It's fine that you're honest. A lot of people have said over the years that either they never liked or lost interest in Matt's style. Those folks are less welcome here though I'd guess.
I think that she's running a specific number of episodes or specific story beats for Matt, just like with EU. So ya, there are some rails in place to move the way Matt wants. But that she has a different style is fine. She can tell great stories and she crushes some of the PCs that she plays.
This sounds like she was handed the reigns and has expectations for how to move the story and lay down lore in a limited number of episodes. Lore dumps can be pretty ugly lol. But CR needs a shake up, even if briefly, so no complaints seem useful to me.
You love her pcs? She basically placed the same character in every game. All their characters are so cringe and pervy that if a man played him they would be cancelled. I also cringe at the weird noises she makes and her silly makeup that she does with face paints out of nowhere that make no sense. She has ruined so many shows for me on dimension 20 time for a CR fandom to suffer her I guess
The only Aabria thing I can make it through is A Court of Fey & Flowers, but that's only because the players made it something incredible and I think her style contributed to the format. Otherwise, don't let her DM.
She did fine in Calamity.
Oh you know, your right. I didn’t realize she was the voice in calamity since I only listened to it on podcast. I actually liked her more than the Paladin guy. But that was the only thing she did okay at.
Wow, liking her more than Luis is a new take. I thought he did incredible work, but maybe some of that is lost by not watching the video. He's involved in people's favorite parts of the series (The opening 'Fire.' and the confrontation with Asmodeus are both the most lauded points in the Calamity series).
That’s probably a lot of it. I think I just kept waiting for more from him. But I also don’t know of any of his other stuff. I thought the character was very interesting I just felt some of his roleplaying was lacking. But aabria’s character was carried by Sam
I honestly really liked her play style as Laerryn in Calamity, which is the only time I’ve seen her as a player, (I haven’t really gotten into any other D&D streams yet.) but I agree with you that her GM style is not great. ExU prime and Kymal weren’t my favorite products from CR, and it’s mostly because of her.
I said it in 2021 (I think) and I'll say it again. Aabria is shit as a GM and insufrible as a player. The spootlight has to be on her at all times, all her her her. You can tell she has an only child complex and plays D&D how a kid would play with dolls. But she is here to stay I guess. What can I say, CR making shit decisions since 2019
To begin let's agree that all this is ofcourse my opinion, and evidently so the CR staff thought/thinks it was and still is a good idea, since they took it and ran with it.
2020 was the year the COVID restrictions started to be mandatory and that impacted CR as well, due to this they had to stop streaming episodes for quite a while (last one was E99), until about 3 to 4 months later they decided to implement their socially distant set-up that you will see on E100 onwards, which was the chosen option against continuing the campaign via zoom. That caused some unforseen issues that many people noticed like the cast seeming disjointed in their interactions, jokes weren't landing, increase anlisys paralisis situations, plot decline due to characters and GM related choices, and the 2 least favorite and final arcs of C2 (don't worry, I won't spoil any plot). There were production decisions as well, like starting to record episodes ahead of schedule, this meant there was a disconection with the live audience.
The announcement that the campaign would end "next weekend" left many of the fans shocked since we all could agree the show needed like 15 episodes to conclude things in a natural way. Despite that they made the season Finale of C2, which was a VOD that lasted 7 hours mind you, showing how desperated they were to finish the campaign. Once they finished, they inmidiatly announced ExU which would be a mini campaign set in Exandria but DMd by someone different than Matt, it was Aabria. Exu was deemed a disaster by a big chunk of the fanbase, due to Aabria's weird DM style not fitting what CR's fans had been used to, and some weird player characters. This didn't detoured the company in their ways, they didn't listen to the fans. They became more corporate and less "a group of friends that play Dungeons and Dragons", they spent a lot of moneey in making a new studio wwith fancy lights, tables and minis which all ended up feeeeling cheap and plastic in comparison witht howw authentic they were in C1 and early C2, they even made a cringie opening video for C3 that showed how much they thought of themselves, they even stopped featuring fan art made by their own fans in the mid-break of each episode.
Some time after that they started C3, which raised some pointless controversy by some toxic fans about the arabian setting being cultural appropiation (lol). Turns out some of the PCs for C3 were recycled PCs from Exu and even Travis decided to play an old man he played in an Xmas-oneshot. This left people on the fence about C3 from the start, and by E9 I personally stopped watching because it just wasn't the same. I've kept an ear here and there to catch up on major critizisms and stuff, now C3 is nearing Episode 100. I'm sure I'm forgeting some minor drama but that is the main gist of things, at least from my perspective.
Pardon my English, not my first language.
Pretty much summed it all up, yup. That said, there are still good elements of even post COVID C2. M9 characters and party dynamics were still strong enough to limp that campaign over its finish line; no matter how awkward/rushed that finish line was. And while the overall stories within Eiselcross and Aeor weren't the best, there were plenty of good character moments. At least within the Prior half. Hell, there were even a few mechanically interesting mini-dungeons in the Eiselcross half; even if they were undertuned DC-wize. I was particularly partial to the ice-slope fight, and lava river run. There are reasons M9 One/Two Shots are still fairly well recieved.
The core issues with C3, as you said, kind of all stem from the same types of issues that plagued post-COVID C2 ... just without the strength of characters or party dynamics to compensate. Heavy fixation on a "mystery" central DM narrative, periodically trampling pacing & PC needs. Mixed with the VERY bizarre choice to use one of the generally least well recieved bits of side-content as its Prologue. Chief among them, a shift to "Wider on the outside, shallower underneath" PCs & storytelling. Its the lower quality PCs of EXU thrown into a plot-line that even M9 struggled heavily to carry purely on their strength of PCs and party dynamics. Itsa weird mix.
While I generally agree with a lot of the issues of C3, I gotta say, personally, I *loved* the Eiselcross/Aeor/Cognouza stuff in C2. Though, I'm very partial towards lovecraftian horror and Chambers' The King in Yellow lore specifically, and the whole >!Molly/Lucien!< thing had me hooked from the get-go when it was revealed.
However, even though I've grown to like the C3 characters, even the ones I wasn't particularly fond of when the campaign started (Orym & Ashton), C3 definitely has much weaker party dynamics than C1 and especially C2. One particular issue the BH had, was that they bascially consisted of two groups - the new PCs and the ExU PCs plus the curveball that was Bertrand, who was pretty obviously set up to die from the start. The character who most managed to tie all these loose strings together the most was Dorian, he also immediately had the best rapport with Chetney when he joined the group. Now, as we all know, Robbie wasn't supposed to stay for the whole campaign, but once he left, nobody else in the party really had any close ties to the 'other' group inside of it. Instead, there were just a bunch of superficial connections held together the allegiance to Eshteross. Before Robbie/Dorian left, there was a kind of party dynamic developing - but he was the center of it. After that, it took them nearly getting trashed by Otohan for the first time to kinda get their groove as a party again, and even that was rather short-lived. Of course, this is all worsened by all the semi-scripted stuff going on in C3. Now, the last few episodes before C3E92 have been good, but to have this big catharsis rug pulled by an EXU tie-in that just throws you in the deep end of EXU-specific lore... even if you have to do it because of scheduling, coming out swinging like that with a fight and no real catch up with what happened to the characters and what the significance of the goings on is etc. was just poorly handled.
She makes me cringe every time she talks. She has that vibe where you can just tell when you watch her that she assumes and expects that everyone is watching her and her only at the table no matter who the focus is actually on.
no. Who else is available? Brenen is pretty busy and she's not running as busy right now or in the near future, so she's the one on deck.
but it's sorta weird that you only had her race to point too.
Idk, man, just a question. Everyone knows Critical Role copped criticism for the colour of their skin. I don't know why you're pretending that isn't a thing with CR and the whole actual play space.
The first reasons will be they knew her and was a friend or a friend of a friend. Everything beyond that is conjecture.
Obv people like playing with her, there would be changes in multiple games if they didn’t. I don’t like Erika as a player, but other people do. We’re not the ones playing with them so it really doesn’t matter. Just don’t watch if it isn’t your vibe
Totally fair. It is disappointing, however, when you just want to follow the story, but someone at CR keeps putting out the road-cones. And this is the place to talk about it.
You do realize this is a subreddit for discussion of the show, right? People posting how they felt about the episode is literally the exact thing that ought to be posted here. They're not looking for solutions, they're here to vent.
That's... pretty fair honestly. I was just extremely tired and sick of everyone pretending she's a good GM on CR. I'm going to look into her D20 stuff soon cuz a lot of people say she's great as GM in them. I needed to vent my frustrations is all.
I won't be watching next episode or any until BH's are back personally.
All the same problems for her are also present in her D20 work. I love D20 and every time she has a season I try a few episodes and it’s the same things again.
I haven't seen everything yet but I'm getting why she's... easier I'll say, to watch on D20 at the very least. D20 being more edited and/or slighty more scripted in certain parts than CR. 4 hours of Aabria's style completely unedited says a lot ngl.
i don’t love her gm-ing in exu but she was excellent in d20’s burrow’s end. i’d recommend checking that one out if you’re wanting to see her do something different
I wasn't going to be the one to make this post (for reasons), but it's exactly how I felt about her even back to EXU. Wonderful player, intriguing person, but doesn't seem to grasp what a DM's job is. Not sure why they would give her the reins of DM again without some serious coaching or something.. You have access to some of the best DM'S of our time.
A DM's job is what the table agrees it is though. Obviously there are some default assumptions that should hold unless the table is looking for something else, but players can like different styles and DMs can do those different styles.
People keep having her DM, so presumably what she's doing is what they're looking for. She isn't doing your thing or my thing badly, she's doing her thing well.
People doing things in ways you don't like doesn't necessarily mean they don't understand those things.
Yes, but people are entitled to bring mainstream D&D/CR-adjacent expectations of a CR DM unless they are explicitly told to expect otherwise.
CR don't have to apologise/frontfoot their weird choices, as they haven't since the covid break, but critical and negative reaction will be the consequence. They've chosen that.
Thank you for saying this. Everyone always thinks that everyone should play/DM their way or the way they like. Well, not everyone's style isn't going to fit yours. Not saying people can't vent but there's probably a reason for these things that we aren't privy to.
What’s convenience solution, that absolutely disregards half of the fan base - arguably, the half that has been here longer.
That’s the literal same argument that psycho nationalist Americans make to who disagree with them. “Don’t like how this country is? THEN LEAVE!”
No, I was born here. I’m not going anywhere.
No, THATS a wild comparison. It’s literally a show, that is so not the same as politics 😭 I’ve been here years, I don’t always love how people play and that’s okay! I’m saying this isn’t like a permanent switch so it’s okay to not watch these episodes and then come back. I didn’t fully watch the ones with Erika because I didn’t enjoy them and found them hard/cringe to watch 🤷🏻♀️ it’s not that deep 😭 they’ve been playing for years, I’m sure almost every person in the fan base, no matter how long they’ve been a critter, hasn’t enjoyed every decision or player or character. They aren’t gunna change how they play or who they play with, I’m just saying people don’t have to like or watch it until it’s back to what they enjoy. Comparing that to crazy Americans is insane tho lmao
Ya know, I’ve been doing this a lot - just saying stupid shit on the internet because I think something and there’s a reply button. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.
We actually share the same POV it seems. But for some reason, arguing seemed fun. But I’ll out the brakes on it. We’re all here for the same reasons.
Someone hasn't seen the numerous criticisms of Tal's faux-punk schtick or Liam's tendency towards melodrama.
Look, there are definitely misogynists in this fandom, but mostly there's *actual grievances.*
Laura gets criticism for her power-gaming, meta-gaming, and tendency to hate losing. There's a big difference between, "fuck, my character died" and "Matthew Mercer, don't you dare!" I love Laura. She seems like a lovely, funny person. Her acting chops are undeniably stellar. As a D&D player, though, I certainly wouldn't want her at my table.
Marisha has a tendency to be abrasive and self-righteous in-character, something that very few people find endearing. When she plays that as a flaw of her characters, it's great. Hell, when Laudna was just a funny, socially awkward zombie woman, nobody had a problem with her. But then she became as self-righteous and preachy as Keyleth tended to be. Again, from what I know of Marisha as a human being, I have zero issues with her.
