Web Video / Dice, Camera, Action!

I want to play in your D&D game.

"EVERYTHING'S FINE!"

—Various, whenever things are anything but fine. Which is often.

A Dungeons & Dragons series produced by Wizards of the Coast that ran from 2016 to 2019, chronicling the adventures of the Waffle Crew, a team of adventurers who are pulled from the Forgotten Realms into the realm of Barovia and get mixed up in all manner of crazy shenanigans as they desperately try to escape and get waffles. Things go badly.

Dice, Camera, Action! stars:

• Holly Conrad as Strix Beestinger née Skizzik (Tiefling sorcerer), a plane-walking "trash witch" with severe anxiety.
• Jared Knabenbauer as Captain Diath Woodrow (Human rogue), the brooding, abysmally unlucky de-facto leader of the Waffle Crew.
• Nathan Sharp as Paultin Seppa (Human bard), a snarky alcoholic with little to no regard for the fourth wall.
• Anna Prosser as Evelyn Marthain (Human paladin), a Pint-Sized Powerhouse and overly-cheerful devotee of the sun god Lathander.
• and Chris Perkins as the Dungeon Master.

Episodes can be watched here, and the subreddit is here

Has a Character Sheet that needs much love. The series has crossed over with other D&D shows, most notably Acquisitions Incorporated and Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team, but also Force Grey, Sirens of the Realms, and The Adventure Zone.

---

Because of the nature of the series, there are spoilers for Curse of Strahd, Storm King’s Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation and Waterdeep Dragon Heist. You have been warned.

