In the final episode of our season, we talk about rebuilding trust and improving teamwork. After the tumult of conflicts and betrayals, the resolution we want to see is a party who can overcome their differences and work as a team.

We highlight some of Critical Role's best examples of teamwork across all three campaigns and showcase how Critical Role brings vulnerability and trust to their stories.

We hope it'll inspire you for your own games! Enjoy, and see you in the fall for season 2. Follow us on IG at criticalrolemodelspodcast for updates until then.

In our penultimate episode of the season we are stabbing you in the back with betrayal! We focus on the betrayals in Campaign 3, specifically in two categories: guest character betrayal and player character betrayal. We will cover up to episode 81 for anyone concerned about spoilers.

We chose Campaign 3 because every character has the potential to betray the party, making it extra juicy for us to talk about. Betrayal can bring a lot of drama to your table, so we hope you enjoy!

This week's episode is extra special: it's the first time we have a guest join us; which leads to it being our longest episode to date; and worldbuilding is such a big topic we split it into two parts!

Writer and cartographer, Scott Mayfield, joins us to discuss the many different aspects of worldbuilding, from balancing story view and worldview to not getting overwhelmed by the logistics or the details.

The book we pull from is called Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction written by Jeff VanderMeer.

You can find Scott on Instagram at skawtsalot.studio .

We are starting off the year with an intense topic. Character death doesn't always mean the end, sometimes there is a rebirth. We talk about how Critical Role makes death a gift to the story and how you can do the same.

This episode covers planned and unplanned deaths in Campaign 2 and early Campaign 3, and the significant experience it holds for the players at the table.

Prepare to get inspired this episode as we go over the many approaches to character creation, and we get inspiration from our favorite bards, the cast of Critical Role.

We take a dive into how the cast of Critical Role has created their iconic characters and share a few ways we've done it in the past. We hope to get the sparks flying for you!

Our next episode will release on January 11th, Happy Holidays!!

Critical Role has a number of communication strategies to keep each other safe, and we call those Safety Tools! They are ways that the cast make sure they are all having a good time no matter how dramatic or intense the role-play gets.

From lines & veils to check-ins, there are a handful of key tools that we go over in our podcast that you can bring back to your own table.

Get ready to get vulnerable!

"Safety Tools in Critical Role" by Soda Wax: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-mjkcjWaZ0&t=498s

TTRPG Safety Toolkit:

https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1583202183294.pdf

**Released early so you can listen while you travel to Thanksgiving**

Can't think on your feet?! You don't need to be an actor to be able to do improv! We go over some common improv practices that Critical Role does and how you can incorporate them in your own game. We especially highlight Laura Baily's Jester LaVorre, because she is the master of improv. Also cause Dev loves Laura <3

The book we reference in our episode is called Improv for Gamers and you can find it here: https://evilhat.com/product/improv-for-gamers-second-edition/

What makes a compelling character arc? Josh and Dev highlight the development of some of Critical Role's greatest characters and discuss the components so you can adapt them at your table.

This whole podcast is a spoiler, but this episode will specifically spoil the arcs of Scanlan, Fjord, and Caleb.

Who says you need to be a voice actor to be able to do a character voice? Josh and Dev talk about different techniques you can try, all while not needing to be a trained actor. We discuss topics like sustainable voices, how to practice and get comfortable doing voices, and creating NPCs on the fly. Using examples from Critical Role, we unpack the talents of the imitable Matt Mercer and the rest of the cast.

Art by Amy's Art Animations @pastripink on Instagram

Music by Sarah Vinci

In our debut episode, what better place to start than at the beginning. Our beginnings and also Critical Role's beginnings. We discuss how it's okay to be new at something and share our first impressions of Critical Role. We hope our episode gives you the courage to try something new!

