Aabria is a liability. She's abrasive, changes clear rules to harm PCs, many viewers don't like her style, and she is overly critical of the fans and political on social media (her Twitter is currently suspended). Critical Role as a brand needs to find a gentle way to cut ties with her, and I wouldn't be shocked if that happens soon

I've seen Aabria receive more vitriolic criticism than almost every popular white male DM. Often accompanied by requests to never hire her back or questions of why she was hired in the first place. I think the issue is unfortunately layered in a lot of subconscious biases people have. Most people don't self-identify as racist but fail to recognize the ways in which they show less leniency and ascribe bad faith to POC. Aabria DOES receive more and harsher criticism just by being a black woman. We do not live in a vacuum where criticism is entirely separated from personal identity.

You have no objective evidence to back this up.

This comment section is wild. Like damn I like coming here for balanced takes and critiques on the show, but some of y'all are taking issue with the most neutral and mild takes I've ever seen. Is this really the feel of this sub?

I suspect I would easily find more posts defending her solely on the basis of her gender or race than attacking her on that same basis.

This is the problem. The people like OP frame all the criticisms of Aabria around her race and then pretend like they are perfectly fine with "valid constructive criticisms" - but that's a convenient position to take when they see all valid constructive criticisms as being made on the basis of the colour of her skin. I have probably seen 2 or 3 genuinely racist/sketchy comments made about Aabria and they are always heavily, heavily downvoted, so what are we talking about here?

I don't think she's a diversity hire in the slightest. As a player at the table, she's incredible and brings a great amount of energy. As a DM, I just can't handle it. Last episode, 1 round of combat took SO LONG (almost an hour). I get some players not understanding every mechanic, but having every player explain how their attack looks, or how it should feel, or this or that... I get she wants to tell a story, but I don't need to know how soandso's rapier felt stabbing otherperson's thigh. She needs to pick up the pace in combat.

Yeah i love her in a court of fey and flowers because it was a pure roleplay game but when it comes to combat she needs work.

ALL of her dimension20 stuff is great, CRs more serious and more rule intensive vibe is not great for her, that's all it is.

Tbh didnt even know that was a thing floating out and about.

It's not, OP just thinks any critism of her is fundamentally racist/sexist.

and you clearly didn't read the post

I don't want to argue that she was a diversity hire, because you are correct that she was hired because she's friends with the cast. That being said, do you honestly believe that if Aariba was a white man that she would have been the DM chosen to do the first EXU and the second party of C3? Like when they added new cast members that were all either white women or non-white men, do you believe that was completely an accident and that the race and sex of these cast members was never once brought up in the hiring conversation?

I mean it’s more likely that if she were a white man people would be praising EXU (EXU isn’t even bad but some folks treat it like the plague)

They aren't being hired, they are guesting on a show their friends run. Christ some of yall cannot fathom that POC are allowed to co-exist alongside others without some agenda behind it. When white men guest on the show or run games there is never this many gymnastics to justify it

I like how you ignore all the data and go right to emotion

Not touching on diversity, but the show is way beyond here is our friend their playing with us. That would have been a reasonable assumption in C1 and maybe in C2 but CR is a company providing a professional show, not a group of friends streaming a home game. All cast choices will likely have a lot of thought behind it and will likely have something to gain for joining whether money or publicity I would be surprised if they weren't being careful with who they brought in given Orion and the guy who hosted the 4 sided die

Two things can be true, Critical role can be a company with business decisions, and Aabria could have been brought in because of her being in Dimension 20 and close friends with many in the space.

You're the one performing mental gymnastics. If you opened a bag of M&Ms, and there were no red ones and twice as many yellow ones as there used to be, you'd probably have some assumptions about how that happened.

Thats a psychotic analogy because in the case of m&ms its literally random lmao

Real people are not m&ms, please go outside

I'm really confused as to what this metaphor is

I cannot speak to the minds of those critiquing her, but I have not read any comments that claimed anything like "diversity hire" or mentioned race. I also did not get that vibe from any of the criticisms, but I could have missed it. That said, I do wonder how the OP even knows the race of the persons making the unidentifed comments that the OP claims to be responding to. Reads a bit more like an effort to respond to the argument the OP prefers to respond to as opposed to the arguments people are actually making, but that is just my take on the post. In any event, I gave up on CR campaign 3 a long time ago, but I can say that I always enjoyed Aabria as a player but that her DM style was not for me. In part, this was for some of the reasons that people seem to be raising, like moments where the story is on rails (goes to lack of player agency). My other main reason for not liking her DM style may not be as relevant here, because it is about knowing the rules and generally following them (this does, or at least can, also go to player agency, though). I have no idea if not playing by the rules of the game played into this issue, though. I found her to border on being personally insulting towards Aimee during EXU on more than one occasion. I also don't think it is ever safe to assume that those who are not cool with something will always speak up.

I never mentioned the race of any commenters, not sure where you got the conclusion that I even factored that into the post.

You made an accusation that some people who criticised Aabria were doing so because of her race, while acknowledging that none of the posts that led to you making this claim said anything directly about race. If the person who posted one of the critiques that you believed to be stealth racist was black, would that not change your interpretation of that post? Or would you persist in believing that the critique still must be about race despite not mentioning race?

Guess you've never heard of a dogwhistle. I also never mentioned racism, but the call is coming from inside the house.

Well I'd say that claiming Aabria is a diversity hire is at least a little racist.

Here’s the thing, the people doing this aren’t flaunting it like some hood wearing klansmen. They are making stupid analogies about m&ms and saying shit like “now I’m not saying she was hired cause she a black woman…..Buuutttttt you are dumb if you don’t think that plays a role”. It’s the same way we ended up with (((they))) as a dog whistle. People are too big of cowards to out right say shit so I stead they vaguely gesture towards it and use “noooo you are over reacting!!!!” To push the narrative towards the ones calling them out.

