Critical Role | Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray & Travis Willingham | Talks at Google 

Hybris kills "We are golden gods!" was just uttered before that. Than again she was right as it turned out to be a minor inconvenience.

didnt she kill herself looking for a diamond or something? i was a bit distracted with trying to stay concise i was laughing so hard

@@maskedconquest3657 She was basically too wrapped up in herself. There are s bunch of different things she could if done but hubris did her in, on this wierd kind of High.

Hey, people learn from mistakes, right?

@@PerfectChaosZeta 200d6 is certainly a way to teach your players something

that needs to be a new series just regular fireside chat with Matt building an entire world and story

And his hair-game is as least as strong as Bob's :D

And he doesn't even think that what he was doing was difficult :(

*Set's Owlbear traps*

Judging by recent events that might be Terry Crews

4 hours is the perfect amount of d&d!

Try telling my players that; 4 hours becomes 6 far too easily.

Like that would be totally ridiculous.

And then you get the real marathon sessions of 8-12 hours, lol.

I had a 48 hour session with friends over a weekend once

Felicia also had a Talks @Google and that's an interesting video as well. Look it up if you haven't seen it yet

Matt's Tombstone will read "How do you want to do this?"

​@@tonymarino8 or "you can certainly try"

I felt called out when she said that part of the appeal of Critical Role was all of them being such good friends, and not just the stupidly high calibre of their game. My nose is bruised. Marisha's a goddamn psychic.

@@isabelleli4457 I know right?! But this just proves that she is damn good at her job. She was responsible for the new wave of shows that appeared on G&S, and they've been doing really well. When they announced that she would now be in charge of the Critical Role channel, I was so happy, because I knew she was going to do an amazing job.

AGREED!! You go, Marisha!!!

absolutely love the stuff crit role has been coming out with lately. marisha deserves a lot of credit for her creative decisions!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't like her at first. Now I like, admire, and respect her more than anyone else on the show.

If you watch the older critical scope videos (Or in one of the eearly episodes of Campaign 1) Matt and the cast got gifted a mountain of super cool NASA stuff (stills from the Hubble space telescope, stuff like that) by a very senior employee of NASA, the amount that he, Marisha, Taliesin and Travis all lose their minds over it is really adorable:) almost all of them seem to be space buffs. Matt also seems to have a very deeeeeeeep knowledge of geology from watching the original underdark segment of CR C1 (E1-E13) where he goes into great detail in the mineral/geological composition of the subterranean caves they are exploring.

Not gonna lie, you had us in the first half 😂

Paused video to come down to the comments to see if anyone else noticed it. Glad I'm not the only one.

Where is this roughly, time-wise? Thanks Edit: around 18mins

@@igotsmeakabob around 19:40 when Matt talks about building the mining town, as he goes more in depth Travis' just starts noping out like 'Nah, nah that's not how normal people think.'

Matt's also just talking about Phandalin right?

I was going say the same he is either “I’m in the present of Demi god” or “ my brain is melting”

I'm 100% convinced that Travis would be a good fit into any sitcom.

I love watching Travis all the time, he's like Matt's biggest fan. He always looks on with wonder when Matt is describing something crazy.

Get someone who looks at you the way Travis Willingham looks at Matthew Mercer

@@kickit246 he is everybody's biggest fan if you notice. He is always cheering averybody on and happy on their behalf and in awe of their abilities.

PalleRasmussen you’re right. for example, i love the way he reacts whenever ashley does some cool barbarian stuff on the show because he’s just so proud of her. it’s adorable

Few minutes later, Deuce namedrop.

And straight up spoils later on.

Poor guy probably thinks Caduceus is a guest character

its the best thing that happened to the campaign tbh

That was surprising. They're usually really good about spoilers.

Cuz not 5 episodes later Cadeuces joins lol

@@DWargs I went through this same exact train of thought

The interviewer mentioned in the reddit thread for this video that he had already had Molly's death spoiled for him.

DWargs I found this way to funny

Hahaha, best scene ever. I loved Chutney.

Chris Gatton same

@@chrisgatton621 And now we have him back, though with the name as Chetney now instead.

My father did that for 60+ years with my mother. Life goals...

I’m still blown away by how tough and smart my wife is. Terrible eyesight though, apparently.

I'm 90% sure that he would've kept going with that initial idea for the next 6 hours... and I'd watch every bit of it.

As a newbie DM, that would be my dream!

Okay heres my pitch, do it like bob ross, but with dnd

jesse meeks We will add some happy little storyhooks here...

