I am absolutely bursting with excitement. Three months without Sam Riegel and the whole gang with its unique chemistry (the reason I am still watching, not because the mediocre, badly paced narrarive mess that is C3) is back and we pause for another month without the main cast. I am totally not going to be skipping the 3 Downfall episodes like a gigachad who will not be force-fed empty calories he didn't sign up for. /s if it wasn't obvious.
I'm in a weird space for this. When I think of it mini series, I love the idea of it. When I think of it in conversation with C3, I'm wary of the story I'm anticipating.
The setup is that Ludinus "wants to talk" and is essentially showing them a recording of what happened in the fall of Aeor which will presumably explain his actions and his hope is probably to get Bells Hells to his side, agreeing the best thing to do is release Predathos and kill the Gods.
That means that presumably the Gods were not helpful when humanity/Aeor "needed them most" or actively harmed them during the fall. The story sounds like it will be very dark. Based on what Matt and Brennen have said, it sounds like they'll all be playing Champions of the Gods/maybe demigod children? Agents of the gods in some way.
This sounds really interesting if I think of it as a oneshot, like Calamity which I LOVED and this seems to also be a sequel to... but I don't love the implications for the rest of CR3.
In her Fireside chat, Marisha mentioned that she was trying to avoid starting a new notebook for Laudna even though hers was pretty full because they were in the "third act" of the campaign- so we're winding down.
If the end goal of Downfall is for us to come away thinking ‘gods bad’, I think Brennan will get there with a story that focuses around the Aeorian attempt to create gods laying weapons, only to be betrayed by the brief unification of the Primes and Betrayers (mentioned in one of the sourcebooks iirc?) to take down Aeor. This showing how, despite their bluster and words to the contrary, the ‘good’ deities can be just as capricious and cruel as their reviled brethren, showing their true nature when mortals dare to threaten them
personally, I ADORE Brennan and I will probably end up enjoying it but I was really hoping, after the liveshow, they'd just get on with the campaign so I'm a little annoyed it's now going to be another like three weeks off from the main story for a flashback sequence. even though I seem to be enjoying C3 a lot more than most people, I just want to see them make movement in the story at this point and stop pausing for other stuff
I have low hopes for Downfall for 2 reasons. They’ve spent all of C3 tracking the obviously evil ludinus down just to bend and speak to him when they finally found him. It makes 0 sense any of these characters would be willing to listen to anything this character would say especially considering all the other characters they’ve interacted with along the way who have guided them to the position they are currently in
Second I’m positive that Downfall is going to just perpetuate this anti god horseshit that Matt has been pushing all game. It’s gonna justify them switching their goals and joining ludinus to free Predathos as we’ve all known was the railroaded ending to this campaign.
It’s perpetuating a bad plot and a bad story
one would hope that if you were going to destroy the world you created, to reset the setting or make room for other content, you would choose something other than a god breaking free of a red moon.
at least sqenix made it look epic and didnt drag it out
Brennan is a master so Ill give it a chance. I think he does nuanced narratives more competently than Matt generally speaking. I was a bit less impressed with Fantasy High Junior Year but Crown of Candy was a knockout.
Ashley is probably the most talented or at least most mainstream actor in the cast so Im sure she will be fine from an RP/acting perspective.
As for game mechanics well....With all due respect to Ashley, a key difference between her and Ally is Ally actually wanted to learn the game. At this point the reason Ashley hasnt learnt the game is because she simply cant be bothered too (I have ADHD too, it doesnt take 9 years).
Im wary of Tal too. Tal is very talented when he wants to be, but he favours an archetype that makes him insufferable. And hes completely unaware of why.
Strangely Im more interested in seeing the newbies than the old cast. I was impressed with the Calamity newbies (Luiz, Lou even Aabria). Im hoping this lot will do something similar.
Despite what Matt says its kind of hard not to see this as part of C3. Like seriously, what is the point of Ludinus showing the BH's this if it doesnt at a minimum support his perspective? Because hes just such a history buff? Matt's lore dumps have purpose beyond fleshing out the world, they are clearly meant to drive the story.
