Decline Critical role ruined PnP

[Trans-Financial-Man]

Best way to be a storygame GM. Never say no to your players. But make sure you always enact the consequences of their actions. If they want to charge Cthulu with a bowie knife and OPREHSHAN! you say "okay". It'll have predicatable consequences. Be cruely and utterly fair and you'll start seeing the Mercer Effect less and less. You can rear your RPG group very well this way. And if they keep making dumb de-railing choices you keep just piling on the consequences until they leave. It turns out that if you run into the throne room and try to assassinate a beloved king that his guards and the local pesantry might not be happy. If you're so exceptional that you survive that, well trying to break out of prison and deal with the political fallout of assasinating a monarch is a great story hook. Provided you can get out before the rioters get to you. And so on and so on until the asshole leaves or learns to respect the game as is. Not whatever SJW fantasy is being fed to them.

It works almost exactly the same way in the trad games I run/play. Not every failure ends in death, but that's also probably due in part to BRP's tiered levels of success and failure (Crit, Special, Normal, Failure, Fumble) and opposed rolls, so it's pretty easy to interpret those into outcomes that are more nuanced than "You win!" or "Rocks fall. Everyone dies." I guess I'm fortunate, the guys I play with are all mature dudes that seem to get the idea that I'm not for them or against them; when their characters meet an untimely death, it's because they got careless or overextended themselves and the hazards they come up against aren't typically of the "gotcha" variety.

As for whatever the "Mercer Effect" is I'm not familiar with the term; I'm guessing it has something to do with Matt Mercer's game on Critical Roll (which I've maybe watched 5 minutes of before I turned it off out of utter boredom). Whatever "danger hair" zeitgeist seems to be sweeping through the PnP community doesn't really affect me because I'm pretty selective about who I will game with.

The Mercer Effect is the perception that Critical Roll gives to people unfamiliar with DnD. A perception of overblown, Mary Sue characters, death being trivial, the rules being loose and secondary to the story, and finally the GM creating a story based on a script with other actors who are told beforehand what they will do in the session. These people then try to do this in real DnD and get pissed off when autistic GMs like me try to set them straight.

 

[Orma]

CRITICAL ROLE ANIMATED SPECIAL FULLY FUNDED ON KICKSTARTER IN UNDER ONE HOUR


Featuring voice actors from Persona, The Last of Us, Spider-Man PS4, and more.

BY JONATHON DORNBUSH Critical Role, the long-running, livestreamed Dungeons and Dragons game featuring voice actors from Marvel's Spider-Man, The Last of Us, and more, has seen its new Kickstarter for an animated special fully funded in under an hour.

The Kickstarter for Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina Animated Special has reached its goal of $750,000 in under an hour of the campaign launching today, March 4. It actually passed over $1,000,000 raised in under an hour, with close to 8,000 backers having contributed as of press time. Stretch goals are currently listed on the Kickstarter page, with the first already hit at $1 million, but the necessary fundraising amounts for the rest have not yet been revealed.




The animated series will be produced by Titmouse, the production company behind Netflix's Big Mouth, and written by Star Wars: Forces of Destiny's Jennifer Muro.

Critical Role is a weekly D&D game, both livestreamed and available as an audio podcast, featuring a number of recognizable voices from video games and animated series. Matthew Mercer serves as DM for the game, while Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham are players in the ongoing game.





The Vox Machina animated special is based on Critical Role's first campaign, which featured the cast in the following roles:

• Pike Trickfoot (gnome cleric, Ashley Johnson)
• Keyleth (half-elf druid, Marisha Ray)
• Percival “Percy” Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III (human gunslinger, Taliesin Jaffe)
• Grog Strongjaw (goliath barbarian, Travis Willingham)
• Scanlan Shorthalt (gnome bard, Sam Riegel)
• Vex’ahlia (half-elf ranger, Laura Bailey)
• Vax’ildan (half-elf rogue, Liam O’Brien)

Currently in its second campaign, The Mighty Nein, Critical Role has seen numerous guest stars throughout its life, including Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello, Batman Beyond's Will Friedle, and Daredevil's Deborah Ann Woll.

The animated special is planned for a release sometime in Fall 2020, with rewards being shipped out in Spring 2020. Though, with stretch goals related to increasing the length of the special, it's unclear if that will cause any delays or changes to the release schedule.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/0...fully-funded-on-kickstarter-in-under-one-hour

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/criticalrole/critical-role-the-legend-of-vox-machina-animated-s

Currently almost at 1.8 million

 

[Morblot]

Some people have way too much money.

