Critical Role: Cinderbrush
February 19, 2020 10:26 AM - All Seasons - Subscribe
A Valentine’s Day one-shot episode in which Critical Role regulars Matt Mercer, Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe are joined by guests Ally Beardsley and Erika Ishii to play Monsterhearts, a tabletop roleplaying game about “the messy lives of teenage monsters”.
I got a chance to watch this over the weekend, and while this isn't my favorite setting for RP (dark high school just doesn't appeal to me), I love Ally as a player and generally loved this group dynamic. Everyone was fantastic in their parts.
I get where the detractors were coming from regarding the difference between GMing in D&D and Powered by the Apocalypse style systems - with D&D, it's more common for the GM to describe the scenario, with PbtA, it's more common for the players - but it's also super hard to switch between the two, especially with new players. The sort of questioning that's pretty normal with Avery Alder's games - 'hey, you also are trying to do XYZ, how does that make you feel?' can feel like doubting your player's choices if they're not in the right mindset, or don't have the same level of trust that there's no wrong answer.
But yeah, generally good, I would suggest checking out Avery's games if you enjoyed this one, even if high school werewolves don't appeal to you.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:58 AM on February 24, 2020
I get where the detractors were coming from regarding the difference between GMing in D&D and Powered by the Apocalypse style systems - with D&D, it's more common for the GM to describe the scenario, with PbtA, it's more common for the players - but it's also super hard to switch between the two, especially with new players. The sort of questioning that's pretty normal with Avery Alder's games - 'hey, you also are trying to do XYZ, how does that make you feel?' can feel like doubting your player's choices if they're not in the right mindset, or don't have the same level of trust that there's no wrong answer.
But yeah, generally good, I would suggest checking out Avery's games if you enjoyed this one, even if high school werewolves don't appeal to you.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:58 AM on February 24, 2020
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(I haven't had a chance to watch this one, but am excited about it!)
posted by dinty_moore at 8:42 AM on February 21, 2020