Storytime with Matt Mercer | PAX Unplugged 2023

packs attendees please welcome to the stage our storytime keynote speaker Matthew Mercer hi everyone holy [ __ ] [Applause] hey my goodness I have a limited time to talk which is probably for the best I think um hello there everybody uh why the hell am I here well my name is Matthew Mercer I am a voice actor in cartoons and video games some examples of some of the characters that I voed for those who aren W um but I'm am also a dungeon master for a bunch of other nerdy ass voice actors on a show called critical role um these people are the dearest people in my life outside of my family even that's kind of rivaling quickly mom and dad got to really step it up this past next year um but as part of this presentation I've never done a speaking scenario like this talk about myself on stage it's my least favorite thing in the world is to talk about myself in front of people so I'm here I'm sleep deprived and it's going to get weird um but I'm thankful to be here and I'm here because of these wonderful people these individuals I've had the opportunity to collaborate create with and as part of the theme of building this out I also asked all of them to engage in a trust exercise exercise with me uh there are certain slides in this presentation where I left them blank and asked them each to choose an image to send to my wife Marisha and yesterday she snuck them in without me seeing them so as they arise hopefully they'll fit the theme um but anyway once again why am I here I love games and tabletop RPGs uh these games made me who I am today uh they brought me my found family not just the people you just saw on the screen but I mean to an extension you folks here like this is my community and uh they I genuinely believe they've taught me to be a better person and I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think I'm not the only one here that feels the same way about your experience here so this event kind of really is a culmination of what that community means I've been going to conventions since I was extremely young and they've been a a part of my pretty much entire format of life and this event is a celebration of passion in games and passion in community and sharing and creating stories and experiences together collaboratively competitively challenging each other to be better that is what this is about and I'm so glad and so proud and so honored to be your storytime speaker at this event so thank you for having me um so as part of this presentation let's embarrassingly follow my journey and hopefully some of it will resonate with yours uh little asteris on that I've never made a PowerPoint before uh I've learned how to do this for this and part of the inspiration for this was finding a bunch of old photos and art for my childhood is of late and figured why not if I'm going to be here let me embarrass myself thoroughly in public um so that all being said oh it's going to be like this okay let's begin with Origins and Inspirations everyone comes from somewhere even small tortoises have to have some origin story and like these two love birds one that seems far more into it than the other uh I started somewhere as a little baby I'm going to go on Lim here and say most of you did too and if not I want to hear that story that's going to be real interesting um but as I grew up even in my young years there were certain things that come into your life that changed the trajectory of what excites you for me it really began with a Nintendo this was an experience that completely consumed me to a frustrating degree for teachers my parents to uh many other people I'm sure in my life still do this day uh but this this love affair with gaming really kind of enthralled me and and brought a new form of interactive storytelling that I had no idea existed before uh two formative games at the time that really changed that for me on top of that were Dragon Warrior and the first Final Fantasy game which in hind had I looked back and like oh had spell slots there's a lot of was actual like mind flares in there I wonder where they got their inspiration but nevertheless these games consumed me at the time and really kind of uh set the path for a lot of my life to go forward um of course when you're young and you find points of inspiration you also get creative uh and so I've had the pleasant experience of going through some of my old drawings which I get to share with you today uh starting with this wonderful drawing of what I assumed to be Egon Spangler from The Real Ghostbusters gased on the hair flip uh just slaughtering bloody the Stay Puff but thankfully he's been disarmed his massive Glock uh by what looks like a flying tricycle uh so inspiration starts in strange places nevertheless but as it progressed you know the Nintendo reference and Nintendo inspiration definitely continued you could see this early you know interpretation of Bowser I even got the axe on the battlefield I wanted to be accurate at that age um but my Mario drawings got better with time eventually upgrading to one of the greatest games of the NES era um this also works as a great mood board uh I'm Peach right now if you can't tell from the expression that dear headlights uh presentation um until eventually my Sonic the Hedgehog era the Genesis upgrade was amazing to me uh I also had a unique sense of humor as the years go on that you get to figure out the [Laughter] strange and sometimes darker facets of my early artwork A lot of those parent teacher discussions are making a lot more sense in hindsight uh um but nevertheless art was a big part of my life growing up I Lov to draw I did it all the time in class out of class but of all the things I drew the continuous theme was Monsters creatures demons dragons odd beasts you could see I was in my McFarland life ELD era on that one by the lack of understanding of musculature um but this was everything that I drew pretty much uh all through artart school and high school and uh one person that picked it up at a young age was This Woman This is my granny uh she passed on I was about 10 but in the years that we had together when I was young she was the cool granny this this wonderful woman that lived off in the mountains of Georgia just outside of Helen uh in a cabin had a hard life and an even harder marriage but the escapism she found was through novels books stories and Nintendo games we would trade Nintendo games whenever I'd go visit um but she at a younger age than my reading level could probably initially get but it gave me a reason to work towards introduced me to reading so when I was eight these were the first three books she gave me um I'm extremely grateful and it took a few readings to pick up all the nuances at that age um but these radically uh expanded my brain even further like on top of what the limitations of the era of gaming this was worlds that I could lose myself in through somebody else's lens uh in hindsight some of it doesn't hold up quite as well appears Anthony uh his interpretation of female empowerment doesn't really hold scrutiny as well these days but nevertheless these were formative