It's broadcasting. Kind of spontaneous. Oh, there's some folks hopping in. There we go. Hello!
This was a random thing that happened, so why not. Hi, guys! Wow, that's a lot of "hey ya"s. Hi! From
Belgium, too! Nice! Yes, I'm wearing the same clothes from last night. It's been one of those
days. I think I got to bed at 3:30am-ish. Anyway... not hungover. We didn't, like, drink
drink. We just had a drink and walked to Bob's Big Boy and had shakes and ate food you shouldn't eat
at 2:30am and woke up feeling really bleh, but it's fine.
Don't apologize for not seeing the episode. Civil War is a very strong draw. Not a Strongjaw. Hmm,
that was kind of fun. Anyway. This is a spontaneous thing. Doing a bit here before I go
ahead and do more work with Marisha's dad on our room. Glad you guys liked last night. That was
interesting! I guess part of this brief Periscope is-- oh I'm sorry you're upset that I cut my hair,
but I have to because it'll just keep getting longer and it gets ridiculous. It'll grow back,
which is nice and has to go shorter before we can get longer again. So sorry. The mane will return,
I'm sure, in time.
Yeah, I guess I'll start with saying that man, last night was crazy. Major props to the players
for actually pulling out some tactics there in a circumstance that was pretty rough. I wasn't sure
how that was going to play out and a lot of circumstances-- a lot of really lucky
circumstances, very good rolls on key moments really made a difference there. It's interestingly
frustrating at times because when things happen too perfectly on a televised-- or a live stream
like that. When certain rolls go so good, it's almost like, "Man, no one's going to believe
"this," but no one's going to fudge the rolls. Everyone's policing each other's die rolls and
it's just incredible. It was ridiculous.
I think Grog's arc of coming under the understanding that his strength comes from his
friends and not from himself was cool and his realization and using this to draw Kevdak out into
the open was pretty neat. I don't want to give too many spoilers, per se, but between some very key
usage of spells and abilities, some really good rolls for them, bad rolls at certain key moments
for the enemies, and some really great tactics, they managed to-- "Why was Fireball halved on
"Kevdak?" Because Kevdak is a Totem of the Bear barbarian. They actually reduce all damage they
take by half except for psychic, which is nasty for tank barbarians. Something that Grog does not
have because he's a frenzied berserker.
But anyway, hopefully I'm not giving too much lag here for you guys and I apologize if you are, but
I'm trying to make sure that doesn't happen. I'm trying to not to do the up-and-down this time, the
vertical. I always forget to do that. I feel awful after the fact. I'm like, "Ugh, why did I do
"that?" It's easier to hold that way.
Anyway, but there were some really hairy moments last night, looking back on it, too. If Laura
hadn't gone in there and done what she did with the broom, Grog would be dead. If she had taken
more damage in advance to that or any of the attacks had got her, she would have been dead.
Pike also very close to death. What the party didn't know was, if anybody but Grog got the
killing blow on Kevdak, they wouldn't have stopped fighting. The combination of having the one that
challenged him deal the final blow, the one they actually knew, was what gave them pause, that
moment of the shift. If just a random half-elf with daggers, or if Vex had shot him with an arrow
and killed him, it would have been less of a fall of their ruler to another power that
they understand and acknowledge. It would have been just an assassination from a nameless,
faceless creature. They would have just been like, "He killed Kevdak!" and kept attacking.
The fact that Grog managed to deal the final blow really put it in a situation where that battle was
able to come to a rest, which was crazy. And then the series of social dice. I have seen a little
bit of discussion online because I always like to see how people's thoughts or opinions on ways that I
can improve based on feedback and stuff like that. There are some frustrations some individuals
voiced with with the fact that the bloodthirsty barbarians didn't just continue to attack and
slaughter. Why would they even stop when their leader was killed? These aren't mindless
bloodthirsty barbarians. Some of their actions may fall into that category at times, but understand,
there are many different facets to a culture beyond just bloodshed. They have people within
that they try and protect. There's a tenuous social relationship with the River Maw that
they've taken in. There's a lot of factors at stake there and I tried to insinuate that, even
then, this relationship between Vox Machina and the now quelled conflict at the moment is still
tenuous. They've lost their leader and, at that moment, there's only two other individuals that
have taken any semblance of power and as opposed to just going into an all-out, "We'll attack
"everyone and everything!" They're just feeling it out it seems. I don't want to spoil anything
because I'm sure a lot of it will probably play out in the next episode.
