Critical Role Critical Role’s 7-hour Campaign Finale

It’s not the last of Critical Role (obviously) but it is the end of their second campaign this Thursday. And it’s 7 hours long!

Critical Role’s highly successful second campaign -- The Mighty Nein -- premiered over three years ago and has built up over 530 hours of adventures, including over 440 villains conquered and over 100 hours of battles (source: CritRoleStats), and this Thursday, June 3, the epic saga of Critical Role’s second campaign is set to embark on its final adventure.

Since the launch of the campaign on January 11, 2018, Critical Role has chronicled the story of Jester Lavorre (Laura Bailey), Yasha Nydoorin (Ashley Johnson), Caleb Widogast (Liam O’Brien), Beauregard "Beau" Lionett (Marisha Ray), Nott the Brave/Veth Brenatto (Sam Riegel), Fjord (Travis Willingham), Mollymauk "Molly" Tealeaf and Caduceus Clay (both played by Taliesin Jaffe) of The Mighty Nein as they explored Wildemount, formed relationships, spat in the face of death and buried allies, realized that not all goblins are as they seem, discovered the power a friendly cupcake (sprinkled with some Dust of Deliciousness) can have in befriending powerful foes, and showcased the resiliency one can have in the face of insurmountable odds time and time again.

Experience the final chapter of The Mighty Nein as Critical Role concludes the legend of this ragtag group of miscreants that millions across the globe have come to know and love. How will their journey end and what’s next from the world of Critical Role? Tune in to find out!

The final episode of Critical Role’s Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein airs this Thursday, June 3 2021 at 7PM PST simultaneously on Twitch (twitch.tv/criticalrole) and YouTube (youtube.com/criticalrole), with the replayable VOD of the show available on Critical Role’s YouTube channel the following Monday.

Critters…. How do you want to do this?

 

[Iry]

Shadowrun 5E?

Shadowrun is one of those games that has such amazing delightful lore, but a system that makes me run away in terror. Obviously I can run a Chronicles of Darkness (or some other system) hack in the same setting, but I wish the base rules of Shadowrun were more... tolerable.

 

[Mercador]

RPG.net regularly has threads tagged "CREATIVE" where posters collectively brainstorm settings, one or two of which have gone on to be fan-published, like the City of the Tarrasque, which is a great one to start reading.

There's another one, whose name escapes me, about what a modern day military dungeon crawl setting might look like which is wonderfully creepy.

Huh, that's strange, why I never been to RPG.Net? It looks like I don't have any avatar there though obviously, this is my kind of site (like this one!).

Edit: here you go

 

[Mercador]

Shadowrun is one of those games that has such amazing delightful lore, but a system that makes me run away in terror. Obviously I can run a Chronicles of Darkness (or some other system) hack in the same setting, but I wish the base rules of Shadowrun were more... tolerable.

95% of the time, I don't read rules, I read lore. So I couldn't tell about Shadowrun rules but I remember it was a mess in CP2020.

 

[Dire Bare]

People do keep wondering if they'll go to a new system, but... I'm not sure. I guess it depends on what the state of D&D Beyond as an advertiser is.

I could see them branch out into some other system. Actually, I think the DDB people have a tabletop system now - I skimmed it but it looked a lot like Savage Worlds to me. I could see them change up systems, because it seems like they've had decent response from using other systems when they did the Honey Heists, Trash Pandas, Monsterheart, and certainly Undeadwood (I loved Undeadwood).

I would be surprised if they switched away from D&D 5E, although I'm sure they'll continue doing one-shots with other games. But what I do expect is a shift away from Exandria, Matt Mercer's campaign. Exandria contains IP elements from both Pathfinder and D&D, and I'm predicting (guessing, really) that Mercer would rather develop a setting he can own 100%. We'll see!

On the other hand, those IP elements are the gods of the setting only (I think) . . . so it's not too bad . . .

 

[Morrus]

95% of the time, I don't read rules, I read lore.

It's weird how people differ. For me, 'lore' is what I read novels and watch movies and TV for. RPGs are the game system which lets me play in those worlds. I've never found RPG lore to be as compelling as the novels and TV/movies I love.

But then, I get that I'm an outlier, otherwise Star Trek would be the world's most popular RPG and Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones would be the most popular fantasy RPGs. Lore-wise, RPGs aren't my source of inspiration.

 

[Parmandur]

I would be surprised if they switched away from D&D 5E, although I'm sure they'll continue doing one-shots with other games. But what I do expect is a shift away from Exandria, Matt Mercer's campaign. Exandria contains IP elements from both Pathfinder and D&D, and I'm predicting (guessing, really) that Mercer would rather develop a setting he can own 100%. We'll see!

On the other hand, those IP elements are the gods of the setting only (I think) . . . so it's not too bad . . .

The players and viewrs are too invested in Exandria. I could see them playing other systems in Exandria (and they have), rather than not continuing in Exandria.

 

[Mercador]

It's weird how people differ. For me, 'lore' is what I read novels and watch movies and TV for. RPGs are the game system which lets me play in those worlds. I've never found RPG lore to be as compelling as the novels and TV/movies I love.

But then, I get that I'm an outlier, otherwise Star Trek would be the world's most popular RPG and Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones would be the most popular fantasy RPGs. Lore-wise, RPGs aren't my source of inspiration.

I think it may be the way I think. I prefer world building, when I was a kid, I was reading encyclopedias. I still read a lot of novels, even in English (though I guess I miss some jokes or can't appreciate the beautiful prose of Erikson) but a book like the Inner Sea World Guide is pretty much the perfect book for me. I immerse myself within the world and then I can create as many stories as I want. Maybe I'm just a creative mind that missed my fate (or more probably, I would just generate worthless junk). I still think I'll write when/if I get to retirement.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The players and viewrs are too invested in Exandria. I could see them playing other systems in Exandria (and they have), rather than not continuing in Exandria.

We'll see. If they jump continents again, which seems to be widely expected, based on online chatter, there's not much functionally different than it being in another world, given that the gods are mostly standard D&D gods, or close enough not to matter. (The Traveler is obviously in a different category.)

 

[Parmandur]

We'll see. If they jump continents again, which seems to be widely expected, based on online chatter, there's not much functionally different than it being in another world, given that the gods are mostly standard D&D gods, or close enough not to matter. (The Traveler is obviously in a different category.)

It's a small world, after all.

 

[jgsugden]

With WotC releasing Exandria locations as supported books, I'd be shocked to see Matt run a game under a system other than D&D in Exandria. I would not be shocked, however, to see:

1.) Matt take an X month break (6?) from DMing.
2.) Liam, Taliesin, or someone else running a chort campaign using a different rule set during that time.
3.) A few players sitting out during that break rather than playing the 'B' campaign.
4.) Them start a new campaign (I'm betting in Issylra) the week before Amazon releases the Tale of Vox Machina.