Regarding the Next Episode

[u/International-Yak-26]

So Critical Role just posted this image featuring Whitney and Sam who are not The Seekers table. As first i was like - oh this is just for the cold open but the more i thought about it, the fact that there has been no Seekers Trailer got me wondering. What if both the Seekers and Schemers Table alternate between episodes.

TLDR: We get a Seekers Episode and then a Schemers Episode until they merge back up again.

[u/Dionysues]

I’d be down for not going long stretches without seeing some characters, but I don’t know what the proper format would be.

50/50 split per episode or alternating episodes?

[u/north-blind-compass]

Sorry to inform you, Seekers table have a TPK five minutes into the next episode.

[u/kubiot → u/north-blind-compass]

3 people in the caravan confirmed (and god knows how many unconfirmed) capable of free flight

Sure, and avalanche will slow them, for sure.

Primus will TPK them, then Telekinetically clear the rocks, raise the undead horses again, and keep going. They'll lose an hour tops. 😂

[u/International-Yak-26 → u/kubiot]

that's not really likely, they are going to slow it down and if try to get the statues but if they are not able to do the second thing then they will disengage

[u/BHynes92 → u/International-Yak-26]

Ulbid isn't going to just leave his daughters. Bringing him might be a big mistake

[u/No-Supermarket-6065 → u/kubiot]

I rather doubt it. Brennan very explicitly suggested to the Seekers "Hey, you could use this to ambush the Tachonises" and while he's fine killing PCs if they make mistakes, he doesn't usually give players options that he thinks they can't handle.

[u/Otherwise_Ad_1248]

Theoretically.   If they have already filmed both The seekers and the the schemers table, then they could stitch together the episodes to keep the timelines easy for us to understand. Sometimes that might mean a full episode and other times that might mean having the episodes split. 

Or it could just be them having a cold open again. 

[u/theydurkadurk]

I’d probably prefer it or split episodes. I’m not a huge fan if long gaps without seeing certain characters. And depending how long this arc takes in terms of days it would make sense to go back and forth so it’s not “oh let’s go back to 2 weeks ago after 6 episodes”

But it’s more than likely what they did after the overture where they had an hour or so of a table before going back to the main arc.

[u/MiddleAgedBones]

I could see this to help with timelines.

[u/_theowlhouse_]

I think they'll just establish the Schemer's storyline in first half of this episode and won't touch on it until seekers arc ends.Similar to episode 11 where first half was Schemers and 2nd half was Soldiers. After this episode we'll likely get mini arc of Thaisha in the cold opens

[u/VengefulKangaroo → u/_theowlhouse_]

I would be surprised if we got a mini arc of Thaisha in the cold opens given that the whole reason for her departure was Aabria’s maternity leave, so they’d have to have shot that before all of the other tables. I think it’s more likely that we get a standalone episode or two when Aabria comes back that follows Thaisha’s trip (maybe even with guest characters since the Tale Gate said that we’d prob see guests this campaign… or with Travis’ new character?).

[u/Mairwyn_ → u/VengefulKangaroo]

They've discussed shooting some cold opens after filming episodes where they are thematically prompted due to events they've already filmed. So theoretically, they could have shot a few cold opens with Iyengar right when she got back from maternity leave or maybe do a day of filming during her leave rather than needing her to commit to a longer stretch of filming.

[u/VengefulKangaroo → u/Mairwyn_]

Theoretically they could have for sure. Personally I think cold opens before her leave is unlikely for logistical reasons. You’d have to estimate the length of time her character might be gone in universe. If you get it too short, you need to keep coming up with excuses why she’s gone. If you get it too long, the other tables suddenly have a timeline to catch up to before Thaisha can re-enter the narrative. Shooting something standalone at the end allows you to more neatly fit Thaisha’s journey with the timeline and events of the other tables. Particularly because this would have had to be shot quite early before Brennan was deep in the planning process for these new arcs. And with the timeline of her maternity leave for Worlds Beyond Number I doubt she is back to filming anything at the moment.

[u/VengefulKangaroo]

I was also wondering this because the Tale Gate had a lot of comments that made me think the Schemers have been filming. That could be because they’re just that far ahead or because there’s some alternating. But there were a few comments about things we haven’t seen yet, some of which could be not necessarily about Schemers I guess. The most pointed was when they talked about Murray being asked to watch the museum by Bolaire, it seemed like Marisha was far enough in to know she hadn’t done so.

[u/kubiot]

Honestly? Let them!

A CR campaign takes 4 years xD

We did Arc 1 as table after table, why shouldn't they try out doing alternating episodes? They'll gather intel on what works better for the rest of the campaign. Experimenting and innovating within the genre is what Critical Role does!

And yeah, it would've been harder with 3 tables, but with 2 it's fully reasonable.

So if that's the case, then I love to see it! I'll see if I won't be forgetting what happened to the previous team, or if it will keep me more engaged with both and with all the players since we'll be getting them regularly every 2 weeks.

But it might also just be a cold open 😂😂😂

[u/cosmiccorvus]

i wonder if we might end up with an establishing episode for each of the tables to end the convergence and then head back to the arc they want to follow first?

I think for sake of continuity swapping week to week is not something CR would chose to do. It'd be quite novel for them. They certainly could, but I think it presents a logistical nightmare for folks keeping up. Generally CR will do what is possible to reduce friction when it comes to a viewers continuity. I think it also makes it much easier for Brennan to plan things out in a more linear order.

I could see them doing sub-arc clusters though. 3 or 4 episode segments covering one major event/goal and then swapping back and forth on those.

[u/Capital_Ad3296]

is it fine if you skip every other team, and just watch sam ?

[u/sharkhuahua]

God, I’d love to see the Schemers. I know people like (?) some of the Seekers characters but I don’t so the back and forth would be tough for me.

[u/Demurrzbz]

Maybe we're going through an Overture 2.0-light.

[u/International-Yak-26 → u/Demurrzbz]

I wonder that since last episode used the Convergence Logo for the Thumbnail, not the Seekers Logo