The Climax of Critical Role, Season One, and "Mistakes." RtG #49

everybody Matt Koval here we just had the finale of Matt Mercer's epic online D&D game that they've been playing now for over 400 hours live on Thursday night's critical role and not only did we have the finale the epic final battle between a bunch of 20th level characters and the evil demigod they're trying to stop we also had the climax of the game the narrative dramatic climax and it was extraordinary and I think most people missed it I missed it I think most people watching at the time missed it because I was watching it live and I could see what was happening in chat and I'm pretty certain most of the players of the table missed it and had to sort of be had haven't pointed out to them what had just transpired and when I watched it back the next morning and understood what I was seeing it just completely blew me away and I thought I got to make a video about this I assume you know what I'm talking about critical role is Matt Mercer's show Thursday nights for about four hours a night for the past two years they've been playing Dungeons & Dragons live Matt's a voice actor his friends are all actors so the game is very entertaining to watch so we're going to watch together right now this moment it's very short I'm gonna explain what led up to it and then we're just gonna watch it and talk about it and there may be maybe some other lesson to be had about the game in general not this moment per se but I think the way we as Dungeon Master's and just anybody as a creative person tends to beat themselves up but that's later this episode first I just want to talk about this moment that happened obviously I can't recap 400 500 hours of Damion I'd only need to I don't think the the final epic battle in this game went the things that happened in and are the kind of things that you would expect to happen in a big epic game the details may be different but in broad strokes a group of high-level heroes are trying to stop an evil demigod from taking over the world so for five and a half hours they played D&D and all the things you would expect to happen in a big epic game of Dungeons and Dragons like that all happened like I said the details would be different for any given game but in broad strokes the bad guys casting spells the heroes are casting spells I'm trying to stop and they're all using their class abilities there were lots of dramatic moments where allies from the game showed up and then equally dramatic moments where they were banished or dismissed by the by the villain and those are all things that you would expect to happen and would not result in me making a video they would just be a very entertaining evening of Dungeons and Dragons and a satisfying ending I think to a two and a half three year long campaign but the climax of the game happened at about the five hour mark and to understand what we're about to watch you need to know that the heroes are winning and they're winning I think largely because of two factors there you have a cleric who is able to cast Mass heal and does sell a couple of times and that keeps the players in the game and they have a bard and you would not expect the bard to be the clutch critical player in this epic battle but you can sort of divide the team Fox Mac another hero is the seven players into three groups you there's the cleric who's keeping everybody alive there's everyone else whose job is just to do damage to the bad guy and then there's the bard who ended up spending most of the evening casting counter spell on the villain now obviously I don't think I've said anything has any spoilers in it but if you have any intention of ever watching episode number 114 of critical role and you haven't done thus far you are not allowed to continue watching this video because they're fighting one of my favorite villains from dungeons dragons vecna and I'll probably do a video on vecna because it's a great character with a lot of Providence he goes all the way back to the original three little brown book was published in 1974 so vecna as a character and the items associated with him have been with us for as long as there's been D&D and technically earlier and that will be part of the video I make on vecna Sam Riegel's character Scanlon has been doing everything in his power to stay within range of Vecna this evil demigod in order to be able to regularly cast counter spell and this has succeeded in shutting Vecna down many critical moments like feeble mind that Vecna tried to cast I think there might have been you know a power world in there somewhere beckylyn didn't get off because Scanlon who's on 18th or 19th level bard is constantly astín counterspell so as I said the heroes are winning and you can kind of tell they're winning they've been playing again for five hours and there's really only one bad guy in the entire fight and so you know you can tell by the way the bad guys behaving that things are starting to go bad it's vecna's turn and Matt the dungeon master announces that he's going to use the artifact a hand of Vecna to cast teleport this prompts all the characters at the table to start using their reactions to try to interrupt him and stop him and drain him of whatever vitality he has left so he cannot teleport away from battle who knows what would have happened if Vecna had teleport of the way would they have kept playing for another several weeks who knows it's possible I know that Matt had been planning as a schedule he's got he's getting married soon congratulations Matt and Marissa and he's gonna be God he's gonna go he's gonna get married and have a honeymoon and so he was looking forward I think to the game wrapping up on a certain schedule but I know Matt relatively well and I know that let the dice fall where they may have vecna teleports out if he escapes then the game probably not over who knows but it would've been good right it's Beckman escapes that would not have been good so all the heroes start desperately using their reactions and they start rolling attacks and they start calculating damage and the whole time Sam with his head in his hands is looking at his phone which is