#or Taliesin Jaffe if there are any critters out there

[jaskierswolf]

Rolling up to your masquerade ball, barely out of the car door:

EYELINER!BARD, I AM FERAL

Oh god. Same. He's so unbelievably hot. The new shirt is chefs kiss. The stubble is driving me mad. The messed up hair. The eyeliner.

I am unwell.

Also I would like to take a moment to say Philippa could actually destroy me and I would thank her. Like it is a good day to be bisexual.

[critmasexchange]

Post Deadline Pinch Hits #1-3

PINCH HITS #1 - #3

We have three (3) Post Deadline Pinch Hits. These are due by 23:59 on December 27th.

To claim, please direct message the comm with which PH(s) you’d like and your AO3 name (DMing is required to preserve anonymity).

Crossposted to the Dreamwidth Comm

PINCH HIT #1

For Owlmoose

Request 1 Art or Fic Fandom: Critical One-Shots: Bar Room Blitz   Jayne Merriweather

Summary Given Jayne's loyalties, I'm really eager to know what she's been up to during the time of Campaign 2. Mix it up with any other characters you like, but please keep it gen, and if there is violence I'd rather it not be too detailed or graphic.

Request 2 Art or Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign One   Pike Trickfoot & Grog Strongjaw

Summary Friendship fic please. I would love a story or artwork about the two of them growing up together, and getting into and out of trouble in Westruun.

Request 3 Art or Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign Two   Group: Caduceus Clay & Fjord & Melora | The Wildmother

Summary I'm quite fascinated by this entire situation and would be eager to see nearly anything focused on it. Gen only please.

Request 4 Fandom:Critical Role Campaign Two   Group: Fjord/Jester Lavorre

Summary This ship is getting really adorable and I'd enjoy pretty much anything focused on it. I prefer vanilla to kinky and character-based stories to porn without plot.

PINCH HIT #2

For Wiccy Request 1 Fic Fandom:Crash Pandas: Too Trashed Too Curious  Ringo, Sass Car, Guy on Motorcycle, Reggie Burns Group: Rhinestone & Albert T. "Baldpaw" Skunk, Group: Izzy/Vin Diesel

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 2 Fic Fandom: Critical Crossovers   Group: Beauregard Lionett & Grog Strongjaw, Group: Lockheed & Nugget & Professor Thaddeus & Trinket, Group: Melora | The Wildmother & Professor Thaddeus & Trinket, Group: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Shaun Gilmore, Group: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Taliesin Jaffe, Group: Nott the Brave & Scanlan Shorthalt

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 3 Fandom:Critical One-Shots: Thursday By Night   Fic Group: Vampire Liam O'Brien/Vampire Sam Riegel, Group: Vampire Liam O'Brien & Vampire Sam Riegel & Vampire Travis Willingham, Vampire Matthew Mercer

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 4 Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign One   Group: Grog Strongjaw & Scanlan Shorthalt, Group: J’mon Sa Ord/Shaun Gilmore, Group: Keyleth/Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, Group: Shaun Gilmore/Vax'ildan, Tiberius Stormwind

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 5 Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign Two   Group: Animals of the Mighty Nein, Group: Animals of the Mighty Nein & Melora | The Wildmother, Group: Animals of the Mighty Nein & The Mighty Nein, Group: Avantika & Uk'otoa, Group: Beauregard Lionett & Professor Thaddeus, Group: Caduceus Clay & Fjord, Group: Caduceus Clay & Fjord & Melora | The Wildmother, Group: Caduceus Clay & Jester Lavorre, Group: Caduceus Clay & Pumat Sol, Group: Caduceus Clay & Pumat Sol & The Simulacra, Group: Fjord & Beauregard Lionett, Group: Frumpkin & Sprinkle & Nugget & Professor Thaddeus, Group: Jester Lavore & Nott | Veth Brenatto, Group: Jester Lavore & Sprinkle, Group: Pumat Sol & The Simulacra

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 6 Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign Two   Group: Beauregard Lionett/Dairon, Group: Beauregard Lionett/Keg, Group: Caduceus Clay/Caleb Widogast, Group: Caduceus Clay/Eadwulf, Group: Caduceus Clay/Fjord, Group: Caduceus Clay/Fjord/Melora, Group: Caduceus Clay/Melora, Group: Caleb Widogast/Essek Thelyss, Group: Caleb Widogast/Essek Thelyss/Yussa Errenis, Group: Caleb Widogast/Jester Lavore, Group: Caleb Widogast/Mollymauk Tealeaf, Group: Caleb Widogast/Nott | Veth Brenatto, Group: Caleb Widogast/Nott | Veth Brenatto/Yeza Brenatto, Group: Fjord/Melora | The Wildmother, Group: Jester Lavore/The Traveler

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 7 Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign Two   Frumpkin, Henry Crabgrass, Jourrael | The Inevitable End, Keg, Kiri, Marius LePual, Orly Skiffback, Professor Thaddeus, Sprinkle

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 8 Fic Fandom:Critical Role RPF   Group: Dani Carr/Taliesin Jaffe, Group: Laura Bailey/Sam Riegel, Group: Liam O'Brien/Sam Riegel, Group: Marisha Ray/Matthew Mercer/Taliesin Jaffe

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 9 Fic Fandom:Yeehaw Game Ranch   Any Character

