#heart-to-heartmoor

[lessattitudemorealtitude]

Taliesin just staring wide eyed as Laudna describes waking up being hung from the Sun Tree

#critical role #cr liveblogging #cr laudna #laudna #taliesin jaffe #heart-to-heartmoor #c3e17

[jadequarze]

Hi! Your OCs are super cool :D and I was wondering if you would be open to sharing a bit about them and their world/lore?

AAAAAAAA THANK YOU!! I LOVE MY KIDDOS!!

For their overall character lore. It's still ongoing though

As for the world I'm putting them in, it's sorta modern, fantasy/supernatural-esque theme. I haven't thought too much in the world lore.

All I can say for certain that there are the Deity. However, people don't know about the Deity (I need to rename this) and what their purpose are. Their existence are never proven and even if it were, it disappears without a trace. These four, so far, are those Deity, the Varenian family. Only a handful are trusted with this secret (Zheril, a long time friend and now Cathrin).

Each of them have an accessory that helps in concealing their secret. The siblings with the choker/necklace, Co'rag with his necklace and Faye with her ring.

I'm not much of a world lore builder, and character lore, somewhat okay-ish. It's just a 'goes with the flow' kind of deal.

#asks #heart-to-heartmoor #thanks for the oc ask :D #oc asks

[aj-lenoire]

Fenthras is the bow! Garmelie is the disguise of a different fey character. He might show up again later on :)

oh i thought fenthras was the god to which the bow belonged, like the matron of ravens owning the deathwalker’s ward, and garmelie was the god in disguise

still, very keen for more faerie shenanigans 👀

#the legend of vox machina #2.08 the echo tree #garmelie #heart-to-heartmoor #aj asks #aj watches vox machina

[lessthanimpressedlesbian]

I feel so vindicated knowing that we all read those many microexpressions correctly. Laura was really playing an anxious queer woman in love with her best friend so accurately that we couldn't help but pick up on all the little nuances.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #cr spoilers #cr lb #laudna #imogen temult #imodna #laura bailey #its just nice to know we werent reading into it too much #and that what we all saw was real #maybe some of it wasnt intentional but so much was #laura has been acting her heart out and i love her for it #now i just wanna know when imogen realized she was in love with laudna #personally i think it was when laudna almost went down the first time with fhe shade mother #i think she realized then that laudna could die #she definitely knew by the time they left for the heartmoore bc you cant convince me she wasnt pining when she was holding laudnas hand #she had it inna death grip and wanted laudna to go into her dreams #thats so gay shit right there #anyway

[littlelesbianknight]

orym’s look of alarm when fearne announces that she’s gonna make her way through the whole party is so funny… also him growing flowers on zhudanna’s door and in imogen’s hair <3333

#back on my c3 bullshit thank god #I can’t believe I stopped right before the backstory episode !! heart to heartmoor here we go #knight watches cr3

[utilitycaster]

hi! I'm sorry if you answered this already and I missed the post, but what are your general thoughts on the party being split for so long?

Short answer: I think it's great. I think the best way to answer this accurately is to cover some of my past complaints about the campaign, and discuss how this split is addressing the vast majority of them. This is also, I suppose, serves as an argument for why it's worth getting caught up with Campaign 3 for anyone who fell off of regular watching.

I'll begin by saying that I understand the desire to have something akin to Campaign 2 but in Marquet: a group of people deeply tied into the lore and fabric of the setting and yet displaced within it, finding each other. I still would have liked to see that story. I do not fault people for being disappointed in not getting that, particularly given what Marquet means as a setting, and this still is not that campaign. But pretty much all of my other complaints have been addressed by the apogee solstice and the party split and so I'm not here to mourn what I know didn't happen, and instead to talk about how the last ten or so episodes have been banger after banger.

I said this elsewhere recently but my issue wasn't that the campaign was building up to the apogee solstice setpiece; it was that it took about 30 episodes to even reveal that was what the buildup was for, and yet, somehow, 35 episodes to finally be done with Treshi. Which meant in turn that the party was constantly kind of shepherded from place to place. Even the sidequests were mostly part of the buildup - Heartmoor Hamlet is a good time, and achieves quite a lot in only a handful of episodes - but it is, ultimately, mostly there to wipe out Ashton's debt which would be a detriment to getting to the main plot. The modular, party-driven nature of Campaign 2 just wasn't an option, since they could have quite possibly avoided the solstice (akin to how Campaign 2 completely avoided the Augen Trust plot and required a drastic reworking of the Lucien plot). But because it started so early, it was hard to get a sense of what would actually motivate the characters so that they could be guided more naturally by hooks they'd be likely to take, since they were doing fetch quest after fetch quest with a wealthy patron (I love Eshteross with all my heart but that kind of figure early in the story is tough to incorporate; more on that later) and getting lore dumped at by NPCs and never really had to scramble or take weird jobs killing rats in the sewers or even share rooms in an inn with people they didn't already know before the story started.

