Is Critical Role Scripted? 

You only have to watch them spend a full session going in circles planning for a battle, only for it to fall apart with a single round, to realise it isn't scripted

To DMs who don't prep, Matt's preparation might look like a script.

"Critical Role is scripted!!!!" Meanwhile, Taliesin: Life needs things to live

Remember in the Whitestone Arc? Matt had literally prepared maps for EVERY building in whitestone becuase, and I qoute: "I had no idea where you guys would be going, so I prepared maps for everything". Why would he do that if they were supposed to go through a linear story that was already prepared?

People forget that the cast are professional actors who are pretty solid at improv, but even then it's very clearly not scripted

Yes, they play off a script perfectly for 4 hours straight. Meanwhile Sam and Laura (Mostly Laura) having to read and stumble through their 5 min ad script.

Your guest star point hits harder when you realize that Taliesin sit out a complete episode, 5 hours, with a character ready, because their character was supposed to be at certain place, and the party went somewhere else instead...

Matt's face during shopping episodes; that's all the proof I need that it's organically pulled together.

All you need to show people is the time Matt developed a whole mechanic for ship combat, complete with roles, modifiers, etc - probably took him hours - and Taliesin (as Caduceus) bypasses the ENTIRE THING with Control Water and a good roll. It was amazing

I remember seeing somewhere (maybe Talks?) where someone said that before a show, Matt would come in very happily, with a map under a sheet, and after the show he would sadly leave with the same map still covered, because the gang just didn't make it there. If they were hitting scripted plot points, I highly doubt the poor man would be spending the time and energy to design, build, and transport maps that wouldn't be used that night.

"Critical Role is scripted" Critical Role: - "Help, its again." - "Life..needs *things* to live" - "I know three ways, that is not how you accomplish them." - Matt literally walking off set out of insanity whenever Travis says Chetney's tattoo means "Recognize The Alpha" - “We’re basically gods!” - “We’re running. Its bad.” - Every-time Travis tried to persuasion check Lucien in the bods fights (fruit salad, anyone?)

As someone who spent years playing with a game master of Matt's calibre (may he rest in peace) I can say this is exactly how a game goes. It is why I am a fan of the show. It brings back memories of the days when my DM and best friend was still alive.

I've watch Matt show us a map he intended to use for combat, but the crew negotiated out of combat. And another where a boss was dominated that led to a 30 minute episode instead of a 2 hour one-hit. Sure, they discuss some elements in story continuation, but they are really playing D&D.

Some people are so afraid of being conned, that they'll con themselves into believing there's a con, believing they're in the know and no one else is smart enough to understand it. My sister is one of these people and they're exhausting to be around. This is the root of all conspiracy theories. A bunch of people wanting to believe they're smarter than everyone else. 🙄

Guys… I think that the campaigns might be planned in advance by Matt… he’s been pulling the strings the whole time and we never noticed. Also, I have a hunch that they are all actually actors

You completely missed the main reason, IMHO, that people think CR is scripted. The cast is fake. I don't understand why no one talks about this. All those people we see playing D&D are actually extremely advanced puppets created by the Jim Henson company using the same techniques that built the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but less green. There are hands inside of all those "people" and you can tell because of how rarely they ever leave their seats even when the game goes on for 4+ hours with just one break. Who doesn't have to pee like twice in a long game at least? "But they are famousish voice actors outside of critical role" you'll say and that just proves my point even more. VOICE ACTORS. There is no real Liam O'Brien that's just the stage name for some voice actor who has also been paid to voice this character on a D&D show.

I write out monologues so the NPC sounds way cooler than I can off the cuff. The GM usually has an outline of what they think will happen but then the session happens and the player characters send it sideways. That's just how it goes. Remember Liam make Matt create bookshops in detail just becuase?

Whenever I saw the posts about CR being scripted, I always thought it was a meme/joke, but to think that people actually believe it, kinda blows me away. Ofcouse a DM is going to have notes, and plot points (Otherwise continuity errors would be off the chart) and the players would have notes on their backgrounds, among the general notes they take aswell. There have been so many good moments, that well no script writer could trully come up with, like I'm watching CR 1 atm, and the goldfish Keyleth is just one of those moments! Again in CR2 with the Hag blueberry Cupcake, like Matt did not see that coming and just rolled with it. The scripted (Matt's world building) is great, but the creativity of the players is what made me such a big fan.

Instead of using special mechanics to have a unique epic encounter, taliesin cast a single spell and Matt was obviously just rolling with as all his prep went down with the ship. Anyone who has ran a game knows how genuine a moment like that is.

This is so funny to me. Brennan Lee Mulligan has an interview somewhere where he talks about how we all consume so much media. We have this intuitive understanding of story structures. He talks about offering players space and they Will land the story beat. And I can't imagine this being more true than with a cast of professional actors (be it crit role, dimension20 or what else). And this makes sense - the player's goal is also to tell good stories within liveplay.

"The show is such perfect and a swiss-clock like delicacy of character interaction and story beats!" Ah yes, the intricacy of Travis being obstinate about not making Jester use a spell while Laura angrily messages him and such other moments :')

Travis can barely remember what they're doing AS they're doing it, Imagine him trying to remember the plot outline to a 4-5 hour long episode... HA! (Sorry Travis I love you.)

