AABRIA: Any ideas on
the playbook you want? NOSHIR: I'd love your help
in guiding me on where I'd be
the most useful. Okay, so-- ASHLY: Damn, he's already
got like three pages already written.
(laughter) AABRIA: Oh, did you not do a full five-sheet for?
ASHLY: No! AABRIA: A full essay?
(laughter) SAM: Where's your
Pinterest board? ASHLY: Where's your Pinterest board, Sam?
SAM: I have a full Pinterest board.
AABRIA: I have a Pinterest board. (laughs)
ASHLY: Show it. SAM: It's not
about this game.
(laughter) SAM: It's for
my kitchen remodel. ASHLY: (laughs)
GINA: Yeah. ♪ (mysterious music) ♪ AABRIA: Hey, welcome, y'all. We are in our session zero for the third installment
of Candela Obscura. I'm so excited to
be your game runner, and I could not
be more pleased that you all are
at the table. Thank you for saying yes and thank you for being here. Fuck, this is great. ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: I already did a cuss, we're doing good.
ASHLY and GINA: (laugh) ASHLY: Are we allowed
to cuss, beca
use that's going to be an issue, right?
AABRIA: Yeah, everyone can do cusses now.
ASHLY: Okay, great. AABRIA: It's good. (laughs)
GINA: The seal's broken, we can just--
AABRIA: Yeah, that's the most
important thing as a DM, be the first one--
LIAM: Just not in the first-- AABRIA: -- to drop an F-bomb. LIAM: -- 30 seconds
of the stream. (laughter) LIAM: There's some weird
Twitch rule about it. AABRIA: It's called
setting expectations. ASHLY and GINA: (laugh)
LIAM: By the way, all I know so far, i
s that I want
to be very old. ASHLY: (laughs)
LIAM: So I'm not going to stop talking like this, I'm sorry. ASHLY: He's been
talking like this all day, by the way.
AABRIA: All day. ASHLY: Since high school.
AABRIA: This is Liam's real voice,
and he finally feels comfortable enough to use it.
LIAM: Letting it out. (laughter) AABRIA: Cool. So let me
just run you through our game plan for the day. We're going to talk
about tone and tempo and the themes of the game, then we'll get into
character gene
ration. My philosophy about
all of this is games and stories
are made and broken in the mise en place
of getting everyone locked into not only who
you are as a character, but what you are
to each other and who you are to the world, because those are the
hardest things to manipulate once you're in it. Once it's in the oven, we can do small corrections, but if you're like, oh,
I don't really understand why I am with this group, or how I understand
the world, or how I interact with it, those are re
ally hard
to course correct, and you can feel the
strain of trying to do so once you're running. So this will be our
big time together to try to lock
all of that in. My goals for you
for character gen, I would love to
see 80% completion. If you get to 100%, you know exactly what
you want to play and it's just about
building relationships, that's great. But as long as
you have a sense of what your character is and what they want, we can always manipulate
the mechanics. I'm a tinkerer,
I love tink
ering up until the moment
the cameras run for real, so don't feel any pressure. If you've made some choices and we've played it out and you walk away from
this at 7:00 and you're like, "Actually,
I don't fucking like "anything I picked."
(laughter) AABRIA: We can
tinker with that, we can build stuff that's
specific to your desires. But understand what you
want from a character, and we'll make
the mechanics fit. LIAM: May I ask a question? AABRIA: Sure!
SAM: Oh jesus. LIAM: In some games--
ASHLY:
(laughs) Sam's already sick of it!
AABRIA: Commitment. He's already done,
and it's great. LIAM: Think how done I feel, I'm 97 years old.
(laughter) AABRIA: You're doing
this to yourself! LIAM: Ah, yes. AABRIA: (laughs)
LIAM: In some games, the players, the characters
meet for the first time, but are we a crew? AABRIA: The understanding
here will be you all know each other, you've interacted in
maybe other circles, depending on how familiar you want your character
to be with Candela. But you wil
l all have
known of each other, but this circle
has never existed before this moment.
LIAM: Ah. ASHLY: Oh.
LIAM: Is that how it works in the lore of the world that sometimes you're with
one circle for 10 years and then you get
moved to another? AABRIA: Yeah. I mean, my
understanding of Candela, and we have the people
that made the game right off camera,
but they're not allowed to fucking show up.
ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: So what I say is
true forever right now. (laughter) AABRIA: I think some cir
cles do stay together
and stay tight and go on multiple
adventures together. For what I want
to discuss here, I think it's important that you all have connection
to each other, but you've never experienced
this kind of synergy. So there are still things
to discover about each other, but there's still
enough connective tissue that you're like,
"I don't have to introduce "everything about my
character in minute one." There is some knowledge
of how people work and assumptions
that can be made becau
se, again, we've
got three episodes. I guess we'll talk
about this really quick, the tempo of everything. We've got three episodes, they are a month apart. That means we have
a beautiful audience that's going to forget
90% of the shit from episode to episode.
SAM: Mm-hmm. AABRIA: So there's going to
be some interesting ideas. I would like you to
think about these, at least for your characters, as a three-act structure. But know that I want
you to come out strong with what your
character's deal i
s by the end of
the first episode. Episode Two, we heighten and get into the high drama
of what your arcs are. Three is our resolution
for all of that. So knowing that secrets
are fun and interesting, but especially in RPGs, they're only as fun as they
can be once people know, once the audience knows, and once you have to
wrestle with what it means for yourself to be
known and laid bare. LIAM: Pull that ripcord. AABRIA: Pull the ripcord. Please do not sit on
fun secrets forever. As we're buildin
g characters, you will be sharing
those secrets with me. Share what you want
with the group, we'll have one-on-one moments where you share them with me, and I will always be there
by your side to be like, all right, time to
throw that next gear, because it's only
as interesting as what comes next
because of what's happened. LIAM: My secret is that I
hate all of Ashly's characters in every medium. (laughter)
AABRIA: I love that! ASHLY: Does that mean
that my oeuvre exists within Candela Obscura?
SAM: Yes. AABRIA: Yes, yes.
(laughter) ASHLY: It's all fake
people and then me. (laughs) AABRIA: You're the only real one.
LIAM: I already I hate it. ASHLY and AABRIA: (laugh) ASHLY: She's too talky. LIAM: I don't truck with her. (laughter) ASHLY: Gab, gab, gab. AABRIA: "I don't truck with
her," is the cutest old-man statement.
(laughter) AABRIA: Ah!
I love ancient Liam. LIAM: She's quite
good in that game, if you haven't played it.
AABRIA: (laughs) ASHLY: Oh stop.
LIAM: Still hated her. ASHLY:
(laughs)
AABRIA: The hair toss was very good, by the way. ASHLY: Mm-hmm.
AABRIA: Amazing. ASHLY: I haven't had
hair for very long, so I'm really enjoying it.
AABRIA: Enjoying it. ASHLY: Yeah.
AABRIA: It's beautiful, it's beautiful. Any questions about
this first thing before I jump into tone? AABRIA: No? Great.
GINA: No. AABRIA: All right,
the tone for this. We are all very funny people, and no one is more,
in the CR canon, I think I am the
goofiest, fuck it, well, no, that's Sam. GINA: (laughs)
AABRIA: Second goofiest game runner here. But the tone has to be dark. This is a lethal system and a serious world. It's fun to have fun, and you can't live in
horror and tension forever and you can't live in
horror and tension forever without that off-gassing
by making jokes. Not saying that that's
not a part of it and that I don't want that. But if you do not take
this world seriously, if you don't take the stakes and if you don't
take the NPCs and their perspective and their rationality and
reasonability seriously, this will shoot our
story in the water. So I don't mean to lecture, but this is one
of those games where you have
to hold the tone, you have to be here and care as much
about what you're doing and what the world
is doing back to you just more so
than other games. This has to be grounded. Magick is rare, and the things that
you're dealing with are beyond most people's ken and is, unlike in
Dungeons & Dragons where you're like, yeah,
I just fucking do magic, here's a fireb
all, the existence of phenomena
in this world is terrifying to most people, and lethal not only
to the people that are affected by it, but to the world itself. We'll get more into that as I talk a little bit
more about the theme and what my top-down idea about what the meta-story
will be is. So yeah, actions
have consequences, I will be a little
consequence monster, and the people that you
are going to interact with are reasonable and grounded. So if you come in with some
big-ass Looney Tune ene
rgy, I'm going to bump in a way
that I hope you understand is not me not enjoying a
fun moment or a fun choice. Even if you don't see me
curve you away from it, know that me
reacting seriously, or with derision
or dismissal, it's fidelity for the world and not a reaction from
a GM to the players, so. But the--
ASHLY: No goofs. AABRIA: (laughs) Yeah. Do not have fun!
SAM: No fun. ASHLY: No goofs, okay.
SAM: No fun. AABRIA: You can have goofs
and you can have fun, but just know that if I bump, unl
ess I pull you
off to the side and say something later, when we shut it down.
GINA: (laughs) ASHLY: Oh my god,
that's my nightmare. (laughter) AABRIA: I've truly never--
SAM: (as Aabria) "Ashly, "can I see you for a second?"
(laughter) AABRIA: I've never done that, I don't think I will need to. But there have been times
where I've run games where I'm like, I am playing
the bummer in the world. Then I'm like, please
don't take this personally, I'm being the world, and I don't hate what you
guys a
re putting out there. So I just wanted to
flag that early. LIAM: I think if you go in with the intention
to play serious, there will still
be 10% to 15% of tomfoolery--
AABRIA: Oh, 100%. LIAM: -- because that's
the nature of it. AABRIA: Exactly.
LIAM: But if you go in trying to be hilarious, then it will break the shit.
AABRIA: Yes, And I'm only adding
that extra thing because I haven't
played with, or haven't run
for most of you. SAM: It's for me,
she's saying it for me. (laughter) LIAM: I shou
ld never put the
both of you in the same room. AABRIA: So when
we talk about, but pulling someone
up besides Sam, and trying to lock it in.
(laughter) SAM: This whole
speech is for me. (laughter)
AABRIA: I've been trying so hard not to make
eye contact with you. SAM and ASHLY: (laugh) AABRIA: But I know
there's always conversations about
tone up top, so that's the big one. Yeah, we've talked a
little bit about tempo. And yeah, theming. For me, the arc
words for this, or at least as
I'm planning
now, all of this stays
very nebulous until we figure out what
everyone's characters are, and then the actual
story gets written around the characters. But what I've walked
in with it today is that idea of old wounds
untreated will fester, about the things that
you covered over in a moment of tension
or a moment of crisis, but you never went
back and healed it. Those can be physical wounds, there's so much in the way
this game feels as a player where you are taking marks and giving yourself scars
and using those
scars to treat your array of abilities. How does a scar change
who you are as a person? So really leaning into that, and not only for
your characters, but what is Newfaire's
relationship to both its recent past and its ancient history, Oldfaire, things that
we've talked about a little bit before. This is a city that was built on top of a place
of phenomenal power that destroyed itself, that was left
alone and treated with that radioactive, Pripyat's nuclear-meltdown
distance Pri
pyat's nuclear-meltdown
distance until it became no longer
tenable to stay away. Newfaire came about
because people went, "We have to go somewhere," and that was driven by war and by politics and
all of those things. But if you don't treat
the underlying problem, the radiation, both real in the
magick and the bleed and all of the mystical
shit in the world that we'll be dealing
with through Candela, but also just
the psychic trauma of a place that
was destroyed, but was abandoned for so long tha
t we never
learned the lessons, that those lessons
must be born out. Someone has to facilitate
that healing or you start to make the
same kind of problems all over again. As the world advances
in technology, as you live in
that float post-war, as you live in
that float post-war, you have to learn
the lessons. Someone has to
learn the lesson, someone has to facilitate
that healing or the world will collapse. So that's kind of
where I'm sitting and thinking right now. That idea that the
acknowledg
ement of injustice, the acknowledgement
of past wrongs and past wounds
and past scars is not analogous
to restitution. So yeah, going back
and healing old wounds. So that's the arc words I would like you
to think about as we go into
our character gen. Does anyone have
any questions? I've talked for a very
long time. (laughs) SAM: That's great.