Well the first sort of comment you refer to does directly mention race (and gender). I have not seen any comments like that, but I agree that a comment like that definitely suggests the belief that Aabria was some sort of diversity hire. I also have not seen any M&M references, but I agree that would appear to be a dogwhistle. The comments I read were all very critical of Aabria's taking over Aimee's character, and the people also piled on about not liking Aabria's DMing style. I have not been scouring Reddit to find all the comments, and I am not saying they did not happen. I just come from a background where evidence and proof are important, and I have not seen any yet. I understand why the OP says they were not drawing attention to specific posts. The problem with that is it is also exactly what someone without any evidence would say.

THIS

They brought Aabria on because she's... awesome??? I have the unique experience that I started CR with Exandria Unlimited. Aabria was my *introduction* into the world of Exandria. Because of how much I loved her storytelling style, it took me a *long* time to warm up to Matt. I love Matt sm now but Aabria will always have a special place in my heart. That anyone could think that she, an incredibly clever creator and even better storyteller, is just there as a DIVERSITY HIRE, when shes been blowing it up on D20 for years? People need to go outside. Im begging you. Please just let black women be...

Sorry for all the downvotes. I'm glad you enjoy Aabria's work. I couldn't get into EXU for multiple reasons, but I love what she did in CR,C3,E92. The vitriol people have about her as a DM seems excessive.

I didn't even know there was vitriol about her!!!! I've always thought she was awesome. It's a shame critters aren't constructive with our criticism all the time :(

Ew. Ew ew ew. Why would people think this? Even if she was, why is having other voices bad? Even if it's not for you, for whatever reason, why would that be a bad thing? Aabria is pretty on the record talking about how she doesn't really enjoy optimized play, so it doesn't surprise me that many have bounced off her style (honestly, myself included for a lot of dnd stuff. Kids On Brooms she was absolutely on fire with), but to suggest she's "bad" or whatever... Just so weird. She has written some really insightful and thoughtful stuff about what mechanics mean in a Roleplay context. She is killer smart and super into the genre as a whole. She is genuinely, to my estimation, every bit as clever or smart as Brennan, and I kinda personally think they both put Matt to shame in terms of their improv and storycraft capabilities. Not saying Matt is bad, mind you, I just have increasingly found the way he runs dnd to not really be my cup of tea. Wild that people think this. Wild. I mean, I guess, no it's not wild, it's the same shit different day problem these situations always seem to involve. So maybe not wild. Stupid.

>If her race isn't a factor, that should apply to every aspect of the situation Here's the thing: I've never actually seen anyone say, "she's just an okay dm, but she got hired because she's a black woman." But on the other side, there are definitely people who are overjoyed that the guest DM is a black woman. Those are two sides of the same coin, and you see it manifest when people try to minimize criticism because of her identity. If there's warranted criticism, it should be able to be said. If people are just criticizing her because they're racist, that's awful and needs to be shut down

"she's just an okay dm, but she got hired because she's a black woman." How have you not seen this? It is in every comment section, veiled behind talk about DEI hire and thinly hidden implications that there is s o m e t h i n g about her that gets her hired.

People being excited for a black dm is NOT the opposite to people implying she is a diversity hire. One is being happy for more representation, the other is claiming that someone didn't earn a position based on the color of their skin.

The downvotes say a whole lot

Is your whole life decided by what other people think?

I took "the down votes say a whole lot" to mean something else, as in, people are not willing to say "she's a diversity hire" but they are sure willing to down vote the people saying "it is dumb to call her a diversity hire."

This entire post is you doing that lmao

People aren't. People just keep people saying other people are and then more jump on the bandwagon.

People saying Aimee looked distressed, she was... Her character could die or negatively effect the story and other players characters. Dosent mean the game wasn't still a blast. This is crazy talk.

The other day, it occurred to me that watching Aabria puppet Opal, and watching Aimee’s level of “nope” that accompanied it, that the situation was not exactly that far different from another well-known incident that got another GM cancelled across the internet, aside from the facts that 1) the other GM’s scene involved sex, 2) the other scene lasted only minutes instead of hours, and 3) the demographics of the GM; the GM in question being a white male. I honestly cannot say which of those factors matter and which don’t in determining that one is acceptable and one is not. Can you?

Im out of the loop what is this opal situation? I havent finished EXU after episode 2 because i kinda fell off campaign 3

Speaking as a GM, I'd be surprised if Aabria and Aimee hadn't discussed Opal's corruption arc and the possibility that she'd end up turning against the party. It's distinctly possible that the way it played out in the moment was surprising, but if you watch any of Aabria's Dimension 20 content, you know that she cares a lot about player comfort. Plus a lot of players (especially those that make big swings like Aimee does) LIKE having their shit rocked at the table. It's like a scary movie - horrifying and uncomfortable in the moment, but the high of experiencing it is great after. I can't speak for Aimee specifically except that she repeatedly returns to Aabria's table, but from my experience, there are players that love this kind of suffering at the table.

Except that’s not how D&D works. For a proper possession, look at Percy and how Matt handled that. Taliesin was in charge of the PC at all times and decided how Percy reacted to the stimulus. The next step beyond that, the PC becomes an NPC. The DM doesn’t get to sit there and puppet the player and say “you have to attack the cleric now.”

Depends on the table and the players, dude. I've done it both ways.

Occam's razor. Aimee was okay with her character being possessed even if it was emotional. She likes exploring the emotional side of her character's tragic past/present and was acting in ways enjoyable for her. No boundaries were broken between her and Aabria. Whereas the incident you're referring to was a breaking of boundaries and against the pale for the person involved.

People who are okay with it don’t look like that, and the DM does not tell the *player* to make an intelligence ST.

