"Do you know why they call me Obby the rat?" fucking love sam

Liam: "Each character has a secret." Me: "Oh, that's nice." Liam: "And they all think they're the only one." Me: "…Oh, this is gonna be GOOD."

I love how Liam was like "I want to do a one-shot with a whole bunch of little mini Vaxs."

i like how Liam has a signature DM look now. Hat and glasses

"I am frequently used as punishment"

I love how Laura's whole posture and physical demeanor change with the character she's playing. It's very fun to watch.

That voice-over introduction and premise may be one of the best intros to a one shot I've ever seen, made me super hyped up to the game

I like how they harp on Travis for being Tarvis, but no one mentions that Dren is just "nerd" backwards.

"I hate these D names" Somewhere Mercer is laughing at you.

Man, it's refreshing to see Travis get to play a character with some brains. Poor guy has had his brain stuck in a breadbox for 65 episodes and it's awesome to see him stretch his roleplay muscles out a bit.

“There is a ladder on wheels that could be a source of farcical comedy and high jinks, but not tonight.” -Obby the Rat

I am currently imagining Vax telling Vox Machina horror stories about what it’s like to work in the Clasp, doing all the voices and monster sound effects.

I love Evil Intelligent Travis I love Liam's monster voices I love Ashly Burch, I really hope she comes back.

"Who hugs Obby when Obby needs to be punished?" "The Raven Queen." Ahhhhhahahaha DnD jokes.

I imagine Matt watching and his eye twitching with every "siggle" and just making a finger pyramid thinking 'Ohhh, I'm going to give them sooooo many more dragons!'

It's normal to hear Travis playing an intimidating character, but it's unheard of for Grog to be cold and calculating with his intimidation. Cold and murderous, sure. Brutal and loud, often. But the well spoken threats with a low tone of a man well prepared to stab you without a second thought... he does that just as well.

The horsely whispered, "Liam is nervous for Liam too." :D

Travis with triple the INT score is magnificent

Sometimes I forget that Vax's voice isn't Liam's real voice.

Sam Riegel: The master of comedic timing. Never fails to make me die of laughter.

Sam never fails to make me cry tears of laughter. He is so fucking talented. But also so is everyone else, and seeing Travis be evil was amazing and I need it 10x over.

In the intro about Obby the rat: "he's the break-in guy, he hasn't met many doors that slowed him down..." We all know this isn't true...

Travis: *acting like an evil bastard man* Sam: I am uncomfortable with this

Once again, Travis and Sam have awesome chemistry together. Those two always have fun together, no matter what characters they are.

Man, those rolls were a.... Travis-ty. *ba-dum-tish*

I wrote Obby a Haiku: So you wish to know/Why I'm call'd Obby the Rat?/I am very small.

Laura and Sam are incredible at emoting their characters. When Laura is Vex she appears tall and regal, here she's clearly 3 feet tall. And Sam...from Scanlan, to Tary to Obby. Three completely different vibes and postures.

"I live with my wife, her mother, her mother, and her mother. And I hate them all. But we get along, because we're family"

Oh how I wish Obby had been on the Shrew's side. Just imagine that reveal: 'You want to know why they call me Obby the Rat?' I swear when The Shrew was talking about little birdies spreading information I was convinced it had been Obby.

"what are you talking about? she is a gir- oooo" Sam is fucking hilarious

52:21 Devan: "that only works with people who are related to her" Obby: "I have a vast lineage"

"Can I... Assassinate the fishtank?" "..No."

Dunno, if someone still rewatches this gem, but here are some of my Favorites (Timestamps): 0:07:50 - Backstory Secrets 0:15:05 - Start 0:22:00 - Spireling Shenn 0:22:34 # - Obby the Rat 1 0:24:36 # - Obby in the Sewers [0:28:40 'I go first' ; 0:38:15 Obby Punishment ; 0:42:12 Haiku 7-5-7 ; 0:47:57 Obby Runs -> 0:49:50 'I Panicked' + 'Obby will oblige' ; 0:52:12 'I have a vast lineage'] 0:55:18 - Devan & The Shrew 0:59:06 - The Killer Die 1:05:04 - Pushing Pallets 1:09:37 - Normal Gold... 'It's Fine' [1:18:15 Scimitar ; 1:19:40 Thief Opening Chests ; 1:24:55 Tarvis Anus Attack & Chest Counter ; # 1:31:23 Tarvis Trying to be Useful ; 1:32:54 Obby's Turn ; 1:37:40 'Are you alright?'] 1:41:27 - Devan Hole Punishment 1:50:45 - Obby and Dogs 1:54:54 - Vodka 2:07:54 - Erotic Novel 2:43:45 - Obby Poison Dmg 'NO' 2:59:05 - Sad Devan 3:41:31 - The Nat.1 Streak Continues 3:45:24 - Obby's Haiku to Dren 3:49:45 - Tarvis Questioning His Leadership 3:52:04 - HDYWTDT 3:55:30 # - The Treasure Vault (Cabinet) [3:58:55 Tarvis' Sneak Attack ; 4:04:25 Dren Ledger Steal ; 4:14:11 'Because I Love Devan' ; 4:17:25 'Kill Them, Now' ; 4:19:45 7th? Nat.1 ; 4:35:34 'Watch Her Die' ; 4:38:48 'Whip Finish' ; 4:40:49 End Panic] 4:47:20 - Backstory Evil Secrets (Cast Reveal) I

Travis was rolling like Will Wheaton and Sam was rolling like Taliesin that night

"obby the rat is realizing that he must maintain accent for three hours"--yeah, sam, just wait until c2 when you voluntarily chose a (hilarious) voice for nott and gotta do it for hundreds of hours

Legends say Travis Willingham slept on the couch that night.

