Transcript:Wizard World Gaming Portland Panel

List of Transcripts

(cheering, applause)

MATT: This is a lot of people. Before we begin, just want to let you guys know a large part of this panel is a Q&A. We do have a microphone right up here in front, so if you have a question you want to ask, line up now so we can get that chaos started before the panel. So ♫ make your ♫ ♫ way to the mic right there. Contra your way to the mic right there. ♫ Don't actually do that. That's a very bad idea. All right, cool. Now that we've got that flow going, I would liwelcome all of you guys to this afternoon's Critical Role panel here at Wizard World, Portland.

(cheering, applause)

MATT: My name is Matthew Mercer. I am the Dungeon Master for Critical Role and I personally want to thank you all for coming. This is more than I expected and I'm--

(cheering, applause)

--really excited about that. I'm a voice actor. We started playing this crazy game and a Dungeon Master wouldn't be much without his players so let me go head and start bringing the rest of our crew here today onstage, beginning with the incredibly talented, hilarious Scanlan Shorthalt, played by Sam Riegel.

(cheering, applause)

SAM: Hi, guys. Good to see you.

MATT: Followed up by the wondrously tinker-worthy human gunslinger Percival von you know the name, played by Taliesin Jaffe.

(cheering, applause)

MATT: Say hi, Taliesin.

TALIESIN: Hello. Hi, Taliesin. Oh, good, the microphone works. Hi! Oh, wow. My god, that's a lot of you.

MATT: Next up, we have the masterful, professional, mentally possibly challenged barbarian of strength and might, Grog Strongjaw, played by Travis Willingham.

(cheering, applause)

TRAVIS: Thank you, Kimmy. (clears throat) Also ale.

MATT: Let's bring in our lovely ladies of the group as well, following up with the wondrous Vex'ahlia, one half of the half-elf twins, the ranger gathering Trinket the bear through the wild, we have Laura Bailey.

(cheering, applause)

TRAVIS: Wow!

LAURA: What's up?

TRAVIS: That was a good twirl.

LAURA: How are you guys doing?

MATT: Bringing up the rest of our intrepid band of adventurers, we have the Air Ashari half-elven druid Keyleth, played by Marisha Ray.

(cheering, applause)

TRAVIS: What a peaceful bow.

MARISHA: The water bottle bow.

MATT: And our mystical empty chair will also join us on the edge of the panel.

SAM: It's Gilmore.

MATT: This chair represents our two party members who could not be here, unfortunately, but sending a little bit of love from here to Ashley, who plays Pike, which we have a wonderful cosplayer in the audience.

TRAVIS: That's a great looking Pike.

(cheering, applause)

TRAVIS: This is a bunch of people, man!

MATT: Yes! And Liam O'Brien, who plays the other half of the twins, Vax'ildan. Much love to you, Liam.

TRAVIS: Much love, Liam!

(cheering, applause)

LAURA: And Trinket. You forgot to introduce Trinket.

MATT: I mentioned Trinket, but everyone was screaming over me. But yeah, Trinket of course. Your favorite.

SAM: I love Trinket.

(laughter)

SAM: I would love him sizzled over a nice grill with some salt.

MATT: I should've sat you next to her. That would've been fun.

TALIESIN: That would've been fun.

MATT: So, yeah, guys, we're excited that you came! Who here doesn't know what the hell's going on right now?

TRAVIS: Yes! Welcome!

LAURA: Join us!

(speaker feedback)

MATT: So we are ... apparently about to explode. We're a bunch of professional voice actors working in video games and animation who also happen to be huge nerds who play Dungeons and Dragons. We began streaming our campaign about two years in, almost a year ago, actually. We're coming up on our anniversary soon. We stream on Twitch for Geek and Sundry every Thursday at 7 PM Pacific Time. We weren't sure if this was going to go anywhere and anybody would like to watch it, and well, I think we were very wrong.

TALIESIN: Apparently. It's pretty amazing.

MATT: Which is great. We're happy to be here and why not kick this off with some of you guys' fan questions and see the stories roll out from there? So don't be afraid to jump in if you have any random thoughts or ideas. You, sir, the front.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, sir.

LAURA: Warn us if you're not up to date.

TRAVIS: You should say if you're current or not.

MATT: We're trying to keep spoilers out of this discussion if possible.

LAURA: Which is going to be hard.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm one episode back. I didn't get a chance to see Thursday but I'm expecting to watch it on Monday.

TRAVIS: Everybody from here over is dead.

(laughter)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Don't worry.

MATT: Which is really weird for me. You kill the DM, your game gets a little strange.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So that actually kind of brings up my question. About two or three episodes ago, Liam said, "Oh, well I guess next week we're playing Shadowrun." Are we one TPK away from a different game? Or are we rolling up new characters and going up next week?

LAURA: That's a good question!

(laughter)

MATT: You know, this world of Exandria that I've kind of created and they've kind of helped build that with their character moments and backstories and such. If any characters were to die, they would roll up a new character and we'd incorporate them into the story to then join Vox Machina going forward. If it was a TPK, if I survive the internet's backlash, we would pick up where the story left off probably with another band of adventurers to continue the plot from a different angle in some way.

SAM: What if everyone dies except Scanlan? Could I have my own show that's just me and you and a triceratops?

(laughter, cheering)

SAM: Like a buddy comedy.

MATT: I think you have your answer. Sorry, guys. Sorry.

LAURA: It's all right. I understand.

MATT: Great question.

MARISHA: Lean all the way up to the mic.

MATT: The mic is your friend.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Oh, yes, indeed. What were you guys' inspirations for the characters? I can tell a little bit with Grog it's kind of a Conan the Barbarian kind of deal? What were your inspirations?

TRAVIS: I'm an idiot, so Grog's an idiot.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: The first game that we had was at Liam O'Brien's birthday party and Matt had given us classes, races, all that stuff, and I was like, uh, I don't want to be an orc. I'll be a goliath! Goliaths are big. I'm big, that'll be fun and I'll be a barbarian because I suck at math and spells seem complicated and whatever. I didn't even come up with a name and he sat down and he goes, "What's your character's name?" and I was like... Grog? There was a lot of thought that went into some of these characters.

TALIESIN: You were very excited about your boots. I do remember that. The boots were very intense. He made boots.

TRAVIS: I made fine leather boots.

LAURA: He was so proud of that fact. And it has not come into play at all.

MARISHA: It has not come into play since he established that.

TRAVIS: Nope. He makes shitty leather boots. That's probably the better way to say that.

LAURA: But he thinks they're fine.

MARISHA: I imagine Grog has an Etsy store in his spare time, making boots.

TRAVIS: Bootmaiden. That's my Etsy name.

LAURA: I like it.

TRAVIS: Inspiration for your characters? Other inspirations.

TALIESIN: Mine was based off of a short story that I had written and never done anything with. Percy takes a lot of cues from the movie Plunkett and MacLeane. That movie is ridiculous and I'm so proud that it exists. That and a short story about what the poor jerk who invented the first gun would've been like and what awful circumstances would've led to that. It's changed quite a bit from there but that's kind of where I came from.

LAURA: That's where it started?

TALIESIN: It was exciting. It was a class I'd never played before. It was Pathfinder. I was curious.

LAURA: That very first game, though, you were something else.

TALIESIN: I was a dragonborn paladin.

LAURA: Our very first game that we played, nobody really knew how to play except for Matt and Taliesin and Liam had played some.

