#and knowing that marisha and laura care so much is just so special. they KNOW how much this means to people and to themselves too!!!!

[luminousstardust]

sorry but laura and marisha acting their hearts out every week and giving us the queer performance of a lifetime…. with the love AND the drama AND angst AND occasional fluff…….. literally roleplaying themselves to TEARS because they care about these characters so much gets to me so bad. as a wlw who’s lived through every iteration of queerbait and horribly shitty representation it just feels so good getting to watch imodna get together mid-campaign and not just at the very end so we get to watch them GROW with each other and NOT BE PERFECT and have ISSUES that come with their whole end-of-the-world thing but trying their very best to work them out because they want nothing more than the other to be happy and safe…………. yeah i’m never going to be the same again.

[rosemarydisaster]

Hi Hello, I know I haven't talked a lot about CR lately (my brain won't let me watch it for some reason) but I'm back to talk about The Legend of Vox Machina, particularly: Grog.

Spoilers for The Legend of Vox Machina episode 9 below. There will be spoilers for the stream too, but I will also mark down where those start.

I love love love all the changes. Not only do I think they're a great way to adapt the absolute beast of content that CR is. Some are good sacrifices, there's shit gotta leave out, no matter how entertaining. I think they've pick very well what to leave completely out. Also, they're really smart in the way they've fused different adventures so they can have a two for one (like adding stuff from the rakshasa fight to the dungeon crawl at the Matron's temple so they can have that Kashaw-Kiki interactions). And of course there's the switching the order so it's more streamlined thing too, like Pyra. But what I thought was the best decision was the party splitting on the past three episodes.

Sure, you should never split the party and I hope they don't abuse that solution or that at least they play with the different combinations because it can be a detriment to the group dynamic. But this time?? They nailed it.

The fey wild group was perfect, you have all the development you need for the ships and also Vax and Percy get to patch things up a little and the twins are together for the family reunion. you have all the people important for a Vex Arc on one side.

On the other hand, you have Grog go through his arc with the two people most important to him. I love the Vax-Grog Dynamic, but like in the OG fight against the Earth breaker, his first choice will always be Pike and his second Scanlan. Also, you get some cute gnome flirting and a bit more development for Scanlan since Pike is the one that challenges more his flirty nature. Vex and Percy are permanently done with him, but they treat it like something that's just intrinsic to Scanlan. You can't change the weather, you simply complain about it. Pike on the other hand is the one that gets frustrated at the fact that Scanlan is unable to have a proper heart to heart or to be sentimental without defusing the tension. And Grog bringing out Scanlan's more caring nature is a nice touch. So it is the perfect team for Scanlan progress too.

But going back to what I actually wanted to talk about (because my Scanlan Meta will come too, but most likely next week) Grog. I love what they did with Craven Edge, I love how the show allows them to have this more "feelings based" resolution to Craven Edge's exhaustion. Because in game greater restoration or a night's sleep heal literally anything unless the DM specifically requests it.

What this does is it gives them the chance to introduce the whole "where does your strength come from?" Question in a place where the stakes are super high and it's thematically appropriate. That whole speech about how Grog considers strength helping those who can't help themselves...chills.

Now spoilers for the stream

I think it also Segways brilliantly into the whole "My strength are my friends" by maybe combining it with the whole "Vox Machina...Fuck shit up". If that happens, I'm gonna cry so hard I will dehydrate. I love the fact that they are giving so much attention to Grog, his growth his emotions because they're often brushed off. Travis wasn't still super comfortable roleplaying emotional scenes in campaign one and Tal, Liam and Marisha had a lot os experience and really angsty characters. Also Laura and Sam are just that powerful, you can't expect most people's experience first character to be that emotionally vulnerable (specially while streaming).

Ashley was also more nervous with the streaming and stuff, so Pike and Grog while not underdeveloped at all, usually didn't have the emotional spotlight on them the way we're seeing in the show. I think giving Grog the physical vulnerability and stripping most of his companions away is a great way to allow that depth to shine. When you don't have four extra characters each making questions and each proposing solutions, the spotlight shines directly on Grog and I love it.

I've always treasured those rare moments were Grog gets to open up and show his heart. I really love that trope of big dumb character also has emotional complexity, so I really enjoyed the last episode and I can't wait for the next one.

[alloutofgoddesses]

C3 E50 - It’s the middle of the semester so I have no free time ever and I’m reconsidering all of my life choices leading to this moment

Gale!

Fun fact I tried watching this last night and only got about an hour and half in when I realised I was way too tired and distracted so I turned it off

Jester I miss you

NOPE vibes

Why is Liam so little

Off topic but anybody else have a grey cat? I have a nearly 11 month old grey feline and I would love to know if they’re all Like This or if mines a special (basket) case

Aahhhhhhhh oh my god I’m so happy for Imogen

Planning is an essential part of DND but guess what. I am not paying attention to a whole lot of it unless I myself am planning

RIP Silver Sun? I don’t understand why this is necessary oops

Travis bud when was the last time you got your eyes checked

Fly in studio AGAIN (why are there so many flies in the Critical Role studio)

Miss your merk

…and I guess I’m done with my tea now thanks Hermes

Gnome sinkholes

Also there’s no way they’re coming back with a better ship lol

Laura please don’t do math problems

Keyleth I love you

Nothing bad is going to happen, this plan will go as expected

Awww Fearne gave Ashton a forehead kiss

Shout out to Travis for continuing to wear the sweat bands

Oh boy oh boy

I love seeing Travis “Aabria was only scared of me” Willingham in his element

My tummy feels weird lol… idk why this isn’t very high stakes at all

Hello who are you

Scary Laura scary Laura

Okay but how “high up” is Lilliana for that to work

Oof buddies

Oh hey I own those sweatpants

Just filibuster, that’ll stop the apocalypse from happening

Don’t look at your wife like that Matt

Oh no - I feel like it’s a bad idea to run

Does Travis need the sweatbands because I think I do

WEREWOLF TIMEEEW

OH THAT’S VERY BIG

Get em Laudna

How much attention do we think this combat is drawing. Also who’s hiding in the tent

Casual Lizzo ref

Bye Ashton

The warder is gonna die via electrocution!

Is it Otohan or her mom

AH SHIT I WAS RIGHT ABOUT SOMEONE BEING IN THE TENT

Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute

Fingers crossed fingers crossed this is a blorbo from our shows

This has to be someone very dexterous

That’s monk shit right that has to be monk shit

THATS EXPOSITOR BEAUREGARD LIONETT

Me too Liam

Ashley I love you - try your absolute damndest please

That’s my second favourite Critical Role lesbian!!!!!!

ASHLEY SHE IS SO HOT

That’s Beau!!

THAT’S MY BABYGIRL

ME TOO LIAM!!!!!!

Multi-campaign crossover!!!!!!!!!

ME TOO DANI

In the words of Liam AND Aabria, what’s sexier than wizards? NOTHING

Oh Caleb is so respectful I love hims

Yeah you have baby

Probably Beau 😬

I would love to see Beau and Caleb in Vasselheim

Hey it’s her!

Very excited for the people who woke up Devexian to meet FCG honestly

Awww where’s the rest of the Mighty Nein

- Who didn’t make it out? I would like to know Caleb

When is Chet gonna become small again. I feel like it’s gonna make Beau laugh

Ashton has been silent the entire time 🧐

Ashton bby speak up ask questionssss

Which of his romantic partners is he referring to

Oh shit third wizard?

Yeah Travis the meta levels are out of this world

There’s Ashton hi buddy

Ajshshsjaj BEAU

I want Ashton and Beau to be passive aggressive together PLEASE

Be careful with that fourth wall it doesn’t look super stable right now

Okay but I would prefer if we move forward with the full team here

Desperately want Beau and Caleb to meet FCG

[THEY] XANDIS IS THEY REMEMBER PRONOUNS MARISHA

Ah goddammit. See y’all next week

[nochiquinn]

four-sided dive episode 2: #good #professional

I have a keyboard! go fuck yourself, ipad keyboard

sdhfsk I just saw the name of the drink special

sam what

"what's a sad dad dance?" "it's just how you dance, man?"

mala: "I'm wearing flip flops today" Liam: comtemplates divorce

laura's hair looks so good

gofundme so I can get purple hair again

laura stop making fun of me

taliesin cornering momlan and demanding embarrassing stories about sam's childhood

laura: STOP TALKING ABOUT FEET

I also did not see lost boys until I was an adult

Moon Is Haunted

"as I tell you what happened on your show"

taliesin don't you bring the summerses into this

you were THERE SAMUEL

"the show is to catch sam up to speed"

"I don't even know what they're not talking about"

sam doesn't watch the product

"the moons could be chunks of god"

the souls are stored in the poop

"I have already exhausted laura, fifteen minutes into the show"

mala: "for most of us will get stale" Travis is big enough to count as a majority

"shopping is like the character creator, I want to try every hair color" I may or may not have spent two solid hours in the elden ring cc

mala: this is Laura's world and everyone else has the privilege of being an NPC in it me: this is also true for imogen

I ctrl-z'd and it erased a whole chunk of notes, thanks notepad

"JUST KEEP READING THE PROMPTER"

they absolutely stacked the tower before whatever they painted them with was dry

orym's little rp tricycle

l a u r a

mala: Orym coming out as bi but from the opposite direction

taliesin finding a machine to rage against

[ducks debris from the exploding southerngothic fandom]

"they're a flat earther" liam: [heavy sigh]

the subs just said "tallison"

the subs are now half the show for me

I can't believe dani is going to kill sam in the parking lot

I can't believe the producers are gonna kill sam in the parking lot

okay that's really fucking cool tho

can't believe they showed animal death right on the show smh

we'll find out when laura finds out

"ashton doesn't care but percy is in the back screaming"

my psych major comparisons are validated

my accent suffers from laura and fcg's accents

"it's worse when you need people and you're bad at it" can we not call me out like this

shadow imogen

chaos gremlins (affectionate)

whiskey slap

"you won't get that when MARISHA hosts!" "I mean…"

imogen temult, moon pony princess

"somewhere around here laura slapped me and it all changed"

I desire to see a consequence

muppets!

