D&D Player Tips | Matthew Mercer | Critical Role | Call of the Netherdeep 

"I will never put a spider in the campaign if someone has a phobia of spiders" Cut to Travis screaming at every spider in campaign 2 XD

My best tip: be considerate when your turn in combat is next and plan it out ahead of time

"Chief Creative Officer" is a damned professional way of saying "Dungeon Master"

If you have a fellow player who's always in the spotlight, you can always come at them with something similar to: "Could you help me get more involved in the roleplay? I wanna be in the story like you are, but I'm new/shy and trying to figure out how best to get my character involved." That way it doesn't come off as "You're roleplaying too much". Sometimes when we get someone to simmer down it's actually taking the wind out of their sails. But the best games are when EVERYONE is excited to have their character do stuff, and everyone is boosting each other up. Have that excited player with accents pat you on the back and shove you into the spotlight. It'll be fun.

Matt is always so wise and wholesome, you can't not love him.

I have played with the same group for a while, we play well together. But we are different. I am so glad that I can share this amazing game with my life long friends. If you are looking for a great game, find good people first. ❤️

As a DM I love giving one player at the table an opportunity to have a 'spotlight' moment. It's so important and creates so many fun memories. The challenge is sometimes making sure the other players recognise that need to let it happen and see where it goes. It can be really hard to control that within the game without breaking immersion.

I'm not the biggest Critical Role fan, but I am a big fan of THE MERCER.

In summary: *_Treat other players the way you would want to be treated._* Unless you're a masochist.

As someone who *loves* method acting and improv, it's good to hear these things - it's way too easy to get so completely lost in character and experience that you push others aside. This is a great reminder to me (and hopefully to others) to try and really create a great group experience where everyone feel they can be comfortable and join in on as equal terms as possible. Matt is such a humble soul, and it makes it so much easier to heed his advice, wisdom, experience and concern.

Just delightful and well put. You can hear the same things but when they are put differently they finally click.

Some subtle wisdom here that applies to leadership and communication in many different domains as well.

I love that there's a drum set in what appears to be a living room. Life goals for sure

I've been trying to apply this being the very comfortable veteran at our new group (my wife also veteran, but not as comfortable). This really helped to clarify more for me in remembering not to take over too much and how I can incorporate everyone else more.

On the part about unknown phobias, my first every game had ghostly spirit (who was supposed to be beneficial with their intent) that would possess a player character and grant them bonuses while they were in their person. The party nominated my character since I was arguably the weakest at the time. This was done when I went to the bathroom so when I came back and suddenly the DM was explaining how we met a spirit and it jumped at my character to possess them, the DM had me roll to see if I could resist it for roleplay purposes. I immediately stopped them and stated how uncomfortable I was with that idea, as the rest of the players could see how visibly shaken I was from it. They understood and reworked it to have the spirit possess a trinket on my person instead, so now I summon the spirit like a companion instead of invoke it from myself. They were very understanding about how unsettled I was and were making sure I was okay before continuing. I felt very involved that they would take the time to ensure we all could get along.

Biggest tip he said, as a player, is to share the spotlight. Of course there are moments that are specifically designed for a single player in mind, but dragging others with you into a scenario or letting someone else do a roll, even though they might be clearly less optimal for the situation, is what creates fantastic stories, bonds and sometimes even lifetime friendships. D&D is about sharing a story, not hogging it all to yourself. I am always as excited for someone else's story (if not more) as I am for my own story to progress or be talked about.

99% of this only works if player's/dms speak up. No one can read your mind and assuming you're not a kid, then its on YOU to determine your fun, your boundaries, and your interests. The dm isn't a psychologist and there to pull information out of you and the other players are there to have fun as well.

Session 0 is always super important. Find what is working or being looked for and work with that.

Always a great reminder for your table. =]

I still thank Matt for inspiring me to start DMing, like so many others I'll assume :)

I have had difficulty in understanding legendary actions. I had thought them to be over the course of the battle instead of for each round of combat. Now that I know it is sad how under realized two of my boss fights were.

This seems quite essential to draft a questionnaire for a potential new gaming group. I personally prefer a balance of storytelling and action, but I don't like to sit there for hours on end role-playing in first-person. I have DM'd to the best of my ability since 3rd edition was brand new, and even now I'm amazed at how new of a perspective one can find with this timeless game!

im a new DM and i have two groups i DM for. some of my friends are part of the LGBT community and some are ptsd effected veterans and there have been many times as a DM i by mistake triggered something in terms of ptsd or not so friendly memories and situations some of my party members have actually gone through so thank you matt mercer i always turn to your videos to better myself as a DM and videos like this are helpful. D&D has helped me and many of my friends in terms of a therapy tool. escape the real world and make a world where none of our past problems or experiences control us. this video is a good reminder to be aware of what some players might not like or have prob experienced in their life that they dont really want to experiance in the game as well. thank you for the tips!

