Transcript:Fireside Chat & NPC Build with Matthew Mercer

List of Transcripts

MATT: Oh, hi there. I didn't see you. Welcome. Glad you could join us for this little fireside hangout. Happy to have you guys here to relax and ask some questions, answer some questions, converse, generally nerd out I think is the plan for today. And drink this ridiculously strong port to the point of probable intoxication. A fantastic gift from one of our fantastic critters, Mark, who gifted me this fantastic port. He helps with a lot of the charity work we did, and the reason we're doing this is because you guys have been so great in supporting 826 and helping us raise an astronomical amount of money for charity, so this port's for you. Everyone's having a great day. We're still recovering from GenCon. It was crazy. The live show was fantastic. All the critters we had a chance to meet over the weekend were great. The booth-- our first booth ever having a booth presence at any convention-- went really well. Big ups to our incredible team, Brittany Walloch for her awesome idea and design, everyone who brought it to realization did a fantastic job, and those who saw and some who possibly haven't, we came up with the weird idea to randomly show up at the booth on Sunday with me dressed as Pumat Sol, just to mess around and meet some people and kind of just breathe a little life. That's a big thing we're pushing for as we go-- sorry, that's my mic-- as we go into this new direction with Critical Role, we want to try and make things more of an experience. We want to try and make things more of a community-unique thing and this was our first chance to try out some of stepping into that ground. So I hope people enjoyed it, and you know we're doing as much as we can with our limited resources, but we hope to do more things like that down the road in the future. We've got some cool plans and you guys make it all worth it.

So, yeah, welcome, welcome. I'm glad we get to hang out here for a little bit. I'm looking over here at some of these-- Oh, we're already getting questions just shooting up the page, which is crazy. Thank you for the ASMR. It's the least I could do. I'm going to spend the rest of the hangout just like this. Don't worry. Enjoy yourselves, relax, sit in your chair, and... (blows in mic) No, I'm not gonna do that. That'd be ridiculous. It felt really cool to cosplay as Pumat-- I saw somebody asked that question. For those who don't know, I come from a cosplay background. It was a big part of my nerd passion outside of high school. Right when cosplay really became a thing in the early 2000s I discovered it on the internet and I wanted to mix my love of Halloween costumes and putting way too much effort into costumes and blend it with my love of anime and cartoons and video games, so it was just this great combination. I got really into it in the mid 2000s, and then decided when I wanted to pursue a career in voice acting, which is a very low-income endeavor, I had to choose one or the other, so my hobby fell to the wayside. So this was a cool way for me to jump back in those shoes and [Pumat voice] I got to sit around there and meet a lot a fantastic critters and surprise them and shake hands, sign a few things and really hopefully bring a little more life to that fantastic booth experience that our team worked so hard on. So I hope you enjoyed it. If you haven't seen the video, you can find it online. I think I've retweeted it, so hope you get to enjoy that.

All right, let's get into some questions, 'cause that's the point here is for us to have this conversation and for you guys to ask some fun things. I'm going to pop in here and see what we got-- oh, we already got a collection here. All right, KYHawkeye has a question. "How long did it take for the team to make you up to look like Pumat Sol?" We're probably going to put out a post on the CritRole website with progress photos and everything. It took all together about two to two-and-a-half hours to get in full costume and makeup. The makeup artist did a fantastic job. She was local to the Indianapolis area. I posted her contact info and I'll do another one on Instagram once we get the photos back from Chris Lockey, who took some really good photos of the makeup. But yeah, it was base and then prosthetics. Me and Brittany Walloch went around and and purchased all the prosthetics and and makeup things in advance. We got the wig, we got the beard, we got the nose prosthetic, the ear prosthetics. We took like a full day just collecting and assembling Pumat. And then we went to Indianapolis, and that Sunday morning she made it up. We had never done or worn any of it in advance, so it was like a "fingers crossed-- hope this works out" type scenario. Actually Matt Key bought the goggles for it at the convention, while we were on our way to the convention, so that was one of the things I was like, "Oh wait, that's Pumat Prime! He needs to have the goggles to differentiate!" So, you know, we're nerds for detail and can't do anything half-assed, apparently, much to our detriment half the time but-- hope that was helpful.

KatetheGray83 asks, "What are your favorite qualities in a player?" The ability to listen to the other players, I think, is a huge thing, because it's a communal experience at the table, and I've been at tables where certain players are very attention-grabby or need to be the hero, and it's okay occasionally, but I think my favorite trait in players are the ones that listen and let each other player have the spotlight when it feels right, step up when it feels it's their time, or to help aid others' experiences as opposed to shut them down. I think that's a huge trait that I really appreciate. As a DM, a trait that I appreciate are players that aren't always too careful. I mean, it's important to be careful at times, but every now and when you have to make that that choice to do something really, really bold and dangerous because-- nobody sits there and waxes poetic with their friends about that time in the game that they went to that very dangerous dungeon and very meticulously spent three hours avoiding every trap successfully. They talk about the times that things went terribly wrong or someone did something really stupid crazy and it succeeded and it was amazing. So for me, a player who gets bold every now and then is a memorable player, and one that I really enjoy. So yeah, I can go on for a while, but those are two good answers for you.