they've uh you know app that shows them all the spells and he's he's looking something up while all the other players are announcing their attack rolls and they're rolling damage Sam asks this yeah 24:25 I'm yeah so these are and these are all bums with these are all sharpshooters that's did you see that the microphone didn't pick it up he he's he I mean watching this back Sam had already done many clutch things in order to many desperate ploys to in order to stay within range effectiveness that we could constantly be counter spelling him every round it's one of the things that kept fox Makana in the game and right now in this moment Sam looks like he's undergoing gravitational collapse you saw him looking at his phone right he's looking for an answer to a question yes or no is there a little bit of research and if the answer was no then the game would have gone very differently but he realizes and you see him Kengo he realizes that what he wants to do is technically possible and therefore he has to ask the question do I have a reaction and that's what he said that the microphone only picked up half of he looked at Matt the DM and he said do I have a reaction and Matt hears this while he's in the middle of listening to Travis and Talisman tallying attack rolls and damage he hears it he turns and he says well yeah you would and then he turns to the group and asks the question he's running away he says is it worth it and everyone who heard the question unanimously responded yes it is worth that he's trying to teleport away we have to stop him damage the strategy of the other players will eventually get the job done but maybe not in time maybe not enough damage whereas if Sam's bard Scanlan can successfully counter spell the teleport they will keep Vecna where he is and if he's trying to get away that means he's losing he's close to death if Sam can counter spell vecna's teleport they're gonna win therefore he announces his intent your dog okay 26 inch every spell counter spell I think everyone else at the table at this point is like alright well we may not need to attack this thing we may not need to use our reactions to try to kill him if if Sam can stop him but Sam if you notice has a very melancholy attitude toward what is happening because there's a much greater context for Sam's actions in this moment but the other players haven't recognized in order to understand what's about to happen in my opinion the climax of you know three and a half years of Dungeons and Dragons you need to know how counterspell works counterspell is a third level spell and you can cast it to try to stop any spell before couple spell a fifth level spell but in those instances you have to make a role it's your spell casting ability versus the level of the spell the villain is trying to cast and in fifth edition you can cast this third level spell counter spell at higher levels you can cast it at fifth level or at seventh level and that's important because if the spell you're trying to counter is two or more levels below the level you're casting counter spell at counter spell automatically succeeds in other words counter spell cast at third level a third level spell will automatically succeed on any first level spell likewise if a villain is casting a fifth level spell and you can cast counter spell at seventh level it will automatically work you have to be a high level bard or wizard to do this but it's possible that's what Sam was looking up he needed to know what level spell is teleport if it's too high a level then his counter spell might not work there's gonna be a role necessary and he might fail that role but if it's the right level it will automatically work teleport is the seventh level spell the highest possible level of spell you can cast in Dungeons and Dragons is ninth level ninth level spells are where you get spells like time stop or you can literally stop time in order to cast spells on yourself to heal yourself or casts spells on your time frozen enemy ninth level is where you get spells like wish where you can you can change fate that is the context for the question Matt is about to ask all right that was it you just saw he just saw the climax of of critical role of Vox Mac in his story but I think what happened needs some interpretation did you see the expression on Sam's face you probably noticed the reaction of the other players they were all like whoa because they had forgotten I think mostly that Scanlan Sam's bard had a ninth level spell left ninth level is as high as FAL casting gets in Dungeons & Dragons and he had been saving this ninth level spell before this five and a half hour long game started the players are all amazed at what they perceive as incredible foresight on Sam's part and a clutch moment he had saved the ninth level spell until now because teleport is seventh level which means Scanlan's counterspell will automatically work there is no role there's nothing the villain can do about it so the other players are amazed because it means they're gonna win but Sam wasn't amazed because from Sam's point of view it also meant that his character was going to lose and that's the other reaction Sam's reaction was one of giving up on a plan a dream that he had concocted the other players are just ecstatic and amazed that he had kept this ninth level spell and was using it but also if you watch Matt's reaction I think probably Sam had talked to Matt about what he wanted to use that ninth level spell for before the game started let's watch it again watch Sam's attitude the kind of degree of melancholy fatality about what he's doing and watch Matt's reaction Oh Matt had a very different reaction than the other players and it's not because his bad guy was about to lose he had known that was possible for months I think Matt's reaction was based on the fact that he knew what Sam had been planning on doing with that spell and in order to understand why that is significant you need to know a lot about what's going on in this game you need to know that Sam's best friend in the real world is Liam O'Brien liam orion is the player above him in our little Brady Bunch layout Liam O'Brien is ostensibly the