Dice Camera Action contains examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Averted, Paultin has several admirers but treats them with apathy at worse. Esher may be an example depending on interpretation.
  • Early on Evelyn qualified as well though Paultin warmed up to her.
• Action Pet: Hooty McHootface and her offspring, Waffles. Stinky the cranium rat and Juniper the mouse might count, during the episode dedicated to them.
• Addictive Magic: Evelyn has a hard time ridding herself of lycanthropy, due to the various benefits the condition brings her.
• Adopted to the House: The Eggo Crew
• All-Loving Hero: Evelyn wants to adopt just about any monster they find that she can reasonably call cute, including the Hellhounds in the middle of attempting to rip her to pieces.
• Always a Child to Parent: There are signs of this in Paultin and Evelyn's relationship with Simon. Technically, he's older than both of them combined, but they still treat him like a young child.
• Amusing Alien: Warrington Munt. A giant humanoid hippo person who fell from space.
• Ancient Evil: The Dark Powers.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Esmerelda the Vistani vampire hunter is bitten and changed. It ends in a Mercy Kill.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: When Wumba dies everyone is happy.
• Artifact of Doom: The Ring of Winter Gutter may count too
• Auction of Evil: The Stone of Golorr is being sold at an auction.
• Audience? What Audience?: The usual reaction when Paultin breaks the fourth wall.
• Babies Make Everything Better: The baby owlbear has this effect on the women in the group, even Diath grows fond of it after playing it in the 'pets' episode. Simon has this effect on Paultin and Evelyn, though he's more of a toddler than a baby.
• Baddie Flattery: A common trope where Paultin and Evelyn are concerned.
  • Esher and Strahd are both fond of Paultin
  • The Xanathar and Jarlaxle have a thing for Evelyn.
• Bar Brawl: How the Waffle Crew met, Evelyn started it.
• Barred from the Afterlife: The Crew when they die in Barovia.
• Big Bad: From Season 1, Strahd von Zarovich. The soul monger from season 3.
  • Season 4 has all four of the Modules villans going against the heroes at the same time.
• Blood Bath: Strix for a limited amount of time.
• Born Unlucky: Diath
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Paultin, at least once per session.
• But Not Too Gay: Averted. Esher is desperate to get in Paultin's pants and is very vocal about it.
• Campfire Character Exploration: There's a whole episode dedicated to it.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Just another symptom of the Poor Communication Kills everywhere in this series.
  • Diath and Strix are in love, not that you will ever get either of them to admit it, leastwise to each other.
  • Evelyn has a serious crush on Paultin, and occasionally Paultin will demonstrate an elevated concern for her well-being too, though usually he's too busy making himself emotionally unavailable.
• Captain Oblivious: Evelyn refuses to see the world through anything but her rose colored glasses, Anna's consistently bad perception checks further enforce the trope.
• Cartwright Curse: You don't even have to be a love interest. If you are a guest star or friendly NPC you should probably have your funeral arrangements in order.
• Catchphrase: Several:
  • Paultin: "Not with that attitude it won’t."
  • Evelyn: "By the light of Lathander!"
  • Strix: "EVERYTHING’S BAD!"
  • Diath: "UNCANNY DODGE!"
• Chew Toy: Diath. Hanged for assaulting a guard, raised by a necromantic Abbott (and Came Back Wrong), turned into a ghoul by an Eldritch Abomination to revive Strix, had that sacrifice rendered pointless by Van Richten, cursed by Arabelle, used his revival spell on Zog only to have him die again, and is just generally a magnet for whatever trouble Perkins can imagine.
  • Lamp Shaded by Jared in episode 30.
    Jared: I like how any time we flash back to something, it's always paired with "oh yeah, that's when that terrible thing happened to Diath.
• Children Raise You: Paultin takes several maturity levels after he adopts Simon.
• Combat Pragmatist: Deprived of her spell slots, Strix falls back on screaming and throwing things. A dead rat does surprisingly little damage.
  • She can also turn her staff into a frying pan. She casts green flame blade on it to increase the damage it does.
• Companion Cube:
  • Paultin gains an adopted "son", in the form of a deadly animated puppet the group dubbed "Murderbot" back in Barovia and later renamed Simon.
  • The dolls of the rest of the party were this to Strix during her fifty years alone in Barovia.
  • While in the Amber Temple, the Waffle Crew learned that Paultin himself was one, as he'd been abducted and replaced with a simulacrum by Strahd's forces.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Paultin is discreetly this. Immediately disliking anyone who shows even the slightest interest in Evelyn. Even getting one of them arrested.