TALIESIN: In high school.

LAURA: But we all were floundering. We had no idea. So they brought Taliesin as the ringer so if we got into trouble he could be like, "I got you covered."

TALIESIN: There were several times things just got worse and worse and worse and I was finally like, okay, coming in, fixing it. All right, let's move on.

TRAVIS: He literally came in like Doogie Howser and just brilliantly solved a puzzle that we were all nearly about to die from.

LAURA: We're going to die!

TRAVIS: The look on Matt's face was like this is first grade and you're all dead already.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: I'm so glad I don't have to do that dragonborn accent anymore. That was so awful.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Do it!

TALIESIN: He was just sort of heavy and dry and everything, he was, ugh, god awful.

TRAVIS: Woohoo!

TALIESIN: Why?

TRAVIS: It's kind of sexy.

(laughter)

SAM: My character came about because I didn't know anything about Dungeons & Dragons and I asked Liam what's the dumbest character and he said, "Probably a bard." I was like, "What's the weakest character?" He said, "I don't know, like, a gnome." I went to Dungeons & Dragons name generator and that's how I found the name.

LAURA: No way!

MARISHA: I didn't know that.

SAM: I totally half-assed it.

(laughter, applause)

SAM: Yeah. Totally just like "Yeah, sure, whatever." We were going to do it one time! It wasn't important!

TRAVIS: Were you hoping to die in one session so you could come back as something--

SAM: Well, we were all going to just play once for his birthday and that was it. So I was like, eh, I'll just be a dumb character. And then it turns out I'm the best one!

(cheering, laughter)

SAM: I'm super powerful and awesome! I can do anything! It's amazing! Who knew? And I I get to sing. I love it. What'd you say?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Including crapping on a bed.

SAM: That's right. I can crap on beds. That's an extra class feature.

MARISHA: I had tried the druid in 4th edition and I hated it and I thought druids were useless. And then we did this game and I was like all right, yeah, I guess I'll give druids a shot one more time. This was Pathfinder and you could pick a domain kind of like clerics could, and I couldn't decide between any of the elements, so I was like, well, I'll just start with air and I'll just make it my thing to go get all of them. And that's how she was born, not really out of character development, mainly out of selfish min/maxer shit.

(laughter)

MARISHA: I'm a huge Avatar: The Last Airbender fan.

(cheering)

MARISHA: I didn't mean to make her based off of The Last Airbender. It subconsciously seeped in and happened that way.

LAURA: Nice.

MARISHA: Yeah. That's it, really.

LAURA: I wanted to be a rogue, but Liam had already taken rogue. And I wanted to be a half-elf, but Liam had already taken half-elf. Then I realized that Liam and I actually in real life share a birthday and so I'm like, "What if we were actually twins in the game?" He loved it and we went with it. I was debating between a ranger and a druid. Actually, I didn't even know for sure which one I wanted. I just emailed Matt and I was like, I want a pet. What class can I have a pet with? And he said either a druid or a ranger, so I went with ranger so I could have Trinket.

(cheering)

LAURA: Who's wonderful.

MARISHA: Yes.

SAM: He's the best.

LAURA: I just started multiclassing into rogue, though, because I figure it's been long enough, I can start learning the stealthy moves from my brother.

TRAVIS: That was a great question. Who wears a 2XL? Here, have a jetpack fighter shirt. I'm giving out stuff when awesome questions are asked.

MARISHA: I don't even know where you pulled that from.

TALIESIN: You don't want to know. We're throwing stuff at everyone.

TRAVIS: Goliath's got huge cavities.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: They said one question. Matt, what comes first? The voice or the NPC?

MATT: For me, it's the NPC. For me, the character inspiration for the NPC comes from where they fit in the story, where they fit in the civilization, what their drives are. Then I start thinking about their history. Then I decide, depending on from that point, what their racial traits and lifestyle would lend them to have a specific type of cadence, texture, vocal pitch. The voice is the last thing that actually goes to it. But I make sure to note next to every NPC what the voice type and dialect is because inevitably they're going to be pulled out of nowhere. It's fine if it's a home game and a character's voice changes from session to session, but when you have CritRoleStats scanning every episode--

TRAVIS: He's got his notepad right now!

SAM: He's taking notes.

MATT: "How many character NPC inconsistencies has Mercer done since episode one? Let's look at the time code."

TRAVIS: He's our court stenographer.

MATT: Right, I know. That's also forced me to kind of step up my game a little bit, too. You guys have helped me with that. So I go character first, voice second, and then make notes to remind myself where that lies.

SAM: Then do you choose how many fingers they have?

(laughter)

MATT: That's only come up recently. That's called character progression.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Oh, that's so good.

SAM: Soon it will be less than three.

MATT: Well played.

TALIESIN: That character came out of nowhere, too. Like that was, apparently, I just found out that--

MATT: Yeah, Victor wasn't planned. Victor was an NPC that was pulled out of the ether when we were in Vasselheim the first time, and Percy's like, "I'm going to go buy some black powder. Where can I find that?" And I'm like--

SAM: Better think quick!

MATT: Well, let's find out. (nervous strangled sound) Like, even when he asked, "What's your name?" and I just went "Victor!" He was like, "What was that?" and I went, in my head, "I don't know. What did I just say?"

(laughter)

MATT: "It sounded kind of like Victor. Victor it is!" It came out of nowhere, so sometimes NPCs get created simultaneously.

LAURA: Had you created Gilmore before we ran into Gilmore?

MATT: Yes, I had designed Gilmore's Glorious Goods as part of the Abdar's Promenade in Emon intentionally, as one of the characters you might encounter as you went through the city, so I was very glad that he got to have his moment to shine, and continue to shine. I wasn't expecting him to become so central to parts of the story.

SAM: Shines so brightly.

LAURA: We just love him so much.

TRAVIS: There is no life without Gilmore.

MATT: "He's a majestic one." I only recently realized, looking back at the episodes, that his hand is like this. He just has a hand, at all times, he's presentory, and then when he's, "Mm-hmm, of course." It's almost like he's holding a fan but there's not one there? I don't know. It's weird. Good question!

AUDIENCE MEMBER: This is for you for later.

MATT: Oh! All right!

SAM: Okay, that was a good question. Someone's getting a t-shirt.

TRAVIS: Just throw it a hard as you-- First row.

MATT: You're just hitting that front row, man.

TRAVIS: You made it to the first row.

SAM: My arm is spaghetti. I'm a young boy.

LAURA: You have little boy arms!

TRAVIS: I'm a little boy. Don't hit me!

MATT: Yes!

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Here's a question I'm sure the people at CritRoleStats would like to know about. It's directed at Taliesin. As far as the feat you chose for Percival, we've seen two of the three choices that you've made for him. Will we be seeing the third choice?

TALIESIN: No, you've seen all three!

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Oh, really?

SAM: What are they?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hex?

TALIESIN: Hex, Minor Illusion, and Friends.

LAURA: Oh, that's right!

TALIESIN: Friends is the third one, which I have now used a couple times.

SAM: (hums Friends theme)

TALIESIN: I was about to use it on you if things started getting way too bad in the shop.

TRAVIS: Ah, shit.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: I was going to very gently suggest that you just hand everything over to Vex, and enchant you to do so. I was prepared to--

TRAVIS: I didn't know you could do magic!

TALIESIN: That's my money!

