They almost make that a point in the show Bondi Rescue. It's like a giant PSA about ocean safety mixed with, "we're flattered, we know we're attractive, but please stop flirting with us." 😬
Avanash to me was just such a stroke of genius, you know? Like, how do you sell that a guy is straight up insane? How do you roleplay it?? And Brennan just puts up what I can only see as a perfect definition for insanity: “an insane person is an individual which cannot agree with other individuals on what reality is, objectively speaking”. To Avanash, it is blatant, obvious, logical that HIS BONES ARE IN DANGER!! And everyone else is doing the literal only reaction possible, “Wtf does your bones have to do with crownforging??? What are we missing????” Love it
Another reason to root for the villains is that some of the good guys aren't very likable. Telmere is a bad dad, Tavian is trying to kill Markus as much as Markus is trying to kill him and Percival is clueless and unsanitary. And don't get me started on how they treat the Eagles. Avian Rights!
I am completely caught off guard with Erika's voice. I've only ever seen her in Escape from the Bloodkeep and she kept the voice for Lilith going throughout the series.
I think Brennan have said that not having to adapt previously created minis too much, since they could use traditional d&d minis most of the time, gave space for some extra time being devoted to creating more complex sets.
"Evil is so transcendental. It transcends being a butthole, right. There's being a butthole, and then there's EVIL. You don't have to be a butthole if you're evil." --words of wisdom from Amy Vorpahl
A bit of context: My first experience with D&D was watching the first couple of episodes Dimension 20 on College Humor. Fast forward a couple of months and several D&D podcasts later and my friends and I are just setting out on our first ever campaign, with me as the DM! To Brennan: Thanks for putting us onto this magnificent game. I'm hoping I can be half the compelling DM your are at some point down the line. And when I get my first pay check, I'm dedicating an appropriate amount to getting myself a Dropout subscription and catching up with all my favorite characters! Salutations all the way from Kenya. Sincerely, A nerdy wannabe writer who finally found an outlet.
Matt Mercer, the guy who played Leland, has his own stream called Critical Role if you want even more DnD nerdity to binge! 🤗 good luck on your campaign and happy rolling bro 💪🏽💪🏽
Great run, Marcus was a great character with a clear growth along the episodes, Efink turn was an amazing twist in the end (Brennan's face said all) and Lilith was incredible (come on, I almost cried with the mother/children interactions). Every character had awesome traits and development
One of my groups LOVES winning battles out of RP. My favorite one was convincing a group of cave giants that they should stop harassing the goblins who also live in the cave, they should be paying the goblins rent and tribute for allowing the giants to live in the cave, and to set free all the human prisoners as a sign of good faith that they would start paying the goblins rent. We rolled 5 nat 20's in our checks to convince them. Which at that point the DM just started giving us advantage on our checks with them because, as he put it, "apparently these giants are just REALLY dumb and are going to go along with anything you say" .
I absolutely LOVE Amy's tiara, and the fact that she is casually wearing it. Stunning. Also, having watched The Good, The Rad and The Nubbly, hearing Ify talk about his learning process just made me so happy to know that I witnessed that.
Lilith was Cougartown. The character started off as a single mom drinking lots of wine and picking up lots of guys, which was funny enough but didn't really have legs (ahahahaha get it?!?!?!) and then quickly got infinitely funnier and more interesting. I was a bit nervous about Lilith to start, especially with the starting off talking about boys with her girl friend. But i was a *fool* to, for it was of course wonderfully subverted and her relationship to Maggie became way more important and it was so sweet and great. Such a great show. Everyone was amazing. I wouldn't dream of 'ranking' anyone, as everyone was fantastic. Except J'erem'ih was best by a mile and i want to make a plush of him so bad.
