The Theatre of the Mind

Talk about the latest LRR video or discuss your past favorites.
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Kathleen
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The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Kathleen » 18 Mar 2013, 09:32

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... mpaign=all

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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby JayBlanc » 18 Mar 2013, 09:43

But Lake Sidequest is so mild and pleasant this time of year, and you don't get the same crowds as in Summer.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Lumar » 18 Mar 2013, 12:06

Reverse this situation and I had the same thing happen to me when I was DMing, it's so sad when a perfectly planned campaign is run over the course of several sessions wrapped up nicely and the people want more in a now type fashion and you have no material.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby ThrashJazzAssassin » 18 Mar 2013, 13:24

I like the overall premise of this video, but I was thrown off by the opening. Because Beej started looking uncomfortable and obviously making stuff up as soon as his players refused to search the body, I expected the punchline to involve something the baron was carrying. Because of that I didn't really work out the point of the sketch until afterwards. It's actually quite good! :D But it could've done with a couple of other "Are you sure you don't want to do activity X that I've planned for?" lines to prevent the accidental red herring.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Jamfalcon » 18 Mar 2013, 13:32

I had the same problem, I assumed the joke had something to do with searching the body. The video was alright, and certainly had it's funny moments, but it took a bit to long for me to get what it was trying to do.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby JayBlanc » 18 Mar 2013, 13:34

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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Alina » 18 Mar 2013, 14:36

That was some seriously convincing line delivery by Beej.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby ElFuzzy » 18 Mar 2013, 14:41

Vid didn't click entirely for me but I did enjoy the stinger. I expect artwork for that should show up soon.

Side note: Schuyler dievendorf is an awesome name
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby WAYF » 18 Mar 2013, 15:26

Hey guys! Guys! I found Spot in this week's video! :D
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby AdmiralMemo » 18 Mar 2013, 18:15

Yeah... I don't really see the humor in this video.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Graham » 18 Mar 2013, 19:58

Ouch.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby RytelCSF » 18 Mar 2013, 20:31

Yeah, I hate to say it, but this really wasn't one of your best. There were some good lines and bits, the acting was solid and the stinger was exceptional, but the overall joke of the skit seemed to be "inexperienced DMs sure do suck, huh?" which... isn't funny. Anyone who's tried to DM for the first time has likely cornered themselves into Beej's spot. It sucks, and it sucks even worse when the players grill you over it as depicted here. Maybe it would be funnier if it didn't hit so close to home, but as it is it falls completely flat.
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Kathleen
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Kathleen » 18 Mar 2013, 22:53

I think it depends on your tolerance for cringe humour.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby AdmiralMemo » 19 Mar 2013, 00:34

Maybe I've had to have played D&D to get it, then?
Graham wrote:The point is: Nyeh nyeh nyeh. I'm an old man.
LRRcast wrote:Paul: That does not answer that question at all.
James: Who cares about that question? That's a good answer.

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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby phlip » 19 Mar 2013, 01:13

Kathleen wrote:I think it depends on your tolerance for cringe humour.

Mine's pretty low, and I had to pause the video a couple of times to get my bearings... but I thought it was funny. Maybe I'd find it less so if I'd actually played D&D and had to deal with a bad GM? I dunno. I did enjoy the video, though.

Though I did feel like the whole "loot the body" thing was a bit of a dangling Chekhov's Gun, as others have mentioned... it felt like them not looting the body was what made them jump off-script and started Beej having to ad-lib poorly, and he had something planned for that moment of looting (as it isn't until later in the video that it's made clear that Beej has been ad-libbing for a while). So it seemed odd that once the orphans were discovered to have gone, Beej wouldn't try to press the players into going back to the "loot the bad guy" plan.

I mean, rewatching it seems clearer that the "do you want to loot the body?" thing was just Beej trying to buy time while he thought up the next plot twist, but that's how it looked on the first time through.

All that said though, I did enjoy it. And I don't want the fact that I have more words to say about the small bits I didn't like to detract from that.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Jenelmo » 19 Mar 2013, 04:47

I liked it alot.
But then i have played enough DND to see other and myself as a DM trying (And Failing) to come up with answers and a plot on the spot
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Master Gunner » 19 Mar 2013, 05:58

Kathleen wrote:I think it depends on your tolerance for cringe humour.


