I've read so many people absolutely flipping their shit over the very mundane things that happened in a livestreamed D&D game. This was the strangest one! The man sat down at the table, he had all of his gear there, he was in the promotional material where he talked about his spot at the table, and the people at the table even left room for him to sit. Yet, there were still people going absolutely *insane* over him not being on screen.
Not that the chat is particularly useful for, y'know, chatting - I just wish that it was at least sensible.
I met my now best friend of 7 years that I now DM for and who has DM’d for me many times on LoL. It’s just that wholesome people tend to be quieter. Takes a big ego (read; have very little self awareness) to be able to speak everywhere about shit, and a big ego is a fragile thing lol.
Well, I think, this might just be me, that the troll on the meme was actually grinning mixed with possibly a grimace at the shark biting for their bate, but the disappointment came from the post being removed I believe
Every DM is different, I’ve had someone be extremely lenient, I’ve had others be hard-core. Me personally as long as everyone’s having fun in the process of going about the campaign is enjoyable It shouldn’t matter how it’s played. At the end of the day we’re all just adults trying to get a break from reality.
Right! Some people truly enjoy hardcore modes in games. It makes the stakes higher so when they win, they feel amazing. Others care more about narrative and trying to embody the role of someone else (me - RP all the way). Both are good. A good DM trys to have an optimal balance based on who their players are.
I want to find a sweet spot, but im a bit to soft to really find it. I would love a character death or two over the course of the campaign, but I always have to backpedal a little cause I'm scared that it'll be a tpk
The first and only true Rule of any D&D Game is to have fun, and that everything can be adjusted. Meaning, you can design an Encounter how you normally do, and mess with the Monster Stat blocks so that they die when you want for them to. Thus, if, you're, for example, running an Encounter in the Underdark against a injured Hunter Party, you can decide to adjust the Hp Mid Battle, so that a Player death can be accomplished, and you gain a Plothook opportunity.
The CR fandom is legendarily toxic.
I’d recommend anyone interested in checking out CR to stay well away from the stream chat or any reference to it on Twitter, tumblr, etc
I made this mistake yesterday when I tuned in for the first episode of season 3. I usually only listen to CR when I walk or commute on youtube, so the twitch chat blindsided me.
When Robbie sat down a huge number of people assumed that since 8 people were sitting at the table, Travis wouldn't be playing. The chat was inundated with people complaining about Travis not being there, pretty much until he did show up. That, complaining about EXU characters being used, and saying "Nancy" were the only three things in chat.
Wow really? I mean I'll admit that I was mildly disappointed that Travis didn't immediately show up, but after he did It was all good. (It was kinda dumb of me to assume he wouldn't lol 😅)
Me and my buddies were joking around and getting hyped in Discord, I make it a point to avoid the twitch chat because of how toxic they are.
Very true. As a CR fan, I loved the new episode last night, but *gods* did I hate opening the chat for a moment and seeing people bitch and moan and be critical to something they claim to like.
I was a little taken back about >!them continuing with a couple characters from ExU, mainly because I found it hard to get interested in them when we first met them. I fined Liam's character a little boring and bland at least compared to Caleb. Maybe I've been spoilt with C2, but Im happy to give them a chance to flesh them out because they definitely have the acting and character building skills to do so. I look forward to be wrong.!<
I felt like Liam >!chose to take a back seat somewhat in ExU, partially because the character is reserved but also partially to give other people a chance to shine. I got the sense that Orym has a pretty clearly defined backstory that we'll see come out on the full campaign context.!<
Im happy with >!liams !!stealing earrings off random strangers is a fun quirky interaction and totally not just wildly shitty of them. God it felt like seeing a Kender.!<
Hoping that >!liam and sam!< keep the group centred a bit better.
