In a roundabout way, there's a hidden dragon in our party! My Kobold was a servant to a Silver Dragon and when he was supposed to meet up with her to swap off a magic item, she was killed just before he got there and her soul latched onto him as he arrived. So now my Kobold is a "Silver Dragon" (Marid, Genie) Warlock. lol
Yeah, I had a PC who became a dragon sorcerer, and he went on a brief journey to find the dragon he had inherited his power from. Said dragon met him in human form, but he encountered another on the way.
Not enough DMs include battles where defenestration is an acceptable victory condition. Also, props to Matt for ruling that fall damage is covered by resistance/immunity to nonmagical bludgeoning damage. I'm not a fan of fall damage being a way to get around damage immunity, but lots of DMs run it that way.
Most monsters with immunities to physical damage specify that immunity is to damage from nonmagical attacks, like golems. Barbarian rage only specifies the damage type, not its source.
fun video! also to answer your question about the Excavation hole in a non spoiler manner: Yes the hole is a key element of call of the netherdeep, meaning matt was cooking that for years
@@cwispygiraffe SPOILERS for anyone else . . . . . (I'm actually currently playing Call of the Netherdeep with my group.) . . . . . (Sorry I don't know how many of these I have to add) . . . . There used to be another city where Ank'harel is now. During the Calamity, a Ruidusborn man named Alyxian received the blessings of three gods, and with that power he battled Gruumsh. The city was flooded and lost along with its inhabitants and presumably Alyxian, and it now lies below Ank'harel. The Allegiance of Allsight are excavating it, and they call the site "Cael Morrow." The plot of Call of the Netherdeep revolves around Alyxian, but I don't know if you want to hear ALL of it or just about the hole. Some details also might be different from my own recollection, because I'm not the GM in our campaign and I don't know how many details they've altered.
reminds me of a part from the unexpectable where a dragon in human form broke into a wizards tower for reasons I won't spoil the glyphs in the tower forced him to change back into his massive form and he panics and just flys off with what he grabbed in tow
45:23 The fact that Purvan was known to be a champion of a goddess who had an animal companion made it feel like Vex was destined to gain this higher status by becoming the Raven Queen's champion. And the fact that you can fly with it and all Vex wants to do is fly. Percy needed some sort of defense against magic since he was mainly a damage dealer, so his Vestige feels right to me, but I wonder if Matt was willing to let either twin get the armor, since they both also got unique weapon Vestiges.
It's really interesting watching these demystified videos after watching the relevant episodes of the show. I've never seen the liveplay, only highlight clips, so it's great getting the context of the scenes behind the scenes. Such as how in the show, it's not revealed that the ruler is a dragon, at least not directly, but when the party first meets them, Vex gets a sharp pain in her head, which the show at least has already signified happens whenever a dragon approaches, referencing that reveal at the table despite it not fitting into the pacing of the show. However, I think there's a lesson you overlooked (if you haven't covered it in a previous video) on the nature of fantasy currency. To most players, gold is the only currency that's relevant (well, that and occasionally platinum), because it's what they make most of their purchases with, things like potions and magic items are listed in term of tens, hundreds, or thousands of gold. But as brought up in game, copper and silver are the more common currency in day to day interactions of common people. To an adventurer, 10g is nothing, but to a commoner that could be something like $1000, if we correlate c/s/g to $1/10/100. So spending any amount of gold on spices is, indeed, expensive when viewed in the correct context, which it seems the party lost sight of.
I don't know that I would correlate a copper being a dollar. To me that's more what silver is (or around it, I wouldn't say exactly). But in fairness that's probably just the American penny in me speaking.
@@Chrosteellium Well, my example was more for comparison than actual conversion rate. It seemed a more "ah, that makes sense" correlation than describing it as "penny/dime/dollar" or "dime/dollar/ten dollars".
@@justinsinke2088 totally fair. Honestly I kinda agree though that a gold is probably closer to 100 though. Like if I was forced to assign USD. I might do like $0.50/$1-$5/$50-$100 Just to put a range. There's also that one line that gets repeated that idek where it comes from that a commoner (depending on the setting) doesn't even make 1g in a year.
@@Chrosteellium According to PHB, even the poor lifestyle costs 2 silver pieces each day. That, of course, includes lodging, so if a commoner already has a hut, room, or some other living space that belongs to them, that leaves 1 silver piece a day for food, clothes, and other stuff people spend their money on. Basically, according to PHB, even a poor commoner would earn (and spend) at least 30 gold pieces each year.
