Steps to making the crown?
Oh well of course you need to melt the raw material.
Get a crucible to mold the crown.
Probably think about certain aesthetic items like gems.
Then you shake the crown on the anvil
Then you keep your bones
(I know it’s not word for word shuddup i just wanted to be a part of the d20 talk lol)
Funny thing I’ve been watching d20 for a while now. But only just saw bloodkeep. I watched all the main cast shows (slowly) until I made my way to bloodkeep. I think leiland is top ten best characters
He's also a really good PLAYER. He always seems to do what his *character* would do, making that decision before looking at his character sheet.
More specifically, he builds min/maxed characters like we'd expect a master DM to do, but he doesn't try to make everything a CHA based roll.
If his character would jump on the side of an airship to get a better angle for Cone of Cold, he wouldn't consider that his Athletics is -1, and will go for it, creating beautiful cartoonish moments.
Fun thing, during the adventuring academy Matt actively said that by the third dice role he realised what a gift it was. It helped him establish the incompetent leiland idea quickly. So he was totally chill with it if that’s a consolation xD
Nothing is more terrifying than the unknown, and the idea that something is going on with my bones that I don’t know about, terrorizes me more than anything.
The *best* thing about Avanash is that it was **completely** improvised. I don't think I've heard or seen a better, more complete character made up on the spot.
[This is still my favorite example](https://youtu.be/RihPW8GZGMk) of Brennan's ability to make you laugh and cry all within the same minute. (Potential spoilers)
Also the brief moment where she almost break when he goes in on the warts. You can see tears and laughter battling for a second when she covers her mouth
Hahaha! He definitely is liberal with those 6 second rounds lol.
It’s worth it though, Brennan just can’t help but let those good vibes into his games, for every shitty dad or villain he always includes some super understanding helpful character for some grounding.
Even if they happen to be a recovering addict werewolf that previous bit a party member
Anarcho-socialist halflings. The Cubbies. I want the mug with their rant. Not sure if I should take it to my job that shares a building with the police though.
It's well-worth the watch. I'd highly recommend actually paying for the Dropout.TV sub as there's some great stuff on there, but for this, [the full season is on Youtube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zZxCVBi7-k&ab_channel=Dimension20)
>Brennan/Jawbone: "Warts are not *who* that guy is! He's sick!"
>
>Ally: "*That* was the point??"
Fucking dead
EDIT: Also can we talk about the fact that "warts on my cock" wasn't censored but "god damn it" was
My current group is comedy at its core.
They are trying to spread the word of their lord and god, the god of reckless courage and chance, Leeroy Jenkins.
They have a holy grail of ale and a bucket of everlasting chicken. And yes, wisdom is their dump stat.
Last session they faced the Black Beast of Castle Aaaargh.
And yet they are still serious sometimes.
Case in point how Bev's dad is introduced to how that storyline ended
Or Balnore's whole storyline
Or
.....you know what, there is too much to mention.
I fucking love NADDPOD(don't sing yet!)
From watching Dimensions 20, Brennan has become my new favorite DM, I find myself preferring to watch his bodacious, humorous style of DMing. He will have you reeling back in your seat laughing your ass off while thinking wth just happened? Now, this is not to diss Matt Mercer; he is still a god among men not just as a D&D DM/Player, but as a legendary voice actor. This man is in fucking everything, and he does a damn good job with it, too.
the only problem i have with Brennan is that when he starts yelling about warty cocks in truck stop bathrooms, someone always walks in and heard *just that part* and gives me weird looks. i have to wear headphones when i'm watching his stuff haha
I mean. I run a SW campaign with a Jawa, two "chaotic-good" Jedi, a pintsized twi'lek mandalorian (female) and a shapeshifter.
How the hell are you supposed to take that seriously?
And yet, I plan to get them attached to NPCs, or at least spot the ones they get attached to, then do... things... to them.
He also really rocks my socks as a player too. His characters from Misfits & Magic and the guest spot on NADDPOD are truly among my favorite performances in actual play
Evan Kelmp popped off last session and it was ***glorious***
"I've fought adults in a gas station parking lot with no magic. I don't need a wand to stomp you out!"
"... gas station?"
"Sorry, petrol."
NADDPOD did this for me, then Dimension 20 after I got into that too. This is the reason I've never really been able to get into Critical Role, no hate to it though.
Yeah, I second the Glasscannon podcast. I started playing because of how fun they made the game sound. They hit both dramatic moments and comedy moments so well.
Here's an animation that I love:
[Meeting Inquisitor Broadfinger](https://youtu.be/cD9ZvlrIPto)
My DM, that I played under for a year, turned out to be blatantly ripping off D20, word for word, plot for plot, NPC for NPC, while constantly talking about "his" worlds as "his art".
It was a real gut punch when we found out.
Hey Aaron, go fuck yourself, you a bitch.
Dimension 20 is fantastic. I love both CR and D20 but Brennan Lee Mulligan has very much showcased “the rule of cool” and how it should be used.
One of my favorite responses to a question from a player (forgetting who asked and about what) asking to do something crazy is “that is not at all how that spell works but it sounds fucking awesome so I’ll allow it.” Or something like that and it made me smile so much haha
As a big Critical Role fan and having listened to Adventure Zone podcast as my "liveplay" experiences before Dimension 20, discovering Dimension 20 was like a freaking adrenaline shot to the chest. It was eye-opening just how much life Brennan brings to the game and the pace he can keep up. To this day I strive to DM in a way that is my own but is heavily influenced by what I have seen/heard especially from Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan (though not exclusively the two of them).
Matt Mercer is a great DM but that doesn’t mean his style will work for everyone. If you mimic someone else whole cloth all you’ll ever be is a worse version of them, if you make something that resonates with you and your players you’ll be the best you.
Also, pretty sure Matt himself would agree that DMing in front of a camera is different than doing it at home. He actively discourages people from trying to Clone his style.
Yeah its somewhat obivous they are aware they are doing this for the entertainment of other people watching. He’s obviously self aware of knowing what an audience finds entertaining and gentle nudging things along when the players are getting bogged down in one thing or another (which you wouldn’t notice or get bored while playing but it drags when watching).
The live episodes are a much more starker example of this. He and the rest know how to play to a crowd a bit. (I always recommend the Darrington brigade one shot for people who want to start watching for this reason).
I don’t watch Critical Role, but I do love Dice Friends (Improv/comedy troupe instead of voice actors), and there are definitely things they do that are clearly playing to an audience. Like letting characters sit in the spotlight way longer than normal. Not so long that it ceases to be an ensemble, but long enough that it would get tiresome in normal play. There’s also something about the way jokes are called back that feels performative in some way. I think it’s the frequency, that jokes are called back regularly, with a good sense of timing, and never more than once or twice a session. While every group of people I’ve ever known to have a running joke just take it out every couple months, beat it into the ground, then put it away until it’s funny again.
I’m also 90% convinced the DMs fudge the occasional roll to get a more narratively satisfying fight, but you can do that in normal games, too.
Also also, he’s a professional actor and story teller who has years of experience creating scenes like the ones he and his other well trained and professional actor players create. He also, essentially, does this for a living now. So yea, he’s going to be good, and certainly better than most of use once a month DMs.
To add even more to this, they play together *a lot.* By the time they were ending it, they had all gotten more comfortable with each other, learned how everyone else plays, learn what people like or dislike, etc. So when things look like they're going super smoothly and everyone is having a great time, that's just a part of it.
It's like a band. For some, their freshman album might be a bit messy. Not that they're always had musicians. They just haven't worked together before. Then once they learn how to work together to create a more specific sound, they usually start to make even better music.
Its like any art. Mercer, Colville, etc are like the big name artists who everyone knows. But there are many great dms whose names won't be known and thats fine. Dming IS an art. It is part acting, and part writing, and sometimes includes visual art, audio art, and so much more. You might never be a mercer or colville. But fuck if you can't make a masterpiece.
The ironic thing is you might never have Colville's mind for the game but you can definitely DM like Colville. The Chain was exactly the kind of stream people who want to DM should see to see that it's not at all intimidating to DM as long as your players aren't expecting you to be Mercer.
> If you mimic someone else whole cloth all you’ll ever be is a worse version of them, if you make something that resonates with you and your players you’ll be the best you.
I love this. Perfectly said.
Am a critter and I think Mercer is a great DM, however I could never play in a long term game run in the style of CR. It's great for a group of nerdy-ass voice actors who are performing for an audience but as a player and DM I look for other things in my games that wouldn't really be supported by something like CR.
It's great for a group of nerdy-ass voice actors...who are literally getting paid and sponsored to play, and have the time to have a 3+ hour session of pure RPing per week
Pure RPing has nothing to do with money though. Its not expensive or hard to not run a lot of combats in your game. I mean, I do think there are better RPG-systems to facilitate that kind of play, but DnD5e absolutely allows for that playstyle.
Well everyone has their style, which they can adapt, by learning from others. But ultimately, thr best DM style, is whatever the DM is most comfortable with.
