Matthew Mercer E52 Impromptu Post-game discussion [Spoilers E52]

**** SPOILERS E52 ****
This is another impromptu periscope by Matthew Mercer, discussing the last episode & answering some general questions.

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.