Transcript:Talks Machina Special 2: Live from SDCC 2017

''This transcript is of a work published before ND Stevenson transitioned in 2021. At the time, he was known as Noelle.''

(cheering)

BRIAN: What's up? We've got, like, a Keyleth's hair of cables down here to get through. How are you guys?

(cheering)

BRIAN: I know it's early. Thank you for lining up and for coming, and man. Where's Manleth at? I saw on Twitter. Yes! That is awesome. You look great! That's cool. Come get some free shit after. Oh, I forgot, there's a note here. There may be some people under 18 years of age. It also says, your kids are better off in a hot car than in a room with Sam Riegel. If there's--

(laughter)

BRIAN: Oh, man. Going to check the lock on my hotel room. Quick reminder: this panel will air in its entirety Tuesday night, 7:00PM, in our normal time slot on Twitch and Alpha, 7:00PM Pacific, so tune in, listen for your voice not laughing at my jokes. Lastly, before I bring out my guests for this panel, we're going to have a Q&A for about probably second half to three quarters of the panel. The mic is here. Thank you, Vanna. If you get up to the mic and you get your question asked, come up and get a Free Denise pin. Who has the Free Denise pins? Denise!

(cheering)

BRIAN: Stand up, Denise! Stand up!

(cheering)

BRIAN: Come get a Free Denise pin from Denise if you get your question asked today. That's awesome. A lot of people still ask me if she's real or not. Please don't pinch her to find out if it's true, but you can say hi. Just be polite. #boundaries. Without further or-do, I would like to bring out my guests, the cast of Critical Role.

(cheering)

BRIAN: Travis Willingham!

(cheering)

BRIAN: Marisha Ray!

(cheering)

BRIAN: Taliesin Jaffe!

(cheering)

BRIAN: Ashley Johnson!

(cheering)

BRIAN: Sam Riegel!

(cheering)

BRIAN: Liam O'Brien!

(cheering)

BRIAN: Laura Bailey!

(cheering)

BRIAN: And Matthew Mercer!

(cheering)

LAURA: I feel like this chair is really low.

BRIAN: Do we have any phone books you could sit on?

MATT: Get a Comic Con booster seat. It'll be good.

LAURA: Excuse me.

BRIAN: We'll get one requested for next year.

TRAVIS: It is like an elementary school chair.

MARISHA: It is very-- yeah.

TALIESIN: I feel like I need a booster.

MARISHA: Yeah, I feel like I need a desk in front of me.

MATT: Hello, everyone!

BRIAN: Hello!

(cheering)

MATT: Can I just say how happy I am that this many people came out to join us on the godawful early 10:30AM on a Saturday at Comic Con? That's amazing!

(cheering)

BRIAN: Yes. I agree. Well, we're going to talk a little bit about the recent events of Critical Role, we're going to talk a little bit about-- we have a couple announcements, and then we're going to take your guys' questions. I'll tell you when to line up in just a minute. But first, Matt, I think there's a pretty big announcement that we were saving for San Diego Comic Con, if you want to fill everybody in on what that might be.

MATT: Glad you guys could be here for this.

BRIAN: Oh, man!

MARISHA: Sorry, I was just hype-manning you. Yeah! What?

SAM: We're starting with big reveals already?

BRIAN: Yes, Sam! The people have waited!

SAM: Aren't we supposed to wait to build tension or--

BRIAN: No!

MATT: We're Vox Machina. We've never done anything the right way.

(laughter)

LAURA: I'm surprised we made it to this room.

MARISHA: Besides, people leave at the end of panels. We all know this. They want to get to Game of Thrones.

MATT: I know.

LIAM: I don't want to sit on it any more, Matt.

MATT: All right. So. We've been working on this for a little bit, but we finally get to announce that we're making a Critical Role comic book.

(cheering)

MATT: It's going to be a telling of the origin story of Vox Machina. How they first met, how they became a group, and then all the adventures you didn't get to see that were all pre-stream. Super excited about that! Couple other cool parts of this are, one, we were trying to find a person who could write this properly and we could only really think of a close friend of ours who's a fantastic writer named Matt Colville. So super excited to have him onboard and finally be able to announce his involvement. His "secret project" for months and months that he hasn't been able to talk about. You can finally talk about it, Colville, you're good. He's penning it, he's the actual words. And then to find the artist for it, one of our big things about Critical Role is to try to find a way to lift the community and help get people the opportunities that they deserve for this.

SAM: I'm doing the art. It's me. I'm drawing it. Thank you. Yeah, I'm really excited about it. A lot of splash pages.

BRIAN: If you saw Tary's art, you know what you're in for. Save your money.

SAM: Sorry, Matt, go on.

MATT: It's okay. We had a bunch of artists thrown at us, but we wanted to pick somebody from the community where you've seen their incredible work. The one we kept coming to is an artist named Olivia Samson in the Critical Role art community, and she has agreed to be the artist for the first six-issue run. We have a couple examples here we can show you.

SAM: Reveal! Reveal! Reveal!

MATT: Here's some of the early lineart that she's done. It takes place in Stillben in the surrounding K'Tawl Swamp.

LAURA: I recognize those half-elves.

MATT: We have a couple pages where we can show the progression of some of the early art design and coloring. Over on the next page. There we go. Show some of the later--

TRAVIS: Eyeballs!

LAURA: Don't give away too much!

MATT: No, this is just a couple pages, don't worry. Then we go to the next one. One of the early color layouts there.

SAM: Vax is the one with the bow and arrow, right?

MATT: Yeah, that's the one. Then we move onto the actual character art layouts that she had done for some of the designs.

SAM: It's been a wig on Keyleth the whole time. Big reveal!

(laughter)

MATT: And then the final example of what the final color and art's going to look like in the book. We're excited to give you guys this first look.

