How Matt Mercer Narrates Every "HDYWTDT?" - Vox Machina, Ep. 34 | Critical Role Demystified

[@SupergeekMike]

Do you say “How Do You Want To Do This” and/or have another way to encourage players to describe their finishing moves?

[@chibilutionaudios]

I usually call out the player character's name and go "Finish them."

[@julzbehr6696]

One I tend to say is „you killed them. Tell me how“ and then once my players get it just „tell me how“

[@KaliFortuna]

I do this pretty rarely, but it’s usually some variation of “How do you want to do this?” or “What does that look like?”. It’s not just for combat though, I like to break it out on big non-combat things as well, like completing a major project or ritual or summoning. In general my players are aware that they have the agency to describe how they do things (or at least, how they’re hoping to do things, if they haven’t rolled for them yet), but I like to prompt it for big or important things.

[@chibilutionaudios]

@@KaliFortuna i like this!

[@MorningDusk7734]

I recently purchased the core rulebook for the "Kids with Brooms" system (as popularized by Dimension 20's Misfits and Magic), and I really like how much it puts the emphasis of telling a story onto the players as much as the DM. It's a quick read (94 pages has everything you need for the game, both player and GM), and I would say it's worth looking into if you're struggling with player agency or magic school stuff in general. It's also a very combat-adverse system, focusing more on the social and investigative aspects of a story.

[@wolfox7776]

The Briarwoods really are a set of Couple goals. They're not good people, but they definitely feel like people who're madly in love even after all those years

[@BroKenYaKnow]

The fact that Lady Briarwood's first reaction to Sylas being killed was a soap opera scream instead of anger directed at the party says a lot

[@chipsalom]

"madly" is an understatement, lol. Obsessed to the point of willingness to commit atrocious things? Check.

[@doopthedude]

@@chipsalomhonestly goals. Find yourself someone to commit atrocities with 😍

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Those are trule an Unholy Matrimony.

[@dseray9494]

​@@doopthedudefind yourself someone who will turn you into a vampire to escape the prospect of your death

[@Anonymous_Individual]

I like to think of Serenrae as more of a cleric type of light goddes compared to Pelor’s paladin energy. One is more “bring everyone to the light” and the other is more “burn all evil.”

[@kyokonightstorm5844]

Adding to this, I also recall that Serenrae was also a goddess of second chances. This definitely plays into the idea of "You can still find the light". They kind of form a really cool dichotomy, a very Yin Yang kind of approach to light that very much exemplifies what light tends to be in these kinds of games. Those who wield light magic are most often healers, but are also *extremely* effective against "Unholy" creatures, such as undead. The Everlight heals the innocent while the Dawn Father smites evil. Actually, he does that in the lore, so that is VERY fitting. And if I recall later in the campaign, their domains on the other side of the Divine Gate are very close as well. Serenrae sends the team to Pelor, and I understood it as they shared a plane/sector. Maybe I am wrong, but that was how I saw it.

[@pkm1342]

​@@kyokonightstorm5844That's exactly how I saw it aswell. Thanks for putting it into words :)

[@Stiftquadrat]

You are quite close! Sarenrae, as in the Pathfinder original goddess, has the following portfolio: > Areas of Concern: Healing, honesty, redemption, the sun > Domains: Fire, Glory, Good, Healing, Sun I think Ashley did a wonderful job portraying a cleric of her!

[@koticneutralftw7016]

Honestly, the version of Pelor in CR is completely different from how I imagined him in 3.5. I skipped 4th ed, so I don't know if that's when it changed or not, but he's WAY more chill in 3.5 (in Greyhawk?). I'm not saying it's good or bad. Just different.

[@Arcon1ous]

In the original source, she's one of the older Deities, and is NG, and has made a few pretty terrible mistakes in her time(such as smiting a village that went evil and killed one of her emissaries, which the result of which is still causing issues to the modern day in setting), and focuses on that people deserve second chances and times to repent, but do what you must when they do not. Which brings in that she has a cult that has splintered off of her main religion that focuses more on the destruction of things that don't center on their ideals, than the forgiveness aspect, which is very militant, and has been exiled from the main church, and outlawed in many places, its an interesting take on extremists taking their own meaning from divine sources and twisting them for their own gain. She's a fun goddess to have in setting because of that, because she's centered on redemption and forgiveness, and in the original game has ways to give her followers ways to be less lethal in combat, and to heal those around them while doing their normal thing, while you can still pull her negative aspects out for a more antagonistic role if you need them. Matt definitely pulled out her more kind and generous traits for his world because it allows her to contrast nicely to Pelor, and I think is a good choice for the situation.

