#can you tell that i'm also just SCREAMING at the angst this entails?

[feveredreams]

c3e23: the power of the DM in D&D, or why we are all Laudna right now

last night's episode of critical role really struck home for me how unique D&D is as a format for media, and how the format of Storyteller and Characters draws the audience even further into a story than other forms of media might. It's really beautiful and fucking amazing if you think about it. The potential as a medium to engage the audience while building a world is just unlike anything else.

The biggest thing is this: the power of a DM to make the audience feel exactly what the characters are feeling. Okay, but isn't that the point of a storyteller, you ask? To connect the audience and the story? Sure! But the format of D&D, especially watching D&D, immerses you into a character's mindset like nothing else. Our implicit trust in the DM as our storyteller means we are susceptible to some pretty cool emotional tricks, as evidenced by the end of this episode.

[spoilers for ep 23 of critical role campaign 3 ahead]

Imogen and Laudna are talking, an emotional conversation about Imogen's recent state of mind and Laudna's concern for her. It revolves around the strange pink rock they'd picked up earlier, a rock that seems to draw Imogen to it with promises of safety and comfort. We, as the audience, are aware that there's something not Quite Right with the rock and its power over Imogen. As Laudna continues to ask about it, Matt interjects: each time she pushes a little further, Laudna feels a pulse of...something, something urging her to look at the rock, to examine it further. This happens three times, each time more insistent.

At first I interpret this urge as some sort of...arcane instinct, perhaps. An expression of Laudna's concern for Imogen's well-being, or some part of Imogen not under the spell of the rock reaching out, seeking escape. As I watched, I was impatient for Laudna to listen to this urge. I wanted her to help Imogen, free her from whatever potentially malicious influence was impairing her judgment.

And then Laudna finally convinced Imogen to hand over the rock. She took it in her hand, and Matt's voice turned into the sinister, cruel drawl of Delilah Briarwood.

Delilah, of course, fucks everything up and breaks the rock, draining it of its power and straining Laudna and Imogen's relationship. Especially after Laudna promises wholeheartedly to not do anything to the rock without asking Imogen, the act is a betrayal. Imogen's quiet, heartbroken, "You lied." is just the cherry on top (I could wax poetic about Laura Bailey's acting in this scene, but this post is already getting long).

Laudna is, understandably, horrified. This is our first time seeing true conflict between her and Delilah, and boy is it juicy. Not only is she realizing that Delilah has more power over her than she thought, but her words from literal minutes earlier are coming back to haunt her: where does she end, and where does Delilah begin? Was it her concern and care for Imogen that compelled her to take the rock, or was that all Delilah? Can she trust her own mind, her own feelings?

The great thing about D&D is that we are right there with her. The essential format of D&D is that you trust the storyteller, because they create the story and all you experience in it. We trust Matt implicitly. That's why I was rooting for Laudna to hurry up and investigate that rock, dammit! That's why after the episode, even Marisha said, "He was telling me to do it!" When Matt describes these pulsing urges to take the rock, it was Matt telling us something Laudna felt. We trust Matt. He guides us through this world! His word is law.

And then it turns out his word wasn't his word at all. It was Delilah fucking Briarwood. We are thinking oh shit, what can we trust? at the same moment Laudna is thinking oh shit, what can I trust? Which thoughts are mine and which are hers? As we are questioning our perception of the world, so is she.

That's the unique power of the DM when there's an audience watching your campaign, and that's also just the fucking genius of Matt Mercer. The function of the DM as both voice of god and voice of everything else just sets up these really potent emotional moments that resonate just as strongly for the audience as they do the characters. As the story unfolds, we are just as immersed as any of the players at the table. And I think that's super neat!