How One Line Can Make Your Game Unforgettable (And How to Craft That Dialogue) 

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As a DM, I was running the First campaign for my children and their friends (teens) and after a fight they wanted to finish off the wounded in a battle and an NPC (Pandafolk) they all loved refused, so when they asked him why, on the spot I came up with "I've been called a monster all my life, but I will never stoop so low as to prove them right." This was the turning point in that group because the mood went from silly murderhobos to them actually feeling bad after the game. They came back with a mission to prove to the NPC they would be better people, and the campaign went on to thrive.

I ran a campaign where I had a ‘villain’ who always described himself as “The dragon that must be slain at the end of this story.” That sort of self-defeating attitude was a huge theme of the campaign, so you know that I and the players were stunned when the party’s sorcerer said “No, sweetheart. You may have built the tower. You may have raised the dragon. But you, my misguided friend, are one of the many damsels trapped in the tower.”

The spoiler arc has been the most unhinged thing ive ever seen

I had someone point out once, that this line of "find someone who will mourn you when you are gone" coming from Caduceus hits even harder because as a keeper of a graveyard, it is literally his job to remember those who have past and honor them. He mourns everyone in that graveyard, in one way or another. And yet here is essentially saying that he won't mourn Trent. So yeah, I have to agree. When Caduceus of all people, even if just by his personality, won't be sad that you died... yikes.

My favorite one liner: A new player was running a centaur in my campaign, a chief's daughter whose parents disapproved of her attempts to join the men in hunting parties and governance, as well as planning out eventually marrying her to a man who would himself lead the tribe one day instead of her. She confronted her father about this, leading to a long, in-character argument where we both were saying some pretty intense stuff, until the dam broke (paraphrasing the father's line bc it's kind of a blur): Father: "...your mother and I could never have another child, no male heir to our family name! You were..." His voice trailed off in hesitation PC: *calmly, and sternly* "A mistake. Go on, say it, you coward." Left me stunned for about a minute.

My personal favourite one-liner in one of our games came from our DM, Context: We had been building up to a new villain for a while, we had not met him yet, but we knew of him. When we finally found him, he offered us a deal, I don't remember what the deal was, but it's not massively important. Cleric: "We refuse, you're just gonna stab us in the back." Villain: "I was gonna stab you in the front, but if you insist." And it was true, he was never dishonest to us, or tried to manipulate us, he only ever tried to 'stab us in the front', Execpt the Cleric, who he only attacked from behind in the final battle.

Taliesin just murdered that man with words. Honestly, Taliesin lands a lot of really good one liners, both comedic and dramatic.

In a tarot-heavy campaign I was playing in, two of our favorite NPCs had died in a very tragic power-word-kill-esq situation. At the funeral, one of the NPCs buried a tarot card previously given to him by them, and our DM delivered the killer line “And with that they buried the world”. I think about it almost daily

One of my favorite moments. Our Rogue became a rogue because he lost his daughter (because of course he did XD). Our very hilarious old man cleric and him were talking about their past. The rogue "I lost my daughter-" The cleric interrupting him "no you didn't" AS HE PULLS THE WISH CARD FROM HIS BAG. Our rogue had to make a new character, because he had no reason to become a rogue XD

My best one-liner comes up fairly frequently, actually. As a Druid of the Leaf Order in PF2E, when most enemies die, I say a small prayer of "May the Wood Reclaim You and Make You Pure." When a truly evil entity is slain, however, the phrase is changed to "May the Wood Reject You."

I played a Barbarian once, who was the last of his kin. He desperately missed his home and blamed himself for the deaths of the people around him. But he basically pushed the party away due to that fear. He was a zealot who was cursed to be unable to find the rest amd honourable death he longed for. However, he did begin to open up. And at the wedding of one of the other PCs, he gave them a dagger which was very important in his culture - forged by a child's parents and said to be destined to save their life one day. The other PC obviously tried to turn it down, but my barbarian insisted, saying "I have no lives left to save." It was one of my prouder ones.

I was playing an evil character. Our DM was trying out a moral dilemma between two cities, think trolley problem I made it so one city would be destroyed instead of the other but one of the other players stopped my plans, unintentionally causing both cities to be destroyed. As a result the two of us faught and I was able to beat him, but instead of killing him I just grabbed him and said “This blood is on your hands, not mine” and left the city and the party

I love the specificity of the line. It's not 'I hope someone will mourn you' because that's assuming someone exists. It's 'I hope you find someone who will mourn you'. Because that's saying that there is absolutely no one who will mourn you, but you could choose to stop what you were doing and build a real human connection with someone. And that certainty is brutal

Percy’s “Now your soul is forfeit” is the best one-liner

I would actually argue that the BEST one liners cannot be preplanned but can only be accomplished by living in the character so long and so deeply that they say they say the line through you. I think that whole dialogue of Caduceus was this way, even "Life needs things to live" is one of those. Even on-screen actors with a script have this. Best one I can think of is Han Solo's "I know". 2 words and a context that wraps up everything you need to know about Han Solo but you can get so much meaning out of it. It was an actor ad lib but it was so perfect they had to leave it in. I would say the advice here is to invest in your character so strongly that they almost speak through you and your best one liner will just happen at the moment when your character says something that surprises even you. Let it happen. It's only happened to me a few times but it is memorable and fascinating.