….fearne WOULD be janet

"HAMMER! :D"

kermit 🤝 orym only sane man

"they should just let us run the country" honestly tho

lore nuggets, new name of the show

I know even less about street fighter than I did about mario kart, so

"now I'm gonna button mash to see if I can make him to fancy stuff" me

"why is that person firing a gun into the air"

imogen hears everybody's intrusive thoughts

"I want the TOTS" "fair"

"he hates characters that have nothing good going on, because he's a good boy"

"we want more dani!" true

there is so much hair in this fight

"do you have a question for me?" "no. …other than WHY"

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

Hello! I've been wanting to ask this for a little while, what's a good starting point to critical role? Like should I watch legend of vox machina and start from there or is there another campaing that might be better to start from zero?

Hello dear, I think it depends on what approach you want to take.

If you're new to this style - to watching people play D&D - I would recommend starting with Exandria Unlimited. They're basically "miniseries" and there are three of them: Exandria Unlimited (8 episodes), Exandria Unlimited Kybal (2 episodes), and Exandria Unlimited Calamity (4 episodes, although I warn you those episodes are extra long - one is six hours). I recommend these since they're short(er), a good introduction if you're not sure how these things work without too much time investment, and everyone is an experienced player and so it's pretty "polished" and streamlined.

There are also a lot of oneshots or mini campaigns that are just plain fun to watch. Some are tied to the main campaigns, others are not. Undeadwood is a great one - four episodes of supernatural cowboys, what is not to love? I recommend that one - or the Cthlulu one, if horror's to your tastes.

If you care about being caught up, I would start with Critical Role Campaign 3 - the current campaign, starring Bell's Hells. There are only 24 episodes so far, so you can catch up fairly quickly, and then watch live with everyone else. Campaign 3 has references to previous campaigns, but I think you're good even if you're a total newbie. No knowledge of previous campaigns is really needed. Everyone's really experienced and confident, they're daring to go balls to the wall, and they got a fantastic new studio to film in.

However, if you truly have the time, I do recommend starting with Campaign 1 with Vox Machina for one big reason: it gives a lot of context and joy to watch Critical Role develop from the beginning. You get to see these people learn how to play with cameras watching them, learn how to adjust to having an audience, and grow in skill and confidence as improv actors/D&D players.

Some people claim that Critical Role is scripted. As someone who's played D&D for a decade, I can promise it isn't. And if you watch from the beginning you'll see what I mean - you literally watch in real time as they become better and better at knowing how to use the D&D rules, at building their world and characters, at improv acting and playing off each other.

It's also really joyful to watch these people become more and more successful. They start out using a spare room in Geek & Sundry's headquarters with bookshelves and a couch in the background. Then they get their own room, then a nice studio, and now they have set up their own production company with a cool studio with lighting effects. It's just really cool to watch people get better at their art and be successful at what they love. And you get to watch things like Matt and Marisha's engagement to marriage, Liam's healing from a bad mental time, and Laura and Travis's baby be born. You get to watch a group of friends love each other and I just think that's really special.

So that's my opinion - it's what you have time for, and how you want to start. If you want to dip your toe in and get used to it, Undeadwood and similar oneshots/mini arcs are well-done and they're all pretty used to this by now so it goes smoothly. I cannot possibly recommend Exandria Unlimited: Calamity enough. But if you want to hop into the current, ongoing story, then you're at a good place to quickly catch up with Campaign 3. And if you have a lot of time on your hands, then Vox Machina/Campaign 1.

One note if you watch other stories first, and then go back to campaign one, have some patience when you do. It'll be like watching Star Trek: Discovery then going back and watching Star Trek: The Original Series. Be prepared for some bumps as they get used to being on camera, as they meander in stories because they're just fucking around, as they get confused about rules, and it really does look like they're filming this in someone's house on a tripod. Which is part of the charm! But can be a jolt if you start with the later stuff where they have a professional studio and a lot more expertise at this.

I hope this is all helpful to you! And I hope that whatever you choose, you have fun and enjoy. Stay safe nonny dear.

[weareunderthesameskies]

people talk about the table interactions and dynamics a lot but let’s take a moment to appreciate how matt dotes on the players differently. because sometimes they say he plays fave on liam, but the truth is he’s soft about all of them in his own way

travis - they kind of have this little pact going about knowing the truthness of his characters. matt knows travis loves those moments of impulsiveness and he presents plenty of opportunities to let him explore those. the two most iconic moments may be grog vs. the giant that broke his cask and fjord touching the red gem. the moment of play is really pushing travis’ boundaries and letting him press the big red button and thats just Friendship™ to roleplay seducing and being seduced

marisha - oh how to count the ways that matt loves his wife. i remember in campaign one they had a more strenuous relationship over the table because marisha wanted to make sure he didn’t play faves when it came to her (bless her precious, righteous heart). matt respected this deeply and i don’t think i can count the moments they share of mutual glances and “alright this is happening” or “i will make this challenge for you” while everyone else is freaking out. but, letting her explore her power and strength and always allowing moments for her to step up as Kiki, especially with all the support of the NPCs around her, tells a lot of how much he wants to show his support. with beau, they’re loosening more of the ‘play faves’ and just going full “fuck it, monks are just Awesome” and both revel in those scenes

liam - the fate-touched. need i say more? it’s not that matt plays faves but... he’s definitely soft when it comes to liam and his choices. an entire arc formed around the acceptance of death, fate and destiny for a friend who matt knew was struggling a lot with those things. also, gilmore. also “matt didn’t have any comments to my backstory with caleb, i think he let me do pretty much anything”. but more detailed, i guess they’re so in tune with giving and receiving roleplaying challenges. liam wants to explore the deep, dark depths of the mind and damn if matt doesn’t take him by the hand and go “follow me”, leading and guiding along the way

sam - i think matt has said multiple times that bards are just his fave but whenever sam would sing i could just sort of feel the love pouring out of matt, despite the snappy comments they may share. matt knows sam is a smart motherfucker and knows that he likes to play with his hands tied behind his back so he... presents that opportunity when possible. also the entire scheming of scanlan’s departure testifies to the level of devotion he has to sam’s arcs. also, sam might be known to be the most jokey and messing around all the time, but damn if he doesn’t get into it and deeply appreciates all the work matt does for every session that goes by and i think matt knows that.

laura - everybody loves laura bailey, and matt is no god damn exception. every time he does something that hurts her, i think he feels the most remorse than hurting any one character. the amount of times he’s apologized to her specifically whenever she makes the :((( face is just incredible. also he knows she wants to hits things as jester and desperately wants to allow her to do so - even in some of those rare direct DM moments where he outright says ‘you can cast inflict wounds here, i know you love that spell’. like, gosh, the dedication. also love love love the moments between them as the traveler and jester, and jester and her mom. 

taliesin - age old friendship shows here. they share so many inside jokes and secret moments, twinkle in their eyes. taliesin loves the mystery, the unspoken and you can really tell he trusts matt explicitly and i think matt really enjoys he can take to taliesin’s subconscious in this way - percy and molly had very secretive backgrounds, even to them, and caduceus’ mysticism with the wildmother allows for these “trust falls” between matt and taliesin. i also really enjoy the fact that matt wanted to bring taliesin in as a guide to the others originally, because it also means he trusts taliesin to have taught the others the reigns and directions they can go in. it just. you know, oozes trust between them. love seeing that. 

ashley - since her appearances have been rare, it’s clear he always wants to make it as special as possible. pike’s holiness and yasha’s power and strength of her arc lets him give her some really iconic, powerful moments of both campaigns. she often underestimates what she’s capable of, and i think matt does take special care to lean into presenting her at her most awesome so she can see what everyone else sees all the time. i love how ashley still surprises matt and how he is still attentive and learning about what she wants to go in depth with - he listens a lot, and knows her abilities as an actor and wants to give her those moments too.

[redjennies]

Not to be kinda down in the dumps (and I totally get if you don't wanna answer this bc it doesn't match the hype beauyasha vibes we've been feeling lately) but I'm finding out that there was a lot of hate in the twitch comment section during the show to the extent that Laura, Matt, Tal and others had to stop them. Do you think people would be sending the same amount of hate if it was another couple, say fjorester or Caleb x Astrid, who got an hour long special date? Like I get that some people don't want to watch an hour long rp date and would prefer plot progression and that's totally fine. But do you think this hate is bc people didn't want to watch an hour long date or was it because people didn't like that it was beauyasha (a wlw couple) getting the attention? I'm just kinda confused it the hate was from people not wanting to watch a date or if it was just blatant homophobia

I'm gonna be honest I don't know jack shit about what goes on in the Twitch chat or on Twitter. I've heard slurs got dropped in the chat, which I wouldn't be surprised by because people are homophobic/lesbophobic af, but I haven't seen anything actually documenting this and I'm not super keen on looking for it so while I doubt it's hearsay, it could be hearsay. in general, when it comes to things like homophobia or racism or misogyny, I tend to assume that shit like that is going on because people are goddamn terrible. I'm sure some people were just blatantly being homophobic because I know people are. I deal with it pretty much every day and am keenly aware of its existence.

but I also do think some people whining about the date might have not been purely motivated by sheer blatant homophobia. some fans (read: men) get annoyed by the romance arcs because it's "girly bullshit." some people are probably whining because it wasn't their ship. some people just like to fucking whine and complain like Marisha Ray is personally holding a gun to their head and forcing them to watch the show. I do think we would have seen a certain amount of backlash to an hour long date regardless of who it was because most people don't have the emotional capacity to do what I do when I think the show's being boring (read: the hours upon hours of indecisive bickering over plans) and just zone out with one headphone in and do something else instead.

but do I think people are being extra whiny because it's a lesbian ship? yeah, of course I do. do I think an hour plus beauyasha date would have homophobes, misogynists, and general entitled assholes who just can't handle media not immediately catering to what they want to see all in a tizzy and crying like little babies afterwards? yeah, duh. idk that's probably not the answer people want out of me, but it's what I think is happening and honestly? I don't really care about their tears one way or another. i've spent most of my life getting the shaft by the media and now i'm up here on cloud nine being pandered to and I'm loving every single second of it, baby.

