Fan-run discussion forum for the liveplay D&D show Critical Role and other media produced by Critical Role, including The Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon Prime.
Welcome to the Campaign 3 megathread!
State of the Role: Campaign 3 Announcement
Additional Info on CritRole.com
Campaign 3 Info
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Campaign3 will premiere on Thursday October 21, 2021 at 7 PM Pacific and be set on the continent of Marquet!
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Episodes will remain pre-recorded for the foreseeable future, and will no longer feature fan art reels during the opening scroll. Fan art galleries will continue to be posted online at CritRole.com
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The last Thursday of each month will not feature an episode of Campaign 3. Other content will likely be broadcast during the normal Thursday timeslot. This will effectively begin in 2022, as the last Thursday of November and December both fall during normal holiday breaks anyway.
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In addition to the normal cast, Campaign 3 will feature "new storytellers" and other surprises. Matt will remain the DM throughout Campaign 3.
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The crew has constructed a new set, with a behind the scenes video coming soon.
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Campaign 3 will have an aftershow coming in 2022.
While we eagerly wait for Campaign 3's arrival, use the comments below to share all your wildest hopes and predictions, but remember... NO SPOILERS!
And if you're new to Critical Role, check out our subreddit wiki resources:
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS:
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A new official campaign Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep is currently available for pre-order and releases on March 15, 2022.
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Please be wary of submissions attempting to advertise CR art prints or T-shirts. There has been an influx of spammers attempting phish users and/or sell fake merch.
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TL;DW -
Campaign 3 October 21st 7pm Pacific Hype
Episodes will be pre-recorded moving forward.
Potentially rotating storytellers for Campaign 3, more info TBA
Campaign will take place in Marquet
The last Thursday of every month will not have a new episode of Critical Role (beginning 2022). Most of the time, there will still be something broadcast, but it will not be the main campaign.
New set! New set behind-the-scenes video drop in a few weeks.
After-show starts 2022.
Fan Art Reel will still be released on critrole.com but will no longer air in advance of the weekly episode.
I don't know why, but I find this campaign to be really confusing and hard to watch. In comparisson, I could not unglue myself from Campaign 2 and watched it beginning to end. Overall, I think I liked the tone, setting, and characters of C2 more. It was really easy to follow (at least for me), while C3 feels like I'm constantly losing threads and If I trail of for half a second, I'm already lost.
I personally have a hard time watching campaign 3, I've watched Campaign 1 and 2, which I loved and enjoyed all the way, but there is something off about the new one, I don't know if that's because of the characters, the setting or even the general ambient. I do miss the energy they had in campaign 2 and in campaign 1, both in general. I feel like they think they need to meet expectations. I can't quite put my finger on it.
I really wish to see what is going to happen in the following episodes tho, and if maybe things will improve, in whichever way
Idk if I'm the only one, but yea... I'd love to hear your opinion on it.
I came into C1 late, and just barely caught up to watch the C1 finale live. I was in love with the whole production.
When C2 rolled around, I tried really hard to keep up with the series (rewatched the first 16ep 3 or 4 times each), but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Ultimately, I gave up on C2.
C3 was a great opportunity for me to get back on the boat, and I’ve fallen in love with CR once again.
I can’t possibly know why you’re not enjoying this campaign as much, but in my experience the characters are integral to my enjoyment.
I also fell off pretty hard with campaign 2, I managed to stick it out until the last 20sish episodes but I realized that I really had not been enjoying a majority of the sessions for quite some time. I haven't had the chance to really get into campaign 3 yet but I'm hoping to find whatever was missing in C2.
Nah I'm actually with you. I've been chalking it up to it being a good campaign, and maybe I'M just not enjoying it, and the theme / setting / whatever. But have felt like I couldn't say anything so as not to get absolutely railed on and downvoted to oblivion. But I stopped watching. It has made me start watching campaign two again however! So that's been fun :)
I'm struggling to get invested mid episode 3, feels disjointed and uninteresting (at this current point I'm at) and I know I just need to slug through it - it's just, luke warm...
