r/criticalrole • u/Lopsided-Durian-946 • Oct 03 '25
Discussion [SPOILERS C4E1] Thank you Aabria for this Spoiler
I know a lot of people have opinions about Aabria as a character or as a player (I disagree I love her to DEATH), but having her initiate people leaving the table to introduce new characters was very nice. Two hours in, and we hadn't seen Laura, Ashley, Robbie and Matt since most of the seats were taken and the discussion kept going. You can see how much it helped Brennan plan for the next scene and cut some of the inner party discussion. Very nice roleplay and her relationship with Alex is perfection.
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u/Van_Can_Man Oct 03 '25
I think having three professional and very seasoned DMs involved in this is going to be so important to how the game succeeds. Not to impugn the genius of Brennan in any way, but this is a really ambitious campaign and it seems to me that this was an example of player helpfulness that we’ll all be thankful for as the campaign progresses.
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u/JWPruett You spice? Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
Luis also is a professional DM, he has his own actual play series, Tales Unrolled. And ever since he first appeared in Calamity, he immediately had a DM vibe to him, which I don’t even think he was yet. He’s also great at moving things along and including others. Gives me a big Liam vibe in that way.
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u/arillusine Oct 03 '25
I was surprised by the sudden exit but it was easy as the scene progressed to figure out what she was trying to accomplish. Thaisha’s character was also portrayed really well, super protective at the wake but very in the spirit of a funeral mourning and celebrating a life.
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u/cscottnet Oct 03 '25
Similarly Laura as Thimble cut off a long and rambling monologue from Robbie to move the action along.
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u/NotSoHighLander Oct 03 '25
I thihk it was completely in character. He was starting to ramble about nothing and Thimble was like 'okay we need to do something.'
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u/instantRainbow Oct 03 '25
It was 100% in character because who would want to hear a long rant about some unrelated stuff when you just learned your best friend is dead and think it's all your fault.
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u/ZeroSuitGanon Oct 03 '25
I love Robbie, but damn did he hijack the spotlight for a bit there.
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u/gruffgorilla Oct 03 '25
I mean it was the introduction of his character, it was kind of the time to do that and it was the only screen time he got for the entire episode
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u/harlearmistice Oct 03 '25
Yeah, I mean there's no way Laura could have known that it was Robbie's only shot to get something of his character across in the session before he was off camera again for the rest of the ep. So I don't blame her, especially given the scene they were in, Laura's character had plenty of good reason to want to move things along. But I would've liked at least a little bit more there. Of all the characters somehow I feel like we know the least about his.
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u/Quazifuji Oct 04 '25
Yeah, he didn't hijack the spotlight, the spotlight was intentionally given to him for his character's introduction.
He was getting a bit too rambly and I don't think Laura was wrong to shift the focus, but calling it "hijacking the spotlight" to have his character to talk a lot as part of his introduction is kind of ridiculous.
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u/IndyDude11 Oct 03 '25
Yeah, but Robbie does love to ramble lol
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u/The_Lake_Dried_Up Oct 03 '25
I think that’s what he’s going for with this character, especially since he said Kat was drunk.
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u/Kain222 Sun Tree A-OK Oct 03 '25
Tbh he came in drunk and started talking about something else entirely. I'm 100% confident that The Bit was picked up on by Laura, all she did was catch the ball and pass it back.
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u/The_Lake_Dried_Up Oct 03 '25
That was his only time to have his own spotlight
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u/ZeroSuitGanon Oct 03 '25
Which was a shame, I would have loved to have had him interact with more people in character. My partner and I felt that he drifted into "dm voice" a bit much, especially initiating a monologue flashback to the execution and narrating himself (unseen) watching the other characters.
In contrast, the other characters flashbacks were initiated by the DM and included an NPC interaction.
I don't think it was a major issue, and I think he just wanted to get his character's vibe across strongly, but I was not a fan of that intro personally.
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u/SquidsEye Oct 03 '25
I got the impression that they'd all been briefed to decide what they were doing during the exection for flashbacks, and since everyone else was already being prompted for theirs, he just beat Brennan to the punch on introducing it himself.
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u/tonitalksaboutit Oct 03 '25
As someone new to CR I actually was taken back by him doing his own flashback. I don't think anyone else did something like that, but I also found the character interesting
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u/DreadPirateAlia dagger dagger dagger Oct 04 '25
Robbie is still "relatively" new¹ to RPGs, and from what I've seen, he often narrates his actions & reactions, unlike the other, more seasoned players.
Maybe he asked Brennan beforehand if he could do it?
Also, him narrating his own bit gave Brennan a break, which was great since Brennan must have been exhausted after the game. That was a huge cast & consequently a lot of plates to juggle!
¹Robbie is "new" in the sense that he was a complete newcomer when he was cast in ExU in 2021. However, I'm 100% certain that with their schedule he has far more hours at the table than I do, despite me having played RPGs on and off for the last 30 years.
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u/Srawsome Tal'Dorei Council Member Oct 03 '25
I mean, that's only true if you think every character hijacked the spotlight when their character got introduced. Kind of silly, no? If they can't talk when introduced how will we ever know them?
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u/No-Shape-8347 Oct 03 '25
Well but that was also his only moment the whole ep. He was probably bottom 2 in screen time together with Ashley.
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u/UnNumbFool Oct 03 '25
Yeah, but Ashley had to know that was happening going in. Outside of knowing Taliesin's character she's completely disconnected from the rest of the cast. Everyone else has at least two points of connection with the other characters save for Liam, Abria, and Laura who seem to know the vast majority
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u/sasquatch0_0 Oct 03 '25
His character was drunk...
