Is the new dndads season good? I kinda fell off on the second one with the kids since it felt kinda railroady and bogged down.
I ended up writing a lot. tldr I am having a Great time. if you're worried about railroads know that the track was not exactly loose on this season's plot but boy did the players manage to shatter it in like 2 episodes (and Will's ability to keep the party together)
s2 definitely had a LOT going on (emotions run way higher I think mostly because the characters are teens and the stakes are the end of the world) but I don't think it's any more railroaded than s1. frankly these guys operate best with a clear set of instructions to follow and/or mcguffins to collect and then proceed to not follow those instructions but win anyway. which is (sort of??? lol) what's going on in s3
I'm liking season 3 a lot! life has made it harder for me to just sit and draw fanart for it, but Francis might be my favorite. (tied with Trudy) Anthony is super fun as a player. There's a kind of player balance that the daddies have (between silly and serious, sincere and irreverent) that makes them work as a group, and Anthony fits into Will's spot without being Will, if that makes sense? Like he's definitely a different flavor of player and Francis is no Henry/Normal/Hildy/etc, but he plays the heavy emotional hits with Beth, the I'll-die-before-I-break-character with Matt, and the This-is-a-game-and-I-intend-to-Win with Freddie. But instead of Will's hopepunk sincerity he brings a flavor of "no, I'm straight up gonna do a thing that's Wrong" that even Freddie didn't hit with Glenn. And then Will as DM, like Anthony, is more than willing to throw in real-life mechanics that somehow work on a podcast, as well as brutal, horrific, curve balls that make me question life.
s3 is also big on mystery! every s3 PC even has a Twist built in, and you find them all out within about... 5 episodes? but since this season is meant to be shorter honestly that's plenty of time for them to be uncovered and then pulled on for all their worth. Beth's twist for Trudy is a hecking profound take on the human condition (naturally), Anthony's plot for Francis is a sandbox one could sink their teeth into for days that is honestly a bold hecking swing (especially if you're a usamerican living in Now), Freddie's twist for Tony is--
...we don't have time to talk about Tony but take every Glenn antic, crank it up to a hundred, and then literally mad libs his backstory. Nothing I say could prepare you for this man.
and then I have Feelings about Matt's character Kelsey, since she's a teacher and I'm a teacher but I don't know if they're the feelings anyone would expect and I don't wanna write any takes of even moderate temperature I'm literally just here to have a good time but I WILL say she fascinates me and I want to watch a documentary about her interviewing her coworkers and students