 

[Viata]

CRITICAL ROLE ANIMATED

But why?

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Their campaign sounds like the gayest thing ever.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

CRITICAL ROLE ANIMATED

But why?

It'll be easier to write for and less hassle than that nerdy DnD bullshit that they were making for the cringy neckbeards who don't even buy any funko pops.

 

[Orma]

They already got well over 5 million btw

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

This may sound psychotic, but I would not mind watching Matthew Mercer get annihilated by a speeding bus.

 

[Agame]

Get a new group. Or don't play at all. It seems everyone in the entire fucking world who wants to play D&D right now is a furry, a barely functional psychopath or an otherkin with a genderfluid persona.

Yeah it's been my experience that the weirdest people in tabletop gaming are also those into RPGs. Not that I haven't seen incel/oddball board gamers and wargamers, but RPGers seem to be the strangest bunch. They're the ones who display sociopathic/psychopathic behavioral patterns most often.

Gotta agree with this, I used to do 40k/fantasy tournaments and some of these were held as part of larger events including other game systems and PnP stuff. Seeing the groups of people doing PnP was the single most degenerate group of barely human mutant genetic abominations I have ever seen in my life, it was fucking terrifying and solved my interest in trying to get into PnP I had as a kid.

I can only imagine this has gotten worse over time as they inbreed with each other and produce offspring that would make Darwin spin in his grave...

I am probably biased but most wargamers are pretty "normal" guys with families and normie jobs, 40k did seem to attract a lot of "heavy metal" dudes tho for some reason.

 

[Raghar]

View attachment 10494
Based on this image alone: cuck, cuck, cryptocuck, bitch

How close did I guess?

xxx, did nice roleplaying of bard in first series INCLUDING singing, DM, his wife? (Which took character that don't suit her personality that much in second series.)

 

[Black]

INCLUDING singing

That's a big no.

 

[Ismaul]

nikolokolus Trans-Financial-Man
Sorry guys I meant to reply earlier but I had to upend my life and travel for an interview. You guys seem to have come to the conclusion that I was driving for, in that trad gaming and storygaming can be compatible and strengthen each other (in certain approaches only ofc).

Much like you guys, I feel the basis for good GMing is enacting consequences to actions. Never dictate courses of actions or outcomes; that's for players to enact. And in doing so, they drive a story in your setting and immediate conflicts. One thing I think I've learned from storygames that enhances my games is the idea of "failling forward". Often a fail is GMed as a setback stalling the game, that prevents players from getting info to make plans, etc. In consequence, many GMs actually design for no failure at all, which is the worst thing ever, and only leads to players expecting to win without using their brain. My players fail all the time to different degress. What I do is that failures are but a fork in the story. Fail to get info in a certain way, a path closes, another opens up. A fail is just the prelude to a new challenge. Maybe you can't ever get that info, but your goal can be achieved another way, or you have to alter your goal given the failures you've accrued.

I'm a sandbox GM, mostly BRP/D100 type stuff. I also don't play PnP games for a "story." I play and run stuff mostly because I like the idea of "living worlds" that are indifferent to PCs, and being surprised by all of the curveballs players throw back at you with the threads they choose to follow in a sandbox, wherein I set up initial conditions, establish motivations for some key NPCs, place obstacles/seeds/interesting locales, setup one kickoff adventure that forces some action, then let the players interact with everything how they want to thereafter. In turn, I react to their choices and let things go where they may; if there's a "story", it's developed through play, not established before play, so no need for a railroad.

Obviously we mostly GM the same, setting up situations and NPC motivations, though I wouldn't call myself a sandbox GM and you'd never call yourself a storygamer. Why? Well for me, I dislike sandboxes because -- and maybe this is a limited view -- I think of sandboxes as hex grid exploration, where the GM has placed things on a map and players just go there, evade traps, kill things and grab loot. I associate it with dungeon and surface crawling. And I often want a different focus in my games: alliances, paranoïa, standoffs, betrayals, all that good twist the knife in the wound shit. In other words, faction play. Which is why I tend to appreciate systems that give some importance to character traits, flaws, background, and motivations. They're not all good though.

As for storygames, well, you seem to think they require a pre-established story. But that goes against storygaming itself: the story can't be a game if it's not developed through play, through actions and consequences. Maybe there are some "storygamers" who use pre-established stories, but those are retards.