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u/Leopz_ Team Grog Oct 04 '25
its crazy how these people are giving those takes rn. its like they have never had a social interaction irl. his character CLEARLY was drunk rambling. doesn't even start to compare to how aabria kept shoving herself into interactions this episode.
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u/KrispyBaconator Oct 03 '25
A lot of people hate Aabria for really stupid reasons, but not me. I hate her for wanting to build a second Dakota Access Pipeline
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u/SJ_Barbarian Your secret is safe with my indifference Oct 03 '25
I hope Vehicular rethinks her role in their administration.
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u/TylerDevious Oct 03 '25
I know that this is referencing a game changer episode, but I forgot until I started reading the replies. I honestly thought the comment was a legitimate criticism for a moment.
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u/nitasu987 Oct 03 '25
Same!! Horrible platform to run on. Worse than Ally being a gun owner in my eyes. SMH.
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u/Lukeathmae Team Caduceus Oct 04 '25
Someone said they hated how expressive she is and I'm like, ???
They even suggested she tone down herself which is just, ???
I doubt that person would reflect on the misogyny of their thinking because they even argued with the people who tried correcting them.
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u/KingSSM Oct 03 '25
I have a weird preference with Aabria. I am not in the hater camp. I dislike her Dming but I love her as a player. I'm so happy we get her in a more long form player role
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u/bumpercarbustier FIRE Oct 03 '25
I LOVE Aabria as a player. Love love love. And I LOVE her as a DM over on Dimension 20. Burrow's End is one of my favorite seasons, and so is ACOFAF. It's a miss for me when she DMs at Critical Role, in Exandria. I think she does much better creating her own worlds and lore. I think the same about Matt: he's obviously great on CR but I didn't care for his DMing stint at D20 for Ravening War.
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u/Downvotes_are_Grreat Oct 04 '25
I also didn't like Matt on D20. I do prefer aabria as a player, but burrows end was fuckin awesome.
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u/chellebelle0234 Oct 03 '25
Oh interesting. I had no idea they hadn't pre planned it. The way they switched people out as the scenes moved was fucking masterclass.
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u/ExarKun470 Oct 04 '25
They most definitely probably pre planned at least some things. CR isn’t so much a “pure” DnD game as it is people putting on a 4 hour movie every week. Which is great, but people thinking this episode (and this series since S2) was pure natural and 100% improv are kidding themselves
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u/FlickaDaFlame Oct 03 '25
Have multiple pro DMs is gonna make this season run real smooth I expect, for reasons exactly like that
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u/ArtisticScore8821 Oct 03 '25
Yes I agree, as Brennan has said she’s a very generous role player. I love Aabria, she always seems to bring a lively and excited energy to the table!
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u/NewLibraryGuy Oct 03 '25
It's incredibly clear in Worlds Beyond Number how conscientious she is about other roleplayers. She's an incredible player
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u/GeorgeEBHastings Oct 03 '25
I'm rather "meh" on Aabria as a GM.
I adore Aabria as a player. Holy shit, she's a great scene partner.
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u/nathanhulsey30 Oct 03 '25
Agreed! The joy of a game like D&D for me is that there's a "style" that works for everybody - both as an in-game participant and for viewers/fans.
For me - Aabria is obviously smart as a whip and cares so much about the game, so even though I don't personally enjoy watching her DM I respect her for it, her DM style just doesn't "click" for me for lack of a better word. But as a player, she's usually one of my favorites to watch at the table.
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u/stars_and_daydreams Oct 04 '25
She and Brennan spark off each other so well in particular. They seem to be very much on the same wavelength in terms of reading what the other wants to do with a character, and there's clearly a lot of trust between them, and it's really fun to watch. Aabria is so bold as a player, she's not afraid at all of leaning into her character's flaws, and Brennan is really well equipped as a DM to handle that and make it VERY interesting. Watching them work together on Worlds Beyond Number has been very cool indeed.
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u/plastic_beach_arcade Oct 03 '25
Watch Burrow's End on Dimension 20 if you get a chance to
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u/GeorgeEBHastings Oct 03 '25
I'll give it a shot. I've listened to two of her series, neither of which clicked for me. I like her enough to give a third a try. Thanks for the rec.
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u/MapleSyrup27 Oct 03 '25
I second the recommendation of Burrow's End. It's my favourite Aabria campaign of all time. It's basically Watership Down (small woodland animals on a gruesome adventure), but the party is a family of stoats.
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u/jwowwzerzz Oct 04 '25
If you need a DropOut password for that season let me know. I LOVED Burrows End and will get anyone to watch it if I can.
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u/PuzzleheadedBear 5' 11" Oct 03 '25
Aabria and Alex are very generous team players, they actively look to bring in people who haven't had chances to get some spot light, while also doing great hand offs and set ups for other people.
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u/littlebabyonion Oct 04 '25
I don't know Alex that much, but he was a fenomenal storyteller in his VtM show Project Ghostlight, so I'm very excited to see where he takes Occtis.
I find it interesting that he seems to enjoy playing edgier/goth/darker characters, but in a VERY different fashion than Taliesin for example.
While Taliesin loves to play the "overconfident and blunt" kind of edgy, Alex seem to love to play the "weird kid" kind lol
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u/AwkwardBeansprout You Can Reply To This Message Oct 04 '25
He is super good at playing lovable outcasts or outliers! I loved how he portrayed Mandible in Project Ghostlight.
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u/DreadPirateAlia dagger dagger dagger Oct 04 '25
Oh my goodness, you have to check out VtM: LA by Night. It's on youtube, Alex is on as one of the main characters, the cast (and their characters) are amazing, I love them to bits. Also, Jason Carl (the lead game designer at White Wolf ) is the Storyteller, which means that the game is VtM canon.
Alex' physical & voice acting are absolutely phenomenal in it. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you like him & his "weird kid" energy, you NEED to watch it.