@@ghurcbghurcb30 pieces each year still makes gold an extremely rare commodity. 3 pieces is a month's wages and spare, adventures would use that as a tip to a beggar as early as level 5. Even in the context of poor lodging, that's like staying in a hotel in our world. Even a crappy hotel is too expensive to stay in, long term. If every unhoused person could afford to live in a hotel off of a normal job there'd be no one sleeping on the streets and no spare rooms in hotels. In the context of our world, it'd be like staying at a bad hotel and buying your own food cause you had to budget for your vacation and you weren't planning on actually being in the place you'd sleep for anything other than said sleeping. It's still too expensive to ever actually stay there long term but after a night of heavy drinking, (like in a tavern) you've already spent so much on the drinks that it's basically a "don't get robbed" tax.
16:22 its also very similar to Legend of Zelda Majora's mask, where if you wear the mask of truth you can read how animals are feeling and you can find the dog that feels the best for the best chance to win
Casino episodes are fun, but my favorites are "town fair" episodes (not sure of the name) where the players play dumb strengh and dexterity games, M9 has a great one
"the robot Kung-Fu version of a captcha" sent me hard enough that I had to pause the video... well done Always love the videos, the amount of work you put into these shines through brilliantly. Cheers Mike
I believe in the no longer available campaign 1 wrap up, Matt had said that the Deathwalker's Ward was intended for Percy, but the circumstances of the trap and pact between Vax and the RQ shifted things. Percy/Tal made a few cues to the RQ, and considering his tether to Delilah and her work being an abomination to the RQ. Whisper, like Fenthras was a weapon tailored for the twins. Percy had his guns so armor could be the next reasonable asset to have.
Pretty sure dipping tobacco is an almost exclusively southern thing and idk where Mike is from so maybe he just hadn't heard of it. It's still someone common in the south and would've been much more so when Travis was younger so it wouldn't surprise me at all if that'd what he was referring to.
@@jojak0512 Mike's mentioned his house being in LA on the channel a couple of times, and based on his accent I think it's safe to say he's been in California most of his life.
All Dogs Go To Heaven Trivia: Judith Barsi, who played Anne Marie also played Duckie in Land Before Time. She was killed by her father along with her mother after All Dogs Go To Heaven had finished her recording, and just before the premiere of Land Before Time. Burt Reynolds (another TLOVM tie in) took a month to do the scene where he had to say goodbye to Anne Marie. Dark trivia. Oh, also the kid who played Little Foot in Land Before Time went on to play the child drug dealer (Hobbs) in Robocop 2.
22:18 I think it’s a reference to how some people sample a drug to see if it’s good quality, since the mouth and gums have a load of veins where the drugs can go to immediately make you feel something, so you know if the stuff works well or not.
I wonder if Matt didn’t originally plan to have the vestiges so closely tied with the characters backstories. First they learn about the death walkers ward and mythcarver, with the promise of learning more later. When the sunken tomb happens he decides all the vestiges should be more closely tied to the character arcs. It’s too late to change mythcsrver, but then they learn more and he’s able to plant them in better places.
the name of the titanstone knuckles and being owned by Kevdak was made up by Travis as part of his backsotry for Grog, Matt used it to make that Vestige
I think he actually decides upon the vestiges being specific to the characters long before then, when Orion was still at the table. There are 8 vestiges after all. Cabal’s ruin was very likely meant for Tiberius, so that he could shoot his own spells into if he wanted to get powered up attacks. Plus I think matt said a long time ago that he originally thought Percy would end up with the deathwalker’s ward instead of vax, but then vex died and vax made a deal with the raven queen. The rest of the vestiges sort of just went to who they were meant for.
Glad you're feeling better. Definitely go slow to go fast. If you have "bonus" episodes, why not just space them out with the regular schedule as you have the holidays coming up and flu season. It might buy you a little breathing room.
17:50 I do this stuff too, making really complicated minigames that the players end up watching. But I've learned to pre-roll them out, write up a little narrative that I hope is interesting, then we move on to the results and how the players interact with that.
I love that Sam is so willing to let Scanlan play the fool for the sake of the joke, and then turns it on the party in the future, but that's spoilers so I'll leave it there. I'll just say that so many players I've heard of that want to play a Scanlan-esque character don't want to stoop themselves to taking the short end of the joke, so they just end up being kind of pompous without the prat fall that makes that sort of character land.