Which is the second part: the party did not really mix that much. Imogen and Laudna came in codependently joined at the hip, and Orym and Fearne were also quite close. Ashton and FCG had a looser arrangement, and Chetney was the only true free agent. So a lot of the time, the party felt like three groups working together with tenuous bridges rather than a coherent party, and they never quite had either the downtime to cohere, or the massive crisis to force them together. This party has actually seen quite a lot of death, but Bertand's happened too early, and while Laudna's didn't quite reset to the status quo, it also occurred just as the Treshi plot had ended and so the timeline was becoming even more accelerated. The seeds of something were there, but they needed something more to actually take root.

Enter the apogee solstice and the party split. This has fixed basically everything:

The fact that the solstice happened means that now we're in damage control mode. There's a clear motivator for the party, but one that they genuinely care about rather than one that requires the DM being like "and THIS NPC wants THIS thing."

It also forces the party to develop those relationships outside of the friend they started with. The obvious first reason is that the groups are split up along those lines. That is not an accident or a cruel joke; that's fucking necessary, frankly, to get the party to bond. As my meta about Laudna and Orym points out, not having their emotional support prior colleague - even by sending - and frankly, yeah, not even knowing they're alive, for certain, is what will make these characters actually grow and change. As we saw, the same is true for Fearne, Imogen, and FCG.

It notably removes the spotlight from Imogen, which is good, because the cool development happens after the character-focused arc, when they can process, rather than during. She's still Ruidusborn, but what that means is very different from what it meant pre-ritual.

Then there's the practical element of travel. This party probably isn't going to be teleporting nonstop, but they did have comparatively fast travel in the form of a skyship from very early on, and in another three levels Fearne will have transport via plants, and Imogen can take teleport as a cast spell the level after that, and then we'll never get to see much of the world...but if you break teleporting a bit? You send them into the middle of the wilderness? Yeah, they're going to need to have those watch conversations that were far too few and far between early in the campaign.

And allies! This party's doing it backwards. They've lost Eshteross; Keyleth's fate is unknown to them; Ryn is a statue; Beau and Caleb's fates are similar question marks. After so much time of having patrons and friendly wizards telling them what to do? They're alone, and they have to survive by their wits and by leaning on each other.

The fact that we've got guests is good both because we get to see different facets of the main cast's characters through their responses to these new companions, and because we're getting to fill some of the gaps in the party (people with more longstanding relationships to deities; people with 20 INT scores). It also pushes Bells Hells, in some way, closer together, by having to assert that they are part of a group with shared experience. And it's just a delight to have them.

This is also just fun for fans in that we're getting to see some of the most wished for locations - the Mighty Nein's time in Uthodurn was brief and very focused, and everyone's been clamoring for Molaesmyr and Issylra. For all that Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein fought world-wide threats, they were largely contained to a specific region, and I think this is really setting the stage for how big a deal the apogee solstice really is, by flinging the party across the world and showing how everyone is affected.

Anyway: love the party split. I honestly would have been happy with one or two more episodes of the other party and am looking forward to a similar length arc for this party, and honestly, even then, it might take a few episodes for them to reunite, and I think they'll all be better for it.

#answered #muthserra #critical role #critical role spoilers #two other thoughts that are personal/hunches and don't fit above #first is that my guess is still that this is the last full-length campaign so pulling out all the stops for locations & guests is smart #(i would love to be proven wrong but. suspect i am right) #and second is that my favorite ships are in the same groups for the most part so i'm vibing

[critter-genfic-events]

This week, we have seven hilarious prank fics recced! Read along for some hi-jinks and mischief! Check them out under the cut, and as ever, comment or kudos if you like them!

What Goes Up by krakens (2311,General) Warnings: None Pairings: background Vax/Gilmore

Pike suggests playing a prank on Vax. Grog suggests putting a cow in his room.

