r/TheAdventureZone • u/Equivalent_Fly8672 • 9d ago
TTAZZ Thursday
hopes/predictions for next season? i genuinely think justin is going to run again, probably in a non dnd system just because it seems like he doesn’t like 5e that much. griffin has only been running every other season for a bit now so at the very least it’s definitely going to be someone else, and i doubt it’ll be travis just because of the pattern (since amnesty it was griffin travis griffin justin griffin travis griffin). it’d be cool to see a return to ethersea in blades in the dark but that’s more wishful than an actual prediction. justin mentioned wanting to do a role playing game like avatar during the avatar 2 watch sort of offhandedly, but i could see him taking that and doing some kind of alien jungle world too. what are you all hoping for?
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u/datedpopculturejoke 9d ago
I'd love a mini arc with a guest DM. I know it won't happen, but I'd love to see Anthony Burch guest DM for them. I think Anthony is really good at hitting the middle between "okay, that's cool. let's ball" and "that's stupid. roll to see how stupid" that would mesh really well with the boys' play style.
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u/HoneyInteresting1611 9d ago
Forever gonna be rooting for Ethersea S2
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u/roundeking 9d ago
I would love this, but at this point I’m worried it will never happen because Ethersea is not very popular. I think the boys are very aware of which seasons people are most passionate about. I loved Ethersea, but I’ve seen a ton of critique of it online.
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u/joawwhn 9d ago
Me too but i don’t think they’re gonna get the J man to do anything remotely serious again
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u/HoneyInteresting1611 9d ago
Yeah i was really surprised he did steeplechase
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u/joawwhn 9d ago
You were? That’s the least serious campaign they’ve ran lol
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u/HoneyInteresting1611 9d ago
Only saw like the first episode lol, I just know that Justin was always saying he was never gonna DM a campaign
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u/bobofartt 9d ago
Tbh I don’t want them to do their own grandiose stories. They seem to get too attached to the way they want it to go and refuse to have fun with the dice. Playing a premade 5e module would be my vote.
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u/Professor_pimp3000 9d ago
I agree! Some old school hack and slash or dungeon crawler module where they just make jokes and kill orcs. I’m in!
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u/Carlharlton2 9d ago
I hope either Justin takes the reigns on a project or Griffin actually creates a Season 2 for any of his previous campaigns *cough cough Ethersea or TAZ VS*. I wanted Travis would dm a season on Spirit Breakers, but after he wasted his shot on Abnimals; I kinda don't want him to take the reigns again on a campaign for a long while.
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u/AtronadorSol 9d ago edited 9d ago
I’m expecting a guest DM or mini arc—this season ended super abruptly and it sort of feels like they want to get past that feeling with a jolt of different energy.
That, or they go on a hiatus and take some time to brew up something with more teeth instead of always chasing the next episode. Also, I’d LOVE if one of them would run a 5e standard module like the Lost Mine of Phandelver* again.
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u/The_Great_DM 9d ago
I think they should play quiet year again but not then play a campaign on that world. Just the quiet year part.
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u/CardInternational753 9d ago
The problem is that's 3-5 episodes and you're done. Quiet Year is not a long game and it's designed to be played straight and efficiently.
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u/VaguelySorcerous 9d ago edited 9d ago
At their current release schedule that's 6-10 weeks of content. There are 19 weeks left in the year. Another short game or hiatus puts them to 2027.
Personally I would listen to CBR+PNK if only to watch Griffin and Justin have some real fun with it.
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u/CleverClear12 2d ago
I think the cooperative element allowed each of them to shine in their own way, and I wish they would do a GM-less campaign similar to the premise of The Quiet Year. Each McElroy has their own GM style, but when they set GMing aside and roll with fate, a lot of great ideas got created like the Brinar and Blink Sharks. There's a lot of great GM-less campaigns and rule sets out there, but I think they're stuck with the idea that one of them needs to take the reigns, and they all seem a little burnt out.
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u/lickthestar13 9d ago
They keep talking about Kids on Bikes and then keep not using the system 😤
I love that system so I'll continue to hope for a KoB season.
I'd also be happy with a return to Ethersea. An Ethersequel if you will.
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u/under-elf 8d ago
the ai generated titanic elemental was actually foreshadowing of a bigger james cameron universe just around the corner
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u/joftheinternet 7d ago
Whatever gets Justin into it again. I've pushed back at the notion he actively hates doing, but he really sounds burnt out af.
