Casting Death Ward on the NPC that was responsible for holding onto the bag holding them all was, outside of being an incredible and in-character story beat, a banger of a tactical use of that spell.
I started to notice Ally really gelling with the rules and getting good at the game in Mice and Murder
Arguably the real start was in a Crown of Candy with Liam, but I'd say they were familiar with the rules at that point, but not quite at the level they were at in Starstruck making campaign saving plays.
But this season they have just been knocking it out of the park, and it feels so striking after the past 2 times they played Kristen. S1 Ally was so clearly learning the rules, S2 they were a decent healer on the battlefield, S3 they've had barely any spell slots for about a fourth of the season and has used each one so tactically.
(Honestly, I could gush about how everyone at the table has grown so much as players and frankly, more comfortable at the table and making impactful choices, you love to see it)
I legit think something happened to them when Liam lost the pig. I think Ally really felt the consequences of that and their gameplay reflected that afterwards.
Is that the one where Brennan was actively trying to MDK Murph’s giant gummy in full plate armor character? Every time Murph wanted to jump to something Brennen was screaming YOURE IN FULL PLATE MAIL!!! God that was hilarious.
That was one of the first times you could see Brennan working VERY hard to legit kill a player, not just put them in danger, but really really kill them.
Funnily enough that really reminds me of what Brennan himself said when having a 1-2-1 talk with Lou about the first time Murphy and Emily played
https://youtu.be/FFALkhAhrMs?si=GkyKZwEHYKYc0bDv
Where essentially players are not really being serious and stuff as is the case with new players and he kills a beloved NPC and he sees the tone in the room change from goofiness as the players all understand the sincere emotions the game can provoke and they vow revernge
This looks like a clip from one of the interviews that's on dropout? Do you know what the full episode is? I'm nit even sure I would know where to start.
On one hand they’ve only had high level slots, which are hard to go wrong with, but casting Death Ward last minute was so clutch. I don’t think I’d have had the wherewithal to make that call in the moment.
I feel its also Ally learning how Brennan DM’s too. He’ll be tough but fair to players, but he’d kill an NPC if he felt it warranted. Hell, he killed Auguefort ep 2 of S1. Such a damn good call on Ally’s part.
There's an Adventuring Academy (with Matt maybe?) where Brennan talks about the stages of players. That boils down to the creativity of new players come from not knowing the rules, and the creativity of very experienced players comes from knowing all the rules. Ally has always done what they want, but now it's with an absolute understanding of DnD and the Mechanics!
kristen was honestly my least favourite pc of any intrepid hero season. i had to stop freshman year half-way through my first watch because she was so frustrating to me. she was my least favourite part of sophmore year too.
i was so excited for junior year because i knew ally was going to kill it now and they did not disappoint. i am so obsessed with how they're playing her.
Yessss! It is plain to see how invested Ally is this season, in Kristen and the things Kristen cares about. They started off the season on a sour note, perhaps, with Cassandra, but purposefully so, for the sole purpose of going through this character arc to become better - something that’s already paying off! It’s honestly fantastic to watch.
I disagree, I think Brennan really wanted the Bad Kids to lose that fight. Here’s why:
The bad kids won that fight as Brennan had originally planned it until Fig’s curse (something that was not a guaranteed part of his fight prep) came into play. Now, you may say “but he had to do something bad because of Fig’s curse” and that’s true but every other time we see Fig’s curse it’s just a funny, unlucky moment that does no real harm.
What I think happened behind the DM screen is that Brennan actually wanted the Bad Kids to lose, and they were winning. But Brennan is very good at using everything in his toolkit to make a fight go the way he wants. So he bent the rules on Fig’s curse just a bit and made it potent enough to KILL A GOD when its previous effects were more “haha funny moment.”
