Lets Play / Something Awful: Dungeons & Dragons

A tabletop RPG called Dungeons & Dragons was an unlikely candidate for the Something Awful Let's Play forum, until a team of plucky adventurers arrived to take on a world full of not only dungeons and dragons, but also insane time travelers, dance offs, and each other.

The team consists, and consisted, of:

• Joey Hoofsz (Wolfshirt). A minotaur warlord and the leader of the group. He is unable to intimidate a room.
• Kensington R. Killjoy Esq. (PlasmaMan). A warlock, and sarcastic, demonic lawyer.
• Algernon de la Flor (Drakkel). A Dragonborn bounty hunter and the straight man of the group, who's roped into crazy situations.
• Miriam Webster (medibot). A tiny librarian obsessed with getting everyone to read.
• Asalyn (Lava Lamp Goddess). An angry paladin.
• Minerelle Orr (PoorWeather). A psion who enjoys mind-control a little too much.
• Bananaramawicz (General Ironicus). A cleric trying to be friends with everyone.
• Gibnaf Boneson (General Ironicus). A gnome bard wanting to be a hero.
• Sergeant Kodrinschreiner (PlasmaMan). A War-forged paladin.
• Tetrax (dave_o). A Drow Rogue
• Witch Bwoy (Also known as Ricardo/Jellybean/Frederick/Rudolf/Zodiac/Beethoven/etc) (PlasmaMan). A mute floating scarecrow wizard.
• And Detective Dobson: Minerelle's pet elephant.

The Dungeon Master is Syrg, who rolls with the punches and dishes them out as well.

The Let's Play started during February 2010 and concluded October 2011 (When the final videos came out), until Part 2 came out. Part 2 is ongoing, as of this edit.

The audio only episodes are available here.The opening post, additional art, and video episodes are mirrored here.

Sadly all the first season's video links appear now to be dead, with the audio only mirror (at time of writing) also being inaccessible. The first half of the first season is available on this youtube account thankfully, but as Syrg himself never put the second half, which he recorded, on Youtube, and practically disappeared from the internet afterwards, the chances of ever seeing the second season again are low at best.

Many of the people involved here are also involved in LP 13th Age

Have fun!

---

Tropes featured include:

