Why Taliesin LOVES Making Matt Create New Classes & Candela Chapter 4! Taliesin Jaffe Interview

and I'm sure everyone's mildly irritated by my um uh Joy of can you make me an original character class I want my own subass Matt please please welcome to the character sheet comicbook.com official home for all things fantasy and tabletop today I am joined by a very special guest he is one of the cast members of critical role he is the co-creator of Candela obscura I'm joined by The Immortal talison jaffy hello hi hi good afternoon yes yes good afternoon how how how are you doing today how how is uh you know the office treating you as I see that you are literally on set it's it's wonderful we're busy busy busy all the time so uh and I love this set I could live here I mean you know I just always assumed that they were filming in your living room I mean that's the goal eventually uh is not to film in my living room but for my living room to look like this this is this is the dream yeah actually I think there's a poster for our most recent for uh for the Crimson mirror and that is actually like that is that is the goal I will say very specifically amazing absolutely amazing so you know I have wanted to chat with you about Candela obscura for a very long time because you are the co-creator of candel obscura it it it sprung from your mind along with Chris locky um so my my first question is what what inspired Candela obscura where did it come from um it I mean the original inspiration for this started oh God so many years ago it's it's hard to even think clearly about it anymore um God 2019 it started with um with our we did a uh um Call of cthulu game if I recall um the Crystal Palace and I I've kind of always had a uh I've always had a problem I just call it a problem I've always had a problem with Cosmic horror which is that most of the cosmic hor that people use the notion of it is supposed to be the sphere of of like a larger unknown or one of the big themes of it is is this vast unknowable uh uh threat uh that is so much bigger than you and I always I was always Bo bothered by things like cthulu because I I just I had a trouble taking an unknowable threat that had a plushy I could buy um seriously it was it was too easy to identify it was he was too easy to to uh minimize and once you start thinking in that direction about the things that really make you scared there's a there's a movie called U um in the mouth of Madness yeah um which I'm a really big fan of and one of the things I love about it is that it hits all those notes and it does it in a way that you are I feel like that's the horror I want to feel when I'm watching one of these uh or reading one of these stories or watching one of these films and so it it began I mean it began with uh because Chris was so helpful in that original run and and and uh it started with that conversation of of what is it that really makes these stories work what is it that doesn't work um what are the things that we don't like about about this genre especially since it's it's a genre that is stuck in itself in sort of a similar way that fantasy is or has been for so long where everything is a derivative of Lord of the Rings and it's hard to like get out of that MH uh and it either becomes uncomfortable trying to get away from from that DNA or it just goes too far off and like it but no one's really kicking this one around as much as people are trying to uh play around with fantasy so it was it seemed like a good opportunity to start looking at how to do that and there was iteration I mean we played with this uh this is what we did instead of of learning how to bake bread over uh is just iterate what it was that made this type of horror work and could you bring it to the table and then the things that we wanted to add to it and the things that and to say it's been through iterations and and it's been through experimentation is is that is a gentle assessment so yeah that that leads into my follow-up question you know Candela with with this chapter by the end of this chapter Candela obscure will be a year old technically in terms of like the official uh release date um so how do you feel that the first year of candel obscura has gone as kind of you know the co-creator and uh you know one of the the faces of this franchise wow I hadn't thought about that uh a year oh yeah yeah at the end at the end of this chapter you know it'll be a year I don't like like that that year felt like a lot um I am I'm very excited for this chapter um I don't and not just because I'm in it this is oh boy how to put this I've really enjoyed watching us establish the rules and I've really enjoyed watching this world's rules get established and I'm so excited to now spend the next year kind of breaking them is what I would I I I've really enjoyed where we're going and I'm I'm really excited that's that's kind of the fun of a story like this is is it it it feels like you know the place and now I'm I'm glad that we've been able to bring everybody in and show them all these little corners of it uh especially I love Anthology so much and it's always been my dream I mean that's one of the things tabletop is great for is just to like tell a little story in this place move on and this will be the first story that like a few things start to break and I'm very excited oh okay just I mean not to hint out like it's it's it's not big but we're we're like now that now that we've established what Candela looks like we can start to play around a little bit so that's where I'm at at a year is I'm excited now that we've now that we've gotten to tell an audience what kandella is we can start telling them um what the other side of the coin looks like and where things uh and start taking advantage of taking some of the things that exist in this