First a few caveats; I listen to the show in podcast format and have only heard the majority of campaign 2. I have been a d&d player off and on for over twenty five years, and while I never had a group that gathered with the frequency that this group does I have played with more players than this group clearly has. I think this show is a fantastic introduction to the idea of role playing games to the masses, and dungeons and dragons, for all its problems, is popular enough now that the appeal is broad. As a veteran role player from various games I frequently find myself cringing at many aspects of these games. While I recognize that there exists as many different styles of play as there are gaming groups, I'm not certain that this represents the best of what an immersive role playing game has to offer. Maybe I'm cynical, but I dislike stories where the 'heroes' never suffer for making poor choices. That being said, the voice acting is top notch but except for the occasional guest glaringly white, the DM Mathew is well prepared (sometimes overly so) but treats his players with kid gloves, and the group dynamic is choppy as many of the pc's are redundant within the party and thus slows play to a crawl at times, but the flip side being there is plenty of party dynamic to explore, which they are not afraid of doing, even if it takes....all....four......hours. Ugh.
Review of Critical Role