MARISHA: We were going to call it Vox Machina Assemble, but apparently that's already taken. So still working on the name.

BRIAN: Matt, is there a release date announced, or a window in which it will be?

MATT: That information is to come soon.

BRIAN: I'm asking on behalf of the audience.

ASHLEY: (British accent) On behalf?

BRIAN: (British accent) On behalf of the audience who will be tweeting us the same question for the next six months.

MATT: I understand. We will have that information official to you as soon as possible. I guarantee you at least you'll see something in your hands by the end of the year.

BRIAN: Before the end of the year. That's amazing. Well, in an orderly fashion, if some of you want to line up for questions, we're going to start taking those in a minute. Orderly! Love each other! Respect, love each other! Oh my god, is that donuts?

TRAVIS: They're loaded with LSD. Do not eat them! We'll be tripping balls.

BRIAN: Denise, get this girl a car.

LAURA: This is my favorite panel!

SAM: Hey, we got a Pike over here. Who wants a donut?

BRIAN: While you guys are lining up--

ASHLEY: Wait, bring them back! Hey, man, come on!

BRIAN: You know better than to do that.

MARISHA: This way. Thank you! And here, Travis. And bye, box of donuts. I love you!

TRAVIS: Thank you!

BRIAN: You're awesome. What's your name? Kiana? That's a beautiful name. While you guys are thinking of your questions, Sam and I were talking before the show and there's actually a couple other big reveals that we wanted to announce at this Comic Con panel. First of all, season three of Critical Role has already been written and you guys are going to love it. We were in the hotel room this morning going over episodes 200 and whatever and it was, my god!

(laughter)

SAM: One of the big reveals-- Matt is going to reveal that Victor, beloved character Victor, he just had lead poisoning. He gets treatment and he's totally normal now.

BRIAN: What would that sound like, Matt?

MATT: (Victor voice) I apologize if it's been at all difficult to have made a fool of myself in a public venue. However, I am happy to sell any sort of black powder to you if you come by my place.

SAM: Love the new twist.

LAURA: Still very charming.

BRIAN: Sam, some of the upcoming guests for Critical Role coming up in season three: the current and former cast of The View, including, it says here on the card, Star Jones and some of the Dance Moms.

TRAVIS: Excited about that.

BRIAN: Once you have Jon Heder, you can get anybody.

TRAVIS: The world opens up.

TALIESIN: It's all downhill from there.

BRIAN: And lastly, the big reveal was that Vex and Vax are married now.

(groaning)

SAM: To each other. Boom!

BRIAN: Travis has come out as a Redskins fan, it says here--

(exclamations, cheering)

BRIAN: And finally, it says Liam and Sam are now legally separated in real life.

SAM: Because he married his sister, so.

BRIAN: (laughs) He did, he did. Okay, let's take some questions. Go ahead.

LIAM: You said you were cool with anything.

BRIAN: Tell us your name, please.

ANDI: Hi, my name is Andi--

MARISHA and MATT: Hi Andi!

ANDI: Hi! So Brian I took the day off today, so I'm not working this time.

BRIAN: Oh, was that you at Wondercon?

ANDI: Yeah. My mom's sitting right there.

BRIAN: Aww, hey, mom! That's awesome. She was working and couldn't come to the last Wondercon panel, so I told her I would go to your work and say hi and I got lost on the way. Thank you for coming. What's your question?

ANDI: My question is for everybody. What's been your favorite story arc so far?

(thinking noises)

MARISHA: Going through the 500 hours that we've--

TRAVIS: I think it was when Keyleth exploded as a goldfish.

(cheering, applause)

TRAVIS: Is that an arc, or--

BRIAN: That's not an arc, but that's the right answer!

MARISHA: There's a lot of math on it online.

TRAVIS: Might be a straight line--

MARISHA: More of a parabola--

LIAM: I believe the lack of arc was the problem.

MARISHA: I thought the joke would break my fall.

TALIESIN: I was sick for cows, so I got to sit at home with a fever and watch the cow episode and be like, (loopy voice) This is so nice! I like this! It's great!

LAURA: I can't believe you weren't there for the cow episode!

TALIESIN: I know, I've been like retconned into it--

MARISHA: (gasps) That's right! There was that fanart!

TALIESIN: None of you ever remember.

MARISHA: There was that fanart where we all come back as cows and Percy's like, what?

TALIESIN: Everybody was like, remember when we did that? And I was like, I didn't do that. And you're like, yeah remember when we all did that, and like, fuck--

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Did you go?

MARISHA: I mean, there's no--

TRAVIS: It's a free-for-all.

ASHLEY: I really liked the Briarwood arc. I really did.

SAM: Oh, I have to answer too? The one we're on right now is pretty cool, because we get to hang out with gods and stuff-- no spoilers. But yeah, it's interesting. I have no idea what's going to happen because I barely know how D&D works.

LIAM: I honestly can't remember anything beyond meeting Sprigg. I'm just all Sprigg right now.

(cheering)

BRIAN: Where is Darin De Paul? Yes! There he is!

(cheering)

BRIAN: We love you, Darin.

MARISHA: Darin De Paul in the house! Yeah, Sprigg's amazing.

TRAVIS and LAURA: Yeah.

MATT: (ominous voice) It's a shame he has to die.

LAURA: Oh no! Matthew!

BRIAN: Not cool, dude.

LAURA: I liked the visit to the Nine Hells.

MATT: That was a fun one.

LAURA: Yeah, that was great.

MATT: Only because it took two and a half years for me to have happen and then it hit and then it lasted a year which may have been a little long, but you can't guide the length of the narrative in D&D. The Conclave arc, definitely, was a fun one.

(cheering)

MATT: Thank you very much.

BRIAN: Who's next?

MARISHA and MATT: (gasping) Lucy!

MARISHA: You're awesome.