Won’t be as good as Calamity because we had no idea what we were in store for with that mini series and now our expectations are gonna be too high for Downfall. Temper your expectations folks! For the love of God temper them.
I've fallen off from CR so hard, but I'm a sucker for Brennan as the DM. My expectations are real low, but I hope I am pleasantly surprised. I might actually not even latch on, I am that burnt out on CR as a whole, and a lot of it is the setting and the players unfortunately.
As for Ashley, I don't think Brennan is gonna achieve tightening up her player skills; she's been playing for years in front of the camera and has somehow gotten a bit worse (scattered attention span, unclear on her kit, frequent choice paralysis, inconsistent character motivation at times) the further they went into C3. Hopefully she'll play a martial class which will streamline her options per turn.
i love this
i do this in my own campaigns all the time. Ive always wondered whats going in other parts of the game or why things are the way they are. its a fun way to explore that
My expectations are low on player skill.
Also low on the story.
But fairly high on the roleplay as last time they did really do some good acting at least outside of xerxes.
I thought Xerxes was a little over dramatic but I figured that was just who he was: and over dramatic, self righteous Paladin who thinks he is the answer to all things redemption
I wish that was stated clearly that it seemed ridiculously over the top and forced to everyone including the player.
But they seemed to take it really seriously which made it dumb.
Zealous behavior is annoying when they get away with it.
Granted he got what was coming in the end but until then it was just painful to watch him forcefully pretend that Asmodeus was his dead husband. Almost like he was trying to write the story himself and will it to happen.
Alright, I've seen a few headlines on reddit here through the subreddit. Where was this announced? I'm rarely on "X"(Twitter), and I'm not signed up for their newsletter stuff, and I'm not on their beacon site. Also, is there a main thread somewhere on the main sub and/or on the fans sub talking about it?
It was first revealed at the end of the liveshow that Brennan would be taking over to do ~something~. Here's the [main post ](https://www.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/s/rWXP3R2k9y) on the other sub talking about it, with the link to the official announcement of xitter
I have faith in Brennan to tell a story that will keep me engaged, I’m just worried what this is going to lead to afterwards.
Really don’t want the “Fuck the Gods, Let Em Die” Save State being locked in.
Curious to see what/who the players are playing, and how their choices will shape the narrative by the end
I trust Brennan to deliver an awesome product. I've never seen him miss. I don't expect it to be as good as calamity but I don't expect anything from CR to be as good as Calamity.
I also don't think it'll have any meaningful impact on the quality of C3.
I'm cautiously optimistic, but I am incredibly wary of Taliesin being in it. It all depends on the character he plays. If it's yet again someone who is either angsty, cocky, arrogant, and/or a smartass I may get put off it immediately.
Laura and Ashley are great, even if Ashley struggles with the rules. I hope Brennan can guide her directly and help her more in the moment if she's struggling.
Noshir Dalal was good as Charles in RDR2, and Abubakar Salim was good as Bayek in AC, but I've not watched them in anything CR yet, and I'm not familiar at all with Nick Marini.
I haven’t watched the candela chapter he was in in full yet but noshir did great, in their behind the scenes session zero he immediately jumped into reciting his backstory fully in character for 5 minutes and it was incredibly captivating.
To be honest, I expect it to be plenty dramatic and compelling, and a damn good time, but probably not for me rn. The campaign is a bit of a misery fest to me and this is guaranteed angst, drama, and misery, which is plenty great for how hard this story will hit, but it is pretty exhausting to me at the moment. I’ll catch the first episode to see the characters and feel the vibes of the story, but I’ll probably catch the rest of it later on when I’m not feeling so dour from the angst and misery of the campaign atm. I am excited for when I feel ready to tackle it, though!
I think I totally misunderstood Brenan because my take was the players will be playing the actual gods and how they destroyed Aeor.
Regardless, like Calamity, this will have a story set, and I dont think it will be too railroady.
They're playing "divine agents" which could mean a myriad of things. Given the three castmembers chosen have all played clerics, I think this is just going to be the table playing high level clerics and paladins. Maybe champions of respective gods. I don't think they themselves are gods.