Reccer says: A perfect Vox Machina messing around fic

Open All the Windows by hufflepirate (4563,General) Warnings: None Pairings: Jester & the Traveler

Even as Jester grows older, sometimes that first spell is still the best spell. It always means the Traveler is there. It always means she isn't really alone.

Reccer says: I liked it

Distance makes the heart grow fonder by Multifandom_damnation (2805,General) Warnings: None Pairings: The Clay Siblings

Caduceus is gone just as fast as he arrived, and he leaves his siblings behind to bicker amongst themselves and think about everything he's been through in the ten years that they've been away.

Reccer says: I love the sibling dynamics and the outsider view of what Caduceus would have been through without his siblings.

Spell JAMmer by xtinethepirate (1496,General) Warnings: Pairings: Background Shadowgast, Essek & Verin Thelyss

Essek relates a story from his past. Jester gets ideas. Verin is stuck with cleaning duty.

Reccer says: A fun callback to the random Verin and Essek story Matt told on a charity stream, with added Jessties

Untitled Fearne Game by Deramin (200,General) Warnings: minor animal ruffling Pairings:

It’s a lovely morning at the pond, and you are a horrible fey.

Reccer says: It's extremely short (200 words) but perfect for what it needs to be

The Wrong Side of the Bed by Samuraiko (467,Teen) Warnings: None Pairings:

Just because Orym's the healthy and well-adjusted one doesn't mean he can't cut loose and have some fun every now and again... especially with a little help from Ashton. (takes place just before the departure to the Heartmoor)

Reccer says: I liked it

garden crimes by quinn_of_aebradore (233,General) Warnings: None Pairings: Essek & Yasha

Yasha engages in some mischief while she and Essek are gardening together.

Reccer says: It's short, sweet, and wonderfully silly!

This is one of our weekly communally-generated gen rec lists. Every week we announce a new theme and allow anyone to submit a fic recommendation. Please note that the summary and content notes are provided by the reccer, and may be different than what the author has provided. Please assume good intentions all around. <3

And hey, anyone includes you!

Next week, we'll be featuring fics focused on Ashton!

Then, it'll be Hair Care, Pre-Campaign, and Crashing A Party!

Any fics coming to mind?  Well, then use this form to submit!

If you're looking for some more, check out some fics written in the critter genfic bingo tag, or the older rec lists! Or you can request your own card and join in on the fun!

#critical role #critter genfic rec lists #vox machina #the mighty nein #bells hells #pranks

[thecavernsabove]

heart to heartmoor.....

after what feels like and maybe could be months I'm finally continuing my c3 rewatch (it will probably be quite sporadic since its still airing 😭) and gOD the convos in this ep are so much

#critical role #bells hells #cr #critrole #campaign 3 #cr3 #laudna #orym #chetney

[danielledelayed]

I'm slowly but surely making my way through Campaign 3 of Critical Role and I've gotten through episode 17, Heart-to-Heartmoor, and I had feelings I wanted to share. -SPOILERS for up until C3e17 as well as events in C1 and C2-

Laudna's reveal of being one of the victims of the Briarwoods' ghoulish display on the Sun Tree was great, but Orym's reactions to it and that "the worst thing that could happen has already happened :)" line really hit me. And now learning that Orym had a husband, Will, who was killed in the attack on the Voice of the Tempest, making all of this even more personal…. I loved Caleb with my whole heart, this man who carried guilt and shame as if it was an essential part of his being, an all-encompassing self-hatred implanted by a man whose grip on cruelty was so tight as to teach his abused victims to carry on his work even when he's not there, but man…. Orym's quiet grief is screaming through his brow and leaping from his eyes in a way that digs into you. He's a warm smile that comes from time ripped away. What a beautiful thing.

#bells hells #cr3 spoilers #I don't actually know how to tag this stuff #sometimes the brain that comes up with horrible word bullshit (positive) spits up something nice instead #my thoughts

[simplysparrow14]

Love the fact that when Chetney says that Ashton is really a tender-hearted person who hides behind their literal tough-as-rock persona, Ashton dignifyes it with a very crude, ashton-appropreate responce directly to the old gnomes face by using their wooden hand to flip him off, coupled with the off-handed remarks given to other members of the Hells when complemented or praised and the fact that it took several days for Ashton to open up about their trauma/situation with Hexum and the Nobodies.

