What does tg think about Critical Role?

>>52060440
I think I want Mat Mercer to gently fuck me in the ass and whisper "It's High Noon" and other sweet nothings softly in my ear

File: ba991f21f94e200b4914db758c30d5f8b86ae9543799b9eb5a14aad8af22aecb.jpg (59KB, 414x446px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 414x446px

>>52060457
That's pretty good.

File: disgust.jpg (46KB, 620x400px) Image search: [Google]

46KB, 620x400px

>>52060440
It's mediocre trash. Only two or three players are even half-decent, the rest are shit. Combats take waaaaaay too fucking long and are extremely boring. The story is a cliche yawn-fest. All of the PCs - without exception - are bland stereotypes.

Plus an hour of product placement at the beginning of each episode, and 1 hour of shitty Deviantart at the end of each episode.

>>52060457
This is what the entire Crit Role fanbase is like. Pure cancer.

>>52060533
There's nothing wrong with wanting to have gay sex to a fantastically talented individual who just happens to be part of Felicia Day's latest shitty internet show.

>>52060533
Don't be gay

>>52060440
It's alright. I think most people here aren't fans of watching people play games so you're going to get mixed responses. Still, the game flows and isn't full of stuttering mouthbreathers so even just by that merit it's better than a lot of the others out there.

>>52060440
If you want to watch a dungeons and dragons group play a game and have fun, then it's great.

I wouldn't recommend watching people play games, but then again, seems like Twitch is a giant money-maker and that's all they do.

>>52060457
"How do you want to do this?"

>>52060533
>Combats take waaaaaay too fucking long and are extremely boring.

I see this complaint a whole lot, but it's exactly the same sort of combats at your own table, you just don't notice how long it actually is because you're at the table and playing, rather than being an observer.

>>52060440
Critical Role is alright, stuff like The Adventure Zone and The Glass Cannon Podcast (although Pathfinder) is better.

File: into_the_trash_it_goes.jpg (45KB, 680x465px) Image search: [Google]

45KB, 680x465px

It's really stupid. It has been given more credence to natural 20 fetishization than anything else. The players treat the game like it's Cards Against Fucking Humanity and act like that's the best way to run a system. People drool over Matt Mercer's DMing style but honestly anyone who is decently well-read can pull off those descriptions. I know I certainly do on a weekly basis, as does one of my GM friends. Yeah, 90% of people are shit at GMing, but that doesn't mean this dumb-ass is a gifted savant. His gunslinger homebrew is atrocious, leaving aside the fact that guns do not belong in D&D end of story, it is just terrible mechanics-wise. This show is basically the roosterteeth "listen to grown men chuckling autistically into 5000 dollar microphones with a bunch of retards shouting over each other as the hysterical assperger laughter reaches its crescendo" experience. Why the fuck would you want to watch these people play their shitty boring campaign when you could go out and do it yourself? Is it the tits on the girls? None of them are very hot and honestly they are all terrible actresses, every time I hear their voices I want to kill myself. I cannot even describe how much I hate this shit. Here's the thing: I've seen a few comedy shows of people playing D&D. It was hilarious. Critical Role is just fucking stupid, partly because they are trying to actually play and they make a huge deal out of their stupid fucking campaign. But, the problem with these comedy shows was that people started expecting that out of their normal games. They expected RPGs to be funny. Not just naturally humorous, they want to rape the campaign for any potential it has. And these chucklefucks have read a load of "D&D stories" on imgur and reddit so they think that's how it is. So we have these fuckers derailing our campaigns every time we let a new person in. Now, this can't entirely be blamed on Critical Role, but it sure did its part to exacerbate the problem.

It's entertaining for what it is. It has brought awareness to the reality of this game and has gotten A LOT of people interested who otherwise wouldn't have ever gotten into the hobby.

Furthermore with a lot of the time usage for charity donation and the back end work that is put into the series, these people have done a lot of good for their communities. I'd love to see some of the other fa/tg/uys around here even have a fraction of that impact on those around them.

File: 28613-2154-30830.jpg (35KB, 720x480px) Image search: [Google]

35KB, 720x480px

>>52060872
Speak for yourself, cockbreath.

My combats last 3 - 5 turns and 1 hour maximum.

Matt Mercer is a shitty DM, but he can do cool voices, so it's all forgiven.

>>52060876
I imagine rules-stickers despise Adventure Zone. What makes you think it's better than CR?

>>52060903
Triggered much?

>>52060956
I enjoy the banter and how the story is going, whereas Critical Role is more or less just a standard story and standard session.

TAZ is worse when it comes to accurate rules, but better when it comes to how interactions and overall story.

>>52060953
>My combats last 3 - 5 turns

That sounds like they have no challenge to them.

>all this analaggravation
I like Critical Role, it's fun to listen to like a podcast. Mercer is a good DM who makes a fun and interesting game, some of the players are better than others but even when they're bad they don't ruin the show.
I don't get what everyone is 'sperging out about. No one is saying they are the greatest D&D group ever to play. Their show is built for one purpose: entertainment.

>>52060440
I like Liam and Travis.

>>52060953
He can pull some decent voices. That is the only talent he has. If you want to watch good voice-acting, just watch a movie because they barely do any voice acting on Critical Role. Not to mention their group is way too large. No one wants to DM for a 7 person group in real life, why the fuck would I want to watch half a dozen people yapping over each other. This stupid idiot can't even use some tokens to mark which goblins are entangled or not, there's some autistic dude singing while one of the roasties is trying to talk, the audio quality is honestly really bad, they need a sound guy who understands how to make their voices less sharp and grating. The background is incredibly cluttered and there are drinks and bottles and shit all over the table. The whole setup looks like I'm watching CSPAN imitated by a bunch of drunken frat boys and their cockslaves at a party where someone found a camcorder and wanted to do something "crazzzzy."

And listening to the Matt Mercer's description for the first time in a few months, I can tell there is nothing special to it. His rhythm is off and his diction has all the evocative strength of a third grader. None of this is even funny, nor entertaining. I cannot believe that some people watch this as a substitute for actual gaming. The entire point of RPGs is YOU getting to do it. There is no video screen, the description and writing are not carefully plotted, the entire point of it is the freedom and psychodrama of taking a characters role and sharing a story with your friends. Remove that and be an observer? Not even in person, over a video? That is fucking sad indeed. I know /tg/ has this philosophy that "no gaming is better than bad gaming" but apparently that philosophy does not apply regarding Critical Roll.

>>52060440
It doesn't podcast, I don't care about it.

Campaign podcasts, I care about it.

>>52061124
This, 100%.

>>52061072
> I like Critical Role, it's fun to listen to like a podcast.

Yeah if you like have your ear drums blasted out. Every time these fucks laugh I have to cover my ears because the sound quality turns the video into some kind of mini-ear-rape episode. Honestly if you need to listen to other peoples' social interaction to enjoy a hobby that just requires a few other human beings and some time, and you can't even achieve that, I feel fucking sorry for you. I am a loser with a shit life and even I have time for gaming. Do you have five children and a wife who doesn't work and forces you to come home early so you don't cheat on her ugly ass? Or severe social anxiety that prevents you from leaving your room? Because the only reason I can see anyone watching this, is if they were starved for RPG play and needed to watch a show to get it. Honestly anon hit me up and I will run a game for you in Discord or something because I really feel sorry for you right now.

> Mercer is a good DM who makes a fun and interesting game,

This is making me feel more sorry for you. If you think Mercer has any skill in anything beyond voice acting then you either have never had a halfway decent DM (which is the key to enjoying a D&D campaign, I'll give you that) or you've never played at all.

> some of the players are better than others but even when they're bad they don't ruin the show.

The very premise of the show is terrible because it removes everything that makes an RPG worth playing.

> Their show is built for one purpose: entertainment.

Well if you find it entertaining, you are entitled to your opinion. But I will never understand how the fuck people could enjoy listening to this at all, let alone for a full 3 hour episode.

>>52060440

I tried to watch it once. Not worth my fucking time. DND, like most games, is fun to play but not to watch.

>>52060440
I like it. I've ways wanted to play but would have no idea where to begin and i dont know anyone in my social circles who'd be interested.

File: Donald Trump thumbs up.jpg (31KB, 645x363px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 645x363px

>>52061178
>If you think Mercer has any skill in anything beyond voice acting then you either have never had a halfway decent DM (which is the key to enjoying a D&D campaign, I'll give you that) or you've never played at all.

blessed truth

>>52061241
Would you happen to live in the Hillerod part of Denmark? If so I can suggest you a pretty good gaming club

>>52061178
>all this projection
It's just a show, man.

What should Mercer do differently then if you think he's trash?

>>52061241
If you're a college/university student there's normally a society for RPGs

>>52061272

I too am interested. Clearly these people are the paragons of DMing. They should enlighten us poor fucks with some quality and specific DM advice.

Meh, Sam Riegel and Travis are funny and Matt makes great voices, the rest are either annoying or bland. Most people sperging here can only dream they're having as much fun playing as these guys are. They're comfy to watch as background noise while I work or paint, the props of having two monitors.

>>52061403
It's not that they're bad.

It's that they're bog standard.

Stuff like Drunks and Dragons, Glass Cannon, or All Guardsman is better.

>>52061272
>What should Mercer do differently then if you think he's trash?

Stop mollycoddling his players like children.
Stop running 4-hour-long battles.
Stop running a boring plot.
Stop running terrible boss battles.
Stop letting his dumb cunt whore open her mouth.
Stop being a cuck.

>>52061436

>Stop mollycoddling his players like children.
In what way is he mollycoddling? What indicates when someone is mollycoddling? How does one mollycoddle?

>Stop running 4-hour-long battles.
You've identified a legitimate grievance but offered no solution. Not running any battles whatsoever would be a solution to this, but I doubt that's a good one. What would you do differently? How would you run shorter battles?

>Stop running a boring plot
Assuming the plot is boring, how would you make it more interesting?

>Stop running terrible boss battles
I feel like a broken record here. In what way are they terrible, and for a wannabe DM, how might you spice up the boss battles? Are there any particular examples you could point to?

>Stop letting his dumb cunt open her mouth
Ah. I see.

>Stop being a cuck.
Good job. You posted on the internet! Congratulations.

