I think giving mat a combat optimized barbarian and being the only one with animal talk allowed him to easily overcome the constantly dying in combat frustration. His old man build was almost completely investigation focused iirc.

And yeah, I think they went in with a outline and wanted to guarantee hitting the main points. I’m treating it as scripted with the “gameplay” being improv.

Highly enjoyable nonetheless, but especially the parts that seem truly organic (the dog getting its name)