The World Of A Klutz

when will my husband return from the war (hiatus)

Because even if the dice gods had been on their side and the Magpies kicked ass, they still attacked two Halovars and a member of the Revolutionary Council. The rebellion would be officially kicked off, and they still don’t have the supplies they’re waiting on from Timmony. Azune and Hal would have to go into hiding. There would be no chance of getting backing from the Council, because one of their members had been caught in the crossfire.

And in terms of public sentiment, none of the witnesses would have any context for what happened. All they saw was the Halovar forces walk up to a tavern and get met with a hail of crossbow bolts. The Photarch could spin that any way she wanted, and the Magpies would have a hard time countering that narrative.

But instead, what everyone saw was two Halovars, forty soldiers, and a Council member get sent scrambling by a stern word and a bit of lightning from Thaisha. There’s no way for the crowd to interpret that beyond “The Halovars don’t have as much control of the city as they want us to think. The Lloys, and the Druids, still hold more sway here.” It’s an incredibly humiliating setback for the Halovars, and it’s caused friction between them and the Council that the Schemers can exploit. And for the Magpies, it’s bought them crucial time to wait for reinforcements and continue laying the groundwork for the rebellion.

To be clear, the goal of DND is not to make The Correct and Strategic Choice all the time. Critical Role isn’t just DND either, it’s Actual Play, which is using the game as a medium for storytelling. Actual Play is a performance, it’s telling a story, and stories are so much more interesting when you make messy choices.

Wick going to find Teor even when he knew Teor was dead made so much sense because

1. We’ve been shown that Wick, as a character, is excellent at denial. His entire religion was revealed as a farce and he’s still a believer. That’s consistent characterization! Being told Teor has died was of course going to be met with a ‘no! It can’t be!’.

2. Wick knew there were other party members with Teor, of course he’d be concerned about them. For Wick to just assume Thimble and Co. would be fine wasn’t realistic!

It takes a really good actor to be able to see a piece of knowledge offered to them that their character could benefit from, and continue to act according to only their character’s beliefs.

Every time Sam does this (Scanlan deciding to leave the party because fuck these guys there’s no cosmic force saying he has to stay, Nott high out of her mind trying to cast a spell she doesn’t have) it makes the story he’s participating in telling better! Funnier! More interesting!

Wick became a killer because of these choices and it spun his entire character arc in a different direction.

Sam Riegel is GOOD AT HIS JOB and that job is to cause problems in the narrative.

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Some men gave him shit about doing that, bitching and moaning about “Maaaaaan you’re raising the bar!” or “Isn’t picking up the kids your wife’s job?” and so on.

But more men- many more men- came to him for advice. “Where did you learn to sing?” “My wife’s allergic to flowers and doesn’t like chocolate. What should I get her for her birthday?” “How did you get time off to pick up your kids early?” “I wanna do something nice for our anniversary, but it’s right before tax day and I never remember and I feel like an ass. How do you remember?” Net, he thinks setting a good example like that ended two relationships and saved five.

Setting a good example is a good idea to inspire people to realize they deserve better, but even better is that there are lots of people out there who want to do better and will glady take notes from you.