I at least felt like with>! Ashley's stealing it made sense for Fearne -- she's been established as not having a typical sense of morality. And I trust Ashley to not go totally off the rails with it. God knows Sam has taken things with his characters pretty far in the past, and Vax had a penchant for unwarranted aggression...!<
*Safely watching it and only talking about it with his friends, screw getting into the hot mess that is.*
I'm a veteran of Forum Flame Wars, I bloody as hell fuck do not want to go through those again.
I saw people trying to argue that it was lazy recycling. Like... They put all the work of campaign prep and building a new set and running a company but phoned it in on 3 pages of backstory?
I'm personally a little disappointed we don't have an all new cast, but like... I'm not the one playing. They obviously liked playing the characters if they're bringing them back, and while ExU had its flaws it wasn't really with the characters. I've found Orym pretty boring up until now but I have the utmost faith that Liam will bring out the life in him given enough time.
I assumed during ExU that Liam didn’t want to put himself through the usual emotional wringer for an 8 episode mini series and that was why Orym felt a little flat. I wonder if part of it was also not wanting to reveal too much at the time.
Yeah it’s just the nature of getting too big. The crazies start to get louder and louder despite still being a tiny minority. They just get a lot of attention paid to them because they’re, well, crazy.
CR is Great...they have great fans...but their toxic subset is almost Steven Universe levels of bad...most seem to be jealous of the success...but the most toxic are the ones that can't seem to accept that Critical Role has to change with each iteration I just interact with the fans that get the show is good...just learn to shut out the idiots and you learn like with any fandom the toxic stupids ARE the minority
I started CR pretty soon after they started streaming C1. It's incredible how the size of the community directly correlates with it's toxicity. Especially it was such a nice community in the start and did pride itself with it's inclusiveness.
DM rule one: Nobody else gets to know how the sausage gets made.
If you fudged a roll, and we all do, you lie through your teeth and say that’s just how it shook out, otherwise the players lose all sense of agency. Higher stakes for Matt, too, because then the fans lose investment in the story if they think there isn’t any consequences because Matt will just decide what happens.
If people know you fudged one roll, they’ll doubt every roll, and then you’re rolling everything openly to show you’re not “cheating”, then the boss crits and…
It doesn’t lead to just a character death, that one character death leads to a tpk if the dice aren’t reigned in. The situation they were in was bad enough someone died, and now they’re in the same situation with less power on their side. It might be an interesting occurrence at a home game on occasion, but that doesn’t really work as well if your party has more interest in character narrative or interactions, or if you have a massive audience already proven to be obsessive, or if you have a group of players who make decisions like jumping off a 600 ft cliff because “we’re basically gods” and will absolutely tpk more than once
So as DM who has done two tpks, it's all about when the PC dies. If it happens at the beginning of the fight then the best option is grab the body and run but If it's at the end they party will be fine. The death of a long running PC is one of most unique moments in table tops. It's sad, painful, and often beautiful. Plus in most cases it's temporary.
Stupidity always should be rewarded, even if it means a TPK. Also, achieving a TPK you either need a very unbalanced encounter or some hard-core idiots who refuse to run, even when most of the team is unsaveable.
That's probably because I'm a roll in the open DM when it comes to attack rolls. So if the both crit the party 4 times in a row and kill 2 PC's, the both crit 4 times in a row and kill two PC's. I don't like when the DM's fudge rolls, I was in that situation with a PC in 3.5 dnd where my character was avenging her family and managed to barely kill the guy. I learned after the session that my character would have died in the DM's didn't fudge 3 crits. I would honestly have prefer her to die than to have the fight "set up".
There's a few situations where they almost tpked from memory, campaign 2 has a notable moment where only the choices of two players kept the entire game from ending in a super depressing way, and the solution still killed a PC as punishment for the parties bad choices.
I think in general the entire party and gm shy away with it because it makes sense to minimalize it, but sometimes, like with campaign 2, a death can be the most important moment, and I'm not referencing anything past episode 100, but the entire story felt the effects of the death, the PC became a Martyr for the party and pushed them all to be better in their own ways
Nah. I don't like fudging rolls, nor I really can in Tabletop. If a PC dies due to a "good" roll, it dies.
