It is horrifying and so good at the same time. It absolutely makes me want to create scenarios in scarier games I run that failing some saves is the better option
My DM did this to me with a wisdom save in a Star Wars 5e campaign. The result is my character that just died couldn't find peace, and continued to exist as a force ghost. I still had to make a new character, so now I had to play both whenever the dead dude was relevant.
"are you weakest at the elbow or shoulder" has the same energy as "ok lets go down the line, everyone tell me what you're most afraid of" in fantasy high sophomore year
The one thing that bugged me about this sequence and how they resurrected each other afterwards, is that some of them suffered catastrophic damage to limbs and lower tier resurrections don't restore missing limbs. I was expecting, at least, Patia to be missing an arm for the rest of the session/campaign due to that explosion.
@@davidbycroft Yeah, that would have been cool, but to be fair we would all screw up some stuff if we were trying to do this much over a six-hour televised session, with six players and countless NPCs. Even demigods like Brennan can fail.
Within a one second of bullet time it couldn't really be done. Instant reaction sent the shielding effect to someone, and maybe a cleric or paladin could have a similar reaction for sending healing somewhere but without properly targetting it to exactly to who it needed to go based on the sudden surge of saving throws and damage.
@@250-daffazhafrank3 There is the time between that one bullet-time second and the last 18 before the city lands, where everyone is off doing their last thing before gathering for the final battle. I think in in-game time, this entire episode is only an hour and some change.
When the DM gets a look of excitement at the player rolling a natural 20 against them, you should probably just have your character lay down and accept death at that point.
I love the care put into the absolute gargantuam damage numbers done here. He could have just said "the tree explodes and everyone takes 30d6 fire damage" but the sadistic *deliberateness* put into every effect really sells how fucking insane the moment really is.
The narrative poetry that happened BY CHANCE: Patia and the ring's mind damage, Nydas and the bag's damage via lost wealth, Loquatius' only success being an item he didn't choose but received from Laerryn...!
also just choosing to take blight in character creation just because it seemed cool, and then ending up using it on the super important magical guardian tree
Calamity was such a brilliant miniseries, and this was the height of it. I knew Brennan was good at storytelling, but this is what really proved it to me.
For such a silly, dorky man, Brennan is a terrifying individual. He can turn laughter into absolute horror and his twisted mind makes such beautiful and tragic stories. He is a master at the skills for gming.
@@jxtpsd I think in the like post-mini series review Aabria said something along the lines of "I'm glad you're a nice, decent person because if you weren't, now I know you could do some very scary shit"
I still consider this mini campaign one of, if not the, finest Actual Play D&D streamed, anywhere. Every episode was amazing, exciting and so well played.
"I got a natural 20." "*Gasp* Natural 20!" "That's two natural 20s in a row! If we roll two more, we win." "Yes. If you do roll two more nat' 20s, we avert the calamity." "Ok. Four natural 20s in a row and we win. What'd you roll?" "... ehlah uuh 'le- ten." "MARISHA!"
The amazing thing about this, is that at no point does brennan seem to be vindictive. He's sadistic, but not vindictive, it never feels like a DM spite killing players. This isn't "Rocks fall, everybody dies"
Not having watched what led to this happening, my guess is that this is just one of the possible scenarios that Brennan had for if someone decided to play fast and loose with an end-game interaction. It's not spiteful, as he foresaw this possibility, it is merely the outcome of the lore playing out to its conclusion. Pretty awesome though.
@@mndlessdrwer essentially, it helps everyone went in knowing that "they couldn't win this"... they could have and Matt had contingency lore but they knew they weren't supposed to... it was more of a "fight to not loose" sort of thing.
@@mndlessdrwer they basically did destroy an incredibly powerful thing that was both divine and magic. It's like they kicked a sea mine that also could rend their mines.
Idk what's going on here, but him asking if she feels weaker at the elbow or the shoulder and seeing the immense dread in their reaction is fucking golden
Her arm was somewhat fused to the thing that exploded. Because her arm got ripped off she didn't do a terminator 2 fence nuke scene and got thrown away as the explosion hits.
What's even more impressive is, even through the constraints imposed by the random magic item explosions, he was able to leave _just enough_ for them all to come back.
@@Landis963 idk how brennan is so clutch at balancing encounters or at least making them feel balanced bc man. the amount of times this guy took a party to what felt like their last hit points only to get that roll or that idea to entirely win back over the battle, is insane. he left just enough juice in their tanks that the spell slot based automatons wouldn't slaughter them at the end, but they still had enough to hold on just long enough. man it's impressive to watch
I see Brennan is as a narrative DM. He wants to tell a story, Dimension 20 lets him do that with a group of comedians, and their usual approach is take a dramatic beat and turn it comedic. It's not 'bad', Robin Williams made a career out of that, as did Jim Carey and others. But, as we see in EXU or even when Brennan plays like Evan Kelmp in Misfits and Magic, he is a great storyteller, he can weave the dramatic side of things, the intrigue. He sets the stage with something for the players to do, having a rough idea how tough the encounter can be with D20's Challenge Ratings, whether one big boss or a bunch of single enemies. Then adapt on the fly for what makes a great narrative. TL;DR: Why are Brennan's encounters so balanced? He runs it like a movie, giving a cool looking showdown, and then if things start getting hard for the players... lower the HP of a monster, have enemies do something less than the optimal move, perhaps even fudging the rolls of the enemies when not in Box of Doom for the 'Dramatic Moments', maybe the 'reinforcements' don't show up...