1. Most of them went to school for theater or otherwise acting, and 3 of them started acting when they were young children. There is a natural lead & follow openness when people trained to perform get together and start goofing off. 2. If you watch the campaign wrap episodes (I have only seen the ones for C2 & EXU), there is a LOT of “what would have happened if we’d done X instead?” And “where did you get the idea to do that?” And “WHO TF WAS THAT?” And stuff they couldn’t know if it was all planned.

I think there's also the problem of mistaking our own subjective experience with the absolute truth. People who say "CR is not like a real D&D game", actually mean "it's not like MY D&D game", without realising that there is a difference.

i have seen him tear character sheets, i have seen him bring out a massive terain build only to take it away turn two, its not scripted lol

The part that really annoys me with this is that the infinitely more likely and logical possibility is simply that you have a group of actors who have known each other for years and have extensive experience improving off of each other. Too many people feel they have to try and blow the cover off of some Insidious conspiracy when all this is is half a dozen people that have known each other for a very long time and are good improvisational actors.

Frankly the mere existence of moments where true tension exists tells me this is no more scripted than my home game in a composition notebook. Seeing Taliesin or Liam get aggravated about obscure rulings or distances in combat, and other such small gripes is the most normal and expected experience. Watching Matt shut down some crazy ideas, re-explain details that the cast completely misunderstood, etc. adds to this. There's clear evidence to the contrary of a cohesive script that everyone's in on. You can tell these are players working off of verbal descriptions who get details wrong, forget things, and say stupid shit, just like the rest of us. They're just professionally good at improvisation.

One of my favourite moments in all of Critical Role is a sad one. It's Molly's death. You can see the complete shock in every cast member's face, Tal's most of all. He sits there for a good minute not moving and then basically leaves. He's not mad, he's sad. You can't fake that reaction to a character death no matter how good of an actor you are. I think that was my first live episode of Critical Role and it basically convinced me that D&D was the best thing ever.

if you've ever run a D&D game, you know that the DM plans story beats and makes encounters that potentially reveal PCs characters. you could argue that CR is less "scripted" than say Dimension 20, where the encounter "map" is more planned and made by a group of people, instead of Matt making it on its own, as he does

As someone who has run an actual campaign module (Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords) where you have all the scripting you could ask for, and telling players that this is your first time being a GM so please pay attention to story cues and just go along for everyone's sanity- With ALL the handicaps and buffers set up, the fooking players will STILL figure out a way to derail everything without even trying. All because of a little thing called "I'll need you to roll for that."

In the penultimate section: the level of experience everyone has with pacing, providing space, avoiding crosstalk, and letting scenes play out is one of the biggest "actor things" that stands out in CR. There are other actual-play streams that have struggled with this b/c they were random collections of streamers who were all trying to be The Star at once. I think that's the biggest thing that distinguishes CR, and I like that you highlight that this is something ANYONE can learn.

One thing I heard from a friend once is: "Of course its scripted. Any DM worth their salt will have some idea how a session is going to go and prepare accordingly. Any player worth their salt will know which story beats to react to. Thats the goddamn game, and if you're really good at it, it will look as if you did rehearsals at times." Which I can absolutely confirm. I have three groups I play with, and the most experienced one feels like a theatre group with dice, sometimes. Never missing a beat. Always in character when appropriate. Witty and creative.

Matt is a great DM, the players are all great players, and they're all very good friends. It's the perfect storm and we're all just jealous to some degree.

there are moments when the CR cast's RP is so incredible it almost seems scripted, and there are times when it falls a little flat. i think people who say the show is scripted might just not watch the show enough, because giving it maybe 3 episodes worth of your time will show you that it's not. EDIT: I want to say that I'm talking about C1 and C2. I believe *C3* is loosely scripted, which is not my cup of tea but it's fine. You cant expect people to be churn out brilliant, unique improv for 8+ years. They want to keep their jobs and not have to work so hard, they have kids, responsibilities, they probably want to do new things. Same goes for the oneshots. This isn't negative. EXU Calamity is obviously scripted heavily, and thats ok. The series is incredible! They're using DnD as a storytelling medium.

I think one thing people also forget to take into consideration is that not only are these guys all friends/partners, but they're also work colleagues. They've all worked with one another to some degree or another as voice actors and such, so they probably have a lot of non-verbal communication that most tables don't normally have which would also lessen the amount of cross talk compared to regular tables. It would also mean that they understand each other creatively on a deeper level than most tables so they can pick up on each other's threads better. As for the inspiration. My fiance was inspired by CR to create his own DnD world and start DMing. He naturally storytells similarly to Matt so the voices and such just ended up happening on their own and even now when we haven't worked on it in a bit, he still finds new voices and says he'll be saving them for later XD

These are professional actors, they understand the concept of "yes-anding" AND their goal as a group is different than the normal D&D game. They know they are putting on a show, so that's the mindset they have. Things don't have to be scripted when the entire group has the same goals.

As a 20+ year veteran of professional longform theater, this kind of conspiracy theory idea is possible to pull off (and I have performed one run of shows that way), but it's SOOOOOO much harder than simply improvising a story. Not only that, simply improvising a story almost always comes out better. Great stories unfold. You don't need to get complicated about it. It's just part of the art form of improv. Pre-scripting beats is a lot of work that really never makes the work shine the way great actors with strong improv skills can do on their own.

