House Hunting - Vox Machina, Ep. 31 | Critical Role Demystified

Scanlan visits a stranger’s house for a cookout. Things don’t go as planned.
CW: Cursing
Chapters:
00:00 - Lesson: Scanbo
06:25 - Lesson: Paying for Mistakes
09:46 - Lesson: Is It Metagaming?
14:51 - Recap: We Actually Did Start the Fire…
18:20 - Outro
You can watch the full episode here:
Episode 31 - Gunpowder Plot: Part 1
• Gunpowder Plot: Part 1...
Timecodes:
Scanlan Sidequest Timecodes: 13:40 - 54:05
Episode 31 - Gunpowder Plot: Part 2
• Gunpowder Plot: Part 2...
#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #criticalrole #voxmachina
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[@SupergeekMike]

It took me literally years to understand what people meant when they said “Scanbo” when talking about this arc. It’s a reference to “Scanlan Rambo.”

[@LightsongLackless]

This video just let me know. I've been wondering for YEARS.

[@geoffdewitt6845]

OMG me too!

[@fez6118]

Same. If it was "Scambo" or something, the reference probably would've been clearer to a dunce like me, lol

[@LeRodz]

Took me until now lol Either that, or it was completly buried under a bunch of junk in my brain

[@manueltorresart2345]

Scanlan owning an entire mansion filled with guards and goliath warrior completely alone, with magic and his wits is memorable.

[@Just_Leo_kingofgods]

I love that Sam's plan was just going to be "I turn into a dinosaur, run around a little bit, and leave. Wait, what do you mean burn the house down? I don't know how to do that!"

[@samuelstensgaard4828]

During the Scanbo sequence, Liam says: "You can't this on network television ladies and gentlemen." He was *technically* correct, Amazon Prime isn't network television i think.

[@Peter_Cordes]

US "network television" (NBC, CBS, etc.) is pretty big on censoring swear words and nudity, and sometimes violence depending on how late the show is on. So yeah, Amazon Prime is very much *not* network television. Not just a technicality. Channels like HBO aren't "network television" either. "network" channels have local affiliates in lots of cities, so they have local news and stuff as well as carrying the pre-recorded shows in other time slots.

[@mb2001]

That is friggin' hilarious.

[@spensirmclife6549]

I never knew that residuum wasn't a thing Matt created

[@tannertadlock7741]

Only how it’s mined on Exandria. Otherwise, it’s real powerful shit on every plane.

[@taygepi1650]

The next episode has one of my favorite moments from the entire campaign: Keyleth taking a stand to help the villagers. To me it's the moment that Vox Machina went from a band of mercenaries to groups of heroes and the first time that Keyleth starts acting like a leader. I have so much respect for Marisha for staying true to Keyleth and choosing to not flee even though the rest of the party wanted to and it led to an incredible moment with Pike.

[@JasRGB]

This episode and next: combat-wise at least, probably THE two iconic episodes for our two gnomes. Pike pulling the Thor Ragnarok Immigrant Song bit 18 months before that movie came out...

[@AndrewJW]

I agree. Scanbo and Astral Pike are so iconic. Bro when I heard saw that moment for the first time immigrant song was playing in my head, before I ever saw it in Thor 🤣

[@BigKlingy]

One of my few disappointments (and I say this jokingly) with the animated series is this episode didn't adapt this: (As Sam realizes he might not have a source of fire right after he's already rushed into the mansion) Marisha: How did this plan happen, then? Why didn't you say "I don't have fire"? I said, "Hey Scanlan, I should come with you," and you said, "Uh, I can take care of myself! How many times to I have to tell you guys I don't need your help?" Matt: ...Says the echoing voice in the back of your mind as you imagine this is what Keyleth would be saying right now. I always pictured a little Keyleth appearing on Scanlan's shoulder saying this.

