Critical Role - Tabletop RPGs is serious business, man.

[Dr. Pasquale]

That is very true. I feel that I should write in some of the chapter to James Scott Bell "27 Fiction Writing Blunders-And How Not To Make Them" which is titled "Happy People in Happy Land".
"Great works of fiction are not about happy people living in Happy Land. They are about people being snatched from Happy Land and thrust into a dark world, where they can never rest until they face down a death threat.
Over the years I've seen innumerable manuscripts that have a HPIHL opening chapter. The mother fixing her ideal family breakfast. The Boston debutante getting ready to leave on a ship bound for England. The child-who will become a hero-playing a game contentedly in his room while the author pours out all the setting and backstory.
The reason this happens is that the author thinks that the reader has to get to know these nice people up front, so when trouble finally arrives the reader will be invested in them, not wanting to see such nice people in trouble!
But by the time that trouble comes, the reader may have put down the book.
Readers do not care about happy people in Happy Land.
On the other hand, if they see a character facing a disturbing opening situation, they will follow that character a long time before needing to know more about them."
"Avoiding HPIHL is also essential at every stage of your novel. With the action well underway, and death stakes on the line, there needs to be a cloud of fear or dread over the proceedings.
Now, this does not mean that you can't have a quiet scene, even a happy one, for a change of pace in the story-so long as the reader is aware that this happiness is temporary.
In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man are walking through the dark forest, full of "lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!" Happiness is on hold.
Then they are "attacked" by the Cowardly Lion. There's a confrontation, Dorothy slaps his nose, and he starts crying.
He admits his cowardice and sings a little song about it. He's invited to join them on the trip to see the Wizard, and there is a scene of optimism and skipping down the yellow brick road. They are off to see the Wizard.
But then the film pulls back to let us see the Wicked Witch watching the whole thing. And we know that happiness is not going to last.
A good way to think about happiness in a novel is that it is not a Land, a dwelling place, or a safe locale. It is the ultimate destination, the place the Lead wants to get to-or get back to.
Don't think that you have to eschew any relative peaceful scene in your novel. It's a good thing to give the reader a little breathing space.
But when you do, follow these two guidelines.
1. Make these scenes relatively short. If the happiness goes on too long, there will be unhappy people out there called readers.
2. Apply equal and opposite unhappiness. That is, if the scene seems to bring massive happiness or relief to the characters, hammer them with an occurrence of equally massive unhappiness or danger directly afterward. If it's a bit of happiness, weave in a bit of dread."

Holy shit is Mercer such a bad storyteller. Not saying that every novel or story needs to be a Cormac McCarthy novel but these quotes from James Scott Bell perfectly highlights the kind of stories Mercer creates which are stories for those that want to be treated as babies. I refuse to call these people children as even children novels like Harry Potter have a sense of dread and threat of death in those books.

thats quite an apt description of yourself you got there, holy shit chill out

 

[PaladinBoo]

I just love storytelling. It is a passion of mine. I hate seeing it desecrated by the likes of Critical Role and being told by their mouth breathing fans that this is how all stories need to be like now. Critical Role is starting to become the new Harry Potter. Fanbase is just as insufferable. As people tell Harry Potter fans to read another book, my advice to Critical Role fans is to listen to another story.

 

[Pargon]

I just love storytelling. It is a passion of mine. I hate seeing it desecrated by the likes of Critical Role and being told by their mouth breathing fans that this is how all stories need to be like now. Critical Role is starting to become the new Harry Potter. Fanbase is just as insufferable. As people tell Harry Potter fans to read another book, my advice to Critical Role fans is to listen to another story.

Imagine being pants-shitting mad at someone else’s creation instead of just doing it better yourself.

 

[Dr. Pasquale]

I just love storytelling. It is a passion of mine. I hate seeing it desecrated by the likes of Critical Role and being told by their mouth breathing fans that this is how all stories need to be like now. Critical Role is starting to become the new Harry Potter. Fanbase is just as insufferable. As people tell Harry Potter fans to read another book, my advice to Critical Role fans is to listen to another story.

Alright nigga but you dont need to quote your boyfriend or some random writing advice book every 2-3 posts and act like Matt Mercer is the anti-christ of storytelling.

 

[Random Internet Person]

Imagine being pants-shitting mad at someone else’s creation instead of just doing it better yourself.

Well, creating things is pretty hard and tearing down the work of others is easier and more immediately gratifying.

 

[PaladinBoo]

Imagine being pants-shitting mad at someone else’s creation instead of just doing it better yourself.