Seeing that reference to "All Dogs go to Heaven" reminded me of a bit of sad trivia... if you want to ruin your day look up the child actress, Judith Barsi, who played the little girl in that movie.
I played Call of the Netherdeep. There is indeed an answer to what the excavation site is. I did not remember this featuring in C1 when I was playing at all. That's so cool.
I think Death Walker was maybe for Vex. She wanted to fly so badly (pre broom which happens after Thordak appears) plus the pokeball and Purvons wolf. I think it was flexible but the intent was there. Also i think bar maybe the bow, armour and spire, they were designed to be a little flexible. I think after myth carver and the raven queen armour story beats, matt really leant into the story and that in turn made the players attatch the vestiges more permenantly
For reference; in All Dogs go to Heaven the little girl can speak to animals (for some reason) and talks to the horses, asks who’s going to win & is told it’s horse X (can’t recall their name) because it’s their birthday. Since that horse is a long shot they win big and this keeps going for a while until she finds out she’s being used
22:15 is a reference to dip/chewing tobacco the description is very similar to to chewing tobacco like Levi garet or redman but most people are familiar with “dip” that you put into your lower lip and spit the juice of
I have ONE critique to that episode, in general it being fun and well paced... The loss of the javelin. Matt basically punished a player for a bad roll with the loss of a magical item. The ONLY magical item that allowed that player any kind of true threat in a ranged combat. I found that unnecessarily harsh. It wasn't even a nat 1 if i recall. It woulld be like destroying Vax's Boots of Haste when he stepped on the lava, or breaking Vex's bow on a critical failure. Lucky him, Travis plays a Barbarian in Nirvana. The most Zen rager ever.
22:13 thought that was a reference to booger sugar tbh, putting it on your gums will make them numb and I believe is used as a way to make sure someone isn’t trying to stiff you and sell you something that isn’t legit like baby powder or something. Travis could also be referencing chewing tobacco but I’ve def seen them make jokes alluding to coke use before and being actors in LA they probably have been/are around a lot of booger sugar use.
How to do races with drama using Xdn per racer. Determine how many legs of the race you want; this is your X. Determine how much come from behind to win it all energy you want; this determines the n d4s = low, d20s = high. You could even use different dice to show that some racers are better than others, or start of strong but fade at the end. Use matched sets (colors, shapes, sparkly v not, what ever) for each racer Roll all the dice for each leg sequentially, the higher the result the better that racer did in that leg but the higher the running total the better that racer is doing over all. The highest running total after the last leg is the winner. If you roll in the open the players can share in the suspense of figuring out who is the leader.
This whole arc of Scanlan is Sam masterfully playing his wisdom score of 6. Sam did mention in one of the first few episodes he has a -2 Wis mod but doesn't mention it again until the end of the campaign. I do think the lizard race would have been better if Matt handed the dice for each lizard to the players
I'd love to see something similar to crit role demystified for other series! Even if its just a one off of an interesting session or analysis of the game as a whole, lessons we could learn from Dusk or Skill Check could be really fascinating!
So, for me the main thing that leads me to think Cabal's Ruin was originally meant for Tiberius is not merely that (as you mentioned) there's one more vestige than there are players, but also that Cabal's Ruin's central gimmick is "absorb incoming magic that the wearer can then put to use." Which would probably be really appreciated by the player who's frequently upset at running out of magic power. Deathwalker's Ward for Percy is less convincing to me on its own and more just Percy and Deathwalker's Ward being what's left after the others are all distributed. But it does get a smidge more credibility in my eyes insofar as Deathwalker's Ward being all edgy did fit pretty well with early Percy. It was only really after they got it and gave it to Vax that Percy grew out of that and Vax grew INTO it. The closure for Percy MIGHT have been more about his having brought Orthax into the world and doing something about that. Tough to say, really. Might've still involved Ripley though. :shrug: Though what would really help is a proper timeline of when each one gets specifically name dropped. (ie, is Cabal's Ruin mentioned before Deathwalker's Ward is found and given to Vax). And hey, not cutting Cabal's Ruin might've just been "I've put enough work into this that I want my players to see it, dammit." (I don't know when Matt first decided to write the first setting book, but if it was after this arc, then it's plausible he thought this'd be his only chance to show it off.) I mean, it's all just idle speculation based on circumstantial evidence and whatever the logical fallacy of having a conclusion and finding supporting evidence is called. But who doesn't love a good "What if" scenario?
