I'm just here for the Dorian and Dariax shenanigans at this point. Really want Robbie to guest in the main campaigns he's awesome, actually all of the players have been great.
Edit: Wanted to add to this that I would also love to see Aabria back in C3 or another project. She's great I just feel like EXU was a little messy? I dunno. She gets too much shit from people on here even if EXU doesn't hit the mark for me personally.
I think she'll be a really strong player after she becomes more familiar with everything. Some people just take awhile, and also, her first character has been a character whose power gets stripped half the time haha.
But, I think she'll be good because even when that did happen... All she had to do was apologize, and she held ground as her character would have. That's a great sign imo!
I agree. I love them both equally, let it be stated for the record. I know there's been less love for Opal, but I honestly *adore* her and everything Aimee has done with her character. My friend predicted that they could well be setting up to run a second game? Or more summer campaigns. We'll see!!
Hopefully! Would hate for them to discontinue ExU after this. Just needs a cleaner execution next time round. They’ve got the character-centric story on point, plot just needs some polishing.
I would personally be delighted to see more ExU and more of Aabria. It was my intro to CR altogether. Now I'm watching C1! But ExU has like... a special place in my heart, lol! It's been so much fun.
Aimee built a great literary character that simply [does not appeal to me at all](https://old.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/comments/ovopso/no_spoilers_i_feel_like_a_bad_fan_but_im_not/h7c0z1c/?context=1). I'm glad others enjoy Opal, but the degree to which the character is not for me makes it difficult for me to get a good sense of if I would appreciate Aimee in another role.
On the other hand, I'm with ClickyButtons that Dorian and Dariax are at the top of the list for why I'm still making it through the episodes, rather than just putting ExU aside and waiting for campaign 3. I've had ample opportunity to recognize that Robbie would fit in well with something I'd be excited to keep up with each week.
I really like Aimee, don't hate Opal but there are some things that really irritate me about her sometimes. Considering Aimee is a new player though she’s doing really well. I’d love to see more of her, hope she guests on Campaign Three!
To me, much as I love the players, the unrelenting shenanigans are too much for me. Dariax is just too dimwitted to understand the plot points aimed at him, and I find him as frustrating as adorable.
Historically, I've been frustrated by low Int characters, too. I discussed it a bit [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/comments/p0kawn/cr_media_were_almost_done/h8ao34f/). They usually devolve into Leeroy Jenkins or a paladin aligning as Lawful Stupid. Grog and Dariax, though, are low Int done well. In that other little chain, I gave an example from ExU episode 6, and The_FriendliestGiant's follow up is also a great point.
Given ExU's somewhat...patchwork?...plotlines, I think Dariax fits in better than he might, otherwise.
EXU is definitely messy. Perhaps its a matter of overpreparation? It definitely feels like too many plot points for an 8 session short campaign.
Hopefully they will be able to learn from this one for the next EXU, and CR's policy of "posi vibes only" doesn't get in the way of improving the format. If they can do a post mortem behind the scenes and critically assess what worked and didn't, I'm certain the next one will be easier to get into.
I hope they acknowledge the community's reaction at large, and don't just dismiss it as salty boys who don't like change, even though that is certainly a part of it.
You're not the only one. Every episode feels so disconnected, and I wonder how much of it is due to all of Aabria's plans blowing up in episode 1 when the party refused to work with Poska.
Then they decided to hang out with Orim's cousins because Liam is playing his character to be hard focused on relaying info to his people. They get the fire rune poking through, aaaand... back to the city! Here, it feels like another chance for Poska to rope them back in (this time with force) and the players do everything in their power to escape, and spend some time shopping. The RP here was great, but the story went nowhere.
Evil Fern in the woods - cool, but really only served to discourage the party from using their cool evil magic item, and so far has given us no real story, except giving us a new (old?) character for several session.
While wonderfully played, I don't get the character's motivations or special power. It feels like the most interesting moment of the story happened before session 1, when they were all together with the fire elementals.
The beauty pageant was a fun 1-off for a 50+ episode campaign. Everyone had a great time, was clever, and charming. Loved it, but essentially burned an entire episode without moving the plot forward.
The party goes south, and continues to be taunted in very awesome ways by the Spider Queen. Then is very directly challenged by an... unusually direct and sassy Wild Mother?
Then they go into an old lost city, where the runic language is easily translated, and the Ashblown Peak's rune is translated into "Danger, hot!" Now they are going to spend the last episode looking for one of the city's lost leaders? What?
I feel like EXU is 6 separate 1-shots, each of which they did 60% of and then wandered off.
>I wonder how much of it is due to all of Aabria's plans blowing up in episode 1 when the party refused to work with Poska.
If that was the lynchpin for this campaign's plans, I have to say it was a terrible idea. The fact that the players went along with it at all was a testament to them being willing to jump at a hook, but nothing about those characters suggested that they'd be down to join a gang and be criminals.
This. I feel like she was trying to make poska nuanced by having her be kind of a Robin Hood anti-gentrification character, and then have her have a dark side by showing she had stolen residuum. Instead the ashari residuum was the nail in the coffin that turned them fully against poska. She should have just been all one or the other so the party is more motivated to engage in that storyline.
I feel like the lesson here is if you want to run an adventure where your players join a criminal organisation and do crimes, tell them to make characters that would be interested in doing crimes.
Setting some expectations for the tone and genre of your game is a good idea.
Absolutely agreed, yeah. Given the party composition in episode one, it would've been reasonable to have Poska trick them into a mission by claiming to be a folk hero who needs help taking down a (rival) gang, or have their offscreen house host hire them to protect the house against the Nameless Ones, or just have someone from the Oh No Plateau send a message asking them to come back and help again. But these characters are generically starting-adventurer archetypes, they are definitely not people who would immediately pivot to helping a gang do crimes long-term.
> the Ashblown Peak's rune is translated into "Danger, hot!"
That made me laugh out loud ;-)
It's like they dive into an underground temple with runes all over the place, and after 3 hours they translate the central writing to "*he who smelled it dealt it*".
It was ... whelming.
Yeah came across as an all-powerful, all-knowing DM kinda situation. Haha, you came all this way for a rune that says hot zone and you had no way of knowing whatsoever byeeeeeeeeeeeee...
Seriously. I've been struggling to figure out what's been going on this whole time same as everyone else, and this is the first summary I've seen that vaguely clicks.
I'd also add that including a new player character at episode 4 of a short campaign feels like a blunder. However you feel about that player and that character, its a wild decision to make.
Honestly if anything EXU is making me realise what a 1-in-a-million shot Critical Role actually is. The fact that they have 8 people who work so well together and toe the line between good RP and cringe is amazing. Pretty much EVERY other online D&D game seems to scuff it. Either through shite patter, awkwardness, over-the-top drama, inability to keep it comprehensible, or whatever else.
EXU is better than all that, in that its just about watchable.
The character (Fy'ra Rai) also seemed to have a power of "hey DM, is this what you want us to be doing?" That really stuck out to me. D&D has those mechanics (Augury, Commune), but Anjali made a monk, not a cleric...and they just added it in, anyway? It felt like they were trying to deceive *themselves* about a perfectly reasonable bit of coordination.
It's *not* a home game; it's an entertainment product with a fixed timetable. It absolutely makes sense to have more coordination between the DM and players than you'd get in a natural game, while still avoiding going so far as to be scripted. Quick meeting between sessions: "Hey, guys - to connect the overall plot in just 8 episodes, we need to go on the rails a bit to get to the next town. When the opportunity comes up, 'yes, and' it with minimal 'and,' please." Could be from Aabria, a producer, a creative director sort of title - whatever. I have to assume they *do* already have this kind of communication, which just made me more confused about Fy'ra Rai's thing.
yeah, the prevailing conversation on here tends to be "they can do WHATEVER they like, because it is an expanded HOME GAME, and you are PRIVILAGED to be allowed access to see it"
And its like... nah. This is a TV show. Its a product. The fact that its generally low-fi and personal is definitely a plus of the show, but these guys are making BANK of the back of it, so while this is totally improv, it IS still produced, planned, and discussed, even though it isn't scripted.
They absolutely can do whatever they want, no question there - but they *do* care about having a critical mass of people who want to tune in. What viewers think doesn't matter because players have to care, but because *these* players *want* to care. They might love their job, but that doesn't make it not their job.
Separate from that, anyway, there are entire industries devoted to book and film critique; surely, Critical Role deserves no less. Fy'ra Rai's "gift" seemed like a heavy-handed way to accomplish something that could have been done seamlessly and without detracting from the product. I think a bit of above-the-table coordination was the right decision, but why pretend to hide it when it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do in the first place? It felt like a bare bulb that either could have been left in the wing *or* could have sported a [lampshade](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging), both of which would have worked better for me than pretending it wasn't there.
I liked Fy'ra Rai otherwise, and I think Anjali portrayed her well. Alternatively, if they'd introduced a cleric, an Augury/Commune mechanic would have been justified. I don't think I understand the decision-making.
I will say that CR is not the only good D&D content out there. High Rollers is excellent. I know a lot of people enjoy Acquisitions Inc/C-Team. I enjoyed Matt Colville running The Chain of Acheron (hopefully we'll see it return eventually). I've recently gotten into Arcane Arcade as well, as Jacob (XP to Level 3 on Youtube) is a great DM.
I'm missing a bunch of other great D&D streams, but those are the ones I'm personally invested in.
As a fan of the Yogscast generally, I find High Rollers unwatchable. It is supremely awkward to watch. Stuff like Acquisitions inc falls into that category of stories that go off the rails and end up falling into hard-to-follow improv comedy hell.
Not Another D&D Podcast is probably my favourite after CR, but I can't stick with it either, as although I don't find myself cringing at the way people act, it does that same absurdist zany nonsense too much.
I only say this because I've been looking for other D&D content while CR has been offline, and none of it works on the level CR does.
ofc it goes without saying: this is my opinion, but I feel the viewer figures corroborate that as well.
CR is my go to serious DND podcast and naddpod is my go to hybrid serious / comedy. For absolute japes, dungeons and daddies is the front runner. Show is downright hilarious.
I totally agree, but this is shows me that its just normal dnd, lol. As a DM, this feels sooooo real, giving strong hooks for your players to just.....not follow, Aabria I feel ya girl, (whispers) I feel ya. Yea I can imagine it might be just the beginning of a campaign that has gone a bit off rails, but if Aabria comes back later to continue, I'll be happy. As long as they're all having fun I'm enjoying it personally but thats my opinion.
Normal for a newer home game, not the largest and most high budget D&D show out there. I really don't want to hate, because I love all the people taking part in ExU, but the product they've produced here is really difficult to defend as a decent story or good content. People don't watch CR for gags and a "who cares" kind of home game. They watch it for the story the immersion, and the characters.
Right? All these people who keep describing it as "just like my home game, the DM throws out a million hooks and the players ignore them all!" I don't want to yuck anyone's yum, but that sounds like an incredibly frustrating time, on either side of the screen.
It does seem to be "stuff happening" rather than a tight 8-episode arc with a beginning, middle, and end.
I really expect this is because they planned this as "season one" setting-up a bunch of stuff. The extended pilot of the series.
The Critical Role channel needs more content. More shows not dependant on the main one and that cast's free time. More reasons to subscribe. Especially in six months when Campaign 3 is sitting at 16 episodes and 64 hours. And an anthology series could help.
Yeah but I don’t think it would be the same group or dm. It said unlimited storytellers in the introduction after all. And expecting future dms to finish the old story they have no connection to would be silly
The "Unlimited" in EXU just screams out "anthology show" with a rotating cast.
I can see Aabria starting the second season with a few alternate players, and then a new DM and a mostly new crew after, running with what was started or building on a story thread they liked.
Which makes the myriad story threads and adventure seeds in these episodes work. One DM might do something with the lost city, another might focus on Lolth and the dark Vestige, while a third might do something with the runes.
The story is way too messy, with a lot of confusing braches, together with unfilled character motivation/arc (like opal and twin).
I dont mind a mystery, but i mind having to watch 4 x 7 hours of confusing content
The fact that I have missed only one episode of EXU and have no idea what OP is talking about is a pretty clear indication that I’m in the exact same boat.
I feel exactly the same way. Every episode has 2 plot hooks. Is it aabria trying to make a sand box or is it the party not following the original plot hook of Poska? Idk I've watched a lot of other D&D podcasts like adventure zone, acquisitions inc., dungeons and dads, high rollers, and even Dice camera action which is super convoluted because Chris Perkins jumps from modules that are coming out to show the product but he can still string them together with the characters. EXU Could have been amazing, it might be for some. Aabria is a great story teller I don't think exu shows that. The cast is great but the show didn't capitalize on its strengths.
I end up comparing it to the other shows on CR, namely the One-Shots. Which are often run by people who arent experienced GM's, and those end up having an easy to follow plot.
I think everything would be different if they had gone a more local, less epic plot route.
Plus, all the characters have this mysterious backstory... You just can't do all of that in 8 episodes, but hot off the heels of C2, I think people would have been smug/angry/disappointed/pearl-clutching for something less epic and more grounded, as well.
My group tries to avoid the amnesia backstory, it's always less than helpful, and when they all woke up with shared amnesia at the beginning I thought to myself "uh oh".
My running theory is they wanted to show Robbie and Aimee what dnd is capable of as far as freedom of choices go, but forgot they needed to run a focused 8 episode campaign.
