Critical role

I have a question for you, who the hell has a real life gaming group like the one on the web rpg show critical role? All the guys including the dm are either cool, charming, non autistic, and look like they regularly see a salon. And all the girls (assuming you're lucky enough to even have any girls in your group) look like underwear models or actresses. I love this show but at the same time I'm sort of mad resentful that I never had, or ever will have a group half as cool.

It is frustrating, but they are reasonably successful adults who have found a way to do this. It requires discipline, self control, existing funds, social contacts and hell of a lot of luck.

so its basicaly outside the real of possibility for any normal nerd. Figured.

No, but it will take 1-3 years of dedicated work to pull off. These guys didn't just plop a camera on their table and play their normal game. You have to really want it and work towards that goal.

So lets say I manage to put aside enough money to pay a few decent looking girls to play dnd with a select group I guys I pick that I know don't look like shit and are at least 6-7s. How long do you think it would take to start getting enough views to make enough money to keep paying my crew? And if you don't believe these girls aren't being paid, hahahahahahahahaha!!!

wow you really don't have friends jesus christ.

Be friends with other well adjusted people who manage their time well.

My current Eclipse Phase group consists of a mathematician, an electrician, an insurance agent, a network admin, and a biochemist (me). We play for two hours every Saturday and fuck do we make it count.

>Actors

You dont believe they play this in any capacity in their spare time do you? If the do it is a recent thing that they have done to improve their chances of getting on to things like Geek related youtube channels.

They are not gathering around in a table on a Saturday night to play a session of Pathfinder.

sadly, not the ones I'd like, so in all honestly, you're mostly right.

sounds like a dream group, but I suppose to compare with my situation, since I'm only surrounded by ghetto country trash, its hard to upscale my gaming group. I'll keep working on it but ya, I'm sort of stuck.

... EVERYONE is being paid, likely. Or compensated for their time somehow. Or offered a share of the profits, if and when they occur. They are also, almost certainly, all real friends of Mercer.

My last game group was,

Myself - Viking looking motherfucker, charismatic, playing party face dex/cha paladin.
My girlfriend - Slender Goth with a great ass, playing straight up str paladin. We would form a two-man shield wall.
My roommate - trendy-ish guy, years of dance, playing the ranger.
A friend, stocky but charismatic, curly hair that doesn't look like shit, playing the barbarian dwarf.
The DM's girlfriend, with some kind of cool girl haircut and dye, and great hips, playing the orc warlock.
The DM, slender/atheletic guy with tattoos all down both arms.

No sperglords in the group at all, though the dancer is 19, so he's a bit young. The group before that only had one; the one before that had none.

Where are you that all you can get to play a SOCIAL game is people who don't have basic social skills or hygiene?

Ya, that's what I figured was the main draw for some of these people since I can't see any other reason girls like that would play for 4 hours a week in a small basement with little drama related story to keep them interested.

Actors and improv guys have always been the most likely to show up at my table. Even if they're only getting into it for the channel, they clearly ARE getting into it. It's a lot like taking on a role, and that's in their skillset.

Admittedly, actors do prefer games with more fluff and less crunch - fiasco with a group of actors or writers is AMAZING.

Man, that sounds like another great line up of players. MY gf is fairly overweight and doesn't even like gaming, and while I have some friends that do they all are middle florida types so they're pretty trashy themselves. I need money like you said.

I never thought about trying to invite theater geeks to my games. I always assumed they would turn their noses up and this stuff. Thats a good idea though, I'll have to try it out.

> Girls like That

... what? Attractive women?

My best players have been women, and all of them have been attractive - and only one caused any drama, because all she wanted to do was get high with the ranger on snack/bathroom breaks.

Just thinking back through previous groups...