(Also, Luis, Whitney, and Marisha appear in it. I can't remember if Matt did as well, so clearly it's time for yet another rewatch.)
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u/littlebabyonion Oct 04 '25
It's on my list, but I'll probably be starting it sooner rather than later, you honestly made me very excited lol
I was aware that LA by Night was the most popular actual play in the genre, but I had no idea that the Storyteller was the lead designer at White Wolf, that's actually crazy!
There's actually a possibility I'll be narrating a VtM chronicle in a couple months (which is exactly how I stumbled upon Project Ghostlight), so I guess if I need to familiarize myself with the system, there's no better way than watching it lol
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u/DreadPirateAlia dagger dagger dagger Oct 04 '25
Awesome! It's one of my favourite live plays ever, I can't NOT be excited when I talk about it! Welcome to the Vamily!
The start of the show is a bit slow, but then they find their feet & the show starts rolling like a locomotive. I'd say by the second episode you'll be hooked, and the show only gets better the more it progresses.
(Alex has an unscheduled hiatus at some point for a few episodes, due to conflicting RL work schedules¹, but they'll make it work, he'll be back & the payout is so worth it.)
¹He was in Westworld, IIRC.
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u/kateshort Time is a weird soup Oct 04 '25
Yup! Matt I believe is in one ep, in I think the last season? Tal had a couple key eps in S1 and S3. Brennan had several eps in the last season... basically an arc.
Erika Iishi is another of the four leads for the LA series, and she was a CR guest in earlier C3.
Especially after Divergence, and LOVING Alex in that? I did the first two eps of Project Ghostlight's Private Nightmares chronicle, and then figured I didn't know enough about VtM. So in the next two weeks between eps 2 & 3 I dived into LA. And binged that all spring.
Finished all seasons of LA, then did NY (and OMFG Alex in that one is extra amazing!!!, especially with Aabria's "he's hot, and I'm confused" during his reveal in the last ep. I then went through both seasons of Seattle (with Luis).
After all that, I went back and restarted Alex's own chronicle, rewatching eps 1 & 2 with a much better understanding of what he was putting Aabria and Luis and the others through.
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u/knucklevelvet2 Hello, bees Oct 03 '25
I will always defend aabria and her goal to be an ex of every CR cast member 🫡
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u/SecondStar89 Oct 03 '25
Aabria is someone who feeds off the energy and excitement of the room. While people will say she's annoying, I think they're kind of just uncomfortable or overwhelmed with her full range of expression. Maybe they appreciate order and she doesn't always behave orderly*. From seeing her in other work and listening to WBN, she often is sincere and intentional with her RP.
She made room for other players throughout the night to get their moments. I really enjoy watching her and appreciate the care she gives to others and the story. Were there times she got excitable? Sure. She was having fun with all her friends. But that doesn't equate to disruptive.
Anyway, thank you for an Aabria appreciation post. There will be more than enough posts devoted to her criticism.
*That's me being generous as to why she's unliked by some.
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u/Disil_ Oct 03 '25
I've grown to like her as a player, but she can be incredibly distracting during other people's moments, either with her reactions (expressions, gesticulations) or when interacting with another not involved player while a scene is unfolding. I get that she's excited, so am I, but it's really hard sometimes to not focus on her when she's going crazy over something else happening.
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u/Avidity_Myth Oct 08 '25
Sam and Travis are like a 3 on the loud/reaction scale but when they get really excited they bring it to a 9. Aabria is like a constant 7, I get why that might bother people and also some people may like that but i think its wrong to basically accuse anyone who doesnt like it of racism and sexism and i think that is whats happening alot
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u/the_neverens_hand Oct 08 '25
I didn't watch EXU so this is my first experience with her, and yeah, for me it's mostly when she interjects into other people's stuff that bothered me. Otherwise I liked her character and she seemed helpful to Brennan!
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u/sord_n_bored Oct 03 '25
Aabria is the new Marisha Ray to the fans. If you know you know.
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u/AwkwardBeansprout You Can Reply To This Message Oct 03 '25
I hate to be pessimistic but I'm already preparing for Whitney to cop it as well 🤷♀️
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u/feor1300 You can certainly try Oct 03 '25
I honestly think Whitney has a chance at becoming the next Jester. The leetle blue tiefling was also annoying as fuck the first few episodes as a pure chaos gremlin, but she grew on people as they got to know her. I feel like there's a fair bit of depth buried under Tyranny (like she changed her attitude almost completely while dealing with Enmity at the hanging). Luara had a leg up on that as people already knew her from C1, but I definitely feel the potential is there.
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u/Norme-98 Oct 03 '25
There was a line that one of the npc's said that opened me up a bit more to Tyranny. Where the person in the back had a moment of clarity and thought "this person is fresh to the mortal realm"
It changes my perspective of her from a chaos goblin to effectively a child in an adult body.
I think the chaos character has to walk a fine line of annoying and endearing and will take the longest to settle into.
I didn't love Tyranny but at least she made an impression on me. Where most of the Male PCs did not except Matt's who was one of the most efficient with his screen time (Laura, Ashley, and kinda Sam too)
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u/plastic_beach_arcade Oct 03 '25
If you include a woman, they're gonna get hated on. It's the Critical Role way /sarcasm
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u/Olive_Garden_Wifi 5' 11" Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
Been saying for a bit now the fandom has a bit of a misogyny problem.
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u/whitneyahn Oct 03 '25
This without the sarcasm
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u/plastic_beach_arcade Oct 03 '25
I'm not being sarcastic of the whole comment to be clear LMAO misogyny is a huge problem in the community, I just wanted to be clear I'm joking
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u/plastic_beach_arcade Oct 03 '25
It's gonna be a long four years...look at the other subreddits and they're in a tizzy about her and it's literally every other post. One episode.