I recognize this'll be a minority opinion and I truly don't begrudge anyone their enjoyment. I just wanted to share this. I've loved CR for many years and a major component of that enjoyment was Talks Machina and, specifically, Brian Foster. No speculation about why he left or Talks was cancelled, we don't need to go down that road. I just feel like I can't really connect with the show that well without him. The wrap up of Campaign 2 was the first time I really understood how bad it felt not to have him as the interlocutor of the characters and the actors, and the feeling grew and grew through ExU and now C3. I really hope Brian's doing well in all his endeavors. I just don't really enjoy CR without him.
I know I’m going to be super downvoted because this community is soooooo white knight for these guys but I’ve been a fan since the beginning as well. This campaign feel super scripted. I definitely still enjoy the ride but I feel they lost that magic spark they had when they were truly improving everything.
It just so happens Ashley is wearing snake earrings and turns into a snake… they all of a sudden become super nice to Bertram Bell before the ending(going out of their way to buy him drinks). These are not coincidences. I noticed a few more things during the episode that just were off but can’t remember right now. Anyways… I’ll definitely keep enjoying but wanted to get others input as well.
Maybe it's like wrestling. It's not scripted but the outcome is predetermined?
Can I listen to this without listening to campaign 2?
Absolutely! Campaign 3 is a completely new story with new characters. There's recurring characters from Exandria Unlimited as a series, and from The Search For Grog oneshot. But Campaign 2 is at the moment, completely separate. They may or may not have references to C2 at some point later on, but that's probably as far as it'll go.
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They repeated it a few hours after it was first streamed.
Only caught a few minutes but its there I suspect you may have to wait until Monday evening before it becomes available to watch on Youtube.
it'll be on Youtube a few days later, but on Twitch as a VOD immediately after the stream, you just have to be a twitch sub, which is like $5 a month
Does anyone know if there will be reruns for Eu people?
There's always been reruns a few hours after the stream in the past, I'd assume C3 will be the same [though i'm not sure the exact times of the reruns]
Is there anyway to watch between it's live broadcast and the youtube video on Monday? Like are there vods on other sites I can use or replays?
Usually i just wait for the Mondays but this is episode 1 I can't wait!!
Twitch VOD if you subscribe to their twitch and I believe they rebroadcast immediately after the first broadcast and 12 pm est the next day
oh nice, thanks!
Do we happen to know anything about what they're playing yet? I'm so excited for this campaign and to meet the new characters. This will be my first time catching the campaign at the start.
So far only its set within Marquet.
A little over 24 hours before we find out!
I am listening to campaign 1 for the first time and where I'm currently at is episode 65 where they had the mini arc in Ank'Harel. I really want there to be a small meat man reference and definitely references to Fukasa (spice).
Will the episodes have subtitles? The ones on YouTube have subtitles, but I've never watched them on Twitch "live" before.
They had live subtitles handled by a small team before I think and now they're prerecorded so there will almost definitely be subtitles. Critrole team is pretty dedicated to inclusion it would seem
If you watch it live on YouTube, it should auto-generated subtitles, but they aren't super reliable. I wonder if they could make subtitles considering they're filmed in advance now.
It's probably been asked before but can't seem to find it: can I watch without having seen c1 and c2?
I watched deadwood and Exandria Unlimited and loved it.
Yes you can. There might be a few spoilers for past campaigns but not many. C2 had only easter egg references to C1 and so I think C3 will be the same. You should also watch C2 when ever you have the spare time.
Thanks!
Yeah, they will be entirely separate adventures. However, the cast like to talk and it’s unedited so you’ll need to be okay with potential spoilers.
Okay, thanks!
Is it bad I really want Sam to play a Wizard?
Bladesinger perhaps?
Oh how about he and Laura run elves perhaps uncle and niece or cousins?
Been watching a few too many videos on this and have to agree I'd like to see Travis play another Rogue!
Absolutely no idea what Taliesin is going to play!
Is it true Marisha wants to play an Orc Bard?