[@kylebeardsley6200]

I really do like how Grog wants to own stuff, so he'll often trade for things from the bag of holding, but Travis doesn't want to be the player that steals from the party, so it can just be "let me flick you in the nuts and I'll give you a healing potion" or "I'll give you a cloak of smashing (just a cloak that Percy said 'looks smashing') in exchange for the loot we took." Someone with an intelligence of 6 can't really comprehend what's a fair trade, so he's easily impressed.

[@flawlix]

I love how Laura’s face changes as Matt describes Delilah’s reaction to Silas’ death

[@T_Peazy]

I have been a critter since 2016 and I have watched the vox machina campaign atleast twice, I never caught the "Whitestone villains as foils to the vox machina characters" until today.

[@kmbehrens14]

Once the entire Briarwood arc is wrapped, would you consider doing a compare/contrast video of the campaign to the cartoon? I'd love to hear your take on the changes they made for the sake of story/simplicity!

[@人間のゴミ-u1k]

Seconded, that'd be cool!

[@SLorraineE]

That would be so cool!!!

[@Lena-fc9ce]

+

[@bristowski]

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

[@billberndtson]

Agreed. 🙂

[@logan83243]

If you put on his shoes, you'll gain his talent

[@ExtremeNeoclassical]

I disagree. This is a great channel. This is a great series. I love Mike.

[@SingularityOrbit]

@@logan83243 But first you have to cut off your own shoes . . . seems like a trap to me . . .

[@logan83243]

@@SingularityOrbit Nonsense! Roll a constitution saving throw...

[@BigKlingy]

I forgot there were TWO near-instakills in this episode. If Vex had 1 hit point less, or if Keyleth hadn't rolled that Nat 20 to pull her hand away, things could've been... bad. REALLY bad, in Keyleth's case, as Matt revealed in the wrap-up that she would've been pulled into the Shadowfell and likely went unconscious from the orb's damage, leaving her to bleed out on another plane... and VM may have had to deal with a Zombie Keyleth if they'd followed her.

[@manueltorresart2345]

The theory about mirrored Vox Machina members blew my mind (I'm not the type of person who looks for theories).

[@allmyhomieshatefreud5501]

gah I still remember the dead silence as Matt describes Vex slow-motion falling into the ritual chamber. It was one of the tensest moments of the campaign

[@Spark_Chaser]

A friend and I had a pair of brothers as characters. Mine was a smart ass human wizard, his was a half orc barbarian. Our story was I had always belittled him as a child because of his intelligence (think Rick and Morty), so he grew up, got bigger, and learned to defend himself, especially against spellcasters. As a roleplaying bit, if I mouthed off at him, or made light of him, he'd say, "head or gut," then punch me for it. It was only ever a single point of damage, and I was willing to take it, as it added to our story.

[@AkivaElbereth]

Note about the "double" Gods of Serenrae and Palor: This is easily explained as regional pantheons as seen here in our world. The Celts had their own pantheon, the Greeks had theirs, The Nordis had theirs, and the Egyptians had theirs. There's quite a bit of overlap in each of them, but they are different gods.

[@SingularityOrbit]

The hitch in that reading is that the gods of Exandria were physically there in the past, and their history isn't half-remembered text in a lot of cases, it's as fully remembered as our understanding of, say, the Napoleonic Wars. If somebody tried to say that there was a male god of Nature named Whifflebat or whatever, there would be plenty of folk around the world who'd say, "No, we all remember Melora's name, you're just confused." Interestingly, the only still-extant god of Exandria whose real name is unknown is the Raven Queen/Matron of Ravens, probably because she erased knowledge of her mortal life after ascension -- names have power, and she as a wizard knew it.