Watching this clip again after the finale of A Court of Fey & Flowers, it's utterly unbelievable that the two campaigns were filmed around the same time. The amount of whiplash that Aabria, Lou and Brennan must have experiencing going from one tone to the other is incomprehensible!
That's so funny to me. From horny Regency where characters are *so* horny that it turns into a major plot point to "Are you weakest at your elbow or shoulder"
For Fey & Flowers, Aabria combined dnd 5e with Good Society. The latter has more narrative mechanics to emphasize the importance of social interactions and reputation in their world. So yes, Aabria intentionally cultivated a very different feel for the gameplay in addition to the tone!
My favorite part of this entire very short campaign was the building resentment as an audience member I felt growing towards the PC’s and their actions. And watching this scene unravel from the very start of this episode had me ABSOLUTELY enthralled for the hour + it took for this to unfold. By far my absolute favorite D&D moment I’ve ever had, without question
For those who want to mimic a bit of storytelling here, be it for a party or writing: Notice how Brennan slowly zooms in. The large things, like being thrown back. Then the objects around you breaking, what does it look like? What does THAT make you feel? Then, finally, the debris, the damage, inside of you. Immediate impact, things in front of you, you.
Watching Calamity as someone who knows very little about DnD was a wild fucking experience. I've never watched a full campaign and I've never played so I went into this not knowing what to expect. The story told through Calamity is one of my favorites told in media, right along with Vox Machina. Another stellar story that I never saw the campaign for. There were so many moments that felt like fate, like all of Loquacious' items being destroyed except for what his wife gave him. It's those poetic moments and the perfectly timed natural 20s that kept me hooked through dozens of hours of the campaign.
You need to watch Dimenision 20 Fantasy High and the Unsleeping City, amazing stuff. A Starstruck Odyssey is also amazing with their new space travel battles
The more you know the scarier the whole story is, the staff for example if it broke it was gunna be a TPK. It has a special effect just for breaking it
@@Danlows1 I ended up giving some D20 content a try after I saw this comment and it just wasn't for me. I really like Brennan and Lou, but the vibe of the cast wasn't my speed.
5:57 this is why i love brennan. his reaction to one of the players getting a nat 20 wasnt “oh shit, im losing” he was genuinely excited and happy. 11:05 “thats just the fire damage
Physics SHOULD be how any self-respecting full-ass wizard dies: ya give physics the finger one too many times, physics gonna find a way to give you the finger back.
Without a doubt, EXU: Calamity is the best Actual Play I have ever seen. I'm a old ass guy who's not that into D&D high fantasy and I cried my ass off.
If this is what Brennan can come up with (with the help of rules) in real time, imagine what if he wrote for fantasy shows like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings.
Shockingly he’s done something like that on dimension 20 called ‘a crown of candy’ and it is just as brutal with a very unconcerning title like it has lol
He wrote the Strong Female Protagonist webcomic, and it's extremely good, but sadly on indefinite hiatus, and I doubt he'll ever get back to it with all his current projects.
Brennan doesn't let down with the sound effects and the brutality detailed description of the unnecessary destruction, all that after overpowering them with so much equipment🤒🤒🤒🤒
This whole campaign and episode are so incredible. I love the heartbreaking part when Cerritt uses his detective skills to uncover the story of his own children’s lives.
My mate is running a spin off mini-campaign of our DMs and I asked what'll the story/plot be like. He mentioned this series. He's letting us pick whatever magical items we want. We're not safe.
@@ASuspiciousCrab annihilates the entire zone with holy light eliminating all curses including the "curse of life" bc whatever genie or dark god or whatever that is granting your wishes is a nihilist
@@megarotom1590 "I wish to remove all curses afflicting this ring, without inhibiting it's power to grant wishes, and without affecting me, or anyone around me in a negative way"
? You have to. Noone knows what's going on, DnD games like this aren't a videogame or show or movie where you get to watch it unfold, they have to calculate everything to determine everything that happens, and then describe it so that the players actually know what's going on. 🤔 Sorry your little mind couldn't wrap around something that lasted longer than a 20 second TH-cam short 🤣
@@arthurgangnon3504 pretty sure the guy was making a comparison between a campaign that is known for being brutal to this one, not that they were saying the 2 hours for one second was a bad thing
@@bobbirdsong6825 He's actually comparing it to Dragon Ball Z's Planet Namek arc, which at its most egregious stretches a (stated) 5-minute fight to something like 17 episodes.
I can see now why Lou gets so upset when Brennan pulls out a lot of dice during his campaigns on Drop-out. Brennan has seriously dialed it back on Drop Out.
