In last week’s Wandering DMs I mentioned the Mercer Effect. I think one of the biggest problems with it is the notion that Critical Role is some kind of gospel on the “right way” to play D&D, a sentiment even Mercer himself has rejected. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy Critical Role, but some times there are moments when I groan and think to myself, “I wouldn’t have done it like that.”
This morning I was listening to an episode where the party was investigating a location used to store goods by smugglers (they were working behalf of the smugglers). There they found it had been invaded by evil humanoids, which the party promptly killed. They then sifted through the room and found a big pile of holy symbols, and began conjecturing on what exactly was going on here. Were the smugglers smuggling holy symbols? Did the evil humanoids attack because of this?
It seems they were going down some very wrong alleys so Mercer turned to one of the players and said “make an Intelligence check.” After the roll, which presumably was a success, Mercer described “You think the monsters were probably gathering what they wanted of the contraband here in this location. Like they were looking for something specific but couldn’t quite locate it.”
I have a lot of problems with this. To start, what was the target of that roll? What would Mercer have done if the player rolled a 1? It seems to me like he really wanted to give that info to the players, in which case, why bother with rolling at all?
My biggest problem though is why introduce this information at all, even if it is accurate? Why is it so important that the players have this information? It’s great that the monsters were up to something — I generally always know what my bad guys are up to before the players arrive. However, I never presume that it’s vital to the game for the players to figure it out. This is backstory, what my old creative writing professor called “scaffolding”. It’s the stuff you write to get to the stuff you want your readers to read. It’s only important to you for your process, and should be discarded when the work is complete.
The players have plenty of ways to find this information out. If they really cared, the could have used a Speak with Dead spell to interrogate one of the monsters. They could go back to the smugglers and question them about what was going on before the monsters invaded. They could do countless other things. The fact that they chose not to means it’s not important. The story of the game is what the players choose to pursue, it’s not the events that happened before you started playing. Sherlock Holmes stories are not about how clever murderers kill people, they’re about how Sherlock Holmes outwits clever murderers.
Or at least, that’s what my games are about, so I would never ask a player to make an Intelligence check to then feed them background info on what the party is failing to piece together. Is that the right way to do it, or am I just trading the Mercer effect for the Paul effect? Are my games better or worse than Mercer’s? Maybe they’re just different, and maybe that’s OK.
Critical Role is not D&D. It is a TV show about people playing D&D. That means there have to be times when the cast demonstrates something for the audience at home which wouldn’t really happen. A lot of their extravagant role playing is like that. But also some of the specific game moments. You’ve called out a good one.
But it gives people an unrealistic idea about how to play and how to referee a game. It would be like trying to learn how to dance from watching Dance Moms or something.
I don’t watch CR as a rule. I am revulsed by it in my gut for some reason. Maybe it’s the overacting. Idk.
I’m about 20 episodes into season 2 (never listened to season 1), and I have to say it sounds like pretty by-the-book 5th edition D&D to me. Yes, they’re a bit more enthusiastic than is believable which I’m sure is for the camera, but I do think they’re legit playing the game the way they enjoy playing it. Saying it’s not D&D sounds overly dismissive to me.
Certainly they bring their training as actors to the table with them, which in some cases I think is quite a good thing. They give each other time to explore their characters, which I’m sure most groups do not have the patience for, and they always buy in to whatever Mercer is serving up as DM. I think any DM would be lucky to have such a giving group that knows how to balance playing their role against contributing to the story as a whole.
On the other hand sometimes it does sound like Mercer is leading them by the nose sometimes, and they’re much more patient with that than I’d be as a player. Then again, I’m sure they’re pretty invested in putting on a good show and make allowances for that.
I don’t think it’s the epitome of roleplaying, but nor do I think it should be dismissed out of hand. I find it as enjoyable a thing to listen to during my commute as any other recordings I’ve tried.
My wife (if she cared about gaming at all) would probably accuse me of burying my head in the sand on this topic, as I do with other areas of “real life”…for example, the latest bullshit about my country’s president on CNN. Here’s the thing: nothing I hear in the news regarding the latter is going to influence my opinion of the guy one way or another (I’m already aware he’s a lying shit), so why should I get myself worked up into a froth watching the latest gauche move from the WH?
I just can’t bring myself to care terribly about the effect Mercer and CR has had on the hobby. I know there are people…smart, kind, happy people…who love-love-love that stuff. I’m not going to change their opinion, any more than I’d change the opinion of some MAGA-hat wearing “patriot” (and, no, I’m not saying these two groups of people are the same, BTW). And as I *have* attempted to watch an episode or two of CR, I can safely say that interacting with it does little other than raise my blood pressure in unhealthy ways.
Sorry.
I love how you somehow turned a comment on Mercer into a tirade against Trump. Man, I knew that TDS was real but this is just too rich.
Hey folks, I love seeing healthy debate on my blog, but let’s please keep the politics out of it and stay on point. This is gaming blog, please keep the discussion focused on gaming. Thanks!
Um…sorry about that.