Critical Role Critical Role Campaign 4 Episode 4 is a High-Octane Rollercoaster

[JConstantine]

That suggests a high likelihood that his interest in non-standard options comes from wanting something a bit with a bit more macabre to it than the off-the-shelf options are offering.

Macabre is flavour though. Ashton wasn't macabre, neither was Percival himself really, even if his arc was. Meanwhile, Launda was, Vaelus is, Occtis (and particularly Pincushion) has a Tim Burtonesque blend of whimsy and macabre.

Seems like an extremely shallow reading of those characters to me.

He has a type he prefers, as in my experience do most D&D players. I would certainly not say he struggles to differentiate his characters through characterization. All five of his characters in Critical Role so far have been very different from each other in terms of voice, speech patterns, attitude, and behaviors.

That's just it, I don't think they have been all that different. If you put Percy, Molly and Ashton in the same situations, I envision they'd largely make the same choices (with the exception of class-conscious situations). Caduceus definitely differently. Bolaire remains to be seen.
As a comparison, people rag on Liam for playing characters who are angsty and broody, with a tragic backstory revolving around lost family (Hal seems to be break from this, thankfully), but despite that commonality, I can see Vax, Caleb and Orym all making different decisions in the same situation.

Bolaire does have a very similar accent to Percy, but that’s unsurprising because in both cases the voice is being used as class coding. They’re both wealthy and detached, which for various sociological reasons an RP accent tends to be an effective shorthand for.

Oh, I'm intimately familiar.

This is very clearly what it comes down to. Some people think that’s too “weird” and they label Taliesin “OC” and a “poor roleplayer” to try to justify their bizarre visceral aversion to “weird” characters.

This is drawing inferences out of line with what I've said. It's not about weirdness, it's about perceived specialness. Granted, they could overlap if what's weird is what makes them special, but sentient items aren't weird in the context of D&D. The only character I can think off that I consider weird would be Nana Morri(gan).

 

[JConstantine]

So, again, what specifically do you mean by “OC”?

There are definitely places where roleplaying half angel/half dragons/half gods with eyes of 2+ different colors, smirking, you can never understand the darkness of their back story... exist. In large numbers.

I'm assuming the phrase "OC community" is referring to something like this?

This is precisely what I meant. I used the term "OC community" as shorthand for those places and their users collectively.

OC is an exonym.

It comes from the Cultures of Play model of gaming styles,

No, "Original Character (OC)" comes from the fan-fiction scene, where some would write stories based on an established IP, but focused on an original character (often a self-insert), rather than centred on official ones, and would tag their posts to mark it as such for readers. Some would also write up fictional biographies to go with them, which then gave rise to people writing up fictional character biographies without an associated story. And since some would draw/commission art to go with it, the tag also spread to character illustration. And given the nature of the internet, it proliferated. Since you go on to mention fanfiction and art, I presume you know this.
The author of the Six Cultures of Play article misappropriated the term, and it's clear from the writing that he holds a dim view of some of the styles he describes. If you're under the impression I share his views, I don't, and I've mentioned elsewhere (the D&D conservatism rant thread, I believe), that I don't think "OC" is an appropriate term for the style it's applied to.

 

[Charlaquin]

I've mentioned elsewhere about disliking that approach myself. I'm not interested in an internal monologue; if your character is angry, for example, describe to me how they clench their fists, face flushed, and shout at the top their lungs in barely controlled rage. Show, don't tell.

Yes, 100%. Abria and Liam both do it too, but not nearly as much as Luis does. I can only hope the three of them don’t end up at the same table when we get the final three subgroups.

This is what I meant - those mannerisms come out with the other characters he's played, which make them seem like Luis' to me. So I find Luis himself kinda endearing.

Oh, I see. Certainly could be, I’ve never seen him in anything else.

I don't know if you've seen it, or are even interested in V:TM, but based on what you've said here, you might enjoy how he interacts with Aabria in Private Nightmares.

I have very mixed feelings about V:tM. I used to absolutely adore V:tR and played in a long-term LARP game with like 30+ players every weekend during college, which are some of my fondest gaming memories. Back then VtM was the game the grognards who couldn’t let go of the 90s played. It does have some things I like more than V:tR, and my hypothetical ideal vampire game would have elements of both, but overall I still prefer V:tR.

I also spent many years as a mod on the official Onyx Path forums, and contributed a small amount of freelance writing to a 3rd party project for the game. Applied to write for the official game(s) too, but that didn’t end up working out because of the messy aftermath of the Paradox acquisition, and that really soured me on the company. Moreso than not hiring me, I was pretty disgusted with how they handled the Zak S and Olivia Hill situation.

I watched a bit of a V:tM actual play, I think it was LA By Night? And I enjoyed the players performances quite a bit, but kind of hated the Storyteller and fell off. At this point, I think I have too much baggage connected to the actual people in charge of Onyx Path and White Wolf to really enjoy their games anymore, despite loving the setting(s).

 

[Audiomancer]

One of my work friends watches up to the break when they first stream live each Thursday and then watches the second half when the vod comes out on Monday, which seems like a more manageable way to keep up. Like watching two feature-length movies a week that way.

This is how I watch it these days… though I often split up the second part between Monday and Tuesday.

Depending on one’s schedule, you could also watch an episode on Saturday and Sunday. You’d just be a week behind.

 

[JConstantine]

my hypothetical ideal vampire game would have elements of both, but overall I still prefer V:tR.

Depending on what elements you like (and if you can bring yourself to give it a look), V5 might very well be up your alley. It keeps the setting and clans, etc of V:TM, but de-emphasises the metaplot by making it rumour and conjecture (V:TM always used unreliable narrators, but it's more explicit now), and brings in touchstones from V:TR, emphasising human connection and the vampiric condition.

