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Podcast / Dungeons and Randomness

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Dungeons and Randomness is a D&D podcast that started in April of 2012 as extra content for the TWR network, and moved to its own feed that October. Jason Massey is the DM/GM and him and his three groups get together(when schedules allow) for a weekly episode in the fantasy world of Theria and do everything from save the day to razing most of a town. It can be found here.


D&R contains examples of:

  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: It is D&D after all.
    • Ironhide's sword is said to be able to cut through almost anything, however, he's been using it for years without knowing it had the ability and has yet to really use it in combat since finding out.
    • Kord's Gale also counts.
  • Abusive Parents:
    • Mrs. Grace definitely qualifies, cause selling your daughter into sexual slavery/forced marriage just ain't cool.
    • Ian beats his son.
  • Action Girl: Besides the player characters, Briahna and Liara also fit.
  • Adipose Rex: The original Mayor of Overdale, who died from an argument-induced heart attack.
  • Aerith and Bob: Archmage Thermack and Doug.
  • Affably Evil: Edward was tolerable for a vampire, and depending on who you ask, Malchus is a strong contender.
  • The Alliance: A good portion of the Group 1 campaign as been about trying to build this out of the disparate races and factions of Theria.
  • All There in the Manual: Jason has uploaded several articles on their website that help round out the world. Several of the players also add in-character journal entries.
  • Always Chaotic Evil:
    • Zigzagged. The main plotline was started by standing up for Orc rights, but when Orcs are actually introduced outside of a slave arena, they're shown as fairly psychopathic madmen who slice open their own chests. Apparently there was a reason people called them chaotic evil.
    • Played fairly straight when it comes to gnomes, at least that they are an Always Self-Serving Scumbags race.
  • And I Must Scream: Overwatch's Warforged are powered by the souls of rounded up non-humans and criminals within Overwatch. At least the first generation Warforged had free will ... eventually.
  • Anyone Can Die: Jason doesn't baby his players, and death in Theria is a lot for permanent than canon D&D.
    • Group 2 manages to get attacked in the Silver Glade, leading to almost all of the party being killed. Twice. You'd think they'd realize camping is evil.
  • Arc Words:
    • The Greater Good
    • Long Live the King
    • Fear Straad
  • An Arm and a Leg:
    • Ian Severus is the first example, losing his hand while competing in the Tournament of Champions.
    • Fie now also applies, after his arm is removed to avoid a blood magic infection.
  • Back from the Dead: Duncan, Vallus, Briahna, Acteronis, in that order.
  • Battle Couple: Vallus and Baranith play this one straight as a hulking brutish bodyguard for a fragile cleric healer. At least, until she rejects him, and then Vallus and Jadzia continue the tradition.
  • Bearer of Bad News: Happens fairly frequently due to this being the more mutable form of a Crapsack World.
  • Blood from the Mouth: It's a symptom of Bloodroot withdrawal, but does not necessarily herald the dreaded Incurable Cough of Death.
  • Blood Knight: Most members of the Dragonborn, Dwarves, and Minotaurs apply.
  • Blood Magic: The only known cure for vampirism, and the most prominent form of black magic.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Thoril isn't the prime example for this in the slightest.
  • Brought Down to Normal: After her resurrection, Briahna seems to have lost her psionic powers.
  • Bury Your Gays: Averted. While Briahna has always been a canon lesbian, the knowledge of that fact wasn't public until after she had already been brought back from the dead.
  • Came Back Wrong: Unless you're careful and lucky, almost any resurrection in Theria has the potential to do this.
  • Catchphrase: A few, but the most notable are "Almost a crit," "Cape swish. Walk away," and "GREEN. FLAME. BLADE!"
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Poe Tutillo. The first episode he's in has him running scared from Una and pissing himself, then he starts punching Dragonborn in the throat, before revealing that he's a high-ranking spy for the White Ravens.
  • Defector from Decadence: Half of Group 3 leaves the Overwatch to join the White Ravens.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Una dies in Brie's arms after her final battle.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: Drok for Group One, Kalethorn for Group Three, and Thermack for Group Two.
  • Disney Villain Death:
    • Yenward kills King Carter by knocking him out a window to his eventual death.
    • Duncan actually also counts, and the fall was long enough for him to cuss out the entire party and hallucinate his rescue before he died. Temporarily.
  • Disposing of a Body: Group 1 tries to do this after killing Merle, throwing his body, newly-crushed skull and all, into the burning whorehouse and claiming he died in the fire. It doesn't work, and Merle's brother still figures out what happened.
  • Don't Go in the Woods: Do not go in the Silver Glade, and do NOT camp in the Silver Glade.
  • The Dragon:
    • The Red
    • Thermack's right-hand woman.
    • Liara prefers this role to leading herself, first for Carter, then Trias, then Brie.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The first two episodes are prime examples of this, but the series picks up at the third one.