>>52061596
>>52061375

I'm sure he's a terrific DM himself with this attitude
>>52061436

>>52061596
1/2

I'm not that guy and he's using too many buzzwords/aggressive shit for my liking but I generally agree with his grievances as to why this show is bad and attracts idiots

>In what way is he mollycoddling? What indicates when someone is mollycoddling? How does one mollycoddle?
They don't know the rules dozens of episodes in and need constant reminders of how to play.
He introduced homebrew content for his players to be special snowflakes with when they a) hadn't already mastered the basic rules and b) said content is unbalances mechanically and in flavour

>You've identified a legitimate grievance but offered no solution. Not running any battles whatsoever would be a solution to this, but I doubt that's a good one. What would you do differently? How would you run shorter battles?
This is silly. You don't have to provide a solution to something sucking when it genuinely sucks, which multi-episode combats do. It's not hard to fix, either: ensure the players learn the damn rules as in post 1. That will speed things up. Manage table chatter and the constant quipping (which of course they won't do because that Marvelshit quipping is designed to be """"entertaining""" to the viewer). Lastly, ensure the enemies are actually balanced and that combat is flowing smoothly and effectively without getting bogged down. This also means making sure if there will be a 4-hour fight it's sufficiently epic and badass enough to merit such a length; at the current moment, this is not the case.

>Assuming the plot is boring, how would you make it more interesting?
Either avoid fantasy stereotypes (in a world that also has guns) which read like mad-libs "fill in the blanks" plots. If you must use fantasy stereotypes, either invert them (the princess you saved is secretly the BBEG and because you failed the DC 25 Insight to discover it she will jump you in a way making an actually interesting fight that might kill you)

>>52061124

I basically treat it like a podcast, I listen to it on YouTube in the background while I'm tabbed into something else, like gaming or 4chan.

>>52060440
I like him as a DM because i feel like he's very descriptive and creative, but when I'm in the mood to listen to gameplay it's usually Acquistions Inc. Those guys are fucking funny

>>52061700
I don't claim to be a super great DM, and I can't do Mercer's voices, but I dislike him because of how much he's obviously hamming things up and making GESTICULATING HAND GESTURES and HEAD BOBBING for the camera. Also his girlfriend is bad at roleplaying and combat. You can be bad at one, but not at both.

>>52061596
>>52061718
2/2
Continued
Or you can also satirize stereotypes (you find a page of the script as part of your Investigation check, it says the railroad is thattaway).

>Stop running terrible boss battles
The White Dragon battle took forever and was just boring, and shouldn't have taken nearly as long. Then there's the Rakshasa fight, the conclusion of which was eye-rolling in the extreme. I'll give credit where it's due, the plot idea of hunting said Rakshasa was cool but the fight was slogged and ended in a silly fashion.

>Ah. I see.
Whilst he's an asshole in how he stated it, he's essentialy right. Keyleth/Marisha is easily one of the worst people at the table and really goddamn annoying.

>Good job. You posted on the internet! Congratulations.
I'll agree with you on that one, using "cuck" means nothing

>>52061436
>Stop being a cuck
take your own advice, my friend :^)

>>52061425

>Drunks and Dragons

I'm way behind on that, of course some of my enthusiasm fell off when the rogue died due to a "kill off a character of your choice" donation incentive.
Felt kind of hollow.

>>52061788

I'm looking forward to the "C Team" spin-off that Jerry's DMing.

>>52061101
>watch this as a substitute for actual gaming
I doubt this applies to anyone, you dink

>>52061596
>A-ha! Look how smart I am! I am better than you because I have a condescending attitude! Aha!

If only you could suck a shotgun barrel as well as you suck cock.

>>52061823
>t. cuck

File: bent-fork-pointing-to-advertise-36182776.jpg (6KB, 160x160px) Image search: [Google]

6KB, 160x160px

>>52061195
>DND, like most games, is fun to play but not to watch.

>DND, LIKE MOST GAMES, IS FUN TO PLAY BUT NOT TO WATCH.

Capitalized for emphasis.

>>52060457
Woah there!

>>52061804
You still really haven't pointed out any real problems or how to fix them. Fighting a pack of dragons, defeating a vampire family, going on a quest to complete something personal to a character don't really constitute as "boring". Yeah its not spelljammer where you have to launch a nuke into the star dragon or some other nonsense.

Secondly, you do realize this is like their second or third jobs mostly? I'm not really one for excuses but I've been playing roughly once a week for over two years with the same people and we still forget rules. I'm sure you and your players have forgetten rules. You subjectively don't like Keyleth and project that on Marisha, congrats you're an asshole. You're an asshole to the point where you're nitpicking a common human trait, gesturing while speaking. I really hate these threads cause they're the closest thing /tg/ gets to /v/, vitrioloic and opinionated about something that ultimately affects them little.

Also your definition for Mollycoddling still doesn't define the concept. The only one with special snowflake rules is Percy. Oh, and guns aren't common. And inverting a common trope is unfortunately a common trope in itself.

>>52061905
He's not incorrect for being dismissive of half baked claims and arguments based on emotions.

>>52061898
You'd be wrong, my dude.

File: TripleShock.png (42KB, 259x372px) Image search: [Google]

42KB, 259x372px

>>52061955
Damn you, cutlery. Consider your dubs checked.

I mainly just hate the natural 20 shit, and that it's infected D&D players.

Like one of the screeching autists up above said, all the normies I know who like D&D seem to think a natural 20 means it's time to play cards against humanity, and I hate cards against humanity.

>>52061596
Pure reddit. The guy you're responding to is retarded as well, don't get me wrong.

>>52061868
I actually didn't know about that. I just started following them recently. I thought mike and patrick did a good job when they were DM for that one pax show, interested to see jerry do it.

>>52060440
I like 'em. Its a fun watch, although recently I've found some of the episodes a bit lacklustre (looking at you, raishan and thordak). The players are fun, and all have their moments (some more than others, I'll admit), but none of them are as annoying as they're made out to be on here.
Mercer is a great DM because his players are having fun, and that's really all there is to it.
Now that I've finished shilling, I do feel the show could do with a it of spicing up. I thought it would happen during the conclave arc, with more of a 'fighting for survival' aspect, but no, and I thought it again when Scanlan left, but no, they just carried on as usual.

>>52060457
>Huh ho, excuse me!

>>52062570

His Dark Sun 4e campaign was pretty baller, so I know he has the skills to pay the metaphorical bills.

>>52062592
>Hehehe, watch and learn...

>>52060440
Haven't seen it

As a foreverGM, I like podcasts and actual plays like Critical Role because seeing other games in action is a pretty easy way to pick up on good GMing tricks.

>>52062078
Different anon here, and I'm going to try and provide actual criticism of the show and some of the players and not resort to name-calling.

The overall plot of the show is pretty standard (a problem occurs or monster shows up, heroes go about solving the problem or killing the monster, rinse and repeat) and the things they've fought over the course of the show are "normal" fantasy creatures (mindflayers and a Beholder in the Underdark, then the undead and a vampire in Whitestone, then the Ancient Chromatic Dragons for the continent the heroes reside on). There's nothing wrong with it being "normal" stuff, especially when you take into account that for most of the players this is their first tabletop game in either decades (Liam, Sam, Marisha), or ever (Travis, Laura, Ashley).

They also shifted rules editions when the show began, moving from Pathfinder to 5th edition, and when combined with the hectic schedules they lead (long hours at work, family matters, then add in the 'second job' of Critical Role) you can forget things you should know/remember, even after doing it for a long time, just because you are tired after a long day of work. Sure, they should know some things by now (spell attack bonus and/or spell save DC for the casters of the group) but when you get asked for a particular save you don't use very often you might fumble about for a while while you look for the right number.

1/2

>>52062744
Like what? Name a single thing you ""learned"" from Mercer. Because if you really learned anything from him, you are probably a terrible DM.

File: IMG_0352.gif (49KB, 493x370px) Image search: [Google]

49KB, 493x370px

>>52062744
As a foreverGM, I like podcasts and actual plays like Critical Role because they let me vicariously live out my dreams of having players who aren't shitbirds

>>52062760
>Like what?
"How do you want to do it" is a brilliantly intuitive and easy way to give players flashes of agency in combat, and I've started to adapt it to other forms of success. The game table has been a lot more vibrant ever since I started asking players what exact tricks of the trade they use to unlock doors under duress, or what their successful acrobatics check looks like to the rest of the table.

>>52062755
2/2

On the topic of Marisha/Keyleth, I feel like it's a combination of her playing a character she herself has said is almost the total opposite of her (she's said as much during several cons and their talk show) and her getting excited about an idea in her head on how to do a particular thing or use a specific spell, only for Matt to try and make the idea work with RAW or RAI (the Animal Shape fiasco from the latest episode).

Combat at higher levels in every edition of D&D gets bogged down in numbers and rules, that's not a problem that the show has. There's things Matt can do to help speed it along (remind the players who's coming up in initiative order, better camera angles for the battle map) but some of the changes they've made to make it easier for the show to be filmed have affected the flow of the game (they sit at three different tables, the battle map is like 10 feet from the players, and they have to use a laser pointer to try and show where they want to move). He also beefed up the HP of the monsters because most of his players are a DPS class/role, so that's why combat can last longer than it should.

>>52062760
>Like what? Name a single thing you ""learned"" from Mercer.
Not him, but I've started giving my players a lot more downtime to just let their characters interact and roleplay between one another instead of with my NPCs The interaction between the characters in that show are what makes the group feel like a proper fellowship, so I've been taking more steps to get the group talking and interacting among themselves instead of just with the things I throw at them

>>52062760
Yet another different anon, I've been trying to provide more description of both NPCs and the setting/surroundings the players are in, instead of just going, "you're in a tavern," or, "you're in a dungeon."

>>52062789
So your players are lazy-ass roleplayers who can't even describe their shit without prompting? Fucking hell. I mean, I guess that's a good trick, if you consider "trick" to be something that everyone is already doing, but with a cute name attached so you can post it on roddit for upvotes.

>>52062836
So you learned not to railroad your players with your ADHD bullshit? Good for you!

Speaking of DM's girlfriend, anybody know how Patrick Rothfuss seemingly acquired DM's girlfriend powers with Chris Perkins?
Because I would be interested in learning a way to do it without resorting to the... traditional method.

File: 1413570367182.jpg (36KB, 365x450px) Image search: [Google]

36KB, 365x450px

>>52062875
>Yet another different anon, I've been trying to provide more description of both NPCs and the setting/surroundings the players are in, instead of just going, "you're in a tavern," or, "you're in a dungeon."

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

If you learned that from Mercer, you really are a shitty DM. Holy fuck, I'm glad I don't play in campaigns with you.