I watched a bit of a V:tM actual play, I think it was LA By Night? And I enjoyed the players performances quite a bit, but kind of hated the Storyteller and fell off.

Private Nightmares is GMed by Alex Ward, and I think he's a far better Storyteller than Jason Carl (though, admittedly, I'm biased because he uses similar techniques to me).

At this point, I think I have too much baggage connected to the actual people in charge of Onyx Path and White Wolf to really enjoy their games anymore, despite loving the setting(s).

A shame, but totally understandable.

 

[Charlaquin]

Depending on what elements you like (and if you can bring yourself to give it a look), V5 might very well be up your alley. It keeps the setting and clans, etc of V:TM, but de-emphasises the metaplot by making it rumour and conjecture (V:TM always used unreliable narrators, but it's more explicit now), and brings in touchstones from V:TR, emphasising human connection and the vampiric condition.

I looked a little at V5, and I think the hunger dice mechanic is extremely cool, feels much more modern and fresh than tracking Vitae as a hard resource. I also really like how they blended Blood Potency and Generation, both interesting concepts that I think there’s room to combine. But it’s the Clans and setting that I generally prefer about Requiem. A smaller number of Clans as vampiric archetypes was always a much more appealing concept to me than the 13 clans with their hyper-specific histories. And I also love the interplay between Clan and Covenant. In contrast to Clans, I think more is better - Requiem’s five Covenants (six if you count Unaligned) that are open to all Clans instead of the two and a half factions split along Clan lines in Masquerade opened the door for much more complex and interesting social and political dynamics. In my own ideal homebrew setting, Masquerade’s factions would literally be old world, as in European, with Requiem’s Covenants having originated with “new world” settlers in the Americas.

Private Nightmares is GMed by Alex Ward, and I think he's a far better Storyteller than Jason Carl (though, admittedly, I'm biased because he uses similar techniques to me).

I’d consider giving it a try at some point, though at the moment I’m dedicating a lot of my free time each week keeping up with Critical Role.

 

[JConstantine]

I looked a little at V5, and I think the hunger dice mechanic is extremely cool, feels much more modern and fresh than tracking Vitae as a hard resource. I also really like how they blended Blood Potency and Generation, both interesting concepts that I think there’s room to combine. But it’s the Clans and setting that I generally prefer about Requiem. A smaller number of Clans as vampiric archetypes was always a much more appealing concept to me than the 13 clans with their hyper-specific histories. And I also love the interplay between Clan and Covenant. In contrast to Clans, I think more is better - Requiem’s five Covenants (six if you count Unaligned) that are open to all Clans instead of the two and a half factions split along Clan lines in Masquerade opened the door for much more complex and interesting social and political dynamics. In my own ideal homebrew setting, Masquerade’s factions would literally be old world, as in European, with Requiem’s Covenants having originated with “new world” settlers in the Americas.

I vastly prefer the hunger dice to the blood pool, and like Blood Potency as a way of mechanically distinguishing between age and generation. I kinda agree about V:TM's clans insofar as I think the secondary 6 were unnecessary (not to mention the racist elements), but I couldn't gel with V:TR's for some reason. As far as factions goes, they've taken a step towards Requiem in that the Followers of Set are now Clan Ministry, with a separate Church of Set that welcomes other clans, and introduced/expanded a number of cults that cross sect lines.

I’d consider giving it a try at some point, though at the moment I’m dedicating a lot of my free time each week keeping up with Critical Role.

If it helps, season 1 is complete, only 11 episodes, with each episode being roughly 2 hours.

 

[Retros_x]

I’ve also seen it referred to as “performative roleplaying.”

The irony of that.

o, "Original Character (OC)" comes from the fan-fiction scene, where some would write stories based on an established IP, but focused on an original character (often a self-insert), rather than centred on official ones, and would tag their posts to mark it as such for readers.

Thanks for the knowledge drop! But that makes it even more bizarre to use in RPG context.

 

[wicked cool]

I like the critics on taliesin Jaffa. He plays an oc character and his characters are 1 dimensional etc etc and we hate that some talk about their thoughts? wtf has anyone read a fantasy book ever or any fiction book. 1/2 the time that’s what most characters do
I would kill to play in this game! I have never been at a table with this kind of creativity etc etc. it’s hard enough especially with friends to keep a game in track. When my group gets together we spend a portion of say the 3 plus hours allotted to talk about for example hey did you check out that new video game or tv episode etc or how they got over a cold you name it.
Additionally say you go to a convention/game store you name it. You get
-power gamer min maxer
-super quiet people as there’s usually more than 1
-one person who’s there for combat mostly and roleplaying etc is 2nd wind
-the jokester and they are into it but they are the ones who name their character bob nuts
For some of being critical of their style and maybe they play the angst character 2 much then you link your stuff here.
I’ve been playing well over 40 years and I don’t always get the rules right. In 40 years I played cleric maybe once so for me when I did it was new especially say going from 3.5-4-5 etc. did any of you see that Matt had the5.5 rules and he had to reference it during the game. He would pants anyone here !!

 

[TiQuinn]

Yes, 100%. Abria and Liam both do it too, but not nearly as much as Luis does. I can only hope the three of them don’t end up at the same table when we get the final three subgroups.

So the recap video for the overture on YouTube kind of sort of spoils the Seekers and the Schemers groups...even though they were what we were expecting but maybe didn't get final confirmation on. Which is basically to say yeah, Liam and Luis will be in the same group.