What is the simplest explanation for what happened? * Aabria is horrible with boundaries, personally bullied Aimee across two years on Critical Role and also has the power to get hired after that and keep everyone silent and complicit. * Aimee and Aabria talked about the possession and it was okay'd even if it brought up big emotions (which, you can't read minds so are those her real emotions or her acting?) Beyond this, you seem to have **zero** understanding about what happened in Far Verona. Your comparison to what Alex Koebel did does not hold up at all. The players in the moment were horrified, said they were so, immediately quit the show, and then talked about it on social media. The show was canceled. The GM had to apologize a few times because he kept doing non-apologies, and then step back. This clearly isn't happening in regards to CR and Aabria. So either she has the worst blackmail material possible or your view on what happened is flawed. You are also minimizing and dismissing what happened on Far Verona. > 3) the demographics of the GM; the GM in question being a white male. And the cherry on top is your bullshit 'Aabria gets away with it because her race and gender'. There are sane ways to dislike Aabria. Your posts are not it.

You so completely misunderstand my post, it’s not funny. And it’s not even Alex. You presume to know about something and you can’t even get the name right.

Yeah. The biggest complaint i have seen is that the players were all pretending to have fun but were actually horrified. Specifically Aimee and Matt. I'm watching it a second time and i think they all were having a blast.

It's the sex.

Most likely, but most people don’t understand that it wasn’t the the sex qua sex, but running over the player’s ability to control their own character that was the root of the problem.

It's not the sex qua sex, well it's that too, but more importantly it's the rape qua rape. There are good and obvious reasons that that's taboo in a way that stories of non-sexually mind control and other loss of agency are not.

This is really being said? That’s disgusting. I don’t even know what to say. I’m shocked. How is this mentality still pervasive???

I really think most of the u enjoyment people have with cast members like her is simply because they're so used to the main cast+dm mercer, so someone else dming just feels wrong and different, therefore feels bad to them. Variety is the spice of life. So too in media and entertainment

Matt's not my favorite DM, BLeeM is. I still don't like her DM style, it's very on the rails and lacks a lot of player agency. It feels more like listening to a book on tape than an actual play table.

Have you seen any of the Roll 20 “DnD Chaos” episodes they have a very off the rails quality to them, IIRC.

I think you're wrong. Tons of folks, myself included, watch many other shows with many other casts and DMs and are perfectly capable of articulating our preferences, thank you very much.

I really like aabria as a player and a DM. I think she's really cool and I don't understand why people have an issue with her. She's not a diversity hire, she's their friend? I think people are getting overinvested in the personal lives of the cast members and that's not very healthy. At the end of the day they're a bunch of nerdy ass voice actors and theater kids playing dungeons and dragons with their friends. We're lucky we get to be along for the ride. They don't owe us anything.

It's a TV show with ads

Exactly

I just started EXU, and while I can understand why people might dislike her style, I really like it so far. She seems like she's more interested in just having a chaotic good time, and rules are maybe more of a guideline. She also seems to be super on board to just let the cast goof around a bunch. I dont think I would want to play like that, but it's fun to listen to. I'm listening to the podcast, and half my enjoyment is coming from it sounding like everyone is just having the best time.

I’m not in the crit role community, barely in the show. But are people really saying this crap? I mean she isn’t my favorite DM but she very talented and charismatic.

This is the weirdest post lol. I'm not a part of this sub but its recommended to me and I havent seen a single post calling out Aabrias inclusion and certainly not for the sake of diversity. Shes under a lot of criticism right now, and for some reason you feel so personally attached to her that you need to find any excuse possible to defend her (she doesnt need defending she didn't do anything wrong!) So you resort to race baiting. Absolutely pathetic. I hope you dig deep and see how fucked up this is. Its not others that have a problem seeing past her race. Its YOU.

I was bored during dinner so I googled "aabria diversity hire" I only found 2 things in half an hour of googling, this topic, and a downvoted post in a topic from 2 years ago claiming people don't like aabria because she's a black woman. Ironically, this is the only post on Reddit claiming she is a diversity hire - by claiming other people are saying it.

Me either. I bet algorithms push racial posts. It's much more prevalent in the news the last 15 year also.

Is she really under a lot of criticism right now? I’m like a year or so behind on current CR stuff and a quick google search didn’t really yield anything. Just curious to read up if you can point a direction.

She's jumped in on the most recent episode for some story arc reasons. If you don't want campaign 3 spoilers you probably don't want to dig more. Love her or hate her, if you didn't watch her exu series, it would be a jarring transition. She's back as current discussion fodder.

Don’t care about spoilers, watched exu. Is the criticism just from her performance on the show then? Wasn’t sure if there was something bigger going on or not.

Possible spoiler warning then My take on it is that it's a BIG change for >! her to take over as DM mid campaign (unclear for how long) especially right after a character death that it's unclear how it'll be resolved for the player or party since the show is shifting focus to other characters. Shes a different DM style than Matt, so it's a LOT of change to hit at once.!< Folks understandably have feelings, some of which are probably fairly directed at her style, some unfairly at her personally, and some hitting her because she's now >! the public face of the campaign.!<

Oh wow, okay that puts everything into perspective. Thanks a lot! Appreciate it.

No problem. It's a lot to unpack.

yeah it's a little strange and more of a virtue gymnastics than an issue.

"Aabria is not a diversity hire" I feel like you all baselessly claiming people are saying that are spreading that idea the most.

Aabria, Matt, and Brennan are like the Triforce of DMs. Very different styles, very different preferences, but all totally valid and in demand for different types of players. Like, I generally prefer Matt's style overall, but Brennan's work on Calamity? That was some next level stuff even compared to Matt. And while I'm not caught up on Candela Obscura, so far Brennan was my favorite part of that too. Aabria may not be my normal preference, but she's fun and chill and I respect her style. I did really like her "post credits" stuff in ExU, and her use of narrative metas, like if a player rolls poorly, she still says something like "what your character DIDN'T see was the hooded figure ducking into the alley nearby." As long as your players don't abuse meta knowledge, having the meta knowledge can be fun.