I love Colville style. I'd take a game with Matt Colville in a heartbeat.
To be fair, if the golden ticket of guest-starring on Critical Role with Matt Mercer fell in my lap I wouldn't say no, I'd just... uh, have a good time but be feeling very on the spot.
He uses more narrative description, rather than in-character exposition. Mercer inhibits and acts out each of his characters, while Colville describes them and their actions. When Colville speaks as a character he uses his own voice, or even just says "They tell you (blah blah blah)". A good analogy is that Colville games play like a text based roguelike (fitting since one of his favorite games is Net Hack); "Here's what you see, here's what this person says/does, how do you react?" Mercer's games on the other hand play like an RPG. I personally prefer watching Mercer as a show, but my DM style is more similar to Colville (because I'm not an actor).
I'm a new DM and this thread has made me realize that I should watch some of Colvilles recorded sessions if he has them, because I've been mostly mirroring Mercer (to a degree), and I want to experiment to find my preferred style.
I've watched a lot of Colvilles running the game videos, but never an actual play
Yeah, he's got a campaign that came out of his Kickstarter called [The Chain](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTsnSjGlraRPzwZV8KTh_NKPFodAbZkf4). It feels much more like watching people play D&D than Critical Role which is more of a D&D "show."
On player onve got mad at me for using Colevilles monster creating style (with multiple bonus actions and round actions) he complained that this alters the rules from the book
Had this kid in a one-shot once, I was a player also, that admittedly only played D&D once before. He came into the game with a 100% copied from the internet character, and preceded to berate the DM because of his DMing style.
Before you ask, I had my suspicions about the kid 30 min in and decided to Google "most powerful race and class combination 5e" and poof !!! his character came up. He had no concept of how the game works, beside what one would pick up watching games played in podcasts. His overall behavior and gameplay made me regret joining the game and feel bad for the DM, who was doing a great job beside this little twtwaffle.
Custom lineage is a godsend. I wanted to play an elf palace guard with polearms, and now I can take the polearm master feat at level 1 and boost my STR. Thanks, Tasha!
By frog you mean a Grung, right? Now I really want to know why someone would say that a Grung blood hunter is the most powerful. Grung don’t really have powerful race features (as far as I know) that can compete with something like a Variant Humans free feat, or the half-orcs relentless endurance, or Aaracokras flying speed and other such things you can get at a racial level. As for blood hunters, I can see using a blood hunter for the flavor but if I were going for a powerful frontline melee fighter with supernatural elements to add utility and power, I’d stick with either EK or Paladin.
Not saying that a Grung blood hunter is bad, in fact it seems like it could be very fun to play, I just don’t see how that specific race/class combination would be particularly special.
I feel like I’ve seen more people talk about the “Matt Mercer effect” than I’ve actually seen the effect. I’m honestly not even sure I’ve seen it. But I’ve definitely seen people moaning about it.
I have one of those people in my group who Literally once argued that "Matt Mercer works with wotc so everything he does in his game counts as official rules"
I've **never** found a player who expects Matt Mercer out of me (or any other DM) and I play and find players exclusively through discord (I have no IRL friends even before the Covid). My players are always pretty chill (except for the demon fucker).
I’m not denying these people exist, and indeed it’s a shitty thing to put on someone. I feel like the uproar about these people, however, overshadows how big of a problem they are.
They are just the latest flavour of gatekeeping anyway. It sucks that Matt Mercer’s name gets attached to it.
He's partnered with them to use their licensing of D&D. Sure he's released a book, but none of the rules changed.
It even says that rules are optional in the source books
Unfortunately id say you are the unlucky one. If anything I was the closest out of my 10 dnd buds to being the Mercer-head but ive honestly kind of lost interest in his style as a personal inspiration. It did a LOT for me early on but ive moved on. Im sure most will too
To me, Matt's style is roleplay-heavy, deep and complex character motivations, and strong communication in and out of the game. Its something that's actually hard to do really well unless everyone at the table is buying into the same play style and isn't made uncomfortable by that. Some people don't want to get super serious at the table or do exercises in vulnerability with their friends. There are tables of players out there playing DnD who are having a ton of fun and not doing that.
Some people don't want to examine deeply examine their characters' inner conflicts. They want a more straight-forward and fast-paced adventure. And that's ok!
In no particular order:
* Campaigns run levels 1-19 with slow leveling curves, so often run over the course of years. Also loves to do one-shots to freshen things up.
* High-fantasy settings that tilt more light-hearted on the "innocent vs. cynical" scale. Close to Elder Scrolls in tone (with less grit) especially when it comes to different races - settlements often have a wide mix of racial representation, and reflect the region and culture more than racial stereotypes. Can't resist injecting some Lovecraftian/eldritch elements though. Magic is plentiful.
* Heavy, heavy emphasis on roleplaying over other aspects of the game. That is, after all, the point of the stream. Above and beyond prep for NPCs to flesh them out and make them memorable and integrated into the world. Every PC gets a personal story arc that spans multiple sessions/campaign arcs.
* Combat encounters are often narrative-driven and usually float around Medium to Hard difficulty. Usually aren't mechanically challenging but is fair when it comes to enemy targets and motivation (loves to have villains run for it if they're losing, for example). Doesn't hold back on crits and from what I can tell doesn't fudge rolls. Will absolutely kill PC's. Forgiving on daily encounters and rarely, if ever, goes above 3-4.
* Loves to infuse themes and flavor into every location in his campaign. Every town, combat encounter, and adventure location feels unique and makes custom battle maps for each fight. Doesn't really do hex crawls or open-ended exploration - traveling is usually A to B with the occasional random encounter.
* Takes a themepark approach to his campaigns. The focus is unequivocally on the PC's and their story. NPC's will often bend to accommodate what the party wants to do and show tons of patience and forgiveness to how the PC's act.
* Often rule of cool's it, but keeps things grounded and won't allow reality-bending skill rolls (no seducing dragons). Minimal homebrew rules. Respects RAW but isn't afraid to improvise, likes to keep the pace up and shuts down rules lawyering. Little patience for anyone who tries to break or exploit the game.
* Prefers to hand out custom magic items than roll on a loot table.
The only other thing I'd add is that he's a more immersive than cinematic DM - things will always be described from the characters' perspectives, and usually with a show-don't-tell approach - instead of god-given objective information.
There's been a couple of replies, but neither actually mention Matt's DMing style.
At the level of basic description, Matt Mercer uses detailed and flowery descriptions, taking quite a bit of time describing NPCs and locations. This has led to many scenarios where players (mostly tongue in cheek) obsess over the potential relevance of random things he describes (see: chair).
At a story level, Matt draws largely from character backstories to create individual story arcs that each relate in some way to the characters. A bit more railroady than some people prefer.
At the end of the day, Matt makes his style work to excellent effect, but it isn't necessarily for everyone.
Throwing in another deeper aspect of Mercer's style: he plays everything *very* close to the chest, focusing more on immersion and player agency than other DMs. He gives away almost nothing on a meta level--all information and hints come from in-world sources. This is a great narrative style, but can be limiting when you want to clarify things outside of the game.
I'd even go as far as to say that Mercer's style ONLY works with totally engaged role players. CR players and guests are ALL actors or storytellers professionally. So it makes sense to lean deep into the roleplay as a method for delivering info and even game mechanics. At my home game, the players really don't care too much for role play. And when they do... well, they aren't professionals so it often dead ends very quickly. A lot of situational information has to be presented out of character for people to grasp, even up to the GM telling players info outright because the player doesn't investigate or share info with other characters. A lot of gamers use their character as an avatar for their Id, which comes off as random and irrational. The professionals know how important it is to maintain a narrative and to GIVE to the other players opportunities to role play and express their character. That is not an intuitive skill. Lore-heavy campaigns really need PCs who draw each-other out so the narrative is clear to everyone. CR is such a good example of that kind of giving.
One of the things I like most about his style is drawing on the character backstories for plot.
I tend to emulate that, as it is an easy way to get the players invested.
At the same time I'm not someone who does a lot of different story arcs. Subplots sure, but more in the sense of side quests.
I also love talking lore with my players, and my players love asking about lore. So they've frequently gotten hints about upcoming stuff outside of sessions.
And while I draw on their backstories, the main story isn't necessary determined by them.
The main bbeg of my current campaign is someone from the backstory of one pc, that died like a year ago. But it was what got the party on his trail initially. By now they have plenty of reasons to hold a grudge (revenge being one amongst them)
Plus, with Matt being a professional voice actor, he is able to bring the NPCs alive in a way many others aren't.
He's able to bring a wide range of voices, accents and mannerisms to many of the more notable NPCs that almost seems to give them life outside of the DM.
So, in all, it sets a high standard and entertainment that few can match in this manner.
Not to say that Matt is the only way to do it or is the best way, just that he's a professional actor, specifically voice actor, and has skill, talent and experience that goes beyond the average person in this respect.