Link to Dear Critter Letter

DNWs which apply to all requests: Hard core BDSM (including things such as nipple clamps, butt plugs, strap-ons, gimping, kinbaku, testicle/genital torture and humiliation), Big/little dynamics, age play, Lactation, Blood play, vore, inflation/stuffing, sounding, medical kink, body modification/body horror, descriptions of broken or breaking bones (saying a bone is broken is fine, detailing the sounds/feelings or descriptions of what it looks like after are not), description of eye trauma (saying eye trauma occurred is fine, describing it happening or what it looks like after are not), bestiality, rimming, water sports, scat, feet (as a kink or really any descriptions of them), Death!Fic (mentions of canonical death(s) is fine), unrequested setting AUs, unrequested non-canonical pairings, unrequested gender/sexuality identity headcanons/fanons (I do not consider WOG to be canon in most cases), heavy gore, mpreg, pregnancy/birth, characters under the age of 13, genderswap, first person pov, 2nd person POV (unless otherwise requested), poetry, clowns, underage (under 18) romance or sex, descriptions of child abuse, blood relative incest, cannibalism and zombies.

PINCH HIT #3

For Wildheartsneverdie Request 1 Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign Two   Group: Beauregard Lionett/Jester Lavorre

Summary Request 1: Beau and Jester. Friends to kissers, baby! Does Jester realize she doesn’t need a stinkin’ man? Are they college roommates? Do they mutually realize their feelings might be more than just friendship? Anything focusing on them becoming more than friends will melt my heart, so get creative with this one.

DNW: Please nothing with graphic violence, character death, non-con, scat, vore. No a/b/o. No incest.

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 2 Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign Two   Kiri

Summary Request 2: The continued adventures of Kiri. What kind of shenanigans does she get up to after departing the guardianship of the Mighty Nein? Does she make any new friends? Give me lots of fluffy fluff.

DNW: Please nothing with graphic violence, character death, non-con, scat, vore. No a/b/o. No incest.

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 3 Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign One   Group: Taryon Darrington & Vex'ahlia

Summary Vex and Taryon Darrington. What do these two besties get up to at the Slayer’s Cake? Do they have a mysterious customer? Do they need a special ingredient for a special bake? Best friends forever!

DNW: Please nothing with graphic violence, character death, non-con, scat, vore. No a/b/o. No incest.

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 4 Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign One   Keyleth, Pike Trickfoot, Vex'ahlia

Summary Ladies Night Out, Vox Machina Edition. I want to see the ladies of Vox Machina hanging out together, having a nice time or getting into trouble. Is there a little romance on the side? That’s for you to decide!

DNW: Please nothing with graphic violence, character death, non-con, scat, vore. No a/b/o. No incest.

Link to Dear Critter Letter

Request 5 Fic Fandom:Critical Role Campaign Two   Jester Lavorre, Beauregard Lionett, Yasha, Nott | Veth Brenatto

Summary Ladies Night Out, Mighty Nein Edition. I want to see the ladies of Mighty Nein hanging out together, having a nice time or getting into trouble. Is there a little romance on the side? That’s for you to decide!

DNW: Please nothing with graphic violence, character death, non-con, scat, vore. No a/b/o. No incest.

Link to Dear Critter

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E39 (October 23, 2018)

(This week’s Talks will be posted after the episode airs tonight!)

Tonight’s guests are Liam O’Brien and Taliesin Jaffe! Also ft. Peak Dani (who has had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking show) and Marisha Ray Everywhere.

Announcements:

Marisha’s BtS episode has aired and is now available online on CR’s YouTube. Taliesin: “It’s not ridiculous to say she’s one of the best people I know.”

Matt’s BtS aired yesterday. Brian: “I’ve done twenty-some hours of interviews, and this is the one that broke me.” Liam: “Yeah, he’s super shallow, right?”

There will be a bonus holiday episode of BtS featuring Ashley Johnson.

The Halloween episode of All Work No Play aired last week! Liam: “The most handsome Sam’s ever been.”

Laura’s one-shot was pre-taped and aired on Thursday (now available on G&S’s YouTube). Brian, on trying to maintain a British accent for his character: “It’s a nightmare. I apologize to all the Critters. I’m going to get Peaky Blindered.” It’s truly a thing of beauty.

Stats for this week’s episode:

Matt surpassed 15 nat 20s and 20 nat 1s for the campaign in this episode.

The M9 got their 150th kill: the yuan-ti abomination killed by Nott.

This episode was the first time a character dealt more than 150 damage in an episode, with Fjord dealing 158. However, he only dealt the second-highest: Yasha dealt 301!

By the end of the fight, the Warden had grown an additional 8 heads and had taken a total of 428 points of damage.

Liam has the same mini at home that Matt used in this episode. “The hydra’s in the corner. All the heads are facing the wall.”

Caleb’s been enjoying the Menagerie Coast, but he’s starting to want to go home with all this time on the boat and the island. “He’s very much of the Empire, and sees leaving it as both a chance to learn things that he doesn’t know and experience things he hasn’t experienced so he can do things he wants to do.” He’s also very cognizant that the whole group has needs, and he can’t just railroad everyone to the library. Taliesin: “He’s evolving. That’s nice.”

Liam has dyed his hair green, red, and blue. Brian did purple.

Cad hasn’t yet put together that the Cloaked Serpent is the Wildmother’s mortal enemy. “I don’t think he necessarily believes that that’s what’s happening yet.” Even as Taliesin, he isn’t entirely convinced.

