Critical Role

Does anyone actually enjoy watching this shit or shit like this?
Ive tried but I just cant get into it. For me its a lot like trying to watch vidya streamers i just would rather play the game myself.

Also theres just the fact that i can forgive my own gaming friends’ autistic behaviors but not strangers.

The only thing it has going for it is i like to see what a great DM feels like. My group has never had the attention span for a year+ campaign.

>Does anyone actually enjoy watching this shit
No, nobody at all. The 40,000 live viewers and million people watching them after the fact are all there to hate-watch.

I don't really actively watch it, but I have it on in the background while doing other things.

Cmon now Matt dont get butthurt you know i meant anyone on Veeky Forums

Well the weekly threads hit about 800-1000 posts before archiving so yes. Also trust me I'd rather play myself, but my players as shite so at least I get to watch Travis.

I prefer Glass Cannon. Critical role interaction just feels fake to me for some reason.

This.
OP needs to really get over himself.
>For me its a lot like trying to watch vidya streamers i just would rather play the game myself.
So why are you watching a stream of people gaming when streams clearly aren't your thing?

Can anyone give me the quick version of what the fuck happened to Orion Acaba?

Well at least watching tabletop has some sense of immersion like youre there. Where vidya just seems boring to watch someone play while they have wacky music and sound effects and lazily read what some retard says from the chat. So theres a big difference but maybe im just into streaming in general.

I forced myself to watch 5 episodes to give it a fair shake and I hated every minute of it. No thanks.

i think its really cringe-y but at the same time entertaining

what makes it tolerable for me is, since the chicks are terribly unfunny, if you just press the forward button and skip ahead when either of them tries making a joke, the whole experience becomes a lot more pleasant

First off this is speculation at best since neither party will come out and say the exact reason.

Now Orion had some shit go down in his personal life, got a double whammy being diagnosed with cancer and HIV. This was pretty hard for him to accept so he turned to hard core drill and got addicted. Slowly this began having an impact of his social life and Critical Role. The straw the is normally agreed broke the camel's back was him blowing up on a fan on Twitter because they made a shirt with Tiberius on it. It was bad enough that when Travis saw it he started tweeting back defending the fan. Shortly after things grew tense on set as Orian's ability to pick up on social ques went from minimal to non existent and he was asked to not come back ever. Pretty much G&S saw him as too much of a liability for the audience they were trying to draw in and did what any company would do, removed the problem.

I like glass cannon too user. I agree with you about the interaction feels forced in CR. I chalk it up to them being actors which never feel authentic to me and pretty much LA normies forcing a nerd hobby to ultimately make money.

As someone who watched all of the first season, yeah the beginnings for both are ruff. It's either shitty sound and quality issues as they try and get everything dialed in or this really weird rocky start they had for this new one. It just seems kinda forced if you ask me, really the best part to watch is the Briarwood arc, around episode 25 iirc, then stop at Thordak. Which Mercer even admitted was supposed to be the end of the campaign but everyone wanted to keep going to hit level 20.

Any good alternatives to Critical Role that use either a WoD or Star Wars system?

What I wish is we could have seen larger chunks of their home game instead of this on set stuff. Probably would make a world of difference.

I don't watch it, I listen to it at work (among other podcasts and videos), since my job is pretty mindless. Kills the time well enough, and it's well worth it for Travis, Sam, and Mercer. Laura and Liam have their moments, too.

It's also nice as a DM to be able to listen to the improvisation Mercer has to do when his players do something completely retarded, and it also helps me be more aware when I start to make the same mistakes Mercer does.

Brilliant user this might help my enjoyment. Yes the women are one of the worst aspects especially in the 2nd campaign. One is a lel so randumb tiefling and the other is just a too cool for the room vapid cunt. Its like every girl gamer character trope.

I would definitely agree with that. Briarwood through Thordak was absolutely the best part of the campaign. I believe it's Episode 24, The Feast, where the good stuff begins. Quoth Scanlan,

>Sure was a nice dinner we haLIGHTNING BOLT

On youtube, if you press the rightarrow key, the video skips ahead 5 seconds. Its usually enough to get past the female unfunny cringe.

