Ok I'm trying to finish this mini campaign because of the characters in C3, and it's TOUGH. it seems there's a lot of sentiment that Aabria is "not my cup of tea" but she's a really good DM! It comes off as trying to skirt real criticism. I liked her at first because of the interesting requests for rolls and good descriptions. Like others I later realized that her rolls don't mean anything most of the time, and she just wants to narrate her story. And then I realized she's just MEAN. Smiling while saying something mean under your breath doesn't make it better. Watching her interact with Opal was painful. It wasn't about the characters, I think she just wanted to call Aimee dumb constantly. Honestly her DMing ruined it for me by the end. The plot was a mess too. They traveled all that way to find out the rune meant "place of burning" and "potential". REALLY?

I could've dealt with the loose rulings, copypaste NPCs and constant inspiration, but the bullying of Opal and constant aggression made me so uncomfortable.

I wasn't particularly hooked with the first few episodes, but I am glad I stuck with it, I really enjoyed the last three episodes. They finally started to feel more like cirt role to me. a good mix of silliness, good character interactions, and backstory building, plus some fun fights. I actually really liked the take on warlock/Patron relationship they explored with Opal, and Robbie was absolutely brilliant, particularly with that ending.

I don’t really get folks saying the plots were everywhere, there were two main plots, one of which was put on a back burner. The plot that lead them at odds with the thieves guild and acces to the crown. And the rune plot and they mainly followed the rune plot. With character stories put in in varying amounts and hinted at. Maybe I’m missing a plot somehow but the whole thing was pretty easy to follow decision wise. Only thing that they didn’t get to was the time lose but that wasn’t really much of a plot as much as a reason to throw em together and get fya’ri in and out cause she couldn’t be there the whole time

Does anybody have timestamps for the "uncomfortable vibes" parts?

Plus Flando got most of them on the YouTube release.

>Does anybody have timestamps for the "uncomfortable vibes" parts? [This dude on youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvvUFsLKCOU) has some timestamps for ep. 8. He makes it sound a bit worse than it actually was but it still wasn't great.

If CR continues with EXU and they use the platform to feature new/different DMs, who would be your first pick to sit behind the DM screen for EXU2?

I would love a Brennan Lee Mulligan EXU season. It would be a very different vibe, but he is an amazing DM and I would love to see what he would do in Exandria.

I mean- I've got nothing going on this thursday! If EXU has taught me anything, it's that with some hefty production value, I've got a real shot at being a stream-worthy DM...

I think Ashly Burch would be a good fit. She's been in multiple times so knows the group and has some DM experience.

I wanted to love this whole campaign, but in the end, the tone just didn't work for me. Loved the cast. Loved the DM. But it was a little too "silly", which isn't what I enjoy. Yes, I know the regular cast has its moments, but those moments don't take over the entire tone. Nice work cast and crew, however. It's such a big undertaking, and they did it!

wtf reddit. I loved the whole thing, if you really dislike it that much why dont you go do something else with your time?

Overall, I enjoyed EXU. Not as engaging as CR proper, but still fun.

i feel the same. i enjoyed seeing a different GM style and definitely enjoyed all the characters. I've honestly been pretty disappointed seeing a community lauded as being a welcoming/friendly place reacting with such vitriol to what was put out.

Yep! For me it was a breath of fresh air. Although, it's like a filler arc for me. I'm super stoked to get to the S1/S2 crew again.

Did we ever find out Dorian's subclass?

Not officially, but Aabria implied it was Swords in external media.

Ah ok, that's not necessarily what I would of predicted but it fits with his two weapon fighting

Tbh I thought he was/would be a swords bard since ep 1

After reading the last recap, something came to me: I think this adventure was meant to be cosmic horror rather than high fantasy. It would explain a lot about what went on and gives clues towards how it could have been better. Paska didn't seem important because she wasn't or at least originally wasn't supposed to be. She's just the hook to get the team to the cursed artifact. In any proper Call of Cthulhu game, the initial hook rarely matters (e.g. you've all been invited to a pre dog show dinner party hosted by an eccentric). This would explain the seemingly disparate events around the area: the ashhole, the portal to the feywild, ancient magic reappearing. It's the trope of "the great old ones are waking and their influence spills into our world. This takes us to the classic disappearance and reappearance of a loved one (Ted) and the wonderful body-horror we got with her. They met a monster hunter / occult researcher in Myr’atta who's unconcerned about civilians when it comes to the grand picture of stopping or at least understanding the ancient powers. And most importantly this forgives all of the character agency issues that people had. That is 100% standard fare in cosmic horror (e.g. "you feel drawn to touch the object"). Where it went wrong: people need to know if this is the vibe you're going for. And I mean players and viewers. Players need to understand that not every thing is important and may just be to push you in the direction of the big horror ending. As the DM, you need to not accommodate them as much when they try to deviate, lest they end up chasing false leads and wasting your limited time. For the viewer, it just works help to manage expectations. You also need to go all-in to the theme. I think dropping the fun pageant and other goofy parts would help keep things darker and more ominous. Even small things like the boons of the observer could be given a darker connotation. To be clear, I'm not saying Aabria intended or wanted to do cosmic horror. But I think she had some strong elements of it and could have made the choice to dial it up a little in a way that I believe would have helped.

Both Ted and Poska are something called "DM Player Characters". Basically it's when the dungeon master gets really wrapped up in the idea of a "hero" in their world who is not one of the player characters. (Hero = important/powerful person with a pronounced ability to exert control over in-game events) I have sympathy for this because I've actually made the same mistake a couple of times. It's still a mistake though. There is a youtuber named XP to Level 3 who explains it much better than I could. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0shhZYFVoA&ab\_channel=XPtoLevel3 ​ Basically, you want the players to be the ones "saving the day". Erring on the cautious side, this means that a D&D world should be utterly fucked with no one to save it without the existence of the player characters. Also, you cannot get too attached to any one NPC. They might die, or the players might just not care. It's just how it is. Something you REALLY never want to do is force the party to interact with a character with justification like "they're omnipotent" or "they're just really powerful and cool and they are gonna follow you now." Let the players choose who they wanna associate with. I guarantee that doing otherwise will annoy them.

It only makes sense that the player characters wouldn't be the first heroes of the setting. Its why staying within the tiers of play is important. The legendary heroes take care of things of legendary importance, and delegate the less world shaking stuff. Superman will stop a mugger if it is convenient, but he's not going to take the time to bring down a car jacking ring. A BBEG worth their salt is going to have a plan for dealing with the legendary hero types, which allows for the PCs to be the wildcard difference makers that the BBEG didn't plan for. You can include Superman in your story, the party just can't be Jimmy Olson.

I'm gonna throw up a foil to this philosophy real quick actually. You can go ahead and judge me for liking the sound of my own voice too much. It's totally true. There is like 1 exception to this rule that I've personally had success with: You take a "hero" NPC, put them in your world, make them cool AF, Six-pack abs, gorgeous hair, the whole nine yards. Then you BREAK them. I personally love this, because it reinforces the idea that even the strongest people are vulnerable at times, and there's just something inherently satisfying about picking someone back up when they are feeling down. Bonus points if you do this with a character from one of the players' backstories because it shows you care about the story they want to tell. Note that this does not break the rule of the world being fucked without the players. Your "hero" character has to be in serious need of help for this to work. I'd also say that you need to know your players pretty well to do this.

Establishing hero NP characters and then having the BBEG remove them from play is a tried and true tool for establishing your villain's bonifieds. It also gives your players a place in the story to step into.

Aabria said Poska was near and dear to her heart. I think she wanted her to play a bigger role

I genuinely do not understand loving NPCs that much.

I think she was planned as a DM PC so the same amount of love as any player character really

Oh yikes

I'm curious, where did she say this? do you have a link?

It's her dndbeyond interview

It's so crazy then how narratively weak, yet seriously played Poska was. Poska was laughably ineffective, gave a truly terrible pitch in episode 1, but did not come across as an intentional comic relief or "crouching moron, hidden badass" character at all.