My best one liner, which my friends like to quote and bring up every now and then was during our Curse of Strahd campaign. My character was a revenant who had been betrayed by Strahd and killed by him, so he came back to life out of spite with the sole mission of killing him. It's the final encounter, he's in his coffin and realises my character will die if he does, mocks my character thinking he wouldn't have the will to go through with it... Only for me to say "Then I'll drag you down to the screaming pits of hell with me." before plunging the sunsword into his chest and killing him. Emotional goodbyes afterwards as he faded away with his mission complete. Good stuff

I vote for the dancing squirrel to be your official into from now on. No warning, no context for new viewers, just squirrel (and maybe some text warning what is being spoiled)

I was DMing my first campaign, which was in 3E DnD. My four players, 20th characters are struggling within the final gauntlet of encounters before reaching the end antagonist of the campaign. One of these is a Adult Red Dragon, and a Blackguard. Nothing they couldn't handle at their level, but still daunting enough to know it was a major speedbump. Initiative is rolled, the Wizard goes first. The character, kind of a cocky, somewhat blustery person that is a bit of a tryhard, goes on a petulant "Don't tell me I'm going to have to flatten you on the ceiling too." The rest of the players kind of looked at each other doubtfully, clearly thinking he was laying it a on a bit thick since the opponent was a dragon, and the spell he'd use in the last fight - Reverse Gravity - wasn't going to be nearly as helpful this time around. Then he casts Polar Ray, an 8th-level ray spell. He rolls a natural 20 - a crit for double damage. Red Dragons in 3E are vulnerable to cold damage. He rolls damage... and manages to one-hit kill the dragon. I stand there a few seconds dumbfounded, eyes the Blackguard's miniature, consider what exactly I can salvage of this encounter, and then I go on this description of the spell smiting the dragon up against the ceiling and stick it fast there into this humungous ice formation... while the Blackguard toss his greatsword down, and just NOPEs out of there. To this day, having to "flatten enemies on ceilings" has become something of a catchphrase, though it's never recaptured the level of success described above.

Me and my new campaign mates have a quote book! It’s so far been used for dumb, groan-inducing jokes, but as we progress I’m excited to see what truly raw, straight from the heart ones crop up. For now, we have such gems like “Aura? Hardly know her!” and “How easy was it to make him an orphan?”. Quite the lyricists we are

My favorite one-liner was from a friend who was playing a Neanderthal Barbarian in a 3.5 campaign a long while back. Some rich prick was lying about how he acquired his land but Bim Bum nat 20'd the sense motive. "Me might be stupid, but me not stupid yesterday."

To this day I still occasionally replay that clip. Damn, that burn! One of Taliesin’s best lines for sure.

After stabbing out a friend's grandmother's eyes, a character I DMed for said "You don't deserve to see the light of heaven from hell" After the scene I immediately called for a break, (everyone wanted to), and we all discussed how awesome that line was. Probably one of the most proud of a player I was because it was their first time in a full length campaign.

Doing my first campaign rn playing a forest gnome Way of the Shadow monk. My party ran into an oni and I stupidly asked it, "Who are you?" It answered, "Hungry." So without skipping a beat, I replied, "Great, here's a knuckle sandwich!" and I doled out a fury of blows. Best moment ever ❤️

Caduceus was a favorite character, but this really shot him up to the top. Both him and Caleb I just absolutely loved.

I don't know why but the line that has stuck with my players the most wasn't dramatic but infact incredibly stupid. They were fighting a couple thugs in a backalley and cornered the last one who I had just confidently laugh and yell, "You think you've won? Well I've got two knives!" And he pulled out his second knife and started dual wielding. We've been quoting that for years. Though that probably has to do with the fact that he proceeded to throw it at the monk, nat 1, and the Monk threw it bck at him and killed him.

boy you better not delete your damn channel, i LOVE your in depth analysis of each of these characters, please keep up the amazing work!!

"Hitting strongly as we should They lay fallen where they stood" - My bard to the party after we defeated a group of enemies.

Our DM gave us some stones that held different entities, and my PC being an Aladdin-esk character was given a Yellow stone. Everyone’s was some sort of elemental, but mine was a Djinn with one wish left to give. When I threw the stone to summon them, time stopped, and we had a conversation. I was wise enough to question their abilities and how it all worked without ever saying the word wish until I was ready. So at the end I said, “I wish that you will enjoy yourself as you lend us aid in our time of need.” That Djinn basically cleared the field and took a big chunk of HP out of the villain who was slapping us silly. Our team really liked to punch up when we shouldn’t lol.

Paladin of the Moon, walking up to a big bad: "May the Moon goddess have mercy on your soul, for you'll get none from me" And I crit, dumping a high level smite into it, enough to kill them

So, your chaos energy has such an endearing quality it is hard not to smile. Much polish is overrated. Silly is underrated.

Context: I remember one time as a Reborn Cleric of the Twilight Domain. In the campaign the purpose of most of the undead is to serve that one evil god who seeks for conquest. I was in a dream-like space, confronting my maker (the evil god who recreated me from ashes for the sole purpose of serving him as a mindless slave). "You became my maker after killing me. And I know... I know that I may not have a reason to exist. But I still have the will to persist".

