Yet another discussion I can’t believe we’re having.

In the annals of “You’re playing make believe with dice wrong,” we have this messed up notion that a well-known Game Master waived off a die roll in the name of progressing play. Not only did this GM waive off the die roll on account of the player’s incredible oration, but he granted a Natural 20 result in lieu of the die roll.

This, of course, set off a firestorm on social media of the old guard yelling, “You’re doing it wrong!”

One old head went so far as to say, “…if you’re telling a story, you’re not playing the game. Roleplay can and should be rewarded… With XP, bonuses or advantage, or in some other way. It does not however change the game into a campfire tale.”

To which several of us rolled our eyes. Several older members of the Dungeons & Dragons community chimed in for or against this notion. I even added an “ugh” originally. Heck I even reposted one video responding to this whole screwed-up incident but then later deleted the post due to lack of engagement. (I know I’m pretty boring.)

Were it any other table, I’d say the whole thing was no big deal.

But this whole incident with the die roll being waived happened during the popular “Live” Play Show, Critical Role. Let me just say I’m not a big fan of Brennan Lee Mulligan and a couple of the players this season, but I stopped watching a while back. The man does not get the concept of a West Marches campaign. It’s disappointing to me.

What’s possibly more disappointing is the battle over whether or not Critical Role is scripted. Matt Mercer even went so far as to go on Dungeoncraft and claim it wasn’t scripted. However, we found out recently that they film three episodes at a time. Um… what happened to “Actual Play?” These aren’t the result of three 4-hour games in a row we’re seeing. What gives?

Even the person who responded to the ditched dice roll said, “Critical Role’s Brennan Lee Mulligan ditched D&D’s dice in Campaign 4: no roll needed because a PC monologue was ‘too good.’ Performance now overrides actual gameplay. This isn’t D&D. It’s scripted celebrity theater pretending to be gaming. They. Don’t Really. Play.”

There’s now a Community Note from the Dungeon Master’s Guide on the post about the DM being able to forego a die roll in lieu of excellent problem-solving or roleplay on the part of the players. While I kind of rolled my eyes at this being a Community Note, I do agree with the sentiment regarding dice rolling. However, I also have become even more skeptical than ever about CR not being at least heavily outlined if not actually scripted.

Again, if this happened at any other table, I wouldn’t have cared. I would have likely called the guy popping off on social media a royal buffoon and moved on. (That’s okay, he has me blocked on at least one site, like half of DungeonTube and some of the OSR. Pfft. Join the club, dude.) But because the CR cast are literally trained and paid voice actors pretending to roleplay in a TTRPG, I have to raise an eyebrow in skepticism.

Critical Role fans were the new flock of gamers that came in around COVID. Critical Role was supposed to be leading the charge of new players getting into the game. Several big name DungeonTubers allegedly got into D&D or got into YouTube after seeing the success of CR. CR was/is supposed to be setting a good example of D&D play. I look at this whole fracas and wonder; are they?

The massive single player (actor) monologue that led to the auto Nat 20 success was pretty impressive, admittedly. I listened to the whole thing. I would have waived the die roll if it were one of my players. Supposedly that whole monologue was not scripted. But other big narrative-moving player monologues in the past have been pre-scripted. At what point are the old guard justified in calling bullshit on Critical Role.

It’s not a good look when the Dungeon Master is so determined to tell a story, and admitted so on Day One, that no one can derail the plot train, as even Matt Mercer himself tried to do. Letting one player deliver a massive speech that keeps the train chugging down the tracks might make for fabulous YouTube views, but is it really the essence of what a good roleplaying game is? Is this really the message we’re trying to send?

Here’s my beef with this whole freaking scenario.

Can/should a DM or GM hand wave a die roll following an epic in-character speech? Absolutely. It’s well within their prerogative. You’re not going to get it wrong. No one is coming for your gaming books or your dice even if you did.

