When talking about how people's home games will never be as good as what you see on Critical Role, people are always quick to point out that they're actors. I've been thinking, and .. it's not quite that, in my opinion.

The answer is the same as why you can't *just* put your home game on twitch and expect to be successful, or expect people to care at all.

Most home games have people socializing and playing a game, but much more is needed to have an entertaining game.

Having a good sense for drama helps, for sure, but a lot of it is *energy*.

You've seen twitch streamers, you've seen youtubers, you've seen critical role. They aren't just lounging around, mumbling. They are *performing.*

What does that have to do with your home game seeing as you don't have an audience?

I've played in streamed games before and I'm definitely performing for an audience at that point, but I'm also performing for the DM, for my fellow players, trying to entertain them.

I fully believe that if you want to be a better, more fun, more engaging TTRPG player, you have to up the energy. Perform for your friends! It doesn't have to be over the top either!

At the very least, don't slouch, don't mumble, unless it's a deliberate choice.

Be engaged, ask questions!

If you really want to get good and do your homework; Go find TV series, movies, TTRPG streams, etc. and figure out what works and what doesn't *narratively*.

Trying to get a grasp on narrative really enhances the game!

Let your other players have scenes (you don't need to be in every scene yourself, trust me!), try and set up scenes for other people (walk up to them, ask about their scar, ask about their parents, ask about the current narrative).

Don't be a selfish player!

Let me also say? You don't *have* to do any of these things. You can play however you wanna play. I've just been paying a whole lot of attention to these things as someone who *likes* performing, who *likes* stores, and as a neurodivergent person looking for "scripts".

I've been a player at a streamed table where no-one else seemed to want to perform and didn't put in effort to give a fuck about other people, let alone an audience, and let me tell you, that feels so bad!

I also keep seeing people go "Well, no-one can have a game like Critical Role because they're *actors*."

You don't have to be an actor to put in effort.

and most importantly? Have fun <3

And hey, not to say you *have* to be like Critrole, or highrollers, or force gray, or rivals of waterdeep, or any of those.

You can RP in your own way, or not at all! Maybe you're a dungeon crawl kinda group! That's cool!

Just my 2 cents!