Spoilers up to and possibly including Season 1 Episode 110

You ever watch Critical Role and go, “Wow, how can I be like them? They are so talented! How are they so good?”

Well, this is here to help. Hopefully. You see, the cast of Critical Role is very very talented and have been doing this for a very long time. It takes a lot of practice to be that good.

So I can’t promise you’ll be as amazing as them anytime soon. However, I can outline some techniques they use. Once you notice these skills, you can apply them to your own D&D games or just have a deeper understanding and appreciation for improv.

Let’s start with some basics.

In an improv scene, you want to establish three things as soon as possible: character, objective, and where. (COW if you want an easy way to remember.) These help the audience and you understand what is going on. Character is pretty easy; it’s who you are, what you believe in, what you look like, etc. Objective is what you want in a given scene; are you trying to seduce someone or ally yourself with someone or bargain with a merchant. Where is location; the context of a scene changes if you’re in a dragon’s lair or your own castle. Now, let’s talk about more specifically about COW.

WHERE

This is the simplest, so I’ll start here. When you do a scene in improv, it’s important that you talk about your surroundings to make it clear where you are because it helps the audience and your scene partners know what’s going on. It creates a sense of realism because it grounds everyone in the reality of the world.

In a role-playing game, this mostly falls on the Dungeon Master to create. While it’s the simplest, it’s also very important to creating atmosphere or tension. Notice how specific Matt gets when he describes locations and how that creates reactions from the characters.

As an example, be aware of Percy’s admiration and wonder for when they get into Ioun’s realm (Episode 105). Even though Scanlan becomes her champion, it is Percy’s reaction and awe to the nearly infinite bookcases that is the most memorable and enthralling moment. Percy has this great character moment because he was given a chance to react to specific scenery. If you’re role-playing, try and find specific items to be attracted and to respond to. It creates a sense of connection to certain locations and help immerse yourself in the world on a deeper level; had Taliesin made Percy’s reaction more ordinary, it would not have been remarkable.

But there are also moments when it’s not up to the Dungeon Master to describe the world. Changes in Scanlan’s mansion are a direct result of his character evolving and reflect where he is mentally. Maybe one day his personal room won’t have a large mirror on the high ceiling but instead have a small fireplace where he and his future partner can relax, snuggle, and fall asleep.

Finally, we all know that our favorite black powder merchant was created out of thin air. In this video, if you can stop yourself from laughing, pay attention to how Matt sets the scene and describes the house. His description of the house definitely helps inform Matt of who lives in there; an eccentric house can only be lived in by an equally eccentric person!

CHARACTER

For our main cast, character creation is not something we really saw. However, it is important to observe how fleshed out these characters are and how they continue to develop. They have very deep histories. They have relationships of different intensities with different characters. They hate and love different things. They all have strengths and weaknesses. While we didn’t see the creation of these characters, we are seeing these characters behave as realistically as possible in these fantastical situations.

Let’s take a quick moment to talk about bold choices. In improv, it’s very important to make bold choices because it encourages forward momentum, gives your scene partners something to latch onto, and helps create the mood surrounding a character. In the above clip with Victor, notice how Matt is not subtle — extremes help define a character. It’s also much easier to tone down a character’s peculiarities rather than create or add them later.

Marisha loves to make bold choices, but it also fits into Keyleth’s character as someone who is still learning new things about the world and herself. Whenever Keyleth overreacts to something you might think is mundane, note that Marisha is making a bold choice. It adds tension and gravity to scenes that might not have be boring otherwise; it makes the actions and events in the story have more meaning because, to Keyleth, everything has meaning. If Marisha did not play Keyleth as a character that experiences emotions at their fullest capacity, we would be missing a lot of special moments. Notice her conversations with the Sun Tree; she plays up this druidic valley fangirl side of Keyleth that would not exist if she didn’t take bold choices and chances with Keyleth.