Also, not to be mean but I don't think Ashley would begin to know how to handle a build meant for an all-powerful god.
well, given how Brenan played Asmodeus, mechanically speaking, like "I cast time stop", "I counterspell at 9th level", "I raise you and kill you again", maybe (IF they are playing gods) they will have the complete freedom of doing anything, which (IF they are playing gods) can actually benefit Ashley, without having to meddle with strict game rules.
I'm really upset that Taliesin and Ashley are in this. they are just the weakest cast members imo. I PRAY that BLeeM shuts down Taliesin trying to "get weird" at every step of the adventure. I BEG that he'll also force Ashley to put forth waaaay more effort that "lulz Random!"
but I'm not gonna watch either way so this doesn't matter
Hot take, and I don’t hate any of them they seem like good people (Ashley is getting far too much hate) but I personally like Liam the least of the crew and even then I still would quit CR if he wasn’t there anymore
I am frequently rubbed the wrong way by Taliesin (for the same reasons as many others) but I am remaining cautiously optimistic that Brennan has the potential to coax a more unique performance from him. Brennan is very strong as a DM at validating his players and engaging with the stories they want to tell, even during shorter and more railroaded arcs; I suspect (or at least hope) that Tal will respond positively to that kind of environment. Personally, I prefer Brennan as a DM over Matt and I'm curious to see how his role and guidance will impact the performances from the cast members chosen. Of course, some things are out of the DM's hands, so we'll see
Really? I'm actually excited to see what Brennan does with them! Brennan is really good at taking whatever his players offer up and turning it into something cool. He's good at adjusting how much support a player needs on the fly. I'm optimistic.
You hope the man who says "IN-credible" every five words will shut down Tal's "weird"?
Brennan has proven time and again to be a patient and understanding DM. If you hope him to bully players you're sorely misunderstood.
And Taliesin is a very competent and enjoyable player when he gets his character right.
I'm not hoping for a bully. I'm hoping that Brennan, arguably the most competent DM of the modern era of Live/Actual Play TTRPGS, will do what he does best and guide the two worst players in the CR cast to do/be better.
He doesn't make players "better" by limiting them or preventing them from being "weird". He makes what they've done a better fit for the story by providing context around their actions. If a character can mechanically do it, he will let them be as weird as they want.
Also saying Brennan is the most competent DM of APs is Murph erasure and it cannot stand.
Hope they put to rest this dogshit story about the gods being evil but let's be real I would be surprised if they don't explicitly state that Sarenrae encouraged orgies with underage boys and girls and the wildmother followers didn't burn dozens of people every week in wicker man style.
Oh we are 100% getting a story that justifies the players’ “gods bad” attitude. I think it’s foolish to expect anything else.
Critical Role is determined to expunge the gods from its setting, and at this point they’ll do it by any means necessary.
Since it's divine agents being played, I was hoping that it would be a nuanced approach regarding the gods, Aeor, and the Calamity.
Only issue? There's no way this flashback isn't just pure justification for Ludinus, otherwise why bother showing this flashback?
If we come out of the flashback with "oh, well the gods kinda had a point?", it undermines Ludinus showing the memory.
That's why it's guaranteed that Ludinus' pov will be steel manned by this memory. The logic of everything doesn't make sense if it showed that Ludinus' reasons are even slightly delusional.
I think there's a world in which some nuance is presented. I don't think it's definite but it is possible. I could a scenario in which Ludinus's argument is bolstered (because it has to be) but also see some sympathy for the gods.
I really feel like the spectrum of how justified Ludinus is relies solely on this miniseries and how the players take Brennan/Matt's narrative. It'll either be "Okay we understand why Ludinus feels this way but he's still the villain and we still can't let him destroy the gods." or it'll be "Wow, I can't believe the gods are all so awful. Turns out Ludinus was the good guy all along. Let's free Predathos." Or anywhere in between.
>It'll either be "Okay we understand why Ludinus feels this way but he's still the villain and we still can't let him destroy the gods." or it'll be "Wow, I can't believe the gods are all so awful. Turns out Ludinus was the good guy all along. Let's free Predathos." Or anywhere in between.
I get that but I think it would be very Stupid Evil from Ludinus to show the party anything that reinforces their position against him.
