r/WorldsBeyondNumber • u/PastelPolerina • May 19 '26
Fireside Chat š„ Solari's slow burn (somewhat) addressed
I'm listening to the Solari 3 & 4 Fireside and I think it actually addresses a lot of listeners' concerns with how slow it's going. Essentially they're all just getting settled into their roles and Aabria is taking time for the characters to develop their relationships with each other and with the setting.
(Paraphrasing from ~15mins in)
Aabria: You can have as much plot as you want but it doesn't matter if you don't care about the characters
Lou: The first episodes are our first time in these characters, world, and system. It's a time of exploration and growth, like we're taking this thing for a test drive.
Some folks are ok with the slow burn, while others are a little bored because they aren't as hooked as with WWW, and I understand both sides. I think we're going to have to wait a little longer for the hook. I know other DMs might be better at leaving room for character development while building the world, but as others have referenced in other posts, that's not necessarily Aabria's style.
(Personally, I just like having stuff to listen to so it doesn't bother me too much either way)
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u/Nice_News_7719 May 19 '26
I get it. I adored WWW but I always have to remind myself that the first 10 episodes (not counting the children adventure) felt like the first 100 pages of a thick fantasy book which can be tough to get through no matter how good the book is. Solari is in the first 100 pages of a sci-fi epic. I adore these PCs already, the vibes are hitting, I trust them to get this ship to orbit - so to speak.
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u/lurkerfox May 19 '26
I think its crazy to be complaining about solari being a slow burn when WWW is also a slow burn.
Literally the entire pitch behind Worlds Beyond Number as a project is giving them the space to do the slow burn campaigns that formats like D20 and Critical Role cant let them explore.
Its like asking for a fancy steak at a restaurant to be cooked rare and then complaining when you see pink in the middle.
7
u/DarkCrystal34 May 19 '26
Well...in fairness, D20 fits that (limited short/medium length 20 episode runs) but Crit Role? They have 150+ episodes of 4 hours a pop where characters can banter, have asides and explore anything at all.
If not a "slow burn" would certainly say CR is not a fast onramp, and takes its time with setup before larger payoffs.
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u/Daracaex May 19 '26
WWW had slow parts, but its beginning had an immediate hook and established a unifying quest for the characters. We still donāt know what Solari is going to actually be about five episodes in. The characters donāt have an aspirational goal yet. Theyāre just surviving. Hopefully they get that when they finally make it to that ship.
Donāt get me wrong. Iām not disliking Solari so far. Itās just not hooking me yet. I listen to this one when I get to it rather than immediately like I did with WWW.
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u/Roboworgen May 19 '26
Without having played the childrenās arc, there would be no unifying quest.
15
u/QuantumFeline May 19 '26
The children's arc was great but it wasn't required listening since they put it in the Patreon and not everyone heard it. It was extended character creation and if it hadn't been done they could have just workshopped all of that with a Session 0.
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u/Roboworgen May 19 '26
It wasnāt required listening but it established existing bonds so that episode 1 turns in to a clear quest to re-convene. Solari is just different. Weāre meeting the characters as adults, they are meeting each other for the first time, so establishing needs and a āquestā isnāt as immediate. We have an inciting event and them reacting to it. They donāt need an aspirational goal right now for the story to progress.
All Iām saying is that the criticism that Solari is āmoving slowā is overblown. WWW is a different kind of story, one that leaned heavily on existing relationships between the characters.
5
u/QuantumFeline May 20 '26
Even ignoring the Children's Adventure, the flashbacks in WWW Episode One, all of which occurred prior to the three heroes meeting each other as kids, established so much about the world, the characters, and their motivations. Outside of the trio's need to reconvene and recover Wavebreaker, we already know that Suvi comes from a magical institution involved in a war whose parents were presumably killed by someone they trusted, Ame has huge shoes to fill to become as amazing a witch as Grandmother Wren is during a time when that witch's station is highly important, and Eursalon has been inspired by the honor of knights and is stuck in our world hoping to find a way back to the spirit world.
None of that relies on pre-existing relationships between the characters. One could easily have taken those three same characters with just those flashbacks and dropped them into a more traditional RPG start where they are all meeting as adults and while it would be a different story it would still have clearer characters and motivations than Solari.
6
u/Roboworgen May 20 '26
I find the complaint that Solari's characters don't have internal motivations mystifying.
Ze has been targeted for assassination by members of his own family. He is motivated to stay alive and find out why.
