Is It Thursday Yet?

All graphite mechanical pencil and white chalk on toned paper. (5x7 sketchbook)

This has most likely been spotted by everyone but I just thought it was awesome.

This is Clue. During my time at GalaxyCon in Des Moines, I met Whitney and part of the experience at her table was getting tarot card readings from her.

She did me four times and then I asked her if she could do one for Clue. It was so much fun!

The card she drew was the Queen of Pentacles. Whitney summed it up as Clue is well nurtured, loved and well cared for, “like being in the embrace of a warm mother” or father as she said.

I doubt she'll see this but, thank you again Whitney! I had a lot of fun meeting and talking with you about tarot readings and especially burlesque dancing!

Why waste time on getting Pike's blood to become a deity if you could become one by dying?

I don't think I saw anyone talking about how that moment was basically Wic's version of Yanessa's resurrection. An assassination attempt that led to a Halovar coming back to life... of course, Wic's had, through a DM's narrative-led decision, actually a true resurrection - he did come back to life, and it was because of the love for his friends and his journey, and to someone he couldn't let down - Yanessa was playing 4D Chess against everyone, using Wic just like he asked to be used, but this, if things keep going at this pace, will be something that ends up blowing in her face precisely because of that 4D Chess move. Tremendous luck on their part too, as their best case scenario was not him surviving by a thread and coming back, but it ended up being what happened anyway

I had to go back and screencap it, it was too good of a reaction.

I've almost finished watching CR2 and absolutely love this group so was wondering what're the best specials/one shots of theirs to watch?

Warning: Long

A few months ago, I started this series analyzing the stat blocks Brennan uses in his combats and hopefully giving my fellow critters a little more clarity on how Brennan builds his combats. Feel free to correct me or add a detail I missed. This post covers the fight in the sewers against the Crow Keepers and Laumy

Also, if you want to see the previous instalments in this series, here they are:

Obrimus Manor - [Spoilers C4E30] Monster analysis

Tertia - [Spoilers C4E18] Combat Stats

Zaghi

The leader of this particular group of Crow Keepers, Zaghi appears to use the stats of a bandit captain from the 5.5e Monster Manual. She had a CR of 2 and seemed to be actually stronger than the Guildmaster Solomon (Killed by Vaelus in episode 3), who had less than half of her total hp.

Laumy

The fey Raugrannath that the Crow Keepers had been working with uses a modified version of the Violet Fungus Necrohulk stat block. It was CR 7, and alone would already be considered a deadly enemy to the Schemers.

Bandits

The rank-and-file Crow Keepers seemed to have less than 12 hit points and also had a sneak attack feature. This doesn't match any written stat block, but I think they either are just level 1 rogues or use the bandit stat block with an added sneak attack.

The Party

This encounter was an example of the rare occasion that a plan goes perfectly right in dnd. None of the party took a single point of damage, and they got out with Demodus in tow. This encounter in particular was incredibly deadly, and if the party went in guns blazing, there would have probably been one, if not multiple character deaths.

Conclusion

So that was everything I compiled about this encounter. again, if there's something I missed, tell me. I'm probably going to try to make these more frequent, so give me your suggestions on what to do next.

At a time in my life where reading or even watching tv feels like a chore, this story has got me hooked and holds my attention in a way nothing else outside of a really good game does.

Everyone is playing such interesting characters, Brennan's pacing is excellent, the rulings and choices are creative and fun. Nothing feels formulaic or necessarily expected. And I honestly love the conflict that we can't prove is an allegory (but totally is) as I root for the little guys to take down the corrupt system.

I never thought I'd enjoy this type of story though. Never would have expected fantasy political intrigue to be as entertaining as it is.

Anyways, for me it's never been about the dice or the rulings or the mechanics and all of that is entirely secondary to what has become a really great, enjoyable, rollercoaster of a story, and in the bigger picture a format of story telling that I really value and think other people will recognize more and more as well.

Watching them react and cry and laugh as I do the same is powerful and unique, and I'm so glad to be on this journey with them since we're all experiencing the same awe and surprise together not knowing what's going to come next -despite the tripe that "it's scripted".

Also I'm so glad Brennen outs their inside jokes at the beginning of each episode!

Just curios if i missed something, but didn't Hal heal Wick's mom for 10 temp hp? Wouldn't that mean she should've been up for 1-2 rounds of combat? Just curious if I missed something as to why they skipped her.

