Exploring The Matt Mercer Effect (2024)

The year is 2015. I was in my second year of college and I was pulling my hair out, panicking I wasn’t able to get into my uni of choice (I did by the way). 2015 was also the year that same-sex marriage was legalised in the states, a certain dress was causing many a domestic argument, Adele made her return with ‘Hello’, (which I am still disappointed wasn’t a Lionel Richie cover) and it was also the year of the Paris Attacks. 2015 also saw the release of some fantastic video games, such as ‘Undertale’ (which I have yet to play) ‘Bloodborne’, ‘Soma’ (which I wrote a review on), ‘Fallout 4’ and ‘Persona 4 Dancing All Night’ (see below), the last two sharing Matt Mercer and this blog’s topic.

On 12th March 2015, the multimedia production company ‘Geek & Sundry’ began a new series of table-top RPGs for viewers to watch on YouTube and Twitch. I’m fairly certain there were plenty of series they started that year, but the one that I wish for you to pay attention to is ‘Critical Role’, an American ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ (D&D) web series. There are well over 100 episodes spread across two series (or campaigns, at the time of typing) and has gained 1000s of fans across the four years this televised series of D&D has existed.

It has also created something known as ‘The Matt Mercer Effect’, something that I would like to discuss in this blog, as it is a phenomenon that I find to be an incredibly interesting one as it has spawned many a good and bad conversation within the D&D community.

The Good: Matt’s Take on Dungeon Mastering

What makes ‘Critical Role’ stand out from other ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ shows is that its cast is filled with professional voice actors, each one with an expansive and respectful portfolio. Such professional voice actors include (but not limited too) Laura Bailey (‘Catherine’, ‘Dragon Ball Z’, ‘Final Fantasy XIII’ etc.) Travis Willingham (‘Tales of Vesperia’, ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’, ‘Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor’, etc.) and Ashely Johnson (‘The Last of Us, ‘Teen Titans’, ‘The Avengers’ etc.)

I will leave a link to the first episode of Critical Role below for you to listen to as you carry on reading.

Episode 1 of Critical Role

It would not be a terribly farfetched idea to suggest that this was all scripted. In addition to the good mics, studio set up and cameras, the show contains high-profiling actors and actresses, so it would make sense for the show to follow some sort of script. Sure, the show does has a producer, but if you were to do some research, you will find that each and every one of the actors and actresses are incredibly nerdy and loves playing D&D, which is part of the reason why it is so entertaining to watch.

A huge chunk of the show’s entertainment comes from Matt Mercer, the Game Master (GM)/Dungeon Master (DM)/Storyteller (which are all terms I will use interchangeably throughout this blog). Integrating the Pathfinder ruleset (an extension and modification of D&D 3rd edition) with D&D V5 (5th edition), thus creating his own hybrid ruleset (known as ‘homebrew’ rules), he seems to be incredibly knowledgable to the rules, the player’s abilities and how most things work.

In short, he takes all of this rather seriously.

It is also clear that his players respect him as a storyteller, even when mistakes are made and some of the rules go out of the window, just to make the session flow smoother. It can also be presumed that Matt has talked at great lengths to his players about how he intends to run each game and what he expects of the players and the session, something that all great Storytellers should do. All of these things make the players trust the GM, something is incredibly important, regardless of whatever game you’re playing!

It is difficult to describe this without audible examples, but Matt is an incredibly good storyteller. In each session, Matt narrates everything to the finest detail, from NPCs to battles to the world itself, with little need for big fancy words like ‘pandamonium’ or ‘capricious’.

By doing this, he welcomes the players into this world that he is creating, which in turn makes the world it’s own living and breathing character. This not only makes the show/game entertaining, but it further embraces the players into this narrative. The actions of each character, be it NPC or a player character, are described in this way as well, which makes every one of them sound cool and important to the game. The responses from the other players, as a result, are incredibly genuine, as they feel that their character is contributing to shaping the world, no matter whether they get a heroic success or a hilarious failure.

Another thing that Matt does to engage his players is to include the character’s backstory into the main plot, either by triggering certain events within his narrative that make a character feel or act in a certain way, or introduce a character as an NPC to bounce off with the party. Doing this gives motivation to the characters to pursue their own goals, as well as the larger one found within Matt’s stories. He does this because he cares not only for the characters but for the human players in his game.

That is not to say that other storytellers don’t do this as religiously as Matt does. Some of these things are easy to overlook. You could say he has an advantage in pretending due to his long history and experience with D&D and acting. And like a well-placed villain, this is where the problems with The Matt Mercer Effect enters…

The Bad: The Matt Mercer Effect

The first time I was aware of the term ‘The Matt Mercer Effect’ was on a (now archived) Reddit post (see below). Matt would then respond to that question in a very respectful manner (read here).

A question concerning The Matt Mercer Effect

By reading this Reddit post (and lurking on a few D&D pages), the blame (if any) is not to be placed on ‘Critical Role’, if not directly. The main problem with a series like ‘Critical Role’ is that it has presented unrealistic expectations to new players (or those who are wanting to start playing D&D) as to how the most typical D&D sessions play out. It has become such a huge marvel that it has it’s own Urban Dictionary entry.

