Critical Role fans raise millions of dollars to fund animated D&D special - Tabletop cuckolding

[Haramburger]

For anyone who questions the validity of this sort of campaign, level of interest, or the relevance in A&H on having its own thread about this, lolcow (and Ricky & Morty co-creator) Dan Harmon has been greenlit for season 3 of Harmonquest, an animated series that animates the D&D campaign he and his hangers-on do publicly. Somehow, there is a voracious audience for this.

 

[thx1138]

If you're going to back a table top game kickstarter, I would say go and back anything Steve Jackson Games, Reaper or Dwarf Forge do. They apparently deliver. And although I missed it (goddamnit) Steve Jackson just completed a KS to re-make all the plastic box pocket games they did once upon a time, back when they were Metagames.

 

[Pargon]

Critical Role isn't bad storytelling. It's not Doctor Zhivago and Campaign One was pretty formulaic but fuck it, so is Coca-Cola. Doesn't stop people from buying it. Mercer has put about a hundred times more thought and effort into building the world than the entire #SupportDiverseGames crowd put together even if it is built on a tried-and-true foundation, and he manages to work every PC's backstory into the narrative to give them all a greater investment in the adventure.

CR also for the most part dodges SJ bullshit, which is more than can be said for something like The Adventure Zone. Fucking hell I hate the McElroys.

 

[boulderblundermatt90]

let's not forget, the critrole cast didn't expect to raise this much money... in such a short amount of time. its hilarious really.

that said, while their pledge goals are sketchy the higher they go, they aren't bad.

that said, the people who donated 25,000 to it is exceptional beyond hell (4/5 spots at the time of writing)

 

[Pargon]

let's not forget, the critrole cast didn't expect to raise this much money... in such a short amount of time. its hilarious really.

that said, while their pledge goals are sketchy the higher they go, they aren't bad.

that said, the people who donated 25,000 to it is exceptional beyond hell (4/5 spots at the time of writing)

They've had big(ish) names on the show and fairly wealthy fans. It was probably Wheaton.

 

[Safir]

Have you played, read or watched any Dragonlance dnd stuff before? What about record of the lodoss war? Because they both started out as dnd campaigns before becoming bigger things.

Unlike Lodoss, Dragonlance did NOT start as a D&D campaign. It was a series of D&D modules (adventures) professionally produced by TSR, the makers of D&D. The protagonists of the first trilogy of novels were pre-generated characters you could play in these adventures (but you could also make your own), created by the project team (not by the individual players). Each module had a set of choices for extremely important facts about the immediate setting the referee could mix and match as he pleased.

The modules were of course playtested by lead designer Tracy Hickman, other TSR employees, and their friends, but the actual events of the playtest did not make it into the books, except for character mannerisms (particularly Tasselhoff, as played by Janet Pack, and Raistlin, as played by some dude). Hickman and TSR book editor Margaret Weis plotted the first novel, failed to hire a writer, and ended up writing it themselves.

Their whole ideology is based off of equity of outcome instead of equal opportunity.

I like to think of it as wanting "freedom from" rather than "freedom to".

Both things in each pair are exactly the same. Lern 2 abstract algebra, or experiment design, or something.

Equal opportunity which is not equal outcome is just empty words, because how else can you measure opportunity? All this sperging about opportunity as being distinct is simply a PC way to weasel out of making a stance:
"This is the set of criteria for success which [we say] actually matter right now. This is the set of criteria criteria which should matter to produce a society that [we say] would be better on these metrics."

Every "freedom to A [that we say is good]" is a "freedom from not-A [that we say is bad]". It's how you sort things into bad and good that define your political outlook, not the predicate.

 

[boulderblundermatt90]

They've had big(ish) names on the show and fairly wealthy fans. It was probably Wheaton.

True enough.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

Critical Role isn't bad storytelling. It's not Doctor Zhivago and Campaign One was pretty formulaic but fuck it, so is Coca-Cola. Doesn't stop people from buying it. Mercer has put about a hundred times more thought and effort into building the world than the entire #SupportDiverseGames crowd put together even if it is built on a tried-and-true foundation, and he manages to work every PC's backstory into the narrative to give them all a greater investment in the adventure.

