Game Masters of Exandria Roundtable
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2022
- Exandrian GMs Matthew Mercer, Aabria Iyengar, and Brennan Lee Mulligan sit down for a roundtable discussion of their experiences and best practices for game mastering in Critical Role’s world of Exandria!
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#Gamemaster #CriticalRole #DungeonsAndDragons - เกม
Matt: *Tries to be humble*
Aabria and Brennan: "No the fuck you will not."
Where
@@helenchen6308 around 1:01:10, its when matt was being like "ooh its not a big deal, i just created a whole lore and world and yada yada, its not even done yet" and brennan instantly goes "This mf really just said that huh?!" and abbria backs brennan up
@@helenchen6308 everywhere 😂
At about 4:00...when Matt says "better people" in reference to them and they say (equal) or (f*cking lies)
Again at 1:03:40...when they call Matt incredible and ask him to "roll around in the compliment."
@@yew2oob954 tyyyyyy
I am convinced Brennan is being co-piloted by a two people, one is very philosophical and analytical the other is a wizard that has been driven mad by the secrets of the universe
"You have two wizards inside you..."
Welcome to the world to being extremely neurodivergent
Is Arthur Aguefort just a self insert?
He has probably always been the first one. The second is just the inevitable result of the first one going off the deep end.
This is my favorite comment ever
DnD community: railroad vs sandbox
Brennan: waterslide
have fun together while still following the story
'waterslide' is such a good summary of his whole shpiel
Quicksandbox
Brennan lee mulligan is the defining character of "there are two wolves in all of us", but both of those wolves happen to be piloted by a team of racoons.
...Had Burrow's End started being released when you wrote that, or is it just a wild coincidence?
@@neodav00001 Hardcore Apollo's Gift
NO MOON MOON!!! THE HELL MOON MOON!!
@@neodav00001 Burrow's End dropped on October, 8 months ago from now is September. So yeah, Apollo's Gift.
"There are real people that don't even have 40 pages of backstory" that fucking killed me
@ZebraManno1 with people like this in the world so feel like we are all mostly NPCs
Lol i feel like 40 pages is like you built a village and explained everyone important, families, laws, myths. To deep 2 pages is Plenty IMO.
The 1 page vibe backstory is the life you wanna live, not the life you wanna LIVE, yknow
Not too late to start writing it.
@ZebraManno1 I'm a PC. I'm the type where the player went "how much trauma can I pack into one character".
50% DMing masterclass
25% Besties lovefest
20% Stories from the actual play trenches
5% Brennan realllllly likes almonds
What a great breakdown! 🤣
100% BATHROOM VOICES TIME!!!
@@TheKirbyT we need a ‘bathroom voices’ podcast 🔥
@@misguidance__ I'm still up for a voice-off between all of them. Matt's worm trill vs Brennan's scream vs Aabria's sultry fekkin Spider Queen voice. DAMN.
As a voice heavy DM myself, I am so glad I am not the only bathroom vocal time 💯😂😂😎👍
We need a "GM Significant Other" podcast with marisha, izzy, and aabria's husband to expose the bathroom voices time LMAO
s e c o n d e d
T h i r d e d
F o u r t h d e d
Fifthded
@@tomesofawesome8041sixihed
"You wackity-schmackity doo, 10 episodes. HELP me."
Brennan's delivery is, as ever, impeccable
Since I came to this vid looking for this clip and spent forever looking for it- 1:01:35 😂
“Welcome to Biggityburg!”
there are literally multiple compilations of brennan delivering lines perfectly, and most of those clips aren't even from actual play shows
Brennan Lee Mulligan is a Patton Oswalt fan? As if I couldn’t love him any more.
He's never off.
Whatever problems I face in my life, I can take comfort in the fact that I live in a world where Brennan Lee Mulligan uses his powers for good. Somewhere in the multiverse, Evil Brennan’s subjects must sing the Oath of Obedience thrice daily.
Only thrice?
@@chrism6315 he's as nice guy about it.
Ah, you speak of Wennan Wee Wulligan
@@Jaros "iiii hate dungeons and dwagons"
@@Jaros that is the funniest shit ive read today.
brennan: "I don't know which dimension 20 main cast member to call out"
also brennan: "Emily was sent from hell to kill me"
I feel like that I was earlier in the timeline and they have all reached new levels of chaos
*Ally Beardsley has entered the chat*
@@kristenrose7596 SNAKE EYES!
@@CareyGrace Murph and Lou betting their guns at the casino because THE BALL IS ROLLING UP!
Siobhan about to use her body carcass as a bomb
Brennan’s running joke of “I said something amazing and now I’m being complimented on it… must shake coffee mug” made me laugh out loud every time
Where’s the comment chad with all the time stamps?
@@Charles-dg2gk be the change you want to see in the world
@@Charles-dg2gk 23:10 is one
1:30:30 right here
Brennan's rants and tangents are my favorite thing right now. Because there's like a switch flip and the monologuing just kicks off, and it's so funny.
The extrovert whos scared to bother people so they just sit quiet until talked too and then they just send it and 9/10 they are the most fun people to be with
I _wish_ I could be Brennan but I’m not quite there on the smart side and not extroverted enough to randomly rant about the maze master getting the horns 😂
It gets better knowing there's many accounts of people saying he's like this off camera. Him going on tangents or monologuing or the like are his true self.
@@grey8288 Brennan himself has stated that he struggles not to talk like that all the time lmao
I'm back here rewatching it mostly for Brennan's rants
"There are real life humans who don't have 40 pages of backstory. "
Real talk right there.