• Action Girl: Syrg has a habit of making them show up, but on the player side, there's Miriam, Asalyn, and Minerelle.
• Aerith and Bob: The heroes include Joey, Miriam, Kensington, Minerelle, Gibnaf, Bananaramawicz, and Kodrinschreiner. This isn't even getting into NPC names, such as Thraxidelantis, which is embarrassing enough that Syrg just shortens it to "Thraxi" after a few jokes at his expense.
• Amoral Attorney: Kensington R. Killjoy Esq.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Fake Joey Hoofsvz eventually becomes this to Minerelle, his creator. During their final fight against him, Minerelle tracks her invisible creation using her "maternal instinct."
• Anti-Hero: As of recent developments in Paragon Tier, Gibnaf is slowly becoming a Type IV. To the point that the other players begin tracking up his 'anti-hero points.'
  • Minerelle and Joey were, of course, already Type V anti-heroes at this point, one being a psychotic, paranoid murderer and the other being amoral and gold-obsessed.
  PlasmaMan: I am going to murder this entire party someday, whether I do it with the righteous paladin or the scheming demon is all up to them.
• Automaton Elephant: To the point where Joey and Minerelle are seen revving the elephant.
• Axe-Crazy: Just about everyone on the team save for Bananaramawicz, Algernon and (arguably) Gibnaf. Minerelle is the most pronounced, however, killing one subdued enemy and making his head explode and trying to blow up a night club because she thought dancing was annoying. It's lampshaded quite often.
  Minerelle: Did you kill anyone?
  Kodrinschreiner: No, I did not kill anyone because I'm not you.
• Back from the Dead: Algernon in episode 88, although he may now just be an Improvised Golem constituted from the dust that his corpse disintegrated into. Notable in that he was the first in the party to actually, legitimately die in combat.
  • Joey and Minerelle as of episode 96
• Badass Bookworm: Miriam.
• Badass Boast: Two in quick sucession
  Avatar of Baphomet: I will wreck your God's throne and bring it to mine's level.
  Miriam: Expect pain in your future.
• Bag of Holding: Miriam carries one throughout Heroic Tier, but loses it sometime before advancing to Paragon.
• Berserk Button: For Miriam it's the destruction of books; for Joey it's denying him gold, and towers; for Minerelle it's apparently dancing.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Miriam is easily one of the nicest party members in general, but she seems to get the most badass moments in fights — and no, seriously, do NOT harm books around her.
• Big Bad: TECHNICALLY Apafi, as his plotline is the most prevalent and discussed, as well as the most pressing, but the party doesn't actually see him often Actually, at all. after he starts his master stroke. It's practically played for laughs, as, after the one year timeskip to Paragon tier, the first time Miriam decides to check on how much progress Apafi has made in destroying the multi-verse, Syrg has to be given some ideas as to what area of the multi-verse he has eaten...and ends up choosing a first level adventure module as the unfortunate victim of Apafi's power. It's lampshaded to hell and back as well, with Syrg sometimes using Apafi's name or goal as a joke, such as naming one of the paths in Kensignton's school 'A pathi.' It's implied however that Apafi may be the end boss, and he is brought up multiple times in the party as being considered a threat, so the jury's still out whether or not Apafi will stay the big bad. As of 93, Apafi's efforts and effects, and his own powers, have finally been seen: he is indeed eating the universe.
• Bigger on the Inside: The group has noted that a surprising number of things they visit are this. Including both wagons.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Funnily enough, Algernon's death comes immediately after he's begun boasting about his Strength score being the highest in the party...
• Blood Knight: When he's not busy complaining and seeking treasure, Joey, who revels in combat and has more than once responded to getting hit by shouting "I love it!"
• Brains and Brawn: Minerelle and Joey try to be this during Paragon Tier, conducting a hilariously terrible investigation of the town they're in while trying to sniff out a shape shifter. They aren't very good at it, due to a combination of some terrible dice rolls and neither of them being particularly smart.
• Blood Upgrade / Critical Status Buff: Joey has several attacks and abilities that trigger when he becomes bloodied including an aura of fire, extra attacks, and just straight up extra damage die.
• The Bus Came Back: Towards the end of Paragon tier, after many episodes of absence, Miriam Webster returns!
• Call-Back: Quite a few are made. When Joey enters an alchemy lab in the tower, for example, Asalyn and Kensington claim to be having flashbacks and immediately tell him to get out.
• Character Blog: Ask Algernon
• Chekhov's Gun: Comes up a few times with things the party finds. For example, Joey picks up a "lacy thing" from Thraxi's castle, which later comes up again when he uses it to pick up frictionless goo.
• The Casanova: Joey sees himself as this, to the extent that he orders a magic caravan to provide him with a 'sexy-times hot-tub' (which only ever sees use once, and that's for summoning a demon).
• Chew Toy: Joey comes off as this, especially early on, when he's the first one to die (though he gets better). It's clear that, though he's ostensibly the leader, he's not particularly respected among his party, which he himself notes when they mock his poor rolls after he threatens to hit the next person who tries to split the party.