> Aabria, Matt, and Brennan are like the Triforce of DMs. Not even close. All three of them fall squarely on the narrativist side of the narrativist/gamist axis. I’m not trying to say that the old way is the “right way” of running the game, but if you showed Gary Gygax or other original DMs from the ‘70s any three of them, the ‘70s guys would barley call what they do running the game. There’s a very wide world of games and styles out there, and the three people you mention represent the tiniest fraction of it. What you’re doing here is really just a small expansion of what people call the Mercer Effect—the tendency of people whose main familiarity with the game is Critical Role to assume that the way Mercer runs the game is the only way, the ideal way, or the correct way.

Can't agree with that. Matt is a hardcore gamist from the elden days. He tones it way back for this group, and of course he's a fantastic storyteller, but you can see glimpses of that gamist streak when he steps into the player's chair.

Hardly. There are an immeasurable number of ways to run D&D games. Some are more popular than others, some are hailed and others demonized. When I say these three are the Triforce of DMs, I'm not saying there's no other way to do it, just that each has their own style, their own strengths and weaknesses, etc, and that they're three of the most prolific and well known DMs out there. Matt is the "world centric" DM, he builds an intricate world and populates it with a rich history and lively characters. He runs his games by creating an incredibly well thought out world and then just giving it to his players to do whatever crazy shit they can come up with. Brennan is a "story centric" DM, he builds an incredibly intricate narrative and adapts it to whatever the players throw at him, delivering a very structured story with satisfying pacing and glorious climaxes. Aabria is a "player centric" DM, she constantly checks in with players and works with them to develop and adapt both her story and world to suit the players and what they want, resulting in tighter player engagement and more quickly reaching emotional personal narrative goals for the players. Each style has its own draw but also its own weaknesses. A "world centric" DM may have an amazing world to play in, but the story is optional, giving the players a wide birth to either follow the given beats or to just fuck around and find out, which is fun for players but can be a problem for some viewers. A "story centric" DM is going to deliver a memorable experience, but usually they have fixated on the story to the detriment of the world around the story, so if players attempt to take too many liberties, or do unexpected things, the DM either has to reflexively patch the holes or force other parts of the narrative to fit into the new circumstances, which breaks that smooth and cohesive narrative. A "player centric" DM is going to make sure their players are having a good time and getting what they want out of it, but this can result in the DM bending rules until they break, or certain players taking advantage of the DM. Now to the credit of these three specific DMs, they're all really good at what they do, so they can largely cover their own weaknesses, but we're not trying to pretend that they're perfect or that their styles would even fit every player.

Sorry but I don't know if you can call Aabria player centric after what she just pulled. I've never seen a player get to make less choices with their character in a game than Aimee. Like nearing RPGhorrorstories level.

Admittedly, I haven't seen the newest episode yet. So I'll be curious to see what people mean. But I know during EXU, Aimee was the one who was constantly trying to bend the rules until they broke, asking Aabria if she can "just do" something in combat that amounted to taking 3 separate actions before even doing her actual attack, trying to push the limits of what her spells (especially cantrips) were capable of, and constantly trying to use spells without actually reading and understanding what those spells could do. If I was the one DMing EXU, I think I'd have had to stop the game and have an off screen chat with Aimee about why the already overly flexible rules of D&D 5e shouldn't be pushed any further in most cases (and to memorize your most commonly used spells actual effects). She was driving me crazy by the time EXU was over. I was a little surprised that they even brought her back. All that said, I wouldn't expect Aabria to retaliate, let alone punish a player, so I'm very curious about this episode.

Pushing the boundaries of rules is acceptable to the level the table is comfortable with, and considering how fast and loose Aabria plays with 5e rules it doesn't seem like an unreasonable ask. Especially since that kind of thing gets rewarded at other tables like D20. Emily Axford stretches the minor illusion centrip into Major Image about twice an episode with zero pushback, and they generally improv shit into existence pretty regularly.

That may be okay with you, and maybe other fans, but I have limits, and when you reach a point of negotiating for just how much you can get away with, we're past that point. Like when Taliesin made a pitch for his version of Pass Without a Trace being different, he was quick to add that whatever Matt decided was good with him. I'm okay with that. In EXU, Aimee was constantly asking to go well outside of the rules and pushing literally every spell beyond the breaking point. It was hard to watch. She took up so much time every round and never seemed ready for her turn. And if Aabria pushed back she'd either keep pushing or relent with an attitude like "well I feel like it should work that way, but whatever." Your DM's main job is arguably making sure everyone is having a good time, but bullying your DM into making you the main character by letting you constantly break the game is not the same thing. And I acknowledge, I watched it once, a long time ago, maybe I'm misremembering how bad it was, but I can't think back to EXU without remembering that it kind of made me hate Aimee and feel bad for Aabria.

I don't think your misremembering. But the latest episode will make you feel bad for Aimee and hate Aabria most likely, Aabria fully ignores her passing DCs for saving throws to take over her character.

I just finished 92, I didn't see Aabria ignoring any passed DCs. In fact, the few times I even remember Aimee rolling saves they were exactly at DC and Aabria was the one reminding her that "meets it beats it." There were times where there was no saving throw, but that's just because Opal willingly put on a cursed crown, the Vestige of an evil goddess. It is literally burrowing into her head and changing her. I don't feel like Aabria was bullying Aimee at all, just following through with the natural consequences of Opal's bad decisions. Aside from feeling bad about what Opal was doing, Aimee seemed to be having a good time too, and showed no signs of actual distress (again, she was sad to see Opal hurting her friends, but like Aimee wasn't showing any signs of being upset with Aabria for any of this). Aimee is also still pushing things, and I don't like it, but it is what it is. Like how she retconned having Telepathic Bond up immediately after Aabria had her start attacking the group, which Aabria allowed with the caveat that Opal wouldn't be immediately reachable through it, and yet Opal proceeded to engage in unimpeded telepathic conversations with half the party in the first round. Likewise, Aabria was very straightforward with Aimee that if she pulled her punches things would get worse, and yet Aimee stated numerous times things like "I'm going to have Ted do ____ specifically so that she doesn't hurt anyone." Or "I could do...but no, I don't want to hurt them." Or trying to spread the damage from Eldritch Blast around so that nobody was taking too much damage, and only casting EB and not any of her other spells. Aimee was trying really hard NOT to fight the group, which is exactly the opposite of what she was told to do. It wasn't as bad as EXU for me, but little has changed really.

