Seconding share favorites. I want some good background noise while I grind.
Since I've been scouring YouTube for vampire content, I've found that I enjoy the Chicago By Night chronicle from Near Dark (Studios/Society), I listened to most of Chicago By Night from McStabber Studios, and then most of Sun-Kissed from The Wandering Inn. Currently on a re-listen of Near Dark's series, might try to find another, I've seen an Atlanta By Night in V5 but the first episode I believe had mic issues from the ST so I may give it another check to see if it persists beyond the first episode. Almost forgot to mention Leech/LAECE from Tablestory. Near Dark is a friend group, the rest are more "professionally-minded" in structure.
I watched a couple (though not CR, which I consider to be a shitty sitcom and not a playthrough).
I personally don't like them, but I totally understand why people like them; it's a cross between watching a sports game and a play.
I think that audio-only (or at least audio primarily) ones like talks about are better than the ones with videos, though. Most of them just show people sitting there talking, which detracts from "the theater of the mind", and also tends to emphasize ones with hot chicks.
i find that people play up the tv show aspect too much, or not enough. for example its either wacky yelling dancing around hahaha times. or its just your standard game which is obviously fine, i would play it with them, but i wouldn't watch it. also watching roll20 games or multiple facecam feeds is intermnable, they need to be in a room together.
A properly edited (not 4 fricking hours of uncut banter and bullshit) actual play by people who know what they're doing (decent audio quality, everyone knows how to use a pic properly), with a consistent group of players who aren't all wannabe e-celebs or some literally who twitch streamers can be okay.
Unfortunately, there's so much fricking garbage out there and nearly all of it will start a little rough, making it hard to judge if its worth sticking around. Or you may think the early episodes are good, only for the later episodes to go off the rails and become a bunch of homosexualry and bullshit... Like OneShot going from some okay, pretty funny games, years ago, to "guys we have to stop Trump!!! The Right-wing Death Squads are coming!!" without a hint of irony every frick episode.
I would have recommended Spout Lore, but later seasons they get really into this stupidly preachy setting where socialist dwarves live in an anti-capitalist utopia and go from the three main characters being good adventuring buddies to being borderline gay lovers/family in a way that never really stops.
Not the same guy, but Alfabusa's Hunter the Parenting has an actual play of mage called Norfolk Wizard Game. Right now it's four 1hr episodes focusing on awakenings. right now 3/4 are just in audio form but the first has an unlisted video with really nice (but some unfinished) visuals. Really high production value when it comes to music and the art for the video is pretty top notch.
you can find them over at the Alfabusa patreon which doesn't need any subscription at all. I'd highly recommend them.
When I was writing a research paper on PSX game design in 3D environment and tricks used to extend the capacity of the console, I just plugged in bunch of playthroughs, because in a single package I had the game itself, and people commenting on the thing. It worked best for Tomb Raider 1-3, because I found guys that as a commentary were discussing all the stuff they dig on the design themselves, making my job easier - and that was few years before the 20th anniversary slew of interviews made that knowledge common >b-but Critical Role
Did I stutter?
I would like to watch a playthrough of some classic adventures, like original Tomb of Horrors or the blue rulebook adventure or Search for the Unknown.
every playthrough i've ever tried to get into hasn't stuck. there's often moments that seem really cool followed by moments where it's just painful listening to the group argue about something the GM has already explained six times and they still can't figure out if they can see the front door from the top of the roof or whatever ... and after 15 minutes of that shit i ragequit.
also as someone already said the beginning of every Actual Play is usually two hours of super boring bullshit, jokes, fricking around, dry exposition about the setting, blah blah blah. i want to watch games where we start in the middle of a fight and roll on from there.
I cant fathom someone wasting 4 hours of their life watching a bad theater play with dice.
These people are playing ttrpgs in the most pastiche way possible, something that doesnt even resemble a game at all. Its a play, really, they roll dice just for verissimilitude.
And not only CR, of course, every actual play wants to be CR, so I don't dare to watch anything besides Delta DnD wargaming with book of war and a few cuts of OSR actual play for inspiration
I don't, because I never saw the appeal of watching actors pretend to play D&D instead of playing myself. This seems like a sad activity for nofrens, tb h.
