Emily Axford is One of the Best D&D Players in the World
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- Emily Axford is a player in both Dimension 20 and Not Another D&D Podcast and is one of my favourite D&D players.
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Another thing with Emily is that she loves to fail if it adds to the game: this is especially visible with Lady Chirp.
Definitely when I noticed it
The perks of improv training
she said in an episode of adventuring academy because she’s suspicious about dice she rolls a few before each game to see which ones are rolling which way. and if a few are rolling nat ones or low shell still pick them because she talks about how much she loves failing as well if it advances the story
@@liamross340 She checks which ones are rolling "hot" (consistently high) and which ones are rolling "spicy" (at both extremes), and she likes both, which I love
5 months late on this, but all the d20 players seem this way, Lou especially. While I agree thee improv training might be part off it, but I thiink a bigger part is they know the DM won't completely screw them over if they fail a roll, especially if it's out of combat. Too many PCs think the DM is their adversary, but with Emily and the rest of d20, they know it's a collaboration.
I’m dying to see emily and Laura Bailey at the same table
That would be amazing lol
that would be truly terrifying
Same.
@@RealJohnnyAngel terrifying and beautiful 😍
Ok, but who would be the poor soul left to face them as the DM/GM?!
You skipped over my most favorite part of Operation Slippery Puppet with HOW Emily got Brennan to aggree (or any DM actually) to this ridiculous move. She told Brennan that she was installing decals and stickers on the Android and Brennan aggreed. Then durring the battle she went step by step getting Brennan to aggree with every little step that is happening and BACKED HIM INTO A CORNER before her big reveal that the "stickers" were actually the charged fragmentation Grenade. Which RAW states "each one takes a minute to install." brilliant.
Siobhan had also spent several moments throughout the campaign collecting fridge magnets to put on her robot body.
Emily’s role playing skills are off the charts. I have not yet made it through a campaign she plays in without getting emotionally rocked on at least one occasion (shoutout to Sofia Lee for making me cry every time she interacts with Dale). So excited to see what she does with Ylfa on Neverafter, the one line she had in the trailer has me hooked already.
Ylfa is already one of my favourite characters
i always think about the heartbroken "who's gonna watch the deer??" in unsleeping city episode 9. it was an unexpected callback to something she said in ep 1 and it was such a particular sweet thing sofia loved about dale that it made me choke up
Her and Siobahn in Crown of Candy absolutely obliterated me. I mean that entire series was a rollercoaster of a rainbow of emotions but when the huge turning point scene happens, I bawwwwllllled.
Ylfa and her journey with death wrecked me!
I wholeheartedly agree. Emily is truly an excellent player. Also, (forgive me bc I can't remember if Brennan or Murph said this, but one of them said this somewhere) either Brennan or Murph said that they always give Emily familiars in the game bc she always knows how to utilize them in both combat and roleplay. Emily doesn't forget to interact with her familiars even in downtimes. Pawpaw didn't get a lot of combat opportunities in most of Bahumia C1 but when he finally got abilities for combat, Emily used Pawpaw to maneuver the combat as a support. Same with Sundry Sidney and Aurora Nebbins in the Battle of the Brands episode. Even Baby /Wretchrot in FHSY was useful to Fig during the Goldenrod ship combat in Hell. Emily Axford is the gold standard for me as a player.
It was Murph, he ALWAYS gives her Familars
You can't forget her incredible fucking uses of her summons and flocks of familiars in the Court of Fey and Flowers. She even used a bird as a spying device right under the noses of the people she was spying on without them having a fucking clue!
Goodness. I legit was frowning trying to think of a familiar she had because in my mind Paw Paw was an NPC character, not a familiar LMAO
Also Lou.
"I don't know what to call Gilear besides sad."
But that's the perfect title anyway!
Gilear is Fig's sad.