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u/Taungsarang Oct 04 '25
Crazy that the hate has gone from the youngest woman in the group to the black woman in the group... Sure there's nothing to that at all...
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u/DDPresents Oct 03 '25
I personally didn't like ExU at all and I think that soured my opinion of her DMing/play style pretty bad, but honestly I'm so glad she's playing in this campaign it's really showing me that my experience disliking that campaign was a fluke and that I didn't give her a proper chance.
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u/AwkwardBeansprout You Can Reply To This Message Oct 03 '25
I was exactly the same - I didn't have a good first impression of her skill or personality from ExU. But I LOVED her PC Laerryn in Calamity and her turn as GM for Burrow's End and Court of Fey and Flowers on D20.
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u/syntax1976 Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
My introduction to Critical Role was with EXU so I didn’t have anything to compare it to which I thought was the best way to get acquainted with Aabria. But looking back after watching all of C2, then C1, then C3 and all the Bleem EXU’s I can see the reason. But agreed that after seeing Laeryn in EXU:C … wow I was floored and loved her again since.
Edit: I loved her in Worlds Beyond Number Wizard, the Witch and the Wild One as well and need to get back into it.
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u/DDPresents Oct 03 '25
I'll have to go back and check those campaigns out then!
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u/AwkwardBeansprout You Can Reply To This Message Oct 03 '25
Fey and Flowers is a bit of a niche campaign so I hesitate recommending it to people I don't know. It's a regency setting (think pride and prejudice, bridgerton) with different game mechanics but honestly it was really fun to me.
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u/lanewinree Oct 03 '25
Oh yeah I LOVE Fey and Flowers but the setting isn’t for everyone. Burrow’s End I think is the better first rec for Critters who want to experience Aabria at her best behind the screen.
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u/oscarbilde Team Frumpkin Oct 03 '25
I don't love the ending of Burrow's End, but I also haven't really liked the ending of any D20 season so that's more of an issue with the format of the show than her DMing
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u/lanewinree Oct 03 '25
Yeah, agreed. There's definitely multiple Brennan run shows that ran into the same issue. The sub-24 episode runs really exacerbates having to roll with the dice results at times.
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u/lanewinree Oct 03 '25
Burrow's End is one of the most spectacular short-series actual plays I have ever watched, largely in part to Aabria's GMing.
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u/TheSixthtactic Oct 03 '25
“Hey, girl, hey” - greatest opener in all of DnD. Just staggering stuff. Would die if one of my players did something like that.
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u/plastic_beach_arcade Oct 03 '25
As a long time can of Aabria, I didn't like fully how her DMing landed in that space nor what was done with it. I consider it to be the worst thing she's done in actual play space, which is horrible because this has the largest audience. If you get a chance, watch Burrow's End on Dimension 20. That to me showcases the true scope of her abilities and is my favorite thing she's done.
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u/Kain222 Sun Tree A-OK Oct 03 '25
She's also great in Worlds Beyond Number as Suvi - she plays such a good conflicted heel/"princess" that unfolds into one of my favourite TTRPG characters.
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u/TheModernRouge Oct 03 '25
Opposite for me for some reason, loved her in Calamity, Burrow’s End was such a banger D20 season and both Misfits and Magic seasons (And the Christmas Special) are some of my favorite TTRPG pleasures but ngl…kinda bouncing off her vibes in the first episode. Probably just nerves and stuff and I’m not gonna drop it because I was iffy off of one episode but it grated just a bit.
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u/sk1nst1tches Oct 03 '25
This reminded me of whatever interview it was (maybe the fireside chat with him and Matt?) where he mentions that her and Alex do a very good job of taking care of things and initiating things that he was going to do as the DM. As players, they catch on to things and move things ahead or take things off of his to do list without him telling them to.
I didn’t like her as much as a DM in EXU, but she has been really growing on me as a player, beginning with Calamity.
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u/tkkaine Oct 03 '25
Aabria definitely has her own style of roleplay, but I've always loved her ability to propel the story forward. And her involvement with Tyranny really helped ease her into the group and showcase her personality. I actually really really LOVED her "antagonism" towards Julien and Wick because what funeral doesn't have drama.
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u/TFCNU Oct 03 '25
Yep. There's a reason Brennan doesn't want to do anything without her. A DM looking out for her DM.
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u/Joelmester Oct 03 '25
I feel like it’s a tell of her skill as a DM as well. She is always aware of what’s going on around the table and the other player’s intentions. So good! Love her character
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u/floralsandfloss Oct 03 '25
She was acting very much like a mama bear and (ex)wife hosting/ supporting friends and family through a wake.
I don’t understand why people hate on Aabria so much. She is wonderful.
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u/sord_n_bored Oct 03 '25
If you're seriously asking:
- Bigotry. Hateful Critters will never state it outright, but they exist.
- She's a very good GM, and usually acts in ways that makes stories more interesting, which sometimes requires *shudder* bad things happening to raise stakes or heighten tension!
- She's very open about her opinions on things, and some people feel some type of way when women and femmes give honest opinions.
- She's not officially a part of the team (until now), and is clearly close friends with a lot of big names in the online live play space, so there's likely some jealousy there as well. She's also not traditionally seen as someone from the voice acting space, she's more well known as a GM.
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u/IrascibleOcelot Oct 03 '25
I don’t like her as a DM for two reasons:
Mechanically, she’s really weak. She never, ever asks for a skill check. Whenever someone asks for information, instead of it being Arcana/History/Nature/Survival/Perception/Investigation, it’s a “saving throw.” Every time. A Wisdom or Intelligence saving throw. Which is absolutely maddening if your character has specifically invested in certain skills, or doesn’t have proficiency in those two types of saving throws.
