Is this man truly the greatest DM of our time or is he an overrated hack?

>Start calling out his plot points before they even happen
>Everyone at the table unaware of this shit thinks your 4D underwater chess hungry hungry hippos grandmaster
>Profit

has anyone noticed how cringy that photo is? I can see some edits of it....

I.e: Come with me if you want to protect your virginity

>all dat obvious shilling
Nope. Still not watching.

Isn't he married to a model?

Don't know about his DMing ability, but Troy Baker's clone is a pretty cool guy.

I have no glue, my GF watches the show not me, she even spends £5 to watch the stream and have the privilege to use the chat despite being poor as fuck.

I don't know who he is, so neither I guess.

Your GF is a moron. I hope she's hot at least.

Hey its her cash, I've said why its a terrible idea and a shit business practice to charge people so they can TALK in your chat, when you'd think audience participation would be a important thing to a fucking social game like D&D.

I don't have a problem with merch or subbing to the channel, but that is a practice that just irritates me on an ethical level.

I made you guys something. Enjoy.

It makes sense to me. Twitch chats are complete shit once you reach a certain amount of people, and theoretically gating off chat helps with that.

In practice it doesn't really, and paid chats are oftentimes still a load of shit, but what can you do?

>ask "literally who?"

>now I'm a "shill"

I want /v/ to leave.

He's a decent DM with a high degree of stage experience/showmanship, the latter earned due to his job and experiences growing up (he's a voice actor for several prominent/popular games, cartoons, and anime).

His storylines are a bit cliche, and he seems to favor a high magic setting. I base the latter upon what I've read in the book he had published via Green Ronin of what his campaign setting is for Critical Role (the show that he DMs on).

He tends to favor Rule of Cool and wanting to give players "Big Hero" moments to fit the story/setting his players are in. He's homebrewed some stuff (both for the game and in the book), with its power level varying from decent to busted. But again, that reflects how he wants high magic settings.

Probably the biggest knock against him is that he tends to be more forgiving of actions performed by his GF/fiance, but that might be more-so due to the fact that she is easily the worst player at the table.

he's shit and anyone who is a big enough loser to watch him is retarded

youtube friend simulators are literally the worst way you could spend your time

>friend simulators

It's like I'm really on /v/

Neither.

He's not a master DM, but he has excellent stage presence and while the quality of his arcs and stories may vary, his character-crafting and acting range are undeniably impressive.

His worldbuilding is mediocre but the individuals within it are solid if you ask me, and he's good at his job—which is running a show.

I wish there was more crunch and less shitty character roleplay, but that's on the players, not him.

Honestly, he's one of the three or so people on that crew I actually respect.

Still enjoy the show, though. Gives me something to put on in the background during session prep.

Haven't listened to any of Critical Role but I'm reading bits of the Tal'Dorei book since my DM wants to run our next campaign in it. So far the map seems uninspired, full of nonsense names that tell you nothing about the areas. His summary of the history of Tal'Dorei is full of fluff and poorly written, again telling very little. The race descriptions are short and yet feel too long for how little description is actually in them.

The world seems overall good enough but it seems like a lot of effort for something that doesn't really deviate from a standard forgotten realms setting. I kind of feel like I'm wasting my time attempting to learn anything about the setting.

>I'm wasting my time attempting to learn anything about the setting.
Yeah.

Setting is not his strong point. NPCs are.

Only ever seen one episode, but he's alright. He *is* a good showman, though, and he runs a game for other good showmen.
As far as pure "watching him run games made me a better GM" caliber goes, I give it to Chris Perkins.

Nicely done. I think I would have left it on the page background, though--that way you could easily read the (You) from the thumbnail.

from someone who mostly just lurks tg and just started watching/listening to CR because of a 2 hour commute 1 way, he, along with the group do the stage stuff well, because yeah their jobs, and he isn't any worse than any other DM when it comes to story and rules so far. DMs are so different that he seems to sit in the middle range of not bad, but not anything special (again ignoring the voices because his job)

>feigning ignorance
I want Matt to leave.

Make the (you) white instead of red, maybe? Not the way Veeky Forums text looks, but it's easier to read.

I actually sort of liked that it was a bit cheeky that you couldn't read it till you opened it. But I could do an easier to read one too, I suppose. White text or something.

It does work though. Channels that stay sub-only all the time soon contain nothing but toadies sucking the streamer's dick. Of course, the streamer doesn't give a shit because he's already big enough to be using sub mode and contemptuous enough to enable it.

That. He's fun, he makes good voice, he's entertaining, but he isn't a good GM. He doesn't know how to properly manage the flow of a game, he doesn't know how to properly manage the PC, the story is cliché and not that interesting.