The "Evil" PC discussion in this video is great. There's an important line between "playing an evil character" and "just being an asshole." If you have a player who wants to play an evil character there are plenty of ways to let them do that. Just make sure they understand that being an asshole at the table is a deal breaker for the other real world people at the table. An easy way to lay this out before the campaign even begins is ask them what type of evil they want to play into and mine different stories and entrainment forms for examples of that type of evil getting along with the rest of the "good" characters in that story. For instance, does the player want to be an obviously evil or untrustworthy character who is thrown in with the heroes of the story because their goals align? That's easy. Just have the player model their evil character after something like how Deadpool is portrayed in most of his comics. He's selfish and murderous, but 9 times out of 10 he'll drop everything he's doing to help out the heroes because there's that off chance he might get some great publicity or con Iron Man and Captain America into letting him join the Avengers. Does the player want to play some kind of cursed monster that is forced to ingratiate themselves with the rest of the party because their curse limits their options? Have the player watch Seasons 4 through 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and model their character's evil after Spike. Every single thing that character did up until season 7 was selfishly motivated and could be tied back into benefiting him, but the reason he wasn't dusted is because he fooled the heroes of the story into thinking he was capable of growing as a person or was harmless. Does the player want to pay an evil spy who pretends to be good only to betray the party at the final battle? Sure, let them, just so long as they make a backup character for when their evil character gets handed over to the DM and becomes the NPC the party has to hunt down and brutally murder. Does the player want to play the Joker, and are they taking lessons from the way Jared Leto made the set of Suicide Squad a living nightmare because he was trying to be a "method" Joker? No, don't let them do that. That's called "just being an asshole."
That's one of the things I loved about this season, that while they were the bad guys you found yourself rooting for them. Of course it helped that a number of the Forces of Light were either jerks (Telmere and Tavian, I'm looking at you) or idiots (Hello Percival)
Personally, fully Evil parties should be either cartoonishly grim(aka grimderp, for reference either Warhammer 40k or Efink Murderdeath of this series) or Disney Evil (Like V.: "I shall sap all the love from this world!" H.: "Why?!" V.: "Because it's FUN!"), you absolutely nailed single Evil PCs though. Except the Traitor. Personally, the Traitor should absolutely play their final bout against their party, and should only hand over their character sheet to the DM if they manage to somehow survive the ensuing curbstomp. Under the condition that they're gonna be clear above table that they are indeed betraying the party and be clear motivation wise while in character post reveal.
@@heathenpride7931 I think they're saying that the DM should know the Traitor's true evil character sheet, not entirely give up control to the DM and be as an NPC
Morticia: Great Old One Warlock Gomez: Swashbuckler Rogue Wednesday: Assassin Rogue Lurch: Goliath, not sure of the class. I'd say Brute Fighter as a default. The others I don't know. Mama as an alchemical Artificer maybe? Fester as A Storm Sorcerer because of his lightning affinity? No real idea about Pugsley at all.
The best beat that grabbed me was Marcus in the last episode defining evil and trying to save his friend by “Taking away her dreams.” They didn’t pick up on that beat and it went in a different direction, but that moment stood Out from the whole campaign is the moment we’re across from big villainous acts to almost goodness/real evil.
my opinion on the question at 38:55 is: remember that characters should be people. Don't do evil for evils sake. Remember your character is a person, has an objective, and isnt just another murder hobo, and calling that evil
I watched the Addam's Family movies again recently, and found it really interesting to think about some of this stuff that they are talking about in this video. The Addams characters are dark and violent, but they are also friendly (albeit in a way that other people don't appreciate) and very honest and loyal to each other. The normie characters are constantly mean to everyone; backstabbing, lying, arguing about everything, and just generally scheming against everyone else, even their friends and family members. The only ones that show remorse and don't want to hurt anyone or lie to people end up falling in with the Addamses instead. It paints a really odd picture that's kind of fun occasionally.
The ONE time I've seen an interplayer relationship work was on a podcast called Greetings Adventurers. However, that is a long-term campaign that is going strong still with 400+ episodes, and even then, the characters knew each other for like 30-50 episodes before they started their slow-burn relationship.
2 takeaways I’ve had from recent RPG gaming: PC romance can be super fun if you a) make it funny and b) stick it in at the end. In a campaign finale, my goblin confessed her revolting crush on another goblin, and it was played entirely for laughs on both our parts, making sure everyone got it was a joke. Also an evil PC can work, as long as they use their evil to help the other PCs. The problem comes when you’re going against the other PCs’ goals. The game has to be cooperative, it just doesn’t work when it’s a bad-faith competition.
EftBK is the one DnD podcast I will actively watch. Most of the others I stick on in the background as I'm painting, but I love watching this. Everyone was on point, the setpiecss were great, love it!