This is fun. Thanks for hanging out, guys. Let's see here. MagicThighs asks, "How many hours of work did the party foist upon you by killing Lorenzo prematurely?" Not too many. Not too many. I don't prep a lot in advance, 'cause for me, D&D isn't about carefully defining every aspect of it. It's outlining things, outlining possible realms, giving yourself bullet points in some moments that you can read off of, and then a lot of it is the improv. You use that to guide you and then a lot of things just get made up on the spot and that's kind of the fun between you and the players. So it wasn't a lot of prep. I mentioned this at the Talks panel on Saturday, but Lorenzo wasn't intended to be a long time big bad villain. He was meant to be a short-term one who was-- the main goal and the reason they were sent to Shadycreek Run by the Gentleman was to take care of Lorenzo and the Iron Shepherds. It wasn't until Laura and Travis had to leave for their baby and scheduling them out that I realized it would be a good point to bring Lorenzo in a little earlier and tie him to that scenario. So instead of becoming a job they were assigned, he became a short-term villain and it's kind of cool to see how that grew automatically. Then with the death of Mollymauk, it made him even more cemented as a really vile character and unexpectedly he became this great villain for the time that he was there. I planned for him to escape and perhaps head to the Jagentoths or another ally and make it a, "Do you hunt him down and finish this once and for all? How do you do so without drawing too much attention to you as the killers?" There were a lot of possible paths that could have taken. But, as is D&D, sometimes things don't work out how you planned and I'm-- in that moment where you're frustrated as a DM that your villain died sooner than you thought, you're also really proud of your players for coming up with some good tactics, having some good luck, and it still made for a very satisfying death. So I don't feel like I was robbed of anything. But yeah, anyway, I hope that answers that question for you.

Let's see here. Another question here from RegularGnoll. "How do you determine who wins an NPC-only fight, like bar brawls or arenas? Do you actually roll the whole fight, or do you decide who you want to win and then add flair on top of it?" You can do it either way. If it's inconsequential and it's just like a flavor piece in the background, I might decide it makes sense this person would win. If it's things like the end of last campaign when Arkhan told Vox Machina to go ahead towards Vecna and he battled with the Black Knight, I actually rolled that fight to see if Arkhan could even make it to the next fight, and if he did, what resources he would have left. To the surprise of nobody, a level 17+ oathbreaker paladin with some barbarian in there can do a shit ton of damage in a very short time, as you saw on the Stream of Many Eyes, as I'm sure many of you saw. Was it the stream? It was one of the streams they did with Arkhan and he just destroyed-- it was 315 points of damage in a single round, I think. I think-- was it for Origins? I can't remember. Something recently. [Offscreen voice: Founders game.] Founders, that's what it was. It was the Founders game that we had recently. Founders Legends. So yeah, that one I rolled up and realized that's a bunch of-- that's a powerful character build. I think Joe did a very good job of-- I helped him when he was leveling up the character but he was the one who guided the path. He's my favorite person who can take the best parts of a really good character build-- I wouldn't say min-maxing, because that has a negative connotation, though it really shouldn't, in some cases-- but he knows how to build a really powerful build, and build a good character personality and story to go with it, and I was kind of proud to see that Arkhan was such a beast at that point. 315 in a single round.

All right, so next question. GoththeMighty asks, "How do you go about setting up recurring villains to create an invested narrative?" That can depend. To me, it's about creating a villain that has a reason to not directly fight the party. If a villain's like, "I'm gonna go fight you" the first time they meet them, they might escape or they might die the first time, in which case, not a very interesting villain. I think villains that are invested in the world outside of the party, that have a lot of goals that don't intersect directly with the purposes for the party, can make the world not only feel more alive and breathing but it leads to the possibility of having this obnoxious group of heroes begin to dig as a thorn into their side, and then they have to give them some attention, send something their way to possibly murk up their plans or stop them, and then if they keep recurring then they have to get personally involved and invested. The classic kind of build up to a narrative villain. For me it's-- a good villain is a villain that doesn't just want to kill things. It's a villain that might want to try and pay them off, might want to try and make them offers to no longer deal with them. That's how a lot of good businessmen and a lot of darker stories work is, "I could kill them, but that's messy. I pay them enough, maybe they won't bother me anymore. Maybe they'll come under my employ." Consider ways they can interact with the party but not always be in battle. That way, they get the opportunity to interact with them personally, to learn more about them and unveil some of the more darker threads beneath their personality. Those are some aspects of it. There's so many different ways to do it, it would be a very long question. But I hope that gives you some idea of a direction there.

Now, let's see here. SammyMantha1 asks, "What is your process for planning campaign arcs, and how do you recover from derailing events like Lorenzo failing to escape?" For me-- oh, man, I'll try and keep this concise. I take elements of what would be satisfying stories to pursue for the players and the characters they've built, think of their flaws, think of what it is that drives them, and what scares them, and how can I weave notes that can pluck or play on those personality facets, whether it's directly or indirectly involved in that character's backstory. And think of an end goal. What would be a cool centerpiece battle? What would be a very cool villain that they could eventually work towards? So I kind of create the end first, pepper it with beats that I can pluck on those character traits, and then fill the middle, as opposed to-- that's my path anyway. I don't plan everything out initially. I kind of loosely give a threadbare arc to it with those points: the end point, the couple of milestones I want in between, and then I fill it out as we travel through it. But that little bit of foresight that I have, knowing the direction I want it to go, allows me to spontaneously drop hints, and to drop references, and possible chance interactions, or bits of information that might help them in their in their journey. So that's more or less my process most of the time in a very vague and truncated sense.

Let me see here. Lay574 asks, "Has there been anything with having your own studio that you didn't expect, good or bad?" Yeah, good and bad. The good-- I mean, there's a lot of good. 1) We have a space where we can creatively do whatever we want with it. We can just-- I don't know, have all of our creative folk under one roof and that's been a really really good process of feeling like we can try things out and if they fail, they fail, if they work, they work. It's a very good creative environment. Bad? Getting it set up and running was very stressful. Having to get the internet working for it in time for the stream, getting all the equipment necessary for it working on the budgets that we have, and just making sure that we could meet the promise of being able to start up at the studio in time for what we had hoped and promised to you guys. So it was a very stressful period in getting it up and running, but everyone knocked it out of the park-- the team-- I'm very proud of. Every time you have your own space, it has its own quirks, but everyone works through it diligently and with a smile on their face. I'm very thankful that we have such good people here helping us do this every day.