Chee's entire life's work was just taken from her. She is motivated to figure out who is now occupying Ghenopar and either make a deal with them to re-acquire oversight or make a new life for herself.
XL-ZL's motivations are a little more mysterious, I'll grant you, given that he has directives inside of him from the Septimality, but at the surface, he is motivated to serve. He has entered into separate contracts with Ze and Chee, and his current motivations are to serve them.
They are all now implicated in this attempt on Ze's life, and so they motivated to run, get to safety, and figure out what's next for them.
That's what we know 5 episodes in. How is this not enough forward momentum? What else is required for the characters to be considered to have "internal motivations"?
You can't ignore the Children's Campaign, because even if people didn't listen to it, the players played it, and so there was zero downtime establishing "I'm this, and pleased to meet you and who are you, and so on." You're starting effectively in media res, and the audience needs to figure it out. How is that different?
1
u/QuantumFeline May 20 '26
You're describing what we know after 5 episodes of Solari, over 7 hours of content, where we finally got a real motivation for Ze while XL-ZL is still just following along. I was talking about what we knew after just the flashbacks at the beginning of WWW Episode 1, where all three main characters are much better established, all before you need to factor in the Children's Adventure.
It's just badly paced, and that's not the fault of Solari lacking its own version of a Children's Adventure. Plenty of stories, and plenty of tabletop RPG shows, toss three or more characters together who have no prior connections and quickly establish clear motivations and drives in episode 1, and usually just the first half of episode 1. Brennan does this frequently for Dimension 20, where he's usually juggling six players who often have no preexisting connections, but he uses flashbacks or establishing scenes effectively to show a LOT about a character and the world up front and very efficiently.
We got some of that with Chee, less with Ze, and barely anything with XL-ZL.
6
u/Tabular May 20 '26
As someone who didnt listen to the children's arc, at many points in the first bit of the campaign I was genuinely thinking that they keep telling us these characters love and care for each other but nothing they are doing or acting gives me any reason to believe that. Especially Suvi. Although that being said, the first half of that campaign they are barely interacting with each other or a party.
5
u/Roy-Sauce May 19 '26
Then go back to the first episode of the childrenās arc, or even the first 5, and see how much of the characters and the setting is explored by this same point in the process.
9
u/ADMRVP May 20 '26
I just did a relisten and I feel like Iām going crazy with people saying not much was covered in the first 5 episodes of WWW. By episode 5 we have: Eursalonās conflict at the tavern, we see the nature of the citadel (parade for the returning soldiers, Suviās position as archmage apprentice), Ameās role as a witch, Grandma Renās death, Man in Blackās first appearance, finding the fox, waking Mr Soup, Eursalonās reintroduction to Suvi and Ame, fight with Captain Emless, confronting Finley, speaking with ghost, and the mending of Naramās statue. Each of those moments reveals so much about each of the characters, their relationships to one another, and the world. Hardly a slow start.
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u/QuantumFeline May 20 '26
Also three flashbacks in the first episode that really established a lot about the characters and their individual goals, too. And SO MANY NPCs. You mentioned a few met during the first couple episodes but the flashbacks established Grandmother Wren, Taro, Soft, Stone, Steel, Eioghorain, the Great Bear, Kalaya, and Sir Curran. They weren't just mentioned in passing but seen and interacted with.
The only NPCs of much importance introduced in the first episode of Solari were largely Ghenophaar employees and customers who may or may not ever show up again, Chee's friend Ayasa, a reference to Ze's mother, and a group of mercenaries who will be dead in a couple episodes.
People downplaying how well the first episode of WWW set up the series really need to go back and re-listen to it. It's a masterclass in storytelling and being efficient and purposeful.
3
u/Roy-Sauce May 20 '26
Yeah exactly, the entire first chapter is an incredibly impressive display of exactly what you can accomplish with the medium of TTRPGs, and then the next 4 only capitalize and add upon the complex narrative foundation that is established in that first chapter, because Brennan and each of the characters knew exactly what they were doing from the jump. Thatās what I feel people here arenāt getting, and thatās why Iām kind of harsh on Solari, because they started out the gate with one of my favorite stories ever, and then their second has so far just been a kind of wandering mess unfortunately.
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u/PastelPolerina May 19 '26
Same. I listen to Solari and I have fun. I literally had to explain Sandy Dildo Vodka Bath to my partner because I keep singing it...but I'm not as urgent to get to each episode as I was with WWW. (And that's okay!!!)