• Creepy Good: Murderbot/Simon although more creepy than good, Strix can be this at times, such as collecting hags hearts and the like.
  • Mourning Glory, while in Barovia, looked like a zombie horse.
  • Esmeralda, after being turned into a vampire.
• Crossover...
  • ...with Acquisitions Incorporated: Strix has joined AI on several adventures, at first because she was summoned by an infernal contract in the possession of Omin Dran (played by Jerry Holkins), and later of her own volition. Later, Omin appeared on DCA! when Strix summoned him to raise Evelyn from the dead, after which Omin and Evelyn became... ...uh... "enthusiastic pen pals". Binwin Bronzebottom (played by Scott Kurtz) appeared in a two-episode arc in the fourth season where he helped the Waffle Crew take on the Xanathar Guild. Recently, Evelyn was magically dropped into an AI adventure in Ravnica.
  • ...with Acquisitions Incorporated: The "C" Team: Diath has appeared in one episode, and Strix in several. This eventually lead to Waffles Incorporated, a full-on Crisis Crossover where the Waffle Crew and the "C" Team joined forces against a host of extra-planar threats, which notably ended with Rosie Beestinger (played by Kate Welch) adopting Strix. The two parties also appeared in A K'thrissmas Story, a light-hearted holiday interlude.
  • ...with Girls, Guts, Glory: Lilith (played by Allie Gonino) appeared in a second season episode of DCA! during the Stream of Annihilation, in which she enlists the Waffle Crew as protection. Later, Evelyn appears in an episode of GGG.
  • ...with Critical Role: Kerrick (played by Patrick Rothfuss) appeard in a third season episode of DCA!, in which he has been displaced from his home plane of Tal'Dorei.
  • ...with The Adventure Zone: Magnus Burnsides (played by Travis McElroy) appeared in DCA! for a three-episode arc in the fourth season, starting with the Stream of Many Eyes. Notably, Magnus became the Waffle Crew's landlord when he leased them "the Waffle Haus", a run-down manor in Trollskull Alley in the city of Waterdeep.
  • ...with Dark & Dicey: Paultin appeared as a GMPC in Dark & Dicey during an episode where Nate, one of the regular players, took the DM's seat for a game.
  • ...with Sirens of the Realms: Vlahnya (played by Satine Phoenix) appeared in the fourth season as the guest character in a DM-lite episode. Soon after, Nate made a guest appearance on Sirens as Paultin.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Strix commonly talks about how Sigil is a horrible place to live, and she grew up carrying bodies around, and nearly got sold as a slave. Diath has shades of this as well but he doesn't talk about it.
  • Durring a rare moment of emotion Paultin mentions having everything taken from him, no doubt talking about when Van Richten murdered his family, or when his wife was murdered
• Dark Is Not Evil: Strix, a demonic-looking Tiefling with a fondness for dead things and filth, is kind, compassionate and put her numerous fears aside for her friends.
  • "Barmy", the undead Lich in the Amber Temple, proves to be a helpful ally. Bonus points for Perkins giving him the voice of Christopher Lloyd.
• Deadpan Snarker: Diath and Paultin, but Chris and Strix are sometimes as well.
• Disappointed in You: Diath tries this on Paultin when Paultin casts suggestion on him. but it fails because Paultin still thinks he did the right thing and is offended by it.
• Dirty Coward: Strix's character development in season 1 is getting over this.
• The Ditz: Evelyn is completely clueless most of the time.
• Drinking Contest: Paultin's in a couple, most notably durring the ring of winter arc where he bets his face and loses.
• Drunken Master: In a weird twist, Nate actually gets bad rolls when Paultin is sober. No rule, just luck.
• Dying as Yourself: when Evelyn dies in Chult she shows up at the soul mongerer as a human rather than her construct human self.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The running commentary text was originally shown in the spare image box and didn't appear in the first episode at all. Eventually, "White Text Guy" got his own spot on the stream layout.
  • Earlier episodes had a feed showing #wafflecrew tweets
• Easily Forgiven: Probably because the series is meant to be pretty lighthearted, but there seems to have been little moral repercussions for Diath killing Arabelle as a human sacrifice. Most of the terrible things the party does are easily forgiven, but it’s averted when Paultin uses suggestion on Diath. Eventually, the party splits over it.
• Eats Babies: Werewolf!Evelyn; turns out to be a ruse.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Whether Ireena counts for Strahd is open to interpretation but Strahd seems to have a genuine love for Paultin as well due to their biological relation. Even offering him a place at his side after Paultin's friend kills Ireena. The Vistani as a whole are precious to him.
  • The Xanathar's pet fish.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Paultin's good looks are frequently remarked upon. He even uses his appearance to manipulate a lovelorn vampire.