MARISHA: Instead, you pulled the amazing Minor Illusion move.

TALIESIN: Minor Illusion worked out great.

TRAVIS: Missed that too!

LAURA: I have to say, this is the best thing, because Travis legitimately did not know that that's what he did.

TALIESIN: Oh yeah.

LAURA: It wasn't a character choice. He just didn't know.

TRAVIS: People were like, oh, Travis with the amazing RP, playing a character. I didn't fucking notice, you guys.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: After the game, he's like, "So what would have happened if I'd put my hand in the shadow?" I'm like, "Well, you would have grabbed the skull then, wouldn't you?" And he's like, "No!" You were so angry.

TRAVIS: Matt was gonna give it to me, too! And I'm like, I don't reach in there! You with your stupid shop water!

TALIESIN: I was trying to give you the eye when that was happening, like don't do it! Don't do it!

AUDIENCE MEMBER: He's super dumb.

TRAVIS: You're all a bunch of dicks.

MATT: Good on you.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: This is as both you as people, and as characters. It's hard because Liam's not here, but do you guys think that Vaxleth is a healthy relationship?

(laughter)

SAM: Is a healthy relationship?

LAURA: No! Not at all!

TALIESIN: No.

SAM: No, not at all.

TALIESIN: They're like the two friends in high school who are dating, and like, this is gonna be such an explosion.

(laughter)

LAURA: It's gonna be so bad.

MARISHA: This is the first time I'm hearing any of this, by the way!

(laughter)

MARISHA: So no, tell me! How bad is it, guys? Tell me. Let's get it all out right now.

TALIESIN: It's amazing.

LAURA: I just love-- no, wait, not everybody's caught up.

TALIESIN: Do it.

MARISHA: Spoiler alert! If you're not caught up, go la la la la la.

LAURA: Kashaw showing up in the last episode made me so happy as a person.

TRAVIS: So happy.

LAURA: So good! And so angry, as Vex. It was wonderful.

TRAVIS: It's pretty great.

MARISHA: Yeah, no, I'm starting to get used to it.

MATT: Aww!

LAURA: I'm kind of going for it now, as Vex, though.

MARISHA: Yeah.

LAURA: I'm kind of going for it.

MARISHA: I mean, we could talk about you and Jarett.

(oohing)

SAM: He's so hot.

MARISHA: I actually did not expect that type of reaction.

TRAVIS: It's the crossbow.

LAURA: He's pretty wonderful. He's pretty wonderful.

MARISHA: It's a good question, dude.

TALIESIN: All right, good. Okay, XL, big XL. I'm going over here.

MARISHA: I love our system. You have a good question. Let's give attention to someone else. Is that my-- too much?

SAM: It's just pointing over there. Let's move it up.

MATT: Technology.

LAURA: Oh, right because it's all over to the side. It's sliding.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So, I've been a DM for a little bit, and I--

SAM: Quick, DM off!

(laughter)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Mainly a question for Matt, but everyone else can help answer it.

TRAVIS: Okay, we'll help you.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, thank you. I've been having troubles with my players actually trying to roleplay in the games, I mean. I try setting up the scenarios so it's easy for them to do it, but one of them, his most creative side is to kill a monster by poking it in the butt.

LAURA: (laughing) That's amazing!

MARISHA: That's a method, yeah!

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, but every time it's not! But I--

MATT: And then what happens if he comes back into town and someone's like: "Oh, look, it's Gerald, the Butt Poker!"

(laughter)

MATT: "All hail the Butt Poker!" And he becomes known as the Butt Poker everywhere. Then you can work it in.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: There's another one that, instead of trying to escape a dangerous encounter that I put him in, instead started to roll for a new character while we were playing the game.

(laughter)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So, how do I make them--

MARISHA: It sounds like your players have more issues of optimism.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- get them more open to the game?

MATT: For them to already be rolling a new character during the encounter means maybe then want to try a different class, which is fine if they want to do that. As far as engaging people, to use an old adage, you can lead a horse to water. A person has to feel comfortable enough to step out of their comfort zone to try it, so you can't force it on them. You can try and coax them into it over time. I also find it helps if you engage them as the NPC directly. If you tell them, "You walk into a tavern, the barkeeper tells you, Ah, you should buy a room! It's different than going, "He turns to you, squeaks the inside of his jar and goes, Aye, miss, what can I do for you?" You know? And just that eye contact? It becomes a conversation as opposed to keeping them in their imagination, controlled facet that feels more comfortable. It might take a while. You can talk to your players and be like, "Hey guys, it'd be cool if we could try and push a little more into character RP and discussions, and don't put any pressure on them for it but help coax them out by addressing them directly and taking into account that what they say is what their character says. Something like, "Oh, I'm not going to talk to this guy." Be like, "I'm sorry, you're not going to talk to who?!" "Oh, I mean-- I didn't-- That was him!" So you can can play in elements of that and get them comfortable with the idea of speaking as their character. Not everyone will be, and you can't force it.

LAURA: I'm seeing behind the screen right now and it's kind of weird. To know that that's what you're doing to us.

(laughter)

SAM: Puppet master.

TALIESIN: Things just work out better when we actually RP.

MATT: Well that's the thing. RP circumstances can also have their own rewards, too. If someone talks their way out of a good situation, they'll get a more profitable circumstance based on the quest or mission they're on. They might uncover information that is vital to their current plan and disposition. They may end up unlocking an ally that they didn't have previously. These are all different ways you can reward good RP, as well as just a nice little experience bump. I keep track of good character moments, and I give little bonus experience points.

TRAVIS: You do not!

(laughter)

TALIESIN: He does! Do you not read the emails you get, like, every like-- oh, yeah.

TRAVIS: There's a bunch of numbers in them!

(laughter)

MARISHA: You realize we get different numbers, right?

LAURA: We do? Wait! So those are-- Wait, wait!

MARISHA: We don't get the same.

LAURA: Do I get extra experience when I haggle?

TRAVIS: No, nobody cares about that.

(laughter)

LAURA: Because you never write that in the email that I get extra experience for that!

MATT: That was a great question. Thank you so much!

(laughter)

TRAVIS: No, damn it! Oh, the door is closed! He doesn't tell us crap!

LAURA: Nothing!

TRAVIS: And we try all the time.

MATT: It's fun.

LAURA: Travis texts him all the time.

TRAVIS: I text him when it's late, maybe he's had a drink, maybe he's tired. "If I had actually crushed his skull, what would have happened?" And he's like, "You don't know." Son of a bitch.

(laughter)

MARISHA: I'm actually really excited because we have planned, as soon as we all eventually die or if this campaign comes to an end, we're going to have a party that's us at god's gate. And it's just going to be us asking Matt, "Okay, that one time that we did this--" And it's just going to be us asking Matt all the questions that we've ever wanted to ask.

TRAVIS: Maybe we should just all die now.

LAURA: TPK.

TRAVIS: Suicide pact!

SAM: You sir, what's your question?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: First, if anyone hasn't seen Thursday's episode, you have to watch it. It's the best in a long time.

(cheering)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question is for Matt. I've been DMing my own campaign for close to a year now, and my question is about roleplaying, specifically roleplaying women. Going into it, I'm aware of all these tropes and pitfalls that I can fall into for roleplaying women. How do you approach designing and RPing a woman?

SAM: All women talk like this. (valley girl accent) Hi. Oh my god.

TALIESIN: You are a master class, I swear. I feel like a better actor just sitting next to you.