I wonder if communication is something that's just lacking these days. If I'm having people come over to watch TV, play games, or any other social activity, I'm going to ask what they want to eat, drink, watch, or play. None of us are going to purposefully try and ruin each other's fun, and if we do something to upset each other, we're going to apologize and make things right. D&D is a game about talking, so talk and listen. Communicate with each other, and remember to have fun. Don't just throw a party for yourself, throw it for everyone else as well.

This video should be a common resource for every RPG session from here forward.

The real friends are the friends we made along the way

I joined my first ever campaign about 2 years ago and my lore was that I needed to bring back a dragon head to my monk temple. I joined late and our DM was super cool and let me join at the same level as everyone. It just so happened they were gonna fight a dragon that day and I managed to get the last hit. Couldn't have asked for a better intro to such a fun game.

If you realice that a situation calls for a different character's strengths don't hesitate to call for their help. It is always a good start for a conversation between the characters and it allows for the other player to show off his character's strong sides instead of making it so you try to do stuff your character is not very good at and fail.

Hey Matthew, 100% of what you said here was excellent tips! I have been an active roleplayer for 27 years now, and some of these things you were talking about took more than 20 years to figure out. Keep being such an open-minded and empathic person and have fun roleplaying. Good job, man. ^_^

I got the wife started and now the kids we love our Thursday night D&D games so much fun

great info! thanks

A CLASSIC D&D interview question.

As far as boundaries go playing through some of those uncomfortable scenes have worked as therapy to help me deal with what was making me feel how I felt . It's not always good to avoid uncomfortable situations and RPGs are a safe place to confront a hard emotional or psychological issue .

"Respect for everyone at the table." It's one of the reasons that my biggest training for being a player and a DM was watching Whose Line. They're all funny, but -they all share the spotlight.- Often, they do it by knowing when it is someone else's turn to shine. When it's okay to be the support actor, to be the straight man in the gig. And learning how to elevate someone else helped me understand that I don't need to be the star at the table, even if I am the group leader. And that makes the game more fun for everyone. So, yeah, Critical Role and Whose Line. A peanut-butter-and-chocolate combo, but it helped me understand why CR works so well. They all take time to elevate each other, and they graciously receive the spotlight when it is given to them.

I am 99% sure Matt is wearing a Mr. Bungle shirt. More specifically, a Mr. Bungle shirt with the Disco Volante album cover.

DnD is all about respect and trust ♥️

4:08 Something I've taken to doing is to ask players Hard Nos and Triggers in Sessions Zero and to let them know that during gameplay if they ever feel uncomfortable they can call a stop at anytime. But something I always like to clarify is that it's important for them to draw a line between _them as a person_ and _their character._ Because a lot of my games often will have very mature and scary themes and in some scenarios I want _their characters_ to be uncomfortable or scared, but not them as _people._ Like if one of the PC's NPC friends have been captured and they find out they've been tortured in some brutal way I _want_ their characters to be upset/scared/angry about it but I never want _them as people_ to be. And I think for healthy roleplay its important for players to maintain the line between reality and fiction otherwise you can't be roleplaying in a safe, sane, and consensual way. And if a player can't separate themselves from their character then I don't believe it is possible for them to be roleplaying in a healthy way.

Awesome video

As a player who loves to role play I love helping my friend get more into the role play side of things but sometimes I do in fact take the spotlight to much and I've been personally working on it

Interestingly enough (for me) even tho I do not enjoy Crit role, I LOVE listening to Matt Mercers tips and tricks and advices.

DM’s are leader and need to recognize and be cognizant of group dynamic. Highly recommend reading or watching anything with jocko Wilkins or David Goggins about team and leadership. Then require the group to do homework about team and leadership. Super helpful

I'll sum this whole video up with 5 words: "Talk to your other players".

I'm not only distracted by Matt's good looks, but the Darkglass bass amp behind him. Somebody in this office has good knowledge of good bass tone. lol

My group recently had a major falling out, one of the players became extremely domineering and belittling of other players ideas, insisting they were right about everything while basically demanding we copy and paste any information we received into a group Google doc so he could 'tell who was right or wrong'. Eventually they was asked to leave because every session melted down into the party vs them. With accusations of us working behind the scenes to belittle their character and withholding information to make them look dumb.