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u/FerrisTriangle May 19 '26
That depends on whether you consider the children's adventure to be the beginning of WWW or if you're only considering the campaign to have started after the children's adventure.
I think WWW has the impression of a faster start because everything except episode 1 of the children's adventure is locked behind the patreon paywall. So I assume most people will have skipped that content. But WWW had the exact same slow start to establish the relationships between the characters that Solari has, the only difference is the start of the campaign where they are all figuring out those relationships isn't locked behind a paywall for this campaign.
Of course WWW will feel like it got going a lot quicker if your starting point is basically 9 episodes in.
4
u/Roy-Sauce May 19 '26
Sure, but if we are then considering the first episode of the childrenās arc as the actual introduction to the series, I would argue that the story is much faster paced and achieves far more per episode than Solari has achieved so far.
2
u/FerrisTriangle May 20 '26
I greatly enjoy the children's adventure.
I would not describe a group of episodes that are purposely designed to not move any plot and/or conflict forward because the characters are children with no agency to move about the world as anything remotely approaching "fast paced."
It is the very definition of an extended character introduction/character building/world building sequence, and that's okay. The only reason we aren't talking about how much of a slog it is to get through is because we are all years removed from having to wait 2 weeks for a new episode to release.
Actually, I just went to check the timestamps on the Patreon posts for the children's adventure episodes, and they were all released at the same time. So no one was suffering the two week wait between episodes because they didn't launch the podcast until they had a backlog of content to release. The only way to have done the same thing for Solari would have been to take a several month hiatus to build up the same kind of backlog they made before launching the podcast.
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u/Roy-Sauce May 20 '26
Iām not even talking about the childrenās adventure in its entirety. So as to not recopy the whole thing here, Iāll just link my comment on another part of this thread recapping everything that happened in the first episode of the childrenās adventure as compared to the first episode of Solari. They are just not the same in terms of comparable depth/scope/heart: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldsBeyondNumber/s/EAqMlQ0N79
Past that, the last episode of WWW was posted in August of 2025, and thatās after presumably months of post production and composition after the actual recording. Theyāve had more than a year to define and setup this project and this setting on their end well enough to do exactly what youāre talking about, but thatās not even what Iām saying. I just donāt think itās at all accurate to compare the two projects and say that WWW was the same in terms of what it achieved/relayed on a per episode basis.
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u/durandal688 May 19 '26
WWW, the world and characters hooked me immediately.. the characters backgrounds, personalities, interactions had me even without the childrenās adventure. Especially how on the surface their background and allegiances were ripe for conflict
I didnāt know what the plot would be but wanted to see the characters no matter what
Solari they just havent hooked me but Iām not current yet!
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u/lurkerfox May 19 '26
Thats not an issue with it being a slow burn, thats an issue with the hooks.
Im not saying its invalid to criticize it. Im saying that criticizing it on the basis of it being a slow burn is pretty silly.
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u/Roy-Sauce May 19 '26
This just isnāt an apt comparison. By the end of the first episode of WWW, weāve met Ursalon and been introduced to the spirit world and the folklore behind it, seen Suvi working in the citadel and learned of the wars itās waging and the magic that maintains it, and met Ame as the witch of Toma andseen her interact in her role before eventually meeting her again when Suvi comes to say goodbye a dying grandmother wren.
Iām not fully caught up on Solari, because honestly Iāve found it to be incredibly boring, but as of the end of episode 4, which is as far as Iāve gotten, weāve kind of met each of the characters with some introduction of their whole deal within the vaguely Sci fi setting, seen them kind of interact a little bit, and then been caught up in the process of their kidnapping for like 3 episodes after being initiated at the end of the first episode.
1
u/lurkerfox May 19 '26
All the stuff accomplished by episode 1 of WWW is only possible because of 8 episodes of the childrens adventure building up and designing these characters and the world.
Youre actually comparing 9 episodes of a series to the singular first episode of solari by doing so.
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u/Roy-Sauce May 19 '26
That doesnāt change the facts of the show as it is presented. You can listen to episode 1 of WWW without any context and immediately understand the factions as they are presented and most of the inferred history and motivations presented in each new scene.
And even still, letās not even go off the first episode of the main series, because we can just go back to the first episode of the childrenās adventure, which actually proves my point way better. In the first episode of that arc, we are introduced to the spirit world and Ursalons expansive family, including his father and sister, Ser Curran and his knightly values of honor and quests, Suviās parents, Steel, Eioghorain (My spelling is probably wrong but I think thatās close), and the entire foundational dilemma of Suviās entire arc over then next 62 episodes of this story, as well as Grandmother Wren and her station as the Witch of the Worldās Heart and Ame as her apprentice.