>Slender goth and hippy trendy girl, from
> Slender Goth's faerie-oriented sister, who played the shit out of a pf Gnome Saboteur Alchemist / Urban Barbarian
> Literal model and her pole-dancing amazon of a sister - the model I first met dressed as a night elf rogue at a halloween party, and got her into my games playing a succubus in an evil campaign. Her sister got in through her, played a dragonkin berserker
> Shit-kicking security guard military kid with tits like a shelf and an ass to match. She had... some issues, sure, but they never caused a problem at the table. Played a knife wielding CQC specialist.
> Aforementioned chick getting high with the ranger. She was playing a gnome druid, though, so in retrospect it makes a fair bit of sense.

My group is functional and attractive, except for myself. I'm handsome but I have a severe case of edge, and I'm quite the contrarian.

They literally played Pathfinder for years before making it a stream.

And surprise, voice actors in LA know each other from other work.

Wouldn't recommend it, unless you want them zoning out during combat parts and trying to settle everything with prose. Trying to shoehorn another hobby in to an existing one just ends up with people getting pissed.

My wife plays and she invited a friend who does belly dancing (Not in any way pleasant, she was mammoth and red and unpleasant and always scratching her top lip) and she kept trying to make it relevant. A biased example i know, but not one I would wish on anybody.

Even if there is drama they will not stay interested beyond it staying relevant to their careers. That is not to say no women play, they do, they are like us. Genuine passion can easily be seen regardless of either gender.

lucky bastard. Sounds like every game night was better than going clubbing.

Also, might as well try, got any pics? Wait now that I think about it, no. It would just depress me even more.

I live in middle florida so I'm beginning to realize a lot of my problem is locati0n and that I'm not in the acting circle.

>They literally practiced on their show for a year before going live.

The most succesful youtube channels are all working from a script, user. Their production values are getting higher and higher all the time, it is not just a a few friends with a camera anymore.

They are rehersed, polished products that are given a relaxed, social and amatuer feel. How I wish they were though.

>I live in middle florida
Suddenly nothing you said surprises me

It is a weekly 4 hour *live* show. How could it be scripted?

>And surprise, voice actors in LA know each other from other work.

Don't you bring that sense bullshit here!

Oh god, I hadn't even considered voice actors. They are TAILOR FUCKING MADE for tabletop games with characters - they're always focused on the non-physical parts of a role, so they're used to imagining actions and trying to portray that through their voices.

My dream table might actually be Jennifer Hale, Claudia Black, James Marsters, Mark Hamil, Steve Blum - can you imagine that lineup?

Yes, that is certainly a large part of the problem. Hit the gym, volunteer at a local theater, expand your social circle and run some games.

dammm. I didn't realize it was that built up. It is impressive I still sort of get a home brew feel to the group but ya, It will be a while before I can get like that.

...you honestly think they don't go over it beforehand? Every 'live' show for anything has a script, even if its just a loose draft.

>We'll lead in with you all making your characters, they're all done but freestyle on it until I give the signal and improv around making them and keep it light.
>Simple signal given
>Alright, the adventure begins on blah blah blah
>Riff on this for a bit, ten minutes.
>Tragedy coming up, slow your speech, it's sad remember.

You give them a general outline of a campaign, they prepare for it. You know, like GMs do all over the world. They are professional actors, not amazingly great ones, but enough to convey what they are wanting to sell. It is the basics of acting, give them a path to follow in the forum of a linear campaign, then direct them the way you want off scream with simple cues.

It is entertaning and very watchable but it made to be so. That does not detract too much from what it is so long as you know it is now just a few friends getting together to record their game. Profit, user, it makes the world turn.

Major points of it can be rehearsed, which is different from being scripted. I haven't put much out, but every small project I've done with "candid" takes has taken a lot of prep to get in position. You polish before you go on stage.

Essentially, that's like saying, "how can a live play be scripted?" They do it quick, given the turnaround time for shows, but there's far less of a problem if they go off-script, and these are people with more than a little improv and ad-lib training.

Eesh. You've got it in one. Nothing good happens in that shriveled scrotum of a state.

I wouldn't know. I've never been clubbing. I have, however, worked very hard to make my home and my table an inviting place for the kind of people I want to hang out with, and as a man who likes tits, I have made sure that people with tits feel welcome.