Remember that time when Matt had this huge, epic ship battle planned, but someone used one spell to destory the ecounter before it began? Matt makes the face of 'I planned this shit for two weeks and you mofos just ruined it after a few minutes' face. This will happen to every DM ever.

Also, I really think that talking about certain rp scenes ahead with people is a good idea, particularly if you are a high rp table and might expect a "wait are we just acting" moment. If I know my character is gonna have a tearful confession I might chat with the player most likely to be involved to say I'm excited for an emotional rp scene so that they're not like "oh my god I made Lenny cry" when it happens.

I think part of the reason people think it's scripted is because the group by in large stays on task. It sometimes does get derailed a lot but Matt does an amazing job of getting back into the game. That's the biggest difference in my mind between CR and a regular game. Yes they're professional actors and Matt is amazing at voices and story telling but the big difference is they stay on task.

On the Matt Mercer Effect and those who say it's "not real DND" and "damaging for the image of the hobby"... I say that's bullcrap. For one, Critical Role actually helped me rekindle my love for the hobby because I had a lot of only mechanic-based games that felt kinda dry, and it made me realize that, yes, there *are* people doing narrative-driven games, that it's valid and totally *an option.* Since then I've played regularly with a GM invested in narration and done my own game that is very much more invested in the choices the players do than the difficulty being a game-killer. Critical Role, to me, helped people who were on the fence get into and enjoy the hobby, it expanded it by example. I know everybody doesn't agree, but hey, that's my feeling about this. Their feelings are as valid as mine.

It is not scripted I have been RP and DM for over 30 years the DM has a scripted adventure that is roughly written and what he hope the players will do but they never do what you think they will. Plus the good groups discuss between games what has happened and what they might do good DMs whant this it shows your players are intersted in what you have come up with. Also if playing higher levels where combat can take hours if you players had already come up with some tactics that can help speed up the game. It reall irratates me when people say CR is scripted shows they dont reall Know how RP games are run. I have also DM several differnct D&D plus other systems all work the same way. In a game I am playing I had a monologe that I wanted my bad guy to say I already had that written out.

Can't be understated how much just being respectful of each other's acting helps a ton with making for more cinematic stories I'll just say it's harder to do online (without a camera) because you can't tell from body language whether or not they're finished

Three moments come to mind when I think about the argument made that it’s scripted (spoilers ahead for C2): 1) how and why would anyone ever script Keyfish purposefully? 2) Matt mentions in an episode of Talks (I believe) that he’d planned for Matt Colville to join them for a game but the party went a different direction and it got nixed 3) C2E137/8 With jester and CApeleb and the threshold crest, Matt said “I’ll show you that map because situationally we won’t get there” implying that the way the party took action, the map wasn’t going to be needed after all. Matt has a creative team that helps him plan the basic narrative, that much is clear when you look at the various modules and books they have published, but just like any other game of D&D it’s up to the party members to decide how their story goes and Matt just drives the vehicle. Great video, I hope people take a lot from this! Can’t wait to see what more you put out 😊

Most of the things that make it feel scripted have to do with them being trained actors. My favorite: They recognize a story beat when they see it. And they grab on to it. And that might feel scripted. But they also sometimes miss them in hilarious ways. And that's also awesome.

People out there trying to make Critical Role seem like professional wrestling. What it is, is professional improvisation collaborative storytelling. D&D is what you make it. It is nothing but a tool to use to tell a story. How you use it is entirely up to you.

I remember many times when the players and the dice just threw everything out of the window. SPOILERS: Darktow, the pirate coven, when Caleb cracked a secret code having high intelligence modifier and rolling a nat 20. When they decided to surrender the Beacon to the Dark elf Queen, avoiding being thrown into prison. When they were supposed to have a secondary character (Essek) as a recurring antagonist, instead they befriended him and turned him into a valuable ally That ship combat which was entirely skipped because Caduceus used control water and straight out smashed the adversaries' ship against the rocks. Molly was supposed to never resurrect, instead Caduceus (again) rolled incredibly well and could use Divine Intervention (guy, that scene left me exhausted)

All you need to do is look at Matt's face when the group starts going on their long tangents of hysterics to see it's not scripted. Usually he goes from laughing with the group, to smiling, to looking bored and then to looking pissed off because they aren't getting back to the story. Like all DM's he loves when they're clever and do something ingenious to get out of a situation, but also like all DM's he prays every week that for just once in his life all his hours of prep and all his lore will prove fully worthwhile.

