Skip to main content

Critical Role

So, last night I learned that the second Critical Role campaign has come to an end, which I found somewhat dismaying, because I'm still listening to the first campaign! At the time of writing Vox Machina are about to battle Umbrasyl the black dragon outside Westruun. A group of evil, and very old, dragons have basically screwed things up big time for the rest of Exandria (the fictional world), and the PCs have to find some magic doodads that can help them defeat the baddies... 

There, you're mostly caught up to where I'm at now.

I'm very much playing catch up, and love listening to the podcast (I'm not in the right time zone to even think about watching live on Twitch and I prefer just having the audio - the only thing I really want to see is Matthew Mercer's amazing Dwarven Forge models, and... um, Matthew Mercer, as apparently I have a wee crush on him).

I mean, yum...  

Yes that's one of things I have to ask myself about  (as I mentioned in my last post)... as it appears I might not be as straight as I thought I was. Let's keep that between us, please. I may be putting it up on a not very visited blog, but I still don't necessarily want to tell my parents. Not without some, um, scientific testing.  Okay, a lot of scientific testing. Maybe years of it.


Anyway, back to Critical Role before I embarrass myself further! The thing I love about listening to the podcast is the group's interactions. The sound of people having fun is a wonderful thing and it's great to listen to the cast just enjoying themselves and each other. They click wonderfully and the camaraderie between the players is jut fabulous, especially when they're bantering. It makes me miss playing with a nice, creative, group who are willing to be silly and just let things flow. The characterisation is on point - as you'd expect given that the cast are all voice actors, and its really fun to listen to Travis Willingham and Liam O'Brien's voices when they talk as Grog and Vax. My favourite characters are probably Percy, Scanlan, and Vex, but it's really hard to choose because they're all brilliant. I love the way that the group's ended up doing everything from fighting vampires to helping a roc find a new home. The plots feel like they flow naturally, which can be pretty rare in an RPG, really. 

So far, aside from one very dungeon crawly adventure (the second quest on the Slayer's Take induction - I'm never that fond of "proving" missions, and this one was a bit dull), the first campaign has been a lot of fun, and it has the sort of thing in it that makes me invested in the action - even in a D&D game. I confess I've never really played D&D, because there's a lot of stuff around it that I find off putting. Thanks to Critical Role, I've started to realise that a lot of that is the culture among gamers, and there's nothing to say that you can't make serious changes... which is what I'm doing. My 5th edition D&D books are in the first load of stuff going to Bournemouth - along with my copy of Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary edition. 

Circling back around - I keep falling off the point - I just want to say that I also admire the fact that the cast have a Foundation, and that with the new Exandria Unlimited game, they're opening up the fold to new actors and a more diverse cast. It's sensible, and I'm sure that it's good for them to ring the changes. 

In the meantime, please excuse me, I have to finish up listening to this episode. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surviving and Thriving in the Urban World of Darkness: A Guide for Garou

 Welcome to the blog, or welcome back if you're a regular reader. Thanks for stopping by. This is Shores of Night. On Sundays we talk about Werewolf: the Apocalypse , White Wolf's eco-horror roleplaying game. I talk about things within the game that interest me, explore areas which I think need to be considered, and sometimes try