  • Diath gets it less often, but still, has admirers of all sexes.
• Evil Makeover: When Paultin turns evil he lets his hair grow out, it turns black, and his skin gets pale.
• Evil Orphan: Adopting a Murderbot guarantees this but its first independent act was to shoot Strix with a sleep dart.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Esher tries to get Paultin to fill the void left by Strahd's capture
• Exploiting the Fourth Wall: Paultin directly asks Chris questions, usually for comedic effect.
  • Paultin's ability in the episode 100 crossover, though it's never used.
• Famed In-Story: Paultin in Waterdeep. Evelyn's pretty well known too.
• Family of Choice: How the Waffle Crew sees each other. All of them have issues with their biological family and a big part of Strix's character development is her accepting the party as her family.
• Faux Yay: Paultin pretends to be gay to manipulate Esher into doing whatever he wants.
• Feelies: invoked There's been a number of physical representations of in-game items:
  • In Season 1, Chris sent envelopes with a different playing card to each of the players, prior to an in-game tarot card reading.
  • From the same season, Holly made an adorable puppet version of Mr. Shambleface (a.k.a. the Vistani doll of Strahd.
  • Holly later went on to make the dolls of the Waffle Crew that Strix made during her 50 years alone in Barovia and sent them to the other players. These get revealed on-stream during Episode 73.
• Feral Vampires: The first vampire the group meets is definitely feral, though only because it's terribly starved. They meet it again later and it's much less feral.
• Flaming Sword: Evelyn's sword The Heart of Spinelli.
• Fortune Teller: Madam Eva. Arabelle tries but fails.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble:
  • Strix: The cynic, mostly concerned with not dying
  • Evelyn: The optimist (often too dangerous extent)
  • Diath: the realist
  • Paultin: the apathetic.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Evelyn (sanguine), the perpetually cheerful and optimistic Boisterous Bruiser
  • Strix (choleric), snarky and cynical
  • Paultin (melancholic), The Quiet One and The Alcoholic
  • Diath (phlegmatic), the pragmatic team leader.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Paultin can read the chat and loiter on the subreddit. At one point when he dies he literally watches the fourth wall as though in a theatre.
• Free-Range Children: The Eggo Crew are able to go pretty much where ever they want. Both before the Waffle Crew adopts them and after.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Esmerelda as Strahd never gave her specific orders to kill the Waffle Crew.
• Funny Background Event: In a situation where the focus can only really be on one person at a time, this will happen:
  • Jared usually has a great facial expression ready to go
  • Special mention goes to Holly's 'chip flip' from episode 54 ^note The crew learn that Paultin is about to get married. Holly's reaction is to flail and send her bag of chips flying. The fact that she was muted the entire time makes it even funnier.
  • A nightmare scenario sees Strix in the company of her party, but they're all in doll form. The rest of the crew hide off camera and hold up their dolls while this goes on.
• Funny Foreigner: Warrington Munt. The dwarves might count too with how much humor the players get at their accents.
• Gay Moment: Diath's and Falcon's It's Not Weird moments.
• Gypsy Curse: Both Esmerelda and Arabelle attempt this when they die. Paultin has it as a special ability.
• Ham and Deadpan Duo: Both pairs of romantic partners have this going on. Strix and Evelyn are the ham while Diath and Paultin are the deadpan.
• Happily Adopted: All of the kids the Waffle Crew adopt are happy to be there.
• Head Desk: A common reaction to Chris Perkin's plot twists. Jarad is a common offender.
• Healing Hands: Evelyn's Lay on Hands ability
• Healing Magic Is the Hardest: Strix isn't good at healing, Holly consistently forgets what she has to roll as she never plays healers.
• Healing Shiv: While it can attack normally. Evelyn can use the most recent version of Lightfall to heal.
• Hollywood Healing: Averted, the players confirm that all the characters have scars from the wounds they've sustained in game.
• Home Base: In season 4, the Waffle Crew are renting and fixing up Trollskull Manor in Waterdeep, which they quickly redub "the Waffle Haus".
• Honorary Uncle: Diath and Strix hastily reject being this to Simon.
• Human Sacrifice: Diath sacrificed a vistani child to enchant a doll to capture Strahd.
• Hunter of Monsters: Rudolph Van Richton and Esmerelda.
• Idiot Ball: Evelyn seems to hold it the most of the main four, but guest character Falkon (a wereraven played by Chris Trott) picks it up and runs right out the window.
  • Lately Paultin has taken it and outright refused to let it go. To the point of one of the players claiming he willingly falls for every temptation, Chris Perkins throws at him.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Diath, while he's a ghoul.

