The DUMBEST Death in Critical Role History (in my opinion) 

I want to clarify that the "rules are whatever the f*** I say," wasn't meant as an attack on Robbie. It was actually the opposite, she was trying to give him a freebie at a different point in the combat. I included that clip because it supported my point about the outcome being forced *regardless of the rules*. That was the issue. For me, the main takeaway was an inescapable railroad where the tracks are extremely visible. Also, I got Cyrus' name wrong somehow and kept it in the take. Both of these mistakes are my bad guys. Whoops. Edit: ALSO ALSO! It was opal’s daggers piercing Cyrus not Dorian. Don’t even know how I missed that. My point still stands it was an over dramatic moment that didn’t land due to earlier shenanigans, especially since opals whole possession is ALSO contentious.

In the latest 4-sided dive Aabria explicitly said that as the combat was happening, she liked the idea of "Dorian leaving Bells Hells to save his brother and his brother ends up being the only one he couldn't save". It's the same thing as her changing Chromatic Orb just cause.

2:17 NEVER change the rules for a spell mid-cast. Before the campaign, fine. After a session, ok. Changing an action midway through and forcing players to eat the consequences is awful DM behavior.

Something else that really bothered me was how Dariax spent a lvl7 slot to cast Mass Cure Wounds and healed almost everyone including Cyrus for 20something hp. As far as I saw, Abria didn't even bother to write it down or anything. It was so obviously decided beforehand that Cyrus dies here that everything felt truly forced. And tbh no one seemed to care about this weird rule change. I know they are in front of cameras but I would have expected some frustration after some bs like this, and yet there was none. Which just strengthens my belief that this was talked about, Cyrus was gonna die no matter what.

One very good example too from C1 was during the Sphinx's test when Grog is falling in a demi-plane (I think) and throws his chain sword through the portal hoping to catch something on the other side. He does, but when he climb up all the way back throught the portal he realized that the sword impaled his best friend Pike. Awesome moment that was masterfully done by Matt.

Under this DMs ruling would a giant barbarian with elemental cleaver who switched his damage type to thunder constantly hit himself every time he attacks because thunder is AoE? When you think about the ramifications of such a ruling everything just gets worse.

She put the emotional weight on the wrong moment. Cyrus’s death got a whole thing and he was a nothing burger of an NPC. Ted gets forgotten and we move on without sitting in the memory like all the other gems. THAT pissed me off.

It says a lot that I clicked on the video because I was thinking "what are they talking about? FCG's sacrifice was a tragic but incredible moment", completely forgetting about Cyrus' death. I did zone out for most of the combat, and to be honest, I never really got into Aabria's DMing and the Crown Keepers story, so I dropped EXU a couple episodes in and didn't care much for what was happening. That being said, I was aware about the death so the fact I momenterally forgot says a lot.

I think the thing that really sucks is bcs this streamed trying to discuss a ruling before its set in stone messed with run time so players are gonna feel like they cant do that. At any normal table i feel like players would be able to go “look. I really dont like this. The spell doesnt work like this. And i dont appreciate u forcing this change” but bcs of it being streamed everyone feels bad about trying to make that point

EDIT: Removing my original comment as my perception of the moment was wrong, and it took going back to the full clip to realize the misinterpretation. I still don't agree with the tone that Aabria took in that moment. It comes across, to me, as unneccessarily hostile, and I think it's important to be careful what you say and how you say it in a broadcast environment, but I can also appreciate being firm with an audience known for being rude in their tendency to rules-lawyer. At the same time, I do fully agree with Crispy's pinned comment about railroading. It seems like the players were fine with it and enjoyed what unfolded, but from an audience perspective it can be frustrating to see the train tracks.

I don't watch CR, but as a DnD player of many years, picking a pretty normal single-target spell and having it unexpectedly 1. AoE and 2. Friendly Fire enough to KILL AN IMPORTANT CHARACTER is insane. Also, since when are death saves anything but "you, a d20, and RNJesus"? I thought the whole POINT was there's no mods or advantage/disadvantage!