> "You're in a tavern"
> "You're in a dungeon"

Please tell me you are joking / trolling / using hyperbole, because if not you may just be the saddest fucking DM on this planet.

Anyway, you didn't "learn" anything from Mercer in that case. You did the equivalent of getting hit by a car then seeing a literal goddamn chimpanzee wait for the Walk signal and realize "hm maybe I should do that instead." Adding description is such a basic part of DMing that I am not sure how you ever were allowed to do it without understanding this. But I guess there's no test to pass to become a DM.

>>52062915
>>52062879
It always amazes me how upset some people get in these threads. Happens every time, like clockwork.

File: CM 1037.jpg (177KB, 1680x1120px) Image search: [Google]

177KB, 1680x1120px

>>52060440
Is Keyleth fucking Talisman?

Why does Matt let this faggot grope and grind all over his girl like that??

File: 1340433133399.jpg (103KB, 384x313px) Image search: [Google]

103KB, 384x313px

I don't have anything against Critical Role, but even with professional voice actors there's still way too much extra fat when you're listening to four raw, uncut hours of tabletop gaming.

I feel like podcasts like The Adventure Zone or Friends at the Table have the advantage of benefiting from editing so the faffing about that usually happens in between the "good stuff" gets left out. If I'm going to be listening to a game instead of playing it, I'd prefer the one or two hours of actual content over all the extraneous table talk that usually happens on the side.

>>52062879
>>52062915

I would argue that everything is new to someone, and that it's better to be happy that other people are improving, and encourage them to improve further, than to shit on them for not being perfect. But that would be arguing in good faith, and you clearly don't give a shit about that. You're just here to be an abrasive asshole and tear down anyone who is enjoying themselves.

Good job: you've suceeded. Are you happy now, you miserable streak of spite?

>>52062969
Probably because he's not self-conscious enough to get angry at the prospect of a fictional character played by one of his closest friends playing out a fictional romance with the fictional girl played by his real-life fiance?

When married actors kiss other people for a romantic role in their movies, do you automatically think "WOW THEIR SPOUSE MUST BE SUCH A KEK TO LET THEM DO THIS"

File: krieger.jpg (454KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

454KB, 1280x720px

>>52060782
>>52061987
>>52062592
>>52062691

>>52062915

You are THOROUGHLY rump-rustled anon, I'm not sure I've ever seen a case so bad.

>>52060903
I really hope this is copypasta

>>52063187

Whether or not it was, it is now.

>>52060876
High Rollers is pretty good too, though I still need to finish that.

>>52063187
Nah, I wrote it. Amazing that someone could write all those words, huh?

>>52063246
>Yogscast
>Good

Are you certain? That would be a first

>>52063278
It's surprising, but if you don't look directly at Kim and mask her voice with white noise it's a solid 7/10.

Mark Hulmes is actually a pretty good GM. Ad-hocs and improvises on what the players do, brings back old NPCs and acts them out right, doesn't get bogged up in rule fuckery...

>>52062808
>her playing a character she herself has said is almost the total opposite of her

Don't people do this all the time? Do you think she isn't a strong enough roleplayer to make it convincing enough?

>>52063402
Even as a dedicated fan of the show, who has seen every episode, the recent turn off events in episode 88 is the only way her character can be salvaged for me. I hope she doesn't mess it up. Vax and Keyleth could just stop being in the show altogether with no explaination and the overall quality would only go up. I can't stand either of them any more

>>52063402
>Do you think she isn't a strong enough roleplayer to make it convincing enough?

Basically, yes. She's certainly improved from the very start of the show, but not nearly as much as basically every other person she plays with (Travis and Sam are probably the best at it, Liam and Percy have their moments every now and then, Ashley's got a few moments too, and Laura improved her roleplay skills a fair bit over the last 20 episodes or so).

>>52062915

I was using hyperbole, don't get your knickers in a twist.

Though, if you're just trolling the thread then I'll just ignore you from here-on out.

>>52060440
I love it, but I feel like I'd hate most of them if I knew them in real life.

>>52061195
Yeah, hence why no one watches other people play games.

>>52061243
I haven't seen a better DM on YouTube/Twitch, at the very least. I wonder why all of these fantastic DMs you know don't try doing a web show of their own.

>>52061403
Sam's funny, but his Jewry is getting out of hand. I actually think CR has fallen below DCA for me because of him.

>>52061804
Marisha is bad, I don't think many here would defend her.

>>52061898
I pretty much don't play games at all, anymore. One day I'll watch Distortion2 speedrunning Souls games, the next I'll watch competitive Dota 2, one day I'll see if GameGrumps or JonTron have done anything interesting in the past 6 months, and every Tuesday and Thursday I watch people play D&D.

I just don't have friends anymore. They all went places and I didn't. And now that I have a job, I don't have the energy to play games myself, even video games, anymore.

>>52063889
Jesus, man.

I hope some shit goes your way.

so much anger ITT
its not my cup of tea but i think matt mercer is a really good DM so i watched it when i was new. not much after that. i like orion's character

>>52060440
Woah I hope none of them read this, although chances are at least one of them does.

I tried it and liked it at first, but after a few episodes felt like there was no point continuing. Seems like a decent, average D&D game, which is fun for everyone involved but gives me no reason to see it. Plot and characters are too generic, but that's a complaint I have about most D&D stuff anyway.

>>52063930
Thanks. I don't really see my life as "bad," though, per se, nor can I see anything changing any time soon. It just is what it is.

>>52063998
I guarantee you only 3/9 of them have ever been to 4chan and the odds of them coming here anytime soon given their busy lives and greater affection for plebbit are really low.

>>52063889
>I wonder why all of these fantastic DMs you know don't try doing a web show of their own.
I'm not saying that I'm a fantastic GM but why would I ?

>>52061178
God you are a faggot, this bait is bad. You know what is sad? You writing so much about this show you pathetic cuck

>>52060782
>>52061987
>>52062592
>>52062691
ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA ORAAAA!

>>52061718
I don't watch Roll20, but I might as well argue against your posts for my amusement and, doubtlessly, that of OP's.
>Mollycoddling point
How many are new players? In fairness, there a lot of rules in Dnd (even in the fairly simple 5th edition) and I understand most of these people have fairly busy working lives so they can't spend time memorising shit. As long as it doesn't devolve into arguments or take too long, forgetting rules is forgivable for newer players.
The whole gunsliger thing is a silly point, cause isn't this Mercer's own setting? His world, his flavour and his homebrew. Getting bothered about that is just silly.
>Battle point
To be fair, I see your point here. I've had problems with players spending too long figuring out their turns because they'd been joking about some earlier event. Point to you.
>Plot point
I feel this is automatically invalidated by even suggesting you use a DC25 Insight check instead of actual fucking roleplay. Though, by your previous points, perhaps you felt this would slow the game down? You also claim to hate quips, but then seem to think your 'satire' is any different.
>Boss point
Need to see the show to be more educated on it.
>Cuck point
Just another buzz word.

File: 1473619102995.jpg (44KB, 529x502px) Image search: [Google]

44KB, 529x502px

>>52061436
>Being this bitter

Did Mercer fuck your mum or something?

File: 1358647304590.jpg (79KB, 847x478px) Image search: [Google]

79KB, 847x478px

>>52064176
I mean, he goes to Burning Man. Sounds like a cuck to me. I like Mercer, but there are things he does I dislike. I don't like that he doesn't use passives, but a lot of DMs seem to not use them. I also don't like that he calls out Legendary Resistances; it kinda' breaks the immersion and I feel like it comes off as kind of antagonistic to the players ("Your spell would have worked, but I'm using Legendary Resistance lul"). Lastly, I don't get why he nerfs Strength so much. He gave Grog a pair of boots that allow him to potentially jump a distance that's shorter than what he should be able to jump, RAW. Whenever Grog tries to move some heavy object, he makes him roll Strength checks, which is fine, but honestly with a Strength that fucking high he should be able to punt boulders. I doubt he'd use the same logic when applied to monsters. If a monster had 26 Strength, he'd probably let them throw Trinket around like a ragdoll, but if Grog wants to move Trinket, it turns into an endeavor. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like Strength already sucks without his adjudicating.

>>52064103
Just seems like an odd coincidence. It reminds me of a similar argument I see in a lot of competitive video games: all of the actually-good players apparently don't play professionally, given how much they criticize players who do without ever putting their own capabilities on camera for comparison.

>>52064162

>>52064393
>>52064393
>He goes to Burning Man
How does that make him a cuck? As far as I know, Burning Man has nothing in relation to being a cuck.
Not using passives and being a dick to strength users, is a damn mean move though. He probably just calls out Legendary Resistance so no one gets salty when spells fail.

>>52064485
But wouldn't they just get salty about him using Legendary Resistances then? Seems like it'd be better to have them bitter over lady luck than bitter at a game mechanic that the DM willingly chooses to use.

>>52064393
>Just seems like an odd coincidence. It reminds me of a similar argument I see in a lot of competitive video games: all of the actually-good players apparently don't play professionally, given how much they criticize players who do without ever putting their own capabilities on camera for comparison.
I'm not even criticizing it, actually I don't watch that show, but in term of logistics, video editing and shit it would be a full time job to produce a enjoyable content IMO. It's not really the same as just launching FRAPS on dust2.

>>52064485
I mean, they'd be salty either way, but I feel like him saying, "He fails the saving throw-" "YAY!" "-but uses Legendary Resistance to succeed!" is the worse of the two.

>>52064599
I doubt it. Tons of people stream themselves doing all sorts of shit. They just turn their webcam on.

>>52064682
>I doubt it. Tons of people stream themselves doing all sorts of shit. They just turn their webcam on.
Would you like to watch me and my friends playing some shadowrun in my living room while emptying wine bottles and eating pizzas ? Thought so.

>>52060872
i Also think 6 people with other damage sponge enemies encountered at their level slow it down too

>>52064710
Fuck you i would

File: 1488831542640.jpg (40KB, 342x298px) Image search: [Google]

40KB, 342x298px

Matt Mercer is a good DM; his voices are quirky and his characters are remember able. I think he delivers pretty well on the mundane content he provides. A lot of cucks here are pretty jealous, and make claims of how they trump his style. ...But if it was so good, why aren't you guys content providers?

Just saying.

File: 1484590901147.png (55KB, 311x338px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 311x338px

Matt Mercer is a good DM; his voices are quirky and his characters are memorable. I think he delivers pretty well on the mundane content he provides. A lot of cucks here are pretty jealous, and make claims of how they trump his style. ...But if it was so good, why aren't you guys content providers?