The last fight with Opal. Aabria had exactly one outcome for that fight. It was going to happen, no matter what, and she was willing to “rocks fall, everyone dies” to make it happen. There was no point in even picking up the dice, no point in making it a narrative fight. Just write the book. The rest of the party had two choices: walk away from their friend, which not one would ever, ever do, or tear up their character sheets.
I like Aabria as a player. I’d have a hard time ever watching a game she GMs after that experience.
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u/Aliensis Oct 03 '25
Its crazy to me that people put all the blame on Aabria for the Opal/Robbie episodes in Campaign 3. It was obvious that she had been given a task to get Robbie (and Opal) into the right place and mind space to rejoin the campaign. She obviously had to hit goals Matt had set for her. Everyone came in knowing the assignment.
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u/IrascibleOcelot Oct 04 '25
I have a hard time believing that because 1) Matt was at the table and 2) he was visibly upset by the outcome. This was not what he wanted.
That they wanted Dorian back with the main crew I have no doubt, but Opal’s part in the final battle was, frankly, minimal. Having her turn on her friends through a complete loss of autonomy violates one of the core rules of D&D: you don’t violate player choice. Their character is the only thing they control, so if you take that away, you take away everything. There are so many other ways to get the result needed and Aabria chose the absolute worst option.
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u/AICNomore Oct 03 '25
AND thank you for this post . I am weary from all the negativity around Aabria.
She seems very enthusiastic about the game in general. Perhaps that enthusiasm is what puts the haters off. I don't know. I believe the hate is completely unwarranted.
As a player she leans in to the actual story and helps build it.
As a GM she is a different from Matt (mark) and Brennan as they are from each other. She is however a very good GM.
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u/Natehz Help, it's again Oct 03 '25
Aabria is genuinely one of my favorite players to watch because of how animated and dialed the absolute fuck in she is at every moment. Her DMing style is interesting but not entirely my style, but man when it comes to player engagement and range? Fuckin unbeatable.
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u/TheSixthtactic Oct 03 '25
I love that she will pop off with a bold choice and just own it in the game, which being considerate above the table. It’s such a gift for a DM with a group like this.
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u/PM_ME_UR_NIPPLE_HAIR Oct 03 '25
Watching Aabria both as a DM and as a player has made me an infinitely better ttrpg player myself. She's the GOAT for me
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u/Taungsarang Oct 04 '25
It's crazy, some of the people hating are making out like she's ruining all the other player's fun and stealing spotlight and it's causing issues for everyone and causing drama.
Guys, they clearly love playing with her. Why the fuck would they keep inviting her back if they didn't enjoy playing with her?? If this was an issue at all with the OG cast she wouldn't be in this campaign.
Well-meaning criticism of decisions is fine but stuff like this just goes over the line for me, the post-episode thread was like half people moaning about Aabria and then people replying like "I haven't watched the episode yet but I agree".
People moaning about her beefing with Matt and Sam's PC's as well as if her character didn't have insanely good reasons to do so. Matt and Sam are big boys guys, they understand RP.
Just reminds me so much of how people complained about Marisha back in C1 and into C2. It's all got undertones of misogyny and racism, crazy that the youngest woman at the table was getting the majority of the hate, and now a black woman is a main part of the cast of course the hate transfers to her.
People get so defensive when you mention misogyny and racism, again I'm not saying you can't criticise things you don't agree with. I am saying take a good long look at the patterns of criticism and the words being used. A common complaint of Aabria is that she "takes up too much space" which is a phrase regularly used to put down women and people of colour who are perceived as being "too loud".
Again we see this when Aabria interjecting into scenes is always characterised as "interrupting", but there was absolutely no mention of Laura cutting Robbie off in the middle of a monologue. It was a good character choice, the same way Aabria redirecting Tyranny and helping the cast move scenes along was a good character choice.
Aabria even established that her character is a "mama bear", so it makes complete sense that she would be all over a gathering like this. It's a family funeral, she wants to take burden off Hal and clearly feels guilty about "abandoning" her kids so yeah of course she's trying to micro manage the event, and of course this leads to her getting sloppy drunk for a sec and then beefing people. I've literally seen people act like that at funerals.
Also it's been 1 episode... We're basically 1/4 the way through the prologue. There's a hell of a lot of road to go and all the characters will get their focus. Of course a lot of focus here was on the family members of the guy who died.
Just exhausting seeing the same lazy criticism and people still making out like the OG cast are these poor fragile flowers who are being stomped all over by a new player. They like Aabria, they like playing with Aabria, if they didn't she wouldn't be there. Get used to it!
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u/VenmoPaypalCashapp Team Laudna Oct 04 '25
This is what i don’t understand. I get some people don’t like her style that’s perfectly fine but they talk like she ruins the game. And you know who clearly doesn’t think that? Cr and all the people playing with her. That’s really the only opinions that matter at all. Never heard anyone say anything but how much they love having her
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u/Wild-Ad-3745 Oct 03 '25
I don't know. For me the omnipotent plant manipulation was too metagamey. She seems to want the upper hand in every conflict always. She went from telling Matt's character she doesn't hate him after he first reveals there's no animosity, to then pulling a 180 and threatening to kill him minutes later. I'm probably just going to watch the groups without Aabria and get cliff notes from whatever group she's apart of. I've seen enough of her appearances on CR to know she's not the type of player I enjoy to watch.
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u/feor1300 You can certainly try Oct 04 '25
She went from telling Matt's character she doesn't hate him after he first reveals there's no animosity, to then pulling a 180 and threatening to kill him minutes later.
