86 thoughts on “Titansgrave Chapter 9: Nightmares”

1. it kinda coincides with your nightmares you have had .. i am glad to see you back and feeling better .. 🙂

2. This is ideally what makes Actual Play Podcasts so good: Narrative over dice rolling action. I look forward to watching this tonight!

3. This whole series has been fantastic, and really shows the range that tabletop RPGs can produce — from the silly and whimsical (Keggy! Dead bird and a piece of tape!) to the serious and emotional (this episode).

   I was at the Titansgrave panel at GenCon, and thrilled to hear there will be a season 2. I even scored copies of Fantasy Age and the Titansgrave book.

4. Wow, intense. Great ep, thanks!

5. Wow…that episode was intense! And at least from my side, I can confirm that it achieved what you guys wanted to achieve 🙂

   It is a heavy counter weight to the other episodes, but for me, a good one.

   PS: Yey for first post here ever 🙂

6. It’s truly amazing, Wil. Congratulations are in order to Ryan for writing a very powerful narrative, to you for delivering it, and to the players for drawing us into each emotional heartbeat. This episode left me breathless.

7. Amazing. I want to buy this and run my friends through it. They haven’t been watching (even though I told them too). But I don’t know that I will have something nearly so awesome as this episode. I love it.

8. That was amazing. The faces on the players mirrored the rapt attention I was giving to the description of the dreams. Generally the comedic interplay between the characters and Wil is my favorite part of Titansgrave, I was glad in this instance that it wasn’t present to detract from the weight of the moments.

   Excellent job all around, especially Ryan staying up all night to get that written. Can’t wait for (and also dreading) next week.

9. I frickin’ loved it. You can tell the players were invested and those of us watching right along with them. P.S. Your Lemley imitation was spot on.

   1. Your Lemley imitation was spot on.

      Thank you! I had so much fun doing that impression.

10. Great episode! Exactly what the show needed at this point in the story.

11. Clearly I was wrong when I thought Titansgrave didn’t have many more feels to wring out of me. Did the cast really manage to spend that long on the edge of tears or did you have to take crying breaks?

12. Wow… Not sure I have the proper term for this episode, but… I believe the term I’m looking for is very similar to FREAKIN” AWESOME!!!

    but I’m a little fuzzy on the syntax.

    Well done all ’round, folks… very well done.

13. I didn’t ask for these feels Wil! Great episode!

14. I love that the players themselves have become deeply invested in their characters and the story. The emotion expressed throughout the series has been has been really touching and powerful.

15. That was an amazing emotional rollercoaster, draining in the way that every good story is. Thank you goes to Ryan, that was worth your staying up all night to create.

16. It’s a good job I get to type this as I am speechless! I so want to watch episode 10 RIGHT NOW! And I so want it to be episode 10 of 50.

17. Thanks Wil! I can’t wait to share this with my daughter. She’s 15 and not a role-player (“I’m a nerd, Dad. Just not THAT KIND of nerd.”). And that’s fine, since I’ve never pushed it on my kids. But Titansgrave seems to be a way to connect my love of a thing to her love of things.

18. Life took over last week, because I’m in the middle of a community theatre show, so I had the distinct privilege of watching both episode 8 and 9 today, the difference between the two was amazing. The only thing I don’t like is the fact that you are nearing the end of this amazing story. Do you have plans to do anything like this again?

    1. Oh, and a followup question: Will the ramifications of today’s decisions be made clear? I know, I have to wait…I’ll buy the damn guide if it will help clear things up, even if I never play a campaign.
       Congrats Wheaton, you and that boy of yours have managed to sucker me in, I’ve gone full geektard.

19. Bravissimo. That was…yeah. I think this is gonna stay with me for a while. It needs to be fully processed. Now this robot has to go replace some parts. Water damage isn’t covered by my warranty. Brilliantly written and executed.

