Friends at the Table Season 2 Discussion

So the final episode of the second season of Friends at the Table just came out, a tabletop RPG podcast hosted by our very own Austin Walker. For those who have not taken a listen to it and are interested, here's a great guide to look at: http://careydraws.tumblr.com/post/144810140520/the-space-tragedy-season-of-streamfriendss

Mostly I just wanted a place to talk to other GB folks about some of our favorite characters and moments from this season.

For me, I was shocked how much I grew to love Lazer Ted, I never thought I could grow so attached to what was originally such a throw away goofy character. The dinner scene with Cass really helped to make it sting so much more when we lost him. I also absolutely loved Ibex as a character. He made such a good complex antagonist, that in some ways I wish the conflict with him could have been played out a bit longer before Rigger really stole the show.

Shout out to @austin_walker for being just a fantastic GM, I maybe have never cared as much about a fantasy world as the one you and your team created. The music by Jack, one of the players of the game, is also just so beautiful and haunting.

The final episode was pretty intense. I had to pause it when Cass died, otherwise I might have started crying in public.

And yeah Lazer Ted. And the timing for Keith to miss the finals scene with Tower. And pretty much every other scene. I really like the first season, but Counter/Weight is such an achievement in co-op improvised storytelling. Like, I will probably listen to it many times in the years to come. I miss all the characters already.

The one criticism I have is that the faction game episodes felt kind of overwhelming. At the end of those episodes it was hard to remember what the different factions had done, and how they might affect the ground game. I loved all the scenes they did though. All those characters added a lot to the world.

I kind of feel bad about not being able to contribute to the community at all. There has been so much great fan art and I wish I could give something back but I'm neither a good artist nor a good enough writer to create anything.

It's kind of weird that I don't have anyone to share this with IRL. I just want to share this amazing thing with everyone, but "hey you should listen to 80 hours of this space anime RPG" is a difficult proposition.

I hope they do a post mortem (probably after E3 I imagine). Otherwise, I guess I'll see you in Hieron.

I haven't listened to the first season. Would it better to start at season 2?

Yeah. They are different stories set in different universes, and S2 is arguably the better of the two. Someone actually wrote a pretty good guide: http://careydraws.tumblr.com/post/144810140520/the-space-tragedy-season-of-streamfriendss

@cannonballbam:I would highly recommend starting with Season 2, and then if you enjoy that going back to season 1. There's some audio stuff in the first season that I think is much easier to recommend if you have already gotten invested in the group and their way of storytelling. However, Season 1 also has some just fantastic moments.

@almostswedish: Yeah, while I absolutely loved the faction game in theory, it was very hard to keep track of every single piece and player. I did think this got much better after they sort of tightened things up after the Christmas special.

All of this is so similar to the way I feel, which led me to be motivated to create this topic. I was also just curious who/how many at GB have given this podcast a listen, I feel it's popularity is criminally less than it should be.

The final confrontation was really inspired in both mechanics and cruelty and I loved it. What a season.

Really excited to see the higher production shift back to Dungeon World though.

Yeah, I feel like I learned two things from this season of Friends at the Table:

1. Austin is a mean person

2. When you are a GM, that is sometimes OK

Needless to say, I'm going to try to apply this knowledge to the game I'm currently running for my friends.

Overall, I was really impressed with Austin's style of running the game. His understanding of how the mechanics of the various games they were playing and his confidence in his ability to to weave together a coherent story of those random die rolls... It's really inspiring.

Austin is my biggest inspiration. I've stolen a ton of his ideas and the basic skeleton of the setting and am now MCing my own version of The Sprawl with my friends. I am sad beyond words that it's over. I finally get what people are talking about when they revisit a piece of fiction on the regular. I will definitely be listening through S2 at least once a year. Probably at least 3 more times this year.

Also I fucking NEED to be able to buy a big-ass poster version of this:

OHHHHHH MYYYYYYY GODDDDDD