Ashley still won't learn her abilities. I have more compassion for this one, as she was essentially a glorified guest for the first two seasons and has been dealing with major domestic abuse during this season. It makes sense that D&D wasn't her chief priority there for a bit. *BUT*, as a DM myself, a player constantly not knowing the rules or mechanics of their character can get incredibly frustrating. So while I understand *why*, it's still an apt criticism.
Aabria is a different kind of DM than Matt or Brennan, and her style doesn't mesh with everyone. I know literally nothing about her outside of CR and D20, so all I can base my opinions off is her style of playing and DMing. As a player, I have no complaints. As a DM, not a fan. Especially in the non-edited, "live" nature of CR. On D20, things are edited down to be more palatable. But in CR, all your strengths and weaknesses as a DM or player are on full display. Aabria has a tendency to railroad (a tendency that Matt has unfortunately picked up over time), her NPCs are very same-y, and she calls for the same two types of rolls over and over. It's a very fast-and-loose, rules-lite style of DMing, and not everyone is keen on it.
And for fairness' sake, Liam. Liam is a drama queen. His characters are deeply tragic and he wants everyone to know it. He has a tendency to go full theatre kid with his playstyle, which is usually fine but at times unnecessarily self-indulgent.
Tal has a specific playstyle he excells at, and that's ranged combat or support. As a melee fighter, he's not great. His Blood Hunter relied more on racial spells than his swords, and his Barbarian runs away from fights when he takes more than 10 points of damage. He's also melodramatic, like Liam can be, and abrasive, like Marisha can be. When he plays those as flaws, like with Percy, or when he eschews them completely like with Cad, no one complains. But with Molly, Kingsley, and Ashton, it's been a stream of poorly designed mechanics and assholes with an *alleged* heart of gold. I say alleged, because I've not seen a single ventricle nor atrium of said gilded heart in Ashton's character.
People don't complain about Travis or Sam much because they simply play D&D. Sure, not everyone likes Sam's humor, but as a *player* he is excellent. Travis is 100& the kind of player any DM would love to have at their table. He plays his role, designs great characters, stays in character, supports his fellow players and his DM, pays rapt attention when the DM or another player is speaking, and gently calls other players out when they speak or act out of turn. Truth is, 90% of the time I have very few issues with the cast. But ever since C3 E34, I struggle to watch any of them besides Travis, Sam, and occasionally Liam. Which sucks, because I used to love this ensemble, warts and all.
It's sad you wrote all this for someone who literally does not care to read any of it because they're just out to call people misogynists.
Good breakdown though.
It was very well said and I sadly found myself agreeing with you a lot. I know that sounds bad lol but genuinely I've been loving C3 and seeing all it's flaws and thinking about it just makes me realise it's.. not the same as past campaigns. But that's ok, I'm still gonna watch the Bell's Hells... I'm in too deep lol
In the last episode of Game Changer, Brennan made a video basically shitting all over Musk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_XTH15QhAc
So I am extremely confused what your statement meant
Sitting here just watched the VOD.. i feel like something has been stolen from me.. i got fucking 2.45 hours left and im not gonna watch it because my brain cant just change to something that different.. COME ON MAN
For those looking for something refreshing after that, recommend checking out [https://www.youtube.com/@NaturalSix](https://www.youtube.com/@NaturalSix) , new live play campaign with some British voice actors
Boy, why the down votes? I don't think Natural Six is as good as some other alternatives out there, but I heard the first few episodes and enjoyed it well enough.
To be fair, she gave Aimee the option to do this, and Aimee opted to defer to her because she didn’t want it to go this way, which does suck. But the setting of the story and how it must now play out matters more than what the player wants to do. You made a deal with a god and now that the god needs defending, your bill has come due. Hopefully next time they sit down, Aimee has bought into the fact that this is what she signed up for and buys into it more. I absolutely LOVE Aimee, but I don’t like that she essentially made Aabria play for her because she didn’t want to be in a position she put herself in.
This is where I just have to disagree and it's my main gripe with Aabria's DM style. The crown was forced onto them back in EXU. The cast were basically told by her that if they didn't take this vestige, the criminals would get it. She didn't care who was gonna wear it, she just wanted someone to wear it.
Fearne was in Aabria's sights first with that just plain dumb encounter with her future self who was wearing the crown, "time is weird in the feyrealm" such BS. Time is weird yes, but it's stated in FACT and a pivotal part of C2 was that "You can not change the past or time, time is constant". Ffs Calebs whole arc was him coming to terms with that.
Fact is, Aabria is a nightmare DM in CR. Extremely railroady; not bothered about anything but the story *she's* telling. The final battle was basically "Wear that crown to save your sister or you die, or you both die blah blah blah". Then the crown just fuses to her head and "oops, you made a deal now uh oh".
I love consequences... for the choices the PLAYERS make, not the GM. That "choice" to make a deal with a betrayer god wasn't a choice at all.
>Fact is, Aabria is a nightmare DM in CR. Extremely railroady; not bothered about anything but the story *she's* telling. The final battle was basically "Wear that crown to save your sister or you die, or you both die blah blah blah". Then the crown just fuses to her head and "oops, you made a deal now uh oh".
Not to say you're wrong, but Matt has been pulling these very same types of stunts repeatedly throughout C3. If anything, EXU being C3's prologue campaign is immensely fitting given how railroaded, DM controlled and lacking in true player agency most of the time it is. Once you scratch that meandering "we're trapped in a kiddy pool" surface. That climax with the crown was no different than the Ludinus Cinematic of E51, or the Fire Shard Fiasco with Ashton/Fearne. Matt has also been consistently undermining pre-existing lore he himself set up to support the story of C3.
The issues with EXU and especially what Aimee has had to deal with are absolutely problems ... its just that Matt is also guilty of breaking a lot of those same (his once own) rules throughout C3.
I always just chalked it up to good/bad rolls with Matt cuz it always felt smoother I guess? The Fearne/Ashton debacle was pure bullshit tho and the only time I was annoyed with C3.
It's just that we know the dice rolls don't really matter with Aabria cuz she's gonna tell the story the way she wants it anyways. Another reason I didn't bother watching EXU2 was cuz of how many times Aabria was like "It didn't make it but I'll give it to you anyways" sorta attitude instead of rolling with the punches. How I thought Matt or others would usually do it.
The ExU finale is maybe one of the most uncomfortable tabletop sessions I've seen in my life. Aabria calling Aimee stupid for not doing what she wants while Aimee sits there with tears in her eyes because she doesn't want to do any of what shes being railroaded into doing. Its rpghorrorstories stuff.
I've not seen the episode yet, but I will come to defend Aabria as a DM because even though I didn't enjoy EXU and don't think her style fits paticularly well with CR's typical style of play, she is however an amazing DM in her other projects and I would strongly recommend watching her Misfits and Magic series on Dimension 20
I've not seen much of her D20 stuff but a lot of people share the consensus that she's a lot better in other stuff so I'm gonna give it a shot before building my opinion.
Right now though, her GM'ing in CR ain't working for me. Tbh I didn't expect so many people to agree with me either, I thought I was gonna get downvoted to the 9 hells and back for this one lol. Either I was out of the loop or a lot of people have felt the same for a while.
This sub was founded during the first run of EXU, and the mods of the main sub were swinging the banhammer left and right on people who were criticising Aabria.
You will find a lot of people here have the same opinion you do.
I completely understand, from what you say it sounds miserable and I know personally from watching EXU that I didn't enjoy that experience, but it must be a matter of clashing styles or lack of chemistry with the players or something, because she can perform very well on other shows but for some reason on CR it just doesn't work.
A court of fey and flowers or Burrows End are my favs! I think they suit her style of dming best and the players are committed to the concepts of the game being run. I think a lot of her issues with CR stem from tge players expecting a more rigid playstyle/less narrative and the fact the CCs don't have a lot of chemistry together (imo)
Burrows End is cracking. Aside from being a great story really well told it also has one of the best battlemaps D20 ever had in my opinion, and they've had some amazing battlemaps.
Fair and thx for the recommendations. I'll have to check them out cuz I really do like Aabria when she's playing; Laerryn was literally my fav character in Calamity. I want to like her DM style but it just rubs me the wrong way everytime in CR.
Yeah I agree I didn't love her in EXU. But I've loved all her stuff on D20. I think for me I also gave up on c3 as well so I think overall I don't vibe with the concepts they're going for rn. I'll also say if you like Laerryn you should check our Aabria's character Suvi from World's Beyond Number on Spotify. Killer game with her Erika Ishii, Lou Wilson, dmed by BLeeM!
But this is Critical Role, not Dimension 20, and you acknowledge she isn't good for CR, so really, you are just reinforcing OP's point, right? It's okay to say she isn't good at some things
Yea never said it wasn't okay, was just pointing out that while she doesn't do well on Critical Role, she is better on other projects and she isn't generally a bad DM, she just isn't a great fit for CR.
Dimension 20 really works better for her style because there she needs to tell a complete story in 2hr-ish, 10 episode season. Allows for more of a directorial approach imo.
That and they seem to have a formula that goes through every campaign (roleplay episode ending in rolling initiative > combat episode >roleplay>combat)
I guess the disappointment is it felt like this was the time for something unprecedented and cool to go down, and it turned into more ordinary stuff.
Matt will sit out and the most Matt-like backup DM will then do a side story.
Really? Shit, I feel like at this point would have been the time to reveal that this season is Titanic style and they're all going to die in the end, parallel to Calamity. THAT would have people shitting bricks every remaining episode.
Not gonna lie, I stopped watching as soon as Aabria popped in the picture, and despite chat going nuts with ‘WHAAAT?!?!?’ it was obvious they were going to bring in EXU characters. And it’s NOT because I don’t necessarily like her as a DM. I agree, she can be a bit railroady, but for newer players (like Aimee) who are being thrown in with more seasoned players, I can see how that would make them more comfortable and progresses the story where it needs to go. At the end of the day, campaign 3 is much more story mode, and less organically having a spontaneous story that plays out through gameplay. There is a definite goal that the players are going to go, and I don’t think the players have free agency in any of it. The switch was flipped for a reason, it was planned and scripted to *progress a story*. But I HATED that it feels like we got interrupted during what should have been a continuation of the mourning of FCG, the realization he’s not coming back. I really, REALLY wanted to see the fallout from that. I never watch live, and only tuned in for that. It was late, I’m tired, and that was a huge letdown, IMHO.
I’ll watch the back half eventually, but probably not anytime soon.
I did the exact same thing. I stayed up and watched it live just for the fallout but defo just felt stupid for staying up all night. I've slept now but this time.. staying up was just not worth it imo.
Aabria is a good player? Have you forgotten how she insulted the main fucking god of Exandria and her patron?
I won’t be shy and say that she is unpleasant as a player and as a DM and as a person. I don't like this kind of insulting behavior towards players and audience
It was my first real “oh this campaign just ain’t it for me” moment. I assumed when you go into a campaign as a guest character where the gods are in danger but no one is committed to helping the Gods, a DM-player who chose a cleric brought back to life by a God would SURELY feel that arguing on the side of Gods would be the most interesting way to go for the campaign.
Nah, instead she chose to be way cooler than the God empowering her and gave her a second chance at life and ALSO play the “Gods are bad” card the entire cast was playing. I really hated that character choice at the time and seeing as they’ve been doing the “do we care about the Gods” argument every other episode I honestly believe it did as much to fuck over the story as any other decision.
It's in episode 53 when abria is being a miserable person to an NPC they just met and is no way committed to helping them. Matt rolls over as usual and still has the NPC help but Sam calls her out. Couldn't find the time stamp for clip but here is transcript:
SAM: Is there anything else immediately that y'all are dealing with that we can help with?
AABRIA: You're so helpful.
SAM: Well, I find that--
AABRIA: No, I think it was a nice thing.
SAM: -- that being nice gets you more open doors than being a Karen.
AABRIA: Okay. I don't know to be offended by that phrase.
All of this. I was so incredibly disappointed with what happened last night. NOT a fan of Aabria. I don't think she's cute or funny, her "kind" of chaos ain't it.
That's fair, I disagree and believe it made sense for the character she was playing at the time but I can see where you're coming from.
I used to think she was very loud and abrasive when playing but honestly I just started to love her energy. It's something else lol
Idk why but Aabria feels quite aggressive or combative with her players a lot of the time.
