The McElroy Family of Products

[Nappi]

I also hope that the next big arc will be less epic and more fun. Hopefully, they will also find a game system that allows the players to interact with each other as much as possible. Griffin's system in The Stolen Century, at least at first, was really bad in this regard, as each player was forced to pick one general thing that he will focus on for one year, robbing the game of nice small-scale character interactions.

 

Also, now that this story is over, I hate the Torture Game arc even more. In my opinion, it contributed next to nothing to the story or the growth of the characters.

 

 

Overall, though, I really loved the series, and have a really fond memories of the arcs preceding that one. As I said before, I'm really eager to experience the new stories.

[Problem Machine]

Eh I gotta disagree with people wanting a more humor-centric TAZ. I think the humor was great as-is, and all the more so for being contrasted against some heavy shit. That said, I would prefer a move away from the 'epic' towards more personal stories, since the personal interactions and improvisations were really where the show excelled.

[Spenny]

They posted the first episode of Monster Factory: Just Like Art on youtube and its rapid editing has absolutely ruined the goofs for me.

 

 

[Nappi]

Just to clarify, there are several episodes of Just Like Art on Facebook already, because why would you ever want to be consistent with your platforms:

https://www.facebook.com/MonsterFactoryPresents/

 

There is fun stuff there, but I don't fully understand the opening and the cuts either.

 

 

[Gormongous]

  On 9/14/2017 at 4:36 PM, Nappi said:

There is fun stuff there, but I don't fully understand the opening and the cuts either.

 

It's part of Polygon's Facebook push, because social media, and Facebook's algorithms severely punish videos over 7-10 minutes. I don't really know why it exists, and I think it's a huge handicap on a formula that already works great, but whatever.

[YoThatLimp]

Yeah, I think we're supposed to get a full Monster Factory today, but not a huge fan of the 'Just like Art' series. 

[James]

Is the reason they don't also post them to YouTube that they want to encourage people to follow on both platforms? If so, they've done a bad job of letting YouTube subscribers know that they were even missing anything.

[Nappi]

I think those are limited time Facebook exclusives.

[Nappi]

What did you people think about Dad McElroy's Adventure Zone arc? 

 

In my opinion, of the main characters, only Justin's was actually funny or interesting. Then again, it took quite a long time for the characters of the first story arc to find their place as well. This was the first time that not using character voices annoyed me, especially with Griffin, since his character seemed to react to stuff in much the same way I imagine Griffin would out-of-game. It was refreshing to not have to follow a ridiculously grim and epic storyline after a long while, but I can totally see how a superhero setting would turn into exactly that eventually. Some (or at least one, namely the color/wavelength one) of the puzzles were presented in a really obscure way, but Clint would surely get better in that after a while. The serial killer-esque collages he made as the visual aid for the episodes were great though.

 

I didn't really get a good handle on the actual gameplay system. It didn't seems like a big improvement on the D&D system, but didn't really bother the storytelling either.

 

Between this and My Dad Wrote a Porno, I love how much needless business/institutional admin dads want to cram in their works.

[Problem Machine]

Yeah I don't think Griffin's character really found much of a hook, but maybe that could emerge naturally over a longer campaign. Magnus didn't start out as an interesting character, but he definitely turned into one. I thought Nadiya was pretty good though, it's fun to have a deadpan character in the mix.

[Badfinger]

IMO Fate is a good system for Adventure Zone, because the consequences of using the system are really flexible and spin out down the road in ways that aren't just damage points. It allows conflicts that aren't ended with death or an artificial interruption by story conceits. It allows open interpretation of skills and abilities to play to the creativity of the goofballs using it.

 

Plus the numbers are small and easy to interpret.

[Spenny]

I'm excited to see Arby McDonald wrastle.

[Roderick]

Last week I chanced upon the Pro Wrestling (whatever) episode of Monster Factory, the first one I ever watched, and I had to pause it because I was laughing to the point of hurting myself.

[jennegatron]

  On 2/13/2018 at 12:04 PM, Roderick said:

Last week I chanced upon the Pro Wrestling (whatever) episode of Monster Factory, the first one I ever watched, and I had to pause it because I was laughing to the point of hurting myself.

they've done i think 3 of these now (one with THE PEBBLE, a wrestlemania one where all of the creations wrestle and then a very recent one I haven't watched yet.)

THE PEBBLE is one of my favorite things ever

[Gormongous]

  On 2/13/2018 at 5:27 PM, jennegatron said:

they've done i think 3 of these now (one with THE PEBBLE, a wrestlemania one where all of the creations wrestle and then a very recent one I haven't watched yet.)

THE PEBBLE is one of my favorite things ever

 

Four, actually, because they have one where they make Justin, too. Despite the supposed robustness of character creators in games like Skyrim, I think the wrestling videos are the best of the stuff that Monster Factory does. "Christopher Christopher Christopher Christopher" makes me laugh until I ache.

[Roderick]

It was the most recent one. I was gobsmacked that they could individually alter every single tooth in that editor. We've come a long way since having a few wholesale replacement facial sprites to choose from.

 

Here's the video: