thank you for these they’re prefect 😭

CAMPAIGN 2 SPOILERS!!!! You gotta include Keyleth’s Mother reveal in Campaign 2. Easily one of my favorite moments!

For c1 The reveal of Anna Ripley in the dungeons was the first goosebumps I got from the show I think. Even as it’s out of character for Marisha to blert it out bc Keyleth wasn’t present for the moment, her shocked reaction makes it for me! It is also a moment that is hard to find a good YT-video off I’ve noticed!

I cannot wait to see part two.

SPOILERS Episode 112-120 ish with Noneagon, specifically with The Vess room & Reveal

9:30 yuuuup

Followed up with. "And that's where we will pick up next time" 😅or in Matt's case Next week

Tal really knows how to play the low CHA characters

@@TheJustinist @Justin D You mean INT? Because Cad's INT is 9, (the lowest of the group) but he's tied with Caleb as the character with the second highest CHA of the Nein at 16.

"It goes a little deeper than that Deucy"

I don't think it's his INT score. I think it's the fact that he's asexual, so he just doesn't think in those terms.

@@cryofpaine like a foreign language. Fella needs an interpreter

Right? It is hilarious.

Protect me book!

When startled, the red panda puts its paws above its head to appear larger. This, however, makes it look adorable.

Haha indeed. That and Taliesin raising his arms into the air!

Or climbs all over her chair

more likely he was waiting for it to happen but they had a way to not be scryed or sensed. so he had to wait, and at that time... they removed such protection so it was more of an ideal place knowing it wouldn't come back.

@@dndbasement2370 i think Matt said in an interview that it was a spur of the moment idea after Taliesin said that he feels watched.

@@LednacekZ do you know which interview?

@@Lucajuca012 honestly, no. i have watched every possible interview they had, all con panels and the now removed talks machina. i would suggest one of the campaign 1 recap videos, but that is just a guess.

I feel like that's part of her vernacular, and my theory is that's part of the reason why The Gentleman picked that name in the first place. Originally it was supposed to be temporary, so he could return. A term of endearment from the one he loved the most in the world, who wouldn't want that name to represent them?

yeah he actually talked about it at one point, he wasn't planning for them to find out for a long time but they accidentally put it together

Nah, he said it was supposed to he revealed later

I’m sure Matt set it up that way. Marion referred to Fjord as a gentleman twice before she picked up on it, which makes me think it was intentional.

@@Maybonics nah, Matt said it was meant to be a reveal for later but when Jester started to describe him it made sense for it to be revealed in the moment

I can never get deep in CR as much as I'd like. I thought the reveal was the gentleman was Jester's father?

@@ourkeving It was

@@davidschutte2767 thank you 👍🏼

Reminds me of Rainer 's comment in TAZ Graduation. Ill get rid of my skeletal woodland critters when you pull them from my cold dead hands. And even then, I'm a necromancer so good luck.

_"A necromancer is never truly dead."_ -Celebrimbor, Middle Earth: Shadow of War

*ZEE BASHEW*

I love how Taliesin's face immediate drops when he hears the name "Briarwood" again, you could really see him thinking "Oh Sh*t, I thought we were done!!!!"

I want to give this comment a like but it’s currently at 666 and it just seems too damn fitting to mess it up.

Seriously, I re-watched that scene when it first aired sooo many times over. I've always been hoping to pull this level of awesome over my players at some point, and I cannot get over the delay on Travis' realization! So good!

What Matt *should^ have said is, "That's what DMs do"

I'd have died laughing.

I totally agree

that's probably why they married

*The Vecna Reveal* Everyone else: "Oh shit!" Travis and Laura: "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" *draws completely imaginary weapons*

You could've just ended that sentence at queen and it still would've been correct

Don't exclude Marisha, she is a queen of hype. 😂

As someone who has used his phone to call his phone, while looking for his phone. I completely agree with this idea.

Oh man, that has layers! :D

Thats just how human brains are lmao

Just happy to be here

I love how he plays that low intelligence score. I feel like it's lost on some of the other players sometimes when it's more subtle.

@@codyallen2838 Bruh it’s not low intelligence. He’s canonically ace. And yeah I know not all asexual people don’t understand innuendo but lots of us don’t anyway

@@DeathnoteBB 🙄

if you’re interested, critical role just started recording a new campaign!