Smash cut to several episodes prior during “Heart-To-Heartmoore”, Ashton immediately opens up about his transformation to Fearne when fearne asked softly about them being all rock, as well as the moment when Fearne says that she wasen't paying attention to Ashton during his fight with General Ratanish and Ashton gaining a big-brain moment about how they get their ass kicked frequently in the hopes that someone will see them the way they want to be seen and then suddenly getting considerate and friendly and soft within Fearne's presence and galvanizing his resolve to pickpocket Fearne in order for her to continue to look at him and see him for who he is.

Ashton is literally that one character who acts like nothing fazes them, but will go soft for one person and one person only.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #callowmoore #fearne calloway #ashton greymoore #Rockwild #fearne x ashton #ashton x fearne #critical role campaign 3 spoilers #cr3 spoilers

[mintywolf]

A Long Road Home Author Notes - Page 1

Hello! Going forward I’m going to be attaching author notes here on my personal blog for anyone interested in hearing me ramble about this. :)

For Page 1.

If you’ve been following me for a while you probably know me best from Guardian, my last big comic. (For those who don’t, it’s a graphic novel about Lulu from Final Fantasy X. You can read it here: @guardian-comic) Since finishing work on that in early 2020 I’ve been struggling to get a new project started. I’d had a number of other original and fan projects backburnered but found I had a hard time caring about them. (Or honestly, much of anything, after the plague malaise took over. A lot of things, on both a global and personal scale, happened in 2020 that made art just Hard in a way that it hadn’t been before, a feeling I’ve seen shared by a lot of creatives at the time.)

Then CR Campaign 3 started and I don’t know what it is exactly about Laudna and Imogen but these characters and their relationship have my entire heart. I have not hyperfixated this hard on something in years. As with Guardian the impulse to express all the heart emojis bursting out of the depths of my being in the form of an unwieldy graphic novel came out of nowhere, and the beginnings of it came in a dream. (Although as also with Guardian, the pages that I dreamt for it never actually made it into the comic, haha.) I woke up that morning feeling in my soul that it was Time. 

Fortunately I have the benefit of 10 years of experience this time so rather than just diving headlong into another opus I spent several months planning, outlining, writing the script, and working on character designs. I’ve thought before that if I’d known exactly how big Guardian was going to be at the outset I never would have been able to get started. This time I know. And friends . . . it is another behemoth. D: A few times, watching the script steadily balloon in size, I stopped to think what are you doing, this is insane, this could be a fic and take a fraction of the time, but I have no sense of artistic self-preservation. :D

I’m still scared! I know from having done it before that I can do it again, but it still feels very Big and I’m still working my way back up to the level of artistic productivity I had then. But I’m excited about it in a way I haven’t been about a creative project in a long, long time.

For a long time it didn’t have a title, it was just called “Southern Gothic Meet Cute Prequel Comic??” at the top of the script page. That got shortened to “Southern Gothic,” which fits it both as a ship and a genre, but I decided that was a little too cheeky since it is the ship name (one of them) and also not very indicative as a title. The meaning of the new one will I hope become evident as the story goes on. (I never did change the tumblr url though. It is what it is.)

Yeah so! Here we go. Here’s Imogen, with some curiously bare arms!

It’s implied that Flora is a white horse (when Imogen selects horses for the journey to the Heartmoor Chetney remarks that he thought she’d prefer a white horse, but she says she doesn’t want to replace Flora) and originally I intended to draw her that way but I ended up liking the palomino paint look. (Incidentally my first horse in Breath of the Wild looked like this so it’s kind of nostalgic for me. ;)) She’s still mostly white. She kind of disappears from the scene because it’s a dream. In the narration she always runs away before the storm hits.

I think I over-rendered the backgrounds, haha. But I just got all these cool grass and field brushes just for this! (Available here.) The quilt was also more intricate originally but I didn’t want to drive myself insane trying to keep the pattern the same every time we see it, so I simplified it a little. It’s still cute. Also a recurring staple of my art: cute jammies. :)

Her bedroom is in the attic, which we’ll get a more clear picture of later. I imagine she’d have moved up there to be as far away from the presence of other minds as possible.

#a long road home #author notes

[eishelin]

Review of “Mythic Meetup” by Heartmoor Studios

Third game on my Otome Jam 2022 entry play list was Mythic Meetup by Heartmoor Studios.