[c-is-for-circinate]

Man, I liked this episode.

Such great character moments!  Really exciting lore.  Plans for the future!  That ending, though!  Yay!

In no particular order, some moments I really appreciated:

Literally everything at the tavern, oh MAN.  Every single one of those conversations was SO GOOD, you know what I actually need to break this down further:

CADUCEUS AND YASHA, holy cow, right?  (it is late enough at night that ‘holy cow’ is doubly amusing, because Caduceus is, in fact, actually a...anyway, never mind.)  But HER HAIR!!!  Caduceus trying to be supportive, trying to Give Advice (Caduceus always thinks it’s his job to Give Advice, but usually it helps), but also falling just enough into actually admitting some of his own feelings.  Hope and worry.  I love them so much.

Beau and Caleb admitting/reminiscing about the early days when they didn’t like each other at all (except that even then, even when Caleb was being driven up a wall and Beau was angry and annoyed and kind of hated the guy, even then, they always liked each other at least a little bit, they never would’ve gotten so angry otherwise).  You know, sometimes it fades away for a while, but every so often I remember just how much I love Beau and Caleb as friends, because it is such a complicated, layered, hard-won friendship.  They both worked so hard for this relationship!  We call them the empire siblings, and it’s true, sometimes, but also it’s not true at all, because they worked so hard to get here, without any blood or parents or shared childhood joys telling them they should.  They built this friendship all on their own.  (And how often do you see such utterly platonic male-female friendships that are this hard-won and this concrete, in fiction?)

Okay I admit it, I made a NOISE at the unicorn thing.  It was just so utterly sweet, so deliberately ‘I know this little thing will make the person I care about smile,’ with no pretense or requirements after that, just because.  It felt like a little bit of Travis and Laura bleeding through, not in an out-of-character way, but in this bright reflection of all the little moments we’ve seen them just be honestly in love on screen.  It reminds me of the time Travis ordered an entire box of doughnuts via PostMates mid-episode delivered to the studio and didn’t say anything until they showed up.  And yes, obviously Travis and Laura’s characters can do and romance whoever they want--but if the honest emotion is there, it’s there, and it’s adorable.

Likewise: Beau and Jester both giggling and a little bit giddy about their respective potential love interests, both genuinely happy for each other.  Is there a sense of loss there?  Maybe, maybe not, who knows--but that mutual happiness is so genuine, and the “Agh, you know I’m scared of my future!” is so real in every direction, I love it.   

All of the shopping this episode made me really happy.  There’s something really special about a party hitting the level where they no longer have to care about money, and get to run kid-in-a-candy-store wild.  Buy ALL the diamonds!  Buy every piece of wizard-grade paper in Nicodranas.  Buy an entire wheelbarrow of fireworks, why not, just fucking do it, we’ve got the cash.  (Side note: as someone from Illinois, ‘going to Indiana to buy fireworks’ is such a familiar and obvious thing to me that I had a whole disorientation moment of ‘wait, Marisha isn’t from--oh my god people do that from the other side of Indiana too?’  I had not realized Indiana was such a national hub for fireworks, although I probably should have, given Indiana.)  Seriously though, the M9 do not care about money-- ‘here, take some of mine to pay for that thing, I’ve got so much I won’t use, just get it, it’s fine.’  But they get so much joy out of buying hundreds of gold worth of joke shop supplies, it’s so delightful, the entire two-city shopping trip was so delightful and I love them all.   

I covered all of my ‘oh man Beau’s imposter syndrome and self-esteem issues’ feelings in an earlier post, but I’m just going to reiterate: fuck, my feelings.   

I love the Eiselcross hook, and I cannot wait for what they find up there.  For one thing, I love me a good fictional deicide.  (I have some THOUGHTS about any potential god-killing weapons, and their potential uses against, say, life-devouring cities or angry sea serpents with a more than conventional number of eyes.  Also man that would’ve been useful for Vox Machina circa their own episode 109 or so.)  I am deeply curious to see what traveling with Vess de Rogna will be like--especially knowing that she was one of the people dealing with Yeza, and now I’m thinking about the fact that Veth was the only person NOT there to meet her today, which, hmmmmm.  I want to see so many things up there.  

There’s an almost-unfamiliar increasing seriousness and maturity to the Mighty Nein lately, and it’s so fascinating to me to watch.  They named their ship the Nein Heroes.  After the Mistake and the Ball-Eater, they went with a name that, beyond just not being a self-deprecating pun, almost sounds like they’re proud of themselves.  And yes, tonight they bought out an entire joke shop’s worth of magical novelties--but they also Sending’ed ahead to two teleportation circles in a row.  Yes, Jester set off a magical stink bomb in a tavern at lunch--but there were multiple healthy and emotionally honest conversations going on during that scene, too.  They thought ahead about their clothes.  They’re not just respected at the Cobalt Soul, they’re respectable. At first glance it just seems like they’ve learned to plan ahead, but it’s not that, or it’s not just that.  Rather, the M9 are doing things, sending messages, picking names, changing clothes, that affect the way they present themselves to others.  They’re not playing games of respectability politics, it’s not like they’re deliberately trying to convince other people that they’re any better than they are--but I wonder if, maybe, they’re doing just a little bit less self-sabotaging in the opposite direction.  If maybe they’re starting to suspect that they can be respected, and it’s not just a lost cause from the beginning. I really want to see where this goes in the coming weeks, whether they go back to chaos crew fuck-it again or this continues to build.  I’ll be curious to see where (and for whom!) it seems to apply, and where it slips.

[monocycle-of-fresh-cut-grass]

My own character predictions/wishes

Ashley: ranger or paladin, she has played PCs with strong relationships with their gods so i think its something she could consider, it would also be a special treat to see a paladin since lvl1. Race could be a genasi or a dwarf, but she could be a human this time.

Laura: sorcerer, especially wild magic, i think she can play up the chaos, especially with how she played two very distinct characters, Jester had a lot of themes of comming of age stories so maybe something similar, that is, if another one of the cast dont choose it first. Race, i wish for a tabaxi, oh man oh man, she would be a great tabaxi!

But unlikely due to Travis and his allergies, Lian really tested with Frumpkin

 Liam: brooding boy could play a warlock, but i think he wanted to go more martial this time, so maybe monk? A shadow monk maybe or a college of swords bard. Maybe even a lycan bloodhunter.  For race, he goes for pretty boys so maybe an elf, or tiefling

Marisha: she can be the wildcard, she has played low Charisma characters so thats out of the table, she doesnt care much for gods so that too, it would be nice to see her play an int class so maybe a wizard or artificer. Race, man.. i kinda see her as a dragonborn/ravenite. But aaracokra would be really nice. I can perfectly visualise an Aaracokra artificer doing strange experiments! (treat for me! treat for mee!) 

Sam: as much as i wish for it, cleric and druid are out of the window, high int low wis is what he likes so, maybe a fighter? Eldrich knight kind of thing since he likes spellcasting. Could also go for a warlock but Sam has very little interest in the gods for his PCs. Race, man... again, kenku would be fun, but i have a hunch for warforged or satyr, even a freaking triton, in the desert, not human or elf for sure. In all honesty, i dont know Liam enough to guess what he would choose.

Taliesin: *checks the list of new classes and subclases* uhhhhhhhh...... Rogue? Wizard?I have a hunch for something mainly charisma so warlock or bard, he likes to mix it up and try something new so i dont really know, there have been a bunch of new warlock pacts so im going for that. That is if they are not trying something new and unreleased. Race maybe a warforged or half elf.

Travis: we had strength with Barbarian/fighter, and Charisma with Warlock/paladin, so maybe we have wisdom this time with a Cleric or Druid, big fan of the latter for him since he could make a fun new taste of druid, both Grog and Fjord were really intertwined with gods so that's a big plus for cleric. He also really like doing damage, so either is possible. He could go with a ranger, mostly the Horizon walker subclass. Race, about anything, he might avoid goblinoids this time around, so he could do a genasi, dragonborn or a dwarf even,  but i think he might be the token human this time around.

The consistent classes amongst both campaigns have been Rogue, Barbarian and Cleric, i personally don't love Barbarian as a class so that's why i didn't include it, but i know the cast LOVES barbarians, if i have to choose, maybe Liam as a barbarian dunno which path tho.

Also it would be really neat for a Cleric-less party this time, since last campaign had two.

Gender is fake, i'm aware, but i think Marisha and/or Taliesin might play a enby/oposite gender character. Just a hunch but it doesnt really matter in the end. (oposite gender i mean Marisha playing a man, and Tal playing a woman type thing).

Man!! Im excited!

[kimabutch]

I'm so sorry if you've gotten a similar question but just out of curiosity: What are your favorite things about each of the M9? (It can be just the first thing to come to mind, I just really like hearing your takes on them)

Oh thank you, that’s such a compliment!! Ok, going in alphabetical order (and excluding Molly not because I don’t love him, but because I feel like I don’t have a great handle on his personality anymore):

Beau:

Oh god I love her so much, it’s hard to even know where to begin! Maybe with the fact that Marisha might have my favourite sense of humour of all the cast. Beau makes me burst out in laughter at least once per episode. 

I love her strong instincts to help others — it’s been there from the beginning, with her attempts to stop the circus people from getting arrested, or her tucking in Jester. I feel like her decision to be a better person was a turning point not so much in her care for others, but in how much she admitted that to herself.

That being said, she’s tried so hard to keep that promise to herself, and to keep being better. She tries so hard to be more social. She tries so hard to treat her friends with tenderness that’s never been shown to her. She tries to hard to be an expositor, and to be patient, and to investigate shit. She tries so hard not to lie, and to be more emotionally vulnerable. And she’s succeeding! I’m so proud of her. 

I love that she’s a gnc lesbian, and that this is a big part of her story, and important. I literally cannot tell you how much it means to me that she’s a lesbian. 

Caduceus

Cad has been such a calming, loving presence in the show since his arrival in e28, but most of all I love his cracks — the times when he’s not as “good” as he first appears.

I love that he’s so incredibly judgmental, and has such strong opinions even though he initially appears quite humble and mild. It’s such a cool character choice, and 100% makes sense.

He also genuinely has no idea what he’s doing so much of the time, and I think that’s very cool and relatable of him. 

