WOTC Rage of Demons on Twitch

[HawaiiSteveO]

Anyone else watched any of this? How can I say this delicately? For some reason I thought it would be . . . better? They make the game for crying out loud! Not knowing how invisibility works, how two weapon fighting works, etc . . . As a side note, I originally thought it would be interesting to show this to someone who was not familiar with what D&D was, now I'm not sure. Maybe they are keeping things light on purpose, but it comes across as a rather silly game. Silly is ok, guess I realized the artwork and implied tone presented sometimes doesn't match up. Certainly not saying there is a "right" way to play!

 

[Jester David]

I don't recall anyone at the table being a prominent designer. They're people who work at WotC, not necessarily writing rules.
Even people who write mechanics might not be the best source of rulings, as they have the current rules and dozens of prior iterations rattling away in their brain.

 

[Celtavian]

Is this the stream run by Greg Tito? I think they're having fun and doing some public relations at the same time. It's not a bad watch. Tito does some funny role-playing.

 

[Nine Hands]

If you want to introduce someone to how roleplaying works show them Critical Role.

 

[HawaiiSteveO]

I guess I figured an official WOTC D&D game would be a sight to see . . . it's just OK. Will check out Critical Role, never heard of it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Making RPG streams entertaining to watch require a different breed of gamer. There is a performance aspect to it that requires a DM to *really* be expressive in their characterization, plus extremely evocative in their description while keeping it VERY short. Especially when there's no "studio audience" to react to everything. This is especially true when you upload an entire night's game in one post, where it's much more difficult to grab a viewer and hold them. There's a reason why the original Acquisitions Incorporated podcasts and the Robot Chicken game were broken up into 8 to 10 minute chunks... getting people to listen/view something odd like that was easier when it told people they didn't have to spend more than a few minutes watching it before it ended. Thus people were more willing to come back the following week to listen to the next small segment since it wasn't going to be a huge drain on their time (which also meant the games themselves didn't have to be SO evocative in hopes to actually hold an audience.)

But streams that are full night's gaming? Those have to be REALLY good, with really strong and entertaining players with really compelling characters to make listeners stick around for two to four hours. Which is NOT easy to do. Personally, I think Critical Role does it wonderfully (and it's no surprise that it's a group made up of all professional actors), but the WotC streams? Not so much (or at all.)

 

[darjr]

There OK. I appreciate the full stream. I think they should also edit a short form with highlights. I think that would go a long way to making it entertaining.

I will note the latest dragon+ highlighted another actual play podcast by professional podcasters/comedians that is very entertaining.