So I totally ripped off Liam's "secret" idea for a one shot with my friends today and it was the BEST thing ever!! It was really cool- lots of cool interactions, betrayals, and awesome electrical traps. 😄😄

Oh Vax'ildan, your power never ceases to amaze me!

Obbey: "I live with my wife, her mother, her mother, and her mother, and I hate them all, but we all get along because we are family." The absolute greatest backstory in all of DnD history and no one can change my mind.

“Jesus.. nipples on a horse” Made me almost spit out my water. That was hilarious 😂😂

Tarvis reminds me of a certain dwarven fighter who talked good shit but then got his axe stuck in a wall XD

Tarvis is like Grog. They both want to kill everything but spend most of combat unable to

Travis is so much more intimidating when he's playing an intelligent character. I dont know if it because I'm superimposing Tarvis' intelligence onto Grog's brutality. But Travis is calm, confident, snarky and gives the impression he wreck an army.

For a while I thought it was just Scanlon, but I have come to realize that Sam Riegel is the best thing on the internet.

go liam! he did an awesome job. for those of you who have never DM'd, let me just say that it takes some courage to do it even for a small group of friends. following mercer's act in front of a live audience must be terrifying! I really like liam's DMing style though, I really do. I hope we see more of it in the future.

I know everyone's saying it, but OH MY GOD Travis is so cool in this. The power play in his body language. I just frickin love it.

"I live with my wife and her mother and her mother and her mother and her mother, and I hate them all" XD

"Wow... I really like these characters! It'd be cool if Travis could get to play a kind of half-orc dude with a secret, who liked to take charge of the group and had a bit more intelligence than Grog more often." - Me, 3 years ago.

The only people Tarvis could kill were unconscious lol

Travis' character was awesome - Loved seeing such bad guy have so many things go wrong for him lol

I'm Obby the Rat. You know why they call me that? It's raining on Mt. Fuji.

"I've had stuff jumping around in my head for two weeks, I don't know how Matthew does is, I dont wanna do it again, but lets do it!!

Awww, man, I love heists! Lovely to see everyone playing vastly different characters too. And the secrets/betrayals idea. Awesome stuff, Liam.

I love how Travis's character was supposed to be some coldly intelligent evil genius, and because he kept rolling 1's he just spent all game being an inept buffoon

Here we see Liam having loads of fun making crazy gargling monster noises and a wide variety of strange sound effects.

seeing Travis and Laura play totally different personalities is so strange and wonderful lol. Travis is smart and calculating, Laura is awkward and nervous. I love it.

That intro had me hooked. Well done, sire!

Ashly: My names Dren, I don't have a last name, like Prince Travis: W HE E ZE

One day we need Ashly Burch to be in a game with Ashley Johnson so that, together, the two combined would create a critical mass of adorableness and cause reality to implode on itself. xD

I love Liams chill DM style. That's the kind of table I want to play at!

It's impressive seeing Travis playing scary-smart after playing Grog for so long. Everybody's expressing their range, in this and... I just have to applaud it.

Drinking game - take a drink when they check for traps

0:07:52 - Liam's voice over video 0:14:49 - Character Introductions 0:17:25 - Part 1 begins 20:00 Drenn and Devan: A personal moment 22:30 The reveal of Obby's accent 28:38 Marching order (Do you know why they call me Obby the Rat?) Leading into 29:00 Obby and the pipe (Difficulties of talking with an accent) 35:39 Obby reappears from the pipe 38:15 Devan hugs Obby 42:26 Drenn's haiku and Obby's knowledge of poetry 49:32 Tarvis has a word with Obby 1:10:15 Start of the first encounter 1:37:00 End of the first encounter and another haiku from Drenn 1:50:45 "Do you know why they call me Obby the Rat?" again 2:08:04 Obby finds a book 2:09:53 Addictions 2:15:28 Devan and Drenn

I glad travis got a chance to play a high intelligence character, he'd did a good job, the character was a lot of fun. Also, haha, poor liam, for like 20 minutes there he kept saying "SO YOUR ATTENTION IS CAPTURED BY THESE PAINTINGS" while the plays ignored him decidedly not having their attention captured by the paintings

man Liam makes great creature noises

Obby has officially decided my next character is DEFINITELY going to have the thick accent and "Running through means trap is disarmed" energy

At least Dren never had to be betrayed.

