Critical Role One-Shot: "A Beast I Am, Lest a Beast I Become." Part 1

According to Reddit (so shoot me it's the only decent place to get news for CR) Liam confirmed on one of the other shows today that it is a mini campaign, not a one-shot.

REDDIT is a perfectly acceptable website to browse as long as you are aware of the implicit culture of the userbase and know how to avoid getting sucked into its shitness, furthermore the belief that it's somehow wrong to use two different websites to shitpost random stuff is asinine and a pretty annoying habit tbqh famalam REEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Hardwick was fucking awesome and meshed well with the cast without stealing the spotlight. Literally the perfect guest star. He deserves his own placement imo

This shit is insufferable.

The list is very different if you base it on characters rather than players. Orion is absolutely terrible as a player but Tiberius was a decent character.

Laura is more or less the same. She metagames a TON but she roleplays Vex really well.

>perfect guest star
>not Perkins

Of all the one/two shot guests I think the best was unironically Felicia Day. She was a bit over the top at first, but once she got comfortable she meshed perfectly with the cast and it was quite an enjoyable two parter.

Perkins was good but wasn't memorable enough in his role imo.

Guest stars have a difficult job. They have to show up in a well-established game and be interesting enough for the party to want to interact with them but not TOO interesting/powerful or else they come off as a Mary Sue.

In Perkins' case he was such a background character that we really had no reason to want to see more of him (her).

I wanna get into this show but the 3 hour episodes are a little bit of a scary format to sit there and watch. Will I miss much if I listen to them akin to a podcast?

they've been steadily adding them in podcast form and it works just fine to get into the show.

You'll miss a little of the fun but nothing too important. Sometimes Mercer will unveil a cool battle map or Sam will pantomime something but otherwise you'll get the full effect

I'm glad I'll finally be able to get into this new campaign without going through 400 hours of past content.

hearing talesin speak makes me want to slit my throat

thats because it takes him 4 tries to finish a sentence

Generally speaking most of the visual pantomime moments occur when Sam and Travis are off doing stuff together.

And speaking of Sam and Travis, did anyone get #2 of the origins comic? If so, how is it? I read the first one and it was passable.

I liked the second a lot more. Had a lot of Scanlan action.

I enjoy it, outside Marisha and combat.
Combat they're generally OP as fuck due to items from when they were playing PF, and deal a ton of damage. Then every time someone gets hit for 15 "OH NO, THAT MUCH?!"

Ashley is fine, but doesn't know her class. I'd imagine part of that was a massive time out, not that long after coming across from PF.
Marisha, though, doesn't know her spells, doesn't know half her abilities, meta-games, her RP is annoying as fuck and can't let anything go by without involving her, if not starring her.

ego-wise i imagine she has the most to prove out of all of the cast. She is the least successful when it comes to acting. Very likely a failed actress/model that now works for G&S. Imagine being surrounded by some of the most successful people in the VA industry and having to show up and Act every thursday. She probably reaches for attention more often to make up more her lack of talent

I've been ripping the audio and listening while exercising, and it's fine.
I miss a couple gags an episode at most, really, and their combat is the weak part anyway so no map doesn't really matter.

Marisha's biggest problem (Other than not knowing her spells) is that she was "leader" of the group. It makes no fucking sense for the naive, shy, socially awkward character to be the leader, no matter how important her backstory is.

Also I agree she probably feels like she has a lot to prove. Other than the things you mentioned she is also the DM's (soon the be) wife, so she probably feels like she needs to be great in order to keep people from criticizing her for it.

I'm hoping a character change does her well. She was WAYY better in the one-shots she has done, so heres hoping.

Scanlan used to be the leader of the group, sort of. Honestly, though? I'm hoping Travis or Sam take up a leadership role in the next game.

