The problem is, it was already established that Jester was the only one capable of communicating with them. Entering initiative means everyone gets a turn... to do nothing. Initiative implies that there will be a high probability of violence, it makes a lot more sense for a player to assume the wraith took an aggressive action, it makes far less sense for them to decide to run through all other players' initiative for the one that can do something.
my point was more trying to address how dm’s create worlds and encounters, yeah?
matt had a lot of this in-universe well before the Mighty Nein even existed, we know this because Vilya exists
he had this island full of lore and monsters and ghosts during campaign one!
matt is a dm who creates FULL WORLDS and his players know this about him
like i said i’m not blaming the characters for not trying to persuade, it’s a valid choice and when combat is introduced it gets complex and hairy
what i’m saying is Matt had this island planned for a long long time, and it’s a valid DM choice not to change difficultly, language barrier or type of encounter
his players know exactly the kind of dm he is, how much he puts into his world, and are seasoned players themselves
also! caleb has tongues(whether or not he has it prepared) it’s not totally on jester to translate and not totally on matt to assume no one can communicate with them
and jester COULD have kept trying to persuade, and if the others DIDNT fight there was a chance
my point wasn’t that the party was wrong, not at all
my point was that matt was totally valid as a dm to maintain the mechanics he set, recognize he has players who have played with him a long time and have established trust, and that there was a possibility for a different outcome
matt is an experienced dm, i’m sure he wasn’t expected one thing over another
and i think in some ways the audience picks up on “WELL THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY” and many seasoned dms and players can tell you otherwise, and have done otherwise
there’s good examples of this IN GAME
for one: caleb offering the dodecahedron kept them from being imprisoned! the entire friendship with essek!!
i’m not trying to say the crew, specifically marisha/beau, didn’t make the right choice
i am only trying to point out how much work, world building and planning goes into these settings and encounters as a dm and that matt wasn’t in the wrong for saying:
1. this needed to be an in-battle persuasion check
2. he had this area of the world planned before knowledge that a language barrier would be a problem and choosing NOT to compromise the world he built to change that
all i’m asking is that critters remember that matt has dm’d for decades, and while he can make mistakes, to understand that he and his players trust each other
don’t get mad at matt for something you think is unfair when he and his players already know and agreed to what they’re getting into
they know his dm style, they know the world he’s built, they’ve played with him for 5 years live and several years before that
i’m just asking the community don’t shit on matt for what is a valid dm choice
i know in game it seemed like there was this push that was PERSUASION IS THE ONLY AND BEST WAY TO RESOLVE or that THE PLAYERS HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO BATTLE but if you watch it it really seemed like matt was just trying to play IN CHARACTER as vilya, and then realized that maybe her INTENTIONS weren’t getting across and then tried to explain himself and the situation as far as the ABILITY to persuade, not necessarily how EASY IT WOULD BE
i have been there many times as a DM
i’m just asking that we all keep in mind that while the party made a valid choice, so did matt in the way he ran the game and his encounter
if you don’t like it... well, don’t play a game with matt, not every dm and player is compatible, but that’s not his fault
sometimes it can seem like you have to take one side or the other, but the CR crew have been playing together a long time, and if they have a problem with how matt runs the game that’s between them, but it’s not up to us to decide matt was unfair or wrong with how he does his world building or his encounters