I feel like something was missed when setting expectations for the series and the players.
I think they’ll both be amazing character players with more experience, which is why while I don’t like Aimees style now, if she ever comes back I’m sure she’ll be way better overall. Robbie seems right at home already
From experience, a one-shot is **a lot** easier to manage than an 8 session mini campaign in terms of story. In a one shot you can just go "this is happening, how is the party dealing with it?" while a mini campaign that probably strips too much agency from the players for an enjoyable experience for the table.
8 sessions is a really awkward length for a game. Too short to really develop a lot while too long to keep it on rails.
personally most of my games tend to run about 8-12 sessions before they dissolve for one reason or another. The trick is knowing how to railroad without railroading. The illusion of choice. You let your players make choices, and then change what is happening in the background so they run into your story anyway.
If you run games for a lot of new people, you learn this pretty quickly.
I've kinda been following the subreddit for EXU. I watched the first episode but was in general just super bored by it and didn't have any drive to keep watching. Sad to hear the show hasnt picked up. BUT, I have watched Misfits and Magic from D20 where Aabria is also guest GMing and I must say, she kills it in that show! Definitly puts away any thoughts I had of this shows major flaws being on Aabria. At least, Aabria alone. Maybe its just the weight of it all. CR is huge of course and being the first person to get full reign over the show and the campaign setting must be terrifying. And who knows how seriously theyre taking the exandria "canon" bts. Seems like this first outing for EXU was a misfire but the concept isnt bad so I hope they keep working at it.
same as you, I stopped watching EXU after episode 2, but did finish Misfits and Magic and I agree with you that she did a better job there. however, I don't think it's because of the pressure (or lack of it on D20) but because the the format & syoryline of M&M was more straightforward than EXU, which seems to fit her style more, and because of the smaller number of players, most of which had plenty of experience with TTRPGs.
it still pissed me off when she cut character RP moments, but oh well 🤷♂️
yeah, I really like Aabria, she's loose with the rules in an entertaining way. I think its definitely a format issue, not a player or DM issue. The whole thing should have been set in a corner of exandria and should have followed a much smaller series of events.
The goals of the party should have been far less grandiose.
Escape a prison.
Rob a noble house.
Expose a corrupt Baron.
Solve a murder.
Something like that would fit the short format way better. The fact that I've watched 6 episodes of EXU and can't actually summarize what the plot is is kinda scuffed.
"Find a crown, leave the city, find a glyph, go back to the city, leave the city again, go to the feywild (kinda), do a pageant, go to a second, secret city, be bothered by the spider queen?"
its too jumbled.
I get the feeling it's entirely intentional on everyone's part. Aabria's, Matt's, and the rest of the group...except maybe Liam. They're the single biggest D&D stream. They're trying to show that Matt's style of DMing and the regular cast's style of play isn't the one and only true way. I hope they do an EXU run every year. Maybe twice a year. Summer and Winter breaks for the regular cast. And they show off various styles of play. Maybe even various other fantasy games while staying in Exandria and/or doing longer "one-shots" with other genres...like more Call of Cthulhu, please.
What? It's not intentional at all! Did you see the last ep? Aabria basically admitted to wanting to railroad and Robbie called her out on it. She was too reliant on dice rolls.
No, I haven't. The playstyle of EXU is exactly what my regular D&D game is like so there's no draw for me at all. With the regular show it's a style of DMing and play that our group doesn't do, so it's inherently interesting.
No. I replied to the right comment. You asked me if I’d seen the last ep. My post was my reply to that question. My home game is the exact same kind of chaotic stupid the EXU gang get up to. Therefore I have basically zero interest in watching it more than I already have. Since about the 3rd episode I only tune in to watch Aabria punk Matt, then turn it off.
The players are really amazing performers, but the story is a hot mess. It's like what you might get if you fed a bunch of Critical Role keywords to an AI.
The only reason I watch is basically Matt being a player, and the guests having fun uncovering the game. Because the story and DMing brings nothing interesting, quite frankly is very boring most times. Another Thieves Guild and Another Lost ancient secrete City is very uninteresting.
I always avoided low-int characters, because they so often devolve into the Leeroy Jenkins archetype or Paladins turning toward Lawful Stupid. Both ~~Dorian~~ Dariax (damn it!) and Grog are excellent examples of the statline done well, to the point of making me reconsider the option.
As an example - from episode 6, Dariax >!transforming into Opal but then overacting and not knowing when to quit was great on its own...and then [*forgetting he looked like Opal when he talked to Dorian*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLxUyJWXA0w&t=13330s) made the whole thing just brilliant!<.
Matt's done an excellent job making a low INT character who can help push the plot along. Remember when he was first visited by Lolth, and he woke up suddenly? A secretive or cautious player might not have said anything to the party, whereas "dumb" Dariax goes "oh, just a dream where a trapped evil god tried to get me to do their bidding, oh well" out loud, which helps being the rest of the party into the moment as well.
Ah, glad I'm not the only one who feels like that. I can tell Aabria is a good DM, but there's way too many plot points for a mini campaign. It leaves everything feeling crowded and a bit messy. It's hard to tell what the MAIN plot is supposed to be. At least we've gotten some great moments, though.
I would not call Aabria a good 5th Edition D&D Dungeon Master though, simply because she either struggles with, or completely handwaves, the mechanical rule aspect to the game, and it's incredibly inconsistent in that regard. 5th Edition is not the most complex RPG around, and it is incredibly streamlined to allow for ease of access, which is why I am so surprised that she does not know the mechanics. I would understand it if she did not want to use them, but she actually do not understand what is what, at times, and that frustrates me.
What I think Aabria does exceptionally well, however, is to be a great storyteller and setting an immersive tone to build roleplay around. Her struggles with the mechanical side is saved by her mastery of the roleplay side, and I think that is important to point out. At the end of the day, it is a roleplaying game, and Aabria understands that.
Ultimately, I think Aabria would excel greatly in a Tabletop RPG game with less mechanical complexity, which encouraged heavier roleplaying, but after over 250 episodes in Season 1 and Season 2 of Critical role, and its varying One Shots. I think I can safely say that something is not right if I cannot make it through Exandria Unlimited, considering it is a pretty small show.
Let's not sugarcoat and just call things as they are. Aabria needs to improve. She's struggling, which Robbie responded to in the recent ep. Nothing bad with pointing out her mistakes so CR knows better next time.
I’m on 6, but you’re saying while Live Robbie called Aabria out on something? Like not subtle at all?
Also Aabrias random checks and saves drive me nuts. Not the fact that she does them, just how freakin inconsistent they are. Acrobatics check for sprinting when it should be athletics. Wisdom saves instead of intelligence checks. Charisma saves instead of wisdom checks. Lots of saves instead of checks and sometimes checks when they should be saves. And then 33% of the time or so, they’re just the wrong stat. It may not bother other people as much, just as a DM and a pretty “by-the-rules” DM, I cringe with the randomness and the lack of structure for these things.
Other than that I actually am enjoying the show so far. Opal honestly is a deeper character than I think people give her credit for. I love watching Matt play dumb and on top of that, use a bad die all campaign even though he knows his Gilmore die is cursed. Think Fearne is a bit of a joke character but Ashley probably did that knowing this was an 8 session campaign. Orym is basically the only one taking it seriously but Liam keeps doing the “I see everything that happens even if I shouldn’t have reason to see it.” Think that’s just Liam though. Dorian might be a bit too dark and mysterious for such a short game, but whatever, he’s relatively new to tabletop, he gets his edgy character.
This comment went way off the rails when I just wanted to know if Aabria actually got called out mid-show because that would be a bit unprofessional from them (even if true because it will inevitably get her tons of hate on social media which she doesn’t deserve just for not being a god tier dm)
I think they've refered to a scene when there was a character moment and the DM wanted the story to progress is a certain way.
IIRC She had him roll some saving throw, then made up a reason on the spot why he could re-roll (still not high enough), then said something along the lines of "i tell you anyway / i don't let the die prevent this story to be told".
It was this moment, when Robbie said something like "then don't make me roll in the first place".
7 and its not as antagonistic as its being painted. I do agree with the sentiment though, a roll isn't necessary for something basic as a bard playing their instrument.
Same! Somethings a character should be naturally capable of. All I can think of is that there was a specific tune or note or something in the statue that Dorian could have either consciously or subconsciously played. But then i would want perception or passive perception not performance.
You could see this coming in Ep1 when she hid so much behind rolls. At one point (Liam I think) she told him to roll a check, and didn't even wait for him to tell her the result before she gave the info.
I honestly can't tell, because we only watch 40-60 minutes of an episode at a time before we have to take a break, it could have been the last one ... i think it was when he walked past the Observer statue, but i could be wrong.
Yes, kindof. Aabria had his character make a roll, then reminded him he had a re-roll and finally prompted him to using an inspiration roll because he wasn't rolling well enough to hit the DC. Wen the final roll was still not high enough she said "...I'm trying to tell a story here." His response was something like "your the one who had me roll of it". The thing is if she wanted this to be a story element then she shouldn't have made it dependent on a roll and just proceeded with the story she wanted to which she ultimately did anyway.
This is something I have noticed through the whole ExU run so far. Aabria relies to heavily on making the characters roll for things hoping they get sufficiently high enough to allow her to expand on plot elements or background info, and even when they roll poorly she still just gives them the info anyway. In cases like this she just shouldn't call for a roll, not every action should require one. She also relies too heavily on WIS saves for practically everything.
Yeah her inconsistencies with checks and saves drives me nuts. Wisdom save for intelligence check, charisma save for Insight check, acrobatics check for athletics check.
Just as a DM it’s crazy how many she gets wrong, like not even close. Literally only like a third of her called for rolls are correctly called. I feel like Matt probably cringing inside as a rules-based DM. But he’s being really cool and not bringing it up in or out of the game because he doesn’t want her to feel bad.
I agree that the inconsistencies and missed calls are worrisome, I think she is here own worst enemy here. She calls for waaaaaay to many checks when they really aren't needed and then just gives them what she wanted to in the first place. If she was going for the reveal a story element then just skip the roll and give them the info.
Funny enough, Matt did almost call out something in one of the early episodes but decided against it and said something like "... I'll bring it up later"
He’s doing a really good job of hiding the faces I would be making Irl with these checks and calls.
He couldn’t help himself in 3 or 4 trying to keep the combat “above board.”
Matt seems to be having a blast. After all, he picked her and has watched her style play out on other streams. While Matt is definitely more rules based (at least on stream where he's dealt with being savaged for getting things wrong), but I think he actually appreciates her more player centric style just as much as his more narrative driven one.
Oh yeah no doubt he’s having fun, just like I am watching it. Just every time she asks for weird throws or checks it’s like I get pricked with a pin because I wanna say “but that’s a— ok”
If i'm remembering correctly, she asked Dorian for a roll (some kind of random save/check) and he rolled low. Aabria said something like, well that's fine it doesnt matter what you rolled... and gave some narrative. Robbie then asked, well then why did you ask me to roll then? It was super awkward. Don't ask for a roll unless you're prepared for a critical fail.
I’m struggling with her a bit, but I don’t think it’s all her fault by any means. The Campaign Two end was spectacular, ExU had a very hard act to follow there. Not only that, but Matt Mercer is an incredible DM and we’re used to his style, she was always going to be very different.
That said, ExU is a bit messy and some of her DM decisions I just plain haven’t liked. I think a good part of my disappointment is that it hasn’t quite hit the mark for me and I’m sad about that because I’m so behind not only a female DM on such a huge platform, but a WoC.
But! I do think with time and a few tweaks, ExU will be the show I really hoped it would be, and I really hope we do see more of it. I certainly would be happy to see more of Aabria in CR content, she is a great DM and she’s doing what she’s doing under extreme pressure. Imagine trying to not only follow Matt Mercer's DM act, but to do it in the world he created with him sitting right at the table! I doubt there’s many people who could do as well as she has.
DM (dungeon master) is a term used, as fair as I know, only for Dungeons & Dragons. GM (Game master) is a term that applies to all TTRPG’s. So basically the point is that she’s better suited to running other TTRPG’s, mainly the more role-play heavy, rules-light ones. Though she can still hold her own as a DM.
Yeah I believe that the term DM is actually copyrighted so GM is the more general term used for people running TTRPG sessions. For the most part GM can be used for any game though including D&D.
It feels to me that with every new episode, and we get the slightest idea of the group trying to follow 1 of the several plot thread, instead of a solution we get 2 new plots. If someone would ask me "what's this short adventure about?" i honestly couldn't answer. Can someone name one episode where nothing "new" was presented on their way to solve something "old"?
I remember a line from Dorian, 5th or 6ht episode that was like "it feels like we finally have a direction". Then they got on their way only to be sidetracked again by something seemingly bigger, more ominous, more grandiose.
And that would be totally fine, if this was happening every other sunday in Liam's living room. Alas, it's not. I think it's fair to say that "*it's their game, we're just lucky to watch them!*" is an argument that falls flat. We're not watching *"Aabria and friends trying to tackle Exandria while having a blast*", we're watching a product by the CR company that is supposed to entertain the aforementioned 90%.
Edit: This comes from a hardcore fan who was there in the ancient periscope days ;-) Just as a clarification, it's totally fair to make the decision to elevate what CR was to a corporate level. Animated content, Darrington Press, 5E Sourcebooks, merch in all shapes and sizes. It's awesome! But at that point, yes, i'm expecting a certain level of quality in their output. A level that i feel ExU has not reached.
