i love sword af i really do and i wish they could return to it sometime but its just. SO clear that the dread format and george’s dm-ing fit smosh so well. the smosh vs. campaigns can be at almost any length meaning: 1.) they can realistically shoot a whole ‘campaign’ in one day and 2.) there’s no ‘need’ for a lot of lore so it wouldn’t be hard for both the audience And the players to catch up.
the cast can focus more on what the character will Do (which amanda is a Great example of but maybe i’ll make a separate post for that) and about pulling a block from a jenga tower instead of worrying about skill checks and rolling badly. its either you pull a block successfully, fail, or fail On Purpose. even the smaller moments are heightened in a certain way because it could mean the most ridiculous/mundane action could result in a character’s death OR what could Possibly happen to them when they Choose to fail.
the ‘smosh vs.’ format is so versatile too because it can literally be about anything. like we JUST had smosh vs. christmas. my only criticism of it is that i hope they can spread the mini-campaigns out evenly for the next year but its just because almost every mini-campaign and the characters in it have been so memorable already that i want them to develop their own fandoms and not immediately fizzle out. i also want to see what a 5-6 player campaign would look like!
