So You Want to Start Watching Critical Role 

Watching with subtitles on for the same exact reason.

same here and the good thing is that the subtitles only show the important lines that belong to the main action.

I am doing this too

Mighy Nein animated series confirmed!

I always watch with subs too, makes it easier to follow along. I also check the comments afterwards because nice RP moment or fun body language are mentioned there (usually with time stamps) so I go back and rewatch if I feel like I missed something with subs on.

Yeah I don’t understand why people would care about someone pretending to be someone of a different race, half the cast of characters look like demons, I.e. tieflings. Isn’t skin color in Dnd just a character detail anyway?

Yeah I feel like few of the takes of campaign 2 are dumb I personally liked it way better than campaign 1. I’ll agree new cast members are nice but you not only have find ones with time but also mash well with the group as whole.

i dont understand that either - you got all kind of species in those worlds that dont even look like humans and no one bats an eye. Why cant Marisha play a coloured woman?

@@beneteus3833 exactly I mean if she was being disrespectful or harmful about it sure but beau was great and honestly a really inspiring character

funny how if a non-white person played a white character nobody would care, it's just respectful acting/playing why would anyone feel attacked by it

This is a really good approach :)

I definitely agree, C2 is the best place to start, especially since C1 started with them already mid-story.

That's not bad advice as far as I'm concerned. Much preferable, as far as I'm concerned, to starting somewhere in the middle of C1. As something of a completist though, I'm very glad that I started at the beginning and carried all the way through. As rough as it was sometimes throughout that first campaign, I really did enjoy watching them develop and improve their process along with everything else. It was interesting as well as entertaining. And I wouldn't have wanted to miss that. It took a good long while. It replaced podcasts, music, television and such for awhile. But all in all it was well worth it.

C2 was the better, more polished and balanced game.

That's how I did it.

Don't worry about being a master voice actor, my group certainly doesn't! But that's not to say that we don't throw in some voices for our characters!

Just drop in "toothy maw" every once in a while. Or "you see". Even as a player or out of context just drop it in to catch people off guard. You see a toothy maw! Matt Mercer effect achieved.

Same for my groups. As long as you recognise CR has much more experience, and professional experience at that, then players do well with a dm that doesn’t do all the things MM does. Yeah I myself sometimes wish I had a dm like MM, but I also love my current dm for all her effort and time put in. Especially as our entire party is new dnd players and two of us are a wizard and Druid 😅 (I’m a wizard but I made sure to research the hell out of it to not slow us down)

At this point though it’s their main job so it’s probably easier to schedule. You don’t create an entire business around your home game as big as CR is then make the main campaign something you have to pencil it. It kinda become super important. Also we may be missing the main reason Robbie may not of wanted to. They may have asked/offered and he just said no that isn’t the road I want to take. Kinda like how Foster left for personal projects (or maybe something else who knows). Not everyone wants dnd to be their legacy and that’s ok to.

robbie still does EXU right so i think it also could have been a way to build more hype for that. The first run of that was fine but it seemed fan reception was lower than hoped and people were a bit disappointed in it all around. but now (and again im not following it so idk) i think with robbie being shown off to the larger viewership it might help drag more viewers to try it out

I remember back when they used to regularly do "guest slot" roles, so I think this was just an extended version of that. Eight players is clearly Matt's maximum, and well over what most DM's can handle anyways. I like them leaving that 8th slot open for occasional rotating guests. If you think about all of the guest players they've had on the show over the years, I'd hate to see them get rid of that feature because they're full up. Robbie is a great fit with the rest of the cast, but I'd rather see some new faces take a turn every so often.

@@elbruces You are totally right.

also, at the core of it, it's a group of friends that are sharing their personal home game with us. yes it's a business, but it's their persona friend group, i hate seeing people saying "they should add x or y" or "they need to add non-white people to the main cast", like you are asking them to add representation to their friend group to meet a quota. If they add a someone, anyone to the main cast, it will be because they all want their friend in, not a coworker. (yes, the guests are their friends, but we all have friends and "THE CLOSE FRIENDS", there's a difference.)