Yeah, there's a lot of interesting facets beyond just them being people that roam and kill stuff.
It should be interesting as it plays out. Things happen for reasons. My narrative is far from
perfect. I'm having to write on the fly a lot of the times and doing what I can with what free time
I have. People are more than willing to go ahead and tear apart elements of it. That's totally
viable, but I try to do the best I can to have things make sense. It anything's confusing, trust
that there's some reason as to why I did it. Whether or not you may agree with it, that's
totally fine on you.
Anyway, it was a fun episode and I'm proud of them. The challenge level is still jumping as
things go and I'm curious to see how they deal with next week. But yeah, it's crazy. "Did Scanlan
"get an alignment change?" One act will not give you an alignment change, depending on your
alignment. However, continued things towards that direction will begin to push in that-- nudge in
that way. We shall see how that aspect will play into his character's personality going forward,
which should be interesting. Stats for the items Grog got. I've gotten this question a lot today. I
was going to see Travis wanted to post them himself, but I can probably post them up. I know
the Titanstone Knuckles, when attuned, grant a strength of 24, much like a Belt of Giant
Strength, as well as allowing the user-- I think it's once per long rest-- or short or long rest. I
think it's long rest, to be under the effect of the Enlarge spell. It's not a spell. It's not
concentration, but it's the effect of an Enlarge, which is why Kevdak was able to grow, and it gives
them the Siege ability, which means he does double damage-- whoever has it does double damage against
objects and structures, much like how an earth elemental's physical attacks do. So that is the
effect of that vestige. It's pretty fun. It's like an improved Belt of Giant Strength. A couple of
different fun things. The bloodaxe is not a vestige; it's not an artifact. It's just a powerful weapon.
It's a +2 greataxe that deals an extra 1d6 necrotic damage against living creatures and so it
does not do additional damage to undead and creatures that aren't considered living. The other
thing is when it it brings the creature to zero, it gives the wielder ten temporary hit points. I
think those are the benefits to the bloodaxe. So that should be fun on Grog when he gets those on.
"Are they fighting one of the dragons?" We'll see. I have ideas on how I can handle the whole tribe
fighting a dragon. A lot of this is going to depend on the next episode because it's not like
they all suddenly dove under the banner of Zanror or Grog. The tribe is two different tribal
backgrounds that were tenuously under a tyrant's rule, essentially. Whether or not some agreed with
him or not, they were all there for the point of survival and the advancement of their people. Now
that that has been taken, it's a very interesting social point in that tribe's existence and I think
next episode will definitely bring some of that to light. So yeah. Should be fun.
Let's see if we can dig in. A few more minutes of your questions, then I got to jump on some stuff.
I just wanted to hop on and say hi to folks. "Did I see the Superfight promo cards?" I did! They did
not tell me they were doing that. It was a cool surprise. The fact that they have those made is a
weirder part of my reality. I'm still adjusting to it. It's very strange. "Can't the tribe build an
"ultra anti-dragon thing?" They're not builders, per se. They don't have a whole lot of time, but
we will see. "Do I blame Wil Wheaton for my loss?" No, I don't consider it a loss. It was a fair
challenge. There were three different moments where they almost lost party members last night.
Not like zero hit points, like those barbarians wouldn't take a party member to zero and then walk
away. They would continue to cut until there were just pieces left. So yeah. There were a few kind
of hairy moments where I wasn't sure. It was quite an intense evening, definitely.
"Do I enjoy druids?" I think druids are fantastic! They're vastly improved in this edition over the
fourth edition. I've always loved druids. I think it's a cool character background, cool spell set,
and has unique variety to play style, which I like a lot.
"Do I think the dragon has a chance against 40-plus barbarians?" Well,
they're not all barbarians, for one. I say barbarians because it's just
an easy term to say, but they all have different strengths. Some of them are fighters,
there are handful of druids, a few other specialties. We shall see. A lot of people versus
breath weapon can be a real fast battle sometimes. We'll see what they come up with. I'm letting them
all figure it out. "Am I in Overwatch?" I am! I voice Jesse McCree, actually, the cowboy character
in Overwatch. I'm really excited that that game's about to come out. It's a fun one. As you're
playing it in beta now or getting it soon, get used to hearing the horrible phrase of, "It's high
noon." It should be fun. (laughs)
Um, let's see.