[@fabiovarra3698]

Not only that but there esample of gods covering same aspect in the same pantheons. The Greeks hadn't only Poseidon as god of the sea, but also Nereo, who is belived to be an older non Olimpian god. Same goes for Pan and Apollo with music.

[@Guy_With_A_Laser]

Overall I like The Mighty Nein a lot more than Vox Machina, but without a doubt the Briarwood Arc is undoubtedly some of the best material that Matt has produced and Lord and Lady Briarwood are probably the best villains across all three campaigns.

[@GregMcNeish]

As a player, I will sometimes/often ask my DM if I can narrate my own MISSES, not just the HDYWTDT kills. I love being able to take a failure and both infuse it with the character I have in my head, and also frame those moments in ways that can shape my character in the future. I like to take the approach that I - the player - will state my intentions for the character, but that what the character intended to do may be different, and might not be known until AFTER the dice are rolled. I take that approach outside of combat all the time. Did I fail a perception roll? Then maybe what that means is that my character didn't THINK to even look for that detail. Maybe that sort of mental blindness is indicative of some element of the character I haven't thought of. Maybe next time I'll intentionally NOT ask if I see anything, because "that's not what my character would do". As for GMing, beyond the now-standard HDYWTDT, I like to give lots of opportunities for the players to add their own flavour to things I'm narrating, much in the same way that Matt uses these moments to get input from his players and feed it back to them in narration. Did the party just arrive in a new tavern? I'll ask one of the players to tell me something that sticks out to their character as they walk in. The understanding is that it will be something cosmetic or otherwise for flavour, so they'll say that there's a painting of a dragon making sexy eyes hanging on the wall, or we're in a corner of this fantasy world where Hooters apparently exists, or there's a bard in the corner playing the Star Wars cantina song on a banjo. Then much like Matt does, I will use that idea to describe the room in a way that honours their creativity while also staying consistent with the world. I think of it as an extension of the sort of group worldbuilding that we are all so comfortable with when players create whole towns with their backstories. Why not allow some of that to continue at the table, so that every part of the world has at least a small element of their fingerprints on it?

[@AlexRider589]

That theory about the antagonists being foils for the PCs is so interesting because it gives such insight into Matt's creative process. It reminds me of what you said about Viktor being a reflection of Percy. That is really useful to understand as a method to creating NPCs. Particularly if you have to do it on the fly, it's useful to have a method to it. Not carbon copies of the PCs, of course, but it's a good method to consider how they relate personally to the PCs.

[@mkang8782]

Matt and the players sharing in the descriptions, with the player only describing their portion reminds me of a play-by-post Star Trek RPG I participated in. It was made very clear to each player that at no point should they ever describe what another PC or an NPC is doing. It was a very big non-no. That method really reinforces the collaborative storytelling aspect of the hobby. I have yet to put in any workshopping effort for my own "How do you want to do this?" Partly because that just works so well without being verbally clunky, and partly because I don't know if I can come up with a version that isn't an obvious Captain Ersatz. Great video topic, Mike.

[@Stephen-Fox]

Not describing what other players do, to the point that there's formalized conventions on how to play fights out, is quite common in freeform circles, also.

[@Domesthenes]

The way that I do pantheons is that there is the "Major Gods", which are the ones that are in the setting of my world and created by me (Nerassa, Orden, The First Necromancer, etc.) and then there are "regional" or "minor" gods that can be basically whatever they want, be it Thor or whoever. That way the players can be invested in the lore of the world but still put their own flavor on it.

[@Cmbtsnpr]

Sarenrae is also a little redundant in the Pathfinder pantheon, though not really. See, she shares her domain over the sun with another goddess: Iomedae. But Sarenrae's other domains don't intersect much with Iomedae's. S is all about healing, redemption, and honesty, while Iomedae is about glory, honor, law, and war. Sarenrae is a classic Healer's deity, where Iomedae is practically the defacto Paladin goddess, which I gathered that Pelor is in Exandria.

[@ShadowyFox_86]

😂😂 I die every time Matt says "nearly phallic rays."

