Neither Critical Role Nor 5e is OSR

Podcast Name: Critical Role Where I Listened: Podbean for Android Where It's Available: YouTube, CritRole.com, Geek and Sundry, Twitch, ... really, just Google it. System: 5e D&D

Leather (but cursed a bit)

Thoughts and Review

You already know what Critical Role is. Being the single most popular, single most successful live-cast in the RPG ecosystem to date - it is a waste of words to illustrate for you this home-game-turned-live-event franchise. Having now officially lost all OSR credibility for putting this live-cast into my review backlog, I figure I'll spend some effort explaining the decision.

A colleague of mine recently in an event recently indicated, as a personal trivia item, that she enjoyed D&D, alongside some of our other colleagues. Jokingly, I asked her "Gygax or Arneson?" - to which she had a very appropriate reply: "I'm just glad they made it!"

Why is this particularly insightful? Two reasons - one, because she's right: it's the spirit of the game. The purpose of D&D is to escape reality and project into a fantasy adventure, growing from nothing to riches and power or dying anonymously in a dark hole in the attempt. Two - because she was introduced to the hobby by watching Critical Role and may or may not have known who Gary and Dave were.

Whether or not, in order to answer my question, she'd had to Google the names being beyond the scope of my current speculation - but knowing that many players have been introduced to the hobby this way, having listened to Season 1 myself, I wanted to produce a piece that illustrates the commonalities between how an old-school game flows versus what you'd expect from a new-school game: for which Critical Role serves as example.

Full Disclosure

I listened to Season 1. I have not listened to Season 2.

As far as I can tell, Season 1 began as a streamed version of the DM, Matt Mercer's, home game - but as the stream picked up speed, as the brand grew, it evolved into less of his home game and more of a presentation: more of a show. This is understandable. The players are actors - professionals with credits on IMDB and everything - as such, it makes sense that, in order to produce the content their evolving audience and community was appreciating, they would evolve towards their thespian core competencies. Season 1 is, thus, the sole source of the unique rating I'm giving this Old School Audit, which I will elaborate a bit more on later, and the commentary contained herein.

When I listen to an actual play, I am listening for the "play" part. That being the case, I did give Season 2 a listen, but I stopped listening fairly early on: the first few episodes being improv hour at the drama club towards the end of character development. I do not know if Season 2 became more mechanical in later episodes.

Elements to Take Away

Regardless of how extensive a rule set is, the players will always want to do something that is not covered by the rules. This is an element that Critical Role handles well. The DM, when confronted with an element of play not in the books, is not afraid to make a ruling on the spot based on his common sense. One prime example of this is how he handles brawling. The barbarian character, Grog Strongjaw, routinely - when presented with the opportunity to do so - will engage in hand to hand fisticuffs. The DM, in presenting these opportunities, encourages and rewards the player indicating a tactic to engage in that is unique to the situation - such as throwing sand or a groin shot. None of these situations have rules around them - but the DM adjudicates them fairly and consistently based on the situation at hand. This is a prime example of Rulings over Rules - a core tenant of old-school game-play surviving into the modern era. Expect to see - and play - similar in any OSR game you join or intend to run.

In the real world, there are rarely if ever situations in which one answer is the only answer. In an old-school game, a player should likewise expect - and a Referee should expect to plan for - multiple avenues of approach to get through the world and navigate the situations and problems presented by the DM. This element of the game likewise persists from old to new into Critical Role's early episodes. There are some places where there are hallways, of course, leading in one direction - however on more than one occasion (especially in the first 15 episodes or so) the party actually burns the obvious path, accidentally or intentionally, and must then work around the environment. I enjoyed the element of freedom this represented - and I enjoyed its longer-term consequences. Befriending a monster? Plausible, yes; beneficial, temporarily - but worth the risk? The party has to make that call.

Elements to Leave Behind

Critical Role is a good expose of the 5e system. That implies - then - that, as 5e is missing several key elements of an OSR game, Critical Role will also miss several key OSR concepts. This is not a fault in the product - it's a design goal. 5e is not OSR, doesn't claim to be OSR, and doesn't try to be OSR - the purpose of this pointer is to indicate to the reader that, when consuming this product, be mindful that it is, in fact, a different frame of mind than what to expect, or what to aim for, when participating in an old school game.

Can you integrate old school elements into a non-old school game? Yes.

Will the mechanics work against you when you do so? Yes - and you'll have authored a house-rule document larger than the original rulebook by the time you're done.