reason this entire campaign is happening it started as a kind of a present that Matt gave his friend Liam for his birthday hey let's get together and play D&D and I'm not sure Sam and ever played D&D before this he in a in a kind of fantastic moment earlier in the game he looked over to Leah me said hey Liam thanks for introducing me to D&D it's kind of fun this game I think I like it that's part of the setup the other part is that Liam's character backs back seldom is dead has been dead for months he's all of these characters I think all of them but most of them many of them have died several times they are high enough level that death is a momentary inconvenience but each time I think every dungeon master has their own rules for what happens when you try to raise someone from the dead and in the way I was raised classically you there wasn't you had to make a roll to see if you survived there was to be a stack called resurrection survival chance are you physically healthy enough to withstand the trauma of being brought back from the dead and you lost one point of a constitution that could not be undone except by a wish or something so you were inevitably going to eventually fail that role well the last time vex died and was resurrected I think he failed his role and as a result he had to make in order to come back he had to make a bargain with a God the Raven Queen the Raven Queen granted him this temporary unlife that allows him to keep playing on one condition and that is he killed Vecna I'm sure there are people watching who are gonna correct me in the comments because I've gotten some detail wrong I apologize but everyone at the table knows that if they succeed in defeating Vecna it's the end of Liam's character it's the end of VAX because while everyone else is celebrating their victory the Raven Queen will come to exact her price and say congratulations my servant you have served your purpose you knew the time you had was temporary and the sands have run through the hourglass well Sam had a plan Sam had saved his ninth level spell not to stop vecna but to cast wish so that after they destroyed vecna after they saved the world when the Raven Queen came to collect her price Scanlan could say ah I wish and reweave the fabric of reality so that vassal Dan VAX Liam's character could live that's the price Scanlan was paying to stop vecna that's the expression you see on his face and the expression I think you see on mats is Matt's the only other person of the table who understood what Sam was planning on doing none of this could be planned none of this was scripted it reminds me of a quote from Churchill about the Battle of the Marne you know know no intelligence had placed these pieces on the bored no one knew that this exact scenario was going to come up but knowing that his friend's character was doomed Sam was trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat he was trying to effect a miracle and he almost did it that's the tragedy in this moment and it affected me when I understood what I was seeing and it absolutely affected Sam this little gnome bard that you know maybe nobody took very seriously was desperately trying to thwart death and fate and gods all the save his friend I don't think anybody else at the table with the possible exception of Matt Mercer understood the context for any of this understood what it meant that Scanlon was giving up his ninth level spell to stop Tecna and as a result you know Sam apologizes to Liam and I don't even think Liam understood in that very first as soon as he says it I don't think Liam understood why Sam was apologizing but then reality dawns and it becomes a it becomes a moment well that definitely works okay then go for it can I make can I make can i you saw Sam I don't think the other players understood what he meant when he said this but he said I was gonna save axe if he had succeeded if he had cast wish when the Raven Queen came I think everyone would have been blown away they would have thought Sam was brilliant and his butt would it have been as emotional a moment no a lot of people watching the show last Thursday night thought Vox Makana won because they defeated Vecna but in that moment Sam felt as though he lost as the reality of what he has given up in order to stop the villain ashes down upon him Sam swears and he looks over at his friend and says I'm sorry Liam roll so 32 and you could tell that Liam doesn't really understand what why Sam is apologizing maybe you just saved the day later and then Liam makes Sam cry because he forgives Sam for failing to save him what would a ridiculous like like the just the idea that Sam had concocted this plan is remarkable enough isn't it - why are you beating yourself up over the Sam and Liam has to turn and explain to Laura Laura was just laughing and having a good time playing D&D because like the other players I don't think I don't think they realize what it just happened 33 don't worry about did you see what Liam said to Sam what he mouthed to Sam there at the end the thing that just completely demolished Sam he said I love you watch what happens Sam spends the next I don't know two or three minutes crying actually crying there's a point where Matt is describing what happens and in a beat you hear a sob coming from the table and it's Sam so I don't know I am something like that would never happen mmm in a game that I ran because I don't run a game that has that degree of emotional I think content my games tend to be more about political reversals and scheming and plotting and at least thus far in my career I have never had a moment where I anything like that happened in one of my games so for me this is doubly extraordinary because up until that point maybe even maybe even through that campaign is something that I think could have happened in a game that you ran or a game that I ran if only it was very good there's a great quote from a biography of Richard Feynman about the definition of genius that there was two kinds of geniuses there is the kind of genius where you look at them and you say oh I get it I get it yeah I I could have done that if only I was much smarter if only I was much