MATT: I actually felt the heat from Laura's stare on that one.

TRAVIS: You don't want those dragon eyes.

MATT: It's interesting, because it is a comfort hurdle for a lot of players and Dungeon Masters alike to step into the opposite sex. You know, we have a lot of cultural weirdness in places about that whole thing, and you have to kind of look past that initially. I was a theater kid, so I didn't have any shame.

(cheering)

MATT: Woo! But also, it's just like any other person. They're just a person. You think of their wants, their needs, their fears, their drives, their goals. As a female, you consider their place in the world. Is it like our society was fifty years ago where women were almost a second-class citizen, and are they fighting to make themselves, fighting back against the patriarchy? Are they heralded as a matriarch? Is it like Lolth spider queen style, where the men are just used for fodder and mating, and are slaughtered? Figure out their power dynamic in society, and be comfortable that it's a strong character, not necessarily that it's a woman. That becomes a secondary and unnecessary facet to it, in my opinion.

MARISHA: And that's true for storytelling in general.

LAURA: Yeah.

(clapping)

MATT: As far as just distinguishing-- I had this question earlier, how do you change your voice to be female? I don't change my voice that much, really. There's a difference between chest voice and head voice. You know, thinking of the definition, it goes up more into your upper palate and your sinuses, and for a man it just takes some of the resonation out of it to where a character that talks normally in this way can sound a little softer, a little more--

TRAVIS: Light.

MATT: Gently domineering, which I really enjoy as a strong female NPC. Allura skirts that line quite a bit, and I like that a lot. More than anything, it shouldn't be part of a focus. You always get that dumb player who gets asked by the barmaiden, "Can I get you guys a drink?", and he's like, "Oh, she's a woman? Well I'm going to go ahead and slap her on the butt." He's about to get pummeled by the guards in the tavern. Remember, even in these societies, sexism probably is not cool, and whoever works at that bar has a lot of friends she works with that are watching her back. Just saying.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: All right, thank you.

MATT: No worries. Good question.

TRAVIS: Great question!

(clapping)

LAURA: We have no more t-shirts.

MATT: Hello!

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Theater for life, first off.

MATT: Yes.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I apologize if I ramble, because I do that. Thanks to Critical Role and things like Wil Wheaton's TableTop, watching people play tabletop games has become very popular. More popular than it has been previously, with tons of Twitch shows like Critical Role, actual plays, which are podcasts of people playing D&D and things--

MATT: Yeah.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: With all of that, are there any secondary versions of Critical Role, actual plays, things like that, that you guys enjoy? If so, what? If not, would you?

SAM: To watch on our own, you mean?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: To watch, or listen to, or anything like that. You can put it on your phone as a podcast.

SAM: Well for myself, I can barely even make the game that we play.

(laughter)

SAM: So I don't have a lot of time to veg out and watch other people play and roll dice, although I heard Laura was in, you both were in Titansgrave?

LAURA: Titansgrave, yeah.

SAM: I mean, that was cool.

LAURA: Thanks.

(laughter)

TRAVIS and MARISHA: (laughing) That was cool.

LAURA: Yeah, Titansgrave was really fun. Kurtis Wiebe, the writer and co-creator of Rat Queens--

(cheering)

LAURA: They do D20 Babes, and we did a Star Wars RPG with Kurtis. And it was really really fun and they're great people.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I played a wookie. That was great. (wookie noise)

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Couldn't talk. I loved it.

MARISHA: And there's always "Acquisitions Inc." Acquisitions Inc has been around forever. They're great.

MATT: Yeah, that's really great. Also, there's-- I've enjoyed it for a long time-- Real Role Play with itmeJP. Those guys have done phenomenal games for a very long time. There's also-- what was that?

LAURA: (muffled)

MATT: Oh, I confused myself. Also, recently the Yogscast guys have done High Rollers which is DMed by a good friend of mine, Mark Holmes out in the UK. And they're kicking ass as well, so those are a number of the ones that I watch and keep track of, both for inspiration and to meet other people in the community, so it's cool.

SAM: Good question.

MATT: Well done.

MARISHA: Yeah.

MATT: Your quest is fantastic.

MARISHA: Next question.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello.

MARISHA: Hello.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have a question that's a little more specific than these other ones. It has to do with the very first Critmas special, where toward the end Marisha got an in-character letter from Pike which included a psalm that was in Celestial, and I was wondering if you ever got it translated?

MARISHA: To decipher the letter that I got from Pike that was written in Celestial?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah.

MARISHA: You know, it's still on my to-do list.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have a translation for you.

MARISHA: I'm sure it's a wonderful, lovely message.

TALIESIN: She owes me breakfast, so this doesn't surprise me.

MARISHA: True.

LAURA: Did you write it?

MARISHA: Was that you?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I brought the translation with me, so you don't have to do the work.

(applause)

MATT: That's awesome! I was surprised, too, because she took Celestial for three years in college.

(laughter)

MATT: She should have it.

TRAVIS: Eat more chicken.

SAM: That's a lot of cursing.

TALIESIN: Don't call it a comeback. I've been here for years.

MARISHA: I'm going to cry if I read it.

TRAVIS: Don't read it.

MARISHA: Okay, keep going.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So I'm the dungeon master for our current group, and I've noticed on Critical Role that, whenever you guys roll a one, it's just an auto-miss, and you guys don't have a fumble chart or anything for the ones. I was wondering if that was something specifically for the show, or if you as a dungeon master don't like using them, or what was up with that, or if there is just enough pain in the game as it is.

MATT: Right.

SAM: What is he saying, what? Translate. I don't play Dungeons and Dragons. I don't know what he's talking about.

(laughter)

MATT: In older editions, in some variations, if you were to roll a natural one, it wasn't just an auto miss, it was--

TRAVIS: You died.

MATT: You had to roll on a chart to see what horrible thing happened to you for rolling so poorly.

SAM: Oh, okay.

MATT: Which is really fun. For my games, I consider the natural one more of a narrative failure. I like to explain the visual aspect of why you failed so much, and in some cases it's more of a shame than an actual-- more of a mechanical horrible blunder.

MARISHA: It's always a shame, always shame.

MATT: And partially because I've played games where people use those charts, and they're like, "All right, you go to attack the orc. Critical fail. You accidentally cut off your own head." And I'm like, "Really? How is that? No."

SAM: How would you ever do that?

MARISHA: Yeah, what was the con we were at this past weekend, and the guy was telling a story about that, and he rolled to just gently kick his friend awake, just kind of nudging his friend awake, and so the DM made him roll for it, and he rolled a nat one.

MATT: Natural 20.

MARISHA: Oh, it was a natural 20.

MATT: He was like, "Roll a strength check," and I'm like, "To kick your friend awake?"

LAURA: He kicked his head off?

MARISHA: He kicked his head off!

(laughter)

MARISHA: You're 100% right. He kicked his head off and I was like, "That's harsh. That's, like, way harsh."

LAURA: That's bullshit.

MARISHA: You just got punished for a nat 20.

LAURA: That's not okay.

TRAVIS: That's great.

(laughter)

MATT: So yeah, I think it's a cool system if you want to incorporate it. I tried it for years for certain things and it has its merits, definitely. I felt for our game I like to make the fumbles more of a narrative failure than an actual mechanical failure. Because then it can get a little too weird and really, really bite you back.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I gave them the choice and they chose the sheet

MATT: Well, fair enough, and that is entirely their call.

