As somebody who has never played D&D this was the best representation I’ve ever had to the game. It looks fun, but I wonder how some of the real super-triple-nerds I’ve known who aren’t too imaginative can really make it as dungeonmasters.
Was Cate Blanchett the narrator? (I’m guessing it wasn’t really the actress playing the cleaning lady.)
Nice to see that the library doesn’t let that one group dominate the meeting room.
It’s hard to believe Danny Pudi hasn’t received an Emmy nomination yet.
While we couldn’t get our shit together to meet more than once, the best dungeonmaster I’ve encountered was a friend who was in the musical theater program at my school. Not only did he set up a good story, he was such a great performer he actually got us all to scream when we (in our minds) opened a bag and found a human head inside.
The game is as dreary as you can imagine if the dungeonmaster isn’t dynamic and creative and willing to make a fool of himself.
I believe I remember that, too. And Neil responded, “Just Neil is fine,” to which Duncan said something like “We’ll keep it Fat Neil.” Which is another awesome thing about Community … little things like that are together through multiple episodes. A nice reward for devoted viewers!
I think it was more like:
“… Fat Neil.”
“Neil is fine.”
“Not from an actuarial standpoint.”
Hrm, I never DM’ed but I never thought a DM needs much of an imagination per se. Assuming they’re playing a pre-published module, all the imagination necessary is taken care of, isn’t it?
I can see a DM might need to have a kind of creativity to deal with off-the-wall stuff players might throw at him, but a DM who can think on his feet should be able to bring things back to the “script” so to speak in fairly short order.
The game, even with a module, is better if the Ref can bring the world to life. Also it keeps the DM from trying to force the players to stick to the script if you will.
Loved the episode and agree that it was the first representation of D&D that actually made me think that playing it could be fun. I also never really understood the role of the DM and what the dice were for. Now I feel like I get it.
There was one line that seemed out of place, though. When Britta was going off on one of her rants, Troy said something like “You are the AT&T of people”. Is this a reference to the iPhone dropped call problem? Or is there something I’m not getting.
almost missed this one, but at the very end Troy and Abed are arguing about whether it would be cooler to have a tail or giant ears.
Abed: Plus, you could wear backpacks as earrings and free up your haaands
Troy: Backpacks already free up your hands!
I enjoyed the whole episode, but this was the line that made me laugh out loud and then giggle everytime I thought back to it.
I loved Troy using his ‘additional notes’ as a weapon and Abed telling him it has no affect, rather than take a second to explain what Troy misunderstood on his sheet. Danny Pudi absolutely deserves an Emmy, far more than any actor on *Friends *ever did.
B/c I’m old, I can’t catch Jeff’s line after Brita says they all would have died if Neil hadn’t saved them? My ears just cannot catch it no matter how many times I rewind it.
Nawth Chucka, I don’t remember his exact words, but I did rewind on that part because I didn’t understand it the first time either. Jeff basically tells Britta not to lay it on so thick.
Not specifically, just that AT&T has a horrible, horrible reputation as a carrier. It’s like being the Yugo of people. Or the Enron of people.
Not at all. First, most published adventures kind of suck, IMO, and that’s necessarily so: they’re very generic, in order to be applicable to a large number of groups. A good DM needs to tailor it to the group that’ll be playing it, and to the campaign, if there is one.
Second, players always do crazy things in a game; a good DM needs to be flexible enough to handle the craziness in a fun fashion.
Third, a good DM needs to be able to bring things to life. Surely the adventure didn’t have details about the waiter at a local gnome tavern and his cosmic worldview and his place in it vis a vis the other races. A shitty DM would have made that character generic, and been baffled and irritated when someone tried to talk with the waiter beyond ordering ale; a good DM is instantly ready to go deeper into a character, and to do it in a fun fashion.
Finally, silly voices. If you won’t do silly voices, I don’t want you to DM for me.
The best DM’s are always willing to go with it and have an answer if you try to do something off the wall. That stuff isn’t in the books.
Yep–and one of my revelations from playing with a brilliant DM at GenCon was that the best answer to give to the question “Can I do that?” is nearly always, “Yes!” As long as you give the same answer to the villain NPCs, balance is maintained, and fun multiplies exponentially.
This is it, in a nutshell. A DM who just reads out the text is not a good DM.
Best show ever.
This ranks as probably my second favorite episode, behind the paintball one. I fucking hate Pierce, though, and want him to die.