Good point. I think sam could totally rock a wizard since he's already proven to be an amazing utility spellcaster Travis can play anything and I'll love him for it tbh Taliesin will probably play some homebrew Matt makes as he has for both campaigns so far, with Percy and Molly. Honestly, Marisha as a bard kinda sounds meh to me. Idk I think I just like her the most when she is mostly in the background and then has super awesome moments sometimes like she did in campaign 1. Also super excited to see what Laura plays!!!
I'm just wondering if the desert setting means that Matt's gonna pull some steampunk shit, like Princess of Mars Esque airships, and dynamic mad maxy Wild West battles and stuff, since we're now further into the future in this setting
Not happy about removing art from the feed. That was a huge reason that I really fell in love with the show. And I know I’m far from alone in this.
Yes, I know that the art will be available via the site.
Personally, I would never have seen the art to begin with if it originally had been only offered on the site.
I never visit the website. Probably never will.
Please, reconsider.
They aren’t going to reconsider. It’s not fair to anyone to restrict people using Critical Role to make money and then turn around and use fanart to promote their show.
Recently, they’ve switched from promoting many to promoting only one.
How was that an improvement in fairness?
What about democratizing it, build into their site the ability for fans to vote for the art they like, and having the n-most popular pieces from the previous week getting included on the feed?
The choice they’ve made is throwing the baby out with the bath water.
It’s a bad solution to a problem that, honestly, wasn’t really a problem to begin with.
So, some people create art, submit it, and it doesn’t make the cut?
That’s life.
Edit: Downvote? Really?
If you have constructive criticism, let’s hear it.
It's not about fairness in the way you think. The issue is that a lot artists were using it to promote their own careers and is a lawsuit in the making. The art gallery allows them to promote fan art without that fan art being in a piece of media that they are directly profiting off of. I understand that it is disappointing from our stand point, and it definitely is. As much as I hate to say it, it is the right way to go to avoid any type of lawsuit from artists looking at a big company like CR is now
They’re directly profiting off the website. Look, this is what release forms are for. They really should be gathering releases from each artist before displaying any work from them, whether on their site, or on their feeds.
If that’s really the issue, then they need to cut out all the art altogether until they figure out a way to get releases automated and airtight.
There are ways to do this that are both efficient and legally sound.
The producers and stakeholders at CR really should put more effort into this. They’re going to get creamed on their back catalog if this really is the issue.
I hope matt explores more around the "recently" activated aeormatons (exandria's warforged) maybe they are starting to rebuild their society, fixing themselves. Maybe they activated an evil aeormaton alligned with the somnoven or another nasty aeorian faction/villian.
I really want a desert bandit/ raiding faction like the sand people in star wars, fremen in dune, or tuareg in Sahara.
I'm very excited for the take on a vast desert with unexplored jungles.
Desert Elves maybe?
Imagine they keep themselves hidden and as low key as possible.
Imagine the shock if this was a secret of the setting that has to be discovered?
I wonder how they will deal with Desert Dwarves for example or will they be mostly Mountain Dwarves?
2 days to go!
I really hope Sam plays Gunslinger, just to mess with Tal. Ever since Scanlan did the thing (and Nott’s hoarding of ammunition and gunpowder, plus also ||stealing a gun in Hupperdook||, Sam seems to get a feral joy from throwing Percy’s twisted legacy in Tal’a face. It’d be fun to watch.
Yeah yeah, sam has being getting slowly interested in the tinkering part of dnd. I hope he do this too, just be a mad scientist blowing everything up.
I think Sam just thrives when he can take something and put his creative spin on it. Whatever he chooses is going to be amazing, I'm sure. I personally would like to see someone on the show play a sorcerer again
Is it the new characters we see at 08.22 in this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYBM3myR914
???
The ones on the left are VM, on the right, the M9
LOL, I can't see the forrest for all the trees.
Sorry, my bad!
Someone has probably brought this up already but just in case. If C3 is set after ExU but currently an unknown amount of time after ExU, it's entirely possible for the new party to run into Gilmore or at least his shop in Marquet and I am excited for that, anybody else?