I have barely gotten to RP at all since my group of friends went their separate ways after college... This campaign inspired me to start a game with my family (2 kids, wife, sister, mom & dad) because it made me miss it so much Edit: I'm 41 now so it's been about 17 years since I DMed
They might benefit from a “Session Zero” or just a heads up about main points they’ll be expected to answer. It might be easier for them to create their character “off-camera”.
in one of my games a PC playing a succubus would coastally flirt and "hook up" with another PC however they never actually hooked up, the succubus would use drain life (non lethal damage) and leave the other PC unconscious from euphoria and lie about the previous night. The other PC was also RPing a virgin monk and so was clueless
I completely agree with always acting like your character will die. I just finished a campaign I joined midway through and knew I had 4 sessions. So the party beat the final boss and one of the characters in the party tried to kill him behind our backs. Unfortunately for my character and his, I saw this and set off the bomb I had prepped two sessions before. My character went out exactly how he always wanted, in a fiery explosion that destroyed half a city, made all the other PCs go down to like less than 10 hp, and the news coverage of the explosion suggested a new villain had risen. It was my first ever real campaign (aside from one session in a canceled campaign) and I am happy with my RP cos I think I played it perfectly.
I disagree with Ify about Daenyrs, but not due to the fact that she wouldn't have made a good villain. The writers could have fleshed her out that way, but instead they had her flip a switch because her friend got killed and "go crazy" because women's psyches are weak and all that. Wanting power doesn't really lead her down that way because that's what most of the main characters want and they all do equally horrible things--even the designated "heroes." The white savior narrative would be a compelling one to turn on it's head but the writers don't do that because that would require them to flesh the non-white characters out as people, and we'd much rather focus on the northerners who have a kid that can literally big brother everyone, but I guess he would make a good king because he doesn't want it.
a good point about the evil stuff as I've seen games where CN do evil things and saying its not evil. and I have played evil characters and only done evil when needed like murder.
Yeah, if you're going out of your way to actively harm the innocent that's textbook evil. A Barbarian or Bard, for the sake of argument, might easily be Chaotic Neutral, but that doesn't mean they're murderhobos. It just means that they enjoy drinking and carousing and certainly aren't averse to a brawl. They also don't go out of their way to slaughter villagers or shopkeepers....
@@XoRandomGuyoX there is a video you need to look up about a party of CN that did alot more then just drink and get into fights they were all basically the bbegs of the game yet still CN as it's about person freedom and doing what they want which also can mean hurting innocent
I know it's a joke, but based on the anecdote of the origin of that t-shirt, it has to be like 5-8 years old. Brennan really doesn't buy new shirts and I respect that
I've rewatched the new Critical Role GM Roundtable video about a thousand times now and seeing Brennan in the exact Tony Pepperoni shirt he mentioned in that video is hilarious to me XD
Having DM'd for Adventurer's league before, I know how hard it is when there is only one solution. I didn't like it so much that most of the time, I improv the story beats to allow for multiple ways to resolve a story. If I'm going to be judged by AL organizers, I will never be invited to DM in conventions, no matter how players like the way I DM games.
OMG Iffy THANK YOU I also clocked that Dragon Princess from the beginning, just because she was killing the 'bad people' doesn't mean she was a good person.
36:30 this sounds like the DM and the other guy were good friends and the DM said _nope, you'll romance him, if you want it or not_ which is pretty disturbing
Is the Behind the scenes commentary on Escape From the Bloodkeep released somewhere on youtube or can you only get it through drouput. If the latter, do you ever intend to release it on youtube?
In reference to the PC to PC romance I'm in a game right now where I play a character who was a hopeless romantic halfling bard tavern girl who fell hard for the other half elf travelling bard girl and low key took her out to run errands to test the waters and wound up flirting had a great time nat 20'd a performance that night for a bunch of pirates we were travelling with and after a few drinks she had a slight breakdown because she had a been burned before and was falling too fast so she wound up swinging for it and asking what this is and it blew up in her face at first the half elf was just not ready and wanted to be friends and she takes it hard triggering her stress alcoholism flaw. Meanwhile the half-elf left a note saying she was going to leave the crew because she felt bad for hurting her and it led to this drunken halfling beating her str 8 fists into her abdomen and screaming at her for blaming herself and yelling at her that she will deal with it and it was kind of a touching moment and later on there was tension of this will they won't they up until the Halfling died and was revived and the half-elf had this what if flash by and they had a redo of the scene again revisiting their relationship and they wound up together.