CR also for the most part dodges SJ bullshit, which is more than can be said for something like The Adventure Zone. Fucking hell I hate the McElroys.

Reminder that the words "crazy" and "insane" literally bring them to tears

 

[LN 910]

This is basically just a Game Grumps animated but exceptional tards are willing to fork over money for it

 

[Pargon]

This is basically just a Game Grumps animated but exceptional tards are willing to fork over money for it

If you're a fan I can see the draw for it, since the main feature is a part of the first campaign's story that no one's seen because they played it before they started streaming their sessions. It is sort of "it doesn't matter how Darth Vader became Darth Vader, the prequels are horseshit" though.

The new set of stretch goals are pure pandering, though, since they're meant to cover production on a storyline that was streamed and lots of the fans love it. If they hit all their goals for it I feel sorry for the writer trying to stretch that chapter out to an hour and a half because it's nearly all combat and fucking boring.

 

[Zaryiu]

Goddamn that hashtag is full of gems, and scary shit, why the fuck do they want to ruin mechs now as well. I hope these people stay marginalized forever, not all ideas and voices are equal and deserve support, goddamned ebegging leeches.

Yes, Matt Mercer, give them your scraps.

View attachment 685243

Spoiler: Bullshit mech game ideas

A mech game about almost literally shaking. But with brown people mechs for revenge.

View attachment 685234

They do know a lot about mind sharing.

View attachment 685236

And the gem of the bunch.. Wtf you mech fucker
View attachment 685238

Wanting to ruins mechs

Desire to purge rising

 

[tasty humane burger]

I follow someone on Instagram (who used to be a geeky meme account years ago that has recently turned into a cosplay/personal/multifandom account) who fits into the SJW criteria who is completely obsessed with this game beyond even an autist level. She appears to be pretty poor and constantly says she can't go to local cons/meetups/whatever else because she's either working her slave wage job or has no money - it doesn't appear to be in the way a lot of e-beggers do where it's a fake kinda poor - but just from seeing her Insta stories of around her neighbourhood and her family home she seems very poor, so I'd say her poorness is pretty legit.

Anyway, guess what?

Spoiler: ??????

She fucking donated.

Other people I've seen in the 'fandom' are mostly similar, if not tame, they're acting like it some sort of home grown, sweet, original idea that has been made by some of their broke-ass friends in their living room, not already established voice actors with careers. I think it's kinda predatory that they know a lot of their fans are teenagers-immature people in their mid-20s and they're doing shit like this, especially with the stretch goals.

 

[Pargon]

I follow someone on Instagram (who used to be a geeky meme account years ago that has recently turned into a cosplay/personal/multifandom account) who fits into the SJW criteria who is completely obsessed with this game beyond even an autist level. She appears to be pretty poor and constantly says she can't go to local cons/meetups/whatever else because she's either working her slave wage job or has no money - it doesn't appear to be in the way a lot of e-beggers do where it's a fake kinda poor - but just from seeing her Insta stories of around her neighbourhood and her family home she seems very poor, so I'd say her poorness is pretty legit.

Anyway, guess what?

Spoiler: ??????

She fucking donated.

Other people I've seen in the 'fandom' are mostly similar, if not tame, they're acting like it some sort of home grown, sweet, original idea that has been made by some of their broke-ass friends in their living room, not already established voice actors with careers. I think it's kinda predatory that they know a lot of their fans are teenagers-immature people in their mid-20s and they're doing shit like this, especially with the stretch goals.

As has been stated in the animegate/KickVic thread, VAs are hardly celebrities. Mercer and Bailey might be big-ish names in their field but your average pleb still wouldn't be able to recognize their voice in any of the big stuff they've been in. They're not living in mansions. I guess I'm confused where the issue with crowdfunding lies when it's not a matter of "they're all loaded, why don't they just pay for it all themselves?". Unless you disagree with crowdfunding writ large, which I can certainly understand if not necessarily agree with. Personally I'd rather be accountable to a bunch of people who already love and/or believe in my project than a fucking bank (though, admittedly, people on the internet are insane).