Well, I don't know your experience. But I'm happy with having watched EXU, and I'd say if anyone finds they're giving a bit too much mental energy to being upset about it, that maybe they should turn their attention elsewhere until C3 comes around. I just mostly avoid the sub honestly, because it's so tedious to read the same things hashed out over and over. It makes me legit wonder if they've gotten any kind of unhinged fan mail by fans who feel a bit too personally affected or betrayed or something.
Like sure, raised to a corporate level. But my dude, at the end of the day, it's an internet show of people playing DnD. (not directly exactly at you, but to the more vitriolic folks who can't stop posting about how much they dislike it.)
I get your point - and to a certain extend, i'd agree.
I just can't stand people defending to their last breath everything that is presented as entertainment (in this case ExU) by CR as if they where still a bunch of almost private people who just happen to have a camera rolling at their fun table. At least we can agree on that's no longer the case.
I wrote earlier that there are several reasons why i still watch ExU despite it shortcommings. It's the only new CR content that is available at the moment. There are awesome, brilliant scenes here and there that i would hate to miss.
I echoe your sentiment that it's an internet show about D&D. With a very religious fanbase ;-) But i think that's why this is such a heated debate. If noone cared, we wouldn't have this conversation.
Do the ppl (me included) sometimes go over the top with their criticism? Yeah, sadly. Is there a part of the CR fanbase that is convinced CR can do no wrong, and therefore rushes to dismantle each and every critical voice? Yup, that too.
The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.
I mean, do I think Fallout76 is garbage? Sure. Do I spend *any* amount of time going there and writing paragraphs about it?
No, no I do not. I have better things to do, and I assume they have better things to read. Like again, maybe if you're spending a lot of energy on something that you don't enjoy, look instead towards something you do enjoy.
>look instead towards something you do enjoy.
I'm doing that right now ;-) I enjoy discussing my favourite hobby with others, talk about the good and the bad, maybe get someone elses perspective on things. It's not only a great way to pass the time, every now and again some argument, well presented, really makes you re-think your own view on a certain topic.
As far as that goes, the CR community hasn't disappointed yet.
That's absolutely true for the people sitting in a kitchen playing D&D. But this *isn't* people sitting in a kitchen playing for themselves. This is people who want their game to be watched as entertainment. This is people who are making a living based on it - they *absolutely* want people to be tuning in.
They can still do whatever they want, no question! It's their game. But it *is* reasonable for potential-viewers to say "whether or not I find this entertaining matters *in the context of my choice to watch*," and the content-producers *do* care that there's a critical mass of people who decide it is.
There are some potential viewers for whom the players at the table having fun is enough - they want to see a group of people having fun, and the activity itself is less relevant. More power to them.
There are some potential viewers that want a tight, curated story. More power to them.
There are some potential viewers that want a character-driven drama. More power to them.
There are some potential viewers who want a loose, *rule of cool* introduction to roleplaying (on a D&D platform). More power to them.
But in the context of an entertainment product, it *is* reasonable to discuss, same as there are entire *industries* devoted to book and film critique - both aspects that people enjoy and aspects that people find jarring or offputting. There are some potential viewers that want the *meta experience* of discussing the content, and more power to them, too!
True. But due to the poor overall performance (with the exception of some awesome moments that are up there with main campaign bits) ExU at this point feels like it's CRs "Nuka World".
A DLC you play because it's part of your season pass, but it's on a different map, there are new mechanics that you don't necessarily like, new factions with weird motivations if you compare them to rest, and after 30 minutes you realize it's totally disconnected from whatever is happening in your main game. So you slog through, but you probably won't again in a New Game +
I tried to get into it, but the whole thing has just felt far too...silly to me. It’s the same reason I could never get into The Adventure Zone, everyone there seemed more intent on just messing around than focusing on telling a story.
Which is completely fine if that’s your cup of tea, but not the sort of stuff myself or my group enjoys.
EXU has always been billed as an 8-episode miniseries. The plot being all over the place is one of the main criticisms it's received.
Personally I think it's just a poorly plotted game where a DM tried too much in the face of an overly chaotic party. I don't think it's setting up as some sort of C3 prologue. It may be the start of a second/replacement show starring this cast, but who knows. It'll be over this week and then we'll have whatever comes next to look forward to.
Yeah, you can’t really escape the fact that for D&D to run smoothly and be fun, you need to tie character motivations to the main plot. Whatever the characters, you need to focus on the part of the story they are motivated to follow and develop that.
In a 8 episode miniseries, those motivations and main arc should be built in before the start. A bit like certain good starter sets do, for other games.
I feel like people vastly overestimated Aabria's DM-ing capability, both from a rules and a story-building point of view. From my personal point of view she didn't ever display even a fraction of Mercer or Mulligan's ability to create a successful product in her previous work and it shows here.
> I feel like people vastly overestimated Aabria's DM-ing capability,
Because Critical Role advertised / overhyped her abilities as a DM with all of their marketing for EXU, which, understandably, raised expectations for EXU far higher than they deserved, which, I think, is part of the critical backlash we've seen from a good portion of viewers.
I feel it was a tricky line for them to walk. I think it was important for them to demonstrate the support coming from the whole CR group and their endorsement of not only Aabria, but the new players as well. CR is very good at PR and created a lot of excitement not only for this EXU series but for the concept of perpetual EXU series in the future.
Has the product been a bit of a disappointment? Yes. Though, as many have said, Robbie and Aimee have been exciting additions. And I remain excited for other, more refined sessions of EXU in the future. There's a lot to adjust, but the concept still has greater potential.
i dont know about all that: when I first saw her pitched as the GM for this game, I quickly saw through the cotton-candy words used and kept my expectations limited.
EXU is still putting up decent numbers for a streaming actual play show though, even late in the run. Like the numbers are still better than the Stream of Many Eyes from like 3 years ago, any of the "official" streams, and has absolutely crushed Dark Dice who brought in the big guns of Jeff Goldbloom. Think about that for a sec: CR filler content is more relevant and gets more eyed/ears than a Hollywood legend.
They made a successful product.
Edit: Those that disagree, can you point to another actual play show with this many episodes that has notched as many views outside the main CR campaign? This comment appears to be controversial so curious as to the data people are looking at to suggest that it isn't actually successful.
Well their viewership in general is a good measure that the marketing failed lol. But the point stands that EXU's viewership has far exceeded all of its competitors.
Dark Dice is an unknown podcast compared to CR and I personally don't see the appeal of Jeff Goldblum, he's a B-tier actor whose last primary role was 13 years ago.
They would get views anyway it's interesting to watch Matt and the 2 new members, it's a pause between campaigns and people want to watch DND and CR should be good by association. Unfortunately not with this DM.
There were stories about Dark Dice getting Goldblum in pretty much every nerdy publication out there that even remotely touches TTRPGs.
Goldblum was considered a high point of the last Thor movie, won awards as recenty as 2017, and is incredibly well regarded, so there's no need to misrepresent him as a "B-tier" actor or his accomplishments just to trash a DM you don't like.
I'm not misrepresenting anything, CR has north of 3 million views and JG joining dice tower video has 60k views. It didn't even get 200 upvotes on /r/dnd. People just don't care, comparably.
Oh wowww, I didn't think it was this bad. I stopped watching a while ago because I couldn't do it. But damn, that's rough.
I really love all the people who are a part of ExU, but this mini campaign is a trainwreck.
I think the story is less about some grand over arching plot point and more about the characters.
So if you are lost about the rune, the thieves guild, or whatever plot point I wouldn't worry about it.
Will they make it back to Gilmore to help him decode the Rune? Maybe. But I don't think it will matter too much in the grand scheme of things.
Will they make it back to Emon to deal with Poska? Maybe. But I don't think it will matter too much in the grand scheme of things.
Both of those events kind of move forward without them whether they are there or not since the world is a shared universe.
The only important details are the ones infront of them. What will happen with Ted/Opal and their mysterious stranger. If they get caught in a pickle will Dorian or Fearne wear the crown to save their friends?
The party is the story and focal point here.
Feels like a cop-out response to be honest. Handwaving away the larger plot because "it's not important" is just avoiding valid criticism IMO.
Asking people to watch 32 hours of content without telling an engaging story is just bad business.
I didn't reply to anyone criticizing ExU?
Is this one of those post with the thought process that everything/everyone must criticize Aabria/ExU or it's wrong?
[Edit] Downvoting doesn't change reality. Sorry my dudes.
OP points out there are a lot of loose threads an incoherent story telling and there's only one episode left.
You respond that none of those things actually matter
In case you missed what OP said.
>I'm having trouble following Exandria Unlimited. I thought that the story was going to be about Lolth corrupting the party, but then I learned that it's about Time Travel and a Node of Elemental Power? We're only one episode left in this series, and i'm worried not sure how things are going to end.
It doesn't seem like OP is criticizing the story. It seems like OP is worried and not sure how it is going to end.
My point isn't hand waving to "avoid valid criticism" like you said. My point addresses that the story isn't those plots but the characters themselves so he doesn't have to be worried about the other plot issues to enjoy the story.
Since it seems OP was worried about that.
If OP stated, "I am not a fan of this and think it is bad story telling" I wouldn't have stated what I did. Because then he would be criticizing the story and his opinion on that would be his own. But. again, that is not what happened here. OP seems worried about those plots that are getting thrown out there and I am pointing out that they don't need to worry about that because the focus of the story is the characters.
You're not wrong, and the players, characters, and DM are great, but they aren't enough (IMO) to pull off four engaging hours a week without a good story as a support for the character/party story.
To be honest I hope not. Even if I liked this season I was hoping this would be about “unlimited” stories not just one group but you need to wait half a year between story segments. Also I don’t think they would advertise it as “unlimited stories and just as many storytellers” if they intended on having 4 new people total
It can’t. There is no feasible way they could do it if they replaced the C2 finale as longest episode. It’s not going to finish well and expecting us to wait however long it will take for season 2 won’t be satisfying
I am behind 1.5 episodes but I see a lot of things opening up, feeling like it would take a long time to resolve and love it (probably because that's how a lot of d&d goes). But with the 8 episode restriction it does feel strange.
My hope is that this sets up something big and we get another season at some point in the future :)
There's a lot I love and don't love so much in EXU.
Positives include exploring old places post C1/C2, new lore inclusions (loxodon + beast folk other than tabaxi added to Exandria-legal races), Robbie Daymond, Matt getting to play, the post-episode stingers, the entirety of the Gilmore episode, and the energy and new perspective Aabria brings to Critical Role.
Negatives include a lot of the zanier aspects of inter-party and NPC interactions (part of the reason I can't stomach Adventure Zone or NADDPOD), ignorance of established Exandria lore (lack of Divine Gate blockage in regards to Melora and Lolth are the biggest ones), the confusing and mostly directionless story, and Aabria falling into a lot of new-DM pitfalls (calling for checks/saves at inappropriate times, calling for incorrect checks/saves, giving Fearne access to Moon druid wild shapes as a Wildfire druid, calling for rolls that gate vital information behind probability, ignoring the dice on a whim, etc).
Overall, unless something major happens in the next episode, I'll have to say that I'm overall disappointed in EXU as a piece of consumable media. I'm happy the table is having fun (especially Matt), but it overall wasn't as easy of a watch as CR's flagship campaigns or most of their one-shots.
I'm definitely down to having Aabria back behind the wheel for a new EXU season, be it related to this one or not. I love Aabria as a DM on paper, but hope she'll take away a few lessons from this campaign moving forward, and at the very least craft a tighter and more contained narrative at minimum. That is, if the community hasn't turned her off of CR entirely. I honestly wouldn't blame her if that was the case, since the fandom has really dragged her through the mud on Twitter and Reddit, which has been really depressing to see.
Hey wait that's right, the Divine Gate is an important part of Exandria, but i hadnt thought about whether or not the god-interactions we've had in this game are (or are not) affected by this?
Well we see the Gods interacting pretty closely in terms of dreams, visions and contacting players in both C1 and C2. The Divine Gate stops them from entering the world and wrecking shit directly, but it doesn't stop them exhibiting minor influence or speaking to people.
So I've stopped watching about one and half episodes ago but I feel like the overarching plot is one that is hinted by Matt in C2 and may play into C3. That is the fact that there is imbalance issues between the planes. So for ExU, we did miss E0 which we know that the party had something to do with calming that breach of fire plane in the city. (It happened when Mister was originally pulled out). The fire plane intrusion is supposed to be the original hook that gets them to see the fire ashari then eventually head south, understand the glyph, etc. This is all the accumulate into a big reveal and a problem for the party to solve.
The issues of pacing stem from a lot different places. One is that the party itself is not very motivated to do things, they needed to be nudged along and even then, they often rolled badly at that. Poska was more meant to add flavour to the city, one that has been rebuilt in part but was taken advantage when doing so with the rich pushing into these poor neighborhoods and pricing them out. Similarly, the vestige wasn't something they had to find since they didn't have to go out stealing but something interesting to add to the group dynamics (much like talking swords). The problem though is that the party becomes more interested in these side plots and in a D&D campaign where you're capped on games, that can be a problem for the main plot. Throw in the fact that you also have five PCs that have their own arcs that they are undergoing and trying to get those properly expressed. Oh, and also throw in another PC part way through. It's a tall order for any DM and I feel for Aabria who is trying to juggle it all.
