GOD IS DEAD! Or gods is dead. Gods are dead? Gods are…human? I don’t know. I don’t think Nietzsche was a Critter. That’s right Critical Role just wrapped up its third campaign and all signs are pointing towards big changes for their 10th year. I’ve been watching since the very beginning and I have a lot of thoughts, so let’s get into it.
Like I said, I‘ve literally been watching Critical Role since that first poorly mic’d session ten years ago. I had been watching Felicia Days solo stream for awhile and when she announced Geek & Sundry would start a Twitch channel, I was all in. It kind of became a daily ritual for me at the time to just see what was on stream before heading to work. Geek & Sundry introduced me to a lot of folks I still follow to this day like Ify Nwadiwe & Erica Ishii who do a lot of stuff with Dropout, Heroes Reforged, and of course Critical Role.
On Geek & Sundry there were people playing Rocket League, Magic The Gathering, HeroClicks, and all sorts of other stuff but I was most excited when a Dungeons & Dragons show appeared on the schedule. I had only had on brief experience of being around folks playing D&D and then promptly got in trouble with my religious mother (and not religious dad who suddenly cared about black magic out of nowhere) as my parents had fallen for the Satanic Panic BS. So I was forbade from gambling my immortal soul in my friends basement or local hobby shop. But a sure way to get me interested in something is to tell me not to do it. How could I resist a new show on a Twitch channel I already watched as they broadcast something I wasn’t allowed to participate in as a kid?
So I tuned in day one and, despite bad audio and other onscreen jitters, I was hooked. You don’t need another person telling you how good Critical Role is but between the masterful DMing from Matthew Mercer and the obvious chemistry from the cast (well most of the cast), it was hard not to get hooked on this seemingly new way to tell a story. But I was as shocked as anyone, cast included, with just how many people loved it. Suddenly this thing I thought was only for the nerdiest of dorks was huge. What a time to be alive! I tuned in each week without fail, at least when there wasn’t a Marvel midnight premiere to get to. We really were living in a gold age of stuff that was extremely my shit. *sigh*
As time when on, campaign one came to an emotional close. You could tell the actors had a deep connection to these characters and letting go was hard and scary. The same could be said for us in the audience. Latching on to Vox Machina was easy. They were architypal characters, your traditional good guy heroes, but they ran a kind of deep you only get from playing the same character for years. But everyone could feel the change coming both on and off air. Would they have lightning strike twice for a whole new set of characters? Turns out, yes because while everyone loved Vox Machina, what we really were attached to were the people making the show. A lesson Geek & Sundry learned the hard way when Critical Role broke off into its own thing.
Campaign two brought with it many exciting changes. A whole new continent, new conflicts and lore, a completely new branch of magic, and most excitingly, new, darker and morally complex characters. These weren’t big broad heroes but broken people doing their best to heal and begrudgingly do what’s right. The danger was more amorphous and operating from the shadows. The stakes were high and not everyone made it out but their heroics didn’t lead to global fame. I loved the journey even if the end battle left me wanting more.
But that brings us to Campaign three. BIG SPOILERS AHEAD! I wish I could find it but while answering a question on their old aftershow, Liam once said something along the lines of “You can’t be an atheist in Exandria because you can see proof of the gods everywhere.” and I feel like Matt heard that and said “Bet.” and went home to create Ludinus. I love a villain that, as they explain the reasoning behind their seemingly hideous acts, you can’t help thinking, damn, they got a point. The theme throughout the campaign of questioning where authority comes from and who gets to wield it really speaks to me. I know, big shock, the anarchist likes the story of fighting the biggest authority figures of all, the gods, but it raises so many interesting questions. Just because you created something, does that give you authority over it in perpetuity? Even parents must eventually let their kids grow up and be their own selves. If you are backed up by something as powerful as a god, does that give you the right to exert your will on the world? And if you found the power to kill the gods, does that mean you have the right to push your will on others? Might supposedly makes right after all.
These are the questions this new batch of characters had to deal with and what I found great about it is they didn’t come to a consensus on them until the last moment when they had no choice but to make a choice. Instead, they found a common ground, that if this power existed, Ludinus couldn’t have it, and worked on that. Then when the time came to make this ultimate decision, they had built up enough trust in each other that, even if they didn’t agree with the others choice, they trusted the person making the choice enough to know they were doing what they think is best, even if it wasn’t what they would do. It’s a beautiful lesson in praxis over theory and I know a few left wing groups that could learn that lesson.
I won’t break down the last, marathon episode myself, you can check out a channel like Luboffin for that, but I will say the 8 hours kind of flew by. The stakes could not of felt bigger than having a board room meeting with all the gods. Decisions were made that have me intrigued about the future of this fictional world. I can’t wait to see how Exandria deals with a world without gods and literal aliens being resettled. That always goes well here in the real world! I almost feel bad for Predathos after the natural 20 Laura rolled, forcing it into a life of starvation. But I bet some of the gods are dumb enough to think the threat has passed and will try to ascend again just to be eaten. It just might be a race to see who it will be.
As for the campaign as a whole, it took me a bit to get into it but once I did I was just as invested as I’ve always been. I loved the twist on classes some players took, especially Taliesin with his magically infused barbarian. Give me more Exandrian punks! This campaign did a great job connecting all that came before and telling a story of a world, not just a group of characters, and as I said before, asking big questions about the structure and origins of that world.
That all being said, I hope the next campaign is much more disconnected. I don’t want Critical Role to fall into the Star Wars trap of only exploring one small chunk of its history over and over. Maybe a story set far from all these places we’ve seen before. So no Vasselheim or Whitestone. Just a whole new part of the globe like most of Campaign two. After an Avengers Endgame level, three campaign crossover like this, it’d be nice to get some distance from it. I’d also like them to spend more time as low level fuck ups just getting into low stakes, yet silly scrapes. I’ve been watching Dimension 20’s StarStruck Odyssey and what I love about it is, even with an overarching story, they are just a gaggle of idiots most of the time and Critical Role could use some more of that. With Campaign three, it felt like we got right into the deep end with everyone’s backstories and we ended up with, even after four years, a lot of untugged threads. So I guess what I’m saying is, I’d like to see more side quest before the big bad comes calling.
As for the off screen future of Critical Role, there are also changes coming. For one, I’m almost positive they’ll be switching systems to Daggerheart, the system they created. It just makes the most sense since they have their own system and Hasbro/Wizards continues to be an awful company. Once the D&DBeyond sponsorship disappeared, the fact that Wizards didn’t immediately assign someone to keep that relationship healthy is one of the biggest fumbles I’ve seen since Jonathon Majors. But this is the company that let its relationship with the studio behind Baulder’s Gate 3 dry up as well, so I’m not surprised. All that being said though, I will miss D&D if they do switch. But maybe I’m just getting old and starting to fear change a little more. It’s been ten years of mostly good times but all the things I started watching from back then have disappeared or morphed into other things. Critical Role has been one of the few constant bright spots for me and a lot of others over a wild decade in the world and I hope we have many years ahead. I’m glad it’s still kicking after all these years but nothing last forever. Ugh, I’m making myself sad. Let’s wrap this up.
What did you think of Campaign three? Favorite moments or characters? What do you think will come next in Critical Role Land? Let’s talk about it in the comments and as always, death to the algorithm.
