Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m thrilled to be diving back into the adventures of Vox Machina, who most recently joined Grog in clobbering the shit out of the Storm Herd, and bisecting his Vestige-clad mountain of an uncle in the process. The battle against Kevdak saw our heroes united for the first time in half a season, flexing their powers as Grog resolved both his lingering backstory and emotional journey. It was a fine demonstration of how DnD’s narrative and mechanical elements can be harnessed to work in service of the players’ character arcs – of course, such a collaboration requires a player who’s interested in portraying a character arc, which brings us to the current conundrum of our irreverent Scanlan.
Scanlan has time and again been offered a call to grow into a greater sense of responsibility as a character, and has time and again resisted the offer to be anything more than an irreverent prankster. That’s a fine approach to DnD in a campaign where the players are intended to be static reactors to external conflict, but Vox Machina’s campaign is clearly designed around the player avatars overcoming their fatal flaws, be they Percy’s obsession with revenge, Grog’s heedless pursuit of strength, or Vex’s lingering regrets regarding her father. While most of the players have taken to this process with enthusiasm, Scanlan has time and again turned away from the brightly lit signs stating “character growth this way,” prompting the eventual introduction of Kaylie as a daughter-shaped representation of the consequences of his actions.
Meanwhile, I’m happy to report that my own campaign is again chugging along, with my Cloud-based player having recently triumphed in the final battle against their Sephiroth-esque nemesis. Though my initial thinking ran along lines like “how can I integrate my players’ desires into the narrative I have planned,” the course of our campaign has revealed a pretty obvious truth: player desires will always inform the most passionate and effective collaboration, so they should be built as centrally into the campaign’s structure as possible. With our next session coming this very afternoon, my mind is abuzz with further plans for paying off my players’ desires, but this intro has already run too long as it is. For now, let’s dive back into the journeys of Vox Machina!
Episode 11
“You came up here to sleep with your daughter.” “I had no idea you existed!” Not a great defense, Scanlan
“I’ll never forget meeting her.” Scanlan being forced to reminisce on treasured memories at knifepoint indeed feels like the only way to get any earnestness out of him. I really wonder how much of this was intentionally planned out between Mercer and Scanlan’s player, and how much was just the natural consequence of a player who’s perfectly happy to be a static chaos agent in a campaign that’s otherwise dedicated to evolving character stories reminiscent of long-form fantasy novels. The other players have been prompted, but they’re also self-starters; Grog’s player certainly enjoys chaos, but he also gets serious when it comes to the characters Grog cares about, and the experiences that sculpted him. In contrast, Scanlan has always ignored the “soft prompts” of characters lightly gesturing towards who he wants to become, and has only risen to seriousness when the sphinxes essentially demanded seriousness or death. He adds a great deal to the narrative in terms of comedy and overall party flavor, but his refusal to grow beyond a static clown has definitely felt increasingly out of step with the story’s overall progression
“Every moment with her showed me a new way to be happy. I’d spent my whole life looking for pleasure – I never thought I’d find romance.” Ooh, this is good stuff. Played correctly, this backstory could retroactively explain all of his previous refusals to commit to things, as reflections of his fear of committing and being hurt. It’s harder to lose things when you don’t take anything seriously
“I never got over Lea.” “That’s not my Mum.” Goddamnit, Scanlan. The moment I give you the benefit of the doubt!
Apparently her mother’s name was actually Sybil. You know what, this actually works better for Scanlan – he doesn’t get to wave off his actions with a lofty dream of eternal love, this girl’s mother was just one of the endless conquests he abandoned. This embodies how his careless actions have wrought major consequences far more effectively
And so Kaylie decides not to kill him, instead letting him sit with the full weight of his mistakes for once
Meanwhile, Vax is being led off in pursuit of more spooky raven shit. I’ve generally tried to avoid such exceedingly character-specific drama in my own campaign, sequences where all but one of the players just have to wait for that player’s personal narrative to play out. Our first campaign featured a number of one-on-one duels that left the rest of the party stranded and bored, so I’ve gone hard in the other direction perhaps to a fault, and generally let the whole party maintain some level of participation in each character’s personal drama
“Please, usher us into the beyond!” So it seems Vax is being called to become a psychopomp
“You don’t get to choose your part in the play, but a true performer commits anyway.” An extremely Scanlan phrasing of this realization, of coming to understand that you cannot simply run from everything that scares you. And a good beat for uniting him and Vax in this shared moment of supreme uncertainty. We’re doing it!
