How do you want to do this?

September 1, 2016 3:22 AM

"Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons."

Why would you want to watch some other people playing D&D? "Critical Role is more than just people playing a tabletop RPG. It is an extremely immersive experience for anyone, not just people familiar with RPGs. It is ridiculously funny and brings many people to the edge of their seats every week." [source]

Want to watch? Start with this fan-made trailer. See if you enjoy D&D streams by watching none other than Vin Diesel [previously]. The Critters over at r/criticalrole have put together a Quick Catch Up guide (not-so-quick guides also included) if you'd like to know a little more about the magical world of Exandria. Or, you can just dive right in to the live stream on Geek and Sundry's twitch stream on Thursdays at 7pm Pacific Time!

The show has logged over 200 hours and 65(ish) episodes, dealing more than 25,000 points of damage and ending the hypothetical existences of 380 entities. Love these numbers? Crit Role Stats have your back.

posted by katrielalex (32 comments total)

I guess the first and most important question is: how does it stack up to the Adventure Zone?
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:16 AM on September 1, 2016 [10 favorites]

Even though I'm several decades removed from my RPG prime, It gives me incredible joy to see a project like this.

Or, to paraphrase the Stranger: "The Gamers abide. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' they're out there. The Gamers. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh. I sure hope they level up."
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:44 AM on September 1, 2016 [6 favorites]

Yay, this is great!

If you want more Actual Plays of D&D and other RPGs, I can recommend:

Roll20's official Youtube, featuring games like Apocalypse World, Burning Wheel, and others. Generally DMed by Adam Koebel. (To get a feel for how his games might be run, he runs his community as 'chaotic good' and insists on 'punching up, not down' and is explicitly "anti-sexism, anti-racism and anti-homophobia").

Friends at the Table (podcast), which plays with a lot of genres. DMed/hosted by Austin Walker (also a guest on Roll20 games). (Walker's code of conduct is probably pretty similar to Adam's, but with a more academic bent since, y'know, PhD student for most of this period.)

itmejp, hosted my JP and DMed, usually, by Neal Adams, Steven Lumpkin or Koebel. Lots of different systems. Can be less mature than the games at Roll20/Friends at the Table; casual shittiness is not unheard of.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 4:56 AM on September 1, 2016 [10 favorites]

Can anyone recommend an rpg let's play series which focuses a lot on dramatic/narrative/relationship driven stories?
posted by Erberus at 5:40 AM on September 1, 2016

One Shot does short sessions (1-3 episodes per game) and there are several that feature dramatic/relationship stories. For deep and symbolic, check out their Bluebeard's Bride sessions.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:09 AM on September 1, 2016 [4 favorites]

I like Acquisitions Incorporated, run by Chris Perkins of Wizards of the Coast, with players from Penny Arcade, Wil Wheaton (for a couple of years), Peter Rothfuss...

Many of the eps in the playlist are played in front of an audience at PAX events, and they're a lot of fun.

The playlist also includes the latest made-for-YouTube series that they just released (culminating with a finale on September 4 at PAX West (live on Twitch).
posted by sutt at 6:14 AM on September 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

I can definitely recommend Campaign, a Star Wars RPG Actual Play by the One Shot Podcast team. It's by a group of Chicago-based Improv artists and the quality is superb. It's using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire system (and Age of Rebellion, and Force and Destiny, but EotE came first) which is a hugely narrative system and they use that with great results.

The original One Shot podcast (still running) plays a different RPG each time (split over several releases - I recommend the Actual Cannibal Shia LaBoeuf episode in particular). After running a back-to-back comparison of the older D20-edition and the (then new) Edge of the Empire edition, they decided to create and run a long-term campaign continuing from those one-shots (They start at Episode 22 and run for 5-6 episodes), which are not required listening but do help flesh out some background. In addition to the main story, they have run a couple of "flashback" mini-arcs exploring the background of several characters before we meet them in-game, and they've issued a single episode (so far) of an "evil campaign", featuring a group of nemeses that the main characters have run into on several occasions in the main campaign.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 6:21 AM on September 1, 2016 [8 favorites]