I have seen each of those sets of tits, too, bar one. GF's little sister is off limits.

Like I said, more crunch, less fluff, definitely - and you've got to give them characters that do interesting things in combat, like decoding the runes on the wall while swashbuckling.

I like the cortex system for that specific reason - combat is quick, I only make them roll for things that could fail and have interesting implications for the plot, and character growth is driven by plot achievement.

And as far as
> Genuine passion can easily be seen regardless of either gender.
Is that a thing some people don't know?

Daily reminder that all web shows, TV shows and movies about "nerd culture" are exploitative and marginalize the social demographic they attempt to depict.

holy shit thats true that just ruined the show for me. Dam. I really thought all those well thought out speeches and shit were off the top of their head. I knew the bard's songs were pre made up but the rest I felt was truly on the fly.

If you're not great on stage, learn useful tech skills. Do lighting or set work. Offer to buy the actors a round while they're rehearsing, mention that all of them at a table working on lines reminds you of running a tabletop game.

All of that's true, and I know you're not saying this, but I need to stress that none of it makes it any less enjoyable. With the exception of the polish and shine, everything could happen at your table.

That's part of the draw, too. I really liked, personally, the old show "I Hit It With My Axe," which was with porn actors/actresses and strippers.

Everyone can be a nerd now, man. We're out of the nerd closet. Gaming is just a thing people do.

true. Just like portlandia, although I didn't watch much of it. Or big bang theory.

Keep in mind three things about this show:

1) They all knew each other for years before the game even began, thanks to their shared background jobs of being voice actors or actual actors (Ashley - the gnome cleric - is a supporting cast member in a primetime NA show, and Sam has been on TV before).

2) They all played the game in Pathfinder for almost two years before showing up on Twitch, so they had a lot of chemistry and character history going before it was on camera.

3) They all are (overall) pretty well-adjusted folks who know the difference between IC and OOC moments.

Note that their earliest episodes actually had an 8th party member/player but left around episode 30 due to creative differences between Matt (the DM) and his character's believed importance in the party dynamic. There's also rumors of him being inappropriate one episode and being kinda meta-gaming a ton, but those are rumors.

I never heard of that show, but am now required to try sand watch it. Thanks for the tip friend.

Consumer Culture is exploitative. The best thing you can do is encourage them to make media FOR you, and not ABOUT you. That's the difference between Acquisitions Incorporated and, let's say, The Big Bang Theory. Then it enriches you in a symbiotic relationship, instead of feeding off of you in a parasitic one.

Seriously, man, that's just how culture works. Doesn't matter what kind of culture or demographic we're talking about.

No, no, man, don't let it do that. There's no reason it should ruin the show - a good chunk of it's almost certainly ad libbed, they're working off of directions, but if you're enjoying the product, don't let the fact that you know it's rehearsed change shit for you.

My dex paladin? It's 5e, she's got the Oath of the Crown, and she's evil. She knows she's evil, she's going to come into conflict with the other paladin at some point - some accidental "Detect Evil" spell getting pointed at here - and I'm going to have to do some verbal tap dancing right then and there. She does good out of necessity, because it's what her king commands, and she's a lawful servant of the king. She strives to uphold society, because she recognizes her own urges, and knows that civilization protects her as much as anyone else.

I'm already rehearsing the speech. I'm going for a little bit of Parthunaax from Skyrim - straight up admitting to who she is, without qualm, and asking the paladin what is more righteous: a man, driven all his life to do good, or a woman who puts aside the needs that drive her, to do good?

I'm rehearsing it so I can deliver it right at the table. Why wouldn't I? Does that diminish what I'm doing?

Sadly true.

Mandy Morbid is in it, one of my favorite alt-porn stars.

That's good to know then that they're mostly all old friends. I know I could only even think of doing something online like this with some of my oldest and best gaming companions.