at that era um and it all eventually led to this my my drawings as they progressed uh my mother found this at a garage sale so that's the best play to go and you don't have a lot of money and you need presents for your kids it's great um and this she saw it and was like this is exactly what Matt needs didn't have any other books but I didn't need it it was just drawings of creatures to certain dubious degrees of quality um but the stories that came with them the the myths of where where they exist in the world and how they interact with each other and numbers that I didn't get yet but it was cool that somebody thought of that um [Laughter] but what I was lacking at the time was Community much like Han here I stood on the outside of other people enjoying moments of bonding and connection and yet I couldn't find a way to get in so being a solitary kid through a lot of my earlier in mid school years I was introverted I just kind of Drew to myself on the side I um you know tried to express what I could to help kids in class but I had a hard time engaging because I didn't quite know where I belonged and where my interests connected um exactly I feel you buddy um when I got to high school that changed when I was introduced to the popular Arts Club in 199 6 to '97 some of you weren't born yet we're not going to go into that um the popular Arts Club was the cool presentational way of saying the nerdy anime video game club we had wonderful Invitational images on the outside of the club um and in these you know moments we'd get together in the middle of Club rush and have video game parties and contests and a lot of them break danced I did not get into that but they were awesome when they did it um you can see this is a nice bigger picture of some of the people that ran the club and this weird Little Nerd right there in the middle um but well thank you uh some things don't change um but it was these people that invited me to my very first session of Dungeons and Dragons they were the Elder classman seniors and juniors I was a freshman in high school and was like oh my God that book I had I can finally play it I can do this I immedately dove in and got a hands on a player's handbook and started building out my first character ameritus Trent which is a name I took exactly from Pierce Anthony Zan series because your first character is largely ripped off of things you know um notice here uh his family is [Applause] slain it's the hardest thing to be a parent in a fantasy world apparently um also uh Second Edition D and D for those who played it and know I also made the great combination choice of playing a wizard at first level with the militant wizard kit which means the only benefit you get is your wizard can now swing a sword cuz nothing's greater than a first level Wizard and second edition D and D in the front lines um but the game wasn't clicking for me the story wasn't investing me the while they were great to invite me their idea of gameplay was less about story and world and and immersiveness and uh you know great heroic charges and more about just messing around and you know pinching the bar made and rolling 2 D12 barbarians and jump out of a bush and you're like okay so I I got disinterested in it for a bit and so my parents seeing this surprised me oh yeah I me just restarted uh Dragon so I get rank the whole story plot around my little that's why I didn't want you to quit man I was like no [Music] was no guft work in this game monstrous manual nice and sleek black color too better than the white that everyone else has it's rock is that the right one yeah it's the right one but the one I have upstairs is the outdated version already oh okay so uh radically changed the trajectory of my life in a lot of ways that we know now at the time was just excited to now build my own worlds and craft a a game experience in the way that I wanted to experience it and give that to the people I cared about so I invited my friends to join my campaign and we were Off to the Races ran campaign that summer ran another campaign and then I began to meet other friends that also were into other games I realized oh there's other systems than DND D and thus became the summer from The Dungeons master guide to a whole plethora of interesting game experiences uh got to talk to my history teacher Mr Busby about Shadow run and he lent me the book as well as the Amber diess role playing game and the accompanying fantasy novel series it was great Marvel Super's Advance said dead age well over time but I love the hell of it when I was a kid gerps is is a wonderful step in the direction of wild options and choices that culminated with Rifts Now Kevin S created the most incredible kitchen sink RPG system for a teenage boy in the 9s it it was like certain games could focus on genre or we could just genre anything you want what do you want to be do you want to be a giant cyborg with a massive chainsaw sword yeah go for it you want to be an awesome lelay line Walker who can control magical energies in the spirit of great sagely magicians go for it you want to be a mystical cyber Knight that travels around with his laser sword amongst the the the planets and the Starscape go for it you want to go ahead and be a guy in giant glittery power armor with a rail gun on his shoulder sure glitter boy up that's great you want to be whatever um whatever that is be my guest want to be a [ __ ] minmaxer and pulling the warmwood book and everyone just makes APO you know who you are and I'm judging you little side note on here so Rifts was uh an an incredible game in a lot of ways uh challenging when not run by the right kind of people um but we got through a bunch of half campaigns I think my friend Ian tried to make uh s Goku from Dragon Ball in there like way overpowered my friend Gavin tried to make Solid Snake which just having SDC weapons meant he was useless um it it was a lot of fun but it was a challenge system in some ways but my friend Todd had all the books like all of them and he was convinced he's like this is the greatest system in the world because all of this is compatible and he like challenged us to find a better system and so we're like okay you're saying all this is compatible right like yeah it's the plaum universe baby it's all compatible like okay and it's not broken no well they did have the Robotech role playing game in there we were being anime fans were like well they have the Robotech game they must have the sdf-1 which is this massive city-sized battle cruiser now the thing about Rifts is the numbers got ridiculous when it came to Galactic scale combat uh you'd have weapons on massive can that would do 1 D4 * 1 million Mega damage but everything was numerical in value except for one that we found for the damage on the primary weapon of the sdf1 had no numerical value it just absolutely destroys everything in its path of fire two miles wide by the way so we made a plan we hi jacked the sdf-1 and then we said what's another book in the plaum universe the pantheons book which had stats for all different pantheons some that are really problematic looking back on the book um but you