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Critical Role: Voice Actors Playing D&D

J

Jay Shadow

Member
I'm not sure what was more surprising:

Enfeeble mind actually working

or the Level 7 character getting the killing blow
 
Calcium

Calcium

Banned
Man, that Keylith/Raishan conversation in the beginning of the episode was awkward as hell. It almost sounds like Marisha comes up with speeches in her head beforehand and just awkwardly attempts to remember it all on the fly.
"You should know Raishan that I've stepped on some anthills in my day...those that don't die revolt and guess what there is some pretty nasty stings from some ants out there."
....wow.

Raishan was a great villain. I really enjoyed her even though the Conclave arc was getting stale. Matt did a great job portraying her.

What the hell was with Rothfuss just completely writing off
Allura and Kima after they went inside the portal. It seemed like a pretty odd conclusion to come to that they were "gone and won't come back".

Again, I hate to say it, but I hope
Scanlan dies. He is my favorite, but this campaign has gotten to a point where death just doesn't mean anything and it is getting annoying having to go through the same death/drama/resurrection cycle over and over.

Grog was stellar this episode. His reaction to
Scanlan dying. "FIX HIM! FIX HIM!" was great.
Travis always knocks it out of the park.
 
J

.JayZii

Banned
Everyone bow before your awkward druid queen. If that
Feeblemind
hadn't gone off, there would have been more than
2 dead party members
when that fight was over.
I don't know how they would have recovered from another AOE or two. Can you imagine if most of the party was dead, they dragged them all outside, and THEN Allura's teleportation got screwed up? Either stuck on an evil desert island without means of teleportation or treading water in the middle of the ocean while trying to keep a hold of your dead friends. I would say Matt wouldn't do that to them, but he really seemed out for blood last night. Keyleh getting a natural 20 to spot Allura and Kima in the distance was crazy. Just seeing them drown together in the middle of the ocean without being able to do anything about it would have been harsh, but definitely memorable.

I guess this is super on brand for me, but while I appreciate
the irony of Raishan being Feebleminded and then killed by the weakest among them after all of her big talk at the beginning, the fact that Patrick got the killing blow was kind of a bummer for me. I was also certain that the Spire of Conflux would have awoken when Keyleth shoved it into Raishan's neck. Oh well. Cabal's Ruin swallowing a meteor and awakening was pretty sweet.

I don't think this is Scanlan's time to die yet, but I'm on board for whatever happens. Grog's "No... No. Fix him! FIX HIM!" was probably my favorite character moment of the series so far. Tarvis Wellingrod can really bring it when it matters. Let us all also mourn the loss of Grog's permanently lost 41 hit points. Wraiths are nasty boys.

Also what's with Patrick trying to step all over Vax's connection with the Raven Queen? Both times she's come he's had a sort of "stand back everyone the Paladin will handle this" and asks Matt everything Kerrek knows about her while Vax just sits there. Even Laura/ Vex was like "Well we have the champion of the Raven Queen right here" and pointing to Vax at the end when he was going on about it.
Migrant said:
Man, that Keylith/Raishan conversation in the beginning of the episode was awkward as hell. It almost sounds like Marisha comes up with speeches in her head beforehand and just awkwardly attempts to remember it all on the fly.
"You should know Raishan that I've stepped on some anthills in my day...those that don't die revolt and guess what there is some pretty nasty stings from some ants out there."
....wow.
Click to expand...
It's like she's always just a few degrees off from saying something cool or dramatic. Some people will go "Oh it's because that's the character she's playing!" but come on, we all know what's up. I thought it actually worked as an awkward character babbling to try and keep someone's attention while others moved into position, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't squirming in my seat whenever Marisha has a speech.
 
A

Alpha Centauri

Member
Jay Shadow said:
I'm not sure what was more surprising:

Enfeeble mind actually working

or the Level 7 character getting the killing blow
Click to expand...