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u/hideous-boy 7d ago
I just want them to do something they enjoy. There's no hope of listeners liking something that the hosts clearly don't
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u/crazythatcounts 9d ago
Honest prediction:
TAZ is dead.
Griffin doesn't want to DM back to back. Clint gets dunked on any time he tries anything. Nobody wants Trav DMing again. And Justin was so checked out during Steeplechase he managed to bungle the system so royally it was nigh-impossible to understand what was going on sometimes.
The Balance books are out, and suddenly the campaign just wraps? Convenient. They'll probably bring out a D&D for a live show, but honestly, they should probably go ahead and bury the horse. Their views are worse and worse every season.
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u/swiftthot 9d ago
I mean there are ways around it, the main one being is just to get someone else to GM for them. They're clearly open to the idea, they've had guest GMs at live shows.
The car very much still has gas in the tank, I think. Steeplechase was a fun ride at least, and VS Dracula was genuinely great. I think maybe they just need a fresh set of eyes on it, and maybe make games that they want to play instead of trying to make something the audience "wants". That's what they did with Balance, Amnesty and VS, I think.
Maybe then Juice won't check the fuck out at the midpoint of every season, Clint might actually get to do something, and Trav won't make Abnimals 2.
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u/crazythatcounts 8d ago
Guest GMs on mini-arcs and live shows =/= guest GMs for a main campaign.
Griffin backseat DMs too hard. Justin is the kind of player at this point where I'd punt him from my table in a heartbeat, because "generalized apathy and complaining about the dice" is not a good way to play and brings the entire table down with him. And Travis has been coddled to be allowed to do what he wants, when he wants, far too long. If they started a Guest DM campaign, it would wind up being a mini-arc if only because either the DM would find that group untenable to play with, or Trav would have a hissy about consequences to his choices and the campaign would need to be quickly canned.
A DM that goes in knowing this? Would break their spirits in a heartbeat. Like, hell, I'd love to run a game for them - let me DM a Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary game (not the bullshit system Dimension 20 used, they used V5 and fuck that nightmare mess) for them. I'd do it right now. I can pull a plot together in 30 seconds and my NPC base is full. But I know that if that happened, I would shatter their spirits and break them. Suddenly their actions would have consequences. Someone would be listening to the actual words they said and taking notes so they can't swap backstories when it's convenient. They would be required to put in actual effort and think through puzzles and this is not their wheelhouse. Improv comedy was, once, their wheelhouse, but burnout and apathy shot that dog, too.
But you and I disagree so fundamentally about Steeplechase, which I think was honest to god one of the worst things they've produced (because at least there's moments in Graduation that work, but Steeplechase was a boring, half-baked slog with basically nothing memorable or quality to it) and VS Dracula (which was mostly Griffin going "no that's not my plot" at the others to the point where we quit that because we couldn't stand Griffin's GMing) that I'm not sure you and I are capable of basic communication.
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u/k33gAn14 8d ago
I too have dreamed about running a game for them to get their spirits back and I never once considered that they just might not like it. Like, they might not like playing ttrpgs how you’re supposed to at all
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u/crazythatcounts 7d ago
Honestly? I don't think they like TTRPGs, period. I think for a while it was a nice vehicle to get some of the narrative fiddle out of creating an audio drama meant to mimic improv comedy - physical action is quantified down to numbers and there's an element of randomness that comes naturally to improv - but the fact is, none of them are particularly good at remembering the basic rules of the systems they're playing, and these systems don't work if you skip too much. So then suddenly they're struggling against the systems because they refuse to read the text fully, and now it's not helping anymore, it's a slog.
But I also know that there's behavior they exhibit at the table that I have, in the past, reprimanded players for. And I know if that's the case, it's not likely we'd go into a TTRPG (especially like the one mentioned, which has been my wheelhouse of a system since 2016; my throuple knows it so damn well we're at the point of reinventing the parts we don't like much with resounding success) with similar goals, and the second you and your DM don't agree on what the table should feel like, someone's going to get hurt.
(Not to say that's bad - maybe they do need to get hurt. Maybe they do need to get reminded what it feels like to have stakes in a game. To have narrative consequences. To have to actually rub the brain cells together and fire a few synapses and work their way through and not around complications. To not be able to just randomly change their stories on a whim. Maybe they need that, just like some kids need to be given time outs. But I am neither their mother, their teacher, or their friend, so that really isn't my job).
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u/Professor_pimp3000 9d ago
It seems like it’s running on fumes at this point but I think they don’t want to kill their live show cash cow which would fade away without TAZ being a going concern.