could they had hit point values for Thor and you know Marduk and like all these different gods out there with absurd hitpoint values you're not supposed to kill them but when your laser destroys Absolut everything in its path think we wiped out half the north Pantheon before he was like all right fine you win and we stopped playing um anyway all that being said finding these communities and these people began to really inspire me and we began to share our stories through this discovered community and that that was an amazing thing that transformed my life in ways that even I wasn't preparing at that young age and that brought me into theater I didn't I went from this shy kid and through playing these games and running these games I began to grow more comfortable with performing these characters and finding weird voices and physicality and all of a sudden I was coming out of my shell in ways I never thought I could and so I began to do theater in call and and and then I go to college sadly um but in high school and outside of high school in community theater and uh also I was a big fan of anime uh that got heavily into my life and it was through these Inspirations that I began to discover other other conventions for the first time or a convention Anime Expo oh my god there are people there that are into the same stuff I am this is this is amazing the community swelled even further let me preface this Halloween is a very important thing in my family we went hard on Halloween uh all manner of interesting costumes from a very young age uh the early Legend of Zelda years to my maggus from Chrono Trigger in high school to even my for seph to lagona Final Fantasy 8 you can see where a lot of the gaming inspiration continued from there but Halloween was super important to me and I went to this convention and people were dressed up in costumes in July I can do this other days of the year this is incredible and so I began to take this kid this nerdy high schooler and started finding a new community by destroying hotel rooms throughout the night in preparation last minute that I didn't prepare for a photo shoot that they brought me into a week before um but began to make costumes of some of my favorite characters this is my cloud Stripes my Sethro uh I fell in love with the craft of these these costumes is another expression of fandom but it also met so many wonderful people through this yeah also got some weird stuff too uh uh but there's something about the the Challen bringing these characters to life and then finding other people to do the same and get together and just be nerds at a convention together and do photos and like hang out and get caught in the blizzard snowstorm at katsucon for 4 days where you can't escape um getting to have like video game tournaments and hotel rooms like my whole sense of community just exploded suddenly I felt that a little Alone kid back in the day was not just not very alone but was surrounded by so many people that were passionate in the ways that I was and that gave me a growing sense of community that I never realized I needed more than anything and these friends are still some my favorite friends to this day and like any good friends if I love them I'd run a game for them and that was how they knew I cared and in those moments that's where you truly bonded together another thing you learn through gaming is preparation much like how Sonic has to prepare himself by devouring enough calories to get him enough speed to go as fast as he's got to preparation is a wonderful tool set for many facets of life that running games and playing games teaches you without you even realizing now I'm a big fan of the adage luck is when preparation meets opportunity and through some of the experiences of my my life in my fandoms I didn't realize how much of this was preparing me for another path in my life becoming a dungeon master got me into the Arts and also filled this whole spectrum of voices and dialects and accents and character personalities that I could just jump into and inhabit comfortably and I also liked anime or video games this could possibly lead to something else and so I thought of this possibility of VoiceOver being a thing I could go into and I look back now and see how much gaming and the community around me prepared me to embark on this endeavor to take it seriously and also have a lot of Baseline skills that I could hone through training to really take into that space because it's intimidating this is my first day on my very first big pray animation project my first day of recording for the 2011 Thundercats where I voed Tigra wonderful show didn't get as long a run as it deserved um but I walked into this room with Titan of the industry Uh Kevin Michael Richardson who is one of the most incredible voice actors in the industry you look him up and you're like oh he's been in everything will frell who is Lio in the series uh it is being directed by Andre Romano who is one of the most prominent voice directors in history she directed Animaniac she directed Batman animated series uh she she is incredible and I was so nervous in the first few sessions that I found out later on they almost recast me in that but in taking it seriously and falling back on kind of that training and once the Comfort got in there and the sense of community that the other actors provided by about the fourth recording session they like oh there he is went back and we recorded those sessions and it worked out great but a lot of these skills all just came from gaming in the people around me both in theater and at my table rolling dice uh here's wolf forell there in the recording booth I remember him joshing me a little bit about uh role playing games and I invited him to play D and D and he's like I don't play D and D maybe one day but I did find out he's a huge advocate for fantasy and fantasy novels and so we bonded heavily over that as the years go on we became very very close friends and I adore him immensely um and he's but one of many many people that those weird little skills that I learned through gaming ended up bringing me the community that is now the most important thing in my life now whether you're a jam or a player you never know what the other will throw at you so you prepare where you can otherwise you have to learn about adaptability sometimes life takes you on a fun Journey with an abrupt stop and you have to learn to Pivot twist and land softly or at least have a friend nearby to hear your cries to take you to the hospital one of the things that gaming teaches us and many of you know is how to adapt on the Fly whether that be uh crafting a story at the table with your friends and making choices uh combat and tactics is a big thing about learning to adapt having to have a plan going in and once that plan begins to fail or change how to throw it out the window and come up with something else in the fly whether it be by yourself like in the cases of wargaming uh which I got heavily into uh fantasy Warhammer in high school had a break for a while they got heavily into war machine this was actually my meno Army that I painted back in the