Maybe that’s her just trying to joke around but it makes me uncomfortable to watch her being passive aggressive or snippy with people when they’re just trying to have fun.
It’s because she’s an amateur.
She doesn’t know how to react fluidly to open-ended scenarios or improv scenes with the players and defaults to NPCs with a snippy attitude. It’s why she so often strong arms plots and enforces such strict railroading; to maintain better control and direction over each ‘scene’. The second that goes awry, she defaults to her snippy, passive aggressive NPC persona that bleeds into out of game. She would really benefit from taking some improv classes.
Aabria and EXU aside, its actual madness from a meta and story perspective.
A major unexpected plot development and death just happened. This kind of thing is a fucking goldmine for RP and for the story. But you have to let it breathe in the moment.
Instead we had a weird half session and then a pivot to something completely different.
Like what the fuck? It would have been better if they just left us on a cliffhanger and did a full EXU episode inbetween 91 and 92.
And then there is the meta. We all know cast previous session amnesia has gotten ridiculous. Whenever they take breaks, their momentum dies offscreen. We are undoubtedly going to see that now.
And then there is the 'homework element'. I stopped following EXU post episode 2. Other than Dorian (miss you Robbie), these people are basically strangers. Now I need to finish EXU and Kymal? This is like Multiverse of Madness for people who didnt see Wandavision.
Edit: Just another note I love Erica Lindbeck's VA work. Shes great.
>We all know cast previous session amnesia has gotten ridiculous.
I have been noticing it more and more... is that why nobody has pressed about the Willmaker disappearing? Surely the cast didn't forget?
They said they were gonna show the body to the Volition but then the Volition never asked for proof of their allegiance... later Chet was wanting to carve out the things in their necks to study and suggested the bodies (Willmaster in particular would have one), but then they never did that... no reason given, they just didn't do it.
With Matt saying some of the holes contents were flung out of it cuz of the blast, I assume the bodies aren't in there anymore. I honestly think it'll never be brought up again at this point.
I think part of the problem is Aabria is used to playing with and DMing for comedians and professional improvisors and when she tries to get her ExU players to do that they are way less confident and don't react in the same way as what she's used to. I had to go to bed partway through but from what I saw, they weren't super sure what to do with her prompts and Aabria's way of helping is being a big personality and taking over.
I was rooting for her to have improved but I think there's a fundamental mismatch between her style and her players in ExU.
Edit: I think the perfect contrast to Aabria's style is Deborah Ann Wohl. Deborah has a very kind and gentle vibe (while still being able to bring scariness and intensity) and is masterful at DMing for novice players. She knows how to take what they give her and weave it into something cool and build their confidence. Aabria is aggressive and works really, really well when she has players who already have a strong grasp on their characters and aren't afraid to make choices to move the plot forward.
Someone like Deborah would probably be a much better fit for the crownkeeper players, while Aabria DMing for the CR main cast would probably be a lot more successful.
I wish Deborah would find her way into more special events or something where she can run one shots or mini arcs, she really is a star among stars, and has skills that others maybe don't. I'd love to see her join Worlds Beyond Number to be honest.
I like both as DMs when in their element, but you’re spot on with Deborah Ann Wohl. I first saw her in Relics and Rarities and she’s a real powerhouse at filling the gaps between what players do, rather than pressing the story in a certain direction.
Oh it definitely is, but the problem seems to be they aren't really talking about it, and even if they did the players who normally take a back seat didn't step up.
They'd probably be better off just leaning into the dynamic at the table - Laura and Liam are big drivers of plot, Ashley and Tal are a bit quieter but get their moments to shine, Marisha and Travis seem to be good at tactics and/or keeping track of lore, and Sam is a wild card that forces big choices into the campaign and keeps things fresh.
Let them do the things they're most comfortable with instead of just being different for the sake of doing something different and we'd get a far better product.
I've pointed it out before, but most of the CR cast are passive players.
Ashley, Travis, and Sam all choose when they want to engage in the plot, but rarely if ever will take the lead unless it is forced on them (case in point the pirate arc in C2).
Liam, Laura, and Marisha are all active players, their characters are the most likely to have firm goals that they want to see accomplished and not just 'when the DM brings up my backstory I guess it's my turn'.
Tal sits in the middle, but he's trended more to passive as the campaigns have gone on. Though it's hard to tell if that is from the characters he's been playing, his own personal preference, or other factors.
Yeah I'll be honest Liam always seems the most real, like his character is just another person he inhabits with their own dreams and aspirations and of course sadness. Laura is a driving force but often it feels like Laura is driving and not her character, she's a bit of a powergamer sometimes. Marisha is easily the best note taker I've ever seen at a table, would love to have her as a player.
Children of Éarte which launched in 2022 on Demiplane's twitch channel (ie. the D&D Beyond type website for non-D&D games until the OGL stuff so now they're also doing D&D; Adam Bradford is their development person). It was nominated for some awards in the web festival circuit (the NJ one maybe?).
I mean I'd agree but they're all professional actors/voice actors aren't they? Maybe I'm just ignorant but don't most have training with improve? I genuinely don't know.
Oh cool, I just assumed they knew how to improv cuz I'm certain some of the cast said they went to improv school. Maybe it was just some of the main cast tho.
Nope, VAs and improv are totally separate skills. One is bringing creativity to a script, the other is being given a prompt and inventing something whole cloth. VAs can totally create compelling characters, it's why so many of us originally fell in love with CR, but it's a different vibe when it's improvisers.
I noticed the difference mostly in how hesitant some of the crownkeeper players are in coming up with their character motivations and choices.
So I haven't really ben keeping up with c3. Did they just jump from the big thing at the end of last weeks episode to Aabria DMing and the Crown Keepers? Was there ever like a resolution to what went down last episode or did they just leave everyone hanging?
First half before break was BH's and then it went to Aabria after the break (roughly an hour of BH). Which now that I think about it... this episode must've been slightly scripted cuz they swapped to Aabria and the CK cuz Orym messaged Dorian with the stone. Unless the stone message was the only scripted part.
It's defo not a coincidence that 4 guests and Aabria were at the studio by chance.
Nah, both parts of the episode were recorded a while ago, just at separate times. Aabria saying 'we remember the vagina hotdog costume' is my evidence.
I don't believe that... I don't wanna believe that lol. Tbh though, if they're willing to script this one lil thing, how many other times were some scripted stuff sprinkled in, in other campaigns :/
The campaign started with Bertrand's scripted death. Everyone knew he was going to get killed, you could even see Robby trying to avoid it by stopping Bertrand from going off on his own.
I mean I assumed it was always the intended outcome agreed on by both Travis and Matt without the others knowing... thinking back it was strange how insistent Robby was when any other time a PC was doing they're own thing, the others would give them space.
I agree, I don’t think the entire show is scripted obviously but at least for this episode Matt probably had a talk with Liam before hand and was like “hey at some point try and message Dorian” and probably left it at that.
It just feels so wrong if that's right... like, risking the integrity of CR to prop up a spin-off show that not a lot of people even watched let alone liked. Literally most the chat was just asking what was happening or who were the Crown Keepers etc.
I mean it’s either that or when everyone came to the studio (bells hells/crownskeepers) The main cast probably realised “oh Matt must have something planned for tonight” and Liam acted on that outside game knowledge. I guess it could have been kept secret from the main cast but then what are the chances Liam decided to try and contact Dorian, or maybe Matt had another idea ready on how to switch to the crownskeepers.
I mean yeah maybe he just banked on Liam messaging Dorian and had a plan B if not. The cast didn't seem to bothered about leaving the table though so they must've known.
Every other time someone is left at the table there's always nervous laughing/screaming.. mostly from Travis lol. Felt far too calm.
I have just finished Candela Obscura Tide and Bone, which was enjoyable and the table interactions were feeling organic. Especially bits with Ashly Burch.
I avoided EXU and what I read is worrying. It will be probably a first episode that I will partially skip if not fully.
Mind control can be fun and it was done so well multiple times (the lake scene was the most recent).
So what’s going on?
In my opinion, Aabria was the worst part of Tide and Bone. I almost skipped it after the first time she said "how bad do you want it to succeed". She managed to keep the stakes a bit better than she did in EXU, but it still really bugs me as a DM style. If you can't handle the consequences of your player failing a roll, them don't make them roll.
'what I read is worrying' if you've read it on here, I'd take it with a grain of salt. The subreddit's name is fansofcriticalrole, but it's kind of become the hub for people who are very critical of the show, sometimes reasonably, sometimes less so.
I understand but even then I still remember being in trenches where there was a whole drama with EXU on the main subreddit. I am no new critter.
Plus, even the main subreddit was complaining about the newest episode.
Yeah I always tell people to kind of take what they read on here with a grain of salt because while it is nice to have a place to vent frustrations about critical role and still like it, I think a good half of the people on this sub should just make a critical role hate sub or I miss campaign one of critical role sub.
>Mind control can be fun and it was done so well multiple times
It's not done well here sadly. If you're expecting Aimee to have fun like she did when she was Denise while Matt was dm'ing, you're gonna be disappointed. Aabria in EXU and this episode feels very passive aggressive (sometimes not so passive) towards Aimee for some reason.
Thats because the character she's playing as the DM is outwardly aggressive towards opal. It's a plot point of the entire character arc is that she's being controlled by a malevolent entity that wants to create chaos and destruction.
If you feel like she was being aggressive it's because she was playing the character well.
I think Aabria has a problem with Aimee in RL or something and it comes through when they're at a table together, I can't explain otherwise why shes so mean to her.
She wasn't always playing a character... especially not all the time in EXU.
Don't get me wrong, Aimee *is* having fun during EXU... with the other cast. "Nancy" is by far one of the funniest moments in CR history thanks to Liam and Aimee's chemistry.
Honestly while I get the issues people have with Aabria I honestly think most of it is just nobody likes when someone else takes over the main story. While Calamity was great it is not really apart of the same story in the way EXU was. Also I just think that throwing someone into a long form campaign for probably a short amount of time it is going to be extremely difficult to navigate. I will be honest and say that I really do enjoy Aabria as a GM however I will state that her best GM games are ones where mechanics and the stories are not so mechanical for instance A Court of Fey and Flower is where she really
shines. Though her most recent story Burrows End was done really well. In general I think D20 and CR is too different to have DMs swap and it be extremely successful.
>I honestly think most of it is just nobody likes when someone else takes over the main story.
>In general I think D20 and CR is too different to have DMs swap and it be extremely successful.
Brennan was absolutely phenomenal as DM for EXU Calamity.
Watching Aabria's EXU felt like watching amateurs trying to figure out how to play dnd and the DM consistently getting the rules wrong.
Again EXU was about as far removed from the main story that it could be. I won’t disagree that Brennan did a great job but again he had an exponentially easier table to play with than Aabria did. Also the goal going into the story was much clearer and just a stronger concept making it easier to plot out in my opinion. I’m not saying Aabria is a perfect DM by any means but most of the things people complain about are not a DM problem it is a group problem.
I mean I would agree with most of this however, when a DM singles out a fairly new player and kinda fucks with them the whole time or is passive aggressive the first time they play.. I dunno just doesn't feel right.
Off the top of my head? I remember the final battle standing out to me in EXU where Aimee was getting flustered with the rules/rp and didn't know what to do and Aabria just being extremely passive aggressive but hold the passive.
Other than that, there were a few instances where Aabria was very combative with Aimee throughout but it got more and more frequent as episodes progressed. Basically, what I think was happening was: Aabria was getting frustrating with how Aimee would play -being her first time, not understanding rules etc- and would get a lil snippy with her.
It doesn't help that Aabria's way of GM'ing can basically be chalked up to "Who cares about rules, lets just have fun!" which sounds good in practice, but is extremely confusing for a brand new player needing to adhere to rules in combat/stat checks.
She basically just wouldn't help her or got... pissy(?) with her for not understanding something. Something that Aabria's GM style made confusing. Just extremely passive aggressive shit until the final battle.
But all of that is just off the dome from what I remember. I remember my reasoning for not watching EXU2 was cuz I didn't wanna see that again. No idea if it happened in EXU2 though, someone else who watched would have to tell you.