@@solidmoon8266 so was it here :) Also, A crown of candy (my favourite d20 setting and the one Matt's gonna DM a spin off fron soon) was very brutal as well
coming back to this a year later and Sam/Quay's "I *did* roll a Natural 20 [Wisdom save] for the thing that [Laerynn] gave me, but I don't know what it is" is frecking WILD
This is the type of shit Brennan gets off to, if you have never seen all the games he DMs on his show I HIGHLY suggest you watch them. I really wasn't sure how I felt about them at first, but I absolutely LOVE the man. He is the best at storytelling improv and being funny at the same time. A lot harder than most people think. Also the world's the man comes up with for just a small campaign is nutty AF. I would love to see what some of his real, long term games look like.
The fact that Brennan can make the players dread regardless wheather or not they passed a save is enormous. Honestly I'm just curious how this scene would look from an animators perspective, going from character to character or all at once. And then the sound of a clock restarting.
@@TheComicBookJoker Hahaha. Love it. Forgot to mention that I have a Stuffy Doll enchanted with Pariah. I will redirect all the damage to it and hit you for 23.
By the blessings of the Raven Queen i hope they animate this. It could be a stand alone movie or special on prime. And obviously Brennan must voice Asmodeus and Bolo.
The entire series was a massive rollercoaster...but there was so much to emotionally unpack after this final episode. OMG. Brennan is an amazing storyteller...all of them are.
His focus is inward. He's giving most of his attention to narrative and game rules so he can run the scene properly. Very little of his focus is outside his own head during this scene. The soulless look in his eyes just shows how hard he's actually working.
I am not used to seeing such physical reactions from Sam starting at 2:50. The whole bottom row is completely aghast, but I don't ever remember Sam losing poker face that hard.
To me, this campaign will forever go down as one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of watching and one of the best I have ever seen Brennan DM, and as you all know, he is phenomenal! All of the Party were incredible, too! I can't tell you the number of times I had to pause each episode because I burst into tears, the raw emotions evoked hit me hard every single time. *Especially* when Lou gets loud and emotional. Oh, and don't even get me started with all of the Evandrian stuff, that *killed* me! Again, this Campaign will go down in history for all of us D&D Nerds 💞
AAAHAH I had to go back and watch EACH of their reactions in turn to the severing of Patia's elbow. Brennan is SUCH an amazing storyteller, you are FULLY immersed and captivated, hanging on his every word. THE SOUND EFFECTS! OMG I love it. And Aabria's reactions~ ♥HeheHEh! Are we at a second YET? ...No This is Physics! AMAZING!
12:40 this whole bit from “down, down, dead” through the “yay we’re alive” high five al the way to “I’m a full-ass wizard!” Is pure gold. 13:50 also “nah this is Physics” 😂
Considering the absolute devastation that was wrought on the Ring of Brass, you also have to respect the luck (or scripting if you're a conspiracy theorist tool) that gave them just enough time and resources to bring back those who died so the full party could participate in the last stand.
Brennan is a good enough DM that he would have known both what resources they have available and how to push them to use all of them to keep going. Love it!
It's not a conspiracy or scripting. Brennan has explicitly stated on multiple occasions that he will keep the party up if there is absolutely any meaningful way to do it. He obviously tailors his encounters as any good DM would. Watch Brennan's face when Patia tells him that she is fully dead, he's actually a little surprised and you can tell he didn't mean to go that far. He probably thought the healer would still be up as well, but he built in a way for him to get the paladin up if he was down due to shit rolls.
The Nat20 miracle by Quay that let him saved the ether energy from his ex, to be given to Zerxus for the revivify spell. Sometime the dice just write good story.
My god, he is an amazing storyteller. I have no context to this story and usually struggle visualizing things but his descriptions are creating such vivid imagery in my mind
Someone, a long, long time ago must have bet Brennan, he couldn't wipe a party out in a single instance, and he has just been slowly perfecting a method to do just that for 15 years, and this is him at half power.
Anytime someone says "Thankfully your arm was dismembered", you know it's about to go down.
“You survived the spells only to be killed by science.”
Best quote ever
1ax
10:53
10:53 😊
Lou's reactions throughout this entire mini series can be compacted to "Brennan please stop, they are not gonna invite us to play again"
Lou said “ I’m gunna throw up” lol
This is my favorite comment ever and I'm high so you know I'm not lying
@@ashstar7495 I wanna roll insight to see if this guy’s lying. :D
@@ashstar7495 ok go ahead and role a persuasion check
@@ashstar7495 high on what
"Thankfully you failed your constitution save" is an unbelievably terrifying sentence
WTF would have happened if hey had! YEESH.
@@zeddwulfen7737 Death. Arm is stuck in the tree and so is Paisha unable to escape the following explosion. Instadeath.
It is horrifying and so good at the same time. It absolutely makes me want to create scenarios in scarier games I run that failing some saves is the better option
My DM did this to me with a wisdom save in a Star Wars 5e campaign.
The result is my character that just died couldn't find peace, and continued to exist as a force ghost.
I still had to make a new character, so now I had to play both whenever the dead dude was relevant.
@@mustangwolf1997 Chuckles?
"Is this a spell effect?"
"Nah, this is physics"
this made me laugh so hard in the midst of all this chaos
Don't wizards have resistance to physics?
Has it been a second yet?
@@nicholaskehler9169 Physics is vulnerable to wizard damage but wizards don't resist physics.