The problem is that these losers and posers have helped ruined D&D. I used to love D&D. Good way to practice storytelling. Problem is now that every Critical Role fan expects a D&D session to be just like Critical Role. No deaths, no threats, no consequences, all characters are quirky and "LMAO! So random!" and weird sex and LGBTQ+ shit. It is why I mainly stick to OSR now. Not to mention that Critical Role opened the floodgates for Tumblr rejects to take over the hobby.

 

[Dr. Pasquale]

The problem is that these losers and posers have helped ruined D&D. I used to love D&D. Good way to practice storytelling. Problem is now that every Critical Role fan expects a D&D session to be just like Critical Role. No deaths, no threats, no consequences, all characters are quirky and "LMAO! So random!" and weird sex and LGBTQ+ shit. It is why I mainly stick to OSR now. Not to mention that Critical Role opened the floodgates for Tumblr rejects to take over the hobby.

You sound like one of those nogame fags on /tg/ that keep complaining about CR and 5e all day long. If youre having trouble with tumblrites just filter your players and get to know the ones that stick well. CR fans are not 95% of modern players like you ppl make believe.

 

[Pargon]

The problem is that these losers and posers have helped ruined D&D. I used to love D&D. Good way to practice storytelling. Problem is now that every Critical Role fan expects a D&D session to be just like Critical Role. No deaths, no threats, no consequences, all characters are quirky and "LMAO! So random!" and weird sex and LGBTQ+ shit. It is why I mainly stick to OSR now. Not to mention that Critical Role opened the floodgates for Tumblr rejects to take over the hobby.

“People aren’t allowed to enjoy things unless they enjoy them the same way I do”

you sound like a shit DM and a shit writer lmao

 

[PaladinBoo]

“People aren’t allowed to enjoy things unless they enjoy them the same way I do”

you sound like a shit DM and a shit writer lmao

You sound like a Critical Role fan. What? You like Weird LGBTQ+ sex shit and shipping in your game sessions? Go back top Tumblr faggot.

 

[Pargon]

You sound like a Critical Role fan. What? You like Weird LGBTQ+ sex shit and shipping in your game sessions? Go back top Tumblr faggot.

lol calm down

imagine allowing eight LA dwellers to live in your head rent-free. couldn’t be me.

 

[PaladinBoo]

lol calm down

imagine allowing eight LA dwellers to live in your head rent-free. couldn’t be me.

You're the one getting pissed at me for criticizing them. I can criticize them however I damn well please. Enough of this autistic tard fight. I just want to laugh at them wanting to ruin Kyle's life and them grieving for a Jewish pedo that anally raped five kids.

 

[Jeff Gerstmann]

You sound like a Critical Role fan. What? You like Weird LGBTQ+ sex shit and shipping in your game sessions? Go back top Tumblr faggot.

“You don’t agree with me so you must be a hardcore fan of the thing I whine about.”

Holy shit what a massive faggoty cope.

No one is stopping you from writing your way and playing dnd your way. If you can’t maturely explain to your players that your game isn’t CR then you’re a fuck awful DM.

Take your meds.

 

[Pargon]

You're the one getting pissed at me for criticizing them. I can criticize them however I damn well please. Enough of this autistic tard fight. I just want to laugh at them wanting to ruin Kyle's life and them grieving for a Jewish pedo that anally raped five kids.

wait a second I thought you didn’t like them because they were the worst thing to happen to your face hobby in the last 40 years.

now it’s because they’re on the wrong side of an ideological war being fought entirely by retards on both sides?

Jesus Christ keep it up, this is the hardest I’ve laughed in a week

 

[PaladinBoo]

wait a second I thought you didn’t like them because they were the worst thing to happen to your face hobby in the last 40 years.

now it’s because they’re on the wrong side of an ideological war being fought entirely by retards on both sides?

Jesus Christ keep it up, this is the hardest I’ve laughed in a week

Can I not be disgusted at how they treated Kyle? I hated them before this but after that I hated them more.

 

[Pargon]

Can I not be disgusted at how they treated Kyle? I hated them before this but after that I hated them more.

lol b8ed. too easy.

also if you care about what people you already dislike think about anything you’re incredibly childish and deserving of mockery.

 

[Raoul_Duke]

Please people! We have enough autism on this site as it is!

 

[UnKillFill]

Can I not be disgusted at how they treated Kyle? I hated them before this but after that I hated them more.

