[dramatic music]
[cheering]
BRIAN: That's all I got. How are you guys?
[cheering]
BRIAN: There's too many people. Don't come out here. There's too many people! Okay. Where's Tary?
AUDIENCE: Over here!
BRIAN: Stand up! Look at this!
[cheering]
BRIAN: What's your name?
SARA: Sara!
BRIAN: Sara?
SARA: Yeah!
BRIAN: You're fucking awesome. Okay. We've got to get started. Hold on, I've got to move my fanny
pack. Okay, rules for this panel. Really fast, here we go. One question per person. Do not ask
the full cast a question or we'll be here until tomorrow.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's okay!
BRIAN: They're really bad at answering in a timely fashion, sort of like when a door is involved.
There may be some spoilers. Let me save you some time. Don't ask any "What's going to happen?"
questions. Those tend to go unanswered as well. Finally, if you ask Matt what time it is, you will
find out just how Irish Liam O'Brien and I are.
[cheering]
BRIAN: Without further ado, I would like to introduce the cast of Critical Role.
[cheering]
BRIAN: Travis Willingham!
[cheering]
BRIAN: Marisha Ray!
[cheering]
BRIAN: Taliesin Jaffe!
[cheering]
BRIAN: Sam Riegel!
[cheering]
BRIAN: Liam O'Brien!
[cheering]
BRIAN: Laura Motherfucking Bailey!
[cheering]
BRIAN: Your dungeon master, my dungeon master, our dungeon master, Matthew Mercer!
[cheering]
BRIAN: Yo, you people are hyped up!
[cheering]
BRIAN: All right. What does yours say?
TRAVIS: Mine says, "Travis Willingham eats dicks."
[laughter]
SAM: I wrote that.
BRIAN: Oh yeah? That's a shock. Well, we are about to do the third Critical Role live.
[cheering]
BRIAN: The second at Gen Con.
TRAVIS: Genken.
SAM: Laura doesn't have a mic, but that's okay.
LAURA: No, we're figuring out how we're going to share.
TRAVIS: You're twins; you share shit already.
BRIAN: How are you guys feeling about CRL 3? I don't know what to call this. #criticalrolelive.
How are you guys feeling?
TRAVIS: We're going to die!
[laughter]
TALIESIN: I'm really glad if we go out, we can be with an audience.
MATT: I-- [inaudible] mic working?
BRIAN: It better be.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I can hear you and you're beautiful!
[laughter]
MATT: (yelling) I am excited for tonight's show! You'll soon know why.
BRIAN: Save your voice. You need it. We need it to be beautiful and soft. Then immediately turn terrifying.
MARISHA: Am I allowed to say this? I don't know, whatever. He kept saying how he was excited
because he had a lot of rules questions to ask the Wizards of the Coast people.
[laughter]
MARISHA: I don't know what he's doing, but something big is going on.
LAURA: They're wrong anyways. We're not paying attention down here. We're trying to figure out
mic stuff. Whatever you were saying, Marisha.
MATT: We will share that mic.
BRIAN: I don't even see-- Oh, there is a sound booth up there.
MATT: Shame!
[laughter]
LIAM: We shared the womb!
LAURA: That's right.
BRIAN: Hey, Matt. What is the biggest difference for you in planning a Critical Role regular
Thursday night stream session than doing a big live thing like this, which is so terrifying, and
I don't know how you're going to get through it without so much Xanax and horse tranquilizers?
MATT: You hit the nail on the head there. It's more the nerves of knowing that there's a lot of
people watching live at home, and hearing a lot of people watching it live right there. Having the
space, and having to finagle the stage to work so that we're all still comfortable playing, and also
people can watch it. We've got some unique challenges, but preparing for it, I am
legitimately terrified.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you! You're great!
BRIAN: How many of you are going tonight?
[cheering]
SAM: That was amazing.
BRIAN: That was a wave that didn't even mean to happen. It turned into a wave.
MARISHA: I love Gen Con.
SAM: I feel bad for the three people who aren't going.
[laughter]
SAM: Who doesn't have tickets? We love you guys.
LAURA: This is the real live show.
[laughter]
MARISHA: It blinds you.
BRIAN: This is not the real live show because it started on time.
[laughter]
BRIAN: Oh shit, we have more to talk about. Okay. I'm having so much fun and I'm seeing so many
people that I recognize, and many that I don't, and I'm glad I don't. Why don't you guys start
lining up for questions in an orderly fashion, please? Be respectful of some of the beautiful cosplay.
TRAVIS: Watch your wings.
BRIAN: Watch your wings.
[inaudible]
LIAM: Before we start the questions, could everyone who is wearing cosplay right now stand up
so we can see you?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah, we can!
[cheering]
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hey, Matt!
[cheering]
BRIAN: Vox Moochina!
[laughter, cheering]
[crowd noise]
SAM: It's so beautiful!
BRIAN: This is a lot to take in. While you guys are lining up, Sam, what are some of the things--
to get people teased for the show tonight, maybe to whet their appetite, as they say.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Get naked!
[laughter, wolf whistles]
BRIAN: You got five bucks, I'll do it. Sam, what are some of the things that we can expect in
Critical Role Live 3 tonight?
SAM: In the Critical Role Live show tonight, you can expect to see accidental second base between
Scanlan and Vax.