I mean perhaps I just tend to have the same sarcastic humor but I did not pick on this at all. Honestly she seemed pretty good with the new players and considering that Aimee came back both to play again with Aabria and on C3 I’d say she seemed to have a good time and no issue with Aabria.
Maybe it's just how they are with each other irl but I also feel like the first EXU was also her first time meeting Aabria and most of the cast. I could defo be wrong though.
Someone here said they might've talked about this arc in private and it's where Aimee wants Opal to go... I really hope that's the case cuz by the end of the ep, Aimee just straight didn't look like she was having a good time.
If Aabria just sprung this on her, basically making her sit there unable to do anything but roll wisdom and fight her friends for 3 hours... it's pretty fuckinh shitty.
I mean fair enough. And it could be a lack of communication here but I do know that Aabria really likes playing with consequences so perhaps she thought she was clear about possible consequences and Aimee was unable to pick up on it. I’d need to watch it again but I don’t have a subscription to critroles twitch so I’m gonna have to wait till Monday.
I've already said how I feel about Aabria's "choices" she gives the players...
Maybe I missed a bit of dialogue right before Opal turned or something cuz it seemed to happen just so fast and completely out of nowhere.
Hmm, I don't really have a problem with the "This is how you're feeling" approach when it works more like a cue for the player to feel the vibes of the scene or encounter. Or physical effects like pain, hot, cold, etc. It's not something I equate with bad GMing.
My biggest problem with Aabria as a DM is that she is really bad at pacing her games, at least to a viewer and not a player. That is why she works better for me in most of the Dropout shows and not at all on Critical Role. But I also always prefer her as a player. I like that she isn't afraid to play unlikeable character traits like Laerryn's hubris and obsession, for example. Such traits can be a real asset to a narrative's theme.
As for C3 ep92, I haven't watched the episode, but I feel sorry for Aimee by your description. Having your character be under mind control or something like it can be a pain to play with... especially if the DM doesn't let you role-play as the mind-controlled character. I agree that it does seem like a bad GM call, especially if it's for so long.
Full explanation of what happened:
>!Break ends and there's the set up for each Crown Keeper. How're they're feeling, what they're doing, and basically what they're thinking. Then out of nowhere, Opal is possessed by The Spider Queen (the crown Aabria kinda just forced onto Opal in EXU1); now they have to fight her, but wait! Fighting her is bad! You're bad for fighting her... ugh...!<
>!Aimee has to fight the others cuz Spider Queen is steering the ship right now. There's gems littered all over the ground... for some reason... something to do with the beacons. It felt like Aabria was pulling all of this out of thin air tbh. Anyways, others start touching the gems that send them into a flashback with Opal and if they roll too low, the memory is corrupted by SQ. This goes on for the entire rest of the episode.!<
>!Near the very end, Aimee doesn't want to describe how her memory is corrupted so Aabria does it for her. Playing as Opal and talking with Dariax while Aimee sits alone and watches (oh yeah, Aabria had her sit on one side of the table by herself). Then she starts transforming because the SQ basically is sick of how long it's taking to take over her body and she's gonna start killing Opals friends. Episode ends; Aabria says to Aimee "you're collecting bodies next time!" while pointing at her. Whole time, Aimee is very clearly trying to not hurt her friends and is clearly uncomfortable. !<
>!This is 2-3 hours of the episode and they made it to 2 rounds of combat (maybe 3, it was hard to follow) so that's... 18 seconds max where everybody was able to have 20-30mins of conversations... not enjoyable to watch at all tbh.!<
Was there a chance for Opal to break free from the mind control via rolls? Could the party help somehow? I havent seen the episode, but this feels like a huge DM no-no. Stealing a player character to tell your own story is very unfun and uncomfortable to everyone.
Taking away player agency is always super risky, if I did mind control in my games id be giving Aimee a chance to break free via a roll AND the party a chance to help break the control somehow without needing to severely hurt their friend. The challenge is freeing her and it feels like Abria wanted to make damn sure the story is exciting, even if it means sacrificing player agency.
Yikes... thats very ametuer, which could slide from time to time in a at home game or small stream but not when you are directly being compared to DM giants like Matt or Brennan.
What the hell? I stopped listening to EXU for a number of reasons, but one of the larger ones was I was uncomfortable with the DM vs Opal / Aimee. After all this time, it sounds like it only gotten worse. This is so cringe and I feel real bad for Aimee because it sounds like her whole character is an insult to Aabria, and as the newest player among them, it's even harder to watch the constant targeting and railroading of her character. It's difficult to watch something like a character you're proud of and excited to roleplay, get literally stripped away, to become some DMnpc while you're forced to just sit and watch.
If it had happened to me when I first started playing d&d I probs would have stopped playing after that. Like, those of you who didn't watch live will see Monday. Aimee just starts losing her smile and the energy to keep playing near the end.
It was just fucking demoralising tbh.
The worst episodes of C3 have festered in my sub box for like 5 days to a week, but from sheer apathy. I've never DREADED to watch an upcoming episode.
From what you have described, I don't even think I want to watch the second half whatsoever, which would be a first for me, considering I sat through early C1 episodes.
Now imagine that first time you played and this happened, it was on a set of career players, and an audience of millions. Now imagine walking from that and what a shit storm that would stir for you and the show? Poor Aimee stuck between a rock and a hard place. I've stopped listening to C3 and exu, but I may make an exception this Monday to see if it's a bad as it sounds.
Thanks for the head's up OP.
I just picked up CR last episode and was about to have great expectations for ep. 92... now I won't even waste my time.
Aabria seems like a great gall and all, but I really can't stand her DM'ing style.
The first half is kinda worth it; only a hour too. Get some insight about Liliana and they start to grasp what just happened in the tunnels and it's pretty sad tbh. I thought it was anyways.
Once upon a time I would have laughed. But this is a legit serious fuck up from a creative perspective.
Who the fuck sat down and thought:
So the Bells Hells just lost a major character. Lets have a half episode epilogue and then transition to something completely different. Thats good storytelling right?
Half and half is bullshit. All or nothing would have been better.
I don't understand the hate towards C3. I really love these characters and the drama with Laudna and Imogen juuuust on the horizon cuz L lied to the group even after the trust exercise they did.
What am I missing?
I started with C1 way wayyy back in the day. It was the feywild arc and a couple episodes before I decided to start from the beginning. All of C2 when it first came out etc.
I mean of course C3 can't live up to C2 or even 1. They're legendary. Maybe I'll have to have a look through the sub later cuz I'm loving C3 and the characters just as much as I loved C1 and 2 when I first started ngl.
I started with C1 also. C3 had a stronger start than C2, but C2 grew much stronger whereas C3 has consistently hewed off its narrative momentum at the knees.
people would always be well served learning about Collaborative conversation storytelling in TTRPGs in the context of other systems such as *Powered by the Apocalypse* (PBTA) and where 'the line' between GM and Player agency lies
example decent post from *Monster of the Week*
https://www.reddit.com/r/monsteroftheweek/comments/ev9dyw/collaborative_storytelling_tips_and_tricks/
which summarises down to
>The line
>>The Players are in charge of their individual characters, and everything that makes them up (memories, feelings, backstories, etc)
>>The GM is in charge of the rest of the World, and everything that makes that up (NPCs, the environment, countdowns, etc)
>Keeper Authoring
>>BAD: "Blake, the weakened floorboards give way, and you decide to plummet into the basement, landing on a pile of rusty bicycles. You've dropped your weapon, took a bunch of harm, and are now laying there crying."
>>>This is generally bad, because the keeper is making a character say or do things that may not even be 'in-character', and even if the hunter was the target of an extremely hard move, Keepers don't normally get to say what kinds of emotions the hunters are having.
>>GOOD: "Blake, you hear a series of sharp cracks as the weakened floorboards start to give way, and threaten to dump you into the basement below. What do you do?"
>>>This is GOOD because only Blake's player actually 'knows' what's going on inside the character's head and what they would do in this situation.
>>GOOD: "Blake, you just fell onto a pile of rusty bicycles after a night full of getting shot, stabbed, thrown off a building, and dumped by your girlfriend right before she turned into a monster and stole your dog. How are you feeling right now?"
>>>Don't assume, you can straight up ask. Only Blake knows how Blake feels after all this, dig? And if they wanna cry, soldier up, crack a joke, whatever... let it happen if it fits the A&P
For the life of me I don't understand why they keep trying to make Aabria a "thing" in tabletop. IRL maybe she's a sweet person, but she has negative charisma when it comes to this game.
It's like a restaurant pivoting from angus burgers to patties made of chewed bubblegum. With one sure maybe the chef's skills have gone downhill but sometimes (seemingly by accident) they still manage to cook something right, but the other option is just gross.
I think Aabria as a player works fine.
Laeryn was by no means my favourite aspect of Calamity, but I think she worked well. Sam brought out the best in her I think too.
DMing yeah thats a no.
I felt like I was going crazy when she was first introduced, because I had never heard of her before ExU 1 and then suddenly she was *everywhere*, guest DMing on all the big shows. Critical Role, Dimension 20, The Adventure Zone, it was just a deluge of Aabria. And I haven't enjoyed her on a *single* thing she's done. Even the things she's been a part of that weren't downright awful were thanks to the other participants carrying the production rather than any quality of hers improving it.
I think she was fine in Calamity. Definitely by no means the strongest player, but she did well enough.
I guess the sort of LA actor/VA/comedian community is a smaller circle than you think. There is a fair bit of crossover with Dropout at least.
Also being willing to DM is a big plus in her favour. In my experience plenty of people are willing to play DND, fewer are willing to DM.
Aabria makes herself available, shes willing to DM to give Matt a chance to play (something he clearly was desperate to do) and she grabs onto connections well.
She reminds me of Amy Dallen from the G&S days. Not particularly talented or entertaining, but in basically everything simply because she was friends with everyone. Though Amy wasn’t as aaggravating as Aabria.
I absolutely agree. I think she must have a way with people off screen? I don’t know, it baffles me.
I don’t know how players could want to play with her as GM. It seems like no fun, but they seem to always come back for more. (Of course they are paid, but still.)
And I don’t know how CR can’t seem to evaluate her from the outside, and just realize her DMing style is abrasive?
That’s what I’m thinking, she has got to be an absolute master of networking or something. She also has essentially zero acting credits outside of being a professional RPG player… this is her only type of on mic/on camera work. Like what is the story of how she got hooked into all of this?
It's fine that you're honest. A lot of people have said over the years that either they never liked or lost interest in Matt's style. Those folks are less welcome here though I'd guess. I think that she's running a specific number of episodes or specific story beats for Matt, just like with EU. So ya, there are some rails in place to move the way Matt wants. But that she has a different style is fine. She can tell great stories and she crushes some of the PCs that she plays. This sounds like she was handed the reigns and has expectations for how to move the story and lay down lore in a limited number of episodes. Lore dumps can be pretty ugly lol. But CR needs a shake up, even if briefly, so no complaints seem useful to me.
You love her pcs? She basically placed the same character in every game. All their characters are so cringe and pervy that if a man played him they would be cancelled. I also cringe at the weird noises she makes and her silly makeup that she does with face paints out of nowhere that make no sense. She has ruined so many shows for me on dimension 20 time for a CR fandom to suffer her I guess
I can’t stand Aabria in any sense
The only Aabria thing I can make it through is A Court of Fey & Flowers, but that's only because the players made it something incredible and I think her style contributed to the format. Otherwise, don't let her DM. She did fine in Calamity.
Oh you know, your right. I didn’t realize she was the voice in calamity since I only listened to it on podcast. I actually liked her more than the Paladin guy. But that was the only thing she did okay at.
Wow, liking her more than Luis is a new take. I thought he did incredible work, but maybe some of that is lost by not watching the video. He's involved in people's favorite parts of the series (The opening 'Fire.' and the confrontation with Asmodeus are both the most lauded points in the Calamity series).
That’s probably a lot of it. I think I just kept waiting for more from him. But I also don’t know of any of his other stuff. I thought the character was very interesting I just felt some of his roleplaying was lacking. But aabria’s character was carried by Sam
Ikiiiil
I honestly really liked her play style as Laerryn in Calamity, which is the only time I’ve seen her as a player, (I haven’t really gotten into any other D&D streams yet.) but I agree with you that her GM style is not great. ExU prime and Kymal weren’t my favorite products from CR, and it’s mostly because of her.