  • Recently, especially in the Tomb of Horrors, Algernon seems to have taken over this role.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Queen Curiosity.
• Combat Medic: Bananaramawicz tries really hard to be this. A mixture of stats, abilities detrimental to attacking, and general bad luck means he utterly fails in the former and excels in the later. Gibnaf, fittingly for Ironicus' second go, does a better job at the former. Also Joey fits this to a degree.
• Combat Pragmatist: Miriam, who has no problems shifting book thieves into hell portals or dropping a 10-ton weight onto succubi.
• Compensating for Something: Minerrelle on why all wizards have a tower: 'it's probably a dick thing'.
• Conveniently an Orphan: After Gibnaf's parents are killed, Wolfshirt notes that everyone in the party is now either an orphan or had no parents to begin with.
• Cowardly Lion: Minerelle, whose main tactic in battle is to get as far away from the combat as possible and snipe at her leisure, and tries to run whenever things get hairy. Ultimately though she sticks with her party despite running into multiple other telepaths (her greatest fear) and despite the general danger. She's perhaps one of the most powerful forces on the table, who, despite being limited in HOW she attacks people, works REALLY well with it. Dominate has solved MANY problems for the team, Including turning a pyroclastic dragon, five levels above the party, with bar none the highest health bar and highest attacks, into a joke. She also stopped a possession, made an incredibly powerful shapeshifter by the name of Alfonso De Tambor nervous, and took control of a hive mind controlling dragon/bug hybrids. Cowardly LION indeed.
• Country Matters:
  Algernon: Let's set up shelter on rape street.
  Joey: Alright, I was gonna say something, but apparently Drakkel just went there. So nobody can say anything ever again.
  Syrg: CUNT.
  Joey: Whoa, whoa! Too hot for TV.
  Algernon: We played the R card and the C card today.
  Minerelle: I'm so alienated.
  Syrg: Let's Play Dungeons and Dragons––we swing dark.
  Joey: Let's Play Dungeons and Dragons––we didn't have any female viewers anyway.
  Algernon: Now we never will.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Minerelle is a character who relies on her massive Arcana roll to accomplish as much as possible. As a result of this, she isn't particularly useful in situations where she can't just throw Arcana at it till something happens. She suffers a bit from overspecializing in combat as well, since most of her attacks target the enemy's Will defense (and the one that doesn't was a fairly recent addition). As a result, whenever the party goes up against anything with an above average Will, she pretty much has no way to contribute to the battle. That being said, after Kensington and Bananaramawicz and Asalyn left the party, she filled the power vacuum of characters who attacked will, lessening this trope in a lot of battles where the party needed someone who could attack will reliably. Even when Gibnaf joined, most of his will save abilities were support spells, so Minerelle still had a major role to fill.
  • Downplayed a bit with Bananaramawicz; while Bananaramawicz himself had a wide range of applications on paper, (Healer, tank, ranged attacker, party face) the way he was specced made it so, in reality, the only things he came close to excelling in were healing and being a face, and even then, Kensington and Joey, the two characters most reliant on Charisma, made the fact Bananaramawicz could use diplomacy moot. This is downplayed like with Minerelle above because for a time Bananaramawicz was the only dedicated healer in the party, meaning he still had a use. Joey can also heal, but nowhere near as efficiently. The final straw that convinced Ironicus to drop Bananaramawicz was when Bananaramawicz became completely made useless on the face front with the coming of Minerelle.
• Critical Failure: Syrg plays by the "roll a 1 and terrible things happen" rule. For example, a failed arcana check turns apparently magical jewels into sugar. The results of bad rolls in combat tend to be even more disastrous for the party. That's not to say it's never worked in their favor though. Several enemies have hurt themselves or their allies after Syrg rolled a 1.
• Cross Player: Miriam Webster is played by the male medibot.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A few turn up, especially when the party is able to gang up on a single target. As a general rule, the party will inevitably complain about the difficulty of a fight and then utterly destroy it a few rounds later through a bizarre combination of luck and strategy.
• Cute Mute: Witch Bwoy. Plaz is usually creative with making sure he can communicate with the rest of the party regardless.
• Cute Sports Club Manager: Uthya the orphan, unofficial party mascot.
  • Also, Corgischreiner.
• Deadpan Snarker: Syrg, the dungeon master.
  Syrg: You may recall that the last time, our amazingly brilliant heroes decided, "Hey, a dragon nearly killed us. Let's take on the guy who tamed the dragon. That can't go wrong."
  Joey: He didn't nearly kill us, what are you talking about?
  Syrg: He was counting down to a breath weapon and you all fled like pussies.
• Dénouement: So many fights end earlier than they should and Syrg sulks as a result.

