Thread 96764857

Lore edition

>Hero to many. Enemy to some. When Thjazi Fang is marked for execution, various figures from across his remarkable life unite to uncover the truth behind his grim fate. In a land still suffering from the fallout of dead gods and living in the shadow of a tumultuous rebellion, these disparate people will come together across the fractured world of Aramán and connect in ways they never imagined.
>As hope and victory fade, a question hangs over Aramán. Without the Gods, what great deeds now fall to us? And who, or what, shall grab their crown from themselves?

Previous episodes
Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mbynm0pGX0
Episode 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBQMuDAe4rE

Roll stats

>>96764857 (OP)
>>96764861
reddit does these infocharts? sad criticalrolestats is dead

Why did they have to invent their own cosmology etc and does this mean this setting has nothing to do with Exandria

>>96764887
no connection to Exandria

>Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford would be helping Brennan with the design of elements of the new campaign, including new homebrew subclasses, feats, backgrounds, and spells.
Why can't they just settle with the subclasses already there. Why do they have to invent new shit every campaign

>>96764857 (OP)
Are they using 2024 rules?

>>96764887
Nope. This is a new world, new setting, new Gods, new lore, new characters, new.. everything. There's absolutely nothing that ties this to any of the previous 3 champions.

>>96765425
I believe they're using their own modified rules of 2024 that was homebrewed with the help of Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford.

How do critical role fans feel about this song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rKpDn-r6aQ

>>96764887
Wich is lame, and it discourages people from getting into Exandria

>The Stone of Nightsong
but what does Aylin and her stone have to do with all of this

>>96764857 (OP)
>c4
>half the party is human
>other half are humanoids
I know this is not a universal rule hut. Did none of them (besides the lion guy) picked up a fish guy or a centaur, or a turtle, or anything that is not human but with different skin color?

Cross fingers that Ep3 has less Orc druid in it. I really hope that she's not in the group with Wic and Tyranny. I want to see how the priest and daemon dynamic changes, now that the truth to Wic's faith is revealed to him, but it'll just ruin the whole mood if that Orc is trying to fuck the daemon every time they're in the same room together.

apologies for being new to D&D
but what the fuck are these stats? total score of 92 at level 3? why isn't the DM kicking this obvious powergamer out?

>>96767916
If they're rolling for attributes, that's an entirely possible (if super unlikely) spread. Hell, unless they are using rolled stats, or the GM is super generous with character build points, it's impossible to get stats like that.

>>96767916

I didn't play dnd rule system since 3rd edition but those are some bullshit stats on all the characters.

In the past there was standard heroic array where you had 15,14,13,12,10, & 8. (72 total) 98 is total bullshit-

I never seen a character with so many high stats in decade of playing dnd.

I feel as times move on stats are getting higher and higher. god forbid your highest stat is only 14 or 15.

>>96766236
So far I'd say the tables are going to be

Table 1
>Wic
>Tyranny
>Teor

Table 2
>Thaisha
>Thimble
>Azune
>Occtis
>Kattigan

Table 3
>Bolaire
>Azune
>Murray

Don't know where Julien or Vaelus would fit in

>>96767916
>>96767982
Brennan said this was a deadly campaign so they went
>Roll 5d6 drop the two lowest
As opposed to previous CR campaigns where Matt goes
>Roll 4d6 drop the 1 lowest

>>96768000
*Halandil instead of Azune for table 3

>>96767916
>>96767979
Its pretty obvious the group prefers power fantasy-type of sessions over dungeon crawling type of gameplay. Personally I find that style of gameplay fucking boring but to each their own.

https://x.com/CriticalRole/status/1978921544907698208
Who provided Brennan with the most character information
>Robbie Daymond (not even close)
>Honorable mentions: Luis Carazo, Taliesin Jaffe & Sam Reigel

Who gave the least
>Travis (just a short paragraph)
>Marisha (came up with the last name for her character 30 seconds before the start of the episode)

Why are the threads being made so early now? Last week it was made on Sunday lole

>>96768936
>Marisha
That explains why she gave the dwarf a man's surname, though I wouldn't put it past these people to do it on purpose.

>>96768025
Ah, that makes sense. I was going to say, the spreads had the look of "I rolled at home" otherwise.

>>96770343
those names aren't used that way anymore in anglo countries

Do you regret saying Tyranny is the worst character yet?

>>96770669
But I always hated Aabria's character the most? I wish Ashley had done a bit more of a voice too. That's not relevant but I wanted to say it anyway.

>>96770669
its still marisha's character

150s my body is ready

>>96770669
Tyranny and Wick are hard-carrying so far. I will rage if they are split up.

>calls for an insight roll
>tells you nothing
Bravo DM

A disturbing lack of our Main Character, Liam so far

Brennan hands out advantage too freely. If you want them to succeed dont ask for a roll.

>>96771041
Brennan has a story to tell and he will tell it dice be damned

Jiggly Gobbo Booty

>>96771030
on a 5, yeah

Matt's character is such an asshole kek

*mute*

peak performance

>>96767916
There is a reason we only see rolls they agree to post a pic of after the fact.
Their "game" is entirely fake because they script PC arcs, ant their campaign outcomes are predetermined
The fact that they can cheat/storytell at every turn and still call it D&D, shows what kind of people they are.

When do we finally get to see him get a little......weird?