Art by Amy's Art Animations @pastripink on Instagram

Music by Sarah Vinci

Where two nerdy ass podcasters talk about how to play Dungeons & Dragons, by learning from the greats... Critical Role! Meet Josh and Dev who will discuss various topics in their bi-weekly episodes from Character Voices to World Building, this show covers a range of topics to help you level up your storytelling and role playing. These episodes will be released on Thursdays and are 30-45 minutes so you can get back to your Critical Role content.

Art by Amy's Art Animations @pastripink on Instagram

Music by Sarah Vinci

Do you remember when Grog attacked Percy over a skull? How about the infamous bowlgate? This week we start our three-episode series on player character conflict and resolution, and we kick it off with a bang with Conflict!

We have lots of great content and clips from all three campaigns, so you are in for a longer episode, but boy is it chock full of goodness!

We break down the elements that drive conflict and discuss techniques for safely approaching intra-party conflict at your table. So, get your boxing gloves on, it's time to fight!

This is the last part in our Religion and Deities series with Ryan McLaughlin from D&D for the Deconstructed. We consider and discuss a world without gods mostly pulling examples from Critical Role's current campaign.

SPOILER WARNING: This will spoil up to episode 65 of Campaign 3.

You can follow D&D for the Deconstructed on IG at forthedesconstructed and find their podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts.

Ryan McLaughlin from D&D for the Deconstructed is back for part 2 in our series on Religion and Deities.

This episode we are going to talk about Matt's view of the Gods in Exandria and we'll also focus on three different characters from Campaign 2, examining their relationships to divinity.

This is a longer episode. We hope you enjoy the rich, theological discussion and connections to Critical Role. And maybe it will even inspire future characters and campaigns for you and your friends.

You can find D&D for the Deconstructed on Apple Podcasts and follow them on IG @forthedeconstructed.

Ryan McLaughlin from the D&D for the Deconstructed podcast joins us for a three-part series on religion & deities.

In this episode, we set the tone for the series by talking about how D&D can be a cathartic experience and used as therapy.

Ryan provides an overview of D&D and religion, and shares his own experience using D&D to address religious trauma.

This episode is light on Critical Role connections, but we dig deeply into Vax's arc from Campaign 1 in the latter half of the episode.

You can find Ryan's podcast on Apple here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/for-the-deconstructed/id1710075757

In Homebrew Pt 2, we discuss monsters, magic items and classes, how to create your own and how Critical Role creates theirs.

We talk about the aeorian baby abomination, Grog's cursed sword and our favorite classes from Critical Role. Which one would you play?!

Scott Mayfield is back as our guest star, and we're talking about homebrew! In Part 1, we focus on campaign settings and house rules, using loads of examples from Critical Role. In Part 2 we'll then focus on classes, monstahs, and magic items. 

The clip we use of Matt Mercer is from the Adventuring Academy episode on Campaign Settings with Brennan Lee Mulligan. 

Follow Scott on Instagram at skawtsalot.studio. 

Love is in the air! This week we discuss how you can bring romance to your table like the cast of Critical Role. We use one example from each campaign to demonstrate how the cast establishes healthy communication and boundaries when embarking on a romance. We'll also talk about what happens when a romance doesn't work out and how to prevent character bleed. Romance is a daunting step to take in roleplay, but we are here to help you make it a success at your table!

We finish up our discussion on Worldbuilding by talking about collaboration using examples of the three Critical Role DMs (Brennan, Aabria and Matt).

Then we talk about map making, the advantages and disadvantages, and how you can get started.

You can follow Scott on Insta: @skawtsalot.studio

Merry Critmas! This month's episode is a deep dive into a handful of heists across Critical Role's three campaigns. We talk about the naughty and the nice.

We break down the five elements of every heist and offer examples of how you can pull off burglaries and break-ins at your own table (in fiction of course).

This episode features the announcement of the winners of our holiday giveaway. We hope you enjoy!

We know it's a long episode, so here are approximate time stamps in case you are interested in a specific campaign. They all offer similar lessons.