Big thing missing from any evil campaign attempts I've had is drive, heroes are driven to help people and complete quests. As evil people dropped into a world, it's really easy to run out of a reason to keep being evil
As an aspiring completely fresh out of the boat DM I feel kinda stressed just by watching all these stupidly talented people play ant talk. I'm incredibly shy and my current play group is far from being optimal or very comfortable but it's hard for me to meet and trust new people so I deal with that I have and it's not that bad. However, it's hard for me to imagine trusting my players to do all those things that the group here did. I once even tried improv for the sake of being a better DM and a more confident person but I really didn't feel connected to it in any way and it wasn't fun for me. I played with few role-playing group in my life and it rarely felt like a good experience, the way these people talk about it. So the gap between the desired experience and reality seems quite intimidating. I keep asking myself if I'm doing something wrong or should I do something differently (like overcoming myself to find yet another game group or, I dunno, pushing myself and my boundaries). For the time being I think I'll stick to rolling with my first campaign as a DM as I imagined it and as I am right now with all my shortcomings and my fear of improv and trying to feel the vibes from there.
beginning I'm running my first campaign as a DM and I find myself railroading way too much just to stay away from improving a whole scene. But last session I just decided to invent this little barroom fight when a PC was being snooty with the staff. It got a huge reaction from the party even though the dialogue and combat were shittier. It was in no way even close to what Brennan is able to do but that little spark of spontaneity really breathed life into the session. I'm still terrified of going for it but its convinced me that trying to do it is worth it. Hope you keep trying as well :)
To your comment about starting to feel bad when playing "evil," I got to that point with GTA: San Andreas after the campaign is completed. You go from this vigilante character getting his family and friends protected from a fully corrupt system to a serial killer when trying to complete all of the side content.
"Don't flirt with people who can't leave"
Me: a lifeguard suffering heavily from creeps forgetting this rule
They almost make that a point in the show Bondi Rescue. It's like a giant PSA about ocean safety mixed with, "we're flattered, we know we're attractive, but please stop flirting with us." 😬
Jade Spades snaps for that👍👍
Hahaha... as a decade long lifeguard I feel you.
Brennan: "We've never had in inter-PC relationship on the show."
Erika: "Mission acquired, target locked."
A Court of Fae and Flowers was incredible.
Is that a reference to Misfits and Magic?
i see that as a Emily and Ally thing
Avanash to me was just such a stroke of genius, you know? Like, how do you sell that a guy is straight up insane? How do you roleplay it?? And Brennan just puts up what I can only see as a perfect definition for insanity: “an insane person is an individual which cannot agree with other individuals on what reality is, objectively speaking”. To Avanash, it is blatant, obvious, logical that HIS BONES ARE IN DANGER!! And everyone else is doing the literal only reaction possible, “Wtf does your bones have to do with crownforging??? What are we missing????”
Love it
I just was thinking, your bones are always wet. And I'm happy for him no-one told him that
Another reason to root for the villains is that some of the good guys aren't very likable. Telmere is a bad dad, Tavian is trying to kill Markus as much as Markus is trying to kill him and Percival is clueless and unsanitary. And don't get me started on how they treat the Eagles. Avian Rights!
I mean that's not much to hold against Percival
@@joelharris4446 Maybe not at the time, but “unsanitary” carries some much harsher connotations now.
I am completely caught off guard with Erika's voice. I've only ever seen her in Escape from the Bloodkeep and she kept the voice for Lilith going throughout the series.
Imposter syndrome? The queen of spiders was my favorite character! 😁
Lilith and Efink were seriously my favs, they were so good!
This is the only show ive seen that had “battle sets” that rivalled (or surpassed!) the stuff Matt does for CR.
Props to the props people 😁
Props to props
@@captainkiwi77 props to the props props for those props, props!
I think Brennan have said that not having to adapt previously created minis too much, since they could use traditional d&d minis most of the time, gave space for some extra time being devoted to creating more complex sets.
"Evil is so transcendental. It transcends being a butthole, right. There's being a butthole, and then there's EVIL. You don't have to be a butthole if you're evil."
--words of wisdom from Amy Vorpahl
Props to Erika for dropping actual Silmarillion knowledge here.
A bit of context: My first experience with D&D was watching the first couple of episodes Dimension 20 on College Humor. Fast forward a couple of months and several D&D podcasts later and my friends and I are just setting out on our first ever campaign, with me as the DM!
To Brennan: Thanks for putting us onto this magnificent game. I'm hoping I can be half the compelling DM your are at some point down the line. And when I get my first pay check, I'm dedicating an appropriate amount to getting myself a Dropout subscription and catching up with all my favorite characters!
Salutations all the way from Kenya.
Sincerely,
A nerdy wannabe writer who finally found an outlet.
This is so my story too! Brennan you are great!
I've had exactly the same experience.
I was the same with hero’s and halfwits
Matt Mercer, the guy who played Leland, has his own stream called Critical Role if you want even more DnD nerdity to binge! 🤗 good luck on your campaign and happy rolling bro 💪🏽💪🏽
Damn right!!! You are not alone. Start from CH and D20 until running the campaign by ourselves. Good luck Bro!!!