The plan speech is just the best way to sum up their party and one of my favorite moments.

I binge watched the entire catalogue maybe a year ago and have kept up weekly ever since. It's like a new narrative radio show, but also related to my hobby.

Can we rag on G&S' other tabletop games? Personally I want to know who honestly liked anything that happened in Shield of Tomorrow earlier this evening. Sure, it was a shore leave type episode, but my god did it drag on for forever. Plus it didn't help the GM basically flirted individually with each of the PCs and played shipper, with one actual fade-to-black.

Haven't found any for WOD but "Dice for Brains" is a decent FaD Star Wars campaign. It's a podcast though, not a stream.

Not gonna lie, since they cancelled Mothership I don't think there's a single other thing, beside the Talks on Tuesday because Brian Foster, that I've wanted to watch in G&S.

Yeah I love shit like this.Whenever I am at work and doing some very basic shit I will put on one of the shows and just listen.
The thing that I have always enjoyed about these DnD streams is that they honestly are like interactive radio dramas. When I was a kid my grandparents had some on cassette and I'd listen to them during long trips.
But the difference is these streams have better production value and the dice rolling adds a sense of tension and triumph to the stories.
Right now I am listening to Critical Role, The Unexpectables, and Thrilling Intent.
Seriously it is criminal how few subscribers the TI guys get with the amount of work they put into there series

t. thrilling intent marketer

>i just would rather play the game myself.
and much like vidya streamers it is designed for people who don't play.

>Does anyone actually enjoy watching this shit or shit like this?
It’s not really for you.
>Ive tried but I just cant get into it. For me its a lot like trying to watch vidya streamers i just would rather play the game myself.
Then it’s REALLY not for you. You don’t need to like every related piece of media for things you like, user. If everyone liked the exact same things nobody would make or try out new things to like.

If you don’t like a thing even if it’s popular among certain folks, do the adult thing and just not bother with it rather then whine like a fucking cunt on a Burmese Fish-Catching Network.

Neat just subbed. I prefer podcasts anyways. Also just checking out related ones theres one called Campaign Podcast which uses Edge of the empire.

Feels too hipsterish to me, honestly. Very fake and disingenuous. Their OOC shit (which is constant) breaks the charm of their acting and honestly the way they act sometimes is just jarring. It doesn't feel like they're a bunch of friends playing a game, it feels like they're a bunch of actors on set.

I like their interactions and the way they emote and react accordingly. As a guy who did drama at high school, this is what my dream players would be like. Shit, I'd kill to have actors as my players since roleplaying is basically their bread n butter.
I think Mercer railroads a bit at times and I found Laura's voice irritating as shit, but the group grew on me. Its a very comfy party with everybody having a good time, which something I'd love for once. Usually its 3 or 2 players loving every second it, while the others are either too busy boasting their 5 paragraph long bios or Yasha'ing AKA not contributing at all and missing sessions AND important plot points.

I like Ashley but she really should have been more of a recurring guest instead of being made with being 100% part of party in mind.

Yeah her appearing at the very last end of the carnival arc JUST to congratulate the party was jarring as hell

I only watch SoT these days because it makes me feel better about my own Star Trek tabletop games. Sure, I don't pull 1k viewers and have sponsorships from Anovos and STO, but at least stuff actually happens in my games and all my players are engaged. SoT takes about an hour just to make tea.

I do kinda feel bad for her, she likes hanging out with her friends and it's hilarious seeing how she acts at conventions and such. However like you said, it's jarring as fuck for her to just materialize and then wander off for reasons.

Jesus that sounds horrifying

Perhaps my statements were a bit too aggressive. I want to like it just trying to understand why people like it. For me its 40% enjoyable but 60% frustrating and boring. I wish my DM put in the amount of effort Mercer does especially in his narrative descriptions, emoting and rping different npcs and what a long campaign feels like. As for the 60% i dont enjoy it’s probably just that watching a stream just isnt my thing and wont be as well as the gripes other have echoed about it being forced or annoying.

They do a podcast if you want to listen in chunks or have it as background. It is a pretty good chunk of time to just sit and watch a stream.