[@sagesaria]

I'm imagining it in Slayers' angry chibi artstyle XD

[@kweh8122]

The look of consternation on Marisha/Keyleth's face when Scanlan is talking about the smoke in the sky is fantastic

[@smoogieboogie1694]

One of my favorite Keyleth moments in the whole campaign is when they're debating whether to rest or fight the zombie giants. She's super adamant that they have to fight considering they just started the revolution, and notably she also is mostly tapped for spells. If I remember right, when the party starts leaning towards resting, she says she'll go fight the giants with or without them.

[@BuddhaMonkey7]

I love that scene too. To me it's a key character moment for the whole party: It's when they go from faking a revolution as a distraction so Percy can get his private revenge, to actually leading a revolution for the sake of the people of Whitestone. It's them recognizing their great power and owning the great responsibility that comes with it. It's the moment when Vox Machina finally decides to be the legendary heroes they tend to be remembered as. And it only happens because Keyleth plays the conscience of the party.

[@ariadne625]

I always thought Scanbo was a great demonstration of NOT falling for the "sunken cost" fallacy. As soon as a plan isn't working in his favor, no matter what cost he spent to make that plan happen, Sam shifts into a new direction that gives him better odds. Great lesson for me!!

[@l0stndamned]

The "no dinosaurs in fantasy" thing always seemed kinda weird to me. Firstly dinosaur bones probably inspired a few myths and secondly I can't imagine a necromancer seeing their remains and not thinking "yes, that".

[@SupergeekMike]

Haha I do like the idea of a necromancer being obsessed with dinosaurs, that’s actually an incredible story hook I seriously love that

[@SupergeekMike]

Ok no but here’s the thing, the players can start by investigating strange attacks on a mine, and they think it’s robbers or something trying to get the precious metals but they’re actually agents of the necromancer trying to steal bones. Likewise they can run across an auction where the agents of the villain are bidding on a skeleton, or stealing them from a museum or a noble’s house. And some monsters they fight can be failed attempts at raising dinosaurs without all the correct parts, or dinosaurs that he raised but didn’t realize were herbivores, and some dinosaurs they fight are predators under the necromancer’s control - This idea rules.

[@PhilBoswell]

Harry Dresden says "hi, have you met my friend Sue?" 🤣

[@TheLordofMetroids]

​@@SupergeekMike okay, yes. Necromancer Paleontologist is an amazing idea.

[@TheyCallMeCarg]

Dinosaurs in my homebrew aren't a no; they're more like a "yes, but". They exist, but only on one particular island nation, and I insist that casters can only polymorph and druids can only wild-shape into beasts they have seen, or at least read extensively about.

[@storysmith5626]

I feel proud to say that after a year and a half I have finally finished watching both vox machina and the mighty Nein campaigns. It too time to get through but it was a MAGICAL journey to go on

[@pierrehurley]

That moment when the duke and scanalan see each other and its on I have watched that moment so many times now its still amazing

[@sirrichiofawesome9617]

One of my favourite moments from this episode is when Liam/Vax says “you were one of one of those who hung the bodies from the tree; where I saw that child?.. I slit his throat”. It was something which could have easily been overlooked had he not highlighted it.

[@fabiovarra3698]

I remeber how frustating were all the people bitching abouth how Marisha would cause a TPK because she didn't to want to take a long rest in the mid of a battle. I bet they were the same kind of player that would refuse to start any fight if they aren't in top condition. Did you ever had to struggle with someone like that MIke?

[@SupergeekMike]

I’ve definitely played with extremely cautious players, running from fights much more quickly than I expected, but I attributed that to them being relatively new players.

[@glassberg5018]

@@SupergeekMike It's something I did a lot as a new player. As I became more experienced I learned a) I am still very capable even when not 100% and b) going into a big fight while understrength raises the stakes and makes victory so much more satisfying.

[@Adamantium93]

It's ironic because this is the opposite of the thing that people criticized Orion for while the group was chasing the Rakshasa. In that episode, Orion wanted to rest to recover spells even though time was vitally important to their success or failure. In this episode, the chat wants them to rest to recover spells and HP even though time is vitally important to their success or failure.