Just saying.

File: Ugor.jpg (432KB, 1024x1200px) Image search: [Google]

432KB, 1024x1200px

Matt Mercer is a good DM; his voices are quirky and his characters are memorable. I think he delivers pretty well on the mundane content he provides. A lot of cucks here are pretty jealous, and make claims of how they trump his style. ...But if it was so good, why aren't you guys content providers?

Just saying.

File: ah-yes-trash.jpg (154KB, 800x585px) Image search: [Google]

154KB, 800x585px

>>52060440
Vicarious gaming is the most cancerous thing. Just go play some fucking D&D instead of watching some D-list actors play a soft-scripted game of it on the internet. There is literally no aspect of the show that is not better served by doing something else.

>I just want a fantasy story
Read a fucking fantasy book or watch a god damned fantasy movie you shit. Every single one of them will be a better story.

>I want to experience good friends having fun together
And this is where the real cancer begins. You have thousands of lonely fucking nerds sitting in their rooms passively enjoying someone else's "friendship" (scripted tv friendship). Can't make real friends in your local area to socialize and play games with? Go online and connect with some of the other thousands of lonely fucking nerds who are also so desperate for human contact that they need this show to fill that void in their lives.

>I want to see <X, my favoritest actor evar!!111> do stuff and be funny
That's what actual movies and TV are for. The bonus for that is you also get a better plot and visuals to boot.

File: 83748401289.jpg (191KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

191KB, 1920x1080px

With the right group RollPlay is much better. Swan Song deserves to be beloved. It maintains the atmosphere of five faggots having fun playing a dumb game. So long as fucking Jesse, Dodger etc. aren't on it.

Mercer is great on RollPlay. Critical Role just stinks because it's bizarrely trying to be a corporate show type thing when they're just playing D&D. They all want to cry and give performances. Plus Marisha is horrific.

File: ^F21CC2BCE12DA9D6CF9562A1C060682C6E595E64F68B8358A4^pimgpsh_fullsize_distr.jpg (89KB, 767x1024px) Image search: [Google]

89KB, 767x1024px

>>52061823
>Stop being a cuck
Practice what you preach my guy

>>52065798
The "Critical Role is scripted" faggot came late today. It's fun to watch. It's a lot more fun to watch than anything on TV. I'm watching Dice Camera Action as I type this, in fact.

>>52065854
I find that hard to believe. No one likes that pink-haired faggot. Marisha's bad, sure, but Laura, Travis, Taliesin and Sam are great.

File: 1435191692101.jpg (6KB, 255x208px) Image search: [Google]

6KB, 255x208px

Alright, everyone post the best Tabletop Podcast you know of.

We can make a list of recommendations or some shit.

>>52066339
Critical Hit from Major Spoilers

>>52066339

I like Tabletop Escapades by EZA but that's mostly cause GameTrailers nostalgia.

File: ImSadNow.png (26KB, 146x252px) Image search: [Google]

26KB, 146x252px

>>52063966
>i like orion's character
So did I anon, so did I...

I wish they would learn how to fucking play after so many goddamn sessions

>>52063966
I don't think anyone really had a problem with the character so much as with Orion himself and the way he played

File: every fucking critical role thread in a nutshell.png (2MB, 2546x1350px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2546x1350px

>>52063187
>>52063232
and done-zo

File: Better Cap.png (82KB, 1316x214px) Image search: [Google]

82KB, 1316x214px

>>52068561
Better cap because nothing is cut off

>>52066339
I'm partial to Party Roll, but that's just because I've been with them for a while.

>>52068613
well I suppose so

cunting macos and its shit screenshot abilities

>>52061718
>>52061804

Honestly, I think many of Matt's problems would be solved if he just involved 1 or more other DMs in the planning of his games.

He's very adamant about maintaining the spirit of the game and keeping things basically the same as when they weren't playing for an audience, but at this point, he needs to just face the fact that with 20k + pairs of eyes watching on a weekly basis, the cracks are starting to become more apparent. There are plot holes all over the place, and many factors in his world (one that is clearly high-magic) just don't make sense.

His encounters are usually unique as far as his arenas go, but he is definitely guilty of just tacking on hit points to big monsters to make fights seem more difficult than they actually are. There are far more creative ways to make a fight more difficult and he should be looking into that.

Really I think just having one or two other experienced DMs that he can sit down with and talk to about his next game with would do wonders for the show. So many times the players make a fairly obvious choice and Matt seems caught off guard as far as mechanics go. Half of it would be guesswork about what the players might do, but it would at least help him polish things up every week and remove any unfair or unfun mechanics

>>52063402
The problem is Marisha says Keyleth acts one way, then she plays her in a way that is contrary to that, then she seems to have an "Oh shit, she's supposed to do this" moment, and tries to backpedal and be what she said in the first place. It's plainly evident every time she puts on the "moral center" hat.

I know the group drinks liquor while they play from time to time, and that might be why she comes off that way, but then maybe someone should talk to her about drinking so much or her ability to handle alcohol. She blurts out shit all the time at ear bleeding levels for no reason. The latest episode in particular had her yelling "LODESTONE" so goddamn much I'm surprised nobody really said anything to her about it.

>>52069003
she was fucking blasted by the end of last week's episode (they were drinking Kraken) and it was pretty awkward. The party was basically falling apart in front of her and she could barely remember what her own stats were.

I almost always have a couple drinks when I play but even I was cringing by the end of the show.

I'm really hoping Keyleth dies and doesn't come back. She's definitely the most obnoxious part of the group, and not in an endearing way.

>>52069003
I think enough people complained about her that Matt had to tweet "be nice" the next morning.

File: thrilling_intent__wizard_highschool_by_framedodge-d83qryh.png (824KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

824KB, 1280x720px

Let's be honest. If the DM can't sound like Patrick Warburton, the show's not as good as Thrilling Intent.

>>52060440
Stop shilling

>>52063966
Tiberius was a decent character.
However, he was run by a cheating metagame-munching attention whore with too long of a shopping list in an attempt to metagame harder.
Fucking hell, the reason he searched for that Lockheed or whatever was for the magic resistance.

>>52069104
To be fair though, he's tweeting something to that extent for the past few weeks.

Although, he did also make a post about the "critters" needing to be able to tolerate conflicting opinions and criticism of the show/characters, so I guess that isn't too bad.

>>52060440
I have no friends that want to play including my fiance so I enjoy watching and playing vicariously through them.

>>52069271
I think if the show dies it will be from this.

The players get abused a ton by rabid fans bitching about their decisions or missing stuff. If I was constantly catching shit for something that was only meant to be for fun I'd probably quit. Matt has said that if the game doesn't work out on G&S they'll just play privately again and not worry about it.

>>52062590
>Raishan
What are you talking about? She was the one dragon who actually had some kind of character and came the closest to TPK'ing the party

>>52069385
Yes, but when it came right down to it the fight was weirdly straight-forward for someone how had been hyped up as the diseased deciever the whole arc.She just whaled on them while invisible, didn't seem to have any tricks up her sleeve or anything.
That episode just lacked a big 'oh shit' moment on the part of matt, some big twist either during or after the fight. But it just sort of happened, they walked in, killed her, found nothing and revived all their dead. I'm not saying it was easy, it was still a dragon, but it wasn't any more interesting than any of the other fights.

>>52064710
Yes

>>52069599
Ok, I can agree with that

>>52069003
For that episode specifically they had decided it would be "fun" if they started drinking a bottle of Kraken before and during the episode, but not finish it off, to go in line with the overall mission of that episode: to avoid the Kraken and if need-be, stall and fight it but to not kill it.

I think she had one or two cups of it too many, and it was seriously screwing with her decision making even more-so than usual (the whole Animal Shape incident probably wouldn't have been as bad if she was fully sober).

>>52068672
I think a lot of Matt's problems would also be solved if the group was 4 or 5 players, instead of the 7 he should have (when Ashley's there) and the 6 when she's not.

Their party balance/dynamic is horribly out of balance, being four DPS rolls (Assassin Rogue/ Vengeance Paladin, Berserker Barbarian, a tweaked Beastmaster Ranger, and a port of the Gunslinger from Pathfinder that was turned into a ranged Fighter with some bells and whistles).

If the party balance was more defined, or hell, losing one or two of the DPS characters and replacing them with a freaking Wizard, so many of their problems would be solved, and the combat stuff would probably go by much faster because the Wizard player can tag-team with the Bard, Druid, or Cleric to buff the party, debuff the enemy, or straight up trivialize the fight.

>>52069599
There's also the fact they fought her when she wasn't in her lair, and probably had a lot of the evocation or damage spells learned and didn't have the save or suck spells.

From a blaster mage standpoint, she had a ton of the most desirable spells (Meteor Swarm, Chain Lightning, Prismatic Spray, Greater Invisibility) and used her mobility to great effect. It just so happened that the Feeblemind from Keyleth after burning her Legendary Resists was the MVP play of the fight, as she was moving into position to Prismatic Spray the party's backline.

>>52069809
I was honestly expecting something bigger than that. When Talesin suddenly suspected she might be hiding in the walls I got really hyped, but that turned out not to be true. The fight was played well (by both sides), but like I said before I honestly expected more of a surprise attack. I mean Raishan used some kind of illusion of herself in every contact with the party up to that point, but in the fight that kind of deception seemed to completely slip her mind after the initial mild fuckery.

>>52066129
>No one likes that pink-haired faggot
Dudes an awesome GM.

File: 1479331277458.jpg (36KB, 464x348px) Image search: [Google]

36KB, 464x348px

>>52065652

>But if it was so good, why aren't you guys content providers?

It's a lot of work with a skill set that's very different from actually running the game. You can be an amazing DM but don't know dick about audio and video editing. It's also a huge investment in time and money if you don't want everything to look and sound like shit.

I'm certainly trying. I've actually been recording my group's sessions and trying to make them into digestible 1 hour episodes out of 4-6 hour long sessions, and even for when it's audio only I have to make sure everyone sounds loud and clear, remove background noise, cut out audio chunks that don't need to be there, etc. I'm also doing everything over Discord and Roll20 since my friends live far away from me now, and not all of them have good quality mics. Each recording is grueling to go through, and a lot of times it's hard to come home from a day of work just to do more work.

Kudos to him and his crew for making a show that both works and other people like, but it's perfectly valid to criticize him on his DMing skills while also lacking the time/money/skills to make a competing show.