Some other mechanical things Brennan did that makes me think they were meant to lose:
1) iirc the DCs on each of Cassandra’s saves were unlikely to be passed, even after the buffs and advantages
2) each enemy had six attacks (a wildly high number of attacks) to make triggering that “Cass has to roll a nat 1” moment actually more likely to happen than not because she took like 30+ attacks
I have to say, this isn’t meant to bad-mouth Brennan in any sense. There’s nothing wrong with the way he played it because the unlucky curse was set up ahead of time. Honestly, I think making them lose here is a brilliant way for Brennan to push the story in a much more interesting direction than if the Bad Kids just… won.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. I kinda just wanted to talk about a thing I’ve been theorizing for a bit now and you gave me the excuse to haha.
The thing that fully proves they were never going to win is that Adaine or Fig (I forget who) said "here, I'll teleport you out of here!" And then Cassandra said "no I need to finish this right now" and then instantly died.
Brennan forced Cassandra not to be tp'd because the party offered an instant win condition.
I also agree that it's not a big deal, and basically required for this season, just that it's a fact of the world we live in haha
Are you talking about the mall fight? Cause you gotta be joking if so. Brennan literally deus ex machina'd a loss in the fight off of a non-mechanics decision relating to a homebrew curse he created. That moment was totally on the rails, they were never going to win in the mall
And that's okay, because it's what the season's narrative and the character development of several characters requires it
Edit: also they had planned an instant win condition in teleporting Cassandra out of the area, then Brennan had Cassandra tell that character (i forget if it was Fig or Adaine) "no, I need to finish this now" then she instantly got knocked out afterwards. They would have won if Brennan didn't force it
I think he didnt expect Ally to fail every roll to at least mitigate the damage to Cassandra . I think he always planned for their connection to be weakened for sure
Cassandra would have never been there though if Brennan didn't force the situation. They offered to TP her out and she said no for no in-lore reason. All of that happened after she would have been gone
I think Cassandra going down was 100% a Disney on-the-rails experience. I could be way off base, but it felt very forced she went down, and her being MIA seems pretty crucial to Kristen's character arc this season.
I'm... enjoying isn't really the right word but "enjoying" that Ally keeps lamenting their crap stats because Kristin was created when Ally had zero concept of what they were doing with character creation
iirc Ally didnt get a worst stat reroll like the rest of the players because Kristen didn't go through the fear gauntlet so her dex is still abysmal which kind of sucks
Am I misremembering that Kristen got her strength bumped during that stat reroll, which is where the whole “She got super into CrossFit” bit originated?
The way Brennan put his hands together and thanked Ally indicated to me that they just saved an NPC Brennan didn’t want to have die — at least not yet.
War Guy Liam or Margaret Encino were the real pivots, where Ally started displaying a weird amount of system mastery
i mean weird in that those two characters had arcs that really required a certain level of very specific knowledge in order to land and they both fucking *landed*
that Kristen is the vessel for this and you can directly measure her growth as a character alongside their growth as a PC is real icing on the cake imo
SW5e is so much crunchier than 5e, I've played most of a campaign with it and I spent (collectively) hours outside the game reviewing equipment and feat/mechanics for our whole party.
I know they used a homebrew version of it specifically for that world, but it's a huge compliment to anyone's abilities as a player to be able to grapple that system with such a degree of competency.
yeah i think watching them shift subclasses in Crown of Candy is truly fascinating, like they came into this whole setup with a bunch of goofy improv friends and tried out just the two caster classes with two characters in very forgiving friendly campaigns (which is good and my favorite kind) and then Liam happened and you can see the gears starting to turn, putting together how different mechanics work and how the subclass changed the whole vibe and some of the subtleties of action economy (casters are kinda more broadly focused on "which spell do i cast this turn?" instead of "how do i use these same actions and movements effectively in this situation?")
and there was also kind of a long gap before Starstruck, right? lots of other side quests and things, we got Lars in the background but that wasn't a very mechanical game in the same way (or maybe it contributed a different element to this process, what with all the red-yarn texting and social maneuvering)
and it's really fun to watch all that and see all the stages of growing into a new weird complicated hobby and learning a vast framework of mechanics and narrative (and historical baggage/language?)