5:25 Matt has confirmed that there was no ruling with FCG's character build that had actually developed a self-destruct feature. It was something Sam came up with on the spot and Matt rolled with it because narratively it made sense. The way Matt did this is different from Aabriya in the primarily that Matt is doing everything in his power to help the team defeat the super tough boss he made without making the fight per see easier. He is *rewarding* Sam for having a unique idea, a logical plan, and the courage to sacrifice something as valuable as his character's life with no ressurection possible. Aabriya, from even pre-show, was very clearly intent on *winning.* She wanted to *beat* the Crown Keepers. She was playing PVP, while Matt is a neutral third party spectating a PvE mode. In the short Robbie took and posted to the critical role channel before the episode, he asked Aabriya to give them *three words* about how the session was gonna go. Her response? "Total Party....whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" Robbie laughs it off bc its funny and they move on, but its become ever more clear since the episode aired that she was serious - and its very upsetting. That is *not* how you DM. You should never sit down at a table with your friends to play DnD and go "Im gonna beat them so hard and kill all the characters they love muahahah >:)" Even at the end of the Crown Keepers chunk when she was getting ready to switch seats with Matt again, she said OUT LOUD "I didn't kill NEARLY as many of you as I thought I would." Its like she was looking forward to it, and that's *frustrating.* As a player. As a fan. From every point of view its *frustrating.* When a character dies in Matt's game, he is pretty serious about making the death have an impact and feel real, without punishing someone for some silly tactical or technical error or getting one-turn-killed by a super OP boss like Otahan. Its almost always possible for the character's story to continue if the players so wish. I could say the same for Brennan Lee Mulligan with ExU: Calamity. He went into it knowing that it would be darker and more dangerous than the rest of Critical Role had really been thus far, but he didn't come at it as an "I, as the DM, am going to win" deal. He wanted to guide the players through a story of tragedy and mystery that had a lot of potential for deaths and loss and he handled them with absolute perfection and maturity. That's were Aabriya has left a sour taste. *She's immature.* Her rude and snappy tone, her random, unprovoked rule changes to arbitrarily punish players for no reason. It feels immature and childish. When you compare these things to Matt who, while he does get a modicum of hate from the DnD community, even his *hate* is because he's an unrealistically *perfect* dungeon master. A lot of people, including Brennan and supposedly Aabriya based on the DM-4Sided Dive, kinda idolize him as what to embody as a real-play DM. Something similar can be said about Brennan. I don't love Campaign 3. I think it's pretty slow and blank compared to 2, and the narrative sometimes feels a little forced with a lot of weird plot devices like Vaxildan being turned into a replacement for the broken piece of the Malleus Key just bc. I don't dislike it per se - its just not my preferred campaign. I'm a Mighty Nein fan through and through. Even then, I can look on and say with confidence that even the stuff I don't enjoy about C3 is better than the abhorrent demonstration Aabriya gave that night.

Ive said it before. Aabria isn't a bad storyteller. But she's much better suited for more narrative focused games than dnd. She turned a precision attack into a deadly mistake, when the player made no blunder. This was a dick move.

After this and hearing a lot of the backlash this episode, I'm gonna straight up skip this episode

Matt's Vox Machina example is also valid because I remember he gave in-game logical explanation for this situation - they were fighting the god of secrets, not only of how keep them but also how to get to know them. And I believe Vecna warned them about their friends and family. As for Abria - she played DM card so aggresively I don't think she had any idea for resolving this situation, and this is the negative of this kind of shows.

I really don't like how unapproachable Abria is about DMing. I get she's Probably doing it as a defense mechanism from other's mistreating her. But telling a playing "the rule is whatever I say it is" especially in that tone and especially about killing my character's family, I think i'd straight up leave the table. I'd go "okay, in that case I'm uninterested in continuing" and just walk off set. It's so beyond rude and callous to treat someone that way. Just really shameful behavior on her part. If your players can't even talk to you as a DM then you ARE failing as a DM. It's toxic.

I believe the healing from Dariax was missed in there too. I normally have no issues with Aabria as a player or DM but this whole combat was bloody awful and painful to get through.

That was the only critical role episode where I skipped an entire hour of it and jumped where Matt is back to be a DM. What Abria did was something that would fit into a DnD horror story.

I truly hate how Aabriya handled this... the way she pushed back with so much anger towards the players truly left a bitter taste in my mouth...

I think what puts me off the most is her odd power lording Players say they want to do something but can’t because of a rule, and she says she can waive anything, it’s just a game. But she also punishes her players for not knowing the rules and brutally rules lawyers to correct it. So I just can’t tell how to take her when she flips from rule of cool to rule lawyer for whenever it makes her seem kind and benevolent or strict and imposing

"The rule is whatever the fuck I say it is" is such a deconstructive thing to say as a DM. You spent so much effort building towards an immersive world where players' decisions matter and then suddenly you pull down the curtain and say "there is no world, there is only me". As a player - even if the ruling is in your favor it makes you feel like the magic of the narrative is gone - there is only the will of the DM. It also egoistically robs players of their agency - "Yeah, we're making this happen regardless of rules that are logical and agreed upon." so essentially what you want to happen is gonna happen regardless of the players, so they can go play in their sand pit while you, the adult DM, are DeCiDiNg ThE NaRaTiVe. I mean they're only there so you don't have to play ALL the roles, right? Robbie was definitely a bit frustrated - you don't ask what the rule is, unless you want to fact-check something you are doubting. He wanted to know how much they're bending the reality for this to happen and honestly what Aabria said didn't help. She should've just explained her decision, instead of this weird outburst. Shit like this is why everyone looks at Matt for rules explanation instead of her - cause they're expecting now that she'll get mad, which she does. Patience is one of the arts and virtues of a DM and Aabria is very short on patience. I would also like to add that bending the rules isn't bad. If done right it expands on the weaker sides of the 5e system. If you do this consistently, with clarity, players learn to understand that rules can be bent with certain logic behind the decision and even they themselves start asking if they can do things that rules would normally prohibit, but you, instead would allow and that makes for some beautiful moments.

I was reading the comments and thought “man, her response couldn’t of been *that* bad” Boy was I wrong

Thunder/sonic damage spells are usually AoE, but it's weird to think they always have to be. Or that they have to be loud - the most commonly used thunder spell in 5e, Shatter, *isn't*. Does noone remember the old Shout spell, that did only a narrow cone effect? But yes, the on the spot "gonna make you suffer" ruling is the real problem, not the weird logic behind it. And it really seemed to upset Robbie a bit.