@@yayabouhamal8293 😊
"are you weakest at the elbow or shoulder" has the same energy as "ok lets go down the line, everyone tell me what you're most afraid of" in fantasy high sophomore year
What I always love is Travis' squeaking fear laughter straight afterwards.
@@dominictemple Every time Travis does his high pitched laugh/scream with his mouth closed I lose it.
"are you weakest at the elbow or the shoulder". IMMEDIATE sweating
Ha ha. I'm in danger
The one thing that bugged me about this sequence and how they resurrected each other afterwards, is that some of them suffered catastrophic damage to limbs and lower tier resurrections don't restore missing limbs. I was expecting, at least, Patia to be missing an arm for the rest of the session/campaign due to that explosion.
@@davidbycroft Yeah, that would have been cool, but to be fair we would all screw up some stuff if we were trying to do this much over a six-hour televised session, with six players and countless NPCs. Even demigods like Brennan can fail.
@@InexplicableInside I agree that's fair. It was minor and I didn't lose sleep over it but it would have been a cool complication for her character.
@@davidbycroft didn't they lose almost all of their magic items in the process, or were they able to recover them?
“Wait, you have healing spells?”
“NO, I’M A FULL ASS WIZARD!”
I love Aabria with my entire heart.
As we all should
I was gonna like this comment, but it's at 666 right now and brennan is the devil so I'm leaving it as is
12:58 For anyone interested.
Within a one second of bullet time it couldn't really be done. Instant reaction sent the shielding effect to someone, and maybe a cleric or paladin could have a similar reaction for sending healing somewhere but without properly targetting it to exactly to who it needed to go based on the sudden surge of saving throws and damage.
@@ShannonBarber78unless it’s a bonus action that happens immediately, I doubt she’d have the time to do that AND the arcane barrier she threw up.
"It's not called EXU Super Happy Fun Party Time"
"It's not too late..."
Are we still under 1 second?!
Brennan sure knows how to make the fun last forever =)
And yet...by the end of this video...they still haven't reached 1 second ha!
Yeah the entire episode is nineteen second lol, the hour-long one second and the 18 second of fight :)
@@250-daffazhafrank3
There is the time between that one bullet-time second and the last 18 before the city lands, where everyone is off doing their last thing before gathering for the final battle. I think in in-game time, this entire episode is only an hour and some change.
"Fun", he says.
@@250-daffazhafrank3 Sounds like DIO's stop time in the anime...
"Is this a spell effect"
"No , this is PHYSICS"
best moment right there
Lou: You survived the spells just to be killed by science. 💀
it gets worse cause shes asks like 7 times for brennen to remind her that it is in fact not spell damage lmao
@@TheRand0mG4merIt’s like she’s praying for mercy from an uncaring god.
It's crazy how compressing this "second" into a greatest hits clip still takes over 15 minutes. Brennan Lee "Emotional Damage" Mulligan.
Brennan "emotionaLee damage" mulligan
Know whats worse? The single second took 2 hours in the show.
@@DevilWearsAdidas I love how it's both the worst and the best part about it XD
Ah yes, the worst kind of damage in DnD, emotional
It makes you feel things in the best/worst way possible. That’s tragedy, baybee!
When the DM gets a look of excitement at the player rolling a natural 20 against them, you should probably just have your character lay down and accept death at that point.
Oh you rolled a nat 20 and you think that's actually going to help you? Oh how cute... =p
@@JudgementFish literally the most anxiety I've ever felt, and I've been stabbed multiple times 😂😂😂
@@JudgementFish DMs do that psychological damage (it was very effective!)
I love the care put into the absolute gargantuam damage numbers done here. He could have just said "the tree explodes and everyone takes 30d6 fire damage" but the sadistic *deliberateness* put into every effect really sells how fucking insane the moment really is.
Description always increases the brutality of any action.
Not only that, but the number of dice is also meticulously chosen so that some characters get instakilled while others avoid getting downed
I love Lou's reactions. Brennan and Lou together in a game is probably one of my favourite combination of people ever.
Their Bromance is truly something worth aspiring to. You love to see it
totally agree with this
They are the greatest duo in the game. Like Jordan and Pippen, or Montana and Rice, or Hull and Oates. The two of them together are a force of nature
Misfits of magic is truly amazing
@@M3H8014 yes it is and I still want a GOAT HOUSE shirt so bad
The narrative poetry that happened BY CHANCE: Patia and the ring's mind damage, Nydas and the bag's damage via lost wealth, Loquatius' only success being an item he didn't choose but received from Laerryn...!
Damn. Thats good. The dice really do want to tell a story
It is wonderful when ya can work the chaos of dice into an amazing story
Its the best part of the damn game. Its absurd how all of those story beats fell where they did and its so satisfying when they do.
also just choosing to take blight in character creation just because it seemed cool, and then ending up using it on the super important magical guardian tree
and then the protector of Avalir, Xerxes's *only* item to break was his shield! because he broke his vow to protect the city even if unintentionally
The fact that this sequence took about an hour in the actual stream still blows my mind this whole campaign was unbelievably incredible to watch
And Lou continually asking “Has it been a second YET?!?”