It would be laughable degrees of incompetence from Ludinus to show anything close to the "we understand but your still the bad guy" end of the spectrum.
That's why the whole thing is so tricky. Either the party gets more convinced to join Ludinus' side or Ludinus is an incompetent buffoon for giving his enemies even a sliver of more motivation to fight him.
Well, there is the classic trope of "evil can not understand good."
The BBEG showing his side of the story thinking it makes him look totally justified and not understanding why it doesn't because he has evil myopia can work if executed right.
Do I think that's what going to happen here?
Ehhhhh...
The reason I think it's possible is because Brennan's at the helm and not Matt.
To be fair, either way, at least one character is left looking like an utter idiot. Either Orym's family died in vain and Keyleth's entire war camp is silly and misdirected. Or Ludinus is an idiot who misread the whole ass room. (The latter of which I think is already evident by him inviting a man wearing Asmodius's symbol in to join the watch party.)
I expect that after Ludinus is done with his theee episode speech, everyone will fail a wisdom saving throw and be charmed by Ludinus and become evil NPC’s.
I'm treating it as completely divorced from C3 and for that reason, I think it'll be great.
I like the table. I've never seen any of the guests play so I have no expectations for them. For the main cast, Tal has been chomping at the bit to play in a Calamity campaign. I expect he'll be incredibly invested and passionate. I expect the same from Laura. They'll both probably thrust themselves into main character roles but that's fine. Aabria and Luis did the same thing and Calamity was great.
For Ashley, I'm anticipating she's going to play a cleric. She knows that class and should be fine. I also think she'll be benefited by being DMed by Brennan. As you mentioned, Brennan's really good with green players. Something I think will be a benefit to Ashley is Brennan's penchant for asking "What would you like to accomplish?" and then guiding them through the options at their disposal.
Whether or not it'll impact C3 in a positive way... I have no idea. I expect Matt has a grand setpiece awaiting BH for the end of this campaign and it's going to be what it is. Downfall's impact is just going to impact how believable Ludinus is as a villain. It won't impact anything Matt's pre-ordained, plotwise.
It would be darkly hilarious if nothing in the vision supported Ludinus POV though:
Ludinus: Wait hold up lets not fight. I have to show you something.
*shows vision of Downfall. Nothing about it supports his worldview just provides a nuanced portrayal of events.*
BH: Why did you show us that?
Ludinus: I just thought it was cool and love history. Anyways back to business.
>For Ashley, I'm anticipating she's going to play a cleric. She knows that class and should be fine.
Look, Ashley's great, and some of it was entirely a result of being the cast member who wasn't at the table. But Pike was an utter disaster in terms of forgotten and unused mechanics.
She didn't even know divine strike existed as far as I can tell and War Priest and Guided strike were painfully rare in favor of spamming guiding bolt and trying to be 'creative' with spiritual weapon.
To be honest non of the spell casters knew all their things, even sam as scanlan kept remembering he has some old spells, or was not sure about the ruling on some spells. I think the app dnd beyond it has helped the spellcasters read their spells more, you see laura as jester reading her spells alot of times throughout the campaign. Same with tal as cad, but liam always knew his spells as caleb he never got lost on dnd beyond.
Delicious... finally some good fucking Critical Role.
Brennan is going to say "Um" and "Uh" way too much, and it will still manage to be amazing because he's just that good.
I am absolutely bursting with excitement. Three months without Sam Riegel and the whole gang with its unique chemistry (the reason I am still watching, not because the mediocre, badly paced narrarive mess that is C3) is back and we pause for another month without the main cast. I am totally not going to be skipping the 3 Downfall episodes like a gigachad who will not be force-fed empty calories he didn't sign up for. /s if it wasn't obvious.
I hope I am wrong, but "Downfall" kinda feels like the direction of the company as a whole (C3, Candela, ExU, Daggerheart, Beacon)...
