Matthew Mercer

Renowned voice actor, storyteller, and Dungeon Master of Critical Role, Matthew Mercer has had a part in some of the largest franchises of the past two decades. From long-running shows like Naruto, One Piece, or Dragon Ball to smash hit video game series like Persona, Resident Evil, and most recently as Ganondorf in the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. With such an accomplished career in voice acting, it comes as no surprise that Matthew does not consider himself as a writer- however to the fans of Critical Role, this could not be further from the truth. Now on their third official campaign, of which the first two have already been adapted into animated series, Critical Role is a critically acclaimed Dungeons and Dragons show whose story has been set in the realm of Exandria. Born from a one off campaign at a birthday party, Mercer slowly pieced together a cohesive world one village at a time while his party members explored. By the time the second campaign began, Matthew had a vision in mind for his story and fully fleshed out planet in which to hold it.

Much as Rome was not built in a day, neither was Exandria - a published and official explorer’s guide without a long and loving road full of countless hours of crafting. However, before spending half of that time comparing your works to others, begin writing without considering what people expect your writing to be Even though he began creating worlds before realizing there were countless books to reference for homebrewed campaigns, Matthew reflects positively upon the fact that he had no preconceived notions to hold him back from simply creating without restraints. Matt’s been quoted multiple times that the inspirations for the world he created was simply based on the societies that he wanted to see. Rather than spend time focusing on making the next Hogwarts or Naboo, Mercer started from the ground up with his societies and focused more on how they interacted with each other. A bustling town may have started with a simple mine with workers. From that, he could extrapolate the need for farms, taverns, artisans, and even as far as political systems all based around the needs of the miners he had first envisioned with the town. As the scope of a story widens, there become other towns that can be built in the same spiderweb fashion- how would these towns view each other? Would they have similar views? Would they disagree? How would the narrative flow through that interaction? There are many questions that you can ask yourself as a writer that can lead you from small farm towns to crafting militant nations or trading conglomerates.

Worldbuilding doesn’t have to be all logistics and mapmaking, however. Within each worth there is a tone- a pulse that you, as the writer, are free to weave among the storyline for readers or players to discover over time. With the stories of Exandria, Mercer is very open that he uses tones of reflection on the past and the need for cooperation for the future. As grand of cities that Matt has included for players to travel through, so has he also included just as many ruins haunted by their histories and riddled with warnings for the reader. “When a handful of individuals are capable of such incredible feats of destructive power and control of the world around them, the ramifications aren't just huge - they are inevitable,” The inevitability of corruption seems to run rampant through the world of Critical Role and although it keeps a sense of realism to the tone, in focusing on the capacity for ruin, it highlights when that is not the case. In a world fraught with deception, it makes characters that are pure hearted that much more precious and I think that, intentional or otherwise, is the mark of an excellent wordsmith. Being able to leave a story clear enough in its meaning but open enough to allow interpretations makes a story more real and readers can find themselves falling into the world as they align themselves to the various outlooks the characters express and portray. Specifically for Mercer’s campaign, being able to see multiple sides of a story helps along the theme of cooperation and understanding in the face of cultural differences and how prejudice often comes with a heavy price. As writers, our worlds are our own to create and their messages and tones are the lessons we wish for readers to take away with them. This can sound like a heady responsibility but a theme in a story can be like advice to a friend; make it earnest, honest, and said as gently as you can.