Caleb hasn’t been avoiding Cad or anything. “I think Cad would see what the others see, which that Caleb’s fucked up.”

Everything gets derailed at the realization that Taliesin was in Facts of Life. Brian: “You can’t just throw shit like that!”

Caleb’s been looking at Cad with the perspective of, “Oh, hey, he’s the new guy, let’s see if he lasts.”

Taliesin: “He’s fascinated by your intellectualism. He wants to know that.” Dani: “Yeah he does.”

Cad’s perspective on the M9′s casual disposal of bodies: “It’s all food. As long as the body’s useful, it doesn’t matter where it goes.”

Caleb put a lot of trust in Fjord to hand him his spellbooks. “He does trust Fjord for certain things. Not enough to tell him everything. Caleb’s been getting a little cocky lately.”

There’s some innuendo here. Maybe. Just a little. “Ball’s in your court, Brian.”

Who would they trust to come in and play their characters in their absence? Taliesin: “I don’t have friends anymore.” Brian: “YOU KNOW TERI HATCHER!” 

But seriously, Taliesin would ask Ashley first, then Marisha or Travis, as the ones most likely to get the zen. Liam: “I think Ashley would be number one, RP-wise, for Caleb. And it would probably be Taliesin.”

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn once explained hentai to Brian on an airplane for half an hour. “It was the funniest goddamn conversation I’ve had in my life.”

Gif of the Week: the beheading of the hydra.

Caduceus has “definitely dabbled in some psychotropics. That’s definitely something that grows in the garden.”

Taliesin and Liam generally cut themselves some slack for any mistakes they might have made in a game that’s played late at night after a full day of work. Liam: “Even the bad decisions lead to awesome.”

Taliesin: “I would’ve liked to have gotten the hydra high, now that I know that was an option.” There’s some discussion as to what kind of high a hydra would have, and if each head might react differently. Liam: “I told you we shouldn’t have mixed!”

Brian: “This has more dick jokes than Honey Heist 2, for some reason.”

Fanart of the week: the beautiful orchard chamber.

Taliesin on Travis’ ‘Molly’ slip-up: “Honestly, there’s very few things in the world that delight me more than seeing a little bit of shame roll down his face.” He purposely made an offended face at him. That moment delighted him.

Liam’s getting some great schadenfreude over Travis having to agonize over his RP decisions like the rest of them this campaign. “Fuck you with your emotional investment!”

Taliesin specifically made a character who bonds easily with people. He loves knowing things about the characters but being able to back off from that and feign ignorance.

Caleb being high meant that his self-flagellation got pushed way into the background. “It felt good not to care.” Brian asks if Caleb might seek escape through addiction to something like that, and Liam notes that Caleb doesn’t actually want to escape that self-loathing; he wants to wallow in it. Liam: “He really likes hating on himself. That was the point of all this. He wants to do something unfathomable fueled by self-loathing. There’s a thin little window that, if he sticks the landing, he can untie the knot.”

Clay’s mostly just pushing forward with this whole release-the-snake-of-many-eyes thing in the hopes of getting answers; he hasn’t thought more deeply about it. Caleb think it’s a bad idea; he’d try to stop it if he could. Both Caleb and Clay feel like Fjord’s hiding a lot. Clay’s feeling curious and cautious about what’ll happen when Fjord finds out the things he doesn’t know. Caleb thinks Fjord’s hiding a lot and is making terrible decisions; “Caleb’s such a hypocrite, because he’d probably take steps to stop Fjord from doing the things that he’s doing, still knowing that he needs to do the things he wants to do.”

Talks Machina: That About Sums It Up:

What books would Liam keep in Caleb-esque holsters with him at all times? Hellboy: Seed of Destruction: Vol. 1, and Complete Works of Shakespeare. It would be a little unbalanced. If he could only pick one Shakespeare play, it’d be Hamlet.

Given the chance, Taliesin would dye Liam’s hair “a blue-silver with a little purple highlight, a gentle amethyst. It’d be good, bring out your eyes.”

I just love that this is a thing Brian said: “Fluffernutter. Does that scare you guys?”

Taliesin: “Anytime you have to roll that many times to get something to work, I’m a little hesitant. If we’re not in a cave next time, right next to people who are taking damage, I’d feel a little better.”

How would they defeat a Marisha hydra? Taliesin, instantly: “Could not be done.” He and Liam concoct a plan involving the right margarita, turkish delight, a pickletini, red wine, Minecraft, and giving one-sheet pitch docs to three of the heads.

Brian’s solution in four words: “There’s a weed drought.” Taliesin: “We once came up with a Magic card just called Pile O’ Weed. It’d just be a green card you could tap, and a whole turn would pass and nothing would happen.”

Molly would’ve had two of the fruits, “just to make a point”.

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E28 (July 31, 2018)

Tonight’s preshow: a tiny tea set with two tiny teacups and a single saucer. Dani has tea with Pillow!Matt and later with Taliesin, all of which is adorable. Dani then beats Taliesin in a thumb war, which is every bit as delightful as it sounds.

Tonight’s guests: Taliesin Jaffe and Sumalee Montano.