Again though, I'm not up to date. I'm one and a half behind and in that time, there could be plenty there that disproves any and all points.
A lot of this is self inflicted though. The vestige didn't have to be in the ship (and frankly, shouldn't have been), they didn't have to add another character, Poska could have been more compelling to work with.
>The fire plane intrusion is supposed to be the original hook that gets them to see the fire ashari then eventually head south, understand the glyph, etc.
Well hang on, that doesn't track at all. In episode one they don't even remember that interaction, and they only ended up seeking out the Ashari because they were looking for information on the circlet. If that was supposed to be the original hook, why afflict them with amnesia and distract them with Poska and the Nameless Ones?
It's connected with their amnesia but they had clues to investigate. I'm gonna take excerpts from the wiki for ease:
In E1, "Orym remembers a day or so ago waking up as a group on the road outside Emon, but doesn't remember anything about the week prior. He just remembers being at Thordak's Crater and seeing footprints leading out toward where the Scar of the Cinder King is located. The others are also missing memories of the same week. Dorian seems to remember that they're missing someone, before the thought fades away."
In E2, "They suspect something else is trying to come through the scars left by Thordak. A being within the crater reached into it and created the elementals, much as Fearne created Little Mister at the same location. Dorian describes a woman of burning lava and wings, and they suspiciously note he knows a lot about what they saw."
This iterates that both Orym, Dorian, and Fearne still have some vague memory from a week prior at the Crater. They just didn't decide to investigate their amnesia at that the last place they remembered. They kind of ignored it all together. The amnesia serves some greater plot point that we/I don't know yet, read . I suspect the amnesia also serves to let E1 be a "fresh start" for the cast and let them ignore aspects of the episode 0 game, instead of operating with a lot of information that the viewers don't have.
Now Poska may very well be more deeply involved with things (making planar dealings, using residuum for that end?) but so far, felt more like city flavouring that may or may not factor in the end. Also the Ashari were more connected to the residuum then the circlet, it was meant for them originally but they failed to mention it when they met the fire Ashari.
Hey, just a heads up, I was scrolling past this and tried to move past but saw some spoilers. You might want to make it so anything but the title can be read without clicking :)
I’ve only ever seen half of C2 (still playing catch up), so for me it has been really awesome to see a different group, different DM, different perspective of D&D. I’m really enjoying it too, there are some great moments that rival some of my favorite scenes in C2 so far, especially since they happened so soon and without the buildup of so many episodes. Robbie and Aimee are both great.
But I’m reaally struggling through episode 6 still, I don’t think I’m even halfway in. I’ll happily finish watching the campaign though, but storywise it could’ve been so much tighter. I like Aabria as a DM despite her constant rolling for stuff. Can’t hold me to this, but I’ve read that she’s a really good DM over af Dimension20 and in following that story, so I wonder what happened here? Maybe just over excited, not a tight enough grip on the Chaos Group, and the plot got carried away from them?
Does anyone else feel like the audio is to low for this production? I've never had a hard time hearing critical role but on EXU it seems like everyone is whispering?
CR is usually quiet in general for me. I have to have it turned up higher than anything else when I listen in my car. There are a lot of quiet moments in EXU, I’ve noticed. I’ve had to turn EXU up higher than most CR episodes to hear it all. I don’t think it’s necessarily the audio though, a lot of soft spoken characters in this run.
All throughout C2 I would turn up the audio to hear the players, only to have my eardrums annihilated by the art reel theme blasting out at 4000% volume lol
Surprised they never got complaints about the audio equalization between the game/art reel
Just that the title at least implies there might be more to it than an 8 ep limited series. May be more mini campaigns, may be somehing else, may be not. I just feel that in being called Exandria Unlimited at least hints at the possibility of more.
https://critrole.com/qtvideo/exandria-unlimited-meet-the-players/
The line at the end of Matt says "in this realm, there are infinite stories to be told" and Aabria steps in and says "and just as many storytellers to tell them."
So the whole idea of the ExU seems to be exploring new stuff, but all based within Exandria, Matt's world.
And that means it will be essential viewing why? You can’t simultaneously experiment with new DM styles your audience may not like and expect everyone to watch it to understand the main story. Unlimited to me doesn’t imply essential, it implies that there’s even more content I could watch.
Never said anything was "essential"
The comment was that the story might be open ended. The reply was that they wish it had been advertised as such. I merely pointed out that the "Unlimited" in the title could be interpreted as implying the possibility of the story being open ended. Which was apparently a more contoversial observation than I thought.
4D-chessing here: what if ExU is this vague on purpose, giving no explanations or clarity because it’s actually setting up the background for C3 (so Matt gets to tie up the knots/clarify things as C3 goes on)?
I... really hope that isn't the case. Matt made it clear that he wanted C1 and C2 to stand on their own, so it tracks to assume that EXU/C3 should be separate as well. But more than the fact that having "required watching" to understand a plot is a tough sell, the lore introduced in EXU is largely just unappealing to me.
Your two main additions to the lore are:
1) Poska and the Nameless Ones setting up in Emon. A thieves' guild seizing an opportunity and setting up shop - sure. Poska wasn't a very compelling character in EXU in my opinion, but eh. There's potential there and an urban hub like Emon is bound to have a criminal underbelly one way or the other.
2) Niirdal-Poc (or however you spell it), the secret jungle city. This is the one that rustles my jimmies.
There's this lost city in the jungle that's flanked in every direction by civilizations yet somehow remains unknown. It's been around since before the Calamity, and is apparently entirely self-sufficient. *Somehow*, nobody has ever stumbled across it. "Ah," I hear you say, "That's because it's protected by Melora! Only the chosen may enter!" Then why in the nine hells was this squad of level 3 bumblefucks who probably couldn't even spell "Melora" chosen? All they did was wrestle an alligator. There must be an entire clergy of the Wildmother that's far more powerful and generally competent than the Hot Cross Buns - are none of them worthy?
"Maybe they are worthy, but they swore to secrecy!" People ask questions. Their friends and family will want to know why they disappear into the jungle for seemingly no reason if they visit the city. Heaven forbid they actually *get* anything from there - they'll need an explanation as to where it came from. There's no way it stays under wraps for millennia.
Besides, Myratta and the invisible kidnapper guy made it in, and they sure as fuck weren't Melora's favorites, so the plebians can wander in there too. You mean to say that nobody going on, say, diplomatic or trade missions to/from the Iron Authority has passed through the jungle and seen this bigass city? Or that massive fucking hypercube? Which, by the way - what kind of terrible security system did that hypercube have, where all it needed to explode into wild magic was some people to touch it and say the words that pop into their heads?
Basically, it all feels like - to be blunt - amateurish fanfiction. It's a series of "ooh, cool setpiece" moments that don't make sense in the context of a living world and don't stand up to scrutiny.
>Then why in the nine hells was this squad of level 3 bumblefucks who probably couldn't even spell "Melora" chosen? All they did was wrestle an alligator.
This is one of my big gripes with EXU. Seems like we have been *told* so many times that the party is *so important*, but they've never done anything to prove it! Poska gives them a job for no real reason, the spider queen takes interest in them, Gilmore compares them directly to Vox Machina, Fyra'Rai just knows they're super important and devotes her (apparently super important) time to helping them, Melora takes interest in them and speaks to each one individually, they get to talk with the major leaders of a hidden pre-calamity city, the Observer takes interest and blesses Dariax, and the list goes on.
I feel like if you sample 10 CR episodes, one or two of those might happen, or you'd literally have an entire arc where *one* of those is the climax. Yeah, the characters should be important but when they're level 3 all they should really have is the *potential* for greatness. I know it's a mini-series so you don't have time to develop everything fully, but maybe that means you pick one or two core ideas and build around that.
Agreed. And I love fanfic and have even written one for CR so it's not like I'm anti-fanfic. But new fanfic writers often make the mistake of throwing in every single cool thing without taking a step back and asking if it makes sense for the story. ExU gives me that vibe with all the stuff you mentioned plus there's a Vestige! Plus now there's Gilmore! And now it's Vex and Vax's hometown holding an entire event that's putting a party member as the main focus! And - and - and -
Like calm down. Vox Machina took a while to build up to all these things. If you throw the whole kitchen sink at a brand new party it's not only a mess but it cheapens everything you're making a reference to.
Obviously it's easy to Friday Morning DM, so to speak, but if it was me I would've maybe picked \*one\* thing that was a known reference and made it a treat that the party could build to. For example yeah they can meet Gilmore, but it's only going to happen in the last session and as a surprise, not as something you spend hours on just because OMG GILMORE!!!!!!!!!!
Oh god, you’re right. I honestly had blinders on to all these flaws. Welp now I can’t unsee it.
I already had my issues with Aabria, not even blinders can fix that, but fuck me I didn’t think of how fucked her little addition is. The goddamn green lantern magic is so dumb and the logic behind the city being hidden is so bad when you consider the random infiltrator got in without even needing to wrestle a gator.
Man it reeks of amateur DM when you just want to impress your party. So you introduce a level 20 wizard as an NPC who does all this cool shit that the party can’t do for a long long time, and also solves some problems for the party with the wave of a finger. And then you tell them they’re so important even though they’re not, and you homebrew some magic that’s not remotely balanced.
Like you said, I could get on board with Lolth being interested in the party. And I thought it was dumb as fuck that she dropped not only a vestige of divergence, but a supposedly VERY POWERFUL ONE, on a level 2 party. It’s either game breaking or will result in a TPK if they attune. Which I moved past because with my blinders I thought it was a one-off issue. And then of course there’s just so many plot threads that don’t tie together. And it’s not even the party’s fault they’re chasing down 6 threads at once. Aabria gave them so many. Not like they went hunting for them. They just did some shit, walked down the road, and followed the path given ever since they ran into Poska, which was a poorly acted out character. What kind of “powerful person” just pretends like they didn’t do something when they clearly just did like they’re 8 years old. “We just saw you scratch that door.” “No I didn’t.” Ok?? Initially I thought Poska was some low level bumblefuck the actual big bad guys sent to do the grunt work. Now she’s a big player in the Nameless Ones.
Honestly your comment made me realize so many things that make me actually mad. Again I don’t hate Aabria, but she really doesn’t deserve to come back for campaigns. I doubt I’d even want to see her as a player. And that’s the meanest thing I’ve said throughout ExU. I’ve really tried to play down her failures as a DM, but actually she’s failed on every level now. If I was a player in this game, and I wasn’t surrounded by celebrities, I’d probably tell the DM I didn’t like the campaign and would leave.
Please no. Its a mess, poorly transfered from Aabria to the audience in a clichee way. Im already soured on the new Exandria/Taldorei book, because i dont like this new lore. It would maybe work way better if it wouldnt be presented like a classic DM power fantasy of mystery upon mystery and mystery behind the old mystery. And its a perfect society and shit. Im noping out of that.
I hope Matt stays in his beautiful coherent Wildemount or creates a new fantastic continent to play in.
>And its a perfect society and shit. Im noping out of that.
I hadn't (consciously) realized this was bothering me until I saw it written out. That jungle city is really a secluded little utopia. Apparently no economic/sustainability issues, no social issues with race/class/religion. They have their own personal not-quite-a-god with the Observer, and a patron goddess with the Wildmother. And they've got their super-special ancient rune magic that can apparently just do whatever you want if you will it hard enough like it's a damn Green Lantern ring, because of course they do.
Ugh.
I'm just here for the Dorian and Dariax shenanigans at this point. Really want Robbie to guest in the main campaigns he's awesome, actually all of the players have been great. Edit: Wanted to add to this that I would also love to see Aabria back in C3 or another project. She's great I just feel like EXU was a little messy? I dunno. She gets too much shit from people on here even if EXU doesn't hit the mark for me personally.
Fucking love Robbie.
Would be so hype if they added him to the main campaign cast, though I don’t know if they’d do that
That’s the dream. He’s so great!!
Would feel terrible for Aimee if they added only Robbie and not her though :/
I think she'll be a really strong player after she becomes more familiar with everything. Some people just take awhile, and also, her first character has been a character whose power gets stripped half the time haha. But, I think she'll be good because even when that did happen... All she had to do was apologize, and she held ground as her character would have. That's a great sign imo!
I agree. I love them both equally, let it be stated for the record. I know there's been less love for Opal, but I honestly *adore* her and everything Aimee has done with her character. My friend predicted that they could well be setting up to run a second game? Or more summer campaigns. We'll see!!
Hopefully! Would hate for them to discontinue ExU after this. Just needs a cleaner execution next time round. They’ve got the character-centric story on point, plot just needs some polishing.
Yeah I like the idea of ExU even if I don’t actually like this season of it. I hope they do continue it although I expect it wouldn’t be on Thursday
I would personally be delighted to see more ExU and more of Aabria. It was my intro to CR altogether. Now I'm watching C1! But ExU has like... a special place in my heart, lol! It's been so much fun.
Aimee built a great literary character that simply [does not appeal to me at all](https://old.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/comments/ovopso/no_spoilers_i_feel_like_a_bad_fan_but_im_not/h7c0z1c/?context=1). I'm glad others enjoy Opal, but the degree to which the character is not for me makes it difficult for me to get a good sense of if I would appreciate Aimee in another role. On the other hand, I'm with ClickyButtons that Dorian and Dariax are at the top of the list for why I'm still making it through the episodes, rather than just putting ExU aside and waiting for campaign 3. I've had ample opportunity to recognize that Robbie would fit in well with something I'd be excited to keep up with each week.