day uh me and Marisha play this extensively uh in the earlier days of our relationship and let me tell you there's nothing more bonding than you and your significant other uh angrily beating each other at a war game and arguing over rules um but these this is another classic example of of tabletop gaming teaching you how to change things on the Fly how to think tactically but also be willing to shift at a moment's notice um some games might be a little more intricate than what I'm used to uh but those of you that can there there is incredibly uh important things to learn from these extensive gaming experiences uh in our house we have a spectrum uh we adore things like the sweet cozy experience of the stardo valley game and the dark nightmares experience of Kingdom Death monster um all of these offer many different kinds of uh tactical adaptive experiences that help us when what life just throws stuff at you when people throw things at you you just kind of learn to bend with it you know uh much like the Mad um and also teach you the P paper that can adapt on your back if you go into a Nerf war now another important factor that gaming has taught me is collaboration for when you're all alone you end up looking around yourself with no one to grasp no one to hold on to as they Rush away and you're left dribbling and spinning with no moring to hold you still thanks Ashley but through collaboration you really can find ways to do something together that is incredible and larger than the sum of what one person can do these dice have told so many stories for so many people and have really taught me that my favorite experience are the ones that I make with others um through the years it has definitely been a love language to the people I care about these are the minis I painted for the campaign before Vox makina where I met Luise carazo some of you may know from some of the stuff on on online um there's me running our game there on the lower left with that early group where was code dming which was fun I've also Run games at meltdown for newcomers and friends it's it's just how I show my love to people that I care about or people that I know would enjoy this experience and I want to get to know better because there's no faster way to find find out if a person can really engage with you as a friend and even as a collaborator in the future than to have them sit at a table and roll some dice whether it be board gamings or tabletop role playing games it's also a breeding ground for Mutual inspiration by meeting other creators in the space this is Markum some of you may recognize him from high rollers a wonderful British DM uh I've known him for 15 years met him through cosplay Anime Expo that's I'm holding the original Pike Min we were still playing at home as before we even started streaming I've known Mark for so long we would go to conventions together we would whenever he would come to La he'd stay with me and I'd run games for him whenever I'd go to the UK he'd you know Run games for me this is been a long time uh pen pal romance um and he also we get tired after playing a lot and I have a weird collection of pictures with them passing out in public spaces usually after a long night of drinking because that's what you do apparently in Britain is you just drink a lot um nevertheless it's also gaming is a shortcut to forging bonds with like-minded creators I began to find people through my game GES and from The Shining Community to make things uh in media I began to direct web series like there will be brawl I directed this Noir crime drama version of the Smash Brothers Universe in like 2009 uh where I actually technically first played Ganondorf uh uh as well as directing a comedy kind of uh John Hughes High School version of The Game of Thrones Universe uh and these were all just people that I met either through extended Community or gaming and then brought them in through games to become closer friends and many of them are still some my best friends to this day uh these people here uh have through the experience of voice over in the industry become the strongest collaborators in my life um and it's all because they went on a whim for this dude they met in a couple of projects they worked together who was like hey you want to be nerdy and roll some dice and they went yeah okay except for talison I've known him forever he's know he's been around for forever um one of the wonderful things that games enables is creation together or as an individual much like how much like how it took a lot of technology to put this Relic into a scanner to recreate its mouth to make all sorts of odd noises ah uh I don't even I don't even know how to put that one in there thanks Liam you're the one you're the one that got me uh but being empowered to create I think is one of the most magical things about tabletop games especially RPGs um it's where you get your friends together and out of the ether you prepare what you can through preparation and then then abandon it through adaptability and then suddenly you are just crafting something as one and that is a series of memories that you hold on to the rest of your life there are moments in home games and I'm sure many of you have the same for your side where I don't think of it like the time we were at a table and playing a game I remember it like we were all there we recollect it like remember when I tumbled off the side and barely grabbed the edge and you caught my arm you looked me in the eyes and said if you go we both go but Nei of us are going and you pulled me up on the side you're like oh my God that was such a cool moment thank you for that and anybody in the other of the room be like where do you go on your vacations holy [ __ ] like you know you are you creating stories but you're creating memories that are visceral and real and that's why the bonds are so strong that's why the the people that you invite to these spaces uh and engage Within These spaces are are an incredible Community to behold um this year are people who are filling these halls with Creations as businesses people that were inspired by this growing industry to go out there and create books to create dice to create Terrain to create board games and experiences because this is their passion and here at events like PA they can bring it here and hope that you will engage with it so please do but even outside of the Commerce aspect of it all of you at these game taes at this convention are creating this entire weekend you are crafting those memories you are finding those friends and you'll be telling Tales from this weekend years to come to certain people about what you're about to do this weekend that is the empowerment of Creation in ways that we don't expect and I think that is so important as far as creating yourself and for World building as well this is a term that I've come to love sa which is coined by John K in about 2012 the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one's own in which they are the central characters and others including oneself have secondary or insignificant roles everyone you meet that person at the gas station the person that's