What’s your favorite moment from this episode?

Matt convinces the party that running away is an option early in the episode knowing full well he was about to drop four Ancient dragons on their heads, and wants them to remember that for later. Later: Liam (in character) I want a reason to keep doing this with these people. Matt (internally): Okay. I got you. 15 minutes later: How about four big fucking dragons? Is that a good reason?

The advice about fog of war is useful in heated arguments of many kinds: don't talk before you get the time to cool off. Better for everyone.

One of my favorite things about how Marisha played Keyleth was that she tried out SO MANY interesting spells. People who play druids or clerics are often overwhelmed by the number of choices and tend to stick to a limited selection of spells with obvious use. And she picked WEIRD spells from the druid list all the time and tried to find a way to use them. Does it always work? Obviously not. Is it fun to see more and more spells used in unusual situations? YES!

"An enormous vision of death, a grinning Ancient Green Dragon." Matt really knows how to describe a monsters when he needs to.

Raishan is probably my favorite antagonist of campaign 1. the weakest, yet most dangerous of the whole arc. Just, such a fantastic villain

Vax: “I don’t know what we’re doing” Matt: *laughs maniacally in Dungeon Master*

I love that the description for this episode includes “a political shift in Eamon”. Understatement of the century

At CR's most recent live event Q&A someone asked Matt what his one biggest piece of DMing advice would be and he replied "If a rule prevents players from having fun at the table it's not worth holding onto." He talked a bit about how sticking to the rules is important and it's part of the DM's job to enforce that, but if a rule is actively damaging someone's good time, the good time is more important. Then he mentioned that there have been times in the past where he was more of a hardass than he wanted to be because, in part, he felt the weight of the streaming audience judging him, and he has tried to change that. I really believe that the Windwalk moment was what was in his head when he gave that answer.

I always love Liam‘s attitude towards mistakes or misunderstanding, even when you can tell, he’s pretty bummed something didn’t work he always takes it like a champ. And it’s ready to move forward. Which is such a great trait for a player to have. That’s not to say the rest the cast doesn’t do this really well. But Liam especially.

"It's always gonna be Grog." I straight up cackled.

"Fucking, it's a game, it's fine" Is a perfect statement about DND I always appreciate your mindset about gameplay and player interactions

I can relate to matt at the end. Destroying something you've built is devastating to both the GM and players. I had to destroy my starting city in my campaign and didn't know how bad it would feel until it had been done.

“it’s always gonna be travis” hitting hard after recent items found in c3. he’s a magnet for cursed swords i swear

This episode is the best example of one thing that makes campaign one special: the fact that for most of the players it's their first campaign. Matt will never be able to blow their minds with a high CR monster in quite the same way again. *spoilers for campaign 3* He still gets close with sudden difficulty spikes like their first fight with Otohan -- but he had to actually kill members of the party to get the same type of effect he could get here with one missed attack.

They absolutely nailed the Raishan moment in LOVM. Especially since it led to the first face-to-face encounter between Keyleth and her.

Yeah the ruling Matt makes on the Wind Walk spell is 100% fine. Sometimes mistakes happen and it's better to mess with the rules to keep the game moving. They already faced negative consequences (a round being mostly useless) and used resources (a high level spell slot). If sticking with it makes the party miserable, a one time ruling to end it is fine. It's how I would have run it

I think that a large part of the reason that Marisha was worried about Matt giving her an out was because, at the time, an annoying portion the community was questioning as to whether Matt was giving his girlfriend special favors... The classic "DM's Girlfriend" trope. She didn't want to be seen as getting special treatment because she was worried about additional harassment from the Anti-Marisha members of the fanbase. She also knew that she was already in for a shillacking from that group over the spell to begin with, and probably didn't want to give them more ammo.

6:55 I think the biggest takeaway for me on the Windwalk thing and misreading spells is that I would have run that differently than Matt, which is fun to know! "I wouldn't have cast the spell if I knew how it really worked" is usually met with a retcon or "okay, it works like that this time, but in the future..." But it was still neat to see how Matt handled it. It was cool and creative, even if I think Matt's ruling was less generous than what I would have done.

But OMG where’s Larkin at a time like this, they could really use his help!

“Travis Willingham… best D&D player since 2012 and I’m not even joking” Truer words have rarely, if ever been spoken.

I live for the ".......19 misses???" moment. It's one of my favourite Critical Role moments.