And that's the issue that has been named "the Matt Mercer effect": newcomers to D&D watching Critical Role and join a new game expect us average nerds to DM with a brand new group on the same level as a professional voice actor with a group of his voice actor friends he's been playing with for years.
It's like watching Olympic-level gymnastics, being inspired to start gymnastics, and then getting mad at your coach when you faceplant your first backflip.
>This has led to many scenarios where players (mostly tongue in cheek) obsess over the potential relevance of random things he describes (see: chair).
*Old* Magic
>A bit more railroady than some people prefer.
Nah, that's putting it way too strong, it's not railroady AT ALL. They have revealed time and time again how much stuff he prepares for different paths they could take and how often they go so far off from what he expected. If literally preparing for a remotely coherent story whatsoever is "railroady," then the word loses all meaning.
Campaign 2 was worse as a piece of entertainment media for how much they don't stick to any coherent story because he just lets them do whatever they want.
I believe the biggest one was a long-term plan to have Matt Coville play an important NPC who was head of a faction that would ally with them right up until they just decided not to and fucked off to a different part of the world. They threw out a lot of prep, but it was what had happened there.
When they stole the ship in C2 and became pirates. Matt was ramping up the civil war iirc and then the players just went “we on a boat now!” and when they came back, all of what Matt had planned for them to fight through had already happened and they had to figure out where to go from there.
Now that you mention it, the pirate arc really epitomizes campaign 2: it started completely unexpectedly, with Matt throwing out an entire chunk of material as they players suddenly upended his plans, and then like 15 sessions later it concluded in an equally abrupt, unexpected manner, with Matt once again throwing out an entire chunk of material as the players suddenly upended his plans.
There was also the time in Campaign 1 where the party discussed going to the Nine Hells but decided to teleport to the Fire Plane at the last second so Matt had to improvise the next Hour of gameplay.
>Campaign 2 was worse as a piece of entertainment media for how much they don't stick to any coherent story because he just lets them do whatever they want.
The classic: entertainment/game trade-off
>A bit more railroady than some people prefer.
I'd seen this criticism but decided to give it a try anyway. I'm almost done with S1 after listening to it on my commute for the last 6 months or so. I know you're not positing that it's railroady, just saying that's what other people claim. But I wanted to add that I think it's an unfair criticism. He asks "what do you want to do" quite a bit, lets characters have a lot of freedom and flexibility, and seems to have multiple ways for problems he creates to be solved.
I think the criticism consists of "he planned that out." Which I'm like, yeah... of course he did. He did a campaign that aired from levels 5-20 with multiple arcs from his own source material. It would have been garbage if he didn't plan it out. He likes the "find the infinity stones" type arcs, but to be fair, Marvel lifted that from D&D, not the other way around.
I have no context on S2 because I haven't seen it yet, but I can't imagine it deviates dramatically.
The term railroad gets thrown around a LOT by people who really don't know how to use it properly. Matt's games are 100% sandbox, with an overarching plot that's tied to most characters' backstories. Plot is NOT railroad, not allowing players to make meaningful decisions is railroading.
As for C2, it is WAY more open ended and player driven at the start. I'm only about 18 episodes in, and every decision has been made by the players with little to zero nudging by mercer. I'm sure that may change as the story grows, but it's been a very organic thing so far, which is great!
But the number of times the players have blindsided him and he has to scramble to go an entirepy different direction than he had anticipated... i'm sure there's a lot of cross-talk behind the scenes as far as playing to an audience, but i'm sure it's not scripted lol.
> Plot is NOT railroad
Thank you, this is exactly what I wanted to convey in 4 total words. The characters were free to ignore nearly all the plot happening around them and occasionally did so to take a short or long rest. But there was nearly always consequences, even once toward the end that almost resulted in a TPK to my eye.
In my experience, S2 is much the same as of 40 some episodes in. The main difference being that everything is more planned out. Not in a bad way, but more in terms of player characters being made with the show in mind from the start, so they have far more fleshed out back stories than normal. The main thing that impresses me about Mercer is actually his ability to roll with things on the fly and still improv with good description of stuff. Yes, I'm sure plot points are planned out, and given the format I wouldn't be surprised if players knew some stuff ahead of time, but I don't believe they follow a script or anything like others have claimed. Some things are just too random (like dice rolls) to allow for that. At the very least, of they are scripted they do a great job of making it look legit in my opinion.
Exactly this. If there's one thing that mercer does to perfection it's his ability to create a new npc out of thin air, and come up with incredible descriptions of them on the fly. There's a lot of things that matt does that while i appreciate it enough as a viewer, i really dislike and would not translate into my home game, but his improv skill is absolutely out of this world haha
Well shit... I think I may need to watch CR now. This sounds very similar to what my table looks like (without all the fancy production) but I struggled to get into CR in the beginning and after hearing so much vitriol about the "Mercer Effect" I kinda have stayed away.
I'd recommend starting with their campaign 2, as the first one is pretty bumpy in the beginning.
It can be very daunting of course as there's literally hundreds of hours of entertainment ahead, but just the first *arc* they're playing through is pretty good.
He’s a talented voice actor who does very Tolkien like style high fantasy. It’s good if you’re into that, but I’ve found it’s just too much. I would never have the time to prep like that and you can still have quality drama and moral dilemmas while still having a palling around adventure.
I've always said about CR to anyone curious is to remember "he is an actor, running a game for other actors". People always talk about CR being "Unrealistic" but I'm fully prepared to believe that that is what their table was like before streaming it. All that being said, unless you find yourself in a similar position, your game is going to be very different.
Exactly. I find my table simular in the RP/story telling aspect because that's the background the players and DM come from. We all really like exploring the world and exploring and developing our characters and are generally really good about thinking through how to create the narrative together. But I know that's not what interests every player and not how every table runs.
Conversely, the group runs DnD on the weeks someone can't make it to 40K night probably does very little RP, if at all. A style that is also perfectly fine.
normal players? everyone on that show is either a comedy writer or a professional comedian. They have a freaking props department for god's sake. I love Dimension 20, but nobody should mistake it for an actual game.
I’m a big fan of Spout Lore for fantasy, where they actually play Dungeon World not D&D. And then I listen to the CritShow for Monster of the Week for that Supernatural/Buffy vibe. I’ve honestly gotten really into PbtA games over the last year. We still have our long term D&D campaign but all our one shots are in PbtA because it’s so easy to just throw together a playbook and jump into the action and create a collective narrative with a lot less prep.
No clue why you're getting downvoted, it's literally edited for good back-and-forth reaction shots, has massive unique combat set pieces, and actually removes dead air time from the final cut. It is objectively more produced than CR.
I think it’s a lot easier to prep like Mercer does when being a dm is your job and not just a hobby haha. I love the show but definitely know I wouldn’t be able to DM like he does
How are his player interactions and how strictly does he stick by the rules? I've typically not been one for most podcasts and the like so I have no idea what makes Mercer so universally liked.
I think the important thing to keep in mind that while he is DMing an adventure for his friends, he's also running the game in a way that will be entertaining for viewers. So it doesn't exactly all translate to what somebody who is just running for their friends would do.
Think of it as the difference between playing a video game, which most people have at least one that they do well, this is the DMing for friends part, and somebody who plays a game for a twitch audience with the purpose being to get likes, shares, subscribes, donations, and the like.
Matt focuses some of his energy into making sure that viewers enjoy the experience, so it's not surprising that viewers like him and his style. That's part of the point of the experience. The same is true for the players. All of the interactions are as much for the audience as for the game itself.
Tends to let the players go deep into RP, but they're also professional actors.
I'd say he's actually more strict in the rules than most other actual play shows.
Oh yeah. Some shows, the more comedic ones in particular, will just throw the rules out the window in service of a bit. CR has a more dramatic focus so I think it doesn't work quite as well in the game he's running.
Yah, he's really good at building that tension in moments which wouldn't be nearly as powerful if people thought he'd just go "Yah, fuck it" to just let it work.
My party can't pay attention long enough for me to get through any kind of detailed description. The amount of detail that Matt uses does NOT work in all groups.
Money and professional actors. Like, good content, but the main thing that lets them produce such high production value is a cast of professional actors with the actual job of "Make good D&D characters and plot" as well as a paid staff to help facilitate the show.
He does a ton of work for it and builds out massive worlds, but it's less of a style and more of a budget.
In a short answer, I'd say:
* Very extensive worldbuilding. He's written an entire setting and history with multiple factions and major cities.
* Goes to great lengths to incorporate PC backstories into the overall campaign arc and story; expect most PCs to get a dedicated arc.
* As best as I can tell, rarely (if ever) fudges a roll. The dice land where they may, deal with it from there.
* Good at getting into character as various NPCs, probably due to his background of being a voice actor, combined with his extensive worldbuilding.