I love that i found this comment exactly as he said that line
I don't care for being called out like this.
timestamp? thanks!
@@empire23 17:52
Then you got people like me who’ve seen/experienced/been through some real shit. Lots of close calls and near falls.
To whoever made Matt feel bad to where he can't snack whilst dming anymore, I just wanna talk to you.
I as well want to talk to them.
Let's hope Brennen's amazing speech convinced him to start again.
As someone who has only followed Matt's campaigns loosely (being generous), has interacted mostly through his side cameo content, I too want to know who the fuck is policing this nice human being about his snacking habbits
Matt, you can snack!
Yes, "talk"
I love Brennan’s “profundity and absurdity are deeply in love, they go hand in hand” (at 44:38) because I heard that, and the first thought that entered my silly mind was “profoundness and absurdism are kissing with tongue” and I started giggling at my own joke before realizing that I had created absurdity from Brennans profoundness and it really intrigued me, and I thought about it for a bit before realizing I was being profound about my own absurd thought about a profound notion which made me laugh at the absurdity of the situation, and I realized how right he was about the relationship between profoundness and absurdness.
This comment needs more hype, this is fantastic
Albert Camus is rattling his coffin right now
@@goolgepl2112cartwheeling in that bitch
@@goolgepl2112straight up sounding like a vibrating phone in a drawer
@@goolgepl2112 That's a beautifully absurd image in its own right.
1:37:22
Matt says "I have not had the opportunity yet to properly GM for you yet" to them, and now he gets to DM for both Aabria and Brennan in The Ravening War!
Starts with "fire". Laughter ensues
@@Frreak0zoid Water, actually.
@@iainoftheizzetleague9850Earth now
the ravening war was just incredible. Matt's story, everyone's role play, and Brennan's absolutely next level improv of a character descending into madness
@@jedinxf7I was so sad it was so short, because I felt such a decade long story would have really benefited from more space. But it was still really good and the stuff Matt did to the setting were glorious.
Marisha...for the love of everything, make this a monthly show with the three of them. This is GOLD.
I would travel all the way to Biggityburg and back for this to happen!!
Where abouts do they each live? I wonder if its actually feasible to have them all in the same room on a weekly basis. Also I wonder if Brennan could commit to something like that contractually since I'm sure he contractual obligations with Dimension 20 of some kind. Though they've had Matt Mercer on their show before and now Brennan on CR, and both companies have clearly benefited heavily from the appearances so it certainly is looking good for a future where we see more of each company making guest appearances within the other.
I mean I don't know for sure how much of this stuff comes down to 'companies and contracts' but I feel like that must play a part.
@@Megameatloaf I lb
bi-monthly wozld be fine as well, I would also take online, but honestly, this is AMAZING
Lets start a pole to start a Critical Role roundtable show, Name Ideas: Critical Roundtable, The Roll Roundtable.
"Death is not a punchline, but is the perfect setup. Death renders everything around it absurd"
Thank you so much Brennan
As someome who just had a person in my rather close circle die VERY unexpectedly this just made me bawl and laugh at the same time because it is sooo true...
@@aurorasyreen863 I'm am very sorry for your loss, but I am happy that we all understand each other.
Brennan on death (as Citizen Doctor Abraham Mehermblur):
"Existence is a riddle whose ultimate answer is a laugh in the face of all beings. We must conquer death, and only then will we be able to understand this riddle, this joke, this ultimate distraction."
Also Brennan (as Evan Kelmp):
"HELL IS A DARK FOREST WHERE YOUR DAD OPENS HIS RIBCAGE AND INVITES YOU TO DANCE."
Love it.
This philosophy feels very Fleabag and I really like it
it sounds like a terry Pratchett quote
What Brennan and Matt say about Aabria as a GM player is so true. She understands the assignment. Never have I seen her as a player not understand the assignment. Her characters are so incredibly built/played that even their most selfish choices are completely in line with the necessary story beats. Aabria will never derail a session; she's _making_ the rails with the GM.
and somehow she never makes it feel as if she's building the rails. She always has characters with personalities and stories that have a great impact, while working sort of backstage to build the world with the GM. My favorite example is Karna from The Ravening War (spoilers ahead!) where her character brings a connexion to the Hungry One, and during the 5 years break, she goes to Ceresia and allows Matt to develop Deli's love interest (can't remember her name for the life of me) and the opposite side of the war. It allows for different perspectives to color the conflict and make her dynamic with the group so interesting! In a world where your sort of affiliation is determined by the food group your character falls into, Karna went to almost all of the countries and allowed Matt to develop them further
I thought when Aabria called Matt on "rolling around the compliment" and he said he was "trying to get better at that" was a really simple yet beautiful moment.
It's a fun thing from the Seven campaign on D20, it's wholesome to see how that stuck with them. roll around in the compliment!
Matt: "OK, so your wizard is good with fire magic. But what's something they regret from their childhood?"
Liam: "Well..."
“Well… We don’t have to find out what happened to my parents…”
*Nott:* He killed his whole family. Uhh- that’s a figure of speech.
*Yasha:* Don’t worry. I won’t throw you under the bridge.
*Nott:* _What is wrong with you?!?!?_
It all started with a fireball.
@@wolfbanefist111 it's always a fireball with wizard...
the part where Aabria says "I'm pretending to watch Moulan Rouge, but really I'm thinking about dnd", and both Matt and Brennan nod knowingly, absolutely sent me.
Or in the shower. Or in the car. Or at work…
I’ve heard the same happen to writers in general.
