Has Critical Role and "The Mercer Effect" ruined D&D?

[@stagehog81]

Role Assumption is one of those skills that is easy to learn the basics of and will get better the more you use it. When you create your character you need to define who that character is. Write a backstory for the character that answers the below questions. Where does the character come from? Who are their family and friends? What past experiences have they had during their life that led them to being the person they currently are? What is the characters reason for choosing a life of adventure? Knowing those things about your character will help you get into the mindset of how the character thinks and help you determine what actions that character would take in various situations.

[@welovettrpgs]

And if you have an "Adversarial DM" NEVER tell the DM the answers to question #2. :p

[@TimGalloVids]

i am a virgin DM. me and my group of first-timers are now 12 session deep. all of us either saw critical role or vox machina anime series. none of us fans of the show, we just happen to saw it and thought - hey that look fun, we wanna try. and now we having a blast and everyone looks forward to next session. surprisingly none of the players are watching it anymore - in order not to be influenced. except me - i learn a lot about rules and dm-ing. cause so many prople "talk" dnd but not actually "walk" it in the open... and if you know its a show - than you dont expect yourself to be the same, but striving to have as much fun as they have on the screen - is not a bad thing imho. i am grateful to mercer and critical role. i discovered role playing games thanks to them...

[@TimGalloVids]

another Mercer effect nobody talks about, is if you watch critical role or dimension 20 once, youtube endlessly will recommend other ttrpg oriented channels ... thats how i discovered this one :)

[@welovettrpgs]

haha! Well, see another reason I am thankful for them, and you!

[@Ichisip]

Another great video Aten! I was wondering when another update will pop up on my feed, thank you for taking your time in making these with a respectful tone as always!

[@welovettrpgs]

Thank you! Actually I have a bunch more coming, life just got in the way. I'm really eager to share the ones I'm working on. I have some great topics coming up. Thanks for your support!

[@arthurbrockway8949]

A: Helloooooooooo B: How do you know who Tom Brady is, without my input. C: More seriously-some of my younger players I know are really into roleplay, and that is wonderful. Some students have difficulty getting into roleplay I've definitely picked up on my roleplay skills as a DM from where I was as a 12 year old DM ages ago. But Gary adopted this out of chainmail, a war game, and I've always emphasized combat, missions, quest achievement over overt dramatics. I think there are generational differences, but some of this is Mercer's influence, which, as you fairly indicated, has many positives.

[@welovettrpgs]

thanks

[@arcanefeline]

Many new DMs (and players) need to hear this.

[@welovettrpgs]

Thank You! That's one of the old videos I plan on redoing in the future to remove the AI generated images.

[@7thsealord888]

Good video. So far, this hasn't been a factor for me, since most of my groups are long-timers. As for streaming our games, oh hells, no. Thinking that telling new Players up front , "I Am NOT Matt Mercer", would be a sensible start for any DM. :)

[@welovettrpgs]

Good point!

[@cadenceclearwater4340]

We're all pushing the envelope together 😎

[@sharpmountaingames9303]

Great video! Just relax and have a good time. I don't even have theatrical voices for my NPC's and no one ever complains.

[@welovettrpgs]

Glad you enjoyed! Thanks!

[@heroeshomebrew]

I couldn't agree more. More people playing and more diverse people coming to the table only makes whatever game you're playing better. Critical Role is good for what it is, entertainment, but it shouldn't be expected to be the standard for what a night at the table looks like. Every DM or Referee has their own style, that style developes over time and changes as they get inspired. If you and your friends spend a few hours having fun, creating memorable moments and have a few laughs then you've done what roleplaying games set out to achieve.

[@welovettrpgs]

Agreed!

[@MykeDiemart]

I have made a lot of friends through rpgs, many I would not have met otherwise. It's has been a common language I speak to other "nerds?". The thing I don't like about CR /Mercer effect is people thinking that is the only way to play.

