Critical Role is not D&D

This will probably be an unpopular opinion, but Critical Role is not D&D. For all of the good that show does: bringing new people into the hobby and opening the doors for many players to view and learn about the hobby, it also does an equal amount of bad.

Hear me out, Critical Role is really just a over-produced, likely scripted, TV-show with D&D as it premise. Matthew Mercer, the DM of Critical Role, is in my opinion a great DM and story-teller, anyone would be lucky to have him run a game for them, but the show people are watching weekly is not so much a game as an ongoing produced show. Here is when the bad comes in regarding the hobby. New players and prospective DM's brought into the hobby by this show will expect this type of TV drama in their games: the voice acting of characters, grand elaborate stories from the DM, and produced drama outside of the actual play.

I recently had a twitter exchange between a newer DM questioning why his new players aren't voice acting and always speaking in first person at their games...their timeline was full of Critical Role fluff, this told me all I needed to know. Don't force your players into something they aren't comfortable with. If they show up, participate and have fun, then that is mission success.

Look....the fun of D&D for the DM is when your players are having a good time. It is not telling some grand story, write a book if you want that. The story should emerge organically from the interactions between the players and the encounters that the DM has laid out. Your game, as a DM, doesn't need to be full of rich history and some grand setting full or lore, let the players help define your world, let their choices have meaning in the setting.

The tabletop RPG hobby is probably in it's best place since the early 80's due in no small part to streams and live-plays such as Critical Role, but my hope is that those coming into the hobby will define their games in their own way, not based on something they watched Thursday night.