BRIAN: You don't want to end up accidentally getting to second base.
SAM: You will see Cirque du Soleil-style trampoline stunts. You will see technical
difficulties. You will see a Marisha inspirational leader speech about Macklemore's best song. Any
other teases, Brian?
BRIAN: If anything goes wrong technically, you can turn around and literally watch the entire crew
yell at you, "We know!" Tonight, you will see the Twitch chat be pissed off that all of these
beautiful people will be in the room.
[cheering]
BRIAN: Marisha. You got a pretty epic How-da-der-da-der-dis.
MARISHA: Oh man.
BRIAN: Last year at Gen Con. How does that feel?
MARISHA: It's still legit probably one of the top three moments of my lifetime, because hearing
everyone immediately erupt hit me like a fucking nuclear bomb. I think I went like this-- and it
was legitimate, amazing. Incredible. Shockwave.
BRIAN: Well [inaudible].
LAURA: We're not going to fight at all tonight.
AUDIENCE: Shopping!
TRAVIS: Fuck shopping!
[laughter]
BRIAN: There's so much anger behind it. That's what I like, man, that it's legitimate hate.
TRAVIS: We didn't fly to Indianapolis to shop!
[laughter]
LIAM: Why don't we all turn on one of the cast and kill them to give somebody that rush? I'm a good
candidate, I'll--
TRAVIS: You're already dead.
BRIAN: Liam, you weren't able to be here last year, very sadly and under sad circumstances. We
are so glad that you are this year. I didn't really have anything planned to say about that. I
just wanted to say that I'm glad you're here this year.
LIAM: Thank you.
BRIAN: She's not coming. Yeah, Ashley's not coming. I was hoping it would be a surprise, but
she is working very, very long hours.
LIAM: It was real hard to be on the outside last year, so we are thinking about our cleric.
TRAVIS: Yeah! Ashley Johnson!
MATT: If you want to get the hashtag #releaseourashley going.
[laughter]
BRIAN: Yeah, tweet at NBC Blindside. No! Don't!
LAURA: Pretty sure we'll get her fired.
BRIAN: That's okay, there other jobs. Near all of us. Okay, who's up first? Please state your name
so that we can say hi to you too.
AMBER: Hello, my name is Amber.
BRIAN: You look so good.
AMBER: My question is between Liam and Matt. You're both Lord of the Rings fans. Who would be
the better Sméagol? Who would be the better Gollum?
BRIAN: Starting off with an epic question! Gen Con is bringing it.
MATT: You're easily the better Gollum.
LIAM: I mean, darkness and light.
LAURA: I know. I feel like you're Sméagol, you're Gollum.
[laughter]
MATT: By the way, you only have 36 more minutes with those wings.
[laughter]
BRIAN: And you've got how many bonus actions left? Oh okay, if you guys didn't hear what Matt said,
he said, "You only have 36 more minutes in those wings."
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We heard!
BRIAN: Okay, sorry, didn't realize he had the mic fixed. She was all mad. She's like, "We heard!"
MARISHA: You look awesome.
KATIE: Thank you.
BRIAN: What's your name?
KATIE: My name is Katie. I actually have my twin that I'm with. My question is for Liam. Vax's
relationship with the Raven Queen at the beginning, it was more like he had to fulfill his
obligation [inaudible]. Has that changed recently? Especially with the things you do with the Raven Queen.
LIAM: I only caught the tail end of that.
BRIAN: Yeah, we might need that, a little bit more volume. Or if you have fills, you can throw that
mic in for me.
SAM: Deep down, has your relationship changed with the Raven Queen?
LIAM: Yeah. It was making a deal with a gangster, as far as he knew in the beginning. He didn't know
shit about her. He never cared about gods and didn't trust magic, didn't trust religion. Didn't
know anything about religion. Now, he's faithful, now. He'll probably always be a little weirded out
by it, but I think he has the feeling of kinship with her now. But he doesn't talk about it.
MATT: I think the rest of that question was, how do you feel-- no, not yet. How do you feel the
dynamic's changed based on the original choice was to-- Anyway.
[cheering]
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We can see your ankles!
[laughter]
BRIAN: They have probably never seen your ankles or feet. You might have Shaquille O'Neal-sized feet.
MATT: As far as the original deal was made to save Vax's life.
LIAM: My sister is Vex.
BRIAN: Is CritRoleStats in the room?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
BRIAN: Ah! Write it down!
[cheering]
BRIAN: CritRoleStats, by the way.
MATT: There are only two people responsible for that confusion.
[cheering]
BRIAN: As I said on Talks Tuesday night, Matt and I, we had to have a talk because, no pun intended,
but no characters with one letter off names the next campaign. Can we set a rule so this doesn't
happen again?
MATT: They can do it. They're just going to die in the first session.
BRIAN: Yeah, exactly. Andrew hasn't seen his wife in six months. He's been counting the number of
times we fucked up your name.
MARISHA: Is it the same with 14 syllable names? Percy.
TALIESIN: Oh, I'm bringing it way down. My next one's easy.
BRIAN: You're going to be Bob. Okay, next question. Thank you so much.
MARISHA: Hey, come here. Keyleth. Catch!
BRIAN: Oh yeah. If you ask a question, we have pins. Who has them? Who in my gang has them? Oh!