>>96764857 (OP)
WE'RE SO BACK!
we actually aren't, i know but i'm a hopeful idiot

The Halovar plot is definitely the most interesting part.

can we have the episode for download?

Missing her.........

Yeah Wicc is the most interesting character and it ain't close. Sam cooked again.

>1/2 hr in
>yapping with 1 PC
Mulligan loves to hear himself talk even more than Mercer. This campaign is going to be another slog.

So what's up with the demons?

>>96771215
they're too lewd

>>96764857 (OP)
An infographic or three like this would be, at least to someone like me, a much preferred introduction compared to this...what is it, four episode "preamble" or whatever they call it?

I'm still waiting for them to fight monsters and obtain treasures and whatnot.

>>96771215
Nevermind

Really interested to see how this ends up performing in the long run. I think all of these massive changes all at once (new DM, new expanded cast, not all of the old cast is present 100% of the time, new setting) and the fact that they're doing this "overture" for 4 episodes where they're barely playing D&D (no combat, rolls have been largely meaningless) will end up turning off a lot of people before they move into the "real" campaign with split tables

>>96771228
I feel like I'm going to need some youtuber to give me a 30 minute rundown of what happened I can wrap my head around everything that happened

So this campaign is going to be about replacing the gods or something?

Marisha jiggle physics

Mark my words, Liam WILL get his 4hrs of one on one with Laura!

Captcha has gone to shit again
>type characters that have circles above them
>3 diamonds, 2 circles - nope
>type characters that have circles above them
>4 diamonds

>>96771203
Still won't watch if he's in aabria's group; which he will be.

Please kill Marisha's character.

>>96771301
Agreed. I don't like it.

Finally a combat this time for reqalsies

COOOOMMMBAAAAAAAAT

We have a map

I'm sure the combat will be heckin deadly with brennan at the helm!

>>96766143
I’m so fucking glad there just humans or humanoids.
Having them be le peaceful bugbear with an epic warrior turtle and some fire genie ect is so fucking stupid.
The “this group is checking diverse and so colourful had its crescendo with campaign 3

>I'm gonna go in his pants!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Laura is gonna stab this guy's balls.

I need Wick and Tyranny to produce offspring, rapidly and constantly

completely lost
>3 players at table
>bunch of PCs in same room
>their players are in building
>All 3 at table get their turn
So the PCs randomly become NPCs?

>>96771174
Why?

I saw the add for the mighty nein or whatever. The voices sounded like trash.

These are our heroes.

>>96771213
He does but he's generally setting something up, he likes his gotcha's and soft fuck you player moments more than most.

>>96771440
thought I saw the other PC minis
maybe not

Jokes aside how was Liam as orym or whoever he was in campaign 3?
From my recollection he was way less annoying and didn’t really give off any edgy I’m the mc energy.

>>96771458
He was boring and this new character sounds like the same boring shit again.

>Save us Ashley!
Oh, they're fucked.

>>96771480
>OK, OK ,OK OK OK

>>96771458
He sidelined himself mostly and the campaign suffered for it immensely.

>>96771228
Ahh its a gay world where the orks rebelled against their 'shaper' or god and ended up triggering a mortals vs gods war, that the gods mostly lost it seems like. thats in the 100-80 years ago range. This ended up causing the fey (and maybe giants) to act out as one of the four classes of Primordial being (the others being fae and giant, and demon and celestials). This was the trigger for the war of 'Axe and Vine' that most of the characters were young adults in during the last years of it. The Fae had enough of this shit and closed the door to fae, there was some bullshit rebellions because leftists will never stop tearing things down but those rebellions against the Local Lords (called Sundered Houses) failed big time.

Then 10 years pass making these kids who grew up in a war agains the fae and lords have I don't know I didn't watch more then 15 mins of this.

>>96771458
>Says Orym knows every detail of VM characters interactions between them (even private ones), because he "overheard" conversation.
>Good aligned PC goes right along with constant Evils of party.
>constant cheating, as usual
Liam is and always will be a piece of shit

Ashley is in PEAK mid-season form already.

Its been 10 FUCKING years and Ashley cant resolve an attack. Holy shit.

>Smite Bonus Action
Gayest shit I ever saw

>>96771514
She's never had to learn. They just "storytell" to success.

I'm going to miss Matt saying "but good looking out" after Ashley tries to do or asks about doing something fucking retarded because she doesn't understand the rules after being paid to play this game for over 10 years
It was his polite way of saying "no, you don't know what you're talking about, you're a dumbass"

Ashley doesn't understand anything to no one's surprise. Brennan having to play for her, it's embarrassing.

>>96771520
Paladins got nerfed into the dirt because they were deleting bosses.

>be professional D&D player for over 10 years
>still not knowing how to play the game that has made her rich and famous

>>96771534
The fact that she chose what appears to be a combat focused character is insane. Watching her stumble through combat with Yasha was unbearable.

She's your problem now, Brennan!

>>96771552
Looks like this could be even worse than yasha

>>96771458
Orym sucked because it was Liam's first time NOT trying to be the Hero Protagonist, and the campaign actually suffered for it. Everyone else was retarded and stumbling through the campaign without actually having true character motivation. His character COULD have steered the ship into less retarded waters, but he refrained.

also he was a literal faggot so that's another negative

This is so gay
>bro people are like, totally gonna die in this campaign
>NONONO THE BADASS ELVEN WARRIOR MAIDEN CANNOT MISS HER FIRST ATTACK, TAKE THIS ADVANTAGE!!