• Campaign 1: 20:00
• Campaign 2: 30:00
• Campaign 3: 1:30
• Key Takeaways: 1:50

P.S. We have a new segment, Critical Role News!! Let us know what you think in the comments. Should we keep it?

Happy Holidays!

In honor of International Games Month and the holiday season, we decided to focus on the games the cast plays as their characters.

From 'Bolder, Parchment, Shears' to 'Spin the Bottle' to the classic 'Rollies' we cover games from across the campaigns.

This episode has the most clips yet. Grab a set of dice and a friend while you listen, cause you're gonna want to play!

Boo! In this special Halloween episode we take one of Critical Role's scariest monsters: Hags!

In this very fun and spooky episode we discuss the origins of hags, how to roleplay a hag, how to make a deal, and how to survive your encounter with these dangerous fey.

We draw mostly on Campaign 2 with Dashilla, The Sea Fury and Isharnai, The Prism Sage, but also have an honorable mention of Nana Morri from Campaign 3.

We hope to assist you in roleplaying your hags (if you're a DM) and surviving your next encounter (if you're a player). If you like this episode let is know and leave a review.

P.S. check out @powerupcand20 on Instagram and their dice candy this holiday season

P.P.S. for more content follow us @criticalrolemodelspodcast on Instagram or TikTok

Our second episode in our Season 2 premiere is a debrief on Daggerheart. We invite Scott Mayfield back to discuss what we thought of this new gaming system. Topics include character creation, combat, and mechanics we'd adopt into other systems. As always, we include lots of clips from Critical Role!

Let us know in the comments if you'd like us to do a part 2 of our actual play.

Follow us on Instagram at criticalrolemodelspodcast.

Follow Scott at skawtsalot.studio.

And big thank you to Sarah Vinci for the refinement of our podcast music.

We're back! Our season premiere is coming at you with back-to-back episodes on Daggerheart, Critical Role's new gaming system. In this first episode, we play version 1.5 with a few of our friends who are also podcast contributors: Scott (guest star), Sarah (composer), and Spencer (future guest star).

Our one-shot explores the rules of Daggerheart and to try out the mechanics. Be prepared for lots of role play!

On the run from some gym rats who want to turn our fungril companion into muscle powder, we find our band of unlikely heroes in the town of Hush where they try to take some respite...

Josh is the Game Master.

Dev plays Bubbie, the Halfling Guardian.

Scott plays Dave, the Elven Bard.

Sarah plays Skye, the Katari Rogue.

And Spencer plays Corgan, the Fungril Druid.

Check out this short trailer to learn the changes we have for this upcoming season, our production schedule and refresh on who we are. Enjoy!

**We've been nominated for Best Podcast Host for this year's CRIT Awards. Please help us turn this award-nominated podcast into an award-winning podcast by going to critawards.org and voting for us now. You have until June 30 so don't delay. Thanks for your consideration!**

Ever wonder how you can make your own Cosplay? Or how about how to attend a Con and meet the cast of Critical Role? This episode has you rolling Insight with Advantage. Josh takes a break this episode as Gina from Pixiegift Fashions joins Dev as her sidekick. They interview and get lots of advice from special guest star, Taylor who is best known for her Scanlan cosplay. More recently, her Scantaur cosplay which was a hit in the Critter community. We hope this episode helps you feel more empowered this Con Season!

06:27 Critter Cosplay with Taylor

28:52 Cosplay Tips & Tricks

50:37 Content Creation Insight

01:14:38 In on the Con (Preparing for Conventions)

01:36:54 Final Con Takeaways

Follow Gina and their fashions at pixiegiftfashions on Instagram and TikTok.

Follow Taylor and her cosplay adventures including with her as Scanlan and her friend Mo as Pike at bravoalmara on Instagram and TikTok. And check out her podcast, One True Pair, on Spotify.

Villains beware cause you're bout to be dead! Bwahaha! We are covering several different aspects of villainry (see our timestamps below for the different topics) and we hope they give you some useful tricks when writing or designing your next BBEG!