[@leadingblind1629]

Point of clarification... Scanlan would likely never threaten a woman at knife (blade) Point... who didn't richly deserve it at the time. Spoiler: Remember the Ripley fight with Kynan

[@SingularityOrbit]

I'm pretty sure it was Percy doing the killing in that case, Scanlan said so . . . 😉

[@leadingblind1629]

@@SingularityOrbit 😉

[@FantastiKat810]

Alternatively, Scanlan wouldn't threaten a young woman at knife point.... But he _would_ be threatened at knife point by a young woman - just a few episodes from now, in fact!

[@sojabursche]

About the gods: it’s also realistic that there are multiple gods for the same thing, people from different places have different gods for the same thing, so maybe if different people ascended to godhood for similar but not exactly the same reason they get overlapping domains and coexist instead of throwing each other out like is the case with some others.

[@rekindledphoenix]

12:00 in my campaign, I did something similar. Each hero had a link to my own charactrs, even if it was going to be 4 sessions in. In a one-session flashback/dream sequence, I could see the players acting out emotion and betrayal-- was great for engaging combat and making them feel part of the world

[@savnana3605]

For conflicting/redundant deities like Sarenrae/Pelor, my solution is that they are different interpretations/representations of the same singular being. Different cultures in the world might worship Heliod or Pelor, but those prayers are both going through the same building at least. Either the god of light taking different forms at different points in time, passing the mantle, or them all being upper tier celestials working under the 'true' god of light, simply in charge of handling prayers in different regions.

[@SingularityOrbit]

They're really not incompatible, though. It's just that their circles overlap on the Venn diagram. Pelor has been developed in the campaigns into the God of Justice, stern but intent upon building a better world. Sarenrae is more a Goddess of Healing Light, gently guiding towards being better people. Another way of saying it is that Pelor is about societies where Sarenrae is about individuals. They're coming at the same problems from very different angles.

[@mystic-malevolence]

I find it a bit charming and realistic that there are two dieties of light. One could imagine they developed separately until their origin civilizations merged into one. ...though that could also lead to a different personalities, same god situation.

[@SingularityOrbit]

Remember, the gods of Exandria came there fully formed from another plane, and created mortal life on that world. They weren't developed by different civilizations' ideas about the universe. They're actual characters in the fantasy setting of Critical Role.

[@mystic-malevolence]

@@SingularityOrbit Sure, but the people don't necessarily know that.

[@SingularityOrbit]

@@mystic-malevolence Well, yeah, but that's why I wrote all of that . . . so they'd know. 😁

[@Zakiel97]

a thing I like about Pike bringing Sarenrae and Pelor in the same world is that they are very different interpretations of a sun based deity. Pelor the dawnfather is devoted to the light, healing and destroying evil, we got some neat glimpses at that in Calamity and campaign 3. Eventhough he's not lawful good he has a sort of status quo hierarchy feel to him since he is one of the most commonly worshipped deities and his followers represent that. Sarenrae, the Everlight, on the other hand, in Matt's setting, is disempowered and almost forgotten about but in the original Pathfinder had a very similar place to Pelor only with a different ideology. Both got that light and healing to them but Sarenrae is also the goddess of redemption. She opposes evil and the undead, sure, but in all of Pathfinder lore there are only two beings she deemed irredeemable, Asmodeus, the lord of the hells, and Rovagug (who is basically an apocalypse monster sealed by the gods). So while Pelor is this big figure with status and power to uphold Sarenrae mirrors his domains but the lack of control she has makes her more open to forgive and reform wrongdoers rather than punish them and strike them down with the force of the sun. Sarenrae in some sense is what Pelor could never be, humble. Pelor is too imposing a figure, his priests can very easily fall into zealotry because of that. Idk, I think there is something valueable there, especially in the current arc of campaign 3. Not sure if that aligns with how Matt views his deities but I like that there is room for complexity with these larger than life figures. (And I would have really liked it if they went with Dawnflower as her title rather than everlight, I mean it makes it confusing for watchers of the animated show but it would have made for good lampshading of the fact how similar they appear, and maybe it could be a family connection between the two. Idk, I think Dawnfather and Dawnflower makes their relationship more snappy lol). Wait, what was this video about again?