Rachel, right here. Get a pin from Rachel, after you ask a question. We have "Thanks, Keyleth," we
have some made specially for us by a Critter. Yes. If you see us around later, we also have some.
LIAM: Also, is the one Critter in the audience who I am carrying a pin for here? Right now? He'll
know what I'm talking about. They're not. Okay. Next question!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question is for Laura. Because you use a lot of dice, sent to you by fans, do you
ever worry that the dice are unbalanced or even loaded?
LAURA: I don't really care.
[laughter]
LAURA: I roll them so little, each one, really. It's an average of, like, 300 dice a game.
TRAVIS: Guys, we got to the airport and TSA was like, "Ma'am, only two carry on items."
BRIAN: One of them cannot be--
TRAVIS: A small child can not come with you.
LAURA: Travis didn't realize I brought my whole giant ass bag of dice. I didn't bring my dice tray
because I wanted to bring my dice bag instead.
BRIAN: Oh my gosh, it's a serious problem. Hey. What's your name?
JESSICA: I'm Jessica, AKA ShandraVdeG. I'm one of the admins for the Critical Role Facebook group.
I wanted to let you guys know that last night we hit 25,000 members.
[cheering]
BRIAN: Give the URL. What's the URL for it, in case these people haven't found it yet?
JESSICA: facebook.com/groups/criticalrolefanclub.
BRIAN: Awesome. How many?
JESSICA: 25,000.
BRIAN: Thank you, guys.
JESSICA: This is for anyone who wants to answer it. Outside of the show, what is the best thing
that has happened because of the show? Whoever wants to take it.
[cheering]
MATT: You guys. I mean, the community you guys have built around this. Our show, in my opinion,
has taken a backseat to the good that you guys put out there amongst yourselves and other people. I'm
always happy to be a small little sparking point for that. It's gotten so much larger than anything
we do now. That's really incredible, I think.
LIAM: Can we get a show of hands? How many people in this room started playing Dungeons & Dragons
after having watched Critical Role? There you go. There is your answer right there.
[applause]
BRIAN: Wow, thank you. Thank you so much.
REY: Hi! I'm Rey from [inaudible] last night. I'm here [inaudible].
BRIAN: Oh man, that guy was also drunk last night. GenCon, baby. Go ahead.
REY: My question is for Matt. I really want to know, why did Jarett get kicked out of Marquet?
MATT: The game's not over yet. That's a good question, but I don't know what's going to happen.
If that ever comes up in the story line, I don't want to spoil it here. When the campaign's over, I
do want to do a retrospective Q&A. A lot of [inaudible] campaign were started and never came
to fruition, as you all know happens a lot in role playing games. We can talk about things that
aren't going to impact necessarily the next campaign. You can ask those questions and I can
go, "I can tell you now!"
BRIAN: Yeah, we're going to do a full cast plus Matt retrospective on the campaign after. Probably
like a very extended Talks episode. Or something like [inaudible] talk for Critical Role, yeah.
LAURA: Yeah, but some of the things that you still won't be able to answer because we'll still be in
the same world.
MATT: Yeah. [inaudible]
LAURA: Jarett got kicked out for being too damn fine.
MATT: I said not to spoil it.
BRIAN: Okay. Who's next? Thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I am meepsandsheeps.
BRIAN: Oh nice.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: My husband is [inaudible].
BRIAN: Oh yeah, he always asks really great questions. Tell him I say "Hey" and "Stay turnt."
Oh that's you? What's up, dude? How are you? Come get a pin from Rachel. Be careful though, she can
be mean. What's your question?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, my question is for Matt. If you were to have an NPC of a flumph, what would
said flumph sound like?
MATT: Oh man. That's going to be a messy one. I think it's going to sound something like--
SAM: "Oh hello. It's nice to meet you."
MATT: Marisha's dwarf?
LAURA: So he's celestial?
MATT: I'd imagine it would be something like, "Hi, I want to come with you guys." They seem like the
DnD; blobfish. Just this wonderful, flat creature. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't
know what a flumph is, look it up. Oh yeah, that sounds like a flumph.
LIAM: It's like the inside of an oyster, much bigger and floating on a [inaudible].
MATT: (flumph noises) Thank you for that.
BRIAN: Sounds like Laura when she's hungry.
[laughter]
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I want to thank Matt for the retweet last night, for the Larkin sign. My phone
died pretty much from all the Twitter notifications. For whoever wants to jump in first,
new campaign means new characters. Is anyone going to try to top the majesty that is cock lightning
for an intro?
[laughter]
BRIAN: We're going to have to have someone with machine gun boobs that shoot lightning.
SAM: The next intro should be all of us doing various forms of cock lightning. Just come walking
out of a room (explosion sound).
TALIESIN: In a circle, and the lightning rises in the middle.
SAM: [inaudible] cross the streams.
MATT: Most awkward episode of Captain Planet ever.
TRAVIS: All our hands are up like a roller coaster.
LIAM: That's how they sealed up the Chained Oblivion.
BRIAN: Oh my god, we have only been here for 23 minutes and my stomach hurts from laughing. You
guys are amazing. What's your name?
CJ: Hi, my name is CJ. [inaudible] on twitter. My question is for Taliesin. Sorry, I'm a little
nervous. With Vex'ahlia getting more interested with Pelor and Percy's experience with Ioun, and
this overall Vecna arc, is he possibly going to be more interested in deities, overall?