One thing to add about Moonshine's build is that Emily decided to take a level in barbarian only after she encountered Siobhan's character, an elf with a similar upbringing who's also a kickass barbarian. She talked about how she wanted a level in barbarian but couldn't find a good reason to do it till Siobhan turned up. She wanted her build to make sense to Moonshine's personality and experiences.
"Your allowed to be a complex person" brings me to tears every time
What’s incredible about this line is it wasn’t even original or shocking. Brennan said it first when she did a roll on her mom and he said something like, “you start to realize your mother is just a full and complex person” but the way it was DELIVERED by emily was stunning
I've used that phrase with ex girlfriend's and people I care about. It's always been a mind opener for them
Wheres the timestamp
It's also important to note, HER ACTING IN ACOFAF WAS BEAUTIFUL, THE SCENE IN THE LAST EPISODE WHERE SHE BOWS TO HER CHILD MADE ME CRY A LOT
Wait when did she bow?
@@shadowpsykie Right after the fight, when they managed to protect the gate to the material plane, she saw her child and bowed
Shats acofaf
I absolutely love Emily!!
I was excited as all hell to see Lou join CR for EXU but was honestly sad to not see Emily show up as a PC.
I'd love to see Emily collab with the CR cast in a campaign.
I know! My dream is for Emily Axford and Laura Bailey to one day be a part of the same table and to just watch the chaos that ensues. And there should be high level combat and stuff so whoever the poor dm is gets their shit rocked.
@@kaelalist9656 OMG YESS!! Chaos twins!!
Well you got what you wanted.
If y’all only know her from Dimension20, I HIGHLY recommend checking out NADDPOD, where I learned, to my utter shock, how toned down Emily “I Put My Tit In It” Axford is in D20 by comparison.
I finally understood her from the “Hemp Milk” debacle. It was like “oh, her brain is just on different,” which I mean as the hugest compliment. The final battle in Campaign 1 (no spoilers) also has one of my favorite Axford maneuvers. Instead of using something flashy or any of her high level spells, she spams the cantrip Chill Touch to prevent the BBEG from being able to heal themself. It’s such a small but brilliant move that fully turns the tide of the battle.
She knows what she is facing will be divine in origin, so she absolutely prepared to specifically body a healer and that's amazing. I've NEVER looked at chill touch the same way again.
My favorite episodes are the Mage Madness ones. Emily's use of the horn is the perfect way to turn the tide, and her decision to save Bev with stoneshape was inspired.
Other amazing moments are the Kraken fight in the shadowfell where she beaches the thing, her emotional moments with Maribelle, her battle in hell against War and his army with her polymorphing pack of pixies, and her question in the witch's house to 'Balnor'.
Emily is amazing.
@@wolfofsummerbreeze No spoilers, but my favorite Emily moment recently is from the most recent campaign, on the Short Rest. Murph straight up says something along the lines of “I wanted to put [bad guy NPC] in this encounter, but I knew that if I let him, Emily would find some bullshit way to instantly kill him.”
She puts the fear of god in her DMs and I absolutely love it.
“No spoiler” then proceeds to describe something, in detail, that she does in a climactic moment…
What is naddpod?
@@DestinyNeoGirl not another d&d podcast
Listen to it
It will change your life
I want to see Emily and Sam Riegel team up to make a DM cry with all the chaos they'd cause together. Preferably with everyone's favourite cheerleaders Travis and Lou supporting
Why would you bring this cursed idea into the world?
@@wolfofsummerbreeze let chaos reign, say i
Now this is the combo I could watch
Already agreed big time! She elevates everything she’s in. She’s a unique blend of creativity, immersion and chaos.
Totally agree with all of this. Emily is constantly listening to what's going on around her and she takes NOTES. I adore that she is so dedicated, and that she does research. I feel like Emily is the kind of DnD player I enjoy and strive to be. I love everyone and their dynamic, but Emily resonates with me so much I can't help but root for her!
I have a player who takes extensive notes and they are a lifesaver!