In the book Rhythm of War, Wit (who is basically an immortal wanderer) pulls Kaladin, a severely depressed character into a vision to hold off the BBEG, Odium. He says he doesn’t have much time, and then tells Kal a story. He says his time is almost up, then delivers this tragic but hopeful line that really shifted Kaladin’s arc, and ultimately helped him in defeating one of the book’s antagonists, Lezian the Pursurer. The line? “You will be warm again”. While obviously it can be planned unlike in TTRPGs to happen for sure, it is still an absolutely beautiful moment. From my games, me: “I would ask you to forfeit your life, but even that is not an honor you are worthy of.”

Molly flooded their hearts with luster and empassioned them, Caduceus sharpened their moral compass and unified their souls

I am sure many people would be looking forward to that potential Taliesin quotes coffee table book. Not a real product yet but people can let CR know they want that merch. And to make you feel better, I haven't watch Game of Thrones either.

One of my favorite moments is with a Drow Rouge I was play where she was with the party mainly due to clearing her name and nothing more she had stated time & time again she was there not as a friend but because she had to be. When a outpost of the kingdom we're in was attacked by a huge arm she left leaving everyone to die till she was about 120ft away about to be out of combat & realized she was abandoning her friends when a orc was about to take down the Paladin she had just got back Saved him and said "Not today, Not ever we stand united!" As she helped the Paladin to in feet

It's always great when you can drop some good lines, I've dropped a lot over the years, I think my personal favorite though has to be a line I said after our tank was one shot by the pirates/slavers we were fighting thanks to some lucky rolls by our DM, he died right in front of my PC (A circle of stars druid) who's usually the calm rational one who's very kind, she turned to the enemy, activating her archer starry form which makes her skin turn into a vast expanse of stars and her eyes into red glowing supernova's, and she said this; 'You are going to pay. For *everyone* you've harmed, past, present, and I won't allow you to see the future.' needless to say everyone went completely silent for a solid 30 seconds, shit was already serious with the tank dead, the monk blinded, and my PC being the only one anywhere near the attacker. After we got back from this encounter, post the pirate getting away, my PC, who keeps a journal and had been drawing things we've seen along the way, sat that night and drew the deceased PC from her memory, so that she'd never forget what he looked like. We all had a TimeTM that session for sure

Hiiiiiiii Jayyyyyy. Can we do a video just discussing what happens when your wife's note taking skills are so epic your DM face falls off and your pride makes the audience melt? You know what I'm talking about!!!!!! 😂😂😂

I enjoy one liners so much that a cartoon character I found annoying instantly redeemed herself just by saying one. The villain was getting their teeth kicked in by her and exclaimed “You’ll pay for that!” before that other character, stoic and deadpan looked them in the eye and replied, “Put it on my tab!” before continuing the utter beatdown. My jaw was on the floor when that happened

My paladin stood up to someone threatening her lover and the antagonist asked her lover if she was his guard dog and my paladin said "If I am, you should be careful about looking down your nose at me. It leaves your throat exposed." And the antagonist left my character and her partner alone after that

I love how professional this channel has become

Caduceus’s line, that whole little speech, was a nexus of context for the character, the campaign, and that whole encounter with Trent. Because besides the context of the broader character narratives and even what characters were feeling right then, when you watch it in context of that dinner it feels like a winning blow that came at the darkest hour because the Nein had been fucking with them the entire time. They were doing their level best to throw them off while also throwing them off just by virtue of them being themselves, but Trent’s sheer power of presence and influence wears them down. And then Caduceus said all that. I once heard it described as “The Mighty Nein were all throwing dodgeballs at Trent in the middle of the road and then Caduceus hit him with a truck” or something like that. Which helped it stick to the brain enough to digest the rest its power later. As for a favorite, I don’t know if it really counts, but I’m a bit of a Caleb fangirl so it can’t be helped, but, “You were not born with venom in your veins.” Maybe? Yeah.

Cant believe Jay ended up having to resort to giving a spoiler warning to a spoiler warning to a scene

I love these types of videos. I saw them popping up as I was watching campaign 2, and I was putting them off till I finished the series. Each one is better than the last and I look forward to every one that some out.

The first 3 minutes of this video had earned my Subscription. Cheers. Keep it up. I like the feel of the video and hows its presented.

