Just to put this into perspective. Matt went from being told that Vex wanted to flag someone down, to having a voice, job, look, and persona for this NPC in under 30 seconds.
That's the gravity I feel some commenters aren't getting. She gave him nothing to work with. If a player is looking for a blacksmith, you can instantly generate details like "big, brawny, moustache, wears leather apron, strong hands, singed eyebrows, has a hammer." If the party goes to a magic shop, you can come up with a quirky, socially awkward character with a lilting voice at the drop of a hat. Laura only said, "I flag someone down." Matt took "someone" and came up with the voice, what the guy does and why, details on his non-standard appearance, everything. That would be like if the party went looking for a blacksmith, and instead of what I described, they met a spry young woman with blue streaks in her blonde hair, dressed like a combination of blacksmith, maid, and sorcerer, who speaks in a New Zealand accent. Granted, my example is very hyperbolic and strange, where Matt's is mundane, but for that you have the Powder Merchant.
Both of you don't understand how easy it is to prepare half a dozen voices, jobs, looks, and personas. He didn't just improvize this entire character in 30 seconds. He created this character idea the night or two before. Or a month before. He's been waiting for a moment to pull out the "Nerdy guy named Tiriok" and his jobs are all Apprentice at something. The team was looking for directions, so Matt made him a cartographer. Logically, if you ask for directions to an average civiilian, they'll either dumb it down, or point you to someone who knows more. Matt made her do an investigation check to waste time so he can pull out which character would work best. As she's rolling, he's deciding which character to be. Once she says 15, he chooses Tiriok. Then he starts the story. This is normal DM practice. Obviously his improv skills are amazing, but this is mainly preparation.
@@XoIoRouge It doesn't stop it being good though, the point is after 3 years, he's still putting the effort in behind scenes to create these characters. Lesser Dm's would be like "Yeah, you find some guy who roughly knows the way, for 5 GP, with much grumbling he decides to point you in the right direction."
@@Cheesusful And I completely agree. He gives minor NPCs a lot of character. It makes the world more open and involves the characters more rather than just the storytelling. Though it's important for anyone reading this (lesser or experienced DM) that the short sentence summary isn't a bad thing. While it helps to provide characters, sometimes you don't have a lot of time in the session and you want to get to the more relevant facts.
The party has a fun habit of doing that. Travis will get stuck as Grog, and even switched to Grog on accident during the new campaign. Sometimes I swear the softer moments with Ashley's new character sound just like Pike. One thing that makes Matt impressive (more to his friends than to us) is the lack of bleed through. His normal voice is different than that of his NPCs, who he can switch between instantly and also resume his Dungeon Master voice (aka normal one) when needed.
@@TheCrazydude17 I think that comes from necessity actually. When you are a PC, you only ever need to worry about the one voice, and forgetting to switch back to "the other voice" is easier. As a DM, at least one that does voices, you need to keep track of potentially dozens of voices, and messing it up might confuse the PCs. Having to keep track of whom you are speaking as at all times, probably makes it easier to remember to switch back to yourself as well. It is the narrator after all, one of the voices you need to keep track of.
They are ALL voice actors, dude. That's why they introduce the show with "(...) where a bunch of us nerdy ass voice sit around, roll dice and play Dungeons & Dragons"
“What’s your girlfriend’s name?” “.....” *Slowly gets more confused and then.... awkward* “I should go” It’s hilarious because we all KNOW what Travis’ ass was doing, but Matt turned it on him by keeping composure and it was STILL in character for the character that was breathed life 30 seconds beforehand
@@jolienvsndijk Matt came up with a super complex character on the spot, so Travis was seeing how many more details he could come up with instantly, but it backfired because thats a random ass question.
The map maker character Matt is doing was just found dead and brought back to life by the group in the 4/7/16 episode. It makes for another great clip.
some of the highest praise a voice actor AND DM can get - liam o'brien telling you that your improv blows him away. YES - it's preparation, but Tyriok is entirely believable and has several layers within 30 seconds
I'm still working on getting caught up on the series, but during the Briarwood's arc, Vax and Scanlan go out into the town of Whitestone posing as a drunken father and his son looking for a bar to gather information on a rebellion uprising. Vax slams into someone on purpose to ask for a place, and the guy he bumps into is a young man with "a sack of rolled up papers." Vax puts on a show on being an angry drunk and the man was heavily disturbed and mentioned "the town was weird." So it was implied he was not from Whitestone. I have to wonder; was that Tiriok that Matt threw in there, to keep up with the fact he's traveling the world, and everyone missed the small cameo? xD
I love how no matter the tiniest interaction, the most miniscule detail or intriguing quirk, they will ALWAYS do their best to find out the full backstory of some random placeholder npc
GovernmentCritic Nah, that was more Grog being a bit of an ass and teasing the obviously nerdy NPC. I doubt he expected an answer so much as a reaction
@@danihettinger8932 Sure, I apologize if I said something wrong. I don't remember what this was about anymore. But I can't deny that maybe you're right and I was wrong.
I've had to transition voices for random NPCs before but DAMN that's a smooth transition. Worst comes to worst, I just break out impressions of random football coaches that nobody will recognize.
That's okay! It's all subjective. If you don't think coming up with a very detailed NPC on the spot is impressive then my hats off to you. Some people very much look up to Mercer and this reinforces that for them
Our DM has a second group in the same world, and we kind of started recruiting NPCs and of course we ask for their names and want to get to know them, that's fine with him, but his other group used to asking no questions whatsoever, then got angry at how they get no information, and now actually started asking NPCs for names and things and every little detail and then complain about how there's too much information and way too many names
very awesome and impressive... but then again many people can do this very well. wouldnt call him the best DM ever because of this.. but he still may be!
Evergrand I’m sure there’s plenty of DMs out there that top Matt in some shape or form. This however is just a. Tip of the iceberg for Matt’s talents :)
As a DM with little improv expirience but voice acting abilities, watching these gives me motivation to continue to improve my improv to create a better game for my players. Of course it’s not going to be the same for everyone, but look on the situation positively and turn it into a benefit for yourself. Strive to become better. :D
Nah mate, it's aspirational. I'm pretty good but I'm not professional voice actor good...yet. Closer than I was a couple of years ago, before I started my latest campaign. Sure I'll get better in a couple of years, too.
Ok don't take offense to this, but these type of questions are getting old. I'm just gonna pin a comment from a user with 2.6k likes and that should answer your question.
@@Jedicake I read the pinned message, but I guess I'll say, don't take this the wrong way, but that is something every DM has to do every session of every campaign. Maybe that's why DMs keep asking this question lol. Most DMs aren't as good a voice actor as Matt is, obviously, but the core concept is something very basic to being a DM.
+Ryan Case Might I point you in the direction of the "Black Powder Merchant", for more examples of his voices. In that one he uses both his normal voice and an NPC's voice. It'll make sense why people love Matthew so much, after you've seen that.
+Kityraz Pretty much in any episode you can find 5 or 6 different voices. Acquisitions Inc used to be my favorite till I discovered Critical Role and the wide range of voices and the such Matt can do, even sound effects xD It's like Doraemon's pouch, they just keep coming
+Ryan Case Its the characters and the voices that he goes in and out of and the fact that he can create them on the spot and change into them on the fly. This character and the voice, if I remember correctly, is improvised like the black powder merchant. If you watch the PC's faces during the episodes, all over the place you can see examples of them being extremely impressed or even having their minds blown with how he does it. Considering they are all professional voice actors it is high praise.
This is a good example of why I think Orion left the show on his own, he didn't seem to be enjoying this exchange like the rest of them. Sad he lost interest.
