I Asked Matt Mercer If Critical Role Is Scripted

Great video! Would love to see more interviews! Brennan Lee Mulligan next? 🙌👀

Travis: Scripted? I did not sit through 2 hours of shopping for you to call it scripted.

The Matt Mercer effect is not Matt Marcer's fault. It is the fault of players who have unrealistic expectations of their DMs.

This "I Asked Matt Mercer If Critical Role Is Scripted" video is totally scripted!

90% of the assistance is for Sams add reads.

The fact that they still fumble a lot in combat and from plot threads that Matt dangles in front of them is proof that this is about as "scripted" as a normal game. People are just salty they can't be as good at improvised storytelling as a bunch of professional, trained actors.

The fact that Matt Colville had an entire character and mini story arc prepared for him in Campaign 2 that didn't get used because the players decided to wander off to Xhorhas instead of engaging with the Imperial storyline is all the proof its unscripted I need tbh

People thinks it’s scripted because they’re watching professional actors/improvisers and one of the worlds best and most prepared DMs.

The magic of the Critical Role is that they are also incredibly talented players. Matt is great DM as he has cultivated an atmosphere where players can shine, sure, he plans out what players "should do" - does it always happen like that? No. I would assume he has had to ditch so many battlemaps just because players decided to go and do something else, take an alternative approach. That is not scripting, that is preparing, any DM does that. To the core essence of it all, Critical Role has made strides to make sure that everyone sees that the game is not centered around a DM, it is a strong collaboration of individuals. If everyone is not board, it won't work. Scripting won't help that either.

This happens with any art form that has defined structure that is used for improvisation. There are "rules" to writing and to improv comedy in the same way there are "rules" in music and in dance, and when all the people involved understand the rules and their functions, you can reach a level of improvisation that is beyond what people outside of those spheres might understand; I can personally attest to this when it comes to music, "You guys must have practiced this" isn't an entirely uncommon sentiment when non-musicians watch people jam. That, with the addition of having Matt masterminding the whole thing, having a plan for them and being good at guiding them towards it and generally being good at what he does, and all of them being good writers, gives it a polish that can seem too good to be true sometimes.

Its a credit to Matt and the rest of the cast and production that some critters think this is all scripted. Its impossible to do all this on a script but it feels like it because the cast is so in tune with each other. Their improv is such high level and the rest of us who also play aspire to that level. The way Matt can pivot and adapt to his players choices is beautiful to watch.

It's always been baffling to me how people think it's scripted. I'm convinced that those that think so haven't watched more than 1 episode or a few out of context clips.

Critical Role is D&D. It's theater kid D&D. It's not math rock nerd, rules lawyer kinda D&D. There's a HUGE spectrum of nuance in how to play this game and the Critical Role people do an absolutely wonderful job at playing a TTRPG in a way that's engaging to an audience and not just to the players at the table. They also, at this point, have arguably more time and a lot more budget to dedicate to making their D&D game cool and imersive than any table you're likely ro see outside of Will Wheatons basement. Does it look like your home game? No. Should it? Also no. 😊

The "scripted" debate generally comes down to one thing: some people see others doing something way better than they are capable, and say it must be fake/cheating. It reminds me of when people accuse anyone who beats them in an online game of using hacks. They beat me, therefore they must be cheating. They role play better than me, therefore it must be scripted. Also, some people just call everything on the internet fake. They believe that by calling something fake, it means they're smarter than everyone else because they didn't get "fooled." So they call out "fake" without any proof.

I am a dm of 9 years and have been playing with the same group of friends for almost as long. I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Matt Mercer in a meet in greet when he visited my school. In the past couple of weeks me and my friends have dedicated our time to starting up a live streamed campaign. We have all been putting so much of our hearts into the success of the game and watching this interview only solidified our confidence to commit to this project. Knowing that Matt doesn't want the size and success of CR to intimidate new creators is heartwarming and confidence boosting in the face of adversity and this new undertaking.

I believe that people claiming that CR is scripted have never seen the show, only the clips from cool, silly moments.

I say haters are going to hate. Love Critical Role. Love Matt's style and his insane ability to definitely script a 5 hour weekly show lmfao.

Matt already shared Dropbox documents with his notes... it's basically a bunch of prepared if/else route scenarios. If people think this is a script, do they even play with the DMs who prepare before the games in any capacity?

I don't think it seems scripted. There are too many awkward moments and mishaps (not counting dice-related ones) and oddly paced episodes for it to be scripted. Sure, you can script those things too, technically, but it doesn't make sense from a production perspective, even if you want to make it seem unscripted. The small part about the time-constrained live shows include the one thing I think should be the most scripted (but not mostly): The beginning, especially for one-shots. You need to get the party together somehow, and sometimes it's just better to agree to do it even if it might seem weird for the characters' personalities. Of course, the DM can benefit from scripting speeches and other NPC dialogues that may show up, but that's still only going to be from one side, since things can always change. And will. The last few years I've seen a significant increase in the disbelief that anything posted online is genuine. A lot of things aren't, but for the most part, it doesn't really matter. These things are for entertainment. People get invested in actual scripts just as much as in real stories.

"Scripted" vs "prepared" is an important distinction to make, glad Marisha made it. And though I'd be glad if the players prepared a bit more when it comes to knowing the basic rules and what their characters can do... I still enjoy watching CR.