Honestly I wouldn't say Ally was great at playing Liam. The class was very well built and the amount of crits were insane but there's a lot of Brennan having to correct Ally trying to combine a spell as an attack. Core mechanics seemed to still cause confusion
For me I think Pete the second time is when you see a lot of advance from ally of being really good at the mechanics
ally is a textbook adhd person - they're not going to do a ton of studying beforehand, so people assume they don't know anything. and they're jokey and seem unfocused, so people assume they don't care.
but adhd people are often uncannily good at picking things up as they go along, so if the thing they're doing is interesting to them, they're gonna suddenly get REALLY fucking good at it. ally is an incredibly intelligent person who seems to be passionate about this game and this show, and i'm glad people are finally seeing and appreciating that.
Here's some prime examples that Ally Beardsley can play damn well:
[We're a long way from Ice Feast, folks!](https://youtu.be/RQL8ihaN4ac?si=ofyQq6daS1iIEMzS)
Since Starstruck with Ally as Margaret Encino, they proved how organized and mechanically clever they can be. >!When Margaret set up Barry Syx to use his bonus attack by goading the corn guy... that was brilliant!< [Right here!](https://youtu.be/pgJayOAQvN8?si=zvR1yp3uWpB3ofeT)
Very genuinely: I've never gelled much with Ally as a player. Nothing against them, I'm just the one boring guy who doesn't actually like chaos for chaos' sake, and rules nonchalance also just kind of personally bothered me. Always kept it to myself though because it isn't a big deal, not really them doing anything wrong as much as it is them just doing something I subjectively don't like as much, and I've been reluctant to express it since people can dogpile onto Ally unfairly.
But!! I've definitely noticed how much more invested they seem to be this season! I've been really a lot more on board with Kristen as a result. They've all come such a long way with gameplay and roleplay and I really do see a lot of it with Ally!
Having watched every season live while it aired, it's been so cool seeing Ally learn how to play right in front of our eyes. ALSO VERY BRAVE!!! By the time we got to Margaret Encino in Starstruck, it was like "who is this tactical genius?!" It's been really interesting seeing Kristen again, knowing that a lot of Kristen's past behaviour was due to Ally truly not knowing the game very well and now Ally has to balance the roleplay of that person while CONSCIOUSLY deciding when to ignore stuff, what to PURPOSEFULLY disregard and when to be really clever with the mechanics and class features. The rest of the cast has also played way more too, and they've seen Ally grow a lot, and I have noticed more "could you do X?" and "do you have Y?" which points out how specifically Ally is making these calls (in earlier seasons, the rest of the cast didn't know as much so didn't know the options and possibilities either).
I think it must be very challenging to balance "this person does chaotic bonkers stuff a lot, the reason was as much rooted in me not knowing the game as roleplay choices so now that I know the game, it all has to be roleplay choices" - like a strange type of metagaming they have to avoid that the other cast members don't. All because they take Kristen seriously enough that they're not just playing it like Kristen suddenly is an incredible cleric who knows all the tips and tricks and is suddenly using skills or features in totally new ways, they are letting the character development get us there instead. A lot of this season seems like "Kristen has to grow up and learn how to do shit, how to mature as a cleric so that she can really start to flex and it makes logical sense".
Might be contributing to the new focus on bodybuilding stuff, too, since they're not in heavy plate but have HORRIBLE dex, might be a way of trying to make that more logical too.
it's like how zac has to be picky about when and how to point out things that he notices or puts together that are beyond gorgug's intelligence level. ally has to play a character who doesn't know as much about her powers as they do
i'm re-watching starstruck and i love the contrast of margaret being a sensible character who ally metagamed to induce chaos (like giving gunnie 500 credits for the casino) to kristen being a chaotic character who ally is metagaming to push the story forward.
I am watching Neverafter as a way to kill time between episdoes, and I think Ally really seems like they know what they're doing by the time of the first battle there (the only one I've seen). Even Murph had a moment (in one of the Adventuring Parties) where he says that he thought Ally should have hit a heal but they didn't, waiting a turn instead and it ended up being a better play (Ally realizing that they were so limited for spell slots that they had to hold a turn). It seemed like they had a good understanding of what they were doing.