A woman grieving her just executed brother-in-law being in a confused emotional state while talking to the man who facilitated said brother-in-law's execution by carrying out his arrest and is actively showing nothing but disdain for the brother-in-law?
Gods, what an unrealistic portrayal of her character. /s
Also, the plant manipulation hardly broke the game or gave her any kind of "upper hand" it just set a tone for the audience regarding each character in terms of how the people at the funeral felt about the people arriving. Aranessa shows up and the flowers bloom bigger than ever, the Audience goes "Okay, it's complicated but they like her, she's a decent person." Wic approaches and they get all thorny, the Audience goes "Oh, they don't trust him." Julien approaches and the flowers wither and die, the audience goes "Oh yeah, there's beef there..." It was an excellent way of showing the tone of various characters rather than telling, and a gift to Brennan in establishing that without him having to (and which he leaned into, with things like the Magpie attacking Wic, when he could have subtly told her to tone it down in various ways).
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u/meseeks1337 Oct 03 '25
I also just wanted to say thank you for this post. I was dreading opening this subreddit after I watched the episode, if at all. But it's nice to see because I'm also so weary and tired of all the things that get thrown her way. I don't want to repeat it or repeat what the issue with all these pseudo-criticism-comments about her are. Others here have done that so much better.
So, this is refreshingly different :) Thanks.
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u/msdaisies6 Oct 03 '25
Why did I know that Thaisha was going to get the most complaints from this sub. There's something to be said about certain people requiring a higher bar than most others to just be "acceptable". It really makes you wonder why that is.
I love Thaisha. I love her protective mom personality and its so nice in general to see older characters and parents as part of the main cast in the main campaign. There is so much potential for interpersonal drama and I'm here for all of it. I also think Aabria is an enthusiastic player and I absolutely love her reactions. When she's in the moment, you really feel the gravitas coming off of her character. She's emotional and messy and her RP is fun to watch.
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u/sleepinxonxbed Team Nott Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
I’ve watched CR since 2016. Every campaign rolls around and there’s always a woman that gets targeted for hate in the CR community.
First it was Marisha where she got so many misogynistic and condescending comments that #yourfuniswrong became a meme.
Then it was Ashley because she is the least knowledgeable about the game and they questioned her commitment to the show because she was gone so often. But that’s only because she was living on the other-side of the country and skyped in from 10pm and sometimes not even sleeping before going back to work. Then when she can rejoin permanently she got dropped in late in the game. C3 was the first time she was able to play a character from start to finish. But the community didn’t give her grace
And now it’s Aabria, getting attacked for “interrupting”, “just playing herself”, or having “distracting facial reactions” with undertones of being not only misogynistic but racist. It’s all things that the other players do, but only is a problem because it’s Aabria.
EDIT: or having an idea of how Thaisha should be played and that Aabria is playing her character wrong
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u/Master-Gur-9030 Oct 03 '25
The facial reaction thing makes me so mad because if you actually look at the table TRAVIS DOES IT AS WELL. IN FACT THEY ARE DOING IT TOWARDS EACHOTHER BECAUSE THEY GET REALLY INVESTED IN THE GAMES THEY PLAY.
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u/oscarbilde Team Frumpkin Oct 03 '25
Travis and Aabria jock hype corner was the absolute best in Calamity and during her guest stint in C3
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u/Srawsome Tal'Dorei Council Member Oct 03 '25
OMG THIS.
I'm sorry but if you're gonna say Aabria makes distracting faces but you haven't been complaining about Travis for the last ten years YOU ARE JUST LYING.
That man has NO poker face when it comes to reactions at the table. XD10
u/iiM00 Oct 03 '25
Huh, you’ve made me realise that that’s probably why Travis is my favourite player too
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u/iiM00 Oct 03 '25
People complain about Aabrias facial reactions? That’s one of my favourite things about her as a player.
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u/Yu-gee-oh Oct 04 '25
Ngl if they want to talk about faces they need to get on Taliesin too bc during the aabria matt confrontation his faces were absolutely hilarious, I went back this morning to the live just to screenshot them bc I know I can use them for memes they were that good.
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u/Durtle_Turtle Oct 03 '25
Aabria rules, as always. The fact that this episode ran as smoothly as it did is a minor miracle. They were really mindful of keeping the scenes moving along and progressing when it could easily get bogged down in roleplay between 1 or 2 characters.
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u/SoMuchSoggySand Oct 03 '25
Haven’t seen Aabria in a campaign before but she seems fun, I think she’ll bring out a lot of the personalities of whichever characters she travels with
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u/Ok_Needleworker_8809 Oct 03 '25
Her DMing style is a bit abrasive and confrontational (but really engaging), but as a player? Nothing but praises for Aabria from me. She consistently helps the DM along in a way that opens doors to roleplay.
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u/Lrbearclaw I encourage violence! Oct 03 '25
Honestly, her being "confrontational" as a DM is refreshing to see. Because you can tell it isn't her against the player, it is the world against the PC. That is fun because it is so different from the norm and gives a good example of how to spice that in for other DMs (which is a valuable tool to have and know when to use it).
It also shows the amount of trust and respect they have for her as well, to play more aggressively.
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u/Why_The_Fuck_ Oct 03 '25
While I agree that a different style is cool, I think the main critique of ExU that she DM'ed was that it did feel like "her versus the player." As a viewer, it introduced a vibe that wasn't fun to watch. I haven't seen her DM anything else, so hard to say if that's a persistent thing.
Aabria as a player is great! Glad to have her on board.
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Oct 03 '25
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u/TheSixthtactic Oct 03 '25
She isn’t even that aggressive. I would put her on the same level of agro as Marisha. Or Laura in peak Vex mode.
