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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 7768148" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Pretty much this. It’s worth noting however, that this level of description in spell casting is a marked change from the first campaign, wherein the generally did what most players do in my experience and just said “I cast [spellname].” I don’t know for certain, but I’m pretty sure this was something they talked about as a group when preparing for campaign 2, that as a piece of performance art as well as a game, it would suit their needs to be more descriptive with their spell casting. Which is awesome, but I wish they would have addressed it. Told the audience it was a thing they decided to do because of their game’s unique concerns, instead of just doing it. It was a missed opportunity to lead by example.Also, one time when they had a guest star on, she just said “I cast [spellname]” (I forget what spell), and Matt asked her what it looked like. This was her first time playing D&D, she clearly had no idea what he was talking about. She was visibly uncomfortable being put on the spot like that, and he didn’t help by clarifying, “in this game, we like to embellish our spell casting with a little personalized description, I’m giving you the opportunity to describe what it looks like when your character casts this spell.” He just kind of repeated, “what does it look like when you cast it?” She, still clearly uncomfortable, looked to her spell card for an answer, and gave kind of an awkward non-description of doing hand gestures and chanting an incantation. It was really uncomfortable to watch, especially because I’ve seen that kind of interaction in games I’ve been in plenty of times before, and it’s always indicative of poorly communicated table expectations. It was extra jarring to see from Matt, who I usually think is pretty good, even if I don’t always agree with all of his DMing choices. All I could think was, “I hope nobody looks at that and thinks it’s normal, acceptable behavior from a DM.”There have been a few other examples of times I’ve had similar reactions. It’s not often, and I forgive Matt because he’s only human, but I can’t help but feel that as influential as he is in the D&D community right now, I wish he would address those moments when they come up. Good group dynamics are all about regular and open communication, and Critical Role just doesn’t model that well.</blockquote>

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