It’s constant. I’ve caught myself no less than five times today. There’s no escape
Timestamp? 1:19:44
I've never related so much. I often go on late night walks and talk to myself in NPC voices and monologues, but inevitably there will be that one other person out at 11pm who sees you and stares at you like you're some shady dude about to break into a house.
The "smile of exandria" -> "shattered teeth" connection that was made in the cataclysm game was actually incredible.
It was so low-key and seemed like an offhand comment when it happened, but then at the end I was like "Holy... shit"
WAIT i didnt realise that until now holy shit!!!! thats awesome
I think I twigged to it immediately - I remember going on my friends' Discord server and going "Oh no, that poor continent" the moment I heard Asmodeus call Domunas "The Smile of Exandria." It was still rad as heck to hear Brennan make that connection explicit both through Asmodeus' gloating ("...let's shatter her teeth!") and through the omniscient narrator-voice guiding the epilogue ("The continent of Domunas will be unfamiliar...").
I've only watched EXU and calamity (about to watch CR2 I think) so had no idea what the shattered teeth were. But the whole setup was still *so* sick 😁
I love how Matt at some point his life decided to put a vest over a tee shirt and has stuck to it, that is his thing. He has updated it beautifully and keeps it feeling modern but it is just nice to have that consistency in life. The sky is blue, grass is green and Matthew Mercer is wearing a vest
I love how this starts.
Matt & Aabria: sticking to the script, asking and answering the prepared questions.
Brennan: but what if chaos?
Perfect.
A+ move from Brennan. Got them all to a more comfortable spot immediately.
Can't be dramatic without the drama. He is the drama Lol
That is just Brennan Brennaning. He is the best embodiment of chaos. He should've been Jesters Patron I think lmao
Brennan’s DMing style in a nutshell lmao.
@@mojojomoo I need this!
Brennan exclaiming "It's not done!" about the setting/book and "Almonds!" just fucking killed me. The man has such energy, and I love him for it.
@@TheRealCrimdor Why does matt wear that vest? what does it matter? why comment on that post with your broken pencil opinion?
@@ackimdead - because I can?
You okay?
and "You can DO that?!?"
@@TheRealCrimdor Because she likes it
@@TheRealCrimdor Where'd your comment go, and why do you like your own comments?
Voice time in the bathroom is 100% accurate. But I live alone so when a squeaky Gnome voice trying three different versions of "I didn't mean for you to *literally* kill them. I was just.... being.... DRAMATIC!" echoes down the hall, it's only my dogs that hear it.
I've never related so hard to a weird habit
Living in a College dorm makes it very hard, I am almost never in the room alone. So voices time becomes either in the shower or while walking around campus. I’m certain there are people who think I’m just insane because I’m muttering to myself in an evil wizard voice as I walk to my calculus class
@@Achridian Book a practice room in the music building and go nuts!
I live with friends, but when i do my Queasy Kobold voice, they call back as strangely as me
I know this is over a year old now, but I keep coming back & rewatching it, because seeing 3 friends & colleagues get giddy with how talented they each think the others are, while simultaneously humbly downplaying their own talents, is such a rare & beautiful thing. I wish this roundtable was an annual event.
Likewise. Any time I'm on YT looking for something nice to listen to, I can't say no to this. They're so fun to sit with. ❤
Truly unmatched energy, they have so much to admire and inspire in each other and I’m so happy for them and the world that they’re friends and can share their work with us like they do :)
I love how Matt tries to set up an serious panel type vibe and Brennan immediately says "NOPE, THIS WILL BE CHAOS" and that is exactly what we get.
He gives back what he's given in adventuring party
To be fair, Brennan is quite capable in sticking to a standard panel format, as he's done so with his own Adventuring Academy series. He just chose chaos this time, and I absolutely love it.
It was a, “am I in the same moment as everyone else?”, moment and it was very necessary this is an amazing group sitting here and it needed to be freaked out about
Yo Aabria was like "pounce!" as soon as the concept of chaos started up
And those are the best episodes
I absolutely adore Brennans aggressive positivity
"When did the world feel done?"
"'It doesnt'"
*picks up book*
"With This, RIGHT here"
"take it man!"
1:01:10 for those looking
HELP me
Knowing Matt is humble to a fault, he needs a shoulder Brennan.
“Ya wackity smackity” 😂😂😂
"Take it man! What the fuck!"
When Brennan said “Weirdly Spiritually affirming to me” after Matt said Exandria was an accident I really felt that
Shoutout to Brennan for helping Matt and Aabria relax and setting a really fun tone for the roundtable.
I sincerely hope Brennan sticks around, even as a player. I wanna see him and Taliesin embody unstoppable force vs immovable object
From a vibe standpoint I really want to see him play with Taliesin but from a cerebral character alongside character standpoint I want to see him with Laura bailey. She can simultaneously be fucking brilliant and also laugh at the absurdity of what brilliant ideas Brennan would come up with.
I believe he already runs his own D&D show as the GM, so he wouldn't be available often.
@@catwhowalksbyhimself dimension 20, yeah, but as he put it, he has three months between seasons
One thing I really need to see is Emily Axford and Laura Bailey in the same room. I feel like no GM can survive that.
Brennan and Sam on the same side of the table…
I don’t know if Exandria can handle that, but the Nordverse though
Please make this a regular series. Just these three people shootin the shit, having voice time, Brennan ranting about how snacking isn't a weird thing, and just so much great DMing advice.
I would pay $$$ for this to be a thing!
Seriously, I would love a weekly series of just high level DMs/GMs having wide-ranging conversations about the game.
@WebDM was mostly like that, I suggest you check their channel out.