Matt fucked up on the legendary resistances (or maybe he purposefully gave them an opening). Raishan knew they just leveled up from the thordak fight, and she needed to keep one of them handy. I was reading reddit during the fight, and someone called out right after how it was a huge mistake for her; that she opened herself up to wayyy too many spells.

Maybe Raishan assumed that with Scanlan down, any ingenuity or debuff would be negligible. Regardless, had she allowed herself to drop invis, she easily still kills them all. Pretty much the closest fight ever. One more round and a complete TPK.
 
S

sharbhund

Member
.JayZii said:
I don't think this is Scanlan's time to die yet, but I'm on board for whatever happens. Grog's "No... No. Fix him! FIX HIM!" was probably my favorite character moment of the series so far. Tarvis Wellingrod can really bring it when it matters. Let us all also mourn the loss of Grog's permanently lost 41 hit points. Wraiths are nasty boys.
Click to expand...
From the Monster Manual:
"The target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest."
 
Calcium

Calcium

Banned
.JayZii said:
Also what's with Patrick trying to step all over Vax's connection with the Raven Queen? Both times she's come he's had a sort of "stand back everyone the Paladin will handle this" and asks Matt everything Kerrek knows about her while Vax just sits there. Even Laura/ Vex was like "Well we have the champion of the Raven Queen right here" and pointing to Vax at the end when he was going on about it.
Click to expand...

I noticed that as well. He certainly has his moments where he feels like his guest character needs to be front and center. He did the same thing after
Percy died.
Instead of just sitting back letting the cast react and figure out what to do he did two things
the combat medic and lay on hands
that he described as being completely useless, but felt the need to interrupt and do it anyway. He needs to just sit back and let Vox Machina do their thing.

It's like she's always just a few degrees off from saying something cool or dramatic. Some people will go "Oh it's because that's the character she's playing!" but come on, we all know what's up. I thought it actually worked as an awkward character babbling to try and keep someone's attention while others moved into position, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't squirming in my seat whenever Marisha has a speech.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been trying to figure out what exactly is so awkward about Marisha's speeches and I think it is that she comes up with them beforehand and just fumbles the delivery. I would have thought she'd drastically improve by now being in that group, but she hasn't really. I hope she steps her game up next campaign when she doesn't have the "Oh, she is a socially awkward character!" to fall back on.
 
J

.JayZii

Banned
sharbhund said:
From the Monster Manual:
"The target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or its hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest."
Click to expand...
Oh. Mourning over, then.
Migrant said:
Yeah, I've been trying to figure out what exactly is so awkward about Marisha's speeches and I think it is that she comes up with them beforehand and just fumbles the delivery. I would have thought she'd drastically improve by now being in that group, but she hasn't really. I hope she steps her game up next campaign when she doesn't have the "Oh, she is a socially awkward character!" to fall back on.
Click to expand...
I'm really interested to see how she handles that as well. I find the fans who use "she's supposed to be awkward!" as an excuse to try to silence any criticism of Marisha's choices much much more annoying than any flubs Marisha makes, anyway.
 
J

Jay Shadow

Member
Picture taken during the break tonight

C3tzKocUMAETP0K.jpg
 
A

Alpha Centauri

Member
Grakl said:
have they been playing the same characters for the past 2 years? dunno where to start
Click to expand...

Episode 1

Don't rush to catch up. Eventually they provide context on their time before the stream, but Matt (the DM) does a great job in making sure the viewers don't feel lost. He is a tier S storyteller.


___

As for ep 84... First things first
Welcome back Scanlan!!!!

Second: They needed to make an insanity check for how much they were overthinking the
burial
. Its. Just.
Ashes
! Almost a full hour wasted on:

"I shake the box."
"Can I hear anything."
"Divine Sense"
"Allura look at it."
"Maybe I should use Divine Intervention" (LMAO)
"Let's ask if people knew her" (Mind you Vasselheim is a city, not a village).
"Insight check the couple out for a stroll"
"I feel bad about this"
"Do we have to? He'll never know."
"Let's buy an anti-magic box!"
"He wanted to enslave us!"
(forgetting that they needed the guise of slaves to even survive in the city)
"Fine. but we'll drag our feet doing it for another 15 minutes"

Holy hell did that drag on.