They're never beating the scripted allegations.

>>96766143
Non-humanoids are generally less popular as it is
>>96767916
One of the girls has like a 95 or something, compared to the cat guy being at like 73 is quite funny

>Ashley
Maybe her frivolous (said judge) restraining order did Foster a favor, after all. Poor bastard was doomed either way the day he met her.

damn blood thirsty elves........

Based sociopath

this hag elf needs to be taught some manners with BIG HUMAN COCK

>>96771562
this is why no one who runs 5e uses flanking

>>96771562
Let's be honest Ashley needs as many mea culpas as can be given, just to get her combat over with so they can move on to interesting characters. Just think of her as a poorly-written background NPC

i was not paying attention for the last 2h, what if anything has happened

>>96771624
Teor is about to get merked
Repressed Gay and Demon Girl are going to save him
Marisha is looking for the Necrotwink
This group is looking for someone for some reason I'm fuzzy on that part

>>96771624
Travis is going to die. Sam and Whitney are trying to save him. Marisha's character almost got killed. The rest of the episode was a mediocre combat that just ended.

>>96771624
Ashley still doesn't know how to play

>>96771634
>This group is looking for someone for some reason I'm fuzzy on that part
Teor's brother, trying to figure out if he was the traitor

this campaign seems like it'll end up incorporating a lot of retarded PC betrayal and PvP

Big ass on the water bottle

>>96771597
Oh did her restraining order get dropped against him? He seemed like an alcoholic maniac on instagram

/ourqueen/ is in

>>96771771
>everyone can dance and perform magic
GAYYYYYYYYYYYYY

session 3 and I already don't care. that's a record for a main campaign

>The plants around me wilt and die because I'm sad or angry
>The plants around me get greener and flowers bloom because I'm happy
How many fucking times is Aabria going to do this?

>please reconsider! dont use your divine smite!

Mulligan is spoon feeding them

>>96771880
She has to let everyone know she's the center of attention

>>96771885
to be fair to brennan his options are either spoonfeed ashley or have a totally useless character at the table
but hey maybe this campaign she'll finally learn how to play d&d

>>96771886
Unironically she doesn't get RPG's she's been ruined by fanfiction and romantasy and mythic fantasy. She can't understand a character reacting to the world only the world reacting to her character. It took that shitty dimension 20 wizards game based on ALWAYS BE EXPLODING to really show me this.

>>96771885
He's just setting the hooks.

>>96771885
I'm thinking this is the training wheels period, and as a production they need this portion to make it through the first four episodes for everything to work. So if Ashley is completely lost and dead before that, it'll screw everything up. Kinda has no choice but to steer her in the right direction here.

>>96771885
if you don't spoonfeed Ashley you'll be there all day waiting while she says 'uhm' and pokes at her ipad for a half hour

>>96771645
>>96771634
so what has happened since the beginning? the guy got executed, they all talked for hours at the funeral, what else?

>>96771991
They talked about fruit leather a lot.

>>96771991
Machinations

Luis is rather handsome isn't he

>>96771991
something with a mask(cursed?)
I think there are too many characters with too much going on. I'm hoping it'll fall into place eventually and perhaps I'll stop getting distracted

>>96771915
this is true

>>96772004
He's also homo but he feels to autistic and awkward to me, like you can see clearly in this scene he has no idea what to do

>>96772005
I mean the shapers were gods with presumably at least epic is not fully divine levels of magic. Presumably all of them would have had a ress protocol of some kinds. Maybe not the dumb or haughty ones.

>>96771991
The funeral for the dead guy lasted until halfway into the second episode. Yes, it was that fucking long.
The dead guy had a mysterious magical chest with a mysterious magical thing in it that was apparently the casket of a god or something. idk it's mysterious magic bullshit
Laura's fairy character was supposed to deliver a magic item to help the dead guy escape being dead but she was ambushed before she could leave and they've been investigating that
Sam's character's family has established a new religion that Sam's character has totally bought into but it turns out they're warlocks and are siphoning power from a tortured celestial they are keeping prisoner

haven't been paying attention this episode (I watch the VODs later) but it had the first combat encounter of the campaign. That's right. They didn't have any combat for the entirety of the first two episodes. And both of those episodes were over 4 hours long

>>96772025
you know that sounds kinda interesting
the problem is id rather read a recap than watch the fucking show because ever since C3 i havent cared about the characters and with this campaign i dont even care about the players

I USED TO WATCH 5H OF C1 LIVE EVERY THURSDAY BECAUSE IT USED TO BE GOOD AND I CARED ABOUT THEM

>I'm gonna roll this in front of the board
>No camera angle all of a sudden

they had to do retakes didn't they

Sam never lets me down

>>96772099
Hes carrying the whole show.

whatever table sam and whitney are on will absolutely be the table to watch

>>96772099
Honestly it's the only thing I'm interested in with this campaign. If he is with the orc group, I'm not watching this shit and dropping it like c3

>>96772106
I'm pretty sure them and Travis will be the "schemer" table, maybe with 1 more person. And yes it will be the best table.

>>96772056
Same, brother
I’m just waiting for the tables to split to see if there’s anything good

Based Matt

Pffft lol

>I don't know what to do
I told you she would become submissive before long

Are the Thimble and Occtis in a relationship or just friends??

>Liam and Aabria as well
so close to heaven

>>96772169
She met him as a kid so that would be (based) grooming.

