(Part 2) Top products from r/criticalrole

The best advice I can give anyone who doesn't have a group to play with and doesn't have "nerdy" friends is become the DM for 5e and invite your friends to a game. They will most likely say "I don't know how to play", tell them it's fine. It's a game you learn as you go. You as the DM will be making a ton of mistakes early on but everyone will still have fun. Everyone will get better as they go. You want to read the Basic Rules, or the part in the PHB called "running the game". It's the small section in the middle between the race/class options and the spells. I did this very same thing when I first started watching Critical Role (I had played before but not 5e) and now we've been playing since 2015 and the problem I have now is too many people want to play. I currently have a full group of 5 and an extra player who plays the character of whoever doesn't show up. We're at the end of a campaign where it doesn't make sense introducing a new character but they should get to make one soon. 5e is the definitive edition to get new people into the game. If you can get them to show up for the first game, most of them will stick around, and they will be the best advertisements you have for the game since because they may not be "nerdy" they will convince other people more easily to try the game.

I recommend to start buy purchasing the starter set and playing through that (It has the basic rules and it starts easy for DM and gets more complicated as it goes to train you). You don't need anything besides this until you finish the campaign in it if you don't want to. https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Starter-Set-Roleplaying/dp/0786965592/

Optional but recommended, at least once you get your group started:

A copy of the PHB and MM, available from Amazon for less than in stores. https://www.amazon.com/Players-Handbook-Dungeons-Dragons-Wizards/dp/0786965606/ https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Manual-Core-Rulebook-Wizards/dp/0786965614/
A bag of dice so you have enough to share. I recommend the easy-roller dice bag, it's about $25 on Amazon but they guarantee the dice are not defects which is the case with many of the other big bags of dice. The bag contains 15 full sets of 7 dice in various colors. https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Roller-Dice-Polyhedral-Dungeons/dp/B00L2N1OVI

Also, if you don't want to have to create everything from scratch the pre-packaged adventure books are great. Whether you follow them, or whether you rip ideas from them, they are an amazing resource that can save you a ton of time.

• If you liked CR's Underdark arc, check out Out of the Abyss for a fantastic trek through the Underdark
  
• If you liked CR's Briarwoods arc, check out The Curse of Strahd for a sophisticated "Count Vampire" adventure
  
  The great thing about these books (and others) is you can take as much or as little from them as you like.
  
  Re: other comments about having friends, make new ones! I got into playing IRL D&D by posting on my local /r/[city] saying I was looking for a D&D group, and that I'd be happy to host. Had a weekly group going two days later. Playing D&D is a great way to become friends with people.

It's all in the cut, really. I have a fantastic friend named Bethanie who does both mine and Ashley's hair, along with many of our friends. She cuts it in a way that makes it really easy for me to whip it together. The secret is to not wash it every day. I know some people might "eww" at that, but every great stylist I've had has told me it's not great to wash your hair every day. So I blow dry it after I get out of the shower, into the sort of position where I like it (lots of innuendo here), then I use a tiny amount, like dime sized, of this stuff: https://www.amazon.com/Baxter-California-Clay-Pomade-fl/dp/B000MIKEZQ?keywords=hair+clay&qid=1537564031&sr=8-9&ref=sr_1_9. Mostly the blow drying gets and keeps it in position, the clay just solidifies the goodness.

Shared Fantasy: Role Playing Games as Social Worlds by Gary Alan Fine

> This classic study still provides one of the most acute descriptions available of an often misunderstood subculture: that of fantasy role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Alan Fine immerses himself in several different gaming systems, offering insightful details on the nature of the games and the patterns of interaction among players—as well as their reasons for playing.

The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity by Sarah Lynne Bowman

> This study takes an analytical approach to the world of role-playing games, providing a theoretical framework for understanding their psychological and sociological functions. Sometimes dismissed as escapist and potentially dangerous, role-playing actually encourages creativity, self-awareness, group cohesion and "out-of-the-box" thinking. The book also offers a detailed participant-observer ethnography on role-playing games, featuring insightful interviews with 19 participants of table-top, live action and virtual games.

