Critical Role - Tabletop RPGs is serious business, man.

[Random Internet Person]

What do you get when a bunch of VAs get together and play Dungeons and Dragons? You get Critical Role, probably the most visibility D and D has gotten since the moral panic of the 80s, that one Jeremy Irons movie, and that one episode of The Big Bang Theory where Howard was a Dungeon Master and did a bunch of voices!

And who are these brave souls?

Your dungeon master is Matt Mercer, the voice of Jotaro Kujo and Levi Ackerman among others, and the man responsible for developing Critical Role and unleashing it onto the Internet (or at least the blame can be laid at his feet), and joining him is Ashley Johnson (Gretchen from Recess, Terra from Teen Titans 2003, Ellie from the The Last of Us series, and Gwen from Ben 10), Travis Willingham (Roy Mustang in both incarnations of FullMetal Alchemist), Laura Bailey (Lust from both FMAs, Maka Albarn from Soul Eater), Liam O'Brien (Gaara from Naruto), and the likes of Talesin Jaffe, Marisha Ray (Margaret from the Persona series), and Sam Riegel, along with a rotating cast of guest stars.

Our story begins in 2013, when the crew started playing the 4th edition for Liam's birthday before switching over to Pathfinder, and then, one Felicia Day heard of the campaign and approached the crew about streaming. One switch to the 5th Edition later, and Critical Role was born, with the crew taking control of production and all the fun behind the scenes shit in 2018.

Since then, Critical Role has done two campaigns, an eight episode series called Exandria Unlimited (Exanderia being the world where Critical Role takes place), and one shots that take place in the shared universe of the campaigns. New episodes stream first on the Critical Role Twitch page and then are posted onto YouTube. Audio versions of the sessions can also be listened to as podcasts wherever you get your podcasts.

There's Talk Machina, an aftershow where the cast is interviewed and answer questions posed by the production team in regards to the campaign, and as for supplemental material, here's what Wikipedia says they have:

• Crit Recap Animated – an animated spinoff of Critical Recap hosted by Dani Carr. It is co-written by Carr, Kyle Shire and Marisha Ray with animation by Offworld Studios. The show retells Campaign 2 story arcs in short 5-10 minute episodes. Episode 1 premiered in December 2020 and introduced the main characters of the Mighty Nein.[48][49] New episodes have been released in 2021 on an irregular schedule.[50]
• Critter Hug – a to-camera show starring Mica Burton and Matt Mercer. The hosts introduce and talk around topics relevant to the "Critter" community. Only the first episode of the show was aired before California's COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures began. In February 2021, the show returned with an intermittent release.[51][52][53]
• #EverythingIsContent – a show of no fixed format. Several of the episodes have had sponsored content. The show can be something of a testbed for the studio too; with Pub Draw and MAME Drop originally piloted as episodes of #EverythingIsContent.[54]
• Narrative Telephone – the Critical Role cast and guests[55] play a socially distanced version of Telephone using pre-recorded video messages.[51]
• Mighty Vibes – a playlist of songs curated to the aesthetic of one, or more, of the members of the Mighty Nein. Songs play over a looped animation featuring said member. Sound clips taken from Critical Role are interspersed throughout the playlist.[51]
• Exandria Unlimited – an eight episode limited series which premiered on June 24, 2021, featuring a canon Critical Role story set in the city of Emon on the continent of Tal'Dorei 30 years after Campaign One and 10 years after Campaign Two.[56][57] The show features Aabria Iyengar as the game master and stars Aimee Carrero, Robbie Daymond, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Liam O’Brien and Anjali Bhimani as players.[58][59][60]

The Critical Role crew has made their show into a franchise of sorts, "including a prequel comic series,[89][90] art books,[91][92] two campaign setting books (Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount),[93][94] and an upcoming animated series.[23][25] ".

And while the wait for a third campaign goes on, and as the COVID vaccines are available and the two sides of the political spectrum fight over Corona some more, a hobby for nerds enjoys some kind of popularity.

Also, since these sessions can take hours, I'll just leave links to the campaigns.

Campaign One
Campaign Two

Useful Links:
The Critical Role Website
Critical Role YouTube Page
Critical Role on Facebook
Critical Role's Twitch (the first place to see CR shit)
Critical Role on Twitter
Critical Role's Instagram

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

I watched a few of the early episodes of the second campaign.
It was decent, but too longwinded for me to really get into it. It's fun watching professional VAs getting into character and since I haven't checked out the social media of any CR member, I am blissfully unaware of their inevitable and unavoidably stupid political hottakes... so yeah, I enjoyed it a fair amount.

