Critical Success: The narrative weight of chance in TTRPG based shows (actual play)

Abstract

In recent years TTRPG (Tabletop Role Playing Game) based shows or actual plays have seen amazing growth, with shows like Critical Role being the number one grossing channel on the streaming platform Twitch .TV and Dimension 20 becoming the flagship content for the newly rebranded Dropout.TV. This shows put in the forefront of their storytelling, chance, and the players´ ability to improvise, to the detriment of a traditional screenplay. The failure or success of every action and the making of every player character (the stats and backstory of the characters are rolled and fleshed out in pre-production phases) is often determined by luck of the draw (dice roll, card draw…), thanks to the rules provided by the TTRPG system of choice (in most cases Dungeons & Dragons 5e). The system allows for Dungeon Masters (the players that run the game and consequently the story) to step out of the rules set and change the impact of some dice rolls, allowing the chance of a natural 20 on D20 roll to completely restructure the narrative of the story. Is this rolling of the die aspect and more important natural 20s and 1s where this study will focus, trying to comprehend how special they really are and how much impact they can have in the result of the show.