This is one of the best plot twists ever. Building tension and uncertainty, and then quickly turning into chaos, destruction, and fear for what is to come

I've only recently (about 5 months ago but heyho) began watching CR's VM series, going in mostly blind to the story as a whole. I can easily say that Matt's introduction to the Chroma Conclave arc is one of the most exhilarating pieces of story telling I can honestly think of. The casts' reaction to "19 misses" is also both hilarious and so very understandable.

This was the episode where I fell in love with D&D. The emotional damage that Matt dealt in the last half hour is phenomenal. And I hope to someday be able to deliver something even half as skillfully.

You could also link Vax’s frustration to Liam’s plan to multi class as a paladin. Liam has said he planned on multiclassing as a paladin of Sarenrae before the Raven Queen and this could be early hints to him wanting a greater purpose.

I don't think the Laura whisper was just rewarding Vex's passive perception, it was also him rewarding her choice of favored enemy. (Like he does more explicitly later) Something I like about Vex is that technically, Primeval Awareness is just a feature all Rangers get, but Critical Role treats it as an important part of her character. We'll see later that there's a very good reason Laura chose dragons as Vex's favored enemy, and Matt was able to work that choice into the narrative, and it shows up in the animated series too (where this whisper is clearly adapted as Vex's "spider sense" going off).

Finally it's Chroma Conclave arc. This arc is where I set the bar for my game, not in a way that I need to be as good as this (it's impossible considered the gap in years of DMing between Matt and me) but in trying to achieve this kind of emotional experience to my players. If my players have as half the fun/fear/thrill/hype as the cast during this arc, I would feel satisfied.

40 minutes?? what an unexpected yet very welcome treat!

I feel especially early on, Matt and Marisha were more afraid of showing favoritism then they needed to be. I have little doubt in my mind that had anyone other than Marisha cast that spell, Matt would have let them undue it next turn. Furthermore moments like this tought the whole cast a valuable lesson, and really "leveled up," Sam and Marisha's spellcasting, as well as the casters in future campaigns.

Been looking forward to your discussion on this episode. Easily one of my favorites of the show. Travis' reaction to realizing a 19 misses just speaks volumes

The way I think about it is just because the player didn’t know better, the character definitely understands their world more (and likely would’ve made a decision with that information) and I generally favor “oops let’s redo that turn”

Matt absolutely handled this correctly. I really appreciate 4e splitting long cast time spells into 'rituals', and they're entirely separated from combat resources. It helps avoid accidentally casting spells like wind walk in the first place, and solves 'do I cast speak with animals or cure wounds' type situations.

tbf as a DM when my players get a new spell I will bail them out if they misundestand it, because lore-wise your characters when they learn a new spell would most likely be far more aware of what a spell does then your player would be. Naturally this is true as your PC's life is dependent on their capabilities when your player is not, also, when your PC levels up they usually have far more time to process their spell then their player does.

This is a good channel. This is a good series. I like Mike.

Definitely one of the top storytelling episodes they've done. I'm at 24:20 and you might end up talking about it, but the (want of a better word) "reward" of Liam/Vax expressing wanting more and wanting purpose, to seeing his face and how he reacts to the dragons becoming a threat to the city (and civilisation) is just exquisite; not only has his character been given some purpose, but it's a BIG mountain to climb.

My mindset is that if the DM screws up, they should own up to it, which Matt did by allowing the 1-minute cast spell in the first place, when that happens, the DM should offer an out to fix the situation if their mistake caused things to go fubar and ruins the fun. Which in this case, Matt did. That's basically proper DM etiquette and thus the right call, in my opinion. Allowing it in the first place? Sure, he could do that, but it comes at the cost of a horrible result that basically forced an absolutely unfun and downright frustrating situation; thus it was a mistake, and he gave an out as he should. All in all, right call.

For sure, if the spell should not have even been able to be cast in the first place, ruling that you can end it is great. Sometimes the best fix for having broken one rule is to break a second one to balance it out.

Honestly I remember watching the “fog” of war moment and just thinking that it’s a masterclass in how to fix a situation in a game. I remember Marisha especially apologizing to everyone, but naturally they were all super sweet about it. Overall I thought the whole fight, including Matt’s lifeline that he gave Keyleth, was actually pretty cool. I really don’t have bad memories of that.

Poor Marisha would go on to waste each of her newest highest level spell slots as she got them Just got past her "But hey 8th level spell" moment against Thordak in my current rewatch lol Always sucks the hardest balls to blow your biggest magical load and either accomplish nothing OR negatively effect the situation. *the shit eating grin on Travis when Vax whines about Grog to Vex always kills me

I love Marisha and don't understand all of the discourse surrounding the very few moments she messed up. It makes sense in the moment and also made the situation more interesting. Also the dragons are awesome and I love this story arc.