[@Roflmaolinde]

Honestly, I’ve had a hard time to really appreciate Laura since S1, because I thought that she did a lot of rules lawyering. But this is a really good example of that it can be good, and that Laura doesn’t do it all the time because she’s greedy, but that she follows the rules carefully. I’ve also realized that if there’s someone in the party that probably needs to rule’s lawyering to even out the playing field, it’s the ranger!

[@AGrumpyPanda]

The trick with rules lawyers is to figure out what they're trying to get out of it. Someone who's just trying to play to the rules is very different to someone who's trying to get something *from* the rules.

[@authoranonymous8892]

I don't even consider it to be rules-lawyering. I consider rules-lawyering to be really stretching logic and harping on dictionary definitions to weasel out something you want. This was just straight up, "No, the creature in gaseous form can't escape the wind wall because it literally says in the rule book that creatures in gaseous form can't escape the wind wall."

[@hersheywalla]

Marishas characters have been consistently some of my favorites in every campaign, and her one of my favorite players. She's very good at knowing her characters and sticking to how they would act in situations, even if it's a suboptimal choice. And it made me so upset back in the day to hear people so mad at her for every slight, perceived or not

[@RPGtourguide]

Man, the triceratops scene… Such a great, fun moment for Scanlan! You can’t help but feel the excitement with the cast!

[@Mister_Mag00]

one of my favourite eps, sam is having so much fun, some meta gaming for sure with them trying to tell him what to do but hey so much fun! XD that whole mist situation was so awkward to watch lol

[@Poocas22]

I love opening up youtube and seeing a new episode in this series

[@alalessia]

I loved this episode, such a dnd plan and what a great (and lucky) execution. It was really so much fun. And the way the cast was just enjoying the Scanlan triceratops wreaking havoc was beautiful to see xD

[@jordansavage8606]

my favorite quote from this episode is "All you gotta do is get away for this to be amazing"

[@MorningDusk7734]

The end of this episode brings up a question I would be fascinated by your take on: how do you balance active threats and giving your party time to recharge before they tackle whatever gauntlet you've thrown at them? Is a party supposed to just use their intuition to figure out when it's time to go all out and when they need to save for later? I'm feeling this a lot with my current character, being a level 4 warlock who wants to use long-term spells, but when is it right to cast Armor of Agathys if I know that the march to the final boss is going to take longer than an hour, and I'm not sure if we're going to short rest to get back my 2 spell slots? Or, in Vox Machina's case, do they blow big spells on the zombie giants to make sure people don't die, or do they save big spells in case the Briarwoods come out before they have a chance to rest? Follow up: would you consider it unreasonable to make it so that every time there's an end of session, the party gets the effects of a short rest?

[@Guy_With_A_Laser]

Resource management is... kind of part of the game. The guidance from the DM's guide suggest that a typical adventuring day should have around 6-8 encounters in it... not all of these may require combat, but, in a worst case scenario, that's what you should be planning for. In my experience most DMs lean toward fewer, deadlier encounters, but, regardless, the party should not expect that they will have the liberty of a short or long rest after every encounter. Especially in a scenario like this where the party's choices are what is leading them to have to tap deep into their reserves, the DM should absolutely not be letting them off the hook. The party likely has scrolls or potions or other magic items available if they're really getting tapped out, or perhaps there's a point where the only option is a strategic retreat. Personally, I wouldn't let the party have a short rest in this situation just because it is the end of the session unless the party asks for one and it makes sense narratively for them to do. You don't want to get into a situation where players with short rest resources are metagaming the session end by using extra resources near the end knowing they'll get them back.

[@SupergeekMike]

You’re not the only person to ask about this in the comments for this video, so I think it’s something I’ll need to spend more time thinking about and maybe make a video about it!

[@ani_anonymuncle]

​@@SupergeekMike This would be a great video!!

