Clipped from 4-Sided Dive E14 - A Very Special Six-Sided Dive. Check out the whole episode here • A Very Special Six-Sid... More Critical Role clips here: • Critical Role Clips #shorts
"Emily Axford is one of the best D&D players I've ever had at my table. And has been personally sent from hell to destroy me." -Brennan Lee Mulligan (most likely paraphrased.)
It was in a podcast with Brennan and Brian Murphy (Emily's husband). Quote: Brennan: "Listen, Emily is one of the best D&D players in the world, endlessly creative, so fun to play with. She was also sent from hell to kill me." Murph: "Yes! Yes yes yes." Brennan: "Yes! You understand me." Murph: "Yes!"
I like how you have more likes than the main content… maybe it is because it’s sitting at 69 and I’m not touching that All I can think of of Laura saying “nice” lol
On the surface it sounds like she’s saying just get good with your spells but really she’s saying read the details so you can make your spells looks as sick as possible
@@CatherinesClawsI really loved the way liam described how he used the spell components to form the spells, instead of just saying "i cast wall of fire" its "i take out a little bit of powdered phosphorus in my hand and as you see me wave my hand and blow the powder across the deck of the ship, it sparks and a wall of fire erupts between ourselves and the enemy"
In a recent naddpod thing someone shouted out how great she is and she basically gave that answer and Murph was like “NO, you do X you do y you do z you do like as much homework as a DM for each of your characters” so I think the real way to get a good answer to that question is to actually ask Murph not Emily
There’s an adventuring party for Starstruck (maybe?) where Siobhan talks about how Emily’s chaos is very organized cause she makes like super in depth notebooks for her characters as a framework for her to improv on
Marisha asked her why is she so good at DND and she straight up said " it starts by knowing your character sheet and reading your spells" am I reading this correctly
A super great example of this is Operation Slippery Puppet. Her understanding of what she can do in that moment and game mechanics of the system was masterful!
It's not just about being good at the game, imo. Emily's playstyle has always felt like combining competency with character, showing how understanding the mechanics will elevate what you want to portray in-game.
@@claire3614in fairness to marisha, she should never have been given the option of casting the spell, either, because its a minute casting time. Also, that was YEARS AGO.
I think Emily's experience with improv adds a lot to her roleplaying. She loves the characters so much (everyone's, not just her own) that it brings out better roleplay in everyone. Lastly, almost as an afterthought, she thinks of terrifying spell combos that will wreck any DM.
I honestly do not understand how the CR cast is (mostly) still so bad at D&D, the game is not very hard. The spells are not *that* complicated. It's been 8 years
@@override367It's because any sliver of actual strategy and synergy of abilities that might pair well together is seen as metagaming. They had 2 clerics in campaign 2. They were so underutilized it actually hurt to watch. PS some points for people who might come at me 1. I know it's their game and my opinion doesn't matter 2. I love the cast and there's nothing wrong with how they play.
It's also due to Matt's influence in his world. He's a fan of magical items having penalties (exceptions being the vestiges), he makes resurrection harder and harder. There's a strong feeling of magic being hard to pull off in exandria, while dimension 20/naddpod is more rule of cool and at worst rules as written. The other heavy advantage that Emily has over CR cast is she goes through so many classes because of d20, and has time to get comfortable with a preferred class because of naddpod. Even someone like Jake Hurwitz became a pretty competent dnd player, because naddpod campaign while long are much faster than cr campaigns. Brian Murphy and Brennan get very creative with their encounters as well.
I mean yeah, she's basically saying to know what your character can do and think about how to apply that. Like luring in someone's rat familiar by making a sext rat.
The novelty point is a good one because it probably makes you less predictable to the DM and forces you to learn from new situations rather than a rinse and repeat.
I have been playing D&D for 10 years and the way she just casually blew my mind with “Novelty. I want to go into every battle and use something I haven’t used before.” I can’t believe I’ve never even fathomed that ideology. Insane. Literally just changed my games forever.
You don't have to though, you just have to spend literally any time outside of the game reading your character's abilities and thinking about how you might use them
If you have that player in your group where whatever class/buildt they play, you think "this should be nerfed", cherish them! That's not a power-gamer, that's a powerful gamer!
