Thread 96497360

Hey /tg/ I hope you are excited for the new season of Critical Role?
I hear it's going to be super sweet and fix many of your complaints about the show previously!

>>96497360 (OP)
>op
>gay
yep.jpg

I'm not expecting much, but I'll probably give the first few episodes a watch, if only to see how the whole "tables as genres" thing pans out. I anticipate everyone just watching Matt's group and skipping the other episodes.

>>96497360 (OP)
Is this guy as good of a DM as Matt Mercer? I don't really follow eceleb stuff.

With the adoption of a West Marches format, which comes with a bit of an air of lethality and a new DM that's not afraid to let the hockey gloves hit the ice it's bound to be a more engaging experience than S3 was. That was dogshit.

>>96497360 (OP)
I have nothing against critical role, but i still find it crazy so many people watch 50+ episodes of a like 5 hour show

>>96497416
Not to be a pedant, but I'd hesitate to call campaign 4 a "proper" West Marches game. The preset groups alone disqualify it, and given that there's a group focusing on the "political intrigue" aspect, I doubt some of those fuckers are even going to be doing much marching

>>96497435
people go crazy about this shit

>>96497508
ohhh jeez i wish people got tattoos of my D&D character.
(no I don't, that's dumb why would you do this.)

>>96497409
No. Brenden is a comedian but a shit story teller. Also is solely for the dregs of DnD and those who think Drag Queen DnD is entertaining.

>>96497435
Especially when the majority of that 5 hours is just the normal bullshitting that comes with DnD. Checking spell wording, trying to figure out what they want to buy from shops, checking notes, planning on course of action, etc.

>>96497409
He's a very different kind of DM, but he's very effective at creating dramatic moments and whipping off into speeches. He prefers to really work with his players to get down to the core of what their characters are and what they care about. As a result, he knows exactly how to hurt them.

>>96497416
It is not really West Marches. There's just multiple groups.

>>96497435
I believe most actual play audiences listen to it as a podcast and simply jump skip half the episode if there's combat. These skirmish fights of no consequence that are nearly every single one of them that go on forever is just a really bad part of the format though. While this medium doesn't have a lot of potential, there's yet to be a show that has players really knowing the rules so it's a smooth experience and where the combat is short and very impactful so you're always on the edge of your seat when things go down.

I think they tried that with Age of Umbra, but I was so bored with it and the player characters and mood at the table were just anathema to any sort of grimdark setting that it just wasn't very engaging to watch, despite being more lethal and with a more engaging combat system.

>>96497409
He's been great in short railroady content. The hope is that with a longform format he will relax the railroadyness and respect player choice a lot more than what Matt did for campaign 3. The way he ran that alone makes it worth to putt Matt on ice and take the gamble on a new dm, it was that awful.

>>96497924
Multiple groups that MIGHT be interchangeable (they haven't confirmed either way yet) in a living world is pretty clear cut west marches to me pal

>>96499997
>pretty clear cut west marches to me
Words have meaning.

>>96497360 (OP)
Are they finally going to have a reasonable number of players at the table at a given time? I tried to watch C1 but couldn't focus with people constantly chattering and talking over each other.

>>96500181
Terms change with the times old man, you are using it in relation to games from 20 years ago, I'm employing the commonly accepted modern usage. Don't get snooty with me because you refuse to modernize.

Are open tables that revolve around dm schedules(as opposed to player schedules) considered West marches?
Here's how one server I was a part of worked.
The caravan is heading West to escape an ever growing plague. The caravan currently has 100 horses(later rebranded into morale after players fucked with metacurrency too much)

Whenever a dm calls for a mission, players must answer the call and survive or the caravan loses morale/resources.
There are two kinds of missions: wild encounters, and custom dm missions(usually curated after wild encounters go awry, and do not cost the caravan morale if ignored, but usually resulted in more XP or a chance at magic items.

My prediction is that Brennan is going to go hey I'm running a battle heavy session next, who wants in. Im running an intrigue session next Thursday who wants in, and chances are the people who enjoy that play style are going to be relatively consistent, but might want a change of pace

>>96497360 (OP)
I generally enjoy Brennan's comedy and improve in other shows and games, so despite not giving a shit about Critical Role I'm curious to see how this plays out. It will probably be entertaining if nothing else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibyK0TgGDNc

>>96497360 (OP)
Really? Because I hear it's going to be hot garbage. Just like every season.

>>96497409
>rolls 20
>"Now that's what I call a Critical Roll"
every time

>>96497360 (OP)
Honest question: WTF is Critical Role? I hear it mentioned now and then but I have never bothered to look it up since D&D past 3.5 doesn't exist in my opinion. Some kind of podcast?

>>96501440
It's a rpg stream where people well known people in the voice acting industry play dnd
Started on geek and sundry 10 years ago and has since then become it's own brand

>>96501440
a group of actors playing (as in acting) a game of dnd

>>96501440
3.5 sucks

>>96501440
>D&D past 3.5 doesn't exist in my opinion
imagine stopping with the worst D&D edition

>>96497409
Not really. He's a one-trick pony and that trick only works when someone behind the camera can ask for a second take on a funny line or reaction.