[@jonathanstern5537]

I mean, Greek Mythology has both Apollo and Helios as sun gods. Norse mythology has both Freja and Odin associated with magic. So, there can, even in pantheons built from the ground up, be multiple gods of the same domains/related domains.

[@figates9220]

Spoiler, potentially Iirc Sylas took a form of a bat in the campaign finale, when Vox Machina faced Briarwoods in Thar Amphala, so he did do it at least once.

[@gibbousmoon35]

I wonder if that was in effort to analyse the knowledge available to that campaign date, without spoling what was to come?

[@figates9220]

@@gibbousmoon35 tbh I didn't think about it that way, I edited my original comment to include spoiler warning

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Another great video as always!

[@jlhitz35]

This might've been commented on a previous video, but on Sarenrae; I'm pretty sure that the first game (for Liam's Birthday) was in 4e, and Ashley Johnson wasn't there. They switched to Pathfinder later. I'm speculating, but I'd guess Exandria always used the 4e (Dawn War) pantheon. Ashley joined after they switched to Pathfinder, and probably chose Sarenrae from the Pathfinder rulebook.

[@CharlesBlazer]

I think it's totally fine and perhaps even better to have deities with overlapping domains. Similar to sects and heresies within faiths in the real world. One of my games had a whole arc about a conflict between the two deities of "Chaotic Neutral." They made a mysterious bet with each other, with the CN domain as the prize. And then they each embarked on mysterious machinations, trying to win the bet. It was all very chaotic and somewhat nonsensical because of course it was -- these are the gods of chaos, fighting to control overlapping domains.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Deities having overlapping domains helps further define each's true sphere of influence. The difference between a god of death and a god of murder is quite apparent despite how much their domains overlap.

[@Locke0042]

Actually, I think that the inclusion of Serenrae in the world gives the world building more legitimacy, in the real world is comon to have contradicting gods, even in the same culture.

[@SingularityOrbit]

The thing is that they don't contradict, since Pelor is about building just societies and Sarenrae is about building better individual people. That also explains why Pelor's worship thrives while Sarenrae's was almost lost -- it's much easier to lose a few good people than a bunch of cities. If you want confusing, how does Bahamut, god of honor and justice, fit in between Pelor's justice, Sarenrae's personal good, Erathis' civilization-building (she makes new civilizations where Pelor tries to perfect existing ones) and Kord's warrior focus? (I think Bahamut is about creating warriors for justice where Kord makes warriors for themselves, making Bahamut more simlar to Pelor and Kord more similar to Sarenrae in the civilization-versus-individualism mode of looking at it all.) Ultimately, all the Prime Deities are working on the same issues of How the World Should Be and How People Fit Into That Problem, so they're working all the angles in different ways.

[@dragonmiko]

I read Laura’s oh no at Delilah’s reaction Silas’ death to be oh shit we have a lady who is essentially a litch that mad at keyleth. 😅

[@Dunybrook]

Great video. I thought Laura was more concerned about what Delilah meant by breaking the world than being moved by her grief.

[@SupergeekMike]

I know that was Sam’s reaction, but Laura reacts in much the same way in the next episode when Delilah references Sylas again, so my personal read is that it’s both.

[@UrktheGurplin]

Great work as always.

[@lollipopsandlandmines5898]

I love watching these

[@lefterismplanas4977]

I I'm so in love with these episodes !!

[@AndrewJW]

I dont wanna wait two more weeks 😭😭😭😭

[@sbloise4]

The Hunter in the woods was a just a Citizen of Whitestone. Jazna Graben was a half-orc Grog decapitated in the next episode.

[@SupergeekMike]

I was under the impression they were the same people, that's what Jazna was doing, since the people of Whitestone said she used a bow. Oh well, if it wasn't the same... it should've been lol

[@Jackkidd95]

Lady Delilah rolled a nat 1 persuasion cheek

[@smoogieboogie1694]

The Cassandra betrayal situation is complicated now for me with the release of the animated show. I always thought this was a legit betrayal out of pain and trauma on Cassandra's part, and the shaking and whatnot was her still having love for her brother and this being hard on her. The show just completely confirmed that she was under the control of the Briarwoods, so I genuinely don't know if that was always the intent here or if they just changed it for the show.

