D&D General Critical Role Ending

[Fenris-77]

Meh, rules mastery is wildly over-rated as a desirable goal for participation in the hobby. It's not something I use as part of rubric to rate games or players.

 

[OB1]

Most of them have zero time for prep. Sam Riegal has an insane workload, particularly. They do alright, and frankly I think their lack of rules expertise is part of the charm for a lot of people: it makes for a very authentic gaming experience.

Meh, rules mastery is wildly over-rated as a desirable goal for participation in the hobby. It's not something I use as part of rubric to rate games or players.

So much this. I love that CR shows the world that you can have fun playing D&D even if you don't know the rules inside and out. Mercer messes things up, players mess things up, people get anxious about their turn to the point that they forget things and what do we see? Friends having a fun time sharing an amazing story.

Can only imagine someone who has never played before and possibly intimidated by a 300 page rule book watching CR before that first session and getting the message that it's going to be okay. So much better than gatekeeping around rules mastery keeping people out.

And my wish for C3 is a jump back in time to just before the Divergence. The taste I got of Aeor in that dungeon has left me wanting more, and I'd love to see Mercer's full on gonzo version of Exandria.

 

[NotAYakk]

Critical Crunchies!
With new Marshmallow Roles!

They can swap out the marshmallow bits to be representative/symbolic of the characters, and do short promotions where they bring back "classic" character marshmallows...

Frosted Gnollish Charms
Their hellishly delicious.

 

[CleverNickName]

So much this. I love that CR shows the world that you can have fun playing D&D even if you don't know the rules inside and out. Mercer messes things up, players mess things up, people get anxious about their turn to the point that they forget things and what do we see? Friends having a fun time sharing an amazing story.

To me, this is the essence of "Dungeons and Dragons." Different people run their tables in different ways, but this is what we strive for every Friday night. Just a bunch of friends blowing off steam together after a long week of obligations.

 

[NotAYakk]

Yeah, most of the complaints about the cast “getting it wrong” come from the crowd that prefers optimization and rules mastery over story and fun. The people screaming about how a 2d6 sword is objectively better than a 1d12 axe are not, I think, the show’s target audience.

A thing about people who yell that 2d6 is better than 1d12 is that most of them don't even know how much.

Supposing a 18 strength and a +1 weapon, the 95% CI of 2d6 is 12 +/- 4.7 (7.3 to 16.7). For a 1d12 weapon, it is 11.5 +/- 6.8 (4.7 to 18.3).

The 95% CI of (2d6+5)-(1d12+5) is -0.5 +/- 8.3; 0 is 0.12 standard deviations away from the mean. Which means a mere 55% chance that 2d6+5 outdamages 1d12+5 on a given swing.

You can even work out the distribution of the ratio. The average of the ratio is 1.001422917 in favor of the axe (!), with a SD of 0.38.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As a DM, it was pretty clear that Campaign 2 was close to ending. When the party has an extra-dimensional tower they can pop into to rest up in, more or less on demand, there's very few ways left to challenge the party unless you're willing to completely wreck the campaign setting along the way.

 

[Reynard]

A thing about people who yell that 2d6 is better than 1d12 is that most of them don't even know how much.

Supposing a 18 strength and a +1 weapon, the 95% CI of 2d6 is 12 +/- 4.7 (7.3 to 16.7). For a 1d12 weapon, it is 11.5 +/- 6.8 (4.7 to 18.3).

The 95% CI of (2d6+5)-(1d12+5) is -0.5 +/- 8.3; 0 is 0.12 standard deviations away from the mean. Which means a mere 55% chance that 2d6+5 outdamages 1d12+5 on a given swing.

You can even work out the distribution of the ratio. The average of the ratio is 1.001422917 in favor of the axe (!), with a SD of 0.38.

People in general are famously, notoriously bad at statistics and understanding probability. We see it every day in real life. That folks make sub optimal choices when weighing dice outcomes is of no surprise.

 

[CleverNickName]

People in general are famously, notoriously bad at statistics and understanding probability. We see it every day in real life. That folks make sub optimal choices when weighing dice outcomes is of no surprise.

I mean, the lottery and casinos and blackjack tables are all things that exist...

 

[jgsugden]

As a DM, it was pretty clear that Campaign 2 was close to ending. When the party has an extra-dimensional tower they can pop into to rest up in, more or less on demand, there's very few ways left to challenge the party unless you're willing to completely wreck the campaign setting along the way.

Mercer would have no difficulty challenging this party through 20th level - as evidenced by him doing the same thing in campaign one ((when they had an extra-dimensional Scanlan Shorthand Magnificent Mansion.

Further, Mercer has made it clear that there will be 'further adventures' for the Mighty Nein - just as there were for Vox Machina. They will get to those higher levels.

The end right now is a combination of:

1.) Taking a break from the game at campaign end.
2.) Wanting to take that break at a time that makes sense for the studio changes that will bring them all back to the table.
3.) Wanting to preserve a few 'levels' that can be added in those future adventures.

I still do not get this fear that DMs have of higher levels. The game changes as PCs advance. Things that were a challenge at lower levels become trivial at higher, but there is still a tone of ways to keep the game interesting. For example: Powerful enemies understand that powerful PCs, when fully rested, are very capable - so they set the stage to deplete PC resources within a short period of time before they go in for the kill. Or There is a clock (or the PCs are concerned there is a clock) on what the PCs must achieve, requiring them to complete a task within X hours (which puts a cap on how much they can rest). Or The DM designs the final encounter with the assumption the PCs will have a chance to be fully rested and designs it to have several phases (just like Mercer did for this last storyline) giving the PCs chances to deplete those resources ... a tactic that gets more drama when the PCs have no clue there will be multiple phases. High level D&D is different than low level D&D, but it is fun when you treat it like a high level game and stop lamenting you can't use your low level tricks on the party.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Further, Mercer has made it clear that there will be 'further adventures' for the Mighty Nein - just as there were for Vox Machina. They will get to those higher levels.

They did three adventures with Vox Machina in 3.5 years. All tied to the Kickstarter
But assuming they do Nein one shots not tied to a KS. They're 15 now after 140 episodes. Maybe 16 next week. At that rate they'll hit level 20 in 36 years