LUCY: Thank you. I'm Christina, but call me Lucy. There's a 5th-level druid spell called Reincarnation, and if Pike wasn't around and you guys had to be reincarnated, which means you come back with your memories but you have a different body, what would you like your character to be reincarnated as?

MARISHA: What we would like them to be?

LUCY: Ideally.

LAURA: But we don't get to choose, right?

MATT: Right. But if you could choose, what would it be?

LAURA: Okay.

LUCY: For Matt, if there's an NPC that you would prefer to die and be reincarnated--

MATT: Oh. Kima as a wolverine.

(cheering)

MATT: That's more old-school D&D, because back then you could return them back as an animal, which was fun.

LAURA: You can come back as animals?

MATT: In older editions, yeah.

LAURA: That's cool. I don't know. I would like to come back as a half-celestial. Can you do that?

MATT: That is an aasimar, that's the two boys that you met--

LAURA: Yeah, that's what I want. I want blue hair, man. Slightly blue skin and blue hair.

MATT: Perfect.

LIAM: Why go off-brand? What are they called, kuatoa? What are the little bird folk?

MATT: The frog guys?

LIAM: No, the birds-- the little raven or were-raven--

AUDIENCE: Kenku!

LIAM: Kenku! Thank you!

LAURA: That's perfect.

MARISHA: I'm now envisioning Vax as Bird Person from Rick and Morty. "Hi. Dagger dagger dagger."

LIAM: There are four more, keep going.

SAM: I'd love to see Scanlan as an ordinary human, like a George Takei-type, in body and voice. (George Takei voice) Hello.

MATT: Spoiler, we're replacing Sam with George Takei.

SAM: (George Takei voice) Oh my.

LIAM: (George Takei voice) Bigby's Hand.

BRIAN: That's really good!

ASHLEY: I feel like Pike would probably come back as an otter, or something and be like, oh no. That wasn't the plan. I was thinking like a regular-sized whatever. I think I could be a little bit taller, sometimes.

LIAM: The second coming of Vox Machina rises out of the water right in the middle, an otter pokes up a head.

ASHLEY: Oh no! I'm even shorter now!

TALIESIN: I love the idea of, completely random, but the whole notion of coming back as a pixie, just a teeny tiny, dammit Na'vi level of (nyoom noises).

ASHLEY: Pixies!

LIAM: Oh, the indignation.

MARISHA: I'd be all about a half-orc Keyleth.

TRAVIS: I'm pretty sure Grog would want to come back as anything with breasts.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Chicken it is, all right.

TRAVIS: He'd never leave his room.

(laughter)

BRIAN: Yeah, that sounds about right.

MATT: Is that when he retires from adventuring? (Grog voice) I'm good!

LAURA: I've got it!

MATT: Plenty of things to do!

TRAVIS: Let me know when you get back!

BRIAN: Can't wait to see the Titanstone Pasties.

(laughter)

BRIAN: All right. Did everybody answer?

MARISHA: Aww, that's going to happen now? You put that into the world!

BRIAN: All right, you artists that I call upon for the really twisted shit, you know who you are. And I will say, go! Do it!

MARISHA: Go Tess go! Go, do it!

MATT: In canon, the Titanstone Pasties do have tassels.

LUCY: I am both sorry and very much not sorry for starting this.

BRIAN: No, you did good. Make sure to see Denise after and get a Free Denise pen.

TALIESIN: I would like to rage.

BRIAN: Hey, what's your name?

ELEVATOR GUY: Elevator Guy.

BRIAN: Elevator Guy! That's a terrible name, but I'm not going to judge your parents.

ELEVATOR GUY: Yeah. Clearly they hate me. My question is for Ashley Johnson and Love Actually's Martin Freeman.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: You broke Laura!

BRIAN: Do the impression! Do the impression, Liam!

LIAM: Bilbo Baggins.

ELEVATOR GUY: So in Sam and Liam's podcast, Liam, you mentioned that you went to NYU, and, well, I'm going in the fall for the first time, and Ashley, you live in New York a lot of the time, so I was wondering if you guys had any tips for a first-time New Yorker.

LIAM: Tips for a first-time New Yorker?

BRIAN: Get used to the smell of pee.

ASHLEY: Walk everywhere. Walk as much as you can. Obviously go to Central Park.

LIAM: Get a can of mace.

(laughter)

SAM: Don't make eye contact with anyone.

ASHLEY: Wait, when are you going?

ELEVATOR GUY: August 25.

ASHLEY: Okay, so if you go into Central Park almost when it's dark, which I know sounds a little sketchy, there are so many fireflies, so that would be really cool.

BRIAN: She's going to steal your wallet, dude.

(laughter)

BRIAN: This is-- no. Two seconds of googling, you'll see, there are no fireflies.

TRAVIS: Behind the boathouse. Come alone.

TALIESIN: There's a big mermaid festival on Coney Island I think that's coming up. Super cool.

ASHLEY: Yeah, it might be around that time? Yeah. It's at Coney Island.

MARISHA: Is Bryant Park still doing the summer movie festivals where you can do free movies? New York's amazing.

SAM: When we were in New York last, all of us, we went to Chelsea Piers, and we all did a golf driving range together, and we were terrible.

BRIAN: I have a lot of videos of that. I should post those. I have videos of each one of you guys doing golf swings in slow-motion, and some of them are painful.

(laughter)

LIAM: You can see most shows on Broadway for free by volunteering to usher.

SAM: Or by sneaking in.

MARISHA: Or by being a student. Flash that student ID card everywhere.

ASHLEY: Yeah. And go to Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn for a Grandma Slice.

TRAVIS: You're writing all this down, right?

BRIAN: Yeah, watch Tuesday night with a notepad.

SAM: The next three questions of mine are, what's there to do in Cincinnati? What part of West Hollywood should I live in?