Good entertainer. Mediocre GM. Still, people watch him not because he's a good GM, but because he's a good entertainer, and that's okay.

>Greatest DM of our time
>Not the Angry GM

Nah.

He might not be the best DM in the world, but at least he has a group that he plays with.

I genuinely had no idea who this guy was, and I waste my life on YouTube. I have heard of critical role but that is it. Chill lad.

He is a decent DM who is a cool guy and makes subclasses for his crew. His setting has some neat ideas in it. He can go overboard sometimes with descriptions and voice acting but generally he is solid. I prefer Chris Perkins for he runs the way your standard DM does, memes with his players and does not overdo with explaining shit no one cares about.

Bro join discord. I'll play with you man.

delete

That's not Chris Perkins, so he must be an overrated hack.

...

Which games/podcasts does Perkins run, by the way? I've tried Dice, Camera, Action, but got turned off by players being a bit too dull (except the tiefling and the rogue, they were ok).

Acquisitions Incorporated

Built a decent, basic/generic world with generic lore.
Does a great job of giving NPCs personality and I do enjoy watching him pull names and voices out of his ass over and over again.
Doesn't crack the whip on Marisha and make her play her character properly.
Doesn't do a good job of changing up serious fights to make them more challenging. Instead, he just slaps on more HP. Maybe a tiny bit more AC.

All in all? Slightly better than ~ half of all the DMs I've played with.

Does anyone know examples of good GMs in a form similar to CR ?
I'm kind of a novice GM, and though I've read examples of advise, I'd like to see how a game run by a really good GM looks like.

>there are only extremes
he can describe scenes entertainingly but his adventures are your standard pleb-tier D&D crap

No even best twitch DM lmao.

¿Porque no las dos?

YMMV. This is an inherently subjective question.

He's pretty bad, and he makes life difficult for other, better GMs.

He is badass, handsome and highly entertaining.
Instead of blaming him maybe you should instead work harder on being a better DM scrub.

Post DMs that make you feel good inside, Veeky Forums.

A thread in which a bunch of people who likely don't even play D&D and almost certainly don't DM say that one of the best and most popular DM's out there is mediocre.

I'd challenge any of Mercer's critics to post their own games for comparison so we can really see what true great dming is.

Hello Matt! How are you doing today?

>famous GMs

Uhh...all good GMs I played with? And there the list ends?

My current GM.

i am pretty sure i cant act in character as good as he can but i am also pretty sure I can deliver on a more interesting setting and plotlines. so i stand by what i said above.

Considering the amount of work I imagine he puts in I'd imagine he's better than 90 percent of dms, and certainly better than anyone on this board. Especially the people on this board. Still, you're asking for a extreme point and I'd have to tell you to begone, nobody's perfect. And besides even if he put in a bunch of work in he wouldn't necessarily run the game you want. Though if you watch his Divinity 2 stream as a web dm, he can clearly play silly games pretty easily.

Still, this is a bait thread to stir the pot isn't it.

It really surprises me how many people on this board actually seem to know who this guy is.

I mean, maybe it shouldn't come as such a surprise to me - after all Let's Plays are big now, and okay maybe this is the tabletop version of Let's Plays? Anyhow I don't get the appeal of either, when I can just play/GM myself.

I've got a normie friend who got into D&D and she loovvess Critical Roll.

I don't wanna alienate her by shrieking like an autist. So I looked it up.

i'D love to play with Matt, but i would probably prefer to have 0 combat at all
his voices and storytelling would probably be extremely engaging, but his combat always feels extremely bland and way too easy

Wait wait holy fuck this is the guy who voices McREEEE isn't it

Prove it and post your games then.

Anything else is just cowardly talk.

If you want to watch actual D&D, watch Neal not Matt

If you have to ask that, you've either already drunk is unoriginal edgelord faggot coolaid, or you're trolling. Probably both.

Everything he runs feels identical, even when their running different systems. He's also becoming a negative influence on the community because everybody attempts to copy him despite not knowing he has dedicated writers and a lot of the player reactions are pre-planned.

>greatest DM of our time
Ha no.

>overrated hack?
What? No either.

He's just a good DM. There are many. This one just has a podcast, and is great with voices.

Somehow, and I don't understand why, their D&D podcast went downhill when they switched to 5e, all the interesting interactions and mechanics disappeared.

This is called the "Acquisitions Incorporated" syndrome, when Krahulik* isn't involved everything becomes so dull everybody attempts to raise atmosphere by becoming completely retarded and putting themselves in the worse situations humanly possible.

*Who unironically started out not even knowing the rules and quickly became the only player who actually knew how to rollplay.