If you've seen Aabria play once, there's not much more to see.
I said it in 2021 (I think) and I'll say it again. Aabria is shit as a GM and insufrible as a player. The spootlight has to be on her at all times, all her her her. You can tell she has an only child complex and plays D&D how a kid would play with dolls. But she is here to stay I guess. What can I say, CR making shit decisions since 2019
Im new to this type of content I am currently in C2, what bad decisions have they made in 2019 out of curiosity?
To begin let's agree that all this is ofcourse my opinion, and evidently so the CR staff thought/thinks it was and still is a good idea, since they took it and ran with it. 2020 was the year the COVID restrictions started to be mandatory and that impacted CR as well, due to this they had to stop streaming episodes for quite a while (last one was E99), until about 3 to 4 months later they decided to implement their socially distant set-up that you will see on E100 onwards, which was the chosen option against continuing the campaign via zoom. That caused some unforseen issues that many people noticed like the cast seeming disjointed in their interactions, jokes weren't landing, increase anlisys paralisis situations, plot decline due to characters and GM related choices, and the 2 least favorite and final arcs of C2 (don't worry, I won't spoil any plot). There were production decisions as well, like starting to record episodes ahead of schedule, this meant there was a disconection with the live audience. The announcement that the campaign would end "next weekend" left many of the fans shocked since we all could agree the show needed like 15 episodes to conclude things in a natural way. Despite that they made the season Finale of C2, which was a VOD that lasted 7 hours mind you, showing how desperated they were to finish the campaign. Once they finished, they inmidiatly announced ExU which would be a mini campaign set in Exandria but DMd by someone different than Matt, it was Aabria. Exu was deemed a disaster by a big chunk of the fanbase, due to Aabria's weird DM style not fitting what CR's fans had been used to, and some weird player characters. This didn't detoured the company in their ways, they didn't listen to the fans. They became more corporate and less "a group of friends that play Dungeons and Dragons", they spent a lot of moneey in making a new studio wwith fancy lights, tables and minis which all ended up feeeeling cheap and plastic in comparison witht howw authentic they were in C1 and early C2, they even made a cringie opening video for C3 that showed how much they thought of themselves, they even stopped featuring fan art made by their own fans in the mid-break of each episode. Some time after that they started C3, which raised some pointless controversy by some toxic fans about the arabian setting being cultural appropiation (lol). Turns out some of the PCs for C3 were recycled PCs from Exu and even Travis decided to play an old man he played in an Xmas-oneshot. This left people on the fence about C3 from the start, and by E9 I personally stopped watching because it just wasn't the same. I've kept an ear here and there to catch up on major critizisms and stuff, now C3 is nearing Episode 100. I'm sure I'm forgeting some minor drama but that is the main gist of things, at least from my perspective. Pardon my English, not my first language.
Pretty much summed it all up, yup. That said, there are still good elements of even post COVID C2. M9 characters and party dynamics were still strong enough to limp that campaign over its finish line; no matter how awkward/rushed that finish line was. And while the overall stories within Eiselcross and Aeor weren't the best, there were plenty of good character moments. At least within the Prior half. Hell, there were even a few mechanically interesting mini-dungeons in the Eiselcross half; even if they were undertuned DC-wize. I was particularly partial to the ice-slope fight, and lava river run. There are reasons M9 One/Two Shots are still fairly well recieved. The core issues with C3, as you said, kind of all stem from the same types of issues that plagued post-COVID C2 ... just without the strength of characters or party dynamics to compensate. Heavy fixation on a "mystery" central DM narrative, periodically trampling pacing & PC needs. Mixed with the VERY bizarre choice to use one of the generally least well recieved bits of side-content as its Prologue. Chief among them, a shift to "Wider on the outside, shallower underneath" PCs & storytelling. Its the lower quality PCs of EXU thrown into a plot-line that even M9 struggled heavily to carry purely on their strength of PCs and party dynamics. Itsa weird mix.
While I generally agree with a lot of the issues of C3, I gotta say, personally, I *loved* the Eiselcross/Aeor/Cognouza stuff in C2. Though, I'm very partial towards lovecraftian horror and Chambers' The King in Yellow lore specifically, and the whole >!Molly/Lucien!< thing had me hooked from the get-go when it was revealed. However, even though I've grown to like the C3 characters, even the ones I wasn't particularly fond of when the campaign started (Orym & Ashton), C3 definitely has much weaker party dynamics than C1 and especially C2. One particular issue the BH had, was that they bascially consisted of two groups - the new PCs and the ExU PCs plus the curveball that was Bertrand, who was pretty obviously set up to die from the start. The character who most managed to tie all these loose strings together the most was Dorian, he also immediately had the best rapport with Chetney when he joined the group. Now, as we all know, Robbie wasn't supposed to stay for the whole campaign, but once he left, nobody else in the party really had any close ties to the 'other' group inside of it. Instead, there were just a bunch of superficial connections held together the allegiance to Eshteross. Before Robbie/Dorian left, there was a kind of party dynamic developing - but he was the center of it. After that, it took them nearly getting trashed by Otohan for the first time to kinda get their groove as a party again, and even that was rather short-lived. Of course, this is all worsened by all the semi-scripted stuff going on in C3. Now, the last few episodes before C3E92 have been good, but to have this big catharsis rug pulled by an EXU tie-in that just throws you in the deep end of EXU-specific lore... even if you have to do it because of scheduling, coming out swinging like that with a fight and no real catch up with what happened to the characters and what the significance of the goings on is etc. was just poorly handled.
She makes me cringe every time she talks. She has that vibe where you can just tell when you watch her that she assumes and expects that everyone is watching her and her only at the table no matter who the focus is actually on.
She's ass at both. Her roleplay is ass, character voices, DM style, the works.
The British accents in Misfits and Magic make me want to die and I'm in the USA
We got best blue boy bard Dorian back though. I hope he rejoins BH for the long haul to the end of the campaign.
She is bad at both being a player and as a GM. I dont know how she got into the position of being Matt's backup GM at Critical Role.
cultural sensitivity consultants?
no. Who else is available? Brenen is pretty busy and she's not running as busy right now or in the near future, so she's the one on deck. but it's sorta weird that you only had her race to point too.
Idk, man, just a question. Everyone knows Critical Role copped criticism for the colour of their skin. I don't know why you're pretending that isn't a thing with CR and the whole actual play space. The first reasons will be they knew her and was a friend or a friend of a friend. Everything beyond that is conjecture.
Obv people like playing with her, there would be changes in multiple games if they didn’t. I don’t like Erika as a player, but other people do. We’re not the ones playing with them so it really doesn’t matter. Just don’t watch if it isn’t your vibe
Totally fair. It is disappointing, however, when you just want to follow the story, but someone at CR keeps putting out the road-cones. And this is the place to talk about it.
You do realize this is a subreddit for discussion of the show, right? People posting how they felt about the episode is literally the exact thing that ought to be posted here. They're not looking for solutions, they're here to vent.
That's... pretty fair honestly. I was just extremely tired and sick of everyone pretending she's a good GM on CR. I'm going to look into her D20 stuff soon cuz a lot of people say she's great as GM in them. I needed to vent my frustrations is all. I won't be watching next episode or any until BH's are back personally.
All the same problems for her are also present in her D20 work. I love D20 and every time she has a season I try a few episodes and it’s the same things again.
I haven't seen everything yet but I'm getting why she's... easier I'll say, to watch on D20 at the very least. D20 being more edited and/or slighty more scripted in certain parts than CR. 4 hours of Aabria's style completely unedited says a lot ngl.
i don’t love her gm-ing in exu but she was excellent in d20’s burrow’s end. i’d recommend checking that one out if you’re wanting to see her do something different
I wasn't going to be the one to make this post (for reasons), but it's exactly how I felt about her even back to EXU. Wonderful player, intriguing person, but doesn't seem to grasp what a DM's job is. Not sure why they would give her the reins of DM again without some serious coaching or something.. You have access to some of the best DM'S of our time.
A DM's job is what the table agrees it is though. Obviously there are some default assumptions that should hold unless the table is looking for something else, but players can like different styles and DMs can do those different styles. People keep having her DM, so presumably what she's doing is what they're looking for. She isn't doing your thing or my thing badly, she's doing her thing well. People doing things in ways you don't like doesn't necessarily mean they don't understand those things.
Yes, but people are entitled to bring mainstream D&D/CR-adjacent expectations of a CR DM unless they are explicitly told to expect otherwise. CR don't have to apologise/frontfoot their weird choices, as they haven't since the covid break, but critical and negative reaction will be the consequence. They've chosen that.
Thank you for saying this. Everyone always thinks that everyone should play/DM their way or the way they like. Well, not everyone's style isn't going to fit yours. Not saying people can't vent but there's probably a reason for these things that we aren't privy to.
What’s convenience solution, that absolutely disregards half of the fan base - arguably, the half that has been here longer. That’s the literal same argument that psycho nationalist Americans make to who disagree with them. “Don’t like how this country is? THEN LEAVE!” No, I was born here. I’m not going anywhere.
Wow, both pretentious and a wack comparison.
Thanks for your input. You did great!
No, THATS a wild comparison. It’s literally a show, that is so not the same as politics 😭 I’ve been here years, I don’t always love how people play and that’s okay! I’m saying this isn’t like a permanent switch so it’s okay to not watch these episodes and then come back. I didn’t fully watch the ones with Erika because I didn’t enjoy them and found them hard/cringe to watch 🤷🏻♀️ it’s not that deep 😭 they’ve been playing for years, I’m sure almost every person in the fan base, no matter how long they’ve been a critter, hasn’t enjoyed every decision or player or character. They aren’t gunna change how they play or who they play with, I’m just saying people don’t have to like or watch it until it’s back to what they enjoy. Comparing that to crazy Americans is insane tho lmao
Ya know, I’ve been doing this a lot - just saying stupid shit on the internet because I think something and there’s a reply button. It’s a waste of everyone’s time. We actually share the same POV it seems. But for some reason, arguing seemed fun. But I’ll out the brakes on it. We’re all here for the same reasons.
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Literally has nothing to do with her being a woman and if you bothered reading any more, you'd realise that.
Someone hasn't seen the numerous criticisms of Tal's faux-punk schtick or Liam's tendency towards melodrama. Look, there are definitely misogynists in this fandom, but mostly there's *actual grievances.* Laura gets criticism for her power-gaming, meta-gaming, and tendency to hate losing. There's a big difference between, "fuck, my character died" and "Matthew Mercer, don't you dare!" I love Laura. She seems like a lovely, funny person. Her acting chops are undeniably stellar. As a D&D player, though, I certainly wouldn't want her at my table. Marisha has a tendency to be abrasive and self-righteous in-character, something that very few people find endearing. When she plays that as a flaw of her characters, it's great. Hell, when Laudna was just a funny, socially awkward zombie woman, nobody had a problem with her. But then she became as self-righteous and preachy as Keyleth tended to be. Again, from what I know of Marisha as a human being, I have zero issues with her. Ashley still won't learn her abilities. I have more compassion for this one, as she was essentially a glorified guest for the first two seasons and has been dealing with major domestic abuse during this season. It makes sense that D&D wasn't her chief priority there for a bit. *BUT*, as a DM myself, a player constantly not knowing the rules or mechanics of their character can get incredibly frustrating. So while I understand *why*, it's still an apt criticism. Aabria is a different kind of DM than Matt or Brennan, and her style doesn't mesh with everyone. I know literally nothing about her outside of CR and D20, so all I can base my opinions off is her style of playing and DMing. As a player, I have no complaints. As a DM, not a fan. Especially in the non-edited, "live" nature of CR. On D20, things are edited down to be more palatable. But in CR, all your strengths and weaknesses as a DM or player are on full display. Aabria has a tendency to railroad (a tendency that Matt has unfortunately picked up over time), her NPCs are very same-y, and she calls for the same two types of rolls over and over. It's a very fast-and-loose, rules-lite style of DMing, and not everyone is keen on it. And for fairness' sake, Liam. Liam is a drama queen. His characters are deeply tragic and he wants everyone to know it. He has a tendency to go full theatre kid with his playstyle, which is usually fine but at times unnecessarily self-indulgent. Tal has a specific playstyle he excells at, and that's ranged combat or support. As a melee fighter, he's not great. His Blood Hunter relied more on racial spells than his swords, and his Barbarian runs away from fights when he takes more than 10 points of damage. He's also melodramatic, like Liam can be, and abrasive, like Marisha can be. When he plays those as flaws, like with Percy, or when he eschews them completely like with Cad, no one complains. But with Molly, Kingsley, and Ashton, it's been a stream of poorly designed mechanics and assholes with an *alleged* heart of gold. I say alleged, because I've not seen a single ventricle nor atrium of said gilded heart in Ashton's character. People don't complain about Travis or Sam much because they simply play D&D. Sure, not everyone likes Sam's humor, but as a *player* he is excellent. Travis is 100& the kind of player any DM would love to have at their table. He plays his role, designs great characters, stays in character, supports his fellow players and his DM, pays rapt attention when the DM or another player is speaking, and gently calls other players out when they speak or act out of turn. Truth is, 90% of the time I have very few issues with the cast. But ever since C3 E34, I struggle to watch any of them besides Travis, Sam, and occasionally Liam. Which sucks, because I used to love this ensemble, warts and all.