ELEVATOR GUY: All right. Thank you very much.

BRIAN: Thank you, man, that was great.

MATT: That's our next book release, is Vox Machina's guide to travel.

LAURA: Oh my god, that would be great.

LIAM: Tyriok's guide?

MICHELLE: Hello.

BRIAN: Hello. What's your name?

MICHELLE: I'm Michelle.

LAURA and MARISHA: Hi, Michelle.

MICHELLE: Hi. So my question is, if you have to do a trial by combat, and can only pick one other ally, and that can include guest characters, who would you summon and why?

MARISHA: Like, across all universes or in ours?

SAM: Ours. Let's limit it a little.

(laughter)

BRIAN: Yeah, it's an hour panel.

LAURA: Wait, I need a question clarification. Is this all of us as Vox Machina doing a trial by combat and then summoning one ally, or each individually?

MICHELLE: Each individually.

TRAVIS: Can we pick Pelor, like, the Dawnfather?

TALIESIN: Player character, motherfucker, player character.

SAM: I'm going to pick the character of Noelle Stevenson as Tova. Oh, wait, she's right over there in the audience!

BRIAN: Oh, Noelle Stevenson is here, too! Wow. This is an all-star panel.

AUDIENCE: If she's still alive!

SAM: Yeah, she's totally dead. Totally dead.

LIAM: You hush your mouth!

(laughter)

MARISHA: I think, based on our last Battle Royale, and me and you going toe-to-toe, it'd be me and you to the end, man.

TRAVIS: Word.

MARISHA: We'd be terrible to take on. We'd never die.

TRAVIS: That's true. I'd pick the werewolf, because as soon as he started to die, I'd be like, bite me, dude. Just bite me.

LIAM: I mean, everybody should pick Keyleth. She's the most powerful character in the group.

LAURA: But only with allies that we've traveled with. Not Vox Machina.

LIAM: Not Vox Machina? Keyleth would be a great ally. No. Come back to me, then.

LAURA: Allura.

LIAM: Do they have to be a friend? Could they have been an enemy?

LAURA: But is it a trial by fisticuffs?

MARISHA: Man, we are way overcomplicating this. We are overthinking this way too much.

LAURA: I just need to know.

MARISHA: People wonder why Vox Machina does this. We're just like this.

LIAM: I mean, part of me would like to run with Delilah Briarwood. Yeah.

LAURA: I feel like Vex is getting close to that anyways, so.

TALIESIN: Wow.

ASHLEY: I feel like I'd have to go with my tried-and-true. My bestie, Grog. I do actually feel like we would be a really good combo, though. Because you're the brains and I'm the brawn.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: You just keep healing me, we'll just keep smashing them? Yeah. Like Overwatch tag-team.

MATT: Awesome, thank you so much.

MARISHA: This makes me want an Injustice Critical Role DLC.

TALIESIN: We've got like a third of it already.

LAURA: That would be awesome.

BRIAN: Hey, what's your name?

BRETT: My name is Brett.

BRIAN: You can touch it, it's not electrical. Electrocuted. That'd be a good prank, though.

(laughter)

BRETT: So my question is, if you could replace your player character with any NPC, which one would you play?

SAM: Similar, but different question.

ASHLEY: Victor. Yeah, Victor.

TALIESIN: I would go Gilmore super-fast. So much fun. (Gilmore voice) I just love doing that voice all the time. Hello.

SAM: I would go with Jarett, because he's so dreamy and hunky.

LAURA: He is so dreamy.

SAM: (Jarett voice) Hello.

LIAM: The one that got away? I'd go Clarota.

(cheering)

MARISHA: Can I be Matt's illusory beholder from the last episode?

(laughter)

MARISHA: Kitten's worth of hit points.

LIAM: (illusory beholder voice) Hah! I used to do Broadway!

(laughter)

MARISHA: Next question.

BRIAN: All right, that's good, thank you. What's your name?

JUSTIN: Justin.

ALL: Hi, Justin.

JUSTIN: Hi. So my home D&D group also happens to include a lot of stage and improv actors from the Boston area, and so I take a lot of inspiration from what you guys do, and I'm wondering, for any of you, the whole approach or the headspace you're in to do Critical Role, does it have any relationship to what you would do or how you would approach a stage role or an improv, scripted role? Is there a relation, or is it totally different?

LIAM: Oh, yeah. Some of us were talking in the green room before coming out here right before the show started. I spent years in the theater, and it's been ten years since my last one, and three years ago, I was like, "Man, I'm getting really itchy, I've got to get back on stage." And that's gone. This scratches that itch so much. And we're living in a role for five years? Is it five years?

MARISHA: Yeah, in a weird way, it feels like the longest longform improv.

LAURA: I feel like the preparation for it can be very similar. I feel like we slid our way into our backstories and everything like that. We had loose ideas of what it was before we started playing a lot, but when you're starting a new role in a theater show-- what am I talking about? Then yeah, you would do the same thing, you would establish all of those ties in your mind, and you would figure out what is their favorite music to listen to, and what kind of food do they like, and all that kind of stuff, and it's the same stuff you do with this.

MARISHA: Yeah, part of the reason we did the playlists is because we were all already doing them. And then we thought, awesome, we'll publish them out. And the playlists-- I think it's actually a good tip for people trying to find their character who might be new to it, is build a playlist for your character. It informs a lot, and it gets you in the mood right before you go.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Yeah, it's good for the drive over, you really get the headspace.

BRIAN: Let the bodies hit the lava. Is that on your playlist?

MARISHA: Yeah.

TRAVIS: Those are actually all on my playlist. These are the songs.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Just rage and death and destruction.

LAURA: What is it, C is for Cookie? That was one year?

MARISHA: Yes, cute!

TRAVIS: Always learning.

(laughter)

MATT: Awesome, thank you so much.

