Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Mercer Kills--and So Should You! (Patreon)

Published:
2022-09-11 23:07:13
Imported:
2026-06
haven't archived this post yet. have a subscription? use the importer!

Videos

Content

Two characters just bit the dust on Critical Role! Professor Dungeonmaster explains why Matt Mercer knows what he's doing, and why death NEEDS to be part of RPGs. This emergency upload will air on YouTube with 48 hours. 

If you have trouble viewing this video, try a different OS or device. 


Files

Previews only

Matt Mercer Kills!.mp4

Comments

Bagel-Man

Another great video professor, keep up the great work!

Bryan Stephens

Deaths in my games comes when players do something stupid. Natural consequences. It is amazing how hard my group works to avoid a fight. Once the dice roll, they lose control.

Chris Baker

I'll be curious if these deaths stick.

MrGunn

Great video! Nate is awesome, more Nate! I feel DB should hold off on his praise, because I think Mercer is going to wuss out and revivify one or both players or bring them back in some way: no lament for Boromir here. One helpful suggestion, while I have watched a few episodes of CR, it is not really my jam, in your video it might be helpful to describe which two players were killed and how, and link to the Episode in the More section of YouTube. In other news, now that Patreon has dumped their cyber security team, how safe do you feel your patron's personal and payment info is; are you considering alternative platforms?

MrGunn

PS Where is this Blood Countess Episode, I saw the planning section, is the being planned to be released?

Daniel Defazio
>>91445353

I didn't get into the details because so many other videos have already done it. I am looking into other platforms but I feel our personal info is safe. I am also a Patreon member, so I'm in this with you.

Jeff Krus

Well said PDM... There should be an death or the at least the possibility of Death and if not why even have HP??.

MrGunn
>>91445353

Fair point on the explanation, a little more set up might have been helpful for those who do not follow CR.

MrGunn
>>91444886

Sassa-phrassin Mercer, ruined another good weekend.... :D

Paul Zinke

Do you feel it's a wuss-out if the party is taken out, but spared for some reason? ie: the BBG wants something from them or intends to use them as bait or further their own agenda?

Jay
>>91445353

No surprise I agree with you MrGunn. Also, thanks for the info on Patreon dumping the cyber security team. I really do think it's a good idea to set up on multiple platforms not just YouTube and Patreon. Subscribers are seeming to shift platforms these days for various reasons. Also, death must be a real consequence or the game looses it's luster.

John Murphy Akins

Maybe my group is playing wrong but we use death saves and negative hit points and our character death count for 2021 was 27 characters. This year we are only at 7.

Brian Leet

Great video and totally agree that there need to be consequences and risk. It’s up to each table to dial those in. I’ve found as a DM that I can do that within the 5E death saves framework even though that doesn’t work for everyone. Just Saturday I had one character go unconscious and wake up three hours later after the fight had moved on, and another who had to take d6 falling damage into an underground river with 5 hp left. I let her know that there were no death saved there as she’d be washed away. The open roll was a 4, and ultimately she lived. I also have much more severe potential consequences for dropping to zero and waking back up. One character is confined to a clockwork wheelchair as a result of going down. She’s turned into a dynamic and favorite personality. The key is knowing that there is no automatic easy recovery when that wounded (also doing slower healing helps).

Brian Leet
>>91452897

Sorry for the run-on paragraph. I thought it would submit rather than properly paragraph when posting from a mobile device.

samurguybri

Prof and his lawyer? I see a new series! “We had two bags of dice, seventy-five flats of miniatures, five sheets of high powered White-Box PC’s, salt shaker half full of sand for terrain, and a whole galaxy of ‘zines, terrain pieces , mics, cameras... and also a quart of gatorade, a quart of Squirt, a case of Tums, a pint of uncut Pepto and two dozen Ibuprofen. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious game collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.” ― Professor S. DM, Fear and Loathing in Lake Geneva

samurguybri
>>91452484

Sound like an exciting, dangerous game, even with all the built-in safety features of 5E. Nice.

Lee Caddick

I love a more deadly game but some of my players (especially first time ones) will be so enamoured of their character that they'll spend real money for a suitable miniature and have a creative angle and story for themselves. In those cases, I find it really hard not to give them an out when death is looming. But maybe it's time I grasped the nettle.

Daniel Defazio
>>91460173

Plus +100xp for this clever allusion. Incidentally--I HATE that book. But I've read it and this is funny. Bravo.

Chuck Thorin

Back in the Vox Machina Are Murderers episode, PDM referred to GM Brain vs Player Brain. This (IMHO) is Gamer Brain (Characters die. It happens) vs Spectator/Viewer Brain (Oh no! My favorite character died). Some people watch Critical Role as people playing the game. While some watch it like it's a traditional TV series or movie where the heroes have plot armor.

Eric Avila

Love Nate’s ref to Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea…that game needs more love!

Declan Riordan

Wow. Ummm, spoiler alert for the Blood Countess episode (which hasn't been posted).

Thierry Lussagnet

I play RPG since 1984 and DM since 1986. I've killed some PC but always rolled behind the screen. I thnik i was an ok DM keeping some players for 20 years through a dozen of campaign but some boredom started to emerges the last decade. The best thing that happened to my DM skills was PDM advice to roll in front of the players! Since i do that, i'm no more tempted to save my player PC. When i rolled behind the screen i did it. And the more time go the more i did it, letting them die only at convenient fights. From the day i roll in front of the players, there was an immediate renew in my players focus on the game. I would never go back and would have liked to get this advice sooner.

Graham Kane
>>91451799

Definitely. PC’s should stay dead. Or else it should take a monumental quest to bring them back to life.

Flash Gorgon

I played in a 2e game that had a lot of deaths despite the negative HP buffer. But we learned that when we got close to zero that we could take a hit and then pretend to die! It worked most of the time and it saved our skin an awful lot! One complaint about 2e however, was that Raise Dead was a bit too easy to come by. However, the penalty (lose one point of Con for each death) eventually made permadeath a real thing.

William Edward

You said in the video part 1 of blood countess was on Patreon. I don’t see it has it loaded yet.

MrGunn
>>91445353

Yeah these large platforms like to chew off the hand that feeds by screwing over their creatives on a regular basis in the name of profit and shareholder value (I blame the Dutch BTW)

Ajax

Has anyone ever wondered why a goblin or orc or whatever stops attacking you as soon as you fall unconscious, any semi intelligent creature knows what healing is, so why wouldn't they make sure you were dead, lop off a few heads and not wanting to get to zero HPs becomes much more desirable. Of course if we as DMs would start this practice, WOTC in there next Tasha's Bathroom book would put in a feat called "immune to damage while making death saves".

John Murphy Akins
>>91452484

A good way to describe it would be Band of Brothers. We have higher level characters(like 8th is the highest) and those die on rare occasions. The first levels that join the group are like the new recruits whose names the others don't bother getting to know because they won't be around that long. However, if one of those 1st level characters survives then they become the old veteran that doesn't remember the new recruits name.

MrGunn

Ho ho Deathbringer! Seems one of us will not be eating Auroc steaks, and someone will be wearing a dress, Matt Mercer resurrected Orym. Direct from the CritRole site: 'Will returns Orym to the light. Orym is alive again.' Told you so!