I’m totally excited for new Gilmore too, but I think like with C2, Matt will make them work for the previous campaign NPC interactions.
True, another thing I'm intrigued by is that in theory one of the party could be one of Vex and Percy's kids maybe, being a traveling semi-permanent diplomat to Marquet or as NPC.
That would be interesting. It’s be cool to have a guest come in and their character uses a nom de guerre, only to reveal their full name at the end of the session is ‘Percival Frederickstein von Mussel Klossowski de Rolo IV.’
Campaign 3. I was really hoping for a Darington Brigade campaign. They were all perfect! I've watched that Onshot 6 times and would love to see more. Matt even hinted that more was possibly going to come. a few things I'd love to see in the next one.
Liam choosing Sam's PC (Race/ Class etc.)
Sam choosing Travis' PC
Travis choosing Marisha's PC
Marisha choosing Taliesin's PC
Taliesin choosing Ashley's PC
Ashley choosing Laura's PC
Laura choosing Liam's PC
I'd also like to see the non spell casters in C2 play casters in C3.
An all Mathew Mercer subclass game would be cool too.
Did you watch C1?
Of course...I'd like them to switch again. Bidet!!
Just wondered if you were missing out :)
So how many will be kobolds and will Ashley be the only one to give Laura a half elf thief to play not realising everybody else selected Kobolds?
And of course the Trenchcoat!
Personally I see Ashley being the one human among kobolds like it's the Muppets
Oh god now if only someone could get the people behind the Muppet shows to invite Ashley for a special Critical Role episode Muppet Show style!!!
C1 - We had the glorious Gilmore.
C2 - We had the dynamic Pumat
C3 - ???
I guessing a classic irascible type (traditionally a dwarf) that is also loyal and loveable. He will be the main crafter but the store will be run by his spouse. For race it might be a good time to sneak in some Earth Genasi or the Mercer equivalent.
Bidet
Black market sand bandit.
I see you are interested in only the exceptionally rare.
I really hope we get some Genasi in the new campaign. their an awesome race that deserve more love.
Yessss. It would be awesome to see an earth genasi player but... much funnier to see a water genasi player
I'm thinking a gruff and grumbly mastersmith and the entirely opposite, bubbly and adorable assistant he's teaching.
rotating DM's is unheard of in a campaign.
im assuming matt would still give the other DM's a outline of the story?
then they could just take it from there? that fine, i guess.
Rotating DMs is absolutely not unheard of, there are even tables that have multiple DMs simultaneously (sometimes one who's good at RP, and one who does combat), or shared world games that have two DMs running two groups in parallel. The TTRPG hobby is way bigger than Critical Role and most of the time if you can think of a way to play, it's already been done somewhere.
That being said it's been confirmed that Matt will be the sole DM of Campaign 3. The other "storytellers" mentioned will be guest players. D&D is a collaborative storytelling game (especially the way CR plays it), everyone at the table is a storyteller.
Ive done it in a home game. It worked out okay. But lore became a little hard to handle but the csmpaign ended before it became to big of a problem.
Mattew Mercer is the CR brand. If they have another travesty like eXu, i font know how much their brand will be able to take before breaking.
Look up what Matt said if the M9 chose to work with the empire instead of the gentleman. He would have brought in a different DM.
That's not at all what was said. Colville would come and and play a very complicated NPC that they players could work with.
I’m pretty sure he just said Matt Colville would be a guest, is that what you’re referring to or was there something else?
storyteller =/= DM
When they say storytellers they are talking about every one of them, DnD is collaborative storytelling.
I know it's confusing I also immediately thought so and were horrified of the idea of rotating DM's. But rest assured they confirmed that Matt is still the DM of C3!