I just started listening to Film Reroll , but so far it's been fun. A group of folks play a GURPS version of famous movies and, since they're gamers, things usually go off the rails. So far I've listened to Back to the Future II, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Labyrinth.
posted by haileris23 at 6:24 AM on September 1, 2016

Thanks flibertigibbet. I love me some Dungeon World so I'm excited to see the roll20 ones.
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:58 AM on September 1, 2016

From a previous post: HarmonQuest.
posted by Pendragon at 7:13 AM on September 1, 2016 [6 favorites]

I liked Wil Wheaton's Titansgrave which has Laura Bailey in common with Critical Role. Never got into Critical Role because there's just waay too much of it to catch up on.

Another one is Dice with Death DMed by Jordan Thomas (of Shalebridge Cradle/Bioshock/Irrational Games/2K) and featuring various game developers.
posted by juv3nal at 7:15 AM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

Seconding the Titansgrave, juv3nal. Also has pro-quality music and artwork, and is actively edited for an audience. Wil has experience in presenting play to an audience (via Tabletop) and it shows.
posted by Mogur at 7:26 AM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

There's an all girl campaign called Shield Maidens with pretty good RPing that just started up.

I think most of the girls are new to the game, but they seem to be picking it up pretty quickly.
posted by Deeleybopper at 7:51 AM on September 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

. Never got into Critical Role because there's just waay too much of it to catch up on.


Yeah, I'm a completionist with these things - I'm thinking about starting up a 5e campaign and thought it would be good to check out some of the let's plays/podcasts to help get a handle on things. Critical Role is good, but I think I only got through two episodes and then realized how many hours of it I had ahead of me; because it is all YouTube videos I find it harder to access than a podcast.

Been enjoying the heck out of the Adventure Zone lately though; it's more humorous than serious RP, so know that going in, but I don't mind laughing on the commutes to and from work. Looking forward to checking out some of the other recommendations in this thread.
posted by nubs at 7:58 AM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

I also haven't checked out Critical Role (yet?) because of the sheer amount of it. It looks like a lot of fun though. I have been listening to a bit of Friends at the Table and did watch Titansgrave. Time is always an issue though as I don't really have a commute and can't concentrate on my job while listening and understanding to other people talk.

I can't help but wonder if the amount of volunteer labour that goes into making stuff like this successful is tenable. I can't speak to Critical Role specifically (again, I haven't really looked at it), but a lot of this in my experience is supported heavily by volunteer moderators, artists, curators, etc.
posted by ODiV at 8:16 AM on September 1, 2016

I can't help but wonder if the amount of volunteer labour that goes into making stuff like this successful is tenable. I can't speak to Critical Role specifically (again, I haven't really looked at it), but a lot of this in my experience is supported heavily by volunteer moderators, artists, curators, etc.

Critical Role is part of Geek & Sundry, I think - at least the parts of it I watched were. So there appears to be a team behind it as far as production goes, though it's still a commercial venture trying to gain funding via Twitch, etc. As with anything creative on the web, it does appear to be difficult to fund fully - I have no idea how the talent is compensated, and so forth. Part of me loves the fact that the internet allows for this kind of stuff to happen; part of me wonders how you do it without viewing it as a passion project that you do while you work a regular job.
posted by nubs at 8:22 AM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

My wife regularly watches Critical Role, so I often get to listen to it on Thursday nights when it's live. It's really a lot of fun - the players and DM are totally into their thing, and they're big nerds.
posted by rmd1023 at 8:32 AM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

The full episodes of Harmon Quest are on YouTube now. I was laughing out loud last night for a couple of hours.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:40 AM on September 1, 2016

Our previous Harmonquest thread is great, because it descends into complaints about how a character in a chainmail bikini means that the series can't be shared with a Girl Scout troupe.