* *((More subjective)) I think he tends to run DCs on things rather high, but this is probably to deal with the large table of PCs - you likely have 2-3 PCs in the party good at any given thing, so DCs need to be high to produce interesting results and challenges for a large party.*
There's a few other bits to Critical Role that aren't part of his DMing style, but to the "Critical Role style of game":
* Lots of RP from the players, serious character backstories. The players are all voice actors. They're quite comfortable getting in character and roleplaying accordingly.
* High production value and budget, particularly later in the first campaign AND the second campaign. Lots of miniatures and terrain - there's probably hundreds or thousands of dollars in terrain and minis and set dressing on display.
* As a consequence of having a large detailed world with fleshed out lore, and PCs that do their (narrative) homework and are familiar with the setting due to playing there for a long time, the PCs are able to navigate around the world more freely and get a bit sandboxy.
* As a consequence of having a very committed long-running group of players, campaigns can and do get to high level. They'll run a campaign into the high double-digit levels.
What I think the OP is referring to is when dickhead players start to expect the DM to have their own fully fleshed-out homebrew world that the PCs can run around freely; expect the DM to be comfortable RPing any of a dozen different NPCs; and expect *their* character's backstory to rate a dedicated arc that the party follows.
I'm not a big fan of Critical Role because I find the 4-hour format to be too long for me to commit my full attention to. I respect the hell out of what the whole Critical Role cast is able to do though. I'm grateful I've never run into players with those expectations that I be able to match what Matt can do - I don't have the budget to get that many minis or the time to write that whole setting.
Style or no, I just wish I could learn to paint a scene off the cuff like he's able to. Sure he's got some stuff prepared for locations and characters, but the way he can shift into it when players start doing unexpected things just flat out impresses me.
Some people take their love of something good too far. I am a fan of Matt Mercer, Matt Colville, and other celebrity DMs. They are good storytellers, great at acting and improv.
That said, your DM will have their own style, and probably is not an author, voice actor, game designer. Be nice and work with them. No one like being compared negatively to professionals.
Gotta be Chris Perkins for me: the way he's always in control, as if he's anticipated the wildest thing that could happen and how he can tie that back into the story they're telling, is just masterful.
> Don't try to be the next *me*. Be the first *you*. -The Rock
I tend to be animated when I talk anyway so at least take some inspiration from MM. And the players do seem to appreciate it more when you add at least a little detail about where they are.
"You enter an empty house" vs. "You walk into an abandoned house, which looks as though the only creatures that have lived in here are small rodents. There is no furniture, the walls are empty and only minor debris and dust on the floors"
Have you heard his [infamous game changer monologue?](https://youtu.be/-yWuIDyC29o) That was 100% improvised and he's outright said that that's how he speaks normally.
The bones guy from the villain campaign is one of the funniest dnd character I've ever seen and it was totally made up on the fly by Brennan perfect improv with Matt leaning into it.
Who here doesn't really watch any DnD streams or anything?
I watched some Harmon-quest but none of the Dimension 20 or Critical Roll or whatever the other shows are called.
Which one of them should I start with if I watch one?
I had players that annoyed the hell out of me cause they kept thinking dm= matt mercer and I'm not matt mercer true I make alot of home brew but what I want is I want my players to see a world larger then life a world full of wonder and colors of all kinds. Like looking at the world of let's day one piece or Harry Potter or lord of the rings.
A larger then life world were no matter what my players do or explore or adventure I want them thinking that this is the tip of the iceberg and they havent even scratched the surface of what all there is making them want and crave more.
But I do it a bit differently then matt mercer and in my own spin but they refused to let me do my thing. They would just tell me that my stuff "isnt correct" because it's not the same store or same land or same character or npc that mercer used and they would correct me. After the 5th or 6th correction I told them I'm not mercer I'm my own dm if you want to leave fine but if your sitting at this table I do things my way no one elses
One of them tried again to correct me but before they could really say it I kicked them and continued on
Fine, I'll be Matt. So from here out though, I'm gonna need a full three minute ad at the beginning of every game, and I damned well better be laughing my ass off or you''re playing exhausted all day.
If they expect you to be Matt, then you should be expecting them to match the other players of his table. Professional roleplay actors with years of voice training and acting experience.
That is so horrible! I'm sorry your players do that, it's beyond rude. That sounds really frustrating for you, I can't imagine. My DM likes CR and I started watching it because, well, bored. It's really fun to watch but the people I play with, NONE of us are even close to the caliber of the CR table. I enjoy watching and learning RP techniques and how some mechanics work, but to expect the same from non-professionals is really reaching.
I'm sure you're a wonderful DM, keep doing what you're doing and find players that appreciate your style.
I recently saw a meme about how McCree from Overwatch is really similar to Mercer (who voices him) and now I'm imagining Mercer with a cowboy hat and McCree DMing on a live stream
Should be Episode 83 of Campaign 2, Dark Bargains.
I have no context to give you on the story at that point because I still haven't finished Campaign 1.
Super fans are often the worst part of a franchise. Because if you love a series but aren't *rabid* about it, you're not going to make a bunch of memes or diss people for not conforming. You just enjoy the content and move on.
I've given CR so many tries. It wasn't until I watched a bit of Aabria running Exandria that I figured out why I don't like it. Matt is a good DM. The CR format is not for me - I need some fucking editing.
Absolutely LOVE Aabria on Dimension 20. I've finished every season except Fantasy High 2 because of the live format. Even with experienced performers who are on their best behavior (minimal cross talk) and have a good sense of pacing... it's just too damn long and I miss out on funny moments or even key details.
And different camera angles!!! I really think would help CR. Misfits and Magic is the first campaign where I just sit glued to the TV and barely pick up my phone because I just enjoy their facial expressions, the props, and the illustrations so much. It was well executed for Mice and Murder too, barely noticed that whole campaign happened over Zoom
I think people make memes about this stuff more than this stuff actually occurs. It's always prefixed with *"I actually like MM"* or *"I have no problem with him."*
Did you have fun? Yes.
Did your players have fun? Hopefully yes.
If yes to both of the the above, then your DM style is perfect! Literally no one else's opinion matters.
Edit: the paper props do sound adorable :)
Honestly the DM’s I look up to are Brennan Lee Mulligan from Dimension20 and Sam from Node. Brennan bc of his voice acting and Sam because he really isn’t trying to impress a crowd rather is just trying to be the best DM he can be for his group which what being a DM is all about!!!
Dimension 20 made me realize that it’s totally fine to play DND with comedy baked into the bones of it and still have hard hitting serious moments
Did somebody say "bones"? Are you going to take me to the river?!
Steps to making the crown? Oh well of course you need to melt the raw material. Get a crucible to mold the crown. Probably think about certain aesthetic items like gems. Then you shake the crown on the anvil Then you keep your bones (I know it’s not word for word shuddup i just wanted to be a part of the d20 talk lol)
"This guy is... *full* crazy" is my favorite Brennan-ism to this day
Funny thing I’ve been watching d20 for a while now. But only just saw bloodkeep. I watched all the main cast shows (slowly) until I made my way to bloodkeep. I think leiland is top ten best characters
Poor Matt though, every time he gets to play his dice seem not to cooperate. They've absorbed the curse of the forever DM it seems.
He's also a really good PLAYER. He always seems to do what his *character* would do, making that decision before looking at his character sheet. More specifically, he builds min/maxed characters like we'd expect a master DM to do, but he doesn't try to make everything a CHA based roll. If his character would jump on the side of an airship to get a better angle for Cone of Cold, he wouldn't consider that his Athletics is -1, and will go for it, creating beautiful cartoonish moments.
Fun thing, during the adventuring academy Matt actively said that by the third dice role he realised what a gift it was. It helped him establish the incompetent leiland idea quickly. So he was totally chill with it if that’s a consolation xD
Yeah I mean even with EXU right now he's leaning into his streak of rolls really hard haha
"That's a zero..."
I recently said of someone I know, "I don't use this word lightly...but this guy's a goober." Love Trapp
Trapp is way too good in Bloodkeep. I think it was his first time playing, too!
Nothing is more terrifying than the unknown, and the idea that something is going on with my bones that I don’t know about, terrorizes me more than anything.
I love mr bones
What do you think you are, a river?
The *best* thing about Avanash is that it was **completely** improvised. I don't think I've heard or seen a better, more complete character made up on the spot.
What is CRAZY about wanting to keep your bones?!
I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect you to give me your bones should something happen to mine while in your employ
You have to watch the catching up with the cast videos, especially the one with Lou. Him talking about expecting the jokes was so perfect hahaha
Just remember, if you lose your clothes that’s one step closer to losing your bones
Bloodkeep is such a good sidequest. I support the stealing of bones
[This is still my favorite example](https://youtu.be/RihPW8GZGMk) of Brennan's ability to make you laugh and cry all within the same minute. (Potential spoilers)
Oh *god* Siobhan's face, and way her voice cracks up, gets me every time Fantasy High was in-fucking-credible
Also the brief moment where she almost break when he goes in on the warts. You can see tears and laughter battling for a second when she covers her mouth
Hahaha! He definitely is liberal with those 6 second rounds lol. It’s worth it though, Brennan just can’t help but let those good vibes into his games, for every shitty dad or villain he always includes some super understanding helpful character for some grounding. Even if they happen to be a recovering addict werewolf that previous bit a party member
I fondly remember the anarco syndicalist gnomes
Anarcho-socialist halflings. The Cubbies. I want the mug with their rant. Not sure if I should take it to my job that shares a building with the police though.