I mean...that chromatic orb thing was horrible fiat. Don't agree? Put yourself in the player's shoes for a second. On a whim a spell you've cast before during play which you know both in and out of character is single target spell, suddenly becomes an AOE spell. The DM has now arbitrarily made you hurt your friends' PCs. That sucks. Then add in that due to this change it also kills your PC's brother. Frustrating. Now, normally there could have been some other effect that only the DM was aware of that over charged or otherwise changed up the spell. OK, fair. However, in this case it was due to arbitrary DM fiat, with them stating that "You know...'thunder' sounds like it would effect more than one person" (paraphrased). If this had happened to me as a player (after a bunch of other weird things that outright ignored RAW), I'd seriously reconsider playing at that table going forward. Player agency is important! Otherwise, it's just DM story time and nothing you do as a player matters. Darn right some critters took issue with this. I'd think any TTRPG player easily could, tbh.

Dms like Arabia have honestly made me jaded of the hobby. Especially since I had a dm like that for Pathfinder 2e Kingmaker and it made me not want to touch Pathfinder. Left with me a mentality that Pf 2e was power game or die. A mentality to this day I'm struggling to shake, even with some support from others. [Including Phobebane. She's honestly nice.] Hell. Things got so bad, I ended up turning to dm less games like Ironsworn.

It just seems like she was being a petty asshole about it in that clip. Just sounds like there was an unnecessary amount of venom behind her words when he was just asking a question out of concern he was getting screwed over. Rude even, but hey everyone makes mistakes.

The emotional moments didn’t come from player choice or the luck of the dice, but because the DM wanted it to happen, which meant the moment didn’t land at all. The joy of Actual Play is that the story is that anything can happen because no one is in full control. You take that away and it’s just a radio drama. Frustration!

I hate to say this, but I lost any respect I had for Aabria in that moment. Not only did she do something extraordinarily crappy and seemingly hostile, but she did it to Robbie, one of those rare newer players who just naturally seem to understand the hobby and table etiquette, and has been a major plus to the game from the moment he sat down at the table, the kind of new player that we DMs pray and wish so hard for.

aabria is just not suited to CR. every time she's tried to dm for them it gets worse and worse... she's just coming across like a bully.

2:42 I think you got your persian rulers with the title "the great" mixed up there because the brothers name was Cyrus not Darius

I would have left the table.

I know you made this before 4-Sided Dive but Abreya admitted to having a goal of creating an absolute tragic scene for Dorian to leave and return to Bells Hells. She spent a lot of time in the game saying she was aiming to kill all of them. Aimee worked against that by kitting herself out with non-lethal crowd control spells. When it looked like no one was going to die, she forced the narrative of "kill his brother, the whole reason he left Bells Hells" in order to put the character in a somber mood. I honestly think Cyrus would have still died even without forcing Dorian to damage him, and I don't think that changing the rules to have that personal-touch of Dorian doing the damage was necessary at all.

Robbie asks what the rules are because he wants to know, so he can act and react towards a known system. If Aabria is capriciously changing rules, for or against him, he doesn't know how he should act. He casts chromatic orb, all of a sudden it's an aoe. He asks about making a saving throw, she throws him a bone because story beat. But then she sets the DC at a high 18. And then she tells him he has inspiration, bardic inspiration, and bless. Why are you having him roll, and why are you alternating between making it hard and making it easy? I don't think she gets the point of 5e mechanics. None of her rulings are predictable, except if you know what she's wanting. She wanted Opal to put on the crown, so her rulings in EXU were pointed towards that end. She wanted Cyrus to die, so her rulings were ordered towards that. She wanted the crown keepers to flee or join the spider queen, so that was how her rulings went

Frustration! Another thing to add is that Cyrus' death didn't have as much emotional impact because he was primarily featured in Exandria Unlimited (granted, he was introduced in main story while Dorian was in the party but still)

I'm not usually one to rage at DND, but If I were one of the players in this situation, that crap would have ended in a storm of swear words REAL QUICK. I HATE dms like that with a FIERY passion. Thats the type of DM that pushes players AWAY from DND. Imagine if you were playing a Fighter and your DM said: "Oh well technically that slashing damage you just dealt is cutting through the target's body so I'm gonna rule that the slashing damage squirts some blood in your eye and blinds you. Also, you can't make any more attacks this turn as a result of being blind" GET THE F**K OUTTA HERE WITH THAT.

During the stream, I felt defensive of Aabria because quite a few chat messages throughout the first half were derogatory toward her and the ExU cast, and a lot of the messages felt mean-spirited. Now that I have had some time to think about it, I can see more clearly what was wrong with the DMing in this episode. For the most part, I enjoyed the way she told narrative through combat, but this ruling felt like she was punishing Robbie/Dorian for taking a completely reasonable action. I also was a bit bothered that she told Dorian how he was feeling. I get she was trying to tell a compelling narrative, but in this instance, she left the players out of that telling.