>>52066339

I just like podcasts about games instead of people playing games.

Schemes and Stones is great if you have any interest in Malifaux, and System Mastery covers some interesting old books.

>>52069852
Honestly I think the whole illusion thing was so Raishan could stall the party while she moved around under the effects of Invisibility or Greater Invisibility to put herself in a position to either flee (if possible) or to blow up the healers of VM (which she did do, with killing Scanlan and almost perma-killing Pike, were it not for a Vestige being more powerful than Finger of Death's perma-kill clause).

If Matt truly wanted to give Raishan a larger spell list then he needed to reduce her HP even more than he did (it was something like 550 HP for her when the other members were around 800-1k each), because of how he did the Legendary Actions, being able to fire off three high-level spells a turn is busted.

Arguably Raishan was the highest CR of all the dragons because of that simple fact, and she had so much information on the group she knew who to aim for first and what spells to use, not to mention her spell save DC was something like a 22 or 23, which barring a Dex. save from the twins or a nat 20 I don't think anyone was going to make.

>>52069809
i think the entire session was bogged down by having fuckin rothfuss on the show.

I might be biased though. The only guest star I enjoyed was Chris Hardwick. He made the right call by playing a comic relief character that won't really matter if he shows up again later or not. So many people try to play super serious edgy characters and in a game like this where you have to share the spotlight so much, it really sucks.

I think it works best when the player knows ahead of time that they're just a side character in the story and should try to fill out the party in some way rather than try to make us care about them for the 1-3 episodes they're there for.

>>52069879
I tried to ballpark the price once for shits and giggles. For a few good webcams (one for the DM's side of the table, one for the player's side, and one for the battle map), a couple good mics, and the right audio equipment to balance the levels on them properly and not have eardrum-exploding moments whenever someone gets excited, it's close to $1,500 USD, not to mention you then need to either edit the footage yourself or have someone off-screen who is not a DM or a player handle the camera angle switches and monitor the stream, because that shit is a full-time job that people get paid a lot of money to do.

Case-in point: whenever itmeJP (the guy who runs Rollplay, the other big Twitch tabletop gaming stream) runs a live game he flies out a guy that their community knows (sirScoots) who handles all the camera transitions, audio levels, etc., etc. And he does that because both Scoots and JP were in the broadcasting business (JP used to work for MLG, Scoots did a ton of broadcasting work in the 2000s for a lot of the online tournaments at that time) and know how much work has to go into it.

Not to mention that JP rents out high-quality cameras and mics for the shows, and those rental fees are insane. But that community loves the work put into the shows (set designs, players invited, etc.) and the most recent one certainly shows what a live game can look like when you have a good DM, good group of players, good equipment, AND a competent tech guy behind the scenes running all the electronics.

>>52069920
I think Rothfuss was expecting to be a side character for his one episode (to give the players and the audience of what a retired adventurer might be like) but thanks to Keyleth latching onto that character's personality, the next few times he was able to join was when they went to fight the dumb dragon, and literally EVERYONE was expecting his character to die, and even Rothfuss was fine with that happening.

So for Rothfuss to get the killing blow, not to mention survive the whole encounter, when two other members of VM died (Percy got his guts ripped out near the end, Scanlan got shit-stomped early on) the entire cast, crew, and community was just in awe.

>>52063187
Yep. Looks like Dungeons and Dragons has finally cemented its place as a containment RPG.

It's not like this wasn't already a thing. Ever since third edition came out the trend was already starting. Fourth edition came with the popularity surge of The Big Bang Theory which resulted in a spike in sales, which was not enough to save 4e's badly-written mechanics.

Fifth edition was specifically watered down to be palatable both to grognards (who do not rely on the active D&D community nor do they need a new ruleset, thus this pandering was stupid) and to normies, who flocked to the game in great masses thanks to the game's appearance on two terrible TV shows (Stranger Things and Big Bang Theory). Also, the prevalence of Critical Role podcast created quite a lot of love for D&D, which found itself inundated by waves of new players. Wizards of the Coast saw sales skyrocketing, giving them the false message that dumbing down the game represented an improvement in game design (though they did streamline many of the mechanics, which *was* a good thing). As a result, Wizards is very happy with this diluting of the Dungeons and Dragons fanbase. /tg/ has also deluded itself into thinking this influx of players is a good thing. This lack of foresight is to be expected.

D&D is now the containment RPG. It keeps the dumb-ass Skyrim addicts and the brain-dead hipster roasties who can't even figure out which die to roll, out of the good RPGs. Which is sad, because D&D, despite being shit in many small ways, was overall a very fun and enjoyable roleplaying game. It was structured that way. However, the fanbase it is now attracting is making it intolerable, and the way said fanbase is guiding the mechanics is a direction that would make a game like Dungeon World seem sophisticated.

So, in short, D&D is dead, but thank god for its existence.

>>52069983
>>52069879

Pretty much nailed it.

I consider myself a good GM but streaming the group's sessions is pretty much off the table. Logistics of the room we play in is also a concern. We don't play in a large enough room on a large enough table to put down 2 webcams for both sides of the table without eliminating table space we need for tokens/maps. Microphones also take up space unless every one has one on their shirt. Then there's the issue of if your group even WANTS to be recorded/streamed on the internet.

The whole "if you think he's a shit GM why don't you stream your group then" doesn't work for the vast, vast, vast majority of players. None of us have the A/V equipment, mixing equipment, or technical know-how on hand to make it a reality and investing in it for a project that probably wouldn't ever recoup the losses seems like a poor investment.

I'd be more than happy making a generalized GM tips Youtube channel, but that's a more easily tackled and incomparable beast. I can re-shoot segments if the audio or video quality is poor, a luxury that isn't afforded in a real game environment.

>>52069911
Again though, I'm not saying the fight wasn't hard. It was, she fucked them up. It just wasn't that interesting to watch because it was really just the same mechanically as the other dragon fights. I wanted a new aspect with some illusions, or hostages, or a ticking clock or something.

>>52060440
I don't care for it.
I like Thrilling Intent though because it has visuals, only three players, they stay in character, and it's pretty funny.
More like watching a collaborative story than a DnD game, though.

File: thrilling intent.jpg (244KB, 1280x484px) Image search: [Google]

244KB, 1280x484px

>>52070481
You forgot to mention that the DM is motherfucking Patrick Warburton.

Also, to his credit, Faust (I think that's the guy who plays Ashe?) is pretty good at acting like a girl. I started out just seeing the character as a trap. I graduated to seeing her as a really nasally lesbian at around episode 40.

>>52065368
>>52069646
Now I feel flattered, but stupid.

>>52062789
"How do you wanna do it" actually works really well for avoiding combat fudging. A lot of GMs will alter HP by a point or two so that kills always happen at the most dramatically appropriate moment, but "How do you wanna do this" lets every single player kill/success be as dramatic as they want it to be, and makes them feel cool.

>>52060440
I dislike all those player that work in geek biz that pretend they like this, "hahaha I haven't play d&d since I was 12, hahaha, no, but I reaaly like I'm a fun, buy my stuff goy"

Mercer is cool.

I'm super glad it exists I've never had access to a better heuristic for screening out shitty people from my groups than the critical role fanbase :^)

Honestly Mercer may not be the best DM to walk the Earth, but he's far from the worst as well.

A DM is only as good as his players, and boy are his players fucking terrible.

>>52070652
I actually stopped doing it with my group because they almost inevitably try to stab the fucker in the dick whenever I try to get them to describe stuff. I think its just them being embarrassed by roleplaying and so defaulting to lolrandum to try to deflect it, which I can understand, but it still grinds my gears no end.

>>52070923
I would say his players are pretty good, overall. There's some autistic shrieking, but the amnount that those guys get invested in the setting and characters is impressive. I can barely persuade my guys to take notes.

>>52070923
>A DM is only as good as his players, and boy are his players fucking terrible.

This, holy shit

I spent years and years thinking I was a shitty GM because my playgroup was lolrandom murderhobos who would literally tell me 'we stand around and wait for something to show up to punch'

Then I left highschool, got into online gaming after college, and suddenly I have all these players getting really into the game and going the extra mile to roleplay, interact with NPCs and plots of their own volition and stating enjoyment that they are able to do so

I've had bad online games too, but these particular players are just the toppest

>>52070533
Took me forever to realize that Ashe is a girl.
Also, Thog is the absolute best character in the show.

>>52071038
Yeah, it really does depend on the group.

>>52071159
Its a nice tool, and some of them use it very well. It just breaks the moment so much when they finally slay that big sinister villain and the moment ends in genital stabbing. It doesn't make it a cool moment for the PCs or the villain, desu.

File: d797f6a2fcaf46a0850febeb715e87d4.png (764KB, 1280x931px) Image search: [Google]

764KB, 1280x931px

>>52065854
>Incholesterol
>DJWheat
>ItmeJP

Thank God I stopped caring about StarCraft. This picture is triggering me.

>>52065854
>Plus Marisha is horrific.
Never in the history of humanity has a person named "Marisha" not been a colossal cunt and horrible human being.

File: 1.jpg (19KB, 480x360px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 480x360px

>>52069003
>yelling "LODESTONE" so goddamn much I'm surprised nobody really said anything to her about it.

Jesus Christ, I don't often have a problem with Marisha, but that fucking Lodestone shit pissed me off so much. Which is a shame because she was pretty funny 2 weeks ago.

The problem is she plays Keyleth like an actual neckbeard autist with absolutely no social skills whatsoever. She's much better when she's being the cute kind of autist like Osaka or something.

>>52066339
Roll4it is really good, imo.

>>52070137
I've seen this twice, and would appreciate a screen cap in case it happens again.
Could a kindly anon provide?

>>52069757
>I think she had one or two cups of it too many
I just don't feel like this is an isolated incident. I can't tell you specific times or episodes, but I think it does account for her behavior/play style.

>>52072637
I don't normally have a problem with Keyleth/Marisha either, and sometimes she can be downright inspired. But then there's episodes like this, when she yells for no reason and tries to make jokes that either aren't funny or everyone just ignores her. Maybe they just shouldn't bring alcohol to the table anymore.

>>52066339
Roleplaying Public Radio is good, but the best campaigns and sessions tend to include Caleb Stokes.