AABRIA: Aw, thanks! Cool, okay. We'll get
into character gen. I know some of you have
already picked playbooks, picked your roles and have
some ideas abou
t character. We'll do character
gen as a group, and I will throw up, in the event that someone
wants a fun secret about their character that would be pinged
by their catalyst or question for the group, please give the answer that you have
given to Candela. There's no way
that all of you interacting with
Candela Obscura have not been asked
overtly the questions in your catalyst in question. What happened to you to
alert you to this world, to all the things unseen, to phenomena, to the
thinning, t
o the Flare, and why are you here? Now, if it's not your truth, we'll discuss
that one-on-one. But there is a party line that you've been giving
for long enough that it would be
second nature. So I would ask that you
give that to the group because that's what they
would know about you. Then if you have any
secrets you want to reveal, you can keep those
for the one-on-one. I'm not saying you
have to have it, but if you do,
that's the space, don't feel the need to
throw it all out there if you don
't want to. Now, if you want to, you can always say, "Here's my character's
secret, "I want the table to know "because I want everyone
to play with the secret." That's great.
SAM: Mm. AABRIA: I just want
to give you two options so you don't feel
compelled to be like, "Well, I have
this weird thing "that I want to come out, "and I want it to be a little
surprise for everyone." Totally fine, fucking lie. AABRIA and SAM: (laugh)
GINA: (laughs) AABRIA: So that's good. So yeah, let's go ahead and
tal
k about character pitches. NOSHIR: Yeah.
AABRIA: I'm going to start with Sam.
SAM: I got nothing, don't start with me.
(laughter) AABRIA: Incredible. I'm going
to start with Noshir. SAM: I'm a blank slate.
(laughter) NOSHIR: Okay. AABRIA: Any ideas on
the playbook you want? NOSHIR: No, I feel
like the character I'm interested in playing-- AABRIA: Yeah.
NOSHIR: -- could field a couple of
different disciplines. AABRIA: Sweet.
NOSHIR: So I'd love your help in maybe guiding me--
AABRIA: Yeah! NOSHIR
: -- on where I'd
be the most useful. Okay, so-- ASHLY: Damn, he's already
got like three pages already written.
(laughter) ASHLY: Noshir's got a--
AABRIA: Oh, did you not do a full five-sheet for--
ASHLY: No! AABRIA: A full essay?
(laughter) SAM: Where's your
Pinterest board? ASHLY: Where's your Pinterest board, Sam?
SAM: I have a full Pinterest board.
AABRIA: I have a Pinterest board. ASHLY: Show it. SAM: It's not
about this game. (laughter) SAM: It's for my
kitchen remodel. ASHLY: (laughs)
GI
NA: Yeah. LIAM: This is why Noshir's
roles are all excellent. (laughter) ASHLY: It's true.
(laughter) NOSHIR: My Asian sister
not doing her homework. (laughter) NOSHIR: I'm shocked and horrified for you.
AABRIA: You can't laugh at that, Sam, you simply cannot.
(laughter) AABRIA: You simply cannot.
SAM: I don't know what's going on. (laughter) NOSHIR: He knows, he knows. (laughter) NOSHIR: So I guess I'll start
with a nursery rhyme. AABRIA: Ooh.
ASHLY: Ooh. NOSHIR: Mother Mercy,
ensconced in whit
e, tends the hungry
day and night. Loving mother to the poor, dare not enter
through her door. Mind this verse
lest you should meet, please mind her smile
and mind her teeth. Your name is known to me,
Great Maw, now unbind us
from tooth and claw. ASHLY: Dang. NOSHIR: This and many other
nursery rhymes and lullabies were the way that our mother,
Vimala Savarimuthu, would lull me and my twin
sister Aadtika to sleep. Vimala, as anyone in the
Newfaire lands knows, was a very famous
archeologist. LIA
M: I knew that. (laughter)
NOSHIR: Exhibit A. ASHLY: (laughs) NOSHIR: She came to
academic prominence with the discovery of
one of the largest, most intact caches of Oldfaire remnants
ever found. From that, her academic
celebrity skyrocketed and she ended up traveling and
doing numerous expeditions, leading digs in the Faraways. At night she would
ask to put us down with those nursery rhymes,
and I was 10 at that time, practically an adult,
as far as I'm concerned. I did not have need
for lullab
ies, and yet she insisted. More importantly, she insisted that my twin
sister and I sing them back. One night, trying to
get one up on my, One night, trying to
get one up on my, I will happily admit,
smarter sister, I wrote it down to study, and the anger that my
mother met me with was something I
will never forget. She burned the paper
and told me explicitly that these are rhymes
to be told by mouth and never to be
seen by the eye. I didn't understand at the
time what she was saying. I do now,
unfortunately. Many nights she'd go walking
on the grounds of the estate in the dark by herself. If I looked out my
bedroom window, I would see on occasion a bold glow
light the treeline and then suddenly disappear. I came to understand
that I wouldn't see my mother for weeks. Then a month later, still no sign of her. Two months later, no sign. It was my sister
who found her, an abandoned well at
the edge of the treeline far at the edges
of our estate. She came back covered
in dirt, mud, her han
ds torn, screaming about Mother and a buzzing. I didn't understand
what she was saying and my father kept arguing that she was simply
being hysterical. But I knew something
was gravely wrong, and my father did
not seem surprised. He sat and watched the clock, and after thinking
for 10 minutes, called our business manager. Then he waited
30 more minutes and then called the fire
and rescue brigade. They came with
ladders and ropes. The well was abandoned,
30, 40 feet deep at the least. When we arr
ived, we found
ourselves in a swamp, ankle-deep in blood. Blood was welling up, poor choice of words,
over the stones. All of a sudden there
was a great roar that shook the trees, and
the blood violently receded. As we heard that
rushing sound, there was a sudden glow of
light from inside the well and then nothing. We were left with
essentially a marshland, scattered bits of
clothing and bone, but almost nothing to go by. A medical examiner came
back with a report that was rather scant. The bloo
d was not human and didn't match any fauna
that he had record of. The bones were too little and
too few to determine gender. However, in the margins were
notes about what looked to be the indication of gnawing
from human teeth. So my mother was
declared missing. I would take long walks, trying to reason with
what had happened. One day, amidst
the mud and blood, found the broken remnants of what must have
been her collar, torn and shredded. I knew that something
was terribly wrong. My sister neve
r recovered. (sighs) She wouldn't eat.
She wouldn't sleep. The halls echoed
with her cries. My father resorted
to sedating her, and then finally introduced
us to a nun, Sister Rahema, who would
be looking after her and was now in
charge of her care. Sister Rahema was head to toe
covered in a white robe Sister Rahema was head to toe
covered in a white robe with a heavy cowl
that always hid her face, large, ornate
porcelain buttons alternating from
her high collar all the way to the floor. I don't
know how I knew this, but I knew that
I was staring at the most beautiful woman
I have ever seen. It stirred something
in me that made me feel ashamed,
if I am honest. I determined from
that moment on that I would never
leave Aadtika alone. So the next day, when she
went to do her gardening, I decided to follow. I kept my distance. As the sun rose, they
crossed into the forest. As the sun was setting,
she was still moving. I didn't realize how
far she was going and I hadn't packed a thing. I ke
pt an eye
on their lanterns and shortly after,
the lights went out and I was left stumbling
in the dark. Eventually, I heard
a tinging sound and tried to trace
it with my ears and then found myself falling
probably about 20 feet and landing on
a hard slab of stone. My sister was there, digging. Even in the scant light, I could see that
her hands were raw. I called to her and
she said nothing. I got up and shook her and realized that
her eyes were open, but she was unseeing,
digging at a feverish
pace. Then I heard this
buzzing sound and turned up to see Sister
Rahema at the lip of the pit. In that moment,
Aadtika came to life. She embraced me and turned
to Sister Rahema and said, "You see, I told
you he would come." I looked to the Sister
and then heard in my head, "Two to make the key," and the stone underneath
me started to move. I was terrified and tried
to run out of the pit and my sister fought me. I didn't mean to,
but I kicked her. When she fell,
she hit her head, and upon risin
g, seemed as if she had
come out of a dream. A look of such
regret and horror A look of such
regret and horror came over her face. She screamed at me to run, and the next thing I knew,
Rahema was holding me fast. Before I could think of what
to do, my sister cried out, "Your name is known to me," and before she could
finish the phrase, Rahema took a clawed hand
and ripped out her tongue. I had heard that nursery
rhyme so many times. It came to me unbidden. In a panic I screamed: Your name is kno
wn
to me, Great Maw. Now unbind me from
tooth and claw. As I did so, the porcelain
buttons on her robe opened to reveal a massive jaw. I saw a look on
my sister's face and realized that
I had said it wrong. The line is "Now unbind us." ASHLY: (whimpers) NOSHIR: In my fear, I called it only for myself. A hoard of locusts exploded
out of Rahema's mouth and enveloped my sister. I tried to stop her and
she struck me in the side and sent me flying. That was the last
I remembered. I woke up to a grisl
y
gash down my side, part of her claw still
embedded in my bone. From that moment on,
I've dedicated myself to finding out more
about this creature, Maw, and what she has
done to my sister. I'm now a professor
of archeology myself, following in my
mother's footsteps. She has left us with
an amazing fortune, which I have used freely. I think many in the
academic circles would consider me a fop. (soft laughter) NOSHIR: And that is fine. Let them think what
they want to think. The more I've learned
, I've started to hear
about this organization, Candela Obscura,
whispers and murmurings. My mother had been
given a choice. The relics she was given
would save her life and allow her time with us. In exchange, she would
work for Newfaire and the powers that be. It was now certain that
agents of the Otherwhere had already extracted
information on the dynamo and
hydroelectric power. Electric supremacy was no
longer ours for the taking. The only way we would
survive a second assault was a preempti
ve strike
of magnificent power, a show of tremendous force. The only thing
that would do that was found in these
ancient relics. So my mother was quested
with finding the weapons that would give us that edge. I don't think she
really had a choice. I'm driven now to
find my sister, learn more about and destroy
this spirit known as Maw, who I've now learned is
a creature born from famine and starving children, locusts and starvation
in corporeal form. When she feeds the hungry, she feeds them
empt
y sustenance and then draws
that life force. She gave that to my sister,
and that is how she survived because she needed her
to bring me, the twins, to unlock something
I don't understand. So I've joined
Candela Obscura in an effort to
uncover many secrets. ASHLY: I don't want
to go anymore. (laughter) ASHLY: That was so good!
AABRIA: It was so good. ASHLY: What the heck? LIAM: Well, it's all
downhill from here. (laughter)
ASHLY: Goddamn it! GINA: Can I not go next?