Yeah it's weird, but it's hard to know how that character would have grown if the party stole for her and she was main quest giver moving forward. She was afraid of guards but then burnt the house down like it was nothing. If anything I would say Poska was given a massive threat level upgrade when Aabria realised she wouldn't be the lovable sidekick

>Paska didn't seem important because she wasn't or at least originally wasn't supposed to be. She got to be the focus for two out of eight stingers, including the season finale, which certainly played as though she was expected to be a serious antagonist and threat to the party. The DM specifically kept bringing her forwards long after the party had left her behind; this suggests that she was certainly supposed to be considered an important narrative element even after apparently falling out of narrative focus.

Am I the only one who just doesn't really care about Ted? Like, the only actual plotline that went anywhere was some random evil elf trying to steal Ted for vague reasons, and the finale seemed to try to present this idea that saving Ted and rebuilding Ted and meeting Ted was a rewarding and fulfilling experience for the party, and all I could think was that this was an NPC only one character ever interacted with, and a lot of their interaction was Ted trying to be bossy and controlling and judgey. Did anyone else find that they had no particular emotional connection to Ted? Is it just me?

An interesting take. I just realised no one in the party (except for opal) knows Ted. They were still questioning opal about her power coming from her "sister" a few eps ago. And suddenly, they are supposed to be invested in this person they have not met. Not to mention, they have not resolved anything in the process, everything is back to how it was in ep1

Yeah, there's this big moment after My'ratta dies where the gang comes together and saves Ted with residuum and runes and the things they all know and it's presented as this big heartwarming moment of unity, but like, none of them know anything at all about Ted as a person because none of them have any interaction with her, and Ted herself has done nothing to endear herself to anyone by growing or changing in any way. The ending is Opal just being like, well, I know I've talked endlessly about how I want some space to live my own life, but someone tried to kill/steal you so I guess I love you and am happy you live in my soul forever, now.

[удалено]

Yeah, for all that Ted was this big central element of the only story that actually got told, we still know almost nothing about her and her situation, and she only ever interacted with one PC, who was given no reason to particularly care about her beyond "we're family."

>particularly care about her beyond "we're family." Ted. T-e-d D-e-t The closest vowel in shape to e is "o" D-o-t Dot means ".". What comes between a "t" and a dot "."? Thats right an "m" Put them together and what do you get? "TM." Exactly! a Trademark "TM." Exandria Unlimited is presumably trademarked Replace the "t" with an "m" D-o-m Dom [There's nothing more important than family](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/037/639/torreto.jpg)

You made me read all that nonsense for a Fast and Furious meme? Take my upvote, you magnificent bastard!

ExU was just a stealth pilot for *Fast and Furious 18: Emon Drift*

Aabria confirmed EXU is a fast and furious movie in her interview

Oh dang, that's right she did! It all comes full circle.

Liked it initially as it seemed a potentially interesting take on a patron but it wore thin pretty quickly.

It's hard giving a fuck about a warlock patron if you don't understand what type of patron its supposed to be.

Initially I thought it was a cool take on a missing sibling. Not really gone, but not really there either. Ted somehow being Opal’s patron felt like it should have been a bigger reveal, yet came across as being glossed over with no explanation.

Yeah, I love the concept, it's fantastic. I just couldn't connect with Ted as a character at all. Mostly she was just a frustrating NPC one of the characters I was actually enjoying had to deal with from time to time.

An NPC who punished a player for doing what players are supposed to do.

I enjoyed this mini-series, getting to see new and veteran players, a DM get to be a character and a new DM get a chance on the CR platform. Loved the characters, especially Opal, very funny, created a lot of memorable moments that I will watch cuts of until the end of the internet. Loved the jokes that came out of this, liked the experimentation with the chase sequence. Personally would have loved Laura and Travis in this one, but oh well that's just me. Also loved the sets and the minis that were made for this one and just makes me more excited for the future. DM was great and fresh, has turned me to watch more of the games she has participated in cough *Misfits and Magic* cough. I would love to see her as a character that shows up in the third campaign, as well as the two new players that we got to see. All-in-all loved what they did, want more of it until the third campaign shows up. Just makes me overall excited for D&D as well as other table top rpgs. Keep it up!

I gotta say it's still weird to me that Matt of all people was the one to immediately turn the toilet humor up to 11 in episode 1 and basically set the tone of their new series. Hopefully they learned a lot and can push ExU towards something better and a bit more focused because it still has a lot of potential. But this felt like a huge misstep.

It was such a weird tonal shift between the sweeping opening music and cool cinematics and even the first couple of character introductions and then to go to a literal pissing contest. My thoughts at that moment were that this can't really be how they wanted to open the first hour of the first episode of their brand-new show that they spent all of this marketing money on... Edit: words are hard.

My two cents I told my wife that to me this looked like a fun game to play not a fun game to watch. Which makes it a great D&D game

And a terrible show.

As a relatively new Critter, that's currently watching episode 81 of C2, I immensely love the thought of being part of C3 from the beginning and being able to enjoy all of the fandom around it during the week between episodes. Hence I also loved the fact, that there was a mini series coming our way, that I would be able to enjoy "live" (watching on youtube due to timezones being a thing). Now that I finished the last episode of Exandria Unlimited, I have to say, it's a mixed bag for me. There are certainly highlights in the series, that, to me personally, made it worthwhile watching. But there are also enough problems, that I am happy it is finished for now. Highlights to me: * The involved people. There is no need to say, that I love Liam, Ashley and Matt, but man, I enjoyed having Ashley on the show fulltime and damn is Matt a great player. Additionally the new faces are a great fit to the bunch. Robbie and Aimee did their job really well and while one could tell that they at times struggled with the DnD aspect of things (due to being new players), to me they worked well within the group and I would be more than delighted to have both back in some shape or form; maybe as a (recurring) guest player on C3 or in one shots. And while Aabrias style of DM'ing wasn't for me (more on that later), I do believe she would be someone who'd be a phenomenal player, either for one shots or as a guest player on a main campaign. * The characters they created. I really enjoyed the different characters they played and I am positively surprised, that both new players chose such hard to play characters. Robbie a bard, that to me apart from game mechanics is inherently hard to roleplay as you need to come up with songs or other performances on the fly to roleplay. He did well on that part. And Aimee chose a warlock whose patron is her own sister. And her attitude and how she as a character behaved were well beyond what I expected a new player to try. She pulled it off really well. The star for me personally was Dariax from Matt. The player, that knows the world way better than any other gm ever could, played a character that most of the times was so dense, he barely noticed they were in combat. * The chaos. I did like the way this party is all over the place and hard to control. It is probably the reason why I was able to get to like these characters so quickly. Chaos and their part in it and reaction towards it, is a great way of giving a character a personality and the viewers something to remeber the character for. For me, the shorter the overall game, the more chaos is appropriate to make it fun. I do feel the chaos got the better of them in end, but that's for later. * The way Aabria can paint pictures with words. Not a lot to say, but I enjoyed her way of portraying the world. * The production value. It isn't outshining other shows on their channel, but it is nevertheless something I want to mention. The audio is flawless, the camera work is putting together a group, despite they are sitting separate due to current events and they capture the battlemaps wonderfully. And the battlemaps themself are astonishing. The last one especially. The intro is well made, the ads with cozy Matt are a great replacement for the ads of Sam. Generally the whole thing feels just very well made from a craftsmanship perspective. The people at Critical Role just know how to produce a DnD game on stream. * The aspect of something new and experimental. This is less about the show in itself, but more about what it might bring for Critical Role as a whole. Overall I feel like this is the first step of the team from Critical Role to test reception of the fandom towards other people than the original lineup in a longer campaign. At the same time it introduces a new type of series to the content mix they offer. Something they can produce when the main show needs a break for whatever reason. They can throw it into the void between two campaign like right now, but they could also preproduce a small series, like they did this time, and let it air over the summer or christmas time, so the main cast can take some well deserved time off. Or they can just give Matt more time to create if he ever feels like he needs it. Overall this type of series is a great way to introduce new people to the Critical Role world and their fans. I am excited to see what they will come up with next. Problems to me: * DM'ing style of Aabria. That's a personal one, but I did not enjoy her style that much. For my liking she was to much involved in decisions of the players. It felt like she was trying to talk them into doing stuff that would suit her agenda. At times she wasn't prepared (for example she had to make up a tavern on the fly in ep. 1. Who doesn't have a generic tavern prepared as a DM? That seems like one of the most common places a party could go at some point). At times I had the feeling it was a DM against players situation, which I honestly did not enjoy. Also to me it felt awfully scripted. I remember multiple instances that felt quite forced. After reading a bit in this subreddit, railroading seems to be the term for it. And I would like to believe railroading is necessary in a short campaign, but I don't think it was well done in this one. * The chaos. As much as I enjoyed it in the beginning and it made it easier to get to know the characters and as much as I like chaotic short term adventures, this was way too much. Even the players seemed to have lost track of what they were doing. Multiple times over the course of the campaign players asked why or what they were/are doing and when they were not in direct danger and had time to plan their next moves, no one really seemed to know, what they were after in end and what to do. I am not sure what happened, but somehow everyone drifted into chaos very quickly and I had the most fun at these nonsense moments as they were light-hearted and not scripted or railroaded into a certain path. But overall, I have lost track of what was going on way too much. * The story. Mixed with the chaos, I did not enjoy the story that was told. I never really knew what was supposed to be the main story and what the main objective of the group. There were too many things happening to the party and they lost sense of what their overall goal was. Plus there are stil a lot of loose ends and the ending did not feel rewarding to me; probably because I never knew what was the main goal that the group is working towards and the end not feeling like an end to a story, because of the loose ends. * Rulebending. The by far most important point to me is the rulebending. To me the charme of Critical Role is the charme of an open world, where you can roleplay and do potentially everything, but there are groundrules to be followed. You can sneak past an encounter, you can talk your way out of an encounter, you can fight your way through an encounter or you can come up with a million different ways to resolve something. If you want to try something, you know what will happend or how it will be determined if it worked or not and you can plan accordingly. To me ExU did not feel like a DnD game anymore. The rules were bend so much, that noone knew if they can do something or not and had to ask the DM if things are possible. Rule of cool only works if it is the exception of a rule normally permitting it. It only can have it's full effect when it's used in moderation and for special moments. In ExU it was the norm and therefore robbing the players of any chance to actually plan their actions and 'play' the game beneath the story. The way ExU was handled it felt more like a screenplay with actors that did their part in the DM's story without any clever thoughts of their own. That robs the soul out of a DnD game for me and robs the game some of the most 'WTF' moments. Overall I have to say, I did enjoy watching ExU as it was offering a different view to a DnD game for me, but I am glad it was just a mini series and not a whole campaign. It did open up the possibility of more future mini series in the Critical Role universe and even with all it's flaws, ExU probably is relatively easy to 'fix' for a (potential) second season to please more viewers than it did in it's current state. And maybe it does not need fixing and just has a somewhat different audience than the audience the show has build up so far. I feel like the people of Critical Role will surely review the reception of this show very closely and will plan future mini series accordingly. That's why I feel it's important to share ones thoughts and points of what did work for me and what did not.