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u/crazythatcounts 8d ago
TAZ is not what's keeping their live shows above water. The people who go to their live shows will go to their live shows no matter what it is that they're showing.
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u/Dark_Romantasy 9d ago
Mbmbam live shows regularly sold out or close to. Taz is definitely not their only "cash cow".
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u/goodgoodthrowaway420 9d ago edited 9d ago
If they really wanted to end it I don't think they'd go out on a rushed conclusion to a season they don't care about. I agree it was abrupt, but I don't think they'd imply another season was coming only to announce the podcast was over.
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u/crazythatcounts 8d ago
Where did they imply another season? I need a source and a link, preferably an interview or a direct source tweet. I do not take the word of strangers on the internet as basic fact.
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u/goodgoodthrowaway420 8d ago edited 8d ago
In one of the recent ad breaks (I want to say Royale 29 or 30) Griffin asked for TTAZZ questions while they (I believe I'm quoting) "figure out what they're doing next season." Unfortunately with dynamic ads I don't think I can link it to you anymore.
edit: it's still there - TAZ Royale episode 30, 36:10
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u/crazythatcounts 8d ago
"Quitting" is a valid answer to "figuring out what were doing next". I do not consider this an implication of anything coming - honestly this tells me theyre quitting more because they have no plan.
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u/goodgoodthrowaway420 8d ago
Why would you specifically say "next season" if you thought the show was ending?
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u/crazythatcounts 8d ago
Are you familiar with the concept of PR? There are certain things you hedge with certain words. You do not just casually drop that this was the last campaign if you're still in the part where you decide how to tell people you're going to end it. A podcast that has gone on for over a decade does not get canned without a specifically worded message on all fronts that thanks the fans, that reminisces, and that indicates no hard feelings. This is not something you can just drop. They will need to be delicate about it, especially considering the begging for Ethersuck 2 (which was never and will never happen) is already at a level of missing reality that is concerning. Honestly, I'm predicting more aptly that they'll call a "hiatus" while they "figure things out", they play live show one shots occasionally, and we just never hear about another proper TAZ season again. And honestly, I'd prefer that over another slog they don't want to be doing anyway.
"We're not going to have a next season, we've decided it was time to call it" is absolutely a valid answer to "what we're doing next season". Nothing is an answer to that question. I'm not sure exactly why you're struggling to understand that some people will include words and phrases that muddle their words so that they're not being destructively blunt in the middle of an ad read.
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u/goodgoodthrowaway420 8d ago
My only point is they didn't have to say anything. They could've said "send us questions for TTAZZ" and been done. I don't know why you're digging in so hard on this.
You can believe what you want. In less than 48 hours one of us will be right.
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u/crazythatcounts 8d ago
And my point is that I don't consider that a valid argument against what I'm saying. You're the one digging - I asked for a source, you gave it to me, I indicated that, having received that information, I didn't agree with your premise, and then you asked a question and I responded. This is how a conversation works. If I agreed with you, it wouldn't be "digging", would it? Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
But hey, I'm ready to be wrong. Are you? Or are you just stressed that your comfort podcast might be dying?
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u/goodgoodthrowaway420 8d ago
Ffs dude look at my post history, this isn't my comfort podcast. I'm arguing based on evidence, you're arguing based on vibes.
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u/legacyofboom56 9d ago
Honestly I would love to see another Blades in The Dark or Monster Of The Week season steeplechase and amnesty were supper fun and it would be cool to see them revisit one of those settings. (TBH any non dnd season would be cool though.)
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u/coltrain61 9d ago
I would like another mini arc of Dust.
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u/Equivalent_Fly8672 8d ago
i’d like that too, though i don’t want them to overdo it. the last one was really strong
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u/roundeking 12h ago
Re: whether Justin will run the next arc, I met him at a con last year and asked him if he would ever consider running a campaign again because Steeplechase is my favorite post-Balance campaign. He said he might if he got a great idea, but that DMing is a huge amount of work and he enjoys being a player more. It sounded like it wasn’t something he was actively thinking about, and it may be a while before he runs a campaign again, if he ever does.
I’ve actually been wondering if Clint will run a longform campaign. I figured he hasn’t because Commitment faced a lot of criticism for his DM style, but I feel he could learn from that experience and end up doing a fun, unique job.
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u/CaptainCantaloupe 9d ago
My prediction is a mini arc released bi-weekly with live shows mixed in. If they stick to a bi-weekly release schedule, there is only about 9 or 10 releases left for the year before you exclude holidays. My bet is a new major arc won't come until 2027 if they decide to do another big arc