Critical Role?

Is it really that scripted? AFAIK like everybody is a voice actor that has taken improv classes - probably more than most people can say about their experience and abilities (which might make it hard to judge)
It seems like such experience can make them able to swing with everything smoothly which might make it look scripted?

I haven't watched it, so I dunno.

>obviously scripted
Examples?

>My main annoyance with the show is how obviously scripted it is

Not sure what you watched, but the show is about as unscripted as you can get. The DM plans for just about everything but the players essentially do whatever pops into their heads. For better or for worse.

This. In one of the later episodes DM showed his stack of prepared maps for the session. It was like inch thick, they used only two or three

Suck a dick man, it's totally unscripted- provide an example

I hated it, too. I wanted to like it, because I like the idea of recorded D&D / RPG gaming. In short clips. But they were barely even playing. It was just like the Yogscast or fucking RoosterTeeth where it's just 30 minutes of listening to 30 year old men laugh their asses off over shit that isn't even that funny.

My friend made me sit through like an hour of it before I managed to escape.

I have this:

youtube.com/watch?v=FVR2mCE0_0M

It's absolutely terrible, but it's short and it's real RP that I recorded, chilling on my friend's deck a couple years ago and putting together a post-apocalypse Savage Worlds game. I prefer it to these long drawn-out sessions that feel scripted and they aren't even really doing RP, just joking around.

>they all fall down a flight of stairs
>phobia of stairs

wew

>30 minutes of listening to 30 year old men laugh their asses off over shit that isn't even that funny.
FFS, it's unedited footage. Does this never happen in your sessions? Do you have special nazi overseers making sure no one wastes time making jokes around your table?

Didn't they kick that Wizard off the show because he occasionally went off script, and actually knew how to play the game.

Yeah. Fun isn't allowed at our tables. Just story.

No, it doesn't, not after the first half dozen sessions, at this point your group should be comfortable with each other to act seriously without deflecting using humour.

No, because he was a creep, a spotlight stealing dickwad, argued with the GM on meta shit, purposefully misinterpreted the rules, and wasted a ton of time on inanity to squeeze out a bit more damage

Since when is using humour "deflecting" and not a normal part of social interaction? Are you German or something?

So yeah, basically what your saying is he was actually the only real player of the group.

Sure, whatever. I know I'd hate playing with you.

Watch Matthew Colville's "Different Kinds of Players", He has the exact same personality and sensibilities of the players you see on theses shows but players exclusively with non-professional actors and knows Critical Roll is bullshit.

As he actually called Crit Role out?

Not exactly, he's actually a huge fan, but thinks they set a unrealistic example for DM's and are generally unattainable.

How many fucking players do they have? Why do they have, like, 8?

Matt actually talks about it here:
youtube.com/watch?v=qAbV-hzNfO4
youtube.com/watch?v=m_rqCzplPlI

Warning! Dangerous amounts of Adam Koebel. If you have an acute hipster allergy, don't watch it.

Isn't it because their are only a few players that actually know how to play so anytime a situation requires in-game knowledge or a magic caster they substitute/introduce a character?

The spergs on this board are hilarious. Like, you guys find the most niche things to complain about and hate, just to find an excuse to apply more vitriol for your hatewanking.

Matt Mercer and Matthew Colville are actually friends irl, and Mercer even plugged his channel during one of his Q&A sessions / DM tips videos.

Little hit or miss here. There were a lot of behind the scenes bullshit going on, a spat with the fanbase, some clashing of heads, but all of that is pure speculation. According to official word from Matt, Orion, and G&S, it was a mutual parting. As a fan of Orion, it did actually make the show better.

This guy, who I'm assuming is OP, has massive amounts of panties in a giant wad.

>On the topic of the show being scripted or not:
Honestly I don't think so. Keep in mind that everyone on camera works in the voice actor industry, and many come from a theater/stage background. So they are used to being able to shift between "in-character" and out-of-character a lot and still be in the right mindset for both in-game and out of it. One of the best examples of this is an episode where the group looks to earn back a bit of their good name after some earlier fuck-ups and help out the farmers around the main city. Turns out a Roc and a lone Druid were taking cows from the farmers and flying off to eat them. Matt fully expected them to try and fight/kill the duo, either in the farmlands or at the Roc's lair in the mountains, and had maps for both.

Instead (mostly thanks to the group's Druid insisting on non-violence) they talked the duo into leaving the continent for a new one, where a Roc is more likely to find a home and not plague a bunch of farmers and their livestock.

>On Orion (Tiberius) and Sam (Scanlan):
Orion leaves the show maybe 25-30 episodes in. Officially, it's due to creative differences and him wanting to branch off to do his own thing with Tiberius. Unofficially (from what we see on camera), Orion metagamed, purposefully interpreted rules in a way to favor his character's spells, tried to hog the spotlight and knew he was doing so, and didn't know when to respect personal boundaries.