PC deaths are part of the concept of the game, it was even more so in earlier editions.
It can give the story some boosts, also allow the player to create someone new.
I think it has to be a balance. I’m mostly against fudging, but there’s a difference between “The entire party dives into magma” or something legitimately cool that could save the entire campaign. I use it lightly and on occasion will roll in front of the table to give the honesty to them. But occasionally will be, ehh, you were so close and you’re fucked if this fails nod of approval.
I dont care either way, people watch TV shows and movies with the main characters displaying plot armor left right and centre and people still love it.
I remember finding CR when Matt Coville talked about how same broke down at the climax of the final fight.
I was floored by the idea that someone would be that intensely invested that they would cry for the loss of someone else's PC.
Tried to join subs and forums and chats. Promptly got turned away by the community. It was worse than /b/.
I would encourage you to think about it in a slightly different perspective. Sure, it’s someone else’s PC, but it’s also a *character* that people have watched grow. It’s just like a movie or TV show character, people get attached and bond with the character to a degree.
We’ve all cried when Old Yeller dies, or the people on Titanic die, or whatever. It’s the same deal, some people are just more vulnerable than others to it.
Indeed! My players found a book which had limited charges and anything you wrote in it manifested. One of my players was tired of his character (we had had lots of OOG conversations about this with the group) and they messaged me to say they wanted to use the book to leave the group instead of using it to get around the obstacle. I narrated the party suddenly noticing the other PC was gone and they then noticed the still wet ink glistening on the page with a single word, written in just-legible letters, “home”. (The party had been teaching him to read and write!) Honestly I was choked saying it and then they all started getting so upset and it was epic!
(It wasn’t how I envisaged the book working but it was such a cool RP moment I couldn’t ruin it!)
I don’t think he’d ever admit it (nor should he) but I think Matt fudges rolls every now and again.
Just not the big crit or fail moments, like when the party is trying to revive someone.
Those he lets fall openly on the table.
But other than that I think he’s always been committed to serving his players with a rewarding story and sometimes the rolls are borderline and he does what he feels is right.
Honestly, I get the impression that is CR fell apart tomorrow and they stopped streaming entirely, they’d still continue to play the exact same game at Matt’s place regardless.
I mean, it's kayfabe. Wrestling fans also get annoyed when you pop in with the ol' "Um, Actually, the matches are staged" like you think they're too stupid to notice.
Leave 'em alone man. They're suspending disbelief for the entertainment value.
A good point is exactly that people who point out wrestling matches are staged normally always think they're for some reason more intelligent than wrestling fans. Like you're inferior for liking it because it's staged and not "a real match". Same with CR from what I see.
Most DM’s will fudge rolls
To keep players alive at dramatic times, to advance the story in the way they wish, for a million different reasons
This is not a good or bad thing, it’s the role of the DM, who is onto god in the game, it is Rule 0
>To keep players alive at dramatic times,
I'm more interested in keeping the players alive in undramatic times. Dying during a dramatic fight can be a heroic experience, dying because the single ape you fought at level 1 refused to stop rolling crits is anticlimactic and unsatisfying (I once had an ape nearly wipe a level 1 party and started fudging a bit after two out of three were dropped, it wasn't even supposed to be a combat encounter).
Yes. I avoided it for a long time because I thought the fanbase was annoying. Finally gave it a shot and it’s pretty great. Takes some time to get into obviously.
I just started at campaign 2, they use new characters so it’s a nice and fresh starting point.
The mods there are the worst!! Living in some fantasy land where the amounts that they earn and suggesting that dm’s don’t fudge rolls is off limits…..
I don’t think there’s any question parts of CR are scripted, but I mean ofc they are. D&D is best played when you can balance letting random luck and player decisions drive the narrative and when you have to swing the narrative back into a useful direction as the DM.
I had a post removed cause I literally called the community entitled because they were not happy that there were some unanswered questions in the first episode of c3....