TL:DR

It might feel like a tribute to another popular indie otome game at first, but it has a lot more to offer. Featuring some very likable, yet believably flawed characters, cute visuals and nice representation.

Story/Writing

Do you also go around clicking random chatroom invite links are end up in the weirdest places in the middle of the night? No? Just me?

Well, that's what happens to the main character - she (pronouns selectable) - a regular, ordinary (well, maybe not super-ordinary) human ends up in a chatroom filled with mythical creatures. Shenanigans and heart-breaking backstories occur as a result.

Each of the chat participants have a distinct writing style, which definitely makes the game come alive.

The main character is mainly a self-insert, with some little backstory pieces scattered throughout the story and a bit of a snarky personality in the non-choice parts of the story. And choices there are a galore - thankfully the developers have provided handy guides on the right ones to pick to end up in the hearts of the eligible mythics.

There are quite a few choices to make and the developers have provided a nifty guide on the right ones to pick for a happy ending with

It's very enjoyable to see representations on the ace/demi spectrum, including flirty ones.

I really loved the fact that the characters were friends in real life as well and appeared together in video calls and in each other's rooms. It definitely gave

A thing that initially threw me off was the chapters being called days. My initial thought was that the plot of the game is happening over the course of several days, but they're more of a series of snippets of what's happening over the course of a longer period of time. I feel like calling them chapters or weeks would have been more friendly.

Another small issue that I noticed is that while you can select your pronouns, some of the scenes default to other characters referring to the main character as they/them instead, but it might be intentional.

Art

The art is definitely cute. Each of the characters have a different background for their room and they match the characters very well.

As the resident memologist, I enjoyed the meme pictures that were scattered through the chat.

I especially liked the programming of the videochat sprites - there are little wobbly effects happening with their arms, which make them seem more alike. Ditto for mirroring effects.

Similarly a great shoutout to the CG programming - I know that under jam limits we work with a very limited set of VN assets and the ending CGs were utilized to the fullest with their panning and other effects.

Music and Voice Acting

There is an original soundtrack and it matches both the scenes and characters very well, without being overpowering and distracting. Everything loops seamlessly, there are relevant sound effects scattered through the game. I also liked the music room which was added in.

All of the videochats are fully voiced and it has good sound mixing. My favorite was Vera Tan's rendition of BestieBB, but honestly - they're all good.

A nice feature that's very, very easy to miss - if you click on the side character's profile and click on the little speaker icon if it's there - it's gonna play a line from them from a few random lines. It was very cute and helped to put a voice behind some of the chat avatars.

GUI/Usability

There is a cute custom GUI and I generally liked using it, especially all of the little bits and bobs that you could click to go to different screens and such. It really made the game feel very immersive.

After some fine-tuning I found the right text speed for me for the autoplay and just watched the chat go on. A little thing that I felt was missing with the autoplay system was a hard pause at the end of the chapter. Once or twice I found myself scrambling to reload saves because the last message of the chapter was quite long and the day change happened before I got to read it.

I'm usually an avid history reader and there were some overflow issues there.

The font size is pretty good if playing on large-screen devices and the font is quite readable for the chat. Increasing the font-size would have been nice for playing on devices with smaller screens (like the Steam Deck) though. Reading white text on yellow for the videochats did get a bit straining on my eyes, but I work with code all day, so they're pretty sensitive come evening when I have time to play games.

Playthrough notes - here be slight spoilers

As usual, I did a live-tweet thread of my biggest impressions.

I started my playthrough with OffKey and I enjoyed the resolution of her backstory.

Next I played BestieBB and they definitely are sharing my No. 1 spot in the rankings due to how much I was vibing with their route. I feel like the conflict was very believable and the resolution as well. To put it in the words of a friend:

Playing watcher hurt me. In a good, self reflective, I have content to talk with my therapist kind of way. I've definitely had the same kind of feelings as he has had in chatrooms throughout my whole life. And I especially loved how part of the conflict was internal and the issues were resolved partially by some very in-depth self reflection.

X's route in comparison was pure fun. I love how it brought the whole team together and the overall flirtiness of everything.

Overall I'm very glad I decided to play this game, will probably play the studio's O2A2 jam entry and can't wait to see what the devs put out next.

#otome jam 2022 #indie otome #otome game #otome review #review #mythic meetup

[samuraiko]

And yet ANOTHER late night Critical Role pondering...