TALIESIN: No! I'll say he's come to terms with his place and what that will actually mean may come
out in the next few episodes or not. He's definitely not seeking the approval, really. He
definitely figured out that there is something that he does have admiration for while he's mildly
irritated, but he's not that mad it didn't love him back. No. He walked out of there going, "Well,
"that's just fine."
[laughter]
TALIESIN: If it had been anybody other than Scanlan, but because it was Scanlan, he was like,
"I don't care. Fine. This is so dumb."
MARISHA: This end of the table is Team Non-Exalted.
TALIESIN: Yeah.
[cheering]
BRIAN: [inaudible]
TALIESIN: He doesn't have animosity towards it, but it's definitely not his thing. He's figured
out that he's just not cut out for it. Good question, though.
CJ: Thank you.
BRIAN: Thank you. Hey, what's your name?
WILL: My name is Will. This is a forward-looking question. One thing we have seen in the world of
Exandria is the development both magical [inaudible] and airships, but also
technology-technology. My question is once the current campaign ends tonight in a TPK.
[laughter]
WILL: When the new campaign begins after the timeskip, how do you see those trends continuing to develop? If you
have time for an in-character question, I wanted to ask some of the-- technologically minded
characters to talk about what inspires them to do what they do, Taliesin's Percy, Sam's
Tary, and Matt's NPCs like Dr. Ripley and Victor.
MATT: Right.
LIAM: Okay, everyone have a seat for the radio play that will be the rest of the panel.
BRIAN: Yeah, we might need to sell tickets for that question.
MATT: Yeah, that's actually a great question, and could be a much longer discussion. I'll try to
keep it precise. Much like, for instance, oil-based gasolines, fossil fuels, we have
technology that far exceeds what [inaudible] Whoever controls the technology can control the
rate at which it expands and is used. I think it's a very similar circumstance that people who can
create high-end magic technology also very strongly control the use of it to the best of
their benefit, both monetarily and for political power. That is very much how I see that it is
controlled through Exandria. I don't see necessarily a perpetual kind of coming singularity,
if you will, of magical technology in Exandria to where it would rapidly change in the next
campaign. You may see elements of it used more often. As far as more mundane technology, that's
going to be interesting because that is a threat in the hands of the common man, being able to do
what a mage could possibly do with years of training. Then you have this at-odds circumstance
of technology that empowers the little man versus those that should be in power, from their mindset,
so I'm curious to see where that goes.
SAM: In character. (as Tary) Doty, take this down. I have an idea for a hat that holds two bottles of
aerated wine with a tube into my mouth so that I could always be lubricated. Also, put this down
just as a note. A 56k baud dial-up modem.
[laughter]
TALIESIN: Sadly, Percy's answer would actually be a spoiler at this point. I'm going to have to hold
that. If I die, we'll have a conversation about it, but if I don't die then I'll save it.
LIAM: Oh, okay. Follow up question. Does Scanlan worry about the mass weaponization of cock
lightning and it being in the wrong hands across the world?
MATT: I think it's called the baby arms race.
[applause]
BRIAN: That's Tal'dorable.
[groans, laughter]
ERIC: My name's Eric. Matt--
BRIAN: What boots are these? Don't get kicked by this guy, he's got spikes on them.
ERIC: Matt, your show is the best. You are such a wonderful storyteller. "There Will be Brawl" is
amazing, when is there going to be a sequel?
[laughter]
MATT: Oh man, for those that haven't seen "There Will be Brawl," it's a webseries that I directed
and co-created back in 2008 or 2009.
BRIAN: It's on YouTube.
MATT: On YouTube. Super low budget, it's a live action film noir, HBO crime drama version of
Nintendo's Smash Brothers universe.
ERIC: It's every bit as ridiculous as it sounds and it's wonderful.
MATT: Well, thank you. I was really proud of it. It took itself super seriously and that's what was
wonderful about it. Donning costumes and prosthetics, I played Ganondorf in it. Anyway,
that process almost killed me.
ERIC: Because you don't have enough free time as it is.
MATT: Exactly. A sequel, oh man. We'll say if somehow a crazy windfall were to hit and the rest
of the industry burned down, and I'm like, "I got nothing else better to do," then yeah, maybe a
sequel. Right now, I'm a little busy. We had plans for a sequel, but it never quite came to fruition.
We had a prequel too, with the actual Kirby murders, because Kirby in our universe is a
cannibalistic killer. He wants to eat people and wear their skin! Hats. When he eats Sonic, where
does that come from? That's his scalp. Good question!
ERIC: What's your favorite 16-bit RPG?
BRIAN: No second questions. Plus, that was too close to the one at Comic Con. They asked 8-bit,
16-bit JRPG at Comic Con. Right?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
BRIAN: We all got shit for answers. Hello, what's your name?
RASHEEK: Hello, my name is Rasheek, I'm from Czech Republic.
BRIAN: You came all the way out here? Awesome. Here, you get Travis's name tag.
[cheers, applause]
RASHEEK: My question is for Travis. I have some Czech beer. Do you want some?
SAM: Yes!
RASHEEK: Czech beer.
TRAVIS: Man, fuck yes!
[laughter, cheering]
TRAVIS: It's just Kool Aid and pilsner.