As for what I don't like about storygames, it's probably the editorial power given to players to avoid calamity. I don't like games with plot armor, I don't like fate points, and I don't run games where PC X or Y needs to get to the end or the whole thing collapses. If you like Storygames and they work for you then knock yourself out, but they don't work for me (at least in my limited experience with being a player briefly in a Fate Accelerated, and a Dungeon World game).

Yeah I dislike any means for players to avoid consequences, or pave over what's been established in play. Systems that allow for those things are terrible. Often those systems are super lethal, and then all the lethality goes away with a Fate point or some shit. Fuck that. I prefer a less lethal system but with inevitable and lasting consequences. Really rare deaths, but many injuries, shameful displays and story setbacks.

I actually tried GMing a Fate campaign, and it failed big time. It's a really bad story game, more like a Mary Sue game. But it did have some good advice on how to deal with failure like I talked about. They also introduce the concept of "success at a cost", which suggests that when someone fails partially, and a failure outcome wouldn't benefit the game, the GM and player can negotiate to make it a success but with a cost: be it physical, personal, or involving future complications in the story (or it can just be GM call).

What I like is to give players some editorial power over the story. Like if a player suggests he has a contact in a certain location, cool, let's run with it (it can't be a win button though). When I player does an action, I often ask what he expects as a result, so that I design in that direction (within reason ofc). When a player fails and takes a lasting consequence, we come up with it together (no free passes though). After a game, I ask players their future plans, and design around that. All my design and the story is centered on the PCs, even if the world is "indifferent to PCs" as you put it.

 

[Elex]

To start, when Gygax left TSR (or rather, pushed out of) Greyhawk kinda got into a weird place that got worst due to Forgotten Realms and DragonLance success, at that time TSR realized they were making money out of their novel lines and Greyhawk was pushed into getting the same treatment, however it never got the success of those two settings that should not be surprising considering TSR had no idea what the fuck they were doing.

As for Forgotten Realms, Ed Greenwood articles on Dragon were great but its success, especially the novel line, created problems and stuff was just dump on it, for example the Moonshae isles were just drop there despite they would likely been on Greyhawk but the worst offenders was the fucking novel line, basically they allow novels to interfere with the setting making the whole place having too many heroes all over the place that often had "chosen one" status (I am not even talking about just the Chosen of because of course everyone had to create their own Elminster) so players got the impression they werent needed because you had so many powerful people going around, granted it was NOTHING like DragonLance that became just "hey! remenber those books? wanna play DnD in there?" because they completely overshadowed the setting and it didnt help they keep having apocalyptic events on the novel line.

Forgotten Realms is a very decent setting IF you know what material to use, basically the type of stuff Ed Greenwood wrote for Dragon and ONLY that, if you start looking at the "bigger picture" then decades of having crap thrown in makes the damn place a landfill and that is the problem with players because they have access to all that crap and can annoy you because of "lore" and this is why we have a DM in the first place, playing in Forgotten Realms means you have to learn how to say NO a lot unless you manage to find players that understand they arent in a "Living Campaign" (if that is still around) and dont start acting like assholes but you get then whatever the fuck you play if its printed or you think you dont get those with Greyhawk? There is always someone that managed to read every fucking novel and moment you get out of the lore they will call on it.

And this is why your own campaigns are the best but that involves effort and you cannot just pull some printed campaign setting book and fill in the blanks, no you actually have to come up with your own shit ... Eberron was supposed to never advance and be static so I guess there is that but guess what it have? FUCKING NOVELS because of course it would ...

the interesting part is that they have basically stopped with the novels today.

 

[vonAchdorf]

CRITICAL ROLE ANIMATED SPECIAL FULLY FUNDED ON KICKSTARTER IN UNDER ONE HOUR

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/criticalrole/critical-role-the-legend-of-vox-machina-animated-s

Currently almost at 1.8 million

Currently at $8.3 million.

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

CRITICAL ROLE ANIMATED SPECIAL FULLY FUNDED ON KICKSTARTER IN UNDER ONE HOUR

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/criticalrole/critical-role-the-legend-of-vox-machina-animated-s

Currently almost at 1.8 million

Currently at $8.3 million.

That's 8.3 million that would never ever go towards DnD or any actual tabletop experience.