  • Elves Versus Dwarves: Not the regular wood elves, in this case, but the Drow, who the Dwarves continue pushing deeper into the Underdark after having taken their main city and used it as storage space.
  • Establishing Character Moment:
    • Ironhide - My kids? Oh, I ate them. What? They were toasters!
    • Hando - His first appearance begins with him telling Draconis the correct drugs he should be using, and includes claims to be a legitimate businessman.
    • Diana - Immediately demonstrates her racism against humans, proceeds to mind-control the one human member of the party into stripping in public, and then takes offense when he grabs her out of anger.
    • Titangrip - In a CMoA: "Shut your cockholster!"
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Zigzagged, as most of the enemy NPCs lack any known loved ones, but the allegedly evil PCs definitely do.
    • Carter and Thermack defy the trope, unless Thermack kept Doug around for very different reasons.
    • The degree to which Ian 'loved' Thalia is openly questioned, even by his wife, and his actions demonstrate more interest in keeping power than anything else.
    • Malchus, on the other hand, has his mother, who really needs to not become "Too Great."
  • Fantastic Racism:
    • Carter had this before meeting Group 1, and it only got worse after.
    • Most races on Theria demonstrate this, the dwarves being one of the more prominent examples.
    • Unicorns have a deep-seated hatred for all elves and elven sub-types, although Jason says there is a reason for their anger.
  • Final Solution:
    • Public policy of the Overwatch consists of ridding the continent of all non-human races.
    • The mages of Uman'Yiro would like nothing more than for this to happen to the warforged, their own creations. They get Malchus to do it for them.
  • First Law of Resurrection: Duncan just happens to be brought back by an item that could have resurrected ANY dead being on Theria. Hmm I wonder why that is.
  • Funny Background Event: Tom, the voice of Yenward, frequently adds little quips to whatever everyone else happens to be discussing, usually in a hushed tone that is easily missed depending on how loud the discussion is.
  • Giant Flyer: Dragons. Interestingly enough, Straadis actually smaller than G2's dragon pet Amarrah, due to her having been prematurely aged by blood magic.
  • Glass Cannon: Most of the more fragile Striker-only PCs.
  • The Grotesque: Nathaniel now qualifies after getting flamed by Straad.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Although the level of how much of a hero some of the characters are can be debated.
  • Lighter and Softer: The D.R.P. group was supposed to be this, but they end up stuck in an underground tomb between flaming skeletons and other untold traps, a far step from the shenanigans of the first episode, although it was still pretty funny.
  • Love Triangle:
    • Ultimately unexplored, but Thoril is in one with Talia and Ian Serverus.
    • Malchus, Briahna, and Una qualify on an emotional/moral level, despite Malchus not being Brie's type.
  • MacGuffin: Played straight with the Golden Dragons for Group 2.
  • Magic Knight: Ironhide, Malchus, Una, and any other Swordmages, Bladesingers, or Hexblades that might be running around.
  • Mayfly–December Romance: Being D&D, some races will naturally live much longer than others.
  • Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty:
    • Zigzagged. Vallus and Baranith are strong examples of this trope (ranged healer and her bodyguard), but Una and Fie buck the trend (Fie's mother even tries to get Una to give her son weight training lessons).
    • Duncan and Marcus are subversions for the men (as a spoony bard, Duncan's physical abilities are comparably low and Marcus breaks down if he hurts a bloodied enemy) while Yenward is a massive mountain of manly minotaur.
    • On the female side, you have Thalia, Tessia, and Flo (noblewoman, semi-defenseless shopkeeper, and a non-combatant mother) versus Briahna and Liara (psionic berserker and a vampire hunter)
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender: Zigzagged. The majority of cannon fodder is male, however, several of the mentioned White Ravens have been female, and a few of Blacktooth's gang were notably female (played mostly for laughs).
  • Million Mook March: The Overwatch warforged's march on Winterhaven.
  • Million to One Chance: Played straight.
    • One power of the Rod of Wonder is the ability to completely resurrect one person who has ever lived on Theria. The one time this power goes off, it revives Duncan, the first main PC to die.
    • An unintentional example is when the only way for Briahna to not kill Una would be if she rolled a 1. She does.
  • The Mole: Po Tutillo is actually a member of the White Ravens, and was the one who released Briahna.
  • Mooks:
    • Being D&D, the majority of the nameless enemies qualify for this.
    • There's a notable (unintended) subversion, where one of the PCs reacts poorly to the idea that the gladiator orcs the party is fighting are captured slaves, forced to fight for their freedom. This ends up driving most of Group 1 and 3's plots for much of the series.
  • Morality Kitchen Sink: With kleptomaniac and childish minotaurs, racist and conquering dwarves, lawful good warpriests who turn traitor against the party to fuel their ego, and clerics who steal scrolls of resurrection to revive an NPC that they have feelings for, all alongside a dwarf who just wants to play his guitar in peace, most of the PCs, if not all of Theria, fulfills this trope.