I cant fathom someone wasting 4 hours of their life watching a bad theater play with dice.
These people are playing ttrpgs in the most pastiche way possible, something that doesnt even resemble a game at all. Its a play, really, they roll dice just for verissimilitude.
And not only CR, of course, every actual play wants to be CR, so I don't dare to watch anything besides Delta DnD wargaming with book of war and a few cuts of OSR actual play for inspiration
Well put. If I ever found out somebody I talked to watched one of these I wouldn't talk to them anymore. Creepy ass parasocial behavior.
I used to listen to them as background noise while working, but at some point they got super gay so I stopped
Silent0siris was my favourite guy, last video I watched he got attacked over presenting vikings as vicious killers of innocent peasants with one player having a nervous breakdown over the raiding party he went raiding with burning down a church full of people hiding from the raiders raiding their village
Based. The Vikings were massive c**ts and Its fricking ridiculous how white washed they have become in American media because their pantheon has been become mainstream.
I did watch the old Penny Arcade shows with Perkins and listened to the podcasts. The Robot Chicken series was actually what got me into 4e and RPGs in general, and it might be gay as frick to say but Chris Perkins was kind of my idol at that time. It wasn't so much that you were watching an improvisational TV show, it was watching some friends stumble around and have a rollicking good time diving through dungeons and bosses.
in contrast I also watched Thrilling Intent as well as their other bits like Tenra Bansho Zero and Goblins, the latter made me wheeze so hard I thought I'd tear my lungs. Their show is much more improvisational and it cuts out all the dice rolling, I guess sharing a sense of humour is important too. it's been so long that I don't remember the GM's name but he was someone I also looked up to because it felt like everyone was having fun.
I tried to give critical role a shot, I really tried and I just couldn't. I can't put my finger on what sauce the first two groups had that these guys didn't.
>I can't put my finger on what sauce the first two groups had that these guys didn't.
I think I nailed it at one point.
A lot of old TTRPG shows were people just playing the game. Sometimes things go wrong, and the DM has to reorganize, and make shit up, and improvise with bits of paper or pringle cans, because they're playing the game, and sometimes shit happens.
Critical Role in particular is kind of like the WWE. There's sort of this illusion that they're playing the game, but it wears through in a few places fairly regularly and anyone who has actually played the game realizes pretty quick that this is a scripted experience. It's entertainment for the audience rather than the players, and as a result, it's not really genuine. It doesn't feel like friends getting together and playing a game, it feels like a theater performance between actors who don't even hang out.
That's not necessarily a bad thing when they're out about it, but I take issue with CR trying to play itself off as people playing D&D.
I think you nailed it. I forgot to mention that I had checked out dimension 20, which while it feels like a story that has been written out, the GM is really good at making players feel meaningful instead of "cast members". It also might be down to them just plain being funnier. It also felt for at least some seasons that the series could go in wildly different directions if things would have gone slightly differently.
So I guess it's just a mix of what you said, comedic appeal and realistically believable stakes.
why are they so shit then
I would love to watch a good scripted story presented in the vein of a tabletop game.
Like darths and droids. Except not a parody.
Apologies. I don't think I worded that correctly. I think a difference is between a "GM" telling their players they need to hit these beats in this way, as opposed to something that at the very least feels like it can be influenced.
Though you could totally be right and it could all be scripted, both of them. But I guess if I had to choose one of the two I'd choose the more convincing feeling one.
It's hard to find something with real sincerity that isn't a game of completely new people. I think that's probably the most honest you can get, but it depends on your levels of tolerance I suppose
IMO I've seen the influence of Critical Roll do really shitty things to gameplay
Any DM who puts Mercer on a pedestal is probably a railroader who doesn't actually want to do something collaborative and just wants a couple friends to read their young adult fantasy novel. When you see the best players as actors instead of players and collaborators, you really lose the forest for the trees.
It's not even Matt Mercer effect, its the belief that the story matters more than playing a game with your friends, shit would've been ridiculous 10 years ago.
>DM who puts Mercer on a pedestal is probably a railroader
That’s wildly inaccurate. Mercer is famous for letting his players spit any and all plot hooks and just walk in circle and talk to each other in character for 4 hours at a time. The entire last third (about 40 sessions) of one of this campaigns was the players walking in snow and trying to avoid the plot.
