. i would not recommend giving a player like keith an incentive to fuck up the mission with antics unless you want to ruin your friendships.

i think i would have enjoyed a less structured game along the lines of what is actually suggested by the rules of the sprawl. i guess this is just actual play podcasts in general but the thing is, most PBTA games make it pretty explicit that the game works best when you come in with a set of starting positions and assumptions instead of a predetermined storyline. austin can't help but come in with a big sheaf of predetermined storylines, down to specific planned scenes and even fucking maps. i would love to hear a podcast where someone plays the game as written for once.

i have no idea where to go from here. i'm sure as shit not listening to marielda because i know it will make me big nerd angry. i am not so invested in the setting that i absolutely must find out what happens in twilight mirage. if the hieron stuff is good maybe i'll listen to that next but i think i'm gonna give fatt a break for a while.

my OC for counterweight is the candidate of the divine antipathy.