crossing the street the person that's yelling at you as you accidentally step in front of their you know you know shopping cart they all have lives that are as intricate and as deep and as valued as your own they have passions they have wants they have fears they have goals and that is a wonderful outlook for life in general to just extend empathy and sympathy to the world around you um it's also an important tool for World building and creating in your own world when I create elements of exandria that is something that I try and keep in mind when I think of you know the simple stable hand or the you know lowly gong farmer if you know what a Gong farmer is look it up um each one of these people even if it's just an instant thought they're more than just their job they're more than just their attempt to make money and get by those little thoughts help you instinctively build a more robust world that both is more immersive for you and more invested in by you but anybody else that steps in even the most inspired or like offhand NPC you've had to create unexpectedly taking a moment to just write down something fun about their life outside of what they do that's a wonderful hook that makes that character from two-dimensional to threedimensional immediately and I think that experience doesn't just help with in life but it's been something that I've taken with me in my form of creation and I hope that many of you also try it out if you hav't it's a wonderful exercise that extended in the rest of your experiences in the world can be very very positive um all of you are going to be doing this this weekend I challenge you to keep saund in mind for every person you want to invite to a game to interact with on the show floor to uh even have a a bad experience with you know who who knows they might be having a bad day you know doesn't mean you have to be around them then as longer than you need to but ass sending that little bit of Grace every person has their own challenges their own Joys and I think even looking at this room and I'm sure many of you at home that are watching online like uh being able to extend that sort of empathy to someone new or old is an incredible experience and allows for these experiences at the table to be more robust longlasting memorable and wonderful so finally winding down this Meandering ramble in conclusion in conclusion I'm a huge nerd there you go that's I think it's pretty much the the final theme there uh um so yeah I'm passionate about games I'm passionate about Community I'm passionate about conventions fostering community and I'm excited to be here with you all I'm excited that you came and uh uh for the rest of this panel experience uh let's have a little sit down and chat uh have some questions that the community submitted and I'm going to bring out on stage here if you could please welcome the wonderful Anna procer to have the conversation with me hey Matt this is our living room now hello everyone I am uh I've decided my official title is uh Arbiter of queries today yes ARB of qu These Fine people and those of the internet have submitted questions for you Matt the first one is Alvin from Williamsburg wants to know how do you beat writers block how do you beat writers block oh oh tell us the audience say the billion dollar question for anybody to have a true answer for for um I mean it's hard to to beat it it's more sidest stepping there's always things that for me at least and I can only speak from my experience there's always going to be blocks in certain eras I'm not the kind of person that can beat my head against a wall Until It Breaks um some people can do that and I respect the hell out of that but for me I need to change my atmosphere if I sit there and stare at a blank screen I'll I'll crumble so I will remove myself from my office I'll remove myself from the space of anxiety and take a walk I'll take a hike I'll uh music is a great way to take inspiration uh I have many soundtracks that are different moods and genres and I'll just walk with headphones in and just listen and try not to think on what I'm trying to do and just let my mind wander where it wants the music is a great way to kind of guide it on pads you weren't expecting um and walking to places you're unfamiliar with safely places that are safe um and with a friend is also great too um but uh just removing myself from the place of anxiety really helps kind of guide that forward um also consuming other media um if you're trying to do something that a particular type of story or particular type of genre or particular type of of uh writing experience consuming things that aren't like what you're doing but completely far removed I mean even like I mean I'll say I'm not a fan of of reality TV but every now and then me and M will sit down with some love is blind and just watch the worst of humanity uh and find the weirdest bits of inspiration from some of these interactions some of these minations that happen these show so like you never know you get inspiration but as I'm learning quickly as my life gets filled with responsibility progressively um there's only so much you can pour out of your cup unless you're filling it and so the writer block usually comes from you being on close to empty and you have to refill and that comes to just watching watching some shows watching some of your favorite shows watching shows that your friends recommend that you've never seen watching something that you think that would be I would never watch this you know at all but give it a shot and step outside of your comfort zone you you'd really be taken Back At One the things you engage with once you kind of let yourself step in for a bit and kind of Wade past the awkwardness of I don't think this is for me and they be like oh no this is actually pretty cool um so those are things that work for me usually uh and I hope they work for some of you as well followup question on that because I think all of us love finding inspiration in things like the games we watch the movies we watch shows and things how do you recommend someone takes inspiration when they might be worried about just carbon copying something it's a tough line um part of it would be asking other people you know hey is this too close having having somebody who isn't a yes you know person who can uh who you trust a friend who can be blunt and be like Ah that's pretty close you know it also helps outside perspective is great um also trying to trying to find inspiration and really find the the Nugget that excites you is it because of the overall story or is it a certain of that story and how can you take that and apply that to things that are radically different um and take it in a different direction um it's it's a tough balance I mean when you really break it down nothing is new everything is iterative human culture has been telling stories since it could tell and uh especially with the growth of media and accessibility of stories over the past 100 years um it's it's hard for anything to be truly unique I'm not saying it's impossible but everything usually is some sort of iterative combination of things that have come before