TALIESIN: Heads will roll.

MATT: Let them burn.

SAM: Yes, sir.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hello. This question is not so much about D&D as it much as it is about your careers in general, and kind of just a fun question entirely, but if you could steal one role from one of your colleagues, like for example if Travis wanted to steal the role of Krom from Matt, or if Marisha wanted to steal the role of Maka from Laura, would you do it and who would you take?

LAURA: Stealing a role from somebody else?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah, if you wanted to voice somebody that one of these people--

SAM: A voice role.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Would you do it? Like who would it be?

LAURA: Oh man.

MARISHA: I don't know if I've thought about it.

LAURA: I mean, Ellie-- she's not here, but Ellie from the Last of Us

TALIESIN: I'd steal Ellie.

LAURA: That's an amazing character, but the thing is, I can say Ellie-- Hey.

(applause)

MARISHA: Best con ever.

LAURA: I can say Ellie from the Last of Us, but she wouldn't be that character. She wouldn't be that amazing if Ashley hadn't played her.

MARISHA: Yeah, I kind of agree with Laura. It's almost hard to say because the actors bring so much of the characters themselves that it just wouldn't be the same.

TRAVIS: Yeah, I agree.

MARISHA: But I guess if I had to pick one. Thor. I want Thor!

TRAVIS: You can have him.

MARISHA: Tell that to Marvel.

TALIESIN: I'll take Black Widow, if you take Thor.

LAURA: Hey, I like that.

MARISHA: All right, yeah.

SAM: I mean, I have a terrible nasal voice. I would love to have some of Travis' sack.

TRAVIS: I'll trade you my sack for your beer.

SAM: You've got beer.

TRAVIS: That's not enough.

(laughter)

SAM: You, ma'am.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi, first of all, I am dressed as Vex'ahlia today.

(applause)

SAM: Oh wow.

MARISHA: Oh shit, I just realized! It took me half a second. Dope!

AUDIENCE MEMBER: First of all, Matt, thank you so much, because I have wanted to Dungeon Master for years and years and I'm finally doing it.

(applause)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm starting a Pathfinder game next week and I'm just so thankful for all the tips and tricks and stuff you put online. I am so thankful.

MATT: Thank you. I hope they help and there's a lot of great communities online too, far before I put anything up there, that expand upon these tips as well, so don't be afraid to reach out to the Reddit D&D page and the RPG. Check out all those guys.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: That being said, last year I touched Wil Wheaton and my rolls have been really shitty.

MATT: Oh no, I'm so sorry.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So do you have any things that I can do to cleanse the Wil Wheaton?

MATT: We can try but, understand, it's a very strong curse.

TALIESIN: The sage helped. The sage helped a lot.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'll just get a selfie with Taliesin and it'll be fine, I'm sure.

TALIESIN: I specifically had sage powdered in dragon's blood. It was really intense.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, I'll try that too.

TALIESIN: Not kidding.

MATT: Step forward, step forward.

SAM: (singing)

TALIESIN: (singing)

TRAVIS: Wow, wow.

LAURA: You're officially the Little Mermaid. Congratulations.

MATT: She's going get real angry when it doesn't work.

MARISHA: She's even got the Vex swagger going.

SAM: You, sir, man with the beer.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Laura, you're getting a beer, right?

SAM: The beer's really good.

TRAVIS: It's really hoppy and delicious.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question's for you, Matt: how the heck do you come up with all the names for the places around the world? That's the problem I'm having because I'm trying to create a game. Just naming places is my problem.

MATT: Naming convention is interesting. I've always liked making up weird names anyway and a lot of times I'll just start thinking of-- it starts with letters that haven't been used very often in other areas, so I'll be like, all right, I made a Stillben, so that's an S name so I don't want to make another S named town nearby, so I'll go W. Westruun kinda came from just trying to think of, it's to the west of where the main city will be. Expansion sent it west. And then from that point, I started taking inspiration from different languages that would affiliate that area. A lot of Norse language works near Vasselheim. Looking into root words and certain spelling techniques in other languages and jamming things together that sound interesting and roll off the tongue well. SAM: What you do is you pick your middle name and the street you grew up on and your pet name and that's the name.

MATT: And there's also really good name generators online for fantasy locations that you can go ahead.

SAM: (smug clicking)

MATT: Worked out well for some folks. But yeah, just pull inspiration from books that you like, campaigns that already exist, source books if you have them, and take pieces from certain words that you like and jam them together and see if it sounds nice when you say it. That's all you really need.

TRAVIS: Name all your characters Percy.

MATT: All of them.

SAM: Percival de Rolo de Momo.

MARISHA: Frederick von--

TALIESIN: (singing) It's delightful, it's delectable, it's de-lovely.

SAM: Next question, please.

TRAVIS: Wait, Vex wants to try.

LAURA: No, I've had some ale.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I heard that. Hi! I have some bracelets for you guys. I don't really have a question. I'm going to give these to you guys. I'm representing Extra Life. We raise money for Doernbecher's and we raise money for children who are sick, terminally, and I just want to give you some bracelets.

MATT: That is awesome.

TRAVIS: Applaud this woman!

(applause)

MATT: Thank you so much.

TRAVIS: That's great.

TALIESIN: Yes, thank you.

TRAVIS: Thank you.

LAURA: Thank you so much.

MATT: I want to take a minute while we're talking about this, actually. One of the really amazing things to come out of this community, aside from the perpetual beer.

TRAVIS: Seriously, best panel ever.

SAM: Yeah, this is the best panel ever.

TRAVIS: A bit of advice, write ale into your backstory, bitches, because hey!

SAM: Hey, also don't write poop into your backstory, because people send me poop all the time.

MARISHA: I love that if we wait for like ten minutes one will just appear. They're spawning!

MATT: That's real magic. To take a minute off that topic, one of the-- so many amazing things have sprung out of this community, more than we ever could have expected or hoped. But one of the things that perpetually humbles and blows me away is the generosity of all of you guys supporting all these wonderful charities, all these wonderful causes. You guys communally have raised so much money and so much awareness to so many amazing, largely overlooked in a lot of cases, charitable intents and it's incredible. So give yourselves a huge round of applause.

TRAVIS: Yeah, seriously, you guys are amazing.

(applause)

MARISHA: We are literally changing the world with D&D.

LAURA: It's crazy. It's so amazing that you guys have done so much. And that Critmas is the most amazing thing and the gifts that you guys send are so wonderful, but the fact that you guys are donating to other people and doing good in the name of this community is so freaking amazing.

MARISHA: Ultimately, the whole reason we even did this show was to share it out with other people and to share the joy that is D&D and gaming. It's just even more of a compliment and an honor to hear you guys paying it forward and to continue to spread the gospel that is the Player's Handbook.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: The gospel.

MATT: You, sir.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question is for Matt. How do keep your homebrew classes, blood hunter, witch hunter kind of stuff, how do you work to keep those balanced without making them totally crap or way overpowered?