@@Ailieorz Laura Fucking Bailey? Not a good player? The woman who got a green hag to drop a curse and let her go, with hands not cut off, with one spell, some dust of deliciousness, and a cup cake??? sure pal, sure.
I think a big key in the way Emily plays. Is that idea of novelty she’s talking about, but more than that, it’s not about min/maxing your character from the beginning, it’s about doing things that make sense for the character, even if it’s not the best “outcome” for the game.
I LOVE taking spells and writing some flavor text notes of what those spells look like when MY character casts them and ideas of what i can do with them, as almost a cheat sheet. I LOVE U EMILY 🫶🏻
I remember when I was first learning the game and reading the spell list I spent a solid 45 minutes staring at the description for Tenser's Floating Disc trying to imagine a scenario where that spell could save the day.
4:56 The "you wouldn't fuck me as a rabbit" clip wasn't a bit. It was principle. Emily expects a healthy relationship to bridge the difficulties that come from one person being magically transformed - so she expects Murph to weather it when she's a rabbit, and she affirms that he's still hot when he's a frog. That's integrity, folks.
The coolest thing about Emily and DnD is she doesn't have a lot of experience in it, she got into it as an adult later and was admittedly not really into fantasy at all but was just interested in the ttrpg
Hopefully, Emily comes into Vox Machina soon. Maybe even the third season would be amazing. I’m not sure that will be possible, though. I’m still watching the first campaign.
@@addicteduser8 You misunderstood. I mean that I hope she is in season 3 of the Amazon Prime series, Vox Machina. Or at least in the next couple of seasons of it.
@@addicteduser8 I hope I'll be able to catch up within the next year or two (of course including the new episodes each week). I'm getting bored rummaging through the clips with Shorts, especially when I don't want to be spending hours death scrolling... I'd like to see full episodes of what they've put out recently, in the past year even.
Here's the answer. Read the book. Not like its homework, or like the achievement is what matters. Read it, like every page that has mechanics on it, is an opportunity to gain more insight to what You CAN do in the game, that the dm cant say no to
Hmm so her process is basically that one character in the anime (usually the overpowered MC) whose really really strong because they just read in between the lines of their abilities. Take what's described in the ability literally and mold it from there. Did I get that right?
"Emily Axford is one of the best D&D players I've ever had at my table. And has been personally sent from hell to destroy me." -Brennan Lee Mulligan (most likely paraphrased.)
It was in a podcast with Brennan and Brian Murphy (Emily's husband). Quote:
Brennan: "Listen, Emily is one of the best D&D players in the world, endlessly creative, so fun to play with. She was also sent from hell to kill me."
Murph: "Yes! Yes yes yes."
Brennan: "Yes! You understand me."
Murph: "Yes!"
@@RegnumMortisAnd later that year, she proved him right with that Thunderstep move she pulled in Crown of Candy
I like how you have more likes than the main content… maybe it is because it’s sitting at 69 and I’m not touching that
All I can think of of Laura saying “nice” lol
On the surface it sounds like she’s saying just get good with your spells but really she’s saying read the details so you can make your spells looks as sick as possible
100% she gets it. Heck, the spells are all inspired by books and movies right?
this is why i loved caleb in campaign 2. liam read those spells and he always made them sound cool as fuck lmao
@@CatherinesClawsI really loved the way liam described how he used the spell components to form the spells, instead of just saying "i cast wall of fire" its "i take out a little bit of powdered phosphorus in my hand and as you see me wave my hand and blow the powder across the deck of the ship, it sparks and a wall of fire erupts between ourselves and the enemy"
In a recent naddpod thing someone shouted out how great she is and she basically gave that answer and Murph was like “NO, you do X you do y you do z you do like as much homework as a DM for each of your characters” so I think the real way to get a good answer to that question is to actually ask Murph not Emily
There’s an adventuring party for Starstruck (maybe?) where Siobhan talks about how Emily’s chaos is very organized cause she makes like super in depth notebooks for her characters as a framework for her to improv on
@@joshuafrancisco1163 yes she's lawful chaotic which is an alignment but it should be
If anyone knows what episode of naddpod that's from, please me know!