I never looked any of the players up in real life so thats weird but cool if some of them are actors (and gives me hope some of the girls will one day maybe go nude), but again, I don;'t know any actors so it will be hard for me to mimic that group makeup.

Was that guy they got rid of sort of fatish? I think I remember him.

That was the last thing I wanted to do user, I did not mean to detract from a thing you enjoy. There is nothing wrong with this, enjoying the show, but it is no different to watching something on cabel tv and I feel to represent it otherwise does a disservice to you and the hobby.

But as the other user said, there is nothing stopping a game we hold from being like this.

Okay, I've got to know, how old are you? What's the social group you have look like?

If you don't know how nonsensical it is for 8 successful voice actors to spend that much time rehearsing a live D&D game then I hate to think how broke you must be. This show is scripted in the sense that the DM does a lot of work up front (like a lot of DMs) and the players are literally advertising their resumes publicly so have a reason to get their characters screen time.

This game is not far from my home game in terms of actual play quality, story, and even the humor - but my friends are not voice actors. We use third person to role play and will allow tangential OoC conversations if we are all entertained by them. If Inhad producers, sound engineers, Syrenscapes, tons of miniatures, and could voice act at the level of a decently big name I could do this show without a script. It's just not required at all.

ya I do see what you're saying. I write out all my npc's major speeches and outline their big discussions with the pcs. But I can safely say I don;'t think any of my halfwitted players ever think more than 5 seconds about what they're going to say or do. Lol, so when I watch these actors it always impressed me they could say stuff as eloquently on the fly as me who took a day to flesh it out.

I'm going to always watch because I have a huge crush on all the girls and a dm crush on matt but knowing they have even a basic outline of the nights activities does ever so slightly take away from the awe I used to have of them.

I'm 34 but my friends are all either 5 years older or 10 years younger. Its a weird group. Thats probably why they all have such different goals and play styles.

Nothing but hard work, and a good understanding of the kind of people you have playing.

Here's an example - I had a gestalt PF campaign to have people try some high-powered fun, a good mix of player abilities, and I made all the characters myself with the players specifically in mind. Here's the roster.

JB - He's a long term player of mine, always likes to play snipey characters, so I decided to mix it up. I made him a Tengu Rogue / Witch, with a bunch of Debuffs, to make him have to get into the fray to cause damage, but to keep him doing his support and force multiplication game, and get him out of his comfort zone. He turned into the party face, quick.

My Girlfriend - She has always liked playing straightforward brawlers, so I made her a Magus / Gunslinger, to pull her more into the DPS and Caster end of play. She got a fast, maneuverable character she loved playing, something between Harry Dresden and Richard Riddick.

GF's Sister - Aforementioned Gnome Saboteur Alchemist / Urban Barbarian. She's not the most comfortable person, she often has anxiety about the best course of action, so I gave her a character who always has a panic button - rage up and start blowing shit up. It worked WAY too well for her, and she actually managed to use every bit of the character to slip a supernatural bounty hunter and his team of city swat I loosed on her.

Dickwheel - This guy was simple. I mean, he was easy to figure out what to do for, but he was also literally a simple person. I made him a dwarven paladin/roof runner rogue. He played him like Spiderman-Thor, smashing heads for justice, and unlike every other character, he had a straightforward backstory with no personal trauma.

JD - This guy is rarely sure what to do character wise, so I enforced his abilities mechanically - I made him a healing focused cleric archetype / summoner, and had his eidolon act like his body guard. The character was an elven noble, not given to sharing much. (continued)

how long had you been playing with them before that campaign?

Continued> ... and that meant that everything he said sounded like the terse words of a guarded man, not the floundering of someone who didn't know what he was doing. In combat, his job was to A) get to the injured and fix them, and B) get his Eidolon, a character with literally no personality, into the fray.

KO - A shortstack with a shorter attention span, I made her a pilot. I forget what her actual class distinction was, maybe Rogue / Witch, because she just did piloting. She would be able to come in or out of the game depending on how up to it she was feeling that night, and I would just design the session with that in mind. She had fun, and her absence wasn't missed too much. She was useful when she was there.