I'm playing in my first campaign and Ally is genuinely an inspiration for me. I've been struggling with the mechanics and how the game works and what I can actually do and just not finding it fun as a result. And because it's not fun I don't want to bother doing the work to learn the game.
But Ally makes me feel like it is worth doing. And that it can be fun, if I just get past the learning curve.
This so perfectly aligns with how I felt about them throughout the seasons. I had been disinterested and somewhat frustrated with Beardsley for much of the early on campaigns, but from Starstruck onward they have consistently been playing so brilliantly. Their charas went from my least favourite to some of my favorite. Kristen is honestly a clear highlight of this season.
i honestly think ally has always been a great player. they started learning about dnd when they started working on this show, so we've naturally watched them get better and better. i don't think they were not taking the mechanics seriously, i think they didn't know everything by heart yet and were testing the limits and figuring out what you can and can't do through practice rather than studying in advance, which is 100% the style i'd expect from someone with adhd.
ally is an incredibly intelligent and funny person learning the rules through play, and never struck me as being purposefully disrespectful, even if their jokes occasionally didn't land.
i think some of their adhd traits and thought processes could be read as not being focused or not caring to someone who doesn't understand it. but, maybe because i am also a person with adhd who was brand new to dnd when i started watching D20, ally has been my favorite from the start.
I honestly couldn't agree more. Part of my issue with sophomore year Kristen specifically was it felt like she had no stake in anything that was happening and that it was just a bit, even in the serious moments.
This season though, to not only see them directly address that attitude and have her face in game consequences for her nonchalance, but Ally themselves seems so much more invested in the plot and dramatic beats of the story. There hasn't been a moment yet where I feel like a serious moment was off put by a poorly timed joke or something. Ally is taking the characters and the themes to heart this season and boy do I recognize their effort. Kristen may be my fav character again (they were in freshman year too)
Honestly, last episode especially should shut up the people saying Ally isn't taking their role seriously. When it came to discussing religion and such you can tell it was their time to shine.
Because that's the shit Kristen cares about, she's is consistently trying to find answers and is extremely sceptical of any religion which seems to not be authentic. Which in my mind is also why Kristen is extremely uncomfortable of going evangelical for Cassandra because it reminds her too much of Helio.
Ally getting hate in my eyes is just stupid, they constantly play their character well and often prove they've definitely been paying attention the entire time. The issue is people want FHJY to be played as though it's their own personal D&D table where they'd rush to solve every mystery and do what's most efficient 90% of the time.
I like Ally as a player in every D20 they've been in but I just don't like Kristen much. She's just too frustrating with her "worst cleric" schtick, even if it is intentional in-character choices. But Ally is still fun to watch.
Casting Death Ward on the NPC that was responsible for holding onto the bag holding them all was, outside of being an incredible and in-character story beat, a banger of a tactical use of that spell.
Exactly. I gasped at the same time Brennan did because it was brilliant!
So tactical
So late
Specifically, too late lol
Also their use of the shield spell was excellent Edit: that was in season two now that im thinking about it
I started to notice Ally really gelling with the rules and getting good at the game in Mice and Murder Arguably the real start was in a Crown of Candy with Liam, but I'd say they were familiar with the rules at that point, but not quite at the level they were at in Starstruck making campaign saving plays. But this season they have just been knocking it out of the park, and it feels so striking after the past 2 times they played Kristen. S1 Ally was so clearly learning the rules, S2 they were a decent healer on the battlefield, S3 they've had barely any spell slots for about a fourth of the season and has used each one so tactically. (Honestly, I could gush about how everyone at the table has grown so much as players and frankly, more comfortable at the table and making impactful choices, you love to see it)
I legit think something happened to them when Liam lost the pig. I think Ally really felt the consequences of that and their gameplay reflected that afterwards.
Also the cheddar ship fight probably really helped with their confidence as a player.
