My unsolicited Critical Role Campaign 3 episode 1 thoughts, having watched the first half while not paying very close attention to it.
I was fine with it by the end of the first half. However, if I was a brand new viewer I 100% would not have made it through the opening 10 minute intro/shilling section.
The first 30-40 minutes of play was really front-loaded with the standard Mercer factions, orders, and institutions that it'll take me a while to wrap my head around and which I may never care about.
Laura is doing the young southern gothic voice she used for her Pillars of Eternity 2 character. It's great.
Laura is playing a human aberrant mind (I think) sorcerer. Marisha is a warlock/sorcerer. Warlock patron is The Undead from Van Richten's guide and I think she's a dhampir as well. Not sure what her sorcerous origin is but likely shadow.
After one half of one episode, I like Marisha's character better than Keyleth or Beau.
Taleisin's character is a non-binary earth genasi barbarian. Very cool looking visually.
FCG = Ted Lasso. At first I thought he was the little robot voiced by Slim Pickens in The Black Hole, but it's clearly Ted Lasso.
I like FCG and Laura's character, Imogen, a lot.
Ashley, Liam, and Robbie are playing their Exandria Unlimited characters. Travis joins late in part one as Bertram Bell, his campaign 1 back-up character. This does not feel like a long-term character for him (unlike everyone else, he does not get a character sheet). It appears there may be something to the rumors that this is a West Marches campaign or that sometimes people other than Matt will be playing NPCs.
Sam inadvertently revealed he did not watch a single minute of Exandria Unlimited.
Taleisin and Sam are playing unpublished subclasses for barbarian and cleric, respectively. Maybe they'll be available with the March CR adventure book.
Bold choice for Ashley to play a druid, the most technically complex class in the game. Despite playing the character in all 8 episodes of Exandria Unlimited, she did not know how her cantrips worked here.
Not crazy about the new set so far. It has a weird fishbowl effect, and whenever Mercer leans in to move minis there are suddenly three of him as he appears in every camera shot at weird angles.
The latest odd Mercer pronunciation issue is that instead of gondola he said gon-DOE-la conservatively a million times in the first hour.
Their ability scores are higher than what you'd get with point buy or standard array, but so far they each have one really low score. Marisha has a 5 strength and Taleisin has a 6 charisma.
I always learn a lot watching this show. My biggest take-away is that the first session of a campaign is hard to DM. But I think it’s better to do two things they didn’t do here:
I was fine with it by the end of the first half. However, if I was a brand new viewer I 100% would not have made it through the opening 10 minute intro/shilling section.
The first 30-40 minutes of play was really front-loaded with the standard Mercer factions, orders, and institutions that it'll take me a while to wrap my head around and which I may never care about.
Laura is doing the young southern gothic voice she used for her Pillars of Eternity 2 character. It's great.
Laura is playing a human aberrant mind (I think) sorcerer. Marisha is a warlock/sorcerer. Warlock patron is The Undead from Van Richten's guide and I think she's a dhampir as well. Not sure what her sorcerous origin is but likely shadow.
After one half of one episode, I like Marisha's character better than Keyleth or Beau.
Taleisin's character is a non-binary earth genasi barbarian. Very cool looking visually.
FCG = Ted Lasso. At first I thought he was the little robot voiced by Slim Pickens in The Black Hole, but it's clearly Ted Lasso.
I like FCG and Laura's character, Imogen, a lot.
Ashley, Liam, and Robbie are playing their Exandria Unlimited characters. Travis joins late in part one as Bertram Bell, his campaign 1 back-up character. This does not feel like a long-term character for him (unlike everyone else, he does not get a character sheet). It appears there may be something to the rumors that this is a West Marches campaign or that sometimes people other than Matt will be playing NPCs.
Sam inadvertently revealed he did not watch a single minute of Exandria Unlimited.
Taleisin and Sam are playing unpublished subclasses for barbarian and cleric, respectively. Maybe they'll be available with the March CR adventure book.
Bold choice for Ashley to play a druid, the most technically complex class in the game. Despite playing the character in all 8 episodes of Exandria Unlimited, she did not know how her cantrips worked here.
Not crazy about the new set so far. It has a weird fishbowl effect, and whenever Mercer leans in to move minis there are suddenly three of him as he appears in every camera shot at weird angles.
The latest odd Mercer pronunciation issue is that instead of gondola he said gon-DOE-la conservatively a million times in the first hour.
Their ability scores are higher than what you'd get with point buy or standard array, but so far they each have one really low score. Marisha has a 5 strength and Taleisin has a 6 charisma.
I always learn a lot watching this show. My biggest take-away is that the first session of a campaign is hard to DM. But I think it’s better to do two things they didn’t do here:
- Start with an action sequence. Not hungover people in a bar. You’re inviting 30-40 minutes of low-energy meandering.
- Start simple. You don’t need to introduce every faction and location right away. No player or viewer is holding all of these guilds, libraries, theaters, and towers in their heads. Just intro stuff as you need it. And in session one, just intro the stuff you need for session 1.
and the first non religious cleric of the show, a punk person might bejust the right excuse for taliesin to be marvelously rude to everyone...