A lovely depth-rich composition awaits us the next morning, as the variable allies gather to plan their dragon battle. The shading and color design does a terrific job of integrating the characters into their background, alongside the general lack of significant outlines. The shot ably succeeds in its purpose of creating a sense of community and intimacy, important objectives when you’re attempting to make the audience feel like they’re collaborating in this planning session
“Say you just found out you had a puppy, and you tried to… sleep with that puppy.” Also excellent expression work for Pike’s reaction to this horrible metaphor
And now some lovely new backgrounds as Vax continues his mopy raven vigil. This really is a visually generous production
“I’ll come with you. I put you in this place.” Well, I’d say technically Percy did that, but who’s counting
Nice beat between Keyleth and Vex, as Keyleth’s acknowledgment that Vax’s new circumstances might be far more important than her own romantic feelings assures Vex that Keyleth would put her brother’s needs over her own desires. This is one of the things that watching Vox Machina has made me most eager to help propagate in my own campaign: reasons the party members care about each other, and not just the events that are collectively befalling them. This obviously comes down in large part to the players’ willingness to collectively rollplay without a narrative prompt, but that doesn’t mean I can’t find ways to make that easier for them, by offering prompts that might naturally spark conversations, arguments, or moments of camaraderie between the party. Things like making the party choose between paths that different party members might naturally prefer can hopefully prompt the players to articulate and contrast their characters’ goals, or make choices for the sake of their collective friendship
Vax following through on Scanlan’s advice leads to him sinking into an endless lake of blood. Tough arc you got there, buddy
“You must safeguard that beautiful moment when a soul transitions to a new purpose.” Ayep. Some more nice design work for the Mother of Ravens here, and a good effort in making this shapeless space feel voluminous rather than simply flat
“There is much to fear, but not death. For it gives meaning to life.” Honestly, this pitch has never really sold me. I’m personally more amenable to the fact that things simply shouldn’t last forever, because that path leads to stagnation, and never allowing room for new things to grow. I’ll take my turn at the spotlight, knowing that I am not so important that I should deny others their own moment
Regardless, Vax seems significantly relieved by this articulation of his destiny, which is ultimately the most important thing. Whatever path leads us towards a healthy relationship with mortality is the right path; cherishing what we have rather than obsessing over what we will lose is the only way to fully live
Grog gains Kevdak’s “bloodaxe,” and wisely checks to see if it has any strong opinions about blood or murder before accepting it
The show smartly skips past all the actual planning of their dragon trap, reducing it to one Percy gag while we focus on the emotional journeys. Planning for a major fight is actually one of the signature pleasures of DnD, and one I try to maintain a certain density of throughout my campaign, but it generally doesn’t make for thrilling drama to an outside observer
Percy’s trap holds the dragon for about one turn cycle, which is honestly pretty good! Nice attempt, Percy
It’s a tricky thing, balancing fights with all of these supplementary allies. The appeal of a fight where you’re one part of a grand war effort is worth pursuing, but it’s a surprisingly narrow band between “your NPC allies accomplished nothing” and “your allies are stealing the party’s glory”
This fight is definitely trending towards the “your allies accomplished nothing” end. Sorry, Storm Herd
Scanlan concocts a plan to get inside the dragon and leave an immovable rod, er, sword there. As clever as it is disgusting, a perfectly Scanlan scheme
And Done
Yeah man, fighting an elder dragon’s a hell of a thing. In spite of having two heroes stuck inside its stomach and one flailing in its wake, I’d say the party’s first round went about as well as could be expected. And in the meantime, we’re at long last hitting the Scanlan emotional development that he’s been so frantically avoiding, with the introduction of Keylie offering a source of responsibility and regret that he cannot simply run away from. This was an excellent entry for the party’s characterization altogether, with both major beats like Vax and Scanlan’s and minor ones like Keyleth and Vex’s weaving together to build a more emotionally united Vox Machina. Building Scanlan into a fully realized character without abandoning his inherent Scanlan-ness, and a gross-out dragon fight – a very generous episode!
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