***SPOILERS*** This is how I'm going to pretend things end: And as Obby weakly pulls himself from the pile of bodies he mumbles to himself "Do you know why they call me Obby the Rat?... Because I am VERY hard to kill"

I kind of think Liam (or Talisen) should run a Call of Cthulhu game.

oh my lord Obby looks SO MUCH like Sam... Its frightening.

i like how Obby keeps changing the reason why he's called Obby the Rat reminds me of Heath Ledger's Joker, "wanna know how i got these scars" :")

I really want to see Matt make his own character and play along with everyone else. I'd like to see how he handles not having all the power lol

The return of The Return of liam! Every new episode feels like a small Christmas.

Although Liam did seem super overwhelmed by a proper 5e setting/rules and managing what every player was doing/changing the music, this was a really cool experiment. Ashley and Mary are such wonderful guests. Travis and Sam never cease to amaze with their performances. This sort of thing serves to make us appreciate Matt so much more. He's a freakin' God.

Sam is too pure for this it’s funny how uncomfortable he is playing a “bad guy”

16:20 the face Travis makes, when Mary asks "what's the other half" screams "I haven't thought about that" Why am I so happy that they are fighting a mimic? messed up and cool! "I wanted an evil campaign, I wanted to play it. But no one made it for me so I made it myself" I feel like that is the birth of many a DM. usually also what makes the best content, do what you love, and hope to find those who love it too.

Liam did a fantastic job! and i loved all the characters. great to see mary again, i hope ashly gets invited back

With how quickly and aggressively Tarvis went after Devan at the start, you would think that killing her was his main secret mission instead of stealing the ledger. I guess he figured out early on that the relationship between her and Dren would derail things, so he took the initiative. I have to wonder, though, if there was just a bit of an ulterior motive there of Travis wanting to screw over Laura in a meta sort of way. I can tell that they are both fairly competitive, so it wouldn't surprise me. xD

I'd love to know what Liam told Laura to prep her as the one with this insider character knowledge. She knew certain things, despite changes, it is an amazing level of pre-planning if I'm right.

I just love Lauras voice acting so much

That many natural 1s from Tarvis is a statistical miracle

With all these haikus Dren randomly comes up with, I wish she had multi-classed into bard and the haikus were how she inspires people. xD

As someone who always has to DM but never gets to play, it gives me great joy to watch someone I've come to see as a Player take the role of DM. Would LOVE to see a 1-off where a member of Vox Machina DMs and Matt plays ^_^

Mercer makes DMing seem effortless so it was kind of refreshing to see Liam doing his best. SPOILER: I do wonder if they were always going to get caught by the shrew or if it depended on which lever they pulled.

I love Ashly, she should totally be a guest star with Vox Machina.

A party full of rogues and a sorcerer, I absolutely love it

Man, Liam nailed the beholder sounds. Between that and his cyber-voice I am SERIOUSLY impressed by his vocal abilities.

Spice?

Said it before and I'll say it again... Liam needs a spinoff.

Sam's characters are always the best

I just can't get over "Tarvis". Every time someone says it, I burst out laughing.

Leaders are cursed in Taldorei. Thorbir and his Wil Wheaton curse... Lyra and all her negative initiatives and saving throws... Tarvis and all his Nat 1s...

This is just incredible, I hope Liam is deeply proud of himself for creating this.

Perhaps Liam knowledge of the rules wasn't perfect but this episode was so entertaining. Travis seemed to be a little too comfortable playing evil. I'm concerned 😊

I just love it when they have Mary McGlynn at the table. She's so good!

EDIT: 99% of the following timestamps come from +Daniel Wiliams in one of the comments to my post here, so full credit to him :) 0:07:52 - Liam's voice over video 0:14:49 - Character Introductions 0:17:25 - Part 1 begins 20:00 Drenn and Devan: A personal moment 22:30 The reveal of Obby's accent 28:38 Marching order (Do you know why they call me Obby the Rat?) Leading into 29:00 Obby and the pipe (Difficulties of talking with an accent) 35:39 Obby reappears from the pipe 38:15 Devan hugs Obby 42:26 Drenn's haiku and Obby's knowledge of poetry 49:32 Tarvis has a word with Obby 1:10:15 Start of the first encounter 1:37:00 End of the first encounter and another haiku from Drenn 1:50:45 "Do you know why they call me Obby the Rat?" again 2:08:04 Obby finds a book 2:09:53 Addictions 2:15:28 Devan and Drenn

Vould you like to know why zey call me Obby ze Rat?

After all these years I think it still might be my favorite one-shot from Critical Role. Such a cool concept for an evil campaign, full of twists and secrets, besides Liam being brilliant at DMing the wierdest shit which I live for

LOVE cold, calculating Travis! Having Devan recount why she's indebted to the Clasp to make the "don't gamble with our lives" comment immediately impressed me.

I thought that "professional gamer" was the nerdiest occupation possible, but seeing our guys opening their lootcrates every episode and reacting, I think we have surpassed that with the "professional dork". I'm f*ckin' envious...