20. I can only wish I was this good at narrative & hard choices. Bravo, Ryan.

21. Total pay off. I am super invested in these characters and this episode GAH

22. Thoroughly enjoying every moment of the show. Haven’t seen 9 yet, but am looking forward to curling up – and then sitting on the edge of my seat. Learning about a second season really made my day – THANK YOU.

23. Hank is killing me, seriously. You just hand to start with Aankia and have me digging my nails into my palms, trying to stop what were definitely NOT tears from streaming down my face.

    1. I’ve kind of felt like Hank has been an ass at times, but to his credit, he immediately stops his red mage ways when Aankia gets placed into an awkward situation. He looked genuinely upset and protective when Wil was laying out Aankia’s nightmare.

24. Amazing episode. This is the kind of storytelling that really makes a roleplaying game something special. You can see how much each of the players have become invested in their characters. Thank you, Ryan, for a fantastic job of creative writing, and to you, Wil, for your gm-ing (is that a word? lol). I’ve been involved in D&D games where narratives like this were the focus and not a single dice was rolled, and it was the best game night ever. Can’t wait for the next episode.

25. Ah! So good and torturous. I was on the edge of my seat as much if not more than during the heavy dice-rolling action. My D&D group focuses on character development and interaction over intense non-stop action, so we can easily go a session with hardly a roll in sight.
    Also, from episode 8, I loved the interrupting-GM-during-a-dramatic-moment penalty and awesome point. 🙂 I’d been harassing my friends to watch the show but now that I have the book I think I’ll be making them play it instead.
    And kudos to Ryan for the script he wrote!

26. Outstanding! All five of you are AMAZING!

    No, no… I wasn’t crying. Nope. Not at all. (Who took all my tissues??) I did have near-constant urges to give everyone hugs, however.

    Can’t wait for Chapter 10. And LOVE that there will be a Season 2!

27. This is EPIC.
    Honestly, all I wanted to do was hug each person after their ordeal. You guys are on fire!…..some literally. ^_^

28. This was an awesome episode, Wil. Watching the reactions of the players and seeing how fully invested in the story they all were was really cool. Hats off to Ryan for pulling an epic all nighter, and to you for some brilliant pacing and tone in sharing the story. RPGs aren’t all about die rolls. They’re about story, and this one is excellent!

29. At the Titansgrave panel (my first panel, at my first con ever… and it was great – way to set the bar high Wheaton!) I recall you saying that this episode was going to polarizing. I can totally see why you think that… but I have to disagree just a bit. If you’re a person who has stuck with this show from the beginning, even if you’re the most tactical war gamer out there, I doubt it is because of the dice rolling. There’s a really engaging and nuanced storyline here that’s enormously satisfying for gamer and non-gamer alike. This episode exemplified that in my book. Thank you and everyone involved with Titansgrave for making this show, and especially this episode. When I backed Tabletop’s last season, and saw this stretch goal realized, this is exactly the sort of show I was hoping would happen. I cannot wait for next week.

30. Waited all day through work to watch this properly. Fantastic! I’m really grateful I found this while it was happening, rather than after it was finished.

    Thank Ryan for his all-nighter; it paid off in spades. I love the arc(s)!

31. I’ll readily admit that I’m a sobbing mess right now …. and it’s okay.

    Thank you, Ryan, for your writing. And, Wil, for adding to his storytelling.

32. Evocative, emotive, emotional, and intense,
    I will echo congratulations to Ryan for the writing and to you, Wil, for the delivery. It hurt to watch your PCs go thru these dreams. I felt their pain. I wanted to comfort each of them, in turn. Great job to the film crew for capturing it so well. I need a long walk to calm down and clear my head.

33. 35 years as a DM. Dave Arneson let me run his living campaign and build out pats of his world for 3.5. I have an MFA in playwriting. All of that means nothing, really, but gives you context. What you did was perfect. Perfect. Thank you Wil.