Emily pulled off both the the slippery puppet hijinks and the naddpod nine stick of dynamite in donavan’s armour and then setting them up to be blown up in a surprise round at around the same time when you back date recording times ect. Which is actually insane to think about. Both are designed to fuck up whoever’s dming and absolutely should not work at all. But do. It does end up working and winning fights that objectively should not have been won or would have been a lot worse than they were. Emily’s brain for dnd mechanics astonishes me and I would like to play that way.
My favorite thing about Emily is you never get a sense that she’s acting. She’s just BEING. Especially in the more emotional scenes. She’s just so in character that if Fig/Saccharina/Moonshine/whoever would cry, they cry. And there’s something so raw about that because it’s a very rare thing to see someone playing a fictional character really hold back tears. Because as an actor you’d be trying to cry. I don’t know it’s just something that fascinates me because I have a very similar roleplay style of commitment and getting emotional, but never felt free to do it until Emily. Now I just gotta learn the game back and front like she does!
I immediately think of the Court of Fey and Flowers.
Ostrich chariot pulled by doves.
Backed up by Lou created comedy gold.
the best part of that is that it sounds like it came out of nowhere when she first says it, but later she explains that it's all based on her spells (flock of familiars, etc) and that blew my mind. she's SO good at creating a story from the mechanics.
Emily is so very effective at chaos due to the fact of how well she knows the rules.
Players like Emily and Laura Bailey taught me to pay attention to the environment more than I ever would otherwise. I now tend to interact with whatever the dm presents, as long as it makes sense for my character, even if I don't necessarily have an immediate plan for it. You never know what opportunities may be presented...
Just last week I had my satyr character utilize a pile of hay she picked from the stables (because she wanted to feed the horses) 3 sessions prior, to set a watchtower on fire without a tinderbox, instead using the hay and the torch (the dm described), and managed to side-step 5 guards and get away without harm, instead of trying to fight them.
I love learning from these awesome players
Honestl. She is such a treasure in storytelling. In both impromptu, acting and probably everything else during her time in CH.
Thank you for the spoiler alert. I just started a crown of candy and despite it being an old campaign you still offered a warning. I will return to this video at a later date. New sub
Have you finished it? It's one of my all-time favorites.
Something else to mention. Ep 97 of Nadpod, Moonshine (Emily) had to attempt a casting of dispel on the all caster that could have interrupted the float spell on the city of she failed, she saved a level 7 spell and a reaction to COUNTERSPELL HERSELF!! If she failed!! Very smart, very fast, and it surprised Murph
Her character Moonshine on Naddpod becomes a beast. I remember Murph being shocked by how easily she wrecked some of his encounters.
Also the first naddpod campaign and s1 of fantasy high are all I've heard but she made me cry when during her personal arc back at the crick.
One of my favorite things about Operation Slippery Puppet is how delighted and proud Murph is haha. He's like "Fuck yes that is my WIFE"
Also “Fuck yes it’s not me getting whomped this time” 😂
I'm so glad you talked about her commitment to Saccharina (I used to think Emily was too chaotic and silly for me but I think Saccharina opened my eyes to how she really approaches her characters), and also shouting out Chirp. I wish you'd gone more into Chirp a little, since it's a different kind of game than your average D&D, so the players had to flex different kinds of strategic thinking and character choices than we'd be used to. But still. Great picks all around. Emily is insane, in the best way.
"I'm not really sure what to call Gilear besides sad" BRO I'M WHEEZING. THAT WAS OUT OF NOWHERE LMAO
Emily and Brennan(and honestly the rest of the intrepid heros) each have a very special gift of making me cry. Almost all the clips shown got me misty eyed even though I've seen them all before
Fantastic vid!!! It’s so great to have someone actually go into what exactly makes Emily the game breaking genius she is!:D we all know she’s great but it was so nice to see someone do the work of bringing up specific examples and numbers! Thank you!!