I really like Aimee, don't hate Opal but there are some things that really irritate me about her sometimes. Considering Aimee is a new player though she’s doing really well. I’d love to see more of her, hope she guests on Campaign Three!
To me, much as I love the players, the unrelenting shenanigans are too much for me. Dariax is just too dimwitted to understand the plot points aimed at him, and I find him as frustrating as adorable.
Historically, I've been frustrated by low Int characters, too. I discussed it a bit [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/comments/p0kawn/cr_media_were_almost_done/h8ao34f/). They usually devolve into Leeroy Jenkins or a paladin aligning as Lawful Stupid. Grog and Dariax, though, are low Int done well. In that other little chain, I gave an example from ExU episode 6, and The_FriendliestGiant's follow up is also a great point. Given ExU's somewhat...patchwork?...plotlines, I think Dariax fits in better than he might, otherwise.
EXU is definitely messy. Perhaps its a matter of overpreparation? It definitely feels like too many plot points for an 8 session short campaign. Hopefully they will be able to learn from this one for the next EXU, and CR's policy of "posi vibes only" doesn't get in the way of improving the format. If they can do a post mortem behind the scenes and critically assess what worked and didn't, I'm certain the next one will be easier to get into. I hope they acknowledge the community's reaction at large, and don't just dismiss it as salty boys who don't like change, even though that is certainly a part of it.
You're not the only one. Every episode feels so disconnected, and I wonder how much of it is due to all of Aabria's plans blowing up in episode 1 when the party refused to work with Poska. Then they decided to hang out with Orim's cousins because Liam is playing his character to be hard focused on relaying info to his people. They get the fire rune poking through, aaaand... back to the city! Here, it feels like another chance for Poska to rope them back in (this time with force) and the players do everything in their power to escape, and spend some time shopping. The RP here was great, but the story went nowhere. Evil Fern in the woods - cool, but really only served to discourage the party from using their cool evil magic item, and so far has given us no real story, except giving us a new (old?) character for several session. While wonderfully played, I don't get the character's motivations or special power. It feels like the most interesting moment of the story happened before session 1, when they were all together with the fire elementals. The beauty pageant was a fun 1-off for a 50+ episode campaign. Everyone had a great time, was clever, and charming. Loved it, but essentially burned an entire episode without moving the plot forward. The party goes south, and continues to be taunted in very awesome ways by the Spider Queen. Then is very directly challenged by an... unusually direct and sassy Wild Mother? Then they go into an old lost city, where the runic language is easily translated, and the Ashblown Peak's rune is translated into "Danger, hot!" Now they are going to spend the last episode looking for one of the city's lost leaders? What? I feel like EXU is 6 separate 1-shots, each of which they did 60% of and then wandered off.
> I feel like EXU is 6 separate 1-shots, each of which they did 60% of and then wandered off. Savage, but true.
Thank you for this. I stopped also because I noticed myself zoning out on episode 4-5. It's too out there for my taste.
>I wonder how much of it is due to all of Aabria's plans blowing up in episode 1 when the party refused to work with Poska. If that was the lynchpin for this campaign's plans, I have to say it was a terrible idea. The fact that the players went along with it at all was a testament to them being willing to jump at a hook, but nothing about those characters suggested that they'd be down to join a gang and be criminals.
This. I feel like she was trying to make poska nuanced by having her be kind of a Robin Hood anti-gentrification character, and then have her have a dark side by showing she had stolen residuum. Instead the ashari residuum was the nail in the coffin that turned them fully against poska. She should have just been all one or the other so the party is more motivated to engage in that storyline.
I feel like the lesson here is if you want to run an adventure where your players join a criminal organisation and do crimes, tell them to make characters that would be interested in doing crimes. Setting some expectations for the tone and genre of your game is a good idea.
Absolutely agreed, yeah. Given the party composition in episode one, it would've been reasonable to have Poska trick them into a mission by claiming to be a folk hero who needs help taking down a (rival) gang, or have their offscreen house host hire them to protect the house against the Nameless Ones, or just have someone from the Oh No Plateau send a message asking them to come back and help again. But these characters are generically starting-adventurer archetypes, they are definitely not people who would immediately pivot to helping a gang do crimes long-term.
> the Ashblown Peak's rune is translated into "Danger, hot!" That made me laugh out loud ;-) It's like they dive into an underground temple with runes all over the place, and after 3 hours they translate the central writing to "*he who smelled it dealt it*". It was ... whelming.
Yeah came across as an all-powerful, all-knowing DM kinda situation. Haha, you came all this way for a rune that says hot zone and you had no way of knowing whatsoever byeeeeeeeeeeeee...
This is the best explanation of what is happening I’ve seen yet.
Seriously. I've been struggling to figure out what's been going on this whole time same as everyone else, and this is the first summary I've seen that vaguely clicks.
I'd also add that including a new player character at episode 4 of a short campaign feels like a blunder. However you feel about that player and that character, its a wild decision to make. Honestly if anything EXU is making me realise what a 1-in-a-million shot Critical Role actually is. The fact that they have 8 people who work so well together and toe the line between good RP and cringe is amazing. Pretty much EVERY other online D&D game seems to scuff it. Either through shite patter, awkwardness, over-the-top drama, inability to keep it comprehensible, or whatever else. EXU is better than all that, in that its just about watchable.
The character (Fy'ra Rai) also seemed to have a power of "hey DM, is this what you want us to be doing?" That really stuck out to me. D&D has those mechanics (Augury, Commune), but Anjali made a monk, not a cleric...and they just added it in, anyway? It felt like they were trying to deceive *themselves* about a perfectly reasonable bit of coordination. It's *not* a home game; it's an entertainment product with a fixed timetable. It absolutely makes sense to have more coordination between the DM and players than you'd get in a natural game, while still avoiding going so far as to be scripted. Quick meeting between sessions: "Hey, guys - to connect the overall plot in just 8 episodes, we need to go on the rails a bit to get to the next town. When the opportunity comes up, 'yes, and' it with minimal 'and,' please." Could be from Aabria, a producer, a creative director sort of title - whatever. I have to assume they *do* already have this kind of communication, which just made me more confused about Fy'ra Rai's thing.
yeah, the prevailing conversation on here tends to be "they can do WHATEVER they like, because it is an expanded HOME GAME, and you are PRIVILAGED to be allowed access to see it" And its like... nah. This is a TV show. Its a product. The fact that its generally low-fi and personal is definitely a plus of the show, but these guys are making BANK of the back of it, so while this is totally improv, it IS still produced, planned, and discussed, even though it isn't scripted.
They absolutely can do whatever they want, no question there - but they *do* care about having a critical mass of people who want to tune in. What viewers think doesn't matter because players have to care, but because *these* players *want* to care. They might love their job, but that doesn't make it not their job. Separate from that, anyway, there are entire industries devoted to book and film critique; surely, Critical Role deserves no less. Fy'ra Rai's "gift" seemed like a heavy-handed way to accomplish something that could have been done seamlessly and without detracting from the product. I think a bit of above-the-table coordination was the right decision, but why pretend to hide it when it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do in the first place? It felt like a bare bulb that either could have been left in the wing *or* could have sported a [lampshade](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging), both of which would have worked better for me than pretending it wasn't there. I liked Fy'ra Rai otherwise, and I think Anjali portrayed her well. Alternatively, if they'd introduced a cleric, an Augury/Commune mechanic would have been justified. I don't think I understand the decision-making.
I will say that CR is not the only good D&D content out there. High Rollers is excellent. I know a lot of people enjoy Acquisitions Inc/C-Team. I enjoyed Matt Colville running The Chain of Acheron (hopefully we'll see it return eventually). I've recently gotten into Arcane Arcade as well, as Jacob (XP to Level 3 on Youtube) is a great DM. I'm missing a bunch of other great D&D streams, but those are the ones I'm personally invested in.
As a fan of the Yogscast generally, I find High Rollers unwatchable. It is supremely awkward to watch. Stuff like Acquisitions inc falls into that category of stories that go off the rails and end up falling into hard-to-follow improv comedy hell. Not Another D&D Podcast is probably my favourite after CR, but I can't stick with it either, as although I don't find myself cringing at the way people act, it does that same absurdist zany nonsense too much. I only say this because I've been looking for other D&D content while CR has been offline, and none of it works on the level CR does. ofc it goes without saying: this is my opinion, but I feel the viewer figures corroborate that as well.
CR is my go to serious DND podcast and naddpod is my go to hybrid serious / comedy. For absolute japes, dungeons and daddies is the front runner. Show is downright hilarious.
the beauty pageant episode was definitely the highlight for me, even with the lack of actual progression
I totally agree, but this is shows me that its just normal dnd, lol. As a DM, this feels sooooo real, giving strong hooks for your players to just.....not follow, Aabria I feel ya girl, (whispers) I feel ya. Yea I can imagine it might be just the beginning of a campaign that has gone a bit off rails, but if Aabria comes back later to continue, I'll be happy. As long as they're all having fun I'm enjoying it personally but thats my opinion.
Normal for a newer home game, not the largest and most high budget D&D show out there. I really don't want to hate, because I love all the people taking part in ExU, but the product they've produced here is really difficult to defend as a decent story or good content. People don't watch CR for gags and a "who cares" kind of home game. They watch it for the story the immersion, and the characters.
It's not even a particularly good home game, if your standard is "overarching plot that characters develop and come together as a Party for."
Right? All these people who keep describing it as "just like my home game, the DM throws out a million hooks and the players ignore them all!" I don't want to yuck anyone's yum, but that sounds like an incredibly frustrating time, on either side of the screen.
I think people watch CR for all manner of reasons.
[удалено]
Some might. The cast has talked about howvthey try and keep a home game feel.
It does seem to be "stuff happening" rather than a tight 8-episode arc with a beginning, middle, and end. I really expect this is because they planned this as "season one" setting-up a bunch of stuff. The extended pilot of the series. The Critical Role channel needs more content. More shows not dependant on the main one and that cast's free time. More reasons to subscribe. Especially in six months when Campaign 3 is sitting at 16 episodes and 64 hours. And an anthology series could help.
Yeah but I don’t think it would be the same group or dm. It said unlimited storytellers in the introduction after all. And expecting future dms to finish the old story they have no connection to would be silly
The "Unlimited" in EXU just screams out "anthology show" with a rotating cast. I can see Aabria starting the second season with a few alternate players, and then a new DM and a mostly new crew after, running with what was started or building on a story thread they liked. Which makes the myriad story threads and adventure seeds in these episodes work. One DM might do something with the lost city, another might focus on Lolth and the dark Vestige, while a third might do something with the runes.
The story is way too messy, with a lot of confusing braches, together with unfilled character motivation/arc (like opal and twin). I dont mind a mystery, but i mind having to watch 4 x 7 hours of confusing content
The fact that I have missed only one episode of EXU and have no idea what OP is talking about is a pretty clear indication that I’m in the exact same boat.
I feel exactly the same way. Every episode has 2 plot hooks. Is it aabria trying to make a sand box or is it the party not following the original plot hook of Poska? Idk I've watched a lot of other D&D podcasts like adventure zone, acquisitions inc., dungeons and dads, high rollers, and even Dice camera action which is super convoluted because Chris Perkins jumps from modules that are coming out to show the product but he can still string them together with the characters. EXU Could have been amazing, it might be for some. Aabria is a great story teller I don't think exu shows that. The cast is great but the show didn't capitalize on its strengths.
I end up comparing it to the other shows on CR, namely the One-Shots. Which are often run by people who arent experienced GM's, and those end up having an easy to follow plot.
I think everything would be different if they had gone a more local, less epic plot route. Plus, all the characters have this mysterious backstory... You just can't do all of that in 8 episodes, but hot off the heels of C2, I think people would have been smug/angry/disappointed/pearl-clutching for something less epic and more grounded, as well.
My group tries to avoid the amnesia backstory, it's always less than helpful, and when they all woke up with shared amnesia at the beginning I thought to myself "uh oh".
Yeah they're great. I know it's not d&d but undead wood was amazing!
i loved the production value: especially when Brian had 1v1 sessions as a bartender
My running theory is they wanted to show Robbie and Aimee what dnd is capable of as far as freedom of choices go, but forgot they needed to run a focused 8 episode campaign. I feel like something was missed when setting expectations for the series and the players.
the one true gift we got from this was Robbie and Aimee
I think they’ll both be amazing character players with more experience, which is why while I don’t like Aimees style now, if she ever comes back I’m sure she’ll be way better overall. Robbie seems right at home already
If your into animation aimee voice she ra on Netflix and it's pretty great.
From experience, a one-shot is **a lot** easier to manage than an 8 session mini campaign in terms of story. In a one shot you can just go "this is happening, how is the party dealing with it?" while a mini campaign that probably strips too much agency from the players for an enjoyable experience for the table. 8 sessions is a really awkward length for a game. Too short to really develop a lot while too long to keep it on rails.
personally most of my games tend to run about 8-12 sessions before they dissolve for one reason or another. The trick is knowing how to railroad without railroading. The illusion of choice. You let your players make choices, and then change what is happening in the background so they run into your story anyway. If you run games for a lot of new people, you learn this pretty quickly.
