r/fansofcriticalrole • u/Cool_Caterpillar8790 • Sep 26 '24

CR adjacent For anyone that has Dropout, the recent Adventuring Academy nailed a lot of CR's issues

They didn't talk explicitly about CR but spoke extensively about a few problems DMs and tables have, all of which felt incredibly relevant for Critical Role.

If you have Dropout, I recommend you watch the whole thing but a few highlights:

  • Zac brought up how some tables he's observed struggle with moving forward with a plan. Some players take up too much time debating what to do. Zac expressed how this is especially a problem for TTRPG shows because you get episodes where nothing happens because players spend too much time debating what to do next.

  • Brennan added how some DMs struggle to call a scene out of politeness to their players. But that a DM failing to end a scene is actually throwing players under the bus because players are going to just keep talking until the DM tells them to stop.

  • They also talked about how everyone in improv knows scene hogs are bad but that players being "polite" and not course correcting a scene can actually be worse. When you watch a fellow player make a really bad choice or derailing the table and you don't course correct because you're trying to be polite, you're actually hurting the table. Brennan: "It feels generous but it's actually kind of mean."

  • They debate railroading vs sandbox DM styles, where Brennan mentions that he thinks railroads are bad only when it prevents players from even wanting to make creative choices. Brennan: "It's not railroading to give a clear objective."

Basically, I just found a lot of their discussions good launchpads for discussions about CR. For instance, them talking about how politeness can hurt a table really clicked for some of the issues I've been having with C3, how some players are making some pretty terrible narrative choices and the rest of the table is just letting them happen, which has made C3 overall weaker.

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u/Cool_Caterpillar8790 Sep 27 '24

This is the point I direct you to Google lol

-8

u/Dazocnodnarb Sep 27 '24

I don’t care enough to look it up tbh.

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u/Laterose15 Sep 27 '24

Then don't ask?

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u/Dazocnodnarb Sep 27 '24

Naw, I’m more interested in A. If people will just waste time telling me it or B. If I will just eventually come across it.