We can call it "Bathroom Buddies"
I would seriously pay money to have this even like once every two months
I love the way Brennan actually kind of breaks the ice in the room? or like it felt so serious and a little idk tight when Matt introduced it and the whole mood SHIFTED when Brennan talked about Matt and just gassing him up. love these people so much.
Right? I noticed that too.
@@Julia-kk7ph His ability to make people comfortable, at ease and engaged is one of the things I admire most about him. His social navigation skills are great he's such a delight to be around.
@@doxulltoally! He immediately got aabria and matt out of „work“-mode into „hanging with friends“-mode.
@@Julia-kk7ph Exactly! I strive to be like this man everyday for real. Just such a positive force in the world
I kinda want a podcast / roundtable with Marisha, Izzy, and Aabria's Husband just talking about the many ways they've handled and dealt with their DM partners who suddenly find themselves starting out into the distance, mind literally filled with fantasy races and rolling dice XD
my husband is a forever GM, I get asked the strangest questions sometimes. And as I am not playing in his games, I get to hear all the stuff.
"How do you feel about land-dwelling sharks?"
“Death is not a punchline…but it is the perfect setup” - good god, there’s so much wisdom and absolutely hilarity in that statement. I’m gonna have to remember that
It is indeed very insightful
So true.
This feels like its oversimplified, but after Brennan's "every GM gets a betrayer god" comment, I can't help myself from seeing comparisons of why they respectively went for Lolth, Vecna, and Asmodeus.
Like Aabria's proclivity for wanting to provoke and follow the impulse and the drama, Matt's whole thing about how he keeps all of this secret lore chronicled away until its needed, and Brennan's focus on optimising his PC's emotional ties, tight turnaround and scheduling numerous, smaller shows - like, am I overthinking or do their GM styles fit with the betrayer gods they've portrayed?
You are correct!
omg as an avid viewer of Brennan, i have to agree, esp after his performance as Adrian in LA by Night, i so totally see it
I'd say they subconsciously took on the Betrayers they were most similar to so they could play them well.
To be fair, what Betrayer God would fit Brennan "It´ll be a cold day in hell before i go out like a chump" Lee Mulligan better than Asmodeus? Dude is basically a walking Lord of Lies on a daily basis.
I'm not giving a like because I don't wanna be the one ruining the "nice" you got there, but yeah man totally!
I remember watching Aabria doing that cinematic thing of "in a far place, this character is reacting to what you did"
And I was like: no... yes...? no...? yeah... YEAH!!! I CAN DO THAT!
I feel like Aabria plays to the Audience the most out of these three Gm's and I absolutely love it. Especially with her like after-credit outros that are just for our eyes. Makes me feel like I am watching a greek tragedy play going like: I know something you doont, and you will never find out!
"Welcome to Biggityburg. It's the new town. It's the new season. Here we go - Wackity-Schmackity-DO! Ten episodes... HELP ME!" - This had me almost out of my chair laughing. As a DM, I am in awe of what Brennan brings to the table, but when witnessing the height and breadth of Matt Mercer's creativity, I am very nearly without words. Brennan's words come the closest to describing it.
that "I'm a snacker" rant goes up there in the top five Brennan rage-monologues
1:01:15
Is this one in there too?
I had already seen it a couple times prior to sitting down to watch the whole thing cause I loved it so much and said half of it with him lmao
"I am lazy" Brennan says, having GM'ed 11 seasons of D20 in like 5 years.
Laziest people are also the most effective and efficient people.
Laziness =/= sloth
@@YasaiTsume work smarter not harder
@@ldragon8480 yup yuup
When you're smart and lazy, you can achieve big goals with minimal effort on your end. Also it's not really considered work if you're doing something you have a lot of fun in.
More likely that he is labor adverse, so he finds the most efficient use of his energy possible. E.g. he preps 30% and knows what to flesh out vs not
1:24:34 The way Aabria says "Oh, you don't try to do the voices while you're in bed? Come on now, *come on now*. You *gotta* bang it out as an NPC every now and then, what?" Fucking sends me to Ruidis 💀
If I was good at voices I totally would too tbh sounds like good old fashion rp without the tt and g.
Well… maybe keep the tt sometimes
Two words: Chungledown Bim
1:36:03 THAT WASN'T PLANNED?!
Brennan, dude!!! Take some of the credit for that because you rolled with that so fucking well I thought you and Aabria had planned that in the fucking character creation!!
"wizards are yuppies. Wizards wear their shoes to bed"
-another gem from aabria
Brennan apologizing for going on about his answers is so endearing and unnecessary lol. I would listen to each of these GMs talk about their craft for HOURS, give me that director's cut extended edition!!
This. I didnt want it to end!
Yeah. Hearing them talk shop is such a treat. I have maintained for the longest time that the best DnD conversation was Brennans adventuring academy podcast with Matt. Now this is the best, by leagues!
@@GerardInandan the rest of Adventuring Academy is just as good! It’s such a great dive into different people in tabletop and the variety of skills they bring to the table (no pun intended)
Go from just shy of 2hrs to just under 3.5 days nonstop.
Just replace all water with coffee 😌☕
Brennan starts this video by quoting Voltaire and ends it by talking about stress eating a whole pizza and a half.
Just the perfect man.
"Find you a man who can do both?"
I think he’s trying to quote Mark Twain who said “I would have written you a shorter letter but I didn't have the time.”
@@pointynoodle thank you for introducing me to this quote I think it just explained my whole fucking life
@@DustyStarrs Mark Twain has a lot of good quotes like that. As does Lenin
@@pointynoodle my favourite is “if you’ve gotta eat two frogs in a day, eat the bigger one”
It's so comforting to know that other gm's do the Toreador trance thing of "forget that task what if this was true about mimics?"