MATT: Homebrew classes and races is a new thing to me as well, like I never really created-- The first real homebrew thing was just the transition of your gunslinger over from Pathfinder and even that took a while just testing and figuring it out. Learning to balance something homebrew on that degree, especially a new class or a new archetype? It's something that comes with experience and with community feedback. While I'm happy that I'm somewhat decent at D&D, there's so many great communities out there that are far more knowledgeable of how the game's original design construct was based on, what is considered good versus bad balance. When I threw my stuff out there--it was to the wolves in a way-- because everyone was like, "This is broken, this messed up," and I'm like, cool, thank you for telling me that, now I can go back and fix it. How about now? "This is-- oh, this is better now!" Internet may be angry and forceful sometimes with its feedback, but as long as it's still constructive and it's awesome, which most of the community is, that's a tremendous source for you to use. There's the Unearthed Arcana Reddit is a whole area that's all about homebrew D&D content and they're all very knowledgeable and very willing to help you with feedback on your own homebrew ideas.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Awesome, thank you.

MATT: Thank you.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Howdy, folks. My question is actually for Portland, like a survey. So I'm going to need some help here.

MARISHA: For Portland?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah.

MARISHA: All right, all the way into the mic.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So I'll need a some help here, like the survey, but I'm thinking we have Scanlan Shorthalt right here, can we please tell him that Trinket should always go with the party?

LAURA: Yes!

(cheering)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, Trinket!

LAURA: Don't you shake your head. You mother-- I saw some of you shaking your damn head.

TRAVIS: I heard a boo.

LAURA: I heard a boo.

MARISHA: I know.

LAURA: How dare you?

SAM: If Portland thinks so, who am I to argue with that? Trinket is just an unstoppable force of power, grace--

LAURA: He has saved-- he has done some serious--

SAM: When he--

TALIESIN: I had to put my coat somewhere last episode. That was very important.

SAM: When he saves me, I will respect him.

LAURA: He did save you! Didn't he?

SAM: No.

MARISHA: I think so. I think he did, like, once.

MATT: When CritRoleStats shakes his head no.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: The human encyclopedia says, "No."

LAURA: Wait, okay, but you know, how many times has Trinket killed anybody?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: He bit a vampire's head off.

SAM: One?

LAURA: He bit a vampire's freaking head off!

SAM: Three.

LAURA: Three killings?

TRAVIS: Yeah, nine times.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (inaudible)

MARISHA: Hey, hey, he's gotten two how do you want to do this.

SAM: And I've killed at least that many. Listen, Trinket is great.

TALIESIN: You're almost as useful as a bear.

(laughter and cheering)

TRAVIS: I think it just needs to be solved PVP. Scanlan versus Trinket.

SAM: Yeah, I would do that.

LAURA: No, that would be so sad.

TALIESIN: We could make a lot of money bear wrestling.

LAURA: Trinket only has 60 hit points, you guys.

TRAVIS: Yeah, but what if he gets lucky?

TALIESIN: Gnome versus bear?

LAURA: So that's why I don't send him in. He's only got 60 hit points so if he dies then he dies and I don't know what I would do.

TRAVIS: Y'all, this is truth. The one time before the stream when I smacked the bear on the ass and sent it through this minefield, I almost got divorced. Like, legitimately.

LAURA: I don't know. What I love is when we were fighting the dragon at our keep and he got frozen. This was out of character, I'm looking at Travis going, "You'd better fucking save--"

TRAVIS: I've got to save that fucking bear. Because if he dies, there's no joy in the world.

(laughter)

LAURA: I feel like that was the one time Grog really acted out of character, when he saved Trinket.

TRAVIS: She would walk home and all the flowers in the front yard would die. Save that bear, man. Rule number one.

SAM: I'm just saying that a ferret, or even a goldfish...

TRAVIS: What is this, Hogwarts? Or an owl, or a cat--

LAURA: If I could take the spell Polymorph, if I could have that fucking spell, I would be so happy. I hate that anytime I want to bring Trinket and we're stealthing or something like that and I'm like, "Marisha--"

MARISHA: Hopefully I've got it!

LAURA: "--can you use one of your spells that you have a limited amount of to Polymorph my bear?"

TALIESIN: That red panda was pretty awesome.

MARISHA: I can turn him into a red panda, that's generally all I care about.

SAM: I can always do that. And I never will.

(laughter)

MARISHA: It's true! It's true, he always has it.

MATT: Don't be sad gnome, be happy gnome.

LAURA: You motherfucker! You could do it?

TRAVIS: Okay, okay, okay. Rosie.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: First of all, thank you, Laura, for rolling a nat one on my die earlier. While I was in Beauty and the Beast, on the opening night, Gaston's wig fell off, and I was wondering if you guys ever had any embarrassing moments on stage.

MARISHA: Yeah, every episode? Let's cut to the eight times between Laura and I that we've been like, we just (sobbing) oh God, oh God, this is crying. I mean, that counts.

MATT: Do you mean during the show, or do you mean legitimately on a theatrical stage?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: On a theatrical stage.

MATT: Okay, so an actual stage show.

MARISHA: Oh!

TALIESIN: Oh, yeah.

LAURA: Yes.

SAM: I was in Les Miserables as a child. I played Gavroche.

MATT: And where did you play it?

SAM: You know, in Broadway.

(laughter)

SAM: I did a national tour and I was performing in Miami-- it was a long time ago, like '89 or something -- anyway, I fell onstage and I injured my knee and I was taken to the hospital. Long story, but I was wearing rags and dirt and stuff, and I was brought to the hospital and it just so happened that in Miami that night there were riots. Martin Luther King Day riots or something? So they brought me in, this little boy, this little white boy, and they were like, "Why are you here?" and I was like, "I fell off the barricade."

(laughter)

SAM: And they were like, "There's a barricade? Were you protesting?" And I was like, "I mean, I guess."

TRAVIS: Viva la revolución!

SAM: So they thought I was the youngest civil rights protester ever.

TRAVIS: Little French boy.

MATT: That's amazing.

MARISHA: I'd never heard that!

MATT: I don't think any of us can top that.

TRAVIS: Please tell me there's a Getty Images of that somewhere.

SAM: I wish.

MATT: Good question. When I knocked over an inkwell during a production of The Crucible, as Reverend Hale. I slammed the table during the trial for the latter half of the play. And whoever was being the clerk of the court had filled the inkwell with ink, which he wasn't supposed to do, but he wanted to write legitimately. I slammed the table, and it (blurp) and spills out all over my hand. I look down out of the corner of my eye, and it's just like, blue ink across my hand, and I'm trying to hide it. So someone else starts talking, and Danforth, who's the guy running the whole trial, starts getting really angry, and I raise my finger to point. Ink all up his white shirt, across his face. He feels it, and he doesn't know what it is, he just knows he's got something on his face. So he goes and tries to rub off the "spittle," and there's this giant ink smear across his face. None of us could tell him, so he did most of the second half of the play just with giant ink smears on his face. Yeah.

SAM: That's pretty good.

MATT: Theater.

LAURA: Oh, man. In high school I was doing this play, and this guy that I had the biggest crush on ever was sitting in the front row. I had one of those hoop skirts on, and I sat down on the couch, and I wasn't used to them. The hoop went up over my head, and it was like a dress rehearsal, so I didn't have the full costume on. So it was just, like, underwear. So it was just like, hoop, and panties. And I was mortified.

TRAVIS: Yes!

LAURA: (to inaudible audience member) No! He was never my boyfriend!

TRAVIS: Are you sure?

LAURA: I am sure!

MARISHA: It's like a skin you can download in Portal. It's great.

LAURA: I also did a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I was playing the narrator, and I was running out on stage.

TRAVIS: And you ate shit.