Competency + Character = The Axford Method
Dont forget to add "Action movie + novelty"
GENIUS
Marisha asked her why is she so good at DND and she straight up said " it starts by knowing your character sheet and reading your spells" am I reading this correctly
Yup :D
A super great example of this is Operation Slippery Puppet. Her understanding of what she can do in that moment and game mechanics of the system was masterful!
@@addicteduser8 I meant the read of this unintended but epic dunk on the DND player who casted wind walk on the middle of a battle
It's not just about being good at the game, imo. Emily's playstyle has always felt like combining competency with character, showing how understanding the mechanics will elevate what you want to portray in-game.
@@claire3614in fairness to marisha, she should never have been given the option of casting the spell, either, because its a minute casting time. Also, that was YEARS AGO.
I think Emily's experience with improv adds a lot to her roleplaying. She loves the characters so much (everyone's, not just her own) that it brings out better roleplay in everyone. Lastly, almost as an afterthought, she thinks of terrifying spell combos that will wreck any DM.
THIS. It's not all about her, she thinks how her character can help the group as much as what she can do for herself.
Remember, Emily is a demon sent from hell to kill Brennan
And torture her castmates. Sexy rat is a prime example
Knowing your character’s abilities isn’t metagaming, it’s a skill just like roleplaying and it makes the game better.
I honestly do not understand how the CR cast is (mostly) still so bad at D&D, the game is not very hard. The spells are not *that* complicated. It's been 8 years
@@override367It's because any sliver of actual strategy and synergy of abilities that might pair well together is seen as metagaming. They had 2 clerics in campaign 2. They were so underutilized it actually hurt to watch.
PS some points for people who might come at me 1. I know it's their game and my opinion doesn't matter 2. I love the cast and there's nothing wrong with how they play.
It's also due to Matt's influence in his world. He's a fan of magical items having penalties (exceptions being the vestiges), he makes resurrection harder and harder. There's a strong feeling of magic being hard to pull off in exandria, while dimension 20/naddpod is more rule of cool and at worst rules as written. The other heavy advantage that Emily has over CR cast is she goes through so many classes because of d20, and has time to get comfortable with a preferred class because of naddpod. Even someone like Jake Hurwitz became a pretty competent dnd player, because naddpod campaign while long are much faster than cr campaigns. Brian Murphy and Brennan get very creative with their encounters as well.
@@override367 because they're all so absorbed by themselves thinking they're the main character. That and Matt just enables them
@@AilieorzThat's the most pathetically uninformed comment I have ever seen a brain dead loser make
I mean yeah, she's basically saying to know what your character can do and think about how to apply that. Like luring in someone's rat familiar by making a sext rat.
She comes up with sick ass scenarios in her mind and calculates it in order to bring it into reality, she's so cool
The novelty point is a good one because it probably makes you less predictable to the DM and forces you to learn from new situations rather than a rinse and repeat.
I have been playing D&D for 10 years and the way she just casually blew my mind with “Novelty. I want to go into every battle and use something I haven’t used before.” I can’t believe I’ve never even fathomed that ideology. Insane. Literally just changed my games forever.
I love seeing everyone praising Emily- she's amazing!
Emily is a profoundly talented roleplayer and has flawless timing w/her improv chops -- it would be fantastic if we could have more of her in CR !
Her secret? Reading *hairflip*
if you put glitter in your shampoo it like flings off your hair when you do that.
but mom was pissed that i got glitter all over the tub
Your DM puts effort into the game as a whole, imagine how competent you would be if you put the same effort into one character.
You don't have to though, you just have to spend literally any time outside of the game reading your character's abilities and thinking about how you might use them
If you have that player in your group where whatever class/buildt they play, you think "this should be nerfed", cherish them! That's not a power-gamer, that's a powerful gamer!
she is the best d&d player in the world full stop
Emily just proving that she belongs at any table she wants to play at. Hopefully the CR folks learned a little something.
except, Laura vs. Emily fight club.
