Welcome back to the city of Troy, home to monsters, devils, and the kids from Mrs. Frieda’s Halfway Home for Terrible Freakish Children.
This session focuses on the part of the gang who are attending Madison Faire, Troy’s High School, for the first time. Home of the Fighting Minotaurs, chock full of bizarre teachers and mysterious lunch meat, the High School holds many surprises.
New faces are introduced, old faces are back, and somebody auto-tunes a rabbit.
Summer is over. It’s the first day of school, and it’s going to be one you can never forget.
PLAYERS
- James – Tim Rodgers
- Manda – Manny (the Devil Child)
- Matt – Scott Valle (the Eagle Boy), Caleb “2Dope” Andrews
- Nate – Emma Vaerbond, Etsu Hikane
- RJ – Ty Soren
- Sam – George Fillburn
- Charlie – Nele
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So this happened.
Let me say first and foremost that I’m really glad Frieda’s is back on the site. It’s my favorite game and it holds a really special place in my heart.
That being said this game is somewhat erratic. Matt did an excellent job stitching things together, but I feel the same way listening to it as I did when I played it. A lot of words were said, but not much happened. Or maybe…A LOT of stuff happened, but there’s not much to do about it. The only workable simile I can think of at the moment is when you go to put ketchup on your burger and you end up getting a lot of the watery ketchup filler instead. Sure your ketchup is there eventually, but you gotta deal with an overly soggy bun and it sorta sucks the initial excitement you had for a firm, toasty bun with thick, pinkish meat in-between
…where was I?
This could just be my particular fondness for the quiet character moments that I’ve been spoiled on with Frieda’s. Those times where we’ll just have an in-character conversation for a while. I know with a heavy cast like in this game, sometimes voices can be drowned out by other voices, but with this session I felt like there was almost a time limit on character interacting time before we were shuffled off to the next wacky plot point. Which made everyone only talk more to get their in-character moments, which made things get even more hectic. Now I understand that this was one of Charlie’s first Frieda’s games, and it can be pretty overwhelming to handle not only a story that we hold so dear, but also the large high school cast. He’s improved a lot in his GMing since then, but it is apparent that a few bad GMing habits show up here. Mostly the rushed pace, the overwhelming dump of strange, seemingly unrelated plots, and the many times that players are interrupted while roleplaying. These are things that I think are pretty apparent in this game, but again, they are things that are worked on and improved later.
Is it my favorite game? No. But I do like a lot of stuff that was introduced here that just makes the Frieda’s universe even better. Some of my favorite non-halfway home kids get to debut this session (shout out to Tim and 2dope haaay), and we get to see George handle the stresses of high school by trying to throw Manny under the bus (Not literally, people. JEEZ)
Anyway, I just feel like I needed to get that off my chest. Just in case anyone sorta felt the same way I did. Don’t get me wrong, not only am I a player I’m probably the hugest Frieda’s fan. (Hey, I’ve made the most fan art, I think that qualifies me…okay I might be second only to Claes…or Travis…) But this session left me feeling empty. As a player and a little again as a listener. Its got its downs and its ups, but I will say if this session does anything, it makes me want to listen to more games! Just to hear these characters interact with the new people and challenges they face in this mixed up crazy world.
As with all my posts I feel I should warn it will ramble and be incoherent. Even though I am an Internet Veteran I seem to have lost the ability to voice my opinion through text.
Anyway, while I do agree that it felt hectic, I believe that it helps the overall tone of the game.
It is the first day of school, at a very strange school I might add, and the hectic nature of the game matches that perfectly. The kids cannot mosey around and do the usually character development time; they are forced (some may call it railroaded) from point A to point B to point C to point D, as if it was a school. This sentiment includes the numerous plots/subplots that were introduced. Where Frieda’s House and the general area around the home is a know place and a known entity in the universe, the high school (and middle school) is currently a blank space in the listener/player mind. So overloading the player with class stuff, school stuff, and personal stuff is okay on the first day; your kids going to a new place and are being force fed lots and lots of KNOWLEDGE! But this is Frieda’s Monsters so included in the overload of scholastic and social information the kids also had to be introduced to weird monster people, crazy otherworldly situations, and vaguely molestery janitors. Especially since this is going to be a major setting in the campaign.
Yes there were some GM problems, but I feel Charlie gets a little leeway due to the station he put himself in. If I have all my information correct, he essentially have two different games going on at the same time over multiple session. You can tell in the recording that it jumps between the High School and the Middle School. That is ALOT of NPCs to remember, on top of time management if you are trying to keep all the players have equal “screen time.” It especially noticeable during the music/lunch scene where George just disappears and reappears for a big scene towards the end of the recording. I’m assuming this is because his PC in Middle School is doing a lot of stuff we cannot see/hear in this session (Or Sam wasn’t in the call at the time of that recording).