To be honest, for younger/new players, there's worse things to be inspired in their RPG games than Matt busting his ass to make any small encounter memorable and describing in detail what's going on.
The fanbase is going to be toxic and any CR fanboy joining any random non-CR-fanboy DnD game has a decent chance of being a huge faggot towards the group... Being inspired by CR is one thing, trying to copycat them is another.

So, all in all, decent entertainment if it's up your alley, but the fanbase has a large chance of being annoying ...

 

[Red Hood]

I was looking for the Prospering Grounds tag.

 

[Reverend]

Fuck every single one of these hacks. Fuck Matt Mercer for not showing that Choices have Consequences. Fuck the entire concept of this type of game as it's brought an absolute slew of people who think that D&D is run with everyone able to do everything and they can never die or mean things happen to them.

Stranger Things episode 1: The first 10 minutes is more accurate to a D&D game than anything CR has ever done.

 

[Random Internet Person]

I was looking for the Prospering Grounds tag.

Apologies.

 

[Neil]

Fuck every single one of these hacks. Fuck Matt Mercer for not showing that Choices of Consequences. Fuck the entire concept of this type of game as it's brought an absolute slew of people who think that D&D is run with everyone able to do everything and they can never die or mean things happen to them.

Stranger Things episode 1: The first 10 minutes is more accurate to a D&D game than anything CR has ever done.

tbh that's kinda to be expected from a celebrity DnD game. Too many people are attached to these actors and actresses, so they can never ever die otherwise viewers will get mad and stop watching because their favorite celeb and their character is out of the campaign.

 

[Red Hood]

Apologies.

No worries, they haven't quite crossed the cow threshold yet.

I think they suck, but as long as they're not affecting Call of Cthulhu or DCC they and their fans are only an occasional annoyance to me.

 

[Seminal Ointments Lain]

You shouldn't be allowed to play tabletop games if you watch Critical Role.

 

[knightlautrec]

Lol fuck Critical Roll.

Bunch of faggot posers who can't play the game worth a fuck and get softball'd conflict so they don't die and when they do actually have do have conflict and die?Their autistic genderqweer fan base cries like a bunch of babies. Anyone who listens to CR is undoubtedly someone who doesn't play TTRP.

 

[Seminal Ointments Lain]

I have killed 135 players across 7+1 campaigns in the same time as this faggot can barely finish 2. How many players has he killed? Made rage-quit? Cry? And then his vocal backwash have the audacity to tell me I'm a bad GM because I don't le funny voices and exhibit a total disregard for human life.

 

[Random Internet Person]

I have killed 135 players across 7+1 campaigns in the same time as this faggot can barely finish 2. How many players has he killed? Made rage-quit? Cry? And then his vocal backwash have the audacity to tell me I'm a bad GM because I don't le funny voices and exhibit a total disregard for human life.

Man that’s gotta suck. Although from the sounds of it, you run a pretty brutal campaign.

 

[JamusActimus]

I have killed 135 players across 7+1 campaigns in the same time as this faggot can barely finish 2. How many players has he killed? Made rage-quit? Cry? And then his vocal backwash have the audacity to tell me I'm a bad GM because I don't le funny voices and exhibit a total disregard for human life.

Also resurrection is stupid you should suffer the consequences of your choices.

His wife's pc literally jumped of a clif and she was surprised when she died

 

[Seminal Ointments Lain]

resurrection is stupid

11) There are no Death Saves, there is no Downed State, there is no negative HP. When your characters reaches 0 Hit Points, they die. This is per the HEARTS system.

HEARTS:
All player-characters start with a number of HEARTS based on their Homeland, usually between 2-4. The maximum Hearts you may hold is 100. Whenever your character dies, 1 of their Hearts Breaks. If your character dies while not having any Hearts, they die permanently.
How to Break Hearts
Resurrect Self: -1 (Automatic)
Resurrect (Non-Boss) Enemy or NPC: -2
Open Summon Cell: -1
Summon from Wandering Spirits List: Set by Spirit
How to earn Hearts
Generic Boss Defeated: +1
Invader Banished: +1
Find a Heart Piece: +1
Unique Boss Defeated: +2
Gain a Level: +2
Dungeon Cleared (All Rooms 100%): +5
Dungeon Rank Bonus: S: +3, A: +2, B: +1, C: +0, D: +0, F: -1
Be Warned: If you lose more than 5 Hearts in a Single Session, you become HEARTBROKEN. This is an incurable Status Effect that inflicts Disadavantage on All Attack Rolls, Skill Checks & Saving Throws that can only be cured by earning another Heart.

It has varied by campaign, but normally there is a "Lives System" of some kind and I only count Final Deaths.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Talesin Jaffe used to be a really good anime and game dub director, but he hasn't done that for years, not since Critical Role started up.