I really respect how much Taliesin has developed him since his initial creation. Tal has talked a bunch about how much lore he’s made for Cad since that one weekend where he created him, and I think it really shows in the way he’s played him. Having caught up about 5 episodes after he was introduced, I feel like I’ve gotten the chance to watch him being fleshed out in real time. 

Caleb:

Liam has said this too, but I love how even though Caleb is a serious, tragic character in many ways, he can be as much the source of gags as anyone else. He’s hilarious, and you can see his sense of humour shining through even when Caleb is trying his best not to show it.

I like that his story is one of healing. Not necessarily clear, linear healing, but gradual, realistic progress. Even if he “breaks” again — and he might — there have been times when he’s laughed with friends, times where he’s gone a little easier on himself, and times when he’s let other people help. There’s no taking that away, no matter what happens later. 

Despite the last two bullet points, I’ll admit that part of the reason I started listening to CR was for the angst, and boy has he delivered. Sometimes you need sad characters, y’know?

But beyond angst, I’m so glad Liam is playing Caleb with a sensitivity to how trauma works and consideration of real-life mental illness. I don’t relate to Caleb’s story, but I see parts of my own mental illness experiences in him, portrayed in a genuinely thoughtful way. 

Fjord:

Ok so I relate a lot to Fjord and it’s very difficult for me to talk about him without talking about myself 

With that being said: I appreciate that as a character, a lot of his issues stem from him being bullied as a kid. I’ve said it before, but it really helps me when I feel ashamed of being so affected by childhood bullying

I love that he’s simultaneously charismatic/smooth and nervous/awkward, and somehow those two things are both believable and don’t negate each other at all. He can be a bit of a disaster of a person, and yet people will believe what he says. 

I fucking adore warlocks. The first character I ever played was a warlock and they’ll probably always be my #1 spellcasting class.

Jester:

I love how dedicated Laura is with her Jester pranks. Both how she roleplays them even when there might be serious consequences because that’s what Jester would do, but also how they can turn into really cool moments that drive Jester’s character arc forward — from her Bahamut prank to “get out of my temple!”

Every time she cries or is sad, I feel my soul trying to leave my body and enter Exandria through my screen so that I can give her a hug. Laura plays the chinks in Jester’s well-crafted happy armour so well.

Combat clerics are so, so much fun, and so is the entire concept of the Traveler, and Jester’s relationship to him. It’s really different than a lot of clerics I’ve seen. 

Out of all the characters, I am maybe most interested in finding out where Jester’s character development is going. I feel like there’s still a giant dam to break, and I don’t now how it will happen or what it will look like. I think she’s already changed so much in how she thinks about the world and relates to others, but it’s clear that she’s not yet at peace. 

Nott:

It took me a solid dozen episodes to warm up to her voice and now it’s one of my favourite parts of campaign 2. Particularly when she screams. 

Ditto what I said about Fjord and childhood bullying — her backstory is so important to me. Also ditto what I said about Caleb and mental illness: Sam has clearly given a lot of thought to how trauma has shaped Nott, and I’m so glad that her journey through mental illness isn’t straightforward. 

Like with Jester, I find her to be a very cool take on her class, as a rogue who’s terrified to take the lead and who, despite her sneakiness, is among the most willing to use her own body as a distraction to save her friends. I also love the trope-defying fact that she’s a mom. 

I love that she has all of 5 CHA and tells the worst lies, but pulled a lying long con for 49 episodes, both on the M9 and on viewers… but somehow, it still felt realistic that she’d be able to pull that off, because Nott’s deception wasn’t based so much in outright lies about her backstory (she definitely did lie, but many of the lies contradicted each other or fell apart on close examination), but on evasion, her speciality as a rogue. 

Yasha:

She’s soft! She’s so soft! She’s tender and quiet and loves the beautiful things in life, and for me it’s not just about the contrast between her toughness and her softness (although I do appreciate that, especially as someone who’s been told they’re intimidating, both online and irl), but also about how genuine it is: you can feel it in the way she talks and how Ashley moves when she plays her. 

She is awkward as hell, and it’s so good. Yasha’s dialogue, both with NPCs and with other PCs, is consistently some of the funniest stuff in the show. Ashley really lets that 7 CHA, 9 WIS shine through in all its glory. 

I think her backstory reveal was the first time I bawled while watching CR, but it was fun because of the rising anticipation as she revealed that she’s a wlw. 

Her rage is so interesting! Every barbarian so far in the show (Grog, Lionel, Yasha) has played rage slightly differently, and I appreciate them all — but I think there’s something special about how rage is so clearly emotionally fraught for Yasha. I hope and believe that they’ll explore this more after she’s saved from Obann. 

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E42 (November 20, 2018)

Dani was actually goofing around quite a bit here, but this still makes me think of some glorious 90s band, so I’m keeping it.

Anyway! The inimitable @eponymous-rose has done more than her share of recaps lately, so here I am picking up where I’ve been slacking off. Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Laura Bailey (with special guest appearance from Ronin! Awwww), so I can hardly wait. We’re discussing Episode 42: A Hole in the Plan.

Tonight’s announcements: Brian is bursting with an announcement he’s not allowed to reveal for another six months. His favorite guess: something about him stealing all the money from the company and moving to an island, but that’s actually his long game, not the short one.

Throughout November, they’re raising money for Operation Supply Drop, Travis’s favorite charity, which supports both active and retired military.

No episode of Critical Role this week due to Thanksgiving. There will also be no episode of Talks Machina next Tuesday; instead, they’ll be airing Sam’s Fireside Chat! This was a reward from the Critter donations to the Pablove Foundation.

Critical Role hoodies are back in the store; the print is very similar to the original with a bit more embellishment on the text on the back.

“Honey Heist 3: Tova’s Honies” airs this Friday at 7pm Pacific! Marisha: “It was bear-nanas.” Laura: “Oh, no.”

CR Stats: Jester has cast Blessing of the Trickster 31 times; 15 of those times were on Nott. Jester technically won her bar brawl with Sorris! She dealt 16 points of damage to his 15. Beau continues to have the most natural 20s with 49. She also has the most natural 1s, womp womp. Marisha: “Well, I roll a lot, you know?” Brian: “Well, your husband is also a tyrant and not to be messed with.” Marisha says she thinks Gil’s die is cursed and everyone gasps. How dare.

Does Brian feel the pressure of following Dani, who was such an excellent host last week? No; when he went through the potential list of fill-ins, the only one that made sense was Dani.

Marisha sees Darktow as a super-abusive socialist society, which does not sit well with Beau. It’s a silk trap.

Jester’s conversation with Caleb was triggered by Fjord’s kiss, especially with her wondering if it really meant anything to either of them. Laura thinks of her high school crushes and how hard you crushed & how devastated you were at every perceived slight; Jester only has the view of romance through her mother, which means physical affection is very different from emotional affection in her mind. On Brian’s asking, Laura’s high school crush was Han Solo. When Laura’s sister was 12, she paid her $15 to paint Han and Leia in a dip kiss, which she still has framed in her current house. I’m dying, this is adorable.

Beau doesn’t exactly trust that Fjord is going to do the right thing, but him sleeping with Avantika doesn’t trigger her red flags in terms of “looking out for each other, keeping each other in check.” She’s looking more for them bullying someone when they don’t need to, being violent when it’s not necessary. “Pursuing power to endless depths and fucking hot pirates, that’s fine with Beau. She just doesn’t want to kill children.” Brian marvels at how this fits into Jester & Caleb’s conversation about killing people from the most recent episode.

Jester can tell Caleb is tortured, and more than anything she wants people not to be sad around her. She just wants desperately for him to be happy.

Marisha has thought a ton about what Beau would have said if Jester had come to her first about the kiss, especially since it was Jester’s first kiss (Marisha assumes, and Jester answers in an adorably non-committal not-not-a-negative). Beau would have been game for it. She doesn’t know if Beau would have given good advice, but she would have tried her best.

Brian spills that Mary’s character’s CHA in their home game is 6. They discuss Nott’s score of 5 and enjoy themselves mightily at both of their expenses.

GIF of the Week! By @ropadoper, it’s Liam casting Reduce and then the Wall of Fire at the end of the episode, both of which involve Marisha falling out of her chair to the floor in reaction so that only her forehead is visible. Everyone is being so cute this episode I can hardly stand it.

As a reminder, an international shipping facility has been created in the UK. Laura asides to tell Travis the keys are in the diaper bag. Literally everyone is in the studio tonight except Sam, EVEN ASHLEY.

Jester thinks the Traveler always gives very good advice, but his suggestion to trick Fjord was the first time ever she felt a little hesitation to follow his advice. Brian: “Is that because he’s never been wrong or because she’s never been allowed to disagree?” Laura says it’s always been amazing advice so far, much more a best-friend relationship, but this was the first time she didn’t want to take his suggestion wholesale because she wasn’t sure it’s how she wanted to get Fjord to like her. Marisha really likes the dynamic of finding out your childhood best friend is a god.

Beau finds herself still being careful with her walls--Marisha imagines Beau was put in a lot of, like, pageant dresses as a kid--so when Jester commented on her hair and then laughed, she felt a little of that “wait, what, do you actually care? Do I look like shit?” Laura says she laughed, not Jester, because it was the most random thing to compliment Beau on.

Beau’s haircut came into being because it was cool & because Marisha wishes she were brave enough to try an undercut.

Brian’s convinced Fjord’s got gills. Dani: “What do you think Fjord is?” Brian: “Obviously a water man. Water genasi. What are water genasi?”

Beau wasn’t surprised Allison rejected her; she’s used to it. Ack. She was looking for an ally against Avantika, Big Brother style. “Instead she just shat in an alleyway with Nott.”

Laura’s not perturbed the Traveler hasn’t mentioned Fjord’s god; he doesn’t really talk about/care about other gods or patrons. Brian suggests he’s actually the Dongfather in disguise. This show’s collective mental age is smaller than Pike, haha. 

