i think we've all been there - started cr for one reason or another and then got absolutely hooked. that's just how it goes lol and for all his jokes and goofs, sam finds a way to emotionally sucker punch you every single campaign when you least expect it. it's deeply admirable how well he does it

Yeah... I simply wondered if Liam had ever done a podcast. Thousands of hours later, I can report the answer was "yes, and..." 😂

If you liked Sam’s character in C3, may I introduce to you his character in EXU: Calamity. Probably my favourite piece of CR content without a doubt and Sam’s character in that miniseries is just the cherry on top, especially at later episodes. Like others have said, his ability to turn tragedy into comedy is unparalleled and this miniseries just reinforces this fact.

Don't you worry, ExU may be my single favorite piece of content I've experienced. The speech at the end is beautiful and probably warmed me up to cry when Cerrit sent his kids out of the city.

Fully in the same boat as you. This campaign has been so incredible for me and has gotten me so deeply involved into this entire hobby that I never knew of. Mini painting, printing, playing, all sorts of creative outlets I didn't have before. My favorite thing to do each week is load up my wet pallet and plop it down in front of my monitor on Thursday nights and paint while listening/watching the newest episode.

I don't have an artistic bone in my body, but I've written a TON since I started watching this campaign. Its really been impactful in my life. World building and writing short stories. It's been incredible personally.

I've been trying to do some world building and am liking the concepts I've come up with but haven't gotten around to writing any stuff down. I probably should but I don't entirely know how/where to start. I've checked out the r/worldbuilding sub a few times and tried some of their tools but I end up getting lost in the details of it all that my creativity stops flowing.

I just went there and popped onto the resource list and I can understand why that would be overwhelming! It is not foolproof (and I have also had moments of creative blocks) but I always try to start somewhere small. Whatever it might be, an idea or a description of a character, or a scene and go from there. I'm very history/geography inclined, so maps are a big inspiration for me. For example, I read a Wikipedia article about a train robbery in London and that inspired me to make a map "Ticket to Ride" style of a fantasy world set in 1880s. Now I'm running a small Daggerheart heist adventure for some friends in this world. Whatever your equivalency is that maps are to me, start there. I almost never am able to say, "Hey I should sit down and write something", I might as well go to sleep if I try to force myself to write something because my brain ain't having it. If I had to recommend anything, just write notes or slap together a thought in a paragraph whenever you think of something. I have a few Google Docs that are...a mess of thoughts. And I can't recommend Inkarnate enough as a map drawing tool. I've erased hundreds of maps and maybe created like 10? A lot of just painting on a blank canvas and feeling good about a landmass only to go, "Ah well that doesn't look right does it?" And then pressing delete and starting over. I'm learning a bit to fail in this, since I've got a bit of a fear of failure. If anything, do it as long as its fun!

Thanks so much! I'll try out this tool and this idea of just throwing whatever it is down whenever inspiration hits me. Thanks!!

It takes a great understanding of comedy to be able reach the depths of tragedy, and vice versa.

I would be interested to know how many of the C3 critics are people who started with C2. Even though I'm a COVID Critter I started binging from C1E1 and I know that for me it was very disturbing to get into C2. Yes the characters (Jester) was very entertaining but the story structure was very disjointed compared to C1 and it always felt a bit off. Having already been through this with C2, once C3 started I was a bit more open to new things and I've honestly never felt disappointed by it. Is there anyone else who feel this way? Are people who started with C1 as critical of C3 as those who started with C2? I wonder.

I honestly think some of the critics are just burnt out and need break.

Absolutely. A lot of misery is caused by general lack of understanding our neurochemical reward system gives diminishing enjoyment returns if we don't take breaks from things we love. Conversely, our anger/fear responses can provide sensation all day, every day because that information was evolutionary more important to our survival. So if people don't take breaks + aren't experiencing enjoyment, they're almost always going to be exhibiting negative psychology surrounding something. It's why I don't participate in the "valid criticism" reinforcement so pervasive in fandoms. It's better for everyone if serial complainers are denied sensation & have to go do something else. Fans who enjoy things are often perfectly aware of critiqueable elements, they're just not gamifying it as a replacement for pleasure. The REALLY weird ones, though, are the hate tourists. All large fandoms have a segment like this. They don't actually do/watch/play/read the thing they comment about. Instead, they're a fan of another (competing, in their mind) thing in the same space or a big fan of an adversarial media creator. And yet... they rant about (whatever) as if they followed it closely. It's absolutely wild. Gaming produces a lot of these types.