whether intentional or not sometimes it's just happen stance you know great minds think Al like sort of a scenario so uh you have to be ready for that possibility that even a unique idea to you may have been done by somebody else in a certain way and that's okay as long as you acknowledge um and not you know hide yourself under plagiarism um but being but being conscious of that is very important and I think even the fact that you're thinking about it is a good sign but asking for outside uh uh perspective on it doing your research online you know go Google can be your friend if you have a cool idea for something and you want to move forward with it to like put in a few key words and see if other people have already done extensive works in the similar realm and if they have don't abandon it but see what things are too similar remove those and maybe step outside take a walk watch uh old Perry Mason episode and see if something from there takes it in a different direction that's holy unique you know my go that is the first time someone has mentioned Perry Mason in a panel like this and I'm just blessed I used to watch it before school in Middle School it would come out at like 5:30 6 in the morning wins every time yeah it's genius all right uh Albert from Connecticut wants to know what is your favorite character that you voiced in your entire life entire life [Music] Matt oh my goodness if that's too hard what's the first one that comes to mind it's tough ah the first the first one that comes to mind for many reasons uh is probably going to be Vincent Valentine on Final f 7 rebirth um one because it's a character that I adore in a game that formed a a lot of me as a teenager Final Fantasy 7 was a very very uh kind of world shattering game when it came out though I will say six I think has the better story for my tastes I think seven is overall presentational package was incredible and so being able to step into that role uh is is wonderful in its own right but also my dear friend Steve Bloom uh originated the character many years ago and so so it's also like you know having the torch pass to me from somebody that I deeply love and respect and kind of make it my own with his Blessing has been really really cool so I I'm I'm really excited for that do you want to do a line for the [Music] people Cloud how do you want to do this that's my little emo vampire boy the people are pleased X te from New York City asks how do you go about creating a convincingly evil yet unsympathetic character I'm assuming because you are not a convincingly evil and unsympathetic character how do you go about creating one I hope so tell me if it's otherwise um uh when when creating a character especially a prominent character in a story or a campaign uh uh to the same point of s from earlier like you have to really consider how they got there um why they believe the things they believe um strong convictions really drive a person of a an an amoral standpoint given a par particular standpoint uh in a story um and convincingly is that kind somebody who that conviction is the strongest thing to them uh is can make a very strong villain there's sympathy across the board for a lot of villainous characters if circumstances in the world have made them what they are and they accepted those circumstances they are then lashing out because of it or they've allowed it to change them in ways when they had the option to instead uh go a path of um support or a path of of growth and healing um but there's also narcissists and there are manipulators and there are people that are that have elements of sociopathy in the world I know because I've met them uh in Hollywood weird huh um you know I've I've had people in in in my world in the past that you know not close friends but but people around me that I I got to know and began to see very dark sides of them and there is there are facets of of especially that cross-section of of sociopathy and and narcissism is a very dangerous combination but I think that truly can drive a villain that hasn't been there can be aspects of how the world affected them but uh it's very hard to change to course correct somebody's beliefs and convictions when they only believe that they have an idea of what's right in the world and nobody nobody matters except for them that is a terrifying mindset and oddly not unfamiliar in a lot of large scale World politics yeah when you go about writing or acting as one of these characters what is it like slipping in and out of kind of inhabiting that character and how do you yeah how do you do it it's horrifying I particular NPC in our second critical Ro campaign named Trent eathan that yeah people don't know um who who who who is very much the definition of that a a a sociopathic narcissist um and is very deeply steeped in the history of trauma in one of our player characters backstories and I loved creating the character because he to the point of this question is a character that you love to hate um but then stepping into that role and having to kind of put myself in the mindset of those values in the mindset of those goals and and react appropriately to players interactions and and and you know arguments uh it's a unique acting challenge or a good debate challenge for me was ever in like Debate Club which I wasn't but M's really good at it I don't argue with her for many reasons um uh it's a good exercise but it if if you're a healthy person it also helps it feels good to step out of that and feel gross because you can see that separation between how you value the world and how they do um so yeah it's it's a fun exercise and it's a fun story element to bring up to your players to give them someone to really rally against um but it feels a little gross and uh and it should if it doesn't talk to your therapist Ambrose from South Jersey asks how much of a dream come true was it to play Minsk in balers Gate 3 oh my goodness so balers gate that's my favorite series of video games you know since I played the first 98 like I I loved those games I played through so many playthroughs um and Minsk was my favorite character Jim Cummings did such a wonderful job establishing this character all of my alert sounds on my computer for years were all different Minsk quotes so like I I've been suffused in the character and so when I had the opportunity to take that torch again it it was huge rck of nerves auditioning for it much like Vincent was and then when I accepted it it was like oh no oh no okay now I I got to do this now uh oh man uh and here's the thing Vincent is a character uh Persona that is a very smooth fit for me I I've I've played similar type characters and it can make it unique and tweak it and have all this you know history with kind of finding his subtle Dynamics and and exploring the breadth of his internal character through this and the next game um Minsk is such a wild specific Persona one that I know very well in hold deer but also know there's a lot of expectation behind it so I it was an extreme honor and a massive source of anxiety um and talking with laring it was great because uh not trying to do a direct impression you