world to terrible conclusions oh that's that sounds Dreadful and amazing I'm really oh man I'm very excited uh this this game is a lot of fun so uh that that leads to a great great follow-up question again which is um what what made you decide that this chapter would be the one that you would jump into you know you've you've been the face of the show because you you literally do the narration we see you every every episode but this is the first one that we get see you as a player why why this chapter um I blame Liam uh I it was it was I mean it was one of those things where while it was offered and I could have said no and it was like this is an interesting like as they were kind of figuring out who was going to be in this one and I I know Liam's brain and I love being in there especially when it's dark uh and there was talk of whether or not well there's there's there's always been talk of when when the uh the the narrator so so to speak is going to become part of the uh uh um be in put into the into the uh the story arc and actually like people will get a sense of where he actually sits uh in the story and this was definitely not that moment uh I was like no it was very too soon but it was like I'm not gonna have a ton of options uh going forward to play a character that isn't him uh just because I feel like once I start establishing him in the game it's going to be tough to get away from that and this was a place to also get people used to the idea that that just because you're playing one character in this world doesn't mean you can't play two okay or three I love like we can kind of Do The Ensemble a little bit and it it felt like a nice soft way to do that because I'm not I hadn't really appeared yet in the game and uh it just seemed fun to me and then I found out who the cast was the rest of them I'm like I have to I yes too many people I like at the table not that I everybody but you know it was a couple special there were a couple special ones so um let's I I I do want to touch on Liam for a second because you know I always you know because he always he always has tends to play the tragic characters but I think that people he has a pretty deep love of hor because you know he he runs a curse of strad uh campaign at home or at least he used to was was there anything particularly surprising that he did at the table or something that particularly creeped you out or surprised you during this chapter oh yes it's where I will leave it um there are especially like one is a wonderful setup and there are things in two and like each oh man there are things in two that I cannot wait for people to see and there are things and three is it's his brain is so fascin and I really enjoyed I enjoy spending time especially in the um even the worst of it uh yeah and he had briefly like we had had brief conversations about like as he was learning about the world and of kind of the things that interested him in this place and uh yeah I was really interested to see what his swing with this was going to be and he did the thing I the thing I feel like I love most about the story coming up is how much he really allowed himself to be informed by the characters that we brought to the table and it's that was actually I think Pro probably my favorite thing is is feeling like I had I felt that I had been listened to and that he had invested in who I was and who the rest of us were at the table uh so let's talk a little bit about your character Leo um so who is he and you know what are what are some of the circumstances that he finds himself uh and as this chapter opens oh boy poor Leo uh I love Leo uh if I could if I get to you know I'm interesting that that he ended up here uh Leo is a professional man of leisure more or less he's he has money uh and he uh lives in the red Lamp District kind of this seedy wonderful um Arty creative chunk of of of the city and he's uh he's soft and he's charming and vivacious and and social and strangely alone and uh I can't talk to exactly what happened or why but he has an a wonderful and sort of eclectic collection of interesting objects he's one of those people whose houses are full of I mean you see where I'm sitting right now um but a little less chaotic uh and some of that stuff is clearly odd some of it is things that clearly uh point to the fact that he is part of Candela because he does have this knack for finding things and an eye for uh uh antiques that may be cursed Etc um but he is he is very he is a very Charming uh and and social and and socially uh uh uh clever confirmed Bachelor I suppose he's a very specific type of person who's doesn't really exist as far as I know these days so so um so he's uh you know the the background that you chose for him or like kind of the character class he's a he's a journalist uh if I remember correctly yeah I I the the journalist class sometimes uh sometimes if you don't see exactly what it is that that you want to pull together and I really wanted to go for like a socialite you go in and you look at the math you you go in and see the bones of the house uh to see what you can uh uh you know strip down and rebuild and and journalists really fit well for that kind of character TR class I'm uh most games if you don't see it in the book you can you can either reskin it or or put it together and I'm sure everyone's mildly irritated by my um uh Joy of can you make me an original character class I want my own subass Matt please please I mean at this point in time I just expect it from you know thank you yeah yeah try it's what I get I I come up with my idea and then I'm like can the math do this I'm like well they haven't done it yet [ __ ] um yeah but that that seemed to be the best way to build the socialite and uh it will come up later in the game I I feel like it really did