Another great analysis. I began watch C1 for the first time just under two months ago (ish), and at the beginning I was alternating watching an episode of CR and then your follow-up analysis of that same episode. I'm now at the point where I've over taken your analyses, and am many episodes beyond this one, and it's great to relive the moments I might have forgotten, or ones that had some foreshadowing. Like with most people, it's the "19 misses?!" and the freeze from Travis. You can tell he's so used to being able to hit nearly everything with 19, that he automatically starts to shake his hand for the roll of the die before it clicks. What's especially noticeable for me about this moment is 1. The realisation that they're vulnerable, and 2, *most of the table miss it*, and the implication of what that means, because they're already head into books to plan out their attacks. They also are so used to hearing 19 = grog hit stuff, that they don't register that a 19 isn't enough and that they're not ready for this fight. It's a great moment as we as audience can see VM's flaws & weaknesses, but they don't yet, they've bought into their own publicity and think that they are the default heroes of everything. (Personal annoyance of mine is Vox Machina's insistence that they are the only ones qualified to handle something, even when it clearly needs to be in the caretaking of someone one - like the Horn of Orcas & Kima, or like here, having the possession of Krieg's house). Then of course later the realisation that 20 isn't enough to save from the damage either. Dropping all the clues that they're not ready for this jelly yet.

I like that in the animated series they really play up how much Umbrassyl wanted to usurp Thordak but didn't have the power, and in this scene of the live show we hear Thordak specifically call out Umbrassyl to move on from the Cloudtop. Could be foreshadowing, could be convenience to say another dragon's name, but still very cool!

It's really refreshing reviewing this part of the campaign, because in my own campaign my players are amping up to the finale of a story arc that has taken them from level 1 to level 12. Apocalyptic scales are crossing the continents, and I've destroyed the majority of the area the campaign began in as the bbeg razes it to the ground. It's weirdly sad, but also incredibly fun, to take something I've spent hours cultivating and building and then smashing it with a narrative sledgehammer in front of my players.

I was flabbergasted when I watched this episode for the first time and I had never been more glad that I wasn’t watching it live so I could just jump straight into the next episode lol

I always hated the "read your spells" discourse. In fact, the number of times her spells have actually been read wrong and impacted the party negatively I can count on one hand. More times than not, it's actually Matt that gets it wrong and eventually he rightly corrects his ruling, namely during a certain huge boss fight 40 episodes later.

Huh I thought the house Vax watched was Krieg's on the off chance that Grog's outburst was unknowingly on to something

I really thought there was a pink post-it on my screen for longer than I care to admit.

Probably my favorite episode in the entire CR series, the introduction to the Chroma Conclave Arch is perfect!!

That worm battle was an absolute clusterf*k marisha definitely dropped the ball but her and Matt handled it pretty well and seemed to me marisha learned her lesson and everyone moved on

The chroma conclave was in my opinion one of the best stories ever created not just DND best story and arc I’ve seem

This is a great breakdown and I never thought about how he used the purple worms to sort of re-mind them to run from things they can't do. I hope you hot that 1000 patrons soon! Why was there a sticky note below sam btw?

Man, I wish I could convince my players to retreat.

This episode always reminds me of the phrase "Thanks Keyleth." I know it can seem mean at times, but I see it as a funny phrase whenever Marisha/Keyleth goofs 😂

I love the destruction of emon it's the perfect visual

It’s incredible the amount of effort you put into your videos man, tons of deep analysis with clear explanations.. keep it up

This was such a perfect setup to one of the best arcs in all of CR. Mercer was cooking with gas with the Chroma Conclave. On the topic of getting your players to flee, I must be the outlier. The players in my game have a pretty keen sense on when to run. Maybe even too keen. The moment shit gets bad, retreat is always an option.

I remember being kinda frustrated at the time, but so far removed from the episode the wind walk thing is just funny to me now. Especially considering how little that scene mattered in hindsight. A real "thanks Keyleth(complementary)" moment.

I've been enjoying this serious for a while but this is the first time it's been really relevant to my own gaming. I'm pretty sure you just solved the ending of a one shot I've been struggling with for a while

You had me hooked throughout the whole video. I already know everything you said and all the clips, but just the way you presented it all was.. perfect. I'm def watching more vids.