Beau felt like such an interloper when Sam asked her to help with Fluffernutter, like the best friend trying to be in on a joke without really knowing what’s going on. Marisha also takes a moment to praise Laura for her Jester over the last few episodes; she’s digging into the metaphorical popcorn every time Jester & Nott start going off. (Me too, bud.) Jester’s description of the insect carrying a piece of bread is one of her favorite D&D moments ever. Both Marisha & Laura are agog at how many little plans they’ve tried have gone disastrous and then circled back around to being mostly okay again.

Beau was a little hurt when she wasn’t asked to help break into the captain’s quarters, since that’s her specialty, but it was eased by being able to help with her knowledge anyway. However, she knew since she didn’t have any magic, she had no escape plan aside from jumping off the boat. She laughs that that’s what they ended up doing anyway. 

Jester views sex as a transaction, which is why she’s not particularly bothered by Fjord sleeping with Avantika.

Fanart of the Week: @jdillustrates, with a lovely portrait of Caduceus.

Jester’s warring between the logical part of her brain (he was saving her life) and the romantic part of her brain (did he want to kiss me, though?).

There are reasons Beau learned Deep Speech--not as complicated as most people think--that will be revealed eventually. “Nerdy reasons, not because she was kidnapped and turned into a cultist.”

Fjord/Avantika does make her jealous, but it’s also serving a purpose. Laura compares it to telling the high school crush to go hang out with a best friend, only to have them start dating.

Marisha doesn’t feel like Beau’s plans were overly shot down this episode--it’s something she hadn’t even noticed until this question. Marisha feels like it’s so much of a group effort with everyone trying to get to the right plan that it’s hard to pick out who contributed what part of which plan.

Brief interlude to examine a portrait of Brian that looks like George Michael.

In re: the Molly disguise: Beau felt like there was just a wall of regret walking towards her, because it was the friend she let die and the one-night stand. Beau never felt it was actually Molly, though. Jester picked Molly because when Nott said “Keg,” she instantly associated it with “someone who is really cool--who’s also super cool?” Everyone commiserates over how into the night’s shenanigans Molly would have been.

Beau was frustrated while being detained, but she also knew it was going to happen, so it wasn’t a huge issue. She felt like that was where the challenge began for her--anything to get the guard away from what was going on. 

Another brief interlude where everyone experiments with how to make power vaginas with their hands. “This is the car salesman power vagina.” I feel like wherever the rails are for this show, they’re so far gone they might as well be little stars in the sky.

Laura thinks Jester’s reaction to Caleb’s backstory would be much different than Caleb imagines it. Both Laura & Marisha talk about how Caleb’s convinced the moment people realize, they’re gone; there’s also the complication that Beau’s “comforting” is not actually that comforting. “She’d say, ‘you know, they won’t care,’” (which Marisha points out, Caleb would respond--how could someone not care about this?) when what she means is, “They love you and won’t abandon you over this.”

Laura and Marisha are both pumped about Caleb’s Wall of Fire--the walk to the dock was like “getting called to the principal’s office, except the principal is going to kill you.” Laura’s immediate reaction was regret she’d tossed the gems, but she loved his decision since she was panicking IRL & her heart was legit pounding. They also both get super enthusiastic bashing Nott’s plan to dump the haversack in an alley. “It’s bright pink! Someone would have definitely seen it!”

Marisha really misses Professor Thaddeus, but is convinced she’ll never see him again. Dani: “He’s your Nymeria, your Arya.” Marisha, tearfully: “He’s gonna come with his flock of owls and gouge out everyone’s eyes but ours.”

Laura’s convinced Sprinkle is magic, since he definitely should be dead twice over.

Quebec is for Lovers: After Dark edition

Neither Laura nor Marisha are cooking this year. Laura & Travis have no Thanksgiving plans at all this year. My gosh, if they were here my parents would be stuffing them full of turkey yesterday, even though they have no idea who they are.

Brian teases Max over messing with Trinket & carrying him back and forth in his car. Dani wants one TM where Brian isn’t mean to Max. Max, offscreen: “I’m FINE. I’m GOOD.” Marisha laughs that Max was okay with Brian’s teasing but shooting daggers at the TDs laughing.

Brian gives Dani an A for amazing and adorable, but not asshole.

Dani ships Percy/Vex, Keyleth/Vax, and Fjord/Jester. Close after is Kima/Allura & Caleb/Jester. She would be surprised if it happened, but wouldn’t object. Marisha asks, as a shipper, what does Dani look for in a quality ship. Dani likes clear feelings with clear reciprocation, canon connections; she doesn’t ship a ton of subtexty stuff.

Laura has been relistening to Vex’s playlists & crying. Both she & Marisha really miss Vex & Keyleth. Liam texted Laura the other day a fanvid of Vex & Vax that made her cry.

Marisha gets emotional seeing fanart of older Keyleth because it means that she’s living on & being happy. Noelle also came up & thanked Marisha for giving Tova a purpose after the latest Honey Heist, and everyone talks about how many hours they’ve spent creating and living in these people.

Marisha can’t listen to Tokyo Sunrise by LP anymore because it instantly makes her cry.

Beau is not a mindflayer. Everyone’s convinced, Marisha.

If Laura had Jester’s paint set, she’d draw home improvements. She’d draw a door for her bathroom into Ronin’s nursery. Marisha would draw more producers--”Not to undermine the ones I have! We’re so overworked!”

Brian looks to Max for the time left, only to have missed Dani literally just giving him the signal.

Brian starts to say he’ll see us next week, but Dani tells him not to confuse us since there’s no TM next week. Brian: “We’ll see you next week this Thursday Critical Role on youtube.com, Logan Paul guest starring, along with Paul Rudd, Rudney Dangerfield...”

Max, as the sound fades: “Okay, please...”

And that’s it for tonight. See you next time, everyone!

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E21 (June 5, 2018)

Buckle up, keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times... and for the love of everything you hold dear, don’t read the chat. Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Liam O’Brien!

The episode starts with Marisha and Liam fighting over a bowl and then hugging. Brian: “Wait, it was that kind of bowl?”

F̩̤̹̹̞̳j̣͓̝o̶̖͍r̙͚̝̹̪͙͔͘d̪̭͎̮̞͜ ͉̤̖͇̦̗̕b̸͈̳̥̻̳̤̼u̺͔̩̻͚͍s̘͞t͎̼̺̜͉̝̞ ̣͉̯̤s҉͖̯͖ee̜͙̤͕͓̺s ͙̳̘͍̪̳́a͓͓͞l̫̻l҉̩̖̬̰͉̬.̝̖̙͔

Announcements: Vox Machina comic is still on sale, including the limited edition! Winners of fanart of the week will now be hosted on critrole.com! New Instagram account!

@critrolestats​ for this episode: This is the first episode of the new campaign to surpass 4 hours of gameplay (4:07:27); Beau got her 30th Nat 20 in this episode and continues to have the most Nat 20s, with Nott in a distant second place with 19; the Mighty Nein rolled their 100th Nat 20 in this episode (Fjord’s concentration save for Hunger of Hadar); Nott and Beau are tied for the most Nat 1s with 18 each, and Caleb ranks third with 14.

Of all the great stuff in the D&D Beyond ad spot, Liam was least surprised by Sam’s singing, because he knew he had the a capella chops to pull it off; he and Marisha got teary-eyed watching it the first time because of animation style nostalgia (it especially reminded them of Thundercats).

Beau is deeply enjoying having a friend in Jester, especially since she doesn’t seem to question Beau for who she is. “For Beau, it’s like appreciating an adorable little flower.”

Everyone was enamored with Mark and Cali. Marisha: “I loved how cute he was, his appreciation for cute things.” They’re going to try to Skype Mark in on Talks next week to see what his side of the experience was. Brian: “Probably horrible.”

Beau isn’t likely to be too dramatically changed by her near-death experience. "I think Beau was unconscious and then Beau was woken up and was like, ‘This is fine. This is normal, right?’” Marisha talks about how it would’ve been a huge bummer as a player to lose Beau before her backstory even came out.

There’s some speculation as to how long this campaign might be. Liam: “Could be shorter, could be 852 episodes like Naruto.”

Caleb’s passing around of Frumpkin is his main outlet for expressing affection; Frumpkin’s deep importance to him and the significance of handing him off to someone else for even a brief period of time will become more clear with future reveals.

Beau doesn’t think she’s immortal, but she still has the youthful perspective that risk-taking will probably work out. “It’s not that she thinks consequences can’t happen to her, it’s that she thinks they won’t.” Marisha points out that Beau wouldn’t really know how close it came since she was unconscious for most of it.

Gif of the week: Jester casting Speak with Dead and everyone freaking out.

Caleb knows Nott’s laying it on way too thick when it comes to his magical abilities, but he doesn’t want to call her out on it, because he’d feel a bit hypocritical pointing out someone else’s irrational behavior. "Caleb hates himself. Nothing gets through that wall.”

Apart from Caleb, Frumpkin is most comfortable with Nott, despite Nott "eating” Frumpkin twice. After Nott, it’s Jester. Liam: “Laura would kill me if I don’t say Jester.” Marisha: “I thought you’d say Yasha.” Liam: “I was going to say that, but Laura would kill me.”

Beau’s still processing how she feels about not getting left behind despite her worldview that everyone’s basically selfish; she wouldn’t have begrudged them leaving her behind (even if she weren’t dead in that scenario). Once again, it’s hard to reconcile because the players all know how close she was to dying, but that’s not really reflected in the game’s universe (she didn’t even have to roll saving throws; she was just out for a few seconds). Beau knows it was Cali who saved her, because she knows Cali has Levitation.

The parallel between Cali and Caleb’s backstories was most influential earlier, when Caleb warmed to her faster than he might’ve otherwise, but didn’t have much time to percolate and didn’t factor into his actions at the end of the episode.

Fanart of the week: a spectacular Mollymauk!