I agree, Mercer and Liam both had really shitty takes about the Rittenhouse trial that they expressed on twitter (Sam also expressed a shitty opinion, but it was honestly mild enough that I didn't feel the need to mention it until now), but so did pretty much everyone else in Hollywood. It is definitely worth mocking these people for their idiotic takes, but I think you're getting just a little bit too bent out of shape about this. You're even blaming people that didn't do anything wrong because of what like 2 of them did.

To their credit, *most* of the CR people seem to avoid getting publically political most of the time. Even that faggot Taliesin really only seems to get political about homo shit on twitter, but being a homo is literally his sole defining character trait so of course he does that.

If Mercer had... say, added a villain named "Rittenhouse the Gnoll," to the new campaign and encouraged his players to kill it (and to my knowledge, he has not done anything like that), then I might understand your oddly specific animosity to CR "because of how they treated Kyle". But realistically, 2 (ok, 2 and a half) out of the now 9 regular CR members have said something stupid about the Rittenhouse verdict, and you had to look far outside of CR to see any of it. I think you're overreacting.

Anyway, for all of his faults (including the likely scat fetish, probable cuck fetish, et al.) I don't think that Mercer is a particularly bad story teller. I do genuinely feel for you if you've had people resent you for not making your games more like CR, but that isn't Mercer's fault. If anything, it's your player's fault, and to a certain extent *your* fault if you bring dumbasses to your table in the first place.

 

[PaladinBoo]

One of the big problems with Critical Role is the same as Harry Potter and Rowling. They go out of their way to pander to what is probably the most toxic people in any fandom, the shippers and Tumblr users. Remember how Rowling went out of her way to say that Dumbledore is gay, ship and race swap characters to please the fandom in the Tumblr sphere only for that same fanbase to show up at her house and give her death threats because she said that troons aren't the same as biological women.
I see that happening with Critical Role as well. When it was revealed that Critical Role is the top earner for Twitch (Will give Mercer credit, he does put in work with his stuff instead of your average Twitch thot who just paints her tits for 12 year olds.) the fanbase was pissed. Demanding that Mercer and his crew "redistribute" their wealth (which was funny as they did give a chunk of that money to a children's hospital I believe). I can't say I feel bad for Mercer and his friends. They pander to and cultivated this fanbase. As they say, you reap what you sow.
However, they also were partly responsible (the other being WotC desperate want for Hollywood clout) for opening the floodgates for D&D being taken over by Woke activists and sex weirdos. The more popular something becomes the more the weirdos come out of the woodwork to try to take it over.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

One of the big problems with Critical Role is the same as Harry Potter and Rowling. They go out of their way to pander to what is probably the most toxic people in any fandom, the shippers and Tumblr users. Remember how Rowling went out of her way to say that Dumbledore is gay, ship and race swap characters to please the fandom in the Tumblr sphere only for that same fanbase to show up at her house and give her death threats because she said that troons aren't the same as biological women.
I see that happening with Critical Role as well. When it was revealed that Critical Role is the top earner for Twitch (Will give Mercer credit, he does put in work with his stuff instead of your average Twitch thot who just paints her tits for 12 year olds.) the fanbase was pissed. Demanding that Mercer and his crew "redistribute" their wealth (which was funny as they did give a chunk of that money to a children's hospital I believe). I can't say I feel bad for Mercer and his friends. They pander to and cultivated this fanbase. As they say, you reap what you sow.
However, they also were partly responsible (the other being WotC desperate want for Hollywood clout) for opening the floodgates for D&D being taken over by Woke activists and sex weirdos. The more popular something becomes the more the weirdos come out of the woodwork to try to take it over.

Rowling at least waited for HP to end before shitting it all up (and even then none of what she did broke the setting for me). My goto example of stupidity of listening to the fanbase is Korra turning the main characters les, though it is still unsalvageable without it.

 

[AuxPersonality]

When it was revealed that Critical Role is the top earner for Twitch (Will give Mercer credit, he does put in work with his stuff instead of your average Twitch thot who just paints her tits for 12 year olds.) the fanbase was pissed

Can you link evidence to this?

I don’t remember the figure Critical Role had as top earner on twitch but I remember it not being an unreasonable amount to split across a crew of 9 to 15? (There are background staff right?) over whatever the the time period the leak covered.

Even more so seeing that their production values and quality of their “shows” has increased between all 3 campaigns. You may not agree with the quality of the content but their set and audio equipment gets upgraded so they are reinvesting into their business.

I know this also does not cover sponsors and their merch store, but from an outside perspective they seem to distribute their earnings in a reasonable manner. From employees to the community.

Also they give it away for free.