Magnus and Barry wake up at the crack of dawn just to jump into freezing cold water, and Taako, Lup, and Merle are just like “They must be going crazy or something. There’s no way that someone would willingly jump into icey water for fun-” and then Lucretia goes barreling past the three, yelling, “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU ASSHOLES JUMPED IN WITHOUT ME.” And the three go run to Davenport to say that all the humans they’re stuck with are certifiably insane.
Taako: Magnus put a damn shirt on.
Magnus: It’s not even that cold out.
Taako: It’s literally snowing.
Lup: Oh, babe, don’t eat that. It’s a super acidic fruit, it’ll dissolve your flesh.
Barry, confused: Lup this is a pineapple.
Magnus breaks both his legs in one cycle and the three basically invent street cross country skis to get him to move around and everyone else is terrified
“shouldn’t you be resting???”
“you think two broken legs will stop me?”
“IT SHOULD”
Lucretia: Humans have two sets of teeth.
Lup: you’re lying to me.
Magnus: Im gonna eat this blue glowing fruit I found
Davenport: You can’t do that, we’re two weeks into this cycle and you’re our security officer
Lucretia: Yeah, let Barry do it; if he dies, then he’ll just be a lich.
Davenport: No, no one is eating it
Barry: [has already eaten half of it]
i wish i could draw because i desperately want to draw the last exchange.
complete with ending on Barry freezing with half the fruit already in his mouth like a fruit goblin.
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.
[image description: two simple comics of characters from the adventure zone.
the first comic is four panels drawn in purple. in the first panel madame director, who is a tall woman with short hair, is show from the chest up saying, “it’s been requested that we display more artwork around the moonbase.” in the second panel she is gesturing towards a ‘Live Love Laugh’ decal and saying, “what do you think? will this improve morale?”. in the third and fourth panels taako, a short chubby elf with wavy shoulder length hair, has his arms pointing up with his elbows bent, and he turns around and walks away holding his arms in the same position. he appears fed up.
the second comic has three panels. in the first, which is drawn in dark blue, angus sits at a desk, madame director walks by in the background, and taako approaches the desk. taako says, “hey, angus! how the fuck are ya?” and angus replies, “pretty fuckin’ good sir!!” the second and third panels show madame director speaking to taako. in the second she says, “taako, it has come to my attention that you’ve been encouraging angus to use swear words.” she looks serious and taako looks surprised. in the third panel the director continues with, “…and it’s awesome.” taako interjects with “RIGHT?!”, and the director continues by saying, “we’re giving you a medal.”]
I’m honestly like super impressed with detailed image descriptions, like it not only shows a talent for like good descriptions and clear wording, but also dedication and love for other people, like they can see the image they don’t need the description, but they make it for other people and they take time and make it really good and that’s super awesome!!
Plot Designing 