know uh but to take enough homage to what Jim had put before and then make the rest of it my own but still feel true to Minsk as we all both the folks at Larry and myself and hope the community feel uh was a really fun Challenge and exercise and I've I've loved every moment of it there's something about you know the opposite end of stepping into a terrible villain and feeling icky stepping in and out of mince you're like that was great here soad sords for everyone you know it's just it's great I'm curious because I think a lot of people would probably be surprised to know that you felt nervous or anxious about that as the accomplished voice actor and and Persona that you are so I'm curious when you do feel those kinds of nerves and anxiety how do you combat them that's a good question um they don't go away enough for me at least before every session we do for critical role I get nervous for about 30 minutes leading up to Backstage before this I was a wreck you know like I the nerves never go away for me it's pushing through it mhm cuz there is that instinct to just turn and run and there were times in my life where I did and I regretted them immensely and it for me it's be it's accepting the hum the humanity of trusting that people can see the nerves and identify with that then judge me for it that Mak sense totally um you know like thank [Music] [Applause] you it's a fear of failure and embarrassment is one of the large things that drives those sort of nerves and that's very human yeah um but if you're in a space with like-minded people um not always the case but when you are uh just acknowledging and and and embracing the fact that people are rooting for you you know like for for for auditions yeah I'm nervous for auditions but people aren't sitting there going like all right show me how bad you are so I can throw you into the wind like there most casting director want you to succeed because they're on a schedule to try and fill out their casting list the producers are breathing down their neck on and they want you to to do great so that you make them look great so the game does great like so everyone is cheering everyone else on and just trying to find the right fit and if you aren't the right fit that's okay too it doesn't mean you're bad it just means tapestry of all the casting didn't work out so like all these different things come together to try and help you understand that nerves are part of the experience but you still have to take that shot and what little bits Peak through people will still see like even when I was nervous for Thundercats they were like they could they could hear it and hope that as I GRE more comfortable it would eventually be okay and it was so that for me best answer is I'm still figuring it out uh and a lot of it a lot of it is just pushing through regardless I love what you said about thinking about other people wanting you to succeed too someone recently told me that the opposite of anxiety is trust and I think that's kind of beautiful I like that I feel like you have a really beautiful relationship with the people that are watching you you feel like you trust them a little bit more maybe yeah I think so uh that also you know spaces like this are that you know I I feel comfortable if this was a group of strangers and businessmen uh I I don't know I I'd be a leaf on the floor right now but like but but this feels different because you're my community they like I I care about this and you all care about this so much so uh that helps me get through the [Applause] nerves speaking of other games frisk from Ohio wants to know what non D and games do you find the most joy in ooh in general well I mean as far as like tabletop games stardo Valley and Kingdom Death monster uh Kingdom Death monster in particular was an obsession of mine over the pandemic partially because it's just this terrifying kind of Boutique horror game my friend Tom introduced to me and the minis are horrifying uh and I missed painting mini painting for me was a very Zen experience and as the world grows more anxious especially mid pandemic I I needed something to kind of Center myself and so this is a game that I can play with my wife uh was horrifying and and dark as it was but that's very much our aesthetic too and our joy um but also gave me a lot of things to paint uh and kind of bring to life through through my art and that that was something that I really fell in love with um so that's been a great joy um I I mean I I just love I love board games that I don't have to prepare as as as an eternal Jam it's nice to just jump in we also we just finally got our copy of Return To Dark Tower which is so much fun I'm playing that at home um and uh other small RPGs I me things we're developing at darington we get a test all the time and so that's been a lot of fun too uh didn't mean that'd be a plug but just like we are spending a lot of time doing that so um yeah I I I would wish I had more time to play more games there's so many wonderful ones out there and I get so many ones recommended to me there's a great convention called big badc con that been to a number of years that is a wonderful event that uplifts incredible creators in the space uh of marginalized backgrounds communities and it's it's so many immerging game design that comes out of that is brilliant and so that is an opportunity for me to engage in a lot of wonderful unique independent games too so that's been a lot of fun um but I hope to have more time to do more in the future don't we all really I know I know being an adult sometimes sucks a lot of times Mike Mike from Newark asks as a GM have you ever given an item or ability to a player and instantly regretted it or ma boots of haste campaign one I didn't even have to finish the question tell us about boots of haste here's the thing here's the thing uh because we were playing in Pathfinder at home and then when we jumped over to streaming we had eight players at the time and Pathfinder was not the first edition was not conducive to eight players and expediency in combat especially in the mid to higher levels and and at the time fifth edition had come out and it it was it was more of a tool set that worked for what we were going into um so when we Tri went over to fifth edition I had to transition a lot of the items that I given the Pathfinder over without fully understanding a lot of the limitations and boundaries of 5e as intended um like concentration spells on spells you can cast on items like haste are important to have still be just spellcast the concentration not just free haste all the time um especially given to a rogue who can then uh Double Dash and then bonus action Dash double movement speed and become like sound barrier breaking bullet Rogue um but but it was my fault I accepted it and it just meant I had to come up with more creative ways to destroy [Laughter] him and I kind of did twice can out run the C great boy all right sorry Liam the satisfaction in your eyes is just beautiful oh every gym out there knows it yeah we're all like yeah it's delicious all right blomus from blomberg asks can you share a memorable interaction or