Party of NPCs

is the second episode of 4-Sided Dive, discussing from to  with guests Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Liam O'Brien, and Sam Riegel. Sam served as the night's Tavern Keeper, and the guests played Street Fighter V after the break.

What the fuck is up with that?
'''What has it been like to have a group that's so fluid? With Bertrand's death, did this fall out? Chetney joining, Dorian leaving?'''
 * Liam feels that the fact that they were mostly travelers this time might have contributed to this feeling more natural; but then again, Jester was a traveler last campaign.
 * Laura notes that the changes felt very quick at the beginning and that it was strange to not have Travis at the table.
 * Sam agrees - they were all still getting to know each other and he still doesn't know what some of the characters' want to achieve.
 * Everyone loved having Robbie at the table and they joke about Dorian's crush.
 * Because of Exandria Unlimited, the start of Campaign 3 felt very different to Liam because Orym already knew Fearne and Dorian quite well at the beginning.
 * Taliesin thinks this feels something like the X-Men
 * Taliesin and Sam talk about comic collecting, and everyone talks about The Lost Boys, which Laura hasn't seen.

'''Ruidus. Speaking of creatures of the night. What the fuck is up with there?'''
 * Moon's haunted.
 * Imogen's seen the moon the most, presuming it is indeed the moon in her dreams. She's not sure why her mother was being researched - she could be Ruidisborn, or have had the dreams herself.
 * According to Taliesin, in X-Men lore, this makes Imogen Hope Summers, who lives on the moon with her psychic parents.
 * Orym's connection to the moons was a coincidence - Liam thought of it as romantic that Orym and Will would look up and compare themselves to the moons.
 * Sam's excited that 4-Sided Dive serves as a recap of the show he is on.
 * Chetney also has a connection to the moon (Catha, in his case) due to his lycanthropy.
 * Taliesin is just excited to go to the moon. Laura and Taliesin wonder if Ashton is made of moon rock.
 * The group digresses to talk about Ashton's four rage types: time, space, gravity, and luck. They also surmise about whether the Luxon is related to the moon, or if other members of Bells Hells have ties to the moon.

That heist, guys.
 * Taliesin had fun, and Liam really appreciates Matt switching up what the party is doing so that there's not only a mix of combat and RP but that the combat and RP they have varies.
 * Laura doesn't feel they did a good job of planning. Taliesin had thought everything would be fine as long as they didn't split the party...and then Chetney went off on his own.
 * Liam mentions that originally he'd built Orym to be able to go off and do whatever he wanted, but it turns out all of Bells Hells are fairly chaotic. Taliesin agrees - this is a Party of NPCs. Everyone feels like a strange character a "normal" D&D party would encounter, except for Imogen, who does seem to have a "feeling of intense destiny". Dorian felt like this too, but he's left for his own destiny.
 * But despite all that they won the heist! They feel like Chetney will one day just run off while scouting and never return, and while Orym wanted to leave cleanly without the violence from Imogen and Ashton, but Ashton has a code and Evon's dangerous traps felt like a betrayal.

What are some of your favorite heist movies or stories in general?
 * The group first thinks of previous heists on Critical Role - the Vergesson Sanatorium break-in, the heist on Dayana Prucine's house, and the "egg day" when they all broke into the clinic in Zadash.
 * Laura's first thought is Ocean's Eleven. Taliesin thinks of Hudson Hawk. Sam thinks that heists with two opposing teams are fun; Taliesin mentions Leverage, and Sam brings up Bottle Rocket as well. The list goes on - The Usual Suspects, Logan Lucky, French Kiss, A Fish Called Wanda, and Quick Change. Sam jokes this segment will be called "Movie Think" going forward.

The Tower of Inquiry, Round 1
Ittybittybagelbites, Twitch: What aspects of your current character were pre-planned and what ended up coming out organically while roleplaying? - pulled by Laura
 * Liam generally finds that while he pre-plans the outline, a lot comes out in roleplaying. Orym's love for pie definitely came from his experience in Byroden during Exandria Unlimited.
 * Laura didn't plan to give Imogen a fear of heights until Matt described the cable car in Jrusar and she thought it sounded terrible, despite not having a real-life fear of heights.
 * A lot of Taliesin's work has been figuring out what Ashton is being punk for, given how different Exandria is from our world. He also developed why Ashton would be spending time with Bells Hells based on roleplay decisions.
 * Sam mentions that each time, his character needs to decide why they're spending time with the rest of the cast's characters, since obviously they're friends in real life but not within the story yet.
 * Laura had already planned that Imogen would be fairly reserved and uncomfortable in crowds but didn't realize they'd start in such an urban setting, and had to have Imogen open up a bit sooner given how long they stayed in the city.
 * She and Marisha did discuss Imogen and Laudna's friendship and history beforehand.
 * Taliesin and Sam similarly talked about their history: FCG would have been extremely inquisitive about all aspects of Ashton's life, and Ashton would not have answered, but Ashton does feel both protective of FCG and excited to see FCG interrogate other people.
 * Sam made FCG a flat-earther because he assumed FCG wouldn't have ever had that information programmed. He also didn't want to deal with money and remembered Matt had told him he could heal himself with metal, which is how the coin-eating began.
 * Sam wanted a character who got mechanical rewards for roleplaying, which is partially how the Empathy Domain subclass was developed.
 * The glitching and deflecting was also not planned, but it's something Sam likes.