Hardwick is an annoying shit and im glad matt slapped him down in the force grey series

liam is an annoying over-actor with anger management issues

orion as a cunt

marisha is either very stupid or very lazy

wheton is a cuck

everyone else is fine. sam, matt, travis, and laura are god tier

Tfw I don't hate Marisha. I'm usually a rules nazi too, but I think CR is 100x more enjoyable when they bend things (on occasion) for the plot. Other than that I think she just gets too nervous and doesn't think out her action enough, so when it comes to her turn she has a thousand options that do specific things but in her haste she kind of neglects the specifics. Her RP shit is whatever, some people enjoyed her and Liam (I didn't), but whatever
I haven't watched the Vecna fight back (for the infamous ignoring Sam telling her about the concentration) but I could imagine it would be easy to not hear/think he was talking to someone else. I'm not saying she did or didn't do it on purpose, I just don't know, and desu it seems like no one cares except her critics and rules nazis.
I could go the rest of my life without another Keyleth drunk scene though

she very much needs to play a dumb barbarian or something simple. She isn't strong tactically or roleplay wise so "run up and hit stuff" is definitely where she needs to stay.

It sounds like she is really into Monk though, which is another high WIS class. Once again, this directly contradicts what she is capable of mentally so I'm kinda worried.

Also I don't think Keyleth was ever seen as the leader of the group. She was the leader of her people (the Air Nation or whatever) but not Vox Machina.

Scanlan was the face of the party (high CHA + Sam being an awesome roleplayer) but he was never leader of VM. He would occasionally joke about being the leader but it was pretty obvious that he wasn't being serious.

At least if she plays Monk it will answer the argument of whether she was RPing Keyleth to be dumb or if she isn't great at DnD.

The biggest issue I had was that she was high WIS, but her character was super anxious, naive, and had no self confidence. IMO these two things CAN NEVER EVER pair together correctly because someone with high WIS would NEVER lack all those quantities(some of them sure, but not all). It honestly seems like they made her character for a one shot (Thus never thinking about the eventually high as fuck WIS) and then when it became a campaign she stayed true to her character instead of adapting.

Where the fuck did the "Marisha is smart" meme begin?

dm ranking so far

Matt > Liam > Sam

let's see how tal does

is it meant to be ironic?

I think you're right, but at any point in the ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN EPISODES they played they could have done a serious pivot on Keyleth as a character. Character growth is important for any successful story and Keyleth was dumb the whole way through, no matter how much she went through.

She had every opportunity to take the naive, kind-hearted girl and turn her into the badass leader hardened by years of fighting and loss, Now wise to what the world truly is.

We didn't get that. Instead she focused on the "MY BOYFRIEND IS DEAD" story. Actors aren't writers I guess.

its VtM so hes automatically at the bottom for taste alone

If you listen to her outside of CR she seems at least decently smart.
youtube.com/watch?v=jJFYNZugksU

Also she is Creative Director of G&S and helped steer them from disaster

>Main CR Crew
>None of them ever played World of Darkness
>Tal hasn't DM'ed in over 10 years, and is mishmashing 3 different version of VtM together

Its gonna be brutal for the first episode

sam is a treasure

i'm glad the seating is rearranged

>Matt and Marisha showed up to play TWO DAYS before they get married

a national treasure

The guy who is officiating their wedding is GMing.

A beautiful clusterfuck.

>Actually want the artbook
>Its $60

Tal cleans up pretty nice desu, and Matt looks like a fucking Elf

Speaking as a married dude, most of the work takes place weeks/months beforehand. The week of the wedding shouldn't be very stressful.

I was playing video games with my friends the morning of the wedding.

Who was he again?

He's the only I've ever seen that can adequately pull off goth without looking like a tool

> Everyone is dressed up in some form of goth, emo, or prep school outfit
> Most have eyeliner, mascara, or dark/black lipstick on
> Taliesin looks like an extra from one of the Underworld movies

This is already a horrible trainwreck and I'm loving every second of it.

>META

>not cutting Vax out of the intro

I knew it wasn't really feasible but I'm still a little disappointed

>Matt and Marisha
>Laura and Travis
>Liam and Sam

everyone is gonna go home and have crazy costume sex tonight

Matt looks like he could play a corporate Shadowrun Elf with minimal effort.