Yeah they learn about Deathwalker’s Ward and the Titanstone Knuckles from Earthbreaker Groon before going to find Kamaljiori to learn about the others. You can line it up with when Grog gives up Craven Edge. He still has Craven Edge in the Sunken Tomb when they get the DW and he gives CE up before they go to Westrunn and they also get Mythcarver from Kamaljiori.
26:25 or hell, just have himself not be doing anything specific and wait for Vex to come back up and tell him. He committed to the humiliation fully and for no real reason than it was fun and hilarious.
I might be wrong but I feel like I remember in the campaign wrap up he said he designed some for specific members like the bow or gauntlets but some were up for grabs like Cabal’s; but pairing it with Ripley definitely creates a tie whether intended or not
I introduced Honors Last Stand, the Shield from Bahamut, do you think the Paladin of Bahamut got it, no the players gave it to the bard XD they didn't go from a role play stand point they went from a stats stand point. Fine for the players, just not what I intended XD
I haven't watched that far in the original tt, but as soon as I saw them in the show, I said: That's a dragon in disguise. I originally thought a gold dragon though.
In the post campaign wrap up for this, the players do actually ask if the vestiges were meant for specific players and Matt specifically calls out the deathwalker's ward and Kabal's Ruin as being versatile. If I recall correctly. I think he also references that they could have been traded among party memebers but the party never went that way. I could be wrong about the latter but fairly confident I recall the former.
If Matt had the lizard game already made the best choice would have been to preroll the dice and decide the results beforehand, then allowed the players to fudge what happened.
I believe the death walkers ward was meant for vex. I think it was always meant to kill her if not when she touched it then when she put it on. Then she would talk with the Raven queen and be sent back as her champ. Because Laura was frustrated and behind the other characters due to the 5e beast master ranger being under powered. The death walkers ward and fenthris along with being a gods champ were meant to boost her. My evidence is that the armor was found with the necklace which was clearly for trinket. And it is implied that pervon was also a beast ranger with his wolf. also she hadn't stolen the broom yet but was looking everywhere for a way to fly again and Matt was gonna give it to her. since i believe he already planned for the awakening. but liam tried to make a deal and with great rp matt went with it. he gave a boon to trinket in the feywild instead and i believe vex gets another ability after the grey hunt test thing. and the broom allowed her to fly anyway.
spoilers c3 109 on matt's usage of proving your worth/loyalty through combat... really feels like 5e is dragging the show down when you need to impress the god of death by fighting three random guys
My issue with the proving yourself trope is that it just feels like an unnecessary step, there's no way the heroes will actually lose so why should I care about the outcome, and why cant the people who ask just check if the people they're asking for a fight have actually done something impressive?
You're basing on the assumption that they can't lose. But they could have they not pushed the Golem out of the window it very well could have wiped the floor with them. And then they would not have been able to gain the support of the city. Because I've done that before had a group fellow challenge well they didn't die but they also didn't get what they wanted.
Counterpoint proving through poi Ted battle makes more sense especially when battle is the way people can understand each other like most Shonen anime or fighting/rpg videogames
For others who might not have seen or remember the movie, fuller context on All Dogs Go to Heaven; figuring out who to bet on by talking to the race animals was a regular theme, but the big moment was at the horse races, where everyone told Anne Marie to bet on the Grand Chawhee, who was a pathetic wet cat of a horse whom nobody ever expected to win, because the other horses had a pact to let him win because it was his birthday.
i was just gonna say that talking to the animals to convince one or more to throw the race to give yourself better odds "hey if you throw the race I'll toss you some pocket baccon after" but thats a way more wholesome reason
I also don't like the prove yourself on battle trope, but I think it's an easy fall back in DnD because there are not a ton of reasons to be fighting good aligned monsters. They didn't fight Ja'mon, but just generally speaking. There's pretty much the "fight me to prove your worth" trope or the "this good creature had been corrupted so you have a reason to fight it" trope.
I've been derailed on IRL tangents during some boring travel RP with my players and we play it off as one or two people in the corner of a wagon just having some weirdo one sided conversation just saying weirdo rando shit. Which immediately spins me into playing that exact thing which is always funny because I am hilarious. =D
A better way to do the race mechanic would be to add points to each racer for each d6 roll they win and then cut the score in half each round to weight the later rounds more. That would keep the first several rolls from being inconsequential fluff and make it more exciting.
