"You sit on a horse, these things happen," Is a testament to the genius of Taliesan's methods of role-playing Cadeucus. Subtle, minimalist, yet profound and powerful. You can tell quite a bit was organic and spontaneous. This allows Taliesan to evolve the character naturally without need for a preconceived notion of pregame and end-game development. Simply masterful.
Mollymauk was far and away my favorite Tallison PC we’ve seen yet. And possibly my favorite C2 character up to that point, though it’s hard to compete with Jester and Nott. His vibe, his dress, and his role in the party were all amazing. I obviously think the C2 story wound up beautiful and I can’t say if I would change a thing in hindsight, both for the sake of the story and the game- but much love to Talison for making such a great character and much empathy and respect to Tal for rolling with everything when “life” (in game) threw such a hard punch his way.
I remember watching this live and being like “damn Caleb” and everyone at the table was a little horrified but then Liam chimed in that he was essentially killing guards at a concentration camp and everyone, myself included, were like “phew okay 😅”
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels something's off. Personally, I dropped of C3 at around 70(ish?) and haven't really had the desire to jump back in. I started with C2 which I am admittedly unfairly biased with, as it was my escape from a harsh job and cyclical routines back in 2020-2022. However, I do think there are some things C3 is missing. C3 takes a "storyline first, characters second" approach to storytelling. This isn't necessarily a bad thing! Plenty of stories have a grander design where characters simply play the role of catalysts, and those can be some of my favorites to experience. However, I don't think this was a good idea for CR. The cast shines most when they get to showcase their individual strengths in storytelling, namely in their complex backstories and rooted character growth. C2 had me hooked because every PC had an interesting backstory that was slowly revealed throughout the story. I think this not only connected me, the listener, to the cast, but also other characters together. This is that "connection" people feel is missing from C3. In short, C3 differs from C2 in that: 1. Characters lack a UNIQUE backstory (note I said unique, not complex, the latter of which C3 has; unfortunately, it's so tied up in previous characters and storylines it can often feel rehashed) 2. Character-driven story; in C2, main quests were often driven by personal purposes of the case. C3 is "moon first, character growth along the way." 3. Lack of quiet moments of exposition; C2 shone in its quiet moments during night watches, dream sequences, and 1-on-1 conversations. C3 struggles a lot of the time with this, and when it does happen, it's often the same conversation over again (are we on the right side?). 4. Analysis paralysis; others have said this too, but sometimes 50% of an episode is just the cast bickering over morals and next steps. A lot of the time it feels like the players are trying to come up with a reason on why they should care at all in the main story. C2 didn't struggle nearly as much with this since the arcs were driven by personal purpose (point 2).
Remember everyone, the new Vecna adventure is themed around consent. Be like Henry, mind consent, and use that to kill the greatest evil to plague mortal life!
Small detail that wasn't the point of the video, but will no one talk about how Caleb used his middle finger to point when casting the spell? It's just a funny little bit of characterization. Like, he didn't NEED to use his middle finger for the somatic components, it would probably be easier to use the index finger, and up until that point he'd shown to be relatively mild mannered, but in that moment he was just like 'you know what? Fuck this guy STRAIGHT to hell.' And then he followed through.
My opinion is that the brakes for EXU, the MN reunion and candela obscura hurt the flow of the campaign 3. As for the story it's ok but it really feels like the cast is not apart of the story. Orym got pulled in because of the attack that killed his husband and father in law, fearne is along because she's orym's friend no other reason, FCG and Ashton have no reason to be there at all, chutney is a joke character that has stayed longer than Travis wanted, Laudna is only there for Imogen, and Imogen is the only one who really connected to the main plot.