OH SHIT.

I JUST HAD A THOUGHT.

Back in C3E11 (”Chasing Nightmares”), during the Bells Hells’ visit to House Lumas, they’re told that the Lumas twins were studying, among other things, “crystal fauna.” (A term that Matt often conflates with “flora” -- fauna refers to animal life, flora refers to plant life.)

If the Lumas twins were studying crystal FLORA (yes I’m a pedant, deal with it), are these... MAYBE... the same purple crystals that Caduceus’ family had planted and were growing as trees in the Blooming Grove to push back the corruption of the Savalirwood?!

Beyond that, you can see a number of these odd, if beautiful, purple crystal structures. These almost tree-like, twisting pillars of natural, purple crystal that sit at the perimeter of the grounds. They ever so faintly thrum with a faint light.

And as you peruse the exterior, you can see the elements of those crystalline trees, the four that have magically assembled since their implantation at the outskirts of the Grove. The trees themselves are semi-translucent. There's purple and pink, almost woven threads, like braided textures of different types of crystal that bind and twist into each other. The roots themselves extend and follow the perimeter of the premises. They stand probably eight, nine feet tall, thin, but nevertheless stalwart in where they're placed.

(C2E130, “The Calm Before the Storm”)

If this crystal flora only grows in certain parts of the Heartmoor... how did it get there? What’s there? And what might it be ‘protecting’?

ALSO...

Are THESE the crystals that Birdie Calloway has hanging in the interior garden of the Calloway Layaway? And *NOT* parts of the Gnarlrock?

You can see where the green is centered around each of these, there are, hung from the ceiling from long strings of rope and wrapped around a small net that carries them, a handful of these small, purplish stones, rough-hewn, that give off a faint glow, and all the greenery seems to be growing towards it. It's almost like all the flowers and all the trees and the elements are reaching towards the light, and you get the sense that this is what's giving the life force to the interior of the space to allow them.

(C3E30, “Reunion and Revelation”)

For that matter...

Are the purple healing crystals of the Savalirwood related to the Gnarlrock? Since they ALSO have the purpose of transforming and improving things?

But the Gnarlrock is malevolent...

It is a a stone that-- There are many theories as to how it got there. Some believe it's always been there. Some believe it was placed there, it grew there. There are many individuals within the Fey Realms that have their theories, but what's known is where it resides, everything around it mutates and twists and this mass thicket of nightmare nature now entwines for miles and miles around the Gnarlrock. This is but a small shard that seems to have been taken from it.

(C3E17, “Heart-to-Heartmoor”)

Are the crystals from the Savalirwood an ANTI-Gnarlrock? Or has the Gnarlrock itself been corrupted so that what was once life-giving and true and good has become warped, somehow?

And if so, by what or by whom?

#critical role #campaign 2 #campaign 3

[critrolestats]

Monster Analysis: Oderan Fairy-Lure Mantrap

Thanks to @eyezpike​ for this art piece!

Oderan Fairy-Lure Mantrap

First Appearance: 3-017 Heart-to-Heartmoor

Encounter Appearance: 3-018 A Hungry Jungle

Armor Class 16

Tremorsense 30 ft

Legendary Actions

Vulnerable to fire damage

Resistant to poison damage

Immune to blinded, deafened, exhaustion, poisoned, prone

377 damage taken, 16 HDYWTDT by Fresh Cut Grass

Lure

32 taken

Regrow Lure (5-6 on D6)

Action: Light Pulse (Wisdom Saving Throw) On fail, the target must immediately move half their movement toward the mantrap, and is incapicitated until end of the mantrap’s next turn or when the target takes damage.

After 11 days of adventuring together in Jrusar, the newly-named Bells Hells set out into the jungle surrounding Jrusar to trek to the Heartmoor Hamlet. Prior to leaving, they learned that the Dahdal Road through the jungle was the safest path… but the fun stuff is never on the road, is it?

Read more at critrolestats.com

#critical role #critical role spoilers #c3e018 #monster analysis #oderan fairy-lure mantrap

[utilitycaster]

If you're up for it, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on c3 pacing. There's something that feels different to me but i'm having a hard time putting my finger on it or putting it to words.

Yeah I think it's been weird and a slow start for a few reasons.

