Few people have shaped modern tabletop gaming like Matt Mercer, and Polygon has gone back to the well for what it calls his best Critical Role quote — a line the outlet ranks as the most inspiring in Dungeons & Dragons history.

The framing is aimed squarely at aspiring Dungeon Masters. Polygon's argument: for anyone weighing whether to run their first game, Mercer's advice is all the encouragement needed. That tracks with his broader influence — the so-called 'Mercer Effect' has been credited (and sometimes blamed) for the wave of new players who found D&D through Critical Role's actual-play streams over the past decade.

Mercer's standing in the hobby goes beyond viewership numbers. Critical Role grew from a group of voice actors playing a home game into a media company with animated series, publishing arms, and its own game systems, and Mercer's table style — collaborative, improvisational, generous to player ideas — became the de facto template for a generation of DMs.

The enduring appeal of a single quote speaks to how much of DMing is confidence rather than rules mastery. Most would-be Dungeon Masters aren't stopped by the Monster Manual; they're stopped by the fear of doing it wrong. Mercer's pitch, as Polygon presents it, is that there's no wrong way to start.