As for Sam, it takes a while for his character to evolve and grow, but he's probably one of the most-liked characters on the show now (and arguably the MVP of the group with his Bardic inspirations and picking up Counterspell as a Lore Bard).

Honestly, the first 10-15 episodes are some of the worst, if only because the audio and video issues don't get fixed right away, everyone still trying to figure out their roles after getting a rules update from PF to 5e.

rofl wtf?

You guys are legit autists.

They had 8, are down to 7, and occasionally have a guest player or two.

It's amazing that Critical Role will get lauded for its roleplaying as one of its strengths / pros, but at the same time people complain that the huge number of players is such a turn off because, get this, that many players won't be able to get anything done.

>first complaint is about "generic hot chicks"

Be honest OP, if you didn't think they were hot, your first complaint would have been about the ugly chicks on the show.

I'm fucking dying from some of the bullshit Koebel is saying in this, the guy didn't even start playing until the mid 90's and thinks DnD was modelled after LotR.

Yeah, It's so much better that players are now turned off because, get this, DnD doesn't play like Critical Role thinks it does.

At this point I don't think I'd recommend anyone start watching from the beginning unless they're a neet with tons of free time, because those early episodes are really not great. Start around ep 26 or 27 after watching youtu.be/B8BBzQ5ZDFg because at that point they're mostly comfortable on the camera, Orion's gone, and they're starting a new arc.

Well no shit does the show set an unattainable goal; Matt does a lot of background work on his setting and knows the line between describing a scene and exposition (along with knowing when the latter is called for), knows when to enforce rules and when to let things slide or be attempted (ie., "Rule of Cool"), and works with the players to make sure everyone has their own moment in the campaign. The entire cast has some acting background (either stage or due to their profession of voice actors) so they can emote better than the average player or DM, and they have a production crew along with good cameras and mics (if not actual stage cameras and mics) to stream the game in as pleasing a format to watch/listen to as possible.

If Matt and Chris Perkins are the A-grade GMs of D&D, then the average DM has a lot to live up to, and probably can't meet that high a point on a weekly basis.

>"I attempt to do X"
>"I roll a Y"
> DM: It (succeeds or fails)

The rest is up to the individual groups. I DM a group that loves combat and creative encounters and puzzles and dungeons. I also DM for a group that loves the roleplaying aspect and intrigue and building relationships with NPCs and factions.

D&D doesn't play a specific way, people do.

I forget which episode number it is (I want to say 24 or 25), but when the Briarwoods show up in Emon is probably the best jump-in point for anyone wanting to watch this show, mainly for the reasons you described (along with it being the last episodes with Orion on the cast).

Actually the show has 3 writers including matt doing the background work on his setting.

Anyone else notice that the fiberglass bow is strung backwards?

Are you referring to the Green Ronin publication? Pretty sure that just came around recently

>So Veeky Forums what do you in ironically think about Critical Role?
Really bland. That's basically the shortest summary I can give.

He's had like 3 years to work on this setting, considering they played for over a year pre-stream (and like all of you autists, probably had a setting he's been slowly piecing together for his campaign all his life).

is correct in that the publication thing just came about in the past few months.

The right way to do it. I think I discovered it at around episode 17, and then turbo-nerded it to catch up. That's about how most people I know who loved it went about it.

Pro-tip: the question why the shows quality has dropped dramatically is because 80% of the production crew quit, GRP is their replacement.

The show actually has unreasonably high costs to the point people think G&S are borderline committing money laundering.

I thought that was just a changing of the guard thing (IE, Production manager etc got a new job, and someone had to replace him).

Can you expand on that?

Reminder that Acquisitions Inc has to introduce dice cams because of Critical Role's well-known fudging.

It does, but it's only about 25% of the dialogue rather than about 75% in Critical role.

Yeah I had made the guy a pre-gen because he had just decided to join the game, so we were coming up with BS reasons for his hindrances.

>75% in Critical role.
That more than a bit of an exaggeration

ITT: Butthurt sperglords that their superdupereliteniche hobby is being casualized.

Nothing new in the past 30 years.

A bunch of actors paid to be entertaining in front of a camera and playing for an audience. They'll be much more interesting to watch and also look much better than your average regular group.

The fact they're playing a game campaign is the least relevant aspect of the show, and honestly, it all looks and sounds fake as fuck to me.

>attractive people can't enjoy roleplaying even when it's their career of choice
Okay bub

>it all looks and sounds fake as fuck to me.
>watching people play pretend

Good job.

>look I'm a faggot putting words in some other user's mouth through implication arrows

I can do it too!

I do actually find Critical Role unbearable but honestly that goes for 99% of roleplaying vids or podcasts.

First honest-about-his-hate-user in here.

>Theses people chose to be literally who's as their career
Jesus that's depressing.