This was spontaneous but it was cool and was such a powerful character development moment that it hit one liner status at the table: I was running a character that had lost everything important to him. While he was getting valuable ore, everyone in his village was systematically tortured and maimed, because it was a gnome village he could see it way off in the distance but thought nothing from the smoke. Add in that what little information he got, he was the target so he knew that all his friends and loved ones weren't around anymore because of him directly. To say he was messed up in the head was the least of it. So when he joined the party he was Depressed, had PTSD, Survivor's Guilt, and planned on as soon as the mission was done, "rejoining his village". While he never discussed it, the other party members figured it out that he was on borrowed time, and that when he was gone, a brilliant mind was going. "She wouldn't want this!" "I know. But I do." But as he was making friends in the party, being treated like a hero by villagers and even a prince he saved the life of because he wanted to leave something good behind, he was starting to see hope, see beyond his pain. Cut to the moment of the moment towards the one liner; they were in a city under siege. They couldn't stop the walls from tumbling so they were balancing winning the battle and saving innocents. I had been rolling dice for checks no one was asking for and with three will failures I determined he was enjoying himself for the first time in forever. To the point where they busted into an ahem...br*thel to get the ladies out. Enemy soldiers were trying to break through the doors but not for pillaging. He decided in the heat of the moment to attract their attention by shouting: "You have to make an appointment!" The table went silent as we all fell out of character to have a chuckle and to take in the implications of him of all people making a Schwarzeneggar grade quip in the middle of a siege. It wasn't the funniest joke, but given how much pain he oozed it was hillarious. In game, after winning the battle and taking a prisoner alive, he put up a condition on accepting a surrender: the enemy soldier had to apologize to every woman in the building, including one of the party members. As they were hauling away the captive and the town started recovering, each of the women hugged him out of gratitude for being the voice of hope as they called him. His party member also hugged him and she asked if he was feeling better: "No. I won't be better for a long time. But at least I'm not blind. I can finally see a path ahead of me. I can start being myself. Then maybe, when I can believe in hope again, like this city, I can start getting better. For now, there's a job to do." We all had to take a break and that emotionally exhausted each of us because that was like watching one of our close friends on a bridge with only his heels keeping him from flying, then suddenly deciding to start fighting instead of giving up, and when an emotional aspect entered the party when before hand it was standard stop the BBEG, save the world clinical sterility. That was our one liner.

Thank you! For pointing out that one liners are usually practiced. I was going to comment about that particular topic. It is difficult to come up with something in the moment. So, having a few lines in your back pocket is helpful. I spend time thinking about whatever character I am playing at the time. Thinking about situations and one-liners I have seen and wonder what this character may say in those situations. Or, if I see that we are headed for a particular outcome, I may already be planning multiple things to say. Sometimes, you will have the PERFECT thing to say... the opportunity will just never arise. Don't worry, hold onto that one for later.

I've never seen any of your content before. But stumbling on this video and watching it through, you have within it a beautiful one liner that I will be using for years to come. 17:39 - "The game isn't about you. But if you make your character about everybody else, they will care about your character."

You'll be pleased to know that my core campaign has an entire document to take down epic quotes. Or silly quotes. But I'll paste some for y'alls enjoyment! They're sentimental or funny enough without context I think. Though the party is one human warlock and two elves- a ranger and a druid. Some are from or with NPCs because...I'm full of it lol Meta comment: “One thing that you do better than Matt Mercer…” (I freaked out so much I don't remember what the thing is) “If we were constantly looking over our shoulder, we’d never walk any further.” 🔥 “Is part of being an elf becoming numb to death?” 🐚 “How can someone bleed so much?" 🐚 “You’re worth more than your magic.” 🔥 “In stories, there’s always a sidekick, and I didn’t want to be one in yours.” 🐚 “You know what also isn’t fast? A wall.” 🐚 “I don’t know if I can risk loving someone and losing them again.” 🔥 “I wish you had asked me to come with you.” 🐀's Friend “We lie to each other now?” 🐚's Interest “Okay, don't hurt yourself; it requires attunement.” 🔥 "You want me to touch the forbidden flame for a third time??” 🔥's Interest “I haven't heard from you in a while, it's almost like you died. Oh wait.” 🐚's Patron “You didn't keep me, I stayed.” 🔥's Interest “For the record, I don’t think your nightgown is scandalous.” 🔥's Interest “What, you’re the only one who can give gifts?” 🔥 “Well that was a matter of international security.”🔥's Interest “Well this is a matter of international diplomacy.”🔥 “I didn’t think I could watch the person I love more than anything become her childhood boogeyman.” 🐚's Interest “I don’t think love exists without pain.” 🐀's Interest "I can take it away in a second." 🐀 “Forget the doors, you could barely survive a wall.” 🐚 “Taking someone’s life takes a part of yours with it.”🔥 "Maybe you should just never pick up strange objects again? Unless this is fun for you?” 🐚's SO “Thoughts on my hair?? I like to call it psychotic breakdown at 3:00am.” 🐚 “I can’t help but wonder if he’s in love with who I used to be or me now.” 🐚 "We don’t like fairytales because the heroes win. We like them because they tried." 🐚's SO "Put me down, my legs aren't broken!" 🐚 "You don't know that!" 🐚's SO "I want you, but not at the expense of yourself.”🐀's Interest “Sorry I ruined our first date by summoning my patron’s mom.” 🐚 “You waited a whole decade to make a move???”🐀 “Life is so much more fun when you don’t worry about bullshit like dignity."🐀 “I just think that houses should look like flowers or dirt, and if they look like puke, someone made a mistake.” 🐚's SO “What kind of king would do this to his people?” 🐚 “Did you know there are other planes of existence? I found out the interesting way!”🐀's Friend “That’s a trick question, you shouldn’t cast the Wish spell.” 🐚 "I don't know if you need reminding, but she’s actually a werewolf, and I don’t know how territorial she’ll be over her spice cabinet.” 🐚's SO “No one panic, but I have plans tonight.” 🔥 "You have to trust that the fire within is stronger than the darkness without...and yours is.” 🔥's Interest "Welcome to Undhellyn, enjoy your visit. See the sights. It’s a great time of year to be underground. We don’t have weather.” NPC Travel Nexus Registry Officer And finally, the power hungry human Warlock on her shellphone with her Patron, an entity denied pantheonship thousands of years ago. "What, are we going to become gods at the end of this? That's ridiculous." 🐚 "Is it?" 🐚's Patron *cue GODS by NewJeans*

Personally the one liner from A Crown of Candy that really stuck with me was “What’s the last part of my title?” If you know, you know.