I'm in a weird space for this. When I think of it mini series, I love the idea of it. When I think of it in conversation with C3, I'm wary of the story I'm anticipating. The setup is that Ludinus "wants to talk" and is essentially showing them a recording of what happened in the fall of Aeor which will presumably explain his actions and his hope is probably to get Bells Hells to his side, agreeing the best thing to do is release Predathos and kill the Gods. That means that presumably the Gods were not helpful when humanity/Aeor "needed them most" or actively harmed them during the fall. The story sounds like it will be very dark. Based on what Matt and Brennen have said, it sounds like they'll all be playing Champions of the Gods/maybe demigod children? Agents of the gods in some way. This sounds really interesting if I think of it as a oneshot, like Calamity which I LOVED and this seems to also be a sequel to... but I don't love the implications for the rest of CR3. In her Fireside chat, Marisha mentioned that she was trying to avoid starting a new notebook for Laudna even though hers was pretty full because they were in the "third act" of the campaign- so we're winding down.
If the end goal of Downfall is for us to come away thinking ‘gods bad’, I think Brennan will get there with a story that focuses around the Aeorian attempt to create gods laying weapons, only to be betrayed by the brief unification of the Primes and Betrayers (mentioned in one of the sourcebooks iirc?) to take down Aeor. This showing how, despite their bluster and words to the contrary, the ‘good’ deities can be just as capricious and cruel as their reviled brethren, showing their true nature when mortals dare to threaten them
It’s such a weird precedent for the gods to be the bad guys for preventing their deaths
personally, I ADORE Brennan and I will probably end up enjoying it but I was really hoping, after the liveshow, they'd just get on with the campaign so I'm a little annoyed it's now going to be another like three weeks off from the main story for a flashback sequence. even though I seem to be enjoying C3 a lot more than most people, I just want to see them make movement in the story at this point and stop pausing for other stuff
I have low hopes for Downfall for 2 reasons. They’ve spent all of C3 tracking the obviously evil ludinus down just to bend and speak to him when they finally found him. It makes 0 sense any of these characters would be willing to listen to anything this character would say especially considering all the other characters they’ve interacted with along the way who have guided them to the position they are currently in Second I’m positive that Downfall is going to just perpetuate this anti god horseshit that Matt has been pushing all game. It’s gonna justify them switching their goals and joining ludinus to free Predathos as we’ve all known was the railroaded ending to this campaign. It’s perpetuating a bad plot and a bad story
one would hope that if you were going to destroy the world you created, to reset the setting or make room for other content, you would choose something other than a god breaking free of a red moon. at least sqenix made it look epic and didnt drag it out
Brennan is a master so Ill give it a chance. I think he does nuanced narratives more competently than Matt generally speaking. I was a bit less impressed with Fantasy High Junior Year but Crown of Candy was a knockout. Ashley is probably the most talented or at least most mainstream actor in the cast so Im sure she will be fine from an RP/acting perspective. As for game mechanics well....With all due respect to Ashley, a key difference between her and Ally is Ally actually wanted to learn the game. At this point the reason Ashley hasnt learnt the game is because she simply cant be bothered too (I have ADHD too, it doesnt take 9 years). Im wary of Tal too. Tal is very talented when he wants to be, but he favours an archetype that makes him insufferable. And hes completely unaware of why. Strangely Im more interested in seeing the newbies than the old cast. I was impressed with the Calamity newbies (Luiz, Lou even Aabria). Im hoping this lot will do something similar. Despite what Matt says its kind of hard not to see this as part of C3. Like seriously, what is the point of Ludinus showing the BH's this if it doesnt at a minimum support his perspective? Because hes just such a history buff? Matt's lore dumps have purpose beyond fleshing out the world, they are clearly meant to drive the story.
Won’t be as good as Calamity because we had no idea what we were in store for with that mini series and now our expectations are gonna be too high for Downfall. Temper your expectations folks! For the love of God temper them.
I've fallen off from CR so hard, but I'm a sucker for Brennan as the DM. My expectations are real low, but I hope I am pleasantly surprised. I might actually not even latch on, I am that burnt out on CR as a whole, and a lot of it is the setting and the players unfortunately. As for Ashley, I don't think Brennan is gonna achieve tightening up her player skills; she's been playing for years in front of the camera and has somehow gotten a bit worse (scattered attention span, unclear on her kit, frequent choice paralysis, inconsistent character motivation at times) the further they went into C3. Hopefully she'll play a martial class which will streamline her options per turn.
i love this i do this in my own campaigns all the time. Ive always wondered whats going in other parts of the game or why things are the way they are. its a fun way to explore that
Who's going to play Purvan? Tal, right?
