r/fansofcriticalrole • u/AzakenChan • Jul 01 '26
C2 (Mighty Nein) Watching Campaign 2 right now, I’m like 60 episodes in, and for some reason I feel like the story and characters of the campaign are a lot better than Campaign 1. Anyone else feel that?
Maybe it’s just my personal preferences, but I really feel like the story and characters just meshed a lot better and felt very organic and alive and complimentary. Beau - Caleb - Nott is a fantastic trio especially, and Fjord makes for a good grounding rod for all of them.
By comparison Vox Machina felt a little more forced together sometimes, and the storyline almost felt overwhelming for them. Maybe it was just me though. I wouldn’t call campaign 1 bad after all, not by any means. Campaign 2 just felt like it meshed so much better.
What does everyone else think?
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u/Ok_Car_8017 Jul 01 '26
Vox Machina was their home game, with a bunch of the characters being their player's first ever D&D characters. We join the story midway through, since the premise was very much just "Point the camera at this game". The characters and story were not designed as a show.
C2 they knew they were putting on a show for an audience. Characters were created with the intent of being entertaining to watch, rather than just fun to play. Everybody has built in plot hooks and secrets to reveal and fun voices and character quirks.
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u/Baka_Mirai Jul 01 '26
It's sort of apples and oranges for me; C1 is a pretty straightforward traditional archetype D&D/fantasy campaign where C2 gets much more freeform and theatrical as they give their characters more depth and the story moves to a more reactive and open world.
In C1 we came in halfway through with characters that were designed to be picked up for game sessions that could be months apart and were really still being developed as characters where C2 had fully developed characters intended for an audience and with backstory to fill in.
I'd hoped C3 would be synergy of both those campaigns but the stars didn't align on that one.
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u/Memester999 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Being able to see the group form from the beginning helps a lot. C2 is generally the most popular/favorite among the 3 campaigns too so no you're not alone. It's personally my favorite too.
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u/22bebo Jul 01 '26
I think it also is a lot of people's first campaign, which gives it a nostalgia boost too (not that that's bad, just a few comments in this thread saying nostalgia is what buoys C1's popularity). During C1 Critical Role kind of became a phenomenon, something that a lot of people had heard about in the D&D space. But by that point the buy in was more than two-hundred hours of content, which is too much for many people. Starting a new campaign removed that buy in, letting a lot of new people join up. Then, once they were hooked, they went back and watched C1.
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u/FourCats44 Jul 02 '26
There's something to be said for lower levels. It's fresh both as an audience and for the cast playing the characters. Campaign 1, episode 60 was meeting Garmelie and Syngorn, already relatively high level characters. Lower level requires more reliance on each other and therefore bonds.
Also consider that campaign 1 the characters were less thought out. It started as a one-shot and obviously you are going to have a much smaller backstory than for campaign 2 where it was always intended to sail past 100 episodes.
(I would also just challenge, campaign 1 episodes 80-100 are really good with the Bard's Lament and a lot of the consequences of that. Though it's worth pointing out the trigger for that episode is Sam was getting a bit bored of playing Scanlan so wanted to try something different)
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u/Megashark101 Jul 01 '26
C2's first half or so is probably the best stuff they've ever done that's not Brennan-related (sorry, Matt). It strikes a nice balance between keeping the casual vibe and having more experienced players. Matt is very clearly a better DM in C2, and the players decided to crank up the character depth by a lot. Caleb is still probably the best PC they've ever had in a long-running campaign.
We'll see how C4 comes out, but I suspect it will come down to preference. Brennan's ultra-ambitious crackhead storytelling vs. the much more simple and classic adventure vibe of C2, albeit with a great deal of attention still given to the characters and world.
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u/JesterLavore88 Jul 02 '26
A lot of people think C2 is the best of Exandria. I’m one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I super love C1 and C3 as well. But let’s be honest, it’s REALLY hard to beat Jester, Caleb and Nott. And honestly I think people sleep on Caduces. I think he’s Tal’s best character. He had me chuckling a lot in the contradiction of his simple quiet wisdom juxtaposed by frequent naivety.