I love Ray's face at the end

It wasn't exactlyc a one liner that happened in my CoS campaign. But more of an action and something the party's characters read. My players were resting in the Madam Eva's camp. They were exhausted and felt like they lost. Ireena was kidnapped by Strahd. They were trying to figure out how to rescue her. Now in previous sessions, out Cleric Druid was killed by Strahd because he and Ireena were dating. They got brought back because they had made a deal with the the Three Thanes (I homebrewed CoS), who were dieties of sorts. But because of how Strahd had killed them, they could not bring them back with their normal body (Strahd had killed him through a bite, stole his body, and was using it to turn into a vampire spawn), and he would have to get a new body. I used some lore stuff about demiplanes and shadowplanes and this character's soul got split. One the PC controled, and the NPC that I controled. One side good (PC) the other evil (NPC). So the the vampire spawn that looked identical to the Cleric Druid appears in the camp. Is wearing a shit eating grin but promising that he's not here for a fight since Strahd does not wish for him to fight them. He hands them all an invitation. It's to a wedding. Strahd and Tatyana's wedding. The Clerid Druid's invitation was a little different though. His invitation had a hand written request/order from Strahd. That it would be the greatest honor for himself and Tatyana to have him perform the ceremony rights to marry both of them. The Cleric Druid straight up incinerates the invitation in anger. My players were shocked and horrified by the power play Strahd pulled. Literally forcing Ireena's boyfriend (PC) to be the priest to marry the woman he loves to the man they both hate. In the final battle, there were only two crits that happened from Team Good Guys. Ireena (she partook in the fight. Made a character sheetfor her, but with the NPCs, I made them be a level or two behind the PCs so as not to take away the spot light but could still be of assistance if need be), and the Cleric Druid. The dice were in their favor for telling an epic fight.

Jay knows my answer for best one liner at my table, but let's tell the full story for funsies. A little context: for the first campaign I ran with our current group, the players were essentially recruited into a military black ops squad that performed clandestine acts in a hostile foreign nation. They had just done their first job, and after crossing back into their home country they decided to visit one character's home town. Everyone was feeling down at this time because the other nation was way worse than they expected. Jay's character that he brings up all the time, Dartanyon, was talking to another character, Neri. They were arguing about what their next move was. Neri was originally from the other nation, and she was taking their bad state the worst of all. But instead of feeling hopeless, she had the most drive to fight for her former home. While trying to argue that it was hopeless, Dart tried to dissuade her from her fight with the line "Neri, we can't stop a war." And she turned around and responded, "But we can start one." You could have heard a pin drop. I know for a fact I wasn't the only one that had chills

I think the one and only one-liner I ever did was one my scout had in a very dark campaign. We were playing pretty low level, down to earth characters facing off against dark elves who had magic, high ac's and demons on their side. We tried our best to safe our village, but ultimately spend most of the campaign on the run, trying to find allies for the last battle. And the one-liner which stuck with us for the rest of the campaign was me yelling at a child, who wanted to join us in battle and be a hero just like us: "Heros die! Heros die for this!" and that just stuck.

17:44 “Make your character about everyone else…” That’s solid advice. That’s right up there with “aim the spotlight” on best advice for PCs ever. I’m looking forward to exploring the nuance behind playing a character that isn’t outwardly supportive of other characters, and is instead a character that enriches the stories of the other PCs nonetheless. And I don’t feel bad at all about missing Game of Thrones. We have been in a golden age of television for some time now, and so all these people telling me to watch Dexter, Westworld, Game of Thrones… HBO has never been worth the price of an entire cable package plus the one channel when there’s so much other good stuff on TV and now other services. And HBO Max still isn’t worth it. Not crying over missing any of those shows. 😁

"the one with the dragon".....do you know how little that narrows it down????

I love how more and more unhinged your spoiler warnings get. This is the content I subscribed for.

I pulled a few crazy ones out of thin air as my paladin in our first every campaign. My favorite was probably from a one-on-one session I had with my DM. I had missed the group session and my character was trying to recruit allies before meeting up with the party again. Visiting a tribe of warrior women, I was trying to convince them to aid us, and their leader called my character weak for refusing to do a task for them without the party. I shot back with "You clearly have strength in the physical sense, that much is obvious, but do you not also gain strength from your sisters? Family does not make you weak." The DM was so shocked I got inspiration out of that line, I was shocked I came up with that on the fly, and I am forever pissed off no one else was around for it.