As Matt states in his response (and myself in this blog) the cast of ‘Critical Role’ are professional actors and actresses, most of which have won and/or been nominated for their roles (Ashley Johnson won 2 BAFTAs for her role as Ellie from ‘The Last of Us’ for example). On top of this, they have been playing D&D for many years (Matt states that he has been DMing for 20 years, for example). It would be fair to assume that the way they have played D&D has probably affected the way they have gone about in their respective acting careers, which in turn affects the way they portray their characters on the ‘Critical Role’ campaigns. It is very natural for them to embrace entertaining and entertaining characters, they earn a living doing it.

The average Joe/Jo does not and should not be forced to do so.

One can imagine the strange predicament that Matt has been placed in, due to this Matt Mercer Effect. Matt must feel wonderful, maybe proud, that he has inspired/encouraged many to pick up their D20s and make their own D&D characters. I imagine some GMs would be happy that ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ is not only far more popular than it ever has been before, but it is now cool. The cast of ‘Critical Role’ are celebrities and are incredibly open about enjoying D&D. It is not to be seen as a hobby for groups of fat, greasy, spotty nerds lurking in their parent’s basem*nts (to use the go-to stereotype), but for a game for all sorts of people (which it was already).

On the flip side, Matt must feel terrible as to the pressure many a GM must be put into. Again, not everyone can act, and few can do it as well as the ‘Critical Role’ cast. Many people enjoy D&D being a combat-focused game, with the only narrative they need is the rush and excitement of killing monsters and looting for treasure. They may not like/want the added theatrics that ‘Critical Role’ uses so naturally. Likewise, many DMs, like the one in Reddit post, must feel that they are under a lot of pressure to be Mini Matt Mercers, who must be masters at accents, sound effects and have a Performing Arts degree and an impressive command over the English language.

Whilst I can understand why the total virgin D&D player to believe that the way ‘Critical Role’ play D&D is the way to play the game, it is not fair to presume that everyone should play Dungeons & Dragons the ‘Critical Role’ way.

Everything I have described about Matt Mercer’s style of storytelling is all fairly commonplace to me. This is because I am used to playing ‘Vampire: The Masquerade’ (VtM) where it is expected of players to roleplay (it was VtM that first used the ‘Storyteller System’). I could waffle off on, but that is a conversation for another time. But to be brief, for context’s sake, you embrace your character, your breed of vampire, as you fight and struggle with your own personal horror and the vampiric politics around you. These are but two of many reasons as to why I love VtM.

From my own experience, most games of D&D are not like this. The rules are plentiful and rather complex (for me at least), with more emphasis on battle encounters than an evolving narrative. In simpler terms; you and your adventurers go to a dungeon, slay a dragon. Rinse and repeat.

The popular new(ish, at the time of writing) web-series ‘LA By Night’ does a great job at enforcing this, which has also introduced a whole new generation to this table-top RPG, similar to how ‘Critical Role’ has done for D&D.

It should also be noted that like ‘Critical Role’, ‘LA By Night’ has it’s own cast of professional actors, including (but not limited to) Erika Ishii (‘Fallout 76’, ‘Crypt of the Necrodancer’, ‘Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Sim’ etc.), Alexander Ward (‘Annabelle Comes Home’, ‘Spongebob Squarepants’, ‘American Horror Story’, etc.) and Bryan Dechart (‘Detroit: Become Human’, ‘Red Dead Redemption II’, ‘The Remaining’, etc.). I should also note that that game has Jason Carl as it’s storyteller. For those who are unaware, Jason Carl was one of the founding/original members of White Wolf Publishing, the creators of VtM, and the producer of VtM V5 (the latest edition, and the version that ‘LA By Night’ uses). Like Matt Mercer with D&D, Jason Carl has a lot of experience at running VtM games (he has also developed games for Wizards of the Coast, the creators of D&D).

Of course, there is nothing wrong with these approaches, as everyone has their own preferences. There are plot-heavy D&D games and combat-first VtM games. I also know for a fact that some seasoned players are not huge fans of V5 due to some plot and gameplay mechanic changes and rule revisions in the most recent errata.

My point is that there is no right or wrong way to play any of these tabletop games (unless you are purposefully trying to ruin the fun for everyone). Each of the rule books provides mechanics on how combat and spells work, what dice to roll when you want to persuade or intimidate someone/thing and how to create characters. Everything else is down to the interpretation of whoever is running the session. It is this reason why I have used Game Master, Dungeon Master and Storyteller to describe anyone who runs a session, for they are the same thing!

Everyone has a different take on these games, which is what makes them so fun to play. Not one session is the same, and may it stay that way, as life would be pretty boring if it was. So please, enough with this Matt Mercer Effect nonsense!

Are/Were you under The Matt Mercer Effect? Did you discover D&D through ‘Critical Role’, or were you drawn to D&D by other means? What’s your favourite table-top game that you’ve played? What was your favourite session?

Let’s start a conversation, people!