Great run, Marcus was a great character with a clear growth along the episodes, Efink turn was an amazing twist in the end (Brennan's face said all) and Lilith was incredible (come on, I almost cried with the mother/children interactions). Every character had awesome traits and development
"Villains are bad, punch nazi's." Brennan is amazing.
I mean you should always punch a Nazi
One of my groups LOVES winning battles out of RP. My favorite one was convincing a group of cave giants that they should stop harassing the goblins who also live in the cave, they should be paying the goblins rent and tribute for allowing the giants to live in the cave, and to set free all the human prisoners as a sign of good faith that they would start paying the goblins rent.
We rolled 5 nat 20's in our checks to convince them. Which at that point the DM just started giving us advantage on our checks with them because, as he put it, "apparently these giants are just REALLY dumb and are going to go along with anything you say" .
You colonized the giants
@@DeathnoteBB evil campaign PC's creating landlords lmao
I absolutely LOVE Amy's tiara, and the fact that she is casually wearing it. Stunning.
Also, having watched The Good, The Rad and The Nubbly, hearing Ify talk about his learning process just made me so happy to know that I witnessed that.
Percival was underrated man. That character had me cracking up with every line.
Lilith was Cougartown. The character started off as a single mom drinking lots of wine and picking up lots of guys, which was funny enough but didn't really have legs (ahahahaha get it?!?!?!) and then quickly got infinitely funnier and more interesting.
I was a bit nervous about Lilith to start, especially with the starting off talking about boys with her girl friend. But i was a *fool* to, for it was of course wonderfully subverted and her relationship to Maggie became way more important and it was so sweet and great.
Such a great show. Everyone was amazing. I wouldn't dream of 'ranking' anyone, as everyone was fantastic.
Except J'erem'ih was best by a mile and i want to make a plush of him so bad.
💯 an utterly delightful ensemble cast and story!
You're right, but good luck making a plush of a thing that constantly morphs its form XD
53:00 or so - - 100% the librarian! I was SO bummed that everyone was shutting her down. Best npc in the whole game, fucking gold
This whole thing was fantastic but I especially appreciated the glimpses behind the curtain into Brennan’s DM head- would love to see more of that!
I watched this on dropout but I'm here for the comments.
Same here
GET IN THE COMMENTS!
Wow that "freeing slaves only to create an alternate slavery system" thing that iffy said sounds mad familiar
The "Evil" PC discussion in this video is great. There's an important line between "playing an evil character" and "just being an asshole."
If you have a player who wants to play an evil character there are plenty of ways to let them do that. Just make sure they understand that being an asshole at the table is a deal breaker for the other real world people at the table. An easy way to lay this out before the campaign even begins is ask them what type of evil they want to play into and mine different stories and entrainment forms for examples of that type of evil getting along with the rest of the "good" characters in that story.
For instance, does the player want to be an obviously evil or untrustworthy character who is thrown in with the heroes of the story because their goals align? That's easy. Just have the player model their evil character after something like how Deadpool is portrayed in most of his comics. He's selfish and murderous, but 9 times out of 10 he'll drop everything he's doing to help out the heroes because there's that off chance he might get some great publicity or con Iron Man and Captain America into letting him join the Avengers.
Does the player want to play some kind of cursed monster that is forced to ingratiate themselves with the rest of the party because their curse limits their options? Have the player watch Seasons 4 through 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and model their character's evil after Spike. Every single thing that character did up until season 7 was selfishly motivated and could be tied back into benefiting him, but the reason he wasn't dusted is because he fooled the heroes of the story into thinking he was capable of growing as a person or was harmless.
Does the player want to pay an evil spy who pretends to be good only to betray the party at the final battle? Sure, let them, just so long as they make a backup character for when their evil character gets handed over to the DM and becomes the NPC the party has to hunt down and brutally murder.
Does the player want to play the Joker, and are they taking lessons from the way Jared Leto made the set of Suicide Squad a living nightmare because he was trying to be a "method" Joker? No, don't let them do that. That's called "just being an asshole."
That's one of the things I loved about this season, that while they were the bad guys you found yourself rooting for them. Of course it helped that a number of the Forces of Light were either jerks (Telmere and Tavian, I'm looking at you) or idiots (Hello Percival)
Personally, fully Evil parties should be either cartoonishly grim(aka grimderp, for reference either Warhammer 40k or Efink Murderdeath of this series) or Disney Evil (Like V.: "I shall sap all the love from this world!" H.: "Why?!" V.: "Because it's FUN!"), you absolutely nailed single Evil PCs though.