>>96770669
No, she's awful. The character combined with the way Whitney dresses and does her makeup irl screams
>"I'm such a quirky girl"
It's like she saw jester and decided to actively try to be more of a weird character

>>96772195
If you honestly think she's worse than aabria, you are a nigger.

>>96772195
Just say you hate women it's quicker

>>96771560
>Waaaah, why is Liam always the main character, it ruins the entire campaign
>Waaaah why doesn't Liam be the main character and save this campaign

Aabria removed herself from the scene. It's all coming together.

>>96772204
when Liam is not on screen every character should be saying "where is Liam"

>>96772202
That's a given, it's about which one is the worst not whether they're bad or not.

>>96772204
My post was less about wanting Liam to be the main character and more about how C3 was so shit that even Liam pulling a Liam would've been an improvement

>>96772199
If you think she isn't you're a simp

Every second of new CR content is pure suffering because it doesn't feel like C1 and it just hurts to know that feeling of being excited for a new live episode every Thursday with Grog and Scanlan and Vex and the others and cool guests and actual stakes and cool shit happening all the time and loveable NPCs and all of it IS NEVER COMING BACK

>>96772224
The most sobering aspect of it is seeing people comment on later C3 and now C4 videos saying how they miss the good ol' days but they cite C2 as being those good old days. In my eyes, C2 had already started the downward trajectory.

if only you knew how bad things really are etc etc

>>96772224
this is why I loved Age of Umbra, I had zero expectations for that project

>>96772230
too many shit PCs in C1. Vax, Scanlan, Percy, Keyleth

>>96772217
I accept your concession, nigger

>>96772243
Too busy jerking to OF girls to reply simp?

>>96772230
Everyone's favorite pokemon is the one they played when they were 10, nostalgia is poison.

>>96772245
>This is the level of nigger-loving retard we're dealing with this campaign
Things are grim indeed

Robbie Laura Sam Whitney Travis table?
If this is confirmed the other 2 tables have literally no chance.

>>96772275
Please God

>>96772230
c2 had absolutely outstanding guests and was still live at the beginning. And despite everything I watched the whole 7h finale. C3 is the real decline where nothing had any weight from the beginning

That dude's gonna start stinking soon

>>96772305
Leave Robbie alone...

Soldier table will absolutely mog the other 2, though it sounds like they won't be on next week's episode.

holy shit, all-star table confirmed
unfortunately that also means this campaign will be unwatchable for 2-4 months at a time (or more if they still take off one week a month)

>>96772340
>>96772346
Wasn't paying attention, who's in the soldier table?

>>96772308
does Robbie shower? He always look so greasy/sweaty

>>96772353
robbie, laura, travis, sam, whitney
absolutely goated table, no other group will get even close to being as entertaining

Is it just me or is Matt not gelling with this campaign at all.

>>96772376
i could tell from the very start he was not as enthused as he had been in previous campaigns. I don't think he likes the campaign structure much. My guess is that as we get further in, both him and his character will find a more comfortable niche to reside in.

So second table is Aabria, Matt, Ashley and Alex?

>>96772388
Probably. I think they will be the schemers.

>>96772388
Sounds meh, I know Aabria and Alex do a lot of campaigns together and are probably comfortable with each other as players. But would have liked to split them up.

Is there any combination of people that will be bearable at this point? I can see Matt carrying his table but not if its with the orc

>laid down after making dinner listening to a fan recap of last week's episode
>fucking fell asleep and missed both half of the recap and tonight's entire episode
>apparently tonight's show was arguably the strongest and most interesting yet
what a fucking travesty. now im going to be afflicted with an 'eepy debuff tomorrow AND im going to have to steal an episode somewhere and watch it saturday night. FUCK

I wonder how lost in the story you'd be if you skip the shit table(s) episodes. Still so much unknown about how they are going to handle West Marches

I missed the start of this episode; did Brennan do another bullshit cold open? That's going to get old fast if he keeps doing it. But it was funny to see so many comments on episode 2 complain about being lost and wondering if they missed something (it's really not that confusing if you pay attention for more than 10 seconds, but it was a dumb waste of time)

>>96772376
Some ForeverDMs talk a big game about wanting to be able to play, but then once they actually get the chance, it ends up not being quite their thing. Grass is always greener and all that.

>>96772428
>did Brennan do another bullshit cold open?
He did

stop asking for rolls if you want the player to succeed

stop asking for rolls if you want the player to succeed

stop asking for rolls if you want the player to succeed

>>96772446
I don't understand this meme. You can have your table roll for both likely and unlikely things. Making them eat some resources to succeed things they otherwise should've is perfectly reasonable.

where's beacon anon, I want to see the cool down but fuck giving these yucks $10

>>96772461
It's getting uploaded to pic related now

/l/VMK2bWfB

>>96772459

I'm pretty sure he's talking about all the advantages being handed out like candy

>>96772469
bless you

so what happened?
t. not gonna watch but wanna know

>>96772488
It's Critical Role, you know what happened.

so Schemers is going to be the 100% skip party

Luis, Marisha, Melty and Leem

>>96772469
>soldier table skipping next week
See you guys in 2 weeks I guess

dead....

I wonder how the other two tables will split

>>96772518
What are the tables?

>>96772748
Did Teor bite the dust?

>>96772855
>Soldiers: Thimble, Kattigan, Teor, Wicander, and Tyranny
This group will be focused on chasing Casimir and Cyd north. Confirmed at the end of the episode.

