Hahaha. I always get sad when someone says "They are paid actors, nobody can be as good as them!" Because while Matt is a really talented person, most of the Players are pretty average. They forget their abilities constantly, often aren't prepared when their turn comes up, argue for large chunks of time, etc. After 5 years, you would think they could figure things out. But Liam is the only one who has.I imagine responding to a player complaining "This game isn't as good as X!" with "Well, play better then!" wouldn't go down well though!
Critical Role PSA: You are not Matt Mercer
jasper
Rotten DM
I don't have any major problems with CR fans. Okay one but he is also a fan boy for anime and other stuff. For others I tell them I can't do voices and Matt and his team are professional actors and us gamers at the table are just cut ups. I think bad CR fans are either a myth or a minor problem like having to dm for your younger brother.
I am not a fan of Critical Role (or the genre it dominates), but that's primarily because my primary response is an overpowering desire to play; after about seventy-five seconds I'm at the point of "Turn that off, let's get the books out." I suppose in many ways, that's a compliment.
I have several players who are big fans, including my wife, and at least one player in his first campaign; there have been some efforts at accents, which haven't always stuck, and the bard's player figures out what his spells look and sound like (and he usually at least makes an effort with things like Vicious Mockery to come up with something appropriate). I'm not a voice actor, and I tell people that I'm probably not going to do really identifiable voices, but I still try to make NPCs feel like people. I'm fortunate that the players at my tables don't have an expectation that I'll DM like Mercer, if for no other reason than that I don't watch him so he's not a model.
I am pleased to see liveplay casts bringing people into the hobby, and/or serving as a way for people who can't find a group to get some enjoyment from it (albeit a different enjoyment than playing).
I have several players who are big fans, including my wife, and at least one player in his first campaign; there have been some efforts at accents, which haven't always stuck, and the bard's player figures out what his spells look and sound like (and he usually at least makes an effort with things like Vicious Mockery to come up with something appropriate). I'm not a voice actor, and I tell people that I'm probably not going to do really identifiable voices, but I still try to make NPCs feel like people. I'm fortunate that the players at my tables don't have an expectation that I'll DM like Mercer, if for no other reason than that I don't watch him so he's not a model.
I am pleased to see liveplay casts bringing people into the hobby, and/or serving as a way for people who can't find a group to get some enjoyment from it (albeit a different enjoyment than playing).
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My teen sons both go pommel deep in the accent thing. Thankfully they aren't terrible at it. Lots of Scottish and Irish, a little Latin America, and some Toydarian-style generic middle eastern. I don't know why people would bother comparing themselves to voice actors though. It's like making fun of someone playing a hacker in a Cyberpunk game because they can't code in HTML.
jgsugden
Legend
Another way to look at this: They raised the bar by showing more of what a game could be.
They're professional voice actors. However, the majority of them had no D&D experience before that first campaign.
Matt Mercer is an exceptional DM. Not perfect (nobody is), but the best I've seen in 40+ years.
Taliesin and Liam had a bit, Marisha a tad, but the rest were brand new. What thy bring is a willingness to put themselves out there and acting talents.
D&D is an RPG. A role playing game. Characters play a role in a story. The better the story and storytelling, the better the game. We can either say, "Critical Role is not how I play D&D", or we can challenge ourselves to try the things we see in Critical Role that we are not doing and see if they make things even better.
A lot of people are unwilling to try. Some are afraid to try more acting for fear their peers will laugh at them. Others do not know how to begin. Other people just think they do not like it for various reasons. However, many of those people (but certainly not all) will find that they have a very positive experience if they try.
And, honestly, if you read the DMG, if you look at the advice there, if you really think about what it says - Mercer and Critical Role are playing the game as recommended. There is a lot of hedging language in the books about how every type of game is fine and there is no wrong way to play - but then if you look at the meat of the advice in the DMG's style of play, the flavor of fantasy, creating a campaign, creating adventures, between adventures, etc... they encourage you to build the story around the PCs - which is the core of the way Matt DMs.
Green Eggs and Ham it, folks.
And if you want to call me a Mercer fanboy - Hell yeah, I'm a huge Fan Man. As I said - best DM I've seen in 40+ years. I've stolen a lot from him, including how to help clueless players without insulting them, how to add drama, how to use silence as a tool, etc...
