5 (GM) things I learned from Critical Role
Today I want to talk about a few things that I’ve learned from various places, but seen done to greatest effect in Critical Role. So I consider them to be the folks I learned from because they are the best representation of these things that I know.
For folks who don’t know, I got into tabletops a few years ago. It was summer then. Twitch had just started to take off. And my partner kind of got me to start watching this show on there - mostly because he knows what a big fan I am of seeing people be goofy and not take themselves too seriously and have fun - and of hot nerds. Big fan of hot nerds. And here was like.. Seven of them.
So I got pretty into following this show and this game I really didn’t know too much about - but my partner had played older editions of in high school. Eventually, I got to a point where i was itching to play the game. I was consuming all kinds of D&D content online - mainly Geek and Sundry’s GM Tips and Matt Colville’s videos. But for the life of me, I couldn't find anyone to play with me in person. I only ever seemed to talk to people who weren’t interested at all, or people who were also looking for a game. So tangentially, I started playing Shadowrun because that was the only game on offer to me. But I had no options for D&D. So I did what I always tend to fucking do in situations like this - I said fuck it, I’ll do it myself. And so that’s how I started GM’ing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Matt Mercer made it look easy, and Matt Colville made it sound easy, so I was like ‘hell yeah I can do this. I mean, I’m not as hot as either of them but my hair is at least as nice as Mercer’s so…’
So I went in with some nervousness but also the confidence of the prepared because I had been consuming and digesting information and insights from the best. And yeah, I’ve learned a lot and honed my craft and whatnot and I continue to learn from them and from everyone around me, but I think I started decently strong. And that’s in part because of all the preparation but also because my players all cut me so much slack. Everyone just wanted to play and have a good time, and I trusted them to want that, and I was right. I’ve definitely had a few problem players over the years, but all that was fairly recent. I had basically no problem players in the early days of me running games so it was a great environment to learn in.
Anyway - enough about all that. What did I specifically learn from Critical Role that I continue to aspire to being great at?
The Critical Role Effect
Everyone knows about the Matt Mercer effect. I think it’s a stupid dismissive concept personally but what I think does exist and doesn’t get talked about like it should is the Critical Role Effect. A group of people who love and respect each other and the game they are playing. It’s the group dynamic that is so magical and aspirational.
2. Keep crosstalk to a minimum
Obviously you’re not going to eliminate it altogether - this is time spent enjoying yourself, and that comes with a certain amount of levity. But giving people the space to do and say things without them being interrupted or distracted can lead to some great gameplay.
3. Make adventure hooks personal
This is something that I think we all try to do as GMs but I firmly believe that even though ideally the PCs don’t think of themselves as protagonists and merely just reacting to things in the world, they effectively are for your purposes as the GM. The world exists for them to react to. So the more traditional way to approach this is to let players find their own motivation to be involved in the world - for example, a small nearby village has been looted and pillaged by bandits. Sure, the PCs go and save the village because they are heroic and good and that’s what one does - but what if the bandit captain was the long lost sister of one of the PCs. Now - on top of your village adventure, there is potential for at least one character to have a bit of backstory or personal arc be on the table. That’s going to make them even more invested. There was a great GM roundtable recently where Brennan Lee Mulligan said three little words that really resonated with me and underscored this point: Make it matter.
4. The value of inter-party RP
Tangentially to the last point, when a character has something brought up or is even reacting to something in the world, at least one other player usually reacts to them. It’s not just six people reacting to Matt Mercer. If anything, Matt Mercer is a fraction of what’s happening at the table. Characters are constantly interacting with each other. This makes them more bonded as a party, and you as the GM can sit back and watch and understand what’s important to your players. That’s the real point - it’s not just interparty RP for the fuck of it - though it is a ton of fun - it’s an opportunity for you, the GM, to unravel more of who this character is and start to inject even more personalization into the game. And the thing is, for the Critical Role group - as players, they’ve been doing this for years now so they have a cadence developed. If its still something newish to you and your table, I promise it isn’t hard to do. I’ve got a short 7-minute video on how to enable inter-party RP that I’ll link in the description.
5. Invest in the characters
The most crucial thing I got out of Critical Role was to understand that compelling stories and engaging games come from investing in the characters at the table, as they invest in you. Let yourself be influenced by your players.
Your world can be as epic as the Mahabharata or the Shahnama, but you cannot have that exist in a vacuum. The world exists insofar as the players want to interact with it and each other within it. And I know some GMs are of the opinion - ‘well my world just exists and the players can engage or not. The world’s going to keep existing.’ - ok but.. First of all, if nobody wants to play, the world stops existing. But second of all - That’s so exclusionary. Like why is it so important that the players respect the sanctity of your creation so much? Maybe this, then, isn’t the right medium for your story. Maybe you should try your hand at a book.
But if you build the world and your encounters with your players in mind - suddenly everything starts sparkling so much more. Encourage RP, encourage emotional complexity, encourage backstories that exist within the context of the world, and when you have combat, make it relevant to the story and not just an encounter for the sake of an encounter. Suddenly - Things resonate, things become dramatic, stakes are higher… It’s incredible when you’re helping tell their story within your world, not yours alone.
Anyway, those are the 5 things I learned from Critical Role that have made me a quantifiably better GM.