>Schemers: Hal, Bolaire, Murray, and Azune
This group will deal with the politics of the Sundered Houses within Dol-Makjar as they took control of institutions. All the characters have jobs within the city that are or could be threatened by them.

>Seekers: Vaelus, Julien, Occtis, and Thaisha
This group is going to need to get out of the city fast to escape from Occtis' father. Eventually it seems they will have to deal with House Tachonis' meddling in the realm of death.

>>96772863
Looks like it's solely soldiers for me - Schemers is full of retards, and Seekers has Abr*a (not to mention another Taliesin weirdo)

>>96772872
Wait, shit, I misremembered character names, Seekers would be fine if not for the pavement ape

>>96772863
If they switched Luis with Aabria I'd be more inclined to watch Seekers

>>96772863
Soldiers are OP and schemers are close to unwatchable. Seekers could go either way since Matt and Alex's characters seem interesting.

>>96772417
what's a good youtube channel for recaps?

>>96772863
A shame, occtis was actually growing on me, but hell no on a table with both Julien, and Thaisha

>>96772863
soldiers looks like pure kino
schemers looks watchable but boring
seekers is the obvious skip. too bad about losing occtis

>>96771698
It got dropped. The lawsuit (harassment claims against him by a group of women including Ashley) in which she fabricated things to help, was settled out of court. We'll never know if he actually did anything wrong, but it's clear Ashley isn't so innocent. She was apparently even letting her lawyer harass his dying mother.

>>96772224
C1 stakes were never real. The worst that could happen even in their home game was getting white hair because they had "died". With their consensual deaths, they were always going to win. Matt was just better then at the creating the facade. Just look at Vax failing upward. By C2, Liam began going apeshit when he couldn't cheat complete success every turn. CR will always suck now because the control freak cast needs to script stories instead of just letting the dice decide.

Are they still going to be doing these constant table changes every episode? Is Brennan incapable of keeping track of in-game time if they aren't? It really disrupts the flow. Apparently just like Matt, the entire world also revolves solely around the PCs.

>>96764861
These stats never tell the real story. WHEN they succeed is the key. Liam is very cagey that way.
>nat20 insight claim to get all possible info at beginning of campaign
Digital/honest rolls will never happen

>>96774134
The first 4 episodes ('the overture') are the only ones with all players present, after that there will be three tables with vaguely themed player sets (soldiers, seekers and schemers) with subsequent sessions focused on just one table. Players might rotate between tables as the story progresses and their goals and locations change.

>>96774404
>tfw 20 episodes in your favorite table gets infected by a retard

>>96771274
just got to that part
Matt is eating well, gentlemen, it's glorious to see
All the female characters are built for BHC (big human cock) this time around, even Thaisha

>Marisha talking about how her character's big tits are jiggling as she walks
>lifting her own tits to illustrate
I'm a simple man

>>96775074
>>96774669
Chunky

>>96774669
>>96775074
>>96775089
I got you

>>96775169
Peak Kentucky right here

for the first time we had a high ranking NPC actually try to punish a player for acting like a chaotic dickhead and people will still say C1 was peak

>>96775169
my hyuck mama

Missed the stream is there a free version out there?

>>96777136

>>96772469

or wait for the YouTube video on Monday

>>96775668
Try being the key word.

YES! Thimble, Teor, Wic, Kattigan, and Tyranny all in the same table. I was so worried that dump Orc bitch was going to ruin the moments between Wic and Tyranny if they were all partnered up. When she turned into a wolf instead of a bird and just ran away, I was happy.

Surprisingly, Ep2 and 3 had the least amount of screen time with her, and now we'll get a goat table without her interference.

Downside is now she'll no doubt be at the same table with Mat.. So, good luck to him because he's going to get her chewing his ear off every change she gets.

>>96772275
I might watch the soldiers table.

>>96772459
most skill rolls or even attacks don't count as resources spent. (attacks coming in are a different matter but outgoing attacks, you get as many as you want). So rolling for checks when you know you won't let them fail the roll is mostly pointless.

It doesn't eat resources, all it eats is your actual in life time, which is only compounded by how fucking slow and attention seeking these dumb cunts are.

There is a little argument for 'training the players how to play' but I doubt Brennan can pull that off.

>>96771514
>>96771534
>>96771552
>>96771612
>>96771906
>>96771926
We'll never get a truly candid answer to this, but I bet that Matt never included her when he was creating and balancing encounters. She never contributes anything meaningful. In the final encounter vs the BBEG of C3, they were 15th level, and she was still just firing off fucking Scorching Ray. Next-to-useless. So encounters were probably not designed with her in mind, because it they were, she would be a massive liability. Instead he just let her pitiful damage be a small bonus

of course it's not like Matt was all that great at balancing anyways

>>96775074
Shame she had to giver her a beard.

>>96777736
it boggles the mind how someone can be that retarded

13 characters means a higher chance of PC deaths, right?

>>96777985
Apparently, Brennan had them roll backups. I'll believe it when I see it.

Will the final boss be capitalism?

unholy reddit thread

was casually searching up whitney and now i've seen her nipples

>>96778261
gentrification

>>96774558
Absolutely going to happen if/when they notice the table with thaisha in it is getting noticably lower views than the others.