its job on that level okay it it it gave me all the tools I needed so um so I I did want to talk a little bit you know I this this video is going to come up after the first episode and um I I I did want to talk about um the the the immedia race moment that the episode opens in because I I one of the things I loved about how this chapter opened is the the mission so to speak was completed you know you retrieve the cursed artifact you're bringing at home and then all hell breaks loose you know did uh that throw you for a loop at all how how did you feel you know were were you expecting that you know you were going to come in it's like okay you've completed the mission and now shit's going sideways no not not even a little um excuse me uh it was it was very shocking and uh or at least to me and I was I I love that we were thrown uh that way into the deep end especially since even as we were kind of creating this circle we we kind of figured out this was a very different um this was not necessarily A C circle of action um if that if that if that tracks we are very much I felt like we had kind of created a um more of a day-to-day group of people other other than Amari who's who's clearly the I'm keeping all these people like who's there to kind of be um the one emergency um emergency emergency I'm together person yeah also clearly so crazy that he you know made sense with us as well um yes that was not I was expecting a slowburn not a uh not an explosion yeah I I I I absolutely loved you know when you were talking about how um you know the chapters you know you guys have like built up a framework for how these chapters go I love that Liam just like opened it up and like okay well you know here's here's chaos let's see what you guys do um you know and did did you feel that you know the the events of the first you know episode kind of really set the tone for for what's about to happen to all of your poor characters oh boy it definitely oh that's such an interesting question because the tone doesn't necessarily shift but it definitely sets it set it set our expectations and set our um our compasses for exactly how uh dangerous the world was going to be and how we were going to be getting into something very intense and very very much Beyond us and uh it also sent it also really really set up the relationship that this group had with Candela which I quite enjoyed uh and that relationship develops of exactly what we mean to the organization uh for good or ill uh but it was I really loved it because immediately we got a sense of who a lot of what these people are like under stress and strain which we didn't know about each other yet just as players oh wow decisions I mean that getting thrown immediately into a more or less what is the equivalent of a battle uh and in Candela there is no battle there is just hold on and really hope your character doesn't die in the first 10 minutes um it really it really seeing everybody's Panic state was really interesting yeah immediately um so changing changing gears just a little bit um yes uh what what part of the kandel Obscure lore are you excited about like diving into with this chapter or you know what what what what parts of the world you know uh were you hoping to like delve into when you sat down at the table oh never my decision uh I I I really do enjoy the the red lamp uh the red Lamp District quite a bit I love I love the sections of of this story that kind of have that uh art Nuvo romantic uh energy I I I I think that horror and romance go together very very well and like not even necessarily in the um uh more in the traditional no notion of being you know the broad Strokes of uh love and delight and the ways that people relate to the world and each other and horror is so good for that um and I trust Liam to do these things uh there are other sections I mean it's it's it was his story to tell and I love my character and he the one I was spoilers I suppose what I will say is he started to flesh out the realities of a group like Candela which was always what I was looking forward to is starting to look at the uh um how this would shape the world and how this relates to Ordinary People or or to the people who work within it and uh I'm trying to be super vague and what that implies and when you take that to its logical uh conclusion how strange that gets and setting up and in turn I hope that that's going to set up several stories that I'm looking forward to telling either through other people or myself at some point of the other end of things and and the sorts of weird corners of this world that that exist and and very much in the cosmic horror sense of things there will always be another dark shadowed Corner that we do not get to enter so so I want to end this part of the interview with two more questions one looking back and one looking forward uh looking back what has been your favorite moment in some of the previous chapters of Candela obscura oh God are you gonna make me do this yeah I am so broken I'm trying to remember which things actually aired and which didn't I mean like we because we did Test games yeah I watched a bunch of the test games so I'm trying to remember which ones actually hit oh man everything Brandon did that's not fair um honestly Ashley's decision to play Young and and like yeah I I mean trying to hit one moment of that oh the fire with TR hey yeah there so many um I'm going to go with Ashley Ashley's uh Ashley's kid in letting that that build uh I was not expecting it and I loved every minute of that decision uh yeah I'm I'm that's the one I'm going to go I know that's kind of broad but that surprised me no no that that's great and um looking looking ahead uh what will the next year bring to a Candela obscura I mean nobody knows that's kind of the fun of it um it's that is