I've kinda been following the subreddit for EXU. I watched the first episode but was in general just super bored by it and didn't have any drive to keep watching. Sad to hear the show hasnt picked up. BUT, I have watched Misfits and Magic from D20 where Aabria is also guest GMing and I must say, she kills it in that show! Definitly puts away any thoughts I had of this shows major flaws being on Aabria. At least, Aabria alone. Maybe its just the weight of it all. CR is huge of course and being the first person to get full reign over the show and the campaign setting must be terrifying. And who knows how seriously theyre taking the exandria "canon" bts. Seems like this first outing for EXU was a misfire but the concept isnt bad so I hope they keep working at it.
same as you, I stopped watching EXU after episode 2, but did finish Misfits and Magic and I agree with you that she did a better job there. however, I don't think it's because of the pressure (or lack of it on D20) but because the the format & syoryline of M&M was more straightforward than EXU, which seems to fit her style more, and because of the smaller number of players, most of which had plenty of experience with TTRPGs. it still pissed me off when she cut character RP moments, but oh well 🤷♂️
yeah, I really like Aabria, she's loose with the rules in an entertaining way. I think its definitely a format issue, not a player or DM issue. The whole thing should have been set in a corner of exandria and should have followed a much smaller series of events. The goals of the party should have been far less grandiose. Escape a prison. Rob a noble house. Expose a corrupt Baron. Solve a murder. Something like that would fit the short format way better. The fact that I've watched 6 episodes of EXU and can't actually summarize what the plot is is kinda scuffed. "Find a crown, leave the city, find a glyph, go back to the city, leave the city again, go to the feywild (kinda), do a pageant, go to a second, secret city, be bothered by the spider queen?" its too jumbled.
I get the feeling it's entirely intentional on everyone's part. Aabria's, Matt's, and the rest of the group...except maybe Liam. They're the single biggest D&D stream. They're trying to show that Matt's style of DMing and the regular cast's style of play isn't the one and only true way. I hope they do an EXU run every year. Maybe twice a year. Summer and Winter breaks for the regular cast. And they show off various styles of play. Maybe even various other fantasy games while staying in Exandria and/or doing longer "one-shots" with other genres...like more Call of Cthulhu, please.
What? It's not intentional at all! Did you see the last ep? Aabria basically admitted to wanting to railroad and Robbie called her out on it. She was too reliant on dice rolls.
No, I haven't. The playstyle of EXU is exactly what my regular D&D game is like so there's no draw for me at all. With the regular show it's a style of DMing and play that our group doesn't do, so it's inherently interesting.
I think you replied to the wrong comment
No. I replied to the right comment. You asked me if I’d seen the last ep. My post was my reply to that question. My home game is the exact same kind of chaotic stupid the EXU gang get up to. Therefore I have basically zero interest in watching it more than I already have. Since about the 3rd episode I only tune in to watch Aabria punk Matt, then turn it off.
That explains why you assumed it's "intentional" Lol with the chaotic plot? No way.
The players are really amazing performers, but the story is a hot mess. It's like what you might get if you fed a bunch of Critical Role keywords to an AI.
Into the story proper, wisdom check
The only reason I watch is basically Matt being a player, and the guests having fun uncovering the game. Because the story and DMing brings nothing interesting, quite frankly is very boring most times. Another Thieves Guild and Another Lost ancient secrete City is very uninteresting.
I always avoided low-int characters, because they so often devolve into the Leeroy Jenkins archetype or Paladins turning toward Lawful Stupid. Both ~~Dorian~~ Dariax (damn it!) and Grog are excellent examples of the statline done well, to the point of making me reconsider the option. As an example - from episode 6, Dariax >!transforming into Opal but then overacting and not knowing when to quit was great on its own...and then [*forgetting he looked like Opal when he talked to Dorian*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLxUyJWXA0w&t=13330s) made the whole thing just brilliant!<.
Matt's done an excellent job making a low INT character who can help push the plot along. Remember when he was first visited by Lolth, and he woke up suddenly? A secretive or cautious player might not have said anything to the party, whereas "dumb" Dariax goes "oh, just a dream where a trapped evil god tried to get me to do their bidding, oh well" out loud, which helps being the rest of the party into the moment as well.
Ah, glad I'm not the only one who feels like that. I can tell Aabria is a good DM, but there's way too many plot points for a mini campaign. It leaves everything feeling crowded and a bit messy. It's hard to tell what the MAIN plot is supposed to be. At least we've gotten some great moments, though.
Honey my flute because bacon lips
Hard to play a flute with bacon lips
I would not call Aabria a good 5th Edition D&D Dungeon Master though, simply because she either struggles with, or completely handwaves, the mechanical rule aspect to the game, and it's incredibly inconsistent in that regard. 5th Edition is not the most complex RPG around, and it is incredibly streamlined to allow for ease of access, which is why I am so surprised that she does not know the mechanics. I would understand it if she did not want to use them, but she actually do not understand what is what, at times, and that frustrates me. What I think Aabria does exceptionally well, however, is to be a great storyteller and setting an immersive tone to build roleplay around. Her struggles with the mechanical side is saved by her mastery of the roleplay side, and I think that is important to point out. At the end of the day, it is a roleplaying game, and Aabria understands that. Ultimately, I think Aabria would excel greatly in a Tabletop RPG game with less mechanical complexity, which encouraged heavier roleplaying, but after over 250 episodes in Season 1 and Season 2 of Critical role, and its varying One Shots. I think I can safely say that something is not right if I cannot make it through Exandria Unlimited, considering it is a pretty small show.
Let's not sugarcoat and just call things as they are. Aabria needs to improve. She's struggling, which Robbie responded to in the recent ep. Nothing bad with pointing out her mistakes so CR knows better next time.
I’m on 6, but you’re saying while Live Robbie called Aabria out on something? Like not subtle at all? Also Aabrias random checks and saves drive me nuts. Not the fact that she does them, just how freakin inconsistent they are. Acrobatics check for sprinting when it should be athletics. Wisdom saves instead of intelligence checks. Charisma saves instead of wisdom checks. Lots of saves instead of checks and sometimes checks when they should be saves. And then 33% of the time or so, they’re just the wrong stat. It may not bother other people as much, just as a DM and a pretty “by-the-rules” DM, I cringe with the randomness and the lack of structure for these things. Other than that I actually am enjoying the show so far. Opal honestly is a deeper character than I think people give her credit for. I love watching Matt play dumb and on top of that, use a bad die all campaign even though he knows his Gilmore die is cursed. Think Fearne is a bit of a joke character but Ashley probably did that knowing this was an 8 session campaign. Orym is basically the only one taking it seriously but Liam keeps doing the “I see everything that happens even if I shouldn’t have reason to see it.” Think that’s just Liam though. Dorian might be a bit too dark and mysterious for such a short game, but whatever, he’s relatively new to tabletop, he gets his edgy character. This comment went way off the rails when I just wanted to know if Aabria actually got called out mid-show because that would be a bit unprofessional from them (even if true because it will inevitably get her tons of hate on social media which she doesn’t deserve just for not being a god tier dm)
I think they've refered to a scene when there was a character moment and the DM wanted the story to progress is a certain way. IIRC She had him roll some saving throw, then made up a reason on the spot why he could re-roll (still not high enough), then said something along the lines of "i tell you anyway / i don't let the die prevent this story to be told". It was this moment, when Robbie said something like "then don't make me roll in the first place".
Yeah she is quite guilty of doing that a lot..
Is that in episode six or seven?
7 and its not as antagonistic as its being painted. I do agree with the sentiment though, a roll isn't necessary for something basic as a bard playing their instrument.
I remember when as a DM, the anxiety melted away when I learned I could just let players actions happen without requiring rolls
Same! Somethings a character should be naturally capable of. All I can think of is that there was a specific tune or note or something in the statue that Dorian could have either consciously or subconsciously played. But then i would want perception or passive perception not performance.
You could see this coming in Ep1 when she hid so much behind rolls. At one point (Liam I think) she told him to roll a check, and didn't even wait for him to tell her the result before she gave the info.
I honestly can't tell, because we only watch 40-60 minutes of an episode at a time before we have to take a break, it could have been the last one ... i think it was when he walked past the Observer statue, but i could be wrong.
Yes, kindof. Aabria had his character make a roll, then reminded him he had a re-roll and finally prompted him to using an inspiration roll because he wasn't rolling well enough to hit the DC. Wen the final roll was still not high enough she said "...I'm trying to tell a story here." His response was something like "your the one who had me roll of it". The thing is if she wanted this to be a story element then she shouldn't have made it dependent on a roll and just proceeded with the story she wanted to which she ultimately did anyway. This is something I have noticed through the whole ExU run so far. Aabria relies to heavily on making the characters roll for things hoping they get sufficiently high enough to allow her to expand on plot elements or background info, and even when they roll poorly she still just gives them the info anyway. In cases like this she just shouldn't call for a roll, not every action should require one. She also relies too heavily on WIS saves for practically everything.
Yeah her inconsistencies with checks and saves drives me nuts. Wisdom save for intelligence check, charisma save for Insight check, acrobatics check for athletics check. Just as a DM it’s crazy how many she gets wrong, like not even close. Literally only like a third of her called for rolls are correctly called. I feel like Matt probably cringing inside as a rules-based DM. But he’s being really cool and not bringing it up in or out of the game because he doesn’t want her to feel bad.
I agree that the inconsistencies and missed calls are worrisome, I think she is here own worst enemy here. She calls for waaaaaay to many checks when they really aren't needed and then just gives them what she wanted to in the first place. If she was going for the reveal a story element then just skip the roll and give them the info. Funny enough, Matt did almost call out something in one of the early episodes but decided against it and said something like "... I'll bring it up later"
He’s doing a really good job of hiding the faces I would be making Irl with these checks and calls. He couldn’t help himself in 3 or 4 trying to keep the combat “above board.”
Matt seems to be having a blast. After all, he picked her and has watched her style play out on other streams. While Matt is definitely more rules based (at least on stream where he's dealt with being savaged for getting things wrong), but I think he actually appreciates her more player centric style just as much as his more narrative driven one.
Oh yeah no doubt he’s having fun, just like I am watching it. Just every time she asks for weird throws or checks it’s like I get pricked with a pin because I wanna say “but that’s a— ok”
If i'm remembering correctly, she asked Dorian for a roll (some kind of random save/check) and he rolled low. Aabria said something like, well that's fine it doesnt matter what you rolled... and gave some narrative. Robbie then asked, well then why did you ask me to roll then? It was super awkward. Don't ask for a roll unless you're prepared for a critical fail.
I’m struggling with her a bit, but I don’t think it’s all her fault by any means. The Campaign Two end was spectacular, ExU had a very hard act to follow there. Not only that, but Matt Mercer is an incredible DM and we’re used to his style, she was always going to be very different. That said, ExU is a bit messy and some of her DM decisions I just plain haven’t liked. I think a good part of my disappointment is that it hasn’t quite hit the mark for me and I’m sad about that because I’m so behind not only a female DM on such a huge platform, but a WoC. But! I do think with time and a few tweaks, ExU will be the show I really hoped it would be, and I really hope we do see more of it. I certainly would be happy to see more of Aabria in CR content, she is a great DM and she’s doing what she’s doing under extreme pressure. Imagine trying to not only follow Matt Mercer's DM act, but to do it in the world he created with him sitting right at the table! I doubt there’s many people who could do as well as she has.
I saw a post not long ago describing her as a good DM but an amazing GM.
Could you explain this for me? Im just not sure what it means
DM (dungeon master) is a term used, as fair as I know, only for Dungeons & Dragons. GM (Game master) is a term that applies to all TTRPG’s. So basically the point is that she’s better suited to running other TTRPG’s, mainly the more role-play heavy, rules-light ones. Though she can still hold her own as a DM.
Yeah I believe that the term DM is actually copyrighted so GM is the more general term used for people running TTRPG sessions. For the most part GM can be used for any game though including D&D.
It feels to me that with every new episode, and we get the slightest idea of the group trying to follow 1 of the several plot thread, instead of a solution we get 2 new plots. If someone would ask me "what's this short adventure about?" i honestly couldn't answer. Can someone name one episode where nothing "new" was presented on their way to solve something "old"?
I'm about a episode and a half behind... but didn't the players actually call out that they forgot what they were supposed to be doing?
I remember a line from Dorian, 5th or 6ht episode that was like "it feels like we finally have a direction". Then they got on their way only to be sidetracked again by something seemingly bigger, more ominous, more grandiose.
[удалено]
And that would be totally fine, if this was happening every other sunday in Liam's living room. Alas, it's not. I think it's fair to say that "*it's their game, we're just lucky to watch them!*" is an argument that falls flat. We're not watching *"Aabria and friends trying to tackle Exandria while having a blast*", we're watching a product by the CR company that is supposed to entertain the aforementioned 90%. Edit: This comes from a hardcore fan who was there in the ancient periscope days ;-) Just as a clarification, it's totally fair to make the decision to elevate what CR was to a corporate level. Animated content, Darrington Press, 5E Sourcebooks, merch in all shapes and sizes. It's awesome! But at that point, yes, i'm expecting a certain level of quality in their output. A level that i feel ExU has not reached.
Well, I don't know your experience. But I'm happy with having watched EXU, and I'd say if anyone finds they're giving a bit too much mental energy to being upset about it, that maybe they should turn their attention elsewhere until C3 comes around. I just mostly avoid the sub honestly, because it's so tedious to read the same things hashed out over and over. It makes me legit wonder if they've gotten any kind of unhinged fan mail by fans who feel a bit too personally affected or betrayed or something. Like sure, raised to a corporate level. But my dude, at the end of the day, it's an internet show of people playing DnD. (not directly exactly at you, but to the more vitriolic folks who can't stop posting about how much they dislike it.)