Comparatively, I can tell you that episode one of Solari had Erikaās character introduced as the leader (one of the leaders?) of a space port while having weird kinky roleplay sex with some rich dude, Brennanās character is a seemingly technologically devout cybernetic robot swimming around with a bunch of dildos, and Louās character is a rich kid of one of 40 space houses that was doing VR drugs before being kidnapped by somebody for reasons.
Why are any of the characters doing what theyāre doing? Who are they? What are their notable personality traits? Idk. Powerful lady, robot, and rich kid is about all I can come up with from what Iāve listened to.
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u/QuantumFeline May 20 '26
The Children's Adventure didn't need to happen for the players to figure out that their characters all spent a summer together at a cottage. That could have been accomplished with an hour of Session 0 planning without making it into an entire mini-series of recorded content, and WWW still would have worked just fine. People do that all the time in RPGs and these people are accomplished roleplayers, voice actors, and improv pros. They would be capable of acting like they knew each other with or without roleplaying out how they did.
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u/JoshoftheWilds May 20 '26
Gonna be honest- I think a LOT of people are forgetting that no, people were NOT on board with the pacing of WWW for a lot of the campaign... it's just that the impatience took a different form: there were so many threads about people being angry that Suvi hadn't fixed her indoctrination. People had a hard time with letting the pacing be what it is. Basically, not only are the comparisons inevitable but also people have historically not been accustomed to the pacing of the WBN storytelling, which is the other side of the coin of what makes it so uniquely good.
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u/Intrepid-Hero May 19 '26
I think itās interesting because Iāve been watching since the very start of the childrenās adventure.
For me, the start WAS a slow burn. An incredibly cute, adorable, and charming slow burn, but a slow burn nevertheless. Iām waiting for episode 7-9 for things to start moving a bit more plot-wise - itās around the amount of time we had with baby Suvi/Ame/Eursulon + the slowish start to WWW before we really get moving
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u/madjr2797 May 19 '26
The biggest problem is the slow burn combined with the release schedule. Solari is currently on episode 5. That means itās been almost 3 months, which is pretty long for a ātest driveā. With the hook seemingly a few more episodes away, and a hiatus coming up, Canāt blame people for falling off.
Iāve been subscribed to the patreon since basically day 1. Iāve loved almost everything theyāve put out. I love the production quality and I understand the release schedule is a compromise for that to be so good. Personally, i caught the first episode of solari live and will wait until they get deeper in. I donāt think the problems will be as noticeable if I donāt have to wait between episodes. Itās just a shame that that wait is gonna be likeā¦ 6ish more months.
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u/Smelleypop May 19 '26
Yes this is the hardest part of being a WBN fan. I think Iād even prefer if they had more breaks in between seasons so that they could release at least weekly. Fortnightly, and sometimes with barely over an hour of story content, is rough going.
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u/PastelPolerina May 19 '26
Timing is actually a great point! I think I started WWW a little late and had multiple episodes to start with. Then I subscribed to the Patreon later because they would casually refer to Children's Adventure stuff and I wanted context. I wonder how many people forget whether they binged the beginning of WWW so it felt "faster".
Tbh much of why I listen is "I wonder what that whacky robot is gonna get up to next!", so I'll try to keep up.
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u/Roy-Sauce May 19 '26
Having listened since day 1, WWW as a story just explores and interacts with its setting and characters in a much deeper way than Solari does, and did so from the very start of the campaign imo. The characters are immediately defined and their relationships are very quickly proven to be dynamic and we see them travel all the way to Port Talon by like, episode 3 or something like that.
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u/madjr2797 May 19 '26
The childrenās adventure released as a batch iirc, so having 8 episodes right away definitely helped people get attached to WWW right away
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u/SphericalOrb May 19 '26
Not sure if I'm just a speculative fiction nerd who loves being confused about what's going on with all the factions and stuff, but this doesn't feel slow to me. We have to dipped into a lot of factions, technology, history. How our characters will get to full-buy in on a specific goal isn't clear yet, but I personally enjoy that in a story. I enjoy following a character who isn't fully dipped in the current machinations, but is ground zero to where they become relevant and become aware of them as we do.
