Quote from: jeff37923 on February 16, 2022, 08:16:29 AM

Quote from: jhkim on February 15, 2022, 11:14:03 PM

We still have a liberal and conservative side, where each likes to pretend that it's only the other that is authoritarian.

Intellectual dishonesty from jhkim? This is jeff37923's complete lack of surprise.

I feel like we need more specific variants of Jeff's complete lack of surprised. Like Eskimo words for snow. 

Maybe it's just my own long experience playing TTRPGs but I find a lot of them harder to watch precisely because I can tell how scripted they are. It reaches a point where I wonder why they don't just lose the dice and table to film a LARP session.

The Vampire the Masquerade series LA by Night was what made this click for me. Watching the first session and seeing it evolve it was clear that at first they really were running an RPG session. Things happened that clearly weren't scripted, due to the dice having an unexpected result or the players deciding to do something the GM didn't anticipate. And that was actually fun to watch.

Then it just became clear that at one point they'd decided the story was all-important and begun just having lengthy IC conversations with no dice rolling... And it started to feel like actual torture to watch it.

I think the turning point was when one player managed to get an insanely high dice roll that killed an important NPC off. That was when random chance was removed from the equation. And it was when the fun left the room because what I was watching for was how the players reacted to the random insanity that was happening to them. You know, like an actual TTRPG session.

Nine pages of discussing Kotaku cancelling critical role. Do I have to be the first to pose the question: who gives a fuck (about either of them)?  Worthless Internet company. Stupid attention-whore "look at meeee!" wannabe actors.  They can all get fucked.

Quote from: 3catcircus on February 19, 2022, 11:59:22 AM
Nine pages of discussing Kotaku cancelling critical role. Do I have to be the first to pose the question: who gives a fuck (about either of them)?  Worthless Internet company. Stupid attention-whore "look at meeee!" wannabe actors.  They can all get fucked.

Why discuss anything on here then? Why talk about the topic or anything RPG related at all? 

Because We Can

Quote from: 3catcircus on February 19, 2022, 11:59:22 AM
Nine pages of discussing Kotaku cancelling critical role. Do I have to be the first to pose the question: who gives a fuck (about either of them)?  Worthless Internet company. Stupid attention-whore "look at meeee!" wannabe actors.  They can all get fucked.

  I apologize for the  kids  who lingered on your lawn.

Quote from: oggsmash on February 19, 2022, 12:12:13 PM

Quote from: 3catcircus on February 19, 2022, 11:59:22 AM
Nine pages of discussing Kotaku cancelling critical role. Do I have to be the first to pose the question: who gives a fuck (about either of them)?  Worthless Internet company. Stupid attention-whore "look at meeee!" wannabe actors.  They can all get fucked.

  I apologize for the  kids  who lingered on your lawn.

I would say linger is too strong a word.  I turn on the sprinklers and the little bastards scatter like roaches when you turn the lights on...

Quote from: 3catcircus on February 19, 2022, 12:17:39 PM

Quote from: oggsmash on February 19, 2022, 12:12:13 PM

Quote from: 3catcircus on February 19, 2022, 11:59:22 AM
Nine pages of discussing Kotaku cancelling critical role. Do I have to be the first to pose the question: who gives a fuck (about either of them)?  Worthless Internet company. Stupid attention-whore "look at meeee!" wannabe actors.  They can all get fucked.

  I apologize for the  kids  who lingered on your lawn.

I would say linger is too strong a word.  I turn on the sprinklers and the little bastards scatter like roaches when you turn the lights on...

  Get the garand out.  It worked for Clint with preventing a return.

Quote from: Fighterboy on February 09, 2022, 05:37:58 PM
Deleted - drunkposting is bad

"That's no excuse, but we've all done it..." 

Points if you can quote the movie I lifted that line from...

Quote from: jeff37923 on February 17, 2022, 04:18:56 PM

Quote from: Jaeger on February 17, 2022, 03:29:22 PM

Quote from: FingerRod on February 17, 2022, 07:59:49 AM
...
100% agree. I guess my question is, are the players told what has been plotted out for them? Complying with a rails campaign is lame, but a player showing up, even to improve, and act out a plot is theater.

I have limited experience with CR's first campaign, but there were enough twists and turns to suggest a rails campaign, but I never got the impression that they were playing from notes or anything on what would unfold. I do believe players were encouraged to construct some scenes to fit their backstory, and knew they would be added in. So maybe that is my evidence.
...

I guess this would go under: "Define told"


For Kicks I listened to part of an episode where Mercer actually let a PC die... I skipped to the last part and even then I heard some interesting stuff when I just wanted to see their reaction when the PC bought it...
------------
But it is a very Artificial, curated, and staged railroad 'game' that tells the 'story' that Mercer sets out to tell...


If some nobody described such a campaign on rails as their home game, they would be told that their group is doing D&D wrong.

And not just by Pundit.

Jaeger decribes this far better in detail than I could. If you want my sound bite of it, Critical Role is the Reality TV Show about Playing DnD.