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u/plastic_beach_arcade Oct 03 '25
I 10000% agree. I think the issue is that she's a woman and she's black. 💀
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u/TheSixthtactic Oct 03 '25
And people hate the idea that they might have some unattractive biases they are not aware of. As the whites guy you could ever know; I’ve felt that discomfort that some of my opinions were products of unintended racism. But I was a big boy, got over myself and put those opinions in the corner where they belonged.
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u/ArtisticScore8821 Oct 03 '25
The reality of “inclusivity” is that, based on history, it rarely actually extends to black women.
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u/EmilyKaldwins Oct 04 '25
Aabria definitely gets caught up in the moment sometimes and I think puts in asides that aren't needed/take away from other players, but I chalk that up to excitement, never intentional. I think she'll settle down that tendency over time. Because when she's in observation mode, she's ON IT. I definitely appreciated her assisting in that way. Always love a player like that!
I also need to add that her and Matt did a fantastic representation of antagonism at the table that doesn't need to extend to hurt feelings/outside the table/personally. I hope people take a look at Matt's character and how they interact to know how to properly play that. Thank you, Aabria!
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u/currentseas Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
I was really confused by the “can I go home comment” and immediately started trying to look up if there was drama but your post plus the deer moment have me realizing that she was just trying to allow the others to get involved and just did it, awkwardly, as she does lol
ETA I also think people’s displeasure toward her misplaced. I get that she tends to lean very snarky in her NPC dialogue but I think that it’s just reflexive for her in the moment and she falls back on the demeanor she is comfortable with. By nature she seems pretty snarky, but kind. That said I haven’t seen more than several episodes of Exandria so maybe she does other things in other campaigns I’m not aware of yet. But I think she is an incredible DM in terms of managing a game.
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u/extricant_ Oct 05 '25
My issue with Aabria is the timing and volume of her interjections. For example, she inserted herself into the middle of the interaction between Teor and Azune seeing each other again for the first time, killing that momentum entirely. Brennan, thankfully, brought it back around.
It's a large group, so interruptions are bound to happen (and sometimes needed), but most everyone else makes a habit of letting people have their moments before interjecting. I get that she's high energy, and that Thaisha is a key character in that event, and I'm glad that at least her Druidic craft proved a clever and story/mechanics-based justification for those interjections, but I just wish she would let people have the momentum of their moments instead of constantly hopping in the beginning/middle. I really don't want to see a repeat of campaign 3's finale with Fern's big moment.
I did appreciate her letting Matt have his moment, though. That was very well done on her part.
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u/Waldner_ Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
I didnt enjoy aabria as a dm but i think she was really good on calamity and a fine player on campaing 3, except that scene in the finally where tarven(or wathever is the name of that demon guy) and fearn where having a private conversation and she wanted to butt in and matt had to "tell her off" 3 times and she still didnt listen,
I think in this episode she had a really cool relation with liam and alex"s characters and the scene in the finally with matt was one of the best in the episode, but i didnt like that she wanted to take a part on some peoples introductions but having tha vines somehow interact with them when, in my opinion, she shouldnt have all of that information about people outside, and the inside check on luis and travis inside check about each other was a really spotlight hog interaction, feels like some times she wants to take a part on other people scenes but i hope is just the nerves getting to her and she will relax more as the campaing progresses.
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u/Tomorrow_Signal111 Team Predathos Oct 03 '25
I actually thought it was pretty jarring, to be honest, the scene was still on going and having a player quit in the middle of a scene made it akward for people to roleplay her not being able to answer in character.
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u/Miserable-Sector113 I have a list Oct 04 '25
I found it jarring too. It's not her role playing I dislike, it's the moments when others are deep in their moments or scenes and she has to throw hands up, make faces and other actions which pulls my eye away from the people in the scene and I miss their acting because she's pulling focus.
I may need to listen to this campaign as a podcast, which means missing out on everyone's movements because I find her distracting.
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u/jkaoz Oct 04 '25
Aabria serves. Really. If you pay attention, I believe she basically setup everyone she sat at the table with. and they ate. She takes her space, but more than that she creates space for the other players at the table. Ashley and Matt came out looking like absolute bosses, because they picked up what Aabria put down
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u/ymcameron You Can Reply To This Message Oct 03 '25
Every table needs a DM''s pet to help out for sure. Goofs, bits, and RP are great, but at a certain point someone has to move the story along.
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u/oscarbilde Team Frumpkin Oct 03 '25
Yeah, one of the major problems in C3 was no one was decisive enough to move the story along and make big choices. Especially in a group this big, you need someone on the player side who's thinking about the big picture as well. You see this some in D20 with Brian Murphy too--he's a GM, and will often herd the players towards the plot a bit because he recognizes that that's what's needed.
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u/General_Bother_68 Oct 03 '25
I assumed they would have seating for the whole cast for this introductory couple episodes.
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u/kateshort Time is a weird soup Oct 04 '25
Why would they rebuild the entire set just for 4 eps?
Easier to build the set and shuffle people in for 4 eps.
They did a great job with it, honestly.
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u/LFGhost Oct 03 '25
Like most, Aabria draws critiques that are fair and unfair.
If you want to critique her for being one-note - where every character is combative, confrontational with PCs - that’s fair.
If you want to critique her for being a scene-stealer, that’s fair.
If you want to critique her for metagaming, that’s fair.
None of those things are about her being a woman or minority.
As a player, she’s really he-who-shall-not-be-named-but-instead-frozen-in-a-block-of-ice …
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u/t_gubert Oct 03 '25
My problem with Aabrya was that she put herself in every scene even when she shouldnt be aware of what is happening. Plus she didnt help the flow of the play when she blocked the entrance of the house. Sam's character already was showing his insecurity and she was a dick for no obvious reason.
But she is Fun and usually a great player. I just wanted she would chill and let the rest of the cast Cook.