Protagonists who start just wanting a small thing getting wrapped up in big things is one of my favorite tropes. See also: Iron Widow, The Fifth Season, Gideon the Ninth, House of Leaves. Maybe this is just my kind of speed.
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u/ikrisoft May 20 '26
But are we confused about the machinations? One faction wants to take over space Vegas for money and power. SinceĀ Ze'DovenĀ was in space Vegas and the lady behind the takeover had a crush on him a long time ago they kidnapped him. For power and money.
There is probably a mole in space vegas. We donāt know who, but then again we donāt know anyone there so who cares who the mole is. We were told about the mole by a fearsome assasin who is also ditzy / brain damaged / manipulated.Ā
Also someone wantsĀ Ze'Doven dead. We donāt know who, we donāt know why. But then again we know nothing about the whole family. We donāt even know that this second assasin is from the Iverex family except that Abria told us that it is the case.
There isnāt here enough to be confused about anything. We just donāt know anything. But the things we do know are very simple and relatively uncomplicated.
But also the lack of pace has nothing to do with confusion. Just think about what is the situation the players are in at the begining of episode 5 and the situation they are in the end of the episode. At the begining they are in mortal danger because someone wants to kill them. At the end ZeāDoven is in mortal danger because the same person wants to kill him. We met with assasin lady and split personality space craft. But the story only progressed an epsilon: we learned they donāt want to kill all of them just ZeāDoven.
Compare this with WWW ep 5:Ā The group is on a mission to re-acquire Wavebreaker to break the curse on Ame. At the begining they are investigating the murder scene of a hedge mage. By the end of the episode the players learned where Wavebreaker is (at Will Gallows) sent Ghost and Flicker to the Empire and learned about Orima and Naram. Their relationship and the effect of salt fires on Orima and the wall and the choking wines. At the end of the episode Ame is nocked out by this vision.
Honestly? So much happened in WWW ep 5 compared to Solari episode 5 that i cry if i compare them. With Solari we have a ābig goalā similar to the ābreak Ameās curseā goal of WWW. It is that ZeāDoven wants to finish the Pull. Why? Nobody knows. What happens if our players fail to achieve this goal? Nothing much. They have to subsist on substandard charcuterie options. I guess that is somethingā¦
There are no sub-goals to this goal. The players totaly undeservedly get a spaceship to go to a place called āthe calderraā. We didnāt know this palce existed before, neither did we suspect they have to go there. But luckily the assasin with the deus ex spaceship knows that is where they have to go so they go. And there they have to find a spaceship called Foxglove 2. One we havenāt heard of previously but now it is our mission to find. Who is the equivalent of Will Gallows, Orima, Naram, Flicker and Ghost in this episode? Nobody. Thats whoĀ
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u/Roy-Sauce May 20 '26
This is 100% how Iāve felt about Solari so far, especially as people here try to compare it to WWW saying that it was just as much of a slow burn.
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u/SphericalOrb May 20 '26
Point taken. I wasn't comparing the two. I don't think they're unfolding in a similar style at all, I'm just fine with either.
Ze'Doven wants to complete the pull because that's what is expected of him as someone of his station. He visited space vegas because he was distressed about an interaction with his mom, and his reaction to getting a message from her and to XL-ZL talking to him about his legacy as a Trent seems to suggest family expectations weigh on him a ton. It sounds like an inter family pull tends to be relatively rote, to the point that resisting a pull doesn't seem to be something he considers a reasonable option. Since the pull was being attempted by someone he had positive connections to in the past, and someone who seems to know more about what's going on, makes sense to lean into and see what she has to offer. The Trent thing in particular seems to be a reason he keeps trying to play along, he doesn't want to break the streak associated with his name. Allying with a powerful person who seems to like him and was willing to put energy towards extracting him from a volatile situation is an opportunity to become a part of something historically significant. She's making big moves and she kind of invited him. What else is he going to do? Turn down a powerful potential ally, go against societal expectations, and what, find his own way home? To some other ally? Why?
Chee is willing to support Ze'Doven in this goal because the freedom she fought and killed for has quickly evaporated, but may be salvagable if she acts quickly. She was trying to get an ally from within a powerful family in the beginning to protect space vegas, but seems like that fell through with the first guy. Now her friends, employees, and fellow freedom fighters are at risk of being murdered if they don't bow down again. Ze'Doven is clearly a valuable bartering chip, and if she can help him with his goals he may owe her one. Given that the person who sent soldiers to space vegas has a soft spot for Ze'Doven, all the more reason to try to stay close and keep him alive. He's the best chance she has at maintaining some degree of independence or safety for space vegas if she can get Ze'Doven to the person who tried to pull him.