Liam is Nosferatu

Doesn't he already play one

>Liam and Sam

Problem being that Matt/Marisha were both working their actual jobs, and with CR climaxing the past month or so Matt has been working around the clock on the final pieces of the campaign (Apparently he spent over 8hrsrying time just making the Entropis set alone) AND THEN he had that horrible Sciatica flareup that cost him 2 weeks

I'm loving it already. The meta intro was fun

>Marisha already confused
>Laura already knows exactly what she is doing
She proves again she is the best waifu

I've never played World of Darkness and this seems complicated as fuck

alright this is too awkward, i'll check back in this thread and see from y'all's reactions if this gets better

This must be your first episode of Critical Role then

i've seen almost every episode, and that's the exact reason why i'm bailing. i'm used to seeing everyone get on with the show, this flailing and floundering is just uncomfortable

It's not too complicated. It's a d10 system. Normally 7-9 is a success, 10 is a successful exploding die (reroll and if you succeed or explode again, add again). You usually get 1-2 die pools to reference from, usually a physical or mental stat and a skill, and the larger your stat or skill pool, the more die you roll.

For tonight Taliesin's ruling it as 6-10 as success.

I suspect the red die represents their vampiric hunger.

Did you see Liam's one shots? They started out the same way, it's typical when they're feeling out a new game.

Red dice are probably from the fresh Vampire 4E, or whatever it is called now.

this will probably be more like free-form rpg with some VtM thrown in

It's uncanny

>Travis always wanting to leave his friends behind whenever they do a game where they play themselves

I hope he never changes

>Their characters are based on their Vox Machina counterparts

>sam could have stalled Vax dying if he had his wish

That was the plan. That's why he saved his level 9 spell for a long ass time. But when it came down to either:
Counter the spell
Entire team dies

He had no choice. That's why he was apologizing and sad even though they'd technically won.

It's like pre-alpha system of the new VtM

>Taliesin is officiating the wedding
Shit, really? Is he gonna fuck them both too? i can’t be the only one who sees it

I think they are perma friendzoned so hard that they aren't even attracted to each other. I had a friend like that before.

Tal is knocking this shit out of the park.

i thought taliesin was gay (or something else entirely)

Yeah like for some I had no idea they were so well-versed.
>oh shit is that Gaara
>what do you mean he was the dub director for Naruto
>what do you mean he’s the voice director for shadow of war

He is minimum bi since during the Winter's Crest episode at the end of the Whitestone Arc his gf made them all cookies and they were talking about it

It blew my mind that Liam was the voice of Illidan and then it made complete fucking sense

his mettle has not been tested yet.

we will see

Liam is super talented. Back when Naruto Abridged was still a thing, my favorite joke was making fun of VAs who can’t voice differentiate, and out of nowhere Liam shows up in the last clip they showed with a “hey kids it’s Gaara” caption

When are they getting Steve “I pave rural driveways with my voice” Blum on the show

>You will never lay in bed and share Lucky Charms with Laura

;_;

I'd say Liam is good at the things he's good at, if that makes sense. I don't really see him as having lots of range though (beyond Gollum, but everyone can do Gollum).

He's as good at being whimsical as Sam is good at being a casual cowboy.

I'm just some faggot on the internet though so who cares what I think

>Would you recognize him by his parts?
>Some of the parts weren't group up correctly
Jesus Taliesin

So pay attention to the Alpha Twitter cause they are sending reference pictures of the office

m.youtube.com/watch?v=sYyyz6jkjqQ
Go to 4:30. The VA they’re making fun of is, coincidentally, Sam Riegel, playing Zaku Abumi.

while she uses her shin-chan voice

TO BE A MAN YOU MUST HAVE HONOR

Also that video is a repost and it’s still 10 years old, where has the time gone

Wait, so if they fail (Less than 7) on the red is it an issue, or if they roll a 1 on the red?

>extra special erp episode featuring Major-voice and Terry McGinnis-voice
Schway

It's rolling a 1 on the red die that they get issues. That super failure on them by Marisha is what made her forehead extend out and go a bit feral vampire-like.

Ok, and if they roll a 1 on a normal dice nothing happens then.

Essentially the more red dice you have the more chances you have of crit failing, and the more hunger you have the more bad things the DM can make you do

>DM is the first to die

>Matt walking into sunlight
I don't care what anyone says, that's hilarious.

I thought sunlight wasn't insta death in VtM? I'm pretty sure there were survivors with heavy burn scars.

Why would he be compelled to check if he rolled that many successes?