We are spilling the tea in a bonus episode all about what has been happening this summer with Critical Role! We have reports from Comic Con and Gen Con, as well as tips for going to other cons this summer.
We answer questions like: What’s it really like to go to a live show? Is the VIP package really worth it? and Should you wait in line for merch? These and other hard-hitting questions are covered by our correspondents in the field.
Gina returns as our guest host and we are joined by our special guest Sara, from Tales of Exandria.
We will also cover when too much tea was spilled and the C4 announcement was spoiled. What do we think is in store for Campaign 4? All this and more in this Bonus Action episode of Critical Role Models!
Follow Gina @pixiegiftfashions
Follow Sara @talesofexandria
Con Debrief: 2:35
Indy Live Show Debrief (No Spoilers): 31:16
C4 Announcement: 54:56
Mighty Nein Animated Series: 1:17:19
For the final episode of our second season, Josh sits down with special guest Scott Mayfield to discuss Brennan Lee Mulligan, one of Critical Role's most famous guest stars.
We discuss how Brennan helps his players create rich, compelling PCs, how he manages rapid shifts in tone and how his understanding of the PCs motivations lets him guide them through his campaigns.
**We also announce the winner of our Get Out the Vote Giveaway!! If you still haven't voted for us for Best Podcast Hosts, we kindly ask you go to www.critawards.org/ **
Time Stamps
00:00 Giveaway announcement, intro & crit role news
08:50 How Brennan hooks you
21:35 Quickly shifting tone
28:39 Creating rich PCs
41:16 Powerful thematic moments
1:13:28 Lighting round: Matt vs Brennan comparison
1:26:40 BLMs impact on D&D
**We've been nominated for Best Podcast Host for this year's CRIT Awards. Please help us turn this award-nominated podcast into an award-winning podcast by going to critawards.org and voting for us now. You have until June 30 so don't delay. Thanks for your consideration!**
Ever wonder how you can make your own Cosplay? Or how about how to attend a Con and meet the cast of Critical Role? This episode has you rolling Insight with Advantage. Josh takes a break this episode as Gina from Pixiegift Fashions joins Dev as her sidekick. They interview and get lots of advice from special guest star, Taylor who is best known for her Scanlan cosplay. More recently, her Scantaur cosplay which was a hit in the Critter community. We hope this episode helps you feel more empowered this Con Season!
06:27 Critter Cosplay with Taylor
28:52 Cosplay Tips & Tricks
50:37 Content Creation Insight
01:14:38 In on the Con (Preparing for Conventions)
01:36:54 Final Con Takeaways
Follow Gina and their fashions at pixiegiftfashions on Instagram and TikTok.
Follow Taylor and her cosplay adventures including with her as Scanlan and her friend Mo as Pike at bravoalmara on Instagram and TikTok. And check out her podcast, One True Pair, on Spotify.
Villains beware cause you're bout to be dead! Bwahaha! We are covering several different aspects of villainry (see our timestamps below for the different topics) and we hope they give you some useful tricks when writing or designing your next BBEG!
Villains are not just for DMs! We discuss how players can create compelling villains in their backstory like Caleb's Trent Ikathon or Percy's Briarwoods. We also discuss useful play tips for taking down your DMs most dangerous bad guys.
Making a great bad guy is more art than science. We are lucky to have so many to learn from: Avantika, Obann, The Laughing Hand, Kevdak and Predathos (just to name a few).
2:42 - Crit Role News
7:38 - Intro to Villains
22:00 - Teasing Bosses
30:00 - Encountering the Boss
49:30 - Motivations
1:06:00 - Roleplay aka Dinner with the Devil
1:19:00 - Boss Fights
1:43:00 - Takeaways
Please consider nominating us for best new podcast (2 years or less) or best podcast hosts at https://www.critawards.org/ (Nominations are open until April 30th)
The Studio Binder video we reference on villain archetypes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZOEPpjll0U&pp=ygUWc3R1ZGlvIGJpbmRlciB2aWxsYWlucw%3D%3D
The article on DMing without plots: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots
Before the stream started, the party known as Vox Machina, was called The Sh*ts. Regardless of the name change, over the past ten years they have proven that they are still The Sh*ts (and we love that for them). A chaotic bunch of weirdos who somehow manage to save the world.
The first half of this episode we cover how far Critical Role has come, highlighting our favorite moments and some of the most impactful parts of their history.
The second half is our wrap up of Campaign 3, sharing our thoughts as we patiently wait for the next campaign.
How Far They've Come -- 12:00
Campaign 3 Wrap Up -- 58:00
Want to know how you can raise the stakes at your gaming table? Well you've come to the right place.
Join us and our guest Spencer Wight as we dive into a discussion of what kinds of stakes we see in TTRPGs and the best examples we could find from Critical Role.
We'll cover risking our lives, protecting the people we care about, losing our reputations and more!
Since the ep is pretty long, here are timestamps:
We hope you enjoy having Spencer on the show. We sure did!
Are you ready to unlock the power of your dreams? We are! Today we explore the potential of dreams & visions in Critical Role, showing examples that deal with the past, present and future.
As always, we cover tips for players & DMs for how you can include this in your games.
Since it's a longer episode, here are timestamps:
If you are able to support those in need from the LA fires, here are the links we mentioned:
Merry Critmas! This month's episode is a deep dive into a handful of heists across Critical Role's three campaigns. We talk about the naughty and the nice.
We break down the five elements of every heist and offer examples of how you can pull off burglaries and break-ins at your own table (in fiction of course).