He isn't doing that, though. The user he's quoting downright said they're acting, that the game seems "fake as fuck" to him, and that they look better than an average group, and that the gaming itself is irrelevant

Unless you're purposefully trying to not draw any conclusions from that and just approaching each criticism as piecemeal that is a pretty reasonable way to interpet that post

They're pretty succesful voice actors

>Its not scripted or acting I swear!
Literally ALL roleplaying is acting when you think about it. Or at least it should be.

You do realize that pretty much everybody is a literally who, right?

I mean if you watched dubbed anime I guess you'd know whose theses people are.

I never said they can't/don't enjoy doing it. What I'm saying is that they're actors playing FOR an audience, which makes their interactions as people feel fake and forced for the sake of being entertaining.

There are two levels of acting going on: 1- they're playing fantasy characters in a campaign, which they do better than most players/DMs ever would because they're trained actors, and 2- they're playing the part of actors playing a game in front of a camera and trying to make it entertaining by being quippy and riffing off of each other. It's that second level that, to me, feels fake as fuck.

Or play video games.

Who did they act for a year* before streaming started?
youtube.com/watch?v=U-M5NH9PGi4

*and reportedly half a year before Fellatio Day caught wind of this campaign and offered to make a show out of it.

That's because you have a very small and limited social circle, if one at all.

From the beginning, you can tell they're a pretty tight knit group of people, even if you don't follow any of their social media, or pay attention to any of the number of things they do together OUTSIDE of the game.

Different social groups interact differently. What you see as fake, is just normies acting differently than your group of neckbeards.

> they're playing the part of actors playing a game in front of a camera and trying to make it entertaining by being quippy and riffing off of each other
That's just what people look like when they're having fun, user. I'm sorry if your group just sits with poker faces for 6 hours 1 day a week

He's right though. It's scripted as all fuck but there's obviously a bit of real roleplaying going on as well.

>scripted as all fuck
Nice claim you've got there

>People pretending like Orion didn't admit the show is scripted
Lamo

And before some fuck says it's from a later date (what with being uploaded in october of 2015), here's recording from the same session uploaded in september of 2014:
youtube.com/watch?v=0rsks5PWfG8

Editing by Ashley Johnson, so it's pretty cheesy

Serious question time, how does their youtube channel have 1.4 million subs and so little views on their videos?

"No, you don't have an army at your beck and call" isn't the same as the show being scripted

because all of their other stuff sucks and not everybody ever that subs stays interested enough to watch hours of it a week

ITT OP doesn't like it when people have fun, and so makes up reasons why their fun is bad and wrong.

Err, aren't their videos part of the geek & sultry channel? There's a lot more shows on that channel than just critical role. Also IIRC the youtube account isn't updated as promptly as the main G&S website. You either catch their show live or wait a half week on their site, as the twitch vods are subscriber only. First time I was binge watching to catch up to the current episode I didn't realize the youtube channel was 5-6 episodes behind.

The stuff on the site is shown through Youtube still, it's just hidden in the list of uploaded videos

Yeah, remember the part where Orion just knew from the script that the beholder fight was laid out to be an unavoidable tpk and so wisely abandoned his allies to do shit all outside?

[citation needed]

>Not watching Aquisitions Incorporated

But Acquisitions Inc. is boring as fuck. I've been able to steal a ton of stuff from Critical Role that actually made the game at our table better. Acquisitions Inc. is just watching neckbeards do neckbeard things, while Patrick Rothfuss talks, and Chris Perkins spoonfeeds.

>made the game at our table better
Ah, I see your problem. You actually try to improve your game instead of watching people being awful and enjoying the fact that you're not the worst

I tried watching it but I felt the same as re: the neckbeard aspect. They seem fun to play with, maybe, but not fun to watch.

Also that one fuck with the squinty eyes makes me uncomfortable.

I guess so. I particularly enjoy Critical Role, mostly because it's entertaining, and there's so much shit to steal for my game. Also, my wife digs it, so it's something we watch together (she plays D&D on and off). I also just particularly enjoy groups of friends that genuinely look like they're having fun. It's what makes Drunks and Dragons tolerable to me, but what detracts from Acquisitions Inc.

I love Matthew Mercer's DM style, but I HATED the Force Grey show (official Storm King's Thunder show that had Matt as DM, and Chris Hardwick and Ashley Johnson) because it was so forced and over produced. THAT was fake as fuck.

Well, shame you didn't like it user.

I however, think it's great, the guys really know how to make it a story and make you care- they are actors afterall- and though sometimes it can get a little cheesy, I can't say I've wasted my time watching it.

Also a really nice community around it, for the large part. A lotta love there.

>top left
>no TD

Is there a YouTube channel where someone tells stories about their games like Counter Monkey or RP sessions cut to basically the meat and potatoes of the campaign like Fun Haus's D&D show?