Matt Colville's playlist about running the game is good, it's a long list but browse it and pick out the videos you think have interesting topics

Thanks.

I remember finishing like a campaign and then finding out later on the DM didn’t want to play with us anymore because me and my SO didn’t like that people were saying slurs and we had expressed that. According to him we weren’t letting the other players “be in character” . Keep in mind the slurs were like irl ones. So now it’s hard to find a group that wants to play.

Always play to entertain, no matter if you're a player or a game master, always play to entertain your fellow participants. If you can't or won't then don't and instead take your leave and find other participants with which you can and will.

Is that a Darkglass Microtubes 500 on top of that ampeg cab?

I just wanna know whose living room this is and who owns that drum kit?

Travis does not seem to be playing up his fear of everything, as much, since campaign 3 started.

I literally made a video about sharing the spotlight recently - absolutely the best tip you could give to any player! It's so important to always make sure we're making tabletop roleplaying a *collaborative* storytelling experience.

Please make these videos longer

1. Be nice and talk to the DM. 2. Share.

I have a spider phobia and i told my DM i still wanted them in the game. I wanna feel cool finaly crushing them because im too scared to do that irl. of corse im stressing you handle that with tact

My DM has learned to be very ambiguous when describing spiders and what they're doing. I told him about my fear of them at session 0 but he underestimated his ability to paint a scene and almost gave me a panic attack the first time we ran into them. I still accept the fact that we will run into various types of spiders and don't want them removed though. It actually made for a really funny moment too when my PC (who shares my phobia) actually screamed during one encounter and it drew the attention of a friendly NPC in the area.

life advice with Matthew Mercer

I see a drum kit and an Ampeg amp behind Matt... Matt, tell me about those!

I would say one thing to be wary of is people who try to take advantage of your good will. I once played a game where one of the players private messages everyone tell them to back off and let them spotlight more or bring them more to the forefront of roleplay. I say I was offended, and this was because they had half the session, before I got this message, roleplaying with the dm a interview scene with an animal we needed clues from. However! However despite the nonsensical nature of this request in the face of the context, I did actually try to pull them into more scenes by saying things in character like “what do you think?” “what are your thoughts?” and so one. I would continuously try to find opportunities to bring them into the roleplay of the scene. I noticed the other players do the same. And yet? I still got those messages basically telling me to back off and shut up. At one point they actually ended up complaining to the dm, who is left confused. He gets to the bottom of the matter, asking each of us what is going on. I admit to the message I was getting and screenshot them to send over. To say the dm was furious is putting it lightly. It wasn’t until after this player was kicked that we find out they had been harassing the entire party with these messages trying to dominate the table for themselves. The dm had noticed the table trying to include this player more and yet that they still were harassing all of us. So yes, this was a case of someone using everyone’s kind nature to bully all of us. We actually had more fun after they left and I hadn’t realized how much the harassment was weighing me down during the game. Oh! And for added context, this player was usually late by an hour or more, never informed us ahead of time, and sometimes didn’t even show up so the dm had to go ahead and play their character (as was the rule if you didn’t inform ahead of time and you were the only one gone). I also was a new player and that campaign was my first ever I got to play in (we just wrapped up the epilogue for it a few weeks ago after I post this). I was honestly baffled by the whole experience with this problem player. I’m so glad I had the other players at the table that I did and the dm. They were all amazing teachers and I became a more confident roleplayer from their examples and teaching. They were amazing at trying to pull me in and allow me a place and space to roleplay but also respect when I didn’t feel up to it. They also helped walk me through my mechanics and how to use them correctly, even repeating themselves very patiently if I forgot something. They would ask me things like “did you use your bonus action already?” or “do you have a reaction you can use for that?” stuff like that. All helpful stuff and advice on applying stuff. So yeah, I am glad that problem player experience didn’t sour my experience with dnd. If anything, it taught me how to properly respond when shady tactics like that are used.

I wish they would just upload the entire interviews when these books are coming out

1. no metagaming 2. approved homebrew(if any) 3. throw script out 4. keep criminal on leash incase of hungry dragons 5. always have extra coin for red light sessions(drunk clerics firing revivify can lead to unpaid 'sessions', which often leads to dirty work)

Gonna tee other players up tonight in our game!!

I dmed a horror campaign with some new players, it didn't last long since the new players decided that dnd wasn't for them. (I tried my best to make it as th as possible for them. I did make sure to discuss limits and phobias with them so that they wouldn't get super spooked.)