>Mercer is famous for letting his players spit any and all plot hooks and just walk in circle.
NTA but thats only been a recent thing where the show clearly pivoted to being a parasocial money machine than pretending to be a D&D show. CR at its height of popularity was Campaign 1 and the first half of 2 with new GMs seeing the clearly scripted "OH EM GEE" moments and wanting to emulate that. My problem with Mercer is he isnt actually that good of a GM at all and only sets an expectation for the most shallow of reasons being that he is good with voices and he has to autisticly describe the scene for 5 minutes.
Seconding this guy [...]
You obviously know absolutely nothing about Critical Role. That's fine if you're whole point is that you tried it and thought it was stupid, but that's not what you said. You proceeded to say something not only wrong, but pretty wildly inaccurate about Mercer as fact.
I know you really want to fit in with everyone here, but how hard is it to criticize just what you know instead of blatantly lying about shit that you really obviously don't know. I mean there's a lot of people on here you do know, because it's a board about this specific type of shit, you know?
Dude, chill the frick out. Matt isnt going to invite you as a guest for campaign 4.
>Dude, chill the frick out. Matt isnt going to invite you as a guest for campaign 4
Predictable drivel. You got absolutely btfo for saying something moronic and desperately try and make some straw man. Just shut the frick up about shit you don’t know. How hard is that?
7 months ago
Anonymous
Did you miss the "NTA" part of my comment? My only other comment in this thread have been the spoony ones. Imagine seething this hard over critical role lmao!
>DM who puts Mercer on a pedestal is probably a railroader
That’s wildly inaccurate. Mercer is famous for letting his players spit any and all plot hooks and just walk in circle and talk to each other in character for 4 hours at a time. The entire last third (about 40 sessions) of one of this campaigns was the players walking in snow and trying to avoid the plot.
You obviously know absolutely nothing about Critical Role. That's fine if you're whole point is that you tried it and thought it was stupid, but that's not what you said. You proceeded to say something not only wrong, but pretty wildly inaccurate about Mercer as fact.
I know you really want to fit in with everyone here, but how hard is it to criticize just what you know instead of blatantly lying about shit that you really obviously don't know. I mean there's a lot of people on here you do know, because it's a board about this specific type of shit, you know?
the climax of this current season was literally him railroading the characters of this game into standing there helplessly watching the main characters of their first and second campaign interact with The Big Problem.
Hell, even expanding out a bit, this whole 3rd campaign is just one giant railroad of mercer wanting to destroy the pantheon of gods so it can be rewritten without ogl stuff.
I find “auditing” a gaming session boring as all frick. The games are interesting because the unexpected can happen, which is exciting as a player in the heat of the moment, but when you aren’t as invested it just comes across as a boring string of “and then”s.
What I do as a DM to help keep the players informed of what’s going on from week to week is that I retell the gaming session from memory as a coherent story, emphasizing the cool parts and omitting or skimming through the boring bits, and send it to them in an email. That’s the only way I can really be arsed to give a shit about another person’s game is if it can be told as an entertaining story.
This was the man who got me into running my own games and even though he is become a massive twitter schizo, i still miss spoony. For those of you remember channel awesome, he did a reasonably long running 4e campaign with a couple of the members and it was pretty fricking entertaining until Linkara joined 🙁
Yes i was shocked that a video with curtis from phantasmagoria came up on my youtube feed. I'm honestly just happy he is doing ok and i dont expect any actual content like his old stuff ever happening.
Spoony is what got me interested in playing tabletops to begin with. His Counter Monkey stories and videos were super cozy and interesting.
I feel really bad for him. He had the potential to be on top of the fricking world with hundreds of millions of subscribers and fans, but his self-destructive personality ruined any and all chances of that happening (and to say nothing about the moronic shit that went down with CA).
Glad to hear he's doing better, at least. Last I checked up on him he made mediocre YouTube streams and banned anyone who asked or even mentioned any of his older stuff.
If he could of kept his ego in check and kept going until the big 5e boom, he honestly could of pivoted to being a ttrpg content creator and been on it from the ground floor.
I tried watching some, but they all seem to be using 5e and that means that anything interesting happening inevitably grinds to a halt as the excruciatingly boring combat starts.
