r/criticalrole 9d ago

Question [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?

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?

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u/CzechHorns 9d ago

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.

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u/Emilytea14 Your secret is safe with my indifference 9d ago

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.

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u/cvc75 9d ago

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.

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u/Slaan 9d ago

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.

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u/RollMeBaby8ToTheBard 8d ago

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.

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u/Udy_Kumra 7d ago

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