"Advice on getting into voice acting?" There's this great website that can
break down any answers I would have for you called Iwanttobeavoiceactor.com. It's run by Dee Bradley
Baker. It has one of those comprehensive breakdowns of exactly the answers to the question
you're asking and way far better than I could. So check that out, definitely.
"If you would have two of your favorite bosses fight in the game, who would it be?" Oh, two of
them fight each other? Oh man. Huh. The Kevdak and Greenbeard combo is actually a very nasty combo if
they're not held at the same time. Greenbeard's initial tactic, actually, was either he had a
number of heals to back up Kevdak during that entire fight, as well as the ability of-- he was
going to cast Sunbeam and go earth elemental form. He would then be an earth elemental shooting beams
out of his hands in a very Iron Man way. That was going to be one of his aggressive tactics. Trying
to line up shots. Yeah, there are a lot of things that-- Scanlan definitely was the MVP of that
battle. At the very top, if he hadn't they utilized the Cutting Words to lower the saving
throw on a Kevdak against the Hold Person, that would have been a whole different ball game. With
both him and Greenbeard locked down, that pretty much wrecked things on their side from the get-go.
It was intense.
"What did I think of Sam's shirt?" It was amazing. He held onto that the entire day, didn't show that
to anybody until he unveiled it on the stream and that was pretty great. "Did Scanlan choose to hold
"Greenbeard at random?" Possibly. He just said the the guy with the green beard, and I was like, "All
"right. Cool." I know people keep asking about why none of the goliaths were mentioning Grog's beard.
They haven't been in a situation where it's really been a concern for theirs yet. I have a feeling
this is going to occur when they have a little less stressful environments to have discussions.
"Osysa plus mate versus Thordak, who wins?" I think Thordak would probably have that fight,
probably. Yeah, probably. He's a rough one. "Am I surprised that Grog killed Greenbeard?" I wasn't
sure which way he was going to go. That was very much the, "Which path to the herd do you choose at
"this moment?" You have two individuals that have some semblance of status within the remnants of
the herd and it seems that only one of these two you can choose to go with. Both can work towards
your goals, it just depends on who you trust the path more and who you think the others can rally
behind. Zanror's probably going to be a harder sell to the rest of the tribe than Greenbeard
would've been just because he'd been established for so long, but like I said, a lot of that's
going to play out in the next session, I'm sure.
"Is Allura still in Westruun?" Last they saw via the scry, she seemed to be radically propelling
her way via the travel spark-- I think it was out of the library there, the Cobalt Reserve. That's last they saw of
her. We'll see. Am I planning on bringing in a blood hunter PC? If the story brings them to cross one
of the orders, possibly. They exist in the world. They haven't really been in a position where
they've encountered any yet. They're still very minimal in presence. Marisha is actually off to a
shoot right now, so she's not here for this one. "Would Kevdak's rage have fallen if they would
have waited around to attack him?" He would have, actually. If they would have kept him there, his
rage would have fallen and he would've taken full damage after that round, but I guess they also
just wanted to try and burn him down as best they could. They did a lot of damage to him, but that
rage, with the half reduction, kept him going for a long time.
"How do I remember so much that's happened previous games?" I don't know. I still forget a
lot, I'm sure. I have to go back and remind myself occasionally, but you live in this world the way I
have, some of the stuff sticks, I guess. I also might have a problem. Let's see. I'll do a few
more of these questions and then I got to get some work done, but I thought I'd pop in with you guys
for a minute. Let's see. "Should Grog's rage have kept up?" Not while he was inside the Raven
Queen's amulet. That put him at a round with no attack or damage comparatively, so the rage would
have dropped. Let's see.
"Any surprises in last night's episode?" There were many surprises. Many tactical surprises by
the party, many rolls and responses that surprised me. The fact that they brought Kevdak down so low
and then went up to 70 points from the Heal and then they brought him down just back to that 70.
I'd already calculated, looking at him, he was on that tail end and that happened to be the final
blow was Grog. That was a big surprise and really swung things in their favor. Like I said, if any
other PC had gotten killing blow on Kevdak, the battle wouldn't have paused. They would have seen
that as an act of assassination and would have just kept attacking. It's pretty crazy. Let's see.
