Giant Bomb Unplugged

I honestly don't think I've ever been more excited about a GB feature. That being said, if this ends up being a recurring show, what would you like to see the GB crew tackle?

Pathfinder? Pathfinder?

sweet jesus this will be beautiful

I would love to see some intense board games. The Doom board game is great.

Yeah, I'm real excited too. Can't wait for next thursday!

I missed something, what the hell is happening??

@csl316: MTV is going to be airing a live Giant Bomb acoustic show.

The idea of watching them try to play Pathfinder sounds amazing.

@jjweatherman: Sweet, finally!

Dear god. THIS IS GOING TO BE GLORIOUS. Anybody have any early guesses on which classes the bomb squad members will roll up?

I suspect (and hope) it becomes something like the Fortune Street TNT: a long yet engrossing few hours.

I didn't learn much in my brief stint as a professional game designer, but I was taught that playing board/card games and understanding why they were fun was of paramount importance for a game designer in any field. Comparatively speaking, board games generally don't have all the bells and whistles of a video game and therefore must rely on tight design in order to be successful. I hope it's an enlightening experience for them, as well as hilarious for us.

I'm so damn excited! I can't wait to see who plays what and how deep they RP.

Pretty much described in this Extra Credits episode as well.

Awesome. Hopefully it's a recurring feature.

I am also very much looking forward to this. Ever since the idea presented itself to them. However, I think we'll see a smattering of RP amongst whoever is playing. Some people just aren't into it and others lose themselves in it. This factor will only add to the entertainment value of the event.

Apparently you all know something I don't, what's going on?

Here's what I see for classes:

Dave: Wizard

Vinny: Fighter

Brad: Cleric

Drew: Rogue

With Rorie as DM and Jeff glaring from across the room while playing a "real" game.

Space hulk?

Space hulk

I wonder if Rorie is DMing and if he'll look over the adventure/rules beforehand or if they'll just stagger through the whole thing with no prep at all. The latter would be pretty funny, but I think they'd all have more fun if they were a little prepared. Pathfinder and other tabletop RPGs can get bogged down if people start flipping around for rules, even the simplified rules that the Beginner Box has.

@the_vein: If Brad's the healer, they're all fucked. Unless getting bored, checking twitter, and nodding off somehow play into his character.

@joshwent: You must not play a lot of D&D--its pretty typical for the cleric to be at the bottom of the initiative, bored, and then ask who needs a heal on his turn, channel energy, and then go back to twitter.

I guess barbarians/fighters have the same stereotype, except with power attacks instead of heals.

@joshwent: So like the healer in every party ever?

I just hope they have a good enough time to keep the tabletop RPG train rolling. Weekly Pathfinder would be awesome. I'd happily send them the Core rulebook/bestiary to keep it going.

@jeffrud: @the_vein: When I WAS A CLERIC, I tore that shit up! Although, I didn't have a smartphone at the time...

They are streaming a D&D game (well a varient of anyway). Old school pen and paper - hence unplugged.

I'm already watching Rollplay and the official D&D live stream they do on some Fridays as it is. So a third one can be really fun. I just hope these guys take it somewhat seriously and this doesn't turn into one long video of them saying how dumb it is over and over.

I'm not usually a fan of watching other people play D&D. I mean, I like playing it myself, and the Acquisitions Incorporated games put on by Wizards of the Coast and Penny Arcade and endlessly entertaining, but it really takes the right people with the right amount of enthusiasm to keep the game from being both boring to play and boring to watch. I guess that's what I'm worried about. A lot of the Giant Bomb staff haven't ever seemed too keen on the idea, and that can really quickly turn into just not being into it, which then makes the game boring.

All that said, I had a great time watching everyone go from slightly interested to being goddamned miserable when they played Fortune Street, so hey, maybe this'll be like that.

So, looking at the What's coming up on Giant Bomb section, it might be time to become a premium member again.

Edit: Aaaand, done.

I'm gonna be optimistic about it. I believe Rorie has played his share of pen and paper RPGs and can probably do a decent job as DM. Vinny is the eternal optimist and generally willing to give stuff a proper go, even if he doesn't know anything about the game and is the likely candidate for the "Jim Darkmagic" of the group. I can see Drew coming at it with the right approach too. If they could get Dave to come in to participate, that would be perfect. Brad could go either way, but if he's not in to it, he'll probably just keep quiet and not be too disruptive. Jeff seems like the one likely to rip on it etc, but if he's the only one doing it, that could be a welcome thing too, could make it funnier.

