For the various geek culture references throughout the game:
Simpsons Did It (Embedding disabled, limit reached)
The Head of VecnaDread GazeboI Love You Spartacus (Embedding disabled, limit reached)
The Room references go without saying.
Great start to an epic campaign. I've mentioned this before, but I've tried listening to the other actual play podcasts and have found that 99% are boring due to the players or the story. Penny Arcade is an exception, but you're dealing with people who either write comedy or gaming material for a living. With the RPPR crew you get a set of characters and players you can listen to and have a grand ol' time while you're at it. You can expect to hear Cody's outspoken and outrageously comedic personality, Tom's brooding and reserved demeanor, RJ's seemingly non sequitur acts of violence, Dan's charmingly Machiavellian nature, and Jason's half-orc Cassius.
The rest is probably spoiler material:
[spoiler]
VashekI like Vashek because he’s consistent in his attempts to be morally virtuous, and consistently fails. I’m not a fan of his demeanor, but he’s at least he’s more interesting that a majority of the other characters from other APs.
Vashek speaking out against the Crown from the Old World: “I’m going to speak out. Not publicly!” Note: When speaking out against something, it helps to do it publicly.
A statement made by Vashek to Low Crag (RJ’s character) after Vashek stopped him from slapping a representative of the Old World who wanted to silence dissenters (Dan) against the Old World: “It’s not illegal to speak your mind here.”
Ross: “Actually, yes it is.”
The irony is that he’s protecting a proponent against free speech from being obstructed in his act of silencing free speech.
The Angels of PelorThe back and forth between Dan and Pelor’s angels was awesome. Dan attempted to fast talk his way out of getting arrested by the angels, but being creatures of lawful goodness made flesh, they cut straight through his bullshit. It was a great way to start a battle.
Locke and PontifexRoss is pretty good at playing a convincing old and somewhat emotional lich. I’m surprised Pontifex puts up with Locke’s rebellious character. Locke’s practically yelling at him that he’s going to try and betray him. Everyone betrays him.
Locke and GenesaLocke gives his phylactery to a woman who fell in love with him, and in the process completely shatters her heart. I mean, he made it obvious to her that she was not good enough to live alongside him, but more than qualified to protect his phylactery. I liked the way it was played out. It’s a paradox that a scorned lover would swear to protect the life of the man that broke her heart, but it sounded believable.
Bad BarbarianI know that Ross is a horrible person and all for not allowing players to mind control other players, but he kind of stepped out of form with Low Crag’s actions. Near the end, Low Crag wanted to kill a messenger that was going to be sent out by the overthrown governor. Everyone else in the party said “no” to killing the messenger, and Ross agreed with the group. Ross pulled the DM’s rule and said Low Crag was not going to attack the messenger. I can see how Low Crag’s proposed action could seem to be a random act of violence, but it also could have served a purpose story wise. We don’t know what message the governor was sending out, but it would most likely have been about the overthrow of Old World power in the New World. Hindering the transfer of intelligence to an enemy sounds like a good idea to me.
Just going off the Actual Plays, I think this is the first time that Ross outright said “no” to a player’s actions. Perhaps RJ was acting more disruptive than he sounded in the AP, or Ross didn’t want to deal with the headache of RJ and Tom butting heads over the death of a messenger. Either way, the game was awesome.
[/spoiler]