LAURA: I did. I ate shit. As I was running out, leading the entire chorus out to do this big dance number for "Go, Go, Go, Joseph," and my foot caught in my skirt. I just planted it on the stage and slid, and then had to get up and finish the dance out.

TALIESIN: I got beat up by a goat on camera once.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: It was some show called Hell Town. It only went, like, 12 episodes, and I was some autistic kid who befriends a goat. That goat was not friendly. That goat just jumped me and nailed me in the face. I was cut. It was just bad. It was a little goat, but I was a little kid, and it was like, "Finally, a human I can beat the fuck out of!"

TRAVIS: Why have we not killed a goat in the game as vengeance for your real-life--?

TALIESIN: I've already taken care of that.

MARISHA: I guess the best one that I have-- it's hard to top Gavroche. I was in a production of The Nutcracker, and I was a soldier. We had to come through the flat on the stage, and we had these hats that came down, and we were soldiers, and I missed the entrance and slammed into the flat. Anyone who does theater, you know these flats are made out of cardboard, so the whole thing went-- (shaking noise) and almost fell over.

LAURA: Oh, but it didn't.

MARISHA: It didn't fall over, but--

LAURA: Could have been worse.

MARISHA: It was very obvious that I smacked into a flat. The entire section.

TRAVIS: I burned down a theater and killed everybody inside.

SAM: Oh, wow.

TRAVIS: But nobody knows about that, so--

MATT: We should go. Now. You should-- okay, next question.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite show on the Citadel.

LAURA: Nice.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: No, serious DM question here. As a DM who has a party of some odd races-- a mouse, a fire genasi, and soon to be a tiefling-- your game has a goliath. Travis, you can help me with this one as well. Your game has a goliath who seems to have a history as a marauder, to put it nicely.

TRAVIS: A what?

SAM: A marauder.

TRAVIS: A marauder. That's a big word.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So did that ever have any role play issues early on? You have this big goliath walking around town that used to be wandering around in the fields robbing people, beating people up, stuff like that.

MATT: It was interesting, because his father had actually left his tribe, his band. They're basically just like wild-living savage bandits that destroyed and pillaged whatever came in their territory. His father had separated from them after his early trials, and made a name of himself in the city of Westruun as a respectable individual. That's how when he went and met Pike, there wasn't-- People were not comfortable with him in the city, and stayed away from him, but there was no all of a sudden, immediate force of the local guard going like, "I don't trust you. We're going to lock you up and cut your face." So that wasn't a huge issue. But the band is still out there.

TALIESIN: We ran into--

MATT: You did run into them once. It was a large-scale battle with all these goliaths jumping out. And the party was like, "We are so ruined." The fight was about to go, and I think it was the first time that I've ever had Grog stop fighting and socially talk the party out of battle. Grog!

TALIESIN: It was amazing.

TRAVIS: It turned out to be one of my cousins, which goes into a backstory thing that will probably come up at some point, but I didn't want to fight my family. Because we would have probably all died. It was like seven goliaths.

LAURA: We probably-- yeah.

TRAVIS: It would have been bad. TALIESIN: It was a while ago.

TRAVIS: But he gets one pass. And then he's dead.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: As it should be.

SAM: You, sir.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: First things first. Scanlan, as a bard, you are a huge hero and inspiration to myself.

(cheering)

SAM: I know.

TRAVIS: Don't tell him that. Can we get a Bigby's Hand?

SAM: (sings) Bigby's Hand!

(applause)

SAM: It's not even a bard spell!

MATT: I know!

AUDIENCE MEMBER: As characters, Vox Machina, do you consider yourselves to be heroes? Do you actively try to be heroes?

MARISHA: You're asking us as Vox Machina?

SAM: I mean--

AUDIENCE MEMBER: You've done some pretty horrible things.

LAURA: We have done some pretty terrible things.

SAM: Collectively, we are heroic.

TALIESIN: Yes, collectively.

SAM: Individually. I don't think-- Scanlan thinks of himself as a god that doesn't really need to prove anything. He's just in it for the lols, for the most part. But I think collectively we've done some good things. We've saved civilization.

LAURA: We've done some terrible things, too.

SAM: We've rescued people, and we've killed old people, which is always a good thing for society.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Percy's kind of starting to figure out that he's not that great a person, but--

TRAVIS: (laughs)

TALIESIN: I knew, but Percy didn't know. But at the same time, it's mostly because he's acknowledging that we're all kind of awful people, but together-- except for Pike. Pike's great. Pike's fine. But together we're actually a powerful force for good. Individually, not so much.

TRAVIS: Grog lives moment to moment. I have no idea what they're talking about.

LAURA: I feel like Vax is a really good person. Vax is probably, outside of Pike--

MARISHA: Vax is probably the best person. Vax is probably most selfless.

LAURA: Yeah, because he really is in it to--

TALIESIN: Percy would have words about that.

LAURA: Oh, really?

TALIESIN: Oh, yeah.

LAURA: Has he done some shit? I feel like I'm speaking for Liam now.

TRAVIS: Yeah, you can't RP for Vax.

LAURA: I can't speak for Liam, but based on conversations that we've had.

TRAVIS: Why don't you speak for yourself?

MARISHA: Yeah, we don't really have these conversations. We try and keep it for the game.

TRAVIS: Is this meta right now?

TALIESIN: This is meta.

MATT: Roll initiative.

(laughter)

MARISHA: Are we going to get shat on for metagaming?

LAURA: Ah!

MATT: I don't know.

TRAVIS: We're all going to die! You killed us!

LAURA: We're all going to die!

TALIESIN: Way to go.

SAM: I will tell you this, though. Scanlan is a bit of an existentialist, and, for a specific reason, thinks or has thought up to now that life is sort of pointless.

LAURA: Aww!

TALIESIN: I see that.

LAURA: Look at this guy!

MARISHA: It's interesting, actually, all the different ideals our characters have evolved.

TRAVIS: Yeah, ideals.

(laughter)

LAURA: I get, sometimes, people online saying I've done something that's really terrible.

TRAVIS: They're right.

LAURA: But for Vex, the motivation makes sense. It makes sense, the reason she would do certain things.

TRAVIS: Oh, sure.

LAURA: And it's not bad in her eyes. It's not.

MARISHA: Everyone loves to comment on if Keyleth did something right or wrong. Everyone seems to have an opinion. And once again, people need to understand where Keyleth is coming from.

LAURA: Keyleth is the worst of all of us.

TALIESIN: Oh, yeah. By far. She killed a kid.

MARISHA: I'm the evil bastard.

LAURA: Heart of ice.

MARISHA: Honestly, like legitimately, Keyleth has probably done some of the worst stuff that's also trying the hardest, so it just really messes with her psyche.

TRAVIS: It's my favorite part.

MARISHA: It's true. I'm the worst! I try so hard.

TALIESIN: It's not that we're not heroes, it's that we're flawed. We're flawed people.

MARISHA: We're extremely flawed. Everyone's broken.

TRAVIS: We're a bunch of idiots, come on.

MARISHA: We have no fucking clue what we're doing. Ever.

MATT: We've got about five minutes left.

SAM: Two more questions, maybe?

MATT: If there are two or three we can get through quickly.

TRAVIS: Bless you! Can we name an NPC after him or something?

TALIESIN: He's just going to get killed in five minutes.

TRAVIS: Just make him the beer delivery guy!

SAM: Dean is your next NPC.

TRAVIS: We've got to build him a room!