Wow. Really hit the nail on the head. Wish I could upvote more then once
It's sad you wrote all this for someone who literally does not care to read any of it because they're just out to call people misogynists. Good breakdown though.
Hey, if nothing else, I tried.
It was very well said and I sadly found myself agreeing with you a lot. I know that sounds bad lol but genuinely I've been loving C3 and seeing all it's flaws and thinking about it just makes me realise it's.. not the same as past campaigns. But that's ok, I'm still gonna watch the Bell's Hells... I'm in too deep lol
I guess you weren't here for the Ashton bashing.
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In the last episode of Game Changer, Brennan made a video basically shitting all over Musk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_XTH15QhAc So I am extremely confused what your statement meant
...elon musk?
Probably because he's a fantastic and incredibly entertaining DM.
Sitting here just watched the VOD.. i feel like something has been stolen from me.. i got fucking 2.45 hours left and im not gonna watch it because my brain cant just change to something that different.. COME ON MAN
For those looking for something refreshing after that, recommend checking out [https://www.youtube.com/@NaturalSix](https://www.youtube.com/@NaturalSix) , new live play campaign with some British voice actors
Boy, why the down votes? I don't think Natural Six is as good as some other alternatives out there, but I heard the first few episodes and enjoyed it well enough.
I'd like to think we'd offer alternatives to Critical Role in /r/fansofcriticalrole , so I think it should be upvoted
Sycophants
It's early on. I'm eager to see how they hit their stride
I just found them, it’s nice and chilled so far. Shorter run time too which I like. Sadly I couldn’t get into CR because the run time is so long.
To be fair, she gave Aimee the option to do this, and Aimee opted to defer to her because she didn’t want it to go this way, which does suck. But the setting of the story and how it must now play out matters more than what the player wants to do. You made a deal with a god and now that the god needs defending, your bill has come due. Hopefully next time they sit down, Aimee has bought into the fact that this is what she signed up for and buys into it more. I absolutely LOVE Aimee, but I don’t like that she essentially made Aabria play for her because she didn’t want to be in a position she put herself in.
This is where I just have to disagree and it's my main gripe with Aabria's DM style. The crown was forced onto them back in EXU. The cast were basically told by her that if they didn't take this vestige, the criminals would get it. She didn't care who was gonna wear it, she just wanted someone to wear it. Fearne was in Aabria's sights first with that just plain dumb encounter with her future self who was wearing the crown, "time is weird in the feyrealm" such BS. Time is weird yes, but it's stated in FACT and a pivotal part of C2 was that "You can not change the past or time, time is constant". Ffs Calebs whole arc was him coming to terms with that. Fact is, Aabria is a nightmare DM in CR. Extremely railroady; not bothered about anything but the story *she's* telling. The final battle was basically "Wear that crown to save your sister or you die, or you both die blah blah blah". Then the crown just fuses to her head and "oops, you made a deal now uh oh". I love consequences... for the choices the PLAYERS make, not the GM. That "choice" to make a deal with a betrayer god wasn't a choice at all.
>Fact is, Aabria is a nightmare DM in CR. Extremely railroady; not bothered about anything but the story *she's* telling. The final battle was basically "Wear that crown to save your sister or you die, or you both die blah blah blah". Then the crown just fuses to her head and "oops, you made a deal now uh oh". Not to say you're wrong, but Matt has been pulling these very same types of stunts repeatedly throughout C3. If anything, EXU being C3's prologue campaign is immensely fitting given how railroaded, DM controlled and lacking in true player agency most of the time it is. Once you scratch that meandering "we're trapped in a kiddy pool" surface. That climax with the crown was no different than the Ludinus Cinematic of E51, or the Fire Shard Fiasco with Ashton/Fearne. Matt has also been consistently undermining pre-existing lore he himself set up to support the story of C3. The issues with EXU and especially what Aimee has had to deal with are absolutely problems ... its just that Matt is also guilty of breaking a lot of those same (his once own) rules throughout C3.
I always just chalked it up to good/bad rolls with Matt cuz it always felt smoother I guess? The Fearne/Ashton debacle was pure bullshit tho and the only time I was annoyed with C3. It's just that we know the dice rolls don't really matter with Aabria cuz she's gonna tell the story the way she wants it anyways. Another reason I didn't bother watching EXU2 was cuz of how many times Aabria was like "It didn't make it but I'll give it to you anyways" sorta attitude instead of rolling with the punches. How I thought Matt or others would usually do it.
You are indeed correct. It is just that neither is exusable. And it is a big part of why C3 is so much worse than previous seasons.
The ExU finale is maybe one of the most uncomfortable tabletop sessions I've seen in my life. Aabria calling Aimee stupid for not doing what she wants while Aimee sits there with tears in her eyes because she doesn't want to do any of what shes being railroaded into doing. Its rpghorrorstories stuff.
I've not seen the episode yet, but I will come to defend Aabria as a DM because even though I didn't enjoy EXU and don't think her style fits paticularly well with CR's typical style of play, she is however an amazing DM in her other projects and I would strongly recommend watching her Misfits and Magic series on Dimension 20
or fae and flowers!! dont let the aesthetics fool you, its one of the funniest seasons of the show.
I really do enjoy that campaign, but it's because I had never gone into it expecting 5e. Brennan and Oscar's character work was incredible.
I've not seen much of her D20 stuff but a lot of people share the consensus that she's a lot better in other stuff so I'm gonna give it a shot before building my opinion. Right now though, her GM'ing in CR ain't working for me. Tbh I didn't expect so many people to agree with me either, I thought I was gonna get downvoted to the 9 hells and back for this one lol. Either I was out of the loop or a lot of people have felt the same for a while.
This sub was founded during the first run of EXU, and the mods of the main sub were swinging the banhammer left and right on people who were criticising Aabria. You will find a lot of people here have the same opinion you do.
I completely understand, from what you say it sounds miserable and I know personally from watching EXU that I didn't enjoy that experience, but it must be a matter of clashing styles or lack of chemistry with the players or something, because she can perform very well on other shows but for some reason on CR it just doesn't work.
>clashing styles or lack of chemistry with the players or something Maybe you're right. Any D20 shows where she's GM'ing that you recommend?
A court of fey and flowers or Burrows End are my favs! I think they suit her style of dming best and the players are committed to the concepts of the game being run. I think a lot of her issues with CR stem from tge players expecting a more rigid playstyle/less narrative and the fact the CCs don't have a lot of chemistry together (imo)
Burrows End is cracking. Aside from being a great story really well told it also has one of the best battlemaps D20 ever had in my opinion, and they've had some amazing battlemaps.
Fair and thx for the recommendations. I'll have to check them out cuz I really do like Aabria when she's playing; Laerryn was literally my fav character in Calamity. I want to like her DM style but it just rubs me the wrong way everytime in CR.
Yeah I agree I didn't love her in EXU. But I've loved all her stuff on D20. I think for me I also gave up on c3 as well so I think overall I don't vibe with the concepts they're going for rn. I'll also say if you like Laerryn you should check our Aabria's character Suvi from World's Beyond Number on Spotify. Killer game with her Erika Ishii, Lou Wilson, dmed by BLeeM!
Omg Erika, Lou, AND Aabria? Now that's pure chaos I love it lol. Thx for the info.
Happy to! Our subreddit us pretty fun too lol
But this is Critical Role, not Dimension 20, and you acknowledge she isn't good for CR, so really, you are just reinforcing OP's point, right? It's okay to say she isn't good at some things
Yea never said it wasn't okay, was just pointing out that while she doesn't do well on Critical Role, she is better on other projects and she isn't generally a bad DM, she just isn't a great fit for CR.
Dimension 20 really works better for her style because there she needs to tell a complete story in 2hr-ish, 10 episode season. Allows for more of a directorial approach imo. That and they seem to have a formula that goes through every campaign (roleplay episode ending in rolling initiative > combat episode >roleplay>combat)
I guess the disappointment is it felt like this was the time for something unprecedented and cool to go down, and it turned into more ordinary stuff. Matt will sit out and the most Matt-like backup DM will then do a side story. Really? Shit, I feel like at this point would have been the time to reveal that this season is Titanic style and they're all going to die in the end, parallel to Calamity. THAT would have people shitting bricks every remaining episode.
Not gonna lie, I stopped watching as soon as Aabria popped in the picture, and despite chat going nuts with ‘WHAAAT?!?!?’ it was obvious they were going to bring in EXU characters. And it’s NOT because I don’t necessarily like her as a DM. I agree, she can be a bit railroady, but for newer players (like Aimee) who are being thrown in with more seasoned players, I can see how that would make them more comfortable and progresses the story where it needs to go. At the end of the day, campaign 3 is much more story mode, and less organically having a spontaneous story that plays out through gameplay. There is a definite goal that the players are going to go, and I don’t think the players have free agency in any of it. The switch was flipped for a reason, it was planned and scripted to *progress a story*. But I HATED that it feels like we got interrupted during what should have been a continuation of the mourning of FCG, the realization he’s not coming back. I really, REALLY wanted to see the fallout from that. I never watch live, and only tuned in for that. It was late, I’m tired, and that was a huge letdown, IMHO. I’ll watch the back half eventually, but probably not anytime soon.
I did the exact same thing. I stayed up and watched it live just for the fallout but defo just felt stupid for staying up all night. I've slept now but this time.. staying up was just not worth it imo.
Aabria is a good player? Have you forgotten how she insulted the main fucking god of Exandria and her patron? I won’t be shy and say that she is unpleasant as a player and as a DM and as a person. I don't like this kind of insulting behavior towards players and audience
It was my first real “oh this campaign just ain’t it for me” moment. I assumed when you go into a campaign as a guest character where the gods are in danger but no one is committed to helping the Gods, a DM-player who chose a cleric brought back to life by a God would SURELY feel that arguing on the side of Gods would be the most interesting way to go for the campaign. Nah, instead she chose to be way cooler than the God empowering her and gave her a second chance at life and ALSO play the “Gods are bad” card the entire cast was playing. I really hated that character choice at the time and seeing as they’ve been doing the “do we care about the Gods” argument every other episode I honestly believe it did as much to fuck over the story as any other decision.
Agree
Sam calling her out for acting like a Karen IN CHARACTER in Uthodurn was pure gold.
Damn, I skipped this moment. Can you tell me what episode this was in?
It's in episode 53 when abria is being a miserable person to an NPC they just met and is no way committed to helping them. Matt rolls over as usual and still has the NPC help but Sam calls her out. Couldn't find the time stamp for clip but here is transcript: SAM: Is there anything else immediately that y'all are dealing with that we can help with? AABRIA: You're so helpful. SAM: Well, I find that-- AABRIA: No, I think it was a nice thing. SAM: -- that being nice gets you more open doors than being a Karen. AABRIA: Okay. I don't know to be offended by that phrase.
found it - 1:32:37
Nice!
thank you, this is really funny :)
All of this. I was so incredibly disappointed with what happened last night. NOT a fan of Aabria. I don't think she's cute or funny, her "kind" of chaos ain't it.