So I’m a relative newbie to the space- I’ve only been watching actual plays for maybe about 6 months to a year now, played my first one shot a couple months ago, and finally found a group for my first campaign just in the last couple weeMs- we literally have our session zero coming this weekend so I’m pretty excited- so don’t have a personal favorite one liner I’ve been *part of*. But I’ve got two from campaigns I’ve *watched*, other than the utter magnificence that is Zac as Lapin cause that’s been covered already. The first is Brennan as Evan in Misfits and Magic from Dimension 20- “If you don’t concede, what do you want me to tell your family?” Like… the kid he’s talking to thinks he’s just being tough, but the audience knows he can back it up- even if he would rather not. So if he can scare him… maybe he won’t have to? Just brilliantly done. The second has to be Fabian Aramais Seacaster in Fantasy High Sophomore Year. Fabian starts out Freshman Year cocky, haughty- and it takes some falling on tables and losing a lot to cause some growth. This gets taken up to 11 Sophomore Year. No spoilers for those who haven’t seen it, but let’s just say part of the campaign is dubbed by fans Fabian’s Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. He’s almost broken as a character- but then he starts a journey of self discovery, which leads to him finding a new fighting style, a new way to interact with the world- and our brash Champion fighter finds out… he’s a good dancer. And he likes it. So he multiclasses to Bard- just in time to run into both a few blasts from his past- both villains and people he desperately wanted to impress. But now… he wants to be himself. And so we get *the* Fabian line of the campaign- “Toxic Masculinity is dead, I *dance* now!” (Which, I’ll grant is partially sold by the fact that he rolled well enough that the attack worked- but honestly would still have worked to show where he’d come as a character even if it hadn’t! But since it did? It’s just fist bump the air worthy!)

I know I’m late to the party but I wanted to share a bit on my favorite moment that I played recently. In a sci-fi setting my character is an exiled noble on the run from his family who wants him dead. He’s also a bit of a coward, but has toughened up over the course of many attempts on his life and the hardships of a war on the planet he’s stuck on. All this culminating to a moment during an infiltration gone bad where he gets trapped in a collapsed tunnel crawling with baddies, a number of which were specifically hired to kill him. Finally fed up with everything, he faced his aggressors and shouted out “Come on, TEST YOUR SOULS TO MINE!” Before absolutely tearing them apart with vibro-swords. It’s a character defining moment for him, as he spent the duration of the campaign afraid to fight, and tended not to face his problems directly, but it was here he openly declared to his enemies that he would not back down for anything, and he won.

Dude, your wife is peak comedy. We need more wife content.

I was playing in a campaign where we, the players, were up against a powerful & evil cult. My friend was playing an Oath of Vengance Paladin who'd almost been sacrificed to the cult's god as a child but was rescued by a cultist who had a change of heart. Because of this, the paladin tried to offer everyone a second chance, & the BBEG mocked and belittled her for her "weakness". Before the climatic battle & after another round of mocking, the paladin smiled and said, "you're right. Mercy isn't always an option. Monsters like you won't stop until someone makes you stop." Cue battle, the eventual defeat of the BBEG, and saving the world by stopping the cult's evil god from appearing in the material plane.

So my PC and another, who were both Haunted One background, were doing their night watch at the campfire and talking about what has haunted them. The other player, a Bugbear who was tortured his whole life and just lost 2 other players in the campaign (one of which was mine) had promised to "Keep Everyone Safe" Next day, we got into a battle that was unwinnable, and we all had to try running away. My character picked up an unconscious character, turned to the Bugbear who was trying to keep the enemies in his Enlarged Range, and I yelled "Don't worry, I'll keep her safe!" Everyone let out an "OOF" and it felt good.

Nice timing, since my next dnd game is tomorrow morning

In my current campaign, one of our players had discovered that our world was effectively a giant farm for a galaxy spanning government. Every 8000 years (1 Galactic Year), they come and exterminate all life before harvesting the planet for all of its resources. This character told mine, afterwards we decided to tell our other party members. While my character was explaining the situation to our Druid and why he wanted to stop them, I gave quite possibly the greatest line I have ever spoken during a game; “How many genocides before one is unforgivable?”

I had a snarky one liner as a Paladin but it was wasted by the fact that the enemy was deaf

I am adding your one liner to my repertoire of Vicious Mockery

percy de rolo fully is the king of one liners and to this day i’ll never understand how tal did it but man that cad line never fails to wreck me

In my first ever d&d campaign I was playing a ranger who once had a family but they were killed and she’s out for revenge. Her whole thing was family and wanting to keep her new found family safe. Well one of the other pcs (a halfling with a pyromaniac streak) decided to use a fireball spell scroll in a very small battlefield against cultists that we’re looking to summon a demigod. He didn’t give us prior warning and thus almost killed half the party. I was mad because he almost wiped half of us out but more importantly my character was angry because a younger character who she had somewhat adopted got caught in the blast and was hurt. Later on when confronted he had a very “ends justify the means” mindset which ticked us off more. He said “I was looking out for the world” and I snapped back “You just wanted fire and brimstone to rain down upon your enemies without thinking of who would be caught in the crossfire. You weren’t looking out for anyone.” What he said next set me up for a moment I hadn’t thought I wanted. He said, “Well who are you looking out for?” And I replied “My Family!” He was ‘that player’ for the majority of the campaign. Running in alone and destroying plans, antagonizing other players and acting like the main character, and most of all not allowing anyone to have fun or show off their characters. After this moment he never returned to the table. I think he realized the campaign was about family bonds and less about fun revenge fantasy.

I'm playing The Expert in Monster of the Week too~ I'm also enjoying it more that 5e. I got the maybe villain to drop some info by offering him a person to vent to. I rolled a mixed success on manipulate someone. So he asked my character to prove that he could trust her. I said "I don't think there is anything I could say one way or another that would be good proof, but if you want me to trust you, you might consider taking the first step. Also, is there anyone else that's ever offered to actually listen to you?"