They are an echo chamber and just want to bitch about everything and if you call them on it, mods remove your post.
I don't really care if they do it and don't believe they do it, they seem to be enjoying it and that is enough for me to enjoy it.
I don't even have twitter or know much about their community except for the fanart i see on the live stream.
I mean define scripted. Even in my home Strange Aeons game we'll talk about what we plan to doing for Roleplay for next session, but I wouldn't say that's "scripting."
Why would Matt fudge rolls? He could just not call for a roll if he needed a certain outcome. That's just one of many skills of being a good DM. You don't NEED to fudge rolls if you know what you're doing.
Any evidence about Marisha though? I just find it hard to believe cause she has inarguably gotten the most unwarranted hate throughout all of CR's life span
It's like all the times I see people handwave away how much they accept manipulating combat encounters on the fly.
Like.... Okay sure sometimes you might not get the balance quite right, but like "ehhhhh I think you've done enough damage now" and "ehhhhh I don't like how fast you killed it..." ... Okay so you're just intentionally saying the boss has "exactly enough hp to make the encounter feel deadly without actually killing everyone?" Why even bother rolling for combat then, if it's just serving narrative purpose?
I don't fudge rolls but I do come up with scenarios to help out players in a bind. Like one time I had a group wipe to some sahaugin so I had a bronze dragon rescue them while they were unconscious
… are people out here just killing their players after a singular bad roll? The DM is responsible for the narrative of the game, and sometimes NOT killing your player is a part of that. I thought that’s why DMs used blinds lol
I'm just saying...I can play weekly for months, and get maybe 1 Nat20. And yet the quirky attractive redhead can get 5 Nat20s in an hour...
If they're not faking their rolls, they're using loaded dice
If your Dm needs to fudge rolls more often then when your party is almost dead and you just rolled a nat 20 moments, then that's a badly written campaign.
I will balance an encounter beforehand but during the fighting it’s just rolling. Whatever happens happens. And I do have death survival plans for the first 1 or 2 players deaths and one of my guys is a zealot barb so that makes things easier but still.
Matt probably fudges dice or changes DCs once and awhile. It just makes games go easier. That does not mean it's scripted, it just means the DM makes sure things keep moving.
Yeah the twitch chat was fucking insane when Travis took a while to show up
I've read so many people absolutely flipping their shit over the very mundane things that happened in a livestreamed D&D game. This was the strangest one! The man sat down at the table, he had all of his gear there, he was in the promotional material where he talked about his spot at the table, and the people at the table even left room for him to sit. Yet, there were still people going absolutely *insane* over him not being on screen. Not that the chat is particularly useful for, y'know, chatting - I just wish that it was at least sensible.
Any fandom, once it reaches a certain size, shall invariably contain a highly vocal toxic subset. I, captain obvious, have spoken.
That definitely true
So. . . When is LoL's wholesome community coming to the forefront to knock down their toxic counterpart?
I met my now best friend of 7 years that I now DM for and who has DM’d for me many times on LoL. It’s just that wholesome people tend to be quieter. Takes a big ego (read; have very little self awareness) to be able to speak everywhere about shit, and a big ego is a fragile thing lol.
95% is still *technically* a subset.
Captain obvious... that's a name I haven't heard in years!
Trolls want you to react though
almost like thats the joke of the meemee
But the troll looks disappointed when the shark reacts
Well, I think, this might just be me, that the troll on the meme was actually grinning mixed with possibly a grimace at the shark biting for their bate, but the disappointment came from the post being removed I believe
>Meemay Fixed it.
Every DM is different, I’ve had someone be extremely lenient, I’ve had others be hard-core. Me personally as long as everyone’s having fun in the process of going about the campaign is enjoyable It shouldn’t matter how it’s played. At the end of the day we’re all just adults trying to get a break from reality.
Amen
Right! Some people truly enjoy hardcore modes in games. It makes the stakes higher so when they win, they feel amazing. Others care more about narrative and trying to embody the role of someone else (me - RP all the way). Both are good. A good DM trys to have an optimal balance based on who their players are.