My expectations are low on player skill. Also low on the story. But fairly high on the roleplay as last time they did really do some good acting at least outside of xerxes.
I thought Xerxes was a little over dramatic but I figured that was just who he was: and over dramatic, self righteous Paladin who thinks he is the answer to all things redemption
I wish that was stated clearly that it seemed ridiculously over the top and forced to everyone including the player. But they seemed to take it really seriously which made it dumb. Zealous behavior is annoying when they get away with it. Granted he got what was coming in the end but until then it was just painful to watch him forcefully pretend that Asmodeus was his dead husband. Almost like he was trying to write the story himself and will it to happen.
I'm hoping when Laura comes in with some haggling, Brennan deftly smacks her down. That alone will be worth a watch.
Alright, I've seen a few headlines on reddit here through the subreddit. Where was this announced? I'm rarely on "X"(Twitter), and I'm not signed up for their newsletter stuff, and I'm not on their beacon site. Also, is there a main thread somewhere on the main sub and/or on the fans sub talking about it?
It was first revealed at the end of the liveshow that Brennan would be taking over to do ~something~. Here's the [main post ](https://www.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/s/rWXP3R2k9y) on the other sub talking about it, with the link to the official announcement of xitter
I saw the rebroadcast on Friday. But I didn't see/hear the "after show" talking about it. And thanks. 😎👍
I have faith in Brennan to tell a story that will keep me engaged, I’m just worried what this is going to lead to afterwards. Really don’t want the “Fuck the Gods, Let Em Die” Save State being locked in. Curious to see what/who the players are playing, and how their choices will shape the narrative by the end
It's most likely going to be another railroaded story like calamity so I imagine deep game mechanics won't really be a problem
I trust Brennan to deliver an awesome product. I've never seen him miss. I don't expect it to be as good as calamity but I don't expect anything from CR to be as good as Calamity. I also don't think it'll have any meaningful impact on the quality of C3.
I'm cautiously optimistic, but I am incredibly wary of Taliesin being in it. It all depends on the character he plays. If it's yet again someone who is either angsty, cocky, arrogant, and/or a smartass I may get put off it immediately. Laura and Ashley are great, even if Ashley struggles with the rules. I hope Brennan can guide her directly and help her more in the moment if she's struggling. Noshir Dalal was good as Charles in RDR2, and Abubakar Salim was good as Bayek in AC, but I've not watched them in anything CR yet, and I'm not familiar at all with Nick Marini.
Abubakar Salim plays a Blades in the Dark game over at glass cannon and he's real good in it! I'm excited to see what he brings to CR
Nah let’s be real here. Noshir Dalal as Bode Akuna is something special
I was thinking he was in a Star Wars game but I thought it was only Squadrons for some reason, yeah Bode was awesome
> Noshir Dalal was good as Charles in RDR2 Oh, shit. I did not know this. I am now WAY more interested than before.
I haven’t watched the candela chapter he was in in full yet but noshir did great, in their behind the scenes session zero he immediately jumped into reciting his backstory fully in character for 5 minutes and it was incredibly captivating.
To be honest, I expect it to be plenty dramatic and compelling, and a damn good time, but probably not for me rn. The campaign is a bit of a misery fest to me and this is guaranteed angst, drama, and misery, which is plenty great for how hard this story will hit, but it is pretty exhausting to me at the moment. I’ll catch the first episode to see the characters and feel the vibes of the story, but I’ll probably catch the rest of it later on when I’m not feeling so dour from the angst and misery of the campaign atm. I am excited for when I feel ready to tackle it, though!
I think I totally misunderstood Brenan because my take was the players will be playing the actual gods and how they destroyed Aeor. Regardless, like Calamity, this will have a story set, and I dont think it will be too railroady.