He created it as he needed it rather than creating it all and dropping PCs into it. Both approaches have merit. I like to build the broad strokes first and then fill in the details as I go (which is what I think Mercer actually did as well).
I do not wan to be caught unprepared if the PCs travel to a neighboring country so that I do not need to make cities on the fly, but I want the flexibility to shape around the ideas of the PCs as they encounter the town - and there will always be a bit of fly creation.
They're professional voice actors. However, the majority of them had no D&D experience before that first campaign.
Matt Mercer is an exceptional DM. Not perfect (nobody is), but the best I've seen in 40+ years.
Taliesin and Liam had a bit, Marisha a tad, but the rest were brand new. What thy bring is a willingness to put themselves out there and acting talents.
D&D is an RPG. A role playing game. Characters play a role in a story. The better the story and storytelling, the better the game. We can either say, "Critical Role is not how I play D&D", or we can challenge ourselves to try the things we see in Critical Role that we are not doing and see if they make things even better.
A lot of people are unwilling to try. Some are afraid to try more acting for fear their peers will laugh at them. Others do not know how to begin. Other people just think they do not like it for various reasons. However, many of those people (but certainly not all) will find that they have a very positive experience if they try.
And, honestly, if you read the DMG, if you look at the advice there, if you really think about what it says - Mercer and Critical Role are playing the game as recommended. There is a lot of hedging language in the books about how every type of game is fine and there is no wrong way to play - but then if you look at the meat of the advice in the DMG's style of play, the flavor of fantasy, creating a campaign, creating adventures, between adventures, etc... they encourage you to build the story around the PCs - which is the core of the way Matt DMs.
Green Eggs and Ham it, folks.
And if you want to call me a Mercer fanboy - Hell yeah, I'm a huge Fan Man. As I said - best DM I've seen in 40+ years. I've stolen a lot from him, including how to help clueless players without insulting them, how to add drama, how to use silence as a tool, etc...
Matt created the world over time - starting with one location and expanding it until it was his broader world. That is the 5E DMG advice.
He created it as he needed it rather than creating it all and dropping PCs into it. Both approaches have merit. I like to build the broad strokes first and then fill in the details as I go (which is what I think Mercer actually did as well).
I do not wan to be caught unprepared if the PCs travel to a neighboring country so that I do not need to make cities on the fly, but I want the flexibility to shape around the ideas of the PCs as they encounter the town - and there will always be a bit of fly creation.
In my own case there are two reasons. First, I worked for almost twenty years recording spoken word/voice over. Second, I know I can't do it--specifically, I can't maintain an accent for more than about a sentence and a half. It's not a dig on my GMing--I'm confident in my competence, there--it's just a matter of knowing my limitations.
My Scottish and Irish accents devolve into Brad Pitt from Snatch after a sentence or two, I feel your pain. If you can't, don't would be my take, and I can't, so I don't. I can and will do voices, but not accents.
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Inchoroi
Adventurer
I've never encountered a player that expected that of me as the DM. It helps that we're all friends and such in addition to fellow players. However, that being said: I did have a (bad) DM who tried to emulate Mercer and failed miserably and didn't take it well.
The poor guy was great at voices, absolutely amazing at them, but he couldn't be arsed to put the work in on the world and campaign that Mercer does. It was also his first time DMing, so it was...pretty bad. My wife's online game suffers a bit from the same problem; their DM really wants to make his own setting and run his own adventures like Mercer does. I applaud the desire, but I never recommend jumping into the deep end like that for first time DMs or DMs without a good bit of experience. Speaking from the experience of a published minor RPG author, making a campaign world is effing hard.
Oofta
Legend
I think every DM and player needs to find their style. Personally? I like acting things out, doing funny accents, making in-game jokes. Just had a game with two-headed trolls with each head having distinct accents and arguing about what the toll should be (because troll under the bridge, duh). Then proceeded to try to eat the monk and talking about how they liked their meals with kick. I grunt and growl, scowl and (pretend to) spit if the role calls for it.
On the other hand, I would never expect someone to do an accent if they don't want to. I encourage people to talk in person and act out their characters but I don't push it. People play for different reasons, for me in part it's an opportunity to let out my inner thespian.
On the other hand, I would never expect someone to do an accent if they don't want to. I encourage people to talk in person and act out their characters but I don't push it. People play for different reasons, for me in part it's an opportunity to let out my inner thespian.
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