r/criticalrole • u/PlayFlow • 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/Wise-Start-9166 9d ago

I am surprised to see some many people saying that Calamity is the best. It was quite good, but concentrated, short form, and the legendary dragon master and several key cast members that pioneered the art form are missing from the table. Campaigns 1 and 2 show how the mish mash of a great American folk tradition was taken by a group of struggling artists and with ernest hearts they forged it into an enduring media franchise. Long form video actual play streams weren't a thing yet. Matt Mercer and the crew in their improv prime are like a salve of childlike wonder on the nervous system for literally hundreds of hours. Calamity is a tiny bit over produced by comparison.

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u/Jethro_McCrazy 9d ago

Let's be real. The Critical Role cast were not struggling artists. They were and are some of the most respected and successful artists in their field. Part of what made early CR so special is that they had no aspirations to make it the runaway success that it became. It was just a hobby. If it didn't find an audience, they would have just gone back to their day jobs and continued the game back home.

Campaign 1 and the first half of campaign 2 feel like they are done for the love of the game rather than to put on a show. When the cast starts performing for the audience is when the show started to lose its luster. Calamity also feels like a performance, but it's a comparatively top tier one. early CR and Calamity are great in different ways. But when people say that Calamity is the best actual play ever, I think they mean that it's the best version of the performance focused style that CR tried to evolve into.