I really liked critial role.  I thought it was very d&d ish.  Not veey sandboxy and the PCs did as they were told and didn't make waves.  Actually I was frustrated by their lack of iniative quite often, but I needed somthing to listen to for hours at a time and it did the trick.

Beside Harmonquest, the most semi-watchable game of D&D I've seen is the Force Grey series that the guy from Critical Role DM'ed. The one-shot with Vin Diesel and Mercer was also fun.

Scooby-Doo at Innsmouth sounds pretty funny. I only hope they unmask Cthulhu at the end and discover he's really just the groundskeeper.

Quote from: Baulderstone;961773Harmonquest is probably the best of those shows for entertainment purposes, and the roleplaying segments on Harmontown can be a lot of fun. I just don't know if they really are going to give Ashakyre much that would improve his GMing though.

You're probably right, though it having a good time with it is the goal, the Harmonquest feel is certainly one way to do it. While not **exactly** the exemplar of a typical RPG session (since it's not really open-ended), the idea of "rolling with it" when it comes to interplay and such is on full display (I wish all my players were as good at character improv as those guys--then again, I might not get a word in edge-wise).:-)

I think it's weird there's endless threads on the internet about RPG's yet a shortage of RPGers actually doing it on YouTube, when the medium has practically everything else you can imagine. It's telling, actually, that no one can look at an actual example of the thing we do and say "this is an example of it done well." That's really strange.

Edit: It's not a criticism of anyone here. It just seems to indicate something about the hobby. Exactly what, I can only guess.

Quote from: cranebump;961880You're probably right, though it having a good time with it is the goal, the Harmonquest feel is certainly one way to do it. While not **exactly** the exemplar of a typical RPG session (since it's not really open-ended), the idea of "rolling with it" when it comes to interplay and such is on full display (I wish all my players were as good at character improv as those guys--then again, I might not get a word in edge-wise).:-)

Sure. I am not saying there is anything innately wrong with their approach. I'd certainly like to sit in on a game with them. It's more a matter of whether it is a good show to watch to learn how to be a good GM, and I feel like it isn't. Spencer does a great job for purposes of the show. He needs to keep the game on tight rails to deal with the extreme shortness of the sessions, and as a counterbalance to the wackiness of the players. What he is doing works.

I just think a lot of it would fall flat if you tried to use the same style with a group that wasn't as innately entertaining and if you stretched out the session over a couple of hours. On the other hand, Spencer is pretty damn quick on his feet. While his overall style isn't appropriate for the average group, I think an experienced GM could get something out of watching him. You just need to be conscious of what to emulate and what not to emulate from his style.

Quote from: CRKrueger;961792I wonder if Lorraine Williams paid herself to be "Executive Producer".
If I knew Dragonstrike was filled with plastic minis from Ral Partha sculpts, I probably would have bought it.

Oh dude the game itself is awesome. Also after re-watching that, maybe it's not so much an example of "what not to do". It's become notorious for being the "how to not run a game" guide, but I mean, look at the evidence; these are neophyte roleplayers, all doing it for the first time. Everybody gets to do something cool, everybody is super into the game, and everybody has a blast. That GM might be a ham but man, he sells it.

To contrast what SHOULD be done with WHAT HAPPENS, you can always check out the ACKS lets-play in my sig. There's a day's worth of watching, maybe 10% is actually entertaining. But it's just us setting up the webcam and playing the thing.

Quote from: Ashakyre;961884I think it's weird there's endless threads on the internet about RPG's yet a shortage of RPGers actually doing it on YouTube, when the medium has practically everything else you can imagine. It's telling, actually, that no one can look at an actual example of the thing we do and say "this is an example of it done well." That's really strange.

Edit: It's not a criticism of anyone here. It just seems to indicate something about the hobby. Exactly what, I can only guess.

Maybe it is unrealistic expectations?

I expect there is some belief that games are, if not story enactments then, commercial products being created In Real Time.
Not only would there need to be someone of exceptional quality running/playing the game but they would need to be able to "correctly" capture it on video.
I'm sure movie studios are happy this isn't the case, as it would cut into their business.
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Quote from: Greentongue;962083Maybe it is unrealistic expectations?

I expect there is some belief that games are, if not story enactments then, commercial products being created In Real Time.
Not only would there need to be someone of exceptional quality running/playing the game but they would need to be able to "correctly" capture it on video.
I'm sure movie studios are happy this isn't the case, as it would cut into their business.
=

Fascinating discussion. I've done video production professionally, and it's a whole lot of work to set up and light a shoot - and for a game session, then mike everything so you can hear what's going on. When I did the videos of a game that are up on my YouTube channel, I did it as a single camera (Sony Bloggie hand-held) and just recorded things as they happened. Getting good video out of a game session requires, I suspect, having a fully-separate production crew; I can wire my game room for both video and sound, and then have the crew on the other side of the basement in the 'control room'. Multi-camera shoot, multiple mics, but doable with enough set-up time. Getting a crew would be the hard part, though; you'd want somebody with the technical skills and some interest in the subject to get the most out of the shoot...

For livestreaming Twitch still blows away Youtube it seems.

I prefer stuff with some post-production like Force Grey and Harmonquest, at the very least for the editing out of dead time typical in real time play. Never been able to get into Critical Role but it does seem to be the consensus favourtite. Of course that means that there are loads of Mercer haters out there but whenever I've seen him in interviews he seems pretty humble and to have reasonable, good DM tips.

Quote from: Ashakyre;961702I want to improve my GMing. I'm looking at YouTube videos of gaming sessions and I'm having a hard time finding good examples.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcZh9pnxjeo has none of that non-game crap you see players doing in most game sessions.

Quote from: Ashakyre;961884I think it's weird there's endless threads on the internet about RPG's yet a shortage of RPGers actually doing it on YouTube, when the medium has practically everything else you can imagine. It's telling, actually, that no one can look at an actual example of the thing we do and say "this is an example of it done well." That's really strange.

Edit: It's not a criticism of anyone here. It just seems to indicate something about the hobby. Exactly what, I can only guess.

Not many people have the know-how to do video conferencing. And they certainly don't want to be on camera for "the whole world" to see anyway.

Most crap role-players are crap simply because that's how they see other crap players role-play. And you know this. There are a lot of crap players and crap sessions out there. Few players ever look to improve their gaming.

There are load and loads of liveplays as podcasts. I haven't listened to many as I don't care for liveplays but some of the more successful are The Adventure Zone (lots of comedy) and One Shot.

I don't see the point to any of this shit. If it's made-for-video in the sense that it's being either edited or scripted to actually not bore the fuck out of the viewer, it's not authentic. If it's authentic, it would likely be boring as fuck.

I just don't think that watching other people roleplay is either very interesting or very productive. I mean, my DCC game is fucking hilarious and probably the most exciting sessions of anything I've run other than one or two of my Amber campaigns, but even then if it was filmed I think it would make for long and mostly mediocre viewing.

I do think it is interesting that I would have said formerly that watching a session is boring, you have to participate in the play to enjoy it. It says something interesting about role-playing and what it is.

But with the growth of live-plays it seems that there are people who do enjoy watching others play. It is as mysterious to me as those who watch others play video games.

Quote from: Azraele;961790I can give you an example of exactly what to not do

Am I a bad person for wanting to remix it with this?