I started with Exandria Unlimited. I knew of Critical Role before it, but I heard about it first when they were pretty far in campaign 2 already, and the backlog of episodes looked daunting. So I watched the first episode of ExU, got hooked, started watching Campaign 1 during the summer of 2021 in between new ExU episodes. I've just reached the point where Taryon was introduced. And of course, I am following Campaign 3. ExU was different, yes. Aabria's DMing style is different than Matt's, but I don't think it is as bad as some people say it is. I legit saw people claim Matt must be ashamed about how she ruined his world and yadda yadda. Watching the campaign wrap-up though, you could tell he was proud of her. Plus watching the joy on Aimee's and Robbie's faces while discovering the joys of D&D was just magical. (And man... I still miss Robbie at the C3 table. I knew he was a special guest and all, but he had such a good chemistry with the rest of the gang...)

She's so good! I think D20 did a great job of building a brand where DMs can swap out and it doesn't feel jarring. With CR, they don't leave room for different styles of gameplay besides Matt's. To fans, he is D&D Jesus and any DM on CR must strive to replicate him. I think that's a big reason people weren't interested in Exandria.

This might be a silly reason to have stopped watching Exandria Unlimited for a while, but I kept hearing the clicking of Aabria's jewelry everytime she moved and it was irritating to me. Everything else was great, but...well sometimes really small things can really get on your nerves. I just kept thinking "take those things off". But you know what that's on me and my misophonia, not on Aabria. I only managed 3 episodes, I do plan on watching them all, but in small increments. Whatched almost all of C1, all of C2 and keeping up with C3. So I do consider myself a fan of sorts. I stepped in, in C2, and slowly watching C1 to fill the gaps.

I think Aabria did great and handled some insane shit with grace, as she always does. But anyone who worships Matt and thinks there's no other way to DM has never seen Brennan Lee Mulligan in action. My only problem with ExU was the players: it seemed like everyone was trying to be the "wackiest" character (except for Liam but including Matt) to the point where it was 100% "chaos" and 0% focusing on their team's goals. When "I'll create a distraction so the rest of you can quietly sneak into the city" turned into two more players going "I'll help with the distraction!" and another player going "I'll create yet ANOTHER distraction!" ending in a combination of a loud parade and public disturbance, when their original goal was to quietly sneak into the city... at that point I was kinda done. There's "chaotic" and then there's just intentionally stupid. They each seemed more interested in competing to be the most "chaotic" character in the party, than they were in actually getting anything accomplished. It was kind of like a party of all Scanlans. And Liam couldn't carry a focus on team goals all by himself (even though his character was/is all about focusing on team goals), so he seemed kind of dragged along by the wacky shenanigan party... "Mother."

I had three major problems that prevented me from enjoying EU over all. And of course a lot of it is subjective and individual, like preferring chocolate to strawberry, or just NOT being able to tolerate the flavor of cilantro. First and foremost, as much as I enjoyed many of the reveals of the world, of lore, of character traits and backstories... There were far too many moments where neither I, nor the players, had any clue what was going on, or what direction would actually move the story forward. As much as I really enjoyed Aabria, it seemed to me that it was probably her job to provide that information, and the guide rails that might have resolved the chronic aimlessness and frustration that kept cropping up to stall everything. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but whatever the problem was, it was a problem. Second, I also did not enjoy the complete chaos most all the players kept piling on. Those two together made the whole experience feel like a step backwards in a way, like to campaign ones struggle with excessive chaos at the players table, like distracting crosstalk and snacking. Finally, and similar to not being able to tolerate the clinking of jewelry or chewing and swallowing over the mic, I just could not tolerate Opal's voice. It was incredibly difficult to endure in more than short snippets, and the fact that I didn't like the character on top of that made it that much harder. But thats like not being able to enjoy cilantro. Some people just love it. To some people it just tastes like soap. You’re not going to know which camp you fall into until you try it for yourself. Aimee is super talented though, and though I did not like Opal, I really enjoyed her wickedly clever performance in Narritive Telephone. The whole cast of Exandria Unlimited is spectacular. Abria's description of the world, landscapes, and people were very appealing and rich. Her interplay with the characters as various NPCs was really nice. In fact, in watching campaign 3, I have to say I miss Abrias charactetizations of Mister. The story has a lot of very cool elements. Robbie Daymond is wonderful. Anjali Bhimani is stunning. Both great characters. There is a lot to praise but it was extremely difficult to force myself through it just the same. I recommend to everyone who just can't, to go ahead and read Dani's recaps. They are very good and don't take long to get through at all. It isn't necessary of course, but it'll give you a peek at the backstories of the characters who carry over from EU to Campaign Three at least.

