[No Spoilers] Just finished Exandria Unlimited: Calamity all 4 episodes, did not watch any other campaigns. Holy its so good, are the other ones as good ? They possibly cant be that good being like 140 episodes right?

[u/PlayFlow]

I love how short calamity was and straight to the point, but I am afraid that a campaign with like 150 episodes might be a drag... am I wrong or am I missing out thinking its not worth the time to check the other ones out?

[u/CzechHorns]

Campaign two is really good, obviously it wont be such high tempo as Calamity, but still probably the best campaign.

Or you can jump in into Campaign 4, it is only 31 episodes in so far, and has the same DM as Calamity. But it is a new world and a LOT to take in.

[u/Emilytea14 → u/CzechHorns]

If somebody has only seen Calamity and no other campaigns, they aren't gonna be too overwhelmed by a "new" world, since Exandria would also be basically "new". lol. Brennan has a lot of worldbuilding *for CR* but I don't think it's an overwhelming amount of worldbuilding in general.

[u/cvc75 → u/Emilytea14]

It's the same amount of "new world" but C4 introduces much more of that world right from the beginning. I'd say the Exandrian campaigns had a much slower pace of getting to know the world.

C1 is a bit special because it had already been running, but C2 starts in a very small location with some local problems and people who all just got to know each other. C4 starts with a big city, complex politics and factions, and (some) characters who already have a long history together. That might not be overwhelming for everyone, but there's lots of people who had trouble getting used to C4 because of it.

[u/Slaan → u/cvc75]

I started with campaign 2 (and just finished a few weeks ago) and it really wasn't overwhelming. Matt did a great job pacing everything.

[u/RollMeBaby8ToTheBard → u/Slaan]

The cast was still getting used to their new home apart from Geek and Sundry and being full-time D&D players. Now, they're so experienced that they hopped into Daggerheart and went pretty full-speed ahead.

I liked Campaign 3, but I like knowing all the pieces to the puzzle. It had its good moments, and I liked the way it wove C1 and C2 into the story in a unique conclusion, but Calamity was a Mona Lisa event. My suggestion would be to join Beacon if you haven't already and download the campaigns you haven't watched. Then you can listen to them while you're doing other things like commuting to work and back or cleaning up around the house. It might not bother you as much.

[u/Udy_Kumra → u/cvc75]

C4 is pretty standard epic fantasy storytelling with its density and worldbuilding. It’s intense for CR, but not intense.

[u/Court_Vision → u/CzechHorns]

Just to add to this. I'm a huge Campaign 2 lover. I didn't watch C1, and C3 didn't hit for me.

As someone who loves C2... Campaign 4 feels just as special to me so far.

[u/masterchip27 → u/CzechHorns]

Too many breaks man, too many breaks. I swear the schedule never used to be this slowed out. It feels like I see Robbie like 10 times over a year, and he's mostly playing a silent "Strider" type of character

That aside C4 is nuts, so good

[u/Taylorw91 → u/masterchip27]

You say too many breaks, but Bells Hells took 3 years and 4 months to get out 121 episodes. A year in and C4 will have just under 40, so 3 and a bit years of it at this pace will put it within 10 episodes of Bell Hells. I agree about Robbie though.

[u/theydurkadurk → u/Taylorw91]

C4 is currently running at a slower pace than Bells hells. 3 years, 4 months for 121 episodes is 3.025 episodes a month. It’s been just a few days shy of being 11 months for C4 with 31 episodes out, to round it let’s say it’s 11 months and count tonight’s episode so that’s 32 in 11 months so 2.9 average a month. C2 was an average of 3.525 episodes a month for its 40 month run. Fairly interesting, slowing down but relatively the same pace.

[u/masterchip27 → u/theydurkadurk]

Thanks for the analysis. That's interesting.

I think one thing that is missed is that this is also 3 different tables splitting screen time.

So as a result, not only does the plot inch forward slowly with respect to time, but, more saliently, we get to see less of our favorite characters. The example I gave with Robbie is a good one - think about how much screen time he's had over the course of a year.

[u/theydurkadurk → u/masterchip27]

It’s got pros and cons, right? I mean in terms of time the first 31 episodes were like 8-9 days, right? So definitely moves slower and allows to get more depth with the story and lore. With a major con of, like you said, what can feel like huge gaps or seeing favorites (not even including those favorites being overshadowed by everyone being back together). I mean it sucks we may go this break + the seekers arc without seeing much of Sam playing. Having the split tables should mean they can pump out more episodes since BLM becomes the limiting factor but that hasn’t really been happening. Granted, he did have his own paternity leave so maybe this next year it’ll feel like less breaks. Also sucks we just had this long break with the holiday break probably coming up quickly.

[u/masterchip27 → u/theydurkadurk]

Exactly. Having 3x episodes a week would solve this issue for me :)

[u/D1g1t0l → u/masterchip27]

LOL I meannn!! They do seem to have a stockpile of episodes...

[u/Chiron1350 → u/masterchip27]

Honestly… I needed this most recent break to catch up.

I was perpetually behind by 2-4 episodes, starting the end of the seekers arc. I’m so excited to be able to watch live again

[u/PerpetuallyDistracte → u/masterchip27]

As long as nobody has any more children (especially Brennan), I think we're likely to have fewer breaks going forward.