I think Campaign Three has had a more defined immediate plot, but it's come at the cost of character development. We're only just building out some of the character relationships; for all people joked about "what the fuck is up with that" the important stuff often doesn't come out in a group setting (after all we had the Mighty Nein Zone of Truth in episode 14); it comes out in one-on-one conversations. An urban setting with a group that had money for separate rooms, existing places to stay, no need for overnight watches, and a defined goal is like poison to new one-on-one relationships. There's a reason why Heart to Heartmoor feels like a breath of fresh air: there's finally some fucking lore driven by the characters just hanging out, rather than the DM.

As for why this has happened, I think there's a few factors:

The first is having long-standing pre-existing relationships. I know a lot of people love this. I do not. Like, look. The twins are great! But Vox Machina always, to me, felt so divided into little subgroups: the twins; Vex and Vax separately each with their respective partners (or sometimes as a whole group given that they also tended to represent the level-headed side of VM, particularly when Pike was away); Pike and Grog; Grog and Scanlan; Scanlan and Pike. There were some excellent group conversations, Liam especially made efforts to reach out to others at the table, and there are some stand-out one-off conversations like Keyleth and Grog talking after Umbrasyl, but like, some pairings just did not happen. I think the Mighty Nein were infinitely more vibrant because there were precisely three pre-existing pairings, none more than a year or so, and all were either not terribly honest/detailed in what backstory they'd shared or were very new - plus Yasha was often gone and Beau was indeed a true free agent, and then Caduceus joining mixed it up further and put Yasha in a more interesting position.

Meanwhile, Fearne and Orym (and earlier on Dorian) have been traveling together for something like 8 months and their goal in Jrusar was very narrow and immediate (compare to the Nein, whose goals were much broader and/or far-off); Laudna and Imogen have been friends for two years; and FCG and Ashton have known each other for the better part of a year as well. I think Chetney coming in revitalized things because that free agent was there again; Beau was for me one of the most compelling characters in the first few arcs of the Nein specifically because she had to build all her own relationships from scratch.

The second is the starter city. You can run a compelling campaign starting in a city or even based in a city (see: Calamity; NADDPod's current season has also only just left Ezry after 14 episodes and I don't have the same pacing concerns, though granted 14 NADDPod episodes is maybe 4-5 CR episodes in length). However, no one in Bells Hells was from Jrusar, and Ashton was the only one who had been there for any significant length of time (vs. the Ring of Brass being deeply tied to Avalir and NADDPod's Duck Team being longtime residents of Ezry). Additionally, everyone in those two groups (Ring of Brass and Duck Team) knew each other previously and had existing relationships to lean on, whereas see the previous point to the pre-existing groups making it hard for people outside of those groups to bond.

I know there's been complaints about a number of the characters not even being from Marquet originally - and I think that's valid - but solely in terms of pacing, having the characters more rooted to the setting of Marquet even if they are not from there originally would have solved. That's why so much is happening this arc - FCG and Ashton's backstories are in Bassuras and we are finally in Bassuras. As is, much as I love Eshteross, it meant he was pulling well over his weight as a character, because on some level none of Bells Hells have a reason to give a shit about Jrusar's politics. For what it's worth: Imogen is from Marquet and has ties to research across the continent so I'm not worried about her; Fearne's parents are giving her connections to Bassuras; Chetney's quest for the Gorgynei and Orym's search for the people who attacked Zephrah and killed Will are all out there to serve the party when they go elsewhere so they've got hooks on the continent. I am a little concerned about whether Laudna will have anything to do that is actually tied to the location, which brings me to my next point.

Thirdly, I think the prohibition on references to Campaign 1 served Campaign 2 phenomenally well and made those connections all the better when they arose, and I think a similar "no direct ties to previous campaigns" rule would have served them here. I know Orym has long been a concept for Liam, I do; I know that the choice to continue some of the party from EXU Prime even made a connection to Tal'Dorei make more sense; but Orym and Laudna's extremely tight connections to not just Tal'Dorei but to Campaign 1 have cast an immense shadow that I'm not sure Matt realized they would. It feels like even the rest of the cast (understandably) kind of stops everything and listens to the Vox Machina-adjacent lore. I've really tried to be as objective as I can about this because I know I can be pretty hard on the weird pedestals C1 gets put on (and cognizant that I might be doing the same for C2) but I really do think that it just brings things to a screeching halt and the story stops being about Bells Hells in Marquet and turns into Vox Machina lore rehash.