>>96497360 (OP)
>fixing complaints
funny
complaint 1. CR's campaigns and PC arcs have predetermined outcomes
complaint 2. Despite the above, they still cheat
complaint 3. The players are still (after 10 years) shit-tier, constantly doing all the bad tropes that good ones quickly overcome.
complaint 4. They are grifters preying on the often mentally ill who are oblivious to it - see A. Kickstarter to Amazon Prime bait-and-switch,
B. Making own game as if they are dumping WotC, selling it out, and then sticking with WotC for the money.

>>96497360 (OP)
I like that TTRPGs have gotten mainstream and so many new folks are into it. I've never watched the show. Watching other people play TTRPGs is just weird. It'd be like watching someone else watch a movie. I don't understand the appeal. But hey, good on them for turning my hobby into a business. Do what you love.

>>96500181
13 people is a damned big pool already, and if they will mix the groups up and/or have quests occasionally as well. With Brennan trying to enforce them needing to return to town often. It could work.

Mind you, that could is really pulling a lot of weight.

To everyone saying they had to use 5e because this campaign was planned way in advance and daggerheart was only finished months ago, could they not have planned the development to be used for the next campaign? It just reinforces once again that their own game isn't that big of a deal to themselves, and just another side project.

What were the complaints about the show?

>>96501453
>>96501570
Alright, thank you. A scripted show/parasocial thingy then.
>>96501642
>>96501797
If I agreed with you, we'd all be wrong

BLM seems very excited about it and his enthusiasm is contagious.

>>96501440
For all intents and purposes it's record of lodoss war if it had been made in the current year by a group of western liberal theater kid voice actors with modern day values

>>96511818
>For all intents and purposes it's record of lodoss war if it had been made in the current year by a group of western liberal theater kid voice actors with modern day values
Horrible comparison
This is nothing like lodoss war

I find it very funny still, that they are not using Daggerheart for their game. "5e works better for the story we're trying to tell," then what the fuck does Daggerheart work for?

>>96512840
It doesn't. Not really. That book has waaaaaaaay to small of an adversary section to run a full fledged campaign with and the adversary book isn't due out for about a year.

Daggerheart is pooched.

>>96512852
>the adversary book isn't due out for about a year.
You say that as if they would need to wait for an official copy of the book? Like they wouldn't have access to it? Or that they even need access to it. They're literally the ones making the system.

>>96507042
>A scripted show/parasocial thingy then
Yes. Heavy emphasis on scripted and parasocial. It's a TV show. They are not actually playing D&D, they're actors in a TV show in which they pretend to be playing D&D according to the script, with directors, writers, makeup, costume, set and production designers, producers, managers, lights and cameras.
It's like pro wrestling, but for dorks. Unlike pro wrestling, though, dorks are too autistic to realize that it is not fucking real.

>>96497360 (OP)
I'm not remotely interested, hope you all have fun though. I don't think it brings anything good to the hobby but it's popular enough that a lot of people enjoy it, and that's fine.

>>96501440
Well. 3.75 since PF1e is the superior version of 3.5...
>>96501797
Fuck you, dumbass.

>>96512934
>Well. 3.75 since PF1e is the superior version of 3.5...
This is what paizofags ACTUALLY believe.

>>96512926
Thanks. I think it'll put S3 to shame at the very least.

>>96497409
He's more on the comedy side, but overall I think he has more range than Matt by a lot.

>>96498317
I like Adventures in Lollygagging and in that case usually most of the table has a solid grasp on the rules and the rest is trying to catch up on the go. But they have a more realistic style, so they bring up rules or system questions because they're interested in the thing they're doing.

>>96500482
It's not modernize, it's teens not knowing shit and not listening to the people who were doing it before them. We already had a thread about CR that was mostly about how WM and sandbox are different play experiences and using the newer term for the older thing only helps gatekeep yourself from another way to play the game. All because you like one word more than another.

>>96501009
no, dm schedules is the thing that triggered the concept but it's not just that. It's the players managing their own individual schedules around that, creating their own narratives from physical elements and events that happened to them, and generally moving around uncharted uninhabitated land. The thing you're describing sounds fun tho, not saying it's better or wose.

I have a hard time seeing that work, CR doesn't really do one shot marathons. I don't believe they can solve anything in a single session.

>>96507007
>get hype now by the people into games
>let them run it for a year and see how much it grows by itself
>get second wave of hype when you use it yourself
I don't get why people are confused at the logical way to promote a product. You don't burn all your roads of advertizement on day one, that's what they did with candela obscura or whatever.

>>96507042
>A scripted show/parasocial thingy then
not really more scripted than any very rail roady campaign. They don't know the results of things, which means some drama on the tv show aspect of things but also means meandering and doublechecking stuff that doesn't matter because they can't leave the railroad.