BRIAN: Thank you very much. Hey, what's your name?

DAVID: Hi, I'm David, hi, hello. My question is for world-famous podcasters Sam Riegel and Liam O'Brien.

SAM: Sure, yeah.

DAVID: Can we expect another episode of All Work No Play within the next three years?

TRAVIS: Yeah, can we?! Please?! I want it!

BRIAN: Three years, you can make that happen.

LIAM: Let's get married all over again.

SAM: The marriage episode? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. We do a couple podcast episodes a year. We're averaging about two a year these days.

LIAM: I mean, we talk about doing it like 12 times a year. So that's got to count for something.

SAM: Here's the status: we wanted to pitch our podcast to Geek and Sundry to do on a regular basis, but we can't even find a time to go pitch it.

(laughter)

MARISHA: That's not true. I told you a bajillion times we would just do it.

SAM: Oh, yeah?

MARISHA: I've told you a bajillion times we would do it.

SAM: You won't even invite me on Signal Boost.

BRIAN: Oh, that is-- there is video evidence that that's bullshit.

MARISHA: Gaslighter!

LIAM: Sam Riegel will be dead in under an hour.

SAM: No more All Work No Play. Yeah, we have one planned, because we're going to do a live episode soon, in a couple weeks, and then maybe we'll do it where we're going to go into somebody's hot tub to record an episode.

LIAM: Yeah, we've been threatening to return to the hot tub.

SAM: Oh, do you have a hot tub?

LAURA: We have a hot tub.

SAM: Well, you were already a guest on the show.

LAURA: So?

SAM: Okay, can we go in your hot tub and bring a stranger to interview?

(laughter)

LAURA: Sure.

(laughter)

SAM: You can hold the boom mic.

(laughter)

SAM: Thanks for the question.

BRIAN: What's your name?

ALL: Hi.

GABBY: Hello. So I'm Gabby. Real quick, thank you, because last year at Comic Con, when I asked you a question saying I couldn't find a group, I immediately found my current Dungeon Master, and we play on roll20 whenever we can. So thank you for that.

(cheering)

GABBY: And my question is, due to everything that has been going on with your characters, everything that's been going on, I was wondering what your characters are grateful for?

MATT: What are your characters grateful for?

TRAVIS: (Grog voice) I'm grateful for, um. Ale. And my buddy Pike. And my friends. Also, ale.

MARISHA: Currently--

LIAM: Yeah, Kiki.

LAURA: Just tears.

MARISHA: Keyleth is-- she hasn't said it out loud in-game yet, but she will, but she's thankful for being taught how to love by a certain rogue.

ALL: Aww.

SAM: Well, I wouldn't call myself a rogue.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Definitely grateful for family at the moment, is Percy's bag right now. He's feeling good, all things considered.

ASHLEY: Yeah, family. The friendship that we all... have.

(laughter)

SAM: Your family's weird, though.

ASHLEY: I know! That's why I appreciate the friends that you've made into your family, because the Trickfoots, as we know, are so terrible. And also, I think being able to see Sarenrae, the Everlight, in person, I think that's opened up something else in Pike, and what else?

BRIAN: Technically via Skype.

ASHLEY: Via Skype, but still.

SAM: I think Scanlan values being accepted back into the group. That's about it. And Kaylie.

LIAM: I mean, I've got to go with the boots, right? I've got to go with the boots. I got my boots back. Our long national nightmare is finally over.

BRIAN: Oh, boy.

LAURA: I was never going to keep them! Until he's dead, and then they're mine.

LIAM: All of us are grateful for family, he's obviously grateful for his twin, he's grateful for love. You know, life is short.

SAM: We're all dying every day.

LIAM: But mainly the boots.

LAURA: Grateful for Percy and for Whitestone and for having a place she can call home. I know. And for, you know--

SAM: I'm 'gramming it.

LAURA: For Vax being back. And even for, you know, she's grateful for the time that they have. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MATT: I can't answer in 500 voices at once.

BRIAN: Well, that's why we're here. Do it.

MATT: It'd be very Lovecraftian if I did that all of a sudden, you heard 500 voices come out. All of your minds shatter together as one.

BRIAN: No one would be surprised. All right, all right. Who's next? Thank you, that was a great question.

TRAVIS and BRIAN: I like your ears.

BRIAN: Travis likes them, too. Hey, what's your name?

TREVOR: My name's Trevor. First, I want to thank you all for the hours of entertainment and the inspiration. You guys are awesome. My question is, the playlists are awesome. Will we ever see guest playlists?

MARISHA: Ooh. Hey, y'all want to do some guest playlists? Yeah, sure.

BRIAN: Okay, we got some thumbs up, all right.

TALIESIN: Legitimately hadn't thought of that.

LIAM: Tova slow-jazz.

TALIESIN: There is a song, I Want a New Duck.

ND: (offscreen) --something by "Bear" Naked Ladies.

SAM: "Bear"naked Ladies. Nice. (sings) It's been--

LAURA: Oh, no. I see who this is.

BRIAN: Oh, hey, what's up? What's up? Oh, shit!

(laughter)

SAM: He just ran 480 feet.

LAURA: He was gone so fast!

BRIAN: Turns out you can go that many feet that fast.

SAM: He ran 480 feet and threw four daggers.

(laughter)

SAM: Okay, what you got?

LAURA: What you got for us, Ray?

KRISTINA: Hi. So my name's Kristina.

MATT: Hi, Kristina.

KRISTINA: So you're currently dealing with an arc of gods and those ascending to godhood. Say somehow that happens to your Vox Machina characters. What would they be the guardians of the domains of, essentially? What would they be the gods of?

TRAVIS: (cackles)

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Carnal pleasure.

(laughter)

TRAVIS: And all will worship me! So great.