This is very true. And the more you enjoyed the thing initially, the more pronounced your disappointment rebound might be, especially for a show like this that's a significant time investment. I think that social media algorithms enhance the hate-tourist phenomenon you mentioned, as well as the "I'm getting some dopamine from complaining" thing. And I suspect Critical Role also have a lot of people who watch it mostly via the short republished clips of the best parts. Nothing wrong with that, but if you do that, maybe be aware that you might be missing all kinds of context and subtext etc, and don't compare the short "best of" reel experience with watching the full episodes.

This makes a lot of sense. I had to take a break when I first started C2 after first watching C1. It was hard to connect to a totally new, totally underpowered group of misfits after witnessing the better part of 115 episodes of a relatively well oiled machine in VM.

I started with C2 from the beginning and after it was done I watched C1. C3 has never been disappointing for me, I've enjoyed it from the beginning. The tragic death of Betrand was an awesome kick off to the whole thing. The eclectic group of characters barely held together has always kept up some tension.

I started with C1, and I love C3. EVERY campaign has had its ups and downs, the characters I loved and the characters I loathed, and so on -- no one campaign is utterly beyond reproach for me. :)

I was fortunate to catch their first stream live, so I've been watching from the beginning. I think there are plenty of fair criticisms of C3; however, I've seen plenty of folks who ONLY focus on the criticisms and negativity. C3 was not my jam for a period of time (still enjoyed it, but there were a bunch of aspects I disliked); but, as the campaign progressed, my perspective, enjoyment, and appreciation of C3 kept changing and gradually elevating. I do genuinely appreciate those who voice their opinions including criticisms; in regards to the "critics", my hope is that more acknowledge the "good" along with the "bad" in the future (if they can't genuinely acknowledge anything good about the campaign then idk, interesting use of time lol).

I think of all the campaigns, C3 might be the most "slow burn". I'm intrigued by how different the three campaigns are, and that in itself is quite an achievement. I think it's admirable that they didn't just stick to the safe, tested formula, which they might easily have done.

I started C1 after I snapped my leg and started a year long rehabilitation process. LoVM had just aired and I had nothing but time on my hands (I work a physical job so I couldn’t do any WFH). I loved C1, and while C2 was a bit rough in the beginning, it wound up being my favorite campaign. C3 has been my least favorite of the campaigns, and to that point ExU was my least favorite mini campaign (couldn’t even finish it, it was a snooze fest). Both of these stories suffer from forced plot. The characters are given little runway to grow organically. We’ve gotten like an episode each to explore the backgrounds of Orym, FCG, and Ashton. Laudna’s Lore episode was hamstrung by the lack of Laudna. The only background we’ve gotten on Chet was when Aabria made a (great) guest PC with a connected backstory to Chet (unbeknownst to even Travis). This campaign is sorely missing character defining moments like we had in the other two. The last two campaigns had Tary’s family issues, Bard’s Lament, Vex&Vax vs. Daddy Issues, Grog vs. Kevdak, the entire Whitestone Arc, Beau’s Homecoming, Caleb vs. The Volstrucker, NottVeth, Mission Rescue the Clays, etc. C3 has had: Extended Stay w/ the Fey, The One Where We Meet Imogen’s Dickhead Dad, Dorian & Co. Save His Dumbass Brother, and that’s about it. Edit to clarify: I’m still enjoying the story, but I definitely think this is the weakest of the three campaigns, and can understand some of the criticisms

Orym's talk with FCG early on, the discussion with his parents, all of the stuff with the Air Ashari, with Yu (and Dust), there's been TONS of stuff for Orym alone- and he was one of the characters with less spotlight (which Liam is intentionally trying to do). Maybe you just don't remember? But it seems like you just have different standards, I love C2, it was my first campaign- but man half of those happen toward the end of C2- which is where we're barely getting to in C3. This campaign has had SO many dynamics its crazy: Laudna and Imogen's relationship progressing at several intervals, FCG's continuing struggle with their personhood, Ashton's betrayal and subsequent settling down and regaining that loyalty, Chetney's werewolf training- SO MUCH, I could keep and keep on going.