  • Mugging the Monster: Group 1 gets mugged by children.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: A fairly popular stance for Group One in general. Group Three officially tries to avoid this.
    • Ironhide's modus operandi and he's usually right.
    • That said, almost every other member of Group 1 feels this way about vampires, leading to Ironhide sitting out the fight against Edward.
    • Una pulls this a couple of times as well, namely with Jeb and Darmok.
  • A Nazi by Any Other Name The Overwatch are a prime example of this. Gotta purge those "beast races", note this includes elves and all other non-human humanoid races.
  • Non-Combat EXP: Jason is said to give this out to his players.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Theria's dragons are only of the chromatic kind so far, and their voices are said to be so powerful that they would kill members of other races if they heard them. This power, however, has never been actually shown.
  • Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Almost all dwarves are heavy-drinking, battle-happy alcoholics with Blood Knight tendencies and the opinion that might makes right.
  • Our Elves Are Different: Elves, Eladrin, Drow, and Half-elves all differ somewhat in Theria, along with the inclusion of a Dragon-aligned tribe of fire-resistant Elves.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: Huge, feral, mindless creatures with super-speed and absolute ferociousness.
  • Protagonist Journey to Villain: A running theme for some of the PCs.
    • Malchus turns from someone who tries to free enslaved orcs to wiping out an entire race of sentient beings and abandoning his surrogate daughter to escape the consequences of said genocide.
    • Rodswell wants to honor the memory of his dead son. He ends up betraying his son's friends, reviving two of his enemies, and giving information to the side of the war that his now-revived son is fighting against.
    • Marcus wants to protect the people of the Overwatch. By the end, every ally has left him, he's responsible for at least one of the deaths of his old party's parents, and he tries to have the city he's in burned to the ground out of spite.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: All four groups fit this.
  • Rape as Drama: Notably averted - despite audience fears otherwise, Briahna wasn't sexually attacked by Ian. Instead, he murdered her father in front of her, made everyone else think she was crazy, and later burned her face and threatened her to keep her silence.
  • Rebel Leader: Several as time goes on.
    • Trias, after growing disillusioned with Carter's paranoia and tyranny.
    • After his death, Briahna unhappily takes over the role.
  • Seinfeldian Conversation: The first episode begins with the members of Group 1 getting lost in a conversation about Mark Rosewater's time as a writer on Roseanne, and they've carried this tendency ever since.
  • Spoony Bard: Seems to be the traditional behavior of bards in Theria. Also fist bumps.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Group 3, after their debut, were having episodes featuring them posted nearly every week, compared to the almost month long gaps between Groups 1 and 2 sessions. This did allow their characters to quickly reach the same power level as the other groups though. This has continued, mainly due to scheduling problems and constant setbacks for Group 2.
  • Storming the Castle: Group 2 pulls this on House Darksbane. And uses it as a base of operations before abandoning it.
  • Super-Speed: Werewolves. Only a fool fights werewolves.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: All three groups have moments of this, but none are quite as bad as Duncan's death in episode 6
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: Averted. The only depicted time jump in the series is a one-way (so far) trip to the future.
  • The Man Behind the Man:
    • David is this for House Darksbane and later House Dragonkeep, and possibly the other stewards for the respective houses.
    • Liara serves as this for Briahna, mostly because she doesn't want the actual position as the White Raven's leader.
  • Time Skip: An axe through a magic orb sent Group 1 seventeen years in to the future.
  • Token Minority: A majority of the cast is human, with only one or two examples from each non-human race. Tieflings are the exception, who have a much larger representation.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: A tradition for Group 2. Roll for bacon.
  • Travelling at the Speed of Plot: Subverted. Jason keeps track of how quickly any one party can travel, meaning that the timeline for the show has become increasingly tangled as one group moves farther ahead of another.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Overdale, and later Overwatch, displays a sliding scale of racism when it comes to certain races. Dwarves tend to get a free pass, and a gnome ruled Overdale's crime syndicate for a while, but Tieflings and Vampires are definitely on the no-fly list.
  • What the Hell, Hero??: Happens occasionally, which is a given when you're playing D&D.
    • Everyone and their dog pulls this on Malchus for the Treaty of Winterhaven, not that he ever accepts that the tragedies of the last decade or so were his fault.
    • Pulled again on Malchus in absentia when he commits genocide on the warforged.
    • The overwhelming sentiment when Ian pulls Briahna into the path of Yenward's charge, and he kills her accidentally.
    • The reaction of most Group 1 members when Ironhide kills Thoril.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Groups One and Three.
    • Drakonis threw down a wall of fire after Group 1 was pickpocketed by a band of kids, and probably wouldn't have stopped there if he was by himself.
    • Fie allows the rest of Group 3 to unknowingly blow up a room filled with children, out of hatred for all elves and elven sub-types.
  • The Undead: Zombies and vampires and revenants! Oh my.

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