Hey again. Just revisiting some of these old videos and thinking on another tint Tal one liner. Because the audience and Matt all saw him cooking it. Something about not liking or wanting to punch a ghost

okay okay okay, so my friends and i have a warrior cats campaign (homebrewed vampire the masquerade, don't worry about it), and my character Cottonpaw who was once training to be a warrior is now the medicine apprentice; StarClan said it was unsafe for the previous apprentice, Flowerpaw, to continue to be. now, Cottonpaw has a distant father and an overbearing mother. one of Cottonpaw's convictions (vtm mechanic) is "You will be an exemplary warrior, or you will be nothing at all." (without getting semantic about "warrior" or "medicine cat"; in this case it applies regardless) fast forward some and our little apprentice group of trouble figures out that the deputy of another clan, Stoneheart, is alive and trapped somewhere. well, alive, sort of. his body's been possessed by an unknown malicious force and his spirit is just out and about; Flowerpaw, who can see spirits, converses with Stoneheart and through some very high rolls he and Cottonpaw actually track back to the cave where Stoneheart's body resides. it's deep, it's scary. you just KNOW eeby deebies are down there. none of that deters our characters and we all agree we have to save Stoneheart. obviously this is a problem that concerns everyone, so our group of apprentices go back to camp to talk to the clan leader and make a plan. in the middle of camp Cottonpaw's mother gets in a spat with another warrior, Leafchase, that happened to be with them at the time. she goes on about "what did YOU drag MY kits into," and other biases she has against Leafchase (and Flowerpaw, because he's Leafchase's kit). eventually through the whole exchange, Cottonpaw snaps, and tells her mom that she's not helping, either help or get out of the way. Her mom is aghast, asks what's gotten into Cottonpaw, then turns on Leafchase further. Cottonpaw then SCREECHES loud enough the entire camp can hear her, "This is my duty! If I don't do everything in my power to save Stoneheart, I will have *failed* as a medicine cat of this clan! WHAT WILL I BE THEN!" Then, after a breath, Cottonpaw is shaking head to toe, "You-- you-- I need you to *listen-* for once! Listen to me!" GM has me make a roll. I make the roll, I succeed. Her mom shuts her mouth, opens it, shuts it again. Says they'll talk about this later and stalks away. the moment was SO poignant. Cottonpaw is the first LG aligned character i've played and i'm having such a good time!

I think the dancing squirrel should be the new intro, it's soooooo funny

Unrrelated but I got to know where you got that dancing squirrel clip. No reason. TOTALLY not showing it to the party druid to give her ideas. 🤣

"There is no reward waiting for you on the other side." - My character just before he kills a dude

The wife is my favorite character.

Pathfinder 2E campaign going on. Unfortunately not me as I am at most a small pun but generally quiet on killing enemies type of player especially as my character is the party medic so while I do attack I’m getting crits and it’s coming out to barely above a good swing from the fighter. But our paladin got a great one yesterday. We broke into the enemy base and were having a hellish fight against a golem guardian and multiple members of the enemy cult. Finally with one ally down and another soon to fall we got the golem to enter a rage, and since raging golems don’t have allegiance or stop attacking the enemies had to take a round to stop the golem before it moved over and killed them too. This gave us one round to get a breather, do some very quick and minor healing, and importantly watch the golem crumble to shards. Our Paladin turned to the remaining cultists who were going to turn back to killing us and went “By the grace of your actions we are all still alive, but unfortunately I’m about to make that your problem.” And then we finished the rest off with her killing I think half the remaining forces

As this is the most recent episode: May I suggest looking to Legends of Avantris for some more analysis, specifically Edge of Midnight, Curse of Strahdanya, Icebound, and Beneath Dark Wings are the main campaigns I suggest looking at, as Prime is one I haven't gotten too yet and Witchlight has a lot more chaos so character moments are a lot harder analyze, so unless you want to analyze a lot of comedy, it has only a handful of analyzable moments in between moments such as Chuckles the Ghost Clown, Torbek being the sweetest and saddest boy all at the same time, and Mace Caffery's laugh vibrating my skull due to how powerful his joyous laughter can be XD.

I am enjoying the decent into insanity thanks to the spoiler warning squirrel As for the opening clip. Jeez years later and that roast is still burning

The moment that I remember best was when our party had just been stranded on a foreign continent with an army that would kill us if they knew who we were. My character had been a githyanki soldier who hated how the githyanki saw their soldiers' lives as disposable and was arguing with another PC about either abandoning the army or taking them with us. It got pretty heated and culminated with my character yelling at his. "I NEED TO BE BETTER THAN THEM!" talking about githyanki leadership. That was where I really started to like that character as much as I do and may have been my favorite moment with him.