Liam said it the best. "We saved the world, but we're still a bunch of assholes."

The episode was enjoyable though. Travis again coming through as the gem of the series!
 
H

hamsjams

Member
Alpha Centauri said:
Episode 1

Don't rush to catch up. Eventually they provide context on their time before the stream, but Matt (the DM) does a great job in making sure the viewers don't feel lost. He is a tier S storyteller.


___

As for ep 84... First things first
Welcome back Scanlan!!!!

Second: They needed to make an insanity check for how much they were overthinking the
burial
. Its. Just.
Ashes
! Almost a full hour wasted on:

"I shake the box."
"Can I hear anything."
"Divine Sense"
"Allura look at it."
"Maybe I should use Divine Intervention" (LMAO)
"Let's ask if people knew her" (Mind you Vasselheim is a city, not a village).
"Insight check the couple out for a stroll"
"I feel bad about this"
"Do we have to? He'll never know."
"Let's buy an anti-magic box!"
"He wanted to enslave us!"
(forgetting that they needed the guise of slaves to even survive in the city)
"Fine. but we'll drag our feet doing it for another 15 minutes"

Holy hell did that drag on.

Liam said it the best. "We saved the world, but we're still a bunch of assholes."

The episode was enjoyable though. Travis again coming through as the gem of the series!
Click to expand...

Last night's episode seriously felt like It's Always Sunny in Exandria. They were all so broken, suspicious, awkward, and aimless. It was great, and felt oddly kind of genuine.

I think that's a strength of the whole series. It's unabashedly High Fantasy and often absurd, but the world and characters still manage to regularly feel "real".
 
J

.JayZii

Banned
I'd be worried about those ashes too, and I don't blame Ashley's skepticism at all. A creepy dude from the fire plane asks you to bury a sealed box of ashes at the heart of agriculture and the foothold of a nature goddess in a holy city. Oh, but he helped us out, didn't actually enslave us, and just asked us to do this for him in return. He says they're his dead wife's ashes too, I feel bad for questioning him. "That's what a shyster does!" is exactly right, Ashley. Maybe it's just Matt messing with them, but I wouldn't be surprised if something starts going wrong with Vasselheim's food supply.

Travis and Laura were great as usual, but I was quite impressed with Marisha's delivery on that quick "You know you didn't come back last night. I thought you were going to come back." line. More of that, and less awkwardness, please.
 
M

Maximo

Member
I think Matt pulled the whole *We will look after the spot and see if anything comes up* line out of his ass so the group could finally shut up about the box, ill gladly eat crow if it ends up being evil but if you make every new character have a hidden evil agenda behind them then shit like this happens and the group is too paranoid to trust anyone. Also glad Patrick won't be in for anymore episodes...least for awhile just really over him as a guest.
 
W

Whom_Gods_Annoy

Banned
I only got into DND around October and into Critical Role since the end of November after watching the Vin Diesel one-shot. I started watching at the episode before they fight Dr. Ripley and just got to the Thordak fight.

My tier list of the players

God Tier:
Travis (clearly the smartest player at the table even if he doesn't know all the rules perfectly, Grog is the best too)
Sam (gnomes are a dumb meme race, but Sam is a great actor and probably the funniest)

Good Tier:
Percy (He can have fun moments, and he seems to understand the rules the best outside of Matt)
Ashley (Again dumb gnomes, but Ashley is great and very endearing when she is there)

Meh Tier:
Both of the twins (Liam seems... kinda dumb. And some of the brooding is just so ridiculous its too much. Laura is eh, when every other word that she says is a curse it kinda takes me out of the scene)

Shit Tier:
The 22 Wis Druid (She has had some clutch roles, but other than that? I don't like the way she plays her character at all. I was cringing when she was having a hissy fit against Raishan in Whitestone, that was so bad.)

