Yesterday, I woke up from a nap to see the following on the Discord server for my Sunday Roll20 AD&D game. [Listen to the companion podcast here.]

I made a comment of appreciation and got this reply.

I guess I’m going something right, this is how I feel about my brother Robert’s game. If I didn’t live nearly 600 miles away, I’d do something about that.

One thing I’ve found about a campaign world you engage in, is that it becomes an important part of your life. The creativity feeds an itch you can’t otherwise scratch. The bonding with family and friends is a great way to have stories that are over the top hilarious to us, and without a long set up to give background, are maybe a chuckle from others who weren’t there.

I think this is why things like Critical Role are so popular. It is an invitation to participate in the game world and the fans buy in with creativity on their side. There is fan art, fan fiction, fan cosplay, etc.

While they are not rolling dice and actually playing the game, they are still going along for the ride, filling in the blanks with their own imagination, just as in any RPG game, or a radio show, or reading a book. They are getting the creative, living in the moment, as observers of the heroes, and are essentially seeing the same benefit as playing does. The audience is like the crowd in the streets observing the heroes. They are unnamed NPC’s.

Some say the not actually playing the game doesn’t make them real fans of the game. I bet if they could find a group, they’d play.

I can only hope that all DMs/GMs can evoke a living world with the collaboration of their players. Once the world comes alive for the players, they will get hooked. It came alive for me as DM the moment the players started interacting with it.