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Critical Role: Voice Actors Playing D&D

H

HP_Wuvcraft

Banned
Luap said:
I know nothing about D&D but this sounds like a fun watch. Do they explain the game at all, or would I be completely lost?
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This isn't a hardcore game. The rules are incredibly loose, and it's more geared towards telling an enjoyable story than focusing on the gameplay mechanics. On more than one occasion, Matt (the GM) has gone above and beyond to bend the rules (multiple resurrections, letting things slide, etc.) for the sake of the narrative. It's very fun to see his facial reactions to the shit the cast does that's just off the rails. They took a trip to Hell that they didn't need to do and it took two episodes (one was them generally bumbling around), one of them jumped off a fucking cliff randomly (the actor was high), one of them most recently decided to take a dive down a hot air vent and got all sorts of unecessary fire damage.

If it was focusing on the rules and the mechanics of D&D, the series would look much more different than it is now. At least half the cast would have had their original characters dead, even in a world where resurrection spells exist.

That gets me thinking. Someone should analyze every episode as if it was following the stricter ruleset.
 
H

Henchmen21

Banned
For those who didn't watch Talks tonight apparently Sam is doing a one-shot next week (more than likely due to Matt & Marisha at Burning Man). They didn't delve into it too much since they were already running late due to internet problems made them start 20mins late.
 
P

PeskyToaster

Member
Henchmen21 said:
For those who didn't watch Talks tonight apparently Sam is doing a one-shot next week (more than likely due to Matt & Marisha at Burning Man). They didn't delve into it too much since they were already running late due to internet problems made them start 20mins late.
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It's going to be insane isn't it?
 
H

HP_Wuvcraft

Banned
Whenever I hear Burning Man, I get a knee-jerk reaction of cringe.

EDIT:

1) It's a new episode.

2) Of course I'm late.

3) 9:24pm my time:
I love how chat is blowing a gasket over them wasting so many high levels spells on a side quest in the final dungeon.

9:31pm:
ok, given the COLOSSAL BEATING they got from Vecna last time, what the hell are they thinking?

10:31pm: You know, it just hit me that this ENTIRE episode didn't need to happen. They simply needed to LAND on Thar Amphala.
 
H

Henchmen21

Banned
Mulling it over since last Thurs. ep and I think the biggest problem I had was that Sam just seemed so overwhelmed by it all which just ended up snowballing on him.
 
F

Famassu

Member
Henchmen21 said:
Mulling it over since last Thurs. ep and I think the biggest problem I had was that Sam just seemed so overwhelmed by it all which just ended up snowballing on him.
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I felt he was a bit too whatever about rules. Not a rule nazi myself but I don't think he has the right kind of mindset to be a DM. He just doesn't give enough of a shit about some intricasies of d&d that are somewhat necessary for the game.
 
Pilgrimzero

Pilgrimzero

Member
Should have gone with some kind of simple "Orcs in the mine, please go clean them out" thing.

This was just one big battle scene. Felt bad for the guy who's first time it was to play.
 
H

Henchmen21

Banned
Famassu said:
I felt he was a bit too whatever about rules. Not a rule nazi myself but I don't think he has the right kind of mindset to be a DM. He just doesn't give enough of a shit about some intricasies of d&d that are somewhat necessary for the game.
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Eh I still think he was just overloaded with rules. Being a DM is a lot harder than being a player (why I'll never be one) since they have to keep track of so much more than a player. You saw it when he was dual playing Scanlan & Tary. He was overwhelmed with just two characters to control.
 
F

Famassu

Member
Henchmen21 said:
Eh I still think he was just overloaded with rules. Being a DM is a lot harder than being a player (why I'll never be one) since they have to keep track of so much more than a player. You saw it when he was dual playing Scanlan & Tary. He was overwhelmed with just two characters to control.
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He's been playing for, what, 4-5 years now, much of that several hours weekly. He should have a decent enough grasp of D&D, even for DMing. Like, in contrast I've only been playing D&D for 2 years (with one gap of almost a year in between sessions and the rest of the time 2 times per month at most) and I ran my first game a little over a month ago and other tham being a bit too underprepared with loot/treasure, I understood enough of the mechanics to run a fairly smooth 4 player game.
 
F

Famassu

Member
The fight at the end was decent fun but otherwise I feel like this is starting to drag and we've seen enough of the innards of this Titan. We need to get to Vecna or some other more important end game fight already. At this point it's almost starting to feel like Matt is delaying the final fight until they can get Ashley to join in or something.
 
H

Henchmen21

Banned
Famassu said:
The fight at the end was decent fun but otherwise I feel like this is starting to drag and we've seen enough of the innards of this Titan. We need to get to Vecna or some other more important end game fight already. At this point it's almost starting to feel like Matt is delaying the final fight until they can get Ashley to join in or something.
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I feel the opposite. Feels like they're trying to rush it so they can finish before Matt & Marisha's wedding next month
 
F

Famassu

Member
Henchmen21 said:
I feel the opposite. Feels like they're trying to rush it so they can finish before Matt & Marisha's wedding next month
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I guess my biggest problem is how disconnected most of this feels from building up to Vecna. With the sole exception of these final dudes who were some kind of Vecna zealots, the rest just feel like some random dungeon filler, not Final Dungeon Story Relevant obstacles that feel like exciting build-up to the final confrontation. They could've had some mid-bosses like that death knight from the first encounter, as some more interesting encounters prior to Vecna & whatever other lackeys he might still have.
 
G

Grexeno

Member
He told them the Undead Titan was filled with undead dwarves who had made their city inside, and they decided to take the longest possible route through the Titan.

Now they fight a ton of monsters.
 
P

PeskyToaster

Member
Excited to see the conclusion. I'm in the VM Go to Hell phase right now. Fun little storyline but they are so damn cautious. It's a game! Sign some contracts! Eat some weird shit! Break into prison! Get caught and talk out of it!
 
H

Henchmen21

Banned
Grexeno said:
He told them the Undead Titan was filled with undead dwarves who had made their city inside, and they decided to take the longest possible route through the Titan.

Now they fight a ton of monsters.
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Well technically they're cannibalistic undead dwarves so VM should be ok.
 
H

HP_Wuvcraft

Banned
Grexeno said:
He told them the Undead Titan was filled with undead dwarves who had made their city inside, and they decided to take the longest possible route through the Titan.

Now they fight a ton of monsters.
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Always using the most tedious route. This is the Vox Machina way.
 
S

SilentMike03

Neo Member
I can sort of agree with the feeling that it's dragging. But Matt has expressed that he wants the group to hit level 20 and he probably wanted to give the group one last dungeon before the end of the campaign. So, I get it. I do think it could benefit from a mid-boss, though. Sending the Death Knight and Delilah to stop/stall VM until he gets to Vasselheim and (presumably) reaches his final form is something I could reasonably see happening. That could make the decision to long rest even more difficult. Do you go fight Vecna without his two heavies while your party is weakened or do you rest to recharge and risk him further ascending to godhood?

For me, part of what's making it feel like it's dragging is I'm kind of waiting for them to get to the next thing. The current party's story is basically over, so I'm more excited about the make up of the next group to see what they do.
 
H

Henchmen21

Banned
HP_Wuvcraft said:
Why am I always late.

RECAP ME, GAF.
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Not much.
Tricked some death knights and rock golems (?). Sam gave up control of the Sphere to the bad guys. Found a forked path and stealth killed some guys, collapsed a tunnel via Grog, made it to the top of the titan and are now trying to get a sword (which IMO is not worth it).
 
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