Feb. 19: How Shall We Actually Play?

Experts thinking hard about AP, non-fiction, the platform and the end of Critical Role.

Author

Christopher Hutton
February 19, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

With the surge of actual-play content on the internet, two earnest thinkers in the industry offered some interesting takes on the practice.

Two Features to Consider

This week’s midweek feature focuses on the state of “Actual Play”, the practice of recording/performing TTRPG play in a recorded format. I used to be a big fan of Critical Role and Actual Play podcast. I think it’s a lovely medium, but I will admit that I lack the time to dedicate to four hours of play every week if I want to watch EVERYTHING ELSE on my list (Twitch streams, Ted Lasso, Severance, actual reading, etc)

But I do think it’s a helpful and useful platform for exploring the sorts of stories that the practice to offer. There’s two pieces that caught my eye on social media regarding this.

The first is a piece by Jeff Stormer, podcast host and author of the Ultimate Fantasy Character Creator. Jeff regularly engages in Actual Play content with his Party of One show. But he’s proposing adjusting what should be considered an AP and what shouldn’t. Specifically, he makes a case that shows like Hot Ones and The Traitors should be viewed as "nonfictional AP.”

Where the artforms [of fiction AP and nonfiction AP] differ is nonfiction AP never shifts its focus from the player to the character. Instead, we emphasize the conversation over the story. The story being developed is fodder for the conversation, and how the narrative impacts the conversation itself. The banter and the table talk become the throughline driving the show, rather than the fictional world.

We care more about why players make narrative decisions than the narrative decisions themselves. This comes in the form of discussing influences, storyboarding decisions on the fly, pitching ideas, and building something closer to a writer’s room experience.

Play becomes less defined by big performance than creative conversation. The goal is less about exploring a fictional world than getting to know the people behind it.

Jeff Stormer

Stormer’s definition expands the definition of AP beyond traditional parameters, and that might be a good thing. He argues that this nonfiction aspect of the practice is equally valuable as how well the story's fiction is written, and I think that is a curious aspect to consider for those who find playing in (and creating) APs a valuable experience.

There’s also a fascinating piece by Dr. Emily Friedman, a scholar who specializes in APs, in Polygon. Friedman tries to ask whether Critical Role’s third campaign finale hit and what it reflects about the players.

“How you feel about the finale of Critical Role’s third main campaign hinges a lot on what you think Critical Role — and actual play, and maybe even TTRPGs — is about. Is it an extended worldbuilding exercise? Is it a story told? Is it a game played? Is it just… content made by your parasocial faves?

If the measure of a good ending in actual play is the satisfaction of the players at the table, Critical Role ended with great success. Matthew Mercer’s table has always been, at its heart, a love letter to its players, and he has always insisted that they are the first and only audience he thinks about. Mercer ends every campaign with freeform epilogues that allow players control over the afterlives of their characters. And so if your pleasure is intimately tied to that of the cast, you join thousands who flooded live chat with joy that night.”

Emily Friedman

The piece is delightful and more intelligent than anything I can write about the industry, as it reflects on a players’ relationship to the game and AP as a whole. What will it look like as the next Critical Role campaign looms? Who knows. But if you’re into AP, these two pieces are fascinating to read in parallel.

News You May Have Missed….

Starfinder 2e’s Player Core release date was confirmed for July 31. It is the same day as the 2025 GenCon.

Possible Worlds Games, best known for Beak, Feather & Bone, intends to publish 12 new TTRPGs by 2028. It’s a significant expansion for the indie publisher and offers a big chance for creators seeking support from a publisher.

What’s your take on AP? Do you practice or engage in expression of the game?