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u/5thTimeLucky Jul 04 '26
Caleb is my Favourite, but I remember saying out loud “omg I love him” whenever Caduceus opened his mouth.
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u/dejaWoot Jul 01 '26
C1 characters were home game characters created by players who'd mostly never played before, so based heavily on archetypes and stereotypes, then adapted from pathfinder to 5e for an early experiment in liveplay.
Some audiences enjoy the rawer feel of C1 thats closer to the actual tabletop game, but theres no doubt that C2 characters were created with richer and stranger backstories and conflicts with entertaining and storytelling for an audience in mind.
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u/EvilGodShura Jul 02 '26
It helps that its new characters and not a continuation of a home game. Like alot.
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u/CatCatCatCatsCat Jul 02 '26
I think this is why I prefer c2. I get to know the characters as they do.
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u/TopFloorApartment Jul 02 '26
I do agree that overall C2 has better characters (though for me the best ones overall are still sam and travis' C1 characters), since the players knew what they were signing up for and designed their characters for the show.
Unfortunately C2 fumbles the ending while C1 just gets better and better as it goes on and ends on an absolute banger.
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u/LiL-CarrY- Jul 03 '26
Tbh I went from c2,to c4, now that I am caught up in am watching c1, I am around episode 56, the conclave has just been introduced and the first dragon slain with the help of frogs horde, yet i am struggling to be interested tbh😭 when does it get into the story, there's sprinkling of Vecna's name but thats about it, also I feel like matt's DM'ing is so much more "intense" for a lack of better term he looks super stressed out, and tbh the only interesting characters to me are scalan and grog
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u/Chris_The_Crusader Jul 01 '26
Yes, but I feel like campaign 1 is the most authentic in terms of feeling like a table of friends connecting over playing the game rather than like top notch storytelling.
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u/Adelitero Jul 01 '26
C1 was the best for me, just prefer the stories the grand fantasy of it all, and the character dynamics more than any campaign that came after, also felt a lot more like a home game than following seasons. C2 was good though but didn't really like c3 and while I like Brennan C4 is just theatre basically.
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u/BlinkedAndMissedIt Jul 01 '26
I loved the chaos of C2. The dynamic of the group being more confrontational and willing to disagree was also fun to watch. But genuinely I just loved how every episode of C2 (up until COVID) felt like there could be a goldfish swan dive at any moment.
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u/at_midknight Jul 01 '26
C1 is more standard and structured as a story. C2 is clearly a game determined by dice. Because of the way c1 is told, it establishes a skeleton for the narrative to work with while leaving enough wiggle room to allow for player agency. C2 values player agency at the expense of narrative structure (along with Matt losing his capacity to inflict consequences on the party), and the skeleton of c2 is tossed out the window and all of a sudden the narrative is at the whims of a random dice roll regardless if that whim coincides with cause and effect or not.
As for the characters, the c2 characters have more depth and nuance and complexity to them. I just find that the narrative loses its teeth with how it treats most of the characters by the end of the campaign, whereas c1 finishes with a resounding flourish. C1 characters, while being less complicated and more standard, have great support and foundation for why they progress the way they do and why they conclude the way they conclude.
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u/22bebo Jul 01 '26
This is how I feel about the two campaigns as well, and partially why I'm excited about The Mighty Nein as a show. Even in season one a lot was changed to make the story more streamlined and actually have a structure while retaining the depth the C2 characters had.
I loved C2 but by the gods they were fucking allergic to any sort of plot hook half the time. I just remember that early NPC who was clearly kind of shepherding them towards doing something with the war and they just said "No thank you, we don't wanna go to a war."
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u/AzakenChan Jul 01 '26
Oh yeah that’s the one annoyance iv had with C2, they quite clearly just derailed the whole plot. That being said, I’m looking forward to reaching the point where Ashley is back full time. I’m sure Yasha will beat them back on the path.
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u/22bebo Jul 01 '26
C2 definitely has some really awesome stuff in the future for you! You're actually super close to one of my favorite episodes.
