Dungeons & Dragons & Dwarves & Deltora

Jas/25/xNFJ/Fantasy sideblog

[dreadgnome]

Campaign Stat Comparison - Scanlan & Fjord

While going through character stats I noticed a lot of overlap both within similar classes and completely different ones across campaigns, but one in particular  stood out for how differently the same stats can be roleplayed

Scanlan & Fjord Lore Bard | Hexblade Warlock & Tides Paladin Level 16 Stats

Str 13 | 13 Dex 11 | 11 Con 15 | 18 Int 14 | 14 Wis 7 | 7 Cha 22 | 20

[dreadgnome]

Campaign Stat Comparison - Constitution & Hit Die

22 - Grog 20 - (initially Grog) (likely eventually Ashton & Fresh Cut Grass) 18 - Fjord, Jester, Beau, Fresh Cut Grass 17 - Ashton, Dorian (Fresh Cut Grass initially) 16 - Scanlan, Tiberius, Trinket, Caduceus (initially Beauregard) 15 - Fearne, Laudna, Orym (initially Scanlan & Jester) 14 - Keyleth, Percy, Pike, Doty, Caleb, Mollymauk, Yasha, Chetney, Imogen, Mister (initially Veth) 13 - Veth, Professor Thaddeus 12 - Taryon, Nugget (full grown) (initially Pike) 11 - Vax, Bertrand 10 - Vex, Frumpkin (initially Vax) 8 - Sprinkle

Hit Die (* for secondary multiclass)

D12: Grog, Yasha, Ashton D10: Percy, Vex, Grog*, Vax*, Mollymauk, Fjord*, Orym, Bertrand D8: Keyleth, Pike, Scanlan, Taryon, Vax, Vex*, Beauregard, Caduescus, Fjord, Jester, Veth, Fearne, Fresh Cut Grass, Launda* D6: Tiberius, Caleb, Veth*, Imogen, Laudna

[dreadgnome]

Campaign Stat Comparison - Strength

26 - Grog 20 - (likely eventually Ashton & Chetney) 19 - Pike, Trinket (initially Grog) 18 - Yasha, Ashton 17 - Chetney, Dorian (initially Yasha & Ashton) 16 - Jester, Bertrand 14 - Keyleth, Vax, Doty 13 - Scanlan, Fjord (initially Pike) 12 - Percy, Taryon, Tiberius, Nugget (full grown), Fresh Cut Grass 11 - Veth (originally Fjord) 10 - Beauregard, Caduceus, Caleb, Mollymauk, Orym, Mister 8 - Professor Thaddeus, Imogen 7 - Vex, Fearne 5 - Laudna 3 - Frumpkin, Sprinkle

Drastically different starting and finishing points for all of them (Vox Machina 9-20, Mighty Nein 2-16, Bell's Hells 3 - ?), so medium and lower stats are more comparable than higher ones

[dreadgnome]

Campaign Stat Comparison - Dexterity

22 - Percy 20 - Vax, Vex, Veth, Beauregard, Orym (initially Percy) 19 - (initially Veth) 18 - Jester (initially Beauregard & Orym) 17 - Mollymauk, Nugget (full grown) (initially Jester) 16 - Tiberius, Yasha, Sprinkle, Ashton, Dorian, Imogen 15 - Grog, Keyleth, Frumpkin, Professor Thaddeus, Bertrand (initially Yasha, Ashton & Imogen) 14 - Caduceus, Chetney, Fearne, Laudna, Mister 12 - Pike, Doty, Caleb (initially Caduceus) 11 - Scanlan, Taryon, Fjord (initially Pike) 10 - Trinket, Fresh Cut Grass

Drastically different starting and finishing points for all of them (Vox Machina 9-20, Mighty Nein 2-16, Bell's Hells 3 - ?), so medium and lower stats are more comparable than higher ones

[dreadgnome]

Campaign Stat Comparison - Charisma

22 - Scanlan 20 - Tiberius, Fjord (likely eventually Imogen, Laudna and Dorian) 18 - Imogen (initially Fjord) 17 - Vex 16 - Caduceus, Caleb, Dorian, Fearne, Laudna 15 - Taryon 14 - Percy, Pike, Vax, Fresh Cut Grass 13 - Grog, Bertrand 12 - Beau, Jester 11 - Mollymauk, Orym, Nugget (full grown), Mister 10 - Keyleth, Chetney 8 - (initially Keyleth; pre-stream) 7 - Trinket, Veth, Yasha, Frumpkin 6 - Doty, Professor Thaddeus, Ashton 5 - (initially Veth) 3 - Sprinkle