Calamity was such a brilliant miniseries, and this was the height of it. I knew Brennan was good at storytelling, but this is what really proved it to me.
What was this campaign and where can I watch it
@@ashleydavidson6365 Exandria Unlimited: Calamity - it's all available on Critical Role's TH-cam Channel for free
@@ashleydavidson6365 It’s “Exandria Unlimited: Calamity” on the Critical Role TH-cam channel. 4 part miniseries.
"you, in frozen time, will have a front row seat to see what happen to them" HOLY SHIT THAT'S RAW
“Are you weakest at the elbow or the shoulder” has very similar energy to “What do you want me to tell your family”
For such a silly, dorky man, Brennan is a terrifying individual. He can turn laughter into absolute horror and his twisted mind makes such beautiful and tragic stories. He is a master at the skills for gming.
@@jxtpsd I think in the like post-mini series review Aabria said something along the lines of "I'm glad you're a nice, decent person because if you weren't, now I know you could do some very scary shit"
"Thankfully you failed your constitution save."
Tree of Names, sundering in its dispelling: *explosion go brrrrrrr*
@@optimistprime3192 love a good tree sundering
Imagine telling someone that their arm ripping off of them was actually a good thing
always promising when failing con is the good part
I still consider this mini campaign one of, if not the, finest Actual Play D&D streamed, anywhere. Every episode was amazing, exciting and so well played.
Agreed
agreed
Agreed
Agreed
Agreed and this was my introduction to Critical Role. Couldn't've had a better one.
10:39 the raw “MARISHA!” cracks me up every damn time
The "Le ten" kills me
I love when someone makes a comment with a timestamp and that second becomes the most replayed second of the video. You're an influencer!
"I got a natural 20."
"*Gasp* Natural 20!"
"That's two natural 20s in a row! If we roll two more, we win."
"Yes. If you do roll two more nat' 20s, we avert the calamity."
"Ok. Four natural 20s in a row and we win. What'd you roll?"
"... ehlah uuh 'le- ten."
"MARISHA!"
@@JediJess1NOW WE KNOW WHOS FAULT THIS IS
The amazing thing about this, is that at no point does brennan seem to be vindictive. He's sadistic, but not vindictive, it never feels like a DM spite killing players. This isn't "Rocks fall, everybody dies"
Not having watched what led to this happening, my guess is that this is just one of the possible scenarios that Brennan had for if someone decided to play fast and loose with an end-game interaction. It's not spiteful, as he foresaw this possibility, it is merely the outcome of the lore playing out to its conclusion. Pretty awesome though.
@@mndlessdrwer essentially, it helps everyone went in knowing that "they couldn't win this"... they could have and Matt had contingency lore but they knew they weren't supposed to... it was more of a "fight to not loose" sort of thing.
@@mndlessdrwer they basically did destroy an incredibly powerful thing that was both divine and magic. It's like they kicked a sea mine that also could rend their mines.
The universe does not have malice, but it does have a sick sense of humor and sometimes people end up walking into the punchline.
This is just Brennan establishing stakes.
Idk what's going on here, but him asking if she feels weaker at the elbow or the shoulder and seeing the immense dread in their reaction is fucking golden
Her arm was somewhat fused to the thing that exploded. Because her arm got ripped off she didn't do a terminator 2 fence nuke scene and got thrown away as the explosion hits.
Jesus, almost a TPKO in under a second. That's talent.
It takes a special kind of monster to do that to a party....Brennan is that monster and man is it a joy to watch
What's even more impressive is, even through the constraints imposed by the random magic item explosions, he was able to leave _just enough_ for them all to come back.
@@Landis963 idk how brennan is so clutch at balancing encounters or at least making them feel balanced bc man. the amount of times this guy took a party to what felt like their last hit points only to get that roll or that idea to entirely win back over the battle, is insane.
he left just enough juice in their tanks that the spell slot based automatons wouldn't slaughter them at the end, but they still had enough to hold on just long enough. man it's impressive to watch
@@user-xb5bz4fu9o Resurrections may have helped with that, depending on how death affects active spell slots.
I see Brennan is as a narrative DM. He wants to tell a story, Dimension 20 lets him do that with a group of comedians, and their usual approach is take a dramatic beat and turn it comedic. It's not 'bad', Robin Williams made a career out of that, as did Jim Carey and others. But, as we see in EXU or even when Brennan plays like Evan Kelmp in Misfits and Magic, he is a great storyteller, he can weave the dramatic side of things, the intrigue. He sets the stage with something for the players to do, having a rough idea how tough the encounter can be with D20's Challenge Ratings, whether one big boss or a bunch of single enemies. Then adapt on the fly for what makes a great narrative.
TL;DR: Why are Brennan's encounters so balanced? He runs it like a movie, giving a cool looking showdown, and then if things start getting hard for the players... lower the HP of a monster, have enemies do something less than the optimal move, perhaps even fudging the rolls of the enemies when not in Box of Doom for the 'Dramatic Moments', maybe the 'reinforcements' don't show up...
Love how Brennan flavored each person's force damage from the explosion of magic items.