BRIAN: Thank you so much.
SAM: That is the best question we have ever been asked.
BRIAN: Thank you so much.
BRIAN: What is your name? Look at that outfit. How long did that take to put together?
ASHLEY: I don't know.
BRIAN: Okay, what's your name?
ASHLEY: I'm Ashley.
BRIAN: That's a beautiful name. Just tilt it down.
ASHLEY: I can't.
ASHLEY: I'm Ashley, I'm the Raven Queen. My question is for Matt. I was wondering: when the
Raven Queen was ascending to godhood, was it her intention to be the goddess of death and replace
the old god or was that an accident?
MATT: I will say that what the myth and lore that currently exists of the Age of Arcana speaks, many
of the poems and stories say it was intentional. Out of eventual distrust and disapproval of the
god who at the time held the portfolios. Whereas previously, the individual whose name has been
scrubbed from history who held that office, if you will, the portfolios, was destroyed because she
felt that she could do a much better job.
[applause]
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have two things if you will indulge me for a moment.
BRIAN and TRAVIS: Maybe.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hey crowd. You want to join me on this magic carpet ride? On the count of three, if
we could all say, "Fuck you, Brian Foster." One, two, three.
AUDIENCE: Fuck you, Brian Foster!
BRIAN: Can we do one more for my Instagram? I don't want to make this all about me. One, two, three.
AUDIENCE: Fuck you, Brian Foster!
BRIAN: My mom will love that. Okay, I can indulge another one then.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Matt and Marisha, congratulations again. Question! Taliesin, you have said before
that Percy is a few bad decisions away becoming a villain.
TALIESIN: Yeah.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Now after the Vecna fight, if Vex'ahlia were to die, because--
LAURA: How dare you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Delilah has something for Vex'ahlia. For some reason, that Finger of Death
has always targeted you. For some reason-- I don't know why. Should she die, will that be the last
straw or the last tipping point for Percy? That might make him go crazy? Because he is a mad scientist.
TALIESIN: There is naturally an answer to that, and I am not answering it here. [inaudible] I have
thought about that, there is an answer to that.
BRIAN: Thank you so much. You're really funny. Hey, what's your name? I wasn't saying that
sarcastically, either.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: [inaudible] I wanted to say thank you, I'm sure I speak for everyone, for everything
that you have done Matt, and everyone on the cast. I appreciate it, by [inaudible]. I drove 14 hours
to come here.
BRIAN: No way! Where from?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Boston.
BRIAN: Shout-out to Boston.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Go Patriots.
BRIAN: Anyway, you can ask your related question.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You guys are probably going to say no because I missed the signing thing and I
have the [inaudible] poster with me.
BRIAN: Yeah, the only reason that I am going to be the bad cop here, only because we get thousands of
tweets every time we do a con, from somebody that's like, "My grandmother fell when the tickets
"were on sale and her Life Alert, the battery was dead--" and we just can't, unfortunately, we can't
do [inaudible]
LAURA: It's very specific.
BRIAN: Yeah, but if you give me $150, I will no-- I'm sorry. Did you have a question, though?
MATT: If you see any of us wandering the hall, very discreetly nudge our shoulder and say, "Need
"you to sign this, hoping to get out of the middle of this crowd here." And we'll try to do that.
BRIAN: Yeah, that's actually a really good tip, Matt. If you see somebody and you want to say hi
or whatever, just be really quiet. "Hey, can you sign this?" Because if you are like, (high-pitched
scream) "Oh my god, it's Matthew Mercer!" You have a thousand girls with a McCree body pillow come out.
[laughter, applause]
MATT: (as McCree) He is not kidding.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question kind of ties into the last question. Taliesin: would that, or something,
push you to make you use that contract?
TALIESIN: I am aware that the contract exists. I've read it.
MARISHA: You creep me out sometimes. You freak me out. Because every once in a while you're like
Frodo with the ring. Every once in a while, you pull it out and you just stare at it [inaudible].
I swear to god, all the time, you'll be like [inaudible]
LIAM: If you make it to the end of this campaign and resist pulling that trigger, I will be impressed.
TALIESIN: Yes.
LIAM: [inaudible]
TALIESIN: I'll be impressed make it to the end of the game without pulling it.
LIAM: Any week now, any week.
LAURA: We have another Raven Queen.
BRIAN: Yes, what's your name?
BRITTANY: I'm Brittany. I actually only drove like 20 minutes to be here.
[laughter]
TRAVIS: Shout-out 20 minutes!
BRITTANY: Actually, I have something from the Raven Queen for her paladin, as well as something
for the rest of you guys. I apologize, I am hoping they're good luck charms. I have a skull for each
of you.
LAURA: A skull? You're going to give us a skull?
BRITTANY: My question is for Marisha. I don't play too many druids, but I love them because they are
badass in general. What is your favorite spell and what's a spell you wish you had that you don't have?
MARISHA: Oh! Oh. I mean, I am a little partial to Feeblemind. That's pretty great. Call Lightning is
a go-to classic Keyleth favorite. I wish I had Counterspell.
MARISHA: [inaudible]
MATT: That spell is bullshit.
[laughter, cheering]
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Vecna used it!
BRIAN: Hey, what's your name?
KAT: Thank you, there is only 15,000 of us in here. My name is Kat. My question is for Marisha
and Taliesin. Will the Whitestone industrial revolution be environmentalist?