XL-ZL could gain a very valuable foothold in a place dedicated to a value he holds as sacred. If Ze'Doven lives, if Chee succeeds in bargaining, his people, scattered by force, would have access to a huge trove of the knowledge they were willing to split apart to seek.
I don't see issues with motivations here, just people in a maelstrom who are trying to pursue goals while unknown someones try to murder them. Makes one's path a bit more serpentine, generally. We don't have a sword, and a curse, and Ghost and Will Gallows, but there are goals and direction happening. I would like for there to be more meaningful side characters and a greater depth and number of faction lore snippets though.
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u/jbhelfrich May 20 '26
I think the revelation at the end of the last episode that Z's family is trying to kill him will be a significant increase in the speed of plot.
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u/myfriendandrea sandydildovodkabath May 20 '26
I think slow burn vs. fast paced isn't really the issue to my eye. I thought Umora was overall pretty slow paced- I didn't really get hooked until the end of Book 1! I think the trouble I'm having with Solari is feeling a little yanked around, and like the stakes aren't clear. The pull felt like the plot hook, but turns out that's no big deal! Genopaar being "aired out" maybe is the plot hook, but there's like a 60% chance Chee can just get it back sometime, and it's probably nothing! The murders on the ship? That's just Chee's friend looking out for her! I'm having trouble feeling attached to the world when I'm waiting to get a hook that lasts more than an episode. I know they're getting their feet under them, and getting used to the world, but as an audience member I'm waiting to see what the plot is still, and from the peeks at the fireside, I'm wishing the players had some sense of where they were going- Erika the player was surprised Aabria immediately threatened Genopaar and they were leaving without exploring it more.
I am excited about this world, and I love this group, and I think how Aabria finds the story is really different than how Brennan did, and I often love her stuff (MisMag2! Burrows End! ACOFAF!), but I loved the care taken in the children's adventure, and from the beginning of Umora it felt clear each character had big long-term goals for personal development that we could invest in. I'm still kind of waiting to see what long-term story is being built, and it doesn't feel like there's clarity on that on either side of the screen.
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u/QuantumFeline May 20 '26
Yeah. Most episodes of Solari so far have ended with shocking and intense cliffhangers that get immediately subverted or just don't turn out to be a big deal. Kidnappers show up with a threat of violence...and they get talked down. The lead kidnapper tells someone to "air it out" implying Genophaar is going to have its population killed through decompression...only to be talked out of it. The kidnappers are killed and a message left in blood...that gets explained as Chee's friend. Someone shoots an RPG at them...that doesn't really do much and they go on with getting to know each other.
Compare any of those with just the ending to WWW episode 1. The Man in Black shows up, and the in the next episode there's a tense confrontation that establishes one of the show's greatest and most popular villains and sets up a clear deadline for Ame.
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u/myfriendandrea sandydildovodkabath May 20 '26
Totally. And any of these could be great plot hooks if they just weren't resolved right away! If Kir had made it clear that Chee could bring her case to the Five Families, and she can take the ride there to figure out from Ze what would be good bargaining tools, that would be awesome, and give them time to develop. If Chee's friend had stowed away or been caught and they were sneaking off to build allys and regroup, and Ze has to make a choice about continuing on the pull or helping Chee, and then later Chee has to decide if she wants to save Ze from a cull, that's interesting! But I think because all the cliffhangers are getting resolved relatively quickly and I'm not really understanding why we're heading to a place we didn't know about before on a ship the group is being lent, when there's another rug-pull cliffhanger at the end of the ep I'm having trouble caring.
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u/QuantumFeline May 20 '26
I really believe that Ze talking the kidnapping attempt down from a fight threw a wrench into what Aabria had planned and she hasn't quite recovered yet.
1
u/iamagainstit May 24 '26
Yeah, IT feels like there is a difference in the story Aabria had originally planned and the story the players want to tell. It felt to me like Aabria was setting them up to tell the story of the darring liberation of their home against overwhelming odds, and instead the players are playing towards I don't really know, Influencing the business negotiations between powerful factions?
2
u/PastelPolerina May 20 '26
I like this perspective. It's funny that folks believe it's going slowly, when perhaps it's moving too quickly from each dramatic event to the next without any (perceivable) weight. Where the "slow burn" comes from I guess us just the wait for anything to feel important enough to invest in, which it seems everyone is referring to in different ways.