(laughter) SAM: I thought may
be my guy could maybe be named Orville. (laughter) NOSHIR: He makes popcorn.
ASHLY: Nosh, that was so cool! AABRIA: Perfect. That
was so incredible. ASHLY: Oh my god. NOSHIR: I apologize
it was so long. AABRIA: Oh.
ASHLY: No! AABRIA: Never apologize. Again, we talked about this
a little bit before. Give me as much as
you want to give. It is for me to
establish pace and make sure that spotlight
is being moved adequately. If I like something,
goddamn it, we're going to stay with it. These cameras
will run
until I say stop. (laughter) AABRIA: It's three episodes, but they can be as long
as they want to be! (laughter) AABRIA: We'll be
here for days! That was gorgeous.
LIAM: Very stirring, yes. AABRIA: Yeah. That is stunning!
ASHLY: That was nice, actually. LIAM: I'm going to
give you less. (laughter) AABRIA: Give me nothing. (laughter) AABRIA: Yeah,
that's phenomenal. We'll get into it a bit
in our one-on-one because I have a lot of of fun
juice back in that direction because yeah, there's
so many questions around someone that has
been in proximity to so much. Most people experience
a weird thing in their life that their brain will work
hard for maybe an hour to come up with enough of a
reason to forget it happened. Then there's 0.1% of
the population that goes, "I cannot explain
this another way," and that's who Candela
comes and finds. Then there is what
you went through, which is being raised
in proximity to great and horrifying
workings of the world and the truth of this plac
e. So to come finally
as an adult, so fully, not understanding, but with eyes
a little less foggy, less foggy than most
is just such a, that's a very fun
point of entry. I'm obsessed with Oldfaire, so we're going to
have a lot of fun. It feels so fucking weird
to be like, cool. I think you should
be the Professor. (laughter) AABRIA: Just to get
it back to mechanics, but fuck mechanics. NOSHIR: Works for me. AABRIA: Yeah,
I think the Professor, yeah, works really well. But there's definitely
some
thing I want to play in around conversations around
the nature of your study that maybe there's
some mechanics from this, like a Slink role that
might also be applicable. I want to hear what the rest
of the group is thinking, but I think there's
some fun mods, too. I am a professor in the way that like Batman is
like a foppy businessman, and like what's the version of
you that's out in the world? A professor. What are you to yourself
in your own heart might be reflected differently
in the mechan
ics, but-- NOSHIR: Yeah.
AABRIA: Yeah, that's really cool. (laughter)
AABRIA: Cool. Well, why don't you
sit fucking tight because (groans)
you got to go next. I'm so sorry. GINA: Fuck.
ASHLY: Oh my god. AABRIA: It's okay.
Zero pressure. Just tell me what you're
thinking about a character. ASHLY: A little pressure! I just have one idea.
AABRIA: Yeah! ASHLY: That I want
to give you power to fuck with
my character-- AABRIA: Cool. Oh my god, thank you!
ASHLY: Which I might totally regret doing. AABR
IA: Probably!
ASHLY: But basically. So I pulled Doctor. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: Because I basically
want to do like a Dr. Jekyll,
Mr. Hyde thing. (oohing) ASHLY: So I kind of
want to do, like-- You know, Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde or like the Hulk, where basically there's
like another entity that's like taking up
half of the space up here. So I kind of want to give
you the power-- AABRIA: I love you!
ASHLY: -- to decide when it comes out
or if it comes out. So I don't know exactly
how that works mecha
nically, but like if
I have to do checks to see if I can calm
myself down or whatever. But basically that
I would be struggling between. But I don't know if
that gets so complicated. Like do I need a
different sheet for when-- Which one's bad?
Jekyll or Hyde? I never remember.
They both sound scary. ALL: Hyde.
LIAM: (regular voice) Hyde. (old man voice) Oh shit!
(laughter) AABRIA: (shrieks)
GINA: I heard it! AABRIA: Don't leave that in! Cut that out!
ASHLY: It was Liam for a second! GINA: I hear
d it! (laughter) LIAM: That's my Mr. Hyde. (laughter) AABRIA: If you want to
play in a world where it is very, like,
RNG driven, we can figure out
a fun mechanic-- ASHLY: Cool.
AABRIA: -- to be like how's it going. ASHLY: Mm.
AABRIA: That like the more you fail,
the closer you get to collapse into a thing
that could be very fun and involving like a bit of
a spin-down of, "Okay, this is
a trigger moment for you. "Roll to see if you
hold onto yourself." But with every time
you have to test yoursel
f, you get closer to, like,
a statistical likelihood that it will happen.
ASHLY: Yeah. I wonder if we could do
a thing where like if I fail, I become a monster,
then you control. NOSHIR: Whoa. AABRIA: So here's the thing.
ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: I love, I love, love,
love being a monster, but I also love letting
people be a monster. ASHLY: Yeah.
AABRIA: So if you want me to be a monster,
I'll happily do it. But if you want to
experience some of that untethering
from normal-- There's something ve
ry
cool in the fact that this is Critical Role giving us a new world and
a new system and a new context and a new idea of what kind
of stories we can tell. I think there's a
fun space to play here with what the role
of a player is and what the role of a GM is. I'm here to
facilitate a story, but I'm also here
to empower you to tell the kind of story
you want to tell. If that is villainous
and very PvP driven, I'll sit here and be
a fucking referee if you want to go and
be a big baddie. We can be
that
villain together. I can put it in your hands,
but we can come up with something that allows you to--
ASHLY: Okay. AABRIA: -- feel empowered
by that switch. Just know I love PvP, I'll be rooting for
you the whole time. (laughter)
AABRIA: Fucking kill them! Aim for Sam! Yes!
(laughter continues) ASHLY: So we would
come up with stats for my monstie basically.
AABRIA: 100%, yeah. So I think I'm
going to take it and say it's not
going be a playbook, it's going to be
a monster stat. ASHLY: Great
.
AABRIA: Cool? ASHLY: Great.
LIAM: I will end you, Burch. (laughter) ASHLY: I'll fucking
come for you, Liam. AABRIA: I want the body count
that you've got in this world. Goals, a dream. SAM: What did you pull?
What's your sheet? ASHLY: I feel like Doctor. SAM: Oh yeah, you said Doctor.
AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: As my normal vibe.
AABRIA: Mm-hmm. ASHLY: I don't have
anywhere near as elaborate of
a backstory as Noshir! AABRIA: No, you're good!
ASHLY: That's what I would be. The basic idea being that
a
t some point I tried some less than, not ethical, but less than safe, I guess. AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: Medical experimentation-- AABRIA: Nice.
ASHLY: -- on myself and it went awry. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: So I'm still a doctor, and I think playing into
that idea is fun, that I heal in some cases
and then destroy in others. AABRIA: I love that.
SAM: Are you an ear, nose, and throat doctor? ASHLY: Yeah.
(laughter) ASHLY: I'm a gynecologist,
actually. SAM: Okay.
(laughter) AABRIA: My question for you, as
you are building this
doc, how aware are you of your monstrous
counterpart? Do you know when
you break bad or is it just like--
ASHLY: Yes. AABRIA: -- "Then I
went to sleep "and then I woke up
and there's blood. "But whatever, I'm a doctor." ASHLY: I think it would be
more interesting for me maybe if it's more Hulk-esque. AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: So that I am aware that I'm going to break bad.
AABRIA: Vibes. ASHLY: I'm trying to
avoid breaking bad, and it's probably not
fun if I don't break bad, so
there should be
some sort-- AABRIA: Oh, it's going to happen.
ASHLY: Yeah, it's going to happen. Great, great. Okay.
AABRIA: Here's the thing about making it
a mechanical thing is there's always a universe
in which the mechanics fail. ASHLY: Right.
AABRIA: We'll come up with a good buzzer when I'm like,
fuck a die, it happens. ASHLY: Yeah. (laughs)
(laughter) ASHLY: Right. Right, right,
right. Okay, good. So I think I'm
constantly on edge, I'm trying to keep
it in check. AABRIA: Beautiful.
ASHL
Y: Yeah. AABRIA: Then I guess this is
the thing to think about, you don't have to answer now. God, so many of these
questions are like, come up with a really
foundational thing, like a pillar of personality
in this moment. But just yeah, thinking
of what does Candela think about you? ASHLY: Mm. AABRIA: Is it the Hulk
in "The Avengers" where they're like,
"We understand "sometimes it gets
real rough big guy, "but we believe in you." Or is it like,
"Either you work with us, "or you are underground
." What is the--
ASHLY: What do you think your character
would think of it? AABRIA: Ooh! NOSHIR: Well, I think
he'd be fascinated and I'd probably look
through ancient lore to see if there are stories
similar to the lycanthrope and other afflictions
that could help answer where your sickness
comes from. There might even be
artifacts that can help establish some level
of control for you. ASHLY: Okay, so you'd be
a bit more amenable to having me around. NOSHIR: I mean, I'm going
to wheel you aroun
d in the Hannibal Lecter-- ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: Oh yeah! Fun, fun. NOSHIR: All the time,
all the time. AABRIA: Just give you
a little hug suit. It's great.
(laughter) GINA: A hug suit.
(laughter) AABRIA: Oh, I love that. Sweet. That's super fun, yeah. Don't worry, keep the idea.
ASHLY: Cool. AABRIA: It's a great idea.
ASHLY: Great. AABRIA: Yeah, we'll come up
with custom mechanics for that because that's very fun.
ASHLY: Sick. I feel like it would
be a thing where it's maybe
an anxiety trigge
r. AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: As opposed to a Hulk where I get angry and then it happens--
AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: -- that it's
like if I, pardon me for using
Cthulhu things, but if I fail too many
sanity checks or something, it happens.
AABRIA: I love that. ASHLY: So then it becomes
like I'm a cornered animal. AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: So, it's not destruction for
destruction's sake, but it's like I feel
like I'm under attack and it doesn't matter
who's in the way kind of thing.
NOSHIR: Self preservation. AA
BRIA: I would simply
proffer considering anxiety, or the Cthulhu
problem of it all, of if it is stress
incurred by spooky shit, why are you with Candela?
ASHLY: Sure, sure, sure. AABRIA: So it's one of
those things of, yeah, come up with
a good reason. If anxiety and proximity
to weirdness is the trigger, then why are you forced
to stay with Candela? Or if it's a little more like,
I'm here with Candela because we're working
together cooperatively and this is of
my own volition, then what about t
hose
triggers do you think you have a handle on? That becomes the button
that I get to press. ASHLY: Got it.
NOSHIR: Can I-- AABRIA: Yeah.
NOSHIR: Is Candela, by its nature, good? AABRIA: (laughs) What a fun question.
ASHLY: (laughs) NOSHIR: You join us and maybe
we have a cure for you, but you better dance.
AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: Right.
AABRIA: That's the thing about secret societies. Now we're going to
get into how I feel about secret societies, which
is when you make it a secret and that's a pa
rt of it,
there is that idea that they are filling
a need in this world. Weird shit happens,
thinnings happen, the Flare is real,
and they are handling it. But we're going to try
to keep it quiet in order to make sure
people don't panic. That also circularly
creates a system where there is a portion
of the population that is engaging with and in
proximity to very weird shit and doesn't know that what
they're experiencing is real and valid because there
isn't someone going, "Yeah, that is real."