"Are we still under one second!?" is one of my favourite reactions someone's ever given to something Brennan said
Watching this clip again after the finale of A Court of Fey & Flowers, it's utterly unbelievable that the two campaigns were filmed around the same time. The amount of whiplash that Aabria, Lou and Brennan must have experiencing going from one tone to the other is incomprehensible!
That's so funny to me. From horny Regency where characters are *so* horny that it turns into a major plot point to
"Are you weakest at your elbow or shoulder"
@@druid_the_lizard_wizard "Thankfully you failed your constitution save."
Idk one is dnd 5e and the other is improv with performative dice rolling. Though both are very good.
For Fey & Flowers, Aabria combined dnd 5e with Good Society. The latter has more narrative mechanics to emphasize the importance of social interactions and reputation in their world. So yes, Aabria intentionally cultivated a very different feel for the gameplay in addition to the tone!
so crazy, from comedy and happy and love to ANGRY FIRE DEATH SGDHFJFJF
"Luis, you do not need to roll for your Holy Avenger"
Luis: "Whew, I'll still have that! "
Brennan: *internal evil laughter*
My favorite part of this entire very short campaign was the building resentment as an audience member I felt growing towards the PC’s and their actions. And watching this scene unravel from the very start of this episode had me ABSOLUTELY enthralled for the hour + it took for this to unfold. By far my absolute favorite D&D moment I’ve ever had, without question
For those who want to mimic a bit of storytelling here, be it for a party or writing:
Notice how Brennan slowly zooms in. The large things, like being thrown back. Then the objects around you breaking, what does it look like? What does THAT make you feel? Then, finally, the debris, the damage, inside of you. Immediate impact, things in front of you, you.
Thqnka
“Would you say your arm is weakest at the shoulder or the elbow?” I like to think I can get pretty nasty as a DM, but that is just a whole other level
“You’ll have a front row seat to see what happens to them!”
**proceeds to pour out what can only be described as an UNHOLY amount of dice**
Watching Calamity as someone who knows very little about DnD was a wild fucking experience. I've never watched a full campaign and I've never played so I went into this not knowing what to expect. The story told through Calamity is one of my favorites told in media, right along with Vox Machina. Another stellar story that I never saw the campaign for. There were so many moments that felt like fate, like all of Loquacious' items being destroyed except for what his wife gave him. It's those poetic moments and the perfectly timed natural 20s that kept me hooked through dozens of hours of the campaign.
You need to watch Dimenision 20 Fantasy High and the Unsleeping City, amazing stuff.
A Starstruck Odyssey is also amazing with their new space travel battles
The more you know the scarier the whole story is, the staff for example if it broke it was gunna be a TPK. It has a special effect just for breaking it
@@Danlows1 I ended up giving some D20 content a try after I saw this comment and it just wasn't for me. I really like Brennan and Lou, but the vibe of the cast wasn't my speed.
@@HelplessTeno that’s fair enough. You can also try Critical Role, they have a (VERY) long running campaign on youtube
And I have to say, I really believe their latest campaign is the best one yet.
5:57
this is why i love brennan. his reaction to one of the players getting a nat 20 wasnt “oh shit, im losing” he was genuinely excited and happy.
11:05 “thats just the fire damage
"How wonderful! You will live to see _the entirety_ of your annihilation!"
Physics SHOULD be how any self-respecting full-ass wizard dies: ya give physics the finger one too many times, physics gonna find a way to give you the finger back.
We have fun here.
All types of fun going on here! Especially if that fun includes grinding the majority of the party into little bloody nubs =p
Without a doubt, EXU: Calamity is the best Actual Play I have ever seen. I'm a old ass guy who's not that into D&D high fantasy and I cried my ass off.
I think I cried during the last hour, non stop, sobbing and snotty. Glorious emotions!
If this is what Brennan can come up with (with the help of rules) in real time, imagine what if he wrote for fantasy shows like Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings.
Shockingly he’s done something like that on dimension 20 called ‘a crown of candy’ and it is just as brutal with a very unconcerning title like it has lol
@@Khaoscntrl I love the juxtaposition of "brutal murder, and callous intrigue" with "this mans is a cake in very fine pants"
He wrote the Strong Female Protagonist webcomic, and it's extremely good, but sadly on indefinite hiatus, and I doubt he'll ever get back to it with all his current projects.
@@jonsimpson6240 Brutal betrayals, interspersed with jokes about watching each other take a dump in battle
The tree of names opening > the Red Wedding
I feel like Lou was getting flash backs to all those poisoned water daggers in crown of candy
I require this to be an animated scene.
If they start immediately, I give it seven years!
If you like Anime, Hunter X Hunter has a similar situation where around 15 episodes(+ or - 10) represent just a few seconds of time in the series.
A one second long animated scene.
Should be extremely easy. A fraction of a second of a cascade of explosions. Shouldn't be that difficult to animate.
@@Psykko_ which episode ?
Gif of Aabria with "I'm a full-ass wizard" is now in my repertoire.
Please share
The new definition of raw magical power..."I'm a full-ass wizard!"
Brennan doesn't let down with the sound effects and the brutality detailed description of the unnecessary destruction, all that after overpowering them with so much equipment🤒🤒🤒🤒
This whole campaign and episode are so incredible. I love the heartbreaking part when Cerritt uses his detective skills to uncover the story of his own children’s lives.