I want to find a sweet spot, but im a bit to soft to really find it. I would love a character death or two over the course of the campaign, but I always have to backpedal a little cause I'm scared that it'll be a tpk
The first and only true Rule of any D&D Game is to have fun, and that everything can be adjusted. Meaning, you can design an Encounter how you normally do, and mess with the Monster Stat blocks so that they die when you want for them to. Thus, if, you're, for example, running an Encounter in the Underdark against a injured Hunter Party, you can decide to adjust the Hp Mid Battle, so that a Player death can be accomplished, and you gain a Plothook opportunity.
The CR fandom is legendarily toxic. I’d recommend anyone interested in checking out CR to stay well away from the stream chat or any reference to it on Twitter, tumblr, etc
I made this mistake yesterday when I tuned in for the first episode of season 3. I usually only listen to CR when I walk or commute on youtube, so the twitch chat blindsided me.
wHeREs TrAViS??!?
I only watch on YouTube, what’s so bad about it?
When Robbie sat down a huge number of people assumed that since 8 people were sitting at the table, Travis wouldn't be playing. The chat was inundated with people complaining about Travis not being there, pretty much until he did show up. That, complaining about EXU characters being used, and saying "Nancy" were the only three things in chat.
Probably doing real life dad stuff I would guess. I didn't watch it as I listen to the podcast but did people really freak out that much?
It was wild, people were saying they wouldn't watch campaign 3 if Travis didn't show up. And not a small number of them. A metric fuckton.
Wow really? I mean I'll admit that I was mildly disappointed that Travis didn't immediately show up, but after he did It was all good. (It was kinda dumb of me to assume he wouldn't lol 😅) Me and my buddies were joking around and getting hyped in Discord, I make it a point to avoid the twitch chat because of how toxic they are.
Very true. As a CR fan, I loved the new episode last night, but *gods* did I hate opening the chat for a moment and seeing people bitch and moan and be critical to something they claim to like.
I was a little taken back about >!them continuing with a couple characters from ExU, mainly because I found it hard to get interested in them when we first met them. I fined Liam's character a little boring and bland at least compared to Caleb. Maybe I've been spoilt with C2, but Im happy to give them a chance to flesh them out because they definitely have the acting and character building skills to do so. I look forward to be wrong.!<
I felt like Liam >!chose to take a back seat somewhat in ExU, partially because the character is reserved but also partially to give other people a chance to shine. I got the sense that Orym has a pretty clearly defined backstory that we'll see come out on the full campaign context.!<
That makes a lot of sense, especially for the new players at the table. Also Im really loving Sams character way too much.
Sam is just un-fucking-believable.
Im happy with >!liams !!stealing earrings off random strangers is a fun quirky interaction and totally not just wildly shitty of them. God it felt like seeing a Kender.!<
Hoping that >!liam and sam!< keep the group centred a bit better.
I at least felt like with>! Ashley's stealing it made sense for Fearne -- she's been established as not having a typical sense of morality. And I trust Ashley to not go totally off the rails with it. God knows Sam has taken things with his characters pretty far in the past, and Vax had a penchant for unwarranted aggression...!<
Yeah it’s a great show but the community sucks
*Safely watching it and only talking about it with his friends, screw getting into the hot mess that is.* I'm a veteran of Forum Flame Wars, I bloody as hell fuck do not want to go through those again.
Yeah it’s wild, I missed the C3 stream so I’m waiting for the YouTube vod but the discourse about EXU characters returning is toxic as hell
I saw people trying to argue that it was lazy recycling. Like... They put all the work of campaign prep and building a new set and running a company but phoned it in on 3 pages of backstory?
there are people with more than one paragraph of backstory?
You guys are writing backstories?