smarter or if only I was much better at this I could have done that I see how it was done and then there are other things where you realize it doesn't matter how smart I was it doesn't matter how good I was something like that I could never pull off so they saved the day cheers all round there was a great reversal at the end of the episode that I'm not going to give away and the I'm sure the Raven Queen will come to collect her price and that'll be the end of Liam's character of axe everything that happened in that game I think led to that moment and if Sam had been able to pull it off then I think the story of that game would be written very differently and because I didn't notice it when it happened because I think most people didn't notice it wouldn't happened I just want to make a video calling attention to it and saying you know congratulations to those guys for for creating this work of art how else do you describe it this great work with a capital G in a capital W that you know was is ephemeral it happens in the moment it's spontaneous there are rules and there are plans but as you saw those plans do not survive contact with the enemy we're all just incredibly lucky I think to get to share this experience and talk about it together you know I'm sure there are moments like this in other Dungeons & Dragons games like I said not not in mine at least not yet because we're at a unique moment in the history of this game where you know all all artistic revolutions are predicated on an earlier technological revolution you don't get sergeant pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band until you get multitrack mixing you don't get you don't get jimi hendrix or indeed really rock and roll until you have the electric guitar you don't get Rembrandt and Caravaggio until someone figures out how to paint with oil and you don't get critical role until you have streaming services like twitch that's the technology on which this artistic moment is built because it was the climax of the game because 35,000 people are watching it Matt got a lot of flack online which i think is just the I think it's just the price anyone who streams a game is gonna have to pay because in the moment the rules are not the players handbook let's say the players handbook is not strictly adhered to and so people enjoy going online and saying hey you screwed this up you screwed that up that's not how that spell works that not that's not how that rule works but I think they're wrong and that's what I want to spend the rest of this episode talking about and it's the thing that makes it I think important for us as Dungeon Master's is that I don't believe that getting a spell wrong in the moment or getting a class ability wrong in the moment is a mistake because I don't think it can be avoided I think the game is simply too complex for any one player to hold the entire thing in their head you could of course stop every time you do anything and look up what you're doing and constantly be grinding the game to a halt to make sure that you're using the rules strictly according to Hoyle but even then I think you would you would make mistakes you would screw things up so I just don't think of them as mistakes I don't think that counts I think the only thing that's really a mistake is when you as a player I have this happen to me as a player often or has a Dungeon Master Oh happened to me even more often as a Dungeon Master afterwards you realize uh I I should have known better I knew that rule I had used it before I had made a ruling on it I had talked about I had explained it to the players I should have known better I should not have screwed that up in that moment I knew how this worked and in that moment I forgot is a mistake and the only person who knows who's actually making mistake is that player or that Dungeon Master it is not to us then therefore I argue to go to the dungeon master and saying hey you screwed up I think only the Dungeon Master knows that I was tweeting the I was live-tweeting the entire game and having a blast it was just just a lot of fun I was rooting for vecna and what I think to most people was obviously a comedic fashion if I genuinely hope that Vecna want it was only because to me that was the most dramatic outcome if Vecna wins the battle then he plunges the world into 10,000 years of darkness and the forthcoming campaign that the players are gonna start fresh with advance the plot to ten years or so would be one in which beckon to one and that would be that would be a blast that would be fun though be super dramatic but as that's just me as a viewer and I don't matter none of us do in that was in that context what we want is important but it was fun to act like I really really wanted vecten to win if you would ask me what was really important to me what I really cared about it would be that the players had a good time that's that the the campaign ended in a satisfactory manner and given what I just showed you I mean is that not the most astonishing satisfying dramatic emotional moment that you've seen in a game it is for me certainly is for me it's head and shoulders above anything else that I've seen and the reason part of the reason for that is not just the unique confluence of circumstances that no no one could have engineered if they wanted to but also the authenticity of it that's that's not sam riegel acting that is him experiencing genuine emotion at the table as a result of this Dungeons & Dragons game I think probably there are people who knowing and being aware that these are people who are professional actors professional charming people as I described them who are always going to accuse the players of acting out but that's not what you just saw folks that was that was real so I was live tweeting the whole thing and I because I was enjoying rooting for Vecna and calling for blood and I was actually role playing Vecna I was I was I was tweeting stuff like this I don't know if you can read it but I was just having a blast and seeing the fans of the show who followed me reacting and recoiling a horror at some of the things that I was proposing was just a lot of fun but of course in any