NOSHIR: Right. AABRIA: Because they're
all keeping it on wraps. So, there's goodness
to Candela because they're
solving problems and putting their lives on
the line to create peace and safety in the world
and handle these things that are so big and so crazy. There are problems of
philosophy of is it important, because we've got other
esoteric organizations with different ideas about everyone should know about
all of this all the time. Yeah, if you are
several years out of a world war, you're lik
e,
no, that makes more wars because now there's
a new resource that can and will be weaponized. There's a good reason for
all of these organizations to feel the way they feel, and how you want to
feel about Candela. Let's talk about that
if you have an opinion because I can use that to
form how Candela feels to you as you move through
these assignments. So, my answer is
they're good, and the way they go
about it is not bad, and the way they go
about it is not bad, but has holes to it. So, lean i
n as much as
you want to lean in. NOSHIR: Mm. Mm-hmm. AABRIA: I'm here
to shake pillars. When they asked me to
come do this, I was like, how much can I rock the
foundation of your book? ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: They didn't--
NOSHIR: Here comes Samson. AABRIA: They still
let me be here. So, let's go. (laughs) Liam, would you like to go? LIAM: (elderly) All right, so.
AABRIA: Oh my god. ASHLY: (laughs) Did you
forget for a second? AABRIA: I did!
(laughter) AABRIA: I thought he was
going to talk nor
mal. ASHLY: Yeah.
(laughter) LIAM: I'm going to speak in
broad terms, I don't have-- AABRIA: Yeah, for sure.
LIAM: -- an intricate story, but I have ideas and Sam
and I are going to be a bit of a package, but
we're working it out. GINA: Oh boy.
ASHLY: Oh, you are? SAM: We're working
something out. LIAM: We're working
something out. SAM: We don't know what yet. GINA: I'm right in the middle.
AABRIA: I'm going to warn you, project a little more than
you think you need to, especially when
the music
's going. It gets a little
quiet over here. LIAM: Okay.
AABRIA: So. LIAM: So I would like
to play with the idea that I've been part of
Candela for a very long time. Obviously, the longest
in this group. I'm going to play somewhere
between 85 and 95, maybe even as old
as 100 years old. That might be too old
if we're going to be running through
caves or some shit. (laughter) SAM: But 85 is fine. (laughter) LIAM: I would like to
be in a wheelchair. SAM: All right. LIAM: Okay, so I am tinkering
with
some version of the Occultist, I believe.
AABRIA: Mm-hmm. LIAM: That is because
when I was a-- My involvement in Candela
is, it's become a bit of a family tradition. When I was a boy,
and I need help crafting what this origin event was.
AABRIA: Yes. LIAM: But I think that I was
traveling with my parents on a sea vessel of some sort, and there was an event. There were many
people on this ship. My father, when this
event was triggered, shielded me, and the only
two survivors on the ship were my f
ather and myself. I was probably 15 or
16 at this, maybe 10. This is what I'm saying,
it's a work in progress. (laughter)
AABRIA: You were an age. ASHLY: (laughs)
LIAM: Yes. No older than 16. Somewhere between 10 and 16. I think the event was
triggered by an individual or individuals on the ship. I think that, this is totally different
from our real world. There's a lot of corruption
in this society. (laughter) I think whatever happened
on that ship was explicitly to grind up
regular folk for so
me purpose. was explicitly to grind up
regular folk for some purpose. Through a fluke,
my father and I survived, but my mother died
on that ship. So while it hit everyone,
it was personal, So while it hit everyone,
it was personal, it was very
personal obviously. So it filled my father, and even me at
that young age, with drive and purpose to
both understand the things that were done that
day and seem to have existed here
in Faireland, Faireville? Fairetown?
SAM: Newfaire. AABRIA: Faireville.
LI
AM: Faireville. GINA: Faireville!
ASHLY: I like Fairetown better. LIAM: And Oldtown as well. GINA: She said Faireville.
AABRIA: Yes. GINA: I'm getting a horn.
AABRIA: It's Newfaire. GINA: I'm going to
get him a horn. AABRIA: Yeah.
LIAM: What? AABRIA: Well,
the question is, was it Newfaire when
you were there or is Oldfaire because
you're old as shit. LIAM: It was Newfaire.
NOSHIR: God dang. LIAM: Yes.
AABRIA: I was just messing with you. SAM: How old is Oldfaire? AABRIA: It's 1,000.
LIAM: Like 1
,000. SAM: Oh, okay.
LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: I'm making
a fun little goof. ASHLY: (laughs) LIAM: So our lives became
filled with a purpose of dealing with corruption in positions of power that so many respect
without question. AABRIA: Mm-hmm. LIAM: Which you can't openly
go to war, that's hard to do. AABRIA: Yeah. LIAM: Then also understanding
the radiation and all the things
that happened. Since I've been part
of Candela for so long, once a decade I run into
something akin to the story this gentlema
n
shared at the table. It's not every week, but--
AABRIA: Yeah. LIAM: Shit happens here. Anyway, eventually
my father passed on Anyway, eventually
my father passed on the family business
and for a while my brother and I also worked
together for a time. Work on that, maybe
he was either killed or retired because
it was too intense. Then I started my own family
and now I travel with, and this is something
we're working out, my son or grandson.
AABRIA: (gasps) LIAM: I'm not sure.
NOSHIR: Holy crap.
AABRIA: That's so cute!
SAM: Maybe grandson. ASHLY: Yeah!
NOSHIR: Depending on how old you're supposed to be.
SAM: You're super old. ASHLY: (laughs) NOSHIR: He's 60. SAM: Yeah, if I'm your son,
I'm already retirement age. AABRIA: That's so funny.
GINA: Yeah. Yeah. AABRIA: Just two fucking old-- LIAM: I can dial it a little. SAM: No, no,
don't dial it down. LIAM: I could do 85.
ASHLY: I'm in a cage that we're wheeling. So it's like
three wheelchairs. AABRIA: There's so much
wheeling happening. (
laughter) AABRIA: No one's moving under
their own power. SAM: Maybe grandson,
and then I can be mid-30s or something, right?
Is that how the math works? AABRIA: Yeah.
GINA: Yeah, that works. That's about right.
LIAM: It's possible, it's possible. AABRIA: I have
a question for you. LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: This has nothing to
do with later knowledge or your time with Candela. When whatever happened on that
ship happened, did it work? Whatever great
working that was? Was it successful? LIAM: Yes, I thin
k that we
were unnoticed and discarded. AABRIA: No, no, no, no, no.
LIAM: How do you mean? AABRIA: You survived.
LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: Whatever
that thing was, the great swallowing
of humanity in order for something
to occur, did it work? Do you feel like,
"Oh, I somehow--" Why'd I set an alarm? "-- I somehow skirted
whatever happened, "but whatever happened
fucking happened." LIAM: Yes, a ship went down
and a door was open. Something along those lines. AABRIA: See? Good to know. LIAM: As a boy,
I
remember a man or a woman orchestrating it. AABRIA: How serious
would you say-- Sorry, we don't have
to connect this? (laughter) SAM: A very serious--
AABRIA: Medium serious? (laughter) LIAM: I think Occultist because I've spent
years studying and trying to harness those
things in a small way and trying to harness those
things in a small way in my own right to help
fight fire with fire to a degree. AABRIA: What are you
worried about coming? LIAM: Say again? AABRIA: What are you
worried about com
ing? The idea of fighting
fire with fire. LIAM: Oh.
AABRIA: What fire do you feel the need to
try to put out? You don't have
to answer that now. LIAM: Okay. (laughter) AABRIA: I love it here! ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: Incredible. Okay, is there anything else
interesting you want to share about the world's oldest man? LIAM: My name is Cosmo. AABRIA: Cosmo!
GINA: Cosmo! NOSHIR: He's back.
ASHLY: He's back. AABRIA: He's back, baby! LIAM: But I think I want
to noodle on it more with you alone. AABRIA: Ok
ay! GINA: Cosmo.
NOSHIR: Are we allowed to ask each other questions? AABRIA: Hundo p. NOSHIR: But when you say your
father shielded you from the event, is that because
he has experience with this sort of phenomena,
or as a father he simply threw himself in front of you.
LIAM: Yes! AABRIA: I will say, if
anyone asks a question you don't want to answer to,
you could just say no. LIAM: I honestly think that
needs to be noodled out a bit. I'm not sure, but definitely
the latter where it was of a fat
her's instinct,
which probably led to my mother not making it.
NOSHIR: Mm. ASHLY: Aw. AABRIA: Hey, can someone
have a mom alive, please? We cannot have a Disney. So a bunch of
Disney princesses like, "And then my mother died, "and then
I became what I am." LIAM: You're
"Beauty and the Beast." AABRIA: Yes!
ASHLY: That's right. AABRIA: Surprise,
we're playing "Queen by Midnight,"
motherfuckers. Pick your princess. Anything else
you want us to know as you're beginning
to solidify? SAM: You said Occ
ultist? ASHLY: Yeah.
LIAM: Yes, yes. GINA: Which one? Oh, wait. That was-- LIAM: That's a Weird.
One of the two Weirds. ASHLY: Do you want to
be a Medium, then? SAM: Oh.
LIAM: I might want to-- ASHLY: As the grandson.
AABRIA: Oh, yeah. LIAM: Homebrew
a little bit as well. SAM: I don't know if I
want to follow in this... (laughter) AABRIA: There's no way to
print out a second sheet, so you'll have to
pick something. SAM: No, no, yeah, I think-- AABRIA: No, feel free.
SAM: What are you? AABRIA: Ag
ain, these
roles are suggestions and we can Frankenstein
some stuff together. NOSHIR: Well, yeah,
you're lugging around that wheelchair all the time. SAM: Yeah.
(laughter) AABRIA: "I'm the muscle." SAM: Yeah, maybe.
LIAM: Made of cast iron. (laughter) NOSHIR: It's like that
Conan the Barbarian-- (laughter) AABRIA: Amazing. All right, Gina.
ASHLY: Cosmo! GINA: Yes, hello. Okay. Man, I don't know. I've come up with a
basic kind of thing and I'm thinking
maybe a Magician. My character, I have not
f
igured out a first name yet. AABRIA: Oh, we're not
worried about names yet. GINA: Okay. She's about in her mid 40s,
sharply dressed. I mean, gorgeous,
very luxurious and she's the owner of
the Cat's Eye Casino. Now, this casino is, I mean,
bright lights, gorgeous. However, there is also a
membership club at the casino. There's rumors about
things that go on behind the velvet curtains. Beautiful women, rich elites
that have memberships. ASHLY: Ooh.
SAM: Oh, hello. ASHLY: (mimics Sam) Hello. GINA:
The only way that
you can join this club is if you are referred by
at least two other members. She stands at 5'7",
very lavish. She comes from money, obviously,
she's an owner of a casino. However, her origins were, she came from a land
many seas away, from a small fishing village. It was a very modest life. Her father was a fisherman, and she would help out around
the house whenever she can, sometimes go out to the docks and wait for her father
to return from work. She remembered hearing
stori
es from neighbors, gossip from neighbors, about how, "My son went
to the new world "and made something
out of himself. "My uncle went,
my daughter went," and there was always rumors and
talks about this new world. One day, her parents
decided to make a plan to sail to this new world, make something out of themselves
to give her a future. So the day that they
were to set off to sea, she kneels in the sand and she
prays to the gods of the sea she kneels in the sand and she
prays to the gods of the
sea that this village worships. This is the religion
that she was raised on. She prayed for bountiful
wealth in the new world and safe passage, something to make
this trip worth it, to find the riches that her
family has always wanted. One night at sea-- Is this starting to
sound familiar? (laughs) AABRIA: There were
some very poignant-- GINA: Yeah. AABRIA: As you were
talking, we were like-- ASHLY and AABRIA: Ooh.