[@pkm1342]

The way I saw it is that in the animated show she was magically affected (her eyes glew a different color) but in the live stream she felt betrayed and was manipulated for multiple years.

[@OccidentalAvian]

@@pkm1342 Yeah this, I think they changed it to be a more straight forward vampire charm in the animated show for ease of narration and the time they were afforded.

[@lionqueen145]

I always thought that she was mostly in control save for some brief moments. I believes most of it was manipulation and stockholm-syndrome but they might have put some ideas to make it easier for her to turn against Percy and really make her believe she was part of the family. But apart from maybe some moments she was free and in control that why her eyes flashed just a little bit. The way she was controlled seem different from Vax.

[@Aranneas]

The world is filled with "redundant" Gods and pantheons - not just scross different cultures but within the same group of people across centuries. Pelor and sarenrae is a great reflection

[@geoffdewitt6845]

Pedantic note: Pelor doesn't originate with 4e, but rather with the Greyhawk setting.

[@SupergeekMike]

True, but my point was that the specific arrangement of gods they’re using (minus Serenrae) is the pantheon from 4e

[@geoffdewitt6845]

@@SupergeekMike Yep! Which is why it was a "pedantic note," not a "you're wrong and should be FILLED WITH SELF-LOATHING NOTE!!!" :D

[@kjj26k]

@@geoffdewitt6845 Woah, isn't Greyhawk where Vecna comes from as well? That's like a Really old DnD setting, right?

[@geoffdewitt6845]

@@kjj26k Yes. It's the second oldest, after Dave Arneson's Blackmoor!

[@SummerOtaku]

I love the rival theory so much. I feel a little self conscious bringing up fanfic in your comments again but the concept of the dark reflection like some of these rivals has popped up in some amazing and amazingly dark fanfiction where after some tragedy after the series Vex/Percy start going down the Briarwood path and break the world for each other 😭

[@timothyburbage]

That strength save is a potential massive detour for the campaign. Keyleth could have been killed outright or sucked into a parallel dimension or anything

[@CLNCJD94]

As another commenter said, this is a good series, I too also like Mike. I love helping the algorithm gods.

[@AvatarNaty]

Regardless of whether or not you think that Serenrae and Pelor are redundant having gods who share similar domains makes the world feel more realistic because we historically have deities with multiple domains. Like there are multiple real world mythologies with pantheons that contain many deities associated with the same thing. Helios and Apollo are just one comparison both being gods of the sun.

[@hyenaedits3460]

Having two similar but unrelated gods actually makes the world feel much more real. A lot of old pantheons share similar concepts and exist simultaneously. They don't exactly mesh together perfectly but they're all equally real and important to their followers.

[@thystldown]

I actually really like the redundant gods - it’s more true to the real world, where there’s often overlap in gods’ domains, both because of cultural exchange and within individual systems. Gods can be successors to each other, as with Apollo and Helios, or aspects of each other, like Ra and the Aten. (And yeah, I know Exandria has its own whole group more analogous to the Titans, but I think the comparison still stands.) It’s kind of endearing, since Pelor doesn’t strike me as being particularly mercy-oriented, that he should have some degree of relationship with a goddess who is.

[@Pablo360able]

That explanation does not work with how deities function lorewise in D&D, unfortunately.

[@thystldown]

@@Pablo360able I didn’t say it did; I said I liked it.

[@socialcommentary]

Great video! I'd like to respectfully disagree about the redundancy of Pelor and Sarenrae. Many different cultures have different deities with similar themes. The Egyptian Patheon by itself has several deities with solar connections: Hathor, Khepri, Bast/Bastet, and many more.

[@SummerOtaku]

I wish I had gotten into Critical roll a bit before I started playing with my last group. It was the first time I heard the How do you want to do this and I had no idea the significance. I kinda froze up with a weird performance anxiety or stage fright feeling trying to think of something cool right now but not wasted everyone’s time and time is ticking by ect ect.

[@Sirax123]

"Matt had a reason prepared" I see you misspelled Marsha

[@angelusdemorte3]

How am I just now getting the alert for this?!...