JJ - The most comfortable with the combat mechanics, I made him a Rogue / Urban Ranger, and he handled the heaviest fighting alongside Dickwheel. DW tanked, he DPS'd, and the other characters interacted from range or as needed.

Each of those was designed to both compensate for those players' weaknesses, or bring out the strengths in them I wanted to develop.

JB, years. The GF had done a campaign or two, namely the evil one in 3.5 with the model mentioned before. She was the Succubus's vat grown hell soldier.

The rest of them I knew as people, and talked to about the kinds of things they enjoyed doing in vidya or would like to emulate from TV / Movies.

Christ, get out of Florida while you can. If you have to stay in the south, move to somewhere like Austin TX or Savannah GA, where you know you can be around a creative culture. Otherwise, shit, head to Boston, Seattle, Denver, or any city within a trainride of NYC. Do it while you still can, for your sanity, before Florida eats you.

Sometimes literally. You live in a state that occasionally goes "NOM NOM SINKHOLE IN YOUR BEDROOM SHITSTAIN."

One thing different between your people and mine, is that mine always know what they want to play, admittedly even if its not what they're good at or what the group needs most. They would get mad if I ever tried to railroad them or try to tell one of them they should play a specific race/class. It was maddening, but yours does sound cool. Wish I could play in your group user,.

I know I know. I got to get my gf's shit straight with her job and family and then we're going to try. Keeping my fingers crossed.

That's the beauty of playing with people new to the hobby, though - you can direct them through the crunch, or even handle it all for them, to get them hooked on the play. From then on, crunch is just the work they have to do to get playing, and they enjoy it because they get to build the fightan dood they're sending up Tiamat's Cloaca to retreive the Emerald Diaphragm of Cyr Drannor.

I'd like to guide them more but they're all dude bros so they're pretty self opinionated. I'll work on them and try to spoonful of sugar them into playing outside of their comfort zone more.

Alright, I'm assuming direct control of this thread - what do your groups look like, what do you want them to look like, and what help do you need getting them there?

I'm the user from
And I'm not saying I've got all the answers, but I've done a pretty fantastic job of shaping the group I want to run games for / with and having good interactions from surprising places.

So do they script in the parts where people forget the rules or confuse it with the old pathfinder rules and need them re-explained three times?

Or the parts where a wanker on the show did stupid edgelord stuff and had to be asked to leave?

Or the parts where one of them constantly misunderstands how things will play out and as such wastes their turns consistantly?

I'm a fan of conspiracy theories as much as the next guy, but frankly the far simpler explanation is they are actually people who have played D&D for a while, who look pretty enough that a production house realised they could make money putting them in front of a camera to do it.

Pull each of them aside, then, and work with them on a secret - something they and only they know they're working towards, something that will give them power and prestige, but something that may get them into conflict with other players.

Then hint that one of the others may be trying to stop them, and that they're going to have to play it close to the chest.

Instantly, you've got Dudebros roleplaying secret agendas, and that's just two long steps away from playing a political intrigue game in Venice.

>GF's little sister is off limits.
Who dares, wins.

Not really rumours. Easy to see on the right episodes. Dude metagamed like fuck and constantly tried to push himself to the forefront as the badass of the group. Though he was probably kicked off when he started abusing fans on twitter for profitting off his OCCHARACTERDONOTSTEAL by making T-shirt designs. The show does as well as it does by maintaining a creepily upbeat perception of their relationship with their fans.

She and I actually have a pretty great rapport. I used to joke to my GF that her and I were having an affair behind her back, just in a teasing way. One time, we're all out at one of the marvel movies together, and I say out loud to both of them that I have to come clean - I've been pretending to the GF that the sister and I have been having an affair.

The sister snakes an arm around my waist, hits her hip to mine, gives me bedroom eyes, and whispers huskily, "What do you mean, pretending?"

We broke the GF together.