Except the Traitor.
Personally, the Traitor should absolutely play their final bout against their party, and should only hand over their character sheet to the DM if they manage to somehow survive the ensuing curbstomp. Under the condition that they're gonna be clear above table that they are indeed betraying the party and be clear motivation wise while in character post reveal.
Why should the traitor give up control of their character when their entire mission was to betray?
@@heathenpride7931 I think they're saying that the DM should know the Traitor's true evil character sheet, not entirely give up control to the DM and be as an NPC
I love the comparison to the Addams Family. The Addams Family would a really interesting model for a D&D party
Morticia: Great Old One Warlock
Gomez: Swashbuckler Rogue
Wednesday: Assassin Rogue
Lurch: Goliath, not sure of the class. I'd say Brute Fighter as a default.
The others I don't know. Mama as an alchemical Artificer maybe? Fester as A Storm Sorcerer because of his lightning affinity? No real idea about Pugsley at all.
Dimension 20 started my DND journey at 23 years of age in 2022 THANK YOU BRENNAN AND THE D20 TEAM
The best beat that grabbed me was Marcus in the last episode defining evil and trying to save his friend by “Taking away her dreams.” They didn’t pick up on that beat and it went in a different direction, but that moment stood Out from the whole campaign is the moment we’re across from big villainous acts to almost goodness/real evil.
my opinion on the question at 38:55 is: remember that characters should be people. Don't do evil for evils sake. Remember your character is a person, has an objective, and isnt just another murder hobo, and calling that evil
I can watch or listen for hours as these cool folks are talking not only about the season, D&D in general, but also life ^_^ Very informative.
About to play my very first DnD campaign this weekend, all thanks to the genius of this show!! THANKS BRENNAN!
Hope you had fun ^_^
Brennan's face when Amy says "i must become the necro-boatman" is my pfp on social
I watched the Addam's Family movies again recently, and found it really interesting to think about some of this stuff that they are talking about in this video. The Addams characters are dark and violent, but they are also friendly (albeit in a way that other people don't appreciate) and very honest and loyal to each other. The normie characters are constantly mean to everyone; backstabbing, lying, arguing about everything, and just generally scheming against everyone else, even their friends and family members. The only ones that show remorse and don't want to hurt anyone or lie to people end up falling in with the Addamses instead. It paints a really odd picture that's kind of fun occasionally.
I like Brennan for his humour and creativity regardless, but his "villains are bad, punch nazis" made me cheer. Good attitude to voice, mate!
The ONE time I've seen an interplayer relationship work was on a podcast called Greetings Adventurers. However, that is a long-term campaign that is going strong still with 400+ episodes, and even then, the characters knew each other for like 30-50 episodes before they started their slow-burn relationship.
2 takeaways I’ve had from recent RPG gaming:
PC romance can be super fun if you a) make it funny and b) stick it in at the end. In a campaign finale, my goblin confessed her revolting crush on another goblin, and it was played entirely for laughs on both our parts, making sure everyone got it was a joke.
Also an evil PC can work, as long as they use their evil to help the other PCs. The problem comes when you’re going against the other PCs’ goals. The game has to be cooperative, it just doesn’t work when it’s a bad-faith competition.
An incredible story with awesome characters! I loved every moment of it!
I binge watched Escape from the Bloodkeep just to watch this episode of Adventuring Academy
Ify is a treasure on this world
EftBK is the one DnD podcast I will actively watch. Most of the others I stick on in the background as I'm painting, but I love watching this. Everyone was on point, the setpiecss were great, love it!
Ify going off about GoT and the prison system. He's right and he should say it.
I have barely gotten to RP at all since my group of friends went their separate ways after college... This campaign inspired me to start a game with my family (2 kids, wife, sister, mom & dad) because it made me miss it so much
Edit: I'm 41 now so it's been about 17 years since I DMed
How'd it go?
Why only the vowel-name actors in this first reunion video? Seems like a pretty suspicious choice to me.
There's a part two with Matt, Tramp, and Reyka.
@@thatconventiongirl3909 Only the consonant-name actors! Extra suspicious!
Thank you so much Dimension 20 for what you do, it's awesome, thank you.
Every time I try to get friends or people to play dnd I always end up with someone who locks up mentally when I ask them their characters name.
Ask them why and how they lock up and discuss what could make things easier and better for them
They might benefit from a “Session Zero” or just a heads up about main points they’ll be expected to answer. It might be easier for them to create their character “off-camera”.