Let's see, next question. FliptheSwitch12 says, "What is you favorite part of sharing your love of D&D with your spouse?" For me, I've had relationships in the past where people were-- my partners had vague levels of interest in my hobbies, from here to there. I've dragged them all into it to some degree, but being able to share it so strongly with with Marisha and being able to both be so excited about it has been a huge boon. It's really nice to be able to get super-excited about a class idea or about a new book coming out or being able to play a story together and then we can go home, we can swap stories about it, and talk about our various ideas of how things could have gone, or surprises, and how characters reacted on certain things, and-- it's just like sharing any passion with your partner. Not all relationships, all passions overlap. There are things that Marisha is into that I'm not as into, and vice versa-- very much so. But this is one of those strong passions that we we do overlap with. And I think it's great to have that variety, but to have the strong base of some sort of interest or passion there that's shared is a very positive thing. So I love it. I think it's great. And those of you who are in relationships or have spouses that aren't as interested-- that's totally fine. You can always ask if they want to try it, like give it a shot see if it's something you would be interested in, and try and cultivate an experience to see if they might like it more than you expect. I've seen that happen many times, actually. Might not work out. They might be like, "Okay, well, that's your thing and I see now why you like it. It's just not something I can really get as into as you, but I respect that, and I think just to open that door a little bit is a really cool thing. But yeah, I'm really appreciative that I have someone who shares that interest with me

Let's see. I'm going to go through some fun questions here. AdelynJoanna asks, "Do you plan on any solo sessions on stream or otherwise with Laura, Travis, and Ashley?" No solo sessions because there's only so much time in a week, and the narrative they went through is not as dynamic enough to run a separate session. I'm actually meeting with Laura and Travis and I'm talking with Ashley as well about what transpired in that, in terms, so they're-- we're talking and having an in-depth discussion about what events they were undergoing and what things they saw or heard or went through during that time period, so they'll be up to speed and that narrative will be with them and they can talk about in the story if they want to, but once again it was just a necessary separation due to Ashley's shooting schedule and Laura and Travis having a baby, which is a thing. So like anybody who runs a game and life gets in the way of player schedules, you just have to adapt and do your best to make it work and still feel semi-natural within the narrative. That was the best I could come up while still raising the stakes and making it an intense shift from their exit from Hupperdook.

All right, next one. Question: "As someone who's playing an Order of the Lycan blood hunter in my home game, do you have any tips or advice on how to add some unique flair so it's not a stereotypical werewolf character?" Well, here's a fun bit. Werewolves classically are dealing with the curse of lycanthropy as something that they cannot control, something that they want to keep hidden, that they feel like they will do terrible things if they haven't been able to keep it at bay. The Order of the Lycan specifically are training to keep it under control, to stay focused enough to use it to their benefit through their training, through the hunter's bane, through being part of the order that helps them kind of harness those capabilities. So consider a person who can take the form of a werewolf but in hopes of dispelling that fear. They don't always have to be a grim dark character though the class does lend itself that direction a little bit. What if they're occasionally a giant wolf that likes to be petted? What if in their wolf form there are instincts within the werewolf form that lean more towards a dog or a pet type persona that they can't really control? Where the human's very stoked that once they go in werewolf form they sometimes just want to get that scratch behind the ears. Sometimes they want to make the party leader happy by bringing them dead animals. There are fun things you could play with in that realm. And remember, lycanthropy doesn't always mean stereotypical werewolf. You can go all sorts of were creatures in the stats there. It's emphasized in one of the small bits, so look for that.

Before we get into some more questions here, let's go ahead and talk a little bit on this NPC build that we've all been working on. So for those who aren't familiar, as part of this 826 LA charity push, on top of this fantastic hangout that we're having now, you guys all voted on the CritRole webpage on an NPC that I get to incorporate in the game, a community-made and crowd-sourced NPC. You've all voted so we're gonna unveil many aspects of it here and then we'll define a few aspects of personality and maybe some voice elements in the chat here. So without further ado, allow me to unveil what this character is. They may show up sooner, they may show up later, but they're definitely gonna show up in the campaign. I already have some ideas on where they're gonna come in, so you'll keep an eye out for whenever they do show up. It's not gonna be next episode, but some point in the future, so keep an eye out. So the winner for the race of this NPC, with 23.1% of the vote is... tortle. So it is going to be a tortle. I am excited at this prospect and I already know both location and story-wise how it's gonna show up so that's pretty exciting. The class chosen for this tortle is going to be, with 23.8% of the vote, a bard. So it's a tortle bard. That's gonna be a fun thing to work out. I know those are like, "Oh, they didn't pick what I wanted!" But there were some great choices in there and it could have gone in other directions, but this is what the people asked for, so we'll see how it works out. I can't make an NPC that's every character and every race, unfortunately. Not without things getting a little weird. The background of this tortle bard with 13.7% of the vote is going to be folk hero. So it's a folk hero bard tortle. Exciting. Well-known in some local circles. The occupation of this folk hero tortle bard, with 22.7% of the vote, is an enchanted tattooist. This excites me tremendously and I am very much now looking into how I can incorporate those mechanics into what this NPC is capable of. It should be fun. As far as the gender of the character, with 33.6% of the vote, we have a male tortle bard who is this folk hero enchanted tattooist. Their alignment, with 27.8% of the vote, is chaotic good, and the age, with 48.5%, is gonna be middle-aged. So a middle-aged tortle folk hero bard who is a chaotic good man who has been working his time as an enchanted tattooist. Might be some opportunities for some members of the Mighty Nein to get a tattoo or two. We shall find out.

So on that aspect of it, whatever this character is able to to develop, produce, put out there, let's get some ideas from the chat about their... let's see, what's a fun physical characteristic of this tortle bard? I want to see what kind of interesting ideas come through the chat here, and I'll just pick one at random, something that speaks to me, that jumps out, so wait for this to come around. Let's see.