You’re right, we did have all the same opinions haha! Loved this breakdown, I think also it’s interesting that her level of buy in to the world keeps her chaos endearing and she never goes so far as to completely derail the sorry. Great demonstration that you can have fun and be a dingus while still giving the story weight and allowing yourself to be impacted
I would like to see her DM/GM something more than a mini-campaign. Hot Boi Summer was great, but it didn't give her enough time to shine.
Emily is my favorite player of all time. Her joy is contagious
operation slippery puppet… it was insane. my jaw hit the floor and stayed there LOL.
I've extolled the genius of Emily Axford to anyone who will listen. She may be sent from hell to kill the DM but every DM wishes they had someone like her at their table. She's an excellent tactical players, but her commitment to story and character is what sets her apart for me, because it translates to her acting and that conveys emotion. Nobody can make me cry over D&D like Emily. The very emotional climactic scene in the finale of NADDPOD's second campaign Eldermourne destroys me every time. And from just the first episode of D20 Neverafter, she acts her butt off.
That scene when she wanted to enter the house to meet her family makes me cry even if I just think about it
I truly love Saccharina so damn much, she was such a wrench in the dynamic in the best way possible. She came in and immediately had to fight for her spot in the party due to the circumstances, constantly appeasing the party to earn her family's affection and more specifically her father's love. Her dedication to Saccharina's motivations hooked me so much that it irked me when the other characters just wouldn't let up on her no matter what she did (very understandably so but still). Like besides being a doormat for her dragon (which even then had actual traumatic reasons), she was fully justified in every decision made throughout her portion of the campaign.
Also, can we all agree the queen was a minor villain? I get her backstory and all but that proposal to the king and the princess about the final battle and potentially letting Saccharina die was straight up evil.
Yeah, Karamelinda was definitely on villainy side
I disagree on this. She led a band of ruffians, not a people. She was dangerous, and even proved to be dangerous by the sacking of the port town. Saccharina was very self motivated and needed gratitude for everything she did, or they were slighting her. She had little empathy for their situation. I don't say this is not understandable because of her background. She was dangerous.
Emily and Lou as the Fairy cousins are one of the best god damned things I've ever seen.
Brennan had them enter the gladiator arena thinking they had no chance. It was quickly apparent that despite the psychic construct and giant, they would still keep up.
Yes. Also i forget where it was said but someone mentioned that Emily likes to keep a running journal for her characters writing in it daily
emily said it herself in her episode of adventuring academy with brennan! she also admitted to making 5 year plans for her characters, and brennan admitting to reading her character journal to check whether or not certain story beats were caught!
You are the best channel I've come across this year. Running Call of the Netherdeep (with a bunch of sidestories) in January and have learned A LOT as a 1st time DM
So glad you've found it helpful! Thank you so much!
Emily is deceptively intelligent, the one that anyone would underestimate if they're not familar with her tactics.
Murphs facial reactions whenever Emily is about to Axeford is priceless
the man is fully here for his chaotic wife
I’ve been dying to see someone do an analysis into Emily’s play style!
i’m so glad emily is getting so much recognition lately! she’s amazing.
The clips you add for that extra bit of context go a long way! It's cool to see you take feedback and improve your videos with it.
here from tiktok! loved this video so much, Emily is incredible and inspires me so much as a player. also i have the whole hilda hilda scene memorized, lol shes a master of her art.
Lou Wilson and Emily Axford are the most committed dnd players ive seen xD love them, and the rest of d20 cast too
I have been waiting for this video my whole life! Excellent structure and script - well done!!
Thank you!
Brennan's statement on her is perfect 😀
I relate so much to her play style. Plus she is particularly wired into what makes me laugh. I can't pick favorite players (it's wild how fun this group is) but she's basically my ideal version of me at the table and I love everything about it
great video!! emily is so cool and adds so much to every table, she deserves all the love!!!
Emily is Method to the Madness embodied. Basically, she is utterly chaotic, but always for a reason, and backs it up with strong actions and characters. She it working a lot on the games, dedicated to the nth degree, and that's what means she can be chaotic without derailing the game.