"Been doing the RPGs at Momocon?" I mean, I don't do a lot of ancillary RPGs because it's hard to
organize and, to be fair, I spend most my time doing this one, anyway. I can't burn myself out.
I'll be doing panels and stuff probably on gaming, Critical Role, and things like that. So if you're
coming to Momocon in Atlanta, I'll have panels regarding those topics.
"Why no door involvement?" Look, Tal'Dorei, look, the doors have had their day and will have them
again. It can't all be doors. Besides, that would be unfair, TPK them instantly. Oh cool, you got
Loot Crate because of us? Awesome! Yeah, it was really cool of Loot Crate to reach out. We've had
Loot Crate for a long time ourself. We have a few friends that worked with them in the past and
they're a really nice company. I mean, thanks to you guys we're getting to the point now with the
show that we can have sponsors, which is cool because that helps us out. It means that we can,
for me especially, means that I can spend more time focusing on the show because it makes a
little more on the side for me. Which is good and it means that we can provide a lot of special
discounts for our fans and we can help build the brand into something that we never expected it
would be. We're still holding on and seeing where this whole thing goes. I'm blown away that the
show is what it is, and that you guys are what you are. So life's weird right now. It's good; it's weird.
What about Matt Colville? I saw someone mention his name there. Matt Colville is an amazing person
and once again, if you haven't seen his videos on his tips for running games and world building,
they're fantastic and very well thought-out and thorough. He's an amazing writer and a really good
friend and, because time and such has prevented me from being able to do as many or as in-depth as
the GM Tips episodes as I've been wanting to-- and I hope to do some more pretty soon-- he's been
helping fill that gap and do a far better job than I could have, so definitely check those out.
"Have Matt Colville on the show?" There's been talk. We have a long list of people that want to
be on the show and I'm being particular and careful. I want to make sure that they're people
that aren't going on just for self-promotion. I want to make sure the people that are genuinely
interested or passionate about either learning to play or have played before and want to get on and
do fall somewhat in an entertainment realm that we do. Colville would be phenomenal on. He's
definitely in consideration on my list, so don't worry.
"Critical Role stuff in Loot Crate?" That largely depends on the how well the sponsorship goes.
That's part of the discussion. If it does well and enough of the audience takes to it and they
find that there's a good overlap and that Venn diagram of Critters and Loot Craters, I guess,
I'm calling them now, coined it. Then there has been talk maybe doing specific Critical Role stuff
down the line. That's what I'm really excited about with this whole sponsorship is the
opportunities to bring more of this world I made up to physical form. It's been the weirdest
experience in the world. I can't even. "What do I think of the Savage World system?" It's great. I
like it a lot, especially Deadlands. I'll keep pushing that one because it's one of my favorite
RPG systems. "Is my dad a bard?" Totally, and actually he made a bard the one game I tried to DM
for my parents. He made a bard, named him something Fender because he's my dad, musician.
"Pop Funko Mercer." Someone sent me one, a custom one, at Critmas and it's on my desk and it's amazing.
Let's see, what other questions here?
"Any update on the fanzine?" Yeah, the fanzine's interesting. We were wanting to plan something
We were working on a way that we could bring the community and actually produce something
official through Critical Role that would include the community artists and hopefully do an occasional
recurring thing like that where you're bringing together. Partially into planning and the fanzine
announcement happened. We were like, "Oh how do we roll all this together?" So we love the idea, but
we figured it might be cooler if we could go ahead and work with them on a professional level to put
something together, make it look really nice and put it on like the shop sale, and actually make
some money for the artists who put all this time into it as well and have it be official. I
probably shouldn't even been talking about this, but whatever NDA. (shushes) Surprises. We have
ideas, we have thoughts, and we're hoping to do something really cool with you guys, with the
wonderful art community that's come out of this, so hopefully in the near future, we'll be able to
talk more about it. You didn't hear anything here. (shushes)
Let's see. Have a little lag here. I'm not getting any messages. Here, take three more questions than
I got to run. All right. "Opinion on psionics?" I have a weird history with psionics. Psionics have
always been historically broken in a lot of ways in older editions. I felt a lot of psychic powers,
the way they were designed in the older, like second edition, days were very out of genre for
me, so I had a hard time enjoying them. They've gotten better over years and I'm waiting to see
what they do in fifth edition releases coming up. It's a cool facet. I haven't quite found an
implementation that I'm really happy with yet. So we'll see as things happen.