This episode features the announcement of the winners of our holiday giveaway. We hope you enjoy!
We know it's a long episode, so here are approximate time stamps in case you are interested in a specific campaign. They all offer similar lessons.
P.S. We have a new segment, Critical Role News!! Let us know what you think in the comments. Should we keep it?
Happy Holidays!
In honor of International Games Month and the holiday season, we decided to focus on the games the cast plays as their characters.
From 'Bolder, Parchment, Shears' to 'Spin the Bottle' to the classic 'Rollies' we cover games from across the campaigns.
This episode has the most clips yet. Grab a set of dice and a friend while you listen, cause you're gonna want to play!
Boo! In this special Halloween episode we take one of Critical Role's scariest monsters: Hags!
In this very fun and spooky episode we discuss the origins of hags, how to roleplay a hag, how to make a deal, and how to survive your encounter with these dangerous fey.
We draw mostly on Campaign 2 with Dashilla, The Sea Fury and Isharnai, The Prism Sage, but also have an honorable mention of Nana Morri from Campaign 3.
We hope to assist you in roleplaying your hags (if you're a DM) and surviving your next encounter (if you're a player). If you like this episode let is know and leave a review.
P.S. check out @powerupcand20 on Instagram and their dice candy this holiday season
P.P.S. for more content follow us @criticalrolemodelspodcast on Instagram or TikTok
We're back! Our season premiere is coming at you with back-to-back episodes on Daggerheart, Critical Role's new gaming system. In this first episode, we play version 1.5 with a few of our friends who are also podcast contributors: Scott (guest star), Sarah (composer), and Spencer (future guest star).
Our one-shot explores the rules of Daggerheart and to try out the mechanics. Be prepared for lots of role play!
On the run from some gym rats who want to turn our fungril companion into muscle powder, we find our band of unlikely heroes in the town of Hush where they try to take some respite...
Josh is the Game Master.
Dev plays Bubbie, the Halfling Guardian.
Scott plays Dave, the Elven Bard.
Sarah plays Skye, the Katari Rogue.
And Spencer plays Corgan, the Fungril Druid.
Our second episode in our Season 2 premiere is a debrief on Daggerheart. We invite Scott Mayfield back to discuss what we thought of this new gaming system. Topics include character creation, combat, and mechanics we'd adopt into other systems. As always, we include lots of clips from Critical Role!
Let us know in the comments if you'd like us to do a part 2 of our actual play.
Follow us on Instagram at criticalrolemodelspodcast.
Follow Scott at skawtsalot.studio.
And big thank you to Sarah Vinci for the refinement of our podcast music.
Check out this short trailer to learn the changes we have for this upcoming season, our production schedule and refresh on who we are. Enjoy!
In the final episode of our season, we talk about rebuilding trust and improving teamwork. After the tumult of conflicts and betrayals, the resolution we want to see is a party who can overcome their differences and work as a team.
We highlight some of Critical Role's best examples of teamwork across all three campaigns and showcase how Critical Role brings vulnerability and trust to their stories.
We hope it'll inspire you for your own games! Enjoy, and see you in the fall for season 2. Follow us on IG at criticalrolemodelspodcast for updates until then.
In our penultimate episode of the season we are stabbing you in the back with betrayal! We focus on the betrayals in Campaign 3, specifically in two categories: guest character betrayal and player character betrayal. We will cover up to episode 81 for anyone concerned about spoilers.
We chose Campaign 3 because every character has the potential to betray the party, making it extra juicy for us to talk about. Betrayal can bring a lot of drama to your table, so we hope you enjoy!
Do you remember when Grog attacked Percy over a skull? How about the infamous bowlgate? This week we start our three-episode series on player character conflict and resolution, and we kick it off with a bang with Conflict!
We have lots of great content and clips from all three campaigns, so you are in for a longer episode, but boy is it chock full of goodness!
We break down the elements that drive conflict and discuss techniques for safely approaching intra-party conflict at your table. So, get your boxing gloves on, it's time to fight!
This is the last part in our Religion and Deities series with Ryan McLaughlin from D&D for the Deconstructed. We consider and discuss a world without gods mostly pulling examples from Critical Role's current campaign.
SPOILER WARNING: This will spoil up to episode 65 of Campaign 3.
You can follow D&D for the Deconstructed on IG at forthedesconstructed and find their podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts.
Ryan McLaughlin from D&D for the Deconstructed is back for part 2 in our series on Religion and Deities.
This episode we are going to talk about Matt's view of the Gods in Exandria and we'll also focus on three different characters from Campaign 2, examining their relationships to divinity.
This is a longer episode. We hope you enjoy the rich, theological discussion and connections to Critical Role. And maybe it will even inspire future characters and campaigns for you and your friends.
You can find D&D for the Deconstructed on Apple Podcasts and follow them on IG @forthedeconstructed.
Ryan McLaughlin from the D&D for the Deconstructed podcast joins us for a three-part series on religion & deities.
In this episode, we set the tone for the series by talking about how D&D can be a cathartic experience and used as therapy.
Ryan provides an overview of D&D and religion, and shares his own experience using D&D to address religious trauma.
This episode is light on Critical Role connections, but we dig deeply into Vax's arc from Campaign 1 in the latter half of the episode.
You can find Ryan's podcast on Apple here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/for-the-deconstructed/id1710075757
In Homebrew Pt 2, we discuss monsters, magic items and classes, how to create your own and how Critical Role creates theirs.
We talk about the aeorian baby abomination, Grog's cursed sword and our favorite classes from Critical Role. Which one would you play?!