Villains are not just for DMs! We discuss how players can create compelling villains in their backstory like Caleb's Trent Ikathon or Percy's Briarwoods. We also discuss useful play tips for taking down your DMs most dangerous bad guys.

Making a great bad guy is more art than science. We are lucky to have so many to learn from: Avantika, Obann, The Laughing Hand, Kevdak and Predathos (just to name a few).

2:42 - Crit Role News

7:38 - Intro to Villains

22:00 - Teasing Bosses

30:00 - Encountering the Boss

49:30 - Motivations

1:06:00 - Roleplay aka Dinner with the Devil

1:19:00 - Boss Fights

1:43:00 - Takeaways

Please consider nominating us for best new podcast (2 years or less) or best podcast hosts at https://www.critawards.org/ (Nominations are open until April 30th)

The Studio Binder video we reference on villain archetypes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZOEPpjll0U&pp=ygUWc3R1ZGlvIGJpbmRlciB2aWxsYWlucw%3D%3D

The article on DMing without plots: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots

Before the stream started, the party known as Vox Machina, was called The Sh*ts. Regardless of the name change, over the past ten years they have proven that they are still The Sh*ts (and we love that for them). A chaotic bunch of weirdos who somehow manage to save the world.

The first half of this episode we cover how far Critical Role has come, highlighting our favorite moments and some of the most impactful parts of their history.

The second half is our wrap up of Campaign 3, sharing our thoughts as we patiently wait for the next campaign.

How Far They've Come -- 12:00

Campaign 3 Wrap Up -- 58:00

Want to know how you can raise the stakes at your gaming table? Well you've come to the right place.

Join us and our guest Spencer Wight as we dive into a discussion of what kinds of stakes we see in TTRPGs and the best examples we could find from Critical Role.

We'll cover risking our lives, protecting the people we care about, losing our reputations and more!

Since the ep is pretty long, here are timestamps:

• 14:00 -- Intro to Stakes
• 24:00 -- Player Character Death
• 48:00 -- NPC
• 55:00 -- Internal Stakes
• 1:12:00 -- Environment
• 1:34:00 -- Reputation
• 1:41:00 -- Honorable Mentions
• 1:49:00 -- Advice & Takeaways

We hope you enjoy having Spencer on the show. We sure did!

Are you ready to unlock the power of your dreams? We are! Today we explore the potential of dreams & visions in Critical Role, showing examples that deal with the past, present and future.

As always, we cover tips for players & DMs for how you can include this in your games.

Since it's a longer episode, here are timestamps:

• 13:00 intro to topic
• 25:00 commune with a deity
• 48:00 commune with the supernatural
• 1:00 visions of the past
• 1:15 visions of the future
• 1:26 honorable mentions (e.g. dreams after death)
• 1:43 advice and takeaways

If you are able to support those in need from the LA fires, here are the links we mentioned:

• https://bit.ly/kyleshiresneighbor
• https://bit.ly/lagofundmemasterlist

For the final episode of our second season, Josh sits down with special guest Scott Mayfield to discuss Brennan Lee Mulligan, one of Critical Role's most famous guest stars.

We discuss how Brennan helps his players create rich, compelling PCs, how he manages rapid shifts in tone and how his understanding of the PCs motivations lets him guide them through his campaigns.

**We also announce the winner of our Get Out the Vote Giveaway!! If you still haven't voted for us for Best Podcast Hosts, we kindly ask you go to www.critawards.org/ **

Time Stamps

00:00 Giveaway announcement, intro & crit role news

08:50 How Brennan hooks you

21:35 Quickly shifting tone

28:39 Creating rich PCs

41:16 Powerful thematic moments

1:13:28 Lighting round: Matt vs Brennan comparison

1:26:40 BLMs impact on D&D

You need to nerd out…on The Mighty Nein! Welcome to our season 3 premiere.

While watching the new animated show, we were amazed at how the campaign was adapted and we are excited for what the future holds.

