Critical Role: The Draw of Destiny
October 25, 2021 12:06 PM - Season 3, Episode 1 - Subscribe

Disparate souls collide in the mountain spires of Jrusar when three different groups of adventurers meet during a battle against an unusual array of enemies...
posted by nubs (18 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Freshly Cut Grass is a genius creation and I am gleefully awaiting the first time the entire group has to climb a ladder.
posted by Faintdreams at 12:32 PM on October 25, 2021 [1 favorite]




I love them all, but I think Fearne, Laudna and Fresh Cut Grass are my favorites.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:38 PM on October 25, 2021


How does CR generally run, content-rating-wise? My tween loves actual play shows, and I’ve been a little daunted by the prescreening job on this one. Swears are fine, but, say, pedophilia jokes (which weirdly have shown up in multiple first eps of popular actual play podcasts) less so. But a first ep of a new adventure seems like a good place to start, especially between Dimension 20 seasons!
posted by tchemgrrl at 3:35 AM on October 26, 2021


Content rating wise, I think it's safe to say there's mature situations, but mostly with the amount of violence, some sexual situations. Compared to Dimension 20, I'd say it's probably the same as The Unsleeping City?

The last arc of campaign 2 was a lot of horror involving a flesh city, so it's a little hard to judge based on that. Over half of the players are parents, so I would not expect pedo jokes, but also I wouldn't listen to campaign 1.
posted by dinty_moore at 4:57 AM on October 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


Noticed that Marisha Ray is missing from a cast photo for this campaign. I realize this may be a bit of a fraught topic, but are they not participating in this one?
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:25 AM on October 26, 2021


C1 has some rough & tasteless bits, particularly early on when they are figuring out that what goes in the home game doesn't always in front of an audience; I don't recall anything particularly egregious, but certainly some stuff that wasn't great, particularly from Scanlan the horndog (though he does change over time). As far as this campaign goes, it seems to be off to a good start on that front, with the only wild bit I recall coming from FCG discussing the naming conventions of its creator. That being said, the CR cast doesn't shy away from characters with trauma and dealing with it.

Noticed that Marisha Ray is missing from a cast photo for this campaign. I realize this may be a bit of a fraught topic, but are they not participating in this one?

Unfortunately cropping, I think - that's the same photo used for the thumbnail on YT, and she's on the far right, just past Robbie. Similarly, the cropping removes Talesin on the far left, beside Laura. Both are part of C3.
posted by nubs at 7:35 AM on October 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


Ah, thank you!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:42 AM on October 26, 2021


with the only wild bit I recall coming from FCG discussing the naming conventions of its creator.
That broke the cast and this particular Riegel-averse critter very muchly. Was a great moment.

How does CR generally run, content-rating-wise? My tween loves actual play shows, and I’ve been a little daunted by the prescreening job on this one.

I'm also wrestling with this, as my tween ADORED ExU - she is a massive Aabria stan (and rightly so!)
They're pretty heavy on the swears, in general, but I can't recall anything like pedo jokes/etc. Definitely adult humour (Laura has a filthy mind), but nothing I'd classify as problematic.
posted by coriolisdave at 3:10 PM on October 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


I was in love with Fresh Cut Grass the moment I realized that was his actual name!

For those who (like I) who found the character illustrations lovely and wanted to look at them more, Critical Role's official Twitter account has posted them in all of their glory.
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 8:14 PM on October 26, 2021


I loved it. I feel like everyone came out swinging hard with the characters (except maybe Laura with Imogen who appears to be, deliberately, much more subdued than Vex & Jester). I'm super into Taliesin's crust punk earth genasi barbarian and Travis absolutely killed it with Bertrand Bell (who I'm immediately calling BB).

I thought Robbie was one of the strongest parts of the EXU so really pleased to see him come along, even if it's only for the start.

I really, really enjoyed this and it kept my attention shockingly well for the entire run time. It's probably a great place to start, though who knows how or where it will go from here.