You want improv comedians/actors over regular actors

improv guys have to be ridiculously smart, witty, clever, etc

Maybe that's why Travis is a crowd favorite, dude has shown he is quick on his feet and has pulled off some interesting saves when faced with a potential fight.

Fuck you user.
Now that I think about it, we were all Yasha at some point. Have you ever tried a new game with your friends, assist a session and then miss sessions constantly becouse Real Life wouldnt stop getting in the way? It happened to me once and it felt horrible. As a result, I lost contact with those players and they were my first group and friends from D&D. Goddamn it, I cant blame Ashley. This shit happens every once in a while and I wouldnt wish it to anyone.

They can't play for shit which really bothers me, and I never bothered watching more than the first couple episodes. Maybe they got better, I dunno, but the initial impression was pretty bad.

>t. Totally not an Improv guy
>Also unrelated you should check out his show by this group called Mission IMPROVable

I mean, I get where you're coming from. I tried to start with the first campaign, episode one. It was awful, couldn't stand it. Started with the second, I liked it. Maybe it was production value, maybe it was characters, maybe it was players. Dunno. Try the second one if you tried the first.

a typical actors is very good at reading a script. but their skillset isn't being dramatic or funny spontaneously. comedians that aren't afraid to deal with hecklers or improv guys are way more on-their-toes mentally and while performing

they're two different skill sets. you wouldnt hire an improv actor for a lead role in a movie. but personally i would put as many as i could as players in a dnd stream if i was in charge

Overall some of them do actively try, still mix ups here and there with only one problem player who I'm convinced is actively refusing to learn to make a statement to the "haters" online.

Oh I could go on for quite a bit about how bad SoT really is, both from an in-universe perspective and as a tabletop game. I'll say this much because it was mentioned tonight, SoT's GM, Eric, will be co-running a 24 hour D&D thing with Mercer's setting on G&S' anniversary. At least if I heard right, anyways. But here's the problem: I don't think Eric has it in him to even do one hour of D&D. CHA is his dump stat, and he spends far too much time giving out meta-knowledge. Plus his NPCs are quite literally all tumblr-pandering cardboard cutouts.

Course, with that said, I imagine it'll still be better than the trainwreck that was Sam's love boat oneshot thing.

i'm an EIT. i dont do any comedy and i dont particularly like improv acting or improv comedy. however i do watch a bunch of random streams and just by having the ability to discern patters, it quickly becomes obvious that in streams, comedians who deal with hecklers and improv guys are the ones that think fast and handle unexpected situations in the most entertaining way

Yeah it really is a shitty situation which is why I don't blame Ashley too much. However I still maintain it'd be better for her and everyone if she played a little more guest style character that can be reoccurring.

Dont all actors do improv? I studied drama at high school and knowing how to deal with EVERYTHING that could happen on stage was a MUST.
Example: I was doing this play about a family of rich brits and a family of poor italians. Anyways, on a very particular scene, one of my classmates was meant to get a telephone out of the stage since we did not have fancy transitions. Buuut the dumbass chick forgot it and on the next scene, I, a guy in a BAR, randomly had a big fat telephone on my table for absolutely no good reason. So, I improved a joke, (i think it was a pun) gave the audience a hearty giggle and then hid the thing.

I might have to watch this glorious train wreck happen, what day is it?

Also I laughed because of some of the shit Sam fucking Regal, the man who wore a "I'm with Her" shirt when Mercer specifically told everyone to not get political, put into that one shot.

She could assist Mercer with some NPCs but I dont know how you guys feel about co-GMs.

I hate Taliesin who plays both edgy homebrew characters the gunslinger and blood hunter.

Robert Downey Jr. does this for shits and giggles, the fruit snacks scenes in the Avengers were all him having literally hidden so many around the set that the crew gave up trying to find them so he wouldn't just munch on them during the scene. When he offers the bag to Banner that's the man's actual reaction because it wasn't part of the scene at all.

You can also see this in all those "iconic scenes that were improved" videos or articles. All actors do it to some degree, you have to because not everything goes 100% according to plan all the time.