  Joey: Aww, don't be that way! We all want to have fun.

  Syrg: Oh, the wine and I are going to have fun alright.

• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Miriam while inside Baphomet's realm informs him he has no place in the negotiation between her, and Minerelle.
• Dirty Cop: Joey, when he spends the timeskip in charge of the Bonerton City Watch. The Paragon-Tier LP opens with Algernon walking in on him extorting money from Algernon's bar.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Minerelle tires of dancing shenanigans and thus tries to bring down the club the party is in. When that fails she simply explodes trying to take everyone in the club down at once.
  • At the same party, Miriam encounters a book thief who brilliantly decides to tear out pages from the book (in spite of the fact that said thief had recently witnessed Miriam delivering a rap-based smackdown on someone she had mistaken for the thief). Miriam's reaction is to beat her down. Hard. And then shifting her into a hell portal. Which really kills the thief three different ways because of the rules of the dance battle causing instant death should someone step off the floor. It's lampshaded by Joey and Syrg.
    Joey: It was kind of a small infraction to... y'know... push her into hell.
    Syrg: "It was kind of a small infraction to push her into hell." Isn't that everything Miriam does when she gets on a roll?
  • In Paragon Tier, Minerelle responds to having fun poked at her in a magic show by inciting a riot and trying to get the magician lynched.
• Do-Anything Robot: Kodrinscheiner becomes this more and more with each session, sporting rocket boots, extendable arms, a hollow shoulder where he keeps a corgi (named Corgischeiner), a roller index in his arm, a prison cell in his torso, millions of secret eyeballs under his helmet, an anti-Minerelle siren, and a radio.
  • At one point, someone comments that he's essentially Bender, in the sense that he has whatever he needs as the plot demands.
• Does This Remind You Of Anything?: Done intentionally with Minerelle's fledgling addiction to healing potions, which is treated similarly to an alcohol addiction. Much lampshading ensues.
  • A less humorous example would be Minerelle's encounter with Geoffrii the Shardmind, who demands that Minerelle give him a "piece of her" after she inadvertently makes it so that a piece of him which has broken off can no longer be put back on him. The scene ends up being sounding rather similar to rape, resulting in the video for that session being edited to cut out some of the more uncomfortable content. Syrg admitted in the thread that it was a terrible idea which resulted in much yelling and nearly had a player or two quitting, and as a result, most of the events surrounding it were rendered Canon Discontinuity.
• Draco Lich: The team sees one on Dragon Island, though they leave fighting it to another, much higher-leveled party.
  • Gibnaf, Minerelle and Joey also end up agreeing to work for one while Algernon and Kodrinscheiner look on in horror.
• Dumb Muscle: Joey, despite his class being more of a combat tactician.
• Earth That Used to Be Better: The planes, before the party kick-started Apafi.
• Enemy Within: Gibnaf Boneson's is GABNUB BONBUB.
• Epic Fail: Natural 1s turn into this thanks to Syrg. Joey even gets an axe that burns him if he rolls one.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Minerelle is someone who is perfectly willing to kill, lie, and betray for the slightest of reasons, but apparently draws the line at using sentient beings as property when Algernon suggests using a shape shifter locked into the shape of a sword as a weapon. Gibnaf points out that there is probably video evidence to the contrary.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Focus Tower plotline falls into this.
• Evil Twin: In trying to appease both her party leader and her evil god, Minerelle decides to make an evil clone of Joey, who can fulfill her evil god's plans, while the real Joey fulfills his own. Needless to say, it does not go well. Made even worse when an evil shape-shifter also decides to get in on the action.
• Evil Uncle: Gibnaf's.
• Fantastic Racism: Minerelle is accused of this after proclaiming a Kenku they encounter to be dinner.
  • After Bonerton burns down and his parents go missing, Gibnaf develops a burning hatred of all elves.
• Fatal Flaw: Minerelle's Cowardice, Joey's Greed, Miriam's Anger, Gibnaf's Idealism, and Kod's Pride. The former is particularly notable as Minerelle's strict running policy led her away from Joey and Kod, meaning when she went down there was no one to save her from being Killed Off for Real.
• Friend to All Living Things: Bananaramawicz, with his amazing diplomacy rolls, tends to turn the tide in favor of the group a lot by simply befriending the danger. Gibnaf is similar, being very friendly and outgoing to everyone that's not evil.
• Foreshadowing: Kensington's appearance in the Thalassa plot has Kod mentioning a school. Later, the party travels to the school where Kensington is principal.