Beau saw Caleb’s actions as him being cautious, and that was fair and warranted and justified, and Beau knows that more than anybody else (along with Nott), considering she has the peek into his backstory. From Beau and the rest of the Mighty Nine’s perspective, they didn’t see the conversation between Nott and Caleb, and when it came down to it, in Beau’s eyes, having this thing that’s this potentially horrific artifact on their person when they already have the dodecahedron was just going to bring trouble down on them. Marisha: “This isn’t our jam, and if Cali is telling the truth and she is going to destroy this, great! Bonus points for us! If she is lying to us and she does want to go out and talk to Tiamat, I think, in Beau’s head, that’s another adventuring party’s problem. That’s above our payscale. That’s not why we’re here.” As a member of the Cobalt Reserve, she knows exactly how bad this kind of stuff can be. “What are we going to do, go around intercepting every potentially dangerous item that doesn’t have anything to do with us?” She emphasizes that Beau’s not a hero yet and doesn’t have that mindset. “I’m not saying it’s the right choice or the wrong choice, but it’s the character choice. (...) What she was trying to tell Caleb is ‘You had no knowledge that this bowl even fucking existed before Cali came along.’ Beyond that, she was going to go along with it until Caleb suggested holding Cali overnight. Due to stuff that Beau has dealt with in her backstory that unfortunately no one knows about yet” she wasn’t going to let that fly.

Brian talks about how much he admires that Marisha is willing to make bold character choices, especially after so many folks have seemed to enjoy attempting to tear her down for it. “That’s fucking awesome. You’re going to own the shit out of that character.”

Liam: “I want to toss out three ideas about all this, because obviously there’s been a lot of discussion about this, a lot of passion and debate. (...) One, I encourage everyone who watches our show to watch Rashomon. Something happens in the woods, and the movie is three different people telling their account of what happened out in the woods, and every story is totally different. Different people are the hero or the villain depending on who’s telling it. The other thing is that I know that VM was more of a family, and this clusterfuck of a-holes is not. This is not a Sunday School Bible parable class, we’re not an afterschool special, this is a character study of a lot of really messed-up people.” They might end up being role models, but it’s an ongoing arc. “And then the last thing is, this is a game of D&D. If Caleb can’t decide to have a moment, if Beau can’t grab the bowl, what’s the point of Dungeons and Dragons? I don’t care what gripe Caleb and Beau had together. I live in Caleb’s skin, so of course I associate and feel passionate about Caleb’s point of view, but it’s not the only point of view. The point is not to be right, the point is to have fun and get into it.”

Marisha: “I think ‘character study’ is the right way of putting it. We’re uppity actor types. We like making complex characters, and we want to explore that and see what these complex characters do, because people are complex, people are complicated. You hear a lot of people complaining about contradictions. I mean, yeah, have you ever had a Facebook post pop up from two years ago like, ‘Remember when you said this two years ago, you dumb shit?’ You’re allowed to be upset at our characters, and you should, and I think that’s why we as actors have jumped into this profession, is because we like making people feel things.”

Brian paraphrases Melville: “A great moment is about the opposite of what it appears to be about.” He points out that this wasn’t about a bowl, it was about what was in the rearview mirror for both characters. “Ultimately, it’s the stuff that brings you guys closer together.” He talks about how it’s probably harder for viewers to watch that after Vox Machina, given that they were more in the flawed-but-noble vein as characters.

Liam: “Caleb is trying to make good with the group and (laughs) is not doing a good job of it. He obviously saw the extreme parallel between [his and Cali’s] backgrounds. Because of the things that she was dealing with, he put on a different pair of sunglasses to watch her and make sure everything was fine.” At the end, even Caleb knew it was probably over-the-top, but he’d found out this thing and was awkwardly trying to communicate that to the rest of the group. “Caleb thinks that he’s a broken bag of glass that everybody doesn’t want to touch, and he’s right.” Even in a moment when he thought he was doing what the group wanted, he couldn’t do it right. “He’s been in a fucking asylum for eleven years.” In the moment, in his mind, he didn’t think his trauma had anything to do with his actions, and didn’t understand why that was being brought into it, and just disengaged. “Another thing with Caleb is that he doesn’t need, in this group, to feel like people respect him or think he’s cool; Caleb thinks that he is a piece of shit, so this is just confirming what he unconsciously wants. All he needs to do is learn more and grow, so if he needs to just shut up and deal with it, as long as they’ll keep him around, fine, because he just needs things that he hasn’t had access to for five years.” He’s getting what he wants out of this group: he’s getting that unconscious need to be told he’s a fuck-up.

Liam on Beau: “She is talking from her experience, she has nothing to do with what happened to him, she is not responsible for him, he doesn’t want pity from anyone, he barely knows how to accept what Nott is doing. So everyone get off her back. Caleb is where he wants to be, which is moving towards his goal.”

Caleb’s latest actions were too similar to someone with authority that Beau had trouble with in the past. Beau bringing up Caleb’s trauma was speaking directly to that point, which she and Liam have since talked about offscreen.

Marisha doesn’t think at all that this has destroyed Beau and Caleb’s relationship beyond the point of no return: “I don’t think that’s how conflicts between friends work. Honestly, I was stoked after all this, because I thought this was a breaking point that maybe we were all waiting for.” She also thinks it opens up an organic way to bring Beau’s backstory into the limelight, and she thinks having some of this out in the open will bring the group closer together. It’s tough for her to analyze that episode because nobody has all the information behind Beau’s reasoning yet. Brian points out that it can be really refreshing to be surrounded by people who call you out on your bullshit. “Those moments create respect.” Liam mentions that there is no friendship yet, because they haven’t known each other that long, but that this confrontration could be the beginning of a real friendship between Caleb and Beau. Marisha points out that it’s very much “I wouldn’t get mad at you if I didn’t care.”

Marisha mentions that she’s used to being cautious where she treads on the internet after an episode like this, but “if you’re upset at Caleb or you’re upset at Beau or you’re upset at Fjord for holding the sword to Caleb’s throat, I think art and acting and media and these stories are there to teach us about ourselves, and why we get these emotions towards these certain things. Liam and I have been talking all weekend about how fascinating the Team Beau vs. Team Caleb discussions have been.” Liam: “It can only come from people being deeply invested.” Marisha: “They care. And we’re truly blessed to be a part of something that people feel that passionately about.” 

Brian: “There’s a difference between a conversation and lashing out between the actors.” Liam: “Just know that we’re playing strange people on purpose.”

Talks Machina After Dark (It’s Machine-a)

Oh.

Oh no.

Oh dear.

Marisha talks about how fun it can be to experience DMs who aren’t Matt, because at this point they all fall into the habit of trying to over-analyze his tells. “In my opinion, different DMs are like different teachers. Each one teaches me a different thing, and I love it.”

Marisha does her accent from the Stream of Many Eyes. Liam: “Casting director Liam is listening.” Marisha: “Oh, God! No! I’ll never work again!”

Liam and Marisha talk about how essential it is that they (and the rest of the cast) know each other so well and trust each other so much, so they can play out and explore those conflicts safely. Marisha: “There isn’t necessarily supposed to be comfort in conflict. It’s not going to be comfortable. I think it does take a more experienced roleplayer to make sure they can tread those waters safely, because there is care, and you do have to have personal care and after-care.” The two of them checked in afterwards, and all of them have been doing so since the first campaign to make sure they’re on the same page and feeling okay about what happens on-screen.

Liam talks about how embracing failure goes beyond rolling 1s or having bad things happen to characters. He legitimately was not paying attention when he nearly cast the spell that would’ve killed Beau, and appreciates that there’s enough of a rehearsal feel in the game to allow for those imperfections when they do arise. Marisha: “Yeah, thanks for not killing me, man.” Liam, deadpan: “It’ll happen.”

Swoleregard. Jumbeau. Beaulossus. Beaugantic. Dani: “Beauyasha.” Liam: “That’s a different thing. That’s not my job, to worry about that.” Dani: “It’s my job.”

Caleb is terrible at accents, terrible at impressions, terrible at musical impressions, but okay at singing (because he speaks Celestial). Marisha: “I think Beau would be full-on drumline.”

When they were going into a show for the stream this weekend, the whole audience broke into the D&D Beyond theme song. Marisha: “It was... it was so surreal.” Liam talks about how he keeps starting to sing it without thinking, then inevitably segues into another Sam song that goes “put your finger in my butt”.

[phemiec]

who are your favorite critrole characters in campaign 1 & 2? :>

Campaign 1: In order from most fav to least

Grog!!! is my favorite! He is so funny, and so good, and Travis plays him so freaking well. You can tell he had such a good grasp on this character and his improv chops really shine through playing him, anytime he says or does anything it’s an absolute delight.

Scanlan! A very close second to grog, Almost tied. Sam is a genius, and I’m really convinced after seeing him play scanlan AND nott now that he’s just….got this really special ability to create a character and develop them slowly and satisfyingly, to take a character that could be a one note joke in someone elses hands and turn them into a deep and compelling layered real person. He kind of reminds me of Justin Mcelroy in that respect. You can tell how much he cares about his characters. Scanlan grew on me so much and I just adore him.

Vax: i’m sorry but this long haired angsty anime boy who loves his sister more than life was bound to make me fall in love.

Vex: likewise, this incredibly savvy and cool and charming but secretly insecure badass elf lady with a giant pet bear was ALSO bound to make me fall in love. Her and vax are tied, and their relationship is one of the highpoints of S1 for me. I’m a sucker for siblings.

percy, pike and keyleth don’t do as much for me but they’re still enjoyable to watch :)

Campaign 2: In order from most fav to least

NOTT!!!!! I love this character so much she is so much of what I’ve always wanted in a character, and sam plays her so beautifully. She has the perfect mix of lovely and monstrous, she’s the ugly heroine I’ve always wanted to see, unbeautiful but not unloved or unvalued, she is observant and caring and generous and wise and brave, but also haunted and anxious and animalistic and self defacing. She just has so many levels and still manages to be so funny and cute while also being one of the cleverest and most mature of the group. She just loves her boy and her new family so much. And I can tell there’s even more depth to her character we haven’t even skimmed the surface of yet.  

Beau!!! I really love how marisha plays this character, I kind of think this character is just really perfect for her? Beau is just so relatable. She’s awkward and abrasive and unpalatable and feels like she shouldn’t be who she is, yet can’t HELP but be who she is and that’s so real. I like the dynamic between her being physically graceful and cool yet socially clumsy and emotionally disastrous, shes the right balance of bottled up insecurity and macho posturing and I just love her. The gay punk monk of my heart.