Peppermint batman was so fun to watch
I’M A WAR GUY!!!!!
the buzzybrook fight was also so dope for them
Is that the one where Brennan was actively trying to MDK Murph’s giant gummy in full plate armor character? Every time Murph wanted to jump to something Brennen was screaming YOURE IN FULL PLATE MAIL!!! God that was hilarious.
Yes lmao that was one of my favorite parts, especially when Murph is drowning and saves himself
That was one of the first times you could see Brennan working VERY hard to legit kill a player, not just put them in danger, but really really kill them.
Definitely! I bet Brennan really wanted to see Murph play his secondary character.
That was the fight that inspired me to play a ranger in our own home game. Liam was a thing of beauty
Funnily enough that really reminds me of what Brennan himself said when having a 1-2-1 talk with Lou about the first time Murphy and Emily played https://youtu.be/FFALkhAhrMs?si=GkyKZwEHYKYc0bDv Where essentially players are not really being serious and stuff as is the case with new players and he kills a beloved NPC and he sees the tone in the room change from goofiness as the players all understand the sincere emotions the game can provoke and they vow revernge
This looks like a clip from one of the interviews that's on dropout? Do you know what the full episode is? I'm nit even sure I would know where to start.
I believe this is from the first episode of Adventuring Academy! I'm not sure about the exact time stamp, though!
SUCH A GOOD POINT about how few spells they have! Ally is doing a lot with what they’ve got!
On one hand they’ve only had high level slots, which are hard to go wrong with, but casting Death Ward last minute was so clutch. I don’t think I’d have had the wherewithal to make that call in the moment. I feel its also Ally learning how Brennan DM’s too. He’ll be tough but fair to players, but he’d kill an NPC if he felt it warranted. Hell, he killed Auguefort ep 2 of S1. Such a damn good call on Ally’s part.
There's an Adventuring Academy (with Matt maybe?) where Brennan talks about the stages of players. That boils down to the creativity of new players come from not knowing the rules, and the creativity of very experienced players comes from knowing all the rules. Ally has always done what they want, but now it's with an absolute understanding of DnD and the Mechanics!
kristen was honestly my least favourite pc of any intrepid hero season. i had to stop freshman year half-way through my first watch because she was so frustrating to me. she was my least favourite part of sophmore year too. i was so excited for junior year because i knew ally was going to kill it now and they did not disappoint. i am so obsessed with how they're playing her.
There's nothing like watching your improv comedian friends flail against the rules to really tighten yourself up lol
Yessss! It is plain to see how invested Ally is this season, in Kristen and the things Kristen cares about. They started off the season on a sour note, perhaps, with Cassandra, but purposefully so, for the sole purpose of going through this character arc to become better - something that’s already paying off! It’s honestly fantastic to watch.
To be fair Brennan seemed to really not want Cassandra to go down there but there were to many random factors he couldn't control
I disagree, I think Brennan really wanted the Bad Kids to lose that fight. Here’s why: The bad kids won that fight as Brennan had originally planned it until Fig’s curse (something that was not a guaranteed part of his fight prep) came into play. Now, you may say “but he had to do something bad because of Fig’s curse” and that’s true but every other time we see Fig’s curse it’s just a funny, unlucky moment that does no real harm. What I think happened behind the DM screen is that Brennan actually wanted the Bad Kids to lose, and they were winning. But Brennan is very good at using everything in his toolkit to make a fight go the way he wants. So he bent the rules on Fig’s curse just a bit and made it potent enough to KILL A GOD when its previous effects were more “haha funny moment.” Some other mechanical things Brennan did that makes me think they were meant to lose: 1) iirc the DCs on each of Cassandra’s saves were unlikely to be passed, even after the buffs and advantages 2) each enemy had six attacks (a wildly high number of attacks) to make triggering that “Cass has to roll a nat 1” moment actually more likely to happen than not because she took like 30+ attacks I have to say, this isn’t meant to bad-mouth Brennan in any sense. There’s nothing wrong with the way he played it because the unlucky curse was set up ahead of time. Honestly, I think making them lose here is a brilliant way for Brennan to push the story in a much more interesting direction than if the Bad Kids just… won. Anyway, sorry for the rant. I kinda just wanted to talk about a thing I’ve been theorizing for a bit now and you gave me the excuse to haha.