(laughter) AABRIA: It's not an, "Oh." I
was like, "Oh, thank you." Everyone's sc
attered.
It's like-- LIAM: Overlap.
(laughter) AABRIA: Great, the Glass Sea. Good, the ocean's fucked.
Continue. (laughter) GINA: One night at sea, of
course, there is always a storm. It's a treacherous storm. Her father was the captain
of this small fishing boat. The waves were ripping
this boat apart. She was 10 years old.
She was a small girl. She remembers this
huge wave coming, just crashing into the boat, sending both her
parents overboard. She clawed her way to
the side of the boat and lo
oked into the water,
screaming for her parents. The last thing she saw was her father being pulled
into the inky-black waters before another wave crashed into
the boat, knocked her over. She fell to the ground,
knocked her head, unconscious. She somehow still made it to
Newfaire, but she was alone. She somehow still made it to
Newfaire, but she was alone. She was just this child
alone that washed ashore. She became a street urchin,
stealing when she can. She was a little street
urchin in the Red
Lamp. She remembered sitting
on the curb and just seeing all these
gorgeous women walking by with fur coats and
holding on to the elbows with fur coats and
holding on to the elbows of rich, elite men. She remembers smelling
their perfume when they walked by. She wanted to be
like them so bad. Every night in her
little makeshift tent, she would practice her speech to learn how to
speak more ladylike, to become a more
dainty woman. She saw how these
women worked. She learned how to talk her
way i
n or out of anything. She was a charmer.
She became so good at it. I haven't figured
out how yet. But eventually she
got so good at it she rubbed elbows with
the right people and built her way into
owning her own casino, and basically a brothel
behind the velvet ropes. AABRIA: That was what
the red light was for. GINA: Yeah.
(laughter) GINA: The girls that
she works with, she protects them fiercely. You do not disrespect
my girls. There are girls that she would
take in from the streets. There ar
e girls that she knew when they were all living
out in the streets, she took very good
care of them. ASHLY: Has everyone
got dead parents? GINA: Yeah, right? (laughs) ASHLY: No goofs, no parents. AABRIA: No goofs, no parents. Someone's got to have a mom. It's you or you.
Please have a fucking mother. LIAM: My father died
of natural causes. (laughter) NOSHIR: Moms are
Ashly's trigger. (laughter) AABRIA: Now, okay.
NOSHIR: Oh god. ASHLY: Fuck! AABRIA: Well, at this rate,
you'll never turn. Not a m
other
to be fucking seen. NOSHIR: Safe.
(laughter) LIAM: I will throw in, a ship is not necessary for-- AABRIA: No. I love it.
LIAM: So if you want it-- AABRIA: Let me be very clear.
LIAM: It helps you, great. If you don't want it--
AABRIA: You said that, I went, "We're going to be okay." LIAM: Excellent. Got it.
(laughter) AABRIA: The ocean is
interesting now, let's go. That's very cool, fuck yeah.
GINA: Got it. AABRIA: Sam. SAM: I think I'm a merman. (laughter) AABRIA: Okay, well--
(laughter)
AABRIA: -- going to go big,
vociferous-- Absolutely not, try again. (laughter) SAM: I don't really know. I'm coming to this with
the most blank slate. I'll just throw
out some ideas, and we can see what
we roll with. I see that we have no
muscle in the group, so that's a thing.
AABRIA: Yep, 'tis. SAM: So something that
popped into my head was maybe someone
who is grappling with a lot of anger issues, like maybe good old
Cosmo's grandson over here like maybe good old
Cosmo's grandson over here wa
s a bit of a shit and
hurt some people, maybe. was a bit of a shit and
hurt some people, maybe. Maybe with some shady dealings
and was thrown in the clink, thrown in the slammer
for a little while. Possibly because
of some strings that the old man pulled,
they released me early to under his supervision if I would help and join him in his Candela work
or whatever. AABRIA: Are you giving me
my Suicide Squad? SAM: I don't know,
is that what this is? AABRIA: Thank you, sir. It's good.
SAM: Yeah, sur
e. So part of the condition
of my release was I had to take care of him
and make sure that he's okay. So maybe I resented that
at first or still do. But I also have all this
misplaced anger and rage and I like to hit things. so this gives me an
outlet to do that. Also, occurred to me that
maybe in one of our first, I don't know, are
they called "missions"? (laughter)
AABRIA: Assignments. SAM: Assignments. Maybe I thought it was
all a crock of shit and I didn't know what
this guy was all about an
d then I get attacked by
something and it fucks me up. and then I get attacked by
something and it fucks me up. Maybe I have a big
scar, who knows? AABRIA: Is it like a nasty scar
or like a hot scar? SAM: Hot scar.
(laughter) GINA: So right over the eye.
NOSHIR: No hesitation. ASHLY: So immediate.
I know, so immediate. AABRIA: It's the only
note I'm going to write. GINA: It's always right
over the eye, that's the hot scar. AABRIA: Yeah, of course.
NOSHIR: Don't give him a merman instead of a hot
scar.
AABRIA: It goes through the eyebrow like
a little bit. GINA: Oh, yeah.
AABRIA: Ah! Thank you.
SAM: Just right there? AABRIA: I'm just drawing that
now, and not taking a note. LIAM: This may be Sam's
first character who's over four
feet tall and hot. (laughter) AABRIA: Excuse me, this
is Loquatius erasure and I will not have it.
That's my husband. (laughter) SAM: So now maybe there's an
added element of revenge. Want to figure out who the fuck
that was that fucked me up and get him back
or
get them back. But I think what Liam and I were talking about
a little bit was, I don't think ours is
a great relationship. ASHLY: Is it rude to try
to pitch you something? SAM: No, pitch, pitch. I really came in here
with a big question mark. ASHLY: Okay, great.
SAM: So anything. ASHLY: I wonder if the
anger could come from-- If Liam's character
has been in this-- AABRIA: His name is Cosmo! ASHLY: I'm sorry, Cosmo. If Cosmo has been in this-- LIAM: I don't care for your
acting, but your writin
g-- (laughter) LIAM: Your writing is sublime.
(laughter) (laughter) ASHLY: Can we work this
into a bit somehow? AABRIA: I love this.
I love it here. (laughter) ASHLY: Just rag on me as
a doctor when we start and I'll know what
you're saying. But if you have been
involved in Candela since time immemorial, since
the big bang basically, because of how old you are. LIAM: 50 years. AABRIA: (old voice) All of
this used to be orange groves. GINA: Older than Cesus. ASHLY: If you should've gotten
out of
the game at some point because it's dangerous.
You had a family and you had a moment
that you could've left and you didn't, and that
impacted sonny boy over here, and that's where the
anger comes from. SAM: Oh, like my mom's dead? (laughter) GINA: Get your own shtick, okay?
AABRIA: I'm done. (laughter)
GINA: It's taken. SAM: He was farting
around in Candela and it spilled over into his
home life and it killed my mom? (laughter) ASHLY: You seem really
excited about it, though. AABRIA: Cosmo, is h
is
mom your daughter? LIAM: What? I lost you.
AABRIA: Then I say yes. SAM: Oh, yeah, right?
AABRIA: I'm going to write yeah. SAM: Wouldn't that
make sense? If I'm his grandson,
that would make-- AABRIA: No, it could
be married in. SAM: Oh, yes.
AABRIA: It could have been son. ASHLY: Could be papa.
SAM: Father, yes. Papa. LIAM: Maybe so, but you
could also flip it. You could do a version where I
was getting ready to retire because I'm so old. (laughter)
AABRIA: So old! LIAM: You were in
the slamm
er, and the provision of
you being released was me taking you
under my wing and then I have
to keep going. AABRIA: I love a Candela
that's like, "Hey, dude, your bones
are baby powder--" (laughter) AABRIA: " -- but we
need you, we need you!" (laughter) AABRIA: "We even have a
whole emeritus system "where you could
be a lightkeeper. "Nah, we need you
in the streets "and take your absolutely
awful grandson with you." (laughter) NOSHIR: We get the oxygen
tank, rip up your DNR. AABRIA: "Hey, we
got
this chair, "it's so fucking heavy, "and we're going to wheel
your ass into Oldfaire." (laughter) NOSHIR: I'm curious. Candela, because it's
just how it works, are you a believer? SAM: That's a great question. I think maybe at the
beginning of this I was not, but I've become. Seems like he knows more
than me about this stuff and I'm just along
for the ride? AABRIA: I love a cynic. I think that's
a thing we don't-- that isn't built
into the DNA of this because everyone begins with
that catalyst--
SAM: Mm-hmm.
AABRIA: -- and that question. It would be really fun to
have someone that's like, "Yes, I've had a literal
brush with this, "but I didn't arrive bought in
in the same way, "so everything
I will interact with "will have that first
layer of like, "'This is fucking nonsense.'" SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah. AABRIA: That feels really nice
and a breath of fresh air if that's what you're
leaning toward. I love it. LIAM: Especially since
the rest of us are thick with creepy-deepy. SAM: Yeah.
AABR
IA: Yeah, yeah. (laughter) SAM: That does
sound cool if-- ASHLY: You have a Jim in "The Office"
looking at the camera vibe. AABRIA: Yeah, truly!
SAM: You guys are all diehard Candela folks,
and I'm like, "I mean, eh--" (laughter) NOSHIR: It's interesting
the way psychological torment
works, right? It's almost like
in believing, that's actually a
vulnerability, right? Because it gives them access. AABRIA: Yeah, 100%.
NOSHIR: You know? AABRIA: We all watched
"The Skeleton Key." NOSHIR: Yeah, where
as a skeptic
is almost like an armor of a sort. AABRIA: Truly.
NOSHIR: Like a resilience, that's interesting.
AABRIA: I love that, I love that. ASHLY: Also, it makes sense
that you'd be skeptical of it because your grandpa
is 1,000 years old. AABRIA: Yeah, and
the only evidence. SAM: I don't know half
of what he's saying. It could be made
up bullshit. Or it could just be his mind,
he's losing his mind. (laughter)
NOSHIR: Daughter and Cosmo. AABRIA: I do love this,
you're building this fun circle
between
the two of you of you are doing this
because it is the condition on which your grandson
can be free and that idea that,
"Why do you stay around? "Why do you keep doing it?" Even if the relationship
is tense, if there is any relationship
to speak of, you're like, "Well, I got
to look out for him." So that sense of no
one can really leave because you're chasing
the other infinitely is really fun, and
that's a really fun cycle to have come into conflict. Like, "I'm here
because of you." "N
o, I'm here
because of you." SAM: Yeah.
AABRIA: It feels very cute. SAM: Yeah.
AABRIA: If you're leaning that way. SAM: And I'm a mermaid. AABRIA: And you're a mermaid.
(laughter) AABRIA: I'll write it down. Here's the thing, Sam-- GINA: It was him shouting
at me from the ocean. SAM: But maybe, just a tiny--
AABRIA: I said no goofs, but I've never
backed off a bit. I'm going to say not
to you, to the camera, I'm going to turn his
ass into a mermaid. (laughter) AABRIA: Episode three.