I will send regards to Dagon. I'm sure she'll appreciate it by going (clicking). She's really
cute when she's really relaxed and she makes kissy sounds. We'll wake up and she'll crawl in bed with
us and we'll go (kissy sounds) and she'll turn to us and go (kissy sounds). We'll do that back and
forth for like five minutes. It's the cutest thing. Birds are awesome. "Thoughts on 3D-printed
"minis?" Oh man. I would love that. Maybe one day I'll get a 3D-printer and I'll put them out. I've
seen some really cool stuff happen. I'm all about like the idea 3D-printed terrain, as well. I think a
few Critters who sent me some amazing things of that. Based on just toying with and playing and
expanding on the Dwarven Forge stuff. Last night was like my grand magnum opus, a cityscape. I was
really happy how that turned out. I hope it came across well on camera for you guys, wasn't too
confusing, but it could help elevate. Yeah, I'm on this like terrain kick right now. Like, "How can I
"do this?" Let's see.
Okay. "Kevdak took half the fire damage, was that supposed to happen?" Yes, I answered that earlier,
but I'll say it again. Kevdak was not a berserker barbarian. He is a Totem of the Bear barbarian.
One of their abilities is when they're raging, they halve all damage except for psychic. That's
actually their benefit. They're more of a tanky barbarian, to clarify for you guys.
"Tips to encourage players to roleplay a bit more?" If you're running the game, just engage
them as an NPC. Look them in the eyes and talk to them as the NPC would, and if they begin to
describe what they're doing, we ask them, "Well, how do you say it? Go ahead and say it. Talk to me
"about it as the character." Or even temporarily implement the rule well, "Whatever you say, you
"say in character." If they're really not comfortable with that, then don't push them. You
want to make sure people are playing on the level that they're comfortable for, but if you can nudge
them a little bit out of the comfort zone, they may discover that they enjoy it more. It may take
a little more work on your side as the DM to do so, but yeah.
"Any tips to calm an overconfident party?" Throw something in their way they can't beat and teach
them that sometimes you have to run. You have to run. (laughs) There're many ways to do it and if you
look online, there's some cool options for that. I'm going to take one more question and I got to
run and get some work done. Let's see, look through here. "Do I use index cards to plan out my
"campaign?" I don't use index cards. I print out spreadsheets that I make in Microsoft Excel and
cut them into smaller blocks that I then tape to paper. So I use standard-sized pages, but I-- I
should remember to take a page behind the screen one of these days. I'm always such in the zone
when I'm set up and getting ready to go in the game because I have a lot of things I have to
prepare my brain and load up all the mental programs of what I'm about to run that I forget
to. But I'll see if I can do that some point in the near future.
"What do I think of 14-year-olds like you playing D&D?" That's when I started, so I think it's cool.
Be aware, some environments, especially in those ages, kids can be cruel, but be prepared that. Be
sure of who you are, have fun, and if you're not having fun with one group, maybe find another one.
"Are we okay to send character sheets for you to use as an NPC?" To put in perspective, I'd say
just in the past Critmas alone, I received about 35 to 40 different player characters people were
sending me to use in the campaign. I'll reiterate, I-- situation of favoritism, so I'm going to try
to implement more possible contests in which we can incorporate NPCs for the winner and stuff like
that. We did that once before and it worked out well, so I'm hoping to do stuff like that in the
future. But I can't ensure that because it is a weird slippery slope. But yeah.
All right, I know I said one more before and then I did three more. Sorry. "Do I feel physically--"
this will be the last one. "Do I feel physically drained at the end of a session?" Yes, it's a very
mentally and physically taxing experience running that game. It's intense, so I usually sleep well
the night after. Don't sleep well the night before. Sleep well the night after. I try not to
schedule something too early Friday morning, but inevitably it happens. Like this morning I had a
9:00am session and I didn't get to bed until about about 3:00, so I got about four and a half hours
of sleep last night total. So that was fun. Anyway, guys, I've got to get going. Much love. I
hope you all have a wonderful day. Thank you for listening to me ramble for a little while. Looking
forward to the next session and is it Thursday yet? All right guys, take care.