I might go back and check out earlier episodes once I catch up. Does the arc dealing with the Briarwoods happen after Orion leaves? From what I've read he was leagues worse than Marisha.
 
A

Alpha Centauri

Member
Whom_Gods_Annoy said:
I might go back and check out earlier episodes once I catch up. Does the arc dealing with the Briarwoods happen after Orion leaves? From what I've read he was leagues worse than Marisha.
Click to expand...

Sucks you didn't start with episode 1. The Underdark was unparalleled when it came to atmosphere. Really set the mood for the entire game story. The briarwood arc begins right as Orion is leaving.

Tiberius > Keyleth 10/10 every day all day. Orion did the goofy smart person better, because he could actually roleplay as intelligent. When it comes to acting, Orion was fantastic.

With that being said, I'd gladly play a game with Marisha. Orion on the other hand cheated his roles, and at every turn tried to be the main character. He didn't trust Matt to set his character up for greatness, and would test the limits of the world to try and achieve it. You'll see once you go back and watch.

He was the worst gamer, with a character that had the most potential. For the first 15 episodes or so, he was a joy.
 
B

BrightLightLava

Unconfirmed Member
I'm halfway thru the second episode that Liam DMs. (The playlist I've been watching skipped the first one for some reason, so I'll have to go back to that.)

It's great to see Travis play as a smart character. He clearly loves being able to after so long as Grog.

And, of course, Sam is hilarious.

"Obby is just realizing he will need to do accent for three hours."
 
Z

Zod the Bear

Member
Morpheus vs. Neo was pretty great.

One question:
Travis said he didn't have any way to heal...but didn't he end up using Second Wind in the Thordak fight after multiclassing? Wouldn't have been much, admittedly.
 
W

Wookieomg

Member
Such a turnabout from seeing
Sam as Scanlan to Sam as Terrien
. I fucking loved it. Totally didn't expect that to happen tonight, but I'm really excited to see his character going forward, especially considering I'm playing the same class in a DnD game I'm playing in. :)

Wonderful fucking episode, godtier RP. sogood.gif
 
A

Alpha Centauri

Member
Megalosaro said:
Wait... did sam retire Scanlan?
Click to expand...
maybe not permanently... but yeah. it seems this is it.

I said it 4 episodes ago that Scanlan had nothing tying him to Vox Machina except to make everyone else feel better. They care about Vex's problems, Vax's problems, Percy's vengence, Keyleth's vengence (which killed Scanlan... twice). Can you think of a time where Percy, Keyleth, Vax, Vex, or even PIKE asked how Scanlan was holding up? Nope, cause it didn't happen. He lets out a cry for help (right after he died the first time), and Vax bullies him into silence and marginalizes his pain. Just prior to that, Vex calls him "just a dude" when he has no use to them (his spells).

The only person who ever showed that they gave a damn was Grog. And for that, I'm heartbroken. But he finally has a chance of lasting happiness with Kaylee, and he wasn't going to ever get that with Pike or the rest of the crew. He's better off.

Plus
Terrion Darrington
is a fucking boss!
 
S

Szeth

Member
That might be my favourite episode ever. Such a roller coaster of emotions.

As for if (possible future spoilers)
Scanlan is really gone for good, there was a reddit post about a time skip and Matt confirmed he has one planned. I imagine this guy will be Sam's character for all the loose ends they have to tie up before there's a time skip... then end game starts and Scanlan returns.
It all works out quite perfectly story wise.
 
D

derdriu

Member
I've finally caught up with Critical role, I started the first episode a while back and finished episode 84 yesterday. I'm in Scandinavia so didn't get to watch last nights as it was live at around 4am for me. But will watch once its uploaded, and I've been avoiding this thread until now as was afraid of spoilers.
I don't play D & D, I play board games now and then, but never d&d style RPG. Now I regret never playing. This show is so much fun, Matt mercer is an amazing storyteller.