SAM: But may
be just to keep your nautical theme going, I could be a dock
worker or something if you need me down
by the docks. (laughter) GINA: Can you turn into
a reverse mermaid? AABRIA: Yeah, you're
a wrong mermaid. ASHLY: Fish top?
SAM: Oh, fish top? AABRIA: Dick out, fish top. ASHLY: I was thinking
like a fucked up mermaid where it's half Sam, but just tiny little fish fins at the bottom.
GINA: Aww! SAM: What about, has there
ever been a middle mermaid? (laughter)
AABRIA: A mid maid. SAM: So human head
, human
legs but just here is fish. AABRIA: Yeah, when you do
crunches, roe comes out. GINA: Ew!
(laughter) ASHLY: That's good meat too.
NOSHIR: Interesting. AABRIA: Yeah, you got
that Toro tummy baby. ASHLY: Yeah. Toro tummy. Yeah.
LIAM: What, mechanically did you pull there? SAM: Well, I pulled
Soldier, but I don't know. AABRIA: How do you
feel about Criminal and we can sprinkle in some-- SAM: Criminal with
some strength, yeah. Yeah that seems better actually.
NOSHIR: Bruiser. AABRIA: Love tha
t. SAM: Where's Criminal,
Slink, Detective? Oh, maybe under Detective. Yeah.
LIAM: (drawn out) Smooth criminal. (laughter)
AABRIA: He said it so slow. SAM: Yeah, because--
AABRIA: It's crazy. ASHLY: Yeah, that had
20 o's in it. (laughter) SAM: -- in the book,
the Slink seems like just a
shyster underworldy guy, but not necessarily muscly. AABRIA: Right, I mean,
for what it's worth-- SAM: A little muscle.
AABRIA: -- we do have a little bit of muscle when the doctor goes berserk. SAM: Oh, that's r
ight. ASHLY: That's not
necessarily in your benefit. SAM: That's true.
AABRIA: Yeah, that's fair, but I love the idea of
Criminal and we can-- I mean, how do you feel about either taking Criminal
for some of that, or if you want to
re-skin Explorer? I think Explorer is a really
fun thing of someone who-- What's the nature of your
physical interactions with the world? Is it, "I do what I want?" Or is it like, "If I have
a sense of lawfulness?" Are you chaotic violent,
or lawful violent? Because I
think that's
the difference between the vibe of Soldier
versus Explorer. LIAM: Are you threatening
the busboy or using it only in
appropriate situations? AABRIA: Yeah, because I think
you can make a violent Soldier if you're like, "I have
a moral code inside my head, "and in the presence of
a violation of that, "I'm going to do what
needs to be done." SAM: I feel like it's... I felt this nihilistic
sort of thing? AABRIA: Yeah! SAM: Like sort of nothing
matters a little bit. AABRIA: Sweet. SAM:
So maybe that's
more unlawful? GINA: You could have
been a security guard at my brothel and then-- SAM: Or frequent your brothel.
GINA: Or that. AABRIA: I don't think
you could get in, you seem kind of nasty. SAM: Yeah, I do.
AABRIA: And poor. SAM: Yeah.
(laughter) SAM: So yeah, maybe I
could have been security for you for a while and
took something too far and killed a guy.
NOSHIR: I can certainly see targeting patrons
of her brothel. ASHLY: Yes.
AABRIA: Oh my god, like a little extortion
racke
t on the inside. Because I think there's
something very interesting. We have talked a
little bit more, just so you know, I have
a little extra context. If the brothel is
not widely known, then your clientele are
people who are like, "I know you and you know me." GINA: Very elite. AABRIA: "And if we ever run
into each other in the daytime, "we've never fucking met." There's very fun
room for, "Great, "that seems like an easily
exploitable resource." I will be walking
through Regent Park and just
be like, "Oh, hey,
good to see you again, "unless you slide me five,"
whatever monies are. (laughter) SAM: Oh yeah, are
there dollars? GINA: Yeah, what are
our monies? AABRIA: Help, help! Rowan,
Spenser, what's the money? Figure it out.
SAM: (laughs) AABRIA: But yeah, if
you want to be related, that's a good way
to go about it. Don't worry so
much about the... You know what?
Grab Soldier and... SAM: I'm going to
have three of them? AABRIA: Yeah.
(laughter) AABRIA: And Explorer and we're
going to
Franken-build you something that feels
like what you want. LIAM: Franken-build.
SAM: Okay. AABRIA: Then I think it'll just
be a separate conversation about what the Illumination
Keys mean then, because that's sort of the--
At the bottom of your page you'll see three things
that tell you, you're going to want to
try to check them off by the end of every session.
ASHLY: Oh! AABRIA: They're sort
of north stars for how your character
moves through the world. LIAM: Mine says
"Act Bizarre." (laughter
) AABRIA: I think you do it just
by being fucking alive at your age. (laughter) AABRIA: In defiance of Cesus,
you still move. So we can build something, if
that seems very stressful-- SAM: No, no, I mean
it already, Soldier, the Illumination
Keys are, "Use Violence, "Protect Someone,
Act Tactically." That's already pretty good.
AABRIA: Yeah, then fucking do that and we'll
just re-skin it. SAM: Cool. AABRIA: Delightful. Anything else you want us to
know about your character as we actually sit and
start? ASHLY: His name is Cosmo Jr.
SAM: Cosmo III. (laughter) AABRIA: Oh, CJ. Little CJ. Hold on, that would be cute. LIAM: I like the anger thing because I feel like I'm
obviously all up in here, right? So I don't even know how to
interface with it, yeah. AABRIA: Bro, if you
balled your fist, you'll break all the
bones in your hand. I'm sorry, why am I being mean to your character?
LIAM: Try me. AABRIA: Fuck around and find out.
(laughter) LIAM: Fuck around.
(laughter) AABRIA: My name is
Fuck
Around, and my grandson, Find Out. (laughter) AABRIA: We'll be here with
some apple sauce in a minute. (laughter) AABRIA: This is great. ASHLY: Can you work
that in, please? AABRIA: You have to,
you have to. GINA: Please fall
asleep randomly. LIAM: I won't do it
that extremely. (laughter) AABRIA: You kind of
got to at some point. Just a pivotal moment
of you giving-- LIAM: You're going to
give the longest, most important monologue and then in the side
you'll just hear (snores). (laughter) SAM:
Grandpa, wake up!
(laughter) AABRIA: That's so good. I want to change
in the lights, but I don't want
to wake him up. LIAM: J'Accuse!
(laughter) AABRIA: Perfect. ASHLY: You think you're in
an Agatha Christie novel. AABRIA: Oh my god,
that's great. Amazing, amazing. Okay, with that,
let's go through, I'm going to have
everyone go-- We're going to start
with Sam, reverse order. And just quickly
run down the line and just out loud once, what everyone's relationship
to you is. SAM: Okay. AABRIA: Who
is blank
to me, is the question I want you to answer for
everyone, starting with Sam. SAM: Hi, I'm Oscar Grimm. Cosmo Grimm is my grandfather and he's my family,
but I resent him. ASHLY: She did say quickly. SAM: Oh, sorry.
(laughter) AABRIA: Yeah, yeah.
(laughter) AABRIA: Hey, thanks
so much, bud. (laughter) SAM: Madame Glask, boy,
I flip-flopped on this a bunch of times, but she
is the most loyal person in my life and I would
protect her with my life, let's say that.
GINA: Nice. SAM: Dr. Elis
e Roberts. ASHLY: Elsie.
SAM: Elsie-- (laughter) SAM: -- we're close. (laughter) SAM: Well, to be fair-- NOSHIR: This is going to be great.
SAM: -- I'm dumb. (laughter)
AABRIA: I'm killing your character off. GINA: He is a meat head.
SAM: I identify with her, but in ways that maybe
I'm not too proud of, but we both have
the same fatal flaw and we help each other get
through those dark times. AABRIA: Oh, that's nice. SAM: Dr. Rajan Savarimuthu--
NOSHIR: Beautiful. SAM: -- I hate this guy. (laught
er) SAM: He's just such a
fucking pompous wind bear.
LIAM: Is he actually the enemy? SAM: Yeah, sure. AABRIA: Yeah, let's get
an enemy on the board. ASHLY: Yeah! AABRIA: You're like,
"Were it not for Candela, "I would deck this dude." Feels like a very cool--
SAM: He's a pompous prick. GINA: Wait, do we know
why they hate each other? ASHLY: He's the doorman?
(laughter) AABRIA: He calls him Mr. Doorman.
(laughter) AABRIA: Amazing,
Gina, you're up. NOSHIR: I call him Mr. Valet. (laughter) GINA: Le
t's see,
we got, oh yes. God, Oscar Grimm here is-- SAM: You can call me Cary. (laughter) GINA: Oscar is my
longtime security guard. He's probably, aside from
the girls that work for me, he's probably my longest
hired employee. Cosmo Grimm here is a
good friend of mine that I've known for years. We have wonderful conversations
together and share drinks and talk about the
happenings of outside. Dr. Elsie Roberts is the
doctor, the in-house doctor that we have for my girls. ASHLY: I would maybe cl
arify
that I'm not in-house. GINA: Oh.
ASHLY: I still roam about, but I do attend to you. SAM: Stop by.
ASHLY: I stop by. AABRIA: But not in-house. GINA: My telecommuting
doctor. (laughter)
AABRIA: Telecommuting. We have Zoom in this world
now. Fuck you, Rowan. (laughter) LIAM: It's just a mirror. AABRIA: What's the nature
of the relationship? That is what she
does for you, but how do you
feel about her? GINA: You know what,
it's almost like... It's just a service
and I know that she is not very
happy
every time she's here. Maybe always has a sour face because this is beneath you. I guess I believe that
you wouldn't want me to tell other people that
you work here for my girls? ASHLY: Well, I probably see a
lot of people from my old life. Well, I guess it depends
on when I show up. So yeah, maybe I've
bumped into like someone that I used to know at some
point and you clocked it, I could see that, and maybe
you chose not to pry, so maybe I appreciate
that, but-- GINA: Yeah.
AABRIA: I wan
t to offer a nugget of positivity, that if your relationship
to your girls is as strongly positive and
as protective as you say, I think there has to be the,
even if you have clocked some internality about how
she feels about the work. This is someone that is
taking care of your people, and I think there
should definitely be some warm feelings
about that. You are the one I trust,
I could get another doctor, but it's you, and you do a
good job and I appreciate you and we work together
both within
this world and within Candela. So I just want to proffer
that there should be some sort of through line of
a good working relationship and a good sense between you. GINA: I am grateful
for your help. (laughter) AABRIA: Or absolutely
fuck what I said and live your life. GINA: I'm almost prying, what
was that look that you gave him? Did you know him? You don't have
to say anything, but I feel like there
would be times that I would try to poke
and prod a little bit to get to know you. ASHLY: So yo
u appreciate
me, yeah. GINA: I do, for taking
care of my girls, yeah. Dr. Rajan, yes? NOSHIR: Rajan, mm-hmm.
GINA: Rajan. AABRIA: Please hyper
correct us a bunch today so we get it locked in.
NOSHIR: You got it. GINA: Rajan, okay. Dr. Rajan. I feel like our relationship has always been
somewhat transactional. You come to my office
quite often and you see my security
guard, doorman, NOSHIR: What do I come for? GINA: Yeah, the
connections to-- What does he come for?
What do you come for? NOSHIR: I
mean I know
what I would come for, but I want to make sure
I'm not stepping on what you want to do.