Tonight’s announcements: Dani!cam is down tonight. Everyone has a moment of silence. Except her audio’s still working, so not that silent, I guess! Taliesin has selected Brian’s outfit for GenCon and describes it as “extremely extra.” Brian warns us we might need sunglasses, and Tal tells BWF that he’ll have his “product” by showtime. Matt’s Fireside Chat and NPC Build will be Tuesday, August 7, at 5:00pm PST. Marisha’s Honey Heist 2: Electric Beargaloo will be Friday, August 10th at 7:00pm PST. All the original cast will return to reprise their characters. Next Wednesday Club is Batman books without Batman, focusing on all the other characters and Gotham herself, tomorrow at 7:00pm PST.

CR Stats! Nila smelled her bag regarding five decisions: Ophelia, letting Champ smell the bag, going to find the cleric, going to find the Taskers, and placing her spirit totem. Molly had 25 nat 20s (most in the M9), 11 nat ones (least in the M9), 21 kills (most in the M9), and 7 HDYWTDTs (most in the M9). BWF: “He died doing what he loved: making Crit Role Stats records.” Molly dealt 711 points of damage and took 325, his most-cast spell was Vicious Mockery (23 times), and his most used Blood Hunter ability was Rite of the Dawn (22 times). Caduceus healed 24 points in his first appearance.

How Sumalee ended on the show: she’s friends with Matt since they work for the same agency, but she only saw it pop up on her timeline tangentially. One day, they were both working on the same cartoon and she wanted to say congratulations to him afterwards for this wonderful thing he’d built, and as he told her about the backstory and the world he suggested she should come on the show sometime. She wasn’t quite sure if he meant it, but she was super interested even though she’d never played the game before. He suggested she watch the show a few times to see if she’d be interested; the next day she giddily told her agent he’d invited her. About three months later, Matt texted her and asked if she wanted to be on the show. Prior to the meeting, she felt like she had to pitch herself--she read a ton of the PHB and the basics of D&D and everything--but when she showed up to the diner, he was ready for her character creation with character sheets and books and dice and everything. She was overwhelmed and delighted--even a month later, her excitement is tangible. I love her more than life itself. She points out he was very good at giving little flavors of each race that were not overwhelming for someone so new to the game.

BWF decides to rename the show The Firbolg Fireside.

@skinnyghost (Adam Koebel on Twitter) asks Tal, “Where’s my money?” Everyone laughs; Tal tells us Matt actually pointed out Clay looks a lot like Koebel right after they first saw the character art.

Tal picked a firbolg because he’d ever done it before and they have some very interesting racial abilities and stats.

Sumalee had decided between a dragonborn and a half-orc before Matt showed her the book with the firbolg. Both she and Tal loved the picture of the firbolg in the book--a “Jim Henson” picture. Sumalee never gets to explore this kind of character in her jobs, so she was glad to be able to explore something that resonated with her so well personally in the game.

Of firbolg, cleric, or Grave Domain, which called to Tal first? “Everything was done in a semiconscious blaze of insanity.” Grave cleric was the first thing to hit as he was going through the new supplements to the PHB. He liked the gothy feel and was very concerned that the character death would make the rest of the party “gunshy,” which is more cautious than he likes in his D&D games. He likes that this class is a “risk reduction” for the rest of the party. He feels firbolgs work well for this and that the Jim Henson feeling was sufficiently different from both Percy & Molly.

The smell bag was not an actual magic item. Sumalee wracked her brains for two weeks trying to come up with a way to reconcile her INT of 8 and her WIS of 18, since Matt suggested leaning into a low stat instead of rerolling. She needed something like a “gut check,” which showed a certain innate intelligence that felt right even if it couldn’t be explained. She first thought about tea leaves, but thought it still felt too intelligent; then she latched onto the powerful smell scent idea of the bag. She loved the idea of it always being the same items in the bag, but the smell changing based on the choice she wanted to make.

A light overhead goes out. After Dark is NOW.

Tal, glancing over Sumalee’s character sheet, is amazed at how well she rolled. She only has one stat with a negative modifier.

In the smell bag are nuts, berries from trees she’d helped save, bark from her tribe’s sacred trees, bones from animals that she had befriended and cared for until they died, a small portion of her firbolg baby’s dried placenta, and a variety of mosses.

Nila was in charge of the mosses in her tribe (I LOVE THIS) because it’s the easiest-growing thing to care for--her tribe didn’t think she could handle a job more exciting or delicate, so they gave her something they didn’t need to really rely on her for.

Tal did consider the fact that he would be the person the M9 would seek out to resurrect Molly, and mostly left it open as an option for Matt.

Nila’s calming presence is due to regular meditation. Prior to the abduction, Nila had the perfect calm, idyllic life--but the horrible nature of the kidnapping brought out a deep need and driving force that balanced out her idyll. BWF points out she had to maintain her ability to think rationally, because if she broke down now, she’d be of no use to her partner or her child. Sumalee likens it to the autopilot she went on when her mother died, even through the grief, since she was her family’s sole provider at the time and could not let herself break down or be overwhelmed.

@vonnie_bee wins GIF of the Week for two weeks ago. It’s a lovely little thing of Sumalee casually stating she’d like to eat someone’s face off.

Runner up is @crivensfeegle with the reacharound bit. Oh, Sam.

The winner gets a purple CR hat that will go on sale at GenCon and later this year in the critrole.com store.

Tal didn’t ask Laura about having a second cleric in the party, but as he revealed the details both Laura and Travis were really excited. (BWF says it’s like having a Mercy & a Zenyatta in the party at the same time; BWF reveals himself as a D.Va main. Glorious.)