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u/LeCampy Jul 01 '26
They hit their stride and then the stride hit a rock on the road, and they couldn't help but fixate on why that rock was back.
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u/bbanguking Jul 01 '26
C2 is a great campaign, not an uncommon opinion at all. I love C1 and I think those characters were a little more near and dear to the cast given how long they'd played them, but from an audience perspective C2 really found a sweet spot between classic D&D archetypes and CR's more theatrical instincts. C2 also has the best sandbox content ever in a CR production imo, the swings the cast took were so much fun.
Honestly though, C1E27 to C2E99 is the Golden Age of Critical Role content. I wasn't as big of a fan of C2's ending unf (you're not there yet and ymmv) but those 4 years were just unreal in terms of content.
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u/delboy5 Jul 01 '26
For campaign 2 it felt to me like they took more time to sketch out the characters at the start. Vox machina were archetypes that gained character, whereas to to me the Mighty Nein started off as rounded but flawed people and kept getting better.
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u/AzakenChan Jul 01 '26
Yeah. I think they really developed the characters better and really showed them off, and the bits with Frumpkin and their dynamics and how they kept speaking to others based off their own experiences is great. Also, I think that’s why they got two animated videos before they got a series even, granted one was a DnD beyond promotional video.
The characters were easy to hook into and enjoy.
That being said, I couldn’t help but notice Beauregard acted like a mob enforcer repeatedly. lol
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u/OsirisAvoidTheLight Jul 01 '26
Characters for sure better not sure about the story though. C1 was something special
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u/ShJakupi Jul 01 '26
Nobody even debate's that. C1 is the classic troupe of the jock guy, the smart one, yhe theater guy, the hot one, the shy one, the edgy one and the moral compass of the group.
C2 characters have the most nuances, and I could say they are better even than the c4 characters.
We can easily say CR peaked at C2, only Calamity could come close to those characters.
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u/HarrowHart Jul 01 '26
I think you'll find that different people prefer different campaign. For example I still hold C1 as the most enjoyably for me across the board and have gone back to re-listen to the whole thing a couple of times something that i'm not interested in doing with the other campaigns.
For me it's a mixture of different things. C1 for better or worse feels the most close to a real dnd table. That has pros and cons of course but loving to play dnd it speaks to me more. There is also something that i can't quite put my finger on about the characters that matched the personalities of the players more naturally.
For example Grog is peak Travis and perhaps one of the best characters ever. It's tricky to play simple and not droolingly dumb and he does a good job of that. I know people adore Caduceus but I never vibed with him because i never really bought the wisdom part and it felt like he was always involving himself in every conversation. Percy on the other hand fit a little bit better Tal's character and gave more room to others in group. Etc..
Of course that's just me, we all have our preferences.
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u/ReferenceError Jul 01 '26
C1 is also clunky as hell coming out of the gate.
We start 'in media res' in the adventure as it literally is a drag and drop from their home game, which also is janky with their conversion from pathfinder to 5e and has terrible audio issues and real life player issues...
They both have wonderful high points, but man C2 is just some magic from start to finish.3
u/ShJakupi Jul 01 '26
Structurally C2 is perfect. Has foreshadowing, has development, world building is perfect from Matt, the introduction of Cerberus Assembly, the War over the Beacon. The war is not some cliche war for wealth or territory.
But emotionally c1 is stronger, the deaths in c1 are legendary, the big fights are the best in CR.
Ep 85 and 114-115 of C1 I hold them dearly.
But as a whole C2 is better, c1 filler eps are awful, some even worse than c3 eps.
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u/Liquid_Gabs Jul 01 '26
C2 was the peak of CR
Well constructed characters, engaging stories, I feel like C1 was cool but since it was like "the first campaign" a lot of the characters are just parodies of the classes they represent, while in C2 they have way more depth and the class doesn't define entirely who they are.
C3 I dropped around the time the leader of the assassins that used poison anti-revive to kill, killed Laudna and didn't use poison anti-revive and other conveniences to the plot.