(cheering)

TRAVIS: (excitedly) Beer wench!

LAURA: You guys, we're seriously going to be so not functional.

TALIESIN: This is going to slow down the autograph lines so much. There's going to be so many misspellings and typos.

TRAVIS: We're going to sign one letter at a time.

LAURA: If we spell your name wrong later--

TRAVIS: Yes. Go for it! We've got five minutes.

MARISHA: Do you want my leftover one?

MATT: She gives me the half-drunk one.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: First, I want to thank y'all. Y'all are the reason my wife and I play D&D together now, so thank you for that. Secondly, as a DM of seven players-- so I feel that pain a little bit-- as players, is there anything y'all have ever wanted to do in game, but have thought, "No, that would eat up too much time. There's eight of us. We need to get the story moving along." Or do y'all just, "Nope, everyone can wait, and I'm going to have my two-hour moment."

TALIESIN: I try and have my attack plan ready for when it's my turn to fight.

MARISHA: Yeah.

TALIESIN: I don't start looking at the board when it's like, "All right, you're up." No. Okay, I'm good.

TRAVIS: I feel like Matt does a pretty good job, too, of being clairvoyant and sensing that if we start to do something that's going to go way off on a tangent and take up too much time, he'll cut it off the second we start it, and he'll bring something up that puts us back on a more cohesive track.

SAM: But he also allows us to go on our little individual journeys when we need to.

MATT: It's a fun little exploration element.

TRAVIS: That's where the black powder guy came from, is some random tangent. Most amazing NPC ever.

TALIESIN: He put the fear into me because he said I was going to run out of bullets and powder soon. I was like, "Oh god, you're right!" And I didn't know what to do about that.

TRAVIS: And then you cast Friends on me, you dick.

LAURA: I always feel slightly guilty any time we have a shopping excursion--

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Because that can eat up time with even four players, let alone seven or eight.

LAURA: Exactly. And not only because it's probably boring for the other players, but I feel like it's really boring for you guys to watch us go buy potions.

TRAVIS: Shopping's awesome. I love going shopping with other people.

(laughter)

MATT: It can be fun. It's about knowing as a GM when to edit a scene. You can let things happen, let it be fun, let interactions occur, and then once you feel like the goal of that scene has been completed or is close to resolution, you can nudge the party and be like, "All right, so from this point, where do you want to go from here?" Or "As time passes, you continue the transaction." You can find a point where the fun has been had, the major arc of that moment has hit, and you can help hurry and bookend and then continue the next moment.

SAM: That's the hardest thing to do in improv is to both be in the scene and know when the scene is over. That's super hard.

MARISHA: And we're also a bunch of A personalities, so sometimes you have to fight if you want to have a moment. If you want to have something, you have to not be afraid to jump in. And you've probably seen a hundred times where some of us have started to do something, and then it might have gotten cut off, and then you have to let it go. You move on. Just like in life, sometimes it is not the right time or the right place.

SAM: What we're saying is you should sit down now.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's more deep than what I wanted.

MATT: We've got time for probably one or two more fast questions. If we don't get to your questions here, you're welcome to come and ask us at our signing later.

LAURA: And we also have a panel tomorrow.

MATT: We also have a panel tomorrow at noon.

LAURA: Not here. In room C-123.

TRAVIS: C-123 tomorrow. And we're at our tables. When we're not here, we're at our tables the whole time.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: How hard was it to transition the gunslinger from Pathfinder over to what you guys do? Because for one of the games I'm a part of, my girlfriend wants to be a dracomancer, and I didn't realize that was in 4E, so I'm having trouble helping her get it up to this one.

MATT: That's a tough one. For me, the archetypes, especially for fighter and combat-based archetypes, it's much more cut and dry as far as the transition for natural physics. A gunslinger, we know how ballistics work and some of the possible tropes for gunslingers in modern media, so that was an easy inspiration to transition and change some of the things and still make it interesting. When you get into stuff like that, where you're dealing with more obtuse magics and other creatures that are mythological, if you're having a hard time, reach out to a community of homebrewers like the Unearthed Arcana guys, and ask for suggestions there. There may be things that are already existing that are a good root or basis that you can then tweak more into what you want your final homebrew to be. And now there's the DMs' Guild, which allows everyone to put up their own homebrew stuff online, and there's a lot of great content there that you can find people with, and if you like it, you can toss them a couple of bucks and show them how much you appreciate it. I think it's really cool that they've opened up the community to create their own homebrew content and provide it like that.

TALIESIN: For safety, how many revisions have you given me?

MATT: The gunslinger? Probably close to eight, at this point.

TALIESIN: About eight?

TRAVIS: One more question.

MATT: Thank you very much.

MARISHA: I hope it's a good one.

MATT: Come by later on and we'll get to your guys' questions later on.

TRAVIS: Because everybody from here over has to pee so bad.

MARISHA: So bad! We've drank three beers in an hour.

TRAVIS: We had a whole cask of ale from here over.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question is a personal question for Matt, so I'm sorry it's not a whole group question. I'm just so curious. You've inspired me to start writing again and to start playing D&D-- I'm really nervous-- and to remember to myself to be who I want to be and to start writing again, I bought my wristband because I watch you. I see you; you wear yours constantly. Mine, I got nautical-themed since my husband's in the navy. It's got a ship wheel and a kraken. I wondered, do yours have any significance? You wear them constantly. Do they mean anything?

MATT: That's a very interesting question. They do, actually. Each wristband I keep on me, not just from a visual standpoint, but each has a very specific meaning. This first wristband here was actually gifted to me by somebody in the middle of the desert at my first Burning Man, and it's a representation of personal responsibility and understanding where I came from and where I want to go and make sure that I don't stray from that path and be true to myself. It's a long story where it got that meaning, but that's essentially what it means. This one here was actually granted to me by my best friend Brittany Wallach for my birthday many years ago. That's her right there.

(cheering)

MATT: This represents friendship and the people that have held me in my dark times and got me to where I am today, because honestly, no individual gets there. It's a bunch of people that bring you to your final fated future. Thank you, Brittany. And this band here-- if you get a chance to look, it has a bunch of numbers printed into it-- this was made by Marisha for our anniversary a few years ago. She dyed the leather, she printed in the numbers, and these numbers represent the actual coordinates of the beach where we had our first kiss.

AUDIENCE: Aww!

SAM: Gross.

MATT: I know, right? So yeah, each of these have a very special significance to me and are constant reminders of good moments and people in my life.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you so much.

MATT: Thank you! It was a good question.

TRAVIS: Great question.

SAM: This was a fun panel, Matt. You did great moderating.

LAURA: You've been awesome.

SAM: I'm drunk.

MATT: Good!

(cheering)

MATT: And you guys did a great job making that happen.

(cheering)

TRAVIS: We love that you guys are here! So we will be at the group signing table at 4:00. From 4:00 to 5:00 we'll be there; it's a short run, so if we don't get to everybody, that's okay. We'll be over at our tables until the close of the day, and then we'll be back here when the hall opens tomorrow, as well. We have another panel and a group signing tomorrow, as well. Thank you so much for coming out!

MATT: Thank you so much!

MARISHA: Thank you, guys! We have to pee because you've given us so many beers.

MATT: So 4:00 group signing, we'll be at our tables after that, and then we'll be there tomorrow. Thank you all so much. Is it Thursday yet?

TALIESIN: Oh my god. Oh.