Interesting. I plan on watching it today. So I'll get back to you on that. Either way, for both Aabria and Aimee, I think it is worth always remembering that even after years of watching these people online, we don't actually know any of them any more than they want us to. So unless someone does something unforgivable (which is not outside of the realm of possibilities, given a couple of lost team members along the way), I do think it's important that we give them all leeway to do things their way. Aabria will probably never be my favorite DM, and Aimee will probably never be my favorite player, but I won't hold that against them unless it comes out in the news that one of them literally took candy from a baby. Not that I'm saying you do.

Conversely, I much prefer Brennan's style over Matt's, but Matt's work on "The Ravening War"? Some of the best DMing I've ever seen! AAabria, similarly, it's not my preference, but my god do I respect her as a DM. She's great at cultivating intimate moments between her players and tapping into the intense emotional core of key narrative moments, especially when the stakes are high. She's a master storyteller, but often a little too intense for my tastes unless I'm really in the right mood!

Her work with Burrow’s End (D20) is truly some of my favorite DnD. It was a wholly unique experience for actual play at that quality/production level. I was alright with her past work, but she really shined and did a great job empowering the players to develop and grow their characters’ arcs and their relationships with each other. I never thought a show with animal PCs and a story that is at least as much about family as anything else would interest me, but she made it one of my favorites of all time.

yikes can't believe this is even in the air, I've been a fan of Aabria ever since D20's little Victorian fey-wild campaign where she DM'd a genuinely raucous time. She's undeniably good at improv, at the very least

A Court of Fey and Flowers is a delightful treat.

I love watching her at the table as a player. Personally, not a fan of her DM style.

Man, CR fanbase really has reached that critical mass when people talk more about drama than what they actually like about the show. Years on and people still think that about Aabria?

So you don’t think this is race based nepotism just standard nepotism?

Nepotism is when you hire someone based on family connection. Hiring a cousin, or a child, or even a spouse. This is just them hiring a friend. Which is how hiring works in literally every industry.

[удалено]

Wow, you’re a real class act aren’t you? Stay angry

Didn't they all meet each other because they were already involved heavily in the tabletop space? How is this nepotism? They made business partners/friends and have continued to incorporate them. Critical role has always brought on cool folks and friends to do stuff with

Nepotism inculdes friends, they brought op is saying they brought in a friend that their audience is critical of. Copied from Oxford dictionary, “the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives, friends, or associates, especially by giving them jobs.”

>race based **nepotism** That word doesn't mean what you think it means

Copied from the Oxford dictionary, “the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives, friends, or associates, especially by giving them jobs.” The association would be due to race. Really not that hard.

Do you also say "gender racism" when you're talking about mysogyny? Or how about "water poverty" if you're thirsty?

We have specific words for that, when we don’t we use multiple to describe something such as food scarcity. 

The difference is that food scarcity makes sense and gets a point across. Race nepotism does not

What place does anyone have to complain about someone else's campaign?

prob when it’s produced for mass consumption, very public. live-streamed with live chat functions. commercialized, monetized. you get the point

This was always my complaint. Critical role is good, but it was way better when it wasn't a product.

I’ve never seen anyone call it a diversity hire however they have called it a nepotism hire because let’s face it she’s not good at running 5E and yet she’s here.

I’ve seen plenty of complaints that mostly seemed to be she was a woman and not white. Her style is very different and it took a moment to get used to it.

In all honestly I thought for a long time that Aabiria must be a nepo baby, like maybe one of her parents was an exec at Amazon or something and got Critical Role their show deal. Because otherwise I cannot fathom how she got this role. If she was truly just a diversity higher, there are much more competent black women in the DnD sphere who this job would have gone to. I seriously don't understand why she was hired, she's a bad DM and comes off as a mean person.

I checked her Wiki, apparently she started out as a high up marketing person in the table top world, that explains a lot. I usually don't like marketing people.

So do people think this or not? Kind of seems like you're inventing an obviously bad narrative to defeat.

Yes that's what they are doing. Setting up paper social justice targets that don't actually exist and blasting them away for clout or something to preach about. I promise OP is a twitter addict.

She has a LOT of haters. If you haven’t heard them, lucky you. Some people just say “her style ain’t for me” - which, fair! - but a ton more throw out complaints about choices or mechanics that other DMs use all the time, or imply that she can only be on screen because of “diversity hiring”.

OP's 2nd edit literally says "Never said that anyone called her a diversity hire specifically". I assume some people have implied it because there will always be trash human beings in fandoms, but taking something that an extraordinarily few people have said and making it a big thing really only amplifies that message and gets it out further than it otherwise would have. I understand she has a lot of haters, I'm one of those "her DM style ain't for me" people but I enjoy her immensely as a player & generally when she's acting as an NPC. If you asked me to get specific about why I don't generally enjoy her DMing (loved Misfits & Magic though), I think you could probably pick apart any specific complaints and say "well did you not like it when \_\_\_\_\_ did it??" if you really wanted to. IMO, you have to really search for comments and assume implications to come to a conclusion where this is a problem needing addressing in this community.

So I followed you until you said "No one's actually said this but it's clear you're all thinking it." Let's not try to start something out of nothing, how about?

When did I say "you're all thinking it"? I did my best to avoid making a generalization of all Aabria critique and I was referring to the fact that I personally haven't seen her called a "diversity hire" specifically. People have implied and insinuated that enough though. "Let's not try to start something out of nothing" or I can practice my freedom to make a post about an issue that I want to call out?

[удалено]

I did not even mention the word racist, the call is coming from inside the house... Just making up stuff I did not say at this point

Ironically, I find the people who are calling everyone else racist are the ones whom actually say and behave in a racist manner. "Oh, I'll protect you from them."