situation like that there are there are going to be people who don't understand my sense of humor really why should they did they don't they don't know me and they think I may be wishing actual legitimate failure on the players III don't want the players to fail I want the Bible I don't I I think in a moment like this in a game like this I don't think I can't I can't really speak for them I'm guessing I don't think any of the players actually cared whether or not they beat Vecna I think they all were hoping let's put a loop in to this effect they wanted they want obviously they want to be vecna but they want to do it in the most dramatic way possible they want a satisfying ending if they had lost if Vecna had won but it was the way it should have gone if they knew if they believed look this is what the dice said should happened this is the result of our plans of Matt's setup of where the dice fell yeah we lost but that's how it should have been it would have been sad because BEC know the bad guy wins but they would have left satisfied that's what's important to me is is that feeling that win or lose we know that this is how it would have gone that this is real so some people get upset and they think I genuinely wish harm upon the players I do not relax as the audience for the stuff grows as my audience grows on on Twitter and on YouTube there's always going to be people who when I make a joke or say something ingest or I often will I will say things on with sincerity making fun of a certain kind of attitude there will always be people who don't recognize that they don't know me why should they and they will overreact and they will they will curse my name and get really angry at me and it's just the nature of the beast strokes anyway that's the episode I'm here to give you permission not to beat yourself up over the those those rules in the players handbook that in the moment you you interpreted differently you didn't misinterpret anything you did the right thing you made a call in the moment your job is to keep the game going your job is to not let the players down and you didn't the fact that that's not how this ability works or that's not how the spell works well it's up to you determine those things and also in the real world people make mistakes so isn't this sort of simulating how things in the real world would go that we all look back on things we did and go oh hi sigh gosh I screwed that up it's only if afterwards you think to yourself I should have known better that that's that's the good news is when you think that you're almost certainly not gonna make that mistake again whereas you're never gonna run a game where literally every rule is adhere to perfectly strictly because I think that's impossible so thanks to Matt and the gang at critical role for what I thought was just you know it's gonna be on my list it's gonna be at the top of my list of extraordinary moments in games and this time it's not a game I played in or a game I ran it's a game I watched and I don't think it will be topped yeah I'll go on record I don't think that moment with Sam using his ninth level spell to counter spell Vecna to keep vecna in the battle to force vecna to lose there by sacrificing his chance to save his best friend I don't think that I'll ever be topped thanks for watching folks maybe the next episode will be about vecna unknown I'm gonna be live tomorrow it's a Saturday night as I'm recording this video and I hope to get it edited and uploaded early early after midnight Sunday morning so 3 p.m. Pacific time my time on Sunday Sunday October 8th I will be live on Twitch with Mercer and Adam Cole and Mike Merle's the lead designer of fifth edition D&D and we're just going to talk about fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and where we how we got here and where we think it's going the good bits we think and the bad bits it's an open forum just for the four of us to talk about Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition the rules set and I have no idea where the discussion is going to go but I think it's me pretty interesting obviously if you're watching it after Sunday October 8th at 3 p.m. I'll try to find a link to the video on demand otherwise next episode may be back now I don't know I'm sort of in a state right now kind of overwhelmed on that note peace out yeah 24 25 I'm yeah so these are and these are all buses with these are all sharpshooters okay that's why I've ever um dad it worth it keep him here yeah he's running away Jenner in a way gentle dude being trying to get away when they're your dog okay 26 in China counterspell i'll counterspell 900 pretty clutch that's right well that definitely works okay then I'm still gonna hit you go for it can I make can I make can i the sort of calves and aim for the hand of Becca I try and chop the wrist oh sure try for it why not reckless give disadvantage on the attack though okay well I haven't managed normally reckless just roll so 32 anybody got a camera so we can put this in this grant look later don't worry about it 33 don't worry about okay we can stay on no no don't worry about him stays on yeah okay cool touches my room college sure all right same image yeah just thought I'd maybe like Luke Skywalker ooh that ends thickness turn he seems an extremely frustrated he just took and he just took from me cuz I said I took my shots there was a twenty six damage plus one psychic for the first one and another God almost god damn it the other than the other one hits and it's again god damn it 18:24 damage plus one psychic on the third shot probably doesn't that doesn't hit third shot does not okay everyone's swarming up around him now and Eve sin he tries to cast a spell even in this current divine form it's just growing more more frustrated you can see now as this hulking entity is still bursting in the battle I'm and destroying you can see moment of panic in a fresh God's eyes in seconds turn groggy up with all the rage I've ever had I will reckless attack grab the travel from pike and aim it right in his stupid chest inspiration because bucket why not yeah that's 33 plus your no you don't get that cuz it's a strength Oh