"new storytellers" (the word used was new, not rotating, I don't know why people here keep throwing that around when CR has in no way said that), and "new ways to tell their story" probably means: 1. More guest stars. 2. Reoccuring guest stars. 3. Said guest stars will maybe have a more direct influence on the Campaign, maybe even their own story "arcs". (Last one is a hail mary because frankly I have no idea)
Adding my own irrelevant voice to the cacophony of guesses:
- Liam: Dwarf Path of the Zealot Barbarian
- Sam: Dwarf Forge Domain Cleric
- Laura: Half-Elf Way of Mercy Monk
- Travis: Gnome School of Illusion Wizard
- Taliesin: Fallen Aasimar Oath of Redemption Paladin
- Marisha: Tiefling Aberrant Mind Sorcerer
- Ashley: Human College of Swords Bard
Bonus
- Robbie (? - this whole 'new storyteller' thing is messing with me... he seems the most likely candidate): Halfling Swashbuckler Rogue
I read most of these going ooh that’s cool. But then I got to Travis lmao. I would be shocked if he plays a gnome anything.
or a fully spell casters tbh.
I could see him going Druid or cleric. I doubt very much we’ll see a wizard or sorcerer.
Have you seen him in the Darrington Brigade? He had so much fun playing that Macaroni dude. I think he would really excel in a very different role than what he's handled so far... and he's expressed interest in full-caster.
Oh I’ll never forget Macaroni Samsonite. I just don’t think he’ll pick something like that to play for a long game. I could see a dwarf. But I think he likes being beefy too much. Even when playing a warlock he went hard into boosting his hit point pool.
Is it bad I want Ashley to play firstly a nonessential party member as playing without the cleric is sketchy and secondly a character that does not have a lot of complicated features.
I would like to clarify this is not a personal attack she is incredibly busy doing many many things outside of critical role and I think they balanced that very well in both campaigns explaining her missing. It flowed didn't seem too forced but was always grateful when she came back she is a very talented actor.
That being said, it is sad to me that she frequently forgot key characteristics of playing a barbarian (reckless attacks) and seemed timid to wade into the thick of battle at times. I would be frustrated watching her play a caster because likely she wouldn't have the time outside of the game to spend to really decide on what spells to learn and prepare to best play one. I know the show is not about playing optimally but it reaches a point where its kinda beyond that.
Is it bad I want them to play without a cleric? Let some danger happen!
Indeed!! I love Clerics but a Cleric /healing subclassless game would be intense and nail biting..I like your idea!!
If you want to see a game with minimal healing and heavily restricted magical healing, I heavily recommend a Crown of Candy from Dimension 20.
interesting I love Brennan as a DM and a player!!
the reason she was missing so often is she was filming a tv series called blindspot which has since ended, so she should be around for pretty much all of campaign 3 aslong as nothing else comes up.
I know I wasn't directly complaining about that. I also said they handled it well and I know she's busy. I just wish when she was there that she would use key abilities of her class and character.
I understand having a warmup episode as well but when she isn't using reckless, racial healing, her passive of being able to be resurrected (I know the DC still exists but it could have allowed for some interesting roleplay to have her at least use it once), maybe she just needed a flowchart from Matt.
When attacking:
are you raging?
Reckless or no
roll, add modifiers (then spell them out)
Is it the first attack to hit (add class bonus), if not add (x amount of die)
She is a VERY good actor and in no way am I doubting her ability to make us feel an emotional connection to her character. I think that she had so many things going on and was so invested in others' actions that she would get flustered on her own turn.
Smart money is on her playing a Monk or a Rogue.
Ah just hoping it snags me more than C2, man I found the worst story arcs of C1 better than the best story arcs of C2. I’m not sure why, but meh that’s my two cents.
I vastly preferred most characters in C2 to C1, which made it more enjoyable for me. I never connected with Vex until about the time when Tary showed up, Vax for me got worse with his constant moping and depressing and "one more thing"s. I only started to enjoy Keyleth around episode 40 to 50. Never loved Percy as much. Scanlan also only got interesting to me after about half the run. Grog was awesome though.
I was so much more invested in Beau and Fjord and Jester and all, probably because C1 all seemed to be these standard "my-first-character" stereotypes. It was still a good campaign, but just not as engaging or emotionally investing to me.