Critical Role Q&A and Battle Royale!

A screenshot of Will Friedle, Marisha Ray, Matthew Mercer, Wendy Sullivan Green, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and Travis Willingham during "***Critical Role* Q&A and Battle Royale!**" (Sx08).

### Episode

Specials,​ Episode 08
(C1E43b)

### Game system

Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition

"***Critical Role* Q&A and Battle Royale!**" (Sx08) aired in lieu of "The Sunken Tomb" (1x44), which was postponed due to multiple cast members being absent. In the first half of the episode, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Travis Willingham, Will Friedle, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, and Wendy Sullivan Green answered questions sent in by the audience. In the second half of the episode, Keyleth, Grog, Zahra, and Kashaw fought one another in a battle to the death.

## **Synopsis**

### **Pre-Show**

Welcome to tonight's pseudo, not-really, episode of Critical Role. Unfortunately, they have a number of members who were sick after their convention appearances last weekend who couldn't make the game tonight due to unfortunate circumstances. So with the number of people who couldn't make it, they decided to instead do a live Q&A with the questions in the chat room and as well as questions that were put on Reddit. When that's over, they're going to have a fun battle royale. Matt made a small arena and the latter half of today's episode is going to be a Grog versus Keyleth versus Zahra versus Kashaw free-for-all. See who stands winning at the end of this show.

### **Announcements**

* Matt thanks the Critters and fans who came to see them at Wizard World Portland 2016.
* A new order for the Blood Hunter class, Order of the Lycan, is now on the Dungeon Masters Guild website. You can check it out for free.
* Steve Blum and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn will be at CoastCon the next week-end in Biloxi.
* On March 17th, Will Friedle will be in Toronto for a big con.
* Marisha and Matt will be in Ireland from March 2nd to the 9th for Kaizoku Con in Cork. No Critical Role episode next week.
* Critical Role will return March 10th as well as Will and Mary.
* Giveaway of two books of Brandon Sanderson's "The Bands of Mourning" throughout the show tonight.

### **Part I: Q&A**

* What do the PCs do for prep? I notice dry erase markers for temporary hit points. Do they lay out their spell cards or have them typed up on one page? What do you guys do to prep for a game?
* Ever want to go back to the more personal games of D&D?
* Do Travis and Laura ever break into character at home?
* Does the positive outweigh the negative on the Internet?
* Would you recommend playing D&D with friends or strangers?
* Origin of the name "Critical Role"?
* What pre-stream moments would you have the artists draw?
* Romance in D&D?
* Wendy, what class would you play in D&D?
* Grog/Travis's favorite kill?
* Deck of Many Things?
* How detailed are Critical Role's notes?
* Unexplored or failed campaigns of Vox Machina?
* Are there unimportant NPCs that became important?
* Are you more attached to your characters than premades?
* Backstories of Kashaw and Zahra? Character Creation?
* Was the disenchantment of the flying carpet intentional?
* Player predictions on the story that were wrong or right?
* Is Matt open to ideas from the community?
* Has Matt discarded any cool ideas?
* How often do you strategize outside of the game?
* Is Grog unable to become corrupted by Craven Edge?
* How does Matt balance combat with 6-8 PCs?
* Does Matt talk "Liam" to Marisha?
* One Hit KOs on PCs, Challenge or Monster Ability?
* How hard was it on Matt to destroy his precious Emon?
* Gifts?
* Too many magical items?
* Was Matt part of the Black Rock City Cuddle Puddle?
* How often do you rewatch episodes?
* Awakening Trinket?
* Have you considered dwarves with non-Scottish accents?
* What happens to Vox Machina when they reach endgame?
* Mary, thoughts on the friendship between Vex and Zahra?
* Why 1d6 die for bardic inspiration instead of advantage?
* Matt, have you ever had a TPK or killed most of the PCs?
* Would Grog repick the people for the Groon fight?
* Will Salty Pete come back?
* What color of dragons would you be?
* How open was Matt to letting Will make his own deity?
* Females playing D&D?
* Balancing enemies and encounters?

### **Break**

* Live behind the scene camera of tonight's set

### **Part II: Battle Royale**

Welcome back, everyone. So, for the purposes of this, everyone's going to be level 13, so bringing both Kashaw and Zahra up one level.

*As all of you are suddenly and instantaneously transported by some omniscient entity, you find your feet slamming into the stone ground of what appears to be some pit, a hundred feet recessed into the floor of some indeterminate location. The walls and the floor are built of ancient stone. You see each of you placed behind a wall with just enough visual across the top to see that the other of your band are there across from you. In the center lies a darkened pit to some unknown distance of depth. Looking up into the sky, you can see the blue sky, clouds drifting above, but too high to reach. You hear a voice rumble up from around you, going, "Now, show me who is your champion."*

## **Featured Characters**

### **Vox Machina**

* Keyleth
* ~~Percival de Rolo~~ (absent)
* ~~Scanlan Shorthalt~~ (absent)
* Grog Strongjaw
* ~~Pike Trickfoot~~ (absent)
* ~~Trinket~~ (absent)
* ~~Vax'ildan~~ (absent)
* ~~Vex'ahlia~~ (absent)

### **Returning**

* Zahra Hydris
* Kashaw Vesh

## **References**

1. ↑ Matthew Mercer announced that *Critical Role* would be on hiatus for two weeks (2016-02-25 and 2016-03-03), returning on 2016-03-10.

**Art:**

1. ↑ Fan art of Kashaw with his *Spiritual Weapon* in the form of a cat named Mittens, by Thomas Brin (source). Used with permission.