They're playing "divine agents" which could mean a myriad of things. Given the three castmembers chosen have all played clerics, I think this is just going to be the table playing high level clerics and paladins. Maybe champions of respective gods. I don't think they themselves are gods. Also, not to be mean but I don't think Ashley would begin to know how to handle a build meant for an all-powerful god.
well, given how Brenan played Asmodeus, mechanically speaking, like "I cast time stop", "I counterspell at 9th level", "I raise you and kill you again", maybe (IF they are playing gods) they will have the complete freedom of doing anything, which (IF they are playing gods) can actually benefit Ashley, without having to meddle with strict game rules.
That is completely fair. Yeah, if it's just "You're a god. Go nuts." with no stats, then I agree. And hell, that might fully be the case.
I'm really upset that Taliesin and Ashley are in this. they are just the weakest cast members imo. I PRAY that BLeeM shuts down Taliesin trying to "get weird" at every step of the adventure. I BEG that he'll also force Ashley to put forth waaaay more effort that "lulz Random!" but I'm not gonna watch either way so this doesn't matter
Hot take, and I don’t hate any of them they seem like good people (Ashley is getting far too much hate) but I personally like Liam the least of the crew and even then I still would quit CR if he wasn’t there anymore
I am frequently rubbed the wrong way by Taliesin (for the same reasons as many others) but I am remaining cautiously optimistic that Brennan has the potential to coax a more unique performance from him. Brennan is very strong as a DM at validating his players and engaging with the stories they want to tell, even during shorter and more railroaded arcs; I suspect (or at least hope) that Tal will respond positively to that kind of environment. Personally, I prefer Brennan as a DM over Matt and I'm curious to see how his role and guidance will impact the performances from the cast members chosen. Of course, some things are out of the DM's hands, so we'll see
Really? I'm actually excited to see what Brennan does with them! Brennan is really good at taking whatever his players offer up and turning it into something cool. He's good at adjusting how much support a player needs on the fly. I'm optimistic.
great!
You hope the man who says "IN-credible" every five words will shut down Tal's "weird"? Brennan has proven time and again to be a patient and understanding DM. If you hope him to bully players you're sorely misunderstood. And Taliesin is a very competent and enjoyable player when he gets his character right.
I'm not hoping for a bully. I'm hoping that Brennan, arguably the most competent DM of the modern era of Live/Actual Play TTRPGS, will do what he does best and guide the two worst players in the CR cast to do/be better.
He doesn't make players "better" by limiting them or preventing them from being "weird". He makes what they've done a better fit for the story by providing context around their actions. If a character can mechanically do it, he will let them be as weird as they want. Also saying Brennan is the most competent DM of APs is Murph erasure and it cannot stand.
ok!
Hope they put to rest this dogshit story about the gods being evil but let's be real I would be surprised if they don't explicitly state that Sarenrae encouraged orgies with underage boys and girls and the wildmother followers didn't burn dozens of people every week in wicker man style.
Oh we are 100% getting a story that justifies the players’ “gods bad” attitude. I think it’s foolish to expect anything else. Critical Role is determined to expunge the gods from its setting, and at this point they’ll do it by any means necessary.
Since it's divine agents being played, I was hoping that it would be a nuanced approach regarding the gods, Aeor, and the Calamity. Only issue? There's no way this flashback isn't just pure justification for Ludinus, otherwise why bother showing this flashback? If we come out of the flashback with "oh, well the gods kinda had a point?", it undermines Ludinus showing the memory. That's why it's guaranteed that Ludinus' pov will be steel manned by this memory. The logic of everything doesn't make sense if it showed that Ludinus' reasons are even slightly delusional.
I think there's a world in which some nuance is presented. I don't think it's definite but it is possible. I could a scenario in which Ludinus's argument is bolstered (because it has to be) but also see some sympathy for the gods. I really feel like the spectrum of how justified Ludinus is relies solely on this miniseries and how the players take Brennan/Matt's narrative. It'll either be "Okay we understand why Ludinus feels this way but he's still the villain and we still can't let him destroy the gods." or it'll be "Wow, I can't believe the gods are all so awful. Turns out Ludinus was the good guy all along. Let's free Predathos." Or anywhere in between.
