Critical Role Critical Role Campaign 3 Discussion (SPOILERS)

[Mort]

Matt isn’t as loose with the rules as Aabria, which is more to her credit than his, IMO.

IMO of course:

There's loose with the rules and there's the rules don't matter. Aabria seemed to clearly be in the latter camp. The whole show was very, very performance based. It seemed the people (especially some of the new ones) were treating it as an acting gig vs. a gaming session and she was the one driving that. And that's just totally not for me.

I caught the last session (too completist to miss it) and it was basically Aabria completely ignoring rules so the plot could get where she wanted it to go. Again, just not my thing.

Wow. Maybe it’s because I don’t need the MD to run the game how I do to enjoy the show, god knows Matt doesn’t, but I just don’t see what could be “unwatchable” about it to someone who likes CR in general.

I'm all for watching different DMing styles. It's one reason I like to catch actual plays on occasion, so I can see/learn a thing or two. But since you asked here are a couple of things:

1. The constant unprompted asking for checks (which is itself annoying and not necessary) but then having the checks not even matter (It seems she reacted and dictated the exact same thing whether a 5 was rolled or a 20 was rolled);

2. The blatant, you have to be kidding me, railroading. There was a scene where the DM says something like “You let me do this! I worked so hard on this map, you have to go in there!” Plus the DM is constantly telling the players both how they feel AND how they act;

3. This may have been because she was focused on the performance but the DM seemed, well, really hostile and confrontational to the players at times. There was at least one instance where she basically called a player stupid. And again, I think it was part of the performance (the player was interviewed and implied as such and seemed totally fine with it), but it was REALLY jarring and not something I'd ever want to see in a game session.

So, yeah, I couldn't get into it at ALL, it was not my cup of tea.

 

[Bolares]

Imagine you went into last night not knowing that, though - or, more importantly, not already knowing how good the actual show can be. Personally? I'd have switched off about halfway through Sam's musical bit.

Well, I don't need to imagine. My first show was C2E1 and they did all that (not the Riegel musical). I was prepared for a long show so that was not a big deal

 

[Bolares]

1. The constant unprompted asking for checks (which is itself annoying and not necessary) but then having the checks not even matter (It seems she reacted and dictated the exact same thing whether a 5 was rolled or a 20 was rolled);

This was the major reason I dropped of from EXU. I HATE useless rolls, and she asked for a check for evrything. And the rolls to give information sometimes stalled the show. Aabrya is a great DM, just not my style of DM.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

3.) Bertram Bell might be Travis' full time PC, or he may be a stopgap. I could see it either way. It is interesting that he is 5th level. However, I think that even if he is not intended to be the full time PC for Travis, he could end up love playing him and preserve him for the forseeable future. Most likely, I think they find his true PC somewhere during one of their first missions and he has a mysterious amnesiac past issue.

I'll add, this was Travis' PC in the Search for Grog episode, where he was level 18.

And if he was in his early 40s then (and he was probably close to 50 then), he's at least 70 now. So it makes sense that he's regressed from level 18 to level 5... but if you've started regressing, how do you start leveling up again?

My guess, is that Travis hasn't yet nailed down in his head what character to use, and decided first to bring back this old character to see the group dynamic before making a final decision. He may just keep playing with Bertrand, but I think he'll probably bring an entirely new character to play instead.

Also, anyone saying Aabria is a terrible DM... you can disagree with her style, but the players all seemed to love it. She may make a bad viewer experience (which I don't think is actually true, as Misfits & Magic is one of the best streams I've seen), but she's clearly a good DM from a player experience.

And I'll add, haven't seen this episode yet, but I'm not surprised Mercer is overloading it with new factions and worldbuilding stuff. It's always been one of his favorite things about DMing, and he's probably been jonesing to explore a new continent. I totally agree though that it is far better to trickle that stuff in bit-by-bit instead of all at once.

 

[Bolares]

Also, anyone saying Aabria is a terrible DM...

Anyone who says she is a terrible DM never played with an actual terrible DM....

 

[Burnside]

My reasons for dropping EU weren't Aabria-related (though I agree with some of the criticisms here).

I went into it very hopeful that, due to only having 8 episodes to work with, it would be more like the Undeadwood series where they pacing was strong, the story moved, and every episode mattered. Instead it was actually more of the indulgent pacing and screwing around that I generally dislike about CR (and YES I realize a lot of people love it; opinions are subjective) except if anything even MORE so.

 

[Bolares]

My reasons for dropping EU weren't Aabria-related (though I agree with some of the criticisms here).

I went into it very hopeful that, due to only having 8 episodes to work with, it would be more like the Undeadwood series where they pacing was strong, the story moved, and every episode mattered. Instead it was actually more of the indulgent pacing and screwing around that I generally dislike about CR (and YES I realize a lot of people love it; opinions are subjective) except if anything even MORE so.

Yeah, I was expecting more Dimension 20 and less CR, because of the limited run.

 

[Mort]

Yeah, I was expecting more Dimension 20 and less CR, because of the limited run.

It would be awesome to bring Brennan Lee Mulligan into CR (in some capacity) - he's just amazing. He's been on stuff with people from CR before.

 

[Charlaquin]

Because it’s effective and most people get very evocative mental images when you describe panning out from the alleyway where our heroes are catching thier breath and laughing at thier narrow escape, to see the cloud of black smoke that hasn’t yet risen high enough to be seen by them, as a way to foreshadow consequences that will be coming after them very soon.

I get that it works for many. There are also many for whom it’s very grating, myself included. Like I said, I’m glad Critical Role is showcasing different styles, even if hers clashes with my own preferences.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

IMO of course:

There's loose with the rules and there's the rules don't matter. Aabria seemed to clearly be in the latter camp. The whole show was very, very performance based. It seemed the people (especially some of the new ones) were treating it as an acting gig vs. a gaming session and she was the one driving that. And that's just totally not for me.

I caught the last session (too completist to miss it) and it was basically Aabria completely ignoring rules so the plot could get where she wanted it to go. Again, just not my thing.



I'm all for watching different DMing styles. It's one reason I like to catch actual plays on occasion, so I can see/learn a thing or two. But since you asked here are a couple of things:

1. The constant unprompted asking for checks (which is itself annoying and not necessary) but then having the checks not even matter (It seems she reacted and dictated the exact same thing whether a 5 was rolled or a 20 was rolled);

2. The blatant, you have to be kidding me, railroading. There was a scene where the DM says something like “You let me do this! I worked so hard on this map, you have to go in there!” Plus the DM is constantly telling the players both how they feel AND how they act;

3. This may have been because she was focused on the performance but the DM seemed, well, really hostile and confrontational to the players at times. There was at least one instance where she basically called a player stupid. And again, I think it was part of the performance (the player was interviewed and implied as such and seemed totally fine with it), but it was REALLY jarring and not something I'd ever want to see in a game session.

So, yeah, I couldn't get into it at ALL, it was not my cup of tea.

I didn’t get that performance dynamic you’re talking about at all, but that may be because I also don’t care about the rules and generally run my game in a similar way, though with fewer rolls for stuff like knowing something or noticing something simple. The storyteller outros she did, I have done in a totally private home game, but my players are very good at separating player and character knowledge and enjoy dramatic irony (in moderation).

My preference, wrt rolling, is to ask the player what trait or story element of thier character might lend to what they’re asking about, and just giving them basic knowledge based on that, and only asking for a check if they dig deeper or it’s about something that isn’t hinted at on their sheet or in their roleplaying, so I definitely noticed how many rolls she asked for, but I never once felt that she wasn’t usin those rolls to determine what happens.