[@BuddhaMonkey7]

My feeling it that it's up to the DM to create a world where the players can make reasonable judgments about this -- where the players can't be absolutely sure what's coming, but where there's enough signposting that they can make informed decisions. As was said above, resource management is a big part of the game, and that only works if the players know enough that they're not just guessing blindly, but not so much that there isn't tension that comes from maybe getting it wrong. I don't think it's a good idea to give the effects of a short rest at the end of every session. Any time the players get to rest that reduces tension, and that should be dictated by the narrative and the setting rather than just when a session happens to run out of time.

[@Boundwithflame23]

Tfw you’re re-listening to the podcasts at work and you get ahead of Demystified 😅 But hey it gets me thinking about what you might talk about in the future (The wind walk mishap for instance)

[@bristowski]

This is a good channel. This is a good series. I like Mike.

[@calebmcurby8580]

A true Deus Vox Machina in the next episode

[@sleepyspartan1367]

Two points. - Depending on the situation, picking the less optimal decision more fun then the most optimal. Like you could use detect thoughts during an integration or have the barbarian tortle flex his muscles to intimidate the person. - As for meta gaming. That's a touch subject, like meta gaming is a double edged sword because on the one hand learning the secrets of curse of Strahd and running straight to the important items instead of finding them organically. Conversely, your DM might have a monster they want to keep a mystery but you realize right away what it is because you know their stat block and go off to get all things needed to beat it before the DM has a chance to reveal it. Sometimes meta gaming can be bad, well other times it could be useful like playing a character who has lived in that setting and can help guide the party to important location or give information to help with world building

[@ParticleZon]

Yeah. In a thread celebrating the arrival of Emily Axford as a guest, someone referenced her dice-superstition-routine. She rolls beforehand and selects mostly dice that are rolling "hot" with a few that are "spicy" - because failure can be gold.

[@sleepyspartan1367]

@@ParticleZon right. I remember a friend was a paladin flirting with an NPC and rolled low which lead to him getting kicked well I was playing a blatantly strang character that walked up to women and rolled high leading to them hitting off. It was quite comical because of the funny switch of rolls. The cult looking guy with glowing red eyes did better than the tall knight in shining armour.

[@Werelord22]

Babe come quick, a new Critical Role Demystified just dropped

[@ryangentry2003]

Someone put “Waiting for a Hero” over the episode of the animated series that covered this and the next episode that matches so well.

[@Stephen-Fox]

Do you plan on talking about Candela Obscura now that there's a quickstart available for it in one of your non-Crit Role Demystified videos?

[@mrprovokant7654]

I really enjoy your breakdowns! dude, the audio peaked a lot during this episode, you might want to adjust your setup for the future - the best way would be to reduce the microphone gain since you can always raise the general sound floor in post if it's too quiet but you can never get the lost audio quality back once it peakes.

[@DragonLancers]

Great episode man! Loving this series as a revisit to these episodes

[@ruffboimags]

I had a situation once where both I and the party forgot the tank had armor that made her immune to crits, and it wiped the party. Now, this was technically intentional - I'd put them in a situation I thought they couldn't possibly win, because it would force a particular NPC to directly interfere and it was a whole thing. And the party was willing to go with it since ultimately it is almost impossible they would've won anyway and this was plot stuff that we were moving forward, no harm no foul. But I felt bad and said "nah, let's go back, I've got my notes on where y'all were at when she took that hit and went down, so let's do this properly" With that one roll-back of crit damage no longer taking out the tank and a bunch of REALLY lucky rolls from the players, my little party of level 4s managed to successfully take down a BALROG. I had the NPC just assume they were going to die and race to at least rez them all and she went "oh. oh wow, okay well, I guess I underestimated YOU guys!" when she got there. it remains, to this day, one of the most memorable encounters in the campaign. I'm very happy, as a GM, that I did it, so they could have that moment. :)

[@AdamEspersona]

I'm pretty sure that Matt also clarified much later on that she wasn’t metagaming, and that he himself made a bad call. Wish I could find the tweet that proves it. That, and yeah, Matt's overcorrection had the opposite effect. Always did. And it only fueled the discourse regardless of his intent to keep things fair.

[@Ragea77]

Yeap, Matt did tweet he called that wrong

[@supermcspotty]

Yeah a level 12 druid not knowing that especially with prior experience just feels a weird thing.