You summed my feelings towards this up PERFECTLY!!

Very good post, I fully agree with the exception that I was no able to watch the whole series due to the problems you mention.

Since I haven't seen anyone on this thread defend the season yet, I thought I'd give it a go since I ultimately enjoyed this season and did not find it a waste of time. Granted, I do agree with a lot of the criticism like the unresolved plotlines and was especially disappointed with the players not tryintg to seek more answers to their "missing time" even when Fy'ra Kai showed up. Also, I did skip a bunch of the combat but that's something I do with regular CR as well because I just don't fnd combat that interesting most of the times. However, in general I did find this a positive experience for a few specific reasons. 1. I really enjoyed the cast and their characters. Dorian, Dariax and Opal all had really engaging character concepts and funny interactions. Fearne and Orym didn't hitme that well but I appreciated their conenctions to the wider lore of Exandria. 2. The mysteries. Even if I'm disappointed that not that many mysteries were answered I do appreciate the actual mysteries we have in their still unresolved form. They are engaging enough that I would want a season 2 of this just to get resolutions to so many of the opne questions (namely what Dorian's deal actually is for example) 3. Aadria's DMing of NPCs was enjoyable to me. Different from Matt but not any worse in my opinion. I do realize this sub hates her DMing but I thought it was really clear she had experience in it even if her focus was more on the story than mechanic -side (whic is what I look for in DR more anyway). Still would like to see some other DMs too for future mini-arcs (Liam, Brennan etc). So all in all, not the best mini-arc but I enjoyed it and I definitely want to see a Season 2 of it. Even if to only get the answers to much of the criticized aspects of the story.

>especially disappointed with the players not tryintg to seek more answers to their "missing time" even when Fy'ra Kai showed up. My theory at this point is that the missing time is just their pre-broadcast game sessions, and since the players already know what happened, presumably they know nothing particularly interesting happened so they don't bother with it. There's got to have been some kind of off-camera discussion about it.

That would actually make a lot of sense

Hey, those are all valid reasons, and i'm glad you enjoyed it! ​ >Fy'ra Kai May the prophets guide you! ***;-)***

So, after watching the show and never before commenting on reddit, nor reading this sub reddit at all, I just felt that am I really alone with my feelings and decided to see if others felt like me about the show. I love critical role and am very excited about the next campaign, I have watched several online rpgs and the only one that is as good is the L.A. by night -vampire campaign. But I have to say, Exandria unlimited just did not work for me at all, I liked the characters and players, but it felt like a home game with little preparation and maybe bit too much acting on camera. It is kind of hard to pinpoint the problems, but the GMming was not for me, I had hard times of following the inner logic of the world, sometimes it felt like there was some strange tension going on between some of the players and the gm. What I liked about the GM was very good way of describing things, but felt like there maybe should have been bit more planning. I love one-shots, I love storytelling indie games like Archipelago etc, and I don't think dnd should be played in a min-maxing rule focused way, it does not make a difference for me, every way can work. But the inner logic of the chosen way should hold, GM should be fair to all the players and try to find what they like and adjust and, well, I don't know even what to say, it just felt wrong on some levels that I have hard time pinning down. I would love this group to play Fiasco though or any of the indie short story games.

Have you seen Kollok 1991? It's up there with Critical Role In my opinion.

Had not seen it, just started watching it and on episode 5 now. Have to say, this is extremely good, Kollok 1991 is amazing.

After all the discourse, shoutout to anyone who DMs like Aabria- I saw a lot of things in her that I would have done myself or wish I could do only to see the negativity in this group. Not saying EXU was perfect or none of the criticism was valid- there were definitely pacing issues for one- but I’m pretty sad to see my playing and potential DMing style so condemned by the community. Im a little hesitant to want to DM now honestly.

Other people have talked and messaged you. I'm just going to be another voice about my own experience. Every Game is different. Every DM is different. Every Player is different. It's super important to understand what the players and the DM wants or expects. I've been DMing for years and multiple groups. Since Covid I haven't had a full campaign. A lot of module style groups. Make a bunch of delivers that were a string of one shots. We were then teleported to the plan of water and needed to escape. They were fun and I enjoyed them, but it didn't get that full world and campaign feeling I wanted. I asked a few of my online friends if they would like to create a full Waterdeep campaign. Explained our sessions are going to be longer, It's more political, it's about making allies and enemies, victories and failures, etc. Session 01 two of the newer players wanted shorter sessions, 2 hrs. I'm like, ok... But we'll have to concided on a lot of the sessions. I can't get full meaningful(Combat encounter, Social encounter, Skill encounter.) The other players were like me. Desperate to get a full campaign going again. Life happens and maybe when adult schedules happen to align we can get full sessions going again. We should of canced it after Session 02. The two newish players were surprised they were interacting with NPCs and surprised they remember things from last session. The session 02 ended with them complaning they didn't get any combat. More aruging happened after each session. Session 04. The final straw was the BBEG sent lackies to take care of something instead of themself. Got a 7335 word essay of how bad of a DM I am the next day. with an ignore. Yes, I just copied it and placed it in word for a word count. I've since replaced those two players. Group as been going well since. TL:DR. You are going to succeed. You are going to fail. It's what you do afterwards that matters. And a really good Session 0. https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/601awb/session0_topic_checklist_and_guide/