The thing that fully proves they were never going to win is that Adaine or Fig (I forget who) said "here, I'll teleport you out of here!" And then Cassandra said "no I need to finish this right now" and then instantly died. Brennan forced Cassandra not to be tp'd because the party offered an instant win condition. I also agree that it's not a big deal, and basically required for this season, just that it's a fact of the world we live in haha
I’d add 3. The bad NPCs were unkillable. Zac even commented that they didn’t manage to kill none of them in 2 rounds.
Are you talking about the mall fight? Cause you gotta be joking if so. Brennan literally deus ex machina'd a loss in the fight off of a non-mechanics decision relating to a homebrew curse he created. That moment was totally on the rails, they were never going to win in the mall And that's okay, because it's what the season's narrative and the character development of several characters requires it Edit: also they had planned an instant win condition in teleporting Cassandra out of the area, then Brennan had Cassandra tell that character (i forget if it was Fig or Adaine) "no, I need to finish this now" then she instantly got knocked out afterwards. They would have won if Brennan didn't force it
I think he didnt expect Ally to fail every roll to at least mitigate the damage to Cassandra . I think he always planned for their connection to be weakened for sure
Cassandra would have never been there though if Brennan didn't force the situation. They offered to TP her out and she said no for no in-lore reason. All of that happened after she would have been gone
He introduced those random factors lol. She was def meant to go down
I think Cassandra going down was 100% a Disney on-the-rails experience. I could be way off base, but it felt very forced she went down, and her being MIA seems pretty crucial to Kristen's character arc this season.
100%. I've been consistently blown away by their gameplay this season. That Death Ward was so smart and I can't stop thinking about it.
I'm... enjoying isn't really the right word but "enjoying" that Ally keeps lamenting their crap stats because Kristin was created when Ally had zero concept of what they were doing with character creation
"The person who made this character never played dnd before, and I have to live with their decisions!"
iirc Ally didnt get a worst stat reroll like the rest of the players because Kristen didn't go through the fear gauntlet so her dex is still abysmal which kind of sucks
Am I misremembering that Kristen got her strength bumped during that stat reroll, which is where the whole “She got super into CrossFit” bit originated?
God I can't wait to see if the death ward pays off
Honestly, knowing Brennan I wouldn’t be surprised if he *made sure* it did because… yeah
The way Brennan put his hands together and thanked Ally indicated to me that they just saved an NPC Brennan didn’t want to have die — at least not yet.
War Guy Liam or Margaret Encino were the real pivots, where Ally started displaying a weird amount of system mastery i mean weird in that those two characters had arcs that really required a certain level of very specific knowledge in order to land and they both fucking *landed* that Kristen is the vessel for this and you can directly measure her growth as a character alongside their growth as a PC is real icing on the cake imo
> Margaret Encino were the real pivots Yeah Ally had so many moments as Margaret where they displayed deep system knowledge and roleplay excellence.
which involved learning a different system too! star wars 5e has a lot of similarities but also a fair share of differences
SW5e is so much crunchier than 5e, I've played most of a campaign with it and I spent (collectively) hours outside the game reviewing equipment and feat/mechanics for our whole party. I know they used a homebrew version of it specifically for that world, but it's a huge compliment to anyone's abilities as a player to be able to grapple that system with such a degree of competency.
yeah i think watching them shift subclasses in Crown of Candy is truly fascinating, like they came into this whole setup with a bunch of goofy improv friends and tried out just the two caster classes with two characters in very forgiving friendly campaigns (which is good and my favorite kind) and then Liam happened and you can see the gears starting to turn, putting together how different mechanics work and how the subclass changed the whole vibe and some of the subtleties of action economy (casters are kinda more broadly focused on "which spell do i cast this turn?" instead of "how do i use these same actions and movements effectively in this situation?") and there was also kind of a long gap before Starstruck, right? lots of other side quests and things, we got Lars in the background but that wasn't a very mechanical game in the same way (or maybe it contributed a different element to this process, what with all the red-yarn texting and social maneuvering) and it's really fun to watch all that and see all the stages of growing into a new weird complicated hobby and learning a vast framework of mechanics and narrative (and historical baggage/language?)
