I'm not sorry for saying this but the whole "um, Bolaire isn't running various important scenes because this campaign is SO fast-paced" argument is absolute bullshit given that the complaint is specifically "Sam and Whitney set up for a scene with Taliesin, and Brennan called him to the table, and Taliesin said 'no, I'll just text you what happened.'" Like, you could not more clearly have shown that everyone involved set up space and time for a scene for Wick and Tyranny to find out about Bolaire. The problem is not "there's no time." They explicitly made time. The problem is that Taliesin wants them to find out about Bolaire and his requests via reading a book instead of roleplaying a scene in the roleplaying a scene game. Instead of a back-and-forth it's a "do this for me" which, as I stated, is fundamentally not collaborative. You cannot in good faith pin this on anyone else. Everyone else said "hey! let's run a scene with Bolaire!" and Taliesin said "no" and it's in the fucking transcript.
Also, even if it was the pacing, this is not a problem for anyone else. I don't feel like this for, eg, Kattigan, who is mostly bouncing around during the Convergence helping where needed and cracking open cold ones; or Teor or Vaelus, who have each had one absolutely incredible scene with a meaningful NPC, but have otherwise been quiet and mostly served as muscle because they're relative outsiders to the city. It's not about the plot not tying into the character. The complaint is that Bolaire's been given an absolute cornucopia of plot hooks and hasn't followed any of them to a conclusion, and everyone else has been doing great with what they've been given.
At absolute best it means that Taliesin is struggling to adapt in a way no one else is, for which you can extend good faith to him as a player (though I am personally not inclined to do after this episode in which people clearly made a space for him which he turned down) but you are still are in no way obligated to feel the character is working. I mean, while we're at it, I also had this feeling in Campaign 3: I don't blame most of the cast for Bells Hells feeling undercooked because there, I do think it was on Matt as DM and I do think it was a pacing problem; but it still means I'm not like, attached to them as characters in the way I am attached to Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein or even the other twelve characters of Campaign 4. I have zero respect for someone pleading at me to like a fictional character because of extenuating circumstances, and even less when the extenuating circumstances aren't even true. This is at this point a Doylist complaint and requires Doylist answers.
jbbartram-illu
yousharknotpass
janainaart
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
izzy806