Mine is just about...exactly zero. Sorry Kathleen, but this sketch didn't do much for me either, mainly due to the "lack of point" aspect brought up earlier.

Bumbling and inexperienced DM who hasn't planned for what they players decided to do (despite it been the next logical progression)? Sure, I can at least get that.

Bumbling DM who thinks that his players think that it's real somehow, so he's lying to them....? I'm lost here.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Lord Hosk » 19 Mar 2013, 07:37

Yeah, it seemed like two half finished sketches that got mushed together, one with a inexperienced DM trying to keep it together and the other were the DM thought his players thought it was real and was trying to cover.

just missed the mark for me.

There was a element of "you are our friend don't worry about this we are here to support you" I couldn't tell how much of that was the characters supporting their DM friend and how much of it was Jer, James and Kathleen as experienced sketchedians Sketchtors...backing up their Beej friend.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Foxmar » 19 Mar 2013, 08:23

Just couldn't get into this one :( Don't know if it was because I've never played DnD or what but just didn't find it funny. Sorry.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Thysane » 19 Mar 2013, 08:56

I wanted so hard to like this, but it just kinda fell flat. At one point in the sketch, I actually started to feel like it was being a bit.... god, I don't wanna sound harsh, I mean you do good stuff and you're a cool person, but it felt a little mean-spirited, almost? Like it was going up against GMs that improvise a lot, when often that's our whole thing? I dunno. When I'm GMing, almost all of what I'm doing is improvisation. I can't plan games, because I know players will want to go off the path. So I don't force them down a path, I let 'em roam free, and make shit up to amuse both them and myself. Maybe it's because I'm a GM, and I'm going on the defensive, but this video didn't sit right with me at all.

Eh. Guess this wasn't my kind of sketch, and I can usually dig a bit of cringe humour. Hell, I watched and loved Simon Amstell's Grandma's House, and that's bubbling over with cringe humour.

Lord Hosk hit the nail on the head as well with the feeling that it was like two sketches smushed together.

I feel like I'm being too critical, but I just feel like I should post my thoughts, but I don't wanna piss off Kathleen and you guys, but AH I DON'T KNOW *flails arms ineffectually*

ON THE PLUS SIDE, really, really well acted, and some brilliant direction. Big conversation scenes can be hard to block, but you pulled it off admirably. So good job on that front.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby AdmiralMemo » 19 Mar 2013, 09:24

Thysane wrote:ON THE PLUS SIDE, really, really well acted, and some brilliant direction. Big conversation scenes can be hard to block, but you pulled it off admirably. So good job on that front.
I totally agree with this. Don't want to disparage LRR for their work. You're not going to hit gold every time, of course. What was done here was solidly done. You built upon and executed your root idea well. It's just the question of whether the root idea is itself good.

This is kind of the way I feel about Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. That was a very solidly put-together movie. The characters were real. The actors did their absolute best in pulling it off. The script was pretty good, for the story it was built upon. It's just that they were working with a story that was pretty bonkers. Should that story have been done in the first place? Probably not. However, if it's a given that you're going with that story, then they did their absolute best to execute it, and it came off as probably the best movie you'll get out of that story.
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LRRcast wrote:Paul: That does not answer that question at all.
James: Who cares about that question? That's a good answer.

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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Geoff_B » 19 Mar 2013, 09:46

I enjoyed it. Beej played a DM trying to railroad his party into doing things and failing miserably perfectly and seeing him scrabble around for any kind of inspiration was funny.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Drecon » 19 Mar 2013, 11:49

I liked it. Lots of recognition. Wasn't your best one, but that's mostly because of the absurdly high quality of your other sketches.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby RedNightmare » 19 Mar 2013, 13:12

I liked it too. Name making sucks. I often come up with better stuff then Beej did, but that was kind of the point.
The fact that nothing was real made me really laugh. I was half expecting him to think D&D was real or something.

EDIT: Also, be honest, half of all D&D campaigns are constructed like this. But in those cases it's all under the hood/behind the screen.
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Re: The Theatre of the Mind

Postby Lord Hosk » 19 Mar 2013, 14:04

Also, side note, Yaxley you are all over this one right?

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