  • I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: The average reaction to the Waffle Crew meeting a child.

• In-Series Nickname: Several, but most notable is "Ass-Smear" for Kasimir the dusk elf.
• Interface Screw: A Twitch broadcast with an overlay provides several opportunities for this:
  • Whenever someone drops out of the stream and all the cameras become misaligned. Lampshaded when, by random chance, one of the players' cameras ended up in Chris Perkin's box and they proclaimed themselves to be the DM.
  • Greying out a character's stats when they die. Sometimes within a minute of the death taking place.
    • Also happened in episodes 82 & 83, while Paultin was under the influence of the Ring of Winter
  • Sometime after episode 52 when Evelyn became a construct, her title read Evelyn, 'Human' Paladin
• Interspecies Adoption: Simon, Squiddly may count too.
• It Runs in the Family: Paultin's ancestor is shown to be exactly like him, and the memory Paultin has of his father shows him drinking heavily while playing with him. Evelyn's father is also a devoted Paladin of Lathander with a sunny disposition. Strix' family is even crazier and weirder than she is.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Evelyn is starstruck by the saint she meets while dead. Also any time Lathander acknowledges her in any way.
• Large Ham: Chris Perkins does not know the meaning of "understated performance". Neither does Mordenkainen. Or Bag of Nails. Or Magnus Burnsides.
• Like Brother and Sister: Strix and Paultin tend to have this kinda relationship.
• Literal-Minded: Evelyn has a tendency towards this, Strix can as well. Paultin tendancy toward this is more of Exact Words
• Love Epiphany: In Holly's story about Strix making the dolls of her fallen comrades, she seems to have this moment when she has to start making Diath's doll. It is debatable if this is an actual epiphany since she seems more confused about the feelings than anything, but her behavior towards Diath does end up changing after said events. Holly also denounced Strix's asexuality, and said that it was during her time alone in Barovia that she became demisexual.
• Loyal Animal Companion: Juniper, Evelyn's pet mouse, proves invaluable in locating her after a werewolf transformation. Waffles also.
• Magically-Binding Contract: Turns out that Strix's ancestors made a deal with devils. This results in a Crossover with Acquisitions Incorporated and caused a whole lot of problems for both Strix and Diath alike.
• Magical Romani: The Vistani in general. Specifically, there's Paultin, Arabelle, Esmerelda, and Madam Eva.
• Medium Awareness: Paultin knows the whole thing is just a game.
• Mercy Kill: Esmerelda asks Paultin to kill her so she doesn't have to live as a vampire.
• Mission from God: Evelyn believes she may be on a mission from Lathander. There's a good chance she actually is.
• Mood Whiplash: Fairly often in the first season because of the contrast between the Gothic Horror of the module's setting and the snarky attitudes of the players.
  • Example: Soon after they get trapped in the Amber Temple Evelyn and Diath almost die, Diath twice! Then soon after, in an attempt to control an amber golem Strix alters her form to pretend to be Strahd, a comically bad performance complete with an atrocious Swedish accent
  • Episode 86 the episode starts with Simon making silly jokes and ends with Evelyn and Simon dead and Strix unconscious.
• Must Be Invited: Evelyn, Paultin, and Esmerelda attempt to hide from Strahd in a rando's house hoping he can't come after them.
• Mysterious Parent: Diath's father Ashton is mentioned occasionally and seems to be important. All we really know is that Diath was sold, Ashton was (or is) an adventurer of some kind and Gutter was his.
• Naked People Are Funny: Shapeshifters have this reaction, especially Falcon.
• Nay-Theist: Strix doesn't doubt the existence of gods, but doubts their divinity. Claiming them to just be powerful creatures.
• Oh, Crap!: Often.
  • In Episode 43, when the Dao says to Paultin "That's very interesting. I wish you hadn't noticed that."
  • Episode 86 again. Strix throws a fireball and Chris laughs. The whole party has an Oh, Crap! moment.
• Once a Season:
  • After the first season was set in Barovia, each subsequent season has seen the Waffle Crew return, at least briefly, to the Domains of Dread. In season 2, the powers try to install Paultin as Strahd's replacement, before the Waffle Crew are thrown back in time to when Strahd was human. In season 3, the Ring of Winter corrupts Paultin into creating a new Domain of Dread all his own, though the Waffle Crew manage to save him. And in season 4, the Waffle Crew and the "C" Team are drawn into the Domains of two Chaotic Evil Vistani lovers seeking to reunite.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different, when all the players briefly take on new characters. In season 2, they play as Juniper the mouse, Stinky the crainum rat, and Waffles the baby owlbear, and have to save the Waffle Crew from fire giants. In season 3, they play as "the Awful Crew", evil clones of the Waffle Crew who terrorize Port Nyanzaru. In season 4, they play as "the Eggo Crew", a gang of Waterdeep street urchins who discover a captive Waffles.