Sumalee never expected to become all critters’ fir-mom, but is honored that she’s been basically adopted.

Tal says Caduceus is basically goth-Fonz.

Caduceus is in his mid-twenties in firbolg years. Time moves weirdly in that part of the forest, so he’s really unconcerned with the passage of time. “He’s deep in navel contemplation.” Tal thinks he and Matt agreed on him being somewhere between 80-100.

BWF is shocked and appalled that Tal is wearing matching socks tonight. Ditto.

Sumalee was conscious of a lot of “nature-loving” tropes going into the game that she actively tried to avoid in her portrayal of Nila. She specifically avoided the trope-y broken speech of Dances With Wolves, as well as an almost Southern-Midwestern accent that was her first thought, even though she’s from Ohio and it felt fairly natural for her. She just felt like she wanted to make something grounded, something authentic, and something that left people with positive associations. BWF feels no one’s resonated with the community so well since Sprigg.

Caduceus hasn’t been with the party nearly long enough to form opinions about any of them. He finds the whole party interesting...as well as the building they broke into, several trees and rocks, some flora they passed on the way.

Tal was concerned about bringing up both Molly’s and his own preconceptions to this new character, but has found it much more pleasant to be a “blank slate” and act surprised at every bit of reveal.

Nila had a tough time leaving the M9 to find their friends without her, since they helped her find her family and she felt like she owed them. Sumalee is glad that Beau gave her that out--as a mother, all she wanted to do was be with her son, but she also knew she could help the M9 better once she knew that her partner was healed and she was stronger. She also 100% felt better because they had a firbolg with them in Clay.

Sumalee was more nervous coming on the show even than she’d anticipated because Molly had just died the week before. She never thought her entrance would be at such a momentous point in the story. She channeled Nila to calm her nerves pre-show.

Sumalee and Dani were watching the battle with the Iron Shepherds together and both gasped at the terrible cold damage to Nott. “Utter shock. This--this can’t be happening.” However, she felt that it was a good meeting point between Nila and the M9, since they’d both lost someone precious.

Fanart of the Week: @ravennowithtea with this beautiful, beautiful thing of Nila & the M9 for last week, and for this week, @agonethetic with a lovely portrait of Clay in the foreground and Molly in the background arising from Clay’s shadow.

“Clay’s chill is pretty deep.” Tal remembers a local Buddhist monk in Pasadena with a great camera obscura collection and an electric cart. “He’s the chillest guy I ever met.”

Clay’s voice was “literally a voice that was not Percy or Molly. It’s the sloppiest character I’ve made in so long.” Once he saw the size and found the chill, he felt that sliding into the bassy “more badass Pumat” vibe would work best. He loved finding out what Sumalee was doing since it worked so well with what he was planning.

In Sumalee’s SURELY INEVITABLE return, she’s most excited about Call Lightning and Flaming Sphere. She primarily focused on her healing powers when she picked her spells for the day, but would like to do more exciting offensive spells next time.

Clay’s had his bags packed for four months, ready for someone to find him. In the meantime, he was starting to have dreams and visions of “something that had gone wrong,” but didn’t feel like he could navigate the cursed forest on his own. A few people had come by before but “hadn’t been the right people.” Clearly our murderhobos were just in time.

Sumalee was very worried they wouldn’t reach her son & partner in time. She’d asked Matt how to make her exit; he told her to follow his lead but be guided by the story. She’d hoped that they’d reach them in time, but wasn’t sure. She thinks if they’d gone back for the Taskers they wouldn’t have made it in time. Tal reminds us that Matt does keep an internal timer and taking too long would have possibly been dangerous. Sumalee was also worried in the moment that if the Iron Shepherds had heard the racket, they’d have deliberately tortured or killed her husband & child as punishment for invading before they could be rescued.

Caduceus is “another strain of Ren Faire” that has flavors of Molly in a slightly different wrapping. Tal was also raised by hippies and references childhood memories at the Lakeshrine Self-Realization Fellowship Center, which Sumalee helpfully tells us is the only place outside of India that has some of Gandhi’s ashes.

The easiest part of the game for Sumalee was just playing with her friends, since they made it so fun for her. The most challenging thing was that she felt like she had to learn D&D at the same time as everyone was telling her not to worry about the rules and to bend them as she wanted. Her advice is to not make it harder for herself; don’t learn the box--just sit down with someone who knows how to play, tell them what you want to do, and get one-on-one instruction on how to do it. “Find comfort in the fact that the people you’re playing with will lead you through this.”

Remember, the next episode airs at GenCon on Friday and an hour earlier! Hope to see some of you guys there!

After Dark: Already Dark I Guess Edition

Sumalee was much more comfortable playing a druid since she sat next to Marisha, who could guide her through it. The goodberries were the first spell that she used once Marisha gave her okay.

Taliesin remembers the delight of watching Travis slowly realize he could do anything in their first home game.

Broadcasting comes through to mismatch Tal’s socks for him. Bless.

Tal says that the tea-drinking, the Arizona tea can, and Tealeaf are all just a complete coincidence. (:thinking:) He came up with the tea-drinking intro about eleven seconds before he entered--he’d been backstage taking notes on what the M9 looked at during their tour of the garden, and as Matt described the flowers and leaves over one of the gravestones, he had the thought that the tea was something he could do. He also says that he didn’t mean them to be cherry blossoms on his armor; they’re actually a form of lichen that gets really neon pink and red. However, he fully encourages everyone to keep drawing him however they like.