Speaking of creating characters and making bold choices, watch this:

Take notice of the choices made for this character. Matt describes him with detail (and just like location, descriptions of clothes help define character too), and you already know before he speaks that he is a rich snob. When Sam introduces us to Taryon, he not only fulfills that initial description but surpasses it beyond every expectation. Sam made Taryon be as over the top as possible because it makes Taryon a character that is very easy to understand for the audience and for the other characters/actors to respond and play with. This big and bold choice helps set the initial stage for the character and gives Sam room to play with, and eventually as we see with Taryon, his character development stems from moving and growing away from these initial choices.

I also want to point out that Taryon also has something called a high status. In acting, status is the relation between you and other people. A difference in status between two characters help create tension; this is apparent here because Taryon is treating Vox Machina as very low status and, they obviously, do not take very kindly to that. When you’re in a scene with another character, thinking about your status in comparisonto them will help define how you speak and what you think about them — a high status character will speak to another high status character differently than to a low status character.

Here’s a scene between Pike and Taryon, where she wants him to learn the correct names of Vox Machina.

One of the reasons why this is so funny is because the status of these characters is different from what we’re used to. Pike is normally a very low status character; you will rarely find her talking down to anyone. She is very non-confrontational. She doesn’t want to be a bother or cumbersome. You would never see Pike behaving as if she’s better than anyone else. All of this goes out the window when she becomes Momma Pike.

Then there’s Taryon who is basically whimpering the entire time. He does not have this high-confident persona that we’re used to.

The status switch here causes the scene to be absolutely hilarious. If Pike was normally confrontational and Taryon consistently this much of a pushover, the scene would have come across as mean rather than funny. Also, Sam goes to the extreme with the status change; he’s plays up that Taryon is frightened and listens to every single syllable as Pike speaks.

It’s the switch and then the extreme that gives us the comedy. However, it’s so important to note that this is all done in character. They justify these reversals. What this does is deepen our understanding of these complicated characters.

Pike could have easily just started yelling at Taryon to remember Vox Machina’s names— that’s a very easy way for someone to come across as high status. Ashley doesn’t do that. She is very stern and, consistent with how she talks to Grog as Momma Pike, and uses it as a literal teaching moment.

OBJECTIVE

When you look at your favorite scenes in Critical Role, the best ones probably have a clear objective; an objective is what your character wants to accomplish or their goal. When you start a scene with another actor, both of you might have absolutely no idea why the scene is happening, so you have to find the objective — the objective brings purpose and weight to a scene. If characters don’t have a goal in a scene, it is just conversation.

Let’s talk about the infamous bathtub moment. Liam feels there needs to be a scene with Taliesin here, but it takes a while for him to find the purpose of it. I also want to note how Taliesin helps Liam here, “Cut to it.” This is an in character way to say, “Hey, get to the point of this scene.”

This makes the scene more than just being about the awkwardness of the two-men-one-bath situation and forces Vax to find a more personal reason for coming to this tub: his goal was to redefine their commitment to one another, Vox Machina, and Vex. Once he accomplishes his goal, he leaves.

Now, watch the scene.

It’s easy to chalk what Laura does as just a random funny joke. However, it’s so much more than that — she listened to the scene (and Matt’s description of the location; “big bathtubs”) and found a way to contextualize Percy’s awkwardness and need to end the conversation. See, Percy didn’t really have an objective in the scene until Laura gave him one in RETROSPECT!! And that’s why it’s so brilliant.

Let’s talk about Grog and his objectives. Grog is a relatively simple-minded character. You might think that makes him less interesting to watch, but because of his simpleness, it gives the most consistent objectives. I’d say in the majority of his scenes he wants to: eat, drink, have sex, or kill. (Okay, slight hyperbole.) What this means is that Travis usually has a clear objective in his scenes, and that is why they are entertaining to watch. As a viewer, you don’t have to struggle with understanding the purpose of his scenes, you just get to enjoy the ride and see whether or not he gets what he wants. That’s why his scenes are dynamic because he is always fighting (only sometimes literally) for something and you get see whether or not he overcomes his obstacle.

Objectives are important because they give you a way to end the scene. When a character doesn’t have a clear goal, the scene kind of walks in circles because there is nothing to walk towards. It will just linger on until someone awkwardly ends it. However, when a character has a goal, there is now a clear arc and ending to the scene. The scene does not need to continue once you’ve achieved your purpose or failed.