Critical Role To Wrap Up Third Campaign, New Exandria Unlimited Miniseries Announced

Critical Role's third campaign will end next week with an extra-sized final episode. Today, the popular streaming series announced that its third campaign would wrap up on February 6th with an 8.5 hour episode. The series finale is being called the "conclusion to this chapter in Exandrian history, and the dawn of a new age." The third campaign followed a group of adventurers who got wrapped up in a plot to rid the fantasy world of Exandria of its gods via a god-eating entity trapped in one of Exandria's moons. Characters from Critical Role's previous campaigns made significant appearances in the campaign, with the cast playing their old characters for limited periods.

Following the finale, Brennan Lee Mulligan will lead another 4-part Exandria Unlimited episode, titled Exandria Unlimited: Divergence. The series will explore the Divergence, a moment when the gods of Exandria removed themselves from the world after a devastating war between pantheons. The cast will also include Matt Mercer, Liam O'Brien, Jasmine Don, Alex Ward, and Celia Rose Gooding. That series will air for four weeks starting on February 13th at 7 PM on Critical Role's various streaming channels.

No plans were announced for a fourth Critical Role campaign. Campaign 3 ended Critical Role's tradition of weekly live episodes, with the show shifting to pre-recorded episodes that aired three times a month. Speculation has grown that Critical Role's cast (which has remained the same for 10 years) would shift, or that the game would abandon Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition in favor of Daggerheart, a fantasy RPG developed by Critical Role's Darrington Press imprint.

 

[The Soloist]

We had never watched CR before CR3. We watched CR3 from the beginning and enjoyed it until they failed to stop Ludinus at the Maleus Key. After that, our interest diminished until we stopped watching at the end of August 2024.

We watched the Pretathos, the God-Eater, fight in part on fast-forward. I was expecting several characters to fall unconscious and maybe one death. The fight was anticlimactic.

We did not watch CR1 and CR2, so we only watched the wrap-up's first four hours. It was okay, but much like the last months, Mercer's narrative seemed to railroad everything, or at least pre-ordained it.

We are glad to have watched CR3, but the time commitment versus the enjoyment was not there for the last part of the session. We will not watch CR4.

We may watch the Daggerheart miniseries because it will be set in the grimdark setting.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We may watch the Daggerheart miniseries because it will be set in the grimdark setting.

Have you watched Brennan's EU: Calamity miniseries? This is heresy in many quarters, but I think it's probably the best Exandria campaign, capped by an amazing climactic encounter between a PC and a major NPC -- probably the best such I've seen in any actual play.

 

[The Soloist]

Have you watched Brennan's EU: Calamity miniseries? This is heresy in many quarters, but I think it's probably the best Exandria campaign, capped by an amazing climactic encounter between a PC and a major NPC -- probably the best such I've seen in any actual play.

We started watching it but never finished. I doubt we will. We enjoyed the Candella Obscura stories. We prefer watching 4 players to the chaos of 7 to 9 players.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We prefer watching 4 players to the chaos of 7 to 9 players.

Obligatory plug for Nerd Poker and Not Another D&D Podcast, both of which are mostly just audio, but each of which have small tight casts.

Oh, and Dimension 20: Dungeons & Drag Queens, which has four players and a DM.

 

[The Soloist]

Obligatory plug for Nerd Poker and Not Another D&D Podcast, both of which are mostly just audio, but each of which have small tight casts.

Oh, and Dimension 20: Dungeons & Dragon Queens, which has four players and a DM.

Thank you for the suggestions, but we are cutting back on watching or listening to people play RPGs. The Daggerheart miniserie is the last show we will watch.

 

[Mort]

We had never watched CR before CR3. We watched CR3 from the beginning and enjoyed it until they failed to stop Ludinus at the Maleus Key. After that, our interest diminished until we stopped watching at the end of August 2024.

We watched the Pretathos, the God-Eater, fight in part on fast-forward. I was expecting several characters to fall unconscious and maybe one death. The fight was anticlimactic.

We did not watch CR1 and CR2, so we only watched the wrap-up's first four hours. It was okay, but much like the last months, Mercer's narrative seemed to railroad everything, or at least pre-ordained it.

We are glad to have watched CR3, but the time commitment versus the enjoyment was not there for the last part of the session. We will not watch CR4.

We may watch the Daggerheart miniseries because it will be set in the grimdark setting.

Personally, my favorite of all the campaigns was campaign 1.

The maps were hand drawn, the rules knowledge by most of the players was spotty at best (Though Mercer was generally spot on) - but it was just brought with such fresh faced and fun energy. There was a blip in the first series of episodes with a a problem player, but I even enjoyed that, because it really felt like something that would happen at a table. IMO, the later series, while good, just don't have that kind of energy.

 

[Clint_L]

Ditto on Season 1 being best season, and I think that is because it has definable story arcs with plenty of one or two shot episodes, much like an actual campaign. The more grandiose and drawn out the stories have become, the less compelling, for me at least.

If you want a smaller arc, I concur that Dimension 20 is outstanding.

I don't blame you for not sticking with season 3; it's not a great on-ramp.

 

[Gorck]

I have listened to and enjoyed episodes where they played new to me games and liked hearing a bit about the system, but if the story wasn't compelling, I wouldn't have finished their excellent Monsterhearts episode, for instance.

It’s funny you mention that. I’ve watched everything Critical Role has put out (including the Burger King game), but the Monsterhearts video was the only one I couldn’t finish. I guess I’m just too old to deal with high school drama.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It’s funny you mention that. I’ve watched everything Critical Role has put out (including the Burger King game), but the Monsterhearts video was the only one I couldn’t finish. I guess I’m just too old to deal with high school drama.

It's a game with a definite point of view and focus. I can't imagine ever playing or running it nowadays, myself, but I suspect it's amazing interested in its very specific kind of story.

 

[Bomberooski]

I'm always in the market to find a new actual play podcast to get into. Been trying to get season 1 of Not Another D&D Podcast to stick for me. 9 episodes in and it still hasn't won me all the way over yet. Really enjoyed Dimension 20 season 1 and CR season 1 (Only 40 episodes into season 2 but am enjoying it. The episodes are just way too long for me)

I will say that always and forever "The Adventure Zone Season 1: Balance" will go down as my favorite actual play listening experience.

Like I said earlier I'm going to try C4 whenever they start it and try to listen weekly as it's released to see how that experience goes.