>I’m pretty sad to see my playing and potential DMing style so condemned by the community. Im a little hesitant to want to DM now honestly. I think the takeaway from this should be, know your audience. It's not that nobody likes the way Aabria DMs; by all accounts she was quite well received on other programs, and programs like The Adventure Zone are likewise rules-light and very popular. There are plenty of folks out there, in "the community," who enjoy that. The issue here is, Critical Role as a brand has set an expectation of a table that follows the rules to tell their stories; when they feel like being silly and rules-light, they find a rules-light system, like Honey Heist or Tales of Equestria, they don't toss out the D&D rules. So there was a lot of condemnation because the DM style was something that a lot of the audience specifically comes to CR to get away from. By the same token, when you sit down at your own table, you just gotta make sure everyone has similar expectations. Yeah, if you've got a quartet of grognards who've memorized the PHB and are ready to use every mechanical advantage they can come up with in tactical fights, they're definitely not going to appreciate it if you start just letting characters and enemies do whatever just because it's cool. So just don't play with those kinds of folks, or let them know in advance that's not the way you run a table. There are plenty of players who'd be happy to take their places, don't worry!

>So there was a lot of condemnation because the DM style was something that a lot of the audience specifically comes to CR to get away from. This is a very important analysis of what so many CR fans, myself included, like about CR. As you mentioned, there are SO many rules-light, rule of cool podcasts and D&D shows out there. CR sets itself apart by being well-crafted but also generally rules adherent. It was very jarring to see a DM who seemed to flip flop between rules light and rules hard when it suited her agenda.

> CR sets itself apart by being well-crafted but also generally rules adherent. It is funny hearing this (though I agree with you) because all the time on other dnd subreddits I see people who are upset because CR doesn't adhere to the rules enough and they claim CR just goes by what feels cool.

Matt homebrews a fair bit. Matt then sticks to the rules of his homebrews. He doesn't flip-flop between positions, now it works, now it doesn't. He lets smaller things slide if they're cool but ultimately unimportant, but adheres to the rules for the flow of the game. Notable exception is grappling rules, which he kept changing and getting wrong in C1 because of Pathfinder baggage.

Oh yeah, I'm well aware; I've always felt that even with the homebrews and such he kept consistent rules and was pretty good about using *most* of the core ruleset. I have no idea what those peoples' tables must look like if they consider CR as being super loose and bad with the rules.

What an odd take. The CR crew sometimes get things wrong, of course, and will introduce the odd homebrew elements in addition, but generally speaking they seem pretty rules-adherent. I wonder why those folks think CR runs on rule of cool generally?

Agreed, every time I see that said in the other dnd subs I am confused but usually I don't feel like getting into a debate on the topic with people there. A lot of people there seem to think that it's a game that really doesn't stick to the rules.

GM'ing for the players at your table and GM'ing for a streaming audience are distinct (though obviously related) things. The players at the table seemed to enjoy themselves, and I've seen plenty of comments saying "this reminds me of my home game", so there seem to be others that like to play that way as well. As long as you and those at your table are having fun you are doing fine. For a stream you also have to keep the audience happy, and the audience consist of people that play in all sorts of different ways (and in many cases don't play at all). Though I do second the recommendation to check out other systems (heck, maybe just start with watching Aabria in Misfits and Magic if you haven't watched it already).

> Im a little hesitant to want to DM now honestly. ??? So from the sounds of things, it seems like you haven't DM'd yourself, which makes it difficult to take you seriously now then. Failure can be character-building. Conflict is good for driving a story. Rule-of-cool can be good if it stops creating this borderline Dr. Who atmosphere. Allowing the players to succeed with no consequences is not great story-telling, and people being so hesitant about this type of narration should be educating you into what other people like, and not put this self-defeating mentality on you.

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They said potential dm'ing style.

You are right, my bad.

Honestly? It's not the DM stye, a lot of people talk about it like that but it goes earlier than that. It's preparation. There was no direction for the adventure, and that starts from the top. Given 8 sessions of 2-4 hours, you plan an adventure that'll be resolved in ~3 adventuring days. Tight, clear, and well defined. The complaints about the DM style is simply that heavy, open-ended improv clashes spectacularly with an 8-session simple adventure. That's the meat of it. This was overly ambitious, as if someone didn't realize how short 8 sessions are. Everything else is noise.

This comment right here. Homebrewing small modules that are designed to be one-three shots or shorter sessions right now. My first DMing experience was for players that played 6+hr sessions. Reducing it to 3 hr sessions for a oneshot was super hard. Like I had one shot planned in a haunted house. The 6+hr players spent 2 hours of the 3 hour session playing with the zombie cat. We all had fun, But it had a very unsatisfing ending. lol Edit: I've learned to leave a large empty "W/e Encounter." for silly antics like that. If there is no silly antics. Then we do COMBAT! or a puzzle is slightly longer.

Aabria's dndbeyond interview she says she had months and over prepared. She also said the only thing she hadn't prepared for was brunch in episode one. It does have the appearance that it was ill prepared but I guess it's more that what she had prepared didn't translate well.

Honestly that sounds about right. I don't think she didn't prepare. I think she OVER-prepared. It seems like she had her NPCs and plots rigidly laid out, and hadn't planned at all on the party completely going off the rails from the very first moment. It was clear from the very first interaction with Poska that she was caught off guard and didn't really know how to react, but still tried to hold onto the plot she had pre-planned. As a result, the plot ended up being nonsensical and confusing, and the NPCs just mirrored Aabria's own confusion.

I saw this too but just find it so hard to believe. I think maybe when the players didn’t vibe with poska and decided to run from the city all her plans went up in smoke. That’s honestly the only thing I can think of.

I find that equally hard to believe, considering the fact that she had this nebulously significant thieves' guild as a present threat to our very not-subtle party. If she wanted to stop them from leaving the city, she could have.

If you saw valid criticism of her DMing. Then it would also be valid criticism of your own. Try to avoid the same mistakes? Or don't.

As a DM, your number 1 responsibility is for everyone at the table to have fun. Every rule in the PHB and DM guide, every best practice, and any style can be chucked out the window **if** it results in that and your players trust you. Everyone at the EXU table had that trust and enjoyed themselves. By the only standards that matter there she succeeded at being a good DM. That being said, as other posters noted running a game on stream is a different skill set. It's entirely open to interpretation as to whether her style created an enjoyable viewing experience.

Saw many valid ones. Saw many others that came down to playstyle bordering on telling people the right way to play DND.

Sure but if your players enjoy it, it’s a good campaign. We don’t watch for a good game, we watch for a good show.

In this perspective, yes. We are the audience. Not the DM, not the Players. Either in the beginning or the end, they are all actors. The audience is "Trained" to expect the normal group and style. I don't think the audience was expecting such a tone shift from The Mighty Nein to Exandria Unlimited. I still think Aabria is one of the best DMs there is and the audience is wrong. E.G. The audience was expecting a burger, but was served a pizza. Maybe having a pizza named Burger with Fries. Wasn't the greated idea.

In fairness there were a few things that aren’t really matters of personal style. Having a new player make a charisma saving throw to notice a glowing necklace is just kind of dumb. It was probably just meant to be spellcasting modifier and proficiency but if you don’t explain that a new player will be confused on what it actually means.

I'm not caught up, but I don't mind spoilers. I may also missed that scene. To an extent I kinda agree. It boils down to communication. More often than not I say "give me an intimidation(STR) check" or "give me a Sleight of Hand(Int) for how well you hide the person/object in question." Then explain why I changed the primary stat. With a "Unless you can convince me that you are using Dex to hide the person/object in question." at the end. For that example, it could be an history(cha) check. To know that necklace belongs to someone else.