It's not about world building exactly, but Mike Mearls' Happy Fun Hour is definitely worth checking out

I mean... it's not wrong. Travis had no idea what he was doing when Laura dragged him to the first session and Matt ended up asking questions like "what do you want to do?" "Hit things and not have to think about it" "ok, barbarian would work so here's some good race choices" and so on and so forth.

Sorry, not a native speaker... what does that mean?

@@Maddismukke bae = babe, in this context: A person you (platonicly) love very much

@@YuubiTimberwolf Aw, thanks! Didn't think that it's usual to say it that way.

@@Maddismukke but in Dutch, it means poo

Man, I think the trauma of running to the front lines with a sword when he was very weak and getting his ass kicked turned him into a power hungry torturer... That seems like a reasonable explanation

xanth.fandom.com/wiki/Magician_Trent

There you narrating my experience with this video.

It’s almost 2 am. I have work in the morning. Halp.

It's almost 3 am and I have work today...

Same, it's half past 12 and I'm definitely going to finish it.

same, was just looking for one little quote and here I am 30 minutes later

Hiya! I'm also a Critter from Iowa, and I do the same. To me, bringing up CR is the most likely way to find some common ground right away with a new player or DM.

Iowan here too! I was at the library studying for exams and someone saw me watching CR and came up to talk to me. It was so awesome to meet someone else who was a fellow Critter!

Iowa baby! There's lots of people that have watched it. Those RU-vid views are no joke.

Grailsarvas Wow! That’s just amazing. I’ve heard of RPGs being used in therapeutic setting but hearing of a real world example and that it seems to be working makes me so happy. Respect for taking your time to make a difference to those kids and thank you for sharing.

Yoooooo Iowa here too!!

A bit of thread necromancy is appropriate for a video about DnD, right? This is what I tell folks about why I enjoy watching CR: they are clearly friends playing a game, as opposed to a handful of relatively random folks. No slight intended towards other streams, but for my interests, this is the essential element.

No, the roadie was Yahsa.

Origami Cubes Well, it’s not on one of their usual channels, so maybe they havent found it yet

R/Woooosh

@@theglitchexplorer3488 r/foundthemobileuser

Ha ha! This thought totally crossed my mind, too! :D Long Live Flando!

Literally same here.

Likewise, picked up open legend (new system matt contributed to) just to try out dm.

exact same

the definitely inspired me to get back into it.

Yeah it's legit the reason I've been able to get so much better at DMing. All the little tips and trick you pick up on during episodes or that people discuss in the comments have elevated my game to the next level. I went from barely managing the starter's set to building my own world and power dynamics and plot and map and everything (hence why I've been playfully accused of going "full mat mercer" which I think should be a saying)

I demand a novel about him. I wonder if they're hiring ghost writers?

Well Matt's Tal'Dorei campaign guide has them as a playable subclass for sorcerors... so anyone cab make it up themselves.

Having a large group of lgbtq friends my entire life. I know sean gilmore, he is very glorious. Careful with his husband, he swings both ways. Lol. Kidding. No seriously love matts characters.

Matt should do some one-shot side stories with these minor characters.

Watching this video on the day they announced the second of their tie-in novels? I'm feeling hopeful that one of these days we will read that.

Jose Hernandez Well, except if it’s about Marisha. Defend Marisha, Bash Marisha, you’ll always find someone who’s gonna call you out.

@@rimurutempest4945 talk about this gjaddajg guy, the dude gets triggered hard if someone say they like Marisha. He's probably a gatekeeper.

I started running D&D games around about 1980, still running them today. Never once have I run a Session Zero. But you know what? He's f**cking right. My current game is on pause because of life stuff, I'm going to run a session zero before I restart it. Can't express how much I love these folks, CR has made the world a little bit brighter for me and I know for a fact it's saved lives.

Tell me about it...

Same exact story right here

I was interested in DnD, but I was wasn't sure such long episodes and campaigns would be interesting to watch. So I went step by step - Vin Diesel, Liam's One Shot, Critical Role.

@italkcrab There's even a somewhat expectable twist that makes it kinda intriguing.

Had the same kind of introduction to critical role except my first video was dnd with terry crews. Then i found critical role and I am a critter through and through!

Literally my gateway. In that order.

Wonderful to hear

It looks like DnD played a...Critical Role

@@joshr6589 Darn it, you beat me to it.