Every single recorded session I've seen starts promising with roleplay and then just turns to watching everyone be bored as they roll dice to kill some insipid, non-threatening enemy with zero interesting abilities in battlemaps that albeit are well drawn, they lack anything interesting or intractable. I've never even seen difficult terrain used.
Out of all the recs ITT, thrilling intent has been my favorite, thanks guys. so charming and funny. only thing that could make it better imo is if i could get to know the "IRL players" a bit and see their IRL banter but in terms of just the DND aspects it's 10/10
Haven't watched/listened to anything in a while, but for long drives my choices were TTRPG Theater for Kult sessions (earlier stuff, as soon as pronouns started appearing next to names never came back) and Me Myself and Die.
No idea how those are doing now, sort of lost interest in watching for reasons others pointed out already, but mostly bc at the time I didn't have time to play and missed it.
Anyone who thinks Critical Role is scripted hasn’t seen how off the rails or downright dull it can be at times, in a way that can’t be chalked up to a bad script. It feels like the show with unedited four-hour sessions where something actually happens at best half the time should be spared the accusations of scripting the most, so I think it really comes down to people assuming the worst of leftist actors in California. This is no defense of CR (I’m calling it boring), it’s just that people come at it for the wrong reasons.
Nobody is saying its completely scripted you dullard. But the "plot", major events, character background moments etc are all in the can and matt tells them "this is coming up" so they can ready there lovely pre-rehearsed monologues.
Lol no. I know you you’re the same day who got absolutely wrecked in /crg/. You used to post this all the fricking time but you got so fricking pussy every time people would destroy your arguments so you just stopped coming. Nothing has changed it seems.
Is the same kind of people who say reality tv is scripted. They just want to feel smart and think they are superior to the "sheep" without having to do any actual thinking; when in reality a huge appeal of reality tv for the networks is not having to pay writers. I mean reality tv IS fake, but not because is scripted, is a frankenstein's monster of different audios and clips edited to form a narrative.
Anyone who believe the homosexuals doing live play bother with scripts when the audience is perfectly happy consuming shitty improv, is giving them and the people who watch them too much credit. And when questioned they immediately backpedal with "obviously is not all scripted, just the main story beats" which, at best, really stretch the definition of a script, and more honestly is backpedaling so hard they describe something that is not even that rare in actual tables
Listened to the Funhaus ones back in the day (very funny after a while when they mostly drop trying to play properly) and then slowly worked my way through the Glass Cannon Podcast (I enjoyed the last half less than the first half but still liked it) over a few years. Putting an episode on every now and then on a long drive, sleepless night or doing a menial task. Might look for another podcast in a different game. Or just stick to audiobooks. Listening too the Hornblower series at the moment with a different book in between sometimes; Vampire Hunter D right now. End of blog.
Can anyone recommend a decent Twilight 2000 playthrough (any edition)? I've been interested in it for a while no. It would be nice to see some gameplay to help decide whether it's worth diving in and learning.
The only playthrough I managed to watch so far was Kali Ghati ran by Shane Ivy and played by Red Moon. I tried watching some CoC session by some other group but I had to stop after five minutes. There's no point of dressing like 1920s characters, sitting in a well-decorated room, having good sound quality... if every sentence the DM says or every action a player describes is followed by two minutes of giggeling by the group.
Not really. I'm not interested in recorded live-plays. What I will listen to are actual dramatic productions like Port Saga, for example. It's basically more on the audio drama side.
I've been told they inspire some annoying player attitudes, people who create drama because they want everything to be like their favorite playthrough series while derailing groups who just want to play the game. Anyone met someone like that, or is it just That Guy using media to validate being obnoxious?
The only thing rpg related I watch is a custom horror game/world by this streamer named ster. I find the world pretty interesting but it's hampered a lot by his players being streamers. Meaning it's a grab bag of them either being good or being a that guy to entertain their chat.
Need longform content to pass the time that isn't as dry as an audiobook while I work. Also I like hearing people having fun over cubicle droning.
I should have added this in the OP but do share your favorites or what you're currently watching!