Dude I do this all the time as a writer. Just standing halfway through a doorway completely unaware of my surroundings, lost in the realm of characters and plot
Jesus Christ, I haven't laughed as hard at anything in months as I did at "Smackity whackity do, 10 episodes, HELP ME."
I'm just gonna post the timecode for posterity right here 1:01:09
I've had that part on loop for a solid minute because it's amazing and it broke me. I'm still cracking up just thinking about it.
"THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE IN MY GM'ING IS THAT THE SAME PLACE I TALK FROM IS WHERE THE FOOD NEEDS TO GO!"
That got me, that put tears in my eyes. God I love these three so much.
I immediately sent that quote to my DM had me in stitches
I regularly quote what Brennan said in Dimension 20. "They'll RP, and I'm like 'It’s snack time,' but then they'll ask me a question and then it's not time."
Someone please timestamp this!
@@Trintron46 1:42:57 is the time stamp for the “Biggest obstacle in my GMing” bit. Hope that’s helpful!
Favorite quotes:
41:36 Aabria: "Nature heals. And sometimes it heals a little stupid, but it does heal."
44:37 Brennan: "Profundity and absurdity are deeply in love. They go hand in hand."
But my favorite moment is the group-therapy segment starting at 1:19:39. They were so happy that their experience was shared by the others. And I straight up act out scenes at home, for both RPG games and fanfic.
I see you, and raise you 16:38 ‘Buddy that’s enlightenment.’
Watching Aabria pantomime "being deeply weird in the bathtub" made me cackle like a cartoon halloween witch. And that cackle is turning maniacal real fast if I actually imagine her creating and then _practicing_ the voices for the salt goblins of ACOFAF in exactly that way??? lol
Yeah full scream-laugh, ya'll.
I just heart Aabria »so« gd much.
1:04:56 "Why do you make villains hot?"
I absolutely want a kitschy little word art sign that says "sometimes it heals a little stupid, but it does heal." That's *legitimately* kind of inspiring.
I want "profundity and absurdity are deeply in Love; they go hand in hand."
Brennan's 13 year old campaign that "just started up a game with some friends" happened for me 4 weeks ago and it's going great. I will now add Biggityburg as a neighboring town to my starting town of Larken in The Shattered Nation of Auranor. Wackity-schmackity doo will now be a song an NPC sings when they walk around Biggityburg.
What I'm getting from this is that Aimee could have singlehandedly stopped the Calamity by girlbossing Asmodeus
We are Here for it! Opal teaches the Spider Queen how to Girlboss to get back at Asmodeus.
That sounds very much like unstoppable force (Aimee) vs immovable object (Brennan) and I would be very interested to see where that would go
@@TheEmerald97 Zerxus: wait, you redeemed a betrayer god?
Opal: what, like it's hard?
Realest comment
@@Bannedd567 god now i want Opal and Zerxus to meet. idk how but i want it
this made me realize that brennan's bursts of insanity are NOT HIS CHOICE
Can't remember where but I vividly remember him saying that he's actually that unhinged and reigns it in for interactions with other people
@@agustinvenegas5238 game changer, the episode where he cannot win.
@@felixbostley5358 I don't think he says it in that episode but rather in a tweet in relation to that episode where someone asks him about his monologue.
@@ldragon8480 Perhaps, I don't quite remember
Until EXU I had never watched Brennan DM anything but he is a joy. Funny, witty, scary and so damn fun to listen too
i just got into dnd videoss a month ago and i love mathew to death prolly the best dm ever. but Brennan and Aabria did such an AMAZING job adding on to the story. gotta love them.
Agreed, he's an absolute delight! If you ever get the chance to watch Dimension 20, I highly recommend it. He DMs most of the campains and I can't pick a favorite, they're all wonderful
The full kescape from bloodkeep’ series is on the d20 TH-cam channel and Matt is a pc in it, it’s so good
Like once the Vox Machina and now Mighty Nein animated series have wrapped up I'd love if they did feature animated movies they'd be the EXU stories. A whole movie based around the Calamity would be epic.
Welcome to the club!!! Highly recommend his work!!
9:45 Emily and Lou as cousins in A Court of Fey and Flowers is another great example of how inter-character can change dynamics
Brennan has so clearly developed the skill of teaching. He's so good at getting right to the theoretical core of what he's talking about in a way that never strays from application, as he fully incapacitates everyone laughing.
UCB improv teacher background 😜
Also a camp councilor for a improv larp camp!
Aabria: "Session 0 is very important."
Matt: "It's good to make things clear."
Brennan: "WHAT HAPPENED TO GREAT TIME?"
“Death renders everything around it absurd.”
Not a month after this came out my cousin passed away.
She’d lived with us- I helped raise her children.
I hadn’t seen her in a few years, but it was still such a shock.
I remember finding out I was getting no time off- and worse yet, if I was scheduled for the day of the funeral I’d have to swap shifts just to attend.
And I remembered what was said in this video.
It felt so utterly absurd to me that I was helping others through their grief- as I was a wardrobe consultant so often had people for funerals- and yet here I was in the middle of that same grief and because she wasn’t _immediate_ family I had to just… keep going.
And maybe a day later I got a job offer for my literal dream job.
I had absolutely nothing holding me to that old job- seeing how cold and utilitarian they treated me in the face of death, I knew I could never keep that old job.
And I haven’t looked back.
It’s amazing how death shapes our world and perspectives.