TALIESIN: Actually, yes.
MARISHA: We have the stocks.
TALIESIN: We have the stocks. No, I think that a lot of-- just to make it a little quicker than the
way I discussed it a bit with Matt-- a lot of how technology evolves is usually due to either
warfare or desperate need. When you have magic in play, there are a lot of things that you just
don't need, so you don't really build it. I think a lot of it is going to be trying to find cheap,
easy ways of doing things without magic that are not complicated and not natural. Which is why we
are doing the steam-powered heating that we are putting in Whitestone. It's quite useful.
MARISHA: Yeah, he has a plan for steam-heated roads so that the snow will melt and not clog up
the roads, which is great.
KAT: You don't have to answer, but can Percy make anything nice and uncomplicated?
TALIESIN: What?
BRIAN: Can you make anything nice and complicated?
KAT: Uncomplicated.
TALIESIN: No! There will be a specific answer to that if he lives as well.
BRIAN: Hey, voice actors, talk into the mic, by the way. It's amazing with these guys
how often you have to tell them, but you have to tell them that, and they do this
for a living. I'm just kidding. What's your name?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm [inaudible]. valianteffort. Matt, you mentioned before that you said that you
had the Chroma Conclave arc planned for two years. How much of that has evolved into the Vecna arc
going into that? How much of all of that specifically did you have planned?
MATT: Oh man. I knew that I wanted Vecna to be the final villain if we ever made it this far into the
campaign. Because he is just your classic DnD villain that I never had the opportunity to do.
And [inaudible] Since that is has kind of been building up to this arc, and recently coming to
realize that I am going to have to represent Vecna in front of a lot of people who have a lot of
expectations with this character.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You are doing great!
MATT: Aww, thank you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Vecna, stand up!
[laughter, applause]
MATT: Like any major arc, those DMs out there can attest to this, you build out the structure in a
basic narrative arc until you get to that point. You flesh out, change things based on where the
story goes. Things you can tie into it like, "Oh it would be cool if this worked." I didn't have
the whole thing plotted out. I had the basic three act structure set. As they played through
Whitestone, as they played through the Chroma Conclave arc, as things began to happen, it began
to solidify my idea of how to bring elements back in and also try and make it different than
previous arcs that have been played. The Conclave was very much a cataclysm has happened, now it's
trying to rebuild and eventually when you're ready you go after the villain. This is a very different
circumstance. The cataclysm is coming, but you don't know when, and you don't know what's going
to happen. I wanted to mix it up a little bit.
BRIAN: Great question. Hey, what's your name?
HANNAH: Hannah X. Hi guys. Quick question--
BRIAN: Great shirt. It says Whitestone.
HANNAH: Whitestone, everything is totally fine. [inaudible] de Rolo. Quick question for the
significant others, Travis/Laura, Marisha/Matt, Sam and Liam? After a game, when you guys get
whispers-- because this has happened to me where the DM is plotting against myself, my husband--
are you interrogating each other in the car, like, "What the eff was that all about? Why won't you
"tell me what the whisper was about? Come on, tell me."
[laughter]
TRAVIS: I don't say shit. No, we don't spoil it. Even recently, when we all left the room and it
was just Liam and Matt, I have not gone back and watched what was said.
LAURA: No, none of us know.
TRAVIS: We don't want to know.
MARISHA: Yeah, that's true.
HANNAH: Laura, level up dicers?
MARISHA: I will say that there are a lot of times that people think that whenever Matt, almost every
game, they are like, "Aww, shit. Marisha's going to make Matt sleep on the couch tonight!" It never happens.
MATT: It's good for the back posture.
TRAVIS: I was in genuine trouble after making Trinket run through that minefield.
LAURA: He really was.
TRAVIS: Everybody left, the door closed. Then the face that turned to me.
MATT: That is burned in my memory. That is the day I learned never cross Laura Bailey.
TRAVIS: She'll kill me in my sleep!
LIAM: It took you that long?
MATT: Look, you've known her longer than I have. That was my moment.
BRIAN: That night Travis approached the Taco Bell with sad Hulk music playing. Okay, you look amazing.
MARISHA: Yes!
MATT: (as Gilmore) No, they don't: they look glorious.
[cheering]
WINCHESTER: I am Winchester, currently partygilmore on Twitter. My question is for the
entire cast, but mostly for Laura Bailey. Speaking of whispers, some time ago you went snooping in my
room. You found a box under the bed. You found letters in the box. You never told us what was in
those letters, and I would like to know if you would tell us what what was in those letters.
[laughter]
LAURA: I never told anyone, did I? I don't know, can I tell? They were love letters, between
Gilmore and his first boyfriend. They were really sweet.
WINCHESTER: That's all I needed, thank you.
[applause]
BRIAN: [inaudible]
MARISHA: Party Gilmore, You didn't get a pin, catch!
BRIAN: You're drunk, get over here.
MATT: Okay, take it!
SABINA: Hey, Kiki.
MARISHA: [inaudible] Sun Tree!
[cheering]
LAURA: That is amazing.
TALIESIN: Oh my god.
SABINA: My name is Sabina. I am from Michigan. As you guys might not know, I met Matt and Marisha
last night. It's a question for all of you, but it's super quick. If you could put your characters
into a Hogwarts house, what house would it be? Matt, your characters are Allura and Gilmore. Sam,
both Tary and-- Scanlan.