 

[Stab You in the Back]

Critical Role Kickstarter success is starting interesting conversatio…

archived 11 Mar 2019 18:51:53 UTC

archive.fo

Critical Role’s massive crowdfunding success is kickstarting some interesting conversations

Shining a light on the overall health of the role-playing games industry

The team from Critical Role, a weekly “actual play” role-playing series, has achieved something remarkable. Their crowdfunding project to produce a series of 22-minute cartoons is now the highest-funded television or film project ever run on Kickstarter. The 45-day campaign began on March 4 with a massive $750,000 ask. As of this writing, it has already cleared more than $6.95 million, making it one of the top 10 most-funded Kickstarters of all time.

That’s an incredible achievement, and emblematic of the outsized influence that tabletop gaming has at the moment in the crowdfunding space. But, like most Kickstarter projects this size, the effort is not without its controversies — so let’s spend a little time unpacking things.

. . .

Representation

So who are the most popular actual play performers out there? Comparative numbers are impossible to come by, but if we dig just a bit into the comments from the Diana Jones folks, we can begin to form a list. They mention Critical Role, of course, but also The Adventure Zone from the McElroy family. There’s also Maze Arcana, the Acquisitions, Inc. performances from Penny Arcade, and the One Shot and Campaigns podcasts on the One Shot Network.

Taken in the aggregate, all of these shows have something in common: They’re all pretty white. While women are well represented in the most popular actual play experiences, people of color are not. In fact, the team behind the Critical Role Kickstarter may be the least racially diverse group of the bunch.

This is a group of self-described best friends who built up an entertainment property from scratch. Yes, it is based on the most successful role-playing franchise of all time. Yes, they had help from Geek and Sundry, which carried their show for a time and helped them reach a broader audience.

And yet.

When you’re pulling down a significant chunk of the revenue generated by the entire hobby on which your creative property is built, when you’re operating at this kind of scale, it seems natural that you’d be held to the same sorts of standards as others in the entertainment industry.

The hobby games industry is coming into its own during a more socially conscious era. Recently, it came together to cast out an accused abuser from its biggest storefronts and public gatherings. WoTC has also been proactive, making space for diversity in its sourcebooks and even turning it into a feature of its reimagining of the city of Waterdeep. It’s also investing in actual play experiences that are welcoming to people of color.

Efforts like that make the Critical Role team stand out, for better or for worse.

“There is no excuse to not include POC in your [actual plays], especially in Los Angeles,” writes Kimi Hughes, owner of Golden Lasso Games, on Twitter. “My group had been doing [actual play] podcasts for years. We [started] streaming a few years ago. Looking at the screen during that first game we had a realization, we were WHITE. We were all friends but that wasn’t going to cut it. The point of streaming is to open the hobby to others.

“We started reaching out to POC that we knew, we started meeting new people and inviting them, we started learning and putting in the work to be better,” she continued. “You know what? We are still a group of friends. We are just a bigger, better group of friends. [Our] games are better too!”

Hughes is not alone in her criticism. Meanwhile, others are asking folks to slow down and lower their pitchforks. Some people seem to think that they can continue to praise the team at Critical Role for their success, while also calling for more representation within the space.

“Nobody is ‘turning’ on critical role,” writes a TTRPG podcaster. “If you think that pointing out that things could and should have diversity especially with the ability the cast has to promote it is ‘turning’ on them then i really don’t know what to tell you. ppl have been pointing it out for years.”

By and large, the tenor of the conversation is that the folks behind Critical Role are good people. They’ve done incredible work to carve out a niche for themselves, and in so doing they’ve helped legitimize the hobby of role-playing.

But they could, and should, also do better.

They could do better for small TTRPG creators, by bringing attention to the weird economics that keep them from succeeding financially. They could do better for people of color, by simply including them in their project. And they could do better by being open to a dialogue with their critics on social media.

The good news is, they opted for the 45-day Kickstarter campaign option over the 30-day option. That means they’ve got a lot of time to kill before the end of the campaign, and every reason to continue to keep eyeballs on their franchise.

But, in the short term, they had better get moving on more stretch goals. At this rate, they’ll have exhausted them in just a few short days.

Congratulations on the successful kickstarter. Now please cock it all up with some forced diversity.