Since I've been scouring YouTube for vampire content, I've found that I enjoy the Chicago By Night chronicle from Near Dark (Studios/Society), I listened to most of Chicago By Night from McStabber Studios, and then most of Sun-Kissed from The Wandering Inn. Currently on a re-listen of Near Dark's series, might try to find another, I've seen an Atlanta By Night in V5 but the first episode I believe had mic issues from the ST so I may give it another check to see if it persists beyond the first episode. Almost forgot to mention Leech/LAECE from Tablestory. Near Dark is a friend group, the rest are more "professionally-minded" in structure.
Seconding share favorites. I want some good background noise while I grind.
I watched a couple (though not CR, which I consider to be a shitty sitcom and not a playthrough).
I personally don't like them, but I totally understand why people like them; it's a cross between watching a sports game and a play.
I think that audio-only (or at least audio primarily) ones like talks about are better than the ones with videos, though. Most of them just show people sitting there talking, which detracts from "the theater of the mind", and also tends to emphasize ones with hot chicks.
i find that people play up the tv show aspect too much, or not enough. for example its either wacky yelling dancing around hahaha times. or its just your standard game which is obviously fine, i would play it with them, but i wouldn't watch it. also watching roll20 games or multiple facecam feeds is intermnable, they need to be in a room together.
i mispelled interminable. its so fricking over.
>also watching roll20 games or multiple facecam feeds is intermnable, they need to be in a room together.
I feel ya.
A properly edited (not 4 fricking hours of uncut banter and bullshit) actual play by people who know what they're doing (decent audio quality, everyone knows how to use a pic properly), with a consistent group of players who aren't all wannabe e-celebs or some literally who twitch streamers can be okay.
Unfortunately, there's so much fricking garbage out there and nearly all of it will start a little rough, making it hard to judge if its worth sticking around. Or you may think the early episodes are good, only for the later episodes to go off the rails and become a bunch of homosexualry and bullshit... Like OneShot going from some okay, pretty funny games, years ago, to "guys we have to stop Trump!!! The Right-wing Death Squads are coming!!" without a hint of irony every frick episode.
Any recs you have that follow those guidelines?
I would have recommended Spout Lore, but later seasons they get really into this stupidly preachy setting where socialist dwarves live in an anti-capitalist utopia and go from the three main characters being good adventuring buddies to being borderline gay lovers/family in a way that never really stops.
Not the same guy, but Alfabusa's Hunter the Parenting has an actual play of mage called Norfolk Wizard Game. Right now it's four 1hr episodes focusing on awakenings. right now 3/4 are just in audio form but the first has an unlisted video with really nice (but some unfinished) visuals. Really high production value when it comes to music and the art for the video is pretty top notch.
you can find them over at the Alfabusa patreon which doesn't need any subscription at all. I'd highly recommend them.
When I was writing a research paper on PSX game design in 3D environment and tricks used to extend the capacity of the console, I just plugged in bunch of playthroughs, because in a single package I had the game itself, and people commenting on the thing. It worked best for Tomb Raider 1-3, because I found guys that as a commentary were discussing all the stuff they dig on the design themselves, making my job easier - and that was few years before the 20th anniversary slew of interviews made that knowledge common
>b-but Critical Role
Did I stutter?
I would like to watch a playthrough of some classic adventures, like original Tomb of Horrors or the blue rulebook adventure or Search for the Unknown.
every playthrough i've ever tried to get into hasn't stuck. there's often moments that seem really cool followed by moments where it's just painful listening to the group argue about something the GM has already explained six times and they still can't figure out if they can see the front door from the top of the roof or whatever ... and after 15 minutes of that shit i ragequit.
also as someone already said the beginning of every Actual Play is usually two hours of super boring bullshit, jokes, fricking around, dry exposition about the setting, blah blah blah. i want to watch games where we start in the middle of a fight and roll on from there.
this sounds amazing. yes please
I really like acq Inc. Especially the old perkins-led ones. I find them very funny and in good spirited.
>Let's Plays for tabletops
'ate zoomers
simple as
I cant fathom someone wasting 4 hours of their life watching a bad theater play with dice.
These people are playing ttrpgs in the most pastiche way possible, something that doesnt even resemble a game at all. Its a play, really, they roll dice just for verissimilitude.
And not only CR, of course, every actual play wants to be CR, so I don't dare to watch anything besides Delta DnD wargaming with book of war and a few cuts of OSR actual play for inspiration
I don't, because I never saw the appeal of watching actors pretend to play D&D instead of playing myself. This seems like a sad activity for nofrens, tb h.