[@KilothATEOTT]

Even if Marisha gets special treatment from Matt, the other players don’t seem to care and are fine so it’s irrelevant.

[@TheLordofMetroids]

Oh wow, the bodies hanging from the tree are gone. Man that's interesting. I wonder if we'll ever find out what happened to them?

[@SupergeekMike]

😉

[@troikas3353]

The vampire issue in this episode is one of the earliest reasons I came to be far more annoyed by the complaints of meta gaming than I ever was of the cast actually meta gaming. They get so skittish of even appearing to do it they will make their characters act like oblivious nits to justify not acting on logical assumptions or known information.

[@ShyyGaladriel]

AAAAAAAA I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT EPISODE!!! 🥰🥰🥰

[@Dominion69420]

*Coos in Meta-Pigeon*

[@SupergeekMike]

That goddamned meta-pigeon… 😂

[@ShadowyFox_86]

And Travis yelling from the future about no metagaming in this house. 😂

[@maxchen9185]

Watched the cartoon first (knowing its an adaptation from an actual DnD campagin) and was wondering how tf did the Scanlan player pull those shxt off. Then went to check the livestream, damn that was even better/crazier than the cartoon.

[@Thoast_]

You know, i think a better 'less meta gamey' question Keyleth could have asked on her second turn instead of questioning the mist, would be to ask where Tylieri was or what happened to him. Which i at least feel is a decent in character auestion.

[@steegen101]

We gotta get this Patreon to 1000!!! Getting this each week would be awesome

[@CLNCJD94]

Huh, I honestly forgot about the instance of Marisha struggling with meta gaming. I also did not like Kiki’s use of Skywrite (at the time) because I thought it gave away Vox Machina’s location. Though hindsight shows my worries were misplaced.

[@kendrajade6688]

"Metagaming" does not equal "bad." An example of good metagaming I had at a game recently that I GMed: A player couldn't make it I was to NPCing their character. The time came to search the complex and one of the players asked

[@Zr0din]

Ah-HA! I see those Media Lab Books and that Avatar book! And the Amann books, AND Dungeon World!

[@joshuabonesteel2303]

I always felt that concentration checks needed to be done differently. Make it a damage threshold rather than any damage at all. It would at least make it to where your spell might get some usefulness before your concentration breaks.

[@solidcumbyhaha702]

Everyone one I know let's all the attacks have advantage but it does read like only one attack.

[@davidarmstrong1617]

Why would Matt need to homebrew stats for a Triceratops? ... It's in the Monster Manual, under Dinosaur, very easy to find... pg. 80.

[@Peter_Cordes]

Terminology reminder: in 5e it's a concentration *save.* I think I've read that in 3.5e it actually was an ability check instead of just a Con save. I assume this is where Matt's misleading terminology of "concentration check" comes from. I guess since you're making videos about critical role, it's not weird to use that term, but encouraging better terminology that makes it easier to remember the mechanics might be something you'd want to encourage.

[@TwilitbeingReboot]

Maybe I'm missing something obvious here, but... how is Reckless Attack a "cool new power" for Grog if everyone is level 12?

[@thystldown]

I think the Keyleth metagaming incident was also prompted by Marisha having previously waffled about whether she would go into the house. She had verbally committed to doing so but subsequently realized she wouldn’t be able to get to where she wanted to go in one round (which is also why she didn’t see Tylieri get misted). This obviously reads as metagaming, and naturally another instance of it right afterward would cause Matt to come down hard on her. I’ve always read this as unnecessarily punitive, and it’s kind of a trend I’ve noticed in the Briarwood arc whenever there’s a whiff of metagaming. They seem to adjust as the campaign goes on and they move on from having to constantly be so vigilant (and as they just get better at not metagaming) but it’s one reason I didn’t enjoy the Briarwood arc as much as I was expecting. I would have felt uncomfortable at the table in that instance and others like it because it genuinely reads more as a punishment than a determination of whether criteria has been met.

