 Howdy how's it going? My name's Davy Chappy and I've been DMing games since high school and the one thing that I've had to endure, and a lot of DMs have had to endure for quite a while, is being compared unfavorably to the patron saint of role-playing games, Matthew Mercer. If you've been in the D&D community for an extended period of time, you have most likely heard of the Matt Mercer effect, a phenomenon in which the people who are interested in D&D start their experience by watching Critical Role, which is the biggest D&D live show on the internet. These would-be D&D enthusiasts are enthralled by the magnificent stories of either Vox Machina or the Mighty Nine. They watch the show every week and they get so invested in the whole performance that they can't wait to try it out for themselves. And so they call up their friends, they go to their local game store, they study up on all the most important facets of D&D by watching their favorite YouTuber, Davy Chappy, don't forget to subscribe. They sit themselves down at a table with three or four other friends and then... then it's not the same. The experience is quieter, slower, there's no charisma in the cast, nobody is role-playing correctly, and worst of all, worst of all is that the DM doesn't evoke the same energy as the brilliant high noon of a man. It turns the player soured of the game, they complain about how things aren't as fun as they should be, people get insulted, and the whole thing goes down as one more case of the Matt Mercer effect. And honestly, if you have a player at your table that's like this, it's not their fault. Their expectations were set too high because they didn't have anything to compare D&D to, besides, well, Critical Role. Sure, they could have just gone sniffing around for a more realistic take on how D&D gets played, and if more people went out looking for truthful answers to outgrow their biases, then the world would be a lot better. But we don't live in that world. We live in 2020, so give people a break. And while you're doing that, give a break to Matt Mercer. He didn't ask to be the biggest star in the tabletop role-playing scene, and he sure didn't ask for a negative phenomenon to be named after him. But this video is about gouging out the problems with the mummum effect and giving you a video to show to your peers so that when they start standing too hard, you can send them to the only person worthy of respect, Dabby Chappy. And speaking of respect, uh, I forgot last week to shout out my new patrons this month. William Calgano, Hex Rampant, Mason, Tuka's Kumar, Vyasingetorex, Adam, Tyodonny, Drow. Thank you so much for being my patrons. I promise I will only forget about you some of the time. But with that out of the way, let's begin. So I suppose the first most obvious thing that we need to get out of the way is your DM isn't going to be Matt Mercer. That's just unrealistic and it's completely unfair to whoever you're putting on that pedestal because you're forcing them to succeed in an impossible job or else be ridiculed for not being as good as Dice Jesus. The man is a professional voice actor with oodles of professional voice actor friends. You and your friends are high school students, or you're part-timers in an apartment, or you are a 30-year-old just making their way through life. You don't have the money or resources available to make this look like this. And honestly, who cares too? Critical Role was made to be consumed. It's a piece of media. It's practically a reality show dedicated to a mass shared hallucination brought on by huffing plastic dice. You're not doing that with D&D. You're not hiring actors to put on an episode of extreme home makeover or condition. So when you get disgruntled with your DM for not bringing all the rits in the glamour, recognize that this is like being mad at your friends while playing Monopoly for not actually going out and ruining the economy. Those voices that your DM does are probably going to be one to two pseudo-British accents unless you are from Britain and then you will either make fun of the North or the South, your choice. The world you play in will either be from a book off the cuff or written on a sticky note that just says butt question mark. And the amount of nuance that your story has will vary wildly and unpredictably per the DM. So the chances of the stars aligning and you simply wandering into the perfect D&D table is about as likely as you pledging to my Patreon account when those slots are open. And that's okay. We're all nerds here. The best part about D&D is growing up with your group. We talk all the time about how D&D makes us into better people and helps us learn social skills, but we don't give that time of day to people who haven't gotten them already when they sit down at the table. Which is a video for its own time but the point is that being a DM is hard. We all know that. As long as there aren't any behavioral problems going on then you should just appreciate being a part of their journey to being someone better and it'll probably help you along your journey as well. Man how did I get on the soapbox? Anyway if we're going to talk about the Matt Mercer effect then we have to talk about the hair himself. Matt Mercer is an icon, a professional voice actor that has crafted a permanent legacy of being one of the best, if not the best person in the community. He is the patron saint of D&D, leading us all to constantly wonder if it's Thursday yet. And you know what else he is? A big ol' nerd. And he isn't enough to make Critical Role good. It sucks to say it, but Mercedes Benz isn't charismatic enough to carry Critical Role all on his own. Nobody is. That's the point. It's D&D. It takes a good DM. Sure, yeah, but it takes good players too. Without Sam Regal, Laura Bailey, Liam O'Brien, everyone else in the cast, he wouldn't have nearly as many people watching the show. I sure as hell wouldn't. I'm here for Sam and his never-ending shirt joke. I'm here for his flask that always has something new on it. His infectious smile coupled with the scratchy high-pitched knot voice. Sam Regal, I address this part of the video to your ears only. If you're interested, call me. This isn't for a collab or anything. I just want your number. Everyone has a favorite member of Critical Role. And we like to attribute the success of the show on the person who we like the most. But mostly on the guy whose role in the game is certainly the most important. But as I said before, Critical Role isn't just a game. It's a show. And even if we change the name from the Matt Mercer effect to the Critical Role effect, it doesn't change the fact that people are taking the absolute highest bar of a thing and setting it as the average for what is an acceptable experience. It's unfair to the game for being warped into something that it's not. It's unfair to the cast of the show for giving them unneeded heartache, as if somehow they were responsible for killing off your stupid fucking video game character. And it's unfair to you, because, well, you're just not good enough. You yourself are not going to be good enough for D&D. Your D&D games will never be as good as Critical Role. From the perspective of someone dealing with the Matt Mercer effect, D&D is all about being entertained. And it's a lot harder to flip that around and be the entertainer. Trust me, I know. You may think that you're ready. You can write down an expansive backstory and rehearse a bunch of pre-written lines in front of a mirror to use in-game. But once you play a few disappointing games and the stars leave your eyes, you'll realize that you're just like everyone else. And you must believe me when I say that I don't mean that in a condescending holier than that way. I mean that when you're hyped up for the game as hard as you can be and you want to make it the best game there ever was, you'll eventually come to realize once you shake off all the first session jitters that everybody else is doing that too. All your friends are totally hyped up to play the game. The DM is ready to show off this new cool thing that he's been working on. And while everybody else might not be the most vocal or animated about it, because we are all just a bunch of awkward nerds playing make-believe, there will hopefully come the time when all of this just clicks. When everything that D&D is about shines through and the game becomes something new to you. And when that happens, you and your friends will have so much fun. You'll share so many memories. Be a part of each other's lives in a way that can't be properly put into words just because of a stupid game about rolling dice. Your games will not be as good as critical roles. They'll be better. But that'll about do it. I hope you enjoyed this video. Check out my social media, smash that like button, bangers and mash. But yeah, Dabby out.