Well put. If I ever found out somebody I talked to watched one of these I wouldn't talk to them anymore. Creepy ass parasocial behavior.
I watch glass cannon do games my group arent interested in, or wont get a chance to play for a few while. (delta green and traveller mostly)
I find it a good way to scratch the itch a little and also get an idea of how different games play.
I used to listen to them as background noise while working, but at some point they got super gay so I stopped
Silent0siris was my favourite guy, last video I watched he got attacked over presenting vikings as vicious killers of innocent peasants with one player having a nervous breakdown over the raiding party he went raiding with burning down a church full of people hiding from the raiders raiding their village
Based. The Vikings were massive c**ts and Its fricking ridiculous how white washed they have become in American media because their pantheon has been become mainstream.
I did watch the old Penny Arcade shows with Perkins and listened to the podcasts. The Robot Chicken series was actually what got me into 4e and RPGs in general, and it might be gay as frick to say but Chris Perkins was kind of my idol at that time. It wasn't so much that you were watching an improvisational TV show, it was watching some friends stumble around and have a rollicking good time diving through dungeons and bosses.
in contrast I also watched Thrilling Intent as well as their other bits like Tenra Bansho Zero and Goblins, the latter made me wheeze so hard I thought I'd tear my lungs. Their show is much more improvisational and it cuts out all the dice rolling, I guess sharing a sense of humour is important too. it's been so long that I don't remember the GM's name but he was someone I also looked up to because it felt like everyone was having fun.
I tried to give critical role a shot, I really tried and I just couldn't. I can't put my finger on what sauce the first two groups had that these guys didn't.
>I can't put my finger on what sauce the first two groups had that these guys didn't.
I think I nailed it at one point.
A lot of old TTRPG shows were people just playing the game. Sometimes things go wrong, and the DM has to reorganize, and make shit up, and improvise with bits of paper or pringle cans, because they're playing the game, and sometimes shit happens.
Critical Role in particular is kind of like the WWE. There's sort of this illusion that they're playing the game, but it wears through in a few places fairly regularly and anyone who has actually played the game realizes pretty quick that this is a scripted experience. It's entertainment for the audience rather than the players, and as a result, it's not really genuine. It doesn't feel like friends getting together and playing a game, it feels like a theater performance between actors who don't even hang out.
That's not necessarily a bad thing when they're out about it, but I take issue with CR trying to play itself off as people playing D&D.
I think you nailed it. I forgot to mention that I had checked out dimension 20, which while it feels like a story that has been written out, the GM is really good at making players feel meaningful instead of "cast members". It also might be down to them just plain being funnier. It also felt for at least some seasons that the series could go in wildly different directions if things would have gone slightly differently.
So I guess it's just a mix of what you said, comedic appeal and realistically believable stakes.
>troonymension 20
>it feels like a story that has been written out
Because it is.
All of these 'watch real people play tabletop' are scripted slop for casuals and secondaries to consoom.
Good little drone.
why are they so shit then
I would love to watch a good scripted story presented in the vein of a tabletop game.
Like darths and droids. Except not a parody.
>Good little drone.
You're SUCH a rebel dude!
Fight the system of D&D podcasts! The working man WILL be free brah!
Apologies. I don't think I worded that correctly. I think a difference is between a "GM" telling their players they need to hit these beats in this way, as opposed to something that at the very least feels like it can be influenced.
Though you could totally be right and it could all be scripted, both of them. But I guess if I had to choose one of the two I'd choose the more convincing feeling one.
It's hard to find something with real sincerity that isn't a game of completely new people. I think that's probably the most honest you can get, but it depends on your levels of tolerance I suppose
IMO I've seen the influence of Critical Roll do really shitty things to gameplay
Any DM who puts Mercer on a pedestal is probably a railroader who doesn't actually want to do something collaborative and just wants a couple friends to read their young adult fantasy novel. When you see the best players as actors instead of players and collaborators, you really lose the forest for the trees.
It's not even Matt Mercer effect, its the belief that the story matters more than playing a game with your friends, shit would've been ridiculous 10 years ago.