That being said, I literally have more sex than I want to. I don't need to add onto that problem.

That sounds like bragging, it's not. My libido is low enough already, and I have so many things I would rather spend that energy on even when I am in the mood.

my game has no chicks, but the guys I play with are all well adjusted and reasonably successful with women. We are all professionals. Why do you guys fetishize this weird /r9k/ anti-social vibe?

She sounds like a bro, that sister.

What are you talking about? These people have average looks. My group looks about that or better.

Geek Social Fallacies. That, and the kind of people who think of geekdom as an exclusive club seem to be the kind of people who don't have a lot of power elsewhere, and seem to derive pleasure or security from enforcing their power over a hobby they view as "Theirs."

That's why, of all of the women I know, NONE of them game at FLGSs. It's almost impossible for them to do so without attracting that kind of sperglord, who demands they prove their chops before he'll graciously allow them into HIS hobby, and preferably onto his dick.

>So do they script in the parts where people forget the rules or confuse it with the old pathfinder rules and need them re-explained three times?
So you are caught between having played for a year or two before streaming live then needing to have rules explained? Sometimes it is difficult for actors to stay in character when there is not a divide, when they are essentially playing themselves.

>Or the parts where a wanker on the show did stupid edgelord stuff and had to be asked to leave?
When they brought on a new guy and he didn't gel with the group, just like in real life? No, again the majority of profitable and successful streamers do so in a semi-professional enviroment. There is no reason to not stage drama, make meta characters you hate and ones you love. Ones that lastand ones that don't

>Or the parts where one of them constantly misunderstands how things will play out and as such wastes their turns consistantly?
Again, see the top one please. I don't mean to detract from your enjoyment as it makes no difference to me if it is legit or enacted. The line between professional and not has been completely erased because of technology and affordability. Sadly the professional industry has just began to tap in to the amatuer scene thanks to youtube, twitch and other live streaming sites and realize just how profitable it is. To the detriment of genuine streamers who don't have the resources to compete with the big guys without backing from others.

No, they're not "rehersed", you didn't catch onto anything that anyone else wasn't perceptive enough to perceive and you're not privy to any specific information the rest of us aren't. You're pretending to be all knowing and savvy but it's all bullshit.

>Detect Bluff
>Nat 20

Not that user, but dude, yeah they are? I'm not saying they have a script, but there are plans and directions and more railroading than normal, if only because the DM can't afford to deal with the bullshit lack of direction that most other tables would have.

Youtube shows / streams / creative projects, no matter how live, are rehearsed and polished. Why is that a problem?

Not sure which part that refers to, so either "Yay" or "What?" or "Go Fuck Yourself." You find the appropriate answer. It's like a choose your own adventure!

Okay, so I didn't assume too much control, but if anyone does have some problems or questions, I'll be free to answer. I'm making the girl dinner, but I'll be off and on.

Which is more likely?

1) Several friends get together and stream a live game for no other reason other to enjoy and share what is a relatively intimate and close-knt game between friends.

or

2) A group of professional actors get together to band wagon the growing celebration of geekdom by streaming a live ttrpg game for all to see, showcasing their talents in a cost-effective way. A living and evolving resume if you will, using their experience of improv, voice acting and showmanship to make what would otherwise be a dull viewing experience emotive and enjoyable to watch?

Forgot to add that their field of acting, voice, show, theater and all others is perhaps the most hyper-competitive in the world. Where in elsewhere in the country or the world I would agree but alas it is not.

>>So you are caught between having played for a year or two before streaming live then needing to have rules explained? Sometimes it is difficult for actors to stay in character when there is not a divide, when they are essentially playing themselves.

They originally played Pathfinder. They get the basic stuff right but constantly make mistakes like confusing the old "old my turn" rules with the new "hold my action" in 5E.

>>When they brought on a new guy and he didn't gel with the group, just like in real life?
They haven't brought on a new guy. They've had some guest stars, some of which have decent and others who've been shit and obviously not a good match.