I know Laudna is an immensely popular character, and she's genuinely a lot of fun, but I just...feel like she's on some level dragging back the story to 810-812 PD, and I don't want to go there. I don't think it was Marisha's intention, nor Matt's; I think both of them just didn't realize the extent to which this would happen. I'm not sure I did until last week as the pacing issues started to slowly resolve. (Orym is an easier fix in that like...personally, simply making him Earth Ashari and moving him to Terrah instead would have solved this entirely, but the core story of a guard to a person of legendary status who is tracking down the people who killed his husband in an attack is universal enough that I think it's easier to move past.)

Overall: again, I know people didn't like the start of Campaign 2 due to the meandering nature. Honestly, as someone who was simultaneously binging C1 at the time, I also recall being particularly not that engaged in Alfield or early in the Zadash arc. But the click came for me around episodes 14-15, when the group bonded while on the mission for The Gentleman, even as the plot remained fuzzy, and looking back at the finished campaign, I think that meandering early on was necessary to have for the payoff of who the Mighty Nein eventually became. This might be a personal preference, but for actual play especially, where the ending is truly unwritten, the organic development of characters, their relationships, and onscreen backstory reveals through showing, rather than simply telling, are more important than the low-level plot, and the balance has been off this campaign.

The good news is that we do now have solid hooks and motivations for much of the party; I think dealing with Treshi will close the door on the initial arc; and while I'll be sad to see Eshteross go I think an extended break from Jrusar and more travel and relationship building will resolve any lingering pacing issues.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #long post

[hurlumerlu]

Also throwing critrole s3 at you for the fandom ask thing, I wanna hear your opinions

thank youuuuu (though given the recent spoilers I kinda feel like you just gently placed a landmine at my feet)

The first character I fell in love with: I mean, Ashton ? I just saw their character art and immediately went "oh shit" because I'm easy like that, but I also really loved their introduction so I was on board with them from the start.

A character that I used to love/like but now do not: FCG I guess ? But it happened pretty fast.

A ship that I used to love/like but now do not: RIP Orym/Bertrand you could have been something, if only in my head.

My ultimate favorite character: right now it's Chetney, I feel like there's so much to explore with him, and it's always nice seeing Travis flex his sense of comedic timing.

Prettiest character: Imogen.

My most hated character: I don't hate anyone yet ? maybe that will change next monday.

My OTP: I still don't have any, but I ship Ashton with literally everyone but FCG and Imogen, and Fearne with everyone but Orym.

My NOTP: way too strong a word, but I don't jive with Orym/Dorian. Idk, I just don't feel it.

Favorite episode: Heart to Heartmoore : so many good late-night conversations ! Absolutely love it.

Saddest death: Well. I guess I'll tell you next monday ? (it will probably be orym's)

Favorite season: Loved the whole Heartmoor mini-arc to bits.

Least favorite season: The whole thing with Yu should have been super exciting but for some reason it didn't work for me ? Same with Fearne's parents, and since the two are linked I guess this is my least favorite mini-arc.

Character that everyone else in the fandom love, but I hate: I don't hate them, and I don't think everyone in the fandom love them, but I mostly dislike FCG. Like, I love Sam's jokes, but I find FCG irritating a lot of the time. But then, it was the same for Scanlan when I first watched Cr1. (also I'm. very ambivalent about the Greenseekers. and a bit surprised that the fandom latched onto them like that)

My "you're a piece of trash, but you're still a fave" fave: Miss Jiana Hexum please call me back <3 <3 <3

My "beautiful cinamon roll who deserved better than this" fave: no clue ! None of them are cinamon rolls and I can't think of a NPC who fits the bill.

My "this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul but I still love it" ship: hahaha so. Fearne/Birdie is a thing. that I wondered about. I wouldn't say I love it though, it's more of an idle thought.

My "they're kind of cute, and I low-key ship them, but I'm not too invested in them" ship: pretty much everyone still ? I'm gonna say Laudna/Asthon because while I think the ship has a lot of potential, I'm still more interested in Laudna/Imogen.

aaaand that's it ! I do feel like the fact that I had a truly hard time answering many of these questions at like, episode 32, tells something about the show, but I'm still not sure wether it's a bug or a feature (would love your take on that btw). I'm still curious to see where things go, but that may change with episode 33 and the next. We'll see !

#critical role #ask game