>DM who puts Mercer on a pedestal is probably a railroader
That’s wildly inaccurate. Mercer is famous for letting his players spit any and all plot hooks and just walk in circle and talk to each other in character for 4 hours at a time. The entire last third (about 40 sessions) of one of this campaigns was the players walking in snow and trying to avoid the plot.
>Mercer is famous for letting his players spit any and all plot hooks and just walk in circle.
NTA but thats only been a recent thing where the show clearly pivoted to being a parasocial money machine than pretending to be a D&D show. CR at its height of popularity was Campaign 1 and the first half of 2 with new GMs seeing the clearly scripted "OH EM GEE" moments and wanting to emulate that. My problem with Mercer is he isnt actually that good of a GM at all and only sets an expectation for the most shallow of reasons being that he is good with voices and he has to autisticly describe the scene for 5 minutes.
Dude, chill the frick out. Matt isnt going to invite you as a guest for campaign 4.
>Dude, chill the frick out. Matt isnt going to invite you as a guest for campaign 4
Predictable drivel. You got absolutely btfo for saying something moronic and desperately try and make some straw man. Just shut the frick up about shit you don’t know. How hard is that?
Did you miss the "NTA" part of my comment? My only other comment in this thread have been the spoony ones. Imagine seething this hard over critical role lmao!
>NTA
>is actually that anon
Seconding this guy
You obviously know absolutely nothing about Critical Role. That's fine if you're whole point is that you tried it and thought it was stupid, but that's not what you said. You proceeded to say something not only wrong, but pretty wildly inaccurate about Mercer as fact.
I know you really want to fit in with everyone here, but how hard is it to criticize just what you know instead of blatantly lying about shit that you really obviously don't know. I mean there's a lot of people on here you do know, because it's a board about this specific type of shit, you know?
the climax of this current season was literally him railroading the characters of this game into standing there helplessly watching the main characters of their first and second campaign interact with The Big Problem.
Hell, even expanding out a bit, this whole 3rd campaign is just one giant railroad of mercer wanting to destroy the pantheon of gods so it can be rewritten without ogl stuff.
Once upon a time Chris Perkins wasnt terminally pozzed brained.
why would I waste my time watching other people play games? I'd rather just play them myself
I find “auditing” a gaming session boring as all frick. The games are interesting because the unexpected can happen, which is exciting as a player in the heat of the moment, but when you aren’t as invested it just comes across as a boring string of “and then”s.
What I do as a DM to help keep the players informed of what’s going on from week to week is that I retell the gaming session from memory as a coherent story, emphasizing the cool parts and omitting or skimming through the boring bits, and send it to them in an email. That’s the only way I can really be arsed to give a shit about another person’s game is if it can be told as an entertaining story.
This was the man who got me into running my own games and even though he is become a massive twitter schizo, i still miss spoony. For those of you remember channel awesome, he did a reasonably long running 4e campaign with a couple of the members and it was pretty fricking entertaining until Linkara joined 🙁
He's been recovering lately, and a lot of the response to his newer stuff is pretty positive.
I doubt we'll get any TTRPG stuff from him again, but it is what it is.
Yes i was shocked that a video with curtis from phantasmagoria came up on my youtube feed. I'm honestly just happy he is doing ok and i dont expect any actual content like his old stuff ever happening.
Spoony is what got me interested in playing tabletops to begin with. His Counter Monkey stories and videos were super cozy and interesting.
I feel really bad for him. He had the potential to be on top of the fricking world with hundreds of millions of subscribers and fans, but his self-destructive personality ruined any and all chances of that happening (and to say nothing about the moronic shit that went down with CA).
Glad to hear he's doing better, at least. Last I checked up on him he made mediocre YouTube streams and banned anyone who asked or even mentioned any of his older stuff.
If he could of kept his ego in check and kept going until the big 5e boom, he honestly could of pivoted to being a ttrpg content creator and been on it from the ground floor.
I tried watching some, but they all seem to be using 5e and that means that anything interesting happening inevitably grinds to a halt as the excruciatingly boring combat starts.
Every single recorded session I've seen starts promising with roleplay and then just turns to watching everyone be bored as they roll dice to kill some insipid, non-threatening enemy with zero interesting abilities in battlemaps that albeit are well drawn, they lack anything interesting or intractable. I've never even seen difficult terrain used.