I love for people to go back to them once they’re invested - either by watching some of C1 or C2, it helps to already have a better sense of what the show will one day become.

@@SupergeekMike I can understand that but my OCD forces me to watch it in order. I was never bothered by the early technical teething issues, I was honestly more concerned in how the set design changed since when I started watching C1 they already had the C2 cool set going on, so I was just looking forward to the evolution of that.

I agree, the fight with K'Varn alone is worth watching from the beginning, and I'm currently on episode 105 and they still reference Orcus, Clarota's helmet and so on, not to mention how confusing it would be to miss Hotis' introduction. But yeah, it took me at least three tries, years apart, to be able to get past E1... I got through the whole of Campaign 2 and still was unable to get invested in those first hours. What did the trick for me was the Legend of Vox Machina: it made me invested enough in the characters so that I could go back and overlook the problems cited in the video. Now I'm in the final arc of C1 and wishing there were another 200 episodes with these characters.

I completely agree. Even if you only watch it while you're cooking or folding laundry and it takes two years it'd be worth it if you find even half of the things it's got going for it appealing. I suspect most people are spending many hours each week watching mediocre TV shows that they will have a hard time remembering just months out. I'd no sooner erase Critical Role Campaign One from my lifeline as Hitchhiker's Guide or Discworld.

@@ProphetOfTruth_ Same There's so much to love about season 1 and you're going to notice the dip in quality way more if you start with the better episodes and then go onto the worse episodes. Its better to start with really good episodes with minor problems then enjoy the show even more when it gets great in my opinion.

It's also a nice relief from watching the news. When that goes off, Crit Role goes on. Good at equalizing blood pressure.

It's funny you say that because I feel the same. As a truck driver I have been through campaign 1 twice and campaign 2 almost 3 times. I started with 2 and got caught up to episode 30 and went to campaign 1 and watched it all while catching the campaign 2 weekly episodes. I ended up on campaign 1 finishing around campaign 2 episode 80. I know it sounds confusing but then I started campaign 2 over again. Let's just say being a truck driver kind of spoils you because you have nothing but time. Critical role had changed my life for sure. Just finished traveler con for the 3rd time around

You can jump into campaign 3 pretty easily. There's the 8 episodes of ExU, and then only 21 episodes of C3. They mention a few things that tie into the end of C2, but they're only Easter eggs so far. Basically just a couple of place names that the M9 visited, and that's it. Though C2 definitely is worth catching up on. Honestly you dropped out right around when it started getting really good. Honestly I find the first 25 episodes of C2 harder to watch than the early episodes of C1. It slowly picks up from there, but the arc you're entering starts really going. Ashley comes back full time, and there are a number of HUGE lore drops and plot twists.

I felt that way when I started C3 but I thought it was me just not understanding the dynamic or D&D enough I think that Matt Mercer has said he tried to make C2 as different and disconnected to C1 as possible, so people wouldn't feel like the group was just reusing the same characters or milking the popularity of C1. This worked really well because when there are characters or moments from C1 that come up, they're explained and moved on from I still honestly might watch C1 just so I get all of C3, but TLOVM definitely helped, especially with Laudna's backstory

I think C3 is a lot worse than c2 thus far

EXU: Calamity was the final nail in the coffin that actually got me to go back and watch C1, as well as more of Brennan Lee Mulligan's games that he DMs for. It's unironically my recommendation for an entry point into live-play.

@@crashcoptr I would have to think about recommending it as an entry point. I'm not sure if you get the full effect if you haven't heard about the calamity, the age of arcanum and the raven queen before. So I think I'm still leaning towards campaign 2 as a start or alternatively one of the dimension 20 one shots. Of course I started decades ago with the first Acquisitions Inc. podcast and found that to be a great entry point, so what do I know?