MARISHA: I want to see Bacchus Grog now, only wearing a grape leaf.

BRIAN: That evil laugh you heard is what happens when Travis gets a softball question.

(laughter)

MARISHA: I mean, I'm Voice of the Tempest, so probably some weather.

(laughter)

TALIESIN: Curse your name every time it rains.

MARISHA: Basically turn into Storm. Everyone's least favorite X-Man. No, that's arranged for Dazzler, probably, right?

TALIESIN: You wound me. No, I think he would definitely-- there's a history of machinist gods, the gods of order and making things happen the way they're supposed to, so he would definitely go that direction.

ASHLEY: (unenthused) I mean, Pike would probably be the god of love and kindness and feelings.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: Blah-blah-blah.

SAM: If there's a god of aerated wine, then I'd be that. God of grapes and aerated wine.

LIAM: The temple's full of upside-down fountains.

(laughter)

LIAM: I'm gunning for your job, girl.

LAURA: What, you'd be the raven--

MATT: Oh, it's on now.

ASHLEY: Duke it out, right now.

LAURA: Right now! Arm wrestle.

LIAM: After the panel.

LAURA: I don't know. The goddess of commerce, or--

(laughter)

TRAVIS: Commerce?

LAURA: All things sparkly?

BRIAN: The god of commerce? Sounds badass. I wouldn't mess with the god of commerce.

SAM: The small business association god?

LAURA: Pretty much. Her temple would be where you drop off your gold at, you know what I mean?

BRIAN: She'd cut you with a deposit slip.

MATT: The god of naps and free time.

BRIAN: Amen. Great question. Great outfit.

LIAM: We do deal in fantasy, Matt.

BRIAN: Hey, what's your name? Nice shirt!

MICHAEL: Thank you. My name's Michael, I saw you at the Magic Castle.

MATT: Good to see you again.

MICHAEL: So my question is, I know you have a live show coming up at Gen Con. I was wondering if you guys have any plans to do a live show on the West Coast?

(cheering)

SAM: Big reveal. No.

(laughter)

LAURA: That's a good question, though.

MATT: We're, you know, shows are a big undertaking, and trying to get the logistics worked out are always difficult, both within locations and scheduling everything. We'd definitely like to do more live shows, so if we manage to put something together for that in the future, we will be happy to announce it and eagerly throw it in your face.

SAM: I've pushed for us to rent ourselves out, like for bar mitzvahs and quinceaneras and stuff. I feel like we could go, play a short game, and then Hava Nagila. I don't know. Something.

LIAM: Life is short, kids. Happy Sweet 16.

BRIAN: Yeah, we'll keep you posted. We'll keep you posted. By the way, Gil the Blogsmith over here, ladies and gentlemen, in the green. Stand up, Gil, let people give you some love.

TRAVIS: Stand up, Gil, Jesus!

BRIAN: Stand up, for god's sake! There we go. Look at that beautiful, beautiful man. Okay, who's up next?

SAM: There's more reveals, Brian.

BRIAN: Oh, there are. Hold on one sec, we have another big-- we'll leak a couple more out as we go here.

SAM: Pike's next storyline involves her covered in tattoos and the rest of the team deciphering their meaning.

(laughter)

ASHLEY: (grunts)

(laughter)

BRIAN: Laura has also decided to give away all of her possessions and only own dice.

LAURA: I could probably build a house from them, so. It's fine.

BRIAN: Okay, who's next?

VAUGHAN: Hi, my name is Vaughan. This question is for Matt, but I'd like the rest to answer, including Brian "Cabbage" Foster.

BRIAN: That's a good one. Format it however you want.

VAUGHAN: What is your favorite 16-bit JRPG?

MATT: Ooh.

TRAVIS: 16-bit?

MATT: That's a neck-and-neck battle between Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger.

(cheering)

MATT: With, like, a little bit of Earthbound creeping up there. But I'm probably going to have to say Final Fantasy VI to me. But it's a tough one. Just barely because the story goes a little bit darker and intense in the third act. Not that Lobos wasn't intense.

LAURA: It has to be 16-bit?

TRAVIS: Yeah, I think you're forgetting about the amazing 16-bit JRPG Jurassic Park. I love that one, on the Gameboy?

MARISHA: The ones in arcades where you got in it? That was a great game.

LAURA: I was a PC gamer during that time, and so I was King's Quest and Quest for Glory, so.

LIAM: Yeah, I have a big gap in my gaming history. I had an Atari, and a Commodore 64, and then nothing until Playstation, so I skipped the whole 16-bit era. I really liked Dungeons and Dragons: Pool of Radiance on my Commodore 64. Yeah. Bloop-bloop-bloop.

TALIESIN: Pass?

SAM: Pass.

TALIESIN: I was a Phantasy Star 2 kid. That was really my jam. That was a weird, weird game, and the sci-fi vibe was--

MARISHA: Was Secret of Mana 16-bit, or was that 8-bit?

MATT: Yeah, it was 16-bit.

MARISHA: Secret of Mana. I loved that game. Yeah. Light applause, light applause.

BRIAN: Travis? Oh. Terranigma? Or Evo? Anybody play Evo? Search for Evolve? Search to Evolve? Search of Evolve?

LAURA: (sings) Thank you for your question.

MATT: You got a Laura song.

MARISHA: Manleth!

(cheering)

BRIAN: What's your real name?

MILES: Hi, my name is Miles.

LIAM: I am intrigued.

(laughter)

MILES: So my question was for the entire panel. Critical Role has kind of inspired the other RPG shows on the Geek & Sundry format, so I was wondering how Vox Machina would react if they were to plane shift to Vulcana, for instance. From Titansgrave.

LAURA: Well.

TRAVIS: Electricity would be really interesting.

MARISHA: I think Keyleth would be like, "I knew it!"