For perspective, we're talking about a series where Dan Harmon's character gets tricked into giving a handjob (and 70 gold pieces!) to a kobold, a goblin yells, "Fuck these books!" while urinating on a library, and there's a hobbit named "Dildo Bogroll". It's entirely possible that putting the barbarian in reasonable armor was never going to be sufficient to make it Girl Scout-appropriate.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 10:04 AM on September 1, 2016 [5 favorites]

If you like this sort of thing, I'd also heartily recommend the Critical Hit Podcast. It's up to episode 364 or so, going since 2009 with mostly the same group and mostly the same characters, and scads and scads of really well done and occasionally hysterical content.
posted by Aversion Therapy at 10:19 AM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is the thread I've been waiting for since my girlfriend and I binged Harmon Quest.

So, I realize no table top RPG gets by without some hilarity, but which of these are specifically meant to be funny?
posted by cmoj at 10:47 AM on September 1, 2016

I love the part on Harmond Quest when someone says:

"When I've played, the players rolled their own dice".

Dan asks Spencer: "Is that how you play"

Spencer: "That's how everyone plays"

(or words to that effect)
posted by humboldt32 at 11:33 AM on September 1, 2016

Although it's in the tagline at the top, I feel too little notice has been given to the fact that Critical Role are all excellent voice actors. If you play video games with much recorded dialogue, or watch much US animated superhero stuff, you've heard these voices before. And they use their acting skills to really make Critical Role much more immersive than your average D&D campaign.

The players commit to deep emotional situations and roleplay them thoroughly. The DM does a million distinctive voices for recurring and one-time NPCs (and occasionally for an absent PC), plus vocal sound effects that liven up combat and an excellent library of playlists of atmospheric music that he's carefully gotten permission to use on the stream. Not to mention he occasionally spends a ridiculous amount of time turning toothpicks into barricades for miniatures to deal with during combat. ;-) They're geeks and they bring their genre love *and* all their skills to the game, and they share their fun with us. It's a delight.

Geek & Sundry makes whatever financial arrangements it does with the show hosts/talent. (I imagine they get paid an hourly something but not a high rate.) Critical Role has asked its fans who want to pay more than just the subscription to the G&S Twitch channel to donate to various charities. This has resulted in heartwarming donation levels. (I don't know if that has kept up at the same rate since they stopped acknowledging donors at the end of each session--time constraints prevented!)

There's quite a feeling of community in the Twitch chat and I'm totally hooked.

Is it Thursday yet?

(Yes, yes it is! Yay!!! But Matt and Marisha are off at Burning Man so Liam, normally one of the players, will be running a one-shot. His last one was heaps of fun, so it might be a great time to jump in and see how you like some of the personalities.)
posted by clauclauclaudia at 1:04 PM on September 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

I just watched the Wil Weaton's Tabletop 2 part episode of the game Fiasco! and it is probably one of the best tragedy/story on the fly games I have ever seen. It helps that there were some legit RPers, actors, and a Writer playing it - but damn - it was tragically awesome.
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:42 PM on September 1, 2016

Yeah, I would love to find a group willing to try Fiasco! It looks like a blast.
posted by nubs at 3:09 PM on September 1, 2016

Excited to try these! While we are making recommendations, anyone know of a series that includes players who are women, queer, or people of color? I'm a hardcore RPG and podcast nerd, but all the shows I've been able to find seem to feature white guys who are way too comfortable cracking homophobic jokes.
posted by lieber hair at 8:50 PM on September 1, 2016 [1 favorite]

(Self Plug) I host RPPR Actual Play and we have a rotating cast that includes gay players (David and RJ) and several women and we make a point to avoid homophobic/sexist jokes. We have a list of best one shots here and a list of our completed campaigns here.
posted by clockworkjoe at 11:02 PM on September 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

Roll20's official Youtube, featuring games like Apocalypse World, Burning Wheel, and others. Generally DMed by Adam Koebel. (To get a feel for how his games might be run, he runs his community as 'chaotic good' and insists on 'punching up, not down' and is explicitly "anti-sexism, anti-racism and anti-homophobia").
posted by flibbertigibbet