[@lidlonez]

Matt is a very good DM, but i did quit ttrpg's because of the unnatural expectations my players expect from my table :( I always played with pen and paper. Now i cant even get a person to read the players handbook. Thank you for making more information viable, Matt is amazing and I love him and CR.

[@welovettrpgs]

I'm really sorry to hear you had a bad experience and I really hope you've returned to ttrpgs. If you encounter players like that again look for some of Matt's old DMing when he wasn't so polished. It may be an eye opener for others to see that when he isnt putting on a show for money hes just like everyone else - human. In fact watching his really old streams actually turned my opinion around about him from negative to positive. He does truly love the hobby and I'm glad he's found success.

[@isaace8090]

I know this is a few months old but I am going through the back catalog of videos and enjoying it. My current groups is online and we have been together gaming for about 10 years. The only person I knew prior in the group is my cousin. Who coincidentally, got me into D&D in 4th grade (a long ass time ago!). I do love in person games the most, but the online games are still a lot of fun. Don't give up on TTRPGs because of some bad experiences as it is a wonderful hobby that has given me a lot of great memories over my life.

[@colinleat8309]

You, and Gygax said it, just relax and enjoy. I don't really watch C.R. either. I'd rather play than watch others. I will admit I thoroughly enjoyed watching Relics and Rarities though, the characters make me laugh, watching them have fun. I bounce back and forth between being a P.C and D.M. I to D.M. the original Ravenloft and Dragonlance. Thanks for your channel and great advice for the newcomers 👍. 🤘😁🖖🇨🇦

[@welovettrpgs]

Thank you for the inspiring feedback!

[@Blerdy_Disposition]

Do you know where you found the article from Gary Gygax? I would love to read it myself and analyze it Aten! Great video btw, as someone who GMs a lot ofnon- dnd rpgs, it can be difficult dealing with the Matt Mercer effect for sure.

[@welovettrpgs]

It's Dragon Magazine #102. www.annarchive.com/files/Drmg102.pdf

[@TAG_Animus]

Okay, Gentle Criminal (no seriously, look it up). Kind of amazed you're only at

[@welovettrpgs]

Thank you!

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

Yes the game goal is to have fun. I don’t watch CR because I would rather play than to watch someone else play.

[@welovettrpgs]

Same my friend!

[@Darkwintre]

I don't believe in the Matt Mercer Effect, instead I call it the Critical Role Effect as I've encountered people so obsessed with that, that they don't understand its a setting and not the game itself! The time I ran a game in Exandria was because the other dm had literally destroyed his game in an effort to crap over my character. To help I reduced my character's back story to just answering a call for aid from her son. He decided to kill off said son refuse the chance to retrieve the body insisting they were dead and instead of setting the next game from the hamlet shifted the game back to the port he started his game from ignoring the obvious potential of the where we were currently located. When pointing out no mother would abandon their child he simply said I should change characters. Instead I ran my game revealing my character was banished from Exandria to the world where his game was established on and was recovering from temporary amnesia the result of that event. All that did was highlight his obsession after a few months where he repeatedly stated his game wasn't set there he decided that yes it was despite that not being possible by that point. All he had to do was ask as I was trying to shift my game off there as I wanted a chance to set up a session zero that I didn't before as I never expected it to get off the ground. It was developing nicely until he decided to crap over both games because of that Critical Role Effect. So I don't agree about the Matter Mercer Effect, but I guess its really dependent on your exposure to that!

[@Mark-nh2hs]

The problem now is if you rp a character your likely be branded CR fan. When I was young and played Rpg with my friends we always RP did voices for them etc etc this was years before CR was even created. I must admit when playing Co-Op dungeon crawlers me and my friends create new characters and role play them with back stories and do voices for them. Adding an element of RP to the game. But now that would be frowned upon by some. Utter madness. Years before CR existed when people said they played RPGs many would think that you rp the character with voices other than your own. I think many have forgotten this. Me I'm happy to play both ways. It depends on the DM who can create an engaging story that make you feel your living in a dangerous world. I think the question should be are CR fans DMing story lines and themes identical to to CR rather than making dark and sometimes challenging moral dilemmas to challenge your character moral and ethical compass.

