Critical Role’s Matt Mercer Effect and the Rise of Brennan Lee Mulligans’s D20 | How it Hits

The biggest hit on the internet right now isn’t a scripted sitcom or a big-budget movie. It’s a group of friends sitting around a table, rolling dice, and creating fantastic worlds for four hours at a time. Shows like @criticalrole and @dimension20show (@dropout) have conquered both the internet and live audiences across the world with their imaginations and hysterical banter.

But cultural phenomenons like these aren’t forged overnight. It takes years worth of Initiative, Charisma checks and Nat 20s for these campaigns to get to where they are today. And we are going to break down why Actual Play sorcerers like Critical Role and Dimension 20 succeeded and How They Hit.

Video by: Mark Stetson and Scott Johnson
Edited by: Teodosia Dobriyanova

0:00 The biggest hits online: Dimension 20 and Critical Role
0:50 What is Actual Play?
1:54 The roots of Actual Play: @pennyarcadeTV, @slowbeef, @theRadBrad, @GeekandSundry
4:01 Actual Play levels-up
8:32 Masters of the craft: the DMs (Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan)
11:55 An antidote to AI slop

#dungeonsanddragons #criticalrole #tabletopgaming #videoessay #dimension20 #actualplay #mattmercer #brennanleemulligan #wilwheaton #saymore

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