A few points that will be in an OSR game that is not a part of 5e, nor an intention of 5e, and thus won't really be included in Critical Role are as follows:

• Hex Maps - in an old school game, especially a sandbox or exploration game, hex maps, everyone's favorite anachronistic yet functional mechanism to abstract directionally-unbounded overland movement, does not appear to be in use for Critical Role. It's of course possible that the DM has one behind the scenes, but in play, the party tends to move point-of-interest to point-of-interest.
• Inventory Management - a prime element of old-school play is managing your encumbrance and figuring out how to haul your treasure and gear at the same time. In Critical Role, in focusing away from bookkeeping and towards storytelling, they sideline encumbrance via magical means - re: extra-dimensional spaces, massive strength, etc.
• Hirelings - Hirelings are used, in the sense that the party has a castle that is populated by NPCs, however these NPCs do not accompany the party on adventures. A core element of old school gaming - which relates to a solution to the point above regarding Inventory Management - is to bring NPCs with you to bolster your ranks or to fill holes in the party composition.
• Character Morbidity - I seem to recall a headline in my news feed that there was a character fatality in Season 2. The reaction from the community? Uproar! In new school games - and in Critical Role, in general - player characters don't die; favored NPCs, only rarely. In an OSR game - expect the opposite. The dice are fickle and impartial and player characters are squishy and vulnerable: even at higher levels. A key difference between what to expect on this actual play and what to expect in your experience will lie in the possibility (and probability!) of character morbidity.
• Railroading Aversion. The DM takes extreme care - as I inferred from player reactions to the introduction of props - to ensure the party is guided in the "right" direction for the "narrative." For me, this really starts right around the "Hunter's Guild" arc - for that reason, I'd skip a few months of episodes when you start hearing Slavic accents.

There are other resources, other opinion pieces, regarding 5e and how it's unsuited for or how it can be modified to suit an OSR style of game. I won't go into those, as such a dissertation would exceed the intended scope (and the provided margins) of even one of my loquacious blog posts - I will leave it to your capable Google-fu to figure out how to find them in the event that it's your jam to consider it further.

Kudos with Caveats

I like to think of this review series as being equally about the enjoyability aspect of a given actual play and the value of that actual play to inspire and educate aspiring Referees. Critical Role, in the first season, is a good expose of the powers, spells, and mechanisms of the 5th edition of the rules. For that, it gets kudos - however, keep in mind: if you're leaning in to the OSR - 5e inverts the design goals of old-school systems. An old school game stresses resource management - 5e, using cantrips and other class abilities, trivializes resource management: for example, the party's Bag of Holding. While it is a legitimate item, part of an old school game is managing encumbrance and choosing which piece of treasure to take or how, based on what you can carry, and weighing that risk against how it may affect your travel out of the dungeon and back to town. An old school game has a higher morbidity rate - as discussed above - 5e makes it difficult for a player character to die. So - if you're looking to learn how to run new school: Critical Role Season 1 is an excellent resource. If you're looking to run old school, it can introduce contradictory expectations to how OSR games operate.

The production quality - kudos again - is very professional on Critical Role. For the video segments, which are in-person tables, the props and miniatures are top notch; for the audio segments, the editing and sound quality are exquisite. The only times when I had issue with the audio was when the sessions were recorded at live-events in a stadium or other large venue. This, among some other flags, is indicative of a dedicated crew - when running your own game, or playing in a game, don't expect to have a boom guy and technicians managing camera angles. Do there not exist hobbyists who are of equivalent dedication and talent in the OSR ecosystem? Of course they do - but it's difficult, for example, to create a Blue Table Painting quality terrain sets for adventures in a sandbox - which many OSR games trend towards. In an old school game, the Referee is not responsible for guiding the players in a direction. They can, of course, but its difficult to predict where the party is going. Also - speaking to morbidity: although there are an abundance of talented miniature collectors and painters in the OSR ecosystem, your first character is not likely to be your only character - in many cases, a player will burn through a dozen or so, depending on their level of skill and the degree of challenge they encounter. That in mind, you'd be doing either a lot of painting on your character's avatar or you'll be doing a lot of mini re-use.

Lastly, voice acting. The players - and DM - of the Critical Role game are professional voice actors, appearing in a wide variety of media - most notably including commercials, television shows, and voices in anime adaptations. As such, the voice acting does help with the immersion. But like I've said in other reviews... as a personal preference... I hate voice acting in games. It can add to the mood if it's done right; but the number of professional voice actors in your game is by most estimates going to be the limit of X as X approaches 0. I do not recommend trying voices in your game unless you're very good at it - and even then, if only one or two members of a six or eight person table are doing it... it is much more likely to detract from the experience than add to it: and it is likely to contribute to character attachment: which is unhealthy in a game which employs an OSR-level of morbidity.

In Conclusion

Critical Role, I rate as Leather (but cursed a little). It's not OSR and doesn't try to be. It's good for what it is - a 5e game that is tailor made to appeal to the new school of gaming. In that sense, it is not a good tool to learn about the OSR and what the OSR play-style represents. In the first season, there are some elements that you can learn from - some tricks and tips that you can pick up on from the game to improve your own - and I'm not disappointed that I listened to as much of it as I did.

Do I recommend it?
No - from an OSR perspective - because hidden among the persistent old-school elements are nuggets of new-schoolery endemic to the system and to the focus of the campaign that may, for a novice Referee, stand at odds to the assumptions that old school games make.

What about if you're not interested in old school gaming?
If you're not interested in old school gaming, how did you wind up on this blog?


In any case, may fortune smile on your dice, good readers.