[22:52] All right, well, we've got some fun ones here. I've seen a lot that are already asking for a missing eye. I'll go with that missing eye so this this folk-hero tortle bard lost his eye at some point or perhaps was born with just one so we got that that's that's fun. The next bit let's go ahead and get a voice idea form and that an idea for a vocal texture a range maybe throw out some dialects I said that dangerously I will try not to pick ones that I'd know very poorly sort of embarrass myself on the Internet Oh oh hi buddy no thank you [Music] I'm not too late do I get to clean the finger infinite with this or my mouth did get out of here I'm so sorry [Music] I'm saying some calls for for Norris and seeing some calls for French stutters I saw him there stuttering would be interesting I grew up a stutterer and my father's a stutterer so I would be an interesting thing to pull into it to kind of step into that realm you know what Rudy I'm gonna go ahead and say I'm gonna say he's a stutterer it's a stuttering stuttering bard I kind of like that it makes sense to many many people who have a stutter actually tend to lose it or be able to keep it at bay while singing or performing it's been used for many many years as a means of you know treating and in developing ways to deal with the stutter so I kind of like that a lot of people are asking for four by you oh man I do some research to get back into that sure we'll go with it well go with a one-eyed Cajun it's stuttering oh my god there's too many layers here this is this is gonna be a fun challenge to work on for a bit okay okay all right all right so it's gonna be time to bring you to see how a total bot around the pond there with the bio I wanna be a good time hope y'all enjoy down and there are more surely it should be fun at least from what you were expecting whatever you're trying to humor from that one that right well the hymn is sing a sauce that's its song for you all right there he goes a little bit of a I guess a pre attempt I'm sure it'll change before I get around to it off to some more practice it's been a while

I'm not gonna stop drinking are you kidding me not for this this is the point of it I put in some practice I'll develop him and hope that I can hopefully do justice to this fantastic NPC that you guys have helped me develop so excited about that oh man that's exciting well done everyone that's that that's a really fun character

all right let's see if we get back into some some fun questions here all right another Matt asks did you expect the critters to pick up and one thing I apologize if there are spoilers if you haven't seen the recent episode if you if you haven't seen reason episode you've already heard some spoilers and if and if you don't hear anymore maybe you uncheck this on VOD later which will be it's nice did you expect the critters to pick up on Lorenzo's being an Oni I assumed it was gonna happen but I wanted to be a slow roll some things like that I like to just tease aspects of if the players don't pick up on it I know folks in the community will other dims or people who have read the most manual pretty intensely so I was excited to see people kind of think about it and and wonder I love watching people in the community kind of you know pontificate about possibility when mysteries are about and and that was a fun one and it was fun to watch people like I think it's this what is this it has to be this and then the moment where was I mean it was confirmed me like you guys so it was it was it was a fun journey to bring you guys on with me

one Balaji 1 to 7 asks what gave you the initial idea for creating the lingering soul class along with other subclasses along with its subclasses I was just part of it was trying to think of what would be the possession rules for those for the ghosts in the game and I was thinking it'd be kind of fun for a player to have the ability to possess things but like you know a living person to expend their soul would be kind of weird on it and then I began and I put that at bay for a while and then I had this and I conversation with someone about having variations to death beyond just dying if a character really really really you know has some sort of unfinished business as part of the narrative if a character like their whole life has spent around a revenge plot or a specific goal and they happen to die in a D&D game and the players are playing very you know strict to the death rules that can be very kind of disappointing and lackluster for that player in that narrative is there some way that we can keep it going they can still play as that character but still be dead and still see the narrative through and since we have ghosts and spirits and poltergeists as monsters like why couldn't we have that as a player option so I just began to brainstorm and I was to me I was like writing notes and my phone over months and just kind of throwing different ideas in there then finally I just went you I'm to write this I'm gonna sit down he goes on an airplane flight coming back from the convention and I just sat there and just kind of brain speeder down the page and that was kind of where the inception of it came from as far as the subclasses go I was just thinking about various facets of what is what direction is spirit could go and so I wanted to definitely go with a Wraith kind of a darker more you know life hungry spirit because the players I want to try and think in that realm especially the more of an evil character or at least one that is a little more cruel would be fun and perhaps it's part of their journey is trying to resist the temptation to go down that dark path even though their actions tend to pull them in that direction I wanted there to be a version that didn't rely entirely on possession for its abilities and that's where the poltergeist came into play someone that can manipulate objects around them and actually wear armor and use weapons and be more of a you know a melee based class as a spirit and this poulter base was a good fit for that so I began to develop that archetype and then spirit Guardian which is well I love the flavor of that cleric spell and I thought I wanted more of a protective or at least supported spirit and I mean the flavor text is already there so we're just taking aspects of the spirit Guardian spell and then expanding it upon that third archetype to make it more of a protective and and healing based spirit so that was the basis of the inspiration for that there's a lot of fun I like the current build I might as with all my stuff I might go back and revisit it after I've had some distance for a while and have some more ideas to tweak it a bit you know my process of learning how to homebrew and game design is still very new to me compared to people who doing this for many many years so I'm always learning I'm always finding ways to tweak and and and and make things better so I hope you guys enjoy what's out there so far and wants to come