Jester! : Is played so well, Laura has such acting chops it’s unreal and her sense of humor is really getting to shine in this campaign. Jester is adorable and bubbly but she’s gone so beyond being a Manic Pixie Dream Tiefling, she has depth and emotionality and subtlety that is really nice to watch as it unveils. And her voice is adorable.

Caduceus! Best boy, I love him so much already. He’s so new yet already so unique and layered, this most recent episode pushed his character to very cool places and Taliesen did a great job respecting the character he’d created. I’ve never really seen a character exactly like the deuce and I just hope he stays safe because I love him.

Caleb! Is also very good, funny yet tragic, complex and played very well. And his friendship with Nott fuels me so, gotta love him.

Yasha is cool but Ashleys gone so much I havent gotten to see as much of her as I’d like :p And Ironically, with Grog being my fav of S1, Fjord isn’t doing much for me right now, and I’m pretty sure that’s because his choices feel inconsistent, however, I’m pretty sure they’re not actually inconsistent, It’s just that travis is hiding a lot right now about Fjord, playing his past and motivations close to the chest. He might go higher up the list as things develop, who knows? Molly also didn’t do much for me and I’m sorry about that :{ I’m sure he would have if we’d gotten a chance to know him longer, but c’est la vie. Maybe he’ll be back? Who knows.

[eponymous-rose]

Critical Role - New Campaign on January 11!

In case you didn’t hear, Critical Role is starting a new campaign on January 11! Essentially, this reboots the show with new characters without any assumption of previous knowledge of the show, which makes it a perfect jumping-in point for new fans who don’t want to deal with hundreds of hours of backlog, so I figured I’d hit on some of the FAQ-type messages I’ve been seeing over the last little bit.

What is Critical Role?

Critical Role is a live, unedited game of Dungeons and Dragons played weekly by a group of eight voice actors. They’re friends who started playing the game at home years ago and only transitioned to filming the game partway through their first campaign. The regular cast are: Matt Mercer (the Dungeon Master), Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham, along with the occasional guest player (most recently Jennifer Hale!).

I don’t know what Dungeons & Dragons is and at this point I’m too afraid to ask.

D&D isn’t a game so much as a set of rules that allow you to create your own game, so it can be pretty confusing to try and pick up the basics via fandom osmosis, but here goes: the Dungeon Master (Matt Mercer, in this case) invents a story, and each of the players have created a character to inhabit that world and help collaboratively tell a story. Players can react to DM narration by having their characters do literally anything, but if their action requires some sort of skill, that’s where the element of chance comes in via dice rolls... and character customization comes in via modifiers to those dice rolls. So a really scrawny character might have a low strength modifier, and will on average not do great at, say, moving a bunch of heavy rubble. But if they get lucky and roll well, their character might be able to tap into some unexpected reserves of strength...

It’s an extended improv show with dice-rolling to add an element of randomness, basically, with all the goofiness that can entail.

So how the heck do you livestream that?

The game is literally just played live on camera (like, just a bunch of people sitting at a table talking, with occasional props), which is why each episode is so long. There’s no editing, so you get the behind-the-scenes strategizing alongside the in-character improv, and the tremendous chemistry between the players (they’ve frequently talked about how this gaming group has become a family) as well as their characters is a big draw for the show. Each episode stream typically starts with a few minutes of new fanart compiled by the cast, the game runs for a couple hours, there’s a fifteen-minute break, and then the game runs for another couple hours.

What exactly is the appeal?

I mean, I can’t answer this for everyone, but for me a huge draw is the unabashed admiration these folks have for each other and how that bleeds through into the gameplay. There’s something really honest and endearing about how invested they all are in this game and its world (there are real tears over these fictional characters), and it’s absolutely contagious: you might not care about fantasy stuff or the mechanics of gameplay, but it’s hard to get through some of the more intense episodes without being on the edge of your seat. It’s also really fun to see the way a story develops when every major character by definition has a “writer” wholly invested in their story, and it’s a delight to see these experienced actors have to really stretch their improv muscles to keep up with the gauntlets they inevitably lay down for each other.

It’s howlingly funny, extremely clever, completely unpredictable, and absolutely heartbreaking when you least expect it. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

Okay, what’s all this about a new campaign?

We know it’s taking place a generation after the first campaign in a very different part of the same world, with the intention of having it be a fresh start that’s more likely to stand on its own. D&D has a level progression system where you start out solving minor local problems and end up fighting gods, so we’re going from the campaign-ending latter right back to the former, which is likely to be very, very jarring to the players (and hence very, very funny). I think everyone involved is very aware that they’re going to be picking up a lot of new viewers with this new campaign, so it’s going to be a great jumping-in point.

What do we know about the characters?

Everyone’s staying pretty secretive! I think they’ve mentioned the possibility of playing offscreen games in smaller groups to help establish any shared backstory/history some characters might have, but all we really know is these silhouettes of the characters, and most of them only know the absolute basics about each other’s characters. Considering how deeply the previous campaign delved into the characters’ backstories, this is definitely going to change as we go!

How do I watch it?

You can watch live weekly on Thursdays at 7PM Pacific (starting on January 11th: check this site for a countdown) for free on the GeekandSundry Twitch channel (http://www.twitch.tv/geekandsundry) or ProjectAlpha for $5/month (http://www.projectalpha.com). The latter has dynamic overlays that keep track of stats, etc., but otherwise it’s the same stream.

If you can’t watch live, it goes up on Mondays for free on YouTube (unlisted for a bit, but this playlist keeps up to date), or you can watch it as a subscriber on Twitch (also $5/month, but you get one free Twitch subscription via Amazon Prime) or ProjectAlpha immediately after it airs without having to wait those extra days. The Twitch Video on Demand is the unedited livestream, whereas ProjectAlpha eventually comes out with a version that cuts out the breaks and such and maintains those special overlays. Within a couple of weeks of airing, @crtranscript ensures that the episode will have complete high-quality captions on YouTube. There’s also a free audio-only podcast version (currently about 15 episodes behind, but updating in batches) available on iTunes etc.

Can I ask you other questions you haven’t thought of here?

You can totally send me questions about the show!

Basically: it’s a perfect time to jump into the show if you’d like to know what all the fuss is about. Because the previous campaign started partway through the story, we’ve never been able to follow them through an adventure from day one before, so this is a lot of uncharted territory for even longtime fans (not to mention the cast). 

It’s really meant a lot to me; I hope you’ll give it a shot if you think it might be the show for you! :)

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina (Episode 88 spoilers!)

Highlights from this week’s episode:

This week’s pre-show message from Denise: “Brian is a puppet and I’m pulling the strings.”

Overwatch mention! Brian shout-outs D.Va, Marisha’s all about Symmetra, Matt breaks out the McCree voice.

1PM Saturday, much of CR will be playing Mansions of Madness on the stream, and Matt will be guesting on a show at 11AM as well.

Brian: Our special guest, Gil Ramirez. Marisha: (whispers) Don’t fuck us, Gil.

Gil was helping out in the twitch chat from episode one. He’s also been smithing for sixteen years!

Gil uses liquid mercury to balance his steel dice. Travis: ...you just have liquid mercury hanging around?

Gil and Taliesin both have a periodic table collection.

Gil takes off his button-down to reveal a t-shirt that just reads “Don’t fuck me, Gil.” with “Dammit Gil!” on the back.

Gil pulls out cards that read “Malks Tachina” that are all sick burns on Brian.

4:46:50 total gameplay time last week. VM had 936 total HP at the start of the kraken battle, ended with 70 total HP.

A fan points out the similarities between the kraken fight and the Kobayashi Maru in Star Trek--an unwinnable fight to see how you do under great pressure. Marisha points out that nobody is expected to do the Aramente alone, but they’re never told that explicitly, so Keyleth’s been figuring that out, and that was one of the big lessons here. When she decided to planeshift out, she had to trust that Grog was going to finish it without her. She’s been moving beyond her previous urge to be self-sacrificial.

Matt points out that if Keyleth had stayed, Grog probably would’ve stayed until the end, too, and things would’ve gone a lot worse.

Matt wasn’t playing the kraken to full intelligence (his argument being that the rules-as-written version is better suited to being a full-arc villain kind of deal), but if they’d decided to talk to it, it probably would’ve stalled long enough to get everyone exactly where it wanted them.

Travis on Tary not using Luck to reroll: Either he is the most genius, maniacal character in a long-running arc... or he just rolled shitty dice because Gil fucked him.

Keyleth would’ve rather failed the Aramente than kill the kraken or lose her party.

A question on screen flashes twice. Laura (who isn’t even on the show this week) immediately tweets “Two flashes!! Free Denise.”

Grog was trying to abide by Keyleth’s rules of not killing the thing, but his whole priority was getting Vax out, because he realized that not getting him out while he was unconscious might’ve meant losing his body for good. Matt points out that it worked out well that it was always Grog getting eaten, because he was more likely than most of the other party members to deal enough damage to get out.

Why didn’t the water ashari let Korren and Keyleth know Vilya was suspected dead? Matt starts to answer, then admits it’s mostly just to maintain narrative drama, because that’s how storytelling works.

Gil wonders whether one of the lodestones could be Keyleth’s mom. Marisha: ...my mom is octopoo?

Grog’s decision on leaving Tary mostly boiled down to “...eh.” Grog didn’t mind too much that Percy made him go back for Tary, because he didn’t feel too strongly about leaving him behind, but there might be consequences once Friends wears off.

Keyleth would’ve definitely still planeshifted out if Grog and Vax’s positions had been reversed. She trusted that Vax would’ve managed to get out, too.

Travis’ wise words on the Raven Queen: “Didn’t she need the blood jacuzzi to get the thing going?”

Travis thinks Grog would be interested in participating in Vax’s ritual.

Travis was stoked for Vax to join the Dead Club, but he has no idea how it’s going to go because of the Raven Queen.

Matt re: people yelling about revivify/resurrection no matter the outcome: “I... mostly don’t care. I’m still a sensitive boy.”

Brian brings back the intro to the first episode, in which Matt points out that this is the continuation of a home-game and number-crunching shouldn’t be the priority. Of course, Critrolestats is an exception: “They keep track of the numbers we like.”