The whole thing that happened with Bells Hells, that was epic. As sad as I was to see a character die, it was super impactful, story-wise. Honestly, the episode 91 stuff was one of the most impactful moments in any of the main CR campaigns for me (alongside "level nine" and "a vial of acid" from c1 and c2, respectively) and even though I'd been warned and spoiled (I was on episode 85 when 91 aired, so I was a bit behind at the time), I was still on the edge of my seat and then sobbing ugly tears. I was also EXTREMELY confused as to the disadvantage on the death save roll. Sure, if there was a spell or a curse that caused that or if that was an exhaustion thing (idk if disadvantage on all saving throws is an exhaustion thing or not), then that would be fine. But it seemed very much out of nowhere. On the thunder thing, I could've seen it knocking Cyrus off-guard for a moment and maybe taking away any sort of reaction for his turn (partially because Aabria, as a DM, probably wouldn't have Cyrus take a reaction on his turn anyways and losing your reaction, while frustrating, probably won't have lasting consequences) or imposing disadvantage on his next attack roll during his turn. But that was extremely ridiculous and quite frankly, uncalled for, to make the damage go through to Cyrus when it wasn't even in the spell itself. The most frustrating thing about all of this is that I think Aabria would be a great DM in another system, with a different party. Even though I'm not a fan of her "roll for [skill] and [thing happens]" in the middle of combat, I think that, with a different system and a bit more cooperation and consent between players and DM, that could lead to some really, really strong narrative beats at the table. It was, however, very beautiful what Matt and Robbie did with that moment later in the game. That was a truly great moment of RP and a really touching, fun scene to watch. That was when I got sad for what had happened with Cyrus, hearing Matt go "you sense that she knows great loss and understands" and Robbie replies with "you see Doran's anger and anxiety, everything just melt away" (not exact quotes). I've been waiting ever since Dorian left to see Robbie back at the table and it just sucks that this was his reintroduction. It seems like he genuinely loves playing D&D and storytelling and having fun with his friends and it's always been really cool to watch his entire face light up when something fun happens at the table. In case it wasn't obvious, he's been one of my favorite CR guests 0_0 Also, ironically, I was just talking about the Vox Machina moment you mentioned the other day!

If she wanted to harm Cyrus she could have said that the Spider shared the damage with a creature through her fangs... It would've been better than this shitty spell change.

I think for most of the (newer) players, they don't have the experience or the history of D&D, nor the history with the core CR group, so, they don't really have other examples to compare to. For them, this is their first D&D. The original EXU arc, they kinda just went along with it, because the whole thing was pretty Chaotic Stupid from the outset. Now we're seeing the attitude to DMing really show its weak points. It certainly makes her *look* antagonistic, defensive, emotional, mean spirited, narcissistic, and asshole-y. The power and attention really seems to have gotten to her head. Or maybe she was always like this. (And young, inexperienced nerds are often loyal to a fault because they don't have the example rolemodels who *will* get up and walk away from toxic; such players come in and think bad D&D is still better than no D&D.)

2:58 welp I thought death saves were considered ability checks and he was poisoned hence the disadvantage but just rule checked myself and they’re technically a saving throw so it shouldn’t be at disadvantage. But the source of the disadvantage should be told to the players especially when it leads to character death.

Yeah, you're right. Its a single target spell that was turned into a loosey goosey DMs call and a mustache twirling narrator trying to make her game look lethal. Totally pointless Edit #Frustration (I had commented before the end of the video)

Honestly, I never liked Aabria as a dm/player, but it really cemented the feeling for me when I saw her playing with Hells Bells after they got separated earlier on. There were so many moments where she got antagonistic with other players, would get upset if her plans wouldn't be adopted by the party, and would argue with Matt. I get having issues during session but save it for after, don't sit there and be argumentative until someone apologizes to you. Especially on a recorded session.

The whole time I was thinking "Wow, Aabria should be on Crispy's Tavern, not Critical Role! This is terrible DMing!". I'm so glad to see you actually did this video!!

Yeah, it was some of the worst DMing I've ever seen. Terrible rulings all over the place.

Ironically, if going off BG3 rules, thunder damage is the only damage type that DOESNT result in AOE effect. Not even other dnd rulings that feature aoes agree with this.

I'm a rules as written kind of guy most of the time. I don't dislike alterations to certain rules, I just like having structure. I play in two games currently that have DMs that will change rules....but the important thing is that they do so in advance and let the players know instead of a spur of the moment decision. If I were a player at the table with a DM that made a ruling like that, I'd have felt personally targeted and pretty upset, even if it was done for "dramatic effect"

This is basically railroading players into a desired outcome. The rule change mid-cast is no different from saying, "Oh, there's actually a cloud overhead when you use your Lightning Lure cantrip, so it attracts a massive bolt of lightning that electrocutes all your friends and they die." Just tell the players they don't have agency in this situation, THAT'S OKAY. Railroading is only a problem when it is done under the illusion that the players have a choice. In this narrative you don't need Robbie to unintentionally kill his fictional brother for him to feel responsible for his death. If his brother's throat was slit he'd still feel responsible from the guilt.