Either way, I'm excited for the feature and I really want to play some more D&D now :(

@sharkethic: Thanks, hope you enjoy!

Vinny's gonna sing Rape Me, and then yell cunt.

I am so bummed my subscription is ending before this D:

Too broke to re-up? If so, that sucks.

@greggd: "What, did I go too far?"

I'm excited and doubly excited that I will be home from work by then and able to watch live!

I didn't know they were doing this, I'm psyched! I've wanted to play Pathfinder, but two people in our group keep changing what race/class they want to play, and haven't finished their character sheets yet. So we've been waiting on them for a couple of months now. Argh.

Vinny is the Lewis and Clark of gaming websites.

You're crazy if think Brad isn't going to choose the Monk, party balance be damned.

@bigdaddy81: I'm pretty sure there are no monks in the beginner box, but if he did go monk they'd probably be fine--Pathfinder doesn't have to be played like an MMO despite most people approaching it that way.

I'd actually like to see Brad as a monk with Vinny as a bard for support, then you free up Drew to play a paladin because look at him--he's obviously got high charisma and strength scores IRL.

But like I said, I think the Beginner Box is limited to standard fighter/wizard/rogue/cleric classes, if not I'd be very excited, though.

Man, seeing the amount of upcoming premium stuff makes not having a premium subscription look so shitty. The day they come up with a regularly scheduled free live show (that isn't just two dudes just talking to each other) is the day I resubscribe (mine was supposed to have run out a few days ago).

Jesus Christ, Giant Bomb. Are the meetings you guys go to forcing you to do nothing but premium live streams?

@rjayb89: Isn't the point to have good subscriber content so people give them money?

No.

@the_vein: Didn't realize they were gonna use the Beginner Box. I was hoping they would use the Core Rulebook at the very least. Maybe even go beyond that and bring in a Gunslinger or a Magus.

Feeling a little disappointed now, but I still look forward to seeing this thing go down.

We have to start somewhere! We'll do something more complicated once we get the basics down, I'm sure.

This should be really funny with Vinny constantly trying to break the game.

Brings me right back to the early days of premium content proliferation. Ah, the memories.

So, you're saying that when they "finally" come out with a regular, free show, you'll pay them money? Does that make sense to anyone?

Look, I'm not asking for more premium stuff - that's great that they're doing that, and so much of it. What I'm asking for is a regular live show that makes their live stuff worth it from the other side, and I am not seeing it at all.

I guess a Big Live Live Show Live would have been the perfect thing to sway users who haven't jumped the loop yet, but that didn't happen and I understand why. But now nearly everything live is premium now, from looking at today's upcoming box especially, and with the absence of I Love Mondays and TNT, it's much more noticeable. Obviously it isn't easy to figure out some sort of replacement for either one, but (96%) pure Giant Bomb is nothing but Quick Looks, Bombcast, and the sporadic mailbag videos, and that's free and I'm fine with it for now.

It's just weird looking at the upcoming box at this moment so packed with live premium content planned, and near-absolutely nothing for free members.

This is great news.

I'm happy to see a bunch of premium stuff on the site, it makes paying this subscription worth it.

@rorie: Good to know!

I was only concerned because I am in the process of learning the Pathfinder ruleset myself and watching you guys play the Core game would have gone a long way towards my understanding of it. I cut my tabletop teeth on DnD 4E and I'm finding Pathfinder to be a bit more of a challenge to wrap my head around.

@bigdaddy81: Beginner Box isn't that simplified, I think the main changes are a consolidated skill list, easier to understand attack of opportunity rules, less combat maneuvers like grappling, and a limited class/feat/spell selection. The main thing the BB is for is introducing people to the game and presenting them with easy to understand rules and objectives with lots of big, pretty character sheets and maps and stuff so it doesn't look as scary as a bunch of numbers on loose leaf paper. If you're trying to learn Pathfinder/3.5 D&D I think watching them play the BB would help more than it hurts.