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On a scale of 0 (no clue what they are doing) to 10 (there is a master plan with a hundred steps), how strategic is Critical Role?

My guess would be around 3. This is mostly „seems like a cool idea, let’s do it“ without much of a plan.

At EnWorld is a list.

In one word: politics.

More words from here:

Domain-level play is an old term for giving RPG characters political power in the form of ”domains” they control, be those guilds, corporations, or part or all of a sovereign nation. Historically, Dungeons and Dragons campaigns would eventually see the characters having enough wealth and influence to purchase a stronghold, which would give them not only a base of operations but also a parcel of land to see over. Once the characters were officially nobles in this way, a whole new area of storylines could open up, involving courtly intrigue as well as broader politics. At a default level this would insert characters onto a bigger political stage, but it was both possible and for some palatable to start changing the course of politics in the world in which the game took place.

It looks like a dingy old library. The librarian is actually a genie using mind-control-illusion on everybody but the wizard.

It is a really busy lab where assistants move stuff and build things 24/7. Everybody as an alarm-switch-gadget.

The Eternal Vault is intended for long term storage: Only creatures can get out. No thing, no gear, no spells. The wizard strips naked whenever he needs to look something up in there.

If you want to watch some videos, I can recommend the Goobertown Hobbies Youtube channel. Here a video on paint pigments and here his Getting Started tutorial.

“Alignment” as in “lawful good” or “chaotic evil”?

I’d say “neutral evil” because the Drow are traditionally “neutral evil” and they tremble under the tyranny of the spider queen, Lolth.

I would assume the fact that the group of player characters, the crew, has mechanics like a character. Interaction with other crews becomes the faction game.

Not quite a review in the traditional sense: Dan Felder‘s podcast The GM‘s Guide reviews his self-made campaign and how he made it. As a professional game designer, he brings quite some depth to it.

Dread is commonly recommended but I haven’t tried it myself yet.

Trophy is another one. Listening to their podcast, I found it creepy indeed.

Apocalypse World, the PbtA origin, uses harm.

However, in the “message from the designers” it says “moving away from HP and damage dice in favor of conditions”. Both the designers used “conditions” in their previous games (Chasing Adventure, Against the Odds), so I would assume they plan to reuse that.

From Chasing Adventure:

Conditions represent wounds, exhaustion, frustration, curses, and more negative effects that afflict a PC as they adventure. They often occur when Moves mention ‘harm’ or ‘blows’, or similar.

When a PC receives a condition, they choose one of their stats and write down the fictional reason for the condition (the PC chooses both of these). Some especially formidable dangers can inflict multiple conditions at once.

When a PC makes a roll using a stat that has a condition, that roll has Disadvantage, but also gives them 1 XP after the roll is resolved (see the Level Up Move on Page 16).

When a PC’s last stat gains a condition, they Crumble. Conditions can be healed when you Settle In, when you use items like Supplies, or through special Moves or abilities. See the Peripheral Moves on Page 16 for more details.

Example Conditions

• STR - Weakened, Nauseous
• DEX - Dizzy, Shaky, Stunned
• WIS - Confused, Exhausted, Blinded
• INT - Dazed, Forgetful, Concussed
• CHA - Scarred, Grumpy

We have been in session 5 of a Mausritter campaign.

Three mice and a hireling ventured beyond the big gate to figure out what happened to the legendary city of Amberfount (actually “Funkenquell” as we play in German). At the end of the last session we just reached the top of the clockwork tower to free Ari (cliche female mouse in distress) and encountered an old techno-necro-mouse with time-magic powers who rules over the swarm of cockroaches we justed passed.

One of the three heroes managed to flank the evil one and hurt him, while the others where slowed down and then had to defend against roaches coming from behind. The necro-mouse got to give a little bad-guy monologue and fell down the tower like a Disney villain.

Meanwhile the roaches managed to kill one of the heroes though! With the overlord gone, they accepted a truce and the remaining mice got to carry their dead comrade out. With a ceremonial push-into-the-well that was the end of that character.

I found it rather hilarious that the GM actually tried to give us opportunities to revive the dead hero. However, we failed all dice rolls and were too skeptical after previous necro-shenanigans. Also, the player was fine with losing his character.

After some discussion, we decided to try a new meta-rule: If your character dies, you become the GM next session. Let’s see how that will play out. The campaign will take a break over christmas.

I think, as GM, the art is what questions to ask.

The GM should keep control of the discussion. There is a big difference between open questions like “what are vampires in this world?” and closed questions like “what is the name of the vampire queen?” It depends on the group how open questions can be without everything devolving into insanity.

Yes. Mausritter also uses the 2-page format a lot and I also like it there.

Nice work! Here is my quick brain dump:

• trumpets for an announcement
• horses riding
• goblins cackling
• force field / magic sizzling

By the way, isn’t the light-dark switch inverted?

Orcs in Tolkien’s work were rather a stand in for German soldiers since he fought them in WW1. Gygax simply sourced monsters from everywhere. Only later they became elevated to sentient beings and a playable race… uh… species now (D&D 2024).

I’d say “character vs character” is fine as long as as the “players” are both fine.

“…and then Jack chopped down the beanstalk, adding murder and ecological vandalism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned, but he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you’re a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.” ― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Turns out, eventually someone will ask inconvenient questions.

I’ve seen many a good wargame and wargamer spoiled thanks to the fair sex. I’ll detail that if anyone wishes. -Gygax

There is clearly more than dragon alignment. Apparently, Gygax has made some bad experiences and calls out women as a threat to his wargaming (i.e. ttrpg) hobby. It also doesn’t seem to be an off-hand mention since he dares his readers to ask for more.

Btw he wrote this years before he even met Lorraine Williams, so more bad experiences ahead. He was married for nearly twenty years at the time of this quote. Not sure if that means anything.