Critical Role and Me: How Watching Inspired Me

I had heard about Geek & Sundry's Critical Role when it came out. The snippets I kept getting on it was Roleplaying and it kept showing people dressed up in costumes, so I thought it was something more akin to Larping. What also might have happened was that I confused both the Geek & Sundry show LARP and Critical Role. Additionally, it was this Twitch thing and I have some reservations about Twitch and it's "Big Brother" style "watching." Like... things on Twitch don't feel like a show, they feel like I'm spying on you while you do stuff.

It might not be a surprise to anyone if I reveal I first watched Critical Role because Wil Wheaton was going to be on it. After my love for Titansgrave and Wheaton as a GM, I thought it would be awesome to watch him as a character. So when I saw the tweet, I clicked the link and BAM, I was chromecasting it onto the TV!

So I put it on and I struggled just a smidge getting into it and then all of a sudden, things were moving forward and I was hooked into what was going on. I fell in love with the characters, the GM (I am an adoring fan of Matthew Mercer now), and the world! It made me feel great about some of the GMing I'd done and it made me really excited for continuing forward with RPGs.

While this was part 3 of an ongoing adventure, it was part 1 of Wheaton being part of the group. I would have to wait a week to see how things would end, and, well, the day came when I was going to see if the crew was able to complete their contract!

As I watched, I couldn't believe I was staying up so late, but each moment was so enthralling. My husband actually stayed to watch and we started lamenting our own RPG plight! The two of us came up with the idea that the two of us and our friend should take turns running our own RPGs.

One month, my husband would use two Saturdays to run his Marvel RPG. I would use two Saturdays the next month to run my Pathfinder (or Fantasy Age... haven't decided yet) RPG. Then the third month our friend would run his ShadowRun adventure for two Saturdays. We'd all get to be GMs and characters and we'd have time to work on our own RPG.

The reality behind the idea that was spawned was amazing! Now we're on our way to embarking on the most massive, dedicated activity the three of us have done since we used to do HeroQuest back in the day. Check back to see how things unfold.