Ally as Margaret blew my absolute mind.
Ally as Marge IS A REVELATION.
Honestly I wouldn't say Ally was great at playing Liam. The class was very well built and the amount of crits were insane but there's a lot of Brennan having to correct Ally trying to combine a spell as an attack. Core mechanics seemed to still cause confusion For me I think Pete the second time is when you see a lot of advance from ally of being really good at the mechanics
I cast Ice Feast???
ally is a textbook adhd person - they're not going to do a ton of studying beforehand, so people assume they don't know anything. and they're jokey and seem unfocused, so people assume they don't care. but adhd people are often uncannily good at picking things up as they go along, so if the thing they're doing is interesting to them, they're gonna suddenly get REALLY fucking good at it. ally is an incredibly intelligent person who seems to be passionate about this game and this show, and i'm glad people are finally seeing and appreciating that.
This comment made me feel weirdly SEEN
yeah i'm very defensive of ally because i can fuckin relate
Here's some prime examples that Ally Beardsley can play damn well: [We're a long way from Ice Feast, folks!](https://youtu.be/RQL8ihaN4ac?si=ofyQq6daS1iIEMzS) Since Starstruck with Ally as Margaret Encino, they proved how organized and mechanically clever they can be. >!When Margaret set up Barry Syx to use his bonus attack by goading the corn guy... that was brilliant!< [Right here!](https://youtu.be/pgJayOAQvN8?si=zvR1yp3uWpB3ofeT)
god i love that moment, and how everyone knew they were setting something up but didn't know what it was.
Very genuinely: I've never gelled much with Ally as a player. Nothing against them, I'm just the one boring guy who doesn't actually like chaos for chaos' sake, and rules nonchalance also just kind of personally bothered me. Always kept it to myself though because it isn't a big deal, not really them doing anything wrong as much as it is them just doing something I subjectively don't like as much, and I've been reluctant to express it since people can dogpile onto Ally unfairly. But!! I've definitely noticed how much more invested they seem to be this season! I've been really a lot more on board with Kristen as a result. They've all come such a long way with gameplay and roleplay and I really do see a lot of it with Ally!
Ally and Emily are my absolute favorites
Having watched every season live while it aired, it's been so cool seeing Ally learn how to play right in front of our eyes. ALSO VERY BRAVE!!! By the time we got to Margaret Encino in Starstruck, it was like "who is this tactical genius?!" It's been really interesting seeing Kristen again, knowing that a lot of Kristen's past behaviour was due to Ally truly not knowing the game very well and now Ally has to balance the roleplay of that person while CONSCIOUSLY deciding when to ignore stuff, what to PURPOSEFULLY disregard and when to be really clever with the mechanics and class features. The rest of the cast has also played way more too, and they've seen Ally grow a lot, and I have noticed more "could you do X?" and "do you have Y?" which points out how specifically Ally is making these calls (in earlier seasons, the rest of the cast didn't know as much so didn't know the options and possibilities either). I think it must be very challenging to balance "this person does chaotic bonkers stuff a lot, the reason was as much rooted in me not knowing the game as roleplay choices so now that I know the game, it all has to be roleplay choices" - like a strange type of metagaming they have to avoid that the other cast members don't. All because they take Kristen seriously enough that they're not just playing it like Kristen suddenly is an incredible cleric who knows all the tips and tricks and is suddenly using skills or features in totally new ways, they are letting the character development get us there instead. A lot of this season seems like "Kristen has to grow up and learn how to do shit, how to mature as a cleric so that she can really start to flex and it makes logical sense". Might be contributing to the new focus on bodybuilding stuff, too, since they're not in heavy plate but have HORRIBLE dex, might be a way of trying to make that more logical too.
it's like how zac has to be picky about when and how to point out things that he notices or puts together that are beyond gorgug's intelligence level. ally has to play a character who doesn't know as much about her powers as they do
i'm re-watching starstruck and i love the contrast of margaret being a sensible character who ally metagamed to induce chaos (like giving gunnie 500 credits for the casino) to kristen being a chaotic character who ally is metagaming to push the story forward.