BRIAN: Tary, and the other guy.
MATT: I'll say Allura is Ravenclaw, most definitely. I would probably put Gilmore in
Gryffindor. Borderline Hufflepuff, but more Gryffindor. I'm Hufflepuff, by the way.
LAURA: I am also Hufflepuff, I would put Vex, I have seen a lot of people put her in Slytherin.
Okay, it's a toss up between Gryffindor and Slytherin. [inaudible] Don't shake your head!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm a Slytherin.
LAURA: What?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm a Slytherin.
LAURA: Okay.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm a Gryffindor, it all works out.
LIAM: Vax is Gryffindor.
LAURA: Hide!
LIAM: I don't know, I'm in either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.
LAURA: Hufflepuff!
[audience debating]
BRIAN: Okay, we need to move on from this Harry Potter. I love Harry Potter, but we got to keep moving.
SAM: I don't know anything about Harry Potter shit, so I am going to say: Scanlan is Team Valor
and Tary is Instinct.
[cheers, applause]
TALIESIN: Ravenclaw for Percy.
MARISHA: I'm confused. I feel like they asked the question and people have answered it in four
different ways. Marisha is Ravenclaw, Keyleth would probably be Hufflepuff.
TRAVIS: I am in Slytherin, but I think Grog would probably get kicked out, so he would just be
Hagrid's understudy.
[applause]
SABINA: Thank you all so much, you are amazing.
BRIAN: You're amazing, [inaudible] that was great. Hey, what's your name? Don't forget to get a pin
from Rachel there. What's your name, man?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi, I'm [inaudible]. I was at the live show last year and I loved it. Laura, since
you forgot your dice tray, I'm sure if you went down row 2500 in the exhibit hall to the Wyrmwood
booth I'm sure they would loan you one. My question, what--
BRIAN: Do you work for them or is that just free advertisement? Very sly.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Free advertising. I was going to ask Matt about Raven Queen patronage for blood
hunters, but I am going to give some love to the nameless man between Marisha and Brian.
BRIAN: [inaudible] You drop your wallet every panel. Comic Con, San Diego, Wondercon-- I have
picked up your wallet.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: If you were to DM a one shot, what genre would it be? Like horror, like Liam, or
something more fun or lighthearted, or maybe even like magical girl?
TRAVIS: Oh man, you are giving me way too much credit. I have no idea, it would be some stream
of consciousness bullshit [inaudible].
TALIESIN: You have never heard of Blood Bowl, have you?
TRAVIS: No.
TALIESIN: Like that Schwarzenegger film where you kill everyone in a video game, except it's football.
TRAVIS: Oh my god. I'd do that. Then I would make all the characters play their Vox Machina
characters and I would find a way for Vax to die immediately.
LIAM: I'd just get back up again!
TRAVIS: I know.
BRIAN: I get knocked down again. Thank you so much.
MATT: Stress ball, Vox Machina style.
BRIAN: Hello.
HANS: I'm Hans, [inaudible] on Twitter. My question is for Brian and Matt. How long until
Brian gets to guest on Critical Role?
[applause]
BRIAN: Can I answer this? Okay. I talk about this sometimes on Reddit. I feel weird, the after show
guy being on the show. Like if you saw-- not to compare myself to Chris Hardwick-- but if you saw
him walking around on The Walking Dead, some of you may be like, "Aww, that's funny," but the rest of you
would be like, "I hate this." I like to watch it as a fan. I am also not a voice actor or an actor,
so I feel like that is part of the excuse is that you all are voice actors and Jon Heder. I don't
know. Sam, can we make an announcement?
SAM: It puts a lot of pressure on me. I will be running a one-shot in a week and a half.
[cheers, applause]
SAM: One of my special guests is young Brian Foster.
[cheers, applause]
BRIAN: [inaudible] as close to a Critical Role one-shot thing.
HANS: I have to ask a follow up. In that one-shot, will you play a cabbage farmer named Larkin?
BRIAN: I cannot answer that question. Thank you. What's your name?
CHRISTINE: My name is Christine. I am really nervous. I left Fenthras over there, I was afraid
to run into people with it.
MATT: You are now unattuned.
[laughter]
CHRISTINE: It happens. Thank you guys so much for doing what you do. I have a question for mostly
Laura and maybe Matt. Ever since that episode with Fenthras and Saundor, I have been thinking what
would have had happened if Vex had gone with him. Would she have gone like evil Galadriel, or what
would have happened?
LAURA: You can say, he's dead, anyways.
MATT: To be fair, shortly after the episode, I filmed the episode of GM Tips about notes and the
internet zoomed in really close to my sheet and found out elements of it. It's not super secret.
LAURA: He told me this like right after [inaudible]
MATT: Yeah, because at that point, you couldn't get it, so I was like, oops.
LAURA: [inaudible]
MATT: Both would have been interesting things. The heart of the tree would have taken her into this
embrace and she would have been turned into a fey creature. She would have partially bark skin, much
like Saundor had. It would have given her a bonus to her armor class, a couple other things. It
would have given her a few other bonuses, but I can't remember all the things, more general fey
abilities and such.
LAURA: Like it gives [inaudible] right?
