#A Court of Fey and Flowers is the best show i've seen in years | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

basiliskonline · 10 months

Text

I just finished a Court of Fey and Flowers by @dimension20official, it was absolutely amazing, hands down the best AP I have ever seen, or imagine I might see.

You can find it here.

As someone that is strongly anti-D&D 5E and Anti Wizards of the Coast, it took me a long time to give dimension 20 a chance, and I will strongly suggest that anyone in that same position give it a shot.

I am gonna talk about it below the cut here, cause this will likely be long, this will be things I both liked and didn't like.

So i'm gonna talk abit about my feelings and experience with games and APs, because we're all different, we all like different things in a TV Show and by extension those variable preferences would also expand to APs. So I want to give you a little bit of information about where I stand as I explain my thoughts. Sorry if this gets very SEO Recipe lmao.

If you don't care about all that, skip to the next bold line, however if you are gonna comment or argue or whatever, at least read the context first and then probably don't do that.

I've been gaming for 30+ years, I started very early, and i've played definately dozens, probably hundreds of different games. D&D doesnt even rank in that list, I didn't like it much as a kid, when i grew up and it was 3/3,5 I hated both it and pathfinder with a passion. I played 5E for a bit but its lackluster and very poor design led to a game of boring mechanical options and choices that quickly grew old. And if I was gonna play a narrative game, i wouldn't be playing D&D in the first place. 4E is the only edition of D&D I've actively enjoyed.

I was an immense Critter during Campaign 1 and partway through Campaign 2. Like... "my wife and I have Critical Role quotes engraved on our wedding bands" critters.

But I quickly fell away from both Critters and Critical Role, by and large Critters is the worst fandom ive been apart of (and I was a SuperWhoLock back in the day) and the CR cast talks a lot of nice ideals and backs them up with absolutely nothing but lip service. I am now, tbh, somewhat uncomfortable when I see any of them on my timeline.

Dimension 20 is the first AP my wife and I have tried to watch since CR (we find most APs to be unwatchtable in most situations, just our own preference), My wife was curious about seeing Brendan as a DM after watching him on Game Changer, so we watched Mice and Murder (it was fun, and good, but has NOTHING on aCoFaF), and then on a suggestion moved to watch aCoFaF).

Last piece of the puzzle, WotC is a fucking nightmare company that has harbored some of the worst pieces of trash imaginable (though tbf that is not unique to them, its a major "large/old ttrpg company issue". And I quite frankly would love to never have to hear or see about anything wotc ever does ever again, preferably because they burned down and everything they ever made goes with them (this sadly means I would lose 4E but sacrifices must be made).

Things I like about a Court of Fey and Flowers

The first thing I love about it, is its a very role play heavy AP, and it centers on matters of Political fey intrigue, and that is done so masterfully by every single player and by the GM. (I absolutely avoided D20 because of the DnD/WOTC connection, but I in retrospect absolutely understand the whole "Season of Aabria" that was going around now).

The characters were thrilling, dramatic, sneaky, nuanced and hilarious, and the storyline was gorgeous and beautifully made, allowing the players to make their own messes and their own relationships and romances. So much romances.

I absolutely loved that I didn't have to see dnd 5e be played most of the time. This is something, and one of the only somethings, you'll see me talk about in the "don't like" section, so it is strangely enough both. The system was changed and mostly ignored that I almost never had to see dnd played, the AP is so heavily social and rp and during the state of the AP only had two very very short combats that were more priority on the social implications of the combats than the combat itself. Overall it could have used any system and done what they did, but mostly I didn't have to see 5E played and that made it pretty solid, despite "being 5E".

I also love Brennan Lee Mulligan's Captain KP Hob, a very good bab and the first and only Bugbear PC ive seen in an AP (and I love me some Bugbear)

Thing's I didn't like about a Court of Fey and Flowers

This is gonna stay light, because really there wasn't much. The only thing really is that the system, while ostensibly "5E" the system was so lightly applied, used or stuck to that the game could have used almost literally any other system to better affect and I absolutely hate that they still gave 5E and WOTC some sort of props/bandwidth by barely using the system but still selling it as DnD.

#Dimension 20 #a court of fey and flowers #dnd hate tag #actual play #mine #ttrpg

34 notes · View notes

math-is-magic · 2 years

Note

So what is your media obsession du jour? :)

OMG. No one has ever actually asked me this before, and that's been the tag on my blog for years.

Okay, so the Big answer to that question is probably Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS) AKA The Untamed. That's been my primary fixation for like, 2 years now. Look at either of those tagged on my blog and you will find ENTIRELY too many posts reblogged. It's a chinese "boy love" xianxia (like, magic swords/spirit fighting) story that you can consume as a book, any of three TV shows (animated, aniamted chibi shorts, live action on netflix), a comic, or a radio drama.

It's a beautiful story about war and politics and love and loss and grief and family and Doing What's Right and power and corruption all wrapped up in magic around my FAVORITE couple. Seriously if you love mutual pining and unwavering devotion and angst and sacrifice and miscommunication and a love that makes two people the best versions of themselves, you should give it a try. And if you like kinky sex you should give the book or its fanfic a try. The show's the most accessible. Give it a couple episodes though. It infamously leaves the first impression of "wow this is trash why are y'all so obsessed with this" until it hooks you and never lets go. Overall plot is 1/3 love story, 1/3 magic murder mystery, and 1/3 flashbacks of all the politics and tragedy and magic that got them to this place.

The smaller answer that's more accurate to the 'Du Jour' would be Brennan Lee Mulligan and friend's Dungeons and Dragons games. Just finished Exandria Unlimited: Calamity (All four episodes are on youtube for free. It's short but packs a punch as some of the best Dnd I've ever seen) and am going to start Dimension 20's A Court of Fey and Flowers this weekend!

#mdzs #d20 #brennan #exu calamity #ask #me #really tickled someone asked #found the spoons to really ramble #happy to answer more specific questions if anyone's interested in any of this #but i don't wanna ramble if no one actually cares #after i got such a nice ask

11 notes · View notes