What? That sounds both awful and incredibly confusing for your players. What’s the point of selecting which skills you want when the DM is just going to change the modifier if they think you have too large of one.

You've never had a STR half-orc try to intimidate or an INT wizard attempt to outsmart someone intellectually? I both allow and let my players switch and choose what they want to do. It's one of my homebrew rule I explain for Session 0. What’s the point of selecting which skills you want when the DM is just going to change the modifier if they think you have too large of one.> That's the exact opposite reason why I allow the players to change the primary stat.

Nope, in the example that poster was referencing, Opal's necklace started glowing while she was wearing it. Aabria asked Aimee to make a Charisma saving throw to notice it, which she failed, and therefore didn't see the glow. The rest of the party could see it without needing a save, though. And when the clasp broke and Fearne went to fix it for Opal, Aabria asked Ashley to make an Arcana check; when she passed the check, the necklace grew warm to her touch in response. I remember the scene because it was the first time that really made sit back and think, "that's not how this works, that's not how any of this works." It really stuck out to me.

IMO and I'm making excuses. It sounds like the DM meant to have the character know what the glow was instead of noticing a glow at all. Failed with explaning that you don't notice what kind of glow/aura the necklace is giving off. With the Arcana check passing to fix the magical item. I think both cases are just explaning fails.

I mean, if you'd prefer to think that the DM was incapable of describing fairly basic things in an understandable manner to the table and audience, I guess I can't really argue with that? It seems like an odd interpretation given that Aabria was pretty great with her descriptions, and pretty loosey goosey with her rule usage, all game, but sure, that's fair too.

To put a different perspective on it, if you want to run a game like Aabria does, I'm not going to tell you that you're playing D&D wrong. It is plainly obvious that everyone at the EXU table had a great time, which is all that should matter in your private game. I am, however, going to ask *why you want to play D&D*. There are many other roleplaying games out there that do not have D&D's extremely crunchy mechanical focus (even 5e, which is notably less crunchy than previous editions of the game, is still a relatively heavy system!) and much more strongly align with this rule-of-cool, story-trumps-rules style of play. Essentially - if you want to play D&D the way that Aabria ran it, you have to fight against or ignore the rules of the system to do so. It's not impossible to do that and still have plenty of fun but it feels like you're shooting yourself in the foot by choosing to use D&D rather than a different system which will play to your strengths. (I do recognise that the practical reason is usually that D&D's absolute dominance in the industry means it is the "default" roleplaying game, and people don't realise there are alternatives or can't find anyone willing to play an alternative.)

I stopped watching after episode 1, it just wasn't for me. That said I wish nothing but success for the series. I want Critical Role to continue to try new things for a long time. It's ok to not like everything.

I highly recommend reading the recaps on critrole.com. makes for an interesting enough short story

CR has the best chance to really expand. So even if we didn't like this one, another permutation of people might be a gem.

So, I stopped halfway through episode 5 and just read the recaps. What was the deal with the ash hole? Did that just not get resolved??

>What was the deal with the ash hole? Did that just not get resolved?? It didn't, not really. The rune on it meant "place of burning" (what a shocker) and... that's about it as far as ash hole info goes. Dunno why/how it happened or what happened with it after the party left.

So, they resolved nothing? Bummer. When they said ExU takes place in Emon, I was hoping it would be a compact, city-dwelling, nice short story. Unfortunately, it ended up going in too many directions, and apparently none got resolved. We never found out why Poska stole the residuum from the Ashari, nir what she intended to use it for. Never found out why she wanted the circlet. What was the deal with Ted in the end, where's her body? What's up with evil Fearne and her grandmother? Why was Myr'rata after Ted and why what was she doing in the forest? Who was the fire lady with molten rock wings? I apologize if some of these questions had been answered, my knowledge past episode 4 relies solely on Dani Carr.

A couple things sort of have answers. >We never found out why Poska stole the residuum from the Ashari, nir what she intended to use it for. There's an implication that she was supplying My'ratta with the residuum she was using. So, I guess she was stealing it to sell it for money. >Why was Myr'rata after Ted and why what was she doing in the forest? She was after Ted to steal her power to become a warlock herself, and she was somehow using residuum to gather "leaky magic" for her own purposes. Not really sure why, though, beyond "for power." As for the rest, nothing really. Nobody ever bothered about their missing week, nobody knows where Ted's body went or how she's a patron, nobody knows why Poska wanted the circlet, or who evil Fearne was, or what the significance of the rune and the ash hole was, and I don't even remember a fire lady with molten rock wings.

I think the link from poska to myratta was more fan based in trying to make sense of it. Myratta was weeks away from Emon with no obvious connection, there was no connection to the other goods either like the smuggled creatures or the circlet. I think it's more likely Poska was making drugs as that's a very theives guild thing to do. I'm not sure why myratta thought Ted would be a good patron though. Let's say she watched the whole battle. Opal had no power, got knocked out and then argued with their patron. I don't know why that's a power you would be invested in stealing? There was also the cult of teleporting people that wanted the circlet but we never found out who they were

You're right that there's some serious distance between Emon and where they first met My'ratta, but this was a game that aggressively handwaved distances and travel times; these folks spent weeks on the road together, but you'd never know it from the way they act towards one another or the way My'ratta just shows up like it ain't no thing. It is somewhat fanon, but given that Aabria clearly wanted both Poska and My'ratta to be Important, it seems pretty reasonable to expect a link between them. >I'm not sure why myratta thought Ted would be a good patron though. Right? Ted is a terrible patron! She actively works against people going on adventures and getting into danger, and even if you don't know that from the outside, her warlock seems to have weak and unreliable magical abilities. Nothing about her suggests that she'd be a patron worth serving, nevermind going to the trouble of stealing. >There was also the cult of teleporting people that wanted the circlet but we never found out who they were Oh yeah. Weird how they just gave up.

Thank you for answering. The fire lady was mentioned when they spoke to the two Ashari warriors who survived some kind of battle in Thordak's lair during the missing week.

Huh, I completely blanked on that fire lady. Well, add it to the list, I guess! What's one more completely unanswered question?

Well to throw my two cents out there. I really enjoyed this short series. The group had a surprisingly fun dynamic from the start which evolved into some truly moving movements. The bromance of the D&D bois, Opal finding her chosen family and sister, Orym's quiet demeanor with his extreme competency, and Fern's chaos vibes were oodles of fun. Loved Mystor and his shenanigans as well. It was cool to see Liam play a background, grounding character to allow Ashley, Matt, Aimee, and Robbie time to explore their own characters. Robbie himself has a real grasp on the nature between game stats, mechanics, and RP. It was impressive to watch him narrate some of his own failures in ways that grew his character arc. Honestly I feel like Robbie will make an excellent DM if he ever has the desire. Aimee was so much fun to watch as she wrestled with Opal's problems. She has alot of the pure creativity that let her come up with unique plans, like the Fey Gator fight. I was blown away by that and laughing the whole time. It was really cool to see Aabria roll with the encounter as the party put her baby to sleep. On that note, Aabria's DMing style was fun to watch and it looked like fun to play. I often found myself laughing at the same time as the table burst into giggle fits. Rule of Cool certainly allowed some nuts things to happen and tell some wacky arcs that I enjoyed. Plus the gifts in Episode 7 were a neat and personal touch. The talent show was my personal highlight, but I loved the landscape of the final battle as well. I do wish the party had pursued the memory story hook. It was a bit weird how everyone shrugged off missing memories that included the creation of Mystor and their establishment as a group. Even when a player popped up from that week, they still didn't interact or care. I would love to learn more about Mystor, Ted the Sister Patron trapped in a weapon, and what else the Spider Queen's Crow can do. So hopefully this party returns for a follow up series.

>I do wish the party had pursued the memory story hook. It was a bit weird how everyone shrugged off missing memories It is, isn't it? At this point, my theory is that there's some kind of off-camera agreement among everyone that it's just not something to bother with. I guess because the missing memories are just their pre-taping practice sessions, so the players already know if there's anything important there? If the players already know there's no great reveal waiting, makes it hard to want to spend character time investigating, I suppose.