  • As of season 3, there's been a tradition of a DM-lite or DM-less episode in which the Waffle Crew just talk among themselves or with a guest character about their backstories and plans for the future. In season 3, the Waffle Crew spent the night camping with an inquisitive Tortle (special guest Mark Hulmes of High Rollers'). In season 4, there have been two: first, Strix's bakery patron worries about the Waffle Crew's stability and requests they see a therapist, and second, Vlahnya (special guest Satine Phoenix) counsels the Waffle Crew on whether or not the Eggo Crew should stay with the party.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business
  • Paultin gets downright spooky when dealing with Van Richten.
  • Evelyn's a cheery, forever-optimistic Genki Girl, so when she starts humming to herself for support, then drops to her knees and tearfully starts praying to Lathander, you know shit is serious.
  • The whole party is in trouble when Diath has a Heroic BSoD
• Origins Episode: Episode 73
• Over-Enthusiastic Parents: Evelyn, full stop. Paultin adopts Simon and she claims herself as the mother without permission.
• The Paladin: Evelyn is a paladin of Lathander, the Morning Lord.
• The Paragon: Evelyn, almost all of the time.
• People Fall Off Chairs: Every once in a while a player will jump out of their chair as a reaction, most notably when Chris Perkins hints that Evelyn ate a baby
• Perpetual Smiler: Evelyn's constant, joyful evangelizing is a little disturbing when paired with her eager violence.
• Pet Baby Wild Animal: Waffles, the owlbear chick/cub. Strix’s pet dinosaur.
• Pet Monstrosity: The owlbears Hooty McHootface and Waffles, Stinky the cranium rat and (while in Barovia, at least) Mourning Glory
• Plot Armor: Perkins is a pretty forgiving DM, giving the Waffle Crew plenty of outs when they'd otherwise be dead several times over. The guest characters and NPCs do not fare so well.
• Poor Communication Kills: Whoo-boy, can these people not communicate with each other.
  • This is lampshaded in an episode when the party is travelling by ship and Perkins makes a point of the crew employing teamwork to do things easier.
  • This isn't helped by Paultin, who seems to make a game of being the least helpful and cooperative possible, especially in combat.
• P.O.V. Boy, Poster Girl: In terms of the whole team, Strix can technically be seen as the poster girl. Every party member has their own quirks, and Chris is very good at giving the entire party a healthy amount of spotlight. That being said, Strix can be said to be the most exotic of them all, being the only one of the group to not be human (in this case a tiefling) and having a very witch-like design. In most crossover events, Strix is normally the first character to be advertised before the rest of the party (such as in *Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms*) or the character to crossover into Chris Perkins' Acquisitions Incorporated.
  • While not literally (since there is no true POV), Diath can also technically be the POV boy. He appears to be the most normal of the group (with the least charisma), the only one to not use magic, the straight man of the group, the youngest character (thanks to a youth potion), and the agreed leader of the team. The fact that there is some romantic tension between the him and Strix ends up being a pretty funny coincidence. However, this is also averted since despite Diath appearing normal, the fact that he has the last soul of a powerful family and a piece of said soul being missing shows that he's not nearly as normal as he appears to be.
• Pushover Parents: Evelyn and Paultin's reactions to Simon literally murdering someone is to lightly scold him they take him kidnapping a child a little more seriously but still let him off lightly. Diath and Strix also count with regards to the Eggo Crew.
• Quirky Bard: Paultin is a Bard, though he spends more time drinking than performing.
• Retail Therapy: Evelyn has a lot of fun having outfits tailor-made for her, while Diath buys Boring, but Practical supplies.
• Running Gag:
  • An early one was 'Eeeeeevelyn', due to Chris continually mis-pronouncing it as 'ehh-vuh-lin'.
  • "Welcome back to the Waffle Crew!" = somebody rolled a 1.
  • "EVERYTHING'S FINE!"
  • 'Suboptimal' - an early comment Chris made about the party's composition - has come up a few times. Mostly from White Text Guy whenever somebody fails a roll.
    • Lamp Shaded in the pre-game banter of Episode 69: ^note The episode was streamed live from PAX Unplugged 2017, and Chris had just asked the players to make their rolls within a marked square so it could be seen by an overhead camera
      Chris: But you guys are, like... awesome at everything, so...
      Anna: Says the man who labelled us 'suboptimal'