>Dont all actors do improv?
the classically trained actors. aka the men who get hired and put in shows.

the women get jobs because theyre hot and now have to torment the audience with their subpar acting abilities and unfunny sense of humor and comedic timing.

It's Fridays at 4pm PST.

And yeah, so many lines crossed in Sam's game, but it was at least somewhat hilarious to see all the fallout. In SoT they spent 5 minutes today saying how much they loved Star Trek, BUT it wasn't okay for the show to have done certain episodes. Like the same cancer that Sam had to apologize for involving him being in "blackface" makeup for a video long ago.

This last episode I was actually surprised that he seems to be trying to keep the edge to a minimum. Yeah the whole infernal insults are a little try hard but over all Molly seems to be the only decent person in the group so far.

Sam is too damn good at shilling even mediocre products like D&D Beyond. Once his apology was posted it made the Mayo bit so much better.

You say that but I once forgot a line and a girl had to improv dialogue.
Some people have talent, others don't. It's THAT simple.

that's called the exception that proves the rule

Let's agree to disagree, I guess

i'm doing a poor job of communicating what it is i want to communicate.

i'm not saying good, classically trained actresses don't exist. what i am saying is they won't get hired over prettier women who are willing to suck off the producer. whereas with actors, its pretty much a direct meritocracy.

I'd like it more if the community wasn't so fucking toxic and if they didn't pander to those particular people.
>hurrdurr toxic go back to tumblr
no like the way they call Veeky Forums toxic is "they hate Marisha", which is an absolutely disgusting take. You can't say a fucking bad thing about the girl or your comments get pruned and you get slapped with a big dick ban. It's fascism in internet form, "stay in line or you're target practice". Absolutely disgusting.

Now and again Matt will pander to that crowd (recently with the LOOK AT ME IT'S A GENDERFLUID shit) and it'll be utterly pointless to the point of why bother bringing it up? I don't care what they all individually believe in outside of the show, but once you insert political trash into it to appeal to the Twitter trans community for brownie points, you lost me.

Here's a recipe for enjoyment:
criticalrolesource.tumblr.com reposts best gifs and fanart, but allows no discussion.
critrolestats.com analyzes the crunch and tallies up all the numbers
Watch the show on Alpha - better GUI, chat doesn't pop up at all, quality is kinda better than Twitch this days, VOD is available right after the show. There's a million ways to get a free trial every month or two.
Don't read twitter, don't visit their subreddit. If you want live discussion - the thread is up here on Veeky Forums every week about half an hour before the stream starts - feel free to hate Marisha, we're with you.
Try not to concentrate on the SJW parts - these guys have to make a living in LA, after all; enjoy Travis, Sam and Laura being the best, enjoy Liam being dork dad, don't mind Taliesin, do your best to ignore Marisha being Marisha. And be critical, but not too aggressive to Matt - he's not that different from most of us here, to be honest, and seems like he's been out of his home water for the last couple of years at this point..

user, pretty people will always have the advantage. At hospitals, when it comes to emergencies, they help the good looking guys first becouse they suppose they have higher chances of surviving. At most jobs, the best positions will be held by pretty people while your ugly ass is stuck in an insipid office.
Acting is saddly no different. I had skill, I had scope and I had charisma. But surprise surprise, I'm ugly as shit and that doesnt sell unless you are going for self-deprecation comedy. Yeah there are some exceptions, but its one in a million. By the time they hire your ugly ass, you are on your 40's and you are a sad sack of bones and bad memories.
This is just a reality we have to live in, user. That in spite of all that talk about accepting each other differences, we still massively divide society in ugly and pretty. We are beings of sight, not beings of thought. And unless our race goes blind, it will always be like that.

you're delusional

Why do people get in a twist about Marisha anyway? She doesn't seem that bad, did I miss something from the first campaign?

Then why is Steve Buscemi a successful actor?

I like it

Yes, she's definitely doing better than she was in the last campaign SO FAR. She's nowhere near as good as everyone else at the table, but at least she's not playing an insufferable Mary Sue like her last character.

Trust me, if you watch the first campaign long enough and have half a brain you will grow to fucking hate Keyleth's guts.