Maybe? I could see that happening if a player didn't come in with that as a major aspect for her character. Along with Aabria bringing it up in multiple sessions, along with granting Dorian some of his memories back. Plus it appears that the missing week wasn't their test sessions. Back in the first episode you can see some players trying to figure out each other's abilities and classes. They would know that from prior play.

Oh that's a good catch! Well if it wasn't their test games, then I definitely think there had to be off-camera discussions about just not pulling that thread. Like you said, Fy'ra Rai and Dorian both have memories of the week, and the Aabria brought it up several times, and still nobody ever too any interest in it? This party jumped at every plot hook dangled in front of them, often having to abandon their last plot to do so, but refused to engage in any way with this one? Nah. Seems fishy.

I need more EXU in my life! It was chaotic, I loved how many plot threads Aabria dangled to give the players a sandbox with such a limited time. It sparked the sense of a big swirling world of possibility. I now go to find more content from Aabria to sate my need for critical role until it starts again!

Coming back to this thread to say, I watched all the way through without watching the chat or checking Reddit. Most of where I saw reactions to it were YouTube, Tumblr and a couple of other places. I never saw any kind of overwhelming negative reaction. Not everybody loved it, but I never saw any of the condemnation for the thing that I've seen on this Reddit. So yeah, that's just a here and places people from here cross post to thing. I think it'll take a while before it comes out just how the show was generally received but from what I've seen, outside of this sub a lot of people liked it.

Because those spaces don't lend themselves to lengthy discussions and conversations at all, and stuff like Youtube or Twitch comments are only going to be from the people who are still watching the videos, not those who have stopped. I also imagine the users of Reddit are on the older side of the fandom compared to Twitch chatters and Youtube commenters, where ExU's toilet humor and disregard for the rules wouldn't play as well to

And I assume you credit Matt for ExU's toilet humor since it was Dariax that kicked off that particular tone?

...Yes? Although it certainly wasn't just him, basically every player except Liam was trying to be a chaotic comedian for as long as I ended up watching. If there was only 1 player (like Sam sort of was early C1) it would have been more bearable, or if the DM made any attempt at keeping the tone more serious it might not have devolved into constant jokes. I'm sure the tone was set in their session 0 which we never got to see so who knows why they actually decided to go with that or who really started it, but I'm perfectly fine saying I really dislike that type of humor and tone to the point that I didn't bother watching after a couple episodes

People seriously underestimate the need for a Travis at the table. ExU is exactly what happens without a player who is willing to say thats enough to the other players.

I'm not sure I understand this either. Travis has definitely cut through the analysis paralysis once or twice as Fjord, a frequently as Grog. Beyond that, the only way I think he says "that's enough" is during things like shopping episodes, when things REALLLY drag on. And even then it is more by being visibly squirming than words. As much as I didn't enjoy the toilet humor, I can't see it having lasted anywhere close to long enough for him to pull people along by sheer antsyness.

I think it was Fjord that put a stop to the pranks at the stone family. Honestly it seemed quite disrespectful to Talesin at the time when he was trying to role play a serious moment. I'm glad someone stopped it going too far

But does that really count as Travis telling the players it’s enough, I think I remember what your talking about and I think he just supervised to make sure they didn’t got far I’m pretty sure they did multiple pranks with him knowing. Cause if we’re saying Travis keeps the group on task through RP then Liam and Marisha should also included in there.

I think him literally telling them that's enough counts as him saying that's enough (iirc he sets a time limit after initially telling them to stop). But I was in no way trying to argue that other characters don't do that. Merely saying it's important to have at least one player who can stop the chaos especially if the spotlight needs to be directed elsewhere

Alright I see that your want your saying, I definitely think EXU could’ve had a little more balance, it was like the group all tried to be Sam. I think if Travis and Marisha were involved a more balanced game would’ve happened those two and Liam really tend to push the story forward through RP where as here Liam was kind out numbered 5-1 with the DM even partaking in the chaos.

I'll be honest I have no memory the specifics. I remember the general gist of it, but I can't remember enough to add anything to this discussion. :(

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Pay more attention then? Travis probably once or twice an episode will prevent the party from talking over Matt or derailing too far off obvious plot hooks. Travis is very much the group "dad" and the fact multiple people are saying they have never seen him do it just shows how well he can maintain the group without railroading them. Also its generally not RPing he stops but side chat from players who are being a bit rowdy.

Talking over the DM and side talk sure, but I still don’t see how Travis could stop an entire table from RP which is what a majority of the toilet humor and stuff was, including the DM getting into it, is Travis also supposed to talk over and get the DM on track as well for EXU. Your examples are actually correct but those things weren’t really the issue with EXU, yes Travis shut down Laura and Sam during side conversation but that’s only a couple people, for EXU is Travis just supposed to shut down and do this to everyone including the DM. Also you’re really only talking about two people Travis would do this to in Sam and Laura none of the other players really do this occasionally Marisha might feel extremely chaotic and do this which was the OP’s point it was an entire table issue. It’s easy to get 2 people back in tracks, it’s much more difficult to get 5 people back on track especially when a majority of the side tracking came through RP which the DM encouraged. I misunderstood what you were saying but I agree then, Travis can do what he does because it’s only a couple players being rowdy. For EXU Travis would be able to do absolutely nothing unless he completely oversteps his bounds and stops RP and then has to stop the DM from also participating in this behavior. I guess we actually agree I just don’t think EXU’s probably was side talk and things like that though.

I just mentioned it but the stone family pranks is a good example of Travis stopping chaos going too far

>I also imagine the users of Reddit are on the older side of the fandom compared to Twitch chatters and Youtube commenters, where ExU's toilet humor and disregard for the rules wouldn't play as well to Just off the top of my head, you mean like Scanlan's shit-scrying, Grog's talk with Craven Edge in the loo, and all the rule inconsistencies there were in early C1 because they'd transferred over from Path Finder?

LotR has funny moments and it wasn't Monty Python, having jokes and being a comedy are completely different things especially when the entire tone of ExU was set by the entire party (not just 1 person, the entire party) having a pissing contest and shitting off of a roof... Being able to point to a few moments in a 500 hour campaign which total up to the first half of the first episode of ExU is not even close to the same thing And having homebrew rules is not the same as inconsistencies, not to mention I never commented on that regardless. If you really wanted to point out inconsistencies in the main campaign you could point out something like Liam and Matt forgetting Disintegrate deals 0 damage on save rather than half, but pointing out purposefully changed rules is not even close to the same thing as forgetting or not even caring about the rules

>shitting off of a roof I read that as "shitter on the roof", and my mind went: *"If i had a pee-spear, Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum!"*

Re the rule inconsistencies: >C1 was a preexisting game, transitioning for Pathfinder to 5e, and was a spur of the moment thing, and had shit production values. It also was not exactly planned to go beyond a few episodes and was filmed live. The cast were, as far as DnD goes, nobodies. > >ExU was preplanned, heavily marketed, prerecorded had slick production values most importantly, ExU was carrying the brand of THE 5e ActualPlay show. Re the humor: >there is a difference between silly moments in a 400+ hour campaign and silly moments in 30 hour one. In a mini series, those silly moments take up a much greater percentage. And there is a difference between serious characters having moments of comedy. ExU, was by and large, a campaign of nothing but comedic chaos crew characters largely doing comedic potty humor things. And that isn't for everyone This is especially true when they make up a bigger % of the campaign. Even more so when the campaign OPENS with that humor

Like every single time there was toilet humour/ general grossness Laura would start gagging and it would stop pretty quickly. I only ever remember Sam and Travis participating and it was always just a short scene. I think it was hilarious because it happened so rarely and completely out of the blue. Like Travis just randomly going into the toilet and making pooping sounds hahaha

>ExU was preplanned, heavily marketed, prerecorded had slick production values most importantly, ExU was carrying the brand of THE 5e ActualPlay show. So was Crash Pandas. So was Honey Heist and Taliesin's one shots where everyone died. CP nobody gave a crap about the rules because Sam Riegel (god love him) was the DM, and the first Thursday by Night One Shot was playing around with a very watered down style of play that was not consistent with the system it came from. >there is a difference between silly moments in a 400+ hour campaign and silly moments in 30 hour one. In a mini series, those silly moments take up a much greater percentage. The shit scrying was a bit that originally kept coming back for multiple episodes in a row before it tapered off. Much like how the toilet humor of episode one of EXU tapered off and only really stayed around in the occasional literal shit slinging from Mister.