This was SO GOOD!!!
28:19 IFY YESSSS
in one of my games a PC playing a succubus would coastally flirt and "hook up" with another PC however they never actually hooked up, the succubus would use drain life (non lethal damage) and leave the other PC unconscious from euphoria and lie about the previous night. The other PC was also RPing a virgin monk and so was clueless
Did this guy just say "GoGaia" and talk about RP forums!?
New Nerd Crush
Okay, I'm just going to let my shallow side out and say "Damn, but Erika looks good in that dress!"
Her legs were on point!
43:52 “What’s a funny comedy for that?” Looks like Brennan chose The Divine Comedy 😏
Nice, Granddaddy Brennan brought back the Short Rests from Naddpod!
that serie is way up there on my list of best dnd plays
I completely agree with always acting like your character will die. I just finished a campaign I joined midway through and knew I had 4 sessions. So the party beat the final boss and one of the characters in the party tried to kill him behind our backs. Unfortunately for my character and his, I saw this and set off the bomb I had prepped two sessions before. My character went out exactly how he always wanted, in a fiery explosion that destroyed half a city, made all the other PCs go down to like less than 10 hp, and the news coverage of the explosion suggested a new villain had risen. It was my first ever real campaign (aside from one session in a canceled campaign) and I am happy with my RP cos I think I played it perfectly.
I disagree with Ify about Daenyrs, but not due to the fact that she wouldn't have made a good villain. The writers could have fleshed her out that way, but instead they had her flip a switch because her friend got killed and "go crazy" because women's psyches are weak and all that. Wanting power doesn't really lead her down that way because that's what most of the main characters want and they all do equally horrible things--even the designated "heroes."
The white savior narrative would be a compelling one to turn on it's head but the writers don't do that because that would require them to flesh the non-white characters out as people, and we'd much rather focus on the northerners who have a kid that can literally big brother everyone, but I guess he would make a good king because he doesn't want it.
I mean I believe the thinking for the “giving the role to someone who doesn’t want it” is because they are more likely to not abuse power at all
a good point about the evil stuff as I've seen games where CN do evil things and saying its not evil. and I have played evil characters and only done evil when needed like murder.
Yeah, if you're going out of your way to actively harm the innocent that's textbook evil. A Barbarian or Bard, for the sake of argument, might easily be Chaotic Neutral, but that doesn't mean they're murderhobos. It just means that they enjoy drinking and carousing and certainly aren't averse to a brawl. They also don't go out of their way to slaughter villagers or shopkeepers....
@@XoRandomGuyoX there is a video you need to look up about a party of CN that did alot more then just drink and get into fights they were all basically the bbegs of the game yet still CN as it's about person freedom and doing what they want which also can mean hurting innocent
I love how they're talking about ships and there's chains and a pair of shackles on the wall. XD love it!
They may be the Bad Guys, but they aren’t bad guys and that’s great
35:08
Funny Ify is talking about honoring something you did when Markus literally made a deal and went back on it immediately afterwards
THE TONY PEPPERONI BATMAN SHIRT!
I know it's a joke, but based on the anecdote of the origin of that t-shirt, it has to be like 5-8 years old. Brennan really doesn't buy new shirts and I respect that
I've rewatched the new Critical Role GM Roundtable video about a thousand times now and seeing Brennan in the exact Tony Pepperoni shirt he mentioned in that video is hilarious to me XD
I've already seen this on dropout but might as well rewatch it on TH-cam
That fight in the volcano was nothing short of magnificent
The famous Tony Pepperoni shirt! I can't believe my eyes!
I've pulled up this episode multiple times just for Ify's GoT rant.
Having DM'd for Adventurer's league before, I know how hard it is when there is only one solution. I didn't like it so much that most of the time, I improv the story beats to allow for multiple ways to resolve a story. If I'm going to be judged by AL organizers, I will never be invited to DM in conventions, no matter how players like the way I DM games.
OMG Iffy THANK YOU I also clocked that Dragon Princess from the beginning, just because she was killing the 'bad people' doesn't mean she was a good person.
Me and Amy both learned the word caldera that day. It will never be forgotten.
The amount of vocabulary I've learned from watching d&d shows and EverQuest is unfathomable.
Erikas *explaining that they've been in PC romance scenarios* me remembering all of LA by night, uh yeah a bunch
I will never not notice that Beautiful Tony Pepperoni shirt.