• Sexiness Score: In episode 11, Paultin spots Ezmerelda on the stairs and immediately evaluates her as an "8", but Evelyn thinks he's being too generous.
• Shackle Seat Trap: Paultin to Van Richten when he shows up in Citadel Adbar. An odd example because the chair has no trapping mechanism, but has been magically animated.
• Steamrolled Smart Guy: The rest of the party consistently outvotes or ruins Diath's carefully thought-out plans.
• Straight Gay: Falkon, and to a lesser extent, Escher.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Diath and Paultin's interactions read as this.
• Stupid Sacrifice: Diath becomes a ghoul in exchange for the power to raise Strix from the dead, only to have Van Richten do the job with a revival spell.
• Sugary Malice: Evelyn and Jarlaxle's interactions.
• Survival Mantra: "Everything's Fine."
• Talking Weapon: Diath's Sigil sword Gutter.
• Team Dad: Diath is very protective of the team and tries to make the important decision for the team. They often push decisions off on him because they trust him to do the smartest thing. this becomes a bit of a problem when he develops PTSD over accidentally causing the deaths of hundreds of slaves and the party is forced to step up when he doesn't trust his own decisions.
• Team Mom: Evelyn tries to mother her teammates; occasionally, they let her. When they don't, she has the pets.
• Team Pet: The Waffle Crew has several animals, but Waffles the baby owlbear fits this trope the best thanks to being the only one not to specifically belong to one member and sharing the team's name as well.
  • Juniper and Stinky
  • Morning Glory, Walter, and Valentina
• Token Evil Teammate: Subverted with Strix, who thinks she's this and appears to be at first sight due to her demonic appearance, but really isn't evil at all. Paultin, however, while not always evil, definitely isn't good and has allied with Strahd and Escher along with threatening Van Richten. This is further cemented in episode 80 when Paultin casts ''Suggestion'' on Diath and forces him to summon Shemeshka for assistance.
• The Trickster: Paultin has not only trolled enemies to death but even tried to con Big Bad Strahd.
• Verbal Tic: Perkins' dwarves either sound like pirates or Swedish Mario.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 52 is tentatively one with, Paultin and Evelyn getting to kiss, Evelyn giving all her equipment (including her broken ax Lightfall) to her friends expecting to die, and then getting turned into a construct that was supposed to be Simon. The dwarf king being a Doppelgänger and expecting to get assassinated, and offering Strix to be king after he escapes. Also, a humanoid twig monster giving Paultin a severed hand.
  • Episode 58 takes a dark, dark turn, with everyone aside from Strix being helplessly executed and Strix living alone in the forest for 50 years.
  • Episode 78 set a new standard for emotional trauma with each character becoming separated and facing a scenario designed to destroy their willingness to go on.
  • Episode 80, where the party spends the entire episode trying to figure out how to survive a bomb with the power of 10,000 magic missile spells, only to have Strix teleport the bomb a relatively short distance away, then Paultin uses mind control magic to force Diath to summon Shemeshka, which only ends up costing Diath a heavy price, all to find out that he had the ability to disarm the bomb the whole time using one of his magic keys.
  • Episode 86 looks at every previous episode and says 'Hold my beer'. About halfway through the episode, Evelyn is torn to pieces by a tentacled abomination. Her soul ends up in a hellish plane that seemingly acts as a feeding ground for the Soul Monger where she meets a legendary figure of her religion, throws herself into the grasp of one of the Soul Monger's tendrils in another soul's place, sees the ghost of Simon arrive in that same purgatory and as she is being devoured, she becomes a sun; dealing a what appears to be a grievous blow to the Soul Monger and lifting Diath and Strix's Death Curse.
  • And OH BOY Waffles Inc! It's at this point that Strix and Diath's relationship end up bringing hell upon the Waffle Crew, and the C-Team get caught in the affair as a result. The Mercykillers attack both teams' locations, two powerful evil spirits attempt to kill the two parties, the whole group comes together in a town witnessing the Blood War, an endless war between demons and devils, enter the material plain, a pit fiend and an erinyes attack the eight heroes (particularly Diath), and Asmodeus, the lord of the Nine Hells himself ends up, showing up at the very end threatening to separate Strix and Diath permanently. It's not all bad whams, however. Rosie offers to take Strix into her family by making a deal with Asmodeus, effectively removing Strix the family that is not only keeping her away from Diath, but also adding an extreme amount of pressure and fear for being the most powerful member. Strix and Diath are finally allowed to calmly and safely embrace at the end of all of this craziness.
  • Episode 129: Warrington Munt, their goofy but steadfast ally for over thirty episodes, turns out to have been slowly succumbing to ceremorphosis the entire time they knew him, and they had no way of knowing until the very end when they have no choice but to battle what's left of him to the death. Hardest of all are the hints during the fight of the friend that was there: "...Ding Dong..." And then they close with the fear that the children have been infected...
• Wham Line: Numerous, usually followed by "And that's where we'll stop":
  • Episode 22: "Strix is dead."
  • Episode 73 had a lot of build up to this one, but it still hit hard:
    Evelyn: I know you've loved us a while, but how long have you loved Strix?
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Various pets will disappear for episodes at a time so the party doesn’t have to think about them while important things are happening. Mostly averted with Waffles though since she’s pretty much their mascot by now.
  • Dragonbait and Strix's dinosaur disappear after season 3.
  • The king of the dwarven city requested the waffle crew's help only for the crew to end up stuck in barovia again. He's never come up again.
  • The "Waffle Pets" (at the time consisting of Waffles the owlbear, Stinky the cranium rat and Juniper the mouse) get their own focus episode while the Crew is in the fire giants' forge. It's adorable.
• Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Lampshaded at times. They're so suboptimal they just can't manage to keep any of their nice stuff. Magic items get thrown at enemies, allies end up dead, and the house they rented is constantly going back and forth between under construction and smoldering ruin.
• Wretched Hive: Sigil, where Strix grew up. Which explains a lot about her...
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When Diath kills something Gutter complements him. Diath hates it.