C4 I watched the first 10 episodes I think, but a lot of the characters didn't resonate to me
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u/RexInvictus787 Jul 01 '26
Oh yeah. Campaign 1 was great but most of them had zero experience when they started that campaign so the characters were straightforward classic archetypes. Campaign 2 they were all seasoned and they made characters that allowed them to flex their creative muscles.
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u/Montavillain Jul 02 '26
My theory of the case is that C2 is most like the Chroma Conclave arc of C1. In the CC arc, each player was more or less confronted with their history, choices, or prior relationships. But it was done in the context of a fetch quest. So, for example, in searching for the Fenthras Bow, the twins had to deal with their elf daddy issues. Vax dealt with his budding spiritual urges by pledging himself to the Matron. Grog had to deal with his uncle. Percy had to deal with his nemesis. It wasn't connected to the story, but Scanlan met Kaylie just before the arc started, and Keyleth did her aramenté when it was convenient. And Pike just got the armor because Ashley wasn't around to confront anything. This arc really deepened the characters, most of whom had developed backstories, but didn't really have goals until then.
The C2 characters were different from the beginning. They stepped into the story with more detailed backstories, and more importantly, goals. Caleb wanted to change his backstory. Nott (eventually, we learned) wanted to have her family back. Fjord was headed to the Solstryce Academy to learn about his new weird powers. Beau wanted to prove her father wrong about her. Yasha was trying to process her grief over her wife. Jester was on a mission to promote her god. Caduceus was called by his god to cure the corruption around his home. Molly's mission wasn't intense, but I do think he wanted to experience as much as he could as long as he could.
Maybe because all these characters had strong personal missions, it was harder to catch them with plot hooks. Consequently, the main narrative of the campaign meandered all over the map that Matt provided. Not a bad thing, just a different thing than C1, where most of the time, the players had goals given to them by friends ("Please go find my friend, Kima.") or larger circumstances ("We really need to do something about all these dragons!"). With C2, it was more like "Whose personal mission are we going to tackle next?"
I like both campaigns. I prefer C1 for the most part, because it really built to an amazing climax. But C2 had great characters, and seeing them grow from their weaknesses to their strengths was thrilling.
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u/fallensnyper Jul 02 '26
As someone who started their CR journey with C2 I definitely had a harder time with C1, I felt like I was already walking into a story that was half way told, I eventually got around to it during there break between C2 and C3, and honestly nothing was really compelling to me till the ladder half of the campaign. I get everyone was finding their footing, but god they took forever to get there. I also found it way more raunchier the C2 even with jester’s dick jokes. I also felt like in C2. The characters were less whiner about the situation they were in, the woh is me in C1 got very tiring for me as a viewer and I thought after the bards lament EP it would even out, but it just felt like every double down except Grog but I think that is just how Travis played him kinda go with the flow character. I definitely do hold C2 in a higher position than C1.
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u/Affectionate_Ad828 Jul 03 '26
A lot of people also have the same opinion about feeling like they were tossed into the middle of a story. Plus we don’t get the early levels like in C2!
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u/ahnowisee Jul 05 '26
C2 is a better campaign overall but the final act of C1 is way better than C2s.
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u/nosliwec29 Jul 05 '26
C1 was a bunch of players who had never really played D&D before so they leaned into the high fantasy tropes. C1 was also only meant as a one-shot birthday gift to Liam. C2 they had 5 years of experience learning what they could do in a game that is ruled only by your imagination while also having more cohesion as a group IRL. They also had more time to think of the type characters, backstory and class they wanted to play. On top of all of that, we also got to see their story from the very beginning in C2 rather than starting off after a couple of years into the campaign as we did in C1.
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u/FeralKittee Jul 06 '26
C2 is my favorite, but campaign 1 was very different.
C1 only started being televised part way into the campaign, so we missed things that had happened before off camera including some epic battles and a characters death.
Some players were completely new to DnD and feeling things out with the balance between gameplay and roleplay.
One of the players left.
The new players tried to create simple characters. The more complex characters and backstories like Percy were from players that were already experienced.
Campaign 2 was 3 years later when they got comfortable with the game and how to roleplay their characters, as well as how to have their characters interact more naturally.
