Talks Machina 1: Where the Cards Fall

is the first episode of Talks Machina.

Laura Bailey, Matthew Mercer, and Travis Willingham discuss with Brian Wayne Foster.

Synopsis
Brian introduces the show before playing the introduction video created by Wendy Sullivan Green. He then gives a quick recap of before playing the clip of Ghurrix summoning the erinyes and preparing for battle.

Matt talks about how Vox Machina has traveled to other planes before, but nothing like the City of Brass. He says that unless the players get creative they're just going to get eaten by the pit fiend.

Question for Matt: How often would you say the players choose the path that you expect them to, and has it changed over the course of the show?

It depends on where the players are in the story. In the Underdark at the start of the stream, there were a few branching paths but it was pretty straightforward.

As the players gained levels and the story evolved with the attack of the Chroma Conclave the storyline became more open. The players gained the abilities to teleport and travel between the various planes, making predicting their plans more difficult.

Matt tries to plan as much as he can, but sometimes they surprise him. For example, they recently said they weren't planning to go to the City of Brass, but then spontaneously decided to go there anyway.

On a related note, Senokir and Uten were both made up on the spot.

Question for Matt: Do you ever get to play as a character in a D&D game or are you only ever a GM/NPCs?

Matt gets to be a player rarely, usually just one-shot games when he has time. Ever since Critical Role began, turning their monthly game into a weekly one, he's had to spend more time planning which leaves him with less time to play games on his own. He feels that it's worth it though, and he loves watching his players work their way through the story.

Matt did get to play in a one-shot run by Matt Colville last year, alongside Liam and Marisha. Colville has offered to run another game for him when Mercer has more availability.

Matt has also played some one-shots on the Geek & Sundry channel with Ivan Van Norman and some of the other shows.

If Brian were Dungeon Master, he would be intimidated to have Matt as a player because he feels like Matt would know everything already. Matt admits that he knows most of the rules, which can help inform decisions, but the fun part is figuring out how to bend the rules or work around them.

Matt has a lot of experience seeing player do weird things, which can inspire him to do his own weird things as a player, but it doesn't mean he would know anything about the story or challenges that would be thrown at him.

Brian asks how Matt comes up with the voices for his NPCs. As far as Uten goes, a lot of Matt's tieflings come from Wildmount which has Eastern European inspirations. Senokir's voice developed more from Matt trying to find a unique voice for his first genasi NPC and deciding that his voice should make a nice contrast to the rest of the aggressive, tyrannical denizens of the City of Brass.

'''Question for Matt: How often do you reuse your maps? A lot of work goes into them, so it must be hard to only use them once.'''

Matt rarely gets to reuse his maps. A lot of battle locations are a one-time thing and many of the maps he makes go unused entirely.

Brian says that some Thursdays there will be a giant board with a blanket over it next to Matt, which Matt will just carry out with him if the battle doesn't happen.

Matt does feel a little sad that some of the maps are never seen, but it makes him more comfortable to know that they were ready if he needed them. He'd rather over-prepare than be caught off-guard and not have a cool set piece for the battle.

Question for Matt: Despite it being what that NPC would do, are there any decisions that you regret doing?

Matt doesn't have regrets exactly, but there were some moments or encounters that he expected to be much more grand or dangerous. For example, the final encounter with the Briarwoods. Due to player ingenuity and dice rolls it wasn't the climactic battle he expected, although it was still a great narrative encounter.

Matt would never punish the players for doing well, or for his own unlucky rolls of the dice. He doesn't want every single encounter to feel like it's calculated to be just the right amount of dangerous. It makes the players feel more powerful to be able to steamroll an encounter, as it shows the advancement of their characters.

Brian asks Matt if he thinks Percy regrets attempting to stab the disguised Raishan in. Matt is skeptical, since Taliesin said he did it on purpose to reveal that Raishan wasn't actually there, but he also said he was taking all three attacks.

Matt says that it revealed to the Council that Asum Emring was not the Asum they knew and exacerbated the mistrust in the room. It definitely heightened the tension in those protecting Whitestone. Matt's curious to see how that will play out in the future.

GIF of the Week: Winner: Carlos B. @CspiderMx (GIF) Prize: Critical Role mug

Brian welcomes Travis and Laura to the show. He asks who is ready to die the most. Laura always feels like they're going to die. Travis thinks there in good shape, even though they make some dumb moves.

Brian asks how long it took them to make the Halloween costumes from. Laura already had the corset (she bought it on Etsy) and the lace part was lingerie from Amazon. Travis is not good at making costumes; Laura put together most of his for him. She had it ready two weeks in advance. Travis did his own makeup, though.

Question for everyone: How deep is the Hamilton obsession?

It is very deep. Laura and Travis spent a lot of money on tickets for Travis's birthday. They got to see the original actor for George Washington.

Question for Laura: What are you more worried about: surviving the current pit fiend situation or Thordak?

Before answering, they all confirm with Matt that the Colossal Red Dragon miniature is to scale for Thordak, which it is. Thinking about it keeps Travis up at night.

Laura asks Matt if Kamaljiori said he would help Vox Machina once they had gathered all of the Vestiges of the Divergence. He did not say that, he only told them about the existence of the Vestiges and that gathering them would help prepare them to face Thordak.

Laura answers the original question, saying that she is more worried about the pit fiend at the moment because she's pretty sure they're all going to die.