Brian: “Discussions are great, and we love talking about the show even if we disagree... but when it gets to be this weird thing where people are... it’s like, guys, you’re kind of embarrassing yourself. Like, give me a break, dad. Maybe intense scrutiny of a D&D game that’s on the internet isn’t the best way to live your life.”

Travis: “I’ll never go on [reddit]. It requires reading, right?”

Matt thinks the kraken was probably watching the party for a while, and then Tary’s natural one was a focus point. If they hadn’t failed that challenge, they might’ve had to fight it as they were escaping.

The one spell Marisha forgot to write down on her spell sheet was Freedom of Movement, which would’ve been incredibly clutch in the fight. Matt forgot about it, too.

Matt points out that everyone had an extremely stressful week leading up to that episode. Brian mentions that he’s known everyone for a while, now, and they all generally act the same on-screen as they do off-screen, so they’re not gonna be putting on an act. Sometimes you just get a bit of a slog playing D&D when everyone’s exhausted, but it can still be fun as long as people aren’t going over every decision with a magnifying glass.

SURPRISE ASHLEY WITH AMAZING HAT ON AFTER-DARK

After dark:

The first shot after the break is just a close-up of Trinket.

Matt to Travis, in one of the best out-of-context quotes thus far: “So what you’re saying is that your deviantart is full of vore?”

If Grog had an intelligence of 20 for 24 hours, he’d probably go down to Percy’s workshop and build something.

Matt ran a session pre-stream that was just Pike and Vax, in which the two of them had to fight a chimera. There was also one that was just Vax, Scanlan, and Pike.

If Grog had been left behind and died, Ashley thinks Pike would’ve pulled a Scanlan and left the party, then would’ve gone to go live under the sea until she found him, and would’ve kept his body until she got True Resurrection, “even if it took a hundred years”, so she could bring him back.

Matt re: Keyleth being the only one who hasn’t died: “No, there’s a reason for that. Because she’s my fiancee and I give her special treatment.” Marisha: “Don’t say that even in jest!” Matt: “No, if that were true, I wouldn’t sleep on the couch as often.” Marisha: “They’ll believe that, too! They’ll actually think that’s true!”

Ten or higher on that saving throw and Grog would’ve died in the kraken. Matt rolled a nine (which is why he tweeted the picture).

Marisha’s biggest fear re: ways for her character to die was tripping and falling in lava, which just about happened, so almost anything else would’ve been okay in comparison. Brian: “Keyleth died doing what she loved: a series of errors.” Marisha: “Failing.”

Travis’s Xbox gamertag is MeatyAlbatross.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights (Spoilers through E86)

Secret Denise message of the week: “He who sees my face will be cursed for a thousand years.” As you do.

Sam makes his entrance gagged and with his hands tied while the rest of the cast points and yells "shaaame” at him.

Laura thought Scanlan was screwing with them and kept waiting for him to turn around.Travis notes that they can usually talk people out of that kind of choice, and Marisha realized Scanlan was actually leaving when the conversation started going around in circles and there were no easy solutions.

Taryon was not supposed to appear in 85 at all. Midway through the show, Matt called Sam over and told him Taryon was going in tonight. “Why?” Matt: “’Cause... why not?” At that point, Sam had virtually no backstory planned for Taryon and didn’t even have Doty named yet. Matt: “...I can say that was a miscommunication and I thought that was the intent?” Matt told Sam they’d figure out Taryon once the party knew where they were going next, and Sam took that to mean in the next episode, so Matt sort of accidentally threw him in at the deep end.

Sam: “I did not do any of that to hurt you as people or characters, I did not mean any sort of betrayal by it. It just felt like the right thing to do... and the tasty way to do it.” Taliesin notes he’s had e-mails after a break-up that sounded just like that. Matt was tense through the whole thing.

Taliesin: “You’ve proven that we can bring in a new character and it works.” Liam keeps thinking of the pre-stream game and missing Scanlan. Marisha realized she was putting away her d12s because she only ever used them when Scanlan gave her inspiration.

Vex felt like she and Scanlan really understood each other because they both put up fronts, and now she’s starting to doubt that.

Liam notes that Scanlan was the only one who really managed to get through to Vax during his nosedive.

While Scanlan was out, Sam had time to think about how Scanlan would feel when he woke up, and he couldn’t really justify why Scanlan would stick around. He thought it would be really difficult to make it seem believable for Scanlan to stick around when he was that miserable, so a break made sense.

Liam: “With a little space from this, it was brilliant.”

Sam: “Some of the things that Vex said to Scanlan changed his plan. My initial intent was to leave solo, alone, and you guys all convinced me to stay with Kaylie.”

Liam points out that VM doesn’t really keep their guard down anymore, so they’re pretty wary of Taryon, although Grog’s on board now that they’ve beat him up (”I’ve done all the insight checking that’s needed”), and Percy’s on board because he’s excited to have a nerd-buddy and a very useful distraction.

It was Grog’s idea to beat up Tary and Doty, because he was worried about them possibly getting the rest of his friends killed if they weren’t able to hold their own.

Laura points out it was more of an audition than a hazing--they did it to their staff at the Keep. Marisha reminisces that she turned into a giant scorpion for the first time during that scene and scared off a lot of them on the spot. Vex shot an arrow at Jarrett, and he side-stepped and made eye contact, and she knew he’d be sticking around.

Taryon is inspired by the likes of Richard Branson and Tony Stark. The pitch to Matt: “I wanna be a guy with no skill at all who has bought everything he can do, if he has a problem he just throws money at it, and he wants to be a brave, daring adventurer and has no skill to back it up,” and Matt immediately thought of the artificer class. Matt: “In theory, without any of his equipment, he’d be a level 2. The equipment’s what brings him up to level 13.”

Percy stopped feeling threatened by Taryon when he realized he needed magic to build his stuff. “We can do a Bruce Banner-Tony Stark kind of thing.” Sam points out that Taliesin actually knows some of the stuff Percy talks about, whereas the simple machines Taryon talked about so condescendingly were the actual limit of Sam’s technical knowledge.

Marisha leans towards Keyleth mostly just using the elemental spells that she’s completed her Aramente for.

Vex thought of Scanlan as the dad of the group, the one you went to if you didn’t know what else to do. Sam, whispering: “...I’m so sad right now.”

Brian: “The first person who can open a fucking door should be the leader of Vox Machina forever.”

Liam on Vax: he was a total fuck-up, didn’t have a purpose, and that got flipped on its head. Vax thinks another shoe is gonna drop from the Raven Queen, but he’s not rushing towards that; he wants a little private time. “It’s a weird thing, being Fate-Touched in a game of chance.” He’s currently waiting for instruction, but doesn’t really know where to go. From Matt’s perspective, the Raven Queen’s set him on a path and has outlined the general direction, and until that path needs to be corrected, she’ll leave him to keep walking. But without training, Vax doesn’t really know how that connection works.

Travis thinks Grog would do okay one-on-one against Kevdak now.

A fan points out that Matt was silent for 18 minutes during the party’s confrontation with Scanlan. Matt loved it, because it let him become a member of the audience. “That’s the reward for all the hard work.”

Matt re: Keyleth potentially taking on True Resurrection as a ninth-level spell: “There’s an interesting disconnect between the mechanics of the game and a realistic narrative.” He feels that there needs to be a necessary, very important purpose for that person that didn’t get completed. Marisha mentions that there are some spells that Keyleth wouldn’t be comfortable with (same as Pike not using some spells), and that True Resurrection would be difficult. She’s excited about True Polymorph, though.

Matt had to tell Sam that Scanlan did not hear Grog’s contribution to the resurrection ritual--Grog unfortunately failed his contribution. Sam: “I will say as Sam Riegel listening to Travis Willingham’s song... legit tears.”

Doty is not quite as strong as rules-as-written, but is a little smarter so he can read and write. Liam: “But can he love?”

Matt points out that a lot of the show’s narrative stems from relationships, so it seemed natural that romances would start up in the game. Laura: “[Liam and Marisha] had to deal with all of us acting like asshole fucking schoolchildren.” Travis: “I just want the story to be good. I just want nudity and good story. I don’t care where it’s from.”

Marisha and Liam went out to lunch to talk Vax/Keyleth once it looked like things were heading that way to make sure everyone was on board and comfortable with it.

Sam thinks Scanlan would be very skeptical of Taryon and would think he’s an asshole and would be on board with pretty much everything that’s happened.

Liam hopes for a bit of overlap between Scanlan and Taryon. Sam: “Oh god...”

Sam honestly doesn’t know if we’ve seen the last of Scanlan.

Percy does not want to return to Whitestone in a permanent sense at all, but Taliesin notes that it doesn’t matter, because he has to, and he understands that responsibility’s part of being titled. He doesn’t think Percy will ever take power, but if it comes up, he has ideas of how he could be useful.

Brian: “Is there anything special you want to do for episode 100?” Liam: “Wear some pants, please.” Matt: “No. Never.”

Matt sighs heavily when everyone suggests a bodyswapping episode. Sam: “We’re doing it, Matt. Someday.” Matt: “...so hackneyed.”

Brian: “Oh, I forgot about Alpha! Probably because it hasn’t worked for months.”

After-Dark:

Sam would be down for playing both Scanlan and Taryon.

Everyone was pretty okay with Taryon not knowing their names. Marisha: “That seems like something we’d do.”

Brian asks where the giant mug is right now. Sam points out that it’s literally sitting on a shelf behind Brian, in the same shot as him. Sam’s new mug was a gift from Laura ages ago.

At the time, Vex thought hanging onto the deck was the smart thing to do, but after the conversation with Scanlan, she decided it was better to give it back to Grog. Travis had games and games of guilt-trips planned. Percy was planning to build fake magical cards with a bit of flashpowder.

Matt reveals that Fenthras was already Exalted when Vex got it. Laura, slumping dejectedly and extremely dramatically on the couch: “Fucking hell, I’ve got all this fuckin’ shit I’ve been working on!”

Exalted is the next level after Awakened for Vestiges. More info in the campaign guide.

Liam: “What if Pike was hit with love at first sight for Taryon?” Everyone just goes silent while they ponder that.