[@anon_laughing_man]

The only difference between Matt and me is the ability to do voice acting of a massive amount of characters. Matt and his people are true talents in that regard. That is why they get paid the fat loot to do so. Otherwise I see no appreciable difference. People just get really wowed by the voice acting. Being highly descriptive and having an actively dynamic game takes practice, but anyone here can do it. Just keep at it.

[@welovettrpgs]

Agreed!

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

I do not think of this "explosion" helped the hobby. In my opinion, rulesets andrelated stuff have been watered down to appease to most of people, leaing to the actual state of D&D game as a power fantasy for the egoes. I disagree with the DEI stuff. Gene Roddenberry did something in a very organic way unlike the today's forced way. He said "They can" but current year says "they must be implanted".

[@ricardojuanlopeznaranjo6651]

Critical Rol is a scripted show of a group of voice actors pretending to play 5E or Featfinder, in a game when the heroes always win and they are saveing the world everey day of the week. The adventures are average, the plot average, the NPC,s average and the plot turns, not surprising at all. Now they are playing Candelabro Oscuro, another scripted show that tries to be a mix of steam punk and horror, being none.

[@welovettrpgs]

Hey, I'm not a fan of Critical role (I dont find the idea of watching anyone play a game to be enjoyable) so please don't take this as me trying to defend them. But what I will defend is the truth because I believe facts matter. There are a lot of conspiracy theorists who believe it is scripted and if you want to believe that there are plenty of conspiracy sites pushing that narrative and you could easily feed your confirmation bias however it simply isn't true. While Matthew certainly uses prepared scripts - as I myself do when DMing - but the suggestion that the whole thing is scripted and they aren't really playing D&D has no basis in reality. As far as the blandness of the show, the pointlessness of the adventures and plots etc ... that is probably a matter of opinion and having no personal experiences watching them I can't comment on that other than to say for something you obviously have a very negative opinion about they make a lot of money doing it and they have a lot of fans. Anyway, I'm not trying to argue with you - I'm just saying facts matter - the show isn't scripted in the way you suggest (those are just conspiracy theories) and as far as the show being bland that's a matter of opinion - which I might agree with if I ever had the patience to sit through it. Thanks!

[@ricardojuanlopeznaranjo6651]

@@welovettrpgs No problem, I understand your point of view but is obvious that last seasons of the show are scripted and railroady. About them making money or having many fans? Yes, and McDonalds makes money and has a lot of customers, but you can't ignore its bad fast food. Also billions of flies esta shit and that doesn't mean It tastes good. Same for Critical Rol. And the VOX Machina Series is good as a superhero show (thats what 5E and FeatFinder emulates these days) but not great, engaging or even logical plotwise as a D&D show.

[@welovettrpgs]

@@ricardojuanlopeznaranjo6651 We agree about pop culture and fast food etc. I think McDonald should change their slogan from "You're lovin it" to "Hey, look in a mirror, you've obviously given up so come on down." Large groups of like minded individuals clamoring to something does not translate to quality. But I still disagree about the scripts. But thanks for checking in a keeping it civil! I hope youre doing well!

[@ricardojuanlopeznaranjo6651]

@@welovettrpgs I really enjoy your content and your ideas. Also I prefer the real D&D, rooted in sword & sorcery (be it low or high fantasy, from Conan to Elric, from Farfhr and the Grey Mouser to Kane) than the actual versiones of the game, MMORPG simulators where you are playing Teen Titans or Young Avengers eager to join the Justice League after a few sessions. Yes, its all D&D, from FeatFinder and 5E to DCC and Shadowdark, but if you want to feel like the Young boys in Stranger Things, go the OSR path, the other way youll join the ranks of the Sheldon Coopers of the World, min maxing an puting charatcter build over player skill and wit.

[@welovettrpgs]

@@ricardojuanlopeznaranjo6651 Thanks! In addition to my regular 5E D&D campaign I've also began a Mutant Crawl Classics campaign. It's a great game!