Curmudgeon's Corner: So, what's the deal with Critical Role?

[Maestrino]

My concern is Mercer has the opposite effect. I started DMing when I was 11 because DMing in 1981 meant drawing a dungeon on graph paper, populating it with monsters and treasure, and running my friends through it the next day. That was an easy on-ramp to being a DM. And that ease of entry is the reason why millions of kids under the age of 15 played D&D in the 80s.

Today, the expectations of what a DM should bring to the table is so much higher in terms of preparation, system mastery, story, roleplaying, etc. Prospective new DMs seem extremely intimidated at taking on the task.

That's an interesting take (to me) both as a fan of Critical Role and as a person who relatively recently dove into GMing with very little pre-meditation. In the groups I've played in it has almost exclusively been the older gamers (mid-40s and up) who dislike theater of the mind and prefer having the Dwarven Forge-esque dungeon tiles and pre-fabs and minis and spell effect markers and what-have-you. The younger players seem fine with "OK so there's a grid to judge distances and we have some chess pieces or extra dice or cheetos or candy or whatever to stand in for the monsters. Cool."

 

[Umbran]

In the groups I've played in it has almost exclusively been the older gamers (mid-40s and up) who dislike theater of the mind and prefer having the Dwarven Forge-esque dungeon tiles and pre-fabs and minis and spell effect markers and what-have-you.

Note, it is the older players who have the disposable income for things like dungeon tiles. If you are poor, you work with graph paper, or go home.

 

[Maestrino]

Note, it is the older players who have the disposable income for things like dungeon tiles. If you are poor, you work with graph paper, or go home.

That's a valid point. But it has always come across as "oh, god, no, attacking a chess piece on a reusable mat is so uninspiring..." rather than being presented as "hey, I splurged because I thought these would be fun."

EDIT - I suppose I should add that I'm nearly 40 and I don't really have a strong opinion about it either way. My wife (same age) actively hates using minis and thinks they're dumb.

 

[Umbran]

That's a valid point. But it has always come across as "oh, god, no, attacking a chess piece on a reusable mat is so uninspiring..." rather than being presented as "hey, I splurged because I thought these would be fun."

Dude, have you never seen a middle-aged man work to justify his mid-life-crisis spending?

 

[cmad1977]

That's an interesting take (to me) both as a fan of Critical Role and as a person who relatively recently dove into GMing with very little pre-meditation. In the groups I've played in it has almost exclusively been the older gamers (mid-40s and up) who dislike theater of the mind and prefer having the Dwarven Forge-esque dungeon tiles and pre-fabs and minis and spell effect markers and what-have-you. The younger players seem fine with "OK so there's a grid to judge distances and we have some chess pieces or extra dice or cheetos or candy or whatever to stand in for the monsters. Cool."

Not on topic so basically ignore the following:
I really don’t like playing on modeled terrain. I think it looks amazing and I like minis in general but when you enter a dungeon and you can baaaysically figure out what’s where right away... it irks me.

To each their own.

 

[pogre]

Dude, have you never seen a middle-aged man work to justify his mid-life-crisis spending?

I feel attacked!

 

[pogre]

Not on topic so basically ignore the following:
I really don’t like playing on modeled terrain. I think it looks amazing and I like minis in general but when you enter a dungeon and you can baaaysically figure out what’s where right away... it irks me.

To each their own.

It may not work for you, but I assemble the scenes as the PCs encounter them. If it is a dungeon the rooms and passages are laid out as the PCs move. Wilderness and city scenes are laid out as they happen. Now, I have the luxury of an expansive game room with lots of china cabinets where everything is within quick reach, but generally I can lay out a dungeon room or wilderness scene as fast as most can draw those on a vinyl mat.

That said, I definitely understand our style is not for everyone and absolutely see the merits of TotM.

 

[Hussar]

I feel attacked!

I think it's closer to resembling the remark.

I'm an outlier in that I've been playing on Virtual Tabletop for so long. The notion of gaming without a battlemap and visual aids is just something that I haven't even come close to approaching in a lot of years. I take a great deal of pleasure in a beautiful battlemap and using just the right image for that bad guy.

It's why the recent WotC modules with Dyson Logos maps are such a disappointment to me. Look, I get why they are popular and all that, and, from a pure play POV, they are great maps (and do what great adventure maps are supposed to do) but, man they are about as interesting to look at as white rice.

I really hope that the VTT versions of WotC modules in the future will come bundled with prettier maps. I know that Dragon Heist was, when it came out for Fantasy Grounds, although, again, you could tell these were banged out in a hurry using CC3 . Not the prettiest maps in the world, but, still considerably prettier than what came with the adventure.

Anyway, sorry, I guess I'm meandering.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I have a job that requires a great deal of visual focus and leaves my brain fairly untaxed. So I listen to all manner of podcasts on the job. Sometimes these podcasts are Critical Role.

I think these things fit a niche that different individuals have at different times. They are just entertaining enough to kill time but not so entertaining that they actually distract you from other things.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I suspect you'll find that a physicist that's American, Japanese, or German will be viewed a bit more positively than one from, say Argentina. nationality comes with preconcieved notions about educational background from the country in question.

And like Dennis Leary says... "Irish... cuisine?"

In Heaven:
the cooks are French,
the policemen are English,
the mechanics are German,
the lovers are Italian
and
the bankers are Swiss.

In Hell:
the cooks are English,
the policemen are German,
the mechanics are French,
the lovers are Swiss
and
the bankers are Italian.