Do you know what I think? The games we play at our table aren’t just as good as Critical Role, they’re better. They are better for us.
– Ian O’Rourke, www.fandomlife.net
It’s a fascinating time in the tabletop role-playing community (henceforth, TTRPG’s to save my typing fingers), as we are definitely in a ‘generational’ shift. It’s not necessarily one based on age, but that’s part of it, but one based on your time and entry method into the hobby.
TTRPG’s, though it could be argued more Dungeons & Dragons, have become phenomenally popular and cool due to streaming. Some might say Critical Role. Again, the new popularity isn’t all about Critical Role and streaming but this series of articles are inspired by some of the discussions around this phenomena.
The Challenge of High Expectations
I’m 48. I got into TTRPG’s when I was 11. Needless to say I’ve been playing a long time. It is both surprising to me and fascinating that watching people play a role-playing game is popular and, more importantly, that I enjoy watching a streaming show myself.
Critical Role does set a high standard. While Critical Role is a typical Dungeons and Dragon game, in some ways quite traditionally delivered, it has the benefit of being played by a gaming group comprised of professional voice actors. This means the approach to the game is a very actor and improv focused style of play.
This produces fantastically, dramatic storytelling at their table which then sets high expectations.
These high expectations result in conversations across Twitter, Blogs and Reddit that show the acting quality on display can intimidate as well as inspire. People have been put off by living up to these expectations or dropped out because their experience at the table did not match them.
Avoid Trying To Be An Actor
The mistake being made, and the secret to your games having as a dramatic focus as Critical Role, which we’re using as a short-hand for acting focused streams at this point, is to not try and compete as an actor.
You’re going to fail at that. The typical person involved in a TTRPG isn’t an actor, in truth, you’re probably quite a bad one. There are acceptions to this as streaming has undoubtedly increased the appeal of drama students and the like wanting to practice their craft on a streaming show, but the chances are you’re not that person.
I know I’m not. I can’t do accents. I’m not even that keen on just ‘playing a character’. I can alter the cadence of my speech. I certainly link playing scenes that have a point, like those in a novel or TV show. I very much approach the game as a writer who just happens to write in the moment and play some of the scenes out.
The key to having a game as dramatic and with as rich a story is put to aside the acting focus and instead approach your TTRPG experience as an author. I don’t just mean the individual running the game, but everyone at the table, present, in the moment, as authors.
Because there is probably a much bigger chance you can be good at that.
You’re Game Can Be As Good
Do you know what I think? The games we play at our table aren’t just as good as Critical Role, they’re better. They are better for us. The stories we tell are rich. We play with different ways of telling stories. We do a good deal of self-editing to focus on what’s important. There are elements of the style of play used in Critical Role that would drive us completely mad.
You can have a TTRPG experience as rich in storytelling and drama by being focused on being an author and bringing those tools, transferred to a tabletop format, into your games. This series of articles is about practically doing that.