• God Guise: The Ioun who claims he will target Miriam if the party do not return his stolen Index is eventually revealed to be fake.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Used against the ghost of an assassin, with the party using its body's severed legs as leverage (having captured said legs after they had attempted to flee). Joey plays the bad cop by trying to Intimidate him, Bananaramawicz attempts to roll Diplomacy for the good cop. Meanwhile, Kensington shouts lies at him from across the room with Bluff checks.
  Joey: "We don't need good cop, bad cop, lying cop."
  • While hunting down a shapeshifter in a small town after reaching Paragon Tier, Joey and Minerelle play detective while the rest of the party investigates a wizard's tower. It's noted in the thread that it seems like a good cop/bad cop situation where both of them are the bad cop.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: The clone of Joey which Minerelle creates. May still turn out to have Gone Horribly Right, if it succeeds in its alloted task.
• Greed: Joey, whose survival instincts flip off when treasure is involved. For example, he once got too close and personal with a dragon because it was a gold dragon, and tried to steal from a different dragon's horde when the dragon was right there.
• Hates Being Touched: Implied somewhat with Minerelle. At one point, Algernon tries to apologize to her after she gets pissed off at pretty much everything, resulting in this exchange.
  Minerelle: "DON'T TOUCH ME, ALGERNON."
  Algernon: "I wasn't going to touch you. I was just apologizing."
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Algernon. Entirely Algernon.
• Heroism Incentive: There is literally no reason these people should be travelling together, and some of them are constantly trying to murder/arrest/impersonate one another. Usually requires macguffins from Syrg to continue the game.
• Hidden Depths: Most of the Player Characters have an attribute or hobby that the other characters don't know about until it's directly stated or comes up. It's usually Played for Laughs when this comes up, as it often seems contrary to the character being played. For example;
  • Joey is surprisingly charismatic, shocking everyone when he's forced to make a charisma check at one point in the game. Being a warlord, this fits with his class, and there are times of rare lucidity on Joey's part that shows he's less of a bloodthirsty and greedy monster than he appears, but for the most part no one expected him to be as charismatic and personable as the Cleric who only cares about making friends.
  • As revealed in a lost episode between the two tower sections, Bananaramawicz has a wife.
  • Algernon has a sister that he clearly cares a lot about and his life as a mercenary gives him a few connections.
  • Miriam doesn't just know multiple languages, she has several proficiencies in linguistic studies.
  • Minerelle actually appreciates poetry, she just has a hard time understanding it.
  • Miriam, Kensington, and Joey all know how to cook. This is considered hidden among the party because it isn't until over 17 sessions in when it's directly brought up that Kensington cooks all their meals; Algernon's shock at this revelation causes Kensington to blithely state that Algernon's getting half rations that day.
  • This is even lampshaded in part 36, where Algernon is surprised to learn Joey likes tea, and Joey responds that there's a lot of things Algernon doesn't know about Joey.
• Hive Queen: Minerelle spends a session in Heroic Tier as the supreme ruler of a hive of dragon-bugs.
• Holy Hand Grenade: Miriam and Bananaramawicz have several divine- or radiant-based attacks, which come in handy against an undead reaper the party faces.
• Humiliation Conga: Algernon near the end of the tomb of horrors. First he got possessed forcing him to attack his party members, then threw off the ghost only to get re-possessed almost immediately. To fix this Minerelle and Gibnaf also take him over. Then he gets hit with a soul trap and straight up dies, only to come back as golem, and almost dies again.
• Hugh Mann: Minerelle is a Shardmind (a being of living crystal) passing herself off as a human through illusions, but she often seems a bit unclear about how biological creatures work and disdainful of what she does know. It's something of a running joke how readily the other characters accept her ridiculous behavior, although it helps that most other party members aren't humans anyway.
  Minerelle: "Eating is wonderful. It is great to produce saliva from your mouth and then put things down your throat so they can be digested."
  Joey: "I know exactly what you mean!" I give her a high five.
• Hurricane of Puns: A wave of terrible "bear" puns ensues when the team encounters a group of bears.
• Hyper-Awareness: Kodrinscheiner, with his hundreds of hidden eyes and massive passive Insight. It's implied that he's the only current party member who's observed Minerelle's true nature.
• I Am Not Weasel: Miriam gets mistaken for a gnome both in and out of universe, but she's just a short human.