that is a question um uh yeah I I would say what dark Corners I'm excited about but that would be telling um there are things even before the game looked this way there are little bits of this world that were set up that I put there to get to a little later and before the fairlands even existed I'm excited to start prodding those little chunks of lore okay well I can't wait either like I you know the the the lore of Candela obscura is like one of my favorite Parts about the show and about the world I I love the fairlands and I love digging into your guys's take on Cosmic horror um so it's it's it's all very exciting oh thank you and no one's seen the like we haven't even talked about the Crimson mirr yet have we in the show no we barely talked about the about say we we haven't even touched on that you know we've just been just been chilling well let's talk I guess I should ask what is the Crimson mirror you know what if you look very close like you've already seen it is what I will say um quietly and is all I will say is is you know people who are paying attention have you know may know or May at least have an inkling okay yeah no that's that's what I like to hear you know it's it's really obvious that you know like the the you guys over the first three chapters you know you've you've set the table and now it's really fun to see what what the world looks like and how how it it grows and builds from there um that that is that's one of the more exciting Parts about the show is seeing how it continues to to grow and evolve you know Beyond just short horrific uh Tales uh so I can't I can't wait to see can't wait to see what happens next so uh before before we let you go uh our I'm going to bring in our producer Pete and he has uh some lightning round questions uh this is always a fan favorite part uh you know some multiple choice questions some uh some some fun bits so Pete come on [Music] down all right so a little lightning round action here uh I'll start us off with a personal theory of mine and that is is Candela secretly a Bruce Lee game of death situation where we the audience have to fight our way through different levels of emotional gut punches from all these other GMS until the series finally ends when we reach you the Kim Abdul Jabar at the top of this mental damage pagota oh oh it's gut punches all the way down there is no bottom to that hill so this is like this isn't Tetris where there's an end end to it somewhere at the end oh yeah it's just an infinite drop of gut punches uh so yes and no is what I was supposed to say no one's ever we haven't found the bottom yet oh excellent so next up you've you've had a lot of iconic roles and games and Anime and then live action so which of these past roles do you think would be the best fit in Candela obscura we've got junkers from Monster yeah we've got Ghoul from black cat we've got basil Hawkins from One Piece we've got Scrappy youngster Ludwig Mueller from the Explorers oh wow and perhaps the most dangerous of them all Dennis the strawberry wow okay I'm was like did my friends put you up to this with Dennis okay but imagine that and not to spion but imagine if Dennis dies oh and then his final words can just be I'm giving up Showbiz and he just I can't believe it is what I he would no uh uh definitely Dennis because there's something thanks to Willy Wonka there's something horrifying about a child being merged with fruit um true yeah if you've ever seen The Adventures of Young Sherlock Holmes uh that was speaking of cosmic horror that that yeah being attacked by living pastries I can oh yeah this is yeah and yeah actually that is a horror yeah I could Dennis could become a absolute horror show so easily it also kind of sounds like a like a cockney tough guy name like I was like oh you don't want to mess with Dennis strawberry it's a strawberry it's a strawberry all right so another one another quick fun one so you've just described Leo right now as charming and oddly alone with a collection of oddities a Gentleman of Leisure that wears expensive red robes and doesn't really exist was the style guide for Leo Christopher Walkin as a continental oh no no although you're you're definitely uh pulling into the right direction um uh there were a couple people I'm trying to think cuz we we kind of thinned it down it was a it was it was a longer list by the end of it it was a little bit of a um a little bit of young Vincent Price okay A Touch of uh uh Rody mcdal specifically Fright Night Rody mcdal was very very much uh um oh nice peter yeah Peter from Rody MC uh from Fright Night and Fright Night 2 Fright Night 2 especially which no one has seen I love that movie uh that that was a that was a a very specific uh point of reference nice I say Leo also joins the rank of what I like to call fancy investigators so on the scale of fanciness for fancy investigators with Jake Peralta from Brooklyn 99 being a one benino Blanc being like a 5.5 and all at the top of uh Hercule parro being a 10 where does Leo slot in in the fanciness scale oh oh oh God 11 because 12 is go I like it oh perfect thank you um oh well throw little speaking of your friends Travis has spoken several times on the show that he's shocked that chatney is still alive it's a brief critical role aside but as the original Blood Hunter player and knowing that Travis is just really seeming to be wanting chetney to pass away snap my NE my neck snap my neck my neck have you ever considered arranging an offscreen accent for chatney just so Molly could have kept the record of the most powerful Blood Hunter in history now I'm feeling I'm feeling bad uh man no at best I've honestly I've just like occasionally been like someone maybe I'm gonna be the person to give chatney a weird little gift uh instead of him giving everybody gifts uh