@@theGhoulman Emily would own her, there's no competition. One is actually good and the other just pouts till she gets what she wants
@@Ailieorz Laura Fucking Bailey? Not a good player? The woman who got a green hag to drop a curse and let her go, with hands not cut off, with one spell, some dust of deliciousness, and a cup cake??? sure pal, sure.
I think a big key in the way Emily plays. Is that idea of novelty she’s talking about, but more than that, it’s not about min/maxing your character from the beginning, it’s about doing things that make sense for the character, even if it’s not the best “outcome” for the game.
possibly the best d&d player in the world tbh. insanely creative and skilled and so so good at roleplay
She’s a total D&D Nerd who has read her entire D&D library of books. Lol
Every single one of her characters she has done has been a banger
It’s that her character starts where Emily ends. She plays the characters with her whole heart.
Siobhan said she literally makes binders for every character and creates a 5-10 year plan for them.
I LOVE taking spells and writing some flavor text notes of what those spells look like when MY character casts them and ideas of what i can do with them, as almost a cheat sheet. I LOVE U EMILY 🫶🏻
As I DM when a player tells me their action I ask them "what does that look like?" this usually gets their creativity going.
I know you can't really win DnD but I think Emily Axford has and did.
If yall want to see just how fucking sick Emily is watch Episode 13 of A Starstruck Odyssey on Dimension 20. She straight up breaks Brennan.
I remember when I was first learning the game and reading the spell list I spent a solid 45 minutes staring at the description for Tenser's Floating Disc trying to imagine a scenario where that spell could save the day.
I love her so much!!!!!!
4:56 The "you wouldn't fuck me as a rabbit" clip wasn't a bit. It was principle. Emily expects a healthy relationship to bridge the difficulties that come from one person being magically transformed - so she expects Murph to weather it when she's a rabbit, and she affirms that he's still hot when he's a frog. That's integrity, folks.
knowledge of the game is as simple as just reading the rules and not having the memory of a goldfish
The fact that after over like 5000 hours of on air game still no one at the table knows how sneak attack works tells you everything you need to know…
im 100% about to capsule wardrobe our whole family, the laundry has just been overwhelming
> "It's like going to catholic school because the education's better than public school, not because you're catholic"
God, I feel this in my bones
Emily is a meeeenniicceeee!!!
Loved her so much
Emily is incredible
True love is real and this video is proof
That’s the pitch perfect dude
her teeth are PERFECT like how!!!
Love the PhillyD sweater
The coolest thing about Emily and DnD is she doesn't have a lot of experience in it, she got into it as an adult later and was admittedly not really into fantasy at all but was just interested in the ttrpg
Hopefully, Emily comes into Vox Machina soon. Maybe even the third season would be amazing. I’m not sure that will be possible, though. I’m still watching the first campaign.
@@infiniteaaron she already guested in C3. It starts in
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C3E59 :D
@@addicteduser8 You misunderstood. I mean that I hope she is in season 3 of the Amazon Prime series, Vox Machina. Or at least in the next couple of seasons of it.
@@infiniteaaron ahh my bad. That would be fun if ever! :D
@@addicteduser8 I hope I'll be able to catch up within the next year or two (of course including the new episodes each week). I'm getting bored rummaging through the clips with Shorts, especially when I don't want to be spending hours death scrolling... I'd like to see full episodes of what they've put out recently, in the past year even.
i am so sorry, but is that the guy from pitch perfect???
You mean Utkarsh? Yep haha
Here's the answer. Read the book. Not like its homework, or like the achievement is what matters.
Read it, like every page that has mechanics on it, is an opportunity to gain more insight to what You CAN do in the game, that the dm cant say no to
This seems so Alien, I’ve only ever heard Emily’s voice! Seeing Emily’s voice coming out of a human face is just so weird. 🤔
Has Emily played DND with an 8-Ball?
Hmm so her process is basically that one character in the anime (usually the overpowered MC) whose really really strong because they just read in between the lines of their abilities. Take what's described in the ability literally and mold it from there. Did I get that right?
More or less, yeah :D
😁
Take improv classes.
only prob with her is everything i listen to with her in it she cuts ppl off all the time
Talisen is embarrassing bad at knowing how his characters work or common game mechanics...so I hope his mind could handle Emily's 'duh' answer lol