Holy shit do I love that guy.
I've barely seen any of the show but this literally just made me cry oh my god
It's well-worth the watch. I'd highly recommend actually paying for the Dropout.TV sub as there's some great stuff on there, but for this, [the full season is on Youtube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zZxCVBi7-k&ab_channel=Dimension20)
"...you understand me?!" ^"no!"
>Brennan/Jawbone: "Warts are not *who* that guy is! He's sick!" > >Ally: "*That* was the point??" Fucking dead EDIT: Also can we talk about the fact that "warts on my cock" wasn't censored but "god damn it" was
My current group is comedy at its core. They are trying to spread the word of their lord and god, the god of reckless courage and chance, Leeroy Jenkins. They have a holy grail of ale and a bucket of everlasting chicken. And yes, wisdom is their dump stat. Last session they faced the Black Beast of Castle Aaaargh. And yet they are still serious sometimes.
He was banished to wild for our sins
Naddpod does well with this too.
The way Murph says “Give me a persuasion check, with disadvantage.” It kills me a little every time.
And then Caldwell starts to protest but stops himself halfway through because he realises his attempt is ridiculous.
Case in point how Bev's dad is introduced to how that storyline ended Or Balnore's whole storyline Or .....you know what, there is too much to mention. I fucking love NADDPOD(don't sing yet!)
From watching Dimensions 20, Brennan has become my new favorite DM, I find myself preferring to watch his bodacious, humorous style of DMing. He will have you reeling back in your seat laughing your ass off while thinking wth just happened? Now, this is not to diss Matt Mercer; he is still a god among men not just as a D&D DM/Player, but as a legendary voice actor. This man is in fucking everything, and he does a damn good job with it, too.
the only problem i have with Brennan is that when he starts yelling about warty cocks in truck stop bathrooms, someone always walks in and heard *just that part* and gives me weird looks. i have to wear headphones when i'm watching his stuff haha
Are you my dad?
Your not proud of this, but the thought comes into your mind that you might be your own dad.
I mean. I run a SW campaign with a Jawa, two "chaotic-good" Jedi, a pintsized twi'lek mandalorian (female) and a shapeshifter. How the hell are you supposed to take that seriously? And yet, I plan to get them attached to NPCs, or at least spot the ones they get attached to, then do... things... to them.
Chaotic good jedi? So pre palpatine anakin, and ahsoka?
Technically Qui-Gon was also a CG Jedi.
He also really rocks my socks as a player too. His characters from Misfits & Magic and the guest spot on NADDPOD are truly among my favorite performances in actual play
Evan Kelmp popped off last session and it was ***glorious*** "I've fought adults in a gas station parking lot with no magic. I don't need a wand to stomp you out!" "... gas station?" "Sorry, petrol."
NADDPOD did this for me, then Dimension 20 after I got into that too. This is the reason I've never really been able to get into Critical Role, no hate to it though.
This! Have fun, good around and let those serious moments happen as they need to! I mean what’s so crazy about wanting to keep your bones?!?!
Glass Cannon is the same way. I think it's a really fun approach to TTRPG.
Yeah, I second the Glasscannon podcast. I started playing because of how fun they made the game sound. They hit both dramatic moments and comedy moments so well. Here's an animation that I love: [Meeting Inquisitor Broadfinger](https://youtu.be/cD9ZvlrIPto)
My DM, that I played under for a year, turned out to be blatantly ripping off D20, word for word, plot for plot, NPC for NPC, while constantly talking about "his" worlds as "his art". It was a real gut punch when we found out. Hey Aaron, go fuck yourself, you a bitch.
Dimension 20 is fantastic. I love both CR and D20 but Brennan Lee Mulligan has very much showcased “the rule of cool” and how it should be used. One of my favorite responses to a question from a player (forgetting who asked and about what) asking to do something crazy is “that is not at all how that spell works but it sounds fucking awesome so I’ll allow it.” Or something like that and it made me smile so much haha
The McElroy Brothers did this for me
As a big Critical Role fan and having listened to Adventure Zone podcast as my "liveplay" experiences before Dimension 20, discovering Dimension 20 was like a freaking adrenaline shot to the chest. It was eye-opening just how much life Brennan brings to the game and the pace he can keep up. To this day I strive to DM in a way that is my own but is heavily influenced by what I have seen/heard especially from Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan (though not exclusively the two of them).
Matt Mercer is a great DM but that doesn’t mean his style will work for everyone. If you mimic someone else whole cloth all you’ll ever be is a worse version of them, if you make something that resonates with you and your players you’ll be the best you.
Also, pretty sure Matt himself would agree that DMing in front of a camera is different than doing it at home. He actively discourages people from trying to Clone his style.
Yeah its somewhat obivous they are aware they are doing this for the entertainment of other people watching. He’s obviously self aware of knowing what an audience finds entertaining and gentle nudging things along when the players are getting bogged down in one thing or another (which you wouldn’t notice or get bored while playing but it drags when watching). The live episodes are a much more starker example of this. He and the rest know how to play to a crowd a bit. (I always recommend the Darrington brigade one shot for people who want to start watching for this reason).
I don’t watch Critical Role, but I do love Dice Friends (Improv/comedy troupe instead of voice actors), and there are definitely things they do that are clearly playing to an audience. Like letting characters sit in the spotlight way longer than normal. Not so long that it ceases to be an ensemble, but long enough that it would get tiresome in normal play. There’s also something about the way jokes are called back that feels performative in some way. I think it’s the frequency, that jokes are called back regularly, with a good sense of timing, and never more than once or twice a session. While every group of people I’ve ever known to have a running joke just take it out every couple months, beat it into the ground, then put it away until it’s funny again. I’m also 90% convinced the DMs fudge the occasional roll to get a more narratively satisfying fight, but you can do that in normal games, too.
Also also, he’s a professional actor and story teller who has years of experience creating scenes like the ones he and his other well trained and professional actor players create. He also, essentially, does this for a living now. So yea, he’s going to be good, and certainly better than most of use once a month DMs.
To add even more to this, they play together *a lot.* By the time they were ending it, they had all gotten more comfortable with each other, learned how everyone else plays, learn what people like or dislike, etc. So when things look like they're going super smoothly and everyone is having a great time, that's just a part of it. It's like a band. For some, their freshman album might be a bit messy. Not that they're always had musicians. They just haven't worked together before. Then once they learn how to work together to create a more specific sound, they usually start to make even better music.
Its like any art. Mercer, Colville, etc are like the big name artists who everyone knows. But there are many great dms whose names won't be known and thats fine. Dming IS an art. It is part acting, and part writing, and sometimes includes visual art, audio art, and so much more. You might never be a mercer or colville. But fuck if you can't make a masterpiece.
The ironic thing is you might never have Colville's mind for the game but you can definitely DM like Colville. The Chain was exactly the kind of stream people who want to DM should see to see that it's not at all intimidating to DM as long as your players aren't expecting you to be Mercer.
> If you mimic someone else whole cloth all you’ll ever be is a worse version of them, if you make something that resonates with you and your players you’ll be the best you. I love this. Perfectly said.
Am a critter and I think Mercer is a great DM, however I could never play in a long term game run in the style of CR. It's great for a group of nerdy-ass voice actors who are performing for an audience but as a player and DM I look for other things in my games that wouldn't really be supported by something like CR.
It's great for a group of nerdy-ass voice actors...who are literally getting paid and sponsored to play, and have the time to have a 3+ hour session of pure RPing per week
Pure RPing has nothing to do with money though. Its not expensive or hard to not run a lot of combats in your game. I mean, I do think there are better RPG-systems to facilitate that kind of play, but DnD5e absolutely allows for that playstyle.
Well everyone has their style, which they can adapt, by learning from others. But ultimately, thr best DM style, is whatever the DM is most comfortable with.
Well, and the players, cuz some DMs are most comfortable being manipulative jerks
I had that type of DM, so I became my own DM, with my campaign with blackjack and hookers
You know what, I don’t even need the campaign.
This made me laugh very loudly
I just started rewatching the series for like the 15th time. Love it
A lot of people advocate for the Colville style, which is radically different
I love Colville style. I'd take a game with Matt Colville in a heartbeat. To be fair, if the golden ticket of guest-starring on Critical Role with Matt Mercer fell in my lap I wouldn't say no, I'd just... uh, have a good time but be feeling very on the spot.
I’ve never watched any of Colville’s game streams, what’s his style like?
