Critical Role Why Critical Role is so successful...

[Seramus]

I love the charisma of Critical Role, but their players are sooo bad it hurts. Just in the last few episodes a 12th level character only fired two eldritch blasts, the rogue forgot they had an elven cloak, the halfling forgot to reroll a natural 1, and the barbarian forgot they have reckless attack AND bonus radiant damage.

Only Liam has his ducks in a row.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Exploration is great, if the players are into it. If not, it can be a dud that needs to be hurried through.

This is a most vital point. Give Mercer my table, and I can guarantee that even him would fall flat.

With my group of deadfish eyed, casual pretzel crunchers, wine-all-over-their-damn-sheet-I'm-filling-and-printing-for-them maniacs, having them trying to do the same stuff as CR would be their death; no joke, I think at least two of them would die on the spot if it was revealed that I expect them to have initiative and engage with NPCs or their character goals.

I tried once designing a character-oriented sandbox, giving them more or less free reigns to explore and accomplish their characters goals and ambitions. Problem is, none of them had any (yes, even after I told them to find some). So the game fizzled out after one game of doing sweet nothing.

Their excuse: ''But we dont know where you want us to go!''

So on to the railroad with them! Move fast over exploration, have the NPC actively engage them instead of waiting for the PCs and focus on the action.

A little mind-numbing, if you ask me, but a fun relaxing evening with friends none the less.

 

[rgoodbb]

I love the charisma of Critical Role, but their players are sooo bad it hurts. Just in the last few episodes a 12th level character only fired two eldritch blasts, the rogue forgot they had an elven cloak, the halfling forgot to reroll a natural 1, and the barbarian forgot they have reckless attack AND bonus radiant damage.

Only Liam has his ducks in a row.

Agreed. So how is it still sooo darn good?

Because for them the mechanics (and combat) don't seem to matter anywhere near as much as the social and exploration pillars. It is the wonderous environments and emotion driven party where the PC's appear to care about each other. The 2 non-combat pillars make CR great, and agreed, with their charisma, make CR also great to watch.

 

[rgoodbb]

I wrote this thread a couple of years back. My feelings haven't changed over this time.

The Closed Door

 

[NaturalZero]

There are definitely tricks you can pick up from CR, but your situation and goals are different than Mercer's, and so when doing analysis of what we can take, we must keep that in mind.

I think the point that they're actors would be stronger if it were some kind of scripted show or something edited, like Harmonquest. Sure, they're aware of the cameras and are ready to play a character but there really isn't anything conceptually or technically exceptional that they're doing that wouldn't translate to a home game. Yes, not every player in every game is interested in having a backstory or having a campaign that revolves around the characters' motives but there isn't an existential difference between an actor playing DnD for character development average Joe playing DnD for character development.

 

[CapnZapp]

I think the point that they're actors would be stronger if it were some kind of scripted show or something edited, like Harmonquest. Sure, they're aware of the cameras and are ready to play a character but there really isn't anything conceptually or technically exceptional that they're doing that wouldn't translate to a home game. Yes, not every player in every game is interested in having a backstory or having a campaign that revolves around the characters' motives but there isn't an existential difference between an actor playing DnD for character development average Joe playing DnD for character development.

This is about the idea that your play sessions can be anything like CR if only the DM puts more inspiration into it.

Pushing back at such DM-blaming is only natural.

No need to move the goalposts.

 

[NaturalZero]

This is about the idea that your play sessions can be anything like CR if only the DM puts more inspiration into it.

Pushing back at such DM-blaming is only natural.

No need to move the goalposts.

Unless you're conflating a point someone else was making with anything I have been saying, how did I move any goalposts?

 

[CapnZapp]

Unless you're conflating a point someone else was making with anything I have been saying, how did I move any goalposts?

It appeared to me you needed to make Umbran's position to be about existential differences to be able to shoot down his argument, so I made a friendly non-committal comment to defuse that direction. Now you pushed back, and here we are.

Time to bury this axe and go back to the original discussion.

 

[jgsugden]

I've tried getting into listening to Critical Role several times, most recently the past week while doing various chores. I read a summary of what's happened in campaign 2 and skipped ahead to the most recent episodes on Rumblecusp...

I'd recommend starting at the beginning of campaign 2.

However, if you listen to episodes that are primarily their social and exploration elements, I'd recommend analyzing what Mercer is doing a bit. He demonstrates a lot of skills many DMs lack that make these pillars more intriguing for his players.

 

[jgsugden]

Saying, "My players are not interested in exploration" means your players have not been intrigued by your exploration.

It is like saying, "I don't like Sci-fi". I hear that all the time. Then, sometimes, you can get these people to watch a quality sci-fi show/movie and realize that what they did not like was poor quality sci-fi, and that an engaging and well told story, regardless of genre, is an engaging and well told story.

Mercer works hard to pull players in and give them something that interests them. He tells a good story. He isn't perfect, and there is some variety in the quality of storytelling, but there is a lot you can learn from him - as there is a lot we can all learn from each other.