and then I spend a game playing with ch I'm like no never mind I'll just I'm just gonna let him like pass peacefully and his sleep one of these days all right we got two last questions the first one is yes please which of the following could be the name for Chand for Candela chapter 5 couple options the first one is kandel obscura chapter 5 Circle of Stars and lanterns pretty classic the second one more of a cross branding opportunity Candela obscura chapter 5 the circle of K the next one Candela obscura chapter 5 the perfect circle with Guan mayard James Keenan and then the final one is Candela obscura chapter 5 the search for Curly's gold oh wow and thank you for making me feel very old with that last one um actually I mean like jokes aside actually stars and Lantern it kind of hits some of the stuff uh that I'm thinking about running when I eventually get my my little Arc finish make it to the top of the Game of Death pagota I mean it is Talis it's it's it's pretty solid for for some of the themes of that story is what I will say actually that's very interesting yeah weirdly that was way hard to come up with than the funny ones yeah that sounds about right all right the last question is candel obscura chapter 4 continues the grand tradition of bringing back incredibly dangerous cargo on an old timey ship It's a grand horror tradition uh just sort of make an insane decision put a terrible thing on a ship but which of these following insane boat mov movies is actually a fake so which of these is not a real insane boat movie The Final Countdown a modern American aircraft carrier is sent back in time to stop Pearl Harbor blood vessel shipwreck survivors are taken aboard a German boat infested with vampires in the midst of World War II cruise into Terror a luxury cruise ship set sail with an Egyptian sarcophagus on board only to discover the Egyptian sarcophagus actually contains the son of Satan or the penultimate Voyage of the demer where the crew of the demer realizes halfway across the Atlantic they forgot to load Dracula's casket on board and just head back into Port I'm gonna go with the first one actually oh weirdly enough The Final Countdown is a real 1980s action sci-fi movie and penultimate Voyage of the meter is one that I'd made up I was just it seemed so insane that I was like some somebody just somebody started a Dracula movie and ran out of money clearly that had to happen yeah very like an Edwood style Dracula yeah it was just it literally just turned it into a slapstick man that's crazy I thought the pirate movie would be in there but very well that's that's I thought about it yeah lightning round you've survived the lightning round weirdly enough I've seen Cru into Terror Cru into terror is hilarious yes oh no because why no one knows why the son of the you know the Western religion SA would be in an Egyptian sarcophagus but apparently he is he's just hanging out on a cruise ship I love weird horror I gotta I gotta dig that one up uh so before before we end this video um you know I always like to give folks a chance to basically give a final pitch on uh you know what what what what they came to talk about uh so any final words for the audience uh for for this chapter of candal teas ahead chapter 2 oh yeah oh to teas ahead chapter 2 um our our wonderful uh I hesitate to call them adventurers our our odd little family uh they have a history and they may have to uh uh delve into it a bit and uh they you and no one no one likes being in Peril uh beyond that oh what a what a I don't know what else to say about it without giving away I suppose the last thing I would say is all of my favorite horror stories and games that I get to tell are always I always find the the best moments by thinking about the things that scare me and then thinking how wonderful it would be if the rest of my friends were horrified of them as well uh so sharing your nightmares is always a INF phobius it's all I'm here for so I want everyone else to be terrified of what I'm terrified of well uh I think that's a perfect way to end uh end this interview thank you so much talison this was this was an absolute blast uh to thank you get a pick your brain for a bit you know oh it it's so much fun and I'm so excited for two more episodes of this I I'm so happy with this run of Three episodes I can't wait uh Candela obscura erors on critical roles YouTube and twitch channels uh the last Thursday of the month uh or the fourth Thursday of the month I suppose is more accurate because sometimes there's five five Thursdays in there uh so with VOD appearing the following Monday uh on YouTube uh so be sure to check it out uh the great thing about Candela obscura is you don't need to watch past chapters to uh enjoy the story that is the joy of a horror Anthology series you can just jump into it and be scared out of your wits every three months so uh be sure to check it out if you haven't already um thank you once again talison uh and uh yeah uh and uh I guess we'll end this with the the usual YouTube thing of be sure to like And subscribe and comment and all the things that we have to do to keep the lights on so uh yeah thank [Music] you

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Keywords: the character sheet, character sheet, rpg news, ttrpg news, ttrpg, rpg, dnd, dnd5e, dungeons and dragons, critical role, candela obscura, taliesin, taliesin jaffe, taliesin jaffe interview, taliesin interview, taliesin candela obscura, candela obscura chapter 4, candela chapter 4, candela chapter 4 taliesin, taliesin candela interview, critical role cast, taliesin critical role, taliesin new class critical role, taliesin blood hunter, ashton sub class, matt mercer, ashton

Id: aljiUeq1NRQ

Length: 33min 28sec (2008 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2024