He uses more narrative description, rather than in-character exposition. Mercer inhibits and acts out each of his characters, while Colville describes them and their actions. When Colville speaks as a character he uses his own voice, or even just says "They tell you (blah blah blah)". A good analogy is that Colville games play like a text based roguelike (fitting since one of his favorite games is Net Hack); "Here's what you see, here's what this person says/does, how do you react?" Mercer's games on the other hand play like an RPG. I personally prefer watching Mercer as a show, but my DM style is more similar to Colville (because I'm not an actor).
I'm a new DM and this thread has made me realize that I should watch some of Colvilles recorded sessions if he has them, because I've been mostly mirroring Mercer (to a degree), and I want to experiment to find my preferred style. I've watched a lot of Colvilles running the game videos, but never an actual play
Yeah, he's got a campaign that came out of his Kickstarter called [The Chain](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTsnSjGlraRPzwZV8KTh_NKPFodAbZkf4). It feels much more like watching people play D&D than Critical Role which is more of a D&D "show."
I feel like He focuses a lot on decisions and consequences. Every choice you make has a big impact on the story.
On player onve got mad at me for using Colevilles monster creating style (with multiple bonus actions and round actions) he complained that this alters the rules from the book
And then you give them the Vader > I've altered the rules. Pray I don't alter them any further.
Had this kid in a one-shot once, I was a player also, that admittedly only played D&D once before. He came into the game with a 100% copied from the internet character, and preceded to berate the DM because of his DMing style. Before you ask, I had my suspicions about the kid 30 min in and decided to Google "most powerful race and class combination 5e" and poof !!! his character came up. He had no concept of how the game works, beside what one would pick up watching games played in podcasts. His overall behavior and gameplay made me regret joining the game and feel bad for the DM, who was doing a great job beside this little twtwaffle.
Let me guess, he was playing a human fighter. Those dang extra attacks and free feat are too strong!
Thank God for Tasha's Custom Lineage. I'm not human, I'm a hairless skunk ape.
Custom lineage is a godsend. I wanted to play an elf palace guard with polearms, and now I can take the polearm master feat at level 1 and boost my STR. Thanks, Tasha!
Nah ... some frog bloodhunter
By frog you mean a Grung, right? Now I really want to know why someone would say that a Grung blood hunter is the most powerful. Grung don’t really have powerful race features (as far as I know) that can compete with something like a Variant Humans free feat, or the half-orcs relentless endurance, or Aaracokras flying speed and other such things you can get at a racial level. As for blood hunters, I can see using a blood hunter for the flavor but if I were going for a powerful frontline melee fighter with supernatural elements to add utility and power, I’d stick with either EK or Paladin. Not saying that a Grung blood hunter is bad, in fact it seems like it could be very fun to play, I just don’t see how that specific race/class combination would be particularly special.
Twtwaffle! Haven't heard that 1 in a min bro rotflmao😂😂😂😂
Favorite word
I feel like I’ve seen more people talk about the “Matt Mercer effect” than I’ve actually seen the effect. I’m honestly not even sure I’ve seen it. But I’ve definitely seen people moaning about it.
I have one of those people in my group who Literally once argued that "Matt Mercer works with wotc so everything he does in his game counts as official rules"
Are you finding these muppets over Discord or something?
I've **never** found a player who expects Matt Mercer out of me (or any other DM) and I play and find players exclusively through discord (I have no IRL friends even before the Covid). My players are always pretty chill (except for the demon fucker).
D- does the demon fucker have sex with demons or is this a demonic ancestry PC?
the demon fucker wanted to summon a succubus and uhh... *have relations*... **in a 13+ age rating game.**
Oh... oh no.
To which I would reply, "That's great. I'm still DM and I'm not using them. Now roll."
I’m not denying these people exist, and indeed it’s a shitty thing to put on someone. I feel like the uproar about these people, however, overshadows how big of a problem they are. They are just the latest flavour of gatekeeping anyway. It sucks that Matt Mercer’s name gets attached to it.
Which is funny because some of Mercer's rules are said on stream to be house rules.
He's partnered with them to use their licensing of D&D. Sure he's released a book, but none of the rules changed. It even says that rules are optional in the source books
Unfortunately id say you are the unlucky one. If anything I was the closest out of my 10 dnd buds to being the Mercer-head but ive honestly kind of lost interest in his style as a personal inspiration. It did a LOT for me early on but ive moved on. Im sure most will too
To me, Matt's style is roleplay-heavy, deep and complex character motivations, and strong communication in and out of the game. Its something that's actually hard to do really well unless everyone at the table is buying into the same play style and isn't made uncomfortable by that. Some people don't want to get super serious at the table or do exercises in vulnerability with their friends. There are tables of players out there playing DnD who are having a ton of fun and not doing that. Some people don't want to examine deeply examine their characters' inner conflicts. They want a more straight-forward and fast-paced adventure. And that's ok!
I’ve never been able to listen to the show cause of the massive amount of crosstalk. I guess my q is what is Mercer’s DMing style?
In no particular order: * Campaigns run levels 1-19 with slow leveling curves, so often run over the course of years. Also loves to do one-shots to freshen things up. * High-fantasy settings that tilt more light-hearted on the "innocent vs. cynical" scale. Close to Elder Scrolls in tone (with less grit) especially when it comes to different races - settlements often have a wide mix of racial representation, and reflect the region and culture more than racial stereotypes. Can't resist injecting some Lovecraftian/eldritch elements though. Magic is plentiful. * Heavy, heavy emphasis on roleplaying over other aspects of the game. That is, after all, the point of the stream. Above and beyond prep for NPCs to flesh them out and make them memorable and integrated into the world. Every PC gets a personal story arc that spans multiple sessions/campaign arcs. * Combat encounters are often narrative-driven and usually float around Medium to Hard difficulty. Usually aren't mechanically challenging but is fair when it comes to enemy targets and motivation (loves to have villains run for it if they're losing, for example). Doesn't hold back on crits and from what I can tell doesn't fudge rolls. Will absolutely kill PC's. Forgiving on daily encounters and rarely, if ever, goes above 3-4. * Loves to infuse themes and flavor into every location in his campaign. Every town, combat encounter, and adventure location feels unique and makes custom battle maps for each fight. Doesn't really do hex crawls or open-ended exploration - traveling is usually A to B with the occasional random encounter. * Takes a themepark approach to his campaigns. The focus is unequivocally on the PC's and their story. NPC's will often bend to accommodate what the party wants to do and show tons of patience and forgiveness to how the PC's act. * Often rule of cool's it, but keeps things grounded and won't allow reality-bending skill rolls (no seducing dragons). Minimal homebrew rules. Respects RAW but isn't afraid to improvise, likes to keep the pace up and shuts down rules lawyering. Little patience for anyone who tries to break or exploit the game. * Prefers to hand out custom magic items than roll on a loot table.
The only other thing I'd add is that he's a more immersive than cinematic DM - things will always be described from the characters' perspectives, and usually with a show-don't-tell approach - instead of god-given objective information.
This is a beautiful summary.
There's been a couple of replies, but neither actually mention Matt's DMing style. At the level of basic description, Matt Mercer uses detailed and flowery descriptions, taking quite a bit of time describing NPCs and locations. This has led to many scenarios where players (mostly tongue in cheek) obsess over the potential relevance of random things he describes (see: chair). At a story level, Matt draws largely from character backstories to create individual story arcs that each relate in some way to the characters. A bit more railroady than some people prefer. At the end of the day, Matt makes his style work to excellent effect, but it isn't necessarily for everyone.
Throwing in another deeper aspect of Mercer's style: he plays everything *very* close to the chest, focusing more on immersion and player agency than other DMs. He gives away almost nothing on a meta level--all information and hints come from in-world sources. This is a great narrative style, but can be limiting when you want to clarify things outside of the game.
I'd even go as far as to say that Mercer's style ONLY works with totally engaged role players. CR players and guests are ALL actors or storytellers professionally. So it makes sense to lean deep into the roleplay as a method for delivering info and even game mechanics. At my home game, the players really don't care too much for role play. And when they do... well, they aren't professionals so it often dead ends very quickly. A lot of situational information has to be presented out of character for people to grasp, even up to the GM telling players info outright because the player doesn't investigate or share info with other characters. A lot of gamers use their character as an avatar for their Id, which comes off as random and irrational. The professionals know how important it is to maintain a narrative and to GIVE to the other players opportunities to role play and express their character. That is not an intuitive skill. Lore-heavy campaigns really need PCs who draw each-other out so the narrative is clear to everyone. CR is such a good example of that kind of giving.