It doesn’t even matter if CR is scripted or not. Who really cares? Except wouldn’t it be great if the producers were being honest with the audience? The only problem is that level of honesty is rarely good for YouTube, X, or whatever. If you’re going to make an audio drama, why pretend to have rulebooks and roll dice?

Should the DM of the arguably world’s most popular D&D campaign, Critical Role, be setting a good example for all of us? Absolutely. We used to worry about the Matt Mercer Effect ruining our home campaigns. I think it’s safe to say none of us worry about the “Mulligan Effect.” I think it’s because he’s so determined to tell his story that he sees the die rolls as inconsequential. Maybe not the image we’re looking to send there, guys.

But that’s not even my real beef. What I have the most trouble with is the amount of Grognard hate that this has brought out (again) on social media. We know that the Critical Role fans, aka “Critters,” are well known for being incredibly toxic toward anyone and everyone who they take even the slightest issue. It’s like arguing with random strangers on the Internet only 1,000 times worse. Most random strangers don’t threaten to injure, dox, or kill people over trivial disagreements. (Sometimes even CR cast members and their families. Ick.) I’ve even had friends on YouTube report similar experiences. (And no, you don’t get their names. Just take my word for it.)

So I didn’t even bat an eye when a couple of other DungeonTube channels reacted rather loudly to the whole kerfuffle over on X (Twitter.) I guess I should have expected as much. But wow, way to go out of your way to hate on us old white guys from the Midwest flyover states. As if dude’s loudmouth posts didn’t do enough damage to the old guard’s reputation, some of the finest examples of old fart gamers chimed in their poop-covered two cents worth. And thus we had polarization again.

Am I surprised in the slightest? No. Am I annoyed? Oh yeah.

Time to tap the sign and move on before I get into real trouble.

Look, I don’t care how Brennan Lee Mulligan runs his game any more than I care how any other rando on the Internet runs their game. I don’t care how he runs CR, either. Some of his players deserve him and vice versa. Best of luck and best of wishes to them.

The time-worn statement of what works best for you and your table may not work at mine and vice versa. Do what works best for you and your group. We say this about once per month around here, sometimes more.

Maybe Mulligan hands out automatic Nat 20s like candy. Maybe some other GM/DMs hand out Advantage, XP, or Heroic Inspiration instead. Personally, I’d say don’t roll the dice unless the outcome is uncertain and failure means something. We’ve had entire games at my table where no dice were rolled. We’ve had whole games where we were rolling constantly for one thing or another.

Another thing I say around here frequently is “Don’t be a douchebag to your fellow players in person or online.”

Please just try to treat our fellow real-world humans with kindness, understanding, and empathy. These very simple principles could have prevented this whole fiery shitshow on social media. I think it was more driven by the idea that negativity, especially on social media in our hobby, drives clicks and attention in an economy where attention is everything.  

It’s really not my place to say if you or any other GM/DM is running the game “correctly.” If your group is okay with it, fine. Personally, I’d send Mulligan and a couple of other people packing back to Dimension 20 again, but not my place to say. And not because of the die roll situation, but because they kinda don’t appeal for other reasons. Once upon a time CR was about Matt Mercer and his voice actor friends playing Pathfinder for fun. I digress.

Maybe the best approach would have been to take to social media and just say, “I disagree with how this was handled on Critical Role. I would have run it ‘such-and-such’ way. I’ve had better results with it in my group.”

We’ll never know, of course. Instead people had to go the most vitriolic, venomous, toxic route possible on both sides of the fence and here we are. Dear TTRPG “Community:” Do better.

I say it every year, but I think 2026 bears repeating it. This year I intend to write more, read more, and discuss cool TTRPGs as well as supplements. Most of all, let’s just have more fun. Let’s explore. Let’s save the kingdom from the evil warlord. Let’s discuss all the fun stuff in gaming that we love.

With the world in the state it finds itself in today, please be kind. Please be considerate to one another even if we don’t agree. Lastly, please pursue the thing that brings you the most joy without harm to others. Thank you!