    1. Wow. Thank you.

34. What an episode. Intense. Emotional. Gripping. For me, it definitely accomplishes what you wanted. You should be proud of your son for writing this episode. You should be proud of your delivery if that story. I want to thank you, the players, the writers, and everyone else involved in this series. It has been so much fun to follow. I can’t wait for the conclusion.

35. I was like, “wtf is going on? What’s going to happen if they make the wrong choices?!” I so want to know… Badly!! Yes I’m the guy that had to look at both paths in those ‘choose your own adventure’ books, back in the day.
    And your son did an absolutely awesome job writing those nightmares for each character!! But I must say, I was so hoping that S’Lethkk (Yuri) would make the Other choice! 😈

    Can you do an interview someday with the characters about how they felt listening to their’s, and each other’s, nightmares. They all looked pretty emotional when listening to you telling their story.

    Thanks for being awesome Mr. Wilw!

    1. I was hoping he would say. I pick up the staff pieces… and then throw them in the being’s face.

       1. ~~~~ SPOILER ALERT ~~~

    2. I was like, “wtf is going on? What’s going to happen if they make the wrong choices?!”

       There weren’t “wrong” choices. The choices they made would affect their characters, and would affect the outcome of the entire nightmare experience. This was entirely about their characters, and whatever choice they made would have been right for them. I’ve seen some complaints that there was no consequence for the choices they made, and while I respect the reactions everyone has had to this chapter, I have to point out that I believe that particular reaction is missing the point.

       1. Thank you for responding! And I have no complaints that there were no obvious consequences, though in my head I had imagined all sorts of later effects that could happen from their decisions… added to the suspense of this episode for me, having watched it first.

          But I think using this in a standard RPG game would be a great idea, definitely to test for alignment changing and to bring further emotional bonding of players with their characters. In Titansgrave’s case, this has increased the bonding I (we) have with the players, and their characters. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes… and #anotherseason&aparty ? I’d give my 5 gp towards it.

    3. This. Very. Much. This.

       Not to take anything away from the episode (I enjoyed it A LOT), but I would love to hear some of the more technical aspects of pulling it off. Was chapter 10 already filmed, and this was something the cast a crew came back together to do? Or was this filmed in sequence, with the (fantastic) last minute script change?

       You and the entire team have pulled off not only an emotional n-n-n-nineteen, but a technical one as well. And I, for one, would love to hear more about those aspects when the show is over (for this season).

       Thanks for a wonderful ride so far.

       1. We filmed this during episode ten, and when the stuff you saw in this episode was finished, I made the decision to break it out into its own episode.

36. I’m gonna be honest here. For me, this episode sums up what is wrong with Titansgrave, not what is right with it (of which there is a lot).

    You don’t sit up all night and “write” a RPG session. Punctuating a lengthy narrative with simple binary choices is neither roleplaying nor character development. I realise (and agree) that there hasn’t been as much character development by this point as you might want, but I’m not sure this was the way to solve it, or even if it was solvable. I may as well have been listening to an audio-book for all the agency enjoyed by the players here.

    I fully appreciate that building this show for a limited run, and with a story that had a satisfying structure and pay-off, was always going to constrict the natural to-and-fro of a RPG, but overall there has been far too much of the GM, and far too little of the players in this series. I hope if you do another one, you can break free of such teething troubles and really demonstrate to your audience what a game like this can bring to the table (ahem). I’m a G&S subscriber, so I’ll definitely be there to watch it!

    1. I agree. It was just too heavy on convoluted exposition. I care about the characters and the story but I tuned out. Ironically the players were constrained this time with a sopoforic lack of choice – this episode was too densely scripted. Even the attending artwork and the emotional investment of the cast wasn’t enough to make this episode come alive.

       Regardless, I love the show and think everyone who worked on it did an amazing job. I watch every Tuesday and really hope there will be a second season with the same characters.