Okay serious stuff aside, I’m so happy Frieda’s back. While I really enjoyed all the SD campaigns the sheer silliness and goofiness that runs rampant in the Frieda’s-verse was missed. I.E. Shawty talking like Vader but being forced by his kid to talk in Auto-Tune (Hell most of the 2Dope scenes); Tim “summoning” his monster; and generally any of the RJ scenes (“A wooden silencer?” “Why do you sparkle?”). Also why do I feel that conspiracy guy is telling the truth about all the information he gives in regards to the Frieda Kids?
I guess as a behind-the-scenes sorta thing, this and the next session were recorded over the course of about 3 sessions.
First session: Charlie and I alternated the first 2 classes of each school, then we realized that was getting confusing as each of us were introducing a handful of teachers and the like.
Second Session: Charlie finishes up Madison Faire, Sam’s internet dies early on but he tells us by text to go on without him
Third Session: I finish up the rest of my stuff. Hannah’s internet dies out for the rest of the night, but she says go on, Sam’s internet dies for an hour (but he comes back fairly quickly in the recording). After the end of my stuff, we record the bits with George that Sam was missing for
tl;dr Fate apparently hates Sam’s internet
Oh forgot to ask. Sam, is this version of George closer to your originally planned character? He seems more… unhinged than in last season and Condor is more willing to help his do non-good things. It seems to fit his character sheet better.
haven’t heard it yet, but thank GOD someone out there shares my madness and made that Maxwell. still have Maxwell Silverhammer benched in my idea vault as a cockney Thor-like goon in a team of Beatles-themed super villains (accompanying Mr Mustard, Mr Kite, and the Sun King)
having heard it all, really great to have the gang back again. felt like George’s dick side did seem more apparent like a few people said, but I think it’s more going back to him as a short-sighted instigator rather than a genuine jerk. of course, his player’s gone on record saying he IS a dick…
but already, Tim and 2Dope and their monsters promise to be a real riot. remember cackling through basically everything Hammerstein said.
the literal quality and the content seemed just fine to me, apart from some of Charlie’s voice breaking up semi-regularly
Wow, I remember reading in some of the story progression pages on the wiki that George threw Manny under the bus, but when this episode came I was strangely surprised. Then I couldn’t stop laughing as it happened and Manny just got mad. I was so hoping he would be able to send Dash over during lunchtime…
Anyways, another good episode, despite the flaws already mentioned in Travis’s block of text that pretty much covered what I felt. I’m so happy Mrs. Frieda’s is back (despite not having it for only a week, give or take) and can’t wait to see what shenanigans happen in the middle school.
…Slow and sweet. Ah good to hear Freida’s back on these airwaves.
This campaign is the entire reason I tried Monsters.
From frantic comedic in character moments.
To the calm slow and tentative story elements.
The bizarre characters and plot twists.
George is becoming more and more evil. Manny got good happy food. 2Dope was interesting and brought a feeling of dread and joy. Etsu always kind of annoyed me, but she’s still a fun character… for the most part. Poor Ty he has such troubles and problems.
Charlie your a horrible horrible monster and I love you for it. They didn’t see it coming. Also great balancing of the players you can tell when the skips happen but you can also tell you put a lot of effort into working this at both ends.
Anyways guys good to hear and I need to get my game back and post more frequently
Well, I hope at least that she isn’t too annoying, or that she becomes less so over time (it becomes clear in later episodes that she has her own laundry list of issues, just like the rest of the cast), as I wind up playing Etsu just as often as I play Emma, after awhile. As a player, I find her both fun and challenging, because she is incredibly introspective and stoic to a T; if she underplays her own feelings so much that she practically seems completely expressionless and robotic, but in my head, I know when something is genuinely bothering her, or if something genuinely interests her or whatnot. It’s a bit of a challenge to portray her pursuing something she, herself, is interested in, if only because she’s so blatantly expressionless.
Would you believe I’m just now getting to this? Maaaan I’ve been busy. Anyway, good to hear Frieda’s back in action!
I think Manny pulled an Uncle V on Nele right there at the six minute mark.
I like to think that Brendon is incredibly Irish in the same way that August is incredibly British.
How the Hell did Kurt know Nele’s name?!
I know I’m roughly two years too late, but this for me has been one of the best sessions I’ve listened to. Also as a Scottish person I have (Thankfully) never seen someone not wearing underwear when wearing a kilt.
Never too late to listen or comment. Glad you’re enjoying the show and I hope any terrible Scottish accents we do are amusing and not cringeworthy.