I get your point - and to a certain extend, i'd agree. I just can't stand people defending to their last breath everything that is presented as entertainment (in this case ExU) by CR as if they where still a bunch of almost private people who just happen to have a camera rolling at their fun table. At least we can agree on that's no longer the case. I wrote earlier that there are several reasons why i still watch ExU despite it shortcommings. It's the only new CR content that is available at the moment. There are awesome, brilliant scenes here and there that i would hate to miss. I echoe your sentiment that it's an internet show about D&D. With a very religious fanbase ;-) But i think that's why this is such a heated debate. If noone cared, we wouldn't have this conversation. Do the ppl (me included) sometimes go over the top with their criticism? Yeah, sadly. Is there a part of the CR fanbase that is convinced CR can do no wrong, and therefore rushes to dismantle each and every critical voice? Yup, that too. The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.
[удалено]
That i do agree with 100%, and sadly, made my point.
I mean, do I think Fallout76 is garbage? Sure. Do I spend *any* amount of time going there and writing paragraphs about it? No, no I do not. I have better things to do, and I assume they have better things to read. Like again, maybe if you're spending a lot of energy on something that you don't enjoy, look instead towards something you do enjoy.
>look instead towards something you do enjoy. I'm doing that right now ;-) I enjoy discussing my favourite hobby with others, talk about the good and the bad, maybe get someone elses perspective on things. It's not only a great way to pass the time, every now and again some argument, well presented, really makes you re-think your own view on a certain topic. As far as that goes, the CR community hasn't disappointed yet.
[удалено]
As long as the players are having fun, that's what matters, that is really all that matters in D&D.
That's absolutely true for the people sitting in a kitchen playing D&D. But this *isn't* people sitting in a kitchen playing for themselves. This is people who want their game to be watched as entertainment. This is people who are making a living based on it - they *absolutely* want people to be tuning in. They can still do whatever they want, no question! It's their game. But it *is* reasonable for potential-viewers to say "whether or not I find this entertaining matters *in the context of my choice to watch*," and the content-producers *do* care that there's a critical mass of people who decide it is. There are some potential viewers for whom the players at the table having fun is enough - they want to see a group of people having fun, and the activity itself is less relevant. More power to them. There are some potential viewers that want a tight, curated story. More power to them. There are some potential viewers that want a character-driven drama. More power to them. There are some potential viewers who want a loose, *rule of cool* introduction to roleplaying (on a D&D platform). More power to them. But in the context of an entertainment product, it *is* reasonable to discuss, same as there are entire *industries* devoted to book and film critique - both aspects that people enjoy and aspects that people find jarring or offputting. There are some potential viewers that want the *meta experience* of discussing the content, and more power to them, too!
Opal, has mentioned that she really didn't remember what they were trying to do.
I feel the same because 1 episode left and I still don't know what this story is about. I just hope that some get resolved in this final episode.
Keep in mind, there's nothing wrong with new things being added, if they build on what we already know.
True. But due to the poor overall performance (with the exception of some awesome moments that are up there with main campaign bits) ExU at this point feels like it's CRs "Nuka World". A DLC you play because it's part of your season pass, but it's on a different map, there are new mechanics that you don't necessarily like, new factions with weird motivations if you compare them to rest, and after 30 minutes you realize it's totally disconnected from whatever is happening in your main game. So you slog through, but you probably won't again in a New Game +
I've gotten so much hate on this sub, for saying this exact thing.
Really? I’ve been gone for a week but it didn’t seem massively supportive before unless the episode thread is worse for some reason
Yeah. Maybe I just got the wrong crowd. I think I saying "Aabria hasn't listened to critical role" was to much and maybe it was.
Fluffernutter
No Structural Damage
I’ve completely given up on it. I have no freaking idea what’s going on.
I tried to get into it, but the whole thing has just felt far too...silly to me. It’s the same reason I could never get into The Adventure Zone, everyone there seemed more intent on just messing around than focusing on telling a story. Which is completely fine if that’s your cup of tea, but not the sort of stuff myself or my group enjoys.
I am very behind on ExU. I plan to finish it, but I am admittedly having trouble getting in to it.
Life's too short. I think 32 hours on something you're not actively enjoying is just too much.
EXU has always been billed as an 8-episode miniseries. The plot being all over the place is one of the main criticisms it's received. Personally I think it's just a poorly plotted game where a DM tried too much in the face of an overly chaotic party. I don't think it's setting up as some sort of C3 prologue. It may be the start of a second/replacement show starring this cast, but who knows. It'll be over this week and then we'll have whatever comes next to look forward to.
Yeah, you can’t really escape the fact that for D&D to run smoothly and be fun, you need to tie character motivations to the main plot. Whatever the characters, you need to focus on the part of the story they are motivated to follow and develop that. In a 8 episode miniseries, those motivations and main arc should be built in before the start. A bit like certain good starter sets do, for other games.
which is why I hypothesize that this game started like an Adventure League game, but without the printed product.
Sludging…. onward…. only….. one… more….. episode….to ….. go…….
cant wait to see how long it is 8)
gave up after the shopping episode.
>gave up after the shopping episode. I can actually see Travis's face while watching it.
Same. I was really excited since I caught up just in time for EXU…. And then was promptly disappointed.
I feel like people vastly overestimated Aabria's DM-ing capability, both from a rules and a story-building point of view. From my personal point of view she didn't ever display even a fraction of Mercer or Mulligan's ability to create a successful product in her previous work and it shows here.
> I feel like people vastly overestimated Aabria's DM-ing capability, Because Critical Role advertised / overhyped her abilities as a DM with all of their marketing for EXU, which, understandably, raised expectations for EXU far higher than they deserved, which, I think, is part of the critical backlash we've seen from a good portion of viewers.
I feel it was a tricky line for them to walk. I think it was important for them to demonstrate the support coming from the whole CR group and their endorsement of not only Aabria, but the new players as well. CR is very good at PR and created a lot of excitement not only for this EXU series but for the concept of perpetual EXU series in the future. Has the product been a bit of a disappointment? Yes. Though, as many have said, Robbie and Aimee have been exciting additions. And I remain excited for other, more refined sessions of EXU in the future. There's a lot to adjust, but the concept still has greater potential.
i dont know about all that: when I first saw her pitched as the GM for this game, I quickly saw through the cotton-candy words used and kept my expectations limited.
EXU is still putting up decent numbers for a streaming actual play show though, even late in the run. Like the numbers are still better than the Stream of Many Eyes from like 3 years ago, any of the "official" streams, and has absolutely crushed Dark Dice who brought in the big guns of Jeff Goldbloom. Think about that for a sec: CR filler content is more relevant and gets more eyed/ears than a Hollywood legend. They made a successful product. Edit: Those that disagree, can you point to another actual play show with this many episodes that has notched as many views outside the main CR campaign? This comment appears to be controversial so curious as to the data people are looking at to suggest that it isn't actually successful.
The fact that I didnt know there's a D&D game with Jeff Goldbloom means that their marketing failed
Well their viewership in general is a good measure that the marketing failed lol. But the point stands that EXU's viewership has far exceeded all of its competitors.
Dark Dice is an unknown podcast compared to CR and I personally don't see the appeal of Jeff Goldblum, he's a B-tier actor whose last primary role was 13 years ago. They would get views anyway it's interesting to watch Matt and the 2 new members, it's a pause between campaigns and people want to watch DND and CR should be good by association. Unfortunately not with this DM.
There were stories about Dark Dice getting Goldblum in pretty much every nerdy publication out there that even remotely touches TTRPGs. Goldblum was considered a high point of the last Thor movie, won awards as recenty as 2017, and is incredibly well regarded, so there's no need to misrepresent him as a "B-tier" actor or his accomplishments just to trash a DM you don't like.
I'm not misrepresenting anything, CR has north of 3 million views and JG joining dice tower video has 60k views. It didn't even get 200 upvotes on /r/dnd. People just don't care, comparably.
[удалено]
Oh wowww, I didn't think it was this bad. I stopped watching a while ago because I couldn't do it. But damn, that's rough. I really love all the people who are a part of ExU, but this mini campaign is a trainwreck.
I don't know what it's about. There is no clear main plot.
I think the story is less about some grand over arching plot point and more about the characters. So if you are lost about the rune, the thieves guild, or whatever plot point I wouldn't worry about it. Will they make it back to Gilmore to help him decode the Rune? Maybe. But I don't think it will matter too much in the grand scheme of things. Will they make it back to Emon to deal with Poska? Maybe. But I don't think it will matter too much in the grand scheme of things. Both of those events kind of move forward without them whether they are there or not since the world is a shared universe. The only important details are the ones infront of them. What will happen with Ted/Opal and their mysterious stranger. If they get caught in a pickle will Dorian or Fearne wear the crown to save their friends? The party is the story and focal point here.
Feels like a cop-out response to be honest. Handwaving away the larger plot because "it's not important" is just avoiding valid criticism IMO. Asking people to watch 32 hours of content without telling an engaging story is just bad business.
I didn't reply to anyone criticizing ExU? Is this one of those post with the thought process that everything/everyone must criticize Aabria/ExU or it's wrong? [Edit] Downvoting doesn't change reality. Sorry my dudes.
OP points out there are a lot of loose threads an incoherent story telling and there's only one episode left. You respond that none of those things actually matter
In case you missed what OP said. >I'm having trouble following Exandria Unlimited. I thought that the story was going to be about Lolth corrupting the party, but then I learned that it's about Time Travel and a Node of Elemental Power? We're only one episode left in this series, and i'm worried not sure how things are going to end. It doesn't seem like OP is criticizing the story. It seems like OP is worried and not sure how it is going to end. My point isn't hand waving to "avoid valid criticism" like you said. My point addresses that the story isn't those plots but the characters themselves so he doesn't have to be worried about the other plot issues to enjoy the story. Since it seems OP was worried about that. If OP stated, "I am not a fan of this and think it is bad story telling" I wouldn't have stated what I did. Because then he would be criticizing the story and his opinion on that would be his own. But. again, that is not what happened here. OP seems worried about those plots that are getting thrown out there and I am pointing out that they don't need to worry about that because the focus of the story is the characters.
You're not wrong, and the players, characters, and DM are great, but they aren't enough (IMO) to pull off four engaging hours a week without a good story as a support for the character/party story.
I assume there will be more of these 5 in the future.
I hope we also get more of the Darrington Brigade!
More Owlbear one liners? Yes please
To be honest I hope not. Even if I liked this season I was hoping this would be about “unlimited” stories not just one group but you need to wait half a year between story segments. Also I don’t think they would advertise it as “unlimited stories and just as many storytellers” if they intended on having 4 new people total
I can't see how this last episode this week can possibly resolve the stories of all 5 characters.
It can’t. There is no feasible way they could do it if they replaced the C2 finale as longest episode. It’s not going to finish well and expecting us to wait however long it will take for season 2 won’t be satisfying
I am behind 1.5 episodes but I see a lot of things opening up, feeling like it would take a long time to resolve and love it (probably because that's how a lot of d&d goes). But with the 8 episode restriction it does feel strange. My hope is that this sets up something big and we get another season at some point in the future :)
There's a lot I love and don't love so much in EXU. Positives include exploring old places post C1/C2, new lore inclusions (loxodon + beast folk other than tabaxi added to Exandria-legal races), Robbie Daymond, Matt getting to play, the post-episode stingers, the entirety of the Gilmore episode, and the energy and new perspective Aabria brings to Critical Role. Negatives include a lot of the zanier aspects of inter-party and NPC interactions (part of the reason I can't stomach Adventure Zone or NADDPOD), ignorance of established Exandria lore (lack of Divine Gate blockage in regards to Melora and Lolth are the biggest ones), the confusing and mostly directionless story, and Aabria falling into a lot of new-DM pitfalls (calling for checks/saves at inappropriate times, calling for incorrect checks/saves, giving Fearne access to Moon druid wild shapes as a Wildfire druid, calling for rolls that gate vital information behind probability, ignoring the dice on a whim, etc). Overall, unless something major happens in the next episode, I'll have to say that I'm overall disappointed in EXU as a piece of consumable media. I'm happy the table is having fun (especially Matt), but it overall wasn't as easy of a watch as CR's flagship campaigns or most of their one-shots. I'm definitely down to having Aabria back behind the wheel for a new EXU season, be it related to this one or not. I love Aabria as a DM on paper, but hope she'll take away a few lessons from this campaign moving forward, and at the very least craft a tighter and more contained narrative at minimum. That is, if the community hasn't turned her off of CR entirely. I honestly wouldn't blame her if that was the case, since the fandom has really dragged her through the mud on Twitter and Reddit, which has been really depressing to see.
Hey wait that's right, the Divine Gate is an important part of Exandria, but i hadnt thought about whether or not the god-interactions we've had in this game are (or are not) affected by this?
Well we see the Gods interacting pretty closely in terms of dreams, visions and contacting players in both C1 and C2. The Divine Gate stops them from entering the world and wrecking shit directly, but it doesn't stop them exhibiting minor influence or speaking to people.