That time she crit and the attack value was 560.
LOVE that moment. Largest total damage done in a single hit ever seen by Brennan in all his years of playing dnd
The Hilda Hilda bit will never not make me cry laughing.
My favorite Emily moment is from NADDPOD. She and the other Band of Boobs were on the skyship that used to belong to Hardwons father (IIRCC). They were locked in a pitched battle with demons and Murph had them on evil pegassi Emily had initiative and used a polymorph spell to turn the steeds into dolphins and the demons fell out of the air to the ocean below, basically ending the battle before it could even start. It was so unexpected and perfect and Murph's carefully planned battle was just over. It was hysterical.
One of my favorite quotes from all of d20 was "how did you know there would be a plinth???"
I saw this video while looking up a clip of the oxventure series (so a completely different d&d UA-cam series) I'm 3 minutes in and this video is so nice and thoughtful that I immediately subscribed and am gonna binge at least all of your dimension 20 videos😂
I love your analysis! And I adore Emily as a player - the depth she brings to her characters is such a joy. Her playing Red in Neverafter is an incredible example of many of the strengths you talked about (the amount of TPKs in this campaign if she wasn't a human meat shield is insane)
Sundry sidney is my favorite dnd character ever. I love her so much, and Emily did such a good job in how she played her.
I love how much emotion she puts into all of her characters
Emily is just a dnd god at this point. She’s an absolute force at the table. She’s just incredible.
emily is one of the reasons i started playing! the amount of times she has made me cry?? she’s truly an incredible player
shoulda held onto this one for a few more weeks so you could add in the first combat if Neverafter. she carried that fight *masterfully*
Shoutout to Yfla’s bottleneck!!
100% agree seeing Emily or Brian are in a campaign makes me instantly interested in it
girl i forgot about hilda hilda for a hot second, icon
I love your love for dimension 20 and naddpod!!! Keep making great videos my man
Sofie Bikes made me cry so many times in Unsleeping City
This is the first video I'm seeing of yours and I did a quick channel sweep to see if you'd made a video about him yet. But if you haven't, I'd love to see a video on Mark Meer's Uriah Macawber in the Black Dice Society as a character case study.
I want to be Emily when I grow up
Omg YES!!! Can you do an analysis of Lou Wilson?! I think he is an equally amazing player.
Its in the works!
lou's roleplaying is INCREDIBLE to watch and his characters are always the ones i'm most invested in aside from emily's
This is such a great analysis and love letter to our favors chaos demon
Emily Axford has been AMAZING to watch at Critical Role, and she is single-handedly making me want to continue watching the D20 campaigns I left on hold. This video is adding to it.
What an incredible celebration of one of the absolute best personalities in TTRPGs & comedy & on the Internet in general. If you're here and haven't seen Emily Axford in anything, GET WITH THE PROGRAM Y'ALL, YOU ARE MISSING OUT!
I've been trying to get a friend into Not Another DnD Podcast lately and she was surprised when I said that Emily was a fantastic player. She's really so much smarter than she lets on.
Operation Slippery Puppet is genuinely one of my favorite dnd moments EVER
Being a chaos agent myself I love seeing Emily quietly set up some of the best situations, like, she’s definitely often deeply premeditated (Hilda Hilda aside). People don’t see her coming and then Plinth happens. All of the long setup for that encounter took place over several episodes and she hid it as random silly character choices. It’s amazing how everyone knows she’s a heavy hitter and somehow they still underestimate her, because she’s a goofy ass goofball. And again- as a goofy ass goofball - mad respect.
She is far and away my favorite player to watch.
Brennan in his podcast episodes with Murph and Emily has talked about how Emily masterfully pulls off being the "chaotic" type. She isn't just being random for the sake of it like a lot of our friends try and fail to do, it's waaaaay harder and way more measured to be just the right amount of chaotic in just the right way at the right time. So for a lot of people who claim they are the "chaotic crazy types", they really aren't or they're doing a poor job at it.
