Matt Mercer's Best Critical Role Quote Is Still the Most Inspiring Line in D&D History

Published Nov 8, 2026, 6:00 AM EST If you’re still on the fence about being a DM, listen to Mercer Matt Mercer's best quote about D&D made me a better Dungeon Master Images: Critical Role/Wizards of the Coast Matthew Mercer is one of the world's most popular Dungeon Masters. Alongside other incredible DMs like Deborah Ann Woll, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and Aabria Iyengar, Mercer has undeniably shaped how players worldwide approach tabletop role-playing games. As Critical Role, the multimedia entertainment company Mercer co-founded, has grown and evolved over the years, one thing has remained constant: Mercer’s willingness to help other tabletop players. He is especially eager to support aspiring Dungeon Masters who hope to develop their skills and become as accomplished as he is, even appearing on the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube page to provide assistance. Mercer’s wisdom is well documented across multiple interviews, but only recently, as a fellow DM, did I find the most inspiring quote that everyone (regardless of whether you're a Dungeon Master or a player) should internalize as soon as humanly possible. What is Matthew Mercer’s best D&D quote? In an interview with Variety published in January 2026, Mercer and Mulligan sat down for a sincere conversation about everything and anything D&D. They reflected on their respective work as Dungeon Masters on Critical Role and Dimension 20, discussing the experiences and paths that shaped their careers. Image: Critical Role/Beacon One topic that came up was preparing a tabletop session. Mulligan asked Mercer what his philosophy is for preparing a tabletop session, and Mercer’s answer perfectly defines one of the core beliefs that we think should inspire players on either side of the table in their future games. “Like many things, it comes with experience, and sometimes you have to fail to learn better.” After decades of playing tabletop games and building a successful career from them, Mercer’s words capture the spirit of what makes role-playing tabletop games, particularly D&D, so engaging — our desire to perfect how we tell stories through interactive play. Why failure in D&D is so important We’ve all heard similar sayings about the benefits of failure, such as Henry Ford’s “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently,” or Chris Bradford’s “There is no failure except in no longer trying.” Image: Critical Role Giving yourself permission to fail in D&D, however, is one of the most essential lessons a player needs to learn. Without it, the striving for perfection puts tremendous pressure on not just you, but everyone at the table with you. For example: if you’re the DM, you’ll constantly be assessing whether your players are having fun, or feeling like you have to nudge them in a specific direction, and getting more and more alarmed when that doesn’t turn out to be the case. If you’re a player, you’ll be so busy overthinking whether your decisions will work out that you'll bring the game to a halt. When I first started DMing, I scripted scenarios that I thought would completely derail the campaign and the story I wanted to tell if the players didn’t follow them to the letter. But that mindset was selfish: this wasn’t just my story, and I wasn't the only player at the table. It led me to make terrible, sometimes unfair calls as I tried to get everything back on track. Half the time, it didn’t work and only made things harder. Why didn’t I stop and pause to tell my players they’d thrown me a curveball once again — and that I, a Brit with only a passing knowledge of American sports, had fumbled it so badly? Image: Geek & Sundry The truth was that my anxiety about not doing things exactly as I’d planned in my head was making games feel far more terrifying than they needed to. I didn’t want to be wrong, but being wrong, and having people accept that about you and still want to sit at your table because they want to be part of the story you’re telling together, is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Regardless of which side of the table you’re on, the fear of failure and the pursuit of perfection can gradually take over and distract from what matters most. When you try so hard to make every decision, encounter, or moment just right, it’s easy to lose sight of the reason everyone gathered to play in the first place: to have fun. That’s why it’s worth keeping Mercer’s advice in mind. After all, failure is a gift that keeps on giving.