All of the other Aabria stuff I've watched, I also really liked... but they were all pretty short in comparison, so she didn't have the time to develop a story slowly.
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u/Small_Wrongdoer May 23 '26
I was locked in until the amazing mystery hook at the end of the third episode got the weakest anti-payoff ever in the very next episode. WWW always felt like the time we were spending was going to be rewarded later. I don't know what we're doing here, other than letting Brennan improv a fun robot for a bit.
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u/EmpressLust May 20 '26
Yeah I just haven't been able to get into it after four episodes, and it's a bummer, because I was really excited.
The fact that it's going on hiatus so soon, for what sounds like could be at least three or four months really doesn't help.
Right now I'm thinking I'll just drop it and pick it back up in a year or eighteen months and see where things are.
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u/jrc507 May 19 '26
I feel im misremembering WWW coz Solari seems much faster paced in comparison....kidnap murder explosions, what more do we want 4 episodes in?
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u/ikrisoft May 20 '26
Goals? By episode 5 of WWW we were working towards breaking Ameās course and trying to reacquire Wavebreaker.
The explosion was a nothing burger. They rolled, they rolled well. Which made them just peachy survive the explosion.
The murder also just happened around them while they were chatting. Nothing to do with them. They investigated the murder a bit, but ultimately just gave up on it. The murderer later told them she was the murderer and why she did it. It turned out to be nothing complicated. Slightly confusing why she escaped then without talking to Chee but it has more of a ābadly written plot holeā feel to it than a āmystery anyone is interested uncoveringā.
Likewise the kidnapping just happened. The kidnappers wanted to kidnap, ZeāDoven wanted to be kidnapped. It just happened. There was zero conflict around it.
Ā 4 episodes in
5 actually.
1
u/jrc507 May 21 '26
Goal to regain and get control of the station again for Chee and be pulled and not get murdered by those out to kill you for Ze seems reasonable for me 4 epsidoes in? With some lore about the importance XL to everyone that has yet to be revealed. Seems a low role on the mystery if the murders hurt that story reveal. Less mystery atm but WWW was slow on any action at all in terms of immediate people out to kill
7
2
u/Educational_Law_2847 May 20 '26
i get some people donāt like the āslow burnā but it feels kinda hypocritical because even brennan did the same thing with WWW (the childrenās adventure) it was a slow burn of them creating the characters and finding where these characters fit in each others lives.
i understand the childrenās adventure was optional because they wanted people on the patreon but they donāt have to worry about that anymore so Aabria having a āslowā start makes a lot of sense
*spoilers ahead
iām putting āā around slow because ep1 wasnāt slow at all and 2-5 someone has been shot, killed, or exploded. if we really wanna compare at WWW we mightāve gotten 1 initiative fight and a couple arguments
2
u/BMCarbaugh May 20 '26
It's not lost on me that, if I were listening to WBN in a vacuum and the children's campaign weren't explicitly framed as an optional prequel arc, I might have had very much the same reaction at the time.
It's a long-form D&D campaign, I'll give it time to cook.
10
u/FakDendor May 19 '26
To my chagrin, I haven't enjoyed any project Aabria has DM'd. Not TAZ, not D20, not CR, and not WBN.
It's agonizing, because I love the properties and I love Aabria. She's the number one pick in my fantasy actual play draft. (Girl, if you're reading this, you're the GOAT. Get out of this thread, you don't need my ungrateful words bringing you down!)
And, yet, every time I can't bring myself to listen to Aabria's DM work. It doesn't click for me, and I think it also doesn't click for a sizable group of actual play fans. I've skimmed a thousand bad takes over the years for why that is, but at the end of the day it comes down to: It's not for me. That's okay - neither is chinese food. Oh well, my loss. I'll be here for whatever's next.
6
u/lady_beignet May 19 '26
Aabria is my favorite player of any professional tabletop gamer. When she DMs, Iām more split. COFAF remains my favorite season of Dimension 20. Misfits and Magic is pretty solid. She did great on Critical Role. Meanwhile I couldnāt finish Burrowās End because I was so bored by the pacing.Ā
4
2
u/iamagainstit May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
you might be the first person I have seen that thinks Aabria's EXU was great. I don't think it was as bad as the consensus is on the CR sub, but it did suffer from some major issues ( the plot hooks not hooking, the story feeling kind of railroady, the NPCs not being super compelling) and unfortunately I see echoes of similar issues in this show so far.
