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

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.