I remember this episode. It was crazy good. I think I screamed when he said “And that’s where we will end it tonight”

I love reliving this show with you. Thank you for this

I adore the look on Liam's face when Matt first begins describing the dragon attack. Like, yeah, it could just be him stunned at the dragon, but I read it more as "Are you kidding? I was just complaining we had nothing to do!" lol

Really enjoyed this episode as a newbie to Critical Role and DnD in general! It’s really fascinating to watch and learn how they tell stories like this

Been watching these for a while enjoying the tid bits and DM and player advise spread throughout when today I was like omg. As someone who never watched critical role this is an amazing rewind. (I know they had like the catch ups or whatever, but hey I'm catching up in this way) Amazing videos Mike!

For the record by the way, Raishan's AC of 22 is the same as a standard ancient green dragon, the only thing he changed was her hit points (which is more than normal but still less than all the other dragons). The other dragons also have the same AC as standard except Thordak, whose 22 is bumped to 23 thanks to the Soul Anchor.

I would either retcon (as the spell wasn't really supposed to be cast at all), or allow a bit more flexibility in what a creature under the effect can do (not attacks per say, but maybe blind of suffocate a monster, at least do intimidation or some kind of effect to distract or impede enemies in combat). Or allow the caster a check to alter/end the spell early. It happens, and a ruling that leads to more interesting results is better than one that leads to frustration. I just had a situation with a player in a state similar to Vax, though I don't know if they knew it. We're running through Tomb of Annihilation, and his character has been through the ringer, and is making darker and darker choices. Signing his soul to hell, making foul bargains, leaping into danger and messing with ancient artifacts. And after our last session, I asked him what he wanted for the character and what the character wanted, because the road that character was going down was going to alienate them from the party. It brought about a really interesting conversation, where we sussed out the three end points along the character's path, as we saw them. It was a good moment, and helps me keep in mind how I want to present situations to the character. I actually disagree on not telling a character what they think and feel ( *TO A POINT* ). You don't really control your emotions, and to some degree your thoughts. They're reactive, and they pop off for a bunch of reasons. However, those tend to be impulsive emotions and thoughts, that aren't super detailed or articulated, and they don't usually have a conclusion tied to them. I'll tell a character they feel a sizzle of fear, or a strange sense of satisfaction, or doubt, or sadness. Basically something a little primal and inarticulate that fires off through the back of their brain. *They* decide what their character does with that information (unless it's actually triggering a mechanical effect) and perhaps dismiss the feeling as weird, or try to explore it as suits them (the caveat to this is I follow the thread of the character, and don't supply them with feelings that have no real source in their person or story. I have a PC who is ruthless warrior, who is ambivalent about the feelings of others. He also was a child who was mistreated, and his actions lead to the deaths of the only friends he had. That guy has triggers, even though he's pretty lacking in sympathy.) With thoughts, it's purely information based. These characters know a lot of things, and they are in the situation the player is only abstracting, so I fill in the gap. "You recall", "It seems to you", "You know" "You get the sudden sense" basically information they should have in the moment, that isn't already presented to them in some way. These can have conclusions, ("You know you are likely outmatched by a dragon of this size and age.") though they character may regard or disregard them as they see fit. We all "Know" things that we ignore under the right context.

I'm only five minutes in here but just want to reinforce your point that Travis is one of the best people ever to sit at a TTRPG table. He's always constructive, even when he's frustrated. It's not his turn in combat? He's a hype man. He flubs a roll? He leans into it. It's a shopping episode? He goes to get a drink so he doesn't have an impact on the energy at the table. Travis understands the fundamental principle that *you specifically* are not the main character, and that's genuinely such an underrated thing. I genuinely think a lot of players could watch him and pick up a lot of useful tips.

The most anticipated episode in CR demystified (for me, at the very least 😂)

Man, that photo of Matt holding Greyskull Keep in next week's thumbnail is so appropriate. Cause he's holding it in a way that suggests he could drop it and let it smash at any second. I don't think he'd do that with the keep specifically, that's a reward the players have earned, but it still works.

At 22:36 , I always assumed Matt whispering it to Laura (Vex) prior to anyone in the party was because of her ranger abilities, primeval awareness, as well as her backstory. I hadn't considered that she is also probably the one with the highest perception of the group. Good move on Matt's part for recognizing all that and rewarding Laura for her character choices.

The whole 'fog or war' situation is a very healthy way of looking at stuff. Much like the player, the character is in a high stakes situation and might flub up during battle. It's a very human thing to do. It's one reason I love playing with my cousin. She wouldn't want to roll back anything because she saw it as great story moments. She'd be like "whelp, we can just say he forgot how that worked too especially since it's a new thing he just learned." It helped a lot. It helped new players feel like they could make mistakes and no one was going to bite their head off and it took a lot off of me as a DM since I didn't have to try to course correct over something that in the grand scheme of things was relatively small. At the end of the day, it's a game and we're here to have fun. If people aren't having fun, I feel like as a DM, I need to get things back to being fun.