The show also left us wondering what we could bring back to our home games. Whether you’re new to Critical Role and D&D or you’re a long-time critter, this show can cast bardic inspiration on your home games.

Welcome! 00:00

Podcast Segments & Giveaway 02:00

How Might Nein Meets: Show vs Home Game 11:23

Navigating Character Tension 21:02

Adapting Campaign Stories for Animated Series 23:59

Building Wildemount Characters for Your Home Game 39:03

Predictions for Season 2 (Spoilers) 44:59

Wrapping Up 56:40

Listeners old and new, come hear what we have in store for you!

We are spilling the tea in a bonus episode all about what has been happening this summer with Critical Role! We have reports from Comic Con and Gen Con, as well as tips for going to other cons this summer.

We answer questions like: What’s it really like to go to a live show? Is the VIP package really worth it? and Should you wait in line for merch? These and other hard-hitting questions are covered by our correspondents in the field.

Gina returns as our guest host and we are joined by our special guest Sara, from Tales of Exandria.

We will also cover when too much tea was spilled and the C4 announcement was spoiled. What do we think is in store for Campaign 4? All this and more in this Bonus Action episode of Critical Role Models!

Follow Gina @pixiegiftfashions

Follow Sara @talesofexandria

Con Debrief: 2:35

Indy Live Show Debrief (No Spoilers): 31:16

C4 Announcement: 54:56

Mighty Nein Animated Series: 1:17:19

Grab your dice, loosen your cloak, and prepare to laugh until you roll a nat 1 — because this episode of Critical Role Models is gonna be chaos (the fun kind).

Join us with special guest Spencer as we dive headfirst into the funniest and most unhinged moments from Critical Role Campaign 1. From Grog's shopping trip gone wrong to confusing cows, this highlight reel has everything we love about roleplaying gone gloriously off the rails.

And this is just part one! Next month we'll have clips from C2, C3 and beyond.

Now, normally Critical Role Models is all about sharpening your storytelling skills and leveling up your roleplay—but this time? We’re just here for a good time.

So pop that healing potion, sit back and remember: no plan survives contact with your players (sorry Matt).

We’ve conquered the Dungeons… now it’s time for the Dragons.

In this high-flying episode of Critical Role Models, we break down what makes dragons the ultimate fantasy icon—and how you can make them unforgettable at your table.

Whether you’re a Dungeon Master looking to craft a legendary wyrm or a player determined to claim that hoard, this episode is packed with actionable tips and epic inspiration.

We use two of Critical Role's most memorable dragons as examples:

• Raishan – The Diseased Deceiver. A masterclass in manipulation, long games, and layered villainy.
• Gelidon – The Nightmare in Ivory. Proof that a dragon encounter can be terrifying, personal, and brutally simple.

Level up your storytelling. Sharpen your blades. And remember—every dragon has a weakness… if you’re clever enough to find it. 🔥

Want to design dungeons like Matt Mercer? We'll help by breaking down the fundamentals of dungeons. We analyze two famous dungeons from Critical Role Campaign 2—the Happy Fun Ball and the Crawling King's Cage—to show you how Matt connects story threads, creates memorable challenges, and builds a great experience for his players. Whether you're a DM preparing your first dungeon or a player wanting to understand the craft, this episode reveals the building blocks behind Matt's legendary dungeon design and how you can build your own delicious dungeon.

Timestamps:

• 0:02:49 - History of Dungeons in D&D
• 0:06:46 - Concept: Location, Denizens, and Goal
• 0:20:33 - Designing Dungeons: Rooms with Stuff
• 0:24:21 - Denizens: Who Lives There?
• 0:34:00 - Rewards: Treasure and Information
• 0:37:30 - Room Description: The Three Senses Rule
• 0:44:10 - External Groups and World Building
• 0:51:43 - Twists: When Things Aren't What They Seem
• 0:54:59 - Crit Role Stat & Blanking w/ Critical Role