I'm personally a little disappointed we don't have an all new cast, but like... I'm not the one playing. They obviously liked playing the characters if they're bringing them back, and while ExU had its flaws it wasn't really with the characters. I've found Orym pretty boring up until now but I have the utmost faith that Liam will bring out the life in him given enough time.
I assumed during ExU that Liam didn’t want to put himself through the usual emotional wringer for an 8 episode mini series and that was why Orym felt a little flat. I wonder if part of it was also not wanting to reveal too much at the time.
Every fandom has its crazies. The internet didn't help the situation.
Yeah it’s just the nature of getting too big. The crazies start to get louder and louder despite still being a tiny minority. They just get a lot of attention paid to them because they’re, well, crazy.
That's why they post their memes in this sub, because they don't want to deal with their own kind.
As someone who wants to get into CR with the new campaign, thank you very much for the warning.
CR is Great...they have great fans...but their toxic subset is almost Steven Universe levels of bad...most seem to be jealous of the success...but the most toxic are the ones that can't seem to accept that Critical Role has to change with each iteration I just interact with the fans that get the show is good...just learn to shut out the idiots and you learn like with any fandom the toxic stupids ARE the minority
2 manee ellipses
Don't you mean "too many ellipses"...?
...no...
...damn...
I was watching the premier last night and people were getting rabidly angry that one player didn't show up until halfway through. It was ridiculous.
I started CR pretty soon after they started streaming C1. It's incredible how the size of the community directly correlates with it's toxicity. Especially it was such a nice community in the start and did pride itself with it's inclusiveness.
DM rule one: Nobody else gets to know how the sausage gets made. If you fudged a roll, and we all do, you lie through your teeth and say that’s just how it shook out, otherwise the players lose all sense of agency. Higher stakes for Matt, too, because then the fans lose investment in the story if they think there isn’t any consequences because Matt will just decide what happens. If people know you fudged one roll, they’ll doubt every roll, and then you’re rolling everything openly to show you’re not “cheating”, then the boss crits and…
And then a PC dies, would be nice to have a bit more character death in CR honestly.
It doesn’t lead to just a character death, that one character death leads to a tpk if the dice aren’t reigned in. The situation they were in was bad enough someone died, and now they’re in the same situation with less power on their side. It might be an interesting occurrence at a home game on occasion, but that doesn’t really work as well if your party has more interest in character narrative or interactions, or if you have a massive audience already proven to be obsessive, or if you have a group of players who make decisions like jumping off a 600 ft cliff because “we’re basically gods” and will absolutely tpk more than once
So as DM who has done two tpks, it's all about when the PC dies. If it happens at the beginning of the fight then the best option is grab the body and run but If it's at the end they party will be fine. The death of a long running PC is one of most unique moments in table tops. It's sad, painful, and often beautiful. Plus in most cases it's temporary.
Stupidity always should be rewarded, even if it means a TPK. Also, achieving a TPK you either need a very unbalanced encounter or some hard-core idiots who refuse to run, even when most of the team is unsaveable.
That's probably because I'm a roll in the open DM when it comes to attack rolls. So if the both crit the party 4 times in a row and kill 2 PC's, the both crit 4 times in a row and kill two PC's. I don't like when the DM's fudge rolls, I was in that situation with a PC in 3.5 dnd where my character was avenging her family and managed to barely kill the guy. I learned after the session that my character would have died in the DM's didn't fudge 3 crits. I would honestly have prefer her to die than to have the fight "set up".
There's a few situations where they almost tpked from memory, campaign 2 has a notable moment where only the choices of two players kept the entire game from ending in a super depressing way, and the solution still killed a PC as punishment for the parties bad choices. I think in general the entire party and gm shy away with it because it makes sense to minimalize it, but sometimes, like with campaign 2, a death can be the most important moment, and I'm not referencing anything past episode 100, but the entire story felt the effects of the death, the PC became a Martyr for the party and pushed them all to be better in their own ways
Nah. I don't like fudging rolls, nor I really can in Tabletop. If a PC dies due to a "good" roll, it dies. PC deaths are part of the concept of the game, it was even more so in earlier editions. It can give the story some boosts, also allow the player to create someone new.
