D&D 5E What is up with the popularity of watching other D&D groups play the game?

[Haffrung]

My games do not play like structured D&D at all. Most of the game time is spent exploring and roleplaying. Combat happens, but when it does most of the time the fights are desperate and deplete the parties resources quickly. This is happening less as they raise in levels, after a year and a half they are now at 6th level in a very heavily modified SKT. My players spend hours talking in character, and they keep coming back to the next session. I still do not like listening to critical roll.

Not that my game proves anything either way, but heavy roleplay in a game might not be so uncommon after all.

There's a difference between roleplaying dramatic scenes with NPCs - investigating the slaying of the high cleric, convincing the gnoll chief to aid your assault on her rival, bartering with a sea captain to take you to the Isle of the the Flayed Men - and banter between PCs. There's a lot of roleplay in Critical Role that has nothing do with adventure or achieving goals. It's just improvised character development, often with a comedic angle.

I stand by my wager that few D&D tables see the players spend substantial time engaged in comedic in-character banter between one another that has nothing to do with adventure. And as I remarked, I think one of the big draws of Critical Role is to give people who are alone or lonely the proxy glow of a group of extroverted friends chatting and bantering.

 

[twofalls]

I blocked that 2000 movie out. I no longer remember what happened in it. That probably is a good thing.

I find it likely that the blockage was trauma induced. I put the DVD I had of that movie into one of those cheesy mobiles people used to make and hang from their back porch. I think mine flew away in a windstorm. There was no mourning over it.

 

[Maxperson]

Of all the responses in this surprisingly long thread, these are those that I've liked hearing the most. How these programs draw folks to the game. Even if I never personally come to enjoy these shows, I can appreciate this about them.

I wonder if the second campaign is better than the first given they had more experience doing this by then?

I've never actually looked at critical role until yesterday. I'd seen other similar events, but not theirs. I looked at the most recent of their second campaign videos. It was good, but I was surprised at how little the players knew about their characters. It was episode #116 of the second campaign and the halfling didn't know that he didn't have darkvision and then made another similar error. Another player tried to cast a concentration spell and tell Mercer that the spell lasted indefinitely, because it didn't specify a duration. He corrected her.

They're great roleplayers and that's fun to watch, but...

 

[twofalls]

I've never actually looked at critical role until yesterday. I'd seen other similar events, but not theirs. I looked at the most recent of their second campaign videos. It was good, but I was surprised at how little the players knew about their characters. It was episode #116 of the second campaign and the halfling didn't know that he didn't have darkvision and then made another similar error. Another player tried to cast a concentration spell and tell Mercer that the spell lasted indefinitely, because it didn't specify a duration. He corrected her.

They're great roleplayers and that's fun to watch, but...

What do you think, should we forgive them? I think lowering the penalty to twenty lashes in the public square from forty should suffice, but trying to con the GM into an infinite spell, I dunno. Maybe three days in the socks after the lash would do for that gal.

(BTW, I'm not mocking you at all, just goofing off.)

 

[twofalls]

I stand by my wager that few D&D tables see the players spend substantial time engaged in comedic in-character banter between one another that has nothing to do with adventure. And as I remarked, I think one of the big draws of Critical Role is to give people who are alone or lonely the proxy glow of a group of extroverted friends chatting and bantering.

Given my lack of exposure to CR I can't respond to you in an informed manner, so I accept your assessment. And your last statement sounds very plausible. I couldn't help but have a flash in my brain of young sexy Russian maids seeking to marry American men across the internet when reading it though. I don't suppose there are any Russian maids in CR?

 

[Charlaquin]

Seriously?

While that is pretty absurd, the circumstances surrounding that character death were very unusual. They were facing a superior force, which may have upset some fans because they were clearly not meant to be able to win that encounter. They also had a guest character on for that episode, and she was not pulling her weight in the fight - the player made a lot of intentionally poor tactical decisions and voluntarily gave herself disadvantage on most of her rolls because her character was a former member of the group they were fighting, and was afraid of their leader. The character who died was a Bloodhunter - a custom class Matt Mercer designed, which have a number of features where they can sacrifice their own HP to buff themselves. The turn before the he died, he used one of these abilities despite being at very low HP and engaged in melee with the leader of the enemy group, who they knew could hit very hard. So there were a lot of factors that made the death seem very avoidable, which made it a lot more upsetting for a lot of the fan base.

Still absurd to demand a public apology from the DM. That kind of stuff happens in D&D all the time, it’s a normal part of the game, and an important one at that. But, you know how the internet can be sometimes.

 

[Oofta]

There's a difference between roleplaying dramatic scenes with NPCs - investigating the slaying of the high cleric, convincing the gnoll chief to aid your assault on her rival, bartering with a sea captain to take you to the Isle of the the Flayed Men - and banter between PCs. There's a lot of roleplay in Critical Role that has nothing do with adventure or achieving goals. It's just improvised character development, often with a comedic angle.

I stand by my wager that few D&D tables see the players spend substantial time engaged in comedic in-character banter between one another that has nothing to do with adventure. And as I remarked, I think one of the big draws of Critical Role is to give people who are alone or lonely the proxy glow of a group of extroverted friends chatting and bantering.

Then I must be involved in "one of the few" tables that does it. Twice in fact*, one for the game I run and one I play in. I find it odd to think that tables don't have characters that don't socialize/joke/discuss things other than the immediate adventure. You play a different game than I do, or ever have.

* EDIT: Currently that is. Public games don't have as much of it but most games we have a significant amount of RP, much of which has little to do with the adventure.

 

[Charlaquin]

It was episode #116 of the second campaign and the halfling didn't know that he didn't have darkvision and then made another similar error.

To be fair, that character had been a goblin for most of the campaign. She was recently turned (back) into a halfling by magic, so Sam (the guy playing her) was probably still adjusting to the new racial features, as he had been used to having Darkvision on that character for a long time.

 

[prabe]

Then I must be involved in "one of the few" tables that does it. Twice in fact*, one for the game I run and one I play in. I find it odd to think that tables don't have characters that don't socialize/joke/discuss things other than the immediate adventure. You play a different game than I do, or ever have.

Table banter? Both the games I run are loaded with it. And both campaigns have had entire sessions with no combat whatsoever--entirely roleplay and/or mission-planning, and both of those also work as set-ups for table banter.

 

[Maxperson]

What do you think, should we forgive them? I think lowering the penalty to twenty lashes in the public square from forty should suffice, but trying to con the GM into an infinite spell, I dunno. Maybe three days in the socks after the lash would do for that gal.

(BTW, I'm not mocking you at all, just goofing off.)

I think one lash per infraction is plenty good