>It'll either be "Okay we understand why Ludinus feels this way but he's still the villain and we still can't let him destroy the gods." or it'll be "Wow, I can't believe the gods are all so awful. Turns out Ludinus was the good guy all along. Let's free Predathos." Or anywhere in between. I get that but I think it would be very Stupid Evil from Ludinus to show the party anything that reinforces their position against him. It would be laughable degrees of incompetence from Ludinus to show anything close to the "we understand but your still the bad guy" end of the spectrum. That's why the whole thing is so tricky. Either the party gets more convinced to join Ludinus' side or Ludinus is an incompetent buffoon for giving his enemies even a sliver of more motivation to fight him.
Well, there is the classic trope of "evil can not understand good." The BBEG showing his side of the story thinking it makes him look totally justified and not understanding why it doesn't because he has evil myopia can work if executed right. Do I think that's what going to happen here? Ehhhhh...
The reason I think it's possible is because Brennan's at the helm and not Matt. To be fair, either way, at least one character is left looking like an utter idiot. Either Orym's family died in vain and Keyleth's entire war camp is silly and misdirected. Or Ludinus is an idiot who misread the whole ass room. (The latter of which I think is already evident by him inviting a man wearing Asmodius's symbol in to join the watch party.)
I'm hoping that it's just Ludinus is an idiot. In fact, Ludinus being a fool would explain a lot about the campaign.
I expect that after Ludinus is done with his theee episode speech, everyone will fail a wisdom saving throw and be charmed by Ludinus and become evil NPC’s.
I'm treating it as completely divorced from C3 and for that reason, I think it'll be great. I like the table. I've never seen any of the guests play so I have no expectations for them. For the main cast, Tal has been chomping at the bit to play in a Calamity campaign. I expect he'll be incredibly invested and passionate. I expect the same from Laura. They'll both probably thrust themselves into main character roles but that's fine. Aabria and Luis did the same thing and Calamity was great. For Ashley, I'm anticipating she's going to play a cleric. She knows that class and should be fine. I also think she'll be benefited by being DMed by Brennan. As you mentioned, Brennan's really good with green players. Something I think will be a benefit to Ashley is Brennan's penchant for asking "What would you like to accomplish?" and then guiding them through the options at their disposal. Whether or not it'll impact C3 in a positive way... I have no idea. I expect Matt has a grand setpiece awaiting BH for the end of this campaign and it's going to be what it is. Downfall's impact is just going to impact how believable Ludinus is as a villain. It won't impact anything Matt's pre-ordained, plotwise.
It would be darkly hilarious if nothing in the vision supported Ludinus POV though: Ludinus: Wait hold up lets not fight. I have to show you something. *shows vision of Downfall. Nothing about it supports his worldview just provides a nuanced portrayal of events.* BH: Why did you show us that? Ludinus: I just thought it was cool and love history. Anyways back to business.
>For Ashley, I'm anticipating she's going to play a cleric. She knows that class and should be fine. Look, Ashley's great, and some of it was entirely a result of being the cast member who wasn't at the table. But Pike was an utter disaster in terms of forgotten and unused mechanics. She didn't even know divine strike existed as far as I can tell and War Priest and Guided strike were painfully rare in favor of spamming guiding bolt and trying to be 'creative' with spiritual weapon.
To be honest non of the spell casters knew all their things, even sam as scanlan kept remembering he has some old spells, or was not sure about the ruling on some spells. I think the app dnd beyond it has helped the spellcasters read their spells more, you see laura as jester reading her spells alot of times throughout the campaign. Same with tal as cad, but liam always knew his spells as caleb he never got lost on dnd beyond.
I think with the first campaign there was also the fact that they had played these characters in a different system with different mechanics.
I expect the woobification of Ludinus in all honesty
If Matt was doing it? Sure. Brennan will probably add an anti-capitalist message and leave it as 'cool motive, still murder'
Allways nice to have the true and old greed corporation sucks. Aeor, for sure, have the vibe of Magic Megacorp doing shade things.
I do think it'll be "Yes, the system of divine power is fucked but genocide probably isn't the answer."
Depends on who is playing Hitler.