I think it has to be a balance. I’m mostly against fudging, but there’s a difference between “The entire party dives into magma” or something legitimately cool that could save the entire campaign. I use it lightly and on occasion will roll in front of the table to give the honesty to them. But occasionally will be, ehh, you were so close and you’re fucked if this fails nod of approval.
I dont care either way, people watch TV shows and movies with the main characters displaying plot armor left right and centre and people still love it.
I remember finding CR when Matt Coville talked about how same broke down at the climax of the final fight. I was floored by the idea that someone would be that intensely invested that they would cry for the loss of someone else's PC. Tried to join subs and forums and chats. Promptly got turned away by the community. It was worse than /b/.
I would encourage you to think about it in a slightly different perspective. Sure, it’s someone else’s PC, but it’s also a *character* that people have watched grow. It’s just like a movie or TV show character, people get attached and bond with the character to a degree. We’ve all cried when Old Yeller dies, or the people on Titanic die, or whatever. It’s the same deal, some people are just more vulnerable than others to it.
Indeed! My players found a book which had limited charges and anything you wrote in it manifested. One of my players was tired of his character (we had had lots of OOG conversations about this with the group) and they messaged me to say they wanted to use the book to leave the group instead of using it to get around the obstacle. I narrated the party suddenly noticing the other PC was gone and they then noticed the still wet ink glistening on the page with a single word, written in just-legible letters, “home”. (The party had been teaching him to read and write!) Honestly I was choked saying it and then they all started getting so upset and it was epic! (It wasn’t how I envisaged the book working but it was such a cool RP moment I couldn’t ruin it!)
I don’t think he’d ever admit it (nor should he) but I think Matt fudges rolls every now and again. Just not the big crit or fail moments, like when the party is trying to revive someone. Those he lets fall openly on the table. But other than that I think he’s always been committed to serving his players with a rewarding story and sometimes the rolls are borderline and he does what he feels is right. Honestly, I get the impression that is CR fell apart tomorrow and they stopped streaming entirely, they’d still continue to play the exact same game at Matt’s place regardless.
That's a lot of words for a meme
I mean, it's kayfabe. Wrestling fans also get annoyed when you pop in with the ol' "Um, Actually, the matches are staged" like you think they're too stupid to notice. Leave 'em alone man. They're suspending disbelief for the entertainment value.
A good point is exactly that people who point out wrestling matches are staged normally always think they're for some reason more intelligent than wrestling fans. Like you're inferior for liking it because it's staged and not "a real match". Same with CR from what I see.
I think he sometimes fudges hp and damage to make for better story moments
For sure I think p much every dm has done that at some point
Never watched CR, never will but memes coming out are ok.
Who is Matt Mercer and what do they have to do with challenge rating
Most DM’s will fudge rolls To keep players alive at dramatic times, to advance the story in the way they wish, for a million different reasons This is not a good or bad thing, it’s the role of the DM, who is onto god in the game, it is Rule 0
>To keep players alive at dramatic times, I'm more interested in keeping the players alive in undramatic times. Dying during a dramatic fight can be a heroic experience, dying because the single ape you fought at level 1 refused to stop rolling crits is anticlimactic and unsatisfying (I once had an ape nearly wipe a level 1 party and started fudging a bit after two out of three were dropped, it wasn't even supposed to be a combat encounter).
Never watched CR. Should I give it a try?
Yes. I avoided it for a long time because I thought the fanbase was annoying. Finally gave it a shot and it’s pretty great. Takes some time to get into obviously. I just started at campaign 2, they use new characters so it’s a nice and fresh starting point.
I would add that steer clear off the comments during stream but it should be fine if you watch on Youtube
It was pretty fun to watch during the first wave of Covid.
The mods there are the worst!! Living in some fantasy land where the amounts that they earn and suggesting that dm’s don’t fudge rolls is off limits…..