story from a fan that highlights the impact of your work on their life oh my goodness um too too many uh that that's one of the most wonderful things about what's grown out of critical role is being able to engage with the community and kind of see where us just fooling around on the camera has had a positive impact like you know the critical Ro foundation and then seeing all of these people take this positivity and run with it is is incredible now that we're kind of getting back to doing conventions and getting to re-engage with the community it's wonderful to talk to Critters face to face again and like share stories um I mean there there's there's there's some stories that are very emotionally involved people who have had loss in their life and family but the story kept them going people that themselves were having having a hard time finding a reason to keep going themselves but having the next episode the next part of the story unfold week after week was what kept coming back until eventually they got to a better place in their life those are those are always a lot but but incredible because you never know the impact that your joy will give to somebody else and that for all of you playing games this weekend too there will people that will walk up to your tables who might be having a hard time and you inviting them in with a smile and teaching them the rules and inviting them to create in the space with you all and have fun might be something that keeps them going a little longer until they find footing again and so th those moments are very important to me and a perspective that uh makes me feel like whatever this is we've built is so much more important than any of us could have expected and why we guard it so fiercely I'm going to put that in my pocket you never know the joy your or the impact your joy will have on someone else's life that's really profound cool yeah good job all right anyway Phil wants to know from Pittsburgh what's your favorite dinosaur that's a valid question I say ankur man it doesn't get enough love and it's just this squat little that's like come at me bro I dare you like everyone else has got some serious kind of openings they're fast but like they got I don't know ankur feels like the in maxer of dinosaurs in a lot of ways and I I respect the hell out of that like you go little mkin you go mid maxer all right um this one is from the sound of an eagle's cry as it Soares on the hunt from man this would have been rough at roll cool in school yeah from that place where dreams meet hope in the in the far far south oh it's still going okay sorry okay they ask the internet's best friend and your good buddy Sam Regal is well known for his continual pranking of you do you have a favorite gag of his this is a great prank uh so part part of us as as a group of friends especially as things get got busy with critical role we have to make sure that we spend time together as friends you know outside of the table that every time we record a session that that's like our wonderful sacred time but also outside of that so like we'll get dinner together we'll if we can try and carve out a weekend we'll all go on a trip together and there was one uh trip where we all took to this like little like cabin Ranch thing to just kind of get away they the families brought their kids and we like did some horseback riding and it was it was this sweet little kind of just catchup experience and so we're out there for a number of days in the middle of this kind of like wooded uh Ranch area in Colorado and Liam every morning just kept w waking up to these little like Blair Witch like wooden trinkets that were left right outside of his door and he's like what the hell is this he's like it's like did anybody else get this like no why and every every day a different woman would show up like I started incorporating like bones and things and and Liam kept trying he's like I know it's Sam Regal so he kept keeping like on Sam's ass to a way where there was no way he could have done it and then there would still be one and he's like okay what's going on he started freaking out uh Sam and his wife Q were collaborating to mess with Liam the entire trip and the jigle was only up at the very end of the trip but it was wonderful to watch le and like slowly unravel I respect that immensely that's amazing the the long work for that one oh yeah incredible all right this is the last fan submitted question okay from Kier um from Connecticut they want to know asking as a corgi owner if you based an NPC on Omar what would their personality be and what might their voice sound like everyone has a voice for their dog you can't pretend you know oh man Omar Omar almost sounds like a lighter pumat he's he's like he's a more like like give me give me attention why are you working come on pet me um I mean he's but he's also like a Frontline leader that that dog doesn't give a [ __ ] about coyotes he's just like if that someone shows up on yard he's like you get out of my house and just like no no they'll e you and the C are like geez fine we'll leave and they kind of wander off uh he's he's so ballsy he doesn't understand how small he is but he's very dense so I I'd probably I'd probably make him like like a like a barbarian multiclass cuz he's Frontline he thinks he's protective but he's he's also like dumpstat intelligence a little bit not say no I'd say wisdom because Omar's very smart I wouldn't say he's very wise but yeah so we definitely be kind of like that uh don't worry I got this boys get behind me I'm going to run off that Cliff that's very much kind of the vibe it's got the rage too for the Barbarian oh yeah oh yeah if it's Paladin multiclass what would Omar's deity be oh oh that would probably be the storm Lord he's like challenge come on come at me come at me every other dog he meets he's like nervous at first no matter the size and then he's like hey you going to you're going to wrestle we're going to do this come on come on come at me come at me like he just kind of has that energy so yeah probably storm Lord okay great I want to see this character in a campaign sometime I'll see what I can do that is our last fanom bed question but uh we're going into pxs unplug 2023 what advice do you have for everyone as they enjoy this weekend um my biggest advice would be to make friends with someone new many people new uh you know you have your old friends the people you know the people you game with but leave some space to make some new ones uh leave space at your table for for people to come and and join and leave space to engage with a table in a game that you otherwise haven't had the experience with so just be open to new experiences and new people that'd be my biggest advice for the weekend thank you let's hear from Matt Mercer thank you so much thank you all right everyone have a great pack onla byebye thank you so much

Channel: PAX

Views: 54,300

Keywords: Critical Role, Matt Mercer, PAX Unplugged, games, twitch, dungeons and dragons, matthew mercer, wizards of the coast

Id: VIL9prJ2FWo

Length: 62min 45sec (3765 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 27 2024