 

[baud]

CRITICAL ROLE ANIMATED SPECIAL FULLY FUNDED ON KICKSTARTER IN UNDER ONE HOUR

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/criticalrole/critical-role-the-legend-of-vox-machina-animated-s

Currently almost at 1.8 million

Currently at $8.3 million.

That's 8.3 million that would never ever go towards DnD or any actual tabletop experience.

Even without the Kickstarter, it wouldn't have gone towards DnD either way, more like soy lathe and patreon donations.

 

[Dayyālu]

I don't watch such things, but I mean, do they explain anything about PnP history or books? Or it's just internet comedy? Because I'll admit that DnD podcasts or the like could be useful if they got to ye good DM'ing, history of the genre, different games and settings, typical problems and combat set-ups.... 'cause I had this conversation with one of my players (younger than me, also a DM for another group of youngsters on the side).

"So, I had this idea, like, what if I go like space opera? I take a sci-fi theme and I get this fleet of space illithids..."

"Cool, you got that from Spelljammer? It's silly, but it has a lot of good stuff hidden..."

"What's Spelljammer?"

Minutes later

"Or I could be a tad more creative and go for a post-apocaliptic setting, like wastes and...."

"Now you'll tell me you don't know about Dark Sun."

"Nope."

It's silly, I know, but the idea that a 20-something that likes and play PnP and mostly D&D can completely ignore all settings and all history bar 3.5 and 5th ed is jarring. What do exactly those podcasts teach? Dick jokes?

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

I don't watch such things, but I mean, do they explain anything about PnP history or books? Or it's just internet comedy? Because I'll admit that DnD podcasts or the like could be useful if they got to ye good DM'ing, history of the genre, different games and settings, typical problems and combat set-ups.... 'cause I had this conversation with one of my players (younger than me, also a DM for another group of youngsters on the side).

"So, I had this idea, like, what if I go like space opera? I take a sci-fi theme and I get this fleet of space illithids..."

"Cool, you got that from Spelljammer? It's silly, but it has a lot of good stuff hidden..."

"What's Spelljammer?"

Minutes later

"Or I could be a tad more creative and go for a post-apocaliptic setting, like wastes and...."

"Now you'll tell me you don't know about Dark Sun."

"Nope."

It's silly, I know, but the idea that a 20-something that likes and play PnP and mostly D&D can completely ignore all settings and all history bar 3.5 and 5th ed is jarring. What do exactly those podcasts teach? Dick jokes?

The Mercer effect I've talked about before is partly because none of these shows have any interest in teaching DnD to people. It would destroy the image they've built up of DnD being this wacky inprov theatre.

 

[vonAchdorf]

CRITICAL ROLE ANIMATED SPECIAL FULLY FUNDED ON KICKSTARTER IN UNDER ONE HOUR

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/criticalrole/critical-role-the-legend-of-vox-machina-animated-s

Currently almost at 1.8 million

Currently at $8.3 million.

For the sake of completeness: The Kickstarter ended with $ 11,385,449.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

I've only played DnD once. It was like a Star Wars DnD thing. Basically we smoked weed, then built characters, then smoked more weed, then started the adventure and after about 5 minutes we went to smoke more weed and then we went to a party.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Imagine being in late 30s and being this much of a wiener holy shit:

 

[Delterius]

man i wish was that rich too

 

[udm]

Imagine being in late 30s and being this much of a wiener holy shit:

^This

Versus

This v

Which is better, and why? Discuss!

Spoiler

Asia stronk, kwans gonna kwans

 

[Beastro]

Matthew mercer, a prominent voiceactor of Eder, Aloth, and many many more, has created a running youtube series of DnD gameplay known as critical role.

Normally I consider the anti-sjw/incel and political opinions of the codex on the same level of a raving lunatic on drugs, but in this case I honestly consider it crossing the line.

Lately I have tried creating 'real' PnP style rpg's with people face to face and everyone I meet happen to be the most insufferable douchebags ever.

They all want to copy everything from Crit role right down to the terrible builds and lolsorandum acting.

There is a difference between role-playing and being straight up fucking retarded.

To give you guys an example, in my last session I was forced to witness two grown fucking men having gay dnd sex with each other.

Even the DM makes a point to add transsexual characters for fucks sake

I tried to tell them to knock it off but they wouldn't stop having weird orgies.

The common point is that they are all critical role fans.

SO fuck CRIT ROLE

Is Tavernking your DM by any chance?

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...our-players-to-have-sex-realistically.127694/

 

[Akratus]