Critical Role Is Critical Role Scripted

[Morrus]

This is a perennial debate amongst a segment of the community. In the attached video, Matt Mercer and Marisha Ray discuss it very frankly, and go into detail about how episodes of Critical Role are produced. They also address the "Matt Mercer Effect" towards the end of the video (it's timestamped).


TLDR: It's not any more scripted than a well prepared home game, aside from any commercial content at the beginning. But I already knew that; the video also has a lot of good insight into DM and player preparation, so even if you don't care about the "scripted" debate, it's worth a watch.

So, "no", then?

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

It's a weird argument. Here you have professional actors (a lot more skill than the thespian attempts of the average DnD group), who are getting paid for their performance (a lot more motivation for everyone involved, especially on the DM prep side)... It'd be a surprise if the outcome didn't seem better than many home games.

I know I would prep a lot more materials and practise character voices and all that if it was entertaining thousands of people rather than just three...

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, the idea that critical role is scripted has always been transparently absurd. There is an interesting discussion to be had about how the context of an actual play might influence players to behave differently than they might in a game that wasn’t being produced for viewer consumption, but scripts don’t really come into that conversation. It’s very clearly structured improvisation, just like any D&D game, and while the players are obviously very talented, professional performers, that doesn’t mean they’re working from scripts. Indeed, it speaks to their skill as actors and improvisers that they can pull off such entertaining performances unscripted.

I also think concerns over the “Matt Mercer effect” are way overblown. Sure, players who are first introduced to D&D through Critical Role will naturally have their expectations of the game influenced by that, and I suppose for DMs who for whatever reason dislike highly character-focused gameplay, that might be a little irksome. But, it’s not as if most players are unwilling to tolerate DMing that doesn’t closely mirror Mercer’s style. And any players who are so particular, you likely wouldn’t want in your game anyway. Critical Role isn’t the problem there, the player’s inflexibility is. In general, the exposure Critical Role has brought to D&D has been a huge positive for the hobby as a whole.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I still think someone needs to get Mercer to endorse a special line of vests for Dungeon Masters.

 

[CleverNickName]

I still think someone needs to get Mercer to endorse a special line of vests for Dungeon Masters.

 

[James Gasik]

Well, I actually ran into the "Matt Mercer" effect from new players back when I was running Adventure League games. So I mean, it is real, but comments like "it's a plague upon the hobby" are definitely hyperbolic. Sure, maybe your expectations were dashed when you found out that most D&D games involve a lot more combat and die rolling than players acting in character in a professional manner, as well as a whole lot more table talk and jibber-jabber, as well as a whole host of distractions. And most D&D games don't have professional voice actors describing the scene in a manner that has players hanging onto every word, and quickly visualizing what's going on.

But when you get right down to it, it's better that way. Playing D&D with friends is a social experience. Meeting and talking about what's going on, the game being sidetracked by tangential discussions, taking breaks for food or (if you have smokers at your table) a cigarette are just a part of the experience, the kind of thing that gets edited out in a show like CR. Because at the end of the day, Critical Role is a job. It might be a fantastic job, and a lot of fun, but there's a lot of work involved as well, and that's a key difference, I think. I once had the experience of being paid to DM, and as good as the money was to have, never again. Turning one's hobby into one's job comes with a whole host of new worries and eventually your brain will rebel about it sucking up so much of your time.

 

[Omak Darkleaf]

Shortly after I began playing 5e in 2019, a player asked me if I had watched Critical Role. When I told him that I'd seen it, he told me that I would be a much better DM if I DMed like Mercer. I told him that I'd get right on that—just as soon as he began playing like Riegel.

 

[billd91]

Well, I actually ran into the "Matt Mercer" effect from new players back when I was running Adventure League games. So I mean, it is real, but comments like "it's a plague upon the hobby" are definitely hyperbolic. Sure, maybe your expectations were dashed when you found out that most D&D games involve a lot more combat and die rolling than players acting in character in a professional manner, as well as a whole lot more table talk and jibber-jabber, as well as a whole host of distractions. And most D&D games don't have professional voice actors describing the scene in a manner that has players hanging onto every word, and quickly visualizing what's going on.

But when you get right down to it, it's better that way. Playing D&D with friends is a social experience. Meeting and talking about what's going on, the game being sidetracked by tangential discussions, taking breaks for food or (if you have smokers at your table) a cigarette are just a part of the experience, the kind of thing that gets edited out in a show like CR. Because at the end of the day, Critical Role is a job. It might be a fantastic job, and a lot of fun, but there's a lot of work involved as well, and that's a key difference, I think. I once had the experience of being paid to DM, and as good as the money was to have, never again. Turning one's hobby into one's job comes with a whole host of new worries and eventually your brain will rebel about it sucking up so much of your time.

I believe it was a video with Marisha where she talked about one of the biggest differences between their home game and the game once they started streaming on Geek and Sundry was they had to be engaged and paying attention the whole time with far fewer side conversations. You can still see more of those moments in Campaign 1 than you do now as they have, clearly, gotten better and more professional at it. That said, there are still spontaneous jokes and laughter (and giggle fits), it's just more contained than your typical D&D game.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

I certainly would, if it were me.

"Critical Role is totally scripted!"
- someone who has never written a script before.

I doubt that a single person out there thinks that the entire session is read from a script with them memorizing every line - what people mean by "scripted" is all of the plot points are planned out beforehand (generally always true in any DnD game with a remotely prepared DM) and that all the players are aware of the upcoming plot points so that they can "improvise" cool reactions to what the DM throws at them (this part would be unusual of a standard DnD game, and would make it not really be "playing DnD" in my opinion).

It definitely looks scripted if you only watch highlight clips where they only show the epic couple minutes out of a dozen hour livestream, but the video above does a good job of explaining this by just law of averages. If you play DnD for hundreds of hours, some really cool improvised stuff is going to happen even without professional actors being involved. Plus the moments are probably somewhat scripted from the DM's perspective, just as they would be in any normal DnD game with a prepared DM

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

what people mean by "scripted" is all of the plot points are planned out beforehand (generally always true in any DnD game with a remotely prepared DM)

That's quite the hot take to drop into the middle of a post. I can't remember the last time anyone advocated in favor of plotting out a whole campaign, or even an adventure, beforehand.