Very well said
I love how it starts out as a mutual admiration society, and an hour in, it has turned into a self-help group for people who do weird voices in the bathroom.
"Nature heals, but it sometimes it heals a lil stupid" AABRIA YOU MAD GENIUS
Brennan's energy is pure lightning. I can't comprehend how he isn't everywhere. He is the Tom Cruise of DnD.
EXU : C was absolutely insane
DON’T CURSE HIM LIKE THAT!
He's more like the Ryan Reynolds, precious, actually funny, and beginning to be really appreciated
I don't think Brennan's mortal form can handle more than short bursts of his full energy, that's why we don't see him as often.
@@seanayres5 there simply aren't enough almonds to go around. Luv this guy.
Rewatching for the 50th time.... Matt mentions how he hasn't had the chance to properly DM for Aabria..... D20 releases the new trailer with Brennan, Aabria, and Lou all at the table together with Matt as the DM... oh boy.
"Water..."
I bet the discussion about being a guest GM for a prequel in someone else's established setting is the primary reason The Ravening War was PRECISELY that
@@natsuzkanomg I never even put that together but it’s so cute. It’s like they’re giving each other the gift of the of fleshing out small picture lore, allowing each other a chance to be a PC in their own worlds.
Aabria Iyengar genuinely sounds like the name of a Dungeons and Dragons character... and I love it.
Born to play wizards.
matt mercer, too. a rogue character name
“It’s delicious when the players realize they’re in a line.”
Players were fighting a dragon with a _beam_ breath weapon and _twice_ during the combat 3 of them got in a straight line.
I LOVED it.
I dropped my entire party in one Lightning Bolt. It ranks in the top 3 best DMing moments I've had.
My fucking tank rogue did this. I forgot the caster goes slower than the opponent can can use petrifying breath and I went in front of it, hoping to AOO it before it got to caster... I didnt realised it until the player was like "really? " and im like OH SHIT
Playing _Chrono Trigger,_ they blatently pointed out 'some orientations allow group attacks'. Stayed in the back of my mind for nearly 30 years.
To be fair isn't it pretty hard to not be in a line if there's 3 of you? Like just by default a lot of 3 points on a graph will be in a line.. or am I missing something simple that shows that like 98%of 3 points won't make a line. I'm gonna get a piece of paper and see...
@@sweypheonix a triangle is 3 points that are not in a line.
Same with a sine wave.
It’s nearly impossible for _two_ people to not form a line, though.
Aabria and Brennan's "turn the cameras off" I'm just dead now
Brennan bringing Adventuring Party energy to this very professional serious setting was the highlight
Everytime Aabria speaks I'm stunned by how incredibly eloquent and engaging she is. She has an unbelievable way with words. Even within her body language you can see how intent and passionate she is about everything she is saying. You can really see why Laerryn was such a personal character for her. She obviously is immensely intelligent and has a million thoughts bouncing around in her head. I'm always so inspired by these people who use their incredible brain power and eloquence to tell us fun stories online
Her third bit of dialogue she can't even finishe a sentence without interrupting herself for the first half of it, eloquent and intentional are not words to describe that.
To quote “…takes forty minutes to answer a question”, but we love them!! I’ve noticed highly intelligent people have this issue. I learn so much!
@@buttsmcgee50OED defines 'eloquent' as "fluent or persuasive in speaking or writing". id say that the latter adjective is right on target.
@@kiarraburd by that definition the vast majority of the population is eloquent
@@buttsmcgee50 sorry but you are trying to discredit a person with a single sentence they spoke, a person that is talking amongst friends, so yeah, she is eloquent, she is human
The idea that "On the Day of Death, we still get hungry, and some of us have to poop" is absolute gold. It really drives home how fundamentally absurd life and death can be, and how we treat it. Just brilliant.
This has a somewhat Monty Python-esque approach to death that I appreciate
@@Miglow Mitchell and Webb, but yeah
@Miglow it took me way too many months to realize you were referring to "The Meaning of Life" Monty Python and not The Flying Circus, my bad
I love listening to them bond over where they practice their voices!
Also Brennan came harder at Tolkien than I thought was ever possible. And he's freaking right, too....
"10,000 years ago, the best sword ever was made."
*Every Blacksmith for Next 10,000 Years:* "Well, fuck my whole career, I guess."
I like to think of that as the best sword that could ever be made 10,000 years ago, truly a product of its time
@@VanNessy97 that would work!
I like to think that tons of blacksmiths would see it as a challenge. "Yeah, yours was great... but we'll see how long they're talking about that stupid bread cutter once I make mine!"
And they'll be wrong, but that's how people are.
LotR is post-apocalyptic
@@Ventilator313 I think it's post, pre, and present apocalyptic. Never a dull age in Middle Earth.
Brennan talking about how being a GM is really a position of service hit me so hard. I’ve played with too many GMs who were more interested in their own worlds and NPCs to focus on the players. And the truly great GMs know that you’re really just the background. It’s the players who are the focus and they need to enjoy themselves and feel cool and have fun.
The best way I’ve heard it described is that the villains should want to win, but the GM should want to lose.