Ive only seen one full campaign that she DMed, so this surprises me. In the Dimension 20 fairy one, i felt a lot like she was really lenient and ended up losing a lot of her narrative to her players. I hope this was just an off day for her and she got caught up in a powertrip. A bad session and bad DM behavior but not a bad DM overall, i hope

It feels like when Matt is the DM, villans have plans that heroes have to go against. It might be near impossible for heroes to win in certain situations, but if they are smart and lucky enough they can create a way out (and possibly change everything Matt has planned). In this combat, it felt like Aabria had a plan and, no matter what players did, it wouldn't really change the outcome. That's not playing DnD, that's asking your friends to act out your play. If players will fail no matter what, don't make them try.

I had that same type of response that Aabriya. One of my campaigns ended last week and my character was taken from the material plane by their god. Before I only talked to her through dreams but this time without warning, I was in her domain and then trapped and chained down in the void. I had no say and no way out. It was really triggering for me because it reminded me of some shit I went though in the past (being manipulated and then ostracized and taken away from my friends) it left a bad sting for a while. Me and my friends are going to talk to our dm about the things she has been doing as a dm so hopefully when we start our campaign 2 we can feel much more at ease and have more fun. But seeing it from a professional DM like Aabriya was just awful. I get that she has a set plan but forcing a narrative isn’t the way to do it. Especially mid combat and saying “I can do what I want” is just plain rude and disrespectful.

Cyrus, not Darius or Dariax. Still, I appreciate you covering this because I watched the whole thing and the live chat was praising Aabriya for this whilst another part was criticizing and I’m on the criticizing side

Thats why i finally decide that I don't like Aabria as DM, making rules on spot and changing rules on spot. . .

I normally am not the biggest fan of Aabria's style, not to say it's bad- it's just not my style. This past episode really soured my taste for her style further though. I dislike when any DM is "out for blood" like Aabria was. She was doing the exact opposite of what I personally feel a DM should be doing. She was *antagonistic*. She set out to attack the player characters. Not to provide a challenge or an interesting narrative moment, as she herself stated, she wanted characters to die. And I disagree entirely with that philosophy of DM'ing. A DM setting out specifically to kill the player characters (or NPC's in this case) makes every action potentially detrimental to the players, like when she just went "actually chromatic orb has an AOE effect when it's thunder damage (:" or "actually he has disadvantage on death saves (:". It made the episode not fun to watch, and made the death of Cyrus so obviously forced that it lost all potential emotional weight. I imagine the only emotional weight I'll end up feeling towards that event is retroactive, even though from what I've seen, Robbie himself doesn't seem super beat up about it, even in-character. And that's not a Robbie criticism, I think it's a symptom of a blatantly scripted death. There was a time I was playing in a game, the DM was very new so I hardly blame her, but the party and I were doing a prison break. It was fun, minus a couple weird rulings that should've served as red flags (kike when I intimidated a guard to give me keys, with a successful check of 23, the guard was narrated to throw himself into the deadly pit at the center of the prison out of fear), but the deal breaker for me was when we finally actually left the prison, guards were chasing us. One of the guards was already damaged by our warlock, so I, the paladin, grabbed a dead guard's spear (we never got our equipment back, she wouldn't let us find the room they were kept in) and attacked the guard that was already wounded. 19 on the die. Well over 20 with modifiers. 2-handed strike. I smite to make sure the guard falls. She narrates my spear breaking and only doing half damage. No reason given, she just narrated that the weapon broke. That upon everything else really made me lose all interest and enjoyment from the game. Sure, she as the DM was technically allowed to do all of that, because whatever the DM says is what goes. But that power was misused, and her getting the fairly railroaded game experience came at the cost of me enjoying the game at all. I feel like that's easily forgivable, as there was no outright hostility and she was brand new to the hobby at the time. But Aabria, she's incredibly experienced, and she had audible hostility in her voice. All Robbie asked was "What's the rule?" and he got a frankly disrespectful answer in return.

Ah bro, this happened to me once, where I picked the beastmaster subclass and got my beast taken away. Why? Because the DM said so.

That whole episode seemed to slam the door on The Crown Keepers. It felt so rushed and unnecessary to go as hard as it did. Maybe I missed something. I know they wanted to bring Dorian into Bells Hells but that was a very overly dramatic way to do it.

I like Abria as a DM with how narrative she can be, but my god, her pacing in this last one was absolutely *horrible.* I'm all for weaving in narrative in the middle of combat, but it's exhausting when one character takes thirty minutes to play out their turn. It was hard to watch too because I got so bored with that opening turn, clicked off, came back over half an hour later, and saw that they hadn't even finished one single round of combat yet. I get that BH needed a break that week (Matt probably needed some extra time to figure out how to tweak the story moving forward now that FCG is dead and the implications of that) but I think it would have been better at the offset if they said it was going to be a Crown Keepers episode and that BH would be back the next week instead of trying to tack them on at the end of the episode.

honestly I think it was indeed her intention the whole time to kill Dorian's Brother. Syrus had to die, because he was the reason that Dorian left Bells Hells to begin with. She was right, he is the reason Dorian left. He had to die to be the catalyst to drive Dorian back to bells hells. She knew Robbie was going back to Bells Hells. There is no reason for him to abandon his brother who is still in danger, to go back to Bells Hells. Now he has a Reason, not only a reason, but a problem to solve. The Spider Queen killed his Brother, a God, which is what the Hells are trying to Save. One way or the other, they are trying to save the gods, and Robbie said as Dorian, he wants to kill a god. Will he take a heel turn? will he help Ludanis? So that the spider Queen dies? so he can help Kill her? maybe he will ask that boon of the God Eater. He showed in leaving Darriax he is willing to hurt his friends to get what he wants. So I think Aabria really had to do this.