Drastically different starting and finishing points for all of them (Vox Machina 9-20, Mighty Nein 2-16, Bell's Hells 3 - ?), so medium and lower stats are more comparable than higher ones

[dreadgnome]

Campaign Stat Comparison - Wisdom

22 - Keyleth 20 - Pike, Caduceus, Jester (initially Keyleth; pre-stream) (likely eventually Fearne & Fresh Cut Grass) 18 - Beau, Caleb, Fearne (initially Pike) 17 - (initially Jester & Fearne) 16 - Vex, Percy, Mollymauk, Fresh Cut Grass (initially Beau & Caleb) 15 - Orym, Professor Thaddeus, Mister 14 - Vax, Laudna (initially Vex) 13 - Ashton, Imogen, Chetney, Trinket, Nugget (full grown) 12 - Veth, Frumpkin, Sprinkle 11 - (initially Veth) 10 - Grog, Doty, Yasha, Bertrand 9 - Dorian (initially Yasha) 8 - Taryon 7 - Scanlan, Fjord 4 - Tiberius

Drastically different starting and finishing points for all of them (Vox Machina 9-20, Mighty Nein 2-16, Bell's Hells 3 - ?), so medium and lower stats are more comparable than higher ones

[dreadgnome]

Campaign Stat Comparison - Intelligence

20 - Percy, Caleb 19 - Beauregard 18 - Taryon (Caleb initially) 16 - Vax, Scanlan, Veth (Percy initially) 15 - Keyleth, Bertrand, Chetney 14 - Vex, Tiberius, Jester, Fjord (Scanlan & Beau initially) 13 - Pike, Orym, Mister 12 - Yasha, Ashton, Dorian, Laudna 11 - Mollymauk, Imogen 10 - Caduceus, Nugget (full grown) 9 - Fearne (Caduceus initially) 8 - Fresh Cut Grass

7 - (Fresh Cut Grass initially) 6 - Grog 5 - Trinket 4 - Doty 3 - Frumpkin 2 - Sprinkle, Professor Thaddeus

Drastically different starting and finishing points for all of them (Vox Machina 9-20, Mighty Nein 2-16, Bell's Hells 3 - ?), so medium and lower stats are more comparable than higher ones . Even factoring in big differences in levels, wow does this one stand out

It kinda feels like the more subdued and responsible members are often right in the middle, and chaos reigns at either side of the spectrum

[etoilesdeglace]

"In my dreams I swore to make a list of those who wronged me."

[noodle555]

DID THEY ACTUALLY FUCKING--

[dreadgnome]

So assuming that the Briarwoods were responsible for the opening slaughter of Not the Fellowship™ (zombie giant in the mist throwing rocks, slashing weapons, and dark magic) -

We know exactly what Disintegrate looks like.

.....that is going to be difficult to watch if they animate up to the Vecna arc

[dreadgnome]

Chroma Conclave Predictions: Since a lot of the emotional beats of fighting Vorugal can’t be used due to Tiberius being cut, it could be merged with the other white dragon fight and draw from the Trial of the Take

[feywild-trickster]

Rambly ass liveblogging impressions of Legend of Vox Machina ep 1 Japanese dub by a pro translator

I am literally just copypasting all the stuff I wrote in Discord lol...

so I started ep 1 in Japanese and my first impression is... the person they got to play Vex sounds startlingly like Laura holy shit 😂

the writing in the first couple minutes was ok, they preserved some of the jokes fairly well but ofc some things just don't translate very well

the opening with the LotR type dudes was still pretty funny but the names of the merc groups I didn't feel like they completely succeeded in keeping the joke there, unsurprising since that would be a hard reference to translate

oh I turned on the Japanese subtitles and they're a straight translation of the English rather than being CC of the Japanese dub, damn. I mean that's great for Japanese viewers that want the closest-to-the-original experience that they can get but less helpful for yours truly lmao

writing this down for my own notes/amusement...

Personal pronouns and grammar:

Vax: ore. so far he's bog standard modern Japanese male like you'd hear as the main character of basically anything anywhere lol.