To the people that believe this theory, I highly recommend playing a Stars without Number game ran by an Experienced (or even incredibly new DM). To create an amazing story, you don't NEED to plan out every single detail of every single town/city. Yes, you might have lore or plans for a 'grand scheme' of a country or plot points you've previously thought through, but at the same time, it's not needed. It's highly possible, that even though something MORE was hinted at during the Briarwood Arc with the Sphere if some things aligned the Chroma Conclave COULD have been the ending boss of the Critical Role campaign 1. Overall, you can certainly make an argument that some things in any tabletop roleplaying campaign is scripted. I know for a fact that I have a list of random NPCs with their personalities a lot of the time, especially on weeks where I just have a shit ton to do, or I expect it's going to be an intense session. Other times, I pull the entire town out of my ass, it just depends. For my villains, I do write an outline for a script, but that script inevitably always changes, just because of player actions. We can take a look at the Vecna fight, that shit was long and difficult. There were numerous times where they could have lost if the dice were bad, or if Matt rolled really well, it could have even continued at multiple points into later sessions with Vecna fleeing. Matt simply... Couldn't have planned for it. He made the character, he made the stat blocks, the environment, but in the end, it truly came down to the players and the rolls that made it happen the way it did and made it so unbelievably memorable. If there is one thing that's 'scripted' is that when characters aren't there, Matt doesn't focus on them even when it would be better/make more sense, but that's just table etiquette that in a wipe, the last person to die is always the one that isn't there. If the argument was CR was scripted for what you said was your original beliefs, I could see it and believe it. Players to talk to each other and DMs out of character, not only is it expected but encouraged. Guest Stars ARE 'scripted' in, even when it usually wouldn't make sense. But in CR, they are waiting, and Matt in my mind is not only crazy but incredibly amazing for doing what he does. This theory though is... Well, I'd hope any experienced roleplayer could see through them.

Matt definitely “trained” them out of the table cross-talk. They did it quite a lot in C1 and he used to sush them often - thankfully because it was near impossible for the audience to hear the action, for the transcribers to transcribe it and for him to hear and concentrate.

If you say CritRole is scripted, you have never WATCHED CritRole. Just look through the comments under this video here. There are multiple moments called out, where the cast derailed the whole story. Like Caleb (character of Liam) in campaign 2, giving an important item to the queen of a kingdom. Which Matt didn't expect and he had to cut the episode short at that moment, because he had to re-plan the whole thing. Or when they stole a ship and became pirates. Not planned, either. Or when Matt had an awesome ship battle planned and one character destroyed the enemy ship by casting control water. And, as has been said in the video, for a game that is built upon RANDOM dice rolls (like DnD) to be scripted/staged to work, they would need to fudge their dice rolls. And they don't.

People who think it’s purely improve from all involved are insane. Obviously Matt has some stuff scripted for himself, new PC introductions are probably thought out greatly by all directly involved in making the character, etc… But I can say from first hand experience there’s no _need_ for a script if everyone involved wants to have fun and the DM knows what they’re doing. I remember thinking, “surely this is deeply outlined… they’ve gotta have talked over some of these jokes… surely those rolls were predetermined.” Then I ran a campaign, and I wholeheartedly believe Dimension 20 and Critical Roll are real D&D games.

Excellent analysis! I’ve been watching Critical Role for the first time (currently on episode 71 of campaign one) and while I have not been in the fandom space long enough to see the conspiracy theory that it’s scripted myself, I can imagine it would be easy to think that if you don’t watch the old campaigns. But honestly I think one of the main reasons why these shows are not scripted is because of Liam and the trajectory of his character Vax. If a commenter is reading this, major spoilers for campaign one: Liam’s mother passed away and he was keeping an eye out for a way to get out of the game because of it. He no longer wanted to play a brooding character with a mother who has passed away from a dragon attack because the grief from losing one’s mother became so much more real for Liam. If this was scripted then I think writers would have written him out of the story for that reason, but from what I gathered I don’t think he made that goal known, but everyone knew he was going through the grieving process outside of the game. And when the Raven Queen came and could have given him a scripted reason to leave the show, Matt instead decided to make Vax her champion to help Liam process the grief in a safe environment. I think the Raven Queen moment proves it wasn’t scripted, but perhaps Matt realized what was happening and thought up on the spot a way to help Liam process his mother’s death through this opportunity. Liam has mentioned in the past that he was frustrated at the time but later grew to appreciate what Matt was trying to do because it did end up helping him explore his sadness without losing himself in it. I’m glad Liam had that outlet. And from a writing perspective I don’t think it would make sense to have the story scripted like the conspiracy theory claims because it seems like a hefty coincidence for Vax to have that progression without Liam’s grief as an outside influence. I believe that the vulnerability shown through Vax’s character in itself proves the show wasn’t scripted. Some of the prayers Vax made to the Raven Queen seemed especially vulnerable for Liam and I while I don’t know if he is religious in real life, it seemed to me that those prayers were a glimpse into what was going on in Liam’s mind at the time. And when Vax finally received a new purpose by accepting that death is always meant to be and that it’s neither a good or bad thing- it was incredible to see Vax come out of the Raven Queen’s temple with a new joy for life that he didn’t have before. After that, Liam seemed to enjoy himself again as well. Vax makes more jokes, goofs off with Grog, and overall Liam seems to be embracing the fun of the game again. If it was scripted then perhaps the whole plot would have been more streamlined, but Liam processed his mother’s death in real time and got through that pain at his own pace. I don’t know where Liam would have been without having his character to process everything. Maybe he would have been alright, but all the same I’m glad the story helped him through that difficult time. And I don’t think he would have had the same opportunity to process that if the story was scripted from the beginning.

