u/PerpetuallyDistracte

As much as I love Critical Role, one of my favorite things about Dimension 20 is the "Box of Doom" mechanic. Whenever there's a particularly important or pivotal dice role, Brennan brings out a special skull-topped dice tray with a GoPro mounted facing downward. The player feels special by rolling in the tray, and the audience gets a perfect view of the result. It makes climactic rolls stand out, and it lets the audience immediately see the result without the player having to confirm it. Brennan also sometimes uses the tray camera to show things to the audience without letting the players know.

Now that CR is pre-recorded and has some post-production editing, it would be cool to introduce a similar prop. I imagine the Box of Doom is probably copyrighted (and the design is a little hokey for CR), but if they did introduce something similar, what would it look like and what would it be called?

I'm imagining a wooden dice tray with a carved bird arcing over it that contains the camera. The Tray of Trepidation? The Bird Box?

Potential spoilers below for any main campaign, miniseries, or one-shot! I'll use spoiler tags for specific plot points, but no guarantees about the comments.

As a fun exercise during the break, I've been thinking about which characters across all CR campaigns, miniseries, and one-shots best reflect their players from the core cast (+Brennan), and I'm curious to see what others think as well. That doesn't necessarily mean which of their characters is the most popular or well-loved, but more which character fits them like a glove, whether in terms of personality, traits, or the clear joy the player takes in running them. Obviously this list is highly subjective and should not be taken seriously in any way. That is why I'm curious to see how much my picks differ from other peoples', especially since I haven't watched every single miniseries or one-shot.

Matt: Garen (EXU Divergence) - Matt has always wanted to play a dwarf, and Garen's calm, humble, and supportive nature is very in keeping with Matt's own personality. >!Not to mention, he's the friggin' Allhammer, creator of Exandria, even if Matt didn't know that going in.!<

Marisha: Keyleth (C1) - This was a tough choice between Kiki and Murray (C4). Murray is smart, charismatic, southern, and based directly on Marisha's mother. However, Keyleth seems to be Marisha's "soul character", reflecting her personality at a younger, more naive point. There's a moment in C2 (not C1) when >!they find Keyleth's mother, and Marisha doesn't say "Keyleth's mom?", she says "MY mom?"!< which tipped the scale for me.

Liam: Caleb Widowgast (C2) - Liam has mentioned that some stuff in Caleb's backstory was loosely based on his real life (unfortunately). Liam has a passion for exploring drama and the nature of good and evil, which Caleb provided in spades. Also, Caleb's arc was perhaps the most nuanced and complete out of all of his characters.

Taliesin: Bolaire Lothalia (C4) - We're only a short way into C4, but I've never seen Tal more joyful and driven when inhabiting a character. Bolaire is also a stylish lover of performance and theater who happens to be an >!eldritch being of indeterminate age and origin!<, which is pretty much Taliesin in a nutshell.

Travis: Cerrit Agrupnin (EXU Calamity) - Travis is at his best when he's able to use his intelligence and charisma to command a room, and Cerrit is perhaps his most straightforward character ever. At the start of the campaign there's a bit of a noir filter on Cerrit, but that quickly disappears and it's just Travis with wings and a pair of hand axes.

Laura: Jester Lavorre (C2) - Was there ever any question? I think everyone on the cast and Laura herself have said that she is just Jester wearing a Laura Bailey cosplay most of the time.

Sam: Loquatious Seelie (EXU Calamity) - Sam is a true showman at heart, so it had to come down to the bards. It was a tough choice between Scanlan and Quay, but in the end I think Quay is a more mature portrayal of the bard archetype and more true to Sam's actual personality.

Ashley: Fearne Calloway (C3) - Another no-question choice, in my opinion. Ashley tends to be drawn to stoic badass characters, but nothing fits her better than a flighty fae trickster that allows her to show off her wit and lets her make mercurial character choices with impunity.

Brennan: Padmund Pondhop (Wildemount Wildlings) - Brennan hasn't been out from behind the DM screen much on CR, but from what he's shared in interviews, he spent quite a lot of time at camp as a kid and was pulled out of traditional school because of bullying. Before that happened, he used to sit alone under a table at recess and memorize animal fact cards, all of which are very on brand for Padmund.

So, what do you think of this very frivolous and arbitrary list? Also, feel free to add the expanded cast from C4 if they've had enough additional CR roles in the past to have a fair choice between characters!

As marvelous as this episode was, it felt like it ended a little abruptly after the combat was finished, especially since there's so much ground to cover plot-wise berfore the other groups bring their shared knowledge back to the table. It was only 3 hours, which is on the shorter side, and could have maybe used an extra 30 minutes at the end to wrap things up.

Here's my wild theory on why it ended where it did - Brennan's voice was WRECKED, which I can't recall ever happening to him before on camera. The man can normally talk nonstop for hours and project like nobody's business, but he was obviously struggling toward the end, clearing his throat and rasping pretty badly. Not sure what happened, maybe he pushed too hard with one of the enemy voices? It definitely sounded painful, and I'm sure he wanted to end things at a logical stopping point before he did any real damage.

Did anyone catch the point in the episode where he wrecked his voice?

I loved Hal's minor breakdown/rant in this latest episode. Liam said that Hal is always making sure everyone else is ok before himself, and this showed the natural result of all that pent-up anguish finally breaking containment just a little bit. But Hal is still holding it together for the sake of the play, which makes me wonder what will happen when everything inevitably goes tits-up during the performance and the Chekov's Gun is fired.

When the play is ruined, what will Hal do? His dear deceased brother hid the majority of his "real" life and plans, his best friend Bolaire is actually an eldritch horror (who also hates Hal's dead brother), and his family is in mortal peril from enemies far stronger than him. I can really only see it going two ways: either Hal completely shuts down/gives up and has to be rescued by his friends, or he completely boils over and goes berserk, becoming a wildcard and potential danger to the party. (Both options are basically Caleb Widowgast, funnily enough.)

But I'm really curious what others think. How will Hal's revelations about his brother - and the simmering tension he already struggled with - manifest during the upcoming fiasco?