Yeah, there's nothing you've said here that isn't exactly spot on. Aabria's ruling and arguments to "support" it are what can only be called reprehensible.

My problem with the entire thing is that you don't need to change a spell, when you already have a giant spider that doesn't seem to be doing anything. It also would have been more impactful if Cyrus died after Aimee cast the spell telling Dorian to leave.

Aabira pulled some massively red flag moves that would have ended an amateur table. The fact it's happening at a professional one is insane. CR has absolutely lost the plot and is just a business now

I swear to God, Aabria Iyengar is a great DM in Dimension 20. A Court of Fey and Flowers? Burrow's End? Incredible seasons, worth every penny of the Dropout subscription. I don't know what happens during her Critical Role games- maybe the fact that there's no editing? Maybe she works better when she has full creative control? Maybe it's the faxt that every time Brennan Lee Mulligan plays as a player he smashes it out of the park? I don't know, but the business relationship between CR and Iyengar is NOT working

I can only hope that there was some very important discussion off camera, at the very least about her "the ruling is whatever the f+++ I say" comment. Like, even if her ruling was fair, that is not a good thing to say

My problem with how Aabria DMs is that she seems to metagame too much in her style. There is just too much mixing in game and out of game so there were several instances where I couldn’t tell if people were in game or out of game with what they are doing.

Yeah that ruling is kinda dumb... Thunder damage isn't flavored as hearing the sound causing the damage, as being deafened would make you immune to that. Instead, it's something along the lines of causing vibrations to spontaneously appear within the area of effect, and the sound you hear is just the byproduct of that dissipating in the air.

There was a similar case of this when she was DMing Exandria Unlimited. In the final Battle she was constantly belittling one player and changing the rules for her (I think it was the Warlock). Like trying to escape from being pinned to a wall by some needles was an action at first, but then suddenly it was bonus action (or vice-versa). And when that Player asked questions about it she started to talk down on her in a condescending tone, as if to say "What you don't know what the rule is right now, that I am constantly changing on a whim, how dumb are you?". I have to admit I didn't watch the whole episode, but I saw the community reaction and watched some parts of the fight, which ended up being more then enough for me. It really felt like an RPG Horror Story in the making. There is a reason I skip all the episodes of Um Actually that have Aabria as a contestant... By the way, if you guys are unsure if what she is doing is considered bad DMing, you can try asking about it on RPG Stackexchange. I once asked a question there myself about something that Matt was doing in Campaign 2 that bothered me, which ended up being very well received. Though of course it was not about a mistake as bad as what Aabria is doing.

Honestly, I think that it was a case of her having a brief and doing whatever she had to to fulfil it. She had essentially one session (and one combat) to engineer a scenario whereby Dorian would be on his own and separated from the Crown Keepers one way or another so he could return to the table with Bell's Hells; and Cyrus's death was shoehorned in to forward the game towards that end goal. That's the way I view it at least, but it could have been planned better than what she went with instead of leaping on whatever opportunity was presented to bullshit her way through with on the spot rule changes to force it in.

cyrus' death wasn't just horribly forced but also so unneccessary. aabria wanted dorian to also be processing something tragic when meeting back up with bh and I get that sentiment but I think loosing opal to the influence of the spider queen could have provided that loss and regret too without forcing a death in such a shitty way. the way she kept talking about wanting to kill the characters/not having killed as many as she wanted to kill had a very sour taste too, I think it should neverrr be the dm's goal to kill a pc or even party, that may be the villain's goal but it shouldn't be what the dm is actively hoping for. plan a combat where the stakes are high and characters might die? absolutely. be giddy about possible deaths, changing and ignoring rules on the go to make it happen? definitely not. but it feels like forcing things she wants to happen to take place seems like a common thing for aabria, she has a tendency to bend rules and ignore (bad) rolls that don't fit what she wants and I find it annoying because it makes dramatic moments feel unearned and shale and big successes feel worthless when the player rolls bad and she just let's them succeed despite a bad roll because she likes it. I think she let's people roll even when she's already made up her mind how it's supposed to go and then just does things no matter what the dice say and in some cases it's fine to decide that you like something and want it to work but if you can't follow the story that the dice tell then don't let your player roll at all, just say that it does or doesn't work, that's better than getting a low roll and being told that it works anyways just because the dm says so. sorry for the rant, i just really don't vibe with her dm style, thogh maybe that's just viewer perspective, maybe it's better if you're a player, idk

'Wet Magic Rules' (applies to mid-level spells) Fire- anyone standing beside the target (within 2-3 meters) receives 1/4 base damage as splash damage from the attack. Lightning- anyone (excluding the caster) standing near the target (2 meters leather armor, 5 meters metal) will receive between 1/2 or 1/3 damage as electricity arcs from the target's body. Wind - Anyone standing directly behind the target (within 10 meters) will receive 1/2 damage as the target's body flies into them. Water- Anyone within 3 meters of the target gets wet, (apply damage as applicable) Ice- Apply cold damage or 'frozen' to anyone standing beside the target (2 meters) Earth- apply 1/4 piercing damage to anyone standing beside the target (5 meters) as the rock shatters against their skin. and yes, they should have agreed to this before hand.