"It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant"
Matthew 20:26
Wisdom indeed
16:15 purpose of a backstory
16:29 Enlightenment
20:56 30% worldbuilding
21:38 Bolo
25:41 Squints of the struggle to read a prompter
31:40 Fantasy is bad with time
33:00 Tolkien quote: sh*t was dope back then. And it stopped being dope, anyway…
36:31 Don’t cut off BLM
37:25 Child-proofed the house
40:05, the hubris of slightly disliking hippies
41:12, nature heals and sometimes it heals a little stupid
43:00, oh do you do funny stuff? and Bolo
43:45 Death is not a punchline, but it is the perfect setup
47:14 Vespin Chloras and hubris
51:57 Story Dad
52:05 more squinting
55:50 And now there are dwarves
1:00:41 The what did I just say panic
1:01:10 classic BLM rant
1:01:48 Welcome to Biggityburg
1:04:56 The MOST important question
1:07:58 Most important question answered
1:11:21 Other uses for Othello
1:12:29 in combat and Emily Axford
1:19:40 Realities of living with a GM
1:20:53 Finding your ‘voice space/time’
1:22:50 Shout out to GM spouses
1:24:34 Doing voices in bed, anyone?
1:26:01 Bathroom buddies
1:26:21 Hi concierge?
1:28:58 Full immersion- player vs character
1:35:07 Aabria the great player-GM/Laeryn blighting the tree
1:39:28 “I’m stealing that and using it forever”
1:41:39 What are your favorite GM snacks
1:42:08 Some of our bodies are betraying us constantly
1:44:14 My body went “Hey, check it out…”
1:47:32 BLM’s Car crash story/Processing shock differently
Thanks for this!!
Man, in the way you name Brennan, at first glance i thoight you said 'Black Lives Matter' and i was soooo confuser lol
Fyi Brennan has mentioned he prefers BLeeM if you want to shorten his full name as to not take away from the BLM movement
thank u so much you are my hero
Love the timestamp names tho
"The world was fair, the mountains tall,
In Elder Days before the fall
...The world is grey, the mountains old,
The forge's fire is ashen-cold;" -Song of Durin; JRR Tolkein
Translation: "Shit was dope back in the day, and then it stopped being dope"
I think that's why so many people like D&D, because you can have stuff like, "Shit was dope back in the day," but then follow it up with, "Now it's dope, just in a different way."
@@biggrayalien4791 "All shit was dope in bygone, faded days,
And 'tis still so, but in new, diff'rent ways.
Once forged the arcane races artefacts
That sundered souls and lay to waste vast tracts.
Such powers lost to time and cosmic war,
Now thank thy gods we do that shit no more." - Hymn of the Luddite Sages, probably.
@@beardedemperor I like it
@@biggrayalien4791 In what way is that specific to D&D?
@@GreeneyedApe And here we go...
I would honestly watch a regular DM's round table with Aabriya, Matt and Brennan talking about how to be a good DM. They're all bringing so much to the table, and there is so much to learn.
Brennan hosts a podcast called Adventuring Academy. A one on one chat with a ttrpg personality. Its on dropout, but some have been uploaded on YT
Honestly, doesn't just need to be these three. Would love to see other major live-stream DM's/GM's come on to talk. Would love to see the opinions of people like Chris Perkins and Matt Colville on this type of show.
Colville to moderate
"No clerics...don't develop gods" is EXACTLY what I did in my Ravnica/MTG Planescape campaign I recently started. Such a clever point from Brennan that seems obvious but really whacks new DMs over the head if they get it wrong, ending in wayyy too much overprep
Truly I would kill for these three to have a podcast together.
I can't agree more with Brennan. He nailed it: "what I am looking as a player is full immersion. As a player I don't want to be a storyteller, I want to be living in a story immersed into a character who does not know he is living in a story."
That line hit so hard. Because that's what separates realistic characters from shitty ones: the real ones take their circumstances seriously. There's no immersion in a 3rd person omniscient perspective. There's immersion in the narrow, limited, subjective scope of mortal life. And that's what makes it special. So if you want to capture that in a realistic character, then that character has to have a limited perspective and skin in the game. For them, it's not about confronting their inner demons so they can fulfill their arc - this shit is REAL! It's about fighting desperately to save themselves and the people they love from encroaching evil. If they had a chance to take the easy way out and solve all their problems instantly, they would - because they're attached to their _goals,_ not the plot. But just like Brennan said so elegantly: The best path for the plot to take is the winding, convoluted path, resulting from PCs who navigate obstacles while trying their best to move in a straight line.
Ugh. Pure poetry. ❤️
Would love to watch one of Brennons session 0s. The roots of the stories and characters would be the most useful to see as a DM. I'd love to run games like Brennons
welp now you will get the chance!
@@thevisualkiwi how is that?
@@kmgenius look up worlds beyond numbers!
@Kiw I literally opened this comment to talk about that, I'm so excited for it
To me, what all three GMs really, really, underlined was that there is a tremendous benefit when everyone involved trusts one another. That they collectively know they are there to tell a beautiful story together. Everything that follows is them then working together to best enable that.
Brennan came SO close to just straight up saying that GMs are service tops.
Is that a euphemism?
@@brad7504 it’s a BDSM term 🤣
when??
does that mean powergamers are power bottoms
@@Pablo360able 🤣
matt describing how exandria happened sounds exactly like what a god would say who canonically created exandria
"It was all an accident"
@@trinity6302 "Well it was a coworker's birthday and he really wanted to explore a new world...."
Does Brennan realize that the last 5 seconds of Exandria Calamity 4 shows an overhead shot of him that includes the scene behind the screen. The first time I saw it I was like O.o but now it makes more sense.
Now I have to go back and watch that again.
For the love of GOD please do more of these the chemistry and knowledge between Aabria Matt and Brennan is phenomenal
Let’s bask in this for a moment and try to forget that these are the same people who said:
Aabria: “His hair goes stark white, and he snaps his own wand. He will never cast another spell again”
Matt: “I broke the world for us!”