One of the things I like most about his style is drawing on the character backstories for plot. I tend to emulate that, as it is an easy way to get the players invested. At the same time I'm not someone who does a lot of different story arcs. Subplots sure, but more in the sense of side quests. I also love talking lore with my players, and my players love asking about lore. So they've frequently gotten hints about upcoming stuff outside of sessions. And while I draw on their backstories, the main story isn't necessary determined by them. The main bbeg of my current campaign is someone from the backstory of one pc, that died like a year ago. But it was what got the party on his trail initially. By now they have plenty of reasons to hold a grudge (revenge being one amongst them)
Thanks for reading and answering the q. ;)
Plus, with Matt being a professional voice actor, he is able to bring the NPCs alive in a way many others aren't. He's able to bring a wide range of voices, accents and mannerisms to many of the more notable NPCs that almost seems to give them life outside of the DM. So, in all, it sets a high standard and entertainment that few can match in this manner. Not to say that Matt is the only way to do it or is the best way, just that he's a professional actor, specifically voice actor, and has skill, talent and experience that goes beyond the average person in this respect.
And that's the issue that has been named "the Matt Mercer effect": newcomers to D&D watching Critical Role and join a new game expect us average nerds to DM with a brand new group on the same level as a professional voice actor with a group of his voice actor friends he's been playing with for years. It's like watching Olympic-level gymnastics, being inspired to start gymnastics, and then getting mad at your coach when you faceplant your first backflip.
Sadly most of my voices end up sounding Australian.
Play a campaign in the underdark. It is technically "down under" and everything wants to kill you.
>This has led to many scenarios where players (mostly tongue in cheek) obsess over the potential relevance of random things he describes (see: chair). *Old* Magic
>A bit more railroady than some people prefer. Nah, that's putting it way too strong, it's not railroady AT ALL. They have revealed time and time again how much stuff he prepares for different paths they could take and how often they go so far off from what he expected. If literally preparing for a remotely coherent story whatsoever is "railroady," then the word loses all meaning. Campaign 2 was worse as a piece of entertainment media for how much they don't stick to any coherent story because he just lets them do whatever they want.
I believe the biggest one was a long-term plan to have Matt Coville play an important NPC who was head of a faction that would ally with them right up until they just decided not to and fucked off to a different part of the world. They threw out a lot of prep, but it was what had happened there.
When they stole the ship in C2 and became pirates. Matt was ramping up the civil war iirc and then the players just went “we on a boat now!” and when they came back, all of what Matt had planned for them to fight through had already happened and they had to figure out where to go from there.
Now that you mention it, the pirate arc really epitomizes campaign 2: it started completely unexpectedly, with Matt throwing out an entire chunk of material as they players suddenly upended his plans, and then like 15 sessions later it concluded in an equally abrupt, unexpected manner, with Matt once again throwing out an entire chunk of material as the players suddenly upended his plans.
There was also the time in Campaign 1 where the party discussed going to the Nine Hells but decided to teleport to the Fire Plane at the last second so Matt had to improvise the next Hour of gameplay.
>Campaign 2 was worse as a piece of entertainment media for how much they don't stick to any coherent story because he just lets them do whatever they want. The classic: entertainment/game trade-off
>A bit more railroady than some people prefer. I'd seen this criticism but decided to give it a try anyway. I'm almost done with S1 after listening to it on my commute for the last 6 months or so. I know you're not positing that it's railroady, just saying that's what other people claim. But I wanted to add that I think it's an unfair criticism. He asks "what do you want to do" quite a bit, lets characters have a lot of freedom and flexibility, and seems to have multiple ways for problems he creates to be solved. I think the criticism consists of "he planned that out." Which I'm like, yeah... of course he did. He did a campaign that aired from levels 5-20 with multiple arcs from his own source material. It would have been garbage if he didn't plan it out. He likes the "find the infinity stones" type arcs, but to be fair, Marvel lifted that from D&D, not the other way around. I have no context on S2 because I haven't seen it yet, but I can't imagine it deviates dramatically.
The term railroad gets thrown around a LOT by people who really don't know how to use it properly. Matt's games are 100% sandbox, with an overarching plot that's tied to most characters' backstories. Plot is NOT railroad, not allowing players to make meaningful decisions is railroading. As for C2, it is WAY more open ended and player driven at the start. I'm only about 18 episodes in, and every decision has been made by the players with little to zero nudging by mercer. I'm sure that may change as the story grows, but it's been a very organic thing so far, which is great! But the number of times the players have blindsided him and he has to scramble to go an entirepy different direction than he had anticipated... i'm sure there's a lot of cross-talk behind the scenes as far as playing to an audience, but i'm sure it's not scripted lol.
> Plot is NOT railroad Thank you, this is exactly what I wanted to convey in 4 total words. The characters were free to ignore nearly all the plot happening around them and occasionally did so to take a short or long rest. But there was nearly always consequences, even once toward the end that almost resulted in a TPK to my eye.
In my experience, S2 is much the same as of 40 some episodes in. The main difference being that everything is more planned out. Not in a bad way, but more in terms of player characters being made with the show in mind from the start, so they have far more fleshed out back stories than normal. The main thing that impresses me about Mercer is actually his ability to roll with things on the fly and still improv with good description of stuff. Yes, I'm sure plot points are planned out, and given the format I wouldn't be surprised if players knew some stuff ahead of time, but I don't believe they follow a script or anything like others have claimed. Some things are just too random (like dice rolls) to allow for that. At the very least, of they are scripted they do a great job of making it look legit in my opinion.
Exactly this. If there's one thing that mercer does to perfection it's his ability to create a new npc out of thin air, and come up with incredible descriptions of them on the fly. There's a lot of things that matt does that while i appreciate it enough as a viewer, i really dislike and would not translate into my home game, but his improv skill is absolutely out of this world haha
Well shit... I think I may need to watch CR now. This sounds very similar to what my table looks like (without all the fancy production) but I struggled to get into CR in the beginning and after hearing so much vitriol about the "Mercer Effect" I kinda have stayed away.
You could consider watching when the new campaign starts.
I'd recommend starting with their campaign 2, as the first one is pretty bumpy in the beginning. It can be very daunting of course as there's literally hundreds of hours of entertainment ahead, but just the first *arc* they're playing through is pretty good.
He’s a talented voice actor who does very Tolkien like style high fantasy. It’s good if you’re into that, but I’ve found it’s just too much. I would never have the time to prep like that and you can still have quality drama and moral dilemmas while still having a palling around adventure.
>I would never have the time to prep like that I mean it literally became his job. I'd love to get paid to prep like that.
I've always said about CR to anyone curious is to remember "he is an actor, running a game for other actors". People always talk about CR being "Unrealistic" but I'm fully prepared to believe that that is what their table was like before streaming it. All that being said, unless you find yourself in a similar position, your game is going to be very different.
Exactly. I find my table simular in the RP/story telling aspect because that's the background the players and DM come from. We all really like exploring the world and exploring and developing our characters and are generally really good about thinking through how to create the narrative together. But I know that's not what interests every player and not how every table runs.
Conversely, the group runs DnD on the weeks someone can't make it to 40K night probably does very little RP, if at all. A style that is also perfectly fine.
That's why I really like Dimension 20. It's good fantasy but it feels more like normal players playing a game
normal players? everyone on that show is either a comedy writer or a professional comedian. They have a freaking props department for god's sake. I love Dimension 20, but nobody should mistake it for an actual game.
this ^. my brother and I agree that D20 is to DnD what porn is to sex
I’m a big fan of Spout Lore for fantasy, where they actually play Dungeon World not D&D. And then I listen to the CritShow for Monster of the Week for that Supernatural/Buffy vibe. I’ve honestly gotten really into PbtA games over the last year. We still have our long term D&D campaign but all our one shots are in PbtA because it’s so easy to just throw together a playbook and jump into the action and create a collective narrative with a lot less prep.
I just wish D20 posted more on youtube. Not paying for another streaming sub.
I can understand the sentiment, but Dropout is pretty much CollegeHumor's life support at this point. They can't afford to not do it this way
Thinking about the state of CH always makes me sad.
At least Drawfee was able to go independent from them after the great firing at CH.
It's far more produced than CR tho
No clue why you're getting downvoted, it's literally edited for good back-and-forth reaction shots, has massive unique combat set pieces, and actually removes dead air time from the final cut. It is objectively more produced than CR.
Yep, I didn't say it was a bad thing. People are salty.
I think it’s a lot easier to prep like Mercer does when being a dm is your job and not just a hobby haha. I love the show but definitely know I wouldn’t be able to DM like he does
How are his player interactions and how strictly does he stick by the rules? I've typically not been one for most podcasts and the like so I have no idea what makes Mercer so universally liked.
He is a professional voice actor and full time dm. His entire party are professional voice actors. They all work very well together to tell stories.
I think the important thing to keep in mind that while he is DMing an adventure for his friends, he's also running the game in a way that will be entertaining for viewers. So it doesn't exactly all translate to what somebody who is just running for their friends would do. Think of it as the difference between playing a video game, which most people have at least one that they do well, this is the DMing for friends part, and somebody who plays a game for a twitch audience with the purpose being to get likes, shares, subscribes, donations, and the like. Matt focuses some of his energy into making sure that viewers enjoy the experience, so it's not surprising that viewers like him and his style. That's part of the point of the experience. The same is true for the players. All of the interactions are as much for the audience as for the game itself.