I hadn't been able to watch yet but when heard the way Cyrus died it put a sour taste in my mouth that has me not watching the episode yet. There needed to be a way to get Dorian away from Cyrus so he could join BHs, but just killing him like that is such a cheap way of getting what is wanted. Was excited for the Crown Keepers, and loved Cyrus as a character.

The only thing I have liked her in (although I havent watched everything) is calamity. In it she is playing an abrasive asshole wizard who is undone by their own massive hubris and snobbishness. And even after potencially destroying the world she has no remorse I dont like the character but I thought it really worked for the series of wizards' own hubris bringing about destruction you werent meant to totally like them they had faults it was great. But the more I see of her as a DM and player it feels like that wasnt a great piece of acting it was just her. An extremely abrassive argumentative person who cant accept blame or fault or development.

Aabria is a very underwhelming GM. I don't understand why she keeps getting invited to sit at these big tables.

Sounds like an rpg horror story

If she really wanted a personal character death, there are so many fair ways, hell even subtle cheating, in which she could’ve done so that would’ve had a much greater impact

I will admit, I had to force myself to watch EXU. I liked most of the characters, but I just find the way Aabria DMs to be uninteresting and frustrating. These last two episodes where we went back to the EXU crew, I basically tuned out. And it's not just things like "The rule is whatever the fuck I say it is" that bothers me, it felt like she put the character Opal in a position that the player was not ready for, and not willing to play as it went on. Aabria sounded so frustrated that her "big bad" was unwilling to play along and it just soured the entire thing. BUT I have a feeling that entire section was as staged as CR has ever been. They wanted to bring Robbie back into the main group, and to do that they needed to split the other player crew up. Dorian's brother had to go as well. It was like there was a script that HAD to happen, and it was forced upon the players and the session. Absolutely the lowest this campaign has been in my eyes. However, I get it. There is still a story to be told, etc etc, but for goodness sake lets not change rules mid combat like that chromatic orb shit, and lets not let the frustration take the upper hand... I'm super happy to see Dorian back with BH, but man it could've been done way better than it was.

She described that OPAL was made by Lolth to feel like she was stabbing Cyrus with her daggers. It was definitely nothing to do with Dorian.

While I agree this was a miss, I think the entire CK sequence here was actually not executed all that well, I also think the hate and rage I'm seeing online is way too toxic for the situation. Every DM is going to fuck up at some point, Matt messes up just like the rest, it's too bad Aabria's came in such a high-profile context, but i do think all this vitriol is overblown. I didn't love the way things played out, but im just like ok that wasn't great but moving on, people obsessing and raging over it seem a bit unhinged to me.

I didn't much like Aabria as a DM before, but now... I just hate her style of DM'ing. I was so sad for player when she was not only making stupid ruling but was so agressive for him. Honestly, I would've just leave table after her answer for so justifiable question

Been watching Natural 6 lately, and there was a brilliant example of how rules can be changed mid session. An NPC that was with the party and nominally the party’s leader, went down in a fight, NPC at 0 hit points is dead, but the party’s reaction was, we can save him, we can heal him. So that is what happened and the NPC became a DMPC. The party wanted it to happen so the DM 9sorry I’m terrible with names) changed the rule to let it happen. That is good DMing, changing a single target spell to an AoE spell is not good DMing.

Wait he died after only 1 failed death save? Seriously? The thunder damage ordeal is one thing but if she ruled that his character dies after only 1 failed death save that was rolled with disadvantage and wasn't even a natural 1 that's insane.

Matt clarified on Twitter that Otohan had less than 40 hp when FCG blew up, so even halved his 79 damage was enough to kill her. The only semi-fudged rule there was not giving her a saving throw, and thus depriving her of her last legendary save. And I think the reason Cyrus had disadvantage on his death save was from being poisoned the previous episode. But I do agree that making the chromatic orb hit him was a bullshit ruling. I at least take comfort in the fact that his death probably isn't going to stick. Dorian knows that resurrection is an option, even if he wasn't willing to outright ask Keyleth to do it for him, and he has the money and connections to make it happen.

Matt Mercer on the Four Sided Dive on 5/7/24 confirmed that Otohan would have survived with about 40 health after the explosion. So, it is no longer suspected. Mercer confirmed he bent the rules for FCG.

4:16 You don't even need to argue only the target hears it though magic. Thunder/sonic (equivalent depending on edition/system) damage would basically be a shockwave, a shockwave can be pretty narrow and localised.

Honestly I think it's surprising how many people don't consider that Aabria had a conversation about what would be the end result before. Maybe not the exact means, but as a GM I'm almost 99% sure that's a convo that was had behind the scenes.

As a massive overuser of chromatic orb when I heard Aabria saying thunder damage was an area effect I was like have I been using this spell wrong the entire time?? Turns out she just wanted to mess with her players, ouch :((

It was definitely one of the rulings of all time. I like Aabria as a DM generally but this was definitely an incredibly weird way of interpreting the attack. IMHO, there is an implication of an additional effect with Thunder damage, but that implication is *sound* that would potentially cover a sizeable distance. But enough to deal damage? If so I'd make it hit a lot more than one target, but at that point it just feels ridiculously powerful and I probably wouldn't take it that far. I feel like moments like this make the drama feel forced, like we're not watching a game of DnD in play but we're watching a play based on DnD. It causes some significant dissonance and I worry about what lessons aspiring GM's will take when watching moments like this.