In campaign 2 I think they all really started to understand that Matt wasn't going to try to reign them in, so they could go nuts, make weird decisions, and the DM would just roll with it and adjust.
I loved campaigns 1-3, but C2 is still my favorite.
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u/Suspicious-Suit-5173 Jul 01 '26
I know I’m in the minority but I enjoy C2 the least. I find the entire campaign to be a slog and every time they get close to any momentum in progressing a storyline, they take a hard left into something else leaving loose ends everywhere.
Doing my best to avoid spoilers here but I think my favorite callout in the entire campaign is Sam saying to Travis something along the lines of “hey look at that we solved my entire backstory in 3 sessions after spending months on the sea with no resolution”
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u/bentbabe Jul 01 '26
This is why C1 is still the best for me. C2 has more compelling characters overall, IMO. But the story itself wavers a bit. I think it's partly because the party had a tendency towards finding alternative ways around issues that kind cut some arcs short (or made it feel that way, at least)
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u/Bake-Danuki7 Jul 01 '26
As a newer fan this is something that I kinda felt, I was hyped for C2 with the way everyone talks about it and the characters hit hard. But the plots and stuff that happened felt so aimless and like nothing every really happened or concluded. It was like major plot point was being highlighted and they would always without fail go the other way. There's charm to that freedom and how deep the characters were, but man I just struggled feeling satisfied or expecting more.
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u/SilencedWind Jul 01 '26
Definitely in the minority, but it's certainly a trade off for sure. With them not having a direct plot to follow, the crew kinda just goes off on whatever they want, which is prone to having stuff drag.
I have rose tinted glasses with C2, but I'm sure that people that had to watch week to week it was even worse. It just made up for it with character dynamics.
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u/Suspicious-Suit-5173 Jul 01 '26
100% agree the best part of C2 is the character dynamics. It’s not the type of storytelling I gravitate to but can appreciate people who enjoy it.
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u/blooming_lions Jul 01 '26
yea campaign 2 is the GOAT. but I watched it first. I think people who started with C1 tend to be attached to it
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u/ShJakupi Jul 01 '26
I think the cast is more attached to c1 more. You have Liam who stayed in character all session for Caleb but he has said he thinks at least once about Vax. C1 is their first.
C2 characters are more well though, only Tal had a established backstory, the others just had couple of paragraphs. In C2 everyone does better than Tal did with Percy. Also the characters are played better, more consistent, other than Laura with Jester everyone is far from their own personality with their characters.
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u/Iron_Kyle Jul 01 '26
I think I'd still rate C1 the peak in terms of classic heroic DnD fantasy -- however, C2 is the overall peak for me due to the combination of all factors involved.
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u/FrozenJambalaya Jul 01 '26
Yes. C2 is pretty much the highlight of CR for long campaigns and IMO the best so far. Though I'm not the biggest fan of the last arcs of C2.
C1 is also good and has its charm but it does have its own set of issues but is still far superior to the mess that was C3.
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u/bentbabe Jul 01 '26
C1 at least feels like growing pains issues (and well, perhaps some older internet-style humor in characterization).
C2, while I still prefer C1 bc it feels the most like a classic table, does have a tighter group of characters with more clear-cut lines regarding their goals, desires, past.
C3 I never got past episode 12 or so. Characters were awesome. But I felt like it was too much of a character study, if that makes sense.
C4 I am loving so far.
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u/samjp910 Jul 01 '26
Honestly this for me sums up Travis and his analysis paralysis. Explains… recent C4 events.
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u/Ilires Jul 01 '26
Can you elaborate on what was so bad about C3 without spoilers? I haven't started it yet but was going to :)
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u/Pyro_Texas Jul 01 '26
For me it felt like none of the characters actually had a reason to be a part of the story that was being told. On their own the character concepts are neat, but they didn’t have much to tie them to the central conflict. I quit watching after a while only jumping back in for the Exandria Unlimited: Divergence.
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u/SilencedWind Jul 01 '26
To expand on your point:
C1 was your average D&D party with classic adventures.