• I Meant to Do That: Joey gives the party some buffs during an encounter pulled from Dark Sun, but Kod is left just out of range, only he recently received a fancy new helmet that just so happened to increase his range enough to buff Kod. Joey, of course, is quick to claim he totally planned that.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Word of God gives this as one of the major reasons why Bananaramawicz left the team and why General Ironicus was missing for about fourteen sessions; because of how 4e works, Clerics like Bananaramawicz had a hard time hitting with their standard range attack, Lance of Faith. Bananaramawicz could have instead focused on being a Combat Medic by pumping Strength or Dex, the two stats tied to physical attack accuracy...but anyone who knows Bananaramawicz knows that those were his Dump Stats.
• Implacable Man: Kodrinscheiner, thanks to his enormous amount of HP. He continues fighting a dragon even as he slowly melts atop its back.
• In and Out of Character: Often occurs, which the party gleefully lampshades. That said, it's usually fairly easy to tell what is meant to be in-character dialogue and what is just table talk.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Everyone drops a few here and there, to the annoyance of pretty much everyone, most notably Minerelle's name.
• Insane Troll Logic: Considering who is in the party, this is unsurprising. The pinnacle is probably somewhere during Joey and Minerelle's "investigation" into the shape shifter and later Minerelle's claim that a bird knows everything because it flies. Even Joey is confused by her logic.
• Inspector Javert: Kod fits this...sometimes. It's rather odd: half the time Kod doesn't take shit and will threaten arrest towards others for the smallest of crimes (Joey and Minerelle are very familiar with this) while the other half of the time he just seems to ignore problems until they swell up too much to be ignored.
• Insufferable Genius: Invoked by Joey when he points out that a wizard "sounds pissy enough to be smart."
• Interrupting Meme: Many a conversation follows this basic outline:
  Plaz/Wolfshirt: (witty pun)-
  Syrg/Plaz: UGGGGGGGGGGGH
• Ironic Fear: Minerelle, who will invade the minds of anyone around her at the drop of a hat, is terrified of having her own mind read.
• Jackass Genie: Gibnaf manages to single-handedly outwit some of these.
  Gibnaf: I told you once, you son of a lich, I'm the best there's ever been!
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ironically enough, Joey. As much as he claims to only want money, there are dozens of moments in the campaign where Joey actually shows himself to be an overall decent person. He even lampshades it when trying to bring the elves and Bonerton into a mutual partnership despite Gibnaf baying for Elven blood, stating that he wouldn't profit either way, and just thought it was the right thing to do. Perhaps the sweetest moment is when a messenger of Ioun tells Joey his punishment for taking one of Ioun's books: Miriam Webster getting progressively worse punishment every hour. Keep in mind that Miriam has, at this point in the campaign, been gone an incredibly long time, and all the party members basically admit she's gone for good. Thankfully, Miriam DOES rejoin the party only about nine sessions later How does Joey react, despite the fact Miriam has no way to thank him, reward him, or help him in any way? Joey shows genuine concern for someone who can do nothing for him, with one shocked word.
  Joey: WHAT!?
• Killed Offscreen: Joey.
• Knight Templar: Although usually the most righteous amongst the party, Kodrinscheiner sometimes shows signs of this - as when he thrusts a man who has shape-shifted into a sword into a forge, effectively burning and torturing him in order to try to get him to turn back. Even Minerelle is shocked.
  • Made worse in Session 90 where Syrg revealed that Kod/the party had completely forgotten about said shapeshifter, leaving him trapped in Kod's bags to starve to death locked in the form of the sword.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: A mutual case of this trope saves the party against some Baphomet worshipers
• Light 'em Up: Miriam, Bananaramawicz and more prominently Kodrinschreiner
• Logic Bomb: Discussed as to why Kod would be useless against Bureaucrats, Plaz gives an example that works stunningly well...on PoorWeather.
• Magic Music: Gibnaf's specialty, to the point where playing his glockenspiel is represented by him making Arcana checks.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: Kodrinschreiner the warforged.
• Min-Maxing: Averted for some of the party. For example, Miriam took four levels of linguistics.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Joey the Minotaur eventually becomes part insect.
• The Mole: Virtually every NPC ever was this after Syrg de-fanged them because people loved/hated them.
• Moose and Maple Syrup: Wolfshirt is Canadian, and a few jokes are made about it, such as when he brings up "moose murder", which the others note is a serious thing in Canada.