I'm glad to hear from people about the show here on Fanfare as Twitter and Reddit have DISCOURSE and I'm just going to avoid that from now on and just enjoy the show on my own terms and through any critters here.
posted by slimepuppy at 1:17 AM on October 27, 2021 [2 favorites]




A friend of mine tried to finally give CR a go with this season/episode but he didn't make it out of Matts' opening dialogue. He can't really stand to watch Actual Plays, so it's not all CR's fault -- but independently I thought it was pretty lore-heavy start. I understand Matt's excitement as a worldbuilder, but like we don't need to have a blurb about every surrounding biome.

It's heavy slogging through the first part of the show in general. There's a lot of establishing a "welp what are we gonna do" feeling which involves a lot of saying no.

Travis wheeling in as a wild card who doesn't seem to fit coming in at 5th level is the first different and exciting thing.

Robbie seems to have really good chemistry with this group, I haven't seen ExU or other stuff. So like I don't know Faerne either but Ashley seems very comfortably playing more to her natural way of playing, which is like, idk, Danger Ditz.

Someone pointed out that Taliesin and Sam's characters are a literal punk rock and heal bot.

Surprised at Laura and Liam going mellow, though it makes sense for Laura after Jester. Kinda hope Laura's accent changes a bit so there's not quite so much twang.

Marisha clearly having fun being like a terrifying aunt. It'll be fun watching her be a non-jock but maybe her character can be arbitrarily violent anyway.
posted by fleacircus at 5:34 AM on October 28, 2021


>the only wild bit I recall coming from FCG discussing the naming conventions of its creator.

The joke went entirely over the kid's head; he agreed with the players that naming a robot "Oatmeal" was hilarious.

In any case, I don't know how this compares with their usual style, but we both enjoyed it. The play seemed on the slow-moving end compared to other actual plays we've listened to or watched, maybe because it's recorded live rather than cut for excitement/efficiency. The framing scenes did a particularly good job of giving some motivations right off the bat. It looks like the run time is pretty typical, and based on that we are super-unlikely to be able to keep up, but we're curious to see where they go with it.
posted by tchemgrrl at 4:57 AM on October 29, 2021


That was a pretty good example of their playstyle; length can vary, but 3.5 to 4 hours is typical - though, if you watch the YouTube recording you can skip over the intro announcements as well as the break, which can shave about half an hour off. I don't tend to watch an episode in one go; I usually grab a half-hour where I can, and I often have it playing while I'm cooking/cleaning/whatever. And I'm often behind by two or three weeks; I used to try to keep up, but I'm finding that going at whatever pace is working for me is best; if I try to hard to keep up/catch up I tend to get burnt out on it.

Kind of enjoying Talesin going from the wise & considered Caduceus to the impulsive Ashton.
posted by nubs at 12:01 PM on October 29, 2021


I don't recall anything particularly egregious, but certainly some stuff that wasn't great, particularly from Scanlan the horndog (though he does change over time)

I was particularily thinking of the early Scanlan and Kaylie interactions as something I would not to watch with my parents as a preteen (or watch with my preteen as a parent).

Someone pointed out that Taliesin and Sam's characters are a literal punk rock and heal bot.

They're also rock and roll! I also already really love their friendship. Fresh Cut Grass is going to break my goddamn heart.

Kinda hope Laura's accent changes a bit so there's not quite so much twang.


Imogen's accent is really similar to Laura's accent as Xoti from Pillars of Eternity 2; I wouldnt be surprised if it stayed at that level.

Travis' character seems to be a recycled one shot character, though he's lost thirteen or so levels. There's a lot of questions about what's up with that, and if he's going to continue playing that character long term (as a note, Bertrand is currently making death saving throws at a -3 penalty).
posted by dinty_moore at 2:50 PM on October 29, 2021


Hm you're right it is a bit like Xoti. I didn't like Xoti lol.
posted by fleacircus at 3:27 AM on October 30, 2021


Oh good! I didn't realize there were fanfare discussions about Critical Role here. Excellent.
I really loved this, lore heavy intro and all.
I particularly enjoyed Laudna and Faerne. It feels like both Marisha and Ashley are having so much fun with those characters.
I've been rewatching Campaign 1, and it's interesting to see how much the show has evolved.
I was a bit concerned that I would find all the bells and whistles of the new set distracting but so far it's not been a problem at all.
posted by Zumbador at 8:07 PM on November 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


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