Which campaign is this?
@@sw8228 Exandria Unlimited: Calamity
My mate is running a spin off mini-campaign of our DMs and I asked what'll the story/plot be like. He mentioned this series.
He's letting us pick whatever magical items we want.
We're not safe.
Dear God....it's happening again! Hold onto your butts, you are in for a wild ride! Definitely let us know what happens! lol
Take the ring of wishes :))
First wish is to remove any and all curses, with no strings attached
Oh God, you have a Mini-Mulligan in the making.
@@ASuspiciousCrab annihilates the entire zone with holy light eliminating all curses including the "curse of life" bc whatever genie or dark god or whatever that is granting your wishes is a nihilist
@@megarotom1590 "I wish to remove all curses afflicting this ring, without inhibiting it's power to grant wishes, and without affecting me, or anyone around me in a negative way"
Lou around the 3:20 time is having flashbacks to Brennan saying he's all the bad guys
I'm late to the party but what I have seen from Mr. Brennan says I will turn your worst nightmares into your best case scenario.
That is incredibly apt
The time 1 second took nearly 2 hours >.> good times
And people say the namek saga was bad, my man spent like 2 hours describing a second.
? You have to. Noone knows what's going on, DnD games like this aren't a videogame or show or movie where you get to watch it unfold, they have to calculate everything to determine everything that happens, and then describe it so that the players actually know what's going on. 🤔 Sorry your little mind couldn't wrap around something that lasted longer than a 20 second TH-cam short 🤣
@@arthurgangnon3504 pretty sure the guy was making a comparison between a campaign that is known for being brutal to this one, not that they were saying the 2 hours for one second was a bad thing
@@bobbirdsong6825 He's actually comparing it to Dragon Ball Z's Planet Namek arc, which at its most egregious stretches a (stated) 5-minute fight to something like 17 episodes.
@@onilink134 Thanks, don't watch DB.
The dichotomy between Brennan’s terrifying “Hannibal” -esque monologue and the ridiculous clipart tree stabbings is complete gold
I really love the set up of not having to roll for Holy Avenger. Everyone assumes its immune but then it just corrodes and is fucked
I can see now why Lou gets so upset when Brennan pulls out a lot of dice during his campaigns on Drop-out.
Brennan has seriously dialed it back on Drop Out.
Lou....he knows when chaos is afoot =)
I dunno there are some pretty brutal moments on drop out, I think this one is just especially brutal
Cut to neverafter gameplay on drop out 😅
@@michaelfels4742 ya, that was more part of the story though. It was done on purpose for plot development.
@@solidmoon8266 so was it here :)
Also, A crown of candy (my favourite d20 setting and the one Matt's gonna DM a spin off fron soon) was very brutal as well
coming back to this a year later and Sam/Quay's "I *did* roll a Natural 20 [Wisdom save] for the thing that [Laerynn] gave me, but I don't know what it is" is frecking WILD
Fun fact, bones are weaker than tendons so its likely the arm coming off included the breaking of the bone between the tree and the joint.
Respectfully, that fact was not fun.
Thank you for this information; now I can horrify my party with factual accuracy
Okay that's really cool addition to this but also holy heck man! The emotional damage
Matt Mercer off screen going "Write that down! Write that down!"
lou sitting there like I asked my friend to be a visiting prof and now he's going get us killed when the students riot, "I Knew better, I knew better"
I love that she felt the high five behind her and reacted immediately
I also love Tavis's squealing it's so good it gives me so much serotonin.
I love Brennan. He's a beautiful goblin and his brain is wonderful.
Aabria looking over at Travis with the "where ARE you right now" is a very important moment of levity before it continues to roll downhill.
Now we can deal with the fire made me laugh.
Yo Lou gives THOSE hugs. Lou gives the kind of hugs that make you feel like you're gonna cry even if you dont feel like you need to.
This is the type of shit Brennan gets off to, if you have never seen all the games he DMs on his show I HIGHLY suggest you watch them. I really wasn't sure how I felt about them at first, but I absolutely LOVE the man. He is the best at storytelling improv and being funny at the same time. A lot harder than most people think. Also the world's the man comes up with for just a small campaign is nutty AF. I would love to see what some of his real, long term games look like.
The sound/visual effects you added are on point
Thanks Aakash!
“IF WE GET 4 NAT 20S IN A ROW WE WIN
What’d you roll?”
“I-uh-uh-uh eh- a 10.”
“MARISHA!!!” 10:26
The fact that Brennan can make the players dread regardless wheather or not they passed a save is enormous.
Honestly I'm just curious how this scene would look from an animators perspective, going from character to character or all at once. And then the sound of a clock restarting.
Brennan is a monster and must be protected at all costs.
Brennan: "We are resolving everything that happens in response..."
My Nerd-Ass: "Stack resolves top-down."
Abbria needed a split-second spell during all that.
@@dopeyiceman Split Second spell got countered by a morph creature getting flipped face-up. Twenty-three damage.