37. Wil, this is my favorite episode by far of Titansgrave because the narrative is so strong. I was tearing up at the same points as the players because of the power of the scene. I’m eagerly waiting for my copy of the book to arrive so I can run this game with my friends. 🙂

38. Are you going to release a cd with the music you used in the series? Because I would buy that shit so fast.

    1. I’d love to release the music. I’ll talk with the people who could make that possible, and find out if we can do that.

39. As a game session, chapter 9 wasn’t very good. The players didn’t get to make many choices, and what few they did seemed to be made in a vacuum that rendered the choices meaningless. I’d be kind of annoyed if my GM pulled that on me and wasted an hour of my life doing it.

    (I must insert here that since we’re not really seeing everything that happened in the session, my impression of the choices the players made could be totally wrong.)

    As a dramatization of what goes on in a game, it was pretty good. Up until now the short sessions (or at least short final cuts) meant we only got a fairly superficial look at the characters. This chapter was cool for getting to look deeper.

    As a drama by itself, chapter 9 was pretty darn cool. The characters emerge from the portal TORN UP emotionally. Even to the extent they triumphed over their inner demons, they were wounded. It was awesome.

    My group of grognard friends and I have totally loved Titansgrave. Nothing else that exists has done as good a job of showing non-gamers what a tabletop RPG is really like. It’s a pretty damn amazing accomplishment, Mr. Wheaton.

    1. This is closest to how I was feeling. The biggest issue I had from an RPG perspective was not as much the lack of dice rolls but more that, after 8 episodes of giving the characters a ton of freedom to role-play within the bounds of the system, working with them to establish the character backgrounds in great detail, and setting them up to “be” the characters, all of a sudden it felt like the DM was taking the characters from them, not only their actions but their feelings. The guise of it being a “dream sequence” type of setting did help alleviate that in the sense that our worst nightmares leave us without much control over ourselves. I also understand that, given the context of setting a mood and creating a “show,” giving the characters more choices within their nightmares (as Lemley had to some degree), even when said choices are “rigged,” significantly lengthens game-play and can reduce drama as the people playing the characters are given opportunities to speak/interact/break character…But it still made me squirm a bit.

       And, like others, from an RPG perspective, were there any “wrong choices” of actual consequence in these sequences, or were the options more to “test their character,” leading them only to different NPC reactions within the narrative?

       That said, I was still able to appreciate it for what it was: brilliant writing and an awesome narrative delivered perfectly. The players were each clearly fully engaged and stricken by their (and each others’) nightmares. I do understand why it was inserted (really appreciate your background notes here), I applaud Ryan for the great writing (and I think I remember him tweeting about pulling the all-nighter), and the entire team for putting together a compelling, gripping 45 minutes. And echo the great Lemley impression (which even Laura appreciated). 🙂

       1. And, like others, from an RPG perspective, were there any “wrong choices” of actual consequence in these sequences, or were the options more to “test their character,” leading them only to different NPC reactions within the narrative?

          There were no “wrong” choices, just choices. And, yes, the choices they made all had potentially different outcomes.

          This is one of those weird things where we diverge greatly from a traditional RPG, and serve the narrative of the story (also fixing some things I messed up early on) in a way that’s both true to the characters and the larger story, hopefully in a way that’s truthful to the setting (being a series of nightmares).

          That said, and I’ll keep saying this: we knew that it wouldn’t be for everyone, and that’s okay.

          1. Thanks for responding. I’m quite glad actually to hear that the choices weren’t about “life” or “death,” but rather more opportunities within the narrative to allow the players to further define (or underscore previous definition of) their character. From a “purist RPG” perspective it’s what I was hoping your answer would be (and I guess, maybe wishing there was more of…). In this setting the choices given the characters have more of an impact on the players than any arbitrary result from a “right/wrong” choice would have.

             As I said, I understand the reasons for the deviation here and appreciate it. I recognize I spent more words on the RPG aspect than I did on what I thought overall so let me re-emphasize: I thought it was brilliant. Really awesome job by everyone involved and when I look at Season 1 as a story arc I feel it provides a sense of completeness. It was a compelling chapter, and overall I’m glad you made the choices you did (and that Ryan pulled the all-nighter to make it possible :).