I remember he was interesting to listen to on his dvd director's commentaries, so it's not too surprising he would go on to greater fame, but it bothers me that as far as I know he's never used his greater fame to promote the stuff he worked on.

 

[Reverend]

tbh that's kinda to be expected from a celebrity DnD game. Too many people are attached to these actors and actresses, so they can never ever die otherwise viewers will get mad and stop watching because their favorite celeb and their character is out of the campaign.

Then this type of D&D needs to die. If these live actors can't play anything but the basic same character the entire campaign they are pretty shitty at their job. I'd be more interested in hearing about a death, new character, and then seeing what comes of it. None of these cunts will be out of Mercer's game, they'll roll up a new PC and come back into the mix. That would at least make it more relatable instead of LOTR with ugly people.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Pretty wild how much people dislike CR. I can see their reasons, but going into full blown "RPG IS SRS BSNS! NO FUN ALLOWED!"-overdrive is just silly.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

From what I understand CR is primarily notable in ruining DnD as a hobby by:
1. Opening the flood gates of casuals entering DnD groups. Which also let a lot of sjws start "caring" about the medium.
2. Give people unrealistic standards of how much production should go into a session. So the faggots who get impressed by them will enter a group and will leave after few sessions because it's not exactly as pictured in the show.
3. Make everyone play the same "LOL SO QUIRKY" characters.

 

[Reverend]

Pretty wild how much people dislike CR. I can see their reasons, but going into full blown "RPG IS SRS BSNS! NO FUN ALLOWED!"-overdrive is just silly.

No one here is saying what you specified at all. What CR has done is show people they can turn D&D into a Video Game with Infinite Lives mode turned on and the DM exists only to entertain the player like a circus clown instead of being the story teller, organizer, cat herder, and co-operative part of the narrative.

Matt Mercer has turned D&D into the worst form of entertainment on levels with Ice Road Truckers, Hoarders, and Bridezillas. A show that is fun to watch but deep down you know it's all a made up for the at home audience of wine moms, ADHD children, and background noise for office workers. Smile and laugh, but don't think too much about it.

When there is no risk of failure there is no reason to try to succeed as you know you are gonna make it through no matter how stupid you play your character. How many times has the party through an of these games been saved by MM narrating away the player's failure to understand the risk he put in front of them? So very very very many times.

Give someone in the game the ability to be bold, to be daring, to understand that their lives and many others are on the line, that failure is a very real and deadly option. Watch the table roll the dice and groan when the dice fails them or cheer with joy when it works their way. It's a better dopamine rush and it's shared by the whole table and when the PC's start dropping the wheels of imagination start spinning overtime to see how you are gonna use your PC to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. Risking everything to save your party is what legends are made from.

Play the game how you want to play the game. MM and his brazillions of youtube folk enjoy what the Show is about. Myself and my crew will play it how we want to and others can do whatever the fuck they want. This is the beauty of the game made by a Gygax, Arneson, and Ward.

 

[Seminal Ointments Lain]

No one here is saying what you specified at all. What CR has done is show people they can turn D&D into a Video Game with Infinite Lives mode turned on and the DM exists only to entertain the player like a circus clown instead of being the story teller, organizer, cat herder, and co-operative part of the narrative.

Matt Mercer has turned D&D into the worst form of entertainment on levels with Ice Road Truckers, Hoarders, and Bridezillas. A show that is fun to watch but deep down you know it's all a made up for the at home audience of wine moms, ADHD children, and background noise for office workers. Smile and laugh, but don't think too much about it.

When there is no risk of failure there is no reason to try to succeed as you know you are gonna make it through no matter how stupid you play your character. How many times has the party through an of these games been saved by MM narrating away the player's failure to understand the risk he put in front of them? So very very very many times.

Give someone in the game the ability to be bold, to be daring, to understand that their lives and many others are on the line, that failure is a very real and deadly option. Watch the table roll the dice and groan when the dice fails them or cheer with joy when it works their way. It's a better dopamine rush and it's shared by the whole table and when the PC's start dropping the wheels of imagination start spinning overtime to see how you are gonna use your PC to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. Risking everything to save your party is what legends are made from.

Play the game how you want to play the game. MM and his brazillions of youtube folk enjoy what the Show is about. Myself and my crew will play it how we want to and others can do whatever the fuck they want. This is the beauty of the game made by a Gygax, Arneson, and Ward.

You're not wrong but you are autistic.

 

[Francis York Morgan]

I'm surprised this wasn't done as a Community Watch thread. Feels like a missed opportunity to farm both their stupid fanbase and the people who despise it.