36:30 this sounds like the DM and the other guy were good friends and the DM said _nope, you'll romance him, if you want it or not_ which is pretty disturbing
Is the Behind the scenes commentary on Escape From the Bloodkeep released somewhere on youtube or can you only get it through drouput. If the latter, do you ever intend to release it on youtube?
Oh shit who was better at DMing Zack or Cody?
best thing to remember "No one's a villain in their own mind."
34:44 Everyone knows they can flirt with Brennan and it's going to be fine.
All ya'll look great btw
I too have had a DM make me roll diplomacy/persuasion to convince someone of my PC's "No." 🤢🤮
In reference to the PC to PC romance I'm in a game right now where I play a character who was a hopeless romantic halfling bard tavern girl who fell hard for the other half elf travelling bard girl and low key took her out to run errands to test the waters and wound up flirting had a great time nat 20'd a performance that night for a bunch of pirates we were travelling with and after a few drinks she had a slight breakdown because she had a been burned before and was falling too fast so she wound up swinging for it and asking what this is and it blew up in her face at first the half elf was just not ready and wanted to be friends and she takes it hard triggering her stress alcoholism flaw. Meanwhile the half-elf left a note saying she was going to leave the crew because she felt bad for hurting her and it led to this drunken halfling beating her str 8 fists into her abdomen and screaming at her for blaming herself and yelling at her that she will deal with it and it was kind of a touching moment and later on there was tension of this will they won't they up until the Halfling died and was revived and the half-elf had this what if flash by and they had a redo of the scene again revisiting their relationship and they wound up together.
round about getting shotdown and having tension isn't always bad.
😮
Big thing missing from any evil campaign attempts I've had is drive, heroes are driven to help people and complete quests. As evil people dropped into a world, it's really easy to run out of a reason to keep being evil
We want it again
"It was a *bonus* action!!!" XD
I always plan on how to sacrifice my characters. Unless its a character who wouldn't.
IT'S THE TONY PEPPERONI SHIRT!
Tony pepperoni shirt my beloved
guys the eagles were sapient, sentient if feeling sapient is thinking.
markus was the coolest rogue
After the tip about voids I feel less confident about my floating islands setting
As an aspiring completely fresh out of the boat DM I feel kinda stressed just by watching all these stupidly talented people play ant talk. I'm incredibly shy and my current play group is far from being optimal or very comfortable but it's hard for me to meet and trust new people so I deal with that I have and it's not that bad. However, it's hard for me to imagine trusting my players to do all those things that the group here did. I once even tried improv for the sake of being a better DM and a more confident person but I really didn't feel connected to it in any way and it wasn't fun for me. I played with few role-playing group in my life and it rarely felt like a good experience, the way these people talk about it. So the gap between the desired experience and reality seems quite intimidating. I keep asking myself if I'm doing something wrong or should I do something differently (like overcoming myself to find yet another game group or, I dunno, pushing myself and my boundaries).
For the time being I think I'll stick to rolling with my first campaign as a DM as I imagined it and as I am right now with all my shortcomings and my fear of improv and trying to feel the vibes from there.
beginning
I'm running my first campaign as a DM and I find myself railroading way too much just to stay away from improving a whole scene. But last session I just decided to invent this little barroom fight when a PC was being snooty with the staff. It got a huge reaction from the party even though the dialogue and combat were shittier. It was in no way even close to what Brennan is able to do but that little spark of spontaneity really breathed life into the session. I'm still terrified of going for it but its convinced me that trying to do it is worth it. Hope you keep trying as well :)
To your comment about starting to feel bad when playing "evil," I got to that point with GTA: San Andreas after the campaign is completed. You go from this vigilante character getting his family and friends protected from a fully corrupt system to a serial killer when trying to complete all of the side content.
Watch caffeine’s the dungeon run for a pc love triangle
please do escape from bloodleep s2 please please
46:20 actually Arthas
Amazing
“ Villians are bad, punch Nazis”. Oh captain my captain!
41:25 PVP plans fall apart
Ungoliant would've reappeared in the saga of Earendel, but Tolkien never got past the outline. (He kills her.)
Ify spittin some uncomfortable truths about 47 minutes in...
Is there somewhere one could watch the episodes after part 3?
Did the campaign end? I think only six episodes came out right?
The rest is only on Dropout
well it was a sidequest so there were only six episodes
its so weird to see their legs
Fav line ever .... "punch Nazi's" ....
you gut's peeked the mic like 7 times in 7 mins not including the last episode
Try a spellchecker before you correct someone. Also be quiet.
"Villains are bad, punch Nazi's" HUGE BRENNON W
47:42