Tal would have liked a month to come up with the new character. Part of his rush was that the artist had to come up with the design; he’d like to share some early iterations later if the artist gives permission.

Sumalee deliberately avoided giving Ariana Orner (their artist) descriptions of her armor out of fear of stereotyping herself, and was delighted with the Mongolian-inspired armor she came up with.

Sumalee’s been frantically trying to scroll social media to keep up with all the Nila fanart and gifs that she loved & hadn’t expected at all. Tal offers to share their Liam to help curate her new collection.

This past weekend was the first time Sumalee felt the “click” of why D&D lends itself so well to character fanart.

Cassius Clay beats Caduceus Clay every time. Caduceus is from an old work-for-hire script that never got picked up. This is the third iteration of the character (first an adaptation pitch, then a brief pitch script for a video game, and now the D&D game). “It only took a decade and change.”

Sumalee tells us that her young son has insisted on replaying the firbolg rescue scene several times, including repeating what the DM said at certain points and him pretending to reach his hand out of the cage. It’s adorable and I die again.

For Sumalee, D&D was like nothing she’d ever experienced. Voiceover lends itself well to it because there’s something of a theatricality to it when you’re roleplaying, especially since the world is so fantastical compared to her on-camera work. “It’s totally unique...and I love it.” She likes that the dice guide you even through the scariness of total improv freedom. There’s a little bit of guidance and direction and structure, but the play within that structure is very free. “This was...intense. It was a fantastic introduction to something I’d never experienced, never done, and I could see why people loved it...The entire outside world disappeared. It was intoxicating.”

And that’s it for tonight! Is it Thursday Friday yet?

[truthbeetoldmedia]

The Critical Role of 'Critical Role'

It’s any given Thursday night, roughly 9:50 pm Eastern Standard Time, and my house is filled with the scent of oven-fried chicken and the driving thrum of Celtic percussion and string instruments. The PS4 Twitch app is open, streaming an impressive flow of themed fan art over-scored by the aforementioned tune. My loved ones are gathered; we hunker down with our meals, eagerly anticipating the clock’s turn to 10 pm. It’s time for Critical Role.

Critical Role is a weekly Dungeons & Dragons campaign livestream, currently available on both its own Twitch channel Critical Role, as well as the Geek & Sundry Twitch. The series features live gameplay of a home-brewed world, created and made manifest by the talents of popular voice over artist Matthew Mercer, acting Dungeon Master, and featuring live unscripted performances by his equally-gifted friends. The core players are Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham; special guests also occasionally join in, such as Khary Payton, Mark Hulmes, Sumalee Montano, and Ashly Burch, who've all appeared briefly in this campaign.

If some of these names are familiar to you, that’s because the talent involved in Critical Role are renowned, tested, and aggressively committed actors/members of the production, animation, television, film, and gaming industries. Their varied skills, gravitas, and dedication combine with Matt’s ceaselessly creative mind and quick thinking into an amalgam so dense and compelling that it’s hard, as a viewer, to escape the show’s pull. Not that I’d want to; I’ve long since passed the event horizon and I’m in it until the end.

Currently, Critical Role is on its second iteration. Campaign 1 ran for several years as a private home-game amongst friends, then was translated into a format fit for livestreaming. It followed the heroic band of adventurers known as Vox Machina,  made up of characters birthed from noble archetypes; imperfect yet admirable individuals with the heart and skill to face world-rending, inconceivably fearsome enemies; a story intricately laced with nuance and lore, but grander and more sublime for it.

Campaign 2 is quite different in flavor, though still seated in the same world as its ancestral adventure, some 10 years after the fact. The team is now The Mighty Nein, a name blithely transplanted from an in-joke made by the Twitch chat and the cast themselves. The new characters are deeply flawed, broken, and self-centered individuals brought together by aligned goals and a specific brand of apathy only possible in jaded, wounded souls who just want to do at least a few decent things in their blighted lives. Despite this somewhat bleak tapestry, Matt and the Players have managed to weave in glittering threads of love, charity, hope, and devotion. It's tragic and beautiful; both rough and soft to the touch, depending on which swatch you feel.

Given that Campaign 1 is so voluminous in its scope, breadth, and tenure, it is understandably overwhelming as a starting point for the uninitiated. For this reason, I recommend diving in at the beginning of Campaign 2, launched on January 10, 2018 and available for free on Geek & Sundry’s YouTube.

I’m aware that modern media is crawling with genre stories: you can’t walk three feet without banging your toe on some phylactery or superpowered humanoid. And while Critical Role takes place in an indisputably fantastical setting, where the characters level up and come into powers which they often don’t initially comprehend, this is not a “coming of age” tale. There are no “Hero’s Journey” tropes. The growing pains explored are generally relegated to the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. The Mighty Nein learn and develop in tandem, outside the constraints and moors in which storytelling often entrenches itself. That’s the beauty of Dungeons & Dragons. Regardless of what the Dungeon Master has planned for each session, if they’ve given the Player Characters enough freedom, the emergent narrative is wholly original.