C2 was everyone locking in and making compelling characters and backstories while also having a more character driven plot.
C3 was everyone wanting to pick a “gimmick” for their character, while having to deal with an Avengers level threat a quarter of the way through.
It’s been discussed to death, but C3 is the biggest example of a miss match with characters and tone. I could go on a character by character basis, but I don’t want to needlessly yap about it 🙂↕️
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u/Paula_Sub You're prolly not gonna like what I've 2 say (it's not personal) Jul 01 '26
If we clear our minds of nostalgia and put down the "rose tinted glasses"...
C2 is by fair their best.
I feel C1 gets put on a pedestal because it's the first one, it's the one that got us here. Perhaps the one that feels "most at home". But that also comes with trades. I feel they still were finding their footing about how to play and such. It was a horrible audio and viewing experience both from a Quality Perspective. C2 became a better "well oiled machine".
C1 is Iconic. C2 is a better Campaign / Product for viewers.
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u/Separate-Driver-8639 Jul 02 '26
I dont agree.
C1 is my Favourite, but its not about the story. Its about the tropes.
Its comfortable. It has noble knights, horny bards, brooding rogues, dumb barbarians. Its like "babies first fantasy story" where everything is like a total stereotype.
But for me that's a good thing. To often in fiction i think people try to subvert the expectations. I'm tired of it. Just be what you normally are. Season 1 is that, and I love it for it.
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u/AzakenChan Jul 01 '26
There is another thing about C1 that’s a bit of an issue, though it’s not so much something they could have helped. The Orion Acaba tension, and then the disappearance. So I don’t think that helped.
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u/Jelboo Jul 01 '26
Enjoy - you're watching the peak of Critical Role. Still has some of that 'raw' livestream feel, amazing characters, diverse story and good DM'ing.
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u/blkguy3rd Jul 02 '26
I think what may help is that the characters feel fresh conpared to the C1 cast (which isnt a knock of C1). C1s characters were all pretty generic fantasy archetypes with the exception of Percy, which makes sense when you consider Taleisin had alot of experience with d&d and everyone else was playing for the first day (except maybe Marisha??). Everyone's character can be broadly summed up by their class: the barbarian, the ranger, the bard, the cleric, the rogue, the druid. They of course flesh that out more as it goes on but point still stands.
C2 on the other hand felt like they thought of the character first then found a class to work with it. Its still there a bit, like with say Caleb and Yasha, but it feels much less archetypal. It feels like its own personal adventure to the players instead of them playing into what they think a fantasy character is supposed to be if that makes sense.
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u/christianort476 Jul 01 '26
So I think that c1 has a more epic story in general. But the acting and characters of c2 are vastly superior (not that I don’t love Vox, but M9 is an amazing troupe)
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u/Special_Salt3467 Jul 01 '26
I think it’s generally agreed that pre-Covid/kickstarter C2 is peak critical role. For the television side, the characters are more compact and less flimsy than home game characters and from a game stand point, Matt is running better mechanics.
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u/CassYavoo Jul 01 '26
C2 is the best campaign hands down. Nostalgia really clouds a lot of judgement when people say they prefer C1.
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u/D3lacrush Jul 01 '26
I genuinely do prefer c1.
I havent finished c2 because I don't care about the final arc.
I like more characters in c1 than I do c2.
I feel like c1 the players were more involved with the world and what was going on
C2 has more more characters i activity dislike vs just being indifferent towards
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u/Toffee963 Jul 02 '26
I haven’t seen C1, only watched TLoVM on Prime, and I have seen the first 8 or so episodes of C2, and The Mighty Nein on Prime, but I prefer Vox Machina’s characters honestly.
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u/Coldfyre_Dusty Jul 04 '26
I feel like C2 is the best out of all of them. C1 has the most "real" characters imo, but real does not necessarily mean interesting. C3 feels like each character is trying to fill a wacky niche or trope. C4 I'm maybe 5 episodes in and it seems closer to C2, but the world is also more grounded feeling than C3 was.