Not gonna lie I enjoy these kinda videos Makes u more human instead just a youtuber to me lol It's like chatting with a friend

@Jay Martin Ironically enough, when Taliesin was asked about that line (I can't remember if it was on Talks Machina, during the Campaign 2 Wrap-Up, or at a Panel), Taliesin admitted that in the moment, it wasn't Caduceus that was screaming in his head. It was Percy. He said he had to to remind himself that he's not Percy and that Caduceus isn't smart enough to throw out a Percy one-liner. Basically he had to tell Percy to shut the Hell up and go back to Whitestone so he could re-word it into something Caduceus would actually say. Taliesin admitted that, ultimately, he failed because it still sounds, very much, like something Percy would say, but that's ok. He "dumbed it down" enough that it, at least, somewhat made sense coming out Caduceus' mouth. Taliesin, in the moment, had a knee-jerk Percy reaction of just wanting to go off on Trent because he full of so much crap, but Taliesin, smartly, realized that while Caduceus may have been wise enough to know that Trent was full of crap, he wasn't anywhere hear smart enough to know WHY Trent was full of crap. Whereas Percy, like Taliesin, not only knew Trent was full of crap, but immediately knew why and wouldn't hesitate to ram it down Trent's throat. Caduceus, on the other hand, is the type of character that would "Percy Quip" unintentionally. It's brilliant how Taliesin constructed the line, to be honest. He took the 100% "Percy Quip" and framed it on both sides with the, almost, naivete of High Wisdom and Low Intelligence by using "I would like to give you a gift" and "Respectfully" as the frames. And it's that framing that clearly illustrates the difference between Percy and Caduceus. Caduceus will say something to you and/or about you with the intent to actually help you by telling you something he thinks you need to know, even if it is a direct insult and slap to the face. Percy just doesn't care. He'll tell you that you're stupid if you're being stupid. On the flip side, Caudceus is wise enough to know when he can get away with something, hence why he chose to backhand Trent: he knew he could get away with it. Percy, on the other hand, again, doesn't care. But that's because he is NOT wise enough to know if he can get away with something. He's just smart enough to know that he's right and you're wrong and he's going to tell you to your face. Also, he believes that if push comes to shove, Grog will smash your face in so he never really feels like he's in any danger, even if he is in mortal danger. That one line and scene, not only illustrates the genius of Taliesin Jaffe, but also illustrates the potential pitfalls and dangers of jumping from one campaign directly into another one. Every cast member of Critical Role has mentioned, at least once, the difficulties of jumping from one campaign to another, then revisiting the characters from the previous campaign in the middle of the next. Keeping the different characters straight in your head is hard, even for them. The only reason they've been to able to manage is because that skill is something they've developed over time in their professional lives as Voice Actors. Even then, it's not easy. And this Caduceus moment illustrates that. It's a perfect moment that illustrates a lot of things. It's Pure Magic.

Best one liner anyone at our table ever gave. Context, the villain just offered a player the chance to rule the world under himself. Voldemort-Harry scenario Villain: You see this destruction, what pain it brings? The world needs a leader to deliver it from this pain. Player: And you just proved why it shouldn’t be you.

I love how Jay just slowly becomes more and more unhinged about spoilers about content that is already years old. BUt also, mad respect XD

"We're your fan club." My 3.5 bard to a young green dragon.

Don't you diss that squirrel it's doing its best

watching you slowly become unhinged over spoiler warnings is bringing me to tears

C H I L L S He makes SUCH GREAT unforgettable dialogue.

Love it

We had a former player who unfortunately left our table mid-2018 and we STILL tell this story: Spelljammer campaign and in there, the "Gromman" are a race of gorilla-like humanoids who the old SJ monster manual describe as only wearing kimono. In their village, I had a hadozee tailor, and our bard was quite tired of wearing nothing but a kimono after their shipwreck and proceeded to describe a luxurious garment to the tailor for him to design. it was similar to a skirt. It was to be floor-length, and rather than being just one piece of fabric wrapped around, it was to be cut up the middle with an inner seam sewn in joining the cut such that the person's legs would be in separate tubes like the sleeves of a shirt. "I want you to design for me.........pants." The table died laughing. That scene was in early 2017 or even late 2016, and even now, we still tell that story and chuckle. Miss ya Carson. Wish you could come back and join us.

Came for the dancing squirrel arc now i want a fish arc

“Empathize”

i feel every video start is just jay's slow decent into insanity

All hail our squirrel overlord!

Once played a man who had lost everything, barely escaped becoming a crazed revenger, became a Jedi-equivalent, and eventually rose to a persuasive 'people's problems solver' to the point that he could defeat or capture a villain, sit with them in a wasteland and ask them to listen before I give them their weapons back. 'We all have something that changed us, and it has dominated our lives so that we feel that without that thing, we would not exist, or not deserve to exist. It happened to me, and I have seen this in you...' Has worked more than once, and we have new recruits to the Knights of the Star.

I think about that line from Talesin, no joke, literally at least once a week since I heard it on broadcast. It has meant soooo much to me I can't even explain it properly. It is "my roman empire" as the kids say these days.

Adding to my bucket list: get quoted

Also, hope she feels better too!!! Fish are important!

' Literal Satan was giving his "I am " dialogue before he could slaughter us all, My bard warlock Wally had a bucket full of darts that were soaked in Wild magic shots... He then threw the entire content at satan after interrupting him with the line "And I am chaos" as Satan is flipping in and out of reality, shapeshifting into multiple things and animals before stopping as a potted cactus. I feel like everyone won't ever forget that campaign after that. The DM was even surprised that I kept the bucket full of wild magic darts a secret for that long. Both me and my character were very happy with the outcome. Rest in peace my dear Wally, hope I can revive you in another campaign. ' - Chrome

There is a Curse of Strahdania series I watch. The Light cleric has quite the prayer he gives over the dead.