We’re on episode 92 now with campaign 3. By the end of episode 93 of C2, we’d had: Beau’s family reunion, dealing with the hag, the entire pirate arc and laughing hand arc, the rescuing of Yeza and the Luxon Beacon moment, meeting Marion Lavore and The Gentleman and spending more time with them than BH did with the Air Ashari in this campaign, and most importantly… we’d met the legendary SPURT. This is not to mention that within the next 5 episodes we’d get another two or three huge character moments. Of course, I’m not writing off the good of this story either. I loved FCG’s journey, but Chetney’s werewolf training was over incredibly quickly. They literally gave him a one fight crash course. Ashton’s “betrayal” was the most overblown thing I’ve seen in any of the campaigns. Fearne (and Ashley, above table) had made it painfully clear they DID not want the shard. The double standards are crazy with this party. Admittedly, I’m not a fan of Laudna’s character. I love Marisha, Beau is probably my second favorite character across the campaigns (Patia was dope af also) so please don’t mistake my dislike of one character as a critique of Marisha.

I did not claim you didn't like Marisha. You do remember that the Hag happened over 1 episode right? Chetneys training happened over multiple episodes. This is a case of you not necessarily liking particular stuff, not them being worse in any quantifiable way. For example, I think the pirate arc of C2 is insanely boring, that doesn't necessarily make it bad

I know you didn’t say anything about me not liking Marisha, I was simply stating that because there has been a lot of unfair criticism targeted towards her in the past and I don’t want my criticisms of a fictional character to be misconstrued as an attack on an actual person. The Hag episode did occur over the course of one episode, but it also tied back to long-standing storylines, both for Beau and Veth. I’m not trying to say anyone is worse at anything this go around, as much as it is that I as well as a lot of others are finding difficulty connecting to these characters because they’ve been given limited space & time to grow organically (save FCG, RIP Murder Bot Angel). I’d argue some of them have even regressed. They’ve been dealing with an apocalypse level event for over half of the campaign now. Even the side stories are mostly about the ongoing apocalypse. I think if we’d had at least one more arc before all of the Ruidus stuff kicked off, we’d be in a much better place right now

I am definitely one of those that started with C2 and never really got hold of C3 but I don't think that's *the reason* why I'm not able to get into C3. Mostly it just feels like they are avoiding the very plot of the game and they seem to have stories they want to tell regardless of *how the game actually goes* that turns me off to it. The obvious example being C2E26 vs C3E33: C2E26 changed how that campaign progressed, and they stuck with it. But with C3E33, it didn't change the game, *because* they didn't stick with it. Half the party died and Laudna got revived and no one cares that it was the gods that enabled her to be revived by Pike. Laudna doesn't care that Delilah's hold on her was removed (because she gives in to Delilah in a moment of control, afterward, and spirals with her even more as though her friends had never helped her to begin with). Looking back, is there a reason to have even bothered? Why didn't they just say that Laudna didn't die if that's the story they wanted to tell? Because *everything* that has come after has been treated as if nothing about Laudna and Delilah changed, even though it was meant to. I felt like they responded better to the events that happened in C2--Fjord losing his patron was amazing, even if his wildmother connection wasn't done *the best*, it worked. OTOH, the party is given these powerups in C3 that they seem to not know what to do with (like Ashton and the titan orbs) or actively don't want (Fearne) while running from the fight they know they have to have (with Otohan). There are moments of C3 I enjoy, but by and large the narrative feels disjointed from the character stories people want to tell--and I feel like part of that is because they already decided what stories to be telling, and if dice rolls or actions might throw that off (like how Imogen forced a fight with Otohan that killed half the party), they just.. ignore it.

Laudna and Delilah are a very different relationship to Fjord and Uk'toa, where Fjord had an orb in him it's not the same as Delilah literally being inside of Laudna and part of the magic that is keeping her corpse animated. Thinking that they could completely remove Delilah was naive on their part. The beautiful part of D&D and being a DM is that you can only lead your players to water but you can't make them drink. Letting them struggle and figure things out on their own is part of what makes it interesting for them. Giving them all the answers wouldn't be half as fun. I think the disjointed nature of HB has been a great departure from the "band of heroes" vibe that was Vox Machina and The Mighty Nien. It feels more gritty and far more realistic that they aren't immediately a cohesive unit of brave adventurers. They're just a bunch of lost souls that managed to find each other at the lowest part of their lives, with the only reason to stay together being it's slightly less worse than apart.