let me pull a question from the chat here let's see we need to the Taco Bell more more after the last episode your Marisha the last episode we didn't run Oh taco bell's open that late at night but some episodes I've been trying to avoid the Taco Bell recently doesn't sit well with me as much and talking about nearest to us doesn't stay open too late sever the late games we actually been hit more jack-in-the-box in the way home which is not anywhere near as a healthier option as you'd hope question what was Lorenzo eating I saw in the chat that was um that was a child like I'm gonna go knees her want to do let's all leave it at that use the fucked up guy what was the first homebrew class you ever created for 5e it was it was the blood hunter which started as the witch hunter which mean I was all reactive it was it was all based on doing the the one shot with Vin Diesel and I kind of you know we were trying to do this based on this character called her in the movie that you did it for the last witch hunter and so I took kind of a base ranger and customized elements of it to fit things I saw in the trailer cuz the movie wasn't out yet and I hadn't seen it so I was like flaming weapon that he can turn a fire and then faster reflexes and stuff and it was really simple but then all of a sudden everyone was saying what did what did he play what class did did Wendy's will play in the one shot and I was like oh man I think in class now so I began to put together a witch hunter class and it was very simple it was not very well balanced it was for my mentoring knowledge of design and fifth edition and but thankfully putting it out there the community was was very helpful and giving me feedback some very strongly and so I learned and just kept reiterating it and then by then I'd put so much time into it I was like I don't wanted to be just a a variation of this Vin Diesel lunch I want to make it my own so that's where I began to completely customize it and change its design entirely to be the blood hunter I wanted it to be something that fit uniquely within D&D that didn't overlap too much with any other existing classes that some unique characteristics and features and for me was using its blood and own you know vitality as a source of power was something that I hadn't seen explored too much so that was kind of where I began to spin off of it and I've learned a lot of lessons through it I'm still learning and it's been it's been a lot of fun it's pull some more chats that have been cultivated here more chats more questions from the chat I haven't had near enough to be started missing my speech but yet here we go ma asks his Trent Agathon an npc you came up with and through it the players as part of the wild mounting they could have known or was it a character Liam has thrown at you and Caleb's background and you integrated him into the world Trent and Keith almost a character I'd already created I had already built out the like some of the major factions those that work specifically around the King I'd worked out the Cerberus assembly and other factions in the world and when the players begin to ask questions about their backgrounds name was asked me about what individual might be responsible for things that pertain to his background and I said oh well that would probably trend taketh on so I sent him information about Trent but none of the players know and so he began to write and tailor his backstory around Trent and what his purpose was and his doings and so then it became a collaboration from there but but Trent I'd created not knowing it would be so entwined in one of the players stories but it's been really fun to build him in that space I'm pretty excited to where that may or may not go down the road see useless rogue asks just how many how much did you enjoy the many layers of meta and the Dwarven Forge game at GenCon those who weren't watching we got to do me and Liam got to join Joe Manganiello so team Phoenix and my brain is not working at the moment Stefan who was the door or not they could be like the man who created started warmin Forge and David ikenson who's one of the who's like the Gen Con head and all of us played in a game run by Nate Taylor or Gordon Forge to unveil her a new forest set and it was a lot of fun there definitely was a lot of plot threads that dealt around this this gesture this court jester who was kidnapped on his murse with the Magnificent trying to save him from being sacrificed in the forest and they actually had a miniature of tiny me in Chains so that was pretty fun it was it was pretty it was pretty hilarious I would say keep an eye out there are some more fun things that were doing was working Forge pretty soon so hope you enjoy those and they come around let's see here somebody's interesting everybody everybody walked dance so oh yeah that's a song from my youth older than some of you in chat the game was filmed I think if you get a dwarven for John on Twitter thing they have a link to where you can find it or they should soon I hope question how do you avoid making every Scottish I went too fast me to read the rest my temptation is to since what I grew up with and I just always I love the excuse to use the Scottish brogue it's where my favorite dialects that exist out there and I love it so for in my world a lot of them primarily are depending where they come from but there are Dwarfs that are not and for me it's just wanting to mix it up a little because then it becomes a little too classic fantasy so for me it's having to having to fight my inner urge to want to make them all dwarvish all Scottish and then having to mix it up it's an internal battle Oh some good questions in here that I won't answer because it leads to some some narrative aspects of there what's my craziest dream for a critical role I have no idea we the best way I can describe the entire critical role experience from our aspect is we are laying down the tracks in front of the train while it's just charging forward everything has been so reactionary none of us expected it to grow into this every every year is just another leap of support you guys have thrown our direction and we want to make that as great for and bring it back to you as we can you know we could easily have just kept doing what we're doing pocket the extra and and and be happy with with the additional income but but we don't care about that we won't we wanted to bring it back to the community we want to produce more content we want to put it back into you guys and what we can do for you so it's been none of us expected this and we're just trying to catch up we're trying to do we've listening to you guys listen to your feedback listen to what you're excited about and wanting to make this such a wonderful safe space for people of all backgrounds or pushing for opportunities to really show more diverse people in the community and other shows to bring we have ideas be a lot of ideas and so we're gonna go too much weight but we're we're excited that you guys have enabled us and really appreciated enabled us the capability of having this this opportunity with the studio and this fantastic crew and and the chance to make this far more than what this little d indie game that started this is so really excited really really excited so you're good oh my god it's going so fast but I knew what's gonna happen oh I'll look at this for singing well was have you're part of the Sam shirt the fact that I have one oh now that I have three and I got to unveil one in a live show that was exciting a long time coming I've been wanting to do it for a while but I've been just so busy and so focused on things that are you know responsible that never got around to actually ordering a shirt or finding the right image for it so Liam being the good friend II he was managed to pick up the stack for me and provide that which made me happy that's all a lot people in the chat asking about the where the Warcraft game I played with Terry Crews one I'm for both the Alliance and the Horde I played on both sides and I've played since friends and only beta before the launch I'm a huge World of Warcraft fan I don't play it much at all these days because I've got along there's things to worry about but I miss it terribly and there are times where all log on and just do some quest to feel the old feeling I have to keep it a bay I've disappeared into that game heavily when the game first launched I remembered I vanished like seven months I was like one of the first rogues to sixty on my server I was like one of the top duelists outside of Ironforge I was Alliance originally it's night off Rove but I was I was I was a combat rogue what the time was called combat they want to be the stuffing it was a swashbuckler you know that ones like combat rogues stupid