[@SupergeekMike]

Yeah KZbin’s notifications have been funky lately…

[@dentescare]

sorry, i don't tend to make a comment. but have more than one god related to an aspect of nature or society is quite common. specially if the god is more of a regional thing. For example: The Incas has like 4 different gods and goddess related with rain, agriculture, clouds, the sea, wars and lightining. but they tend to only overlap with one or two aspects. These are de gods and goddesses if you wanna search about them: Mama Qucha, Illapa, Catequil, Pariaqaqa, Wari, etc.

[@Paradox-es3bl]

Technically, in D&D lore, virtually ALL Gods exist, anyway. Sp Sarenrae & Pelor both existing when Norse and Egyptian and Greek Gods and such are all there, too, isn't that weird, imo.

[@AndrewJW]

D&D is good

[@AdellRedwinters]

Small dumb 5e rule clarification: finger of death does not insta raise you as a zombie if you drop to zero hp it has to actually *kill you.* which rules as written basically won’t happen unless you shoot it at someone already making death saving throws, very silly.

[@SingularityOrbit]

Good point. If your home campaign uses the Massive Damage optional rule (DMG p. 273) it becomes much more dangerous. The way it's written, I've suspected that they originally intended to make the Massive Damage rule a standard part of the game and then made it optional, for whatever that's worth.

[@JJ-M]

​@@SingularityOrbitA lot of the optional rules feel like that, feats technically are optional, but, I'm not sure anyone doesn't run with them they're that core to 5e. Variant Stamina is the most "you're a monster if you run this" (I kid, but God that rule) that I can recall from the DMG/PHB.

[@SingularityOrbit]

@@JJ-M I'd never give a campaign without feats the time of day -- it's the only way to learn new skills by the rulebooks, or to gain just a little bit of magic without being forced to multiclass. If you want to talk unintended side effects, look at the optional Gritty Realism and Heroic healing rules that change the length of long and short rests -- as written, they change the magic level of the campaign world. A 9th level Wizard under Gritty Realism rules would be able to cast their one 5th level spell slot only once per week! As for the Encumbrance rule, it's not that bad, but the lesson with lifting & carrying is always the same: make Bags of Holding easy to find and you'll never have to worry about it.

[@JJ-M]

@@SingularityOrbit God that sounds utterly miserable, I'm sure someone would enjoy it, but I'd rather go play 2e if that's what I wanted lmao, and, yeeep, the joys of bags of holding being what they are. Or just a horse or other mount, do pretty much the same thing, it just means more bean counting until that point.

[@kjj26k]

Doesn't it do a special type of damage that if it takes your hp to 0 you insta-die?

[@intrusiveshadows724]

Notification crew!

[@IamtheLexx]

Am I the only one who was irritated by Liam's bizarre joy at Percy not getting the kill...?

[@aaronbourque5494]

Nah, the real world has redundant gods, no big deal.

[@damiens4601]

I think you should cut some of the high frequencies in the audio, it scratches my hear a bit too much :/

[@Bodharas]

Yeah....that "mirror" theory is a stretch. Any mirroring isn't intentional and there are so many differences it doesn't make sense. Everything is a reach, and isn't cohesive at all.

[@roybenari9472]

My friend offered to help you edit as an intern, to help out. Why are you not giving him the job?

[@SupergeekMike]

I’ve had a few people offer to help, some to offer professional services and others have offered to edit unpaid. But my goal would be to pay someone from their time. I’ve been an unpaid editor before, I did it for years, and I don’t want to put other people into that same position, because it’s not a fun arrangement. Additionally, I’ve announced this a long time ago as a goal for hitting 1,000 Patrons, which means my goal isn’t to try to figure out how to make that happen without financial assistance - I committed to this goal a long time ago because I know what sort of work goes into these videos, and I want people to be compensated for their time. I would be open to giving someone an internship, but the work I would give them wouldn’t be as intense or demanding as editing a Critical Role video, because that would not be fair. You or your friend might not agree, but this is the arrangement that would make me feel the most comfortable handing off this work to someone else.

[@unexardiximarion1920]

Cause your friend is not entitled to a job just because he randomly asked on the internet?