What Matt Mercer & Critical Role Taught Me About D&D

Join the Nerdarchy Adventuring Party

What Matt Mercer & Critical Role Taught Me About D&D
We've been playing Dungeons and Dragons for decades. From AD&D to 5e D&D we've enjoyed the tabletop role-playing game hobby, but we still lean from others and strive to improve our gaming experience. Mathew Mercer and the cast of Critical Role on Geek & Sundry are just more gamers we've learned from over the years.

*****************
*****************
Links from Video

****************************
****************************

******************************************************
******************************************************
Support the Channel by Shopping (Our Affiliate Links)

*******************
*******************
Nerdarchy Sponsors

Coupon Code: New2DnD

*******************
*******************
Nerdarchy Freebies

******************************
******************************
Join Your Fellow Nerdarchist

*************************
*************************
More Nerdy Content-

*********
*********
Credits
Cartoon Goblin Thumbnails- mmmmjava on instagram

All Other Thumbnails- Alex Guillotte of Critical Hit Publishing

Music- Zero Flux

Video Planning and Skit Scripting- Doug Vehovec, Dave Friant, Ted Adams

[Nerdarchy]

Nerdarchy's favorite places to shop for D&D goodies (Affiliate Links)-

[alandcapelari]

People tend to forget that Matt and the crew played DnD before they started streaming and they stated many times that this is their style of play. Campaign 1 was already 2 years long, I guess, when Geek & Sundry called them to do Critical Role. The show skyrocketed and now stands on its own. If DnD is so popular nowadays it is, in part, due to their work in sharing their game experience. At least some respect they deserve. Most haters criticisms come from not knowing this or some kind of envy. In one episode of Dragon Talk Perkins said they had interest in working with Mercer as an adventure councilor, either to DnD adventures (SKT, by that time) and Acquisitions Incorporated. People should stop complaining about them and enjoy all the investment the game is receiving, which is due to its popularity, which, I reinforce, grew like this because of CR.

[KirstenBayes]

I've been playing D&D for forty years, as have half the folks I play with. What I learned from CR and its community is that the hobby is in really good hands. And that kindness, imagination and fun are at least as important as rules and dice.

[sinisterplank]

The #1 thing I learned from Critical Role, that all of them do well but I find Travis does particularly well, is to be generous with the limelight and allow the other characters to insert themselves in your moments. It's given me far more satisfaction to have moments where my character happens to be the focus of the moment be a shared experience.

[chrisperez]

been with my d&d group for 24 years guess im lucky. what is sad is the gate keepers being so toxic to new players who came to D&D from CR. weather you like CR or not it is a positive for the community.

[CromThePale]

I think this was a good video but I get the impression some of those commenting never made it past your opening joke.  One major thing I think many viewers overlook about Critical Role is how much their game has changed since it started streaming.  What was explained in the very first show was that they changed from Pathfinder to 5E for the stream, so many of them didn't know the 5E rules well and there was going to be confusion and mistakes.  Another thing to be noted is that in the beginning they didn't have fancy maps, just chart paper with maps hand drawn by Matt Mercer.  Two reasons that this changed are that Matt was given a number of items over the first few months of the game that started with coloured mats and a few trees/rocks and ultimately the modular plastic bases/walls for the current map builds they use today.  The second reason is that being a streamed game they felt a more visual element would assist in viewers enjoyment of the game.One of the biggest critiques of Matt Mercer is how much control he has over the game, which makes no sense to me as he is the GM and in total control.  Even with that he most famous line is asking a player "How do you want to do this?" where he gives them a chance to define how they defeat a strong foe or boss.  His elaborate descriptions of said events after the fact are brought about by the groups acceptance that Matt has a great way with words and is more descriptive and creative in that regard.The biggest thing I have learned about D&D from Critical Role is that while anyone can play, just as anyone can play any game be it a sport, a board game or a video game, there are always going to be those who are great and those that are just average.  And it is perfectly fine to be either!  Just as long as you are having fun, and everyone at your table is enjoying themselves, being a perfect player or a mediocre player doesn't matter.  This is a game and nobody can tell you that YOUR FUN IS WRONG!

[rolandkushm.d.]

I first heard of Mercer when he the Red Nose day event. A 1 on 1 sesh with Stephen Colbert. I had barely thought of DnD or other RPGs in years. Since then I have discovered Matt Colville, Seth Skorkowski, Dungeon Craft, Nerdarchy and others. I learned that I don't enjoy watching as much as playing but I still appreciate all the hard work done by CR and others to bring RPG's into the spotlight.

[magiv]

There's a lot of bile in this comment section towards CR and I don't get it. It's really sad, seeing as they were such an inspiration to so many people. No, CR isn't perfect, the characters aren't perfect, and that's not a flaw, that's a strength. If everything was perfect, it would be boring. They're actors, they're only human, their characters are fallible, and that is great. It makes for far more of an interesting story and playstyle and that's the point.

[MadawcSin]

I have to mention the most important thing I learned from Matt Mercer and his conversations about Critical Role is that your game dose not have to be like his to still be good.

[randalladkins]

4th thing I learned from CR, as a DM always use the improv rule of “yes and” or “no but” with your dming and role play, and encourage your players to do this as well!