>>96778722
Nah, the Melty/Marisha table is going to get the least views simply because it sounds boring as fuck. They overestimate how much people want to see local political intrigue in their actual plays.

>>96778261
Evil rich white families oppressing poor orc communities, plus a corrupt fake church. Oh and someone is collecting items that might be used to transport people to the various culture's afterlife.

At least that's the plot so far, it will probably explode out to some world threatening bullshit eventually. Maybe the angel will escape and go tear open a portal to the primordial realm.

>>96772863
So Brennan is doing LOTR but with three groups instead of two.

>>96779004
Yeah, Matt can carry the seeker table as long as his character keeps calling out Aabriya's shit. Ashley is a complete non factor RP wise, but she will definitely slow down combat. Alex seems like a good player.

There is no saving the schemer table. Worst character in the campaign Murray, Taliesin playing another freak, personality of wet cardboard Luis, and Liam "That's a natural 20' O'brien.

>>96771597
>>96773954
I'm honestly certain that the "jokes" about him they talked about weren't received anywhere near as well by him as he claimed. Probably had to, "Remember to love each other," and bear it. Bunch of sadistic cunts.

Ashley genuinely seems stupid and it actually makes me feel bad for her. It's not just that she gets flustered when resolving combat, she can't even seem to piece things together. I remember in C2 Matt set up some kind of combat where the other players were all storm elementals or something and it was clear it was done to coach her on playing her own character and she still bumbled her way through I didn't even seem to know she could heal herself with her Aasimar abilities. Does she have legitimate brain problems or mental illness, or has she just been in the Hollywood machine for so long that it's left her stunted?

>>96781345
god it seems like they all started to feel bad as they realized just how dumb she is

>>96781289
Ashley just wants to have fun playing DnD, leave her alone. Now she should just play a fighter/barbarian so she doesn't have to deal with all the spell shit

>>96781396
She played a barbarian before and could barely manage that. I'm glad she has her friends to help her play but you could have her role one single dice and play a mascot character that spouts catchphrases and I think everyone would have more fun. Snarf.

>>96772376
Ashley and Aabria are half his party, I wouldn’t either

>>96781345
This cannot be real.

>the look on their faces when they realize she's a genuine retard
bruh

>>96779540
It's amazing how quickly these cliques backstab their friends. The Satine situation comes to mind, despite CR being worse grifters themselves.
>Highest paid on Twitch (owned by Amazon)
>Sam and possibly other in cast working directly with Amazon on different series
>do Kickstarter vanity project (before leaks showed they already were rich enough to fund it themselves)
>take more money from Amazon for full series knowing donors wouldn't be able see what they paid for without Prime subscription.
They really are the stereotypical Hollywood scumbags.

>>96781345
She's obviously playing it up for the joke you autistic fucks

>>96782682
Stop crying Ashley.

>>96781289
Yeah Ashley works best when she just gets to be part of the group and do quirky things like try to pickpocket as Fearne (even though it almost never made sense to do so in the contexts she was trying to do it in). The handful of times Matt has thrown her character a solo story beat, she absolutely flounders and panics. Like towards the end of C3, the stuff with Fearne's biological father was utterly retarded. Meeting with him alone, then attacking him (still alone), almost dying. Then a bit later turning him into a tapestry because it was the funny thing to do rather than it making sense or a good idea and she didn't want the pressure of making an actual decision.

So it's funny that she's chosen to play a mysterious and self-confident character this time around because she can't pass off her indecision and floundering as Fearne being ditzy anymore

I was looking forward to seeing how Vaelus was going to act after the strong entrance she had in Ep1. From then onwards, she's just.. been hovering around. I was expecting her to be headstrong, demanding for her possession to be returned, interrogating those around her, and just having a strong no-nonsense vibe. But she's just.. there.. around.. in the back.. like an npc in idle animation.

Now we see her letting fucking Thaisha in the city, (that whole scene with her turning in a wolf and running away to find Occtis is retarded), and I can guarantee that Vaelus will somehow have an argument with Thaisha, and she'll just nod her head and step aside, letting the orc win the verbal fight.

Ashley seems to be more into the roleplaying, acting and lore aspect of DnD rather than combat which is why she goes with the other seekers at the table.

>>96764857 (OP)
>people on this board literally watch this slop
/crg/: "I am a pig and I eat slop"

Maybe I'm too much of a dumb retard to understand, but I would have thought that after Wic was now told that the faith he believed in since a child has all been a bunch of bullshit made up by his own grandmother, he'd be more sceptical of anyone under his house's banner, even questioning the motives of his own aspirant after learning that she knew everything while he truly believed he was 'guiding her to the light'.

Instead, after getting such a truth-bomb dropped on him.. he just returns to the same cluelessness as if nothing he was just told mattered. He does take the words of Tyranny seriously before they go in to rescue Teor, he just walks in, thinking that this is a real clothing store that does fitting, letting Tyranny do all the talking.

Who knows, maybe he is fully understanding the gravity, and he's just playing the part well, but it just seems that Sam is making Wic act in ways that he really shouldn't be acting like anymore..

And I get it, we're only three episode in, but still..

>>96785063
he's a naive guy in general who grew up comfortably obeying directions
it'd take a while for a new way of thinking to develop. he did seem to understand that he wouldn't be able to go back

>>96785063
When I tell people that CR is scripted or railroaded this is what I'm talking about. Sam is great with improvisation, but suddenly on this he just shuts down and nods along so he can immediately get pulled into a plot-convenient conversation with Tyranny about them both keeping appearances up towards the house.