Travis’ comment about the lip thing is how you use chewing tobacco. Just let it sit between your lip and gums. It makes you produce a lot of saliva you shouldn’t swallow so people usually spit it into a cup. My dad has done it for decades. It’s gross.
Once the animated series finishes, could you consider making a video or a video series about the differences between the animation and the campaign itself?
The lack of good targeting rules is one my biggest complaints about 5.0. Also not a fan of immunities to non-magical stuff being handed out as much as they are.
I may be misremembering, but didn't Matt say in one of the post-session interviews he expected Percy to take "Deathwalker's Ward". I vaguely remember him saying he thought it'd be cool for Percy to have it and fly around raining bullets on the enemies.
I think there is one more weapon than the party because Matt planned for an ambush like the upcoming one, be it Ripley or another treasure/weapon hunter group.
As for that excavation. And what it was. The key in c3 was in an excavation. And they had a beacon powering it. And used whitestone residuum. Matt is always 3 steps ahead 😂😂
The problem with trial by combat is they never claimed to be their strongest fighters (they are) they said they were the leaders. They may be somewhat competent fighters but better planners and strategists. So beating a big golem doesn't really prove that and losing to a big golem doesn't either. While here it works fine but many books movies game whatever have this and that's something I think about because most final big bads are beaten with powerful maguffins and rituals and strategy more than a bash fest
Regarding your observation of Scanlan being the butt of the joke, I think that's one reason why his humor is so loved in CR1, but it doesn't feel the same in the tv series. I am not sure how the wider community feels about tv Scanlan, but it feels to me like he just makes snide rude comments to people or is super pervy (but without it being him as the joke), and it makes him a lot less endearing to me.
Another possibility about the Raven Queen's vestige is that it was meant for A) one of the NPCs involved in the adventure (Kash, perhaps?) or B) for 'whoever dies first'. So it WOULD have gone to Vex, but Vax made the deal before Matt could narrate Vex meeting the RQ in the afterlife and getting pitched directly to be her champion. (Or, since he didn't know it would be Vex specifically in that scene, it was just a 'next person who dies meets the RQ and gets the pitch'). The reason there's PC+1 vestiges is in case no one DOES die, no one gets the Raven Queen's offer, the armor doesn't 'go' to anyone.
I'm a little confused at how you're differentiating that, if the guy wasn't going to help them then they proved their strength through fighting random monsters that showed up isn't that still trial by combat just without the person specifically requesting it? He didn't think they'd be strong enough to help then they fought something that proved they could be so he decided to help?
Just a note re: the political commentary at the end... I agree almost 100% with your politics but am genuinely horrified that you think sharing COVID-19 testing equipment with another country is a bad thing. Trump did some terrible things around COVID, like spreading scare propaganda about China's vaccines, but a dislike of the Russian government should not come above international cooperation against a deadly pandemic.
The problem is we needed that equipment here. He continues to pound this America first agenda, while supporting a known dictator. It's the hypocrisy that's the problem. He did it in secret while telling us not too worry.
To clarify: He didn’t share COVID testing equipment with another country; he secretly sent them to Putin for personal use, at a time when testing equipment was hard to find for Americans. On the call, Putin told Trump not to say anything, because Americans would be upset by it - which means everyone on the call knew it was something that people would not be happy to learn about.
Political commentary shouldn't belong on a video about a bunch of nerdy ass voice actors playing DnD - especially when used to try and influence an upcoming election that only Americans can vote for. While that may be the majority of the subscribers to this channel it does alienate a lot of other people and potentially turns people away as they didn't come here for political views
while I'm not debating the statements you made in terms of factuality, saying that you won't attempt to influence people and then making a list of statements clearly intended to do so is um... scummy. If you're going to join the conversation, just come out and say what you're going to say without trying to coach the way you might be received.
Chill. He stated like three sentences that are factual about Trump. Last time I checked free speech still exists. It's not like he went on an hour-long rant, but if he did that's his right. It was a bit tongue and cheek, but you're so caught up in your feelings you can't just move on. You feel like you have to attack the man. Some people really don't know how much a scumbag Trump is, or don't care. Influence is all around. Misinformation is everywhere, and so what if it influences someone. Hopefully it does.