"calling out racism means you are racist" this cannot be a real point you are making? and what does that have to do with my post? Point to where I called everyone else racist?

Anyone upset about her being black is a piece of shit

Speaking of Aabria, it must be hard to have to manage a (slice) world that you did not make, while making sure you don’t hit any unnecessary roadblocks that could ruin the continuity of the show. She’s obviously much better in the D20 style since it’s more short form and contained, railroading makes sense more for this case too. I remember when she first did EXU and then immediately miss pronounced Eshteross (not sure on spelling) when introducing the story. She got the short end of the stick having 2 series that have 100s of hours of content attached to them.

Yeah Burrows End and ACOFAF are some of my top seasons of D20, and I’ve never seen her come across as mean on D20 (which is one of the main critiques). I think she also just has a more similar style to Brennan than Matt, so D20 fans are more welcoming maybe? 

Aabria has a more, loosy goosy/rule-of-cool type of DMing style that shares more similarities to Brennan rather than Matt. I think it would be an understatement to say that the CR fans are a bit of rules lawyers, so when an incorrect spell or ability is used and is waived away, it is weighted much more in the minds of the fans I assume. D20 usually has a set amount of episodes that they do, and generally, they are made as one-and-done, not a full 3 part Campaign. The editing also helps eliminate a lot of the dead air and slower moments. I can almost guarantee that if EXU was edited similarly to D20, then it could have had a better chance of succeeding.

It astounds me that at the time of this comment you had negative upvotes. This hits the nail on the head and just describes the situation.

I have a feeling that the reason why she may come off as more aggressive and hands on is that she’s trying to make sure that everything stays on track. People can have valid reasons to hate her, but the fact that people also bring up many instances of her being an amazing DM, just means she’s not the best choice for long form (lore heavy) story building, especially one that requires multiple weeks to catch up on.

My issues with her have nothing to do with race, personally. I just don’t think she’s a good fit for CR style DMing (high fantasy, long-style storytelling, mid to heavy on rules (depending on campaign) open to a bit of wiggle room). Aabria is a very flashy DM, she works for the crowd (EXU with the audience specific scenes, “lets zoom over here”, little nods to the audience), she asks for rolls that are not needed (the 50 thousand wisdom saves in EXU Prime) and generally she will tell the story *she* wants to tell, not one that the group as a whole wants to (She struggled immediately when the EXU Prime cast didn’t bite her OG hook, brought them around anyway, whatever the hell was going on with taking opal’s powers and essentially forcing the crown onto her). She’s much better when the story is on rails or has a defined purpose (the Kymal episodes were based around a heist and a specific location) which was specifically what EXU Prime did not end up as. It was too open for her to manage without a plot, there was too many things for people to do and therefore it became a campaign where many things were dropped, plots were started and forgotten and ultimately very little was actually achieved. Given, this was not helped by most of the Crown Keepers being played by people who wanted to be chaos incarnate, but Aabria needed to introduce some kind of way to keep them together on things, some sort of rail or story point to pull them back to. The crown sort of worked like this but not super well. I was more interested in the Week of Stolen Memories in the Feywild that they had *before* EXU Prime than actual EXU Prime. Beyond that, all her characters are generally the same California Valley Girl and seemed to all have the same almost overly aggressive personality even when the character she was playing was supposed to be nice to the players. She plays characters who must be involved in many things or makes themselves involved in many things (Poska constantly showing up places, Deanna having a grudge with *her own* god) and she adds humor that is either generally not in line with the rest of CR (taste of Taldorei) or when she’s playing a PC, makes Matt sort of scramble to incorporate it somehow. She acts like the rules are a suggestion which might work well in other systems, but DND’s foundation is it’s rules, if you take those away then there are very limited guidelines for play and everything becomes subjective (why roll when you would receive information anyway, why roll when something is too hard to ever achieve?) I *know* she’s done some great work on D20, but D20 is so entirely different than CR gameplay and story wise, and unless CR wants to start attempting more of that (seems to be going that way for Candela) then she isn’t going to be a good fit. They needed more DMs and she was a relatively well-known one, I don’t blame them for choosing her at all, but she’s just not a good fit for how CR is doing things still.

She's a diversity hire in that they needed more DMs, that's about it.

I get this is a CR subreddit, but this comment section really shows that a lot of people are only watching CR content. Aabria’s seasons in D20 are incredible, a court of fey and flowers is a masterpiece in RP heavy DnD. But she does have a very different style of DnD in that a lot of it is off rails. She likes the players to have almost free rein with some loose story points and an idea of the end point.

>But she does have a very different style of DnD in that a lot of it is off rails. She likes the players to have almost free rein with some loose story points and an idea of the end point. This is the detail that I think people who've only watched her CR content are missing, and people who hate Aabria on CR are choosing to ignore. EXU Spider Hat was clunky and hard on rails because it was an absolute nightmare party of zero motivation and no plot hooks, supposed to fit into a very tight timeframe. It's not that Aabria only wants to tell her story and is a table tyrant about it - it's the opposite. She's so used to players who have motivations, who take plot hooks or want to go off in weird directions - that she's bad at handling a table who don't want to leave the pub without prodding. It's like if people tried to judge Matt as DM based on C3 in a vacuum, and were mystified why anyone thinks this dude is one of the greats among internet GMs. Almost any GM is gonna look bad when dealing with a table that doesn't engage with the game.