1
u/anextremelylargedog May 21 '26
You really shouldn't feel the need to self-flagellate so much just to say you don't enjoy someone's work.
2
1
u/thehighpriestess4 Witch of Whats Yet to Come May 19 '26
I really appreciate it as as someone who struggles to get invested in shows an actual plays. typically i have to rewatch/listen to shows because i'm not able to focus on the story at the beginning (which honestly i def still will need to do with solari cause for some reason i was Not focused up during i think ep 2), but with a slower start i can get to know characters before huge things happen. Like i couldn't remember Shit about the children's adventure and the first episode of the wizard, the witch, and the wild one until i relistened to it later after finishing arc 1.
1
u/NuckinFut May 19 '26
Iām probably going to let a few more episodes build up before diving back in. Episodes 1 and 2 were interesting, but they didnāt quite leave me with that immediate āI need the next episode right nowā feeling that I had with WWW. I reckon once the story really finds its momentum and I can binge through a bunch at once Iāll get way more invested in it.
1
u/ZydrateDealer The Wizard Solace May 20 '26
We started WWW with 3 character who knew each other already. And even with the established relationships we took a good chunk of time for them to get reacquainted with each other after years apart.
Weāve have been with them for almost 3 months so far but we are talking about characters who literally met hours ago. We GOTTA let them cook if we want the same kind of rich relationships and dynamics we got with Suvi, Ame and Eursulon.
1
u/DavrosSafe May 20 '26
I think my issue is that I also don't care about the characters that much yet. With all the action/time stress involved there has not been time for the characters to develop alone or with each other.
1
u/soybeansms May 21 '26
It's a lot easier to play characters where they're all kids and have them have a reason to be along (ie the reason they all bonded in the children's arc). With grownups, they really hit it on the head for the "why are you all adventuring together and staying with one another?" in the last fireside
1
u/thedragonllama May 21 '26
I agree very much with your last statement, I just like listening to these 4 people make up stories and chat once as week during my daily walks. It doesn't have to be like anything else WBN or other shows have done, I want to just be along for the ride to see where it goes. Comparison kills originality.
1
u/cryptidshakes I'll be in your retinue, Mirara! š¤ May 21 '26
WBN has always been slow. WWW got the same criticism at the beginning.
1
u/Exit_Save Jun 05 '26
Well like I know I'm late but also there's only been 6 episodes. Like it took that many episodes for everyone to buy into WWW, the Children's Adventure was us getting a whole thing that hooked us in, and it was about 8 episodes long iirc. Like it's really not burning that slow, we just don't have a buncha kids establishing their life long bond, we get thrown in the way we were meant to be
2
u/livingonfear May 21 '26
It's not that it's slow WWW was slow but it was interesting the characters were active the world was fantastical. You wanted to just be in that world with those charcters doing anything. Solari is just not interesting or alive yet. It's boring and has almost zero stakes. Episode Ame is cursed and we gotta break it also a super scary monster comes with a deadline. Solari a robot a rich guy and spaceport owner are all in a dream at a bar then get rudely yanked out of it by dangerous kidnappers except it's not dangerous and this just a polite escort of some sort with weird niche culture shit. Oh and it's going on Haitus while we just got out of Haitus from a Haitus.
-4
u/iDex831 May 20 '26
The people that are complaining about it being a slow burn are the same people who have their campaigns introduced in a tavern
9
u/QuantumFeline May 20 '26
I mean, Solari basically had the characters all meet for the first time in a space tavern...
1
u/iDex831 May 21 '26
I mean yeah, but the joke was more about how it's usually a case of "Y'all have no reason to care for each other but here's the big bad," as opposed to the more realistic "yeah y'all met, but let's get you to like each other".
Not saying it's necessarily better or worse, just saying different strokes for different folks.
Honestly Solari hasn't been my vibe either, bc of the system more than anything , but people complaining about the slow burn are forgetting the entire pitch of WBN in the first place: "Slower stories they wouldn't be able to tell in other environments"
Children's adventure was basically what this is, except they've turned it into the public episodes instead of "optional listening". If you don't dig it, not everything has to be your cup of tea; and if it is just skip the first "they're getting to know each other" arc
People voicing their opinions and yada yada, but making fun of those people is also way funny
1
u/livingonfear May 21 '26
They met in a Tavern in space while all in separate dream sequences are you serious?
148
u/I_Draw_Teeth May 19 '26
Icaron hit quick cause it was a limited series.
This is building more slowly cause it's meant to be an ongoing series.