Don't get me wrong, a shit ton of streaming stuff has a lot of scripting, and there've been a few attempts at a tabletop streamed show that's been pretty obviously scripted. But this one doesn't seem scripted to me.

Me, I'm the most autistic one as the GM and I am so attractive that my autistic behavior doesn't stop me from getting fucked

Granted my game is me and my two besties. Once my third bestie comes back to town we will have a fat virgin but he's still the coolest and nicest guy ever and great at rping

>Por Que no Los Dos?

I've no problem with that my square-shelled friend. In no way should it detract from the viewing experience.

I have three girls in my party. One is a lesbian (but not obnoxious or anything, honestly I just thought she was a scene girl until I put the clues together), one came as the girlfriend of one of the players but stayed even after they broke up and he left the group (for unrelated reasons), and the last actually brought her boyfriend into the game (though I wish she hadn't, that guy is That Guy).

Overall the women in my group are pretty high quality. They really get into the roleplaying, make interesting choices, pay attention etc. The guys in my group are good too (except for That Guy). Maybe you just need better friends.

Or an alternative interpretation

1) A production studio decides to bandwagon onto the growing tabletop gaming trend several years before it happens by telling a small group of actors to mention a D&D game on convention panels. Then when the time is right they get the group together and loosely script out three+ hours of a D&D game for the actors to play through.

2) A group of voice actors play D&D together in their off time, and due to their profession the resulting game is quite theatrical. A production studio finds out about this and offers to pay the group to stream this game, a move that would mean they play more regularly, get money and get increased exposure. Then because they've already got a decent D&D game going they don't script it because that would take time and money to do and be counter productive.

I'm looking at the Op's picture, and I'm realizing that all that's seperating that table from mine is the six or seven years I'll need to be that age.

That, and running a game for seven has never been a great idea. Four man squad lyfe.

All of those, visually at least, might as well be my players.

I never realized I had a fetish for legitimate couples having sex before I learned about them

Makes no odds to me they are all valid and equally worthwhile. My only point is that it is not an organic, simple playing of a few gathered friends for recreational purposes.

If it did begin as just friends playing, it has left it far behind and is now commerical in its intention. More viewers, more exposure, more chances of generating income.

There is genuine proof that it started as a Pathfinder game several years ago. There's videos posted back in like 2014 if them playing at Matt's house way before the show was even announced.

But yes, from the videos you can see that it's become a little more rigid. They clearly had a bit more freedom and chaos going on before hand, but now in the show for the sake of entertainment, the players allow Matt to guide them a little more and just accept his plot hooks without looking into them too much. That's not saying the game is scripted by any means, but the show does play out more like an improv show than a D&D game now (but in the end, that's probably better than 99% of all D&D games being played).

You think just because it's live there isn't a script?

that shits normal for most people. Fuck out of all my friends I'm the only one with a high sex drive, the rest of the just kind of wait for their girl to start it

they don't have an outline, that user is a shitposter.

What makes more sense:

1) A group of voice actors turn a game into a livestream investing no more than the typical amount of time in preparation of the story

2) The group spends hours and hours of unpaid time - when they all have day jobs - to run a low paying livestream.

Streamers don't make a lot of money, and G&S has a staff behind this that gets paid on top of a large number of stars of the show. It cannot afford to have them rehearse or script the show, and the actual gameplay is literally not far from a typical game I have been in. The only difference I see is we have OoC talk and this show doesn't.

Agreed, it's become a slightly more rigid and "serious game" but it's still just 8 people sitting around playig dnd.

Mine is.... Kind of close compared to most groups. None of us are overly attractive, but I don't think I'd say any of us are ugly or fat. We do have two girls and they are both, like, 7s if I had to rate them. We are all moderately successful with pretty good social skills.

Except me, I am the most autistic one in the group. Otherwise I wouldn't be on Veeky Forums.