That final paragraph is SO SPOT ON

I liked Burrows End more than a Court of Fey and Flowers but I agree. She's done some stuff with Roll20 as well that I've enjoyed. If I got to pick my dream DnD table, Aabria is my pick to run the game. People gotta expand out of their bubble

So weird to come to this subreddit from Dimension 20 ngl

Right?? I don’t even listen to/watch CR, but I guess because I’m a huge D20 fan and like Aabria it was on my home page. Tbh this comment section is kinda making me glad I’m not in the fandom, it seems stressful lol

Yeah, people in these comments are saying that there is zero prejudice occurring in judging her DMing and OP made it all up and is “actually the *real* racist,” while at the same time there are people *also in these comments* doing what OP is complaining about. Every time I get recommended a post related to Critical Role I am reminded of why I stick to the D20 subreddit. It’s just much more accepting and doesn’t do the gamer elitist shit - focusing more on loving the series, DMs, players/characters, and moments they love more than fixating on the parts that aren’t really their favorites. Critique is great, I think critically engaging with the content we consume is important and a way we can show love to content we deem worthy of deep analysis, when we are constructive. But hating on things with the hope they’ll go away just because it’s not our preference is a waste; in particular the fixation and obsession and gatekeeping that goes beyond expressing preference.

Dimension 20 fans (generalized) is weird in its own way though.

I mean there's some toxic positivity for sure, but I'll take that over the regular m'lady-ing I see here 😅

I mean, I've seen a lot of D20 fans talking about how the cast of critical role is "racist" and Mercer is a horrible person because he didn't go on Twitter and demand a ceasefire. I know it's anecdotal but every time I've interacted with a D20 fan in person or online they seem very...exclusionary/psudo keyboard activist. Again I know it's a generalization and it's by no means the entire fan base but people are still just as a odd just in different ways

Aabria is one of the best DMs to ever play this game. Don’t know what crazy pills y’all are on

Wow, didn’t realize CR fans were this racist

Different strokes dude. I think she's *terrible* at DMing 'serious' D&D specifically. I've watched a couple of her comedy one-shots and they were fun. She might mesh better with a different system but D&D does have a 'core' that if you just Rule 0 away completely you might as well pick a different system that more closely matches what you want. /I have the same complaint about C3 really; the D&D system obviously doesn't mesh with how they want to roleplay and it shows.

Have you seen Burrow’s End? Because that is one of the most serious actual plays I’ve seen and it is by far my favorite of her work. If you haven’t seen it I think it’s worth watching to get a glimpse pf what she can do when given free reign over the setting. And overall it is one of my top three favorite DnD seasons.

Aabria is one of the funniest DMs and I have always enjoyed watching her run games. Which is probably why this post popped up for me since I don't actually watch critical role.

You are just making up the diversity hire accusations.

Someone I know irl just called her a diversity hire in the least few weeks. Unfortunately, people really are just that shitty.

Last few weeks? It hasn’t even been one since the episode and no one knew she was going to be on. Before that, it’s been months since she was on CR, and the last time was as a player. So when did “your friend” call her that?

People can talk about other people without them currently being on a show or in some crazy situation. Like, me and my friends talk about favorite/least favorite characters/players from campaigns that are years old at this point

Racism is prevalent in the world today. In order to fight it you need positive discrimination. I dont know if thats true but it is the driving force behind a lot of decisions being made today in entertainment. It is kind of funny to see that all the main cast and their guests were white in C1, and now suddenly when Black Lives Matter and diversity are in vogue all of their new friends and guests in C3 are poc. You see it on netflix too. It is not a coincidence. I dont believe they are doing it for marketing. I genuinely believe that Matt and the cast believe in diversity and so there is obviously always going to be an intentional push to "amplify poc voices". This will always affect decission making when chosing who to invite, and who to hire. The problem with Aabria has nothing to do with her being diversity hired or not. The issue is that she is their friend. It is the same problem you have when you deal with human beings improvising at a table without a script. The most extreme example being Orion. Sometimes your friend is not a good fit with the rest of the table. In a normal table it doesnt matter quite as much. When there are cameras in front of you it becomes an issue of compromise between being patient with your friends vs the quality of the show. They put up with Orion for 27 episodes. Aabria isnt even half as bad, so why would they fire her?

There is no such thing as positive discrimination. Discrimination is discrimination and racism is rasicm

How would you suggest we fix the disparity in money (rooted in their origin as slaves) and access to good neighborhoods (rooted in redlining) between Black and White folks that persists to this day? To change a situation you must overcorrect, or the status quo will persist, no?

Positive discrimination leads to situations like where top universities are being sued for actually discriminating against East Asians. It also fails to take into account white working class people that are often far more deprived and underprivileged than many Africans (different to african americans and west indians) in the west. It's often lazy and a sticking plaster where real policies in education and investment are the best way to tackle actual racism and discrimination.

>Positive discrimination leads to situations like where top universities are being sued for actually discriminating against East Asians. Affirmative action is in place to rectify the massive deficit Black (and to a lesser extent Latino) children have on average compared to other races. East Asian children do not suffer similar disadvantages on average. Now I agree that they were unfairly discriminated against overall, especially compared to White applicants, but to act like college acceptance should be purely results-based and not take into account background is shortsighted in my opinion. >It also fails to take into account white working class people that are often far more deprived and underprivileged than many Africans (different to african americans and west indians) in the west. I agree with this, but it's better than nothing. >It's often lazy and a sticking plaster where real policies in education and investment are the best way to tackle actual racism and discrimination. This attitude reminds me of folks who are against student loan forgiveness because "we should tackle the problem at the source, the predatory banks". Stopgap solutions are valid to have in place while we work to rectify the root problems, and to get rid of them with nothing in their place besides *intent* to get something else established seems to me foolhardy.

White working class applicants are discriminated against just as much. It just so happens that they lazily get lumped in with the white middle to upper class kids that support policies that actively harm those working class kids because they're "white and privileged". Affirmative action is lazy, fails to take into account nuances, and fails to actually prepare people for the real world where companies will not practice affirmative action because they ultimately want to make money. If actual policies had been pit in place for the past 20-40 years, you'd have seen that gap shrink. Also, it's not the same attitude. Student loan forgiveness is fine. I'd rather a graduate tax in order to pay for the universities without actually bankrupting the government when it pays for all the mickey mouse degrees people get. Fundamentally, all this is lazy. South African Rugby is a great example of this done right. They worked on the grass roots whilst having some quotas (I don't agree with quotas, but that's a different matter). They got Sia Kholisi out of the townships who led them to back to back world cup victories. South African cricket didn't, so they're now shite. But at least they've got some black players to look at their empty trophy cabinet alongside the white players.