I'm really enjoying getting stuck into the Apocalypse World campaign. Thanks for the link.
posted by Erberus at 3:27 AM on September 2, 2016

lieber hair Geek & Sundry promotes a *very* queer/female-friendly chat room and Critical Role in particular has no people of color in the main cast, but several women (two constantly, one party member skyping in when she can between shooting Blindspot on the East Coast, regular guest players), and very queer-friendly roleplay. Liam's character is effectively bi (with a long-standing flirtation with a male NPC Matt portrays) and they all claimed (falsely) to be poly for Reasons a few episodes ago. The one-shot last night featured a female-female relationship. I am certain they would never tolerate *players* being openly homophobic, though characters they roleplay could conceivably be. They recently portrayed another culture's racism (a division between Dragonborn with and without tails) as a destructive force. They're progressive folk who may not get things 100% right (I don't know mistakes they've made but I'm not alert to everything) but are attempting to do it right.

In particular I can't speak to how PoC experience the channel or the show. There are PoC hosts of other Geek & Sundry shows and certainly open racism would not be permitted.
posted by clauclauclaudia at 8:21 AM on September 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Critical Role is worth going through from the beginning. When it was first referenced here (either the D&Diesel post or something else), I loaded up the episodes from Geek & Sundry and had them running in a background window at work. Each episode runs several hours, but I found it a worthy time investment and have now caught up to current events.

You don't really need to see everything since much of D&D is performed in the Theatre of the Mind. Admittedly, you do miss out on any unspoken facial expressions and the miniatures they'll bring out during combat, but if you're mostly interested in Critical Role's history, the development of each character, and the wonderful personalities the players bring to the table, you won't be sorry. The DM has such a rich and immersive world and really knows how to manage both the game and the players themselves.

I am unable to watch/listen to the live-stream on Thursdays, so I wait until Geek & Sundry posts the episode on the Critical Role page the following Monday. I look forward to each one and I find them to be extremely enjoyable.

There is a caveat for any D&D player that feels the rules cannot be broken, and for any player that's a min-maxer; it's their game. Matt Mercer likes to keep the pace going and will make his own interpretation or just ignore some rules if it means the story can progress, or if the scene would be so much cooler that way. And the players are primarily interested in story, too, so you can't expect them to build their characters and pick their spells with maximum damage-per-second calculations.
posted by CancerMan at 10:50 AM on September 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

There is a caveat for any D&D player that feels the rules cannot be broken, and for any player that's a min-maxer; it's their game. Matt Mercer likes to keep the pace going and will make his own interpretation or just ignore some rules if it means the story can progress, or if the scene would be so much cooler that way. And the players are primarily interested in story, too, so you can't expect them to build their characters and pick their spells with maximum damage-per-second calculations.

This is one of the things about Critical Role and a couple of the other games I've sampled in podcasts/let's plays that I really like - there seems to be a much better understanding of/acceptance of the fact that there are different styles and ways of play and that it is ok to not min/max or adhere to every rule if it means getting in the way of the fun and the story. I played with too many rules lawyers over the years I guess and I'm glad to see a bit more free form stuff happening. D&D is about the shared experience.
posted by nubs at 12:57 PM on September 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

Excited to try these! While we are making recommendations, anyone know of a series that includes players who are women, queer, or people of color? I'm a hardcore RPG and podcast nerd, but all the shows I've been able to find seem to feature white guys who are way too comfortable cracking homophobic jokes.

Adam Koebel is queer. All of his Roll20 games include at least one woman (I get the feeling he outright refuses to run an all-dude campaign), and his Apocalypse World (until said PoC got a new job across the continent and had to quit) and Burning Wheel campaigns included at least one PoC. I can't remember if any other shows of his include PoC since, to be frank, AW and BW are my favourites.

And then Friends at the Table (podcast) is hosted by Austin Walker, a black man (who also appears in the Apocalypse World and Burning Wheel campaigns). The cast includes women. Walker's a very leftist progressive .

Speaking of, for those who want narrative/dramatic/interpersonal conflict games, AW and BW both fit. They both get pretty dark, as a warning, but in a way that is organic to what the players want (as opposed to Koebel forcing grimdarkery onto them).
posted by flibbertigibbet at 2:37 AM on September 3, 2016 [1 favorite]