Being a Dungeon Master is famously likened to wrangling cats, though I find it more like wrangling cats who’ve learned to use laser pointers and Roombas on their own. One of the areas where Critical Role shines is that Matt is always over-prepared for whatever path the characters may choose, not to mention remarkably quick on his feet in adapting this sandbox he's established in response to how the Players decide to play, and the Players do him the courtesy of self-regulating their out of character moments and the silliness which often accompanies the excitement of roleplaying with your friends. Each session accumulates calculable progress.

But now that I’ve described the scaffolding on which Critical Role is built, I’d like to talk about the more abstract reasons I feel the series is so important, and why it’s absolutely worth your time.

One obvious benefit is that the series is live. Live broadcast media, in recent memory relegated mostly to sketch shows, soap operas, and the exhausting 24-hour news cycle, has been reinvigorated by the podcast, vlogging, and gaming communities. It’s a special joy to be present when something momentous occurs — a precious time-locked thing you share with a community made up of those who love what you love. An intangible communion of experience: in this instance, one where you cannot rely on your knowledge of narrative structure, because not only are we learning new things about these characters with the passage of time, but the actors who portray them are learning as well; all of which is packaged in breathtaking improvised acting.

The Players who make up The Mighty Nein are unafraid to make bold choices, to do things which until that precise second they didn’t know their characters would do. They don’t pander to the audience in order to provide the story beats which will make us comfy and complacent; these actors are so dedicated to maintaining organic character growth that, on occasion, some of their actions will frustrate, annoy, or anger the audience. However, the beauty in this is that none of the Players’ calls are pre-fabricated to elicit a specific reaction from the audience. You’ll love some stuff and hate some stuff, but there’s no onus, no learned helplessness, no pretense or smugness or hubris: those very things which can drive us up the wall when dealing with a lot of media these days.

Like most fandoms, there are some bad apples here and there, but Matt and the Critical Role team are dedicated to creating and maintaining an inclusive, intersectional environment where we can all thrive. The Critical Role cast and staff do everything possible to step in on behalf of their core players, special guests, and fans alike, in order to defend against, mediate, and mitigate the sporadic flares of anger, cruelty, and general suckiness which pervade so many other fandoms. They are humble and grateful and express it often, with deep sincerity.

Fan artists and other creators are welcomed, embraced, appreciated, and encouraged. Cosplayers are readily provided reference images and showcased on the official series Twitter. The Critical Role production group is even working on programs meant to provide new players and novice DMs with guidance for the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game system, as well as help navigating the more complicated aspects of RPG group dynamics. Every Critter is celebrated and bolstered in an open-source, accessible, super-fun community.

This show has brought pure, distilled hope and joy to so many, while also maintaining its initial purpose: a group of close friends who nerd out roleplaying and having a blast. The only thing that’s ever changed is that now we get to be part of it, too.

Critical Role airs Thursdays at 7 pm Pacific Standard Time on either the Critical Role or Geek & Sundry Twitch channels.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E14 (Apr 17,2018)

Max asking the real questions. [image description: a conspiracy board featuring the title “WHO IS TALIESIN JAFFE?” and highlights such as “IS HE A PYRAMID???”]

Tonight’s guests are Travis Willingham and, yes, Taliesin Jaffe!

Announcements: Vox Machina: Origins issue #6 is out tomorrow, Pillars of Eternity II will feature free DLC with voice sets and character portraits of Vox Machina and can be pre-ordered now (releases May 8th), Brian was a guest on the NGON podcast, 826LA has kicked off their fundraising campaign (up to $40k will be matched by a generous Critter).

@critrolestats for this episode:

There were 7 “nein” references before the game even started.

This is the first episode in campaign to not have a natural 20. (Travis: “Why did you give the Snitch away?!”)

This is the lowest number of crits rolled in a single episode in this campaign: a single nat one.

Episode 74 in campaign one was the only episode with no crits.

Taliesin thinks that interaction with Cree was more stressful than the Briarwood name drop in campaign one, because at least with the latter he had a vague sense of where it was going. Travis is suspicious.

Travis opted to play the game with the Gentleman mostly because he was feeling bored and wanted to be a little reckless that day.

Brian: “Travis shops at Big & Tall, Taliesin shops at Dark & Cold.”

Taliesin is very impressed that a subset of the fans have managed to figure out everything that’s going on with Mollymauk.

Originally, it was going to be Mollymauk Trickfoot, because the original thought was that it was going to be the Trickfoot circus, but Matt vetoed such a strong connection to the previous campaign.

Travis is going to be waiting for a double-cross from the Gentleman. Taliesin points out that it might just be an audition. Could he be a water genasi? Travis: “I think so. Either that, or he’s just got a thyroid problem, so.”

Travis assumed that, if he’d lost, he’d have been required to work jobs for the Gentleman for a while. Either that or tend bar.

Weirdest day job before doing acting full-time? Travis was security in Hollywood, and worked at a baby shower-exclusive catering company. Taliesin worked at a video store, made candles at a candle company, and managed a toy store. Brian worked at a company that rented porta-potties.

Taliesin pitched Matt his idea for Molly when they were getting their tattoos. It’s less him having no memory and more “a particular character that could only function if he had nothing other than himself.” He left a set of clues built into how he was found and where, but there’s nothing Taliesin knows that Molly doesn’t know.

GIF of the week goes to Fjord’s shifting intelligence score.