What specific type of shit did she do though? I keep being told she's awful and does awful things but never told any details. I don't particularly want to watch 500 hours worth of content just to get pissed off.

Idk shes still pretty insufferable to me. She still seems to be playing a mary sue and just acts too cool and cunty in her rping plus she does a shit ton of OOC dialogue. Shes really only there because shes matt’s wife not of her own merit.

She's just not very bright. And overdramatic. And she has a tendency to metagame. And she's socially awkward. And she's seemingly a different character every episode. And she can't read her spells. And she screws up all the time, sometimes putting the entire party in danger.

Some examples include
>she trusted a mindflayer over a Paladin of Bahamut who's best friends with their friend
>she yelled at everyone because they wanted to fight a roc and the dirty hippie protecting it that was stealing cows from the local farm and terrorizing the farmers
>her character's backstory is lifted straight from ATLA
>while everyone has died fighting powerful enemies, Keyleth's first and only death came from jumping off a cliff to get a diamond that fell and, upon being informed that the massive height would surely threaten her life and she wasn't certain if she'd hit rock or water, she shapeshifted...into a goldfish

She was set up as the princess of the Ashari in the last campaign and she ran this huge over-arching quest to get her crowned queen or some shit. It put her in a position for everyone to constantly praise her and raised her up on a pedestal despite being the biggest fuck-up out of anyone on the team, and they made her the de-facto leader of the group. She also had a tendency to try to hog the spotlight in really awkward and forced ways, trying to squeeze every ounce of drama out some kind of guilt complex where everything bad that happened was somehow the party's fault despite Matt previously explaining that it wasn't. Then there was the Kraken episode where she was just... the fucking worst. Wanted to leave half the party to die and worried more about them wounding the monster currently eating and killing multiple party members because the Aramente quest giver told her not to kill it. And of course she felt zero guilt afterwards.

Gust is a cantrip and she was told multiple occasions what it's limitations were, everytime though she'd try to bend the rules and argue that "it should totally work" despite it being a cantrip. Now mix that in ability to understand a simple cantrip and apply it to something like Wind Walk, I will admit Matt and her messed up on that one, however she outright admitted "I thought it would do something completely different" in other words "I didn't read the spell and just assumed it did this cool thing in my head". Cocked dice rule of Mercer has to confirm was instated because of her, she'd roll bad or meh instantly shout "cocked!" then just reroll, often getting a worse result. Next she likes a few drinks, no big deal normally, the problem is she didn't know when to stop and would be visibly drunk. The peak of this is the Kraken fight, which was the last part of her whole character arc, she is visible hammered. Now add her being drunk, panicking under pressure and sprinkle in she's one of the two full casters so they always built plans around her and you get to watch ever plan implode as the moment her turn comes around it goes out the window.

Now out of game, she swore up and down that Keyleth being dumb was on purpose, all according to keikaku and it was just an act. Then watch her repeat the same mistakes of not paying attention, being told "this looks like" or (description of something) then she'll immediately go "ok wait what does......" despite having just been told. Making dumb decision like "freeing" the girl despite three guards standing right there and having been told that she only got one or two to leave, she then goes "but wait I thought they left!" when she gets caught.

Tldr: she is That Guy at the CR table and gets away with it, along with having a brigade of white knights who will defend every dumb decision tooth and nail.

The One Shot Podcast's claim to fame is ironically their only non one shot, which is a star wars edge of the empire game. I had a lot of fun listening to it, but started to peter off when there was an excess of drama compared to actual gameplay.

Damn shes the epitome of every instance ive had a DM’s gf in a game.

Last season she was exactly that, around October or so her and Matt got married. Also she's the Creative Director at G&S so she's not going anywhere which makes the whole situation more frustrating.

Personally all I want is her to try, she's made some progress but her big OOC flaws are still glaringly obvious and she hasn't worked on them even a little.

