Critical Role PSA: You are not Matt Mercer

[Jester David]

The Angry GM is a pretty abrasive dude and I disagree with him politically, but his advice is consistently excellent.

There's not so few people giving advice online about DMing that I've felt the need to support someone who is not only an naughty word, but needlessly so.

 

[cbwjm]

There's not so few people giving advice online about DMing that I've felt the need to support someone who is not only an naughty word, but needlessly so.

I seriously hate his gimmick. I recall reading a few of his articles, the ideas were good but because of his gimmick I just quit looking at his stuff.

 

[Jester David]

I seriously hate his gimmick. I recall reading a few of his articles, the ideas were good but because of his gimmick I just quit looking at his stuff.

It's not a gimmick. It's not a Colbert Report style persona. That's who he is.

 

[jgsugden]

Whilst I’m not super concerned about being in character I would like it if my players expressed interest in the other characters. Next campaign I’m going to try and foster that. Up till now I’ve been learning the ropes.

My best success in this area has been through tying their personal goals together and making them contingent upon others reaching their goal. It has worked well for me.

 

[Charlaquin]

There's not so few people giving advice online about DMing that I've felt the need to support someone who is not only an naughty word, but needlessly so.

Indeed, I don’t support him for quite the same reason. I just read the articles.

 

[cbwjm]

It's not a gimmick. It's not a Colbert Report style persona. That's who he is.

Really? His blog posts are playing it up to theatrical levels? All this time I thought that's what it was.

 

[Jester David]

Really? His blog posts are playing it up to theatrical levels? All this time I thought that's what it was.

The tone of his blog posts match his twitter posts, Facebook rants, podcast appearances, and the like. He's not really playing anything up. That's just who he is.

 

[Charlaquin]

Really? His blog posts are playing it up to theatrical levels? All this time I thought that's what it was.

The tone of his blog posts match his twitter posts, Facebook rants, podcast appearances, and the like. He's not really playing anything up. That's just who he is.

I mean, he is playing it up. But he’s sill a jerk underneath the persona.

 

[HomegrownHydra]

I don't watch CR so can someone explain what is distinctive about Mercer's play style that people try to emulate? Is it just the use of voices and extensive in character dialogue?

(This is gonna git a little rambly, but it'll have a positive ending! I swear!)

I would never call you that. And anyone who did should be ignored. I positively think that for his style of play that he is a fantastic DM. I also think that, quite possibly, his style of play is one that you would (and obviously do) enjoy. To that I say: "To Infinity and Beyond!!"

Myself, I don't find him particularly engaging. Not anymore so than many other GMs/DMs I've had over the decades. His style of play is not a style that would keep me in focus during the game. As a player, I would find the plethora of voices, etc. to be highly annoying! (Voices like the Mindflayer dude in Season 1 or Kiri in Season 2 had me going: Ok, the cute has worn off. Can we drop it now?)

My style of play is waaay more Adventure Zone than Critical Role. I enjoy the small shots of CR I get from the podcast to and from work. But anything over that 20-30 minutes and I start thinking: Get to the point! Let's go, let's go, let's gooooo!

I think that MM and the CR team are a huge boon for D&D. They do an awesome job at highlighting one way of playing the game. And I'll admit that I'm getting more knee-jerkish as time goes by whenever I hear how he's the best DM ever. My first response is usually around "Uh, no. He's ok, but I've seen/had better." I have to rein it waaaaay back and think "Yeah, I guess he is for his way of playing."

What I do find positively incredibly awesome about Matt Mercer is the podcast/videos/etc. of him saying just about the same thing: That his way of doing it is one way and that there are multitudes of ways of doing D&D. So don't copy him! Find your own groove!

If I had players compare my game to CR, I'd just send 'em to those videos of him and to the Adventure Zone podcasts and go, "yeah, it's gonna be more like that."

I can recall only only one player so far who made a disparaging remark about my game in relation to CR. My response was "you know there is a whole professional production team involved, right?" I think that CR can set up unrealistic expectations for beginning players, but at least it get people playing!

So, no. I wouldn't call you a Fan Boy/Fan Man. I'd more call you a Dude-Who-Has-Found-Someone-Who-Runs-The-Game-How-He-Loves.

TLDR: I think it's awesome that you've found someone whose game-style really jams with ya! Go, go, Gadget Copter!

(See! Positive ending!)

What is Adventure Zone's play style?

 

[Charlaquin]

I don't watch CR so can someone explain what is distinctive about Mercer's play style that people try to emulate? Is it just the use of voices and extensive in character dialogue?

That’s part of it, but there’s definitely more to it than that. He has a distinctive DMing style that I would characterize as heavy on exposition and character interaction, and a fairly distinctive custom setting. He does some things that I consider poor DMing form, such as describing the characters’ actions as part of the resolution of the action (YMMV, plenty of folks are fine with that).

What is Adventure Zone's play style?

TAZ is much goofier than CR. Very casual, lighthearted, they like to play around with wildly anachronistic banter. But through all of the silly there’s a deep underlying sincerity that keeps it from crossing into beer-and-pretzels territory. It’s also worth noting that TAZ is three brothers and their dad, so they have a certain chemistry that I don’t think could be matched by most gaming groups.