@@TheComicBookJoker Hahaha. Love it. Forgot to mention that I have a Stuffy Doll enchanted with Pariah. I will redirect all the damage to it and hit you for 23.
Sam: “Who’s alive?!”
*Travis and Aabriya raise hands*
*Aabriya just high fives Travis*
By the blessings of the Raven Queen i hope they animate this. It could be a stand alone movie or special on prime. And obviously Brennan must voice Asmodeus and Bolo.
8:35 Travis is emitting BIG Big Brother Energy 🤣
The entire series was a massive rollercoaster...but there was so much to emotionally unpack after this final episode. OMG. Brennan is an amazing storyteller...all of them are.
When you set off a car bomb with a sledgehammer
How does his eyes look soulless and with soul at the same damn time tho? It scares but also draws you in, esp. with his DMing.
His focus is inward. He's giving most of his attention to narrative and game rules so he can run the scene properly. Very little of his focus is outside his own head during this scene. The soulless look in his eyes just shows how hard he's actually working.
Simple. He's a ginger.
Oh the memories! 😱 That was such an intense episode! Thank you for this edit!
I am not used to seeing such physical reactions from Sam starting at 2:50. The whole bottom row is completely aghast, but I don't ever remember Sam losing poker face that hard.
A year later and this is still so satisfying to watch. “You gotta cut this shit out man” 😂😂😂
To me, this campaign will forever go down as one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of watching and one of the best I have ever seen Brennan DM, and as you all know, he is phenomenal!
All of the Party were incredible, too! I can't tell you the number of times I had to pause each episode because I burst into tears, the raw emotions evoked hit me hard every single time. *Especially* when Lou gets loud and emotional.
Oh, and don't even get me started with all of the Evandrian stuff, that *killed* me!
Again, this Campaign will go down in history for all of us D&D Nerds 💞
Yes yes and yes!
AAAHAH I had to go back and watch EACH of their reactions in turn to the severing of Patia's elbow. Brennan is SUCH an amazing storyteller, you are FULLY immersed and captivated, hanging on his every word. THE SOUND EFFECTS! OMG I love it. And Aabria's reactions~ ♥HeheHEh! Are we at a second YET? ...No This is Physics! AMAZING!
“Patia, do you feel you are weakest at the shoulder or the elbow?” I screamed
12:40 this whole bit from “down, down, dead” through the “yay we’re alive” high five al the way to “I’m a full-ass wizard!” Is pure gold.
13:50 also “nah this is Physics” 😂
4:03 Also also “SAFE!”
Considering the absolute devastation that was wrought on the Ring of Brass, you also have to respect the luck (or scripting if you're a conspiracy theorist tool) that gave them just enough time and resources to bring back those who died so the full party could participate in the last stand.
Brennan is a good enough DM that he would have known both what resources they have available and how to push them to use all of them to keep going. Love it!
It's not a conspiracy or scripting. Brennan has explicitly stated on multiple occasions that he will keep the party up if there is absolutely any meaningful way to do it. He obviously tailors his encounters as any good DM would. Watch Brennan's face when Patia tells him that she is fully dead, he's actually a little surprised and you can tell he didn't mean to go that far. He probably thought the healer would still be up as well, but he built in a way for him to get the paladin up if he was down due to shit rolls.
The Nat20 miracle by Quay that let him saved the ether energy from his ex, to be given to Zerxus for the revivify spell. Sometime the dice just write good story.
My god, he is an amazing storyteller. I have no context to this story and usually struggle visualizing things but his descriptions are creating such vivid imagery in my mind
12:59 the best line, do you have healing spells?
NO! IM A FULL-ASS WIZARD!
“Are you weakest at the arm or the shoulder?”
“You gotta cut this shit out man”
Lou out here wanting to get invited back someday.
I can imagine this happening in slow-mo with opera music playing in the background
As it all
falls
down
Good job you beat the campaign!
On another note you have summoned an eldritch outer god that c’thulu calls “grandpa”.
Some of the most amazing tabletop moments I've ever seen in this series!
Travis just poking them the entire time is amazing.
Loved the edits you added to this!
Brennan: Luis, you do not need to roll for your holy avenger.
Luis: oh I don’t? *shows visible relief*
Brennan: BUT WAIT…THERES MORE!
Someone, a long, long time ago must have bet Brennan, he couldn't wipe a party out in a single instance, and he has just been slowly perfecting a method to do just that for 15 years, and this is him at half power.
It doesn’t matter how many times I watch this it’s always awesome.. he’s such a genius and it makes me wish I understood these kind of games better
I love how he doesn't scale the encounters. It makes the impact so much more meaning.
How would you scale an encounter with the most lawfully evil being in the universe lol. This is just the epitome of “fuck around and find out”.
once you pop the fun won't stop.
That's a dramatic opening for some kind of pandora's box I don't think I'll ever see topped.
Matt does extensive lore and epic storytelling. Brennan does existential dread and body horror.
“Thankfully you fail your constitution save” that’s how you know that this is some real shit.
*Matt Mercer before episode 33*: WRITE THIS DOWN
This was the best thing ever hearing it for the first time gave me so many emotions
The entire Calamity Was amazing.
"Is this a spell effect?"
"No this is Physics."
Priceless Man