queentrashgoblin:

I honestly think one of Griffin’s greatest feats in the entire Balance campaign was his writing of Lucretia. I can’t think of any other example where a woman- let alone an older black woman- is written as both entirely competent but also incredibly flawed.

She makes mistakes, really bad ones, but these mistakes are well intentioned. Her fundamental flaw is that she cares so much for people, especially her friends, that she doesn’t think to ask them for help. She is stubborn and prideful and often unthinking but ultimately she is selfless. She doomed herself to what she thought would be perpetual loneliness because she thought that it was the right thing to do for the greater good.

It would have been so easy for Griffin to make her into a flat villain, the kind of “I know what’s best for you, don’t get in my way” kind of villain that’s so common in media. But instead he turned her into a hero that’s earnestly trying, but failing. Her arc, maybe even more so than Magnus’ experience with the Power Bear, shows that true strength comes in being able to feel humility and ask for help. As someone who really struggles with allowing vulnerability to overcome pride, I just really connect with her and I’m really grateful to Griffin for not taking the easy way out when it came to her character.

abracafuckko:

I think one of my absolute favourite things about TAZ is that Griffin got to write a campaign in which the three free agents, the three moving parts that he relied on to make his story work, were the three people he knows best in the whole universe. People talk about Griffin’s story being ‘on rails’ but it’s not. It’s just that – unlike most DMs – Griffin can predict his family’s behaviour in advance in a way most people couldn’t hope to do. If he were playing with a different group, the story never would have turned out the way it did, but because he knows his family, he could fairly accurately predict the big decisions.

He writes a voidfish into the story, because he knows his brother is kind to animals, knows he’d never leave a sentient baby jellyfish on a planet about to get eaten, not even narratively. He’s not writing Travis into a corner, Travis would never consider doing anything else. He writes Taako a sister – a best friend, a twin, a soul mate – because he knows that Justin is a big brother to his very core, knows that his instincts will always fall in line with sibling loyalty and devotion, even when he’s playing an aloof elf who doesn’t care about anyone. He writes his dad into the trickiest position of them all – facing true horror, sitting across the table from the end of the world – and he knows that his father will respond with compromise and understanding, with love and joy and compassion, because he’s seen that grace in his father his whole life. Griffin was betting on those qualities that he already knew his family possessed, and it was the safest bet he ever made! Because they were amazing, and he always knew they would be.

lostsometime:

Is it possible that affecting an exaggerated voice of some kind is just Elf Culture in the world of the adventure zone?  because it seems like it’s not just taako. when the boys meet elves, talking in a natural register is the exception, not the rule.

with lup, it could just be “oh that’s a family trait,” but Magic Brian, Edward, and Lydia all have very similar vocal patterns. And Jenkins, who I almost forgot was also an elf until I relistened, has a different but equally ridiculous voice.

all i’m saying is, maybe taako wasn’t goofing when he said he was glad to hear magic brian “talk normally”

umbraastaff:

abracafuckko:

umbraastaff:

umbraastaff:

umbraastaff:

umbraastaff:

umbraastaff:

Sorry but nothing can possibly convince me that magnus was the only one to give his relic a dumb original name. for example, the gaia sash was originally called “pan’s waistline”

taako: here’s my relic

lup: thats a fucking rock

taako: yeah, exactly

magnus: that rock doesnt fuck

taako: you cant prove that

barry: so im torn between “animus bell” and “hell bell” or maybe “dead ringer”

lucretia: please, barry, do the right thing

lup: yeah barry do the right thing

[ID: a reply from tumblr user terezis that says: “um dead ringer is amazing WHAT” /end ID]

you know what you’re right. lucretia would have no reason to be against that. new idea: she was into the shitty names but changed them to be serious so that the old names wouldnt sound Weirdly Familiar to the crew (and/or she erased the old names with the baby voidfish so she couldnt use them at all)

temporal chalice: time cup

philosopher’s stone: a fucking rock

gaia sash: pan’s waistline

animus bell: dead ringer

pheonix fire gauntlet: fire punch (lup: you know, like the pokemon move)

oculus: davenport actually did try to call it the oculus, but everyone else called it ‘goggle’ as in the singular form of goggles

bulwark staff: wall stick 

This is bulwark staff = bubble wand erasure

You’re absolutely right I’m so sorry

passionatememes:

miamaroo:

just bought the flaming raging poisoning sword of doom at Claire’s

just found the body of magnus burnsides growing in the back room of Claire’s

taako-lesbian:

listening to the taz soundtrack is a great way to lull myself off to sleep and is also a fun little game i like to call Fantasy Costco Roulette