>Have GM'd probably 40-50+ sessions over the last 7 years since I got into the hobby
>Only been a player for probably ten sessions in different games with mostly newbie GMs trying things out
>Most of my players started roleplaying with my games and haven't had much other RP experience

I always suspect that I have a lot of bad GM habits and that my games have pacing issues, but I don't have much to compare with. Who's good to watch or listen to as an example of good GMing?

When I put in the effort, I've actually been able to run pretty damn tense horror sessions that players have talked about years later, so I know I've got some potential.

The problem with youtube DM's is that they don't play with regular players, they're mostly playing with people who have been working in the industry for most of their life and suffer from insane biases where they won't criticize anybody working at Wizards, people are only just starting to figure this out with Colvill who has been increasing outputing some extremely pandering and dubious advice.

ITT: People trying to decide the 2nd best DM, behind our Lord Chris Perkins.

Matt Mercer is too fond of fantasy clichés, but he's an absolute genius at voicing NPCs and setting the mood. He knows the rules and knows where to bend them without breaking them to make D&D work for his show that is supposed to be entertaining.
Keep in mind that what you see him do on Critical Role is streamlined to create a show that is watched by an audience, not necessarily how he'd DM in a private group.

His biggest flaw for the Veeky Forums crowd is that CR has become so popular, it draws in too many new people with distorted ideas about what D&D is like.

Earlier Dawnforgecast is pretty realistic how a game with a decent DM goes until he fell for the "rules are guidelines, ignore them" meme.

I can't bring myself to watch this Critical Role show, I instinctively have to close the tab after about a minute tops.

Everyone else in my group is big fans so they end up texting image macros and saying injokes and I have to laugh along as if I get it.

I can't help but feel my own instincts and method of DMing is more fun.

>people are only just starting to figure this out with Colvill who has been increasing outputing some extremely pandering and dubious advice.
Not really familiar with his stuff, I've only seen a couple of his videos. What kind of dubious advice does he give? Does it reach the point where he's practically shilling for stuff?

Overall I think he's good. The voice acting experience helps him set the mood. I like the rule where he lets a character role-play the finishing blow on bosses.

I don't know enough DMs to call him the greatest, but I would attend his games.

Nah I pay it because if I can't watch the stream live being a sub means I can watch the vod whenever. Geek&Sundry uploads the video but it's usually several days afterwards.

Dawnforgedcast is homebrew autist who thinks he has to redesign everything. I don't understand why he has a following.

Advocates fudging dice regularly, defended Mearls incredibly poorly thought out alternative initiative system, believes he's always right and nobody should voice dissenting opinions, deleted older videos on behest of Hasbro because the software he was reviewing expected players to play the game according to the rules, lies about the quality and success of his writing (which everybody who has played Evolve knows is terrible) and constructs obviously fake scenarios to rant on about the less progressive members of the community.

Just another eceleb. The only thing I give a shit about is how he influences 5E, and I could do away with some of his rulings.
>Polymorph->Disintegrate = Instant Kill
As if either of those spells wasn't absurdly good on their own.

I knew who Matt Mercer was before Critical Role due to the fact the he does VA for every video game/anime/cartoon show ever.
People are saying "Never heard of him" but they have heard him.

Yeah, and I know who Yuri Lowenthal is. Doesn't mean I want to spend my time watching Yuri play Dungeons and Dragons. When people say 'literally who', they mean they don't give a shit about whoever you're talking about.

>their D&D podcast went downhill when they switched to 5e

So, from the start? The first episode is in 5e

No idea who he is or what he does, so I'll lump him in with the hags that crowd around a table and act all zany to get clicks.

he's nowhere as good as Spoony or Lindybeige

>As others have indicated, he feels a bit more like an actor than a DM
that's because he is an actor
or a voice actor at least

They ran Pathfinder for the first couple of years, people used to actually play interesting characters back then including Alchemists and Gunslingers.

Pathfinder was pre-stream, they've never had an alchemist in the party and they still have a gunslinger

I have only a passing interest in the show and even I know that, christ.

Perkins is the epitome of "dad dnd" It's what i imagine old guys find funny and good story telling when its just cringeworthy jokes and poor execution.

He's pretty good, better than average probably.

>which everybody who has played Evolve
so nobody?

>play interesting characters
>including class, and class
That's an insightful opinion

A lot of comments in this thread saying he is average, or less. Perhaps you magical DM wizards could come out of your shadowy enchanted basements and show him up? Since you all know someone who is, or are yourselves, vastly superior.

>They played such great characters, like [class] and [class]
Yep that's PF

It was actually going to be [class] and [race] but I remembered they only played Goblins once, S-Sorry.

Literally no evidence anywhere to suggest Spoony is or has ever been a better DM. None.

Real GMing is a intimate matter for close groups of friends to share personal experiences. Let these d-list celebrities preen for children audiences.