Critical Role: Breaking and Entering...
April 18, 2022 3:55 PM - Season 3, Episode 20 - Subscribe

With the heist underway, Bells Hells explore the traps and trinkets of the Twilight Mirror Museum, finding unexpected dangers as they venture deeper into the vault...
posted by nubs (6 comments total)
 
Just saw that you had created a CR discussion and popped in to say hello. Need to watch Ep21 (and I have seen you have a post on that). I am continuiously amazed at Travis' ability to troll Matt and the other cast members and think that this character gives him such scope to continue to do so.

What are you thoughts on this Campaign vs Campaing 1 (which I am re-watching atm) and 2?
posted by dangerousdan at 6:34 PM on April 27, 2022


Hi dangerousdan - I am, as usual, behind on episodes by a few weeks, so I often don't comment (or come in late to threads as I catch up).

I am greatly enjoying Travis this season - he just seems so full of glee to be playing Chetney and being a bit of a shit-stirrer, which has generally been the domain of other players in past campaigns. Which ties into your question about C3 vs C2 vs C1, on which I will say this:

-C1 was a bit like everyone playing their first D&D campaign - full of character tropes & the general anti-heros become saviours of the world arc
-C2 was like everyone's 2nd D&D campaign - full of edgy, dark, mysterious characters; it took a long while for it to gel for me, in terms of the group coming together. They save the world, but not in a public way.
-C3 so far feels like everyone is just leaning in and has created characters that are fun for them - Chetney, FCG, Laudna,Fearne, etc. Not that there aren't serious undertones to the characters, but it feels different and the group has gelled together faster than it seemed to take in C2. I'm intrigued to see where it goes from here (though I miss Dorian!)

Part of it is that the players have gotten very comfortable with the rules and how to manage their characters & are more likely to plan (and stick to it); part of it is a change in DM style in Matt. In C1, things got laid out in front of the party in terms of the next obvious steps, quests, etc; in C2 and C3 Matt seems a lot more free form in terms of following the direction of the party, but (like any DM) I suspect there's a lot of pieces ready to go with only minimal nudging or are inevitable regardless of direction - you can't set up the terrain he does without a lot of prep, so nothing related to encounters is really on the fly. But that is part of what makes Matt a great DM - he can spin things out to buy himself time to go create the encounter, or he makes it look effortless in terms of the party winding up in the encounters they do. I also feel that in general, Matt has made the encounters less deadly/threatening over time, since we don't see character death & resurrection at anything like the pace of C1 - but if everyone is loving their characters, I can understand that instinct.
posted by nubs at 9:14 AM on April 28, 2022


I am greatly enjoying Travis this season - he just seems so full of glee to be playing Chetney and being a bit of a shit-stirrer, which has generally been the domain of other players in past campaigns.

I think you might be forgetting the Deck of Many Things...?
posted by The Tensor at 2:45 PM on April 28, 2022


An interesting take on the meta-arc of CR nubs, I can see wher you are coming from regarding the way the DM and group interact (and don't forget that 1/5 of C1 was with Orion playing a very painful charater that IMO hindered th interaction they developed in C2). I think it was the tropes that hooked me on CR when I was introducted to it by my teenage child and from there, just kept going.

I agree too with your charaterisation of Matt's journey as a DM - there is a differnece with a home game and broadcast (catering to players vs catering to audience) and seems to have settled on providing the canvas for tallented actors to develop their own stories within a group setting. Quiet a high bar for anyone who wants to DM!
posted by dangerousdan at 3:16 PM on April 28, 2022


I think you might be forgetting the Deck of Many Things...?

I did use "generally"; and was comparing with the more constant, ongoing chaotic instigations of characters like Scanlan or Jester...but yes, the Deck of Many Things incident with Grog was great. (tDoMT is a chaos generator in general anytime it comes out.)
posted by nubs at 3:24 PM on April 28, 2022


(Sorry I think that came across as snippy/snarky which was not my intent. Been a long week)
posted by nubs at 6:32 PM on April 28, 2022


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