Agreed but a bit vague. I think a good tip to hold close for entering someone's games is a no "player bullying or scheming against other players" Sure there may be rare groups that can pull it off, but 99% of the time it leads to heavy toxicity within the group. Same could be said for "evil campaigns" without some really hard rules in place, most of the players just try to "out evil" the other players and ending up murdering each other before they reach lvl 6.

I've had a group where I had fun for awhile but another player was overplaying the Asshole Rouge trope. To the point he killed my character and when I rolled up a new character he started to treat him like shit too. And their is a point of where it goes to far. I lashed out at him at one session and we had to end it. I chose to leave that group because when I explained my actions they told me "I was playing My character wrong" and since you had a new character you should have kissed his ass until you gained their trust. Wich you with the same player who killed my last character, desecrated his Body, and threw his body off an airship. Some groups just don't work out and but it never ruined my love for dnd. I've been taking an extended break from it due to work but would love to play again in the future.

I had a bad experience recently. My character got put into a situation with no escape from and a party member's character's mother tarred me with chicken feathers, put a chicken mask on me, strung me up to be laughed at in the middle of my hometown, then had someone disguise themselves as my character and damaged his reputation. It was way too much of a punishment for something I didn't have a chance of escaping. I made it clear that I was upset about it and that my character was on the warpath of revenge. But apparently the DM didn't plan out the situation too well because she didn't expect me to start a fight with the character when we found her. And then we beat her she had her keep provoking my character so I attempted to cut her head off. I rolled a 26 but still failed. Then everyone got mad at me. It really felt like the DM was playing against me the whole game.

I'm a simple man. I see Matt, I like the video.

Also just realize some people are insane not because of the game but just because they have a major malfunction going on in there head. I'm 42 now, the first experience I had with D&D was when I was like 14ish and this guy played the game with friends of his and was telling me about it. Sounded like a lot of fun. I stopped by his place one day to ask more about how to join and as I was talking with him there was a rotten smell coming from a medium size cabinet. I asked about it and he said "oh that's my shrine for my character to his god". I found it odd but asked "oh so this is for when you go and play the game?" NOPE This guy was giving REAL LIFE sacrifices [fruits and such as far as I could tell] to his characters god. I would have let it slide but he went OFF on how important it was for him to do this and ya I never looked into Table Top RPGs again until I was like almost 30.

As a spotlight player in a shy non rp group, after almost every encounter or situation I ask what do you guys think about this.

"become a better D&D player the Matthew Mercer way": or "how to be a better more empathetic human being", nearly as decent as MM is himself

Who's sweet ampeg?

When you dedicate your entire life running from being uncomfortable then you create a bad life skill of not being able to deal with real life uncomfortable situations you cant avoid. Part of growth and development is the ability to face uncomfortable situations and overcoming them. Killing someone is uncomfortable for the majority of people but killing someone in the game is easy..... its the same as facing your fears, like drowning or flying. we need to learn to step up and not protect everyone in bubble wrap otherwise they have no coping skills in life

EXu was a bane of mine. Man did I enjoy it.. but man did I hate all the spiders xD

I'm all about the idea of making your game about the other players, the moment you see your character as the main character, you're in trouble. Find ways for your character to be involved in other people's archs.

If one of your players has a deep fear of spiders, don't assume they don't want spiders in the game. Ask them first. I have a deep fear of spiders, and have always told my DM's, put as many spiders in the game as you can - use mini's, pop-ups, I don't care. I get to fight these things? What a great way to overcome a fear.

Cutting spiders and spider-like creatures out of your campaign is a LOT of creatures. WotC really hit that phobia hard. Phase Spiders, Giant Wolf Spiders, Driders, Neogi, Steeders, Cave Fishers, Chitine, even Lolth the Spider Queen. Not to mention one of the best scout for find familiar.

👍🏻

Man, filmed at a time when people could sit opposite each other face to face

Wait, is Todd working for D&D again? I thought he split to do his own thing?

Interview videos are way to short

Player Tip: Make an honest effort to learn how your character works rules wise. There is a learning curve for everyone especially new players but the is nothing more maddening as a DM or even as a player watching another DM have to explain or point out the same thing over and over. Example: Burning Hands is an AOE spell not a touch attack spell....

pro player tip: think action first, then rule instead of rule first, then action

but what do you do as a player when the thing that some of your other players cant deal with is confrontation and being called out, and they act in ways that make confrontation the only solution?