you're not you're nowhere near as good as others fucking own people outside of her and fortune and doing just saying but uh friends then I switch to a horde for a while and then I came back and I liked both sides but anyway back to the back of the thing at hand Terry Crews I've been such a huge fan of his work Brooklyn than Ana such an incredible show and everything else he's done is fantastic the and being is such an awesome positive figure who's been so outspoken about male sexual harassment who's been outspoken for the me tube movement has been outspoken about the problems with toxic masculinity I think it's so important to have a figure like him that is such a powerful strong respectable and awesome person who has who has nothing but excitement and drive to bring these things to light and to talk about them in a way that is healthy and important so I am just I was over the moon had the opportunity to play meet with him and I met him briefly last year at comic-con between panels and I will say you're always worried on meeting celebrities and what they really are versus what they aren't he was as incredible as sweet as excitable as passionate and as humble and genuine as I could have ever hoped he was I loved every moment of playing with him I left every moment of talking with him about the game before and after I discovered he followed me on Twitter like a week ago when we launched it and so I've talked to them about their got to tell them how thankful I am for how important he is in his current environment and I I would love to have him guessing critical role at some point down the road it depends on his schedule and if we can't afford it but uh but he's he's amazing and I just so happy for everything he's doing and even if not the opportunity to play again it was absolute joy to work with him on that in that game question passing the adventure zone was amazing I mean everything the McElroy's do is fantastic I love that they're just just a tight knit of really clever fun kind of loving family unit and all the podcasts they do are out there I've only talked with Griffin briefly online via DM but I'm a big fan of everything he's done with his stories there I've had the opportunity to hang with Travis now multiple times and he's an absolute joy I'm gonna try and connect with him more I would love the opportunity to drag one of them on the show at some point in near future so we'll see if that ever pans out but uh those guys are fantastic they're they're great they're very very happy and proud that there's a lot of crossover in our community too let's yeah I'm I'm so happy so proud and so excited that their book is doing so well the graphic novels doing so well at them so it makes me happy anyway I'll go back to some where these creative questions feel like I should let's see bees out asks I had I had to say it of the many planes that exist in the multiverse do you have a personal favorite or one that you would particularly like to make your players explore I love playing scape I don't know if we'd ever get to a point in our game where that fits in our world necessarily I know dice camera actions been exploring that heavily they're doing a great job of that and I'm happy about that but I love playing scape and I love everything that I want to cook did with it back in the day I love the aspect that it's a it's essentially the Nexus of all the other universes and it's where I learned to mispronounce the words signal or sigil for those that want the the non-city name pronunciation but yeah I love that world if I ever played sin we'll see but I think for the most part for the time being we want to keep things kind of in the realm of eggs and reah and should I ever get a wild hare maybe well maybe we'll explore something in that realm we'll see it's another question here Cort Corvus glaive asks how do you make magic items with interesting backstory and magic items in the mind and self-consciousness oh that's I would say take a moment after you've built your magical item think about its power set and where that power set may have come from if it if it's a weapon that can create you know a fiery burst of magical energy perhaps it was forged in a volcano where was that volcano and who would have forged it and survived forging it into volcano perhaps it was a elemental Lord who who wanted to make this as the the know the the crowning symbol of his power until his people fell and the blade was lost frozen an ice had slowly melted over time until it was you know scavenge start thinking of the history that could have led to the reason for the enchantment or the source of it and run with it that can be a fun way to find the history based around it as far as mind and self consciousness it's just like creating in there NPC once again consider the enchantments that are involved consider that history and then perhaps part of that history perhaps that fire that that element to Lord that crafted it at the moment he was slaughtered or was about to die gave the last bit of his consciousness as a vengeful detonation that no would ruin the foes the assassins that assaulted him and unbeknownst to him that last shred of his consciousness fused with the blade and now there's a fragment of his soul that slowly grown over time with him there that wants to be released almost to find something that he can implant himself into so developing the history of that magical item can inform the NPC personality that you can then fortune to that weapon I don't know if anything that I just had made sense I just kind of made it up on the spot but like contemplating where the enchantment can fit within a history and the reason for its creation and its power set then creating then thinking about what entities may have come in contact with it that could then have become infused with the weapon can help you develop that personality in the traits of it this great guidelines in the dmg and on the DMS guild and a lot of community members on how to develop intelligent magical items - that can help you out there arch arch Enix oo-one asks how did Kosta end up captured by the iron shepherds so yeah I wanted to have kauri back for a while to guess that I know when I was gonna work out the narrative he's been filming on on Walking Dead for so long and he let me know a few weeks in advance of the live show like hey I'm in town I'd love to come back I'm like uh well just so happens that most of our players are gone and we had Somali for a few episodes and then we have the live show are you available for the live show and he got back and he said I think so where is it him in the appleís he goes are we defining Indianapolis to guests in like yeah okay so I began to think about it and not going to in deep with with sure Costas mysterious background he's alluded to the fact that he works with a community of people independently though they are of a similar mind with the drive of pursuing free ideas free speech and freeing those from unfair bindings that have found them under the control of an unjust entity so that was why he was freeing the people from the Knowles and they first encountered him and that same drive as he was kind of you know still existing in the space on the southern part of the Empire keeping an ear out for any such things to get possibly help with I see some folks in the chat that may have some ideas and he began to pursue these these threads and had heard about these people that were taken from out of the outskirts of elder women which was the first stop that the iron Shepherd's had made heading up north back towards Shady Creek run and so he began to kind of stalk them attempted to in the middle of the night while they were camped off the road break in and released them and got caught and that's where he was thrown he didn't manage to to free one individual but they took him as tribute to replace them in the cage and so that was how he got captured and put along with them so that was my my narrative aspect of getting him in the place for the live show where he could encounter the players and he'll and have some investment in that final battle so that was how that came about part of a rabid EMS job as many teams out there know is just finding a way to make the narrative work for the craziness that life throws at you and so I hope it felt somewhat natural what's the best I can do questions are flying by so fast how open know you about playing an evil player character evil PC that's a good question depends on the player and depends on how well you develop it I would be I would be very uncomfortable with letting a player I've not played with much do it because I've seen it too often bogged down or ruin gameplay experiences when they decide that their character Drive and inspiration just be an evil fucker overrides