Same Overall its not my jam as a watching experience (though I want to play at least once) but these shirts you see for CR are great

@@TimStamper89 I started my first DND campaign shortly after I made this comment and my god, it has consumed my life in the best way. Hope you get to play soon!

same for me i don't ever played dnd, i don't even understand it very well but picking things here and there i got attach to parts of the story and the battles

rakshasha are fiends whose hands are often bent the other way at the wrist than humans, they have different kinds of animal heads on humanoid bodies in their true form, they love the taste of sapient flesh, are a majorly patriarchal society, and there's something about being hit by a crossbow bolt or a silver crossbow bolt or a silver dagger or piercing damage or something that deals major damage to them cuz otherwise they are not to be trifled with; by the time you see a rakshasha's true form you are already up shit creek without a paddle cuz they love to lie and scheme and deceive and hardly ever show their true form cuz they know that if they get found out they'll get banished back to the nether realms

Surprisingly no! The characters weren’t meant to find out until later, but Matt just rolled with it because it made sense for the character to use that phrasing.

@@stormcloudsabound Did they talk about it in Talks Machina?

@@hoki3697 Yes. Matt has talked about it. He didn't intend for them them to figure it out so quick. He left clues and they picked them up faster than he expected. In fact, they wouldn't have even met the Gentleman as quickly as they did, but Marisha rolled a good perception check on the halfling in the sewer and figured out he was a smuggler. And then Sam rolled a nat20 to persuade him to tell them who the Gentleman is. And so they got the location and code they needed to meet him.

​@@sybariticcupboardrat3763 And before that Beau just on a whim decided to commit Mail Fraud on their way out of Trostenwald.

It's all about player investment. I know it's much harder than it sounds, but Matt goes out of his way to personalize little bits of the story for each player's character. Once he has set his "hooks" in them (so to speak) he let the line slack a bit so they forget the connection even exists.... Then when least expected... He tugs on those "heart strings" and reels them in! Hook Line Sinker ... And it also helps to end session on those cliffhangers every once in a while too. (Not always tho, because it will loose it's luster)😉

It does depend on the players too. I've had players who don't roleplay much, keeping the game at an arm's length as a thing they do rather than experience, and even when the biggest twists happen, they're not expressive enough to show much of a reaction. And then I've had beautifully reactive players who soak up every piece of drama you give them and reward you with their emotional investment. Their reactions instantly make all the game prep worth it.

My friends and I all react like that in our games. Were all emotionally invested in our characters so when something big happens we all freak out

I think any DM would love to have players that invested. Most of my players get at least a little excited for their own personalized story beats I sprinkle into my game, but they’re nowhere near as jazzed for each other. One of my players though, even though it’s his first time ever playing, gets super invested in everyone’s stories and reacts like this to any twist or reveal and I love him for it.

@@kevinwheeler7427 I love when I get one of those lol I have an all green newbie party of first time players starting next month 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🙈💯

Where does a fourty tonne tiger stroll? Wherever the hell he wants and Vecna LIVES that statement.

Oh hey fancy seeing you here!

*DBZ Abridged Vegeta voice: "HI! What's up, guys!?! - What're ya doin'? Thwartin' mah plans?" "Thwartin' your plans?" "Are you?!"

"oh hi guys...uh...oh you shot an arr- oh okay bye-"

SAMEEEE

SAME

Same

Liam says this moment scarred him.

I can guess why! If it wasn't for Keyleth, they would've ended up in a relationship by the end of the campaign.

All actors are liars. The good ones just make you believe the lie and Matt is without equal.

@@V3x0r Yeah, all actors are liars in a sense, but there are levels, and boy oh boy is Matt at the top of the list in my book. Seriously, It's a good thing he's not evil, the dude is charismatic enough to start a cult and smart enough to keep it going lol.

(looks at the Critical Role fandom) "IT'S A CUUUUUUUULT!!!!!" "All a god really is, is a cult with a franchise." And I say this with the utmost affection.

I mean... Mercer is a voice actor for McRee (Overwatch) Jotaro Kujo (JJBA Part 3 English Dub), and I'm sure many others.

He's quite the prolific voice actor. Matt never really plays "major" roles, but he's in basically every single popular video game and anime dub in some capacity or another.