MATT: Yeah, but also gives you vulnerability to fire.
LAURA: Which would have been real bad going into the--
MATT: Thordak fight. Plus, you would have had Saundor as a patron, which would have been real interesting.
LAURA: Yeah, that would have sucked.
MATT: When I was designing that, my thought was that probably won't be long term, because yeah.
LAURA: If I would have gotten with Saundor, would I be dead right now? Would Vex have been gone by now?
MATT: I don't know if you would have been dead, but you would have been a very different person.
LAURA: Ugh.
MATT: I don't know if any of the Percy stuff would have happened.
MARISHA: [inaudible] You don't want male aggression as your patron.
[cheers, applause]
MATT: I didn't expect you to choose it, but I had a backup just in case you did. It would have been
its own unique interesting character arc for you. I like what you did. I like what you chose.
LAURA: Me too!
CHRISTINE: Laura, I also bought dice in your honor.
SAM: This next cosplay is so good.
[cheers, applause]
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello everyone. I have a question for Brian, because I keep hassling him about it on Twitter.
BRIAN: Okay.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm a huge Brian W. Foster fan, and since y'all support each other I thought you--
BRIAN: Y'all, both of you?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Brian has an EP on iTunes called "Odessa" and it's amazing and you should listen to
it. He also has the book, "Blackened White" which I'm going to get him to sign tomorrow. I would
like for you to sing for us, Brian. Everyone knows [inaudible]
BRIAN: Oh man, what do you want me to sing?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Preferably, just the beginning of "The Wine."
BRIAN: Oh man, okay, what are the lyrics? This is an old one. The beginning of it? ♫ Tommy
♫ Barlo, relieved of his sorrow, there's blood on the roadway, where he died. ♫
[applause]
BRIAN: [inaudible] ♫ Every word you ever spoke. Thirty years in silence smashing stones, holding
♫ onto holy roses. ♫
[applause]
BRIAN: You, wait over here and I'll sign that book.
LIAM: Matt, Matt, Matt! How do I kill Vecna?
MATT: Don't tell him anything.
TRAVIS: We only have four minutes left, so we have to lightning round.
LAURA: Seriously, go check out "Odessa" because [inaudible]
ETHAN: Hi, I'm Ethan. This is for Mr. Mercer, if this violates the GM no note things that you have
just tell me and I'll ask later. Back in the Sunken Tomb episode when Vex had that temporary
leave of absence, you said something to Kash along the lines of, "If you revive her, then you might
"draw Vesh's attention." Did you have any sort of mechanics in play for that, or was that flavor text?
MATT: Well, flavor text. There's a difference between mechanics and story elements that you will
then bring mechanics in for. I hadn't plotted that to happen; I didn't expect her to die. I didn't
think to plan ahead in case Kashaw resurrected her. In the spur of the moment, that made sense
and then words happened. Then it would have brought Vesh more towards the story, more than she
currently is. Vesh is an interesting god-- that may be in future books-- who is not in the
Tal'Dorei guide because Vesh and the relationship to Kashaw is more based in another continent.
Eventually the system will be expanded.
BRIAN: Lightning round, who's up?
DANIELLE: Hi, my name is Danielle. My question is for Matt. One of the great things about being a DM
is we get to come up with lots of characters while PCs only get to play one. If you could pick one
character who you have played as an NPC to carry as your own PC in another campaign, who would it be?
MATT: Ooh, man. Yeah, that's a lot to pick from. No, Victor is fun for short bursts. For a long
term campaign, someone who is interesting and a little bit different from myself. Senokir would be
great. (as Senokir) Because this is how he would be speaking the entire time.
LAURA: Then you would be able to see the other side of Senokir. That would be so cool.
MATT: (as Senokir) That would be a lot of fun.
BRIAN: Okay. This is going to be the last question because over here, someone just put a blow dart in my--
AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question is for Mercer. As a fellow DM--
BRIAN: Little closer to the mic so everyone can hear you.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: As a fellow DM, this is directed at Mr. Mercer, when you have a near-TPK, or
potentially have a TPK, how do you deal with that? I noticed that a lot--
TRAVIS: Why are you asking that tonight?!
MARISHA: All these people [inaudible]
BRIAN: Okay, let's go, speed it up. Speed it up because we got to wrap up.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: How do you deal with that? I know that there is a lot of anger. Is there like a
pizza party at the end to hopefully mend relationships?
MATT: Well, one of the roles of a GM is a therapist, in a lot of ways. When things happen,
you have to be emotionally available for those players to help them through it and other players
in the game as well. If a character dies, or if it's a TPK, you have to prepare to like, "All
right guys, I'm going to take us out for drinks. We are going to have a little wake for the party."
If the party feels really attached to characters and you don't want to actually ruin their lives,
you can try to think of story elements to bring them back. Like, all of a sudden they wake up as
undead in the control of this mage and now the campaign is to try to shed the shackles of undead.
Or perhaps the [inaudible] brings them over into another plane when their souls were to traverse,
but there's something wrong when their souls go to another plane. Now their story is being in the
spirit realm fighting. You continue the story and the players are really connected and you feel like
they got robbed of a proper end. If you think they are mature enough to handle it, then you buy them
some drinks.
BRIAN: Thank you all for coming out. Give these guys a round of applause.
[applause, cheering]
[elevator music]