their interest in making a cohesive story that's fun for all the rest of the players so if it's a really good player that knows how to to pursue elements of an evil ideal or philosophical outlook on life and make it work with a way that doesn't you know ruin other players good time then I'm definitely interested in pursuing it whether that's a retribution arc with all of a sudden they steer from the path or if they find creative ways to manipulate others to think they're good and work them on the same path they're going on or they're not sure that their actions are evil they just lack the morality you need to learn about that and then make a choice that's up to them I think there's a lot of fascinating ways you can do it but I do believe it has to come from a player who has enough respect for the story and other players to not ruin their experience and the story you're trying to tell together and somebody who can know when it when is the time to to really give in to those kind of evil urges versus when they have to keep it at bay the best way I can put it I think and in short way here we go Magnus milady question is how do you make characters now do you name characters in the spot um sometimes it's just picking out saying names come off the top of your head it helps to have a list of them sometimes on I have a few lists of names of various cultural backgrounds depending on where the players are so if I want it to feel really in the world I'll go ahead and say oh yeah we asked their name they are a nice team you lean for don't go to that list and I'll pick one from there that might fit within the realm sometimes I just make it up in the spot that's how you get fill in recent episodes as how you got you know the the Cabal of Jameson's in the last campaign is it's just me saying what comes up top part of my head and hopefully it fits and if not well you know at least it's a funny moment so yeah Pravana I did not make up on top I had Pravana I had planned I just didn't say it out loud that's not the problem another recommendation if you're developing NPC names in advance same out loud before you introduce them to the players because inevitably sometimes it'll come back to bite you in the ass I've learned no more step that was really good I did see someone post them there on the reddit about an alternate title to the knot this last episode by the one before and to being kill Phil and I was like oh but uh respect respect them points to them Hiromi applies asks are you excited to have two very different clerics in the party I am I think it's just it's such a great opportunity to show that you can have multiple characters of the same class in the party and have very different styles and ways of playing to where there is a lot of overlap and allows them both comfort in playing those play styles I know there's always an urge to want to have a lot of class diversity in a party and I think that that's that's great but I think if you can definitely have class overlap as long as the two players are committed to finding very unique ways to play those oh this is port actually a fine bottle of Symington 1994 Quinta do Vesuvio vintage port them it is oh it's point point twenty percent alcohol by going I'm gonna slow down on that no I'm not happy Tuesday yeah I'm excited to have them there also it means that I can crank up the challenge rating a little bit to mr. might and I previously had a little bit of a you know they well they're yeah they're there we had a healer that didn't like healing that was unique so I'm excited to see where this can go and Grave clerics are fuckin badass it's gonna be fun kiba asks can we resurrect Phil I mean they had like nine more days some of the party [Laughter] here we guys another question from earlier sukhasana asks what is your favorite type of terrain to have battles on and why ah man I don't know I like varying it up I I like caverns I like natural underground spaces dungeons and builds are fun actually no I hate that back caverns are fun I love I love ancient ruins I love the idea of there being and I built it into the history of exam three of ancient societies that had access to advanced magical technology that were wiped out during the calamity and so there are so many unearthed hidden facets at the age of Arcanum that exists all over the world and so for me it's about stumbling into these spaces of ancient knowledge that is the the meet day but the meetin in you know the real bones of Dungeons and Dragons to me so uh I love I love caverns that lead to those spaces then you come into this dark ancient it's it's like one of my favorites in Minecraft is when you're going through the caverns and all the sudden you come upon a stronghold that same feeling of like oh shit who built this and why and what was its purpose and what does this do so yeah those those my favorites question how's the Molly tattoo coming with Czech economy haven't had time to really sit down but I think probably when me and Towson disappear into the desert into this month will be an extensive conversation about the design of the Molly tattoo and what it'll look like I want to commemorate that character best I can we passed by or seen any mimics they've passed some they never quite interacted with them anymore in the world we'll see I got now go buy some fast what does that process for NPC voices sometimes I consider the characters background where they're rooted in the world like when I've designed the the layout of some of the world I consider just like in the in our real world accents and dialects are tied to cultures and where they grew up and where they may have mingled and a class system to you know that helps define a characters place when you consider you know Opry British is generally considered a very erudite impossibly maintained for those who may have lived in the upper echelon of society so when you have an NPC that you come across who speaks with a an RP Brit dialect you immediately assume that they came from you know more of a a money-based past at least a higher echelon of society where is the the more blue-collar workers of the UK the farmers and such there you get in the more the west country that's where you get the more of the the regular everyday folks who are there in the fields and you know till their crops and try their best to raise some potatoes and you know bring up some turnips and radishes and so when you meet them PC speaks like this you probably know they don't have a whole lot of money and their family probably has it for many generations so it helps you Emilia stablish class and background as well as location and in history there so I think of those aspects and sometimes if it's a really unique NPC I'll just think of an accidents fun when I haven't really done I've been toying with Yorkshire and Welsh those are really hard I'm working on them a time you know the wealth but essentially sort of that know how you do when it sort the very bright not very good at it yet I'm working on it I'm always studying dialects I love them but there's a lot out there and a lot that I'm not that good at yet so when I feel more comfortable you know I'll pepper them throughout the campaign let's see we got some more questions here coffee cops question will Yosh adjuster in Ford level up even though they weren't really a part of the Lorenzo Ark yes they will be because I'm using milestone experience points here and I don't want players to feel like they let you know we're left out of it because they had a baby or at work previously in campaigns where players are more competitive with their experience levels are complained about players missing not wanting to feel like they were you know they were weren't being rewarded for attendance when that was a struggle they made more sense but we're all friends we're all here to have a good time and it's circumstances they can't control so I wouldn't punish them for that so yeah I'm just gonna have them all level up at the same time I'm being told we have four minutes is there any possibility of going over a little bit or we like stringent with the exit like five minutes all right I'm squeezing it out Thank You max so tell everyone's all the tomax thank you for getting five more minutes I'm sorry bags I love you [Laughter] so when asked as a Canadian was plumet soul intended to be Canadian it wasn't specifically I just came up I did the voice came out I was a I was writing the character and I was I was having so much fun doesn't I want to wanted to create just a unique and different type of you know purveyor of magical items and so and I'd not see any real like good you know fear bald representation in our game and really anywhere and I was like it's under appreciated class our race and I loved it and I developed the whole you know simulacra