GINA: Because you have intimacy problems, you're
not coming for my girls. We have some sort
of business together. I know many powerful people. AABRIA: It is a gambling
den too, so-- GINA: Oh, that's right, do
you have a gambling problem? AABRIA: It doesn't
have to be a problem, it could absolutely just
be this is a place to come and it's like a parlor. You're like, "Yeah, I'm
here to pretend to g
amble "a little bit, but spend
time with other rich people "doing silly little games." It doesn't have
to be a problem. It can be a problem,
love a problem, but there's also people
that are just like, "Yeah, I'm just here. "This is like my little
home poker game, "just happens to be in
the Red Light district." SAM: You guys did level
one at UCP together and-- AABRIA: Fuck you.
(laughter) SAM: Just became
friends afterwards. AABRIA: I know no one
from my 101 class. They are dead to me now. NOSHIR
: Yeah, I think
for Rajan, at least, I roll in high circles and knowing what people don't
want you to know is power. You have that in spades, so I wouldn't be surprised
if on numerous occasions I have solicited you and your
girls to get leverage, right. I have solicited you and your
girls to get leverage, right. SAM: Ah.
(laughter) AABRIA: That's a
fun question. Do you sell information
on your clientele? GINA: That's the thing,
I'm trying to figure out what do I get out
of this from you? SAM: Mo
ney? GINA: I have the money
already and discretion. SAM: But he has so much money.
(laughter) AABRIA: He's got hella cash.
ASHLY: He's loaded. AABRIA: However, that
raises a very fair point. If you are known to be porous
with your information, that's an interesting
lever to push on. Is he the exception
for some reason? If it's yes, no is
also a fine answer and a thing we can talk
about in the one-on-ones. SAM: Also, weren't
you saying before, or you guys were
talking about before how you do have
, you're
financially fine, but you're still not
respected, I guess? So maybe he can
get you entree to a different echelon
of respect. AABRIA: Take you
to the Met Gala. GINA: I feel that she does
not care about the respect of the upper echelon
like that. She came from the streets, so she does not care about
image and stuff like that. She made her money and
she sits in it happily, and she's seen what
the upper echelon are like in her brothel.
AABRIA: Yeah. GINA: She doesn't want
to be, she doesn't
care, she doesn't want to
be involved in that. NOSHIR: What if I made the
offer and you turned me down? There is honor among
this particular thief, which aggravates me to
no end, but interesting. which aggravates me to
no end, but interesting. A woman of your station
who can't be bought. AABRIA: That's fun. LIAM: You could also,
don't have to, but stop the story with you already having leverage
on you somehow where you are under her
thumb for some reason. NOSHIR: Yeah, yeah.
SAM: Oh yeah, she k
nows your secret or something. She's the only one who does. (laughter) SAM: Do you know the secret?
You know the secret. GINA: I don't know, do I
know that they were dating? ASHLY: I don't know. GINA: I know someone
who likes you. (laughter) AABRIA: I mean, I don't
hate a world in which, it's not on our little list, but a good way to say, "I don't know how
I feel about you," is to be like,
"You are a puzzle to me." It's sort of devoid
of a value judgment, but I don't
understand you yet and I'm t
rying
to figure you out. Can you be bought, can you be cajoled,
can you be bribed? That's an acceptable
relationship to be like, "Hey, all
professional courtesy. "I see you, you see me,
we are good, "but I am spending
active bandwidth "trying to figure you out
and what you're--" because you're both
manipulators at your heart. So it feels fun
that you're like, "I haven't
figured you out yet, "and the more
I try to figure out, "I realize
I am fascinated by you" NOSHIR: We're dancing. AABRIA: Yeah,
you're dancing.
NOSHIR: That's cool. AABRIA: If you want.
GINA: Dance partner. NOSHIR: That's definitely fun.
AABRIA: Oh, I love that. A little two-step Liam.
LIAM: I had some ideas while everyone was talking. So obviously Oscar's family,
which is complicated. I think that Madame Glask
is my confidant in a way that no one else is. I'm more open
and honest with her than I am with other people. I wonder if Oscar is
working at your place staying at your place?
SAM: Oh yeah, that's fine. GINA: Yeah
, yeah. SAM: You're my boss.
GINA: I have plenty of room, yes. LIAM: That was a favor to me. Then bring you in muscles,
since I'm so feeble. SAM: I sleep under one of
the beds that the ladies use. AABRIA: (springs squeaking) SAM: It's not a very good--
ASHLY: That was a really good sound effect. AABRIA: Thanks! I'm a voice actor now,
I've been in one video game. ASHLY: (laughs)
NOSHIR: Yeah, congrats, by the way.
ASHLY: Okay. What video game?
GINA: Oh yeah, that's right! AABRIA: Starfield.
ASHLY
: Yes! AABRIA: Where I sound
exactly like myself in three different cities. GINA: I saw that tweet, and--
ASHLY: Oh my god! GINA: -- I need to
go find you. ASHLY: Congrats!
AABRIA: It's just me talking shit in techno babble.
Anyway. NOSHIR: That's awesome.
ASHLY: That's amazing! AABRIA: Thanks. It's just nice--
GINA: So cool. AABRIA: -- that I get to be
like you a little bit. (laughter)
AABRIA: You talk. Shut up! Let me have this! LIAM: I thought of a
dynamic for you two that helps with Oscar--
AABRIA: Ooh!
NOSHIR: Mm. LIAM: -- and his animosity. Which is if I-- so I think that Cosmo was
lower class as a child, worked his way
to middle class, and he's like an eccentric
kook now who's wrapped up in mysticism and whatnot. But he's intellectual, and
maybe he sees the two of you after a few years
of working as the children he
doesn't have, that are more like
him in ways, which is difficult when
his actual grandson is a rage monkey. (laughter) SAM: Blow it out
your ass, old man! LIAM: He's
sensitive to that,
so it's never explicit. But he's very fond of both,
and we're colleagues, but very fond of you both and proud of all that
you've accomplished. He has to temper
it to a degree, so it's not helpful
to his actual family. But, of course he picks
up on it anyway. NOSHIR: Poor Oscar, that
must be so hard for you. ASHLY: (laughs) SAM: Didn't even
notice it, rich guy. (laughter) AABRIA: I'm so happy. They have to be here. They need to be able to
yell at each other like this. (laughter
)
AABRIA: Good. (laughs) NOSHIR: Maximum throwing distance.
AABRIA: Delightful. LIAM: That's it, good. AABRIA: Good.
ASHLY: For me-- AABRIA: Wait, did we
get with Dr. Roberts? LIAM: Same. Same.
ASHLY: Same. AABRIA: Got it. Got it.
ASHLY: Same, same. AABRIA: Cool, cool, cool.
LIAM: These are my children. AABRIA: Got it. ASHLY: So Oscar and I
have this simpatico on our rage monsters within us. So probably I would not--
SAM: Mine's metaphorical. ASHLY: Yours is metaphorical,
mine is literal. (laugh
s) But I probably would not have
lowered myself to connect But I probably would not have
lowered myself to connect with you outside of that.
SAM: Mm-hmm. ASHLY: Maybe you know that,
maybe you don't. SAM: Doesn't matter to me. ASHLY: Okay, great. GINA: He sleeps under
a brothel bed. I mean.
ASHLY: (laughs) In active use,
in active use. GINA: I don't know
how low he can possibly get.
AABRIA: That's the best part. SAM: That's my white
noise machine. GINA: The springs.
AABRIA: It's like being rocked
to sleep.
(laughter) GINA: He wakes up with
spring marks on his head. (laughter)
SAM: There's a scar. ASHLY: But we have an
unlikely friendship. SAM: We do. Yeah, you're all right. ASHLY: (laughs) SAM: You're all right, Doc. ASHLY: You're the only
person I let call me Doc. (laughter)
AABRIA: Oh, that's cute. ASHLY: I am a begrudging
employee of yours, basically. So I think I take my
job very seriously, I don't skimp on the care
that I give your girls. I resent you, I think, because you are tech
nically
a higher station than me now and I feel like I've
had to lower myself to being in your employ. So, there's resentment
there, I think. I think that for Cosmo, I thought I joined
this circle in particular for your expertise
and your knowledge and your breadth of
experience in Candela because of what's going on.
SAM: You got to talk louder when you're talking, I can't hear you.
(laughter) ASHLY: Because of what's
going on with me. And so, yeah, I feel
a respect for you, maybe some mentory v
ibes. SAM: Ooh! LIAM: We all in this
circle know about-- ASHLY: I was going to
ask that actually. If we want to have
me being a monster-- Obviously you know,
because of our relationship. AABRIA: Yep. ASHLY: But I wonder if--
AABRIA: Bar it from whoever you want to bar it from. Yeah.
ASHLY: So I feel like maybe you two know, and
maybe you two don't. AABRIA: Love that.
NOSHIR: Interesting. ASHLY: Maybe you knew something
was going on with me. NOSHIR: Yeah.
ASHLY: But you never figured out exactly
what it was.
NOSHIR: Right. Right, right. AABRIA: I mean, it makes
sense if you were like, I've been prying on an ex and I watched a noticeable
drop in station and haven't figured
out what happened on a social level
that caused this. That there's just
the tidy blank of I know something is there
because something happened because there's
something missing. It should've been obvious. GINA: The shock of
I've had a monster care for my girls, who I keep so near and dear
to me, this whole time. Since
I don't know yet, that
would be quite distressing. ASHLY: Mm-hmm.
GINA: Mm-hmm. ASHLY: So yeah, I think
you guys would know. LIAM: Who knows? We know?
ASHLY: You know. LIAM: We know.
ASHLY: And Oscar. GINA: The family.
ASHLY: I almost called you Osmo, Oscar. (laughs)
AABRIA and GINA: (laugh) ASHLY: Oscar and Cosmo.
SAM: Whatever. ASHLY: The Grimm boys know, and that's it.
GINA: Grimm boys. Boys Grimm. ASHLY: So as she
is your confidant, maybe I treat you as mine. AABRIA: Love that.
NOSHIR: Inter
esting. ASHLY: And you're my ex-lover.
AABRIA: (laughs) ASHLY: I'm trying to decide-- NOSHIR: I'm not clingy,
I'm cool. ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: I'm cool, I just
spent hella resources on trying to figure out what
your fucking deal is. NOSHIR: Bought a new suit
just for this occasion, but that's fine.
ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: In this world,
he's fine. ASHLY: Well, I'm wondering
if it should be ice cold or if we have unfinished or unresolved feelings. Or if it should be like:
Nah, it's done. What is
your instinct?
NOSHIR: On my behalf, I definitely feel I have
unresolved feelings for you. ASHLY: Okay. NOSHIR: But of course,
I don't know how you want to respond to that.
AABRIA: I can't hear. ASHLY: I just hear squeaks
from over there. AABRIA: I'm audience
member number one. ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: I want this! ASHLY: Yeah, I think
it's the same. Because we had a big,
explosive fight and then that was
the last of it. So, yeah.
AABRIA: What did you guys fight about?
SAM: Did you co-own a dog
and the dog went with one of you?
AABRIA and GINA: (laugh) NOSHIR: Who fucking cares about a dog?
AABRIA: The dog is someone's catalyst. NOSHIR: I'll buy
you a dog, okay? AABRIA: Goddamn!
NOSHIR: I'll buy you three dogs. SAM: Oh, I hate this guy.
