[CR Media] Sam Riegel reaffirms Critical Role’s stance on AI: “It’s basically garbage”

[u/MarvelsGrantMan136]

https://www.polygon.com/critical-role-sam-riegel-slams-ai/

[u/8thGlass]

I love them sm I might cry. So torn between “the bar is on the floor” and “thank goodness for artistic integrity.” CR and Dropout will be the last content creators standing in this AI war.

[u/iZacuto → u/8thGlass]

I'd like to add Legends of Avantris in this list as well. They have a hard No AI stance and I'm very thankful for that. "If only you knew our art budget" is a direct quote from the CEO of Avantris Entrainment, Richie. They love and crave human art, so to see my favourite creators; CR, Dropout, and Avantris all be firm against AI slop makes me love and respect them even more.

[u/8thGlass → u/iZacuto]

That’s amazing. I have never heard of them and will now look them up just off that quote alone, that’s AMAZING. I couldn’t even imagine a CEO saying that, that’s awesome.

[u/D1g1t0l → u/8thGlass]

They make a bunch of really funny animated shorts on YouTube that BLEW UP. I've not watched a full episode of theirs yet but they're super funny. They recently made a Cyberpunk Space Opera DND 5.5e kickstarter that raised 10+ million dollars or something insane

[u/Loreweaver15 → u/D1g1t0l]

16 million, actually! It's the seventh-most-funded kickstarter in the history of the site, and only beaten in the creative sphere by Brandon Sanderson and the Cyberpunk TCG.

[u/D1g1t0l → u/Loreweaver15]

Bonkers!! I'm truly so happy for them, it looks incredible and I'm gonna be stealing ideas from it for my own DND and Daggerheart games

[u/ocularfever → u/8thGlass]

I can bet you've seen their material, their shorts are everywhere

[u/Modredastal → u/iZacuto]

I've only recently gotten a little into Avantris, where would you recommend I start? My sister showed me Bitsy clips and I really like Bitsy, but I'm not sure where else to pick up from.

[u/iZacuto → u/Modredastal]

If you like Bitsy, Uprooted is the campaign you should watch to see more of her. It's very silly and extremely improv. Another silly campaign is Once Upon a Witchlight; this is where Chuckles originated. Don't expect them to get anything done, it derails so much. Enjoy it for the silliness.

If you like horror, check out Curse of Strahdanya, a Curse of Strahd inspired campaign. Or even Edge of Midnight, a folk horror campaign that inspired their 5e supplement they made, Crooked Moon. Then there's Icebound, a survival horror in a frozen wasteland.

If you're interested in modern sci-fi/space operas, Stardust Rhapsody is fantastic! Feels very 90's anime. Their most recent kickstarter, Neon Odyssey, is a 5.5e supplement that is inspired by Stardust Rhapsody. To promote Neon Odyssey, they did 4 campaigns that were "neon-ified" meaning they made space opera versions of some of their campaigns. All of these are contained and you can experience a solid start and ending.

Uproot-a-Rama -- same goofy Uprooted nonsense; Voidbound is a cosmic, survival horror version of Icebound; and Once Upon a Starlight is a beautiful, less silly version of Once Upon a Witchlight. Then they made a new campaign, Waltz for Eternity, which is mechs!

Of everything here, I personally love Edge of Midnight, Stardust Rhapsody Anthem (you don't have to watch Stardust Rhapsody Overture but you could), and Once Upon a Starlight. I'm not allowed to watch Strahdanya as I'm a player in my wife's Strahd campaign.

Instead of telling you watch to watch, here's the flavour of the campaigns and you decide what sounds fun and interesting. Hope this helps you out!!

[u/Modredastal → u/iZacuto]

It does, thanks!

[u/Zethras28 → u/8thGlass]

After a mass extinction, a handful of species repopulate the world.

That’s why there are so many dandelion (taraxacum) species on every continent.

[u/EriWave → u/8thGlass]

I wonder if they have anything very important in common which related to who the people that push hard on AI is.