Definitely going for a “mortification of the flesh” thing with that dude. He is a member of a subsect of the Death priesthood that believes the flesh is a vessel for suffering and that pain releases the attachment we have to that suffering.
Kukrit isn’t just chasing Berg as an escaped slave, but as a failed attempt at a power grab. There was more going on in the Xulin Valley than we ever really got to the bottom of and Kukrit is a bitter, angry dude.
Oh so he is still alive and kicking! CoS is in a sweet spot as there are NPC characters that are year old and they still are interesting if they pop up.
Kukrit was the guy that told the new characters about Berg. The power of being old and bitter.
Oh ok. I guess this happened in the first hour that i missed.
Random question for @AdamKoebel. Would the players be allowed to play a Warlock if they chose Fey as their Patron?
I really enjoyed the episode. I planned to only watch one hour live, but then I destroyed my sleep cycle. Good job and welcome @Ezekiel_III!
@AdamKoebel, in the spirit of hacking the system, would you ever add other mechanics to the world? I’m thinking of something like stunts from Fate Accelerated…
Maybe if they ever encounter something like that magical icosahedral room that made Berg suck? *giggle*
I’m so glad the change finally came and that now the emphasis will be more on the characters, their relationships and interactions and on story development and RP. I’ve been waiting for this, for the group to get tired of the, in my eyes, pointless deadliness and incessant fighting that barely allowed any development and investment, since basically the first TPK of the show. And I know this episode is just the first one of this new version of CoS and might not be much of an indication of how things are going to be from now on because it was an introductory session for two new characters and for a new player, but any tiny bit of added emphasis on roleplaying is a win in my book.
The episode was great, definitely my favorite so far. Zeke kills it every time with his passion and care in portraying his characters. They all bounced off each other so well. Max and JP were just perfect also. It was wonderful. And the pacing of the interactions built a lot of tension too, there was no dragging at all as someone suggested, it was the pacing needed for the scenes to have the impact they had.
As for the xp/goals system it might be a good idea to gently remind the players of the lessons learned from Swan Song, always have at least one quickly attainable goal, if not two, and then one more lofty, hard or ambitious goal to keep striving for, so that progression doesn’t stall. As far as I remember they all did have a more or less easy to achieve goal but it’s a good idea to keep it in mind.
Loved it.
Very interesting.
I believe they are not currently ‘in’ the dimension but once they get there, I image plenty of them will want spies and assassins under their influence… Before eventually cutting them loose and using their soul’s weight to make The Fountain into their personal hydropower plant.
Very enjoyable show this week. Not sure how much of that was because of the changes and how much of it was just the fact they weren’t on a quest and were introducing new characters, but I loved all the interactions of the three PCs. I think the newer structures will only start to show after several shows, like when a player starts pushing the group to do a thing for a goal rather than “hey adam where are we going to kill shit this week?” (the only real player driven thing I remember was Dan scheming vs the Devils which he died before he got to progress it, although i may have forgotten things), but this was a really fun start to season 4 (is it season 4? still season 3? i have no idea )
Think the “Berg fanboi” angle JP took is going to be real fun!
This was a really great episode by all. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the new format initially but I think it’s going to work out amazingly with this cast. I’m glad there was a possibility for a fight as well. I love the rp but would be very sad if there weren’t a decent amount of fights since the strategy behind those are what initially attracted me to d&d.
Things I hope for moving forward. Players completing goals at a regular pace and learning more about the characters in general. I really hope one of them takes Adam up on his offer many episodes ago of helping bankrolling a magic shop to help the supply of magic items in the party. One thing of note, Xanathars guide is going to have a section on mundane magic items that would be interesting I think.
@AdamKoebel with your new system do you think players would be less inclined to go into dungeons or situations if they dont see how the end achieves one of their goal? would the experience be more narratively straightforward to give players a reason to venture into a situations?
Maaaaaybe if it was like, a Fey god or something and they were a gnome.
correct.
dungeons are now more like, locations to resolve quests and goals.
Cool. I’ve gotten the impression that Warlocks were out because they were associated with the Mara but some Patrons, especially the new ones in Xanathar, do not seem very Mara-like.
@AdamKoebel I have a question i should ask sometime ago. Since Berg’s left arm is turned to stone, what happened to his slave shackle? It was on his left wrist https://youtu.be/kdGIJGpYyeU?t=2490
In Xanathar’s there is some sort of divine entity patron for the warlock class that depending on the details once it’s released seems like a good fit for a devout priest of the fountain.
Oh man, there are so many cool new spells for JP and Dan to use in Xanathar’s. So excited.
Dan can finally get rid of Sacred Flame and instead use Toll The Dead.
Is there anything from Xanathar’s that you think shouldn’t be in CoS?
Just finished watching the episode on youtube.
That was amazing.
I was waiting for Zeke to join the party for an adventure and there it is.
It highly exeded my expectations!
As always Zeke’s interpretation is on point and the relationship of his character with JP’s Sali is perfect.
I’m definetly looking forward to the next episode and the evolution of the events that are going to be epic for sure. ^^