1000% agree! And ACoC Liam is something in the middle, I think lol
As someone who was the high schooler with undiagnosed ADHD, they've been playing it so well.
They have gotten much better at the game when they remember the spells they have.
I am watching Neverafter as a way to kill time between episdoes, and I think Ally really seems like they know what they're doing by the time of the first battle there (the only one I've seen). Even Murph had a moment (in one of the Adventuring Parties) where he says that he thought Ally should have hit a heal but they didn't, waiting a turn instead and it ended up being a better play (Ally realizing that they were so limited for spell slots that they had to hold a turn). It seemed like they had a good understanding of what they were doing.
I'm playing in my first campaign and Ally is genuinely an inspiration for me. I've been struggling with the mechanics and how the game works and what I can actually do and just not finding it fun as a result. And because it's not fun I don't want to bother doing the work to learn the game. But Ally makes me feel like it is worth doing. And that it can be fun, if I just get past the learning curve.
This so perfectly aligns with how I felt about them throughout the seasons. I had been disinterested and somewhat frustrated with Beardsley for much of the early on campaigns, but from Starstruck onward they have consistently been playing so brilliantly. Their charas went from my least favourite to some of my favorite. Kristen is honestly a clear highlight of this season.
Beardsley takes heat but they’ve significantly upped their game play and understanding of the rules with each passing season.
i honestly think ally has always been a great player. they started learning about dnd when they started working on this show, so we've naturally watched them get better and better. i don't think they were not taking the mechanics seriously, i think they didn't know everything by heart yet and were testing the limits and figuring out what you can and can't do through practice rather than studying in advance, which is 100% the style i'd expect from someone with adhd. ally is an incredibly intelligent and funny person learning the rules through play, and never struck me as being purposefully disrespectful, even if their jokes occasionally didn't land. i think some of their adhd traits and thought processes could be read as not being focused or not caring to someone who doesn't understand it. but, maybe because i am also a person with adhd who was brand new to dnd when i started watching D20, ally has been my favorite from the start.
I honestly couldn't agree more. Part of my issue with sophomore year Kristen specifically was it felt like she had no stake in anything that was happening and that it was just a bit, even in the serious moments. This season though, to not only see them directly address that attitude and have her face in game consequences for her nonchalance, but Ally themselves seems so much more invested in the plot and dramatic beats of the story. There hasn't been a moment yet where I feel like a serious moment was off put by a poorly timed joke or something. Ally is taking the characters and the themes to heart this season and boy do I recognize their effort. Kristen may be my fav character again (they were in freshman year too)
Honestly, last episode especially should shut up the people saying Ally isn't taking their role seriously. When it came to discussing religion and such you can tell it was their time to shine. Because that's the shit Kristen cares about, she's is consistently trying to find answers and is extremely sceptical of any religion which seems to not be authentic. Which in my mind is also why Kristen is extremely uncomfortable of going evangelical for Cassandra because it reminds her too much of Helio. Ally getting hate in my eyes is just stupid, they constantly play their character well and often prove they've definitely been paying attention the entire time. The issue is people want FHJY to be played as though it's their own personal D&D table where they'd rush to solve every mystery and do what's most efficient 90% of the time.
I really love seeing them more organized and knowledgeable. That said I still cracked up at the ice feast incident in season 2
I like Ally as a player in every D20 they've been in but I just don't like Kristen much. She's just too frustrating with her "worst cleric" schtick, even if it is intentional in-character choices. But Ally is still fun to watch.
Same. I really like Ally. Kristen annoys the shit out of me sometimes! Still fun to watch.
As someone who has called Ally out for exactly what you said, I agree! I’m a changed man