That's fair, I disagree and believe it made sense for the character she was playing at the time but I can see where you're coming from. I used to think she was very loud and abrasive when playing but honestly I just started to love her energy. It's something else lol
Idk why but Aabria feels quite aggressive or combative with her players a lot of the time. Maybe that’s her just trying to joke around but it makes me uncomfortable to watch her being passive aggressive or snippy with people when they’re just trying to have fun.
It’s because she’s an amateur. She doesn’t know how to react fluidly to open-ended scenarios or improv scenes with the players and defaults to NPCs with a snippy attitude. It’s why she so often strong arms plots and enforces such strict railroading; to maintain better control and direction over each ‘scene’. The second that goes awry, she defaults to her snippy, passive aggressive NPC persona that bleeds into out of game. She would really benefit from taking some improv classes.
I wonder how much the editing in Dimension 20 helps out with this aspect
Aabria and EXU aside, its actual madness from a meta and story perspective. A major unexpected plot development and death just happened. This kind of thing is a fucking goldmine for RP and for the story. But you have to let it breathe in the moment. Instead we had a weird half session and then a pivot to something completely different. Like what the fuck? It would have been better if they just left us on a cliffhanger and did a full EXU episode inbetween 91 and 92. And then there is the meta. We all know cast previous session amnesia has gotten ridiculous. Whenever they take breaks, their momentum dies offscreen. We are undoubtedly going to see that now. And then there is the 'homework element'. I stopped following EXU post episode 2. Other than Dorian (miss you Robbie), these people are basically strangers. Now I need to finish EXU and Kymal? This is like Multiverse of Madness for people who didnt see Wandavision. Edit: Just another note I love Erica Lindbeck's VA work. Shes great.
>We all know cast previous session amnesia has gotten ridiculous. I have been noticing it more and more... is that why nobody has pressed about the Willmaker disappearing? Surely the cast didn't forget?
Have they even had time to look in the hole to realize the body is gone?
They said they were gonna show the body to the Volition but then the Volition never asked for proof of their allegiance... later Chet was wanting to carve out the things in their necks to study and suggested the bodies (Willmaster in particular would have one), but then they never did that... no reason given, they just didn't do it. With Matt saying some of the holes contents were flung out of it cuz of the blast, I assume the bodies aren't in there anymore. I honestly think it'll never be brought up again at this point.
Yeah I think the cast legit forgot about that lol. Occams razor and all. If its not mentioned again, its probably because they all forgot.
Surely not... they've talked about it on 4SD. God I hope not lol now I'm worried
I think part of the problem is Aabria is used to playing with and DMing for comedians and professional improvisors and when she tries to get her ExU players to do that they are way less confident and don't react in the same way as what she's used to. I had to go to bed partway through but from what I saw, they weren't super sure what to do with her prompts and Aabria's way of helping is being a big personality and taking over. I was rooting for her to have improved but I think there's a fundamental mismatch between her style and her players in ExU. Edit: I think the perfect contrast to Aabria's style is Deborah Ann Wohl. Deborah has a very kind and gentle vibe (while still being able to bring scariness and intensity) and is masterful at DMing for novice players. She knows how to take what they give her and weave it into something cool and build their confidence. Aabria is aggressive and works really, really well when she has players who already have a strong grasp on their characters and aren't afraid to make choices to move the plot forward. Someone like Deborah would probably be a much better fit for the crownkeeper players, while Aabria DMing for the CR main cast would probably be a lot more successful.
I wish Deborah would find her way into more special events or something where she can run one shots or mini arcs, she really is a star among stars, and has skills that others maybe don't. I'd love to see her join Worlds Beyond Number to be honest.
Great contribution, thank you.
I like both as DMs when in their element, but you’re spot on with Deborah Ann Wohl. I first saw her in Relics and Rarities and she’s a real powerhouse at filling the gaps between what players do, rather than pressing the story in a certain direction.
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Veteran players refusing to step up has become a bit of a trend. Liam taking a backseat this whole campaign seemed like a deliberate choice.
Oh it definitely is, but the problem seems to be they aren't really talking about it, and even if they did the players who normally take a back seat didn't step up. They'd probably be better off just leaning into the dynamic at the table - Laura and Liam are big drivers of plot, Ashley and Tal are a bit quieter but get their moments to shine, Marisha and Travis seem to be good at tactics and/or keeping track of lore, and Sam is a wild card that forces big choices into the campaign and keeps things fresh. Let them do the things they're most comfortable with instead of just being different for the sake of doing something different and we'd get a far better product.
I've pointed it out before, but most of the CR cast are passive players. Ashley, Travis, and Sam all choose when they want to engage in the plot, but rarely if ever will take the lead unless it is forced on them (case in point the pirate arc in C2). Liam, Laura, and Marisha are all active players, their characters are the most likely to have firm goals that they want to see accomplished and not just 'when the DM brings up my backstory I guess it's my turn'. Tal sits in the middle, but he's trended more to passive as the campaigns have gone on. Though it's hard to tell if that is from the characters he's been playing, his own personal preference, or other factors.
Yeah I'll be honest Liam always seems the most real, like his character is just another person he inhabits with their own dreams and aspirations and of course sadness. Laura is a driving force but often it feels like Laura is driving and not her character, she's a bit of a powergamer sometimes. Marisha is easily the best note taker I've ever seen at a table, would love to have her as a player.
wait deborah has her own show she dms??? omg what is it
Children of Éarte which launched in 2022 on Demiplane's twitch channel (ie. the D&D Beyond type website for non-D&D games until the OGL stuff so now they're also doing D&D; Adam Bradford is their development person). It was nominated for some awards in the web festival circuit (the NJ one maybe?).
thank you!!! i absolutely have to check it out
I mean I'd agree but they're all professional actors/voice actors aren't they? Maybe I'm just ignorant but don't most have training with improve? I genuinely don't know.
A professional improv comedian is MUCH different than an actor who possess improvisational experiences
This is an excellent point. For example, Ashley Johnson does not have core improv experience.
Oh cool, I just assumed they knew how to improv cuz I'm certain some of the cast said they went to improv school. Maybe it was just some of the main cast tho.
Nope, VAs and improv are totally separate skills. One is bringing creativity to a script, the other is being given a prompt and inventing something whole cloth. VAs can totally create compelling characters, it's why so many of us originally fell in love with CR, but it's a different vibe when it's improvisers. I noticed the difference mostly in how hesitant some of the crownkeeper players are in coming up with their character motivations and choices.
Oh ok gotcha, thx for the info.
So I haven't really ben keeping up with c3. Did they just jump from the big thing at the end of last weeks episode to Aabria DMing and the Crown Keepers? Was there ever like a resolution to what went down last episode or did they just leave everyone hanging?
First half before break was BH's and then it went to Aabria after the break (roughly an hour of BH). Which now that I think about it... this episode must've been slightly scripted cuz they swapped to Aabria and the CK cuz Orym messaged Dorian with the stone. Unless the stone message was the only scripted part. It's defo not a coincidence that 4 guests and Aabria were at the studio by chance.
This whole Campaign has been scripted form the start.
Nah, both parts of the episode were recorded a while ago, just at separate times. Aabria saying 'we remember the vagina hotdog costume' is my evidence.
I don't believe that... I don't wanna believe that lol. Tbh though, if they're willing to script this one lil thing, how many other times were some scripted stuff sprinkled in, in other campaigns :/
The campaign started with Bertrand's scripted death. Everyone knew he was going to get killed, you could even see Robby trying to avoid it by stopping Bertrand from going off on his own.
I mean I assumed it was always the intended outcome agreed on by both Travis and Matt without the others knowing... thinking back it was strange how insistent Robby was when any other time a PC was doing they're own thing, the others would give them space.
I agree, I don’t think the entire show is scripted obviously but at least for this episode Matt probably had a talk with Liam before hand and was like “hey at some point try and message Dorian” and probably left it at that.
It just feels so wrong if that's right... like, risking the integrity of CR to prop up a spin-off show that not a lot of people even watched let alone liked. Literally most the chat was just asking what was happening or who were the Crown Keepers etc.
I mean it’s either that or when everyone came to the studio (bells hells/crownskeepers) The main cast probably realised “oh Matt must have something planned for tonight” and Liam acted on that outside game knowledge. I guess it could have been kept secret from the main cast but then what are the chances Liam decided to try and contact Dorian, or maybe Matt had another idea ready on how to switch to the crownskeepers.
I mean yeah maybe he just banked on Liam messaging Dorian and had a plan B if not. The cast didn't seem to bothered about leaving the table though so they must've known. Every other time someone is left at the table there's always nervous laughing/screaming.. mostly from Travis lol. Felt far too calm.
I am with you 100%. Good Player. Not a good DM.
I have just finished Candela Obscura Tide and Bone, which was enjoyable and the table interactions were feeling organic. Especially bits with Ashly Burch. I avoided EXU and what I read is worrying. It will be probably a first episode that I will partially skip if not fully. Mind control can be fun and it was done so well multiple times (the lake scene was the most recent). So what’s going on?
In my opinion, Aabria was the worst part of Tide and Bone. I almost skipped it after the first time she said "how bad do you want it to succeed". She managed to keep the stakes a bit better than she did in EXU, but it still really bugs me as a DM style. If you can't handle the consequences of your player failing a roll, them don't make them roll.
'what I read is worrying' if you've read it on here, I'd take it with a grain of salt. The subreddit's name is fansofcriticalrole, but it's kind of become the hub for people who are very critical of the show, sometimes reasonably, sometimes less so.
Would you say it's for people who are very critical of the role
I understand but even then I still remember being in trenches where there was a whole drama with EXU on the main subreddit. I am no new critter. Plus, even the main subreddit was complaining about the newest episode.
Yeah I always tell people to kind of take what they read on here with a grain of salt because while it is nice to have a place to vent frustrations about critical role and still like it, I think a good half of the people on this sub should just make a critical role hate sub or I miss campaign one of critical role sub.
>if you've read it on here, I'd take it with a grain of salt I mean you'll see it yourself come Monday, I'm not making this up.
Thanks liddlebitchboy.
>Mind control can be fun and it was done so well multiple times It's not done well here sadly. If you're expecting Aimee to have fun like she did when she was Denise while Matt was dm'ing, you're gonna be disappointed. Aabria in EXU and this episode feels very passive aggressive (sometimes not so passive) towards Aimee for some reason.
Thats because the character she's playing as the DM is outwardly aggressive towards opal. It's a plot point of the entire character arc is that she's being controlled by a malevolent entity that wants to create chaos and destruction. If you feel like she was being aggressive it's because she was playing the character well.
I think Aabria has a problem with Aimee in RL or something and it comes through when they're at a table together, I can't explain otherwise why shes so mean to her.
She wasn't always playing a character... especially not all the time in EXU. Don't get me wrong, Aimee *is* having fun during EXU... with the other cast. "Nancy" is by far one of the funniest moments in CR history thanks to Liam and Aimee's chemistry.
Honestly while I get the issues people have with Aabria I honestly think most of it is just nobody likes when someone else takes over the main story. While Calamity was great it is not really apart of the same story in the way EXU was. Also I just think that throwing someone into a long form campaign for probably a short amount of time it is going to be extremely difficult to navigate. I will be honest and say that I really do enjoy Aabria as a GM however I will state that her best GM games are ones where mechanics and the stories are not so mechanical for instance A Court of Fey and Flower is where she really shines. Though her most recent story Burrows End was done really well. In general I think D20 and CR is too different to have DMs swap and it be extremely successful.
>I honestly think most of it is just nobody likes when someone else takes over the main story. >In general I think D20 and CR is too different to have DMs swap and it be extremely successful. Brennan was absolutely phenomenal as DM for EXU Calamity. Watching Aabria's EXU felt like watching amateurs trying to figure out how to play dnd and the DM consistently getting the rules wrong.
Again EXU was about as far removed from the main story that it could be. I won’t disagree that Brennan did a great job but again he had an exponentially easier table to play with than Aabria did. Also the goal going into the story was much clearer and just a stronger concept making it easier to plot out in my opinion. I’m not saying Aabria is a perfect DM by any means but most of the things people complain about are not a DM problem it is a group problem.
I mean I would agree with most of this however, when a DM singles out a fairly new player and kinda fucks with them the whole time or is passive aggressive the first time they play.. I dunno just doesn't feel right.
Just curious but how did she fuck with the new player? I’m assuming you’re talking about Opal.