"I don't know what else to call Gilear besides 'Sad''
😂 No better words. Absolutely perfect
she's so chaotic and really is awesome at it...i aspire to play the way she does
‘I’m not sure what to call Gilear besides sad’
Nah you pretty much got it 😂
She is perfect Chaos.
Brennan and Emily are probably my two favorite people in the world. Emily consistently makes me laugh my ass off. I've never seen someone throw themselves into an insane bit so intensely so often, and succeed against all odds so consistently. Emily, I'm honored to exist in the same timeline as you.
I love Emily. I also like to think I was sent from hell to “kill” my dm and I can only hope to someday ascend to her level 😂💖👹
she's a fantastic actress - I don't know if I'd say she's the best dnd player ever since I have not seen every dnd player ever actually play, and there's a world of difference between everyday folks playing dnd in their home and someone in entertainment playing dnd for an audience.
One of my favorite things about Emily that this video sorta touched on is that she’s ALWAYS trying to optimize and strategize for the benefit of the whole party. TBH I’ve not watched a lot of Dimension 20 (I’m like 4 episodes into the first season) but I’ve listened to a lot of NADDPod. She’s always always thinking about the party and what is best for all of them. She’s an optimizer and a shenanigans puller, but it’s always for good and never sacrificing the whole party’s enjoyment or story.
Also talking about table investment. The end of Eldermourne? Like EVERYTHING in that final fight? Crazy. I won’t say anything except it’s the finest RP and acting I’ve ever seen from her, Jake, Caldwell, and Murph (and Lou is there too lol). I guess the point is listen to Eldermourne it’s the best DnD actual play campaign I think I will ever experience.
honestly you summed it up so well like emily is how people should aspire to play and i'll support her play-style always
Um ..........why is this the greatest video on earth........
100% agree. She’s a great improviser and her builds are always well optimized. She bites on everything put in front of her. Every table needs a player like her.
Grandma, your ears are honkin big!
One of my favourite displays of Emily’s skills is (spoilers for Neverafter ep3)
At the start of the battle she plans the bottleneck and she can only be hit by 2 enemies at a time and if she stood anywhere else she’d be slaughtered by well over 10 enemies
ylfa kicks ass all season, i know emily said she missed having spells but goddamn was ylfa a tank
I love playing dnd and I try to play using "what would axford do?" as inspiration. It's definitely the reason I use disguise person as much as I do :)
The best thing I love about Emily is she isn't a selfish player. No main character syndrome or needing the spotlight unlike other famous players that everyone raves about. There's no pouting, no trying to control the narrative, no passive agressive bullying to get her way. She respects every single person at the table and gives them room to shine.
It's why I love Dimension20 over Crit Role 😊
That Brennan quote at the beginning sums up Emily so well. If she is at your table, she is going to be both your favorite player and the player who pushes you to your breaking point.
It's funny that Brendan thinks that when he's the one that influenced her magical manipulation skills and combo abilities
I love Emily and Dimension20 in general (my unpopular opinion: they are better than CR)
Much better
I just finished a 4 year long campaign. Dnd has definately become my hyperfixation. I love delving into the characters. I love finding builds that fit the characters that work well. My druid is obsessed with death and decay. She kissed a cambion, used infestation to fill his mouth with spiders. The next turn she used enlarge insect on 3 of the spiders he swallowed and he exploded. My DM has now assigned me to DM for the first time and I will be running an entirely home brew space campaign. A big part of loving the game is the people you play with and how much freedom they allow. I'm lucky enough to play with artists and creative people who invest heavily in their characters.
She was always my favorite in the old college humor sketches
Emily as Chirp Featherfowl is just the incarnation of brilliance and chaos.
"I don't know what else to call Galear besides sad"... that was too harsh and too true
Great video , keep crushing it dude !
Someone else said it but it needs to be repeated: if you only know her from D20, you NEED to check out NADDPOD