Out of all the recs ITT, thrilling intent has been my favorite, thanks guys. so charming and funny. only thing that could make it better imo is if i could get to know the "IRL players" a bit and see their IRL banter but in terms of just the DND aspects it's 10/10
this show got too overtly gay, and it didn't help that my old dm would bring it up every fricking week to explain why I was playing wrong
Haven't watched/listened to anything in a while, but for long drives my choices were TTRPG Theater for Kult sessions (earlier stuff, as soon as pronouns started appearing next to names never came back) and Me Myself and Die.
No idea how those are doing now, sort of lost interest in watching for reasons others pointed out already, but mostly bc at the time I didn't have time to play and missed it.
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkLJOtAoZTQ_mb-UHCBvMI3PBihJkwIkK
I watch these guys.
I like the fact that they are actually playing together as a bunch of normal dudes.
I watch 3d6DTL on YouTube. They're actual people playing, not actors going off a script. Both the Dolmenwood and Arden Vul campaigns are excellent.
Anyone who thinks Critical Role is scripted hasn’t seen how off the rails or downright dull it can be at times, in a way that can’t be chalked up to a bad script. It feels like the show with unedited four-hour sessions where something actually happens at best half the time should be spared the accusations of scripting the most, so I think it really comes down to people assuming the worst of leftist actors in California. This is no defense of CR (I’m calling it boring), it’s just that people come at it for the wrong reasons.
Nobody is saying its completely scripted you dullard. But the "plot", major events, character background moments etc are all in the can and matt tells them "this is coming up" so they can ready there lovely pre-rehearsed monologues.
Lol no. I know you you’re the same day who got absolutely wrecked in /crg/. You used to post this all the fricking time but you got so fricking pussy every time people would destroy your arguments so you just stopped coming. Nothing has changed it seems.
Is the same kind of people who say reality tv is scripted. They just want to feel smart and think they are superior to the "sheep" without having to do any actual thinking; when in reality a huge appeal of reality tv for the networks is not having to pay writers. I mean reality tv IS fake, but not because is scripted, is a frankenstein's monster of different audios and clips edited to form a narrative.
Anyone who believe the homosexuals doing live play bother with scripts when the audience is perfectly happy consuming shitty improv, is giving them and the people who watch them too much credit. And when questioned they immediately backpedal with "obviously is not all scripted, just the main story beats" which, at best, really stretch the definition of a script, and more honestly is backpedaling so hard they describe something that is not even that rare in actual tables
Listened to the Funhaus ones back in the day (very funny after a while when they mostly drop trying to play properly) and then slowly worked my way through the Glass Cannon Podcast (I enjoyed the last half less than the first half but still liked it) over a few years. Putting an episode on every now and then on a long drive, sleepless night or doing a menial task. Might look for another podcast in a different game. Or just stick to audiobooks. Listening too the Hornblower series at the moment with a different book in between sometimes; Vampire Hunter D right now. End of blog.
I'm a Shadowrun junkie so I've only watched Crit Squad and Pink Fohawk
Surprisingly anon there are more than 2 people using this site.
Can anyone recommend a decent Twilight 2000 playthrough (any edition)? I've been interested in it for a while no. It would be nice to see some gameplay to help decide whether it's worth diving in and learning.
The only playthrough I managed to watch so far was Kali Ghati ran by Shane Ivy and played by Red Moon. I tried watching some CoC session by some other group but I had to stop after five minutes. There's no point of dressing like 1920s characters, sitting in a well-decorated room, having good sound quality... if every sentence the DM says or every action a player describes is followed by two minutes of giggeling by the group.
FROZEN FRONTIER
Not really. I'm not interested in recorded live-plays. What I will listen to are actual dramatic productions like Port Saga, for example. It's basically more on the audio drama side.
I've been told they inspire some annoying player attitudes, people who create drama because they want everything to be like their favorite playthrough series while derailing groups who just want to play the game. Anyone met someone like that, or is it just That Guy using media to validate being obnoxious?
The only thing rpg related I watch is a custom horror game/world by this streamer named ster. I find the world pretty interesting but it's hampered a lot by his players being streamers. Meaning it's a grab bag of them either being good or being a that guy to entertain their chat.