Critical Role, Talks Machina style w Matt, Taliesin, Laura, Sam... @ GenCon2017 [SPOILERS E108]

**** SPOILERS E108 ****
The Critical Role Cast talks about their adventures as Vox Machina. Brian W. Foster hosts Matt Mercer, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Liam O'Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, Sam Riegel & Marisha Ray.

We are sorry for the low quality of this panel, but there was an issue with our HD camera. A big thank you to @ShandraVdeG for saving us.

The Critical Role Fan Club Facebook Group can be found here:
http://facebook.com/groups/CriticalRoleFanClub

[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]