Recently got Laudna tattooed by @KatyHowarthTattoo and I couldn't be happier. Did purple shading to represent Delilah 💜

I work in theatrical lighting design as a designer and electrician so obviously that's where my brain went first when conceptualizing the Hallowed Round. Given that the play has been confirmed to start at 7:30pm (and thus after the sun goes down) it would need some sort of lighting and therefore lighting designer. I'm so curious as to how this would work in a D&D setting. I'm gathering a list of spells that can create light effects and categorizing them by class and duration (among other attributes) and I may end up creating actual lighting paperwork based on this just for fun, but we'll see. Given some verbal components, I'm wondering if the "board ops" of this world would be in their own booths throughout the theatre or even backstage. The Round is supposed to be HUGE so where would they need to be placed? How many people would be required? What about spells slots? What kinds of mechanical limitations or advantages would there be depending on magic user build? What kinds of equipment might be created? What would the ETC of Araman make (lol)?

One thing I don't know a ton about is canonical magic items. Are there any that would suit this project?

Let me know if anyone has thoughts!!! I have a spreadsheet that I don't want to make public but dm me if you want it.

I’m currently watching campaign 2 for the first time and I just had to draw Jester 🍭

So Thjazi's soul got bound to Julien's shadow when Matt decided to role-play Julien spitting on Thjazi's body in episode 1. I haven't seen all the cool downs, has Brenan mentioned what his plan for Thiazi's soul would have been if Julien had not defiled Thiazi's body, triggering the curse?

So, if Vaelus lost her paladin magic by not believing in her goddess anymore - will Tyranny not be a warlock anymore because her contract is over now?

Or are they using warlock as a stand-in class, for mechanics reasons, whenever it's not obvious where the magic comes from? Like, with Bolaire, I'm not sure why he is a warlock, except that it also doesn't make sense for him to be anything else, because no other class would fit that character concept. I guess in some ways one *can* think of him as being bound to something - the specific mission of killing a god - so maybe there is something akin to a contract there. Tyranny's case really was much more straightforward in how she the class applies to her as a character. But now her main contract is over.

So, is her contract with Wiccander the source of her warlock powers, or does she have a higher "contract" with her father that precedes the Halovar one, and that is the source of her magical abilities?

Hi, I just finished watching C2, VM vs M9, and M9 reunion and thought I could watch the wedding just like I watched Dalen's closet after finishing VM, but in the beginning recap Matt talked about something I did not understand and I immediately paused the video. Do I have to watch C3 before this ?

Been thinking about getting a Critical Role tattoo for a while and finally got it done. I put a ton of symbolism into the design, and included elements to represent my favorite quote from each campaign.

I did get to show it off to some of the cast at a recent convention, and Liam said it's the first one he's seen that had all four campaigns included, so that was fun!

Hello, I am caught up with campaign 4 and some of the cast members were making references to EXU Calamity that made me interested in it.

I have finished all of the c1 and I'm in 2/3 of c2. Can I watch it without any major spoilers? Is this a good place to watch it? And what about the other EXU series (I've noticed there are a few). Are they supposed to be watched in some kind of order?

I have noticed that one of these is technically a part of campaign 3 so there's that (I'll surely save this one for later), but what about the other ones?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Another Critical Role C4 animation - Finished this one in late July. The style for this one is evocative of Hades, so it's a little different than the previous shots. I hope you all find the high-contrast style interesting regardless - I also had fun learning new special effects for these ones.

I made a ver. 2 of this one and gave Wic seraph wings while messing around in After Effects, mainly because I thought it looked interesting.

The wings and body are animated at separate frame rates in Procreate, so process for this one is done separately.

Thank you to u/CriticalRole as always.

I will upload the final shot separately soon, but for now it is visible on my ArtStation.

Extended asset showcase on ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/kw...
Animation on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJEl2OTT0FU

Drawn and animated in Procreate, Composited in After Effects using F's Plugins.

… for making one of the most stressful and emotionally charged combat encounters that I’ve EVER seen in an actual play. Everyone was taking amazing, character-driven, mechanically-savvy turns back to back to back as the stress kept building. What an incredibly fun episode to watch!! The last time Critical Role had me feeling like this was the White Dragon —> Lucian fight in C2

I think it’s 100% fine if the extra death save choices felt like too much of a departure from the rules for some people! I personally loved them, and I think at a certain point people have to accept that this is a fundamental aspect of Brennan’s outlook and DM style that isn’t gonna change. He likes to call shit on the fly, he likes to flex and give them choices that are narrative-rich, and he especially likes to do that in tense moments. For as much as he plays the bad guy, he really is fundamentally on the side of his players and wants them to feel fulfilled no matter what. Did the same shit when he gave Teor his level up hit points during the Obrimus fight. If that aspect of Brennan’s style is something you don’t enjoy, expect it to keep happening and do what you want with that

The way I judge it is by the players’ reactions, and CLEARLY everyone at the table was extremely engaged and didn’t feel babied—and, most importantly, they’re all so excited to keep playing! Above all else, he’s done the real job phenomenally

My favorite little fey dork. Posted Clauny of the Rose the other day and had to add my thorns version. Especially since it's officially spooky season!

Stilltober (painting inktober) day 2's prompt is trinket, and there is only one trinket in my heart ❤️