Man, if Berg is really dead, i hope Max next Character is going to be Tulpa. That could be really fun to watch…
As Tulpa is now extracted from Berg, maybe he is given form and tries to ally with the friends of his former “host”?
6 Likes
My hope is that the Berg and Tulpa go to heaven and are placed in the fountain of cleansing. When exposed to the pure magical power of the fountain, Tulpa consumes its magics and infuses it through his being, ascending to a twisted form of godhood unlike anything seen before. The heavens are plunged into chaos and Berg becomes a champion of Tulpa in the living world, freed from his soul curse and any ties to the wheel. Berg and gang still destroy the City of Brass and the Farang invading it, fulfilling Tulpa’s revenge as the world is plunged into an age of upheaval where Mara, Old Gods, New Gods, and Tulpa newly ascended vie for supremacy.
2 Likes
Great episode as always, 4 hours never seems like enough.
One thing I don’t like is the rolls where it is like ‘Have i seen this before’ ’ Can I read this language?’ they roll something stupid high, but just get the you could never have known this response. I don’t really get the point of rolling at all, if there is no possible positive outcome.
Incredible episode. This is why I watch Dungeons and Dragons instead of television shows or movies in my free-time. It’s episodes like these that serve to remind that this isn’t some pre-written Disney flick where there’s always a ‘happily-ever-after’ at the end or some piece of plot armor that ensures the current story continues. I love that. It’s so much more real and alive when compared to nearly any other form of media.
It’s also really interesting how unconfirmed assumptions can play such a major or pivotal role in how stories turn out. lol
1 Like
20 is high, but DC 25 exists. There’s always a chance.
What I wanna know, since it’s done now, is what would have happened if he made the save.
1 Like
I’m guessing he would have managed to separate his soul from Tulpa.
If they chose to walk out, would the Red Hand think Berg was abandoning his path of destruction? Certainly The Tower would, which would have some consequences. So the way I saw it is forgo the deal and become fugitives (again), or agree to the contract and wing it. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying I think the situation and outcome was unfair, it’s the borderline apocalypse for Fountain’ s sake, I would have made the same choice in Bergs shoes. I’m very interested to see where this goes, and to find out where it could have gone. A+ @AdamKoebel, best cliffhanger yet.
1 Like
I don’t think Max or Adam could have written a better Eulogy. Anyone reading this upset about Bergs death should take the time to read the whole post by Mr_Undergr0und. R.I.P Berg <3 we’ll miss you, you scarred lovable lug
1 Like
I mean, what you’re saying makes sense, but only if you forget that they’re playing DnD. So let’s say he decided to go and look for Ma’ad. Now what? Do they split the party and play two stories? Or do they abandon the plot? They have a narrative to follow and they follow it, because otherwise there’s no game and no show. They have to stick together and handwave certain character conflicts away so that the party keeps operating together, even if they don’t necessarily have great motivation for that. Why is Kalimat doing what he’s doing, while he’s a nice guy and likes to party and wants to find another Dragonborn and not have a million lives on his conscience? Because that’s the plot. Or should he just abandon the character and reroll? No, he makes sure the character changes his views to follow the plot along.
All of what you just said was not only covered by myself in this community site but also Adam both in this site and in his streams. Time and time again Adam has allowed the cast to split the party and they did just fine catering to each separate character. Just because they split up following 2 separate tasks doesn’t just immediately imply that they are ignoring the narratives. They have both personal goals and subtasks that they follow to create the basis of this show. On a personal level, just because they sometimes “handwave” the characters individual goals and conflicts doesn’t mean that they are ignored.
I talked a lot about Berg but I noticed how your response was to reference Kalimat, so i’ll talk about Kalimat now. Kalimat is a traveling storyteller. Since he was born a dragonborn, there is little other people like him to enjoy with so he does the next best thing, try to enjoy it with other people. He wandered far and wide seeking further stories and along the way he met Salihafa. Salihafa talks about the story of Berg and it interests him, so the 2 group together to meet Berg. They do and the two join Berg in his journey, Salihafa to learn about Berg and Kalimat to tell the story of Berg. Just because Salihafa joined with Berg to ultimately tell his story across his travels, this does not get rid of the fact that Kalimat is his own person with wants, desires, and own backstory with conflict.
To get back to your main point, yes this is D&D. We have a cast that each have their own characters, and with the best of their ability, emulate real emotions and conflicts with those characters. By playing D&D with their characters, the story is not what is decided for them but what the characters decide for themselves. There is nothing forcing either Berg or Kalimat to continue down this path that is the Tower, doing their work when they could just leave when they want too. The point of being a party, playing with their characters together is to socialize both in character and out of character. This is what they are doing. If their in character goals/missions requires them to separate for a time, Adam is capable of setting that scene. If it ever gets to the point where the characters must separate completely to accomplish their personal goals, we’d probably have a character reroll. The thing is though, this usually won’t happen because the players created their characters TO ATLEAST WORK WITH EACHOTHER .
I could go into a whole tangent talking about how real these characters are with their personality to how this all works in a show. Im not a psychologist, nor the players or characters, so I can’t just explain every reason behind their choices. This all boils down to the original fact that this is a group of people playing D&D, creating realistic characters within the setting, following goals both as a group of friends and as individuals. After everything is said and done, they then decided to stream this all so we can all watch. And thats the problem. We are not the players, we are not npcs. We have little to no influence on the story. We can only be happy when a character lives a long time show wise and be angry when they are killed, for we could do nothing about it.
3 Likes
@ Anyone complaining
I think it’s wrong for any of us to say that it was an unfair move, this isn’t Fate, this is more the fiction of the GM.
As for running the game right, that’s also got nothing to do with us. What happened with this death can only be measured in the understanding and relationship Adam has in regards to Max and his character. We tend to see the public side of things but you can bet more is discussed behind the scenes, feedback about how everyone is feeling and a players enjoyment is always a thing that can happen and it’s not the kind of thing that’ll be public.
I Just wanted to say how beautiful the Stary Ying Yang Snake Marilith, Petal was.
Thanks so much for all your excellent GMing and these AMAs. I watched all of Being Everything Else and your and Steven’s words have changed the way I look at GMing. Are there other sources of your own or otherwise that you would recommend I read up on?
2 Likes
inb4 Ramus gets Berg’s soul.
1 Like
I got caught up to this after not being able to follow for a while.
;___;
I actually really love this ending for Berg, especially how this feels like Ramus reaping what he has sown. The whole scene with him telling Yoji how to properly manipulate Berg is absolutely delicious in hindsight.
I watched the Devil’s Vault prep vid and Adam’s soliloquy about pc’s trusting npc’s is now just…chef’s kiss
Has there been an Office Hours about using soft moves and hard moves? If there hasn’t, I think I’m gonna throw one out there. For me, it’s something that I’m nervous about in my games since I feel like I can tell my players that the npc’s will try to fuck them over with major consequences, but I don’t know if they have the proper toolkit to extricate themselves from the situation that they’re stuck in. It’s not really my problem to solve, as it is their responsibility to explore the space and not trust everything they hear, but I still feel bad about it. I’ll write something up and throw it out there.