Watching all episodes so close together there were a couple of things that just seem off to me. Like
the whole Vex - Percy relationship,
it feels forced, and i don't see any need for it, but the true fan-base (or critters) probably wanted it. I don't like the idea that the viewers/followers maybe having an influence on how Matt and the guys play their game. I hope i'm wrong though, and its a foundation for another part of the overall story later on.
Vax's wanna be martyr and crazy jumping into the fire first, at every opportunity I find tiring, but understand he is trying to push the story a certain way, although it seems to me like he was mostly trying to push his background story. Also, the constant heart to hearts then sudden jump to silent torture or aggressiveness, he's like a bad emo boyfriend. (and.....I walk away)

I noticed a small increase in production glitches after 'Overloard' left. That guy always seemed like he kinda resented the fans a bit, but my god he ran a tight ship.
Was sad to see
Tiberius go at first, but the character did stall the story a bit with his constant needed prepping and also the metagaming, and the rest of the gang seemed much more relaxed and joked more after he left, and really now watching from beginning till end, I don't miss him that much.

Loved the Briarwoods arc, that was amazing. And Grogg with
cravenedge.
Also Scanlans hunt for spice was very funny

My favourite character currently is Grogg, with Scanlan and Kashaw right at his heels. Really like the Pike character to, just wish Ashley could be available more in the later episodes, but work is work. I didn't like the Keyleth character at first, but she really fleshed out and she totally grew on me. And Matts' Victor the black powder merchant! AMAZING.

I'm on the fence about Percy, but it maybe more a Taliesin thing that doesn't mesh with me.

Cant wait to see the latest. Lots of spoilers tagged here so it must be a good one

Oh, and Liams' first one shot was extremely funny.
 
Calcium

Calcium

Banned
Sam Fucking Riegel, ladies and gentleman. Wow...

Scanlan turning on the group was just amazingly well done. Sam really knocked that shit out of the park and really pointed out how shitty Vox Machina are. I actually kind of wish he went at them harder, because they really do deserve it. Serious kudos to Sam for having the balls to retire a fan favorite character like that. I really hope he isn't pushed by the fans into bringing Scanlan back. Let him just be with his daughter.

I'm really glad we have a new character in the mix to shake things up. I've been wanting this for a while and when it finally happens the players themselves kind of ruin it. Marisha in particular was being a complete bitch saying things like "This guy is an asshole! I HATE him!" after just meeting Terrion which is clearly not something Keylith would do. Sam made his decision, stop complaining like children because things are changing. It's funny that Scanlan points out how Vox Machina are complete assholes, but they turn around and treat Terrion like shit immediately. No lessons learned here.
 
M

melonrabbit

Member
Just discovered this show.

Making my way through episode one. Enjoy the output of all these voice actors independently, interested to see how their personalities blended together for the show.

Huge fan The Adventure Zone and EZA's Tabletop and Fisaco campaigns. So, apparently I can't have enough DnD.

Whom_Gods_Annoy said:
I only got into DND around October and into Critical Role since the end of November after watching the Vin Diesel one-shot.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry. What?
 
Y

Ynnek7

Member
melonrabbit said:
What have I gotten myself into?
Click to expand...

Just one of the best ways to spend a Thursday night on the entire internet, lol.

I still have to watch through the earlier episodes at some point. I started out around episode 44 catching it live and picked up a lot of the history/back story as I went.
 
F

Fafnir

Member
Just watched the latest episode.

Going to miss Scanlan, but the new guy is going to fit right in. Looking forward to hear him dictating the adventures of Vox Machina right in front of them.
 
A

Alpha Centauri

Member
If I had to choose to be in contact with between Vox Machina or Thordak, I'd choose VM... But I'd have to think about it. They are not the good guys lol
 
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