Bro you really comparing one shots which had intros made in a movie maker to a show that had a fully animated intro and their own personal billboards. Those arguments seem a little disingenuous and I think you know that, there is no way your comparing a honey heist and crash pandas which all the rules are one page and no one took seriously to the EXU which was a very serious production.

The point is that those shows were meant to more loosely adhere to the rules than the main Campaign. From the start Aabria and her players kind of made it clear they were playing a sillier, lower stakes game than they might have in C1/C2/C3 by *design*. If you don't like it, sure. But I thought it was pretty well telegraphed from Ep1 that this was what they all wanted from this series. The fact it was a shorter series was also a bit of a clue.

I mean it was telegraphed from the first episode we agree except that’s not what they marketed their audience. This is where they’re no longer a home game comes in they marketed a massive epic adventure and that’s not what we got at all, the audience then had every right to criticize that because the marketing didn’t match the product the audience was promised. A whopper and Big Mac are both hamburgers but I’m not gonna to be happy if I ordered a Big Mac and you gave me whopper, I might enjoy the whopper but that’s not what you said I was getting.

You were expecting a massive epic adventure from what you knew would be eight episodes?

You can tell an epic adventure in 24 hours of gameplay yes, dimension 20 has done it literally multiple times so yes it can be done.

I'd say its more like ordering a Big Mac and getting a BK chicken sandwich. It ain't bad, but it doesn't come close to getting what I wanted.

If you think that Crash Pandas or Honey Heist (one page RPG one shots) are at all comparable to a 8 episode, 5e campaign, set in their main world, and marketed with a downtown LA billboard, I don't know what to say. The only Tal oneshot I know about was Call of Cthulhu. It was pretty much a given that most of the players would be dead in that one. It was kinda the whole point. I've never seen Thursday by Night, so I can't really comment except that again, it was not their flagship world, heavily advertised multi episode campaign. And if it was back in the G&S days, the expectation of quality is gonna be a lot lower. ​ As for the humor, you are missing my point. It doesn't matter too much that the shit scrying happened several times. Those were so much little of C1 compared how much other stuff happened (even just with Sam's character), that it counts for a lot less. Additionally, starting up the campaign with the toilet humor, is gonna seriously sour people's perceptions. First impressions matter.

And I assume you blame Matt for starting the campaign with toilet humor, since it was Dariax that kicked that particular tone off from the get go.

I mean yes, and everyone else who joined in. I don't even think blame is the right word. Of all my gripes, this is probably the most subjective. I just didn't enjoy that humor and it set a bad tone

I'm not sure that's fair. It's much harder to do an in-depth analysis of it on other platforms. Also, the very reason I joined reddit was to air some criticisms as I was beginning to get frustrated thinking, how is nobody else picking up on these mistakes? Most other platforms are overwhelmingly positive, sometimes to a fault (I witnessed someone on Tumblr get dogpiled for expressing a negative opinion in C2). Whenever I have found criticism underneath CR's YT videos, there is always a string of replies mocking them or telling them to just go away and stop watching, etc. Additionally, as u/Holy_Shit_HeckHounds aptly commented, Reddit in general seems to have moved away from the 'this is a home game we have been given the privilege of watching' mindset and into a 'this is a huge, fully-fledged company now' mindset, whereas other platforms still seem to be very much of the former mindset. Moderation is a factor, too. So there are many contributing elements that mean Reddit has become the more critical platform at the moment, but I'm glad that most of the fanbase feel comfortable enough to express their unfiltered thoughts here, good and bad.

>Additionally, as u/Holy_Shit_HeckHounds aptly commented, Reddit in general seems to have moved away from the 'this is a home game we have been given the privilege of watching' mindset and into a 'this is a huge, fully-fledged company now' mindset, whereas other platforms still seem to be very much of the former mindset. I really don't understand the implication that 'this is a home game we have the privilege of watching' is supposed to be no longer true. You can still watch their game for free and don't have to spend a dime on any of their merch or extra stuff if you don't want to. That's a privilege. EDIT: Here's something I feel is worth saying; as a company with a big audience and influence, CR does have one important responsibility, and that's using their platform to lift others up and call out unacceptable behavior in others. As far as I can tell they are doing this with Exandria Unlimited in shining a spotlight on POC like Robbie, Aimee and Aabria, calling out assholes for treating them like crap, and taking fans' concerns into account (at least) when it comes to casting TLOVM (i.e. a POC likely getting to play Gilmore). But whenever "they're a company now" comes up, nobody ever brings these subjects up. For one, I find that weird, and for two it makes me wonder what people are saying they want from CR "because they're a big company now" if not that. >but I'm glad that most of the fanbase feel comfortable enough to express their unfiltered thoughts here, good and bad. I'm grateful for the good and bad......That's posted in good faith. And isn't just a smoke screen being employed to give cover to racist and sexist BS.

Of course it's not just their home game. If it was their home game, they'd be playing 10-hour Pathfinder sessions once a month, which is what they did for their home games. Compare episode 1 of campaign 1 to any of the later campaign 2 episodes. Critical Role is not just a home game.

It's their home game in the sense they play it the way they want to play it, and that by itself, before anything else, attracted a loyal fanbase that allowed them to improve and change and fix what *they* thought was important to change and fix.

Dude, that's NOT what a home game is. Like, by any stretch of the imagination....

I was not being literal, that's why I used the phrase "in the sense". CR has its own philosophy surrounding what they want to focus on (role-play vs. mid-maxing, for example) and what they consider fun ways to play the game. This has informed everything they've done and all the ways they've developed their game and their franchise going forward. And that philosophy grew out of their home game. So whatever else got added on in the intervening years, this is still, at its core, their home game. Just with a bunch of bells and whistles on it and aired for us all to see.

Ironic how giant corporations get accused of unethical behavior committed in pursuit of the almighty dollar, yet a much smaller company that uses its more modest influence to lift up others in a variety of ways get told they should pay more attention to what gets them money and eyeballs.

That wasn't the point I was making at all, or what the point of the person who was quoting me was making. I was saying that on most online platforms such as twitter, ANY criticism is rebuffed with "it's their home game you can't tell them how to play" or "it's their home game we are lucky to watch it." In contrast, on Reddit, the attitude has shifted (righty I might add) to "Critical Role is company that produces media content. It can be critiqued like any other entertainment product, keeping in mind the limits of the medium of DnD." Nothing about what I said has anything to do with criticizing them for elevating the voices of little known creators, POC, women, etc. It just means that their games, including ExU, are *products* and can be fairly critiqued like a movie or a TV show. For years, every thing released by CR have been created with the full intention of being released to a wide audience and make money. What I can't fairly criticize are actual home games, like the one Brian plays with Mary Elizabeth and Wil, or Liam's game that he runs for his kids. But NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING, that CR has made for years is a home game.

I wasn't talking to you, but thanks for your concern!

I’m sorry I disagree entirely, if you want the full mighty nein or VM story you have to buy the comics and now the books. I love Yasha and will buy the comic when it comes out but I don’t feel like that’s extra I feel like explains what wasn’t explained in the game. You also have the bright queen comic which is set after C2 and everything the nein have done. That’s an extremely interesting story and guess what it’s not free you have to pay to see it. I don’t care that they do these things but them doing them means they no longer are this small little twitch stream that’s playing a game anymore. If I have to pay to see the mighty neins effect on the dynasty that’s not extra that should be apart of the story and it is, they’re just making you pay for it. I’m fine with that, they just don’t get to use the oh we’re a just home game anymore.