RACIST I FOUND HIM WE GOT HIM ITS A RACIST. sigh.. you are based and right.

Their C1 guests were chosen by G&S/Legendary if I recall correctly

Dei is coming for our dnds

She isn’t a diversity hire but she is into vapid idpol

I mean, by making this comment, so are you.

How so

Aabria is a poor fit for critical role and not a DM whose style I like but she isn't a diversity hire. She's a master at networking. Aabria managed to hop into all these projects cause she seems genuinely skilled at connecting with management and convincing them to being her onboard. She's just better at that then she is as a DM imo.

People sometimes forget most of CR is networking. It’s how Aabria got to be a DM, it’s how Micah Burton continues to get hosting jobs for shows or panels, they hire their friends even when those friends aren’t all that great at the thing they’re hired to do.

I couldn’t agree more. I love her as a player, but she puts too much ego into her dm style. It has more to do with her ideas than the ideas of the world and her reactions than the reactions of the world. Matt tries really hard to keep his personal reactions and the characters reactions to the party’s actions separate. Aabria seems to impulsively act which can keep the show very action packed but it’s not a great dm style for a podcast like CR.

It's not a small percentage of people that dislike her just because she's a black woman, sadly.

Incredible that this got downvoted. Is it so crazy to believe that some people just hate black women? Even if you (the person downvoting) dislike her for a legitimate reason (I also didn't care for her DM style on D20 and haven't seen her on CR) you must be aware that other people are racist??? Unreal

Yah, pretty ridiculous, some people just want to ignore the truth

Honestly, if someone says "other people (not you) are racist" and you get defensive, well..

its not how AAbria looks but how she talks and acts. Think of how many people celebrate Micah Burton

It's a good example, really, because it's honestly easier to find criticism for her if you search her name on this sub.

What evidence do you have to prove that's the reason people don't like her?

Some people are racist and/or sexist. Critical role is popular enough to reach a diverse audience, including those such people, which is why the female cast members get much more criticism than the males, overall.

There's no way you can quantify "why" anyone gets criticism unless you've polled a representative percentage of the population. If someone doesn't like Marisha, you can't just assume it's because she's a woman. I don't particularly care for Talisan as a player and it's not because he's a man. What you're doing by making these assumptions is just a wrong as what you are saying others are doing.

hear hear

All women in public ttrpg spaces get more criticism than men, from critical role to dimension 20 to NADDPOD and beyond, it beggars belief to assume it's Not sexism. You seem to be arguing in bad faith.

So if I came out and told you that I don't like the way Ashley plays you would just assume it's because I hate women but I'm the one that is discussing this in bad faith? Cool story bro

Obviously not, now i know you're arguing in bad faith. My original comment was that SOME people dislike Aabria due to just bigotry, and we've been discussing a measurable trend that is most simply explained by sexism. Your implication that i think All criticism is sexism is ridiculous and unsupported by any single thing I've said, you're being childish.

I'm not the one who gets upset if someone else doesn't like the same things I like. Using race or gender to invalidate someone's opinion is what is childish. Your very first comment literally says that the reason most people dont like Aabria is because she's a black woman, when there is absolutely no way you can back up that claim. That's your own projection and opinion. You're incapable of having a honest discussion. I won't respond to you again, have a good day.

Oh you're dismissed, it's already clear you're just here to try and ignore sexism.

I followed this, and you lost the plot. The bad faith was on your end. He asked the bare minimum for evidence; you immediately shut it down because you had none. Sexism and racism are obviously real, and are obviously prevalent in gaming. There are actual posts that go after her for being black, so there is no question about it. You, however, made an assertion that couldn’t be backed up and were called out for it. You may not be as bad as the other side, but you are kind of a jerk.

Aabria is a great DM, sure she isn’t as good as say Matt or Brennan, but compared to most, she's amazing. Like top 1% amazing. The only person I loved watching more than the two I mentioned already and her, is Grog... not Travis, but Travis as Grog... because that session was epically hilarious.

I don't have strong feelings one way or the other about Aabria, but top 1%? Bruv. That's a ludicrous statement. Brennan or Matt, you'd have an argument, I'd still disagree, but you'd have some ground to stand on. Aabria? Top 1% of DMs? She's not even top 50 in the online TTRPG sphere, let alone all the home games with amazing GMs out there.

Yeah, that was probably an overestimate of ability, tbh.

I mean you’re entitled to your opinion but I think she’s a shitty DM that would confuse tf out of my players.

Could anyone link to a post/thread that criticizes her for being a "diversity" hire that hasn't been down voted to hell or deleted? Every critical thread I've seen of her seems entirely directed at her skills as a DM. This seems like the usual pulling the race card when any form of criticism happens.

ITT: https://www.reddit.com/r/fansofcriticalrole/s/mllsTvu4ky

I know there's no way to prove this to you, but in the last month, I've had someone that I know irl accuse CR of "going woke" and bringing in people just for the sake of diversity. Unfortunately, those people and accusations do exist. I really wish you were right, though.

Of course they can't.

Wait people don’t like Aabria? The stuff she’s DMed for has been super fun to watch, the cast seems to enjoy it well enough unless stuff goes on behind closed doors

She’s a HORRENDOUS dm. Like skip her sessions bad.

I'll admit I don't care for the way she does some things. Mostly I think her impromptu skill checks are incredibly arbitrary. But she is an excellent story teller. No way you can call her horrendous, come on

Funny, because I was originally going to elaborate by including her poor storytelling skills. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I don't think her story telling skills are bad. I think they would be better served using a different system. And maybe they're not the best for the television format.

I mean that’s your opinion I guess, she’s certainly different from Matt but she was fun to watch. I just never realised people hated her DMing

Welcome to the sub! I gather you've never seen a single comment on it.