>>52063246
>>52063278
>>52063402
High Rollers is very okay.
>Trottimus plays the comedy character
>Matt plays a good foil for Trott's comedy character
>Doesn't have Lewis gaying it up
>Mark is a decent DM
>Awkward Dog Boner's boner ratings make the more boring sessions funny
However
>Kim is shit at roleplaying
>Mark injects his personal political views heavily into how the world works
>Constantly have technical hiccoughs, with a stream being cancelled because they couldn't get the sound working.

>>52075028
>Awkward Dog Boner's boner ratings
What?
>>Kim is shit
Agreed
>>Mark injects his personal political views heavily into how the world works
Do tell.
>Doesn't have Lewis gaying it up
I like him for a comedy game but for anything serious I get it.

>>52075061
>Do tell.
For a medieval-style fantasy setting, everywhere in Mark's setting accepts gays and abhors xenophobia and racism. The most powerful government is the Dawn Republic, which appears to function like a modern democracy.
>What?
Awkward Dog Boner is a twitch subscriber who leaves a "Boner Rating" donation filled with sexual innuendo after every session except for the first few and a more recent one where he called Mark a cunt for harming the parents of Katie's character.

>>52066481
This, though I didn't much care for the 9 episode Call of Cthulhu game they just did.

Daily reminder that Heroes and Halfwits is the bottom of the TTRPG broadcast barrel and you have shit taste if you watch it.

>>52075820
Yeah, I couldn't get past the first episode. It felt like RT saw how successful RollPlay and CritcalRole was, and wanted in on the TTRPG viewership.

>>52063045
There's a reason actors and actresses used to be considered barely a step above prostitutes, anon.

>>52060457
no homo, right?

>>52078448

I'm pretty sure there's a significant homo factor in that desire.
A real heterosexual man would definitely want to be ploughed by Travis instead.

>>52065854
Why the hate on Jesse and Dodger?
The shows they have each been on in the past are good, and Nebula Jazz has been enjoyable so far.
Does every show need to be full of the nerdiest people JP knows? If I wanted that I could go to RPG night at my local tabletop-games store.

>>52066129
>>52069856
Are you kidding? Adam's the best DM Rollplay has, and the only one (to my knowledge) that JP thought was worthy of putting on the payroll.

>>52075028
>Mark injects his personal political views heavily into how the world works

It is literally impossible to write about any kind of fictional society in any kind of depth without revealing your personal political views.

Also, it's a fucking game, played for fun. Some people deal with enough hateful bullshit IRL that they don't also want to deal with it in their free time.

>>52079236
I agree with Jesse and Dodger being fine, but I don't watch Nebula Jazz because Pokket's face angers me.

I like having the nerdier people in there, it makes it feel more real.

>>52079472
I get the Pokket thing, I didn't like her much at all until the Balance of Power live show, definitely seemed like a more interesting person/character in that context. I do recommend Nebula Jazz, even if you just need to put a Post-It over Pokket's face, funny show so far.

Adam and Jesse's nerdiness (with good contributions from the rest) carried the Dark Side show. Hearing how little the Light Side knew about the setting killed any chance of me watching it.

>>52070533

Patrick Warburton is the DM?!

>>52060457
I THOUGHT I RECOGNISED HIS NAME

>>52079265
I liked Steven too though. Shame JP sacked him, West Marches was one of the better shows.

>>52075199
Isn't the purpose of inventing a fictional setting to make it interesting? Like I enjoy fantastical racism as much as the next guy, but in a world with (presumably) a different history than our own, different societal values or political developments is not a ludicrous suggestion.
What's the point of it being a fantasy universe if it's just Middle Ages Britain with nothing changed?

>>52063889
>I wonder why all of these fantastic DMs you know don't try doing a web show of their own.

because they're busy crafting fantastic games and don't want observation bias ruining it

>>52079583
I miss Steven a lot, still wish we could get a real answer from JP as to why they got rid of him. Numenera was my first Rollplay series, so Steven was a benchmark for DM success.

Still not gonna watch his Arthur Pendragon RPG show.

>>52079532
Honestly, nobody except Adam and later JP knew the system very well and it fucking chugged. Light side got boring and Pokket basically ruins any chance of me watching the Dark Side show.
>>52079638
>>52079583
I'm pretty sure Steven was too busy working to be able to do any more shows, at least that's what I've heard.

>>52073265
Are you really incapable of taking your own screenshot anon

>>52070533
>You forgot to mention that the DM is motherfucking Patrick Warburton.

No it's not?

>>52079583
I think JP and Steven had conflicting opinions of where they wanted West Marches and various other potential RPGs to go, Steven wanted to focus on his own channel, and JP looks to be trying to get more Rollplay shows and more/new rules systems under the brand name, which is why he's got John Harper running his new system on the channel.

Blades is fine, but holy shit is the broadcast time one of the worst I've seen; 9PM EST start time for a 3-4 hour tabletop show is too much of a commitment for his community, even if the sessions have been (by in large) pretty good roleplay.

File: BKdL0Yl.png (251KB, 690x1729px) Image search: [Google]

251KB, 690x1729px

>>52079688

>>52060440
I like it, except for the combat.
"So, I alone did 78 points of damage and literally hacked off his arm. Oh no, I took 22 points of damage that entire round?! Oh nooooo!"
Meanwhile, they're getting rules wrong, spells wrong etc.

I like most of the players, but Marisha is the epitome of being there because she's the DMs partner.

>>52079742
So Blades is worth watching? I didn't really care about the DM or any of the players so I never got into it.

>>52079688
>I'm pretty sure Steven was too busy working to be able to do any more shows

Nope, JP decided that more than one show using the same system was a poor business decision and so axed West Marches and so Steven since he wasn't doing any other shows.

File: pasta.jpg (19KB, 259x194px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 259x194px

>>52070137
I didn't screencap this >>52070137
, but I did save the text. Glad you enjoyed the pasta.

>>52079774
I've only seen the first couple episodes, I've been meaning to watch the rest of them (as I figure it'll be easier to catch up on 8-10 episodes vs. all of Swan Song or all of West Marches), but the people who do watch it seem to love it, not to mention it's a decidedly darker tone than the other shows on it right now (Court of Swords is this weird fantasy amazon feel with 5th edition rules, Nebula Jazz has that weird sci-fi feel with whatever rules system they're using, Blades is mostly Victorian-era steampunk with Harper's new system).

>>52079265
To be honest, I don't like Adam's GMing style. It's not that he's bad, it's just that he leans too heavily on seeing the game as a dramatized TV show with camera zooms and shit like that. He definitely has some skills and does some cool things (he juggles multiple-character spotlighting pretty well most times) but watching his games never feels like watching a tabletop game, it feels like watching someone workshop a screenplay.

Steven always balanced it a little better, I thought, though both of them do way too much of that Dungeon World style "Players do the heavy lifting" GM-thing from time to time. I get that it's a valid style, but I don't enjoy it nearly as much as a more classically-led game style, like how something like RPPR still manages to have a GM and a solid world established outside the players while still letting the players have moments, characters, and developments.

>>52060440
Tried watching through the first episode, could not stand it because it (at least the beginning) a large groups' normal game: hours long, them having fun, and on average a boring experience compared to some of the podcast games I have listened to.

Having seen the Vin Diesel Witch Hunter promo episode and the Force Grey Giant Hunters games Mercer DMed I would LOVE to listen to an edited down podcast version of it.

>>52079717
>>52079558
Pretty sure he just meant he sounds like Patrick Warburton, which he does.

>>52079848
To be fair, Adam was the one who made Dungeon World, so it's kind of expected that his GMing style would have a bias toward it.

>>52079774
>>52079835
It's pretty good. I'd also recommend the BitD game that's uploaded on John Harper's personal Youtube Channel. They meet up rather infrequently, though, so once you catch up you're doomed to the waiting game.

>>52082108
Of course, but I don't like it as the default. Not long after his GMing became the standard on the channel I jumped ship.

>>52079758
Man most of the time I don't mind Marisha because I can tune her out and the rest of the players make up for it, but I had to turn it off towards the end of ep 88 because she was such a fucking mess. She was drunk but pretending she wasn't in a way that reminded my of my alcoholic mom.

>>52069757
>If the party balance was more defined, or hell, losing one or two of the DPS characters and replacing them with a freaking Wizard, so many of their problems would be solved...
the irony there is they did have a fairly competent wizard.
But then Orion got his as kicked out of the game.

>>52082151
Honestly, I see how they think it's needed. While they have battle maps and such with Roll20, it's still mostly an auditory medium of entertainment, so they need to be descriptive so the audience can keep track of what they are doing. It just happens that taking cues from the way TV shows are structured is an easy and effective way of doing that.

Plus, it's just plain his style. He loves the hell out of the PbtA systems, which is obvious if you watch the games he runs on the Roll20 YT channel, so it only makes sense to use what he knows best.

I personally like it, but I can see why people wouldn't.

>>52061718
>ensure the players learn the damn rules as in post 1.

These people are adults with jobs. They aren't basement-dwelling trolls with nothing but time on their hands to memorize rule books and mouth off on the internet.

>>52060533
How often do you get the opportunity to witness professional voice actors getting deeply involved in RP in your games? If your standards are really that high you must have had some AMAZING fucking games. Otherwise you just sound like an entitled little shit.

>>52060440
the show is much worse for having lost Scanlan, grog isn't able to break up the DRAMA from the elves and percy on his own.

>>52082511

>These people are adults with jobs.

And? Many groups are full of people with full time jobs, and they do just fine learning the rules.

It's not like they're being asked to GM or munchkin out a character. Just knowing what everything on your sheet does and how common rules that you use every session work is a basic requirement of playing the game.

>>52082859
This was the first thing that struck me as a new DM, nobody fucking reads.

>>52078448
Yeah. Why would there be anything homosexual about being fucked in the ass by Mat Mercer?

It's a fun watch most of the time, the acting is pretty decent and has inspired my friends and I to perform better while playing.

I have some problems with it though.

>Keyleth is a disgrace to neutral good players
>Rolls may or may not be fudged
>I don't understand the Percy/Vex relationship, I've watched from the beginning and it feels like it came out of nowhere and was a direct response to the hard-to-watch Keyleth/Vax relationship
>They can get rules mixed and botched sometimes, but who doesn't do that

That being said, Scanlan's departure was fucking gold and was one of the most well acted things I've seen on twitch. He hit the nail on the head. They may have "cared" about him, but they didn't make him feel like it. Everyone else's problems were solved, the world was saved. Except him.

Most of the boss fights are fun to watch because the players don't think strategically and when they do their plans are pretty dumb. I end up rooting for a TPK most of the time when I watch.