Also the whole reddit atheism fake religion thing is so tired, man. That's not how cynical cult scammers talk at all.

Do they have a roll quota or something? Feels like a lot of what is happening when they "roll" can just be things that are granted that make sense in-character, or otherwise wouldn't matter if they failed (like the flashback death saves? Rolling for insight to just blindly wonder?). I don't know, rolls just don't seem super purposeful or important.

>>96787291
Feels like they're inserting rather random rolls so they can pretend they're still playing D&D. There's only been 1 combat encounter for 3 entire episodes. They're basically just putting on a stage play production at this point

>>96774669
>Matt is eating well, gentlemen
Not as well as Marisha

>>96772376
I'm only on episode 1 but Matt made a big deal about playing a "bad" person for once in the promotion of campaign 4 and honestly I can imagine him actually hating that/not having fun. Especially depending on who he is paired up with.

>>96772056
>I USED TO WATCH 5H OF C1 LIVE EVERY THURSDAY BECAUSE IT USED TO BE GOOD AND I CARED ABOUT THEM
You used to be young and less jaded. Probably had more free time too.

anytime she's on screen I get a chubby. I don't know what it is or why, but I am positive that she'd drain my balls to the point she drains the life out of me

>>96789516
it's the slut makeup that has you fooled

>>96789516
she's an ultraslut (based)

>>96789525
I'm not so sure if it's just that, mate

>>96789594
look at the cellulite on those thighs

>>96789604
I'm looking, alright

>>96789594
How you got so much cottage cheese without any milk?

>>96764857 (OP)
Finished the first episode. Not a great dnd campaign start but a passable radio drama start I guess.
This "season" will be saved by them splitting up and the ability to just watch the soldier's table, based on the lineup written above. On the other hand, if I only watch the soldier table, that means I only get that once a month, right? Four weeks in a month, and they are always doing something else or on a break for one of those four weeks.
Christ, going to be slow. I assume the only reason for this is so they can record in batches - one week of soldier shit, one week of schemer shit, and so on.

And one final note: Taliesin doesn't even pretend to try to come up with different characters, does he?

>>96789991
They will probably mix the tables around after some time. As characters leave or join up with the other groups

>>96789991
the third episode was decent, things are dividing up now. after the fourth episode, the tables will be smaller/no swapping

>>96789991
i believe they said they'd stick to one table at a time for multiple weeks, then switch to the next table

>>96790350
Thanks for explaining. That's good in a sense. But also... damn.

>>96789594
Context of this photograph?

>>96764857 (OP)
Never watched a single episode but the picture caught My eye while I was scrolling and I have to ask - is the new guy DMing for 13 players??

How were Luis, Alex, and Whitney brought into the group? I know Luis was in Calamity but that's the only place I've seen him. Were they already friends of the main cast invited to play or was Critical Role actually scouting for new talent to freshen things up?

>>96793212
alex has been around joining some side shows for years
not sure if whitney's been in anything yet

>>96793169
Yes, but they will be split into three tables, with one table getting focus each month. Only the first 3 episodes had all 13 players, and 5 of them already fucked off and won't be in episode 4.

>>96793169
Not all at once. I think there's been a max of 8 players at once (which is a typical Critical Role player count, 7-8), and usually less than that. He switches between scenes and calls different people to the table
After next week they will officially split up into smaller groups of 4-5

>>96793282
That is the nice thing about the three table split. 4 or 5 players is so much better for a game of D&D than 8. The only problem is that they put 90% of the good players/characters in one table.

>>96793212
Same way Hollywood always does things - nepotism. Sure, they're like F-list Hollywooders at best, but still Hollywood. They're all in the industry at some level or friends of the industry
Luis does things with Brennan over on Dimension 20 I think (not very familiar with their stuff, only know a tiny bit). Alex was on one of their Candela Obscura arcs. Don't know anything about Whitney

>>96793280
>>96793282
God, that sounds tricky. I applaud him for putting in the effort to make it work.

>they will split up
All still with the same DM, I'm assuming?

>>96793297
Yes, Brennan Lee Mulligan is DMing all 3 tables. Apparently he DM'd a 40-player campaign before, but critical role is obviously a higher stakes undertaking.

>>96793309
>40-player campaign
I kneel before the stronger man.

>>96793212
Whitney has apparently done stuff with them before, but they were all so minor that you probably wouldn't know about it unless you're a freak that consumes all CR content. I'm glad they took a chance on her because her pairing with Sam is kino of the highest order.

>>96793212
They needed brown people to appease the type of audience they cultivated. So they've been having some people do guest shots and side games from time to time until they found a few they thought safe to make full cast members for this campaign, but they're also scared of upseting cast chemistry so they also still have the normal full cast as well, which is why we now have 14 players and this revolving table plan.

>>96789594
Nice

>>96793212
Most of them they've known for years as they've been involved in various campaigns and other projects

Luis Carazo
>Exandria Unlimited: Calamity (2022)
>Circle of Needle and Thread (2023)
>Candela Obscura (2023)
>VA for Zerxus Ilerez In Legend of Vox Machina series

Alexander Ward
>All Work No Play (2018)
>Elden Ring One-Shot: O Ye of Little Faith (2022)
>Circle of the Crimson Mirror (2024)
>The Dire Descent (2024)
>Exandria Unlimited: Divergence (2025)

Whitney Moore
>host or participant on multiple Geek & Sundry or Project Alpha (2015)
>Avowed One-Shot (2025)

>>96793293
I was hoping that Laura would have been put with the Alexander Ward table. They had real good chemistry in episode 3

>>96793212
>>96794064
Luis was also in the NA/LA by Night stuff which had our man Alex gotta love him as well as the black one everyone hates and Brennan that one time I think, it's been a while.