I listened to calamity first because I was familiar with Brennan and his other work. I’m now finally getting into campaign 1 because of the cartoon. Someday I’ll probably go back and listen to calamity again so I have that context, but it was a good way to dip my toes into the longer sessions and heavy duty campaigns

@@4203105 As someone whose intro to CR was via EXU: Calamity, I still think I got the full effect after watching everything else after. I think part of why it works that way is because the Raven Queen and the Age of Arcanum were so shrouded in mystery anyways. Seeing Calamity before c2 certainly made the back half of c2 very interesting

Calamity was the first CR campaign I ever watched, and it definitely got me hooked

Agreed, Aabria was fantastic! And since they just did another EXU two-part, I’ll admit I was worried they might react to the poor fan reception and try swapping her out for someone else (which they might do at some point, EXU could be a great venue for lots of DMs). But I’m so glad they said, “No, Aabria is coming back. She’s good and she knows our world and she knows our players and she’s right for what we’re looking for.” In my heart I would love for an actual play channel to have multiple groups intersecting with each other, and the addition of EXU is starting to move in that direction and it makes me very happy.

Thank you so much!

That’s totally fair; I personally prefer the story for C1, but C2 is much more experimental and that means some really wonderful characters and moments

IMO Season 1 episode 1 all the way through. It was way more fun to watch as these plot lines and charecter were stitched together. I was lucky enough to find critical role after season 1 episode 32 and have been watching everything I could get my hands on ever since. (while a few friends from way back started our on table top) Vox Machina The first campaign had a more classic feel. you could also see the players band together when all hope was lost. I still love Campaign 2 but IMO nothing will come close to those early day watching the twins bonding Grog and scan-man and those hilarious scenes. It's just too good I'm sorry but I disagree.

C2 is more polished and Hollywood-ish. C1 is more genuine. Imo

Thank you!

This is always what I recommend as well! You get a little glimpse of introducing new characters AND a largely self-contained, digestible story arc in the monster hunt so it feels less intimidating than hundreds of hours

Watching Mary Elizabeth McGlynn play her first game of D&D was straight up magical. You are right, that is a great episode to start with.

Oooh that's a very good point, you also get to experience the Rakshasa that will be imporant later on

Thank you! Glad I could help!

Glad it was helpful!

I’m so glad you enjoyed EXU! And I hope you enjoy Vox Machina - aside from all of the growing pains of a new show and a new edition, it’s a really great story 😁

So glad I could help!

Thank you!

Glad I could help! I’m curious to hear what you land on… 😁

Glad it was helpful!

Thank you! I hope you enjoy, it’s a great show :)

Glad I could help!

Have fun! That part of the campaign is really fun iirc

Hahaha I know that feeling 😁

Exactly, the skin color is just a detail, isn’t it? Why do people get hung up on human races in Dnd? The rules treat them all equally. Same base stats and capabilities.

Her official art depicts her as someone of East Asian descent.

@@SupergeekMike Not really, it's ambiguous at best especially in the 2019 and 2020 portraits and with a name like Beauregard Lionet it doesn't get much more European. If you want to see her as East Asian go for it but I don't think that was the intention. If it's just the skin tone then I've had friends that worked on farms that went from almost Marisha's skin tone in January to could be mistaken for latinx by the time June came around.

@@TheRealWilliamWhite The official art also included an epicanthal fold around the eyes.

@@SupergeekMike if you squint maybe, her eye makeup in the official art makes it hard to see much detail around the eyes. If she was supposed to be East Asian she'd have an East Asian name not a squarely French name.

Starting at C1E1 has the potential to be the most rewarding in the long term, I just wish it also wasn’t where the majority of viewers bounced off - but I also understand why that’s the case, unfortunately.

@@SupergeekMike Agreed. It's a rough start that, honestly, feels like you kinda have to grit your teeth for. And that's kinda rough when there's many other choices that don't start like that.

Same kind of thing here, I cut back listening to music and podcasts and started listening to Crit Role on RU-vid.

I’m so glad you’re enjoying the show!

@@SupergeekMike thank you! I look forward to your futures videos and I appreciated the Tiberius one

Hahaha however you watch it works, I’m glad you’re enjoying it! Don’t feel bad about missing the live streams - I usually can’t watch them either, and I live in the same city as the cast lol

I am in the same boat. Started with a few episodes of 2 but really watched full time at C3.

Fair enough!

Though I watch Critical Role on RU-vid, I often listen to it more often than I actually watch it eyes-glued. I'm usually doing something else at the same time which is a great way to catch up on all the content. I don't watch the screen unless something particularly engaging starts up.

Glad it was helpful!

No worries, I’m glad you enjoyed the video and enjoy the show!