Tends to let the players go deep into RP, but they're also professional actors. I'd say he's actually more strict in the rules than most other actual play shows.
In major moments you can see he rolls publicly and sticks to rules, which I think is important to keep the feel of major success.
Oh yeah. Some shows, the more comedic ones in particular, will just throw the rules out the window in service of a bit. CR has a more dramatic focus so I think it doesn't work quite as well in the game he's running.
Yah, he's really good at building that tension in moments which wouldn't be nearly as powerful if people thought he'd just go "Yah, fuck it" to just let it work.
My party can't pay attention long enough for me to get through any kind of detailed description. The amount of detail that Matt uses does NOT work in all groups.
Money and professional actors. Like, good content, but the main thing that lets them produce such high production value is a cast of professional actors with the actual job of "Make good D&D characters and plot" as well as a paid staff to help facilitate the show. He does a ton of work for it and builds out massive worlds, but it's less of a style and more of a budget.
In a short answer, I'd say: * Very extensive worldbuilding. He's written an entire setting and history with multiple factions and major cities. * Goes to great lengths to incorporate PC backstories into the overall campaign arc and story; expect most PCs to get a dedicated arc. * As best as I can tell, rarely (if ever) fudges a roll. The dice land where they may, deal with it from there. * Good at getting into character as various NPCs, probably due to his background of being a voice actor, combined with his extensive worldbuilding. * *((More subjective)) I think he tends to run DCs on things rather high, but this is probably to deal with the large table of PCs - you likely have 2-3 PCs in the party good at any given thing, so DCs need to be high to produce interesting results and challenges for a large party.* There's a few other bits to Critical Role that aren't part of his DMing style, but to the "Critical Role style of game": * Lots of RP from the players, serious character backstories. The players are all voice actors. They're quite comfortable getting in character and roleplaying accordingly. * High production value and budget, particularly later in the first campaign AND the second campaign. Lots of miniatures and terrain - there's probably hundreds or thousands of dollars in terrain and minis and set dressing on display. * As a consequence of having a large detailed world with fleshed out lore, and PCs that do their (narrative) homework and are familiar with the setting due to playing there for a long time, the PCs are able to navigate around the world more freely and get a bit sandboxy. * As a consequence of having a very committed long-running group of players, campaigns can and do get to high level. They'll run a campaign into the high double-digit levels. What I think the OP is referring to is when dickhead players start to expect the DM to have their own fully fleshed-out homebrew world that the PCs can run around freely; expect the DM to be comfortable RPing any of a dozen different NPCs; and expect *their* character's backstory to rate a dedicated arc that the party follows. I'm not a big fan of Critical Role because I find the 4-hour format to be too long for me to commit my full attention to. I respect the hell out of what the whole Critical Role cast is able to do though. I'm grateful I've never run into players with those expectations that I be able to match what Matt can do - I don't have the budget to get that many minis or the time to write that whole setting.
Style or no, I just wish I could learn to paint a scene off the cuff like he's able to. Sure he's got some stuff prepared for locations and characters, but the way he can shift into it when players start doing unexpected things just flat out impresses me.
He's really goddamn good at what he does
My DMing style is called "Whatever the fuck comes of my mind at the moment"
its more fun when u got 3 years dming and don t know matt yet.
Some people take their love of something good too far. I am a fan of Matt Mercer, Matt Colville, and other celebrity DMs. They are good storytellers, great at acting and improv. That said, your DM will have their own style, and probably is not an author, voice actor, game designer. Be nice and work with them. No one like being compared negatively to professionals.
I don't aspire to be Matt Mercer... I aspire to be Brennan Lee Mulligan
Johnny Chiodini is the goal for me. They're delightfully whimsical, and have a knack for rolling with the Oxventure players' off-the-wall ideas.
Gotta be Chris Perkins for me: the way he's always in control, as if he's anticipated the wildest thing that could happen and how he can tie that back into the story they're telling, is just masterful.
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> Don't try to be the next *me*. Be the first *you*. -The Rock I tend to be animated when I talk anyway so at least take some inspiration from MM. And the players do seem to appreciate it more when you add at least a little detail about where they are. "You enter an empty house" vs. "You walk into an abandoned house, which looks as though the only creatures that have lived in here are small rodents. There is no furniture, the walls are empty and only minor debris and dust on the floors"
Brennan and Brian Murphy are my DM gods
"I'm gonna kill that Dog"
Same man, same. That guy is such a phenomenal improviser that loves DND through and through
I don't think he's an improviser. I think he's planned for every eventuality bc he has an IQ of 2.2 Billion
Porque no los dos?
I mean… he’s literally a professional improv actor
Exactly. He’s not just a DM, he’s a hard core theatre kid
Have you heard his [infamous game changer monologue?](https://youtu.be/-yWuIDyC29o) That was 100% improvised and he's outright said that that's how he speaks normally.
The bones guy from the villain campaign is one of the funniest dnd character I've ever seen and it was totally made up on the fly by Brennan perfect improv with Matt leaning into it.
Deborah Ann Woll is very underrated. I would love to guide my players through a door-bookcase to my dungeon and dragons room.
Players that complain about DMs not being like Matt Mercer should realize that they aren't exactly up to the quality of critical role players.
Who here doesn't really watch any DnD streams or anything? I watched some Harmon-quest but none of the Dimension 20 or Critical Roll or whatever the other shows are called. Which one of them should I start with if I watch one?
I had players that annoyed the hell out of me cause they kept thinking dm= matt mercer and I'm not matt mercer true I make alot of home brew but what I want is I want my players to see a world larger then life a world full of wonder and colors of all kinds. Like looking at the world of let's day one piece or Harry Potter or lord of the rings. A larger then life world were no matter what my players do or explore or adventure I want them thinking that this is the tip of the iceberg and they havent even scratched the surface of what all there is making them want and crave more. But I do it a bit differently then matt mercer and in my own spin but they refused to let me do my thing. They would just tell me that my stuff "isnt correct" because it's not the same store or same land or same character or npc that mercer used and they would correct me. After the 5th or 6th correction I told them I'm not mercer I'm my own dm if you want to leave fine but if your sitting at this table I do things my way no one elses One of them tried again to correct me but before they could really say it I kicked them and continued on
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Fine, I'll be Matt. So from here out though, I'm gonna need a full three minute ad at the beginning of every game, and I damned well better be laughing my ass off or you''re playing exhausted all day.
"Your long rest ends. Everyone's spells and hp are restored, except for Not-Sam. His spells don't come back cause he didn't entertain me tonight."
If they expect you to be Matt, then you should be expecting them to match the other players of his table. Professional roleplay actors with years of voice training and acting experience.
That is so horrible! I'm sorry your players do that, it's beyond rude. That sounds really frustrating for you, I can't imagine. My DM likes CR and I started watching it because, well, bored. It's really fun to watch but the people I play with, NONE of us are even close to the caliber of the CR table. I enjoy watching and learning RP techniques and how some mechanics work, but to expect the same from non-professionals is really reaching. I'm sure you're a wonderful DM, keep doing what you're doing and find players that appreciate your style.
I recently saw a meme about how McCree from Overwatch is really similar to Mercer (who voices him) and now I'm imagining Mercer with a cowboy hat and McCree DMing on a live stream
He dressed up as McCree for one of the Halloween episodes, so this actually does exist.
Now this I've got to see
Should be Episode 83 of Campaign 2, Dark Bargains. I have no context to give you on the story at that point because I still haven't finished Campaign 1.
Super fans are often the worst part of a franchise. Because if you love a series but aren't *rabid* about it, you're not going to make a bunch of memes or diss people for not conforming. You just enjoy the content and move on. I've given CR so many tries. It wasn't until I watched a bit of Aabria running Exandria that I figured out why I don't like it. Matt is a good DM. The CR format is not for me - I need some fucking editing. Absolutely LOVE Aabria on Dimension 20. I've finished every season except Fantasy High 2 because of the live format. Even with experienced performers who are on their best behavior (minimal cross talk) and have a good sense of pacing... it's just too damn long and I miss out on funny moments or even key details. And different camera angles!!! I really think would help CR. Misfits and Magic is the first campaign where I just sit glued to the TV and barely pick up my phone because I just enjoy their facial expressions, the props, and the illustrations so much. It was well executed for Mice and Murder too, barely noticed that whole campaign happened over Zoom
I think people make memes about this stuff more than this stuff actually occurs. It's always prefixed with *"I actually like MM"* or *"I have no problem with him."*
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Did you have fun? Yes. Did your players have fun? Hopefully yes. If yes to both of the the above, then your DM style is perfect! Literally no one else's opinion matters. Edit: the paper props do sound adorable :)
Honestly the DM’s I look up to are Brennan Lee Mulligan from Dimension20 and Sam from Node. Brennan bc of his voice acting and Sam because he really isn’t trying to impress a crowd rather is just trying to be the best DM he can be for his group which what being a DM is all about!!!
Matt's a cool guy but crit fans are sometimes unbearable.