The "actors?" In the thumbnail broke me

The thing I have always respected about Matt more than anything else is his unabashed pure love and dedication for his games. He puts immense amounts of work, time, and money into his prep. As the games go on, he starts editing and rebalancing EVERY SINGLE statblock, creating and balancing sometimes more than 5 complex creatures from the ground up for one episode. It is truly his passion and he treats himself and his players alone as the final arbiters of the value of what he does. He doesn't care about what Wizards thinks, he doesn't really care what we think as far as whether what is happening is okay or "fair" or not. As long as his players are having fun, as long as he and his friends tell a great story together and experience in a way that satisfies all of them, he's happy. Despite the fame and money (which he funnels a great deal right into the most absurd dream DM gear, which almost all of us would do), he has remained the pure distillation of a great DM. He loves his game, he loves his players, and he loves the stories they make together. And that is a beautiful thing to see.

The greatest evidence against this I think would be the guest star who would never be. Matt Mercer spent a ton of time colabing with Matt Colville to eventually bring him into the story as a guest. But the party took off in a completely different direction, by way of many choices over several episodes. Matt let them go. He couldn't steer them back. No greater story foresight. And no course correction in follow up episodes Shame we didn't get to see Matt Colville join in but here's to a chance in this campaign

if someone thinks that they always make each episode the most entertaining episode possible, they definitely haven't watch all the show. I LOVE cr but some episodes are difficult to watch, they get bogged down in dumb stuff make a plan for a hour only to drop it completely. boring fights which for players is fun but kinda boring to watch. dumb decisions that pull me out. and most of all 5 hours is difficult to listen to straight. I end up skipping things and always watch at 2x speed. but I watch because I love it and those moments which blow my mind or make me cry makes it all worth it.

Agree. I get so irritated when I see people say this on twitter and it is clear that people who say it simply do not watch the show. No one could sit thru those games and hold onto that notion. It just doesn't make sense. Their game is no more "scripted" than any other game. If the DM is developing adventure hooks and prepping potential characters/locations/consequences for possible choices players make... Congrats, you're scripted now, I guess. If you've discussed the arc/personal journey your character is on based on their backstory and motivations... congrats, I guess you're scripted AND working off of predetermined story beats? Like... no. That is not how any of that works. Any DM can tell you they plan for scenarios A-D and inevitably players discuss A, C, and F and then in the moment go with plan S and DM has to improvise in the moment. And as for players, you may have an idea of what your character's goals are or what larger journey you want to see for them, but that still has to come out of the experiences and choices in the game. You don't know what or when things will happen or even if something else comes along and upends that in the best way possible.

Echoing what you said about table etiquette, and playing with Matt/caring about his world: these are 7 people who've been playing with Matt as their DM for nearly a decade, if not longer. They are all very familiar with each other's intricacies. Any oddities in C1 can probably be explained away by the fact that they're unfamiliat with playing in front of a camera

This is wild. I just got into DnD. I’ve just had my first session zero and just found Critical Role a couple of days ago. I’ve watched two episodes. It’s crazy to me that people are criticizing a game about story telling. Just enjoy the game and the story telling.

So, you have planned moments that a DM usually has with any game, and if you're running a very character driven game that DM likely has planned out interactions with particular characters, they might have even discussed things that may or may not happen. Combine all of that with the fact that these are professional actors, who very likely studied improv along with figuring out motivations and background for their character, and you're going to get a game that will come off as far more polished than just about anything run by your average group of geeks.

the live episode when they take forever to cross a river just 100% convinced me that Matt and the rest of the cast care more about playing their game than putting on a show of a perfect game/story

I’ve been playing DnD for a few years at this point but I’ve only started GM-ing within the last year. One big thing I realized is that when I started preparing for sessions, writing down lines my NPC’s could say and things that will happen in the session depending on what my party does, and it clicked with me that this is most likely what Matt does. He plans in his head the outcomes for the many things that the group could possibly do, and his NPC’s responses to them. And of course, me and Matt alike, we’ve been totally curve balled sometimes by our parties. I’ve noticed the panic on his face sometimes of the “oh shit I didn’t plan for this” that I’ve felt several times. I don’t believe that Critical Role is scripted, I just think that Matt is able to plan for 70% of what could happen. But we’re all human so of course it goes wrong sometimes.

One of my biggest arguments against it being scripted is that they had ND Stevenson wait a couple episodes in the back room before they got to the point where Matt introduced tova to the party.

The number of times the entire party takes turns asking the same npc the exact same question nearly word for word is all I needed as proof

It is like watching professional sports and saying "it is not real sports, because that is not how I play." Matt Mercer and the critical role staff are professionals, and it shows.

Critical role became what it is cause it is "REAL", as a player for over 30 years and a critter I love the deep character dives that I attempt to play in the games I currently play, and I admit that the show did inspire me to get more into character....voice and all

Everyone at the table is comfortable going into character, and having the spotlight on them, and it really shows. They essentially are the character, and put themselves in that spot. They also talk a lot with Matt about the intentions, goals, and all that of the character and what they would like to do that session. It all helps prepare for what's to come as they pay attention to the story. Some things are planned and the cast is aware of it, but they don't know how it'll happen. Darius's exit for example is one. Theres been a couple character exits in their previous campaigns also, Scanlan being a huge one, and Keg being another. The players knew it was going to happen and had a goal to aim for, but I wouldn't call that scripted - though I could see how an argument is made that it was. Its the groups experience that makes it work as smooth and it seems, and keeps things going. I would honestly like to see the notes exchanged between sessions, Matt's prep, and their written character backstories. It would be very interesting to see Matt's beind the scenes work on sessions they streamed, and just how much the players are aware of for what he plans. Plus how much this had changed from when they started to now.

