Liz Marsham - The History Behind the Epic Fantasy

Dont Kill My Sister. What Is Going On?!?

A GROUP OF FRIENDS is gathered around a table, littered with papers and minis and dice and beer bottles and the remains of a veggie tray. They talk wildly, voices overlapping and rising as they start to panic, because:

A group of adventurers is in a tower, and the tower is falling.

The friends and the adventurers are the same, and yet they are worlds apart. This is the wonder of the game.

Laura Bailey is a voice actor. She is also Vex, a half-elven archery expert with a pet bear named Trinket. She is at the table, clutching at her hair and staring at the papers in front of her for inspiration. She is also in the tower, riding a too-slow platform toward the ground as the stones around her begin to shake. Four of her party members have already escaped using magic. All the others, including her twin brother Vax, could possibly rappel out of a window. But Trinket cant hold a rope, Vex will not leave her bear, and the others will not leave her.

At the far end of the table, Matthew Mercer begins to speak, cutting through the crosstalk. Percy, Vex, Vax, Grog are all on the slow elevator. You still have probably another 300 feet to the ground, when the tower lurches He makes a convincing stony impact sound, KRRRRSH, and jerks his body to the side, somehow embodying both the tower and the shaken people inside it in one motion. Because this is also the wonder of the game: everyone at the table is a person in another world, except for Matt. Matt is the other world. He is everyone they meet and every place they go. Matt is the Dungeon Master, and right now, he is the tower, and the tower is falling.

The platform breaks and goes into free fall. Liam OBrien has an idea, and so his character, Vax, also has an idea. Vax tied a rope above, as the tower began to fall. He is holding the free end in his hand, and some of them can try to grab it. Hold this rope with me! Liam shouts to the table, Vax shouts to his friends in the tower.

Matt claps his hands together: to business. All of you make a dexterity check, he commands. This is the way the world works. The people at the table declare what they want their other selves in the tower to do. But wanting doesnt make it so, not in any world. So they roll dice. Depending on their rolls, Matt, the voice of the world, decides what happens.

Vax is already holding the rope, so Liam doesnt have to roll. Travis Willingham, who is also Grog, rolls well. Taliesin Jaffe, who is also Percy, rolls badly. So does Laura. Laura also rolls poorly for Trinket, who, being a bear, has a slim chance of success regardless of the result. Grog grabs the rope. Vex and Percy and Trinket fall. Theyre out of ideas, and Liam knows it.

DONT KILL MY SISTER, WHAT IS GOING ON?!? Liam calls out to Matt, but he calls out with Vaxs voice. He knows the rules of the game he is playing, though, and neither Liam nor Vax expects an answer. He is holding a rope, clinging for his life as he watches Vex and Percy and Trinket drop below him. He is holding a phone, recording everything, because he already knows that what is happening here is special, is something he never wants to forget. Back and forth, from the table to the tower and back again, faster than the space between his words. His voice is full of terror. His voice is full of joy. This is the wonder of the game.

Matt speaks again, weaving the world, describing the fall. You can see theres broken portions of stone, the rug that was on the platform is spinning and plummeting on its ownWhat do you guys want to do?

Taliesin begins to pitch Matt an idea, involving firing his gun. In the meantime, Laura turns to Sam Riegel, sitting next to her. Sam is Scanlan, a bard who has already escaped the tower. Vex cant talk to Scanlan, but Laura can talk to Sam. I want to grab thethe rug, or something? she says, the question plain in her voice. Will that help? Why would that help? She and Sam begin to brainstorm, but theyre distracted as Taliesin enacts his planand rolls badly. Percys gun misfires.

You are plummeting into probably another 120 feet of free fall, Matt says. Its just you guys, the broken platform, and the rug.

(Listen closely, and youll hear it: this time he leans on the word rug. Just a bit. He is very good at his job.)

Everyone freaks out, shouting over each other. What do I do? Laura wails amid the tumult. Take the rug? How can I use the rug?

Turn it into a parachute or something! Travis volleys back.

Laura throws her arms over her head, miming as she turns to Matt. I grab the rug and I turn it into a parachute.

(Watch closely, and youll see it: Matts body language changes in an instant. He stills, draws inward, gathering himself. He has been waiting for this.)

Matt tells Laura to make a check. An unexpected one: he wants her to roll to see if she can use a magical item.