Yeah thats what I mean I knew they were in a relationship and just reminds me of everytime ive had to play with That Girl. They are always playing not because they are legitimately interested in tabletop but because its their partner’s hobby and they just want to spend more time or the bf talked them into it. They don’t actually try and metagame the shit out of it. They make dumbass mistakes and the gm either babies or fudges rolls. They tend to get the best storylines or a part of the narrative dedicated to them. They never try to actually get better or RP their character better. They are usually the cause of group drama and infighting and at worst a group imploding, which is what happened with one of my favorite campaigns and groups. Yep im bitter about it.

>find a somewhat good internet podcast
>ruined by a woman one of the guys running things marries
this has happened to me pretty much every time

really makes me think

I could personally live with it so long as Matt doesn't single her out among the rest of the party as his pet character and makes her consistently pay for her fuck-ups. Of course, that's wishful thinking considering their relationship.

Ahh gotcha, also understand able.

After the Devil Toad episode where she choked out the little girl he was "protecting" and Matt didn't do what he did to Sam I gave up all hope of her ever facing consequences. Straight up fucking bullshit, Matt claimed he was gonna be a bit tougher this campaign but a) I'm not really seeing it and b) Marisha is fully exempt from that.

>Matt didn't do what he did to Sam
What did matt do/not do?

I like Mercer's style but I don't really have the time to watch thousends of fucking hours of videos to get a clue what the story is all about. I really prefer shorter videos with advises on how to be a better DM or how to get inspiration for your character.

Well the Toad didn't seem all that intent on ignoring others to focus down Beau. Spoilers for two episodes ago the Manticore was a mother, Nott killed her baby to make a distraction, Matt then gave it free advantage and focused Nott. From the way Matt played up the Devil Toad being overly protective of the little girl, I expected something other than it not even trying to get over there.

It totally was about to leap over and murder Beau though, then Fjord hit it with Wrathful Smite and feared it.

DM tips with Matt Mercer on YouTube my friend, don't watch the Satine Phoenix ones when she takes over. Nothing against her personally I just felt they were very mediocre.

Happy Jacks Actual Play podcast is amazing. They play a ton of games, including WoD.

And she cheats constantly, especially in the finale, so much so that Mercer added mechanics in this campaign to dissaude it

>Blatantly not making Constitution saves despite everyone around her doing it and another cast member mentioning it
That fight would have been completely different had she actually followed the rules.

Yeah, except an entire round went by of Marisha trying to choke out a kid instead of using non lethal damage, then it totally was gonna do that. How about the imps it summoned, didn't seem to try and use those either.

Man, I don't get this passive viewership thing in general.

I always fucking hated watching sports. It looks and sounds fucking retarded. But hey, you can finally watch my sport online. I fence. It's fucking nitch. But it's out there now on youtube. .... but I still don't fucking watch it. First off, half of the "oh that's so interesting" clips that people post are just.... the dudes missed. That's it. There's not even any fancy action, one fucker just plain missed and the other remised... whoop de fucking do. Now, some clips really are entertaining. Falling and hitting. Crazy-ass fleches. The same way that the.... top 10 sports clips of the year are entertaining for football and basketball... for about 5 minutes.

Who the fuck is THIS fucking passive that they'd rather watch people doing the thing they like to do?

Some of it is educational. Like I watched Starcraft 2 videos to figure out just WTF forge first expand was. And how to do blinking right. And I get the same "it's a sport" vibe.

But this new shit with kids watching people play games on Twitch? People watching people play D&D? just.... what the fuck? I don't get it.

The keyword is "trying". She kept failing to silence her and the toad didn't notice until she actually succeeded.

Some people don't have the time, friends, present community or energy to do it themselves, and online games just lack that personal touch - and the ability to reach over and slap a motherfucker when he's being That Guy.

In the future all forms of entertainment are consumed ironicly

>play two tabletop games a week, 3 hours on monday and all day sunday
>listen to critical role in the background while I'm at work or driving
>be a better player because of it, because oddly, professionally trained actors are good for inspiration and learning how to emote in character

>My group has never had the attention span for a year+ campaign.
Maybe it's because these folks are getting paid user.

Or people are just in shit groups

>have been in a Mage, the Ascension game for 3 years on and off, 8 months at a time
>have been in a 5e game for 3 years continuously