Vex: watashi, speaks kinda femme with ~wa on the ends of her sentences

Pike: watashi or atashi, probably watashi, will listen for another one. grammar is pretty bog standard modern Japanese girl style but it's funny to hear her use ~deshou bc I'd picture her being the type not to break out desu/masu with her friends personally

Keyleth: watashi, so far bog standard modern Japanese female, she feels a little less formal than I would expect

Percy: ore. he's a lot more informal/less old timey-sounding in Japanese than he usually is in English, but tbh there's not a good way to translate the way he talks that wouldn't also make him sound like kind of a weirdo/imply unintended stuff so it's probably for the best

Scanlan: ok he first used boku when seducing the tavern keeper's daughter but when he's alone with VM he uses ore. Boku has got more of a like softer nonthreatening image to it and musical artists often use 'kimi' and 'boku' for their 'you' and 'me' in song lyrics, so I could see him using it on purpose to try to project that 'romantic lead' kind of image lmao. Ore is more what you expect to hear a typical young guy use, it's kind of macho.

Grog: ore, not much to say here, he's exactly what you'd expect a big macho bruiser dude to sound like. He doesn't quite have Travis's funny sideways way of phrasing things unfortunately, it's more standard Japanese. They did not use any dialect or anything to sub for the accent but that sort of thing is hard to translate.

oh my god I got to Scanlan's bedroom scene 😂

they don't really translate the joke in the song alas, like I think it's still a funny scene without it but

"My lady's rose I will pluck/My love it's time for us to (fuck)" got turned into "Kimi no hanabira wa / Mou boku no mono sa" meaning "Your petals now belong to me" or "your petals are now mine" they didn't try to put in a pun here but they did keep the meter and rhyme lmao

amusingly when Percy asks Scanlan to put on some pants, they kept that exact line in Japanese, but "pantsu" in Japanese means specifically underwear so Japanese Percy is asking something a little different 😂

Japanese Scanlan is very polite to the tavern keeper. 😂

I feel like the dub writing is pretty sharp. I haven't checked out the more direct translation in the subtitles yet but they gave the dub script to a competent dialogue writer. the gang is as funny to listen to bantering with each other in Japanese as I would expect Vox Machina ought to be.

ironically in some ways it's easier to listen to than the original cast bc they're just actors doing a job and less self conscious about the fact that they're Acting as their D&D characters lmao

it's not quite the first time the CR gang ever got into a recording booth as Vox Machina but almost lol

lmaoooooo when Keyleth's like "Vex and Vax only care about themselves" Japanese Vex and Vax are like "we'll fucking kill you"

boo when Scanlan's like "I want to bed everyone in the realm" they translated it as "I want to bed every girl in the realm"

not surprised though sigh

they translated the "drain the basilisk" joke pretty directly but Japanese viewers if they're into this kind of cartoon do probably know what a basilisk is so

...ok I really like Scanlan's actor

when he gets on a roll he resembles Sam kinda like 3/4ths of the way lmao and he can do the falsetto shriek thing

and I do feel like he captures the spirit of the original performance pretty well, even thinking about the original tabletop performance

oof they tried on the "introducing Vox Machina" song but that one was a lot rougher than the previous song 😂 I imagine adapting all these songs was probably pretty hard to pull off

oh my god I can't decide if Kima sounds so off bc they're having her use really polite grammar since she's talking to Uriel or if they really just gave her Generic Girl Femme Grammar, god I hope it's the first one

but she used "kashira" ffs

that's like something you expect to hear out of the mouth of the main character's sweet middle aged anime mom who's gonna die in the 2nd scene lmao

....lmao Pike's dubious blessing is funnier in Japanese tbh

I felt like Ashley didn't quite know what to do with the scene in the original version, or maybe the dialogue was just a little off idk? but Japanese Pike flubs it up a little bit and is like "I'm sure everything'll be, uh, super awesome!" that kind of mood 😂

it's the same idea as the original ofc but maybe a little better executed

I'm ngl obviously nothing can beat the original Critical Role cast when it comes to the actual voices, but I kind of like the dialogue writing better in Japanese 😂

I think so far my only real gripe with the dub is they should've used Keyleth's speaking style for Pike and Pike's speaking style for Keyleth lmao. neither of them sounds totally off, it's not super bad or anything, but Pike sounds a smidgen more goody two shoes than she should and Keyleth sounds a smidgen less goody two shoes than she should