From Fjord’s perspective, he thinks pulling the falchion may have scared Caleb into being more of a team player, especially with Nott to communicate as a go-between. Fjord wouldn’t have actually done anything with the sword; if they had pushed it long enough, he just would’ve left. Travis also suspects that Caleb is smart and may be playing nice so that Fjord won’t be as suspicious of him next time.

Travis and Taliesin think Fjord and Molly are pretty good people overall, but agree that Grog and Percy were some of the more iffy characters in the first campaign.

On being in the Zone of Truth: “As a disciple of the Moonweaver, that was not a pleasant experience.” Molly had intended to bring the group in after a few months, not after only about ten days of knowing each other. “There’s trust and then there’s trust.”

Travis: “How much does Yasha know?” Taliesin: “Yasha knows everything.” He’s sending Ashley e-mails with the information she knows that hasn’t been revealed to the rest yet.

Fjord thought Molly was the most scheming person in the group, so finding out that he has a very limited memory is a bit of a twist. Fjord’s not so much concerned about finding out about the things he doesn’t know about in his own backstory; he’s comfortable just leaving some things unanswered. “Maybe if I don’t move, everything will just be cool and things will stay the same.” He’s afraid of drastic change and having more episodes like that, because they’re... unsettling.

Molly woke up more-or-less naked, with shaved hair, and without tattoos (apart from the red ones). The tattoos are partly about rebuilding a persona by covering up the old ones. “Molly is not missing any time or memory. Molly is two years old. There’s nothing wrong with him.”

Fjord probably would’ve believed Molly’s story even without Zone of Truth because it was the last possible thing he would’ve expected. “Anything that doesn’t shock me or give me pause, I feel like I’m getting robbed of the Jaffe experience.” He’s just relieved no one else was really getting asked questions.

Taliesin’s a big fan of the notion of identity and playing with how we think of ourselves, based on his own personal experience with reinventing himself. There are elements of that in Percy, but it’s the fundamental function of Mollymauk’s character. He doesn’t care who Lucien was. It doesn’t matter if he’s a good person or a bad person, it’s “I’m made of nothing but the decisions that led me to be this person. You get to decide who you are, and he’s very much decided who he is.” Brian talks about people being defined by their worst (or best) moments. Taliesin: “He’s selected the things that mattered to him, and he’s fully in that and not interested in investing in anything else.”

Travis: “...man, my character has a fuckin’ Texan accent.”

Fanart of the week: “Nightmares”.

It’s worse than Fjord was expecting, because there’s genuinely no way to find out more about what’s going on with Molly. Fjord is pretty sure everyone’s with Molly (if a little suspicious) and nobody sees him as a liability. “I think, if anything, Beau is mildly entertained.” Fjord thinks of him as a time-bomb with a very long fuse.

Molly’s name was chosen for him by Gustav, because they had to forge papers for him. “Empty, so they started calling him M.T.”

Travis likes that nobody seems to care about his backstory at this point. Travis: “The fewer amount of times I wake up spitting up saltwater...” Taliesin: “I genuinely don’t care until anyone chooses to share or it becomes a problem.” Travis: “Just lawful good, that’s what I am.”

Molly is very nervous about future conversations. Taliesin had a lot of strategies in mind, but the one thing he wasn’t prepared for was meeting someone who knew him in the wild; he thought he’d have longer to prepare. He used his power without the swords once but no one noticed.

Fjord looks at both Caleb and Molly as sources of knowledge and experience he could pull from. He was disappointed to find out that Molly’s swords weren’t magical, because he’d hoped to be able to draw some parallels to his own situation.

Mollymauk’s attitude toward Nott’s questions can be summed up as a quasi-friendly but thoroughly sarcastic “What a patronizing thing to say, go fuck yourself!”

Fjord was more excited to take Nott under his wing “until he realized that she didn’t give a shit about being under that wing.” Both Fjord and Molly are a little nervous about Nott and Caleb.

Travis took Warcaster and Molly took Tough for their level 4 feats.

Basic thing about Molly: “The first thing out of your mouth should never be the truth.”

Molly speaks with the same accent as Gustav.

Brief interlude about LaserDiscs. As you do.

Talks Machina After Dark on Alpha:

Special guest star Pillow Matt!

Taliesin is disappointed there hasn’t been a Fjord Prefect joke yet. Travis is tempted to make Fjord’s last name T’ough.

Travis notes that Fjord’s still evolving as a character. “He’s willing to let the cards fall where they may and maybe take some blind risks,” which isn’t a trait Travis shares with his character.

Travis and Taliesin share their Jester impressions.

Brief interlude about the efficiency of tridents vs. quindents. As you do.

Taliesin on Molly: “He is constantly delighted by shit. He finds life delightful, he finds everything delightful. Any thrill or high or otherwise, he is on board. That is what he does with his free time, which he has not had this week.”

They agree that Molly would win against Fjord in a drinking contest. Fjord would be a super nice drunk: “You’re just so nice to everyone and I can always count on you for a smile!” Taliesin: “Molly gets louder the nicer he gets” and might become prone to weird pranks.

What would Fjord have been most afraid of being asked in Zone of Truth? “What’s your biggest fear? Have you ever lost anyone? Where did you come from? What are you really searching for?”

Fjord and Molly approached the blood thing with the Gentleman as the cost of doing business; in for a penny, in for a pound.

Final question of the night from Max: “Taliesin, are you a pyramid?” Taliesin: “This interview is over.”