Don't try to be Critical Role. Chances are you are not a trained voice actor with incredible storytelling skills. You are probably a regular person with average story telling skills. Keep your characters simple. Focus on two things. What does your character want to achieve? What kind of experience do you want to have as a player? Communicate with both the game master and fellow players. Don't hog a the spotlight, but also make sure that you get at least one thing to do each session. Celebrate the moments of other players. Also include at least one very much alive NPC in your background. It might never come up (which is okay) but it could actually help your game master if they like to include your character as a living breathing person who is part of the setting. Finally, make sure what your character can do is relevant. Being the party face is fun, but if you are dungeon delving, chances are it is never coming up. If you are a wilderness explorer who is trained to kill goblins and the campaign is in a city with no goblins, have fun feeling redundant.

Am I the only one wondering what drum kit was in the background?

Searches RU-vid for player tips Finds this video “There’s plenty of resources online! Check RU-vid!” Searches RU-vid for player tips Finds this video…

This fuxing angel

This is random, and not related to the video, but I just considered: what if you just removed magical weapon damage? D&d is balanced to have very few magic weapons. However, literally everyone wants cool magic weapons. So the problem becomes, after a few levels, literally everyone has SOME form of magic weapon. This makes SO many monsters underwhelming, as their resistance to conventional, non-magic weapons disappears. But what if you have a magic +2 sword that did NOT do magic damage? Suddenly, Iron golems become terrifying, indestructible juggernauts, rather than big, dumb sacks of HP. Martial players are forced to become creative, utilizing their higher physical abilities to think outside the box combat wize. Suddenly class abilities and spells that give you magical damage are actually relevant, not redundant. Even better, weapon material matters again. Silver weapons can be CRUCIAL in defeating demons or werewolves. Adamantine weapons aren't just flavor, they can allow you actually to destroy an Iron Golem. Everyone is incentives to diversify weaponry and damage types, rather than using your most powerful magic weapon... This and adding more monster vulnerability

I thought Yusuke only cared about art.

DM Tip: respect your DM’s and party’s time. Don’t be texting on your phone, don’t carry on conversations not related to the game, and don’t ditch a game or show up later/leave early without advanced notice.

Are those moonboots

Know how to use D&D Beyond and/or where you pertinent character details are identified and how your skills/special attacks/spells work... Player: "I do a thing... how does it work?" DM: [glaring look as the PHB or other pertinent reference goes untouched]

I love Matt Mercer and the rest of the Critical Role cast but I'm fairly sure Travis would call BS on the don't use monsters (or castmates) that trip your phobias.

My last table as a character said they were okay with chaotic character. I built mine as a more rp person and not combat. These ppl had my character knocked out or muffled 80% and still got mad at me as a player. My dm gave my character gave my character a moment to shine and I did, noting that demons were controlling the spider who were controlling the goblins. Use my diplomatic skill set I managed to get the spider away from my party and rode off to see what I could discover and see really what was happening behind the curtain. I was promptly told by player to leave, don't come back, we have an issue with you as a player. Causing tension at the table and causing me to leave. This is in all groups I've tried to play with, regardless if I'm a wild mage, were tiger dwarf fighter, pathfinder, or what have you. In the end I decided to make my own group and provide everyone a safe place to play whatever they want.

*Matt* "If you don't like spiders I won't put one in the game!" *Travis* I don't like spiders!" *Matt puts spiders in the games* *Travis cries*

I just preface a campaign by saying: I am going to do everything that I can to make you feel uncomfortable.

Stop. Writing. Orphans. Seriously, player's are killing more parents than Disney. I've had 10 players at a table, with ONE living parent among them, and THAT GUY was the BBEG. Seriously, have parents, it gives you story options, and deeper characters than just, "X killed my parent/parents".

Honestly. "Don't make people uncomfortable." and "Make sure you all want to play the same game." are just common sense things. I didn't need anyone to make it explicit to me that those are important in TT-RPGs because I had been raised to consider those things in all social interactions - the second thing is only a specific version of "Make sure you all want to do the same thing." which is applying to all group activities. How far have we fallen, to think of those things as 'New tools'.

I find that picking one or two ultra simple character traits makes playing fun, versus having an overly-deep backstory. On the flipside, if you just play "Nerdy guy" for 3+ sessions it's gonna get stale and you need to expand it as you go. But other players aren't gonna be interested in you giving a speech about "my FATHER died" blah blah blah. Just be simple first.

We should be using d&d as exposure therapy, its ok to be uncomfortable and you'll find the more exposure you have to uncomfortable situations the more you will grow as a person and be able to maturely interact with others.