I think it's also because most of the other shows aren't comprised of professional voice-actors. Critical Role is a very specific style of D&D that focuses on doing interesting voices as well as the characters, and the players are very well versed in creating dynamic and engaging interactions between the characters on the fly. Likewise, Mercer clearly enjoys playing around with his voice and creating worlds and thinking through the logical implications that come with them in his spare time - all things that play very well into being a DM. Most players in other games don't have that kind of background to enhance their play, and not all DMs speak with different voices, either because they simply don't have the ability to or don't want to (Matt Colville mentions in more than one video that his favorite long-time DM Jim Murphy never once spoke in character, it was always in the third person and Colville himself doesn't always speak in character either). Which is fine - the beauty of D&D is that there's more than one way to play it. Unfortunately, for those D&D shows that don't do it the way CR does, the majority of potential viewers just won't find it as interesting a lot of the time. Tl;dr: The cast and DM of Critical Role are very charismatic people and play in a way that supports it, while your average D&D players/DMs typically aren't quite so charismatic, even ones that have been playing for a long time.

That sounds awesome

Congrats..DND is amazing not for what it is but what it can be..

This sounds awesome! I'm going through some shifts in life myself and don't know where I'm going, but inspiration is always an interesting thing...and Critical role is an amazing source of it! :)

Why couldn't you be a drow ranger?

Dm said no

Aw, that's too bad. What kind of campaign are you playing? I'm about to DM a Tal'Dorei campaign myself.

Worst class with the worst sub race, really, your dm saved you from having a nightmare playthrough. You're a ranger that has difficulty to shoot in day light on top that the ranger gets really weak with time. Your friends become powerhouses and you fell kinda stuck in the same power level.

@@hilnnerfarias913 Aye, the 'ol Vex dilemma, it is why Laura said she avoided the later Battle Royals that they did as bonus content in CR C1, since by LV16 she is totally underpowered by just about every metric by every teammate, especially Percy, Keyleth and Grog.

right?? what if... what if liam's new character for Search for Grog is Gilmore?

@@blacksilketchings they said new characters, but something about the way they were talking, especially travis, made me think they have something for gilmore, or involving him, in the works.

@@blacksilketchings I think that is an outstanding theory.

Aleph, that's *exactly* what I immediately thought, and that it meant Gilmore would be part of The Search For Grog.

@@displacedjim I guess we can only hope. It'll be excellent either way.

Yeah and now they are doing it. Its great :D

"id like to go to marquett"...and then they did!

Although lowkey most players nowadays know nothing of forgotten realms lore so they know nothing about drizzt other than he’s a good drow ranger (technically battle master fighter in 5e according to Perkins)

THIS is the comment I was looking for. I can even see him dressed up in this costume and running around with glitter!

Also, is it just me or does anyone else wanna kick it and have a fat smoke sess with these guys?! lol

@Grailsarvas I'd say the opposite. A good TV episode would need 2-3 sessions of material. A lot of what happens in CR wouldn't make the final cut, because TV shows require a pacing that RPGs don't have.

The stories also dont really translate well to a movie screen. In your "mind" it ofcourse does, but thats the beauty of just having it in your mind, the pictures can be whatever you specifically enjoy, not what someone tells you see or feel. Thats also what "stretches" a lot of content. A lot of dialog is just meaningless chit chat, you would remove that from a movie entirely if you could, and focus it down to a 1hour / 2 hour content. And as you want story to be compact, you have to remove a lot of stuff. Otherwise you end up with a series , like game of thrones, and even there, you have to cut a lot of content to make it feasible for a TV show (and some argue game of thrones and the like get worse over time, when they get more money, they get less good dialog, and just focus on the visuals of effects, which hurts the story in a lot of spaces). So while its easy to believe that a Mercer way of storytelling might be a cool movie, its really not ... The power of a story of imagination is that your own imagination can carry a lot of weight.

The way JMS described creating Babylon 5 seemed quite similar.

@@SarahAndreaRoycesChannel Did Straczynski have the entire 5 season story arc written before the first season even started filming? I vaguely recall that being how it was. Regardless, B5 will always be the best example of a longform story as a TV series to me!

@@LordRanilin Only the greater arc and plot points, than flashing everything out from there. Always flexible enough to react to hurdles, like actors leaving, having the last season cancelled than uncancelled....

I've been reading and collecting Xanth books since A Spell For A Chameleon first came out. XANTH ROCKS!!!

So many puns

Same - Gilmore is my favourite character on CR

Critical Role novel.

Now it’s bothering me as well, thanks

Damn. Now it feels like I lost the game.

Had to keep the string off the critical role symbol. Obviously.

Skillful marketing display

He fixed it just after I read this! Good news guys he fixes it at around the 36 minute mark

Travis is also the CEO of the company.