me guy who had a magical shop that was pretty much all him to run it who else could entrust better than your version of yourself and when I designed the character I was like it just sort of sounds like this and I was talking to myself in my office and was like whoa wouldn't it be fantastic if there was this you know powerful sort of enchanter type and was just really excited and eager to have folks there it is his little workshop so I didn't choose that specifically just kind of what came out once again sometimes characters have their own voice and you just it comes out naturally so a lot of NPCs I don't think about it the voice just comes out and that's fun because if you think they're alive before I got to them he's definitely one of them so I'm glad you enjoyed him yeah there's like there's there's some some sort of like Canadian Minnesota aspects of it there's some that kind of bleed over in Chicago a bit it's kind of his own unique space cuz he's a you know there is no Canada or Chicago in our world or Dakota that's just kind of how he says it's funny all right we got time for a few more questions here wish we had more do this again sometime maybe so you guys are fun we'll see our visit Australia please we'd love to eventually it's about scheduling and conventions that want to have us and it's a big journey to try and get a bunch of us out there I hope to in the future I mean with the more the things that we're doing here and your guys support it looks like it's definitely a possibility down the road I love Australia and I'd like to go to more places and it's a very big area and I've only been to like the you know Brisbane area over there and I'd like to see more it will not ever mean another for a ball that does no muscle possibly possibly well find out we are excited hopefully to travel more places MCM is our first real step out of sight of the u.s. is a critical role experience and if that goes well and everything is good hopefully we'll do more world travel I think it's kind of amazing that we have critters all over the world it blows my mind the reach of this community it's it's absolutely amazing and so we hope to do more anyway yeah add some more questions I got five minutes left before they go to kick me off here all right Shh boku no pickles questions do you ever make wish to mix up accents just hi royal with a southern or Brooklyn accent yeah actually and there are some that mix and mingle because once again we're playing in the space where these accidents aren't rooted in our real world necessarily so are some NPCs where people be like Oh kind of did that accent but it sounded kind of terrible sometimes maybe it is terrible but you don't know that because it's a nice sound like there cuz it's a fantasy world that you don't know about you don't know what they sound like do you or I mix them intentionally to make something unique and different that fits this this fantasy world so I do try every now then mix a few and shake it up a bit Sammy Mantha one asks what would you do with three simulacrum of yourself oh my god so much I would like clean up all my shit more often and I get auditions done on time and I'd have more time to like just plague video games again I like that people said come Victor come back please I've angeles in a panel victor victor did not survive the assault on Vassell hi I'm at the end of the last campaign but don't think that he was taken out like a bitch he had he had outfitted his entire black powder shop with all of his dangerous explosives and lured into that chamber a number of dangerous necromancer's and undead and like a boss took them down with him I have a whole like mental idea of that sequence there was a moment during the final battle I remember describing it you hear what sounds like this large explosion down below in the city and that was the moment that Victor like a hero took out some of vecna's shitty necromantic lackeys like a boss but Victor was in the lastest bloodline they didn't encounter them but they passed by an area in wild not where there may have been a descendent of Victor we'll see if they ever run into him how's that for a tease alright nothing noted on like nothing worth asks Jocasta hasn't met and mostly subterranean settings is here connection to the Underground Railroad of freedom from the Empire yeah that was an intentional it just worked out that way but technically kind of I guess that's kind of where his aspects of his group that he works with deal in so you you could you could you could say that sure run with that let's hear a few more before I finish here code jpg asks I know you don't want to give too much away but who came up with the wisdom saving throw for Caleb I came up with the mechanics of how that was gonna work but Liam requested there be some detriment to killing a creature with fire based magic as was his background so when we were developing his backstory he said if I do kill a creature this one sort of fire I wanted I wanted to have a possible effect on me because it would and I said okay so I began to develop the mechanics for that aspect there and that was why we went so was so I it was it was a collaboration but the mechanics were mined and the idea was his so you got a couple more here I could probably do oh the Scarecrow lover asks if the party happens to miss a plot point or story element like an NPC location object event do you transplant the element recycle it and use it later do you leave it as an unsolved mystery or does it vary from case to case it varies from case to case if I think it's but I think it's in the players really enjoy and they missed it for no particular reason and it's important to where they're going then I might find another way to kind of kind of bumper pull them in that direction or give them the idea that maybe you should go this direction so occasionally I'll try and recycle it or at least push in that way if they invert and they're not going that way and it fits to a later narrative element then I'll try and tuck it back in and sometimes if they pass it up and it's not too consequential to what they're doing they just pass it up I won't say I don't choose to be like well they miss it it'll never happen which means they missed it and it goes in a list of things that might come up later and it might never there might never be a place in the story down the road where it fits and thus it will never it'll never occur but if later in the game something happens where one of those facets got missed could fit in well and it makes sense then maybe I'll scoot it back in yeah it's as being a DM it's it's a weird amorphous space of just tying things together on the fly and seeing what makes sense one last question I'm gonna run some no I'm pushing it and pushing the limit here alright s frontier EO a that was I was an older question from talks yeah that's my problem that was already asked I went too far ahead we're back I don't know time flat circle I'll take this one from chat a question interesting do you have any plans for the shattered teeth which is an area I mentioned briefly in the tell Dora campaign guide maybe it exists out there I there might be elements of this campaign to the next that it plays into we'll see how it wasn't a very good question to end on given the vagueness I realized as I was saying it let's see if I can grab one the last one it's fun there okay question why was Lorenzo southern that's another thing that just kind of came to me when I built this this this terrible kind of horrible villain character this this really intense flavor I just thought would be a fun way to mix it up and for me it was how it kind of blends into the Shady Creek run kind of lower-class I'm in a society there the working class and for me to give him anything to to astute or learn it sounding I think would possibly give away some of his his essence or secret and so it just kind of came it kind of came out and I was developing the character I like that he this low caste domain and then I think one of the episodes my throat was really shredded from a session earlier in the day and it couldn't go quite as deep as I wanted him to runes of a be so we kind of sound a little more like McCree it was like ah shit I kind of ruined McCree for a lot of creators out there sorry about that if you were one of them that was purely based on trying to salvage my voice anyway that will end our fireside chat today thank you so much for joining me and some great questions thank you everyone who came to Gen Con thank you for all of us who are an amazing part of this community from all walks of life all places in the world I'm proud of you all keep-keep putting good and light out there and is it Thursday yet see our friends here for talks in about 50 minutes or so until then [Music] you