• No Kill like Overkill: In the first episode, Joey tries to attack an indecipherable book in an attempt to read it. He rolls a 25 for attack.
  Joey: I attack the fuck out of that book!
• Noodle Incident: We have yet to learn why Miriam is on probation with the other followers of Ioun.
  • Word of Syrg says it was roughly because she was being too vicious, in terms of stuff like THROWING SOMEONE INTO HELL FOR RIPPING UP A BOOK.
  • At Paragon Tier, we also never find out why Minerelle takes a raw chicken into a bathroom and spends the night there.
• Not Me This Time: Said by Wolfshirt at one point after being accused of laying down a few hated pogs in a crowd scene.
  Syrg: Goddammit, Wolfshirt.
  Wolfshirt: That wasn't even me!
  Syrg: Goddammit, one of you assholes.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Algernon's (usually entirely reasonable) suggestions are almost always misinterpreted or completely ignored. Even when he agrees with someone, they often don't notice and lump him in with the rest of those who disagree.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Gibnaf Boneson, as of episode 85.
• Offing the Offspring: Minerelle realises that this is best for Fake Joey Hoofvsz, but it doesn't stop her from weeping over his corpse and crying "my son, my son! She then tries to drink his blood, because it's healing potion, and she's Minerelle.
• Older Than They Look: Gibnaf is actually twenty, but acts like a child.
• Ominous Floating Castle: Despite (ostensibly) being heroes the gang officially receive their Thundercloud Castle in Session 102 which fits many of the criteria.
• Only in It for the Money: If Joey manages to actually help someone along the way to amassing as much personal wealth as possible, well, that's a nice bonus.
• Only Sane Man: Algernon's characterization, being dragged into increasingly ridiculous situations with increasingly ridiculous people.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Often, when Syrg forgets what accent is used for which character. Apafi is especially noticeable, with a different voice each time he appears. His first encounter with the party has him speaking like an old Lithuanian man. His appearance in the second Focus Tower has him being voiced by MyNameIsKaz, who uses his Professor Pickle voice. His third encounter has him taking a much more campy voice, which is lampshaded by everyone. After not using Thalassa's voice for a while, Syrg botches it when the party contacts her when they need to get to Ioun's temple. When called out on it, he admirably covers his ass by introducing the voice as Thalassa's sister.
• Orphaned Punchline: After a brief cut in Episode 4, Act IV, we return to Kensington saying, "And that's why I think it's Tingle in the cell," referring to a torture victim the party has found and has not yet identified.
• Paranoia Gambit: Kod does this to Minerelle whenever he can't be budged to capture her himself.
• Playing with Fire: Joey gets a steam axe that does fire damage.
• Precocious Crush: Gibnaf has one for Thalassa the wizard. In the future, they have a belligerent daughter named Berel.
• Properly Paranoid: Minerelle becomes terrified by, and obsessed with, a figure named 'Alfonso de Tambor' who she happens to read about in an old book. It increasingly becomes clear that her paranoia over him is completely irrational. Until he shows up, by which time she's forgotten who he is.
• Put on a Bus: Happens fairly often, given that it's a long-running campaign, not everyone can make it to every session, and sometimes players just want to try a different character. The ones who didn't come back are Asalyn, Bananaramawicz, Kensington, and Miriam.
  • The Bus Came Back:Miriam is back as of episode 89
• Rage Against the Heavens: A high-level adventurer the party meets. Also mocked.
  Joey: Hey Miriam, take this down: once upon a time some bad stuff happened, a guy threw a hissy fit, and that's why he was killed by demons.
• A Rare Sentence
  Minerelle:It's a bouncy carousel.
  Syrg: "It's a bouncy carousel"? This is an actual sentence you just let out of your lips?
  • And another one related to Minerelle.
  Syrg: That's just a phrase you would only hear in this campaign. "I'm going to use Crisis of Identity on Spicy the Dune Minotaur."
• Recurring Character: Apafi, who appears in both Focus Tower plots as a villain, and turns up in hell, though that one's an illusion; it's actually a giant demon. To a lesser extent, Kensington seems to have become this after being Demoted to Extra. He was the final villain of Heroic Tier and has since made another appearance in Paragon.
• Retired Gunfighter: Kensington. Now a teacher at a magical cooking college.
• Sapient House: The party encounters one fairly early on, which they find out is called Gwendolyn. It alternates between hating them (trapping Joey briefly) and helping them (killing the Doppelganger which had been troubling the party and generally responding positively to Bananaramawicz's attempts at diplomacy).