[@sagesaria]

I personally found it really weird how hard Matt was on Marisha re: knowing there are vampires. From my perspective, Keyleth knows that there ARE vampires in town, and even if she doesn't know that mist=vampire, it's clearly unnatural because mist isn't typically in houses. Sunbeam isn't a spell that only targets vampires; it's radiant damage. LOTS of things are hurt by radiant damage. I don't think she needs to know the mist is a vampire to assume radiant damage might help. And from that point on, every call Matt made felt like he was actively trying to block Marisha. Sure, Marisha didn't want to metagame, but just something about Matt's tone stank of "I'm the DM and I said no," especially when he claimed talking about it was on thin ice. If talking is a free action, why does it matter whose turn it is when you respond to a question? It just felt like a weird call all around. I even watched this part with someone else and they agreed that something about Matt's entire demeanor was off in that moment, as in "Did he and Marisha have a fight before the game?" off. Like look, there's nothing I can do about it as a viewer, at the end of the day it was Matt's call and he had his reasons. But I just found this whole thing incredibly frustrating and unfair to Marisha.

[@Lurklen]

I've always felt that there was a fair argument that you couldn't concentrate on spells while polymorphed into an animal. Not from a rules perspective, because technically nothing about being turned into a dinosaur or a flea breaks concentration, but from more of a logic perspective regarding the intelligence change (something that is often heavily downplayed. Honestly, triceratops Scanlan would likely be too dumb to strategize the way he does). However, on the flip side, that would mean this very awesome scene could not have played out, so it's better it doesn't work that way lol.

[@mossj52]

Metagaming pigeon 🐦?

[@mkang8782]

I think that Marisha/Keyleth being able to deduce that the mist form moving on its own was some sort of creature/entity is fine. It's a bit of a stretch to make the connection to vampires. The Scanbo portion was just a lot of fun. With regards to him not making Concentration checks to maintain the spell, I don't think he was in any real danger of failing one, due to the triceratops' beefy CON bonus, and the low DCs based on their damage.

[@fabiovarra3698]

They already saw vampires turning into mist

[@ellysemilton1309]

She would definitely understand it was either living or unnatural, her home is essentially the place to understand how air currents affect things in Exandria. Given she also saw previous examples before and knows her friends have been fighting for some time, she should at least presume this identical type of mist is a vampire even if she doesn't know it.

[@Guy_With_A_Laser]

Triceratops only has a +3 Con, so he needed to get four rolls of 6 or better to maintain concentration, and wouldn't have advantange since his warcaster feat doesn't carry over to the triceratops. That's actually means he fails to maintain concentration about 75% of the time. These types of checks are super important for balancing polymorph since the spell is crazy broken otherwise.

[@mkang8782]

@Aaron B why wouldn't war caster still be applicable?

[@MrMark069]

Before they got to Whitestone, they believed everyone was a vampire. It's really not a stretch.

[@vi8440]

definitely not my favorite episode of the animated show (the plot armor is strong with this one) but super excited to hear ur commentary on the episode as always :D

[@ShadowyFox_86]

It's weird to use the term plot armor when related to an adaptation of a D&D game. That's sort of the antithesis of the term.

[@rolandbell9565]

Polymorph is not concentration so he wouldn’t need to make concentration checks

[@SupergeekMike]

It is concentration; lasts up to 1 hour.

[@sigmal47]

Great video! It may be an unpopular opinion, but I have to agree with Matt about the metagaming bit. The whole vampire smoke - thing was the most obvious and blatant metagaming I have ever witnessed in all three seasons of CR. I remember very clearly rolling my eyes repeatedly during this scene when I first witnessed it.

[@AdamEspersona]

…except Matt later admitted that he made the wrong call.

[@SupergeekMike]

Ultimately, metagaming is very subjective, so some will agree and some won’t. It’s just about finding the approach that works best for the group; that’s one reason I don’t think this scene passes the sniff test for me is not that I can’t see the argument against her making the connection, but instead that I don’t think this judgement call was consistent with his approach in general.