 

[Pargon]

But they could, and should, also do better.

i like that this has become a rallying cry/dogwhistle for anyone wanting to piggyback on the hard work of others. you raised over seven million dollars to fund a common beloved project between you and your friends? congrats, but fuck you if you're not surrendering a tithe willingly to the masked troon dangerhair brigade. stand and fucking gibs.

is there any greater evidence that nothing short of immediate capitulation will satisfy them?

no mention made in the article that critical role has been supporting a charity from their very first stream. it's 826la, a nonprofit that helps schoolage kids with creative and expository writing. within a few episodes of the second campaign alone they raised several thousand dollars on account of a benefactor agreeing to donate $100 for every natural one they rolled.

but none of that money went to some legbeard's mech game so...guess that was all a waste!

 

[Dr. Dingo DVM]

I'm not familiar with Critical Role backstory but wasn't it formed as a group of friends just broadcasting their DnD games? Maybe weird dangerhair troon journos make friends by ticking boxes on a racial and gender checklist but normal human beings don't. They just click with who they do and if they don't manage to find a gay trans disabled woman of color, so what?

is there any greater evidence that nothing short of immediate capitulation will satisfy them?

Nope, they're really arguing for token trannies and black friends. These types of people are racist in progressive ways.

 

[Pargon]

I'm not familiar with Critical Role backstory but wasn't it formed as a group of friends just broadcasting their DnD games?

They're not just friends, they're also all voice actors, professional colleagues, another grouping subtype that nü-marxists are utterly baffled by, as evidenced by their constant confusion with it for cronyism. It's almost as if humans form bonds when they work on a project together collectively.

They wouldn't know anything about that, though, being that the world is one giant crab pot to them and they're perpetually preoccupied with dragging down anyone who rises above them.

 

[Late and Gay]

Critical Role isn't bad storytelling. It's not Doctor Zhivago and Campaign One was pretty formulaic but fuck it, so is Coca-Cola. Doesn't stop people from buying it. Mercer has put about a hundred times more thought and effort into building the world than the entire #SupportDiverseGames crowd put together even if it is built on a tried-and-true foundation, and he manages to work every PC's backstory into the narrative to give them all a greater investment in the adventure.

CR also for the most part dodges SJ bullshit, which is more than can be said for something like The Adventure Zone. Fucking hell I hate the McElroys.

What'd the McElroys do?

 

[Dom Cruise]

This would be doubly great if they started targeting the Crit Roll people because they're white and (as far as I know) het as the day is long, in addition to being liberal in fairly benign ways for the most part. Marisha Ray is pretty rah-rah-girl power but it's mostly business and fake-geek-girl related. I don't think any of them have a history of spouting off on much apart from general grumbling about Drumpf. Watching them come under the crosshairs of the Oppression Brigade and seeing the subsequent sparks fly between them and the CR fandom would be hilarious.

EDIT: opps, turns out Taliesin Jaffe is bi. Hrm. Shoulda guessed by the rare(er) appearance of the male dangerhair.

Spoiler: How much'd set you back, fag???

View attachment 685218

Your Eva commentary sucked shit, nerd.

I have respect for Taliesin Jaffe because he directed the English dub for my all time favorite anime and the English dub is a big reason why it's my favorite.

Also interesting note, he's had died hair for at least 15 years, long, long before it was a trend.

That said I haven't watched Critical Role despite his involvement, can someone tell me what his... role on the show is?

 

[Pargon]

What'd the McElroys do?

They're generic progressive shitstains. My favorite moment of theirs was suggesting on their podcast that a woman shoot a man for calling her "darlin'".

I have respect for Taliesin Jaffe because he directed the English dub for my all time favorite anime and the English dub is a big reason why it's my favorite.

Also interesting note, he's had died hair for at least 15 years, long, long before it was a trend.

That said I haven't watched Critical Role despite his involvement, can someone tell me what his... role on the show is?

He's one of the players. The setup is basically seven veteran VAs (and occasional special guests from the same field, or sometimes just other figures deemed acceptable by liberal modern "geek" culture) play D&D and lend a bit of extra immersion to the proceedings via their talents.

I know it sounds like ragging on them a bit but fucking Noelle Stevenson doesn't belong within a ten mile radius of anything with even a possibility of being good out of a risk of turning it into cancer.