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Minerelle gets hit with a -2 to Int. checks and skills in the Ancient Tomb at which point she's had enough and tries to leave. This works out pretty well since she's the only one not cloned for a Mirror Match but returns in time to help with it. At Paragon tier, Minerelle bursts through a window, advises everyone to take a nap soon, blasts an illithid with massive psionic damage, is almost instantly killed by the backlash, is healed from the brink of perma-death by Kodrinscheiner, and immediately flees screaming into another dimension. All in one turn. Leaving everyone else in the room completely bewildered.
• Scylla and Charybdis: Minerelle in regards to the book of Ioun, trapped between her party leader, her evil god, and a dragon lich.
• Sdrawkcab Name: biG faN
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Alfonso de Tambor tries to arrange the deaths of the party because Minerelle became pointlessly obsessed with him in the first place.
• Shape Shifter Mode Lock: One shape shifter the party encounters ends up trapped in the form of a sword after fighting them.
• Shapeshifter Swan Song: The idea is brought up, but ultimately mocked and averted.
• Split and Reunion: Averted with Joey/Evil Joey.
• Statistically Speaking: Minerelle is a genius due to her huge Int. score. However she often makes ridiculously incorrect assumptions even with all the clues about her fellow party members as well as the world around her.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Taken to its logical extreme with Miriam Webster's apparent ability to conduct research mid-combat in order to gain whatever information is needed for a given situation.
• The Last Dance: implied to be how Joey went out, overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
• The Social Darwinist: Gibnaf's uncle. It's revealed that he's been repeatedly killing gnomes for thousands of years to try to force them to evolve into some kind of superior race.
• They Look Like Us Now: Everyone in the party is nonhuman, but some claim to be human for tax purposes.
• Throw the Book at Them: Miriam has a spiked book as a custom weapon.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Syrg often ends up doing this to help the team out when their own incompetence gets in their way. For example, a Critical Failure may not be as horrendous as it might have been because Syrg doesn't want to be a Jerkass.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: At least two villains have been left in the void between whatever counts as a universe in the unnamed horror that Syrg created.
• Time Skip: One year passes between Heroic and Paragon Tiers.
• Tonight, Someone Dies: Algernon in Episode 88.
• Too Dumb to Live: Joey raises this to an art form. Usually by demanding treasure from everyone and everything the party meets, but there have been amazing moments like him deciding to just stand there while bug-dragons swoop down on him and then plunging his arm into mutagenic goo in their hive. Also possibly Syrg, who actually got himself hospitalized in the middle of a session by drinking expired energy drink concentrate.
  • Even the usually sane Algernon has his moments, like when he tries to attack an enemy that clearly outclasses him in Thraxi's castle and later requires the whole party to take down. As a result, he ends up having to run away, only to find that the enemy moves faster than him and can use, as Syrg puts it, the "ruin a guy" attack. Al only escapes to reach the others when the guy whiffs a roll.
• Took A Level In Jerk Ass: Minerelle seems to have done this in Paragon Tier, as she actively hates Algernon and Kodrinschreiner even though she herself doesn't remember why.
• Trash Talk: Actually one of Gibnaf's main forms of attack.
• Trauma Conga Line: Gibnaf falls victim to this when his home city is burnt to the ground, he is almost killed by a magical plague, he finds out his mother was responsible for said plague, he finds out his parents are dead, and then he finds out his Evil Uncle is a lich and was responsible for their murder...
• Two Girls to a Team: Technically there are three female PCs in the entire series, but there is never more than two women in the team at any given time. Additionally, the first female PC is only in the group for the first half of the first tier of play, in comparison to Minerelle and Miriam, who are in the party far longer.
• Walking Disaster Area: The party has noted, with some despair, that places they're in have an uncanny tendency to unmake themselves. This has included a mansion, a magical tower-mountain (twice!), a dream dimension, and some islands.
• Water Is Blue: Minerelle once wonders if she's hallucinating a green sky because... why not
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Minerelle has trouble understanding why brainwashing isn't an acceptable solution to every problem.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Bananaramawicz. Gibnaf also starts out this way...
• Wizarding School: One is being run by Kensington, which also teaches athletics, cooking, music, alchemy, and English.
• Wreathed in Flames: Joey's Critical Status Buff, as well as the flaming horns he received from Kord.

---