My theory, if anything, is that more of the cast are communicating their motivations and stories with each other, so they can help each other reach the story beats they want to. This is just playing D&D and communicating with your other players.

Literally, this is the result of a Good DM having players that are 100% invested in their characters, willing to bite on the plot hooks the DM throws their way. As a DM who has that dynamic now, I can honestly say that I am grateful. Sometimes the chaos should be embraced, and it is for sure, but my players have flat out told me that my world was too open and that "Be less subtle and just.. well.. flat out tell us where to go" and the ability to just lay out a plot hook or idea or concept and have an essentially 100% chance for my players interact with and fully commit to it has allowed me to craft stories that are complex, cohesive, and satisfying along with giving moments where every player gets their chance to truly shine, instead of leaving it up to maybes and dice rolls. You can still have those crazy moments, those off-the-wall ideas, and those out of nowhere decisions - it just happens directly within the narrative and it's great. I don't have to worry about whether or not my players will care - they do and they will, as long as I do my job correctly. Matt not only has that dynamic (and more) but is incredibly experienced and has honed his skills to capitalize on that. Do I think the Dice rolls are fudged? Sometimes, I definitely get that feeling. Grogs 2 Natural 20's in a row during the Search for Grog for example is one of the best moments in CR history IMO, but I would be lying if I said that it didn't give me some doubts. There are multiple D20's on the table, we never see which dice he used, one of them is a 16 - the other on the table is a 20 - It would be incredibly easy to do... Roll a random D20 with the Natural 20 on the side, and just claim it was the 20 and not the 16. Why? To get the reactions like that, in moments like that. The crowd going crazy, the hype from the other people at the table, my hype at home watching it - and as DM in plenty of DM groups - I've heard plenty of times where fudging dice was incredibly useful to make the encounter better (I refuse to do it, but I get it). Likewise, I remember a very specific scenario toward the end of Campaign 2 where one of the characters got a very low roll on a persuasion check that could've allowed the party to have multiple high-level NPCs join them in the final fight. It made story sense, it would've made everything easier, gave a theoretically satisfying ending - there was no reason to NOT fudge the dice if "drama" was all they were going for, but it was a failed roll. Many moments like that exist, more than don't - so Idk why it's doubtful that with thousands of hours of content that every once and a while there will be amazing dice rolls but it's the pessimist/skeptic in me that gives me doubts. I just try not to think about it, and hope that it's never revealed that they do.

I love the thoughts about table etiquettes. Especially when you think about how these guys started in a home game where they would play once every couple months. Effectively they were all like Ashley when she was gone to film Blindspot. They all had to learn to play again and we’re all excited to hang out. So, when they went to play weekly they hadn’t gotten the hang of stopping crosstalk and such and Matt’s world wasn’t a complete interest because it was probably thought of that they would forget it by the next time they would play. Excellent thoughts. Enjoying the videos!

It's not scripted. Look at the raw emotions with Beau regarding Molly and how upset she really was.

Trained performers in a friend group that genuinely love each other can make for a great storytelling show , who'd've thunk it? remember this all started because they were all already friends and Liam wanted to play D&D for his birthday and Matt setup a game as a gift. they're wonderfully wholesome people that just also happen to be very talented and people get so intimidated by it they push against it the idea of it being good in the genuine sense. there's a formula for why CR is good. and it starts with Love and Respect for each other

*SPOILERS FOR EXU CALAMITY* Honestly if any of their campaigns feel scripted it would be EXU Calamity and even then there's no way it was XD. Like the way Brennan lead his players through the narrative was phenomenal. He understood their characters and understood what he needed to make happen or exactly what to say to make his players do what he wanted. The way he crafted the story to hit those narrative beats was astounding like how he se up the entire campaign with the dream sequence only to bring it back full circle in the last episode. How he pushed at Aabria's character to blight the tree or how he played on Luis's need to redeem to bring Asmodeus back into the world like everytime I could see him walking them closer to the Calamity. But even then, even though they had a limited amount of time to get the Calamity to happen never once did it feel inorganic. There was too much chance, too much luck, too much room for exploration and uncertainty to chalk it up to a script. It was all Brennan understanding how manipulate his players characters to achieve the outcomes he wanted and needed without also encroaching on the players freedom. To say that He, Matt, and the players are merely following a script does them such a great disservice.