[battlehymn]

I like to end sessions or take breaks at the start of combat (before initiative) or immediately after before the party loots. For me the biggest thing I learned from CR, and Mercer specifically, is how to deal with a mistake. I had a similar issue with the spell Animate Dead cast by a wizard, I miss-read the casting time as 1 round. When the player caught my mistake after combat, I told her it was because there was Shadowfell seeping through in the area ... this made me have to change the campaign a bit because I had to add notes on this spot, as it was now a landmark. I never take away from my players when I miss-interpret the rules.

[Altyrell]

Another thing that CR taught me is that when I'm the DM, ALWAYS have Plans B, C, D, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, etc because the Players will always surprise you & could circumvent a Battle you had planned. Case in point, the Mighty Nien were heading back to port & were being followed by another ship, & once that ship had gotten within 300 feet, Taliesin's character used Control Water [Flood] & Matt upped the "25% chance to capsize to 30% chance to capsize" & he had Tal roll a percentile, in which he rolled so well that even if Matt kept it at the 25% the Ship had still capsized. [iirc Tal rolled 15]. Completely negating the entire Ship-to-Ship Battle that Matt had ready.

[triplebackspace]

The thing I take away from Critical Role is their table manners. All of them shut up and listen when the Dm is setting a scene. All of them take notes and work hard to remember which Npc or plot threads they encounter. They will shut up when other players need time to role play a scene amoung each other and also with Matt's npcs. All of these subtle skills probably gained from their acting are really useful and make the game collectively more fun for the players and the DM.

[scook]

Two more things I like: They play from the character view point and not the player view point, meaning, how would my character respond in this situation? And..failing dice rolls can be more fun than succeeding. I started way back in high school (1982) and any failed dice roll generally meant your character was dead, that gets old pretty quick, so we were always meta gaming and trying to be perfect.

[RobKinneySouthpaw]

Right now my successful game definition is tell a good story, let my 5 year old roll some dice, practice math, and play with a dragonborn paper doll. If I keep my wife from getting bored, so much the better.

[andrewclelland]

I've learned more from CR as a DM than as a player. One of the biggest things I've learned is flexibility, allow players to do the things they want and adjust the rules on the fly to accommodate such decisions. I started watching CR pretty close to the beginning and went back and binged to catch up. As a player it was entertaining (for the first time, I usually can't stand watching others play). But then I started DMing for my kids, which was extremely frustrating the first night when they wanted to do some wildly radical stuff. I watched a few episodes of CR before the next session and completely changed my approach, with Matt's phrase, "you may certainly try". I find we all enjoy the game more when it's flexible and the rules are more of a guideline.

[sesimie]

reason i started playing D&D...is CR

[golvic]

Let any gamer among us who never got a rule wrong cast the first dislike.

The best part of CR is that they get rules wrong all the time and they just go with it like the rest of us. We aren’t demigods like Chris Perkins (who also gets rules wrong from time to time in his shows and he works for the freaking company).

[nickwilliams]

Committing to a regular game session for an indefinite period is truly one of the unsung achivements of any long-running campaign. I'm going okay ATM with fortnightly sessions (5e), but many of my players are in another campaign (2e) that's lucky to meet up once every six weeks. If you want to have your players follow an actual story, fortnightly is the _extreme limit_ of frequency. We've just come up on a time window where it's going to be almost a month before out next game and I _know_ that's going to be a problem. Luckily I have two players who are _aggressive_ note-takers, which does make things like this easier (shoutout to Rachael and Sarah), but I'm going to have to get everyone back up to speed next session.

I mean, they just killed Exethanter in the Amber Temple. And they still haven't worked out what the deal is with that statue. They currently think it's just a trap. I need [redacted] to hit them with higher-level spells, that's what needs to happen.

Regarding Critical Role.

If I had to pick my three things that I think are awesome about that livestream, they would be this:

*1. Play at a table.*

There is no substitute for actually sitting around a table with friends. You can read their body language. You can look them in the eye. They can bring you food. Online may be a necessary evil in a world where the friends of youth spread out over the globe, but it's not optimal.

*2. The campaign needs to be **_able_** to be taken seriously.*

Not that everyone should be sitting around po-faced. There's going to be jokes.* Just don't let your campaign _be_ a joke. Laughter is the thing that comes easiest at the table; drama and investment are the things a DM needs to work at. The campaign and the game world should not be _inherently_ funny in anything other than an outright comedy campaign: the players will make their own jokes. Frequently. Trust me on this.

*3. Enable your players to take chances.*

The truly awesome moments in any TTRPG come when a player metaphorically takes a dive off a high board into a glass of water. It might be an insane strategy** or a cringeworthy in-character monologue. Allow for the fact that this is all improvised and go with it. Doesn't mean you need to let it work but, "You can certainly try."




* Unless you lobotomize your players. Which is bad. Don't lobotomize your players. Their families and loved ones start asking questions _almost immediately._ Don't ask how I know.

** As per #2, watch this for abuse. Players saying, "It's crazy, but it _just might_ work." is awesome. Players saying, "It's crazy, so the the DM will _make_ it work." is not.

[AnnaTheFallMaiden]

Critical Role is honestly the epitome of what an RPG is, a collaborative story-telling game