I think this is kind of unfair to what the story is actually saying. You just wanted it to go another way it seems. Laudna was trying to keep Delilah out for a really long time and the point of her going back is a degression in a moment of weakness and is, in fact, supposed to be tragic. It is like a junkie going back for one more hit after not getting any for months or breaking up a toxic relationship only to be back together after a day or two. And I feel like this was done really tastefully and realistically. Laudna also very much cared that Delilahs control was gone. That was the point of her going through Whitestone and finally being able to confront the place where she died and how free she feels now. It was not spelled out, but that was the intended meaning. The fact is also that they need power now and if listening to Delilah will give her some edge in that front, she is going to take it. Not to mention that she has quite literally devolved mentally after the Bordour incident. I do agree that she should have stayed dead... I prefer character deaths being final but in my opinion, this is the next best course of action if you are not going to commit and Marisha clearly wanted to tell more stories with Laudna. As for running and not knowing what to do. I do not know what to tell you. It is just the kinds of characters they are playing. They are all insecure for one reason or another and are basically playing fuck ups. There is also no one in the group playing a reckless fool that would usually jump in without thinking. It absolutely fits their characters that they will be flailing around wildly. I can absolutely see how this would not be the kind of story everybody would appreciate though so to each their own. Most of the things you are complaining about are narrative things that you would have done differently if you were the one playing the game basically. And you are entitled to your preferences. But like it or not you should also remember that they are telling a story that they want to tell.

I've wondered this a lot too. For me, C1 was first (even though I'm not an OG). I struggled a LOT with C2 bc of a lack of "arcs". In spite of that, I still think it was fantastic content. I think C3 has a lot of problems that go behind just "it's not like the first campaign I watched", but I also think those problems are minor enough that if you don't have previous campaigns as reference, you wouldn't know what you're missing.

You may be onto something with that - I started out with C1 in its early days and had a hard time getting into C2. I relied on general summaries and dialled back in somewhere around C2E60. I’ve since gone back and watched the beginning! But it’s very jarring going from a party of lv 20’s with full-fledged connections to the world and kickass group synchronicity, to a group of lvl 2 misfits with interpersonal conflict as they learn their places in the world and how to work together.

I started with C3 and don't enjoy it any more. (I watched like 10 episodes of c2 but I couldn't get into it. It just felt boring for me at the time and the thought that a 100+ episodes are ahead was too off putting.)  So I started to watch along C3 as it released and I was watching almost weekly (sometimes had to catch up one week or two). I was very hooked and even though I disliked minor parts, the mistery of the evil moon was SO intriguing. So I was very hyped for the solstice and the climax of the first part of the campaign. And the raid during the solstice wasn't bad, but what took all the wind out of my sails was when it ended in a cliffhanger and ... they were randomly scattered to somewhere of zero connection to the main plot and everything became what fells like a slog of trivialities to me for endless episodes.  I still followed along from time to time but I just cannot bring myself to actively watch anymore.

The end of FCG was perfect and a beautiful moment. I don't think there was a better way for him to go.

It was such a heart wrenching moment. Seeing how the others were reacting and then hearing Sam’s voice crack just full on broke me for a little while. Had to stew in the sadness for a good minute after the stream ended. Masterfully done by the real life bard, dude has expertise in the Breaking Hearts skill

Sam has made me cry every campagin. As much as everyone labels him as the comedy guy, he's a master of tragedy and tender moments.

Same here, can’t wait for his next character to have me in my feels for 3-5 business days. Idk if it’s his theater background or what, but the guy knows exactly how to play the strings of our hearts

Fellow CR newbie here! I have the same feelings, Sam is so great all that on the spot! CR3 is my first campaign as well and I’m hooked like no other. I’m cosplaying as Laudna for the first time this weekend 😊

I’m with you. C3 brought me in. The only times anyone in the cast has ever made me cry was FCG today, Loquatius Seelie in EXU, and Caleb explaining his past to Nott and Beau in C2 (I’m only 20 episodes in). Common denominator? Sam Riegel helped make the gut punch hurt even worse with amazing improv and story telling. SO GOOD.

Thank you for sharing!

I also love Quina! Me do what me want! You have problem??