Is Sam the least nerdy out of the cast? I know the natural answer is Travis. But same doesn't get many of the nerdy references, He's only watched LotR once and doesn't remember much, doesn't seem to have been into comics or anime at all.

>>96794330
By far the least nerdy. He's mentioned he doesn't play video games I think and he has little knowledge of nerdy things outside of work. On the other hand, he has a good grasp of narrative, unlike a lot of the other.
That's what I picked up from watching most of campaign 2 and stuff he's said there and elsewhere. As I recall, he had not seen the breakfast club either, which doesn't really fall into nerdy stuff given the generation he's a part of.

>>96794330
He also has Liam pick his race/class combo for each campaign then works with that to come up with his character.

>>96789516
She is pure sexooooooo

Absolutely kino ending. This campaign is great, every episode is better than the last one as they find their stride and get used to each other and Bleem. I'm looking forward to every Thursday (Friday where I am) now.

>>96795162
From just these 3 episodes, C4 is already far better than the entirety of C3. I couldn't stand Taliesin's character in C3, he was trying to be too edgy. However, in C4 it seems like he's just playing another Percy-like.. so I guess there's that.. Regardless, I do much prefer what we've seen here vs what we got in C3

>>96789516
Who is she?

>>96796409
whitney moore

there are also some wins of her, look on simpcity yourself if you want more

>>96772863
>Soldiers: Thimble, Kattigan, Teor, Wicander, and Tyranny
no need to watch any of the other tables then :D

>>96796749
>whitney moore
Thanks anon!

so are we going to get 3 Halloween episodes

>>96795140
>ywn have a demon healslut played by this hottie
How does Sam do it, bros?

>>96795162
Matt's fucking face while it was happening got to me, jesus christ
>>96795462
>From just these 3 episodes, C4 is already far better than the entirety of C3
yes, they needed the injection of fresh energy and vibes and Bleem is much less forgiving and brutal (both tone and mechanics-wise) despite all the comedy and I always felt Matt was trying to make Exandria have the same vibe we are now getting from Araman but he could never get himself in the headspace necessary to do it for some reason or other (I suspect it is because he seems like a genuinely kind-hearted person for whom the kind of cynicism necessary to build a gritty/realistic world doesn't come naturally)

>>96797424
based getup, Tal is cool when he's just letting himself be weird rather than punk-edgy

>>96797665
I honestly feel she would be wasted pairing up with any other cast member.

>>96797665
He perfected jestermaxxing

>>96772863
>Soldiers: Thimble, Kattigan, Teor, Wicander, and Tyranny
>Schemers: Hal, Bolaire, Murray, and Azune
>Seekers: Vaelus, Julien, Occtis, and Thaisha
What a shitty overpowered soldiers table. Like anyone would willingly submit themselves to the schemers or seekers table. Wic & Tyranny should have been schemers, Thimble should have been a seeker and Julien a soldier

>>96764857 (OP)
Wait, they're using D&D for it? Not their own system? Kek, that's pathetic.

>>96771647
>ywn be a drug addict railing lines and her every night

>>96775169
Where did those come from? Did she finally quit cocaine?

>>96793212
Through VtM streams. Alex is really good at LA by Night

>>96795462
>>96798180
I think Bleem is great at coming up with captivating cliffhangers for episodes so far. His forced DM voice annoys me a bit though

>>96798633
Really? I feel like having one good table is better than 3 mediocre ones where the decent players get constantly interrupted by people who are grating on the experience.

>>96794251
SON OF A BITCH I WAS WONDERING WHY HE LOOKED AND SOUNDED SO MUCH LIKE NINES.

>>96798633
>Shhh you
Cowards and Traitors will be shot. The Soldiers table is the table we deserve.

>>96789516
I want to fuck her mouth so bad it's not even funny, I'm so glad she's in this campaign to give me a reason to put up with Aabria.

>>96801744
My brother in Christ, I recognize that touching grass may be beyond you, but at least look out the window at it.

>>96772863
>soldiers
all star table, kino guaranteed

>schemers
hal doesn't interest me at all nor does he have any chemistry with other characters(for now at least)
actively dislike murray, self-important with some know-it-all vibes, all while being an obnoxious grease-breathing a-hyuck-hyuck hick
bolaire i'm hopeful for but i fear his proximity to murray may make the character annoying. we'll see
nothing against the guy playing azune but the character just seems so drop-dead boring. maybe he'll prove me wrong

>seekers
vaelus is great so long as she doesn't become a complete softie
julien has potential, i'm interested
occtis could be good but we'll see. his timid attitude might get tiring
thaisha i'm more or less indifferent but i worry her mama-bear schtick might smother occtis as a whole.

>>96803168
I want a shota table
>Occtis - the baby of the group despite being 18-20
>Thimble - constantly trying to remind him he's an adult and not a child, the Tinkerbell to his Peter Pan
>Thaisha - mother hen
>Vaelus - finds him and his undead creations intriguing
>Murray - his teacher who hits on him