The answer to your question: almonds.

I love that the three Exandria DMs were in-sync about so many aspects of DMing. I also love that each had one thing that the other two side-eyed or openly mocked them about.

Aabria: Banging as an NPC

Matt: Feeling like his source-book enshrined world is still not fully realized.

Brennan: Snackin’

so we have:

nervous snacking gm

nervous no snacking gm

but what about the secret third option of

gm who wants to snack, but all the food is gone by the time they’re done giving the session recap, because their players are a swirling vortex that snacks get sucked into

I was watching the GM Round table with Aabria, Matt, and Brennan as a new GM and y’all I have never felt more relived and comfortable in my entire life. I’m pretty new to GMing or playing D&D in general but I decided to really dive into the deep end, I run a campaign for friends who have barely heard of D&D before and I was literally planning for a session I’m running tomorrow while watching the stream. I’ve always felt super nervous about GMing after watching actual plays and playing in a very short game for a few months. I didn’t know people who ran D&D or any ttrpg so I was like I’ll do it. I have a pretty decent acting and improv background but that does shit when it comes to my poor ass planning skills.

Hearing Matt say that he feels like the world is never done felt like such a relief for me. Like I felt super validated at other people being worried about running pre-made campaigns and that my world didn’t need to be finished for my players to play in it.

I am just so grateful and inspired by GMs of actual plays and GMs in general, the people at that table in particular, but knowing that even people who do this for a living still learn bolsters my confidence that I can make a game my player will enjoy (hopefully).

Manifesting two hopes for Matt’s characters from the GM discussions this past week —

From the reveal that Stilben is the “oldest” place in Exandria, I hope Dariax eventually retires from adventuring by setting up a tavern in Stilben where Old Man Dariax regales his patrons with tall tales about all his friends.

From the (joking?) reveal that Bolo was a disguised Greatwyrm dragon, I hope she survives to the present day to have an epic Gilthanas/Silvara-style romance with Cyrus Wyvernwind.

finally getting to watch the gms of exandria roundtable and listen i may be a newbie gm but the voice time thing is too real. even as a player i’m like doing voices in the mirror and my brother walks past my door with the most “the hell are you doing” look on his face i’ve ever seen

Please

PLEASE

Please let the GM Roundtable be a new regular show on CR....They don't even need to answer questions. I just want to watch these three talk about bathroom voices time and being a podling for an hour and a half once a month.

Oh Aabria's backstory advice - pull people aside and get the pitch - is really good and I will be using that

matt mercer just called out the entirety of the fandom for the thirsty hoes we all are oh my god

“no that’s the audience. i don’t make villains hot, i make villains, and the audience makes them hot.” SIR OKAY i didn’t to feel attacked like this i’m sweating

Brennan’s “And I’m Not Sorry” is Asmodeus’s “And I Didn’t Do Anything Wrong” 

Bathroom Voices Time

Brennan thank you. I feel seen.

I have a bad body and also need constant almonds.

wuvvy hits even harder when you've seen the Bathroom Voices Time part of the exandria gm roundtable

When the GMs were talking about the time were it is not a good time to be thinking about D&D I just flashed back to when I was taking a Biology final exam recently and zoned out for like five minutes thinking about swords and spells. I passed the exam but still…

“I got girl boss’d.” 🤣

A Bolo CR book would be beyond awesome but what if for now, they put Bolo quotes at the start of every chapter in the upcoming Lucien novel?

- - -

PROLOGUE

Wizards. Why is always wizards?

— from “Ruminations on Cognouza” by Bolo