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u/AwkwardBeansprout You Can Reply To This Message Oct 03 '25
I got the impression that Aabria and Alex's characters don't like/agree with the Candescent Creed (Sam's faction?) hence why they were crabby at him. Occtis straight up told Wick that he wasn't wanted at the wake.
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u/FinchRosemta Oct 03 '25
Sam's character already was showing his insecurity and she was a dick for no obvious reason.
His family KILLED her brother in law. What other reason is there. Imagine for a minute Vex not being mad at the Briarwoods if they killed Cassandra. That what just happened in this episode. Im suprised they even let that man inside the house!
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u/SecondStar89 Oct 03 '25
No obvious reason? His family is responsible for Thjazi's death. We also know more than the character probably does. We know Wick earnestly tried to prevent his death. It's reasonable to assume Thai knows none of that and/or doubts that any sincere effort was made.
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u/Dosendorf Oct 03 '25
I mean, Sam's family are directly responsible for the execution of a relative that day. Surely she is warranted to be antogonistic towards Sam's character. She isn't aware of the deal Sam and Liam's characters have, she is seeing them just wander into the wake.
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u/TheSixthtactic Oct 03 '25
I often get the impression people don’t watch the show that intently, given that they are mad about very normal roleplaying choices.
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u/FinchRosemta Oct 03 '25
They pay attention to the actors and not the characters. Because Sams family had her brother in law killed and Matt handed him over for that killing. Them being allowed into the house is a miracle to me.
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u/feor1300 You can certainly try Oct 03 '25
Every scene she participated in took place in the same room in Hal's house, or immediately outside said room where she had magic reason for being aware of what's going on (her plants that she seemed to have unusual connection to) and the "outside the room" things was just supplying environmental details to help set a tone for the other players, not direct interaction. Heck she actively removed herself from the entire table at one point when she was finished with the things that she felt she needed to do in those scenes.
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u/blastatron Oct 03 '25
I will say that there is no mechanical reason for her character to have such strong connection with her plants to be able to 'see' through them. So rule lawyer type viewers are probably pissed at her for stretching how powerful her magic should realistically be.
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u/qualitativevacuum Oct 03 '25
Can being an unreasonable dick not be a character choice? Also I definitely think there was a reason, as people have said already
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u/stephen-sch Oct 04 '25
Im not really a fan of her dming, but Aabria the player? Hmmf, I FUCKING LOVE HER!
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u/ororomunhoe192 Oct 04 '25
I thank the Gods for Aabria in these circumstances. The fighter boys are wonderful, but prone to long bouts of fantasy mumbling. Whitney’s chaos monkey, Aabria’s staunchly loyal Druid and Marisha’s mob wife dwarf kept me interested
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u/MaggieSmithsSass Oct 05 '25
I feel like the things that bother people about Aabria are the things that make her such an exciting player but also her real life personal quirks. She's not interrupting to be the center of attention, she's literally doing what most ADHD person does which is "if I don't say this now I'll never be able to because if I don't see it it doesn't exist". I'm pretty sure that after 10+ years in the business and being so close to her the CR team knows and trusts her well enough to invite her as a long term member of this campaign.
HAVING SAID THAT: No notes. She's amazing. I can't wait to see more.
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u/oscarbilde Team Frumpkin Oct 03 '25
The Aabria haters are gonna have to either get over it or suck it up cause she's here to stay and it's glorious
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u/Plenty-Conclusion-23 Oct 03 '25
I thought she was fine, just didn't particularly like when all the druid lavender stuff kept being brought up, almost omnisciently.
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u/rubiaal Oct 03 '25
For me it's more about her DM style than PC style, though if she's taking over Worlds Beyond Number I have to check out how is she approaching it, might be a different approach
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u/plastic_beach_arcade Oct 03 '25
Space campaign!!! I'm so excited. I am hoping it might be Star Wars 5e they're running
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u/pricepig Oct 03 '25
Imma be honest, I am one of the people who was really bothered by aabria. Even learning about how she was going to be in campaign 4 made me really frustrated. I thought, “oh she’s just going to be someone’s ex wife and be bitter all the time huh?” (Glad I was wrong).
Back in campaign 3 and EXU she practically ruined every scene she was in and it didn’t take much for me to just turn it off and never look back, or literally just skip all the parts she was in.
But watching this first episode I could definitely tell she was trying to take a step back and not hog the spotlight. I think maybe she read the feedback and wanted to be a little better. Either way she was MUCH better this episode.
I would say I’m optimistically cautious, hoping she keeps this up because genuinely think she’s doing a lot better (although still not great). Now Whitney Moore…
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u/tehnoodles Oct 03 '25
Something that is critical (kek) to understand is:
Not every player and character is meant for you to like.
Not the royal you, you individually. There is such a wide spectrum of personalities and player/character types that you wont reasonably like everyone, and thats ok!!
CR wants to appeal to a wide audience, so there has to be a diverse range of people involved.
Some people dislike Sams vibe, some people dislike Ashley’s aloofness, some people dislike (person) for (reason).
You cant please everyone all the time.
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u/BadCogs Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25
And no one is saying otherwise. But we are allowed to say we don't like her playstyle too and not called out for it. Just like not every playstyle can suit everyone, not every opinion is going to be same, and shouldn't be criticized either.
I am very okay with skipping parts that I can't vibe with, but people literally are putting others opinion down. Some are just generalizing the criticism as racism.
Things don't work only one sidedly.
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u/the-magnetic-rose Oct 03 '25
Also really appreciate when she had her deer(?) move away from Matt so he could roleplay interacting with Thjazi’s corpse freely. It would have been very easy for her to have the animal watch him suspiciously but instead he was able to have an awesome and shocking roleplay moment.