          2. i liked it. i occasionally do something like this for my game. never to this detail, but i liked it. it was a deep choose your own adventure. i get some people might think of it as railroading, but i liked it a lot.

40. Man, Ryan can write! That’s a really good idea and what an awesome execution.

41. Wil, ep. 9 was amazing. It took the characters, story, and watching experience to a whole new level of engagement. Honestly, everyone brought the most amazing parts of themselves into role-playing. You were taking them deeper into the narrative (and we totally got to be voyeurs on that journey) and they were willingly being led. They tapped the emotions so well that it was difficult to watch at times.

    You and Ryan make an incredible creative team. I hope we get to see more collaboration in the future. Outstanding job!

42. #10seasonsandaparty please!

43. Oh Wil, this episode was excellently done. Certainly the most emotionally intense episode of the series so far.

44. I haven’t played an RPG like D&D or Gamma World since I was 12 years old and watching this series makes me want to jump right back into it at the age of 43. Thanks Will and the rest of the cast, it’s been a fun ride!

45. What I found most intriguing here was how this episode got the players to really think about what their characters would do in really extreme situations – and I really liked how that it was a personal choice, rather than trying to identify “right” from “wrong”.

    It’s got me wondering how I could present similar options to my players in future RPG sessions, although I don’t think I’m a good enough story teller to pull it off like this.

    Thanks!

46. I was tearing up. It was the looks on the players’ faces that did me in- my connection with the characters is due mostly to how obvious it is that the players love their characters. They were fully in the world, making the choices as though it was reality rather than fantasy, and I was right there with them.

    You guys did a great job- I really didn’t notice there was no dice-rolling until I read in your post about the lack thereof.

47. My wife is not much of a role playing person, but she has become hooked on this series. When we learned that this episode was out, we stayed up late just to watch it. We both enjoyed this episode, and although my wife said she didn’t know what all of the choices mean, she liked that they got to make choices instead of rolling dice. Well done, and we both are waiting expectantly to see how it ends, I hope the beer baron throws them one heck of a party when it is done.

48. I will add that it was interesting how Lemley’s nightmare differed from the other three in terms of the decisions she was offered (and the fact that she showed up as a character in a couple of the other nightmares). For the other three, they choices they were presented were always either/or choices — this or that. With Lemley, though, at least at first, her choices were open-ended — “What do you do?” (And I heartily approved of the choices Laura made at each step.) I found it fascinating that she was given more liberties at the outset and that it wasn’t until she was faced with the three doors that her options narrowed. I kept waiting for that fact to become significant in some way, and I don’t know if Ryan had any plans for that aside from providing variety, but it really stood out to me.

49. I just saw Chapters 8 and 9 and after Ch 8 I was ready for some really great battles in the Season finale, but Ch 9 has done much more good to the story. Very thrilling and very emotional and all of us could bond with the actors and the characters. Thank you very much for this experience! I am now 110% convinced that I will miss those guys until the next season. And perhaps now I have one more chance to convince some of my friends to start an RPG campaign :D.

50. I didn’t cry at this, but I was fascinated. I think that this series hinges primarily on the emotional and mental effect on its players and the audience, and on that score, this episode knocked it out of the park. Hank, Alison and Yuri looked absolutely wrecked after their “nightmares.” All three of them had drawn faces, tight body language, misty eyes, and just looked pummeled. Laura’s reactions were different, but we also saw the least of them. And Lemley’s role in all the nightmares was different, too, so maybe we’ll see why.

    I’m a writer by trade, and I have a novel in development, but even if I didn’t, I’d be so approving of this degree of detail and sympathy for great characters. Please pass on my heartiest congratulations to Ryan on writing a beautifully effective piece.

    And next season, if at least Yuri and Laura aren’t back, I will be extremely sad.

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