Gaming As Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity And Experience in Fantasy Games by J. Patrick Williams

> Since tabletop fantasy role-playing games emerged in the 1970s, fantasy gaming has made a unique contribution to popular culture and perceptions of social realities in America and around the world. This contribution is increasingly apparent as the gaming industry has diversified with the addition of collectible strategy games and other innovative products, as well as the recent advancements in videogame technology. This book presents the most current research in fantasy games and examines the cultural and constructionist dimensions of fantasy gaming as a leisure activity. Each chapter investigates some social or behavioral aspect of fantasy gaming and provides insight into the cultural, linguistic, sociological, and psychological impact of games on both the individual and society. Section I discusses the intersection of fantasy and real-world scenarios and how the construction of a fantasy world is dialectically related to the construction of a gamer's social reality. Because the basic premise of fantasy gaming is the assumption of virtual identities, Section II looks at the relationship between gaming and various aspects of identity. The third and final section examines what the personal experiences of gamers can tell us about how humans experience reality.

Glad you enjoyed it! yeah, Carol Ann Duffy is a great poet. She's been Britain's Poet Laureate for the last decade! The first Scott and the first woman to do so! You'll likely enjoy a collection of her poems in The World's Wife, which retells many classic stories with a tragi-comedic, feminist flair. She's recently stepped down from the laureateship, but not before her publishing her latest collection Sincerity. In it, she goes hard on recent political issues.

A book I found immensely helpful in working through proportion and perspective was Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators

Might be worth a look. Like $18 on Amazon.

Looks like they're pretty inexpensive on eBay and Amazon:

· https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F362702924209
· https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VRHKJ81/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_FtXqDbDN7YQ03

Self control, self determination, ability to perceive and act upon choices, identify and follow one overarching purpose.

Grog with the herd, prestream vm, first groon encounter, this groon encounter, Groon. Draw a line through those 5 points and thats the, at least spiritual/emotional path groon is setting for Grog. I think.

EDIT to add: see ref this: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Speaks-Tsai-Chih-Chung/dp/0385472579

Impro by Keith Johnstone is invaluable, and gets across what it needs to without veering into technical or academic language very much. Also, just a good read in general.

Critical Role Vox Machina: Origins Volume 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506714811/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_fjn1CbDJ7QDFQ

Hardcover looks like it may forever be out of print.

A paper back version of 1-6 looks yo be out October 15.

Average was about 15 hours each with all the details. Trinket took the longest at about 20 hours because I had to engineer the pattern in some places.

The majority of the patterns were based from a book called Amiguru-Me. I did have to make up some pieces though, which was part of the process.

Edit: Included an Amazon link for the book. I bought the grizzly bear pattern for Trinket from this seller on Ravelry

Also an edit: For Pike's armor, I used the armor making techniques taught by Evil Ted. Any old-school G&S viewers might remember him teaching Stef & Jess how to make foam armor for the giant Trinket plush waaaaaaay back when. The armor is craft foam, coated with some craft glue and silver sharpie. There are hooks and eyes for the pieces so it can come apart, and velcro for the body piece (cause I ran out of hooks & eyes).

This really made me hate "fun fur" it is not fun.

He's got a book out that seems to be part autobiography and part philosophical treatise by way of essays and poetry. I haven't read it yet but it's on my pile. https://www.amazon.com/Blackened-White-Brian-W-Foster/dp/1475225539/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537462994&sr=8-1&keywords=brian+w.+foster

Oh My Goth is an actual thing!

https://www.amazon.com/Nin-Jiom-Pei-Pa-Koa/dp/B001FAQXD2

For those that might not know, that is an old Wizards of the Coast Colossal Red Dragon which currently goes for about $500.

There is also a Blue Dragon and Black Dragon that were made as well which are far less expensive.

I have not seen one in person in a very long time and regret never having bought them because I assumed that I would never have the players fight anything of that size.

It was The Limerick by G.Legman. Got a PDF for it so I can quote it when I cast Vicious Mockery aswell :P