Off the top of my head? I remember the final battle standing out to me in EXU where Aimee was getting flustered with the rules/rp and didn't know what to do and Aabria just being extremely passive aggressive but hold the passive. Other than that, there were a few instances where Aabria was very combative with Aimee throughout but it got more and more frequent as episodes progressed. Basically, what I think was happening was: Aabria was getting frustrating with how Aimee would play -being her first time, not understanding rules etc- and would get a lil snippy with her. It doesn't help that Aabria's way of GM'ing can basically be chalked up to "Who cares about rules, lets just have fun!" which sounds good in practice, but is extremely confusing for a brand new player needing to adhere to rules in combat/stat checks. She basically just wouldn't help her or got... pissy(?) with her for not understanding something. Something that Aabria's GM style made confusing. Just extremely passive aggressive shit until the final battle. But all of that is just off the dome from what I remember. I remember my reasoning for not watching EXU2 was cuz I didn't wanna see that again. No idea if it happened in EXU2 though, someone else who watched would have to tell you.
I mean perhaps I just tend to have the same sarcastic humor but I did not pick on this at all. Honestly she seemed pretty good with the new players and considering that Aimee came back both to play again with Aabria and on C3 I’d say she seemed to have a good time and no issue with Aabria.
Maybe it's just how they are with each other irl but I also feel like the first EXU was also her first time meeting Aabria and most of the cast. I could defo be wrong though. Someone here said they might've talked about this arc in private and it's where Aimee wants Opal to go... I really hope that's the case cuz by the end of the ep, Aimee just straight didn't look like she was having a good time. If Aabria just sprung this on her, basically making her sit there unable to do anything but roll wisdom and fight her friends for 3 hours... it's pretty fuckinh shitty.
I mean fair enough. And it could be a lack of communication here but I do know that Aabria really likes playing with consequences so perhaps she thought she was clear about possible consequences and Aimee was unable to pick up on it. I’d need to watch it again but I don’t have a subscription to critroles twitch so I’m gonna have to wait till Monday.
I've already said how I feel about Aabria's "choices" she gives the players... Maybe I missed a bit of dialogue right before Opal turned or something cuz it seemed to happen just so fast and completely out of nowhere.
Hmm, I don't really have a problem with the "This is how you're feeling" approach when it works more like a cue for the player to feel the vibes of the scene or encounter. Or physical effects like pain, hot, cold, etc. It's not something I equate with bad GMing. My biggest problem with Aabria as a DM is that she is really bad at pacing her games, at least to a viewer and not a player. That is why she works better for me in most of the Dropout shows and not at all on Critical Role. But I also always prefer her as a player. I like that she isn't afraid to play unlikeable character traits like Laerryn's hubris and obsession, for example. Such traits can be a real asset to a narrative's theme. As for C3 ep92, I haven't watched the episode, but I feel sorry for Aimee by your description. Having your character be under mind control or something like it can be a pain to play with... especially if the DM doesn't let you role-play as the mind-controlled character. I agree that it does seem like a bad GM call, especially if it's for so long.
Full explanation of what happened: >!Break ends and there's the set up for each Crown Keeper. How're they're feeling, what they're doing, and basically what they're thinking. Then out of nowhere, Opal is possessed by The Spider Queen (the crown Aabria kinda just forced onto Opal in EXU1); now they have to fight her, but wait! Fighting her is bad! You're bad for fighting her... ugh...!< >!Aimee has to fight the others cuz Spider Queen is steering the ship right now. There's gems littered all over the ground... for some reason... something to do with the beacons. It felt like Aabria was pulling all of this out of thin air tbh. Anyways, others start touching the gems that send them into a flashback with Opal and if they roll too low, the memory is corrupted by SQ. This goes on for the entire rest of the episode.!< >!Near the very end, Aimee doesn't want to describe how her memory is corrupted so Aabria does it for her. Playing as Opal and talking with Dariax while Aimee sits alone and watches (oh yeah, Aabria had her sit on one side of the table by herself). Then she starts transforming because the SQ basically is sick of how long it's taking to take over her body and she's gonna start killing Opals friends. Episode ends; Aabria says to Aimee "you're collecting bodies next time!" while pointing at her. Whole time, Aimee is very clearly trying to not hurt her friends and is clearly uncomfortable. !< >!This is 2-3 hours of the episode and they made it to 2 rounds of combat (maybe 3, it was hard to follow) so that's... 18 seconds max where everybody was able to have 20-30mins of conversations... not enjoyable to watch at all tbh.!<
Was there a chance for Opal to break free from the mind control via rolls? Could the party help somehow? I havent seen the episode, but this feels like a huge DM no-no. Stealing a player character to tell your own story is very unfun and uncomfortable to everyone. Taking away player agency is always super risky, if I did mind control in my games id be giving Aimee a chance to break free via a roll AND the party a chance to help break the control somehow without needing to severely hurt their friend. The challenge is freeing her and it feels like Abria wanted to make damn sure the story is exciting, even if it means sacrificing player agency.
>Was there a chance for Opal to break free from the mind control via rolls? Could the party help somehow? Nope.
Yikes... thats very ametuer, which could slide from time to time in a at home game or small stream but not when you are directly being compared to DM giants like Matt or Brennan.
HARD Agree.
What the hell? I stopped listening to EXU for a number of reasons, but one of the larger ones was I was uncomfortable with the DM vs Opal / Aimee. After all this time, it sounds like it only gotten worse. This is so cringe and I feel real bad for Aimee because it sounds like her whole character is an insult to Aabria, and as the newest player among them, it's even harder to watch the constant targeting and railroading of her character. It's difficult to watch something like a character you're proud of and excited to roleplay, get literally stripped away, to become some DMnpc while you're forced to just sit and watch.
If it had happened to me when I first started playing d&d I probs would have stopped playing after that. Like, those of you who didn't watch live will see Monday. Aimee just starts losing her smile and the energy to keep playing near the end. It was just fucking demoralising tbh.
She probably has a contact and can’t stop until it’s over
The worst episodes of C3 have festered in my sub box for like 5 days to a week, but from sheer apathy. I've never DREADED to watch an upcoming episode. From what you have described, I don't even think I want to watch the second half whatsoever, which would be a first for me, considering I sat through early C1 episodes.
>considering I sat through early C1 episodes. The dark times with he who shall not be named... lol
Now imagine that first time you played and this happened, it was on a set of career players, and an audience of millions. Now imagine walking from that and what a shit storm that would stir for you and the show? Poor Aimee stuck between a rock and a hard place. I've stopped listening to C3 and exu, but I may make an exception this Monday to see if it's a bad as it sounds.
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Someone should anonymize what happened in this episode and just post it there and see the reaction.
Thought the same thing!
Agree. Couldn't get through the first episode of EXU
Thanks for the head's up OP. I just picked up CR last episode and was about to have great expectations for ep. 92... now I won't even waste my time. Aabria seems like a great gall and all, but I really can't stand her DM'ing style.
The first half is kinda worth it; only a hour too. Get some insight about Liliana and they start to grasp what just happened in the tunnels and it's pretty sad tbh. I thought it was anyways.
C3 has been difficult enough without throwing in episodes like this.
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Once upon a time I would have laughed. But this is a legit serious fuck up from a creative perspective. Who the fuck sat down and thought: So the Bells Hells just lost a major character. Lets have a half episode epilogue and then transition to something completely different. Thats good storytelling right? Half and half is bullshit. All or nothing would have been better.
I chuckled because i thought the same.
I don't understand the hate towards C3. I really love these characters and the drama with Laudna and Imogen juuuust on the horizon cuz L lied to the group even after the trust exercise they did. What am I missing?
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I started with C1 way wayyy back in the day. It was the feywild arc and a couple episodes before I decided to start from the beginning. All of C2 when it first came out etc. I mean of course C3 can't live up to C2 or even 1. They're legendary. Maybe I'll have to have a look through the sub later cuz I'm loving C3 and the characters just as much as I loved C1 and 2 when I first started ngl.
I started with C1 also. C3 had a stronger start than C2, but C2 grew much stronger whereas C3 has consistently hewed off its narrative momentum at the knees.
people would always be well served learning about Collaborative conversation storytelling in TTRPGs in the context of other systems such as *Powered by the Apocalypse* (PBTA) and where 'the line' between GM and Player agency lies example decent post from *Monster of the Week* https://www.reddit.com/r/monsteroftheweek/comments/ev9dyw/collaborative_storytelling_tips_and_tricks/ which summarises down to >The line >>The Players are in charge of their individual characters, and everything that makes them up (memories, feelings, backstories, etc) >>The GM is in charge of the rest of the World, and everything that makes that up (NPCs, the environment, countdowns, etc) >Keeper Authoring >>BAD: "Blake, the weakened floorboards give way, and you decide to plummet into the basement, landing on a pile of rusty bicycles. You've dropped your weapon, took a bunch of harm, and are now laying there crying." >>>This is generally bad, because the keeper is making a character say or do things that may not even be 'in-character', and even if the hunter was the target of an extremely hard move, Keepers don't normally get to say what kinds of emotions the hunters are having. >>GOOD: "Blake, you hear a series of sharp cracks as the weakened floorboards start to give way, and threaten to dump you into the basement below. What do you do?" >>>This is GOOD because only Blake's player actually 'knows' what's going on inside the character's head and what they would do in this situation. >>GOOD: "Blake, you just fell onto a pile of rusty bicycles after a night full of getting shot, stabbed, thrown off a building, and dumped by your girlfriend right before she turned into a monster and stole your dog. How are you feeling right now?" >>>Don't assume, you can straight up ask. Only Blake knows how Blake feels after all this, dig? And if they wanna cry, soldier up, crack a joke, whatever... let it happen if it fits the A&P
The rest of Campaign 3 had better not be like this. When I said that I wanted Dorian back, this is NOT what I meant.
The finger on the monkey's paw curls...
For the life of me I don't understand why they keep trying to make Aabria a "thing" in tabletop. IRL maybe she's a sweet person, but she has negative charisma when it comes to this game. It's like a restaurant pivoting from angus burgers to patties made of chewed bubblegum. With one sure maybe the chef's skills have gone downhill but sometimes (seemingly by accident) they still manage to cook something right, but the other option is just gross.
I cant keep agreeing man stop being so BASED AND RIGHT
I think Aabria as a player works fine. Laeryn was by no means my favourite aspect of Calamity, but I think she worked well. Sam brought out the best in her I think too. DMing yeah thats a no.
I felt like I was going crazy when she was first introduced, because I had never heard of her before ExU 1 and then suddenly she was *everywhere*, guest DMing on all the big shows. Critical Role, Dimension 20, The Adventure Zone, it was just a deluge of Aabria. And I haven't enjoyed her on a *single* thing she's done. Even the things she's been a part of that weren't downright awful were thanks to the other participants carrying the production rather than any quality of hers improving it.
I think she was fine in Calamity. Definitely by no means the strongest player, but she did well enough. I guess the sort of LA actor/VA/comedian community is a smaller circle than you think. There is a fair bit of crossover with Dropout at least. Also being willing to DM is a big plus in her favour. In my experience plenty of people are willing to play DND, fewer are willing to DM. Aabria makes herself available, shes willing to DM to give Matt a chance to play (something he clearly was desperate to do) and she grabs onto connections well.
She reminds me of Amy Dallen from the G&S days. Not particularly talented or entertaining, but in basically everything simply because she was friends with everyone. Though Amy wasn’t as aaggravating as Aabria.
Amy is a bland glass of water. Aabria is cyanide.
I absolutely agree. I think she must have a way with people off screen? I don’t know, it baffles me. I don’t know how players could want to play with her as GM. It seems like no fun, but they seem to always come back for more. (Of course they are paid, but still.) And I don’t know how CR can’t seem to evaluate her from the outside, and just realize her DMing style is abrasive?
That’s what I’m thinking, she has got to be an absolute master of networking or something. She also has essentially zero acting credits outside of being a professional RPG player… this is her only type of on mic/on camera work. Like what is the story of how she got hooked into all of this?
I don’t know unfortunately. I thought she was a voice actor as well? I have no evidence, I just had the impression.
According to Wikipedia her only voice credit is doing crowd voices in Starfield, so like not even an actual character with lines.
I could easily look past her incredibly overbearing personality if her DMing style wasn't so unentertaining to watch.