It's not DnD but would love to see you cover KOLLOK by HyperRPG as their style of translating actual play into a livestream show is very unique and has a high focus on storytelling and pushing technical limits of the format

I think 18:56 is the core of it. For one, the "listening and learning" part, but also because no crosstalking automatically builds confidence to speak up and take your time with a rp moment as a player yourself. I mean, for the cast of cr that probably has been true from the beginning, they're all used to public speaking, improvising and taking the spotlight, but this differs for most casual dnd players. A lot of us are probably somewhat shy or insecure (especially in a group that is not as tightly-knit and familiar with each other like the cr cast is!) and maybe not super spontaneous or straightup a bit scared of the reactions if they would really commit to a more intense moment of rp. Especially when this moment only involves two players of the whole group. Even if you have a great, respectful group, it can feel really awkward to "make everyone wait" just because you want to rp a longer scene. And if there's a lot of crosstalking that only strengthens this subconscious feeling. Also the dynamic at most tables is usually far more mixed, with one or two more talkative and some calmer players. Maybe even some players who just don't enjoy roleplaying that much at all. And this is perfectly fine, I don't mean to tell anyone to change this! We all play the game differently and should try to find a group and a dynamic that fits best with what we feel comfortable with! I'm just saying that a dynamic where a) everyone likes to take the spotlight and improvise unpromptedly once in a while and b) everyone feels save and comfortable to do so because they know everyone else will be mostly quiet and listening reeaally changes the amount and probably "quality" (for lack of a better word) of the rp within the game. (Also, moving away from roleplay and focussing on Matt's DM skills, which make for so immersive and catching stories that it just becomes much easier for everyone to just completely get into it. The only one who actually "scripts" things is him, but it often works so well to kindle player interactions and story moments that those might seem scripted just because Matt is amazing at coming up with the most interesting settings that immediately spark reactions. That's a lot of talent and practice from his side, of course, but also a plain time factor. Most DMs do not have the time, or resources to come up with so much groundwork every single week. This might make "casual" campaigns just less dense, the story moments are maybe more spread out. This depends on the DM and the players of course, but it might play into the impression of CR being so packed with plot. Which, as you also said in the video, isn't even as apparent as it seems if you don't watch every video filled with rambling, weird decisions and tangents and some dnd-typical miscommunication.)

As a Dungeon Master I sometimes tell my players what scenes are planned at the start of the session. Like: -"Today, the cleric's resolve to adventure will be challenged." -"Today, the fighter will be presented with a lose-lose situation." -"Today, the warlock's past will catch up to him and force him to make a sacrifice." Scenes that need to happen if personal elements or major plot points are to play out. And because they got a heads up, they improv those scenes so much better. Yes you can keep the players in the dark, but I found that a small heads up on major 'character/plot development' is always appreciated and leads to far more engaging scenes.

It's funny that I find and watch this video now, cause I had JUST made a big blog post about "The Skill Of Learning When To Shut Up" in tabletop rpgs. And I do find a lot of the "scripted" accusations and "not real D&D" accusations because it's not like their own tables funny because, most of the things they list not being in their games, I often have in mine. We have these big dramatic character moments that make you cry, we have these plot points falling together perfectly in ways that weren't planned (which always feels amazing), we don't really talk over each other a lot. Like of all the live/real play shows I've seen, Critical Role has played the most similar to most of my games. Obviously they don't feel as polished cause none of us are pro actors trained in improv, and we sometimes (often) venture off into nonsense land. But in terms of what feels like "real" dnd to me, it would have to be CR. That's what my games feel like. I actually have struggled to get into other shows because they don't play enough like my own, and it's just not the experience I look for in a ttrpg, playing or viewing.

Hi Mike, I recently found your channel and I must say you're extremely eloquent! Especially in the video when you talked about a specific problem player

C3 has felt a bit more like this to me than previous campaigns, but that might just be because it's no longer done live. I think it might also come from the players thinking more about telling a story with their character, and then naturally picking characters that they know will have an arc of some kind

The number 1 way to point out it's not "scripted" is that there's compilation of times Matt has tore up sheets for encounters and NPC'S that he never got to use. One of the biggest moments of campaign 2 (spoiler alert, stop reading if you want to enjoy it) where Laura tricks the witchy villain with a cupcake. This lead to the combat encounter being thrown out and Matt not revealing the combat map. They ended up showing it on twitter later. But a big epic battle got skipped because of a god damn cupcake. 9/10 other DM's that are having to buy dwaeven forge terrain. If I spend thousands of dollars on a battle map. Take the time to coordinate the layout and configuring parts of it to break away... You god damn know I'm going to make that fight happen. But Matt went with the more entertaining option that was revealed to him. Yes, he's got artists working with him to create these fantastic models. So he's got the campaign on some rails. He's got a through line that he's trying to match. To me, the show is pretty close to equal parts a piece of entertainment and a game. There are other games out there like acquisition in, that's maybe closer to 60% a show, 40% a game. Because they are more of a series of 1 off events. So if they don't hit the narrative beats it leads to something less enjoyable. And they are at conventions so bigger time restrictions. The reason I like critical role and dimension 20 is that these people do.work in entertainment, they are all practiced performers. Either comedians and writers or voice actors. They know how to tell a story, so naturally when it comes to them improvising. It's gonna be a league above the average home game.

I do think that you have to be at least a little bit naïve to think that NONE of the show is planned. Not "scripted", but certainly planned. Romantic relationships, for instance. Liam has said he asked Matt if he was cool with Vax kissing Kiki ahead of time. I think that Marisha and Ashley had spoken about Beau and Yasha getting together ahead of time, same with Travis/Laura and Fjord/Jester. Honestly, that's just good form and respectful table etiquette. You should not be surprising another player with romance, you should always get consent ahead of time. And so in that sense, yes, I fully believe that from episode 100 of campaign 2 onwards, those players knew that their characters would end up together, and they were working towards something they planned ahead of time. And there's lots of examples of things like this, especially around the back half of campaign 2, but the show still certainly isn't "scripted".