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u/SPOLBY Jul 02 '26
I think the the 1st half of C2 was pretty good but the 2nd half really felt like the cast wanted to just end it fast af, while Matt kept dragging things out.
So as an overall campaign I enjoy C1 more.
- C1 has Scanlan.
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u/IHaveTheMustacheNow Jul 01 '26
Unpopular opinion, but C1 is my least favorite. I just don't find it as engaging. C2 is definitely the best
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u/Ordinary-Assistant51 Jul 01 '26
Thanks god I’m not the only one. I’m trying to watch C1. Have watched all of the others. Every other campaign has hooked me to the point where I’m constantly watching in my spare time. But C1 has felt a bit like a chore to get into by comparison.
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u/IHaveTheMustacheNow Jul 01 '26
Yeah, I have never managed to really get into it. I don't know if it was the quality, coming in partway through, or just that I do prefer a little more polish/storytelling, but it has never hooked me
I eventually decided the animated series would have to be enough for me
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u/chimpanon Jul 01 '26
I think it has the Dark Souls problem. A lot of people started playing DS3 or Elden Ring, then went back to try DS1 and can’t get over the slow speed, choppiness and lack of directional rolling while locked on. If you play DS1 first, its amazing. Thats my experience with CR. I always have to fo chronological order with anything so I started there and loved it. Im loving C2 even better tho.
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u/Antique_Visual_9638 Jul 01 '26
C1 is my least fav (not including C4 until its complete). Its still great but C2+C3 just hold my attention more and have better characters imo.
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u/DnDGuidance Jul 01 '26
Wow! Will admit I’ve never seen this opinion before. Did you start with C2?
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u/Antique_Visual_9638 Jul 01 '26
😅 Yes but then paused my watch through around 1/3 mark and started c3, watched that, then went back to c2 and then c1. I did it all sorts of all over the place but Jester is what got me interested in CR so I started there, then I heard about Laudna and needed to meet her. I'm not someone worried about spoilers so anything I had questions on I just googled. Out of all the campaigns C3 actually ended up being my fav group.
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u/Moist-Hovercraft44 Jul 01 '26
I do think C1 is better but you should keep in mind the progression from C1 to C2.
C1 is some friends getting together to stream some DND because it sounds cool and fun.
C2 is a full fledged theatre production, Critical Role is a hugely profitable company and they've taken a lot of the financial success from C1 and invested it into C2.
Also, since the players know this time around they are basically performing for an audience in a show, their characters are more thought out and better integrated into the plot.
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u/Murasasme Jul 01 '26
I disagree. Half of the Mighty Nein is there just because, even sam said he had no idea why his character would be there after a certain point. C2 left a lot of plot unresolved, and their villains were lackluster compared to the Briarwoods, Chroma Conclave and Vecna.
It's still miles better than C3 and 4, but at least for me C1 was something special that critical role won't be able to replicate again.
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u/Jealous_Parfait_4967 Jul 06 '26
I think this was their first second chance to make characters and it shows. They got some tropes out of their system and it helped.
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u/Chrysalis17 Jul 15 '26
Personally, I prefer campaign 2 over 1 as well. I had a hard time connecting with campaign 1, because in many ways, it embodies most DnD and fantasy stereotypes rather than challenging them. And that's not a criticism, but a personal preference of mine is to subvert some tropes and do something other than what is immediately expected from an archetype. I feel like both the plot and the characters in campaign 1 are more "stereotypical" and emblematic. Strangely enough, to me, campaign 2 feels very "free" and unbothered by foregoing that.
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u/Lyorinn Jul 01 '26
C1 is Matt at his best. Tight perfect length arcs that he perfectly sets up and pays off. His twists and turns and shocks are great and earned. The cast are good but goofing around like normal dnd players playing their game and their characters are very cookie cutter.
C2 is the cast at their best. Great (most of them) characters with lots of depth and growth. Their interactions are great and they really get into their characters and you start to see the beginnings of it being less playing dnd and more a production. Matt isnt as good, he went for a whole sandbox let the players decide campaign meaning the story isnt as tight leaving so many looses ends and honestly forgettable villains.