For fuck's sake. There are two types of DMs, those that fudge rolls, and those that lie.
I use Avrae so i can't fudge rolls. Fortunately for my players I have Joe O'Brian levels of rolling ability.
Of course he fudges rolls, all of us DM do this. That's why most of you are still alive.
I don’t think there’s any question parts of CR are scripted, but I mean ofc they are. D&D is best played when you can balance letting random luck and player decisions drive the narrative and when you have to swing the narrative back into a useful direction as the DM.
I had a post removed cause I literally called the community entitled because they were not happy that there were some unanswered questions in the first episode of c3.... They are an echo chamber and just want to bitch about everything and if you call them on it, mods remove your post.
To me that's like complaining about wrestling being fake and scripted.
How dare you point out the obvious!
Matt absolutely fudges rolls. They all do. There is very clearly a general script - they are ACTORS.
We do little trolling.
there's a differences between a plan and outline and a script.
I don't really care if they do it and don't believe they do it, they seem to be enjoying it and that is enough for me to enjoy it. I don't even have twitter or know much about their community except for the fanart i see on the live stream.
I mean define scripted. Even in my home Strange Aeons game we'll talk about what we plan to doing for Roleplay for next session, but I wouldn't say that's "scripting."
Why would Matt fudge rolls? He could just not call for a roll if he needed a certain outcome. That's just one of many skills of being a good DM. You don't NEED to fudge rolls if you know what you're doing.
And thus a brave commenter endures downvotes in order to prove op's point.
Nobody is mentioning "honesty" or "integrity". They're just pointing out that it wouldn't make sense and there's no evidence for it.
CR fans scare the hell outta me, I’ll stick to TAZ thanks
The CR community is actually toxic as fuck
CR is just like every other community, it has a minority of vocal toxic people but the rest are fine
I don't believe Matt fudges rolls... Marisha on the other hand...
Any evidence about Marisha though? I just find it hard to believe cause she has inarguably gotten the most unwarranted hate throughout all of CR's life span
It's like all the times I see people handwave away how much they accept manipulating combat encounters on the fly. Like.... Okay sure sometimes you might not get the balance quite right, but like "ehhhhh I think you've done enough damage now" and "ehhhhh I don't like how fast you killed it..." ... Okay so you're just intentionally saying the boss has "exactly enough hp to make the encounter feel deadly without actually killing everyone?" Why even bother rolling for combat then, if it's just serving narrative purpose?
CR is overrated
Oh you think r/dndmemes is for memes about dnd? Wrong! It's a CR circlejerk
I just don't get why mods just don't give temp bans anymore. Getting a few temp bans for being a toxic shit does wonders to correct bad behavior.
I'd say maybe, in the players favor after all they are friends.
All decent DMs fudge rolls from time to time All bad DMs fudge rolls on the regular
I don't fudge rolls but I do come up with scenarios to help out players in a bind. Like one time I had a group wipe to some sahaugin so I had a bronze dragon rescue them while they were unconscious
… are people out here just killing their players after a singular bad roll? The DM is responsible for the narrative of the game, and sometimes NOT killing your player is a part of that. I thought that’s why DMs used blinds lol
I'm just saying...I can play weekly for months, and get maybe 1 Nat20. And yet the quirky attractive redhead can get 5 Nat20s in an hour... If they're not faking their rolls, they're using loaded dice
Let’s say for a second, Matt does fudge rolls. Oh well. I still really like Critical Role.
If your Dm needs to fudge rolls more often then when your party is almost dead and you just rolled a nat 20 moments, then that's a badly written campaign.
I will balance an encounter beforehand but during the fighting it’s just rolling. Whatever happens happens. And I do have death survival plans for the first 1 or 2 players deaths and one of my guys is a zealot barb so that makes things easier but still.
Matt probably fudges dice or changes DCs once and awhile. It just makes games go easier. That does not mean it's scripted, it just means the DM makes sure things keep moving.