How Critical Role Has Become a Piece of Me

I don't know how to express this in a way that won't come off a little crazy and fanboy'ish. Nor is this really the right medium to communicate, probably. But it's what I've got.

Let me start by saying that the moment I started watching #criticalrole, I felt this strange wash of familiarity come over me, having been a Gamemaster (Dungeonmaster) since I was 11. But aside from the amazing place you've been able to take RPGs since the show began, as I learned more about each of the 7 of you, I have felt more and more like you're all shards of me if I was to break myself into 7 pieces.

I'm 41 this year, and have two kids, and because of that I feel a good deal of connection to Sam and Liam.

I played sports all through high school, and did my best to keep my RPGing--at least to the full level of nerd I actually was--on the down-low. And for that, I find a bit of myself like Travis.

Even Marisha, who in so many ways is the opposite of me, I find dance. Not dancing myself (though, my tektonic is pretty solid), but my wife, who co-owned a dance studio at the age of 18 with others, and I spent a lot of time around that dance life of those young girls. I see how crazy it is with the dance moms and the costuming--yeah, I get it.

With Taliesin, I have or have had a shared sense of fashion, even today.

And Matt? To me, Matt's like a brother from another mother. I don't remember not having something to draw with, be it a crayon or marker, pencil or chalk on the ground. I created the world of Armageddon and continued to build it with drawings and stories for decades, I made my own Armageddon RPG, which had a lot of foundations in DnD (though it took me years to actually finally play DnD itself). I went to animation school, and kind of went the opposite direction of Matt, not doing any acting, but did work on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Eight Crazy Nights, and a few other animated pieces. I later wrote my first Armageddon novel, and then two other sci-fi books, Upgrader: ReEngineered, and Upgrader: Adaptation. And Critical Role got me back into DMing and I've been doing that again (and playing) a lot in the last few years as well.

And now we get to the purpose in all of this. I knew that the only way I could possibly get to interact with your side of the creative industry would be to take up Voice Acting. So I did.

In the past year I've done mostly fan dubs and web series. I got a part in the anime Free! Dive to the Future, and then Obi-Wan in a small Star Wars audio drama, and now a fandub of Justice League:War, voicing the role of Darkseid. I've got plenty to learn, but at least I know it's something I'm capable of.

And now I want to play DnD as a guest on Critical Role. 

So this is my plea to you, the cast of #CriticalRole. You probably get asked odd things like this all the time, and of course you can't just have anyone on the show. But I hope this plea is something special, and different.

The Pill

I think the disaster that happened at the end of 2012 was the catalyst.

The pharmaceutical companies shifted every resource and dollar they had—and even some they didn’t, the government was willing to drive itself into further debt just to save mankind—into developing a cure. Of course, we immediately saw results, but not what you’d call “positive” ones. Those with terminal infirmities like cancer and AIDS—they died off in the first decade or so. Without the funding to further feul research for their drugs, it quickly became survival of the fittest.

Then they did it. Pacific Sandborn Labs came up with a pill that would keep everyone alive. We’d go on as a race of people.

What we didn’t know was, we’d no longer be human.

The drawback was, the medicine metabolized way too fast, so we’d have to take it once every ten minutes. Some people got drips, but those were expensive and hard to carry around. The rest of us could only afford the pills. Luckily, they were made cheap. But we all knew, at any time, the pharmaceutical companies could wipe out the poor. Still, things were looking up.

Until we started seeing them. Until the side effects kicked in.

I can remember the time I saw my first ghost. I’m pretty sure I wet my pants, I was so scared. They weren’t like Casper—or like the stupid kids who wore a bed sheet for Halloween. The creepiest thing was their eyes—so intense, they bored right into you. They weren’t even white. Some sort of spectral distortion made them various colors. And more than any of that, once you saw them, you couldn’t un-see them. They pursued you relentlessly.

People gave up. After all we’d survived through, and the development of the pills, some people just offed themselves because they couldn’t handle the horrors. It was time for the corporate drug dealers to step in again.

And they did.

It’s the year 2123 now, and the development of Pacific Sandborn’s “Pac-Pellet”—or so we liked to call it—gave us hope. It made us capable of dealing with all the wraiths and ghosts and horrors that pursued us relentlessly for so long. We had a way to fight back.

The new Pac-Pellet let us fight the ghosts. And even if it’s only for a little while—a few hours at best—it’s worth the price. Law enforcement and military units have been formed to combat the otherworldly spirits, now that we can touch them. In fact, I’d say some of the ghosts are even scared of us now, as long as the Pac-Pellet is coursing through our veins.

Evolution is about change. We aren’t human anymore—we’ve experienced too much change, mentally, and even physically now. That’s why I say that after all that’s happened, we’re not human.

We’re pacman.

Angela Write Now: The UPGRADER Blog Tour

Check out the great review at Angela Write Now: The UPGRADER Blog Tour !

VBlog - On First and Third Person Perspective

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VBlog - Part 4: Penciling Panels

Part 4, final part.

VBlog - Part 2: The Script

Part 2.

4 FREE Copies of Armageddon - The Battle of Darkening Skies!

It has been a significant amount of time since I've been able to give propper respects to blogging. I, unfortunately, have a number of jobs, not the least of which is writing the second book in the Armageddon series. If I'm going to take time out to write, shouldn't I be working on an actual novel?

Despite the success its had so far, a book like The Battle of Darkening Skies should not be living such a sheltered life. There are so many people in the world that I'd like to have the opportunity to read this story, and today I've decided to do something I haven't done before.

Today I'm going to be giving away 4 signed copies of Armageddon - The Battle of Darkening Skies, absolutely FREE! Each hardcover copy will also include a small sketch of one of the Armageddon characters in The Battle of Darkening Skies -- just to make it all the more sweet!

All you have to do to get a copy, is reply to this article. At 4:00pm Pacific time, I'll raffle off 4 copies of the book to 4 separate individuals. Please be sure to leave your name and email, and you'll be contacted if you win in order to provide shipping information. I'll announce the winners later in the week.

Best of luck to everyone who plays!



Terry Tibke
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