I'm sure that just comes down to, y'know, the person doing this adaptation is only working off these episodes to interpret who these characters are as people

one thing that is interesting to me is Japanese Percy and Vax are very very close in speaking style

it feels like Vax leans sliiiightly more toward "nice approachable guy in his 20s" and Percy is slightly more clipped/businesslike, but very slight differences at best

ok that's the end of ep 1, I'll probably finish watching the dub later

it is still so surreal to me that you can now watch Vox Machina speaking like 9 different languages 😂

[not-so-terrible]

In trying to guess who was responsible for Percy Naruto Running (so many of the Critical Role cast are in it), I realised I had absolutely no idea how involved Mary Elizabeth Mcglynn was...! I knew Liam O'Brien had directed some episodes alongside voicing Gaara, but she's voiced Kurenai, Mei, Tsunade, Tsume, Koharu, Kokuo and Katsuyu, and voice directed the dubs for almost all of the games and movies, and is one of the main voice directors for both part 1 and Shippuden

[dreadgnome]

Legend of Vox Machina Japanese Dub - Voices & Speech Patterns (Ep 1-3)

Since Percy is living out his edgy Naruto-Running white haired anime boy dreams and the cast and crew all have their roots in anime, I wanted to take a look at how the Japanese dub adapted the characters. Thanks @mrsmarymorstan for sending through the actors names!

The sub and dub were done separately, and most characters are much more polite and formal in the sub. I also wonder if animals are redubbed in each language, or if Matt as Trinket will be the only voice across all international versions

While my Japanese isn't super fluent, it seems like a strong, really consistent dub. A lot of the voices are very similar, including the ones with a lot of range (eg Percy), and it definitely adds to the surrealness of anime dubbers making their own cartoon. Things like varying pronouns add a couple of unque layers to characterisation, especially with the villains and how Scanlan presents himself. There's even a couple of lines which I think may actually be closer to the stream than the cartoon?

There are currently also dubs and subs in Spanish (Europe & Latin America), Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Turkish, German and French, along with subs only in Arabic, Czech, Danish, Greek, Finnish, Filipino, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Korean, Malaysian, Norwegian, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai and simplied and traditional Chinese

VOICE ACTORS/SEIYUU

Vex - Ohira Ahiru (大平 あひる) Percy - Shimizu Yuzuru  (清水 優讓) Pike  -Yabuchi Yuumi ( 藪内 裕友実) Vax - Ishiguro Tsuyoshi (石黒 史剛) Keyleth - Ikeda Misaki (池田 海咲) Scanlan - Sawashiro Chiharu  (沢城 千春 ) Grog - Kaneko Hayato (金子 隼人)

Translations of kanji may not be 100% accurate, but I was able to find the most on Scanlan, Grog and Vex's voices. Scanlan's actor was fittingly also a stage actor, whose sister Sawashiro Miyuki (lots of anime credits and dubs Chloë Grace Moretz) got him into voice acting. Roles include Nishiki Sasa in Love Kome, Ritsu Shikishima in Caligula and Taiga in Tribe Nine.

Grog's dubber is Denchi Shoujo in Gyakuten Sekai no Denchi  and Lihito/Pocha  in Kengan Ashura. Vex and Keyleth's seiyuu have mostly done background characters. Vex's seiyuu is also the Japanese dubber for Dolores Madrigal in Encanto

HONORIFICS Honorifics like san, chan, kun, and sama are almost universally not used, and never socially among characters, which makes their conversations with eachother sound a lot more direct. I'm not sure if it's a trend when adapting western media, or a tonal thing for the series.

  - 'Lady' is used directly from English (eg redi kima, redi buraiawoddo, redi arura) instead of using higher status honorifics like sama (I didn't catch pronouns from Kima and Allura)

- Uriel’s main title is ‘Uriel Gokuou 国王’ - king/monarch/sovreign in the sub, but the dub didn’t sound like it matched - The soldiers, Uriel and Vince call General Krieg, ‘Krieg-Shogun’, a de facto military dictator appointed by the emperor and holding significantly more power than them - In the sub Vex sometimes uses 'oni-san' (big brother) towards Vax, but not in the dub - Mr Fisherman is literally written as ‘Fisherman-san’ - Keyleth calls the tree she talks to on the Shalesteps ‘Midori-san’, or Mr Green

(Pronoun and individual speech analysis below the cut)

FIRST PERSON PRONOUNS

WATASHI Most common pronoun for women in media, with no one currently using the more casual 'atashi' or tomboyish 'boku'. Relatively gender neutral, but in a world mostly using ore, for men it comes across as much more formal, and can be either standoffish or effeminate