Most of the characters are actually good and likable

>>52082282
Sorry to hear that anon

>>52060440
that show has gone downhill fast over the last like 5-10 episodes

those 4 hours long fight episodes for like 6 episodes in a row kinda killed the show for me and now that scanlin is dead the only really good character/cast member is grog. seems like the show really lost direction

Sam Riegel had transcended beyond petty role play.
>what's my mother's name?

File: 1448729890128.jpg (22KB, 575x323px) Image search: [Google]

22KB, 575x323px

>>52062915
If you think you can't learn something from watching someone else who does the same thing, but different you're retarded.

File: 1428152188654.jpg (18KB, 350x267px) Image search: [Google]

18KB, 350x267px

>>52083326
>I remember hearing Kaylee and Pike
>anyone else?
>No

poor Grog

>>52060533
>t. dawnforgedcast

>>52083380
>>52083326
Grog is the best.
>I just wanted to ask... what is your mother's name?

>>52063045
No, you misunderstood. Liam plays the character her character is involved with.

Talison plays the gunslinger character and Talison and Marisha are always touching during the show. They touch a lot.

Might be that talison is gay though.

>>52083550
There's one periscope video of him hanging out with Marisha and Matt in their pjs, and the latter two have mentioned they did some hug-tent shit at festivals. They're just touchy freaks. Talisman has a gf too,

>>52060440
garbage capitalization of an niche subculture

>>52083272
Really, the Briarwood and Feywild arcs didn't give you Percy/Vex vibes? It felt far more natural than Vax and Keyleth hooking up. I might just be biased because I don't like much like Vax or Keyleth though.

i used to really like it but honestly its really fucking boring now and has been for a while. that combined with the host of technical issues and marisha in general have basically killed it for me. might pick it back up when the new arc starts but i doubt it

>>52083272
I agree. The bit with scanlan was fantastic.

Marisha pisses me off to no end. And the people that defend her clearly can't tell she's drinking way too much, or have never played 5e and don't realize how easy the rules are. I swear for every "oh my god read your spells" comment, there are about 100 counters with "she's playing a druid and they have hundreds of spells at any one time and she can't remember them all like omg you try it." Which is wrong, clearly.

And to that point. NIGGA. I'm not even autistic and I have 98% of the 5e spells basically memorized. Druid spells aren't even particularly complicated.

>>52083587
Alright. Yeah, that's just a shit ton of touching.
Fucking hippies.

>>52083550

Doesn't Talison have kids?

>>52082288
He got kicked out for (basically) being a creepy, metagaming, lying, rules-breaking player.

Part of that is due to the system they came from (larger spell selection in Pathfinder vs. the Sorcerer's spell list in 5th) but mostly because he wanted the limelight on him most of the time and refused to share it, especially when the show started to take off in popularity.

>>52083844
You can still be gay and have kids.
I know a few people like that.

>>52083855
Lol dude also flew off the handles at some fan for using something his character said or did on a shirt or some shit right?
Fuck, it sucks when a fun character can be ruined by such a shit player.

>>52070481
Just you wait as soon as Thrilling Intent gets popular your gonna see threads about how much it sucks. People like hating something because its popular.

>>52083844
To my knowledge the only members of the cast that have kids are Liam and Sam, the rest don't have any or have pets.

Matt and Marisha have a pet bird, Travis and Laura have a pet dog, Ashley's got a dog too (that's really fucking old, like 15 years), and I think Taliesin has a gf and a couple cats (I swear I remember an episode where he joked he was 1-2 cats away from becoming a crazy cat person).

I think Taliesin and Marisha get touchy-feely a lot because they're very good friends and both have a fair bit of stage experience, so they know the difference between acting as a character and showing emotion as yourself.

>>52083899
>>52083855
Orion just couldn't be cool

File: 1476581669305.jpg (230KB, 2115x1764px) Image search: [Google]

230KB, 2115x1764px

I'm conflicted as fuck when it comes to it.

Like Mercer clearly knows how to run a game, and he does great voices + characters, but fuck me there's something about the way he runs it that seriously feels like it's being dragged more than it needs to be or becomes so cliche that it feels like it's lost in the ocean of mediocrity.

Mercer gives some great tips, but also makes points that are common sense.

The use of cliches work, but it's also a safe zone that he doesn't seem to venture out of.

I seriously don't know; Cool guy, wouldn't want him as my GM though.

>>52084475
I think part of it at least is because Crit Role can be the first exposure to DnD for normies. The show still does have to make some money, and by engaging newcomers/first timers with a bit of handholding encourages them to learn and watch more, maybe even subscribe.

>>52060440
Can we all agree Ashley a cute?

She's funnier than I expect her to be and is not that useless.

>>52084475
I agree, his voices and characters are great.
However his plotlines are so bland.

I'd like to see Perkins and Mercer co-DM. Just let Mercer do all the voices and NPCs and let Perkins narrate the plot.

>>52084689
It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the more popular stream DMs (Perkins, Mercer, Koebel, etc.) have an e-mail chain where they shoot ideas/messages back and forth and trade tips, tricks, and story ideas, bounce them off the other DMs to see if there's a way to identify potential problems they might've missed when brewing it up in the first place.

>>52083650
I think I may need to go back and rewatch that arc. I didn't really feel it.

>>52084743
I kinda doubt it. At least for Mercer. What ideas has he really come up with that seem particularly inspired?

As some other anon summed it up it's basically just "There is this threat, let's go kill it." Then they move on to the next. Tracking down certain vestiges was kind of interesting though, I guess. His dragon fights were pretty bleh most the time. I get that he doesn't want to TPK the party, but all of the dragons they murdered acted like idiots.

>>52083855
I thought it was because he wanted "to do his own streamy thing" he even did some weird video about why he left

>>52084796
He wanted a lot of things.

>>52084575
Totally

Ashley > Laura >>>>>>>> Red head lich woman

>>52084763
The Vex/Percy relationship is a slow one, but there's small hints of it along the way, usually the interactions the two have when Percy first made her some explosive arrows (and subsequent successful use of them), followed by her asking for more when he's got time.

In the Briarwood arc it was her mostly deferring to Percy's desires at revenge, acting as a voice of reason (along with Vax and Keyleth) when he started to get too dark or when Percy's tag-along started to show it's influence.

Feywild arc was the biggest one, as the two shared a lot of one-on-one moments (Vex confessing her fears of 'station' to Percy, Percy retorting that being a noble isn't all that it's cracked up to be), then he let Vex get some comeuppance upon her father by name-dropping her new title (a thing that even she didn't know was going to happen until he said it, and while in-character she played it off like it was an innocent oversight, OOC everyone save Taliesin had their jaws were on the floor).

The Feywild arc ended up being a way for the twins - but mostly Vex - to confront the demons of their past and move forward towards an unknown future with a clean conscience.

Personally, I think it was only after Percy died during the Ripley fight that Vex realized she was in love with him (she started screaming + crying when the last blow was dealt, then part of her kill was firing an arrow through Ripley's heart), and that he might have also had feelings for her, as they've had playful flirting for a while but the last few ones (and the title drop) could've been more that just in jest or as a favor to her.

>>52083426
Kek

>>52083326
>>52083508
Sam and Travis are god-tier. That exchange was the best Critical Role has ever had

>>52060533
describe your game anon. illustrate the differences.

Which edition do they play? Did they start with PF and change to 5e or something?

>>52083272
Honestly, Scanlan's deception and persuasion were way too high for the rest of the group to really notice something was wrong unless he made it blatantly obvious, which he did in his departure, I think that was part of the issue. He was too good at it.

>>52085286
The very first game was 4e iirc, then they moved to PF, then 5e for the show.

>>52085304
What're their characters' names-races-classes-levels?

>>52084575
Ashley playing Pike is just her playing herself.

And that's fine.

>>52085320
>haha I poop on the bed xD

>>52085301

I only follow CR a little bit. What happened?

>>52085316
They've got a barb, a gunslinger, an artificer, ass rogue/paladin3, BM ranger/rogue3, and a moon druid. Very occasionally they have a war cleric. All level 15-17 except maybe the cleric.

>>52085387
Grog's taking levels in fighter now.

>>52085304

As of the latest episode:

Liam - Vax'ildan (Vax for short), Half-Elf Assassin Rogue/Paladin of Vengeance (total level is 17, class breakdown is Rogue 14, Paladin 3)

Laura - Vex'ahlia (Vex for short), Half-Elf Beastmaster Ranger/Rogue (tweaked a bit compared to 5e's base Beastmaster or the re-worked one), current class breakdown is Ranger 14, Rogue 3, I don't know what archetype she took though.

Travis - Grog, Goliath Berserker Barbarian 14/Fighter 2

Taliesin - Percy (his full name's a very fanciful, noble title), Human Fighter, Gunslinger archetype (a port of the Gunslinger from PF), level 15 or 16.

Sam - Scanlan, Gnome Lore Bard 16, currently taking an in-character break from the party. His current character is a Human Artificer, level 13, by the name of Taryon (Tary for shot)

Marisha - Half-Elf Druid, Circle of the Moon, level 16 (possibly level 17 now after the end of the last episode).

Ashley - Gnome Cleric, War Domain, level 14 or 15, is usually missing games due to her job in NYC, but shows up via Skype or in-person flights every now and then, with her being around for most of the summer shows.

>>52066339
RPPR
P
P
R

Caleb Stokes a best

>>52085380
basically scanlan died and VM ignored his wishes
when he called them out on it they got into a massive fight, scanlan asked them some very basic questions about himself and they had no answers. he told them they didn't really care about him and he felt like the sad little clown, so he took his daughter and left.

>>52085380
TL;DW version is: he's been spiraling into a deep pit of depression for a while now, since he last saw his estranged daughter and made a promise to her, and after several deaths at the hands of the ancient dragons had a prank played upon him after being revived, only for it to backfire and him to lash out at the rest of VM. It was a lot of emotional pain between the entire party, the end of it being that he left the party to do some soul-searching and truly connect with his daughter.

It was a super emotional, roleplay moment, and the entire cast thought Sam was going to take a break from the table to reflect Scanlan's departure. But then we find out that Sam worked w/ Matt off-camera to whip up a replacement character to play while Scanlan's off re-discovering himself, and he's basically playing a mix of snot-nosed, snobby rich kid and Tony Stark before the 'Iron Man' wake-up moment). Within 10 minutes of meeting him literally everyone else at the table, the crew, and the fanbase wanted to lynch Sam for the emotional rollercoaster he just put them through and to pull out this asshole to replace Scanlan.