I am not sure they are using "AP" as termed here.
This may just be a well prepared DM possibly running a module or campaign module, or equivalent. That does not make it an "AP" despite what some here love to claim.

As noted above. They may just know eachother well after so long. I tend to have a good idea what my local group will do after a while DMing for them and can prep a few contingiencies so Im not having to pull out the MM if they do something oddball. Usually just things like noting some monster stats local to the areas and so on on an index card.

Buuuut...

Odds are high that they prep things in some manner. Just what manner is anyones guess. They give sort of mixed signals. And its also possible that to keep ratings they have moved to either some scripting, or maybe just a little pre-game discussion. But its also possible that they dont need to and are just good at on the fly play.

Quote from: FingerRod on February 18, 2022, 07:40:57 AM

I have watched a couple of live plays on YouTube or whatever, and most of them are cringy or boring. From what I saw, CR was interesting. But that makes sense. Reality TV is also meant to be presented in a way that entertains first and foremost.

Yeah, that is a really good characterization.

Most players arent quite up to the same levels as these folk and some are just hamming it up for the camera because they saw CR doing it and think thats how its supposed to be. Not called the Mercer Effect for nothing.

As for why watch these plays. Same as reading adventure logs became popular in Japan. For some its just as fun to watch, or read, as it is to play.

For others its deadly boring. Or something in between.

Its like watching some of the Youtibe vids where the DM or player is describing what happened to them on an adventure. Getting to see or hear others adventures described. Or in CR's case. Being played out.

Heck, I've even collected a couple useful ideas from CR to incorporate into my own GMing (okay, minor stuff, but still).

Absorb what is useful; discard what is not.

But nobody should be taking Kotaku seriously. I mean, come on. You'd get better analysis from a half-dozen posters here when we're drunk.

Quote from: Mistwell on February 18, 2022, 05:10:00 PM

Quote from: jeff37923 on February 16, 2022, 08:16:29 AM

Quote from: jhkim on February 15, 2022, 11:14:03 PM

We still have a liberal and conservative side, where each likes to pretend that it's only the other that is authoritarian.

Intellectual dishonesty from jhkim? This is jeff37923's complete lack of surprise.

I feel like we need more specific variants of Jeff's complete lack of surprised. Like Eskimo words for snow.

Mistwell white knighting in defense of a fellow travelers absurd social Marxist whataboutism? This is jeff37923's wry acceptance of a once relevant poster's fall from grace. Does ENworld know that its Champion has taken The Great Dirt Nap?

Quote from: 3catcircus on February 19, 2022, 11:59:22 AM
Nine pages of discussing Kotaku cancelling critical role. Do I have to be the first to pose the question: who gives a fuck (about either of them)?  Worthless Internet company. Stupid attention-whore "look at meeee!" wannabe actors.  They can all get fucked.

LOL how are they "stupid attention-whore "look at meee!" wannabe actors"? They're ACTUAL FUCKING WORKING ACTORS. And by "working" I don't mean Critical Role I mean they are all actual working actors who were working successful (mostly voice-over) before Critical Role was streaming. And how is an actor doing their profession "attention-whore "lool at meee!" when THAT'S THE ENTIRE FUCKING JOB. Jesus, what they hell happened to you 3cat, you never used to be this stupid.

Quote from: jeff37923 on February 21, 2022, 08:53:26 AM

Quote from: Mistwell on February 18, 2022, 05:10:00 PM

Quote from: jeff37923 on February 16, 2022, 08:16:29 AM

Quote from: jhkim on February 15, 2022, 11:14:03 PM

We still have a liberal and conservative side, where each likes to pretend that it's only the other that is authoritarian.

Intellectual dishonesty from jhkim? This is jeff37923's complete lack of surprise.

I feel like we need more specific variants of Jeff's complete lack of surprised. Like Eskimo words for snow.

Mistwell white knighting in defense of a fellow travelers absurd social Marxist whataboutism? This is jeff37923's wry acceptance of a once relevant poster's fall from grace. Does ENworld know that its Champion has taken The Great Dirt Nap?

Wow you did not take that perfectly good hearted joke well Jeff.

Quote from: Mistwell on February 21, 2022, 04:01:45 PM

Quote from: 3catcircus on February 19, 2022, 11:59:22 AM
Nine pages of discussing Kotaku cancelling critical role. Do I have to be the first to pose the question: who gives a fuck (about either of them)?  Worthless Internet company. Stupid attention-whore "look at meeee!" wannabe actors.  They can all get fucked.

LOL how are they "stupid attention-whore "look at meee!" wannabe actors"? They're ACTUAL FUCKING WORKING ACTORS. And by "working" I don't mean Critical Role I mean they are all actual working actors who were working successful (mostly voice-over) before Critical Role was streaming. And how is an actor doing their profession "attention-whore "lool at meee!" when THAT'S THE ENTIRE FUCKING JOB. Jesus, what they hell happened to you 3cat, you never used to be this stupid.

By definition, an actor's job IS being an attention whore. How is it that you don't get it?