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<blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 9728719" data-attributes="member: 6988941">Really the inflextion point was back with the start of campaign 2, which established that Critical Role as a &quot;franchise&quot; was defined by it being the same (core) cast of nerdy ass voice actors playing the characters, not by the particular characters, which in the still developing media genre of ttrpg liveplays is not a given.And really &quot;Critical Role&quot; is (to a degree) whatever the people who collectively own the brand name say it is at this point. They've had mini-side campaigns, soon to be a second animated series, spin-off novels, D&amp;D supplements both official and independent, and a vast array of merch and people have accepted these things all, to varying degrees, as &quot;Critical Role&quot;. While the big, numbered, streamed campaigns remain the flagship product in their empire (even if the animated series presumably has a wider reach outside the D&amp;D hobby), that doesn't necessarily mean they are necessary at all, much less required to be in a particular format, for it to remain the &quot;Critical Role&quot; enterprise. Now so far this flexibility has been possible because the core cast (the equity owners of the enterprise) have been remarkably good at maintaining a unified front on everything (which makes me suspect they are at least above average at being agreeable and supportive behind the scenes as well). Critical Role-ness will not really be questionable for any of their endeavors as long as they endeavor together. When core cast start leaving we can perhaps start questioning the Critical-Roleness of what those remaing produce. Having, in this case, effectively an additional cast member for a full campaign does, admittedly, test the boundaries, but when every co-owner of the enterprise is right there with him saying this is really critical role, I think most fans are inclined to believe them.And yes I know they had an acrimonious departure early on, but they weren't really the Critical Role phenomenon yet, and the &quot;franchise&quot; hadn't yet asked us to switch to another campaign with anther set of characters on the basis of continuity of cast and continuing parasocial relationships with them.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Benjamin Olson, post: 9728719, member: 6988941"] Really the inflextion point was back with the start of campaign 2, which established that Critical Role as a "franchise" was defined by it being the same (core) cast of nerdy ass voice actors playing the characters, not by the particular characters, which in the still developing media genre of ttrpg liveplays is not a given. And really "Critical Role" is (to a degree) whatever the people who collectively own the brand name say it is at this point. They've had mini-side campaigns, soon to be a second animated series, spin-off novels, D&D supplements both official and independent, and a vast array of merch and people have accepted these things all, to varying degrees, as "Critical Role". While the big, numbered, streamed campaigns remain the flagship product in their empire (even if the animated series presumably has a wider reach outside the D&D hobby), that doesn't necessarily mean they are necessary at all, much less required to be in a particular format, for it to remain the "Critical Role" enterprise. Now so far this flexibility has been possible because the core cast (the equity owners of the enterprise) have been remarkably good at maintaining a unified front on everything (which makes me suspect they are at least above average at being agreeable and supportive behind the scenes as well). Critical Role-ness will not really be questionable for any of their endeavors as long as they endeavor together. When core cast start leaving we can perhaps start questioning the Critical-Roleness of what those remaing produce. Having, in this case, effectively an additional cast member for a full campaign does, admittedly, test the boundaries, but when every co-owner of the enterprise is right there with him saying this is really critical role, I think most fans are inclined to believe them. And yes I know they had an acrimonious departure early on, but they weren't really the Critical Role [I]phenomenon[/I] yet, and the "franchise" hadn't yet asked us to switch to another campaign with anther set of characters on the basis of continuity of cast and continuing parasocial relationships with them. [/QUOTE]

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