TALIESIN: I'm so delighted by this entire notion that I can't think straight. Oh my god, D&D crossovers, what a crazy idea.

MARISHA: Can we jump into Shield of Tomorrow and do a Star Trek crossover?

TALIESIN: I would love to do a Star Trek crossover. I've got to admit.

MARISHA: I'm into that.

MATT: Oh my god, Vox Machina in Star Trek would be so horrible.

(laughter)

BRIAN: Look at all the Shield of Tomorrow people going, bring it on.

SAM: Yeah, Scanlan would spend a lot of time in the holodeck.

(laughter)

LIAM: (knocks) What are you doing in there?

SAM: One more minute!

LAURA: I've always wondered about the holodeck in that way, because--

LIAM: Just because they don't put it in the episodes doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

LAURA: It has to happen, right? You have an entire crew of people that are like, (hums).

SAM: That room must be so nasty.

LAURA: I know! Maybe they have a secondary holodeck, you know what I mean?

MATT: I'm not going to Dungeon Master your holodeck experiences, guys. I'm sorry. I got close enough with an audiobook once, and that was weird in its own right.

LIAM: I'd like to see Vox Machina skinned into cyberpunk, I think.

LAURA: That's actually Valkana!

LIAM: It's more Blade Runner-y, a little bit. Whatever.

LAURA: I think they would all get along with Lemley so well.

MATT: That was an awesome question.

BRIAN: Thank you so much, Manleth.

MATT: Vax, if you are that intrigued, Alter Self, she can use at will.

(laughter)

LIAM: I'm aware.

MARISHA: Once again... never mind.

LIAM: Just because Vax has never pooped in an episode of Critical Role and you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

LAURA: Vex doesn't poop. I'm just putting that out there. She never poops. Ever.

MATT: #Vaxdoesntpoop.

LIAM: Not anymore.

LAURA: Oh! Do you eat?

LIAM: I don't know.

LAURA: Oh no! How are you going to have a Heroes' Feast?

LIAM: We'll find out.

MATT: Next question.

BRIAN: Yeah, we've got to move on or we're going to get spoilery.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: So the rest did enough questions, so super nerdy inquiry to Matt about old school D&D. Since you've introduced the current arc and you start going to the upper planes of the gods, pretty much all I can think about is the final AD&D book: Die, Vecna, Die. It's an essential story about him, and I'm wondering-- I've been going through the campaign book and looking at your pantheon and so forth, and have you considered the stuff from those old stories in regards to the Serpent and Lady of Pain and Sigil and the stuff above the gods, if you have that figured out and those cosmology and whether it will come out either in this campaign or eventually. I assume they fight Tharizdun in the next campaign.

MATT: Right. I take a lot of inspiration from elements of that Vecna story, because Vecna's such an intrinsic villain to D&D lore. To change him too much would be upsetting to me. And a lot of you guys, as well. There is a lot of expectation there. So I want to make him unique to this campaign in this world, because he's definitely not the exact same character. There are elements of that that are classic lore that are pulled into this that may be revealed in the future. Especially now that we're releasing campaign guides and this has become a world now that we can bring to you guys to play in, I have to be careful to not pull in too much of the very licensed D&D lore. Otherwise, we would have to reskin everything and you all are like, "oh wait, which one's which? Oh no." I'm trying to keep that to a minimum. But if you know a lot about Vecna--

LAURA: Then tell us.

MATT: Then don't tell them anything.

LAURA: Tell us his weaknesses.

MATT: Don't listen to her...

LIAM: This is the perfect time to segue into our next Comic-Con announcement though, which is in season three, we are converting to first edition D&D.

MATT: The characters will die before you get artwork done.

BRIAN: Okay. Next question. Thank you very much. Hey, what's your name?

SEAN: Hi. My name is Sean.

MATT, MARISHA and LAURA: Hi, Sean!

SEAN: Hi. I actually saw Matt first in front of me for the ThunderCats panel in this room.

MATT: Yeah! Oh, way back then! Oh man.

SEAN: My question is actually related to that. How much Critical Role's grown over the years. I'm sure none of you expected it to grow to this type of audience, and I still remember the days when you were reading all the donations, even on stream. Do any of you miss anything from those early days when it was still such a small show?

LIAM: I liked eating fried chicken on set.

LAURA: That was great.

MARISHA: I feel like we can't go through all the fanart-- we do, but after the after-show reactions and responses, we can't really go through it as much anymore.

TALIESIN: It was much easier. We're getting to a point we're like-- whoa.

TRAVIS: Excuse me.

TALIESIN: I miss when the correspondence was more manageable as opposed to this is something I have to set aside time every day to do it. But yeah. That's the one thing I miss. Oh, five minutes a week. I can deal with this.

BRIAN: Does anyone miss shooting in a three-year-old child's bedroom?

LAURA: It was pretty. I liked it.

BRIAN: Me, too. I was just wondering.

LIAM: The race car bed was just out of camera. I mean, I love what we're doing now, but I also liked-- we were still dumb idiots at the beginning of the show. We didn't have the weight of the world on our shoulders, really, so it was nice being carefree.

MATT: Sorry, what am I supposed to do at level 16?

LIAM: Exactly what you're doing!

MATT: Some clown scared a family! Things get a little heavy in the later levels, but we'll get back to the carefree feeling probably in the next campaign.

LAURA: When we're all dead.

(laughter)

BRIAN: Great question.

MATT: For me, I guess what I miss a little bit is the anonymity to go into the Dealers' Hall. But other than that, I wouldn't change anything. This is amazing. This is amazing.

BRIAN: Put on Ivan's demogorgon outfit and wander the floor and nobody will know it's you!

LAURA: You could put on a mask.

MATT: Well, now I can't do that costume. Thanks, Brian.