>Google pushes money in to Geeks and Sundry
>Felicia Days goes around finding content
>Finds Critical Role Group
>Brings them on board 'her' channel
>Raises production values, introduces pacing, general scripting and emotive acting
>Pays actors decently for 4 hours work a week
>They study the 'script' which is little more than GMs notes of what is going to happen so they can react correctly
>Campaign is written by several people on staff
>Players work all over California, this is a contract.

It is broadcast on one of youtubes main channels, one that has actual stars, guest and regular. It is not just a few people gathered around a table, it is semi-scripted and acted.

Why the fuck would you want to play RPGs with attractive women? Just a distraction, honestly.

>Liam
>Taliesin
>Marisha
>not autistic
I've binge-watched the first 46 episodes of CR over the past week or two because I love it, but it gets really rough at some points with the overacting and spotlight whoring.

>Ashley
>model-tier
She's very cute, and probably my favorite female in the cast, but her face is not conventionally attractive.

>unless you want them zoning out during combat parts
Don't turn your combat into a tactics minigame. Reward them for putting life into their actions.

Look at the Grog v Hammer pitfights in Critical Role. It's basically an hour of a PC and an NPC autoattacking each other over and over again, and yet everyone gets really into it.

It's a fucking Twitch show you mongloid. There wasn't even a dedicated sponsor for a long time, and then it was a company that made dice boxes. They got a real sponsor 12 months in and relied on subscriptions before then.

The situation you brought forth is true for Titansgrave, but not Critical Role. And Titansgrave was kickstarted to pay for the time and staffing - Critical Role was a big risk when it started because they had to invest a lot of their stream's prime time and their staff.

God damn I fucking hate Marisha, makes me cringe everytime. The other are bearable

She's banging Matt, so she's here to stay.

I love when people defend her as just ~being in character~ when it's obvious that 90% of the time she's just playing herself.

Sam, despite being comedic relief, has had some of the best roleplaying. He actually thinks about what his character would realistically do, and checks with Matt if he's unsure whether his character would know something that he does.

When those desperate survivors of the dragon attack were looting Gilmore's, Scanlan was the only character who didn't try to murder them. Keyleth the insufferable moral authority immediately started blasting them with lightning and saying how good it felt to work off her frustration.

>this

I mean, Taliesin is probably close to 40yo, and look at him.
Marisha is a slightly grown-up version of an exactly the kind of a nerdy half-attractive girl you could meet in flgs or in engineering college with a whole fleet of dorks drooling all over her and her using them for all kinds of life purposes.
Liam seems alright, though. He's a proper grown man with a hint of a child inside; playing an edgy half-elf rouge doesn't seem to be HIS deal.

And as for the girls being models - Laura, IMO, is the most conventionally attractive of the three, but she is still quite dorky without makeup.

Sam really is the guy you would want at your table. He actively avoids meta-gaming without it turning into his character intentionally making dumb choices, respects Matt's calls, and actually reads his spells (even though he doesn't always know what to roll, he functionally understands the spells).

He was the counter balance to Orion before he got the boot.

Oh, and I agree Marisha is irritating.

Sam's the greatest because he always stays in character and maintains the rules of the world. Like when a social conversation happens, he only ever breaks character to either tell Matt he wants to make a roll or to ask Matt what he knows about something. If someone who's not in the conversation speaks up, he ignores them (in a humorous way). Same thing applies to Grog to a lesser extent.

I never noticed how bad Orion was until he left and the game got much better.

I rewatched from of the old episodes again and it really is painful. I didn't mind him at the time, but the more you watch and see how desperate he was to power game and steal the spotlight it really contrasts with the current vibe.

The part where he really wants to use telekinesis to assist Vex shooting her arrow into the hole is the epitome of not letting somebody have their moment.

Oh, and when he blew all his spells because he knew the Rakshasa would be immune to lower level spells.

It's a damn shame, because Orion was fantastic when he wasn't being an insufferable shitheel. The scene where he went to setup a new permanent teleport circle was solid gold.

Now all that's left is Marisha, who is like Orion Jr. They even have the same mannerisms when acting out their spells.