>>52060440
It's great entertainment and made me a better GM, so of course /tg/ hates it.

File: GaryGygaxDMGuide.png (1MB, 596x879px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 596x879px

>>52085489
If you've never played in multiple groups it's hard to get a feel for DMing. I won't disagree with you that CR and other shows are nice for seeing how others DM. I've only watched one episode of CR, and it was the Kraken episode.
>It was awful
>I won't judge too harshly on a combat focused episode though

You can only read so much about how to be a DM and attempt it.

>>52085380
>Scanlan makes promise not to die to estranged daughter, wants to prove he is a man that is true to her and his own word
>Dies twice to the dragon 4noraisins (he was quickly rez'd once, scanlan basically gets forgotten about)
>goes into an in-character coma for awhile after they properly rez him after the fight
>very emotional for the daughter NPC and mostly everyone else
>during the coma, party plays a huge prank on him by getting drunk, trashing his bedroom, smearing disgusting old pudding all over the walls (and his face) and tying him up BDSM style
>he wakes up and isn't happy about his predicament, everyone is having a jolly good time making fun of him looking like shit and having crap smeared all over him
>he asks his daughter, who is watching all of this to leave the room
>BTFO's the party, leaving some in tears because they're shitty people

basically just watch this for 15 minutes
https://youtu.be/N7DuwqJtCGI?t=2h1m41s

>>52085538
To be fair, the kraken episode was awful.
That's not business as usual.

Although, there have been a couple other big fights recently that were almost as terrible from a player perspective. They really aren't good at combat.

Also Mercer dropped SO many DM hints about not fighting the kraken and also during the kraken fight. But they kept trying because they're fucking stupid.

>>52062969
because the three have been close friends for a long time

>>52083899
He also appeared to have crossed a serious line when he said he got a boner from Laura talking about a plan. But it was an in-character boner.
Travis was actually mad.

>>52085689
Yeah he had already been pissing travis off, so saying lewd things in relationship to his wife, no matter joking or not, in character or not, it was not a good idea. Also, the complete lack of comedic timing made it just sound fucking weird.

>>52085659
I wonder how it would have gone if Sam didn't get a 1 on his investigation check, or if his Hypnotic Pattern landed. We probably wouldn't be talking about it now.

>>52085740
>Also, the complete lack of comedic timing made it just sound fucking weird.
Honestly this is what tipped me off. Orion's just kind of Off in general.
He tried to be a cool killer like Vax, but he does it entirely out of character for no reason (someone even made a joke a couple episodes ago about their party's track record with killing old people, didn't think they'd go there).
He tried to be touchy-feely with Marisha like Taliesin is, but Marisha and Taliesin are very close and she and Orion clearly aren't and she was put out by it.
He tried to be lewd like Scanlan but his timing was way off and he just doesn't sound funny at all.

In Dane Cook terms, he's the friend nobody likes.

>>52060457
I'm yer huckleberry...

Just started watching Critical Role about...5 or 6 days ago, I think? I'm on episode 20. (Trial of the Take Pt. 3) I fucking love the show but this is definitely the most boring part I've seen thus far. Keyleth, Vax, Tiberius, Will Friedle, and Wil Wheaton.... this is definitely the B team. Seriously tempted to just skip the rest of this episode and the next one and get back to the united team.

Overall, show is fun and addicting as fuck.

>>52085834
Will Friedle is a great guy, though. He reappears together with Mary E. McGlynn later in the game a few times and isn't bothersome even a slightest bit. He manages to play an 'edgy special snowflake' character without it being cringeworty at all.

>>52085594
He deserved it

>>52085858

Yeah, Will Friedle is a cool dude.

My only problem is that these episodes with him, Wil Wheaton, Tiberius, Keyleth, and Vax, are really boring.

>>52085659
This is what has me worried. What else is there to do now? Kill demon lords, big game hunting? They beat a cataclysmic event. I guess they could always go and try to figure out what Vecna is doing

>>52085304

>first game was 4e

Ooooh, that explains the pantheon...minus the one PF goddess.

>>52085909

Depending on Mercer's cosmology they could go full-Starjammer, or maybe Planescape.

>>52085941
>Starjammer
Please, just make it Spelljammer.
REEEEEEEEEeeeee.

>>52085952

>group steals Spelljammer
>space hijinks, adopt a giant space hamster
>first major encounter
>enemy vessel sighted
>draws closer
>FUCKING ILLITHIDS AGAIN!
>Full Circle!

File: Magic the Gathering.jpg (451KB, 4040x626px) Image search: [Google]

451KB, 4040x626px

>>52060440
Cancer.

>>52060932
>It has brought awareness to the reality of this game and has gotten A LOT of people interested who otherwise wouldn't have ever gotten into the hobby.

That's not a good thing. Significant change in demographics kills hobbies.

>>52086059
I don't think chads are busting into your living room during your campaign. Aren't you unaffected?

File: 1454809264427.gif (309KB, 720x480px) Image search: [Google]

309KB, 720x480px

>>52086059

>>52085909
There's been hints that it will be a multi-planar threat for the final big bad, with the current front-runners being either Orcus or Vecna, as they're the two cosmological big bads we've had name dropped over the course of the show.

>>52086059
Good Lord, my neck started itching after I read that 'comic'. Almost like a beard tried to start growing there...

>>52086099
>superboyprimeassertshimself.gif

>>52084968
I think it was actually in the Feywild arc that she realized it, because she said Saundor could not have her heart because it belonged to another.

>>52085538
The Kraken episode is arguably the worst of the past 20-ish episodes.

If you have time, the Briarwood arc or the Feywild arc are probably the best 'adventures' they've had to date.

>>52061124
If you're still around, were you just referring to campaign podcasts in general or Campaign, the Star Wars EotE podcast that spun off of Oneshot? Because I love the latter.

>>52060953
>1 hour maximum
>not long
Pick one

>>52060903
I find it impressive that someone can use so many words to say so little.

>>52085908
Be glad it's only a guest thing.

>>52060440
I think it's entertaining, and it would be a fun game to be a part of.

I don't understand why some autists get really mad at it.

>>52086059
You're half right, but that's a terrible fucking argument.

>>52086329
I really expected better from /tg/ than to reply to it.

>>52085834
I'd say stick with it. That episode sets up a good moment later. And you get to see Tiberius putting more nails in his coffin.

Nigga tries to long rest in the middle of a dungeon when they've got a time limit because he nuked an earlier encounter iirc.

>>52083904
who cares if some people on a mongolian throat singing board start ululating about how they hate a dungeons and dragons podcast
i think it's fun

File: 1458227292047.jpg (55KB, 395x401px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 395x401px

>>52086858
>who cares if some people on a mongolian throat singing board start ululating

fuckin kek

>>52060440
Matt Mercer smugly declaring that rules lawyers need not apply, turned me off immediately in the first episode.

We get it, Matt. You don't know the rules, and you don't think you should have to.

File: 5248-7370-12222.jpg (35KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

35KB, 640x480px

Matt Mercer is a cuck and anyone who thinks he's a good DM is a trash DM.

>>52086895
He's actually alright with the rules. He makes the odd mistake (concentration saves for example) but overall he's fine. I think he was just talking about stuff like his homebrew rules and didn't want people whining about them too much.

I enjoy critical role, i listen to it while i'm doing other things. It definitely has its weak points, but it's nice to experience the hobby from the outside, since i'm always DMing, and get a new perspective.

>>52086895
He's decent when it comes to the rules. It's his players, and especially his girlfriend, that are the fucking worst.

>>52060440
I made it about 10 seconds into the second character description and was cringing so hard I had to shut it off.

>>52060440
posers

>>52065737
>why aren't you guys content providers?

Because of the extremely varying mic quality of my group, and because editing out every snort, cough, chair scrape, "uhhhhhhhh" and stretch of silence in our four hour sessions would 1) turn them into 20-minute sessions and 2) take a million years per episode.

There's more to putting out a podcast than just GMing, and I spend enough time coming up with the campaign.

>>52065798
I'm too lazy to rewrite your post to be about sports, but pretend I did.

>>52086965

Grog and Pike are really the only tolerable character intros, the others became white noise to grit my teeth through, Keyleth's was murder.

I was so glad when they stopped playing them.

>>52066339
The Campaign Podcast is objectively the best, even if I stopped listening when they began prefacing their sessions with teary-eyed political messages.

>>52061015
Who would want to play combats for longer than 3-5 turns in the first place? It's the part of the game I always wish would pass faster.

>>52086915
I didn't know parrots posted on /tg/.

>>52066339
The Adventure Zone hits it home for me. They understand how to podcast well.

Playing d&d strictly as written doesn't make for the most exciting listening material. They apply rule of cool in the proper amounts.

>>52060953
>1 hour maximum
lol

I think it's fine but there are some obvious flaws. It's pretty much the most stereotypical D&D game you could run, which is fine for some people, and Mercer has a few interesting tricks up his sleeve that keep things interesting

>>52087012
This.

I like it mostly for Sam.

I've noticed that whenever Sam isn't around for a session, it's awkward. The man knows how to time a good joke to keep people in a good mood and keep things flowing.

However, I'm fucking annoyed that Percy was resurrected after exacting his vengeance. He should have stayed dead, it was a good end to his arc.

>>52086956
Fucking Marisha.

>That moment when you pause on the most recent episode to go on /tg/ an hour and half in, and everthing is swell, only to find out it is probably one of the worst episodes in half a year

Welp, I've gritted my teeth through many of the cringe moments, bring it on.

Also, saw Thrilling Intent was mentioned, just gonna say I totally enjoy it as a guilty pleasure, and take great comfort in knowing it will never be ruined by popularity, as cruel as that might be to say.

>>52088872
This, Cassandra running Whitestone, percy got his vengeance on everyone involved and Orthax looked to be dealt with. should have destroyed the guns and let them be forgotten with Ripley and Percy's deaths.

>>52086059
Jesus christ this image might be the most elitist and the most beta thing I've read in a while.

Blaming 'females' for ruining your games just show that you lack a spine and have the social skills of a squid.

>>52090298
Squid are highly social animals

>>52060440
Show is meh. His Gunslinger homebrew is downright stupid.

>>52090426
What's wrong with it? Are you talking mechanically or thematically?

>>52065854
I like skinnyghost, but I wouldn't bring him up here without a pretty pointed prompt. Everyone here triggers easily. Especially around DW