ASHLY: He hates the dog. AABRIA: Must hate dogs.
(laughter) LIAM: Ooh, will they,
won't they? (laughter) LIAM: I'll be right back.
(laughter) GINA: Oh my god. AABRIA: Bring us home. NOSHIR: So, Elsie,
my first love. I think I've tried to
look out for he
r the way I didn't
look out for Aadika. AABRIA: Oh, yes. NOSHIR: But I overreached--
AABRIA: Great. NOSHIR: -- and imposed because
I need to control things when I shouldn't have. That's what pushed us away. AABRIA: Beautiful.
Save the ones you can. NOSHIR: I don't know
what's wrong with her, but I know that she's
been getting in trouble. So, headcanon, and you please kibosh
this at any time. The first time she does
whatever she does, and she gets caught, I'm the reason
she makes bail. AABRIA: Lo
ve it.
NOSHIR: You know what I mean? I never talk about it, never bring it up.
AABRIA: Got it. NOSHIR: But suddenly
she's free to go. I'm always trying to look
out for her, but I'm lurking. AABRIA: Yeah, I love that.
ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: Again, you're giving
Gaslamp Mr. Darcy and I love it.
(laughter) GINA: Wait, is that why
he's always at my place? Because he knows she's-- Wait, no, he doesn't know
that you work here yet. AABRIA: He'll find out.
NOSHIR: Well, I wanted to throw that out, too.
You know what?
I'm going to hold that. AABRIA: Yeah. So give
me broad strokes-- NOSHIR: Great.
AABRIA: -- what everyone is. NOSHIR: Yep.
AABRIA: Then we're going to do our circle stuff
really quickly and then we're going
into one-on-ones where I give you
a little grilling. SAM: ♪ The light,
the heat in your eyes ♪ (laughter) ASHLY: ♪ Oh, my darling love ♪
AABRIA: All right. Next up, Cosmo. That was great,
I don't know what you said and I'm in the zone,
I won't ask. (laughter) NOSHIR: For Cosmo,
mentor. I look up to him.
AABRIA: Yeah. NOSHIR: But there's also
a lot I need to know. AABRIA: Yep.
NOSHIR: So, I will gladly buy into the Padawan role
if it gets me closer. AABRIA: Love that.
SAM: Cool, cool. NOSHIR: I think I originally
approached Madame Glask because I thought she would
be willing to help me get leverage on shady folks. Surprised to find that
you have principles that you don't yield on. GINA: I'm not impressed
by your riches. NOSHIR: Which--
SAM: That makes two of us. (laugh
ter) GINA: Why are you doing that?
(laughter) NOSHIR: There's a begrudging
respect there. AABRIA: Yeah.
NOSHIR: Though I also-- LIAM: I know now why you cry.
GINA and ASHLY: (laugh) NOSHIR: Like it or not, I
judge her for her profession. AABRIA: Of course. NOSHIR: Manual labor
over here-- SAM: (gawks) AABRIA: I've never
been happier. I can't tell if
I like the exes or whatever the
fuck this is more, but it's got the same
sexual tension. GINA and ASHLY:
(continue laughing) NOSHIR: I never worry
a
bout Oscar-- AABRIA: Oh yeah.
NOSHIR: -- until recently. AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: Oh. NOSHIR: And now you have
my full attention. SAM: Ooh!
GINA: Oh! AABRIA: Just so you know,
you were talking earlier, I was like, "Sam,
whatever it takes, "you've got to get in there
and make this worse. "Get in there!" Didn't have to say it,
but I will. NOSHIR: But I'll never
play that card, right? I'm never going to let him
know how much it bothers me. SAM: Sure.
AABRIA: Yeah. Incredible. ASHLY: Spicy. AABRIA: This
is spicy. It's so fucking good. Let's pivot from that,
let's get into our circle. Last thing I want to do,
other than saying thank you, this has been so wonderful, I have so much
stuff to dig into and we'll be following up with
all y'all both individually and in our big group
chat with confirmation and asking where
people are landing and locking in character
and mechanics. I want to see if we
can spend five minutes and get our circle name. LIAM: I got a bunch on a list.
GINA: Yes. AABRIA: You m
ade a list! LIAM: I'm going to say
some of these out. I've said most of them
already, but here we go. It's like 10 of them. Circle of Tide & Torrent. AABRIA: Ooh.
GINA: I like it, I like it. LIAM: Circle of
Tooth & Toil. SAM: No.
LIAM: They're all alliterative. Great, cancel.
GINA: Dentists. LIAM: Circle of
Toll & Tide. GINA: Ooh.
LIAM: Circle of Tide & Bone. I still like that one even
though it's similar to an LVM. SAM: That one's great.
ASHLY: I love that one. LIAM: Great. I'll say the S ones,
and then
we'll pick Tide & Bone. (laughter) LIAM: Circle of
Sea & Sorrow. GINA: Oh. LIAM: Circle of
Sea & Sojourn. Tide & Bone it is.
GINA: Tide & Bone it is. SAM: Sea & Sorrow
is pretty good. AABRIA: Sea & Sorrow
is very good. SAM: We can be the
C+C Music Factory. LIAM: (laughs) AABRIA: ♪ It's
a good vibrat-- ♪ Is that--
(laughter) NOSHIR: I'd be good
with either of those. ASHLY: Tide & Bone has
consonants that feel good when you say them though, you know?
(murmured agreement) LIAM: Yeah, it's
satisfying. ASHLY: Satisfying.
GINA: Tide & Toil is really nice, too.
AABRIA: So say we all? SAM: For now. AABRIA: Okay.
GINA: Tide & Bone, yeah. AABRIA: Lock it in.
SAM: Yeah. AABRIA: The Circle of Tide
& Bone has been created. Can you write it down? ASHLY: I don't have
the paper anymore. AABRIA: It's right there.
ASHLY: Thank you. Can I steal the pencil? SAM: (mock Australian accent)
Oh no! ASHLY and GINA: Oh no!
(laughter) ASHLY: (bad Australian accent)
The Circle of Tide & Bone. (laughter)
AABRIA: Oh no! (laughter) AABRIA: Beautiful.
ASHLY: Did I mention that I have a horrifying Australian accent
for my character? AABRIA: I love it! ASHLY: (bad Australian accent)
Oh no, I'm a monster! AABRIA: Just be going, "Please."
ASHLY: I'm really bad at it, too. LIAM: Oh, you saved it
for the end. (laughter) AABRIA: No, please,
you can be banilla dicks, you have to stop. (laughter) AABRIA: Well, that's it. Everything else will be
reaching out and talking and bringing things from the
realm of
nebulous could-bes and bringing things from the
realm of nebulous could-bes to what will be. Is there anything else you
want to say to this group before we break? LIAM: I think this is going
to be a lot of fun. ASHLY: I think so too.
LIAM: I can't wait to get freaky with you guys.
ASHLY: Yeah. AABRIA: All right, that's it. Can't wait to begin. SAM: Woo!
AABRIA: Thank you. SAM: Thanks, Aabria!
ASHLY: Thank you! AABRIA: Yeah! Yay! ♪ (light rollicking piano) ♪ ♪ (light rollicking piano) ♪ ♪ (light
rollicking piano) ♪ ♪ (light rollicking piano) ♪
Comments
Huge props to the hair, makeup, and wardrobe teams that transformed us for our Circle. Cuz damn... I am such a dork in real life. Hahahahaha
'This is a space for working things out. It's okay to come in with only half an idea...' Noshir: 'That's cool. Should I go first? Here's the fourth draft of my novella...'
It’s almost weird seeing us in normal clothes ahah
Me: "This whole speech is for Sam." Sam: "This whole speech is for me."
Damn Noshir looks like completely different person here. And it's not just the makeup, it's complete transformation of demeanor and voice, fantastic actor.
New theory: if Noshir, Liam, Brennan, and Luis were to sit at the CR table at the same time, the sheer amount of dramatic talent on display would be so overwhelming that the cameras might not be able to handle it. I know TTRPG tables need the "balance factor" amongst players, but the performances from those four in Candela & EXU: Calamity have been among the top highlights of CR storytelling the past two years and they deserve their flowers for breathing fresh life into the CR channel and their commitment to storytelling. (Edit to add: all guests and guest DM's have been top notch this year!)
I'm pretty sure I could just listen to Noshir narrate literally anything, forever.
Liam saying he and his father were the only survivors and then introducing a brother and no one picked it up X'D
i love how, toward the end, when Noshir and Ashly are discussing the boundaries of their characters' relationship and Aabria is making her shippy squeaky noises and then Noshir's just 'hold my beer, i have a headcanon locked and loaded'
I love the fact that Liam already had Cosmo’s voice in full effect.
that was insane, and i think also a great video on session zeros in general. Setting expectations and boundaries, pitching stuff, figuring out how you want things to be and interact. I loved it. That being said. DAMN I HOPED WE'D BE ABLE TO SEE WHEN Y'ALL CAME UP WITH OSCAR BEING COSMO'S DAD!
the nursery rhyme gave me GOOSEBUMPS! this backstory is amazing!
As a RPG player of untold years, it's a rare and special thing to watch a relatively new player in action and get absolutely blown away. Hats off to Noshir here, it's super inspiring to watch the work he put into his character. Makes you want to go out and start up a new campaign all over again.
TIMESTAMPS!! 6:20 The tone for the game 9:55 Theming 14:30 Character pitches start- Noshir 15:45 Nursery rhyme and backstory, ends 28:30 30:50 His mechanics 31:45 Ashly 32:45 Hyde oh shit! 35:55 How aware are you of your monstrous conterpart? 36:55 What does Candela think about you? 39:05 Is Candela, by it's nature, good? 41:35 Liam 43:55 Aabria's face is gold 46:00 A family connection 46:50 What what happened on that ship happened, did it work? 48:10 What fire you do need to put out? 48:40 Cosmo's father needs some noodling 50:20 Gina 51:05 Lighting change! 57:40 Sam 59:40 Aabria asking the important questions 1:00:30 Ashly's pitch 1:01:30 Aabria's had enough 1:02:55 'Are you a believer?' 1:05:15 Mermaid 1:06:10 Mechanics 1:07:05 What's the nature of your physical interactions with the world? 1:11:35 A DOG???? Also character relationships, I guess (Sam) 1:13:30 Gina 1:21:20 Liam 1:22:00 Aabria pulls out a really good bed noise 1:23:50 Ashly 1:28:40 Noshir 1:32:30 Circle names! If there's anything I've missed reply and I'll add it in :)
OMG, Noshir looks like a baby in here and then BAM! bees and hives and horror and milky eye o_o These people are great. I was simping for Aabria the whole time because her make up and hair was ON POINT the whole show.
All I know is after seeing 3 of these Creating Characters session. (I know this is to showcase the mechanics of Candela Obscura. And, I know the main cast creating characters for the main campaigns and doing session 0s privately lets them go to their roots of a Home Game) But, my word! It would be amazing to see something similar to this for Critical Role Campaign 4!
I do love when Aabria the rules lawyer combines with the mad scientist dm and creates the custom mechanics of the Beast
I love that they're releasing these. It's been so cool to see how they form their characters for this stuff. Liam's commitment to character always blows me away.
Got dayum, Noshir has quite the smile. He embodied his character so well, holy crap. Everybody’s costumes and makeup was damn fine as hell
Aabria is so real for this 4:25 also Talesin better be the big bad guy DM at the end if this series