​@@rokeYouuerthis didn't age exactly the best considering he voiced ganon in tears of the kingdom

@@ghostrid3r693and commander Shepard from mass effect

Can you give me the coles notes on why it was such an emotional reveal? I know nothing of the campaign, but strong emotional crowd responses are like nectar to me. What's the background?

@@mikaelshaddock7452 Essek was meant to be a smaller villain character, and at the start he's super smug and all that. But the critrole gang does their ever so funny thing of changing the DM's plans without knowing it. So they invite Essek over for dinner, and he starts softening up to them. Essek mainly just wanted knowledge and power, and so decided to betray his own nation, but when they find him in the scene I'm talking about, he kind of regrets it cause he's actually made friends. And we as an audience collectively list our minds because we had no idea he had been acting as a spy.

@@deburrito6882 I don't really understand the surprise, though. Matt was pretty heavy-handed in implying that it was Essek, and the party themselves even talked about the possibility at pretty great length in earlier episodes. (edited for clarity)

@Matt Bailey I think the surprise of it really came from the length of time that they knew Essek, both as characters in game and even more so as players outside of it. Essek had done several favors for them, mostly teleporting, they'd had dinner, he joined them at the hot tub, they exchanged information (there was one episode not long before this that started with an hour and a half or so of lore through Essek). I honestly just think they stopped suspecting Essek and Matt took full advantage of it.

@@trashcandy. He really wasn't that heavy handed with it, at that point there were a LOT of suspicious people around and it wasn't clear at all who could be trusted and who couldn't. The negotiations could be sabotaged any minute and who knows who's watching who where and when? So when they first met him, being suspicious of Essek wasn't that surprising, They were in foreign territory and everything was sketchy lol, but as they got to know him, they slowly grew less and less suspicious as he opened up to them and became friends. So there was always a slight hint of suspicion but it was very much diminished and practically gone by the time the reveal happened because they had really started to trust him. So even when they heard faint hints that someone Essek-ish might be in town, I think they were willing to think he was spying for his country or something with maybe a slight pit in their stomachs until that came crashing down with the reveal.

Actually the robe was magical. It was a robe of flaying. A cursed robe that deals damage if you attempt to remove it.

@@krorvous7501 Ah cool, I guess I didn't remember that from when I first viewed the original episode, it's been a while ;-)

@@SturmSwiftaxe I don't know for sure if they mentioned it that episode, in Talks, through Twitter, or in the Wrap-up, but it's on the wiki for sure. I have yet to see the wrap-up as I'm still on C1-E102. I'm caught up otherwise.

@@krorvous7501 no worries, I'll take your word for it :) Enjoy the last couple of episodes, you have some amazing content still ahead of you!

@@krorvous7501 It's mentioned in-episode; they try to remove it and it causes immediate pain/damage; it's the Robe of Flaying, from memory.

I like this. Thank you

*Relive

@@karlwilker579 Thanks for pointing that out!

there's been so many hints of this lately, would love a spelljammer arc

I loved the nearly full episode of Spelljammer they did in Acc Inq. Where they played as mycondria (sp, the mushroom guys) for some kind of flash back. They all got so into playing the "we" who was part of the "joy" and quickly picked up on the other cues of playing such odd creatures.

I mean.. Aeor sounds low-key spelljammer-ish, so you might get your wish.

If Grog had broken that skull he would have been possessed by a Githyanki pirate. Gith don't sail on water....

I teared up. for people who trust no one to trust him as him to betray them. Ouch.

But now...

I'm a little late but welcome to the community

think of D&D as playing an MMORPG game like Final Fantasy, where you start off choosing your race, class, specifics and background, and you interact with others with their own characters of similar or different make, led by the main narrator or Dungeon Master. For example, I'm part of a group now that's been a few months going, and we have a Human ranger/archer, a water 'elemental' of sorts as a healer, a dwarves wizard, and an elven paladin. We each have our own backgrounds that can either help or hinder the mission, as well as specific tasks depending on the mission at hand. It's actually really fun when you get a good group and a variety of people/characters. :) Critical Role just ups the geekdom to a new level by having voice actors play D&D, and the occasional guest start (like Joe Magliano among others).

The cupcake.. master class