The amount of prep and writing I felt I had to do when I ran DnD was crazy. I would write a general outline for NPCs, as well as alternate versions thst could take into account what the players MIGHT do. I'm terrible at improve, I think slowly, so I had to plan everything out.

I think the most clear example of the game not being scripted is the entirety of C2 E123, “fairweather faith” aka the 5 1/2 hour long episode with an unpredictable dragon fight and an accidental, nearly-lethal boss battle. You can see the fear in the players’ eyes as they try to fight their way out of a very rough spot

This made me think of the goblin in the well. The party fireballed the well and Matt ripped up his notes for that NPC and the party went "Oh snap we F'd up!" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AVKB1XaRcA8.html

For a while, I thought that the show was scripted to some degree. Then I watched the show and saw how completely off kilter this group of players were. The kind of decisions they made in some episodes are not the kind of things you wouldn't likely script. Are they actors? Yes. That's what they do for a living, and they've learned to improv off of each other. They know how to make the drama work.

I usually will right down a number of major points that need to get across to the party about the current adventure. That way when I am doing exposition on the story it can stay in character. It is also smart to have several contingencies depending on who the party asks or what direction they take.

I think what folks are picking up on is just good between-session communication. One of my biggest gripes with my current campaign group is that there's almost zero between-session banter so by the time we sit down to play again we basically have to get on the same thought train at the table. An example from critical role I can easily call on is Fjord changing patrons. There is zero chance Matt blindsided Travis with "submit to evil entity or change your class to civilian for several sessions". There had to be some kind of behind-the-scenes discussion between the two of them about the direction Travis wanted to go with the character. The question is "Can that be considered scripted"? I personally don't think so but I can see the argument for why people would say it is.

Just like Laura or Sam said during one of their streams the way you know CR isn't scripted is because they do have scripts for the adds and they can never hold it together for those. Also they aren't because could you imagine how much work that shit would be it's way way easier and makes for a better product to not script it. Again like everyone else has said of course Matt has things he wants them to see and do and he might point them that direction but if Laura and marisha wanted to say F it and leave with Dorian let's say because they were done being in that city with those people then they could of done that. They don't because the players don't want to do that. The players want to play Matt's story so they don't overly fight or try to go against Matt and his story. They certainly throw him off all the time like stealing a boat, killing 5 to 8 people and leaving a ghost story to be told about the dead blue girl with an ax in her.

my thing is that even if the show is scripted it wouldn't stop me from enjoying the show for the entire 4 hours every week!

I think the only thing on CR that has been “scripted” has been purposeful player absences (I.e kidnapping players) or the Bertrand thing so Travis could do what he actually wanted in C3

Would love to hear your thoughts on Calamity, Dimension 20, going over Brennan L.M's DMing style etc. Loving the channel, it's been so helpful!

Sadly I think people aren't used to DND groups where everyone's on the same wavelength, and focused on making it fun for everyone instead of their own personal enjoyment.

Well, it's a.. millionaire.. business.. and some of them are actors. Whenever people approach something with the mentality of "it would be too complicated and it would take a lot of effort" doesn't really understand people. Specially when mouthed by someone that can't compare to people that actually get famous because of their charisma, skills and talents (meaning it is possible for them, even if it isn't possible to you).. so such an excuse is just garbage. That aside, it would not be a surprise if they had some control over what they give their audience. Matt is a professional, so it might seem that way.. but their content is NOT something you do on your Livingroom for yourself and your friends.. it is made for thousands of viewers.

I've always assumed that it's partially scripted. Not that they could possibly script hours of dialogue at a time, but more of a behind the scenes "Ok, I'll do A, B, and C, while you guys do D, E, and F." kind of thing. That they quietly establish a general plan of how they want things to proceed for the benefit of their viewing audience.

I've always assumed that Matt writes down some of his dialog ahead of time, because that makes sense. If he is truly improving it all based on some notes, that is very impressive.

0:46 Mat has always scripted out intros and narrative beats he wants to get right, and there are probably more we have never heard than heard. He also thinks about were the players might go and stages set peace of scenery an characters for the different areas he thinks they will be in. He goes over all this in his how to DM series that was on Geek and Sundry.

I have never understood this theory. What I think is going on is simple, good DMing with a group that are extremely good at improvising. One video I saw that tried to sell the claim made me doubletake as it was a classic example of excellent improvisation. What Matt did amazed me, he reacted in a way that made the scene tense, for both the players and the viewers and showed a masterclass way of how to make a ruling in an unexpected situation. As someone who has been a GM for over 30 years all I saw was a well crafted scene that did what every GM wants to achieve in a good session.

As a person who recently watched episode 56 of Campaign 2 in which Liam does something crazy at the end and Travis is completely visibly opposed to the action but it works out very well

I'm at around the 10-minute mark of the video, and... yeah. As with most conspiracy theories out there, this one is also elegantly disproved by the logic of Mr Occam and his well-honed razor 😅Either it's all an elaborate ruse with layers of planning and even more layers of misdirection, or it's a bunch of nerdy friends who happen to also be voice actors playing DnD and goofing around and occasionally landing at situational perfection. Thank you for the video, well thought out and well *scripted* as always (omg i can totally see your strings)