Brennan: “Patia, is your arm weakest, do you feel, at the elbow or the shoulder?”
But on the other side, they’re also the creators of:
Aabria: Owls ringing like phones
Matt: Tusk Love
Brennan: Chungledown Bim
Wait, you gave a serious and a silly for Aabria and Matt, but you only gave 2 seriouses for Brennen (cuz Chungledown Bim is nightmare fuel)!
The duality of humanity
Ohh I prefer “what do you want me to tell your family”. Misfits and magic is what got me back into TTRPGs
Implying chungledown bim isn't nightmare fuel
@@spacetearable Okay, let's swap out Chungledown Bim for Plug's Butt-Ugly Stuff Hut. There, it's fixed.
As someone else mentioned, they should make a podcast together, call it “Bathroom Buddies”, and have other DMs come in every so often to talk about weird DMing stuff and giving advice. The community would love this, and it would help the community of newbie GMs who need help DMing for the first time.
Brennan has one called Adventuring academy both of them have been on it, it's really good!
@@audreygilmore7408 Not exactly a podcast lmao, more like the show after the show, similar in format to CR's. I mean a real podcast, where it's just the three of them talking about life
@@elijahpark5344
adventuring party=the show after the show with the PC's
Adventuring academy = the podcast that Brennan did on dropout with other dm's (some of whom are PC's in D20 but mostly others including Matt and Aabria)
@@audreygilmore7408 OH
I never made that distinction, huh. I just read “Adventuring” and though they were the same. Still, we need a podcast with all three gms hosting, not just brennan 🙃
@@elijahpark5344 agreed! That would be amazing, I could listen to them talk all day lol
Matt crafts intricate and complex worlds and lore and knows rules by heart and how to give players space.
Brennan is a master in acting and improvising and being completely unhinged.
Aabria is in your walls and she knows what terrifies you.
that is the most apt discription of aabria's dm style and i love her for it.
I love it when Brennan hard geo-locates himself by mentioning Buca di Beppo. He's seen the Pope room and he knows it is the best place to eat.
Never before have I felt more seen than when Brennan identified as a pallid, hirsuite, Evermoist™ entity whose siege engine of a mind requires constant almond fuel.
He's really just asking for fans to send him the biggest bag of Almonds they can find until he ends up with a lifetime supply
You have a way with words my friend
47:50 on this topic, the way Brennan introduced Vespin in ExU through Cerrit's intro, as not this troubling villain but just yet another fool trying to ascend to godhood like the Mother of Ravens. It drove home very efficiently that this is a world where a person like Vespin was waiting to happen. If not him then someone else. That was very smart storytelling
Exactly. In a few lore nuggets he took "the impossible happened" to "hubris got the ball rolling on some horrible events" and made it seem not only entirely plausible, but even unavoidable.
these are just three great people, period.
disregard their fame and DM'ing prowess.
so humble, so grateful for anything they do together.
god damnit I love this hobby.
"I'm a Podling!!! and I need to SNACK!!!" Never in my life have I ever related to something so much. 😂😂 Such wonderful dms each and everyone of em.
I love how this GM’s roundtable turned into GM’s support group with them bonding over bathroom voices time
Matt: don't make villains hot
Internet: have you seen the briarwoods
I definitely have O.O
Follow up as a forever DM: Don't let villians pet animals lmao
@@bigsiskrishere I’m going to try this! (Players always attack them mid monologue, but they also love animals.)
I hope that you three get together and do more GM roundtables again because this was delightful to watch the first time and *continues* to be delightful to watch each and every time. :)
I’d love that, this is my comfort video
Holy shit, I one hundred percent feel Aabria on the "I am not in my home/I am doing a Thing™, I do not have a human body with needs." I forget to drink water, I feel no sensation in my body, what is a bathroom? When I was running a game the other day I realized after the session ended I had been standing lock-still for six hours at my convertible standing/sitting desk, and literally had to ice my knees and feet they were so sore. I feel seen.
16:25 "Because if you start with someone who's like 'I have a class and spells and magical gear and literally no desires and no attachments.' and you're like 'Buddy, that's enlightenment. I don't know what to tell you. You're actually done. You win.'"
Is such a powerful realization.
and now I want to play an enlightened character who struggles with still living in the world without going full hermit.
Uhhhh... I'd... say maybe don't try that? The term "enlightened" means those worldly goals, struggles, aims are gone and you are at peace. You are wanting for nothing. There would be no "struggling to live", it would be a thoughtful and sedate existance and just, boring as hell to interact with a character that views the ambitions of others as a path he has already traveled and concluded. I've played with a character who was a monk, but the player took that to mean he had a pass to be as stoic, quiet, emotionally still, and _boring_ as possible, probably because it was easy on him to roleplay, but he never acted, only reacted, and even then it was reluctance to get involved in a conflict. 2/10 do not recommend, from my experience.
You wanna get fus ro dah'd off the peak? This is how you get fus ro dah'd off the peak...
Why would he want to still live in the world if he doesn’t want anything since he’s enlightened
@@kharonhaden5136 unless the party came to them seeking help and they decided to travel on as a guide and moral compass for the party otherwise yea not much to do with a character with no goals of there own.
@@MogoPrime that's OPM. You're basically talking about Saitama.
“Sometimes nature heals stupid, but it heals.” Damn that’s a good line.
"Nature heals. Sometimes it heals a little stupid, but it does heal" - Aabria Iyengar
Brennan's almonds monologue lives rent-free in my mind.
The image of Dani Carr in a corner with a blow gun while Brennan DMs EXU Calamity is a spectacular one