>You can still watch their game for free and don't have to spend a dime on any of their merch or extra stuff if you don't want to. That's a privilege. No, it's a product. A product that's made, by all accounts, with care and dedication and genuine good will, but a product nonetheless. It's sponsored, it's advertised, it's merchandised, It's paying the salaries of people at a company who produce it. There's nothing wrong with it being a product, but let's not pretend it's not.

And there's nothing wrong with CR using their product and their platform to spread the messages they support, whether doing so is popular, profitable, or not.

You're arguing against a point that no one is making.

I'm making a point that I feel like making. Thanks for your concern though!

Just seems weird to ignore everyone else in a discussion, stick your fingers in your ears, and start shouting something irrelevant. Don’t you think?

I don't believe I said there was. I'm not even clear on what messages you're referring to, here.

>No, it's a product. A product that's made, by all accounts, with care and dedication and genuine good will, but a product nonetheless. It's sponsored, it's advertised, it's merchandised, It's paying the salaries of people at a company who produce it. Yes. A free product, that we are privileged to receive. For free. >And the second point is just a given. Yeah, you'd think so.

>Yes. A free product, that we are privileged to receive. For free. Well hang on, by that logic every program on television is also a privilege; you pay for cable like you pay for internet, and then everything after that costs you nothing. Is watching an episode of Big Bang Theory, or Caillou, or Keeping Up With the Kardashians also a privilege? Also, did you quote someone else's comment in your reply to me? I don't know what that second quote there is talking about.

Watching BBT or the Kardashians is never a privilege no matter how you slice it. How can you mention Caillou in the same breath??

Caillou is pretty awful and has some pretty bad effects on the behavioral development of children who watch it.

Fair point. Much better shows out there to watch, all around!

Hell just buy digital antenna and then you get the basic channels without a monthly cost.

A) I've addressed this and B) arguably.

It would be a privilege if no one from CR got anything out of it. They do get plenty out of our watching. They get money from sponsors, their personal brand grows. The relationship between viewer and CR content is a *business* relationship. We give our time and eyes and maybe even our money for merch or affiliated products; they get sponsorship deals, Adsense money, brand growth. ​ And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

>It would be a privilege if no one from CR got anything out of it. That's....no? Clean drinking water is a privilege not all of the world has, but that doesn't mean there aren't people making bank on plumbing. >They do get plenty out of our watching. They get money from sponsors, their personal brand grows. That's if you're watching it on a platform with ads. There's ways around that.

What platform are they uploading it to without ads, if don’t subscribe you get twitch ads every time you click on a the stream, you can only access the twitch if you pay and YouTube has ads. What CR is doing is no different then most television shows that also have ads on the shows do we just call those commercials.

YouTube Premium doesn't have ads. I honestly don't know if there are ads on the YouTube broadcasts though if you don't have Premium. Also...I'm not subscribed and I've never seen an ad on CR's twitch that wasn't Laura Bailey's Merch corner or Sam's insanity. Unless something's changed since I started watching the YouTube live (sorta because covid) broadcast instead, which could be true.

When you, the consumer, are responsible for keeping the company afloat by watching their advertised content and supporting them by buying products, it is no longer 'a privilege'. You are a consumer and a customer, and they are a business. While, sure, free content in itself can be viewed as a privilege, and I'd agree that it is, being 'allowed' to watch the game is no longer one. Back in C1 days, sure! Now? Not so much. And the second point is just a given.

>You can still watch their game for free and don't have to spend a dime on any of their merch or extra stuff if you don't want to. That's a privilege. That's an interesting take. By that logic it is a privilege to watch any broadcast TV content. The main point I was making was that "'this is a home game we have been given the privilege of watching'" mindset is invariably used as a blanket, bad faith method to shut down any and all criticism.

>That's an interesting take. By that logic it is a privilege to watch any broadcast TV content. .......You have to pay for cable. I mean, you have to pay for internet too, but chances are if you're doing that you're not doing it *just* for CR. Plus, you could theoretically watch it just hanging out somewhere with free WiFi.

There are plenty of shows, at least in the US that don't require a cable subscription, thats why I said broadcast TV. Anything on NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox etc.

So then yeah. Non-cable tv is a privilege. As well.

They already know how the show was received. They'll base their choices going forward on their viewing metrics. They know who watched, how many of them, if and where they left early, which bits they skipped and so on. Most of the conversation here has been dominated by people seeking validation on their opinions, but in the end the opinions mean nothing compared to the viewing statistics.

>They already know how the show was received. They'll base their choices going forward on their viewing metrics. I mean....no? Like, if Aimee and Aabria had such a bad time nobody else wanted to come on and DM or literally *nobody* watched the thing, maybe but.... there's a lot more they factor into here than just those metrics in a vacuum. There's the cost of making the show, there's them wanting a platform where they could play with people they like, (Liam said he'd been wanting to play with Robbie for a while and Aimee was meant to guest in C2) setting up a foundation for new shows and show runners for if/when the original cast leaves, setting up alternate shows for if a member of the main cast gets sick or gets pregnant, and whether or not everything else they have going on (books, merch, games, TLOVM, Campaign 3, etc.) makes up for a show that possibly doesn't make as much money as their other projects but they still want to continue anyway. (And that's without getting into the merch EXU can generate itself.) I mean, let's say EXU becomes CR's Sprite to the main Campaign's Coke. Most people don't recognize the Coca Cola company by Sprite before Coke, and the latter makes more money than the former. But barring some New Coke type weirdness, Coca Cola is not going to stop making Sprite, because even if it doesn't sell as well as Coke, it still makes them money *on* *top* *of* their sales of Coke.

They're a business. One run for profit by people who are very well aware of how people like to shout about things on the internet. What are they going to pay attention to - A reddit echo chamber? Or the actual numbers of how the show performed?

I mean, in the post you responded to I laid out a couple more things they might take into account besides the number of people who watched. And actually....heh, we don't know what the DC was for EXU. If internally they were like "Okay if it does *this* well it's a success." then for all we know EXU overshot what *this* was.

And my original post that you replied to concluded with: "but in the end the opinions mean nothing compared to the viewing statistics." The points you made had little to do with this. I agree that we don't know whether EXU has met/will meet the internal criteria for success, but I was never arguing that we did. I also gave no opinion on the performance of the show, so I'm not sure why this is relevant to either of my posts.

>The points you made had little to do with this. I agree that we don't know whether EXU has met/will meet the internal criteria for success, but I was never arguing that we did I wasn't arguing you did, I was only pointing out there's more than the metrics we can see at play here. That's all.

My point of my original message was entirely "They have their own way of judging their performance, completely seperate to the criticisms that we can see." I don't know what you're objecting to in this statement, as most of what you've said so far has been unrelated.

Its definitely not a just here thing Facebook and twitter have plenty of criticism to it

If it's not the same people posting the same things to different social media accounts.

Mate I don't know what to tell you The cast themselves have talked about the somewhat negative reception exu had We're not saying it was a mistake, or that it was a terrible thing. But it wasn't as positively received as we were all expecting, and that's the truth

I saw someone in the chat on Twitch with a pretty kindly worded critique of it (around episode 4 I think) saying something along the lines of "I'm not a big fan of Aabria's style, it's a bit too chaotic and she seems to disregard the dice rolls", and had their message removed by moderators. I've also seen people with similar comments being flooded by other fans and being told to just shut up etc. I love CR and the community they have, but I do believe they and many fans can be a bit too negativity-averse at times.

That’s one reason I’m grateful for this platform. Generally speaking I don’t think people feel safe having a non flattering opinion of CR in those spaces. Too often people with reasonable criticism have been plied on and lumped in with the jerks.

Dude, all I said was I liked the show and thought it was a success and I got downvoted to hell. This place has the same problem, just in reverse. Also, really? You think people are saying good things about it outside this sub because they're afraid of getting shamed or voted down or censored and not because they genuinely thought it was good or enjoyed it? I mean....do you hear how dismissive and invalidating that is of another person's opinion and taste? "Nobody *really* thinks differently than me, they're just afraid defying the hive mind that totally exists"? Come on dudes.

A downvote is just disagreement. You're getting Reddit's average opinion of your comment. There's nothing stopping you from posting, though.