Channel: Matthew Colville

Views: 839,238

Rating: 4.9295411 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Nz8EoyXTHV8

Length: 35min 12sec (2112 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 08 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/KangarooBeard]

Seriously the love between Sam and Liam and Scanlin and Vax is friendship that is connected by the soul.

[u/baneful64]

The thing that killed me was that Sam's cry wasn't an in character cry, it was a true sadness.

[u/TolkienLoudly]

I watched the rebroadcast, and wondered what had triggered the tears. Once again we see why this game is very different from all the others online, and why Matt Colville's analysis is so respected by the community.

Thank you Critical Role, and Matt Colville!

[u/ToulouseMaster]

I cried too during the stream, and again watching matt.

[u/GGGregg]

I've legit cried every time I've rewatched this. That includes at work...

[u/thedayisbreaking]

It really bothers me that we still have to take time out and try to remind people just to enjoy the show.

That being said, I think Colville did a great job showing just how amazing this moment was. I think we, as Critical Role fans, are pretty damn spoiled when it comes to emotional moments. Everyone at that table is an amazing story teller and we have moments like "FIX HIM." Each of those moments were emotional and powerful, but...this moment was beyond words. I couldn't agree more with Colville, Scanlan's decision was the climax of the story, and I was tearing up alongside Sam.

So Cheers to Critical Role, it's been a hell of a ride!

[u/talksquietly]

I completely agree with Colville and the other commenters here. This moment was so quintessentially Critical Role; it epitomizes what makes this show unique, and what constitutes a major part of its appeal: the profound friendship and palpable love that unite this particular group of players. Sam and Liam's friendship in particular is a thing of beauty, and watching the two of them in that moment (and later, after Matt had called an end to the session) simultaneously made my heart bleed for Sam and made it grow three sizes because of how much love there was. Given where the campaign started, it was a beautifully fitting narrative climax, and even the twist at the end (cool and ballsy as that was) cannot dethrone it as the most powerful moment of the episode.

So thank you, Sam and Liam, and thank you, Matt, Marisha, Taliesin, Laura, Travis and Ashley, and all the rest of the CR cast and crew for the joy of watching you guys play this game together! And thank you, Matt Colville, for giving that easily-missed moment the appreciation it deserves.

[u/samjp910]

Fucking Colville. Voicing everything we feel so well, like a fucking boss.

[u/TROLL3R_COASTER]

The 9th lvl counterspell that was heard around the globe