I'm looking forward to you getting into the Chroma Conclave arc. I still remember the first time I saw the aftermath of that initial attack in episode 40, incredible role-playing all around.

You're getting me through the semester Mike!

I had to translate the Dragon attack to my 6 year old son word by word as I was watching that. Today he is watching Legends of Vox Machina without need of translation and is an avid roleplyer. Well done, Matt.

I misread Find Steed thinking the 2nd level spell was casted as a bonus action, lasted for ten minutes, and required concentration. So glad someone explained it to me

I picked up on Liam saying fog of war recently and didn't quite recognize what he meant. Now I do. Totally OK with Matt throwing a lifeline on this, and totally agree that some people want to play the game differently, and that's OK too. More than one way to enjoy this game. Matt narrating the dragon sequence -- wish I could bottle that and crack it open for my next boss encounter.

This is the scene i think of when i think of campaign 1. Its so good at setting the stakes for the arc to come.

Matt has admitted that during the conversation where Vax asks what are they doing he was there thinking just give me 30 mins everyone...

“Bag of Hoarding” OMG, I’m using that from now on!

I still get goose bumps from Matt's narration of the dragons attack on Emon.

A D&D player's journey: 16:29 Frustrated, despondent Liam 36:18 Engaged, grinning, hand-rubbing Liam

6:44 🤣 thank you! This made me laugh out loud but it’s so true. ITS A GAME

Another potential lesson is always have multiple sources with you One thing that contributed to the Wind Walk debacle was the reason Matt missed the one minute cast time is he was using the Fight Club 5e app, which omits that detail and only says it's an action taken. (Matt quickly says it could be that he hasn't updated the app recently and they may have already fixed it, very quick to take blame off the app)

Hi Mike. Did you ever considered reviwing Dimension 20 Fantasy High? Brenan has a very distint type of dming, so I think it would be interesting.

Travis always getting the talking magic items is my favorite thing!

Standing rule at my table. The caster of any spell can always end it at will. Their creation. They have the unlimited ability to undo it if they wanna.

Around 6:50 your exclamation earned you a sub!

Wow!! The end of this episode has me wanting to talk enough to fill a whole podcast!! Dam! I love this, and I can't wait for more content!! I'm 0n my 4th comment btw, and I'm barely keeping myself from writing a whole essay right here 😅

I think its important to note that Marisha dropped the ball because Mat dropped the ball. If he had been aware of the casting time it wouldn't have happened. It is hard for a GM to be strict when his own mistake contributed to the situation.

20:43 Something else that I think is noteworthy about the atmosphere of the event. At that point of time Uriel had been using ambiguous words every time they've met after they returned from Whitestone. They are on the council, but were not privy to the discussions the city council's had lately. I think this was all deliberate on Matt's end, he wanted Uriel's current intentions to be not exactly clear. Especially when the event begins and the first thing he does is to clear Daxio's name. The tension was severe and I think the party was actually ready for Uriel to use them as a scapegoat and Alura was not there. The music of course doesn't help. (it helps Matt) I think that's why they looked so on edge during the start of the speech until Vex noticed the dragons.

Thank Sarenrae that Larkin wasn't here for this, there's no way he'd get out alive. Also, this was equally about how good Mercer is and how good the players are at staying in the moment. They are 110% invested in their characters and aren't about to suicide by dragon.

Lol. You had me pulling out my monster manual to look at the green dragons stats 😅 the AC and DCs on this thing are insane. Which makes sense for a dragon but it slightly terrifying as a player (which i guess was the point lol)

Brb introducing a legendary item with no weight limit, the Bag of Hoarding

One important thing which encourages the party to run is not just all the hints, but how short a time it happens in. We go from 19 misses, to Matt's speech to Laura, to Raishan's death breath wiping out half the council in three and a half minutes.

Getting rpg players to run away from a fight is NOT EASY. Taking notes!

This is my second favorite episode of Critical Role of all three campaigns (not including EXU:Calamity)

Thanks!

40 minutes? Dam straight. Awsome ! Ps. I always wanted to say "dam straight" 😂 And I think I'm spelling it wrong too, but who cares

I played a wizard who loved history and was absolutely a nerd. There were a lot of times I either knew something as a player or felt like I should know something so I'd ask "would I know about x?" I got a LOT of extra info or rolls to recall information/see if I'd read about it as a result. I think it's great when DMs take initiative to tell info to their players but I think players shouldn't be afraid to ask in situations where it would make sense they might know something.