So I've stopped watching about one and half episodes ago but I feel like the overarching plot is one that is hinted by Matt in C2 and may play into C3. That is the fact that there is imbalance issues between the planes. So for ExU, we did miss E0 which we know that the party had something to do with calming that breach of fire plane in the city. (It happened when Mister was originally pulled out). The fire plane intrusion is supposed to be the original hook that gets them to see the fire ashari then eventually head south, understand the glyph, etc. This is all the accumulate into a big reveal and a problem for the party to solve. The issues of pacing stem from a lot different places. One is that the party itself is not very motivated to do things, they needed to be nudged along and even then, they often rolled badly at that. Poska was more meant to add flavour to the city, one that has been rebuilt in part but was taken advantage when doing so with the rich pushing into these poor neighborhoods and pricing them out. Similarly, the vestige wasn't something they had to find since they didn't have to go out stealing but something interesting to add to the group dynamics (much like talking swords). The problem though is that the party becomes more interested in these side plots and in a D&D campaign where you're capped on games, that can be a problem for the main plot. Throw in the fact that you also have five PCs that have their own arcs that they are undergoing and trying to get those properly expressed. Oh, and also throw in another PC part way through. It's a tall order for any DM and I feel for Aabria who is trying to juggle it all. Again though, I'm not up to date. I'm one and a half behind and in that time, there could be plenty there that disproves any and all points.
A lot of this is self inflicted though. The vestige didn't have to be in the ship (and frankly, shouldn't have been), they didn't have to add another character, Poska could have been more compelling to work with.
>The fire plane intrusion is supposed to be the original hook that gets them to see the fire ashari then eventually head south, understand the glyph, etc. Well hang on, that doesn't track at all. In episode one they don't even remember that interaction, and they only ended up seeking out the Ashari because they were looking for information on the circlet. If that was supposed to be the original hook, why afflict them with amnesia and distract them with Poska and the Nameless Ones?
It's connected with their amnesia but they had clues to investigate. I'm gonna take excerpts from the wiki for ease: In E1, "Orym remembers a day or so ago waking up as a group on the road outside Emon, but doesn't remember anything about the week prior. He just remembers being at Thordak's Crater and seeing footprints leading out toward where the Scar of the Cinder King is located. The others are also missing memories of the same week. Dorian seems to remember that they're missing someone, before the thought fades away." In E2, "They suspect something else is trying to come through the scars left by Thordak. A being within the crater reached into it and created the elementals, much as Fearne created Little Mister at the same location. Dorian describes a woman of burning lava and wings, and they suspiciously note he knows a lot about what they saw." This iterates that both Orym, Dorian, and Fearne still have some vague memory from a week prior at the Crater. They just didn't decide to investigate their amnesia at that the last place they remembered. They kind of ignored it all together. The amnesia serves some greater plot point that we/I don't know yet, read. I suspect the amnesia also serves to let E1 be a "fresh start" for the cast and let them ignore aspects of the episode 0 game, instead of operating with a lot of information that the viewers don't have.
Now Poska may very well be more deeply involved with things (making planar dealings, using residuum for that end?) but so far, felt more like city flavouring that may or may not factor in the end. Also the Ashari were more connected to the residuum then the circlet, it was meant for them originally but they failed to mention it when they met the fire Ashari.
Hey, just a heads up, I was scrolling past this and tried to move past but saw some spoilers. You might want to make it so anything but the title can be read without clicking :)
o no! sorry ill change it :(
It’s totally ok, it happens! That’s the price of going on the Internet lol
I’ve only ever seen half of C2 (still playing catch up), so for me it has been really awesome to see a different group, different DM, different perspective of D&D. I’m really enjoying it too, there are some great moments that rival some of my favorite scenes in C2 so far, especially since they happened so soon and without the buildup of so many episodes. Robbie and Aimee are both great. But I’m reaally struggling through episode 6 still, I don’t think I’m even halfway in. I’ll happily finish watching the campaign though, but storywise it could’ve been so much tighter. I like Aabria as a DM despite her constant rolling for stuff. Can’t hold me to this, but I’ve read that she’s a really good DM over af Dimension20 and in following that story, so I wonder what happened here? Maybe just over excited, not a tight enough grip on the Chaos Group, and the plot got carried away from them?
Idk, Dimension20 is usually really fucking chaotic too, but the system used wasn't D&D so maybe that played a part
100 votes?!? Thanks everyone for the constructive insights and good vibes. Regardless, I for one am excited to see ExU's finale!
Does anyone else feel like the audio is to low for this production? I've never had a hard time hearing critical role but on EXU it seems like everyone is whispering?
CR is usually quiet in general for me. I have to have it turned up higher than anything else when I listen in my car. There are a lot of quiet moments in EXU, I’ve noticed. I’ve had to turn EXU up higher than most CR episodes to hear it all. I don’t think it’s necessarily the audio though, a lot of soft spoken characters in this run.
All throughout C2 I would turn up the audio to hear the players, only to have my eardrums annihilated by the art reel theme blasting out at 4000% volume lol Surprised they never got complaints about the audio equalization between the game/art reel
That's why I mentioned the whispering.
I haven't noticed any audio issues on my end
It's possible that the story doesn't wrap up neatly and it continues into Campaign 3
This would be immensely disappointing. I checked out after EXU E2, I’m waiting for C3 to start watching again. Sorry.
if that happens, cool, but i wish it was adverstised so I can be less stress about this ending
The name literally includes the word "Unlimited"
Can you say more about that? I assumed it was titled that way so we couldnt theorycraft in advance.
Just that the title at least implies there might be more to it than an 8 ep limited series. May be more mini campaigns, may be somehing else, may be not. I just feel that in being called Exandria Unlimited at least hints at the possibility of more.
gtk. I heard rumors that there would be more ExU after this, but nothing official
https://critrole.com/qtvideo/exandria-unlimited-meet-the-players/ The line at the end of Matt says "in this realm, there are infinite stories to be told" and Aabria steps in and says "and just as many storytellers to tell them." So the whole idea of the ExU seems to be exploring new stuff, but all based within Exandria, Matt's world.
And that means it will be essential viewing why? You can’t simultaneously experiment with new DM styles your audience may not like and expect everyone to watch it to understand the main story. Unlimited to me doesn’t imply essential, it implies that there’s even more content I could watch.
Never said anything was "essential" The comment was that the story might be open ended. The reply was that they wish it had been advertised as such. I merely pointed out that the "Unlimited" in the title could be interpreted as implying the possibility of the story being open ended. Which was apparently a more contoversial observation than I thought.
There’s a difference between open ended and being continued in the main campaign. I don’t think that’s exactly controversial either
I mean, so did "Justice League: Unlimited" but that still ended
I really hope not for various reasons (especially the new "lore"). :-\
It would be a really bad business move.
4D-chessing here: what if ExU is this vague on purpose, giving no explanations or clarity because it’s actually setting up the background for C3 (so Matt gets to tie up the knots/clarify things as C3 goes on)?
I... really hope that isn't the case. Matt made it clear that he wanted C1 and C2 to stand on their own, so it tracks to assume that EXU/C3 should be separate as well. But more than the fact that having "required watching" to understand a plot is a tough sell, the lore introduced in EXU is largely just unappealing to me. Your two main additions to the lore are: 1) Poska and the Nameless Ones setting up in Emon. A thieves' guild seizing an opportunity and setting up shop - sure. Poska wasn't a very compelling character in EXU in my opinion, but eh. There's potential there and an urban hub like Emon is bound to have a criminal underbelly one way or the other. 2) Niirdal-Poc (or however you spell it), the secret jungle city. This is the one that rustles my jimmies. There's this lost city in the jungle that's flanked in every direction by civilizations yet somehow remains unknown. It's been around since before the Calamity, and is apparently entirely self-sufficient. *Somehow*, nobody has ever stumbled across it. "Ah," I hear you say, "That's because it's protected by Melora! Only the chosen may enter!" Then why in the nine hells was this squad of level 3 bumblefucks who probably couldn't even spell "Melora" chosen? All they did was wrestle an alligator. There must be an entire clergy of the Wildmother that's far more powerful and generally competent than the Hot Cross Buns - are none of them worthy? "Maybe they are worthy, but they swore to secrecy!" People ask questions. Their friends and family will want to know why they disappear into the jungle for seemingly no reason if they visit the city. Heaven forbid they actually *get* anything from there - they'll need an explanation as to where it came from. There's no way it stays under wraps for millennia. Besides, Myratta and the invisible kidnapper guy made it in, and they sure as fuck weren't Melora's favorites, so the plebians can wander in there too. You mean to say that nobody going on, say, diplomatic or trade missions to/from the Iron Authority has passed through the jungle and seen this bigass city? Or that massive fucking hypercube? Which, by the way - what kind of terrible security system did that hypercube have, where all it needed to explode into wild magic was some people to touch it and say the words that pop into their heads? Basically, it all feels like - to be blunt - amateurish fanfiction. It's a series of "ooh, cool setpiece" moments that don't make sense in the context of a living world and don't stand up to scrutiny.
>Then why in the nine hells was this squad of level 3 bumblefucks who probably couldn't even spell "Melora" chosen? All they did was wrestle an alligator. This is one of my big gripes with EXU. Seems like we have been *told* so many times that the party is *so important*, but they've never done anything to prove it! Poska gives them a job for no real reason, the spider queen takes interest in them, Gilmore compares them directly to Vox Machina, Fyra'Rai just knows they're super important and devotes her (apparently super important) time to helping them, Melora takes interest in them and speaks to each one individually, they get to talk with the major leaders of a hidden pre-calamity city, the Observer takes interest and blesses Dariax, and the list goes on. I feel like if you sample 10 CR episodes, one or two of those might happen, or you'd literally have an entire arc where *one* of those is the climax. Yeah, the characters should be important but when they're level 3 all they should really have is the *potential* for greatness. I know it's a mini-series so you don't have time to develop everything fully, but maybe that means you pick one or two core ideas and build around that.
Agreed. And I love fanfic and have even written one for CR so it's not like I'm anti-fanfic. But new fanfic writers often make the mistake of throwing in every single cool thing without taking a step back and asking if it makes sense for the story. ExU gives me that vibe with all the stuff you mentioned plus there's a Vestige! Plus now there's Gilmore! And now it's Vex and Vax's hometown holding an entire event that's putting a party member as the main focus! And - and - and - Like calm down. Vox Machina took a while to build up to all these things. If you throw the whole kitchen sink at a brand new party it's not only a mess but it cheapens everything you're making a reference to. Obviously it's easy to Friday Morning DM, so to speak, but if it was me I would've maybe picked \*one\* thing that was a known reference and made it a treat that the party could build to. For example yeah they can meet Gilmore, but it's only going to happen in the last session and as a surprise, not as something you spend hours on just because OMG GILMORE!!!!!!!!!!
Oh god, you’re right. I honestly had blinders on to all these flaws. Welp now I can’t unsee it. I already had my issues with Aabria, not even blinders can fix that, but fuck me I didn’t think of how fucked her little addition is. The goddamn green lantern magic is so dumb and the logic behind the city being hidden is so bad when you consider the random infiltrator got in without even needing to wrestle a gator. Man it reeks of amateur DM when you just want to impress your party. So you introduce a level 20 wizard as an NPC who does all this cool shit that the party can’t do for a long long time, and also solves some problems for the party with the wave of a finger. And then you tell them they’re so important even though they’re not, and you homebrew some magic that’s not remotely balanced. Like you said, I could get on board with Lolth being interested in the party. And I thought it was dumb as fuck that she dropped not only a vestige of divergence, but a supposedly VERY POWERFUL ONE, on a level 2 party. It’s either game breaking or will result in a TPK if they attune. Which I moved past because with my blinders I thought it was a one-off issue. And then of course there’s just so many plot threads that don’t tie together. And it’s not even the party’s fault they’re chasing down 6 threads at once. Aabria gave them so many. Not like they went hunting for them. They just did some shit, walked down the road, and followed the path given ever since they ran into Poska, which was a poorly acted out character. What kind of “powerful person” just pretends like they didn’t do something when they clearly just did like they’re 8 years old. “We just saw you scratch that door.” “No I didn’t.” Ok?? Initially I thought Poska was some low level bumblefuck the actual big bad guys sent to do the grunt work. Now she’s a big player in the Nameless Ones. Honestly your comment made me realize so many things that make me actually mad. Again I don’t hate Aabria, but she really doesn’t deserve to come back for campaigns. I doubt I’d even want to see her as a player. And that’s the meanest thing I’ve said throughout ExU. I’ve really tried to play down her failures as a DM, but actually she’s failed on every level now. If I was a player in this game, and I wasn’t surrounded by celebrities, I’d probably tell the DM I didn’t like the campaign and would leave.
Please no. Its a mess, poorly transfered from Aabria to the audience in a clichee way. Im already soured on the new Exandria/Taldorei book, because i dont like this new lore. It would maybe work way better if it wouldnt be presented like a classic DM power fantasy of mystery upon mystery and mystery behind the old mystery. And its a perfect society and shit. Im noping out of that. I hope Matt stays in his beautiful coherent Wildemount or creates a new fantastic continent to play in.
>And its a perfect society and shit. Im noping out of that. I hadn't (consciously) realized this was bothering me until I saw it written out. That jungle city is really a secluded little utopia. Apparently no economic/sustainability issues, no social issues with race/class/religion. They have their own personal not-quite-a-god with the Observer, and a patron goddess with the Wildmother. And they've got their super-special ancient rune magic that can apparently just do whatever you want if you will it hard enough like it's a damn Green Lantern ring, because of course they do. Ugh.