BRIAN: I might have not thought that through all the way, he said to a microphone. Thank you for the question, though. You're awesome. You're great. Hey, what's up? All right, we're going to have to lightning-round this because we've got about seven minutes left, so go ahead.

MC: All right. Hi, my name's MC. Really quick. What has surprised you about all of your guys' character developments, and I guess for Matt, the world developments, that have come up over the past few years?

MATT: For me? Surprised that people want to play there and everything's been reactionary. Creating the campaign guide was reactionary. That wasn't our idea. Green Ronin came to us; they were like, "You want to do a campaign guide?" Okay. So we're amazed that people have interest in them.

LAURA: Um...

SAM: Skip her!

LAURA: No! Oh, it's lightning round. Shit. Shoot. No, I'm surprised that she is willing to take responsibility for more than just herself and her brother and her bear.

LIAM: Never thought that Vax would get dark as he has. It ties into the last question. I thought, we were like a couple of Han Solo characters for our entire home campaign, at the beginning of the campaign and would never have predicted that it would be so freaking serious. Ever.

SAM: I was surprised that Taryon lasted longer than two episodes. And... that's it.

ASHLEY: I think most recently, I'm surprised I didn't realise Pike would ever be able to have wings. That's pretty good.

TALIESIN: I was expecting Percy to end a terrible mess, and it somehow has not happened. He's actually kind of a functional human being, which was not the plan, ever.

MARISHA: I think it's that the development's never over; the world is always affecting the way you go. Keyleth fell from pretty high and got dark. Literally smeared on broken rocks. That was shocking. I'll pick that.

LIAM: That was not in your vision.

MARISHA: No!

LIAM: This one's for Keyleth! (thuds)

TRAVIS: I was surprised Grog became the smartest member of the group.

(cheering)

TRAVIS: That happened, right?

BRIAN: Thank you. Who's up next?

MIKELYN: Hi guys! My name is Mikelyn. I was wondering, Matt, what scenario were you most proud of throwing at the group, or what is your favorite kind of scenario to throw at them?

MATT: Timed scenarios. D&D is a lot of planning and arguing and trying to figure things out, and there's game time versus planning time, and I love a scenario where I can tell the players, "well, you have this much time to do both. Go." It ups the intensity, so I love me my hourglasses, definitely.

LIAM: Stupid rakshasa.

MIKELYN: Thank you.

MATT: Thank you!

BRIAN: Next question. What's your name?

ALEX: Hi, I'm Alex. Thank you Ashley for Gortys, because she's the most adorable character ever.

LAURA: She's pretty great.

ALEX: Thank you Laura for Lucina, because she is the best. And Matt, what time is it?

MARISHA: Man! Almost got through a panel.

MATT: (McCree voice) It's about 34 minutes till it's high noon.

(cheering)

ALEX: Thank you.

LIAM: Panels, Mexican restaurants, the dentist's office...

BRIAN: Anywhere.

MATT: I am so conscious of what time it is at all times now.

(laughter)

BRIAN: All right. Go ahead, man. What's your name?

ALEX: My name is Alex. Really quickly, couple years ago, I attended my first panel with you guys. I had no direction; now I'm auditioning for things, all because of the advice and inspiration you guys have given.

(applause)

ALEX: As a fellow DM, Matt, if you're able to tell us, for the next campaign, it's going to be chronologically after this current timeline or is it going to be before?

MATT: Yeah, I've mentioned a little bit, I think. But the next campaign I'm planning to be roughly 20 or so years beyond the end of this campaign. And it's going to be in a different continent, and there's a possibility, depending on which characters and NPCs survive this final arc, they'll be existing somewhere in the world.

ASHLEY: What?!

LAURA: So we could visit ourselves if we live?! (yells) Oh man! That's so cool!

SAM: Reveal!

LIAM: I remember your great-great-grandfather, Trunket. Oh.

LAURA: Oh! Trinket babies! Oh no, Tova, you have to come back!

(laughter)

BRIAN: Oh my god. What a sentence!

MATT: Next question.

BRIAN: Okay, we've got time for one more. It's up to you.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: One more? So for all the couples on the stage, how do you guys deal with each other after the game? You guys have the car rides home. How do you deal with some of those more intense moments that somebody gets something; Matt, you may have killed a character or whatever. I can't get through a game of Monopoly with my wife without going to bed angry. How do you guys deal with it?

MARISHA: I push him out the window at the Taco Bell.

MATT: Yeah. Seriously, calm down Taco Bells, definitely after an intense session. Like driving, scratch the knee. You want Taco Bell? (mopey voice) Yes. Okay.

TRAVIS: That's insane because we live ten, 15 minutes from you guys and we do the same shit.

MARISHA: Yeah!

TRAVIS: We have our own Taco Bell. I'm like, "why did you take my Deck of Many Things, Laura?!"

MARISHA: I feel like for us, at the end of the game, for Matt, he's like, (sighs) "Done for the week!" And I'm just getting revved up.

MATT: Why did you ever get the thought it was me going, "Oh. Done for the week." It's me going, "I'm sorry. It's what the story did."

MARISHA: I'm just saying, your stress seems to happen before the game and mine happens after. So the whole time, I'm like, "I mean, I don't know. What's the Raven Queen's deal? Is she to be trusted? I don't know." And he's like--

TRAVIS: You don't know.

MARISHA: I'm just talking to a brick wall.

MATT: You want to talk about people that prod, though; Travis, every given moment turns to me and goes, "So what's this item do?" You don't know. And he'll go, "Ugh!"

TRAVIS: He's going to fold one of these times.

BRIAN: Oh wow. Okay, we got to end there, guys. I'm so sorry. Thank you for your questions. Thank you guys for waiting. Thank you for lining up and asking questions. We've got to run. I would like to thank my guests: a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors!

(cheering)

BRIAN: We'll see you guys. Thank you so much! Thank you!