- Vex (for second person pronouns, swaps back and forth between the formal formal 'anata' and the more casual 'anta', especially when stressed - the female bandit who ambushes Sylas uses 'anta' for him) aishi/aisu no delilah - Keyleth - Pike - Gilmore (notably uses the same casual, direct speech as most of the characters, and not the polite forms more common for people working in retail. Adds 'ne' to the end of his sentences a fair bit, basically 'isn't it/right', suggesting the speaker and the listener are in agreement. Also,  'handsome half elf' is still in English) - Delilah - Sylas (Sub only. Pet names like 'darling' normally translate differently in Japanese, eg from husband to wife it would be done with 'kimi', the informal form of you used by men for equals, younger men, and women (the Vox Machina guys rarely uses second person pronoun for the group, but Percy uses this for Vex). It differs a bit in the sub and dub, but he calls her 'Beloved Delilah', using an archaic pet name which can also translate as lovely, sweet or adorable (written as 愛し but I heard it verb form 愛す) . I haven't watched much historical anime, but I've never heard it before and was taken back by how intimate and direct it is - given it’s right as he murders the bandits, very on-brand Briarwood) - Desmond (also the recipient of an extremely insulting version of you , 'kisama' from Percy) - Uriel   - Fince (one of the only characters, including the rest of the council, to speak politely using desu and masu; everyone else uses casual conversational language. I think it's teineigo, like the basic polite form taught to foreigners first, rather than a more formal and revential level of keigo. Speech patterns consistent in sub and dub. Everyone in the sub uses it a bit, but in the dub barely any do; Allura mixes casual and formal in both, but is still politer in the sub) - Brimscythe* (see below; due to other pronoun used, actually the most youthful and contemporary as he gets) - Scanlan* (only for his performance at the dinner party, and goes back and forth between watashi and ore within it)

ORE

The stock Shounen Jump pronoun, almost universal in series like Naruto. Casual, tough and direct - rude and aggressive if towards strangers and social superiors. First person pronouns are often dropped since they're assumed from context; Percy and Grog don't use them at all until the last few minutes of the series, while Scanlan uses them in almost every sentence

- Scanlan  (switches pronouns for his songs. As they're about to open the chest of 'gold', he also says 'itadakimasu', as if he was about to eat)

- Vax (switches to polite, Fince-like formality when the Briarwoods find him)

- Grog

- Percy

BOKU Boyish, casual but fairly polite. Sounds much less aggressive and rude in series where ore is the norm (eg Rock Lee in Naruto)

- Scanlan* (only when seducing the tiefling in episode 1. Often used used by singers and poets  regardless of gender if watashi has too many syllables, but his most common pronoun has the same amount anyway so it feels more intentional. Still uses ore when singing to the door) - Vax* (maybe swaps into it briefly after they first fight the dragon, but hard to tell for sure since the sub and dub lines and different)

WARE

Archaic and high status, used by gods, immortals, ancient kings, and often for demon lords and devils - Vecna would likely use this. 

- Krieg* (main pronounn, also uses the plural form when talking about the soldiers and himself standing against the dragon, which really makes them sound like they're in an old fantasy epic. In both sub and dub, as Brimscythe he uses watashi instead, so actually sounds far younger, contemporary and lower status as a dragon than a general. I think it’s really fitting, since Brimscythe is somewhere between 26 and 99 in a group of thousand year old dragons - might actually be younger than Krieg)

- Uriel* (sub only, uses watashi in the dub, except for when addressing the dinner party of diplomats and talking to the Briarwoods)

- Sylas* (only when talking to Uriel; matching his power play at an equal status)

- Scanlan* (uses the plural form when he introduces Vox Machina to the council in song, and in the sub when introducing them at the party)

- Vax* (uses plural form to politely accept Allura's invitation before elbowing Grog in the groin)

[bixbiboom]

tlovm is #1 on prime is the us today :D

It sure is! :D

[ID: A screencap of the TLoVM listing on Amazon Prime, with the “Number 1 in the U S” marker circled. /end ID]

[dreadgnome]

So with General Krieg having a giant painting of a naked red tiefling woman in his study, I can’t help but imagine an AU where instead of being half genasi, Jester is half blue dragon

(3 hours later - well this is a WIP fanfic now)

[dreadgnome]

So far I'm finding the giant CGI doors more distracting than the giant CGI dragons, but it does make sense they used the same medium for all of their greatest enemies