I will not lie when I say I also want something specific to happen during a ttrpg game. My group had a player leave for good for reasons he wasn't able to elaborate on. I didn't just want to retcon their character out of the campaign because they were key to winning the battle, so I figure I'd kill them off in a very elaborate way. My NPC Lizardfolk and the PC Half-Orc agreed to get the Drow they killed in the last battle and thought to make them into food after going far in their travel. During the first break possible, I had the Dead Drow zombify into a homebrew Zombie Drow called Minions of Lolth (lore reasons why I will answer if anyone asks) which had the purpose to zombify the leaving player's PC, who was fey in origin as an Eladrin Elf, and the battle ended not as I expected. The Eladrin still lives, but I rule between he was chanted by the minions so many times while on Death Saves, he was in a death-like sleep while the mark of Lolth was branded on him. Sometimes more interesting outcomes can happen when you don't fudge the rules in your favor and let the players affect the story!

I gotta ask, isn't in Baldur's Gate, the Chromatic Orb is considered an AOE? Because I was wondering if she associated it with that (including Thunder Wave's effects?)

The thing with Chromatic Orb is that it is a sphere of energy you designate the damage type of 'as a mechanic.' Choosing poison doesn't turn it into a glob of poison, etc. It always remains a sphere of energy. An ORB if you will. Choosing Thunder - a sonic attack label - would allow that orb to fully affect things susceptible to that damage type... it doesn't send a thunder wave of sonic energy through the area. It doesn't cause the target to erupt into the air dramatically with the ground bursting below it, you're just lobbing an energy orb at a target. Bad call.

There were a bunch of weird rueling that went this way. The chromatic orb, the mass heal. The fact that mass suggestion robbed them of their action. You can heal and revivify while leaving. It have no sense that she didn't let them go near his body forcing dorian to cast Geas on a Beast. Everything felt icky about this death.

I haven't watched any actual play of Aabria nor did I follow CR C3 except for some clips here and there so my informations are based on those clips, comments and videos like this one. But still I would say that Aabria is somewhat of a "problem" DM. She seems like a person who rather wants to tell a story than actually play the game itself. Besides that I get the impression she really loves the position of power bending rules as it fits her story just for the cinematic effect.

I think he might’ve rolled disadvantage on his death saves because of the poison condition, I think I remember the spider poisoning him when he first bit him

Yeah but just being an asshole and rude she should apologize and just because you are thr DM doesnt mean you get to get away with everything and enforce rules whenever you want.

the two most disliked episodes in jears... she wanted sirius dead, for the storry SHE wanted to tell. This kind of DM is the reasen i got self into DMing!

all AOE'S in first lvl have some kind of save . i did not see the combat did he get a save for spell effect? the spell description states a creature" in the singular tense " get hit by a 4inch orb spell ranged attack. at least its a good excuse to bring him back as a reborn or something similar. if they have used the spell prior and it just changes that just poor DM ing. a better option would be you cast the spell but something isn't right and via a item or spell cast changes the target. allow the players a check of some kind as a reaction because the magic went wrong.

Aabria is an albatross whenever she’s at the table. Every time she shows up, I stop watching the show and wait for her to leave.

This is in no way meant to bash Aabria, I actually love her as a Player. But I personally struggle watching her as a DM. I find her to be hostile as a DM. I constantly have to remind myself that "she us playing with Friends and hopefully they are not taking it personal and having fun" or "they understand he nature as lighthearted or joking." But I find her DM style to be off putting, condescending and hostile. I really wanted to enjoy this moment of story but the only emotions I felt were frustration and the only tears I shed were for the players.

I’m gonna say it like this but I am really happy you have this opinion about this subject. Because what she did was just unacceptable, to push the story like that just "for drama" felt so wrong and Cyrus diddnt need to die for Dorian to go to the bell’s.

chromatic orb might be one of the weakest spells in the game, but this is most definitely NOT how a dm should buff it, having it be an aoe spell when it deals thunder damage just sounds like a massive pain in the butt to balance

Honestly, DM ing and game mechanics aside, killing Cyrus so senselessly was really lost potential story wise. Not only would we get more time to develop Cyrus as a character since Dorian returned to Bells Hells (which I am very happy for because I adore him, Orym and Fearne), but I was looking forward to the possible drama between them and their parents! Their parents disappointed with Dorian and Cyrus for leaving when they are the heirs to an entire city of their people?! That could be such great opportunity to really test their bond as well as figure out Dorian is made for adventure while Cyrus may just be destined to inherit the position of royalty! Then they have a wholesome yet heartbreaking goodbye! Come on! What a waste.

At the time when Aabria said "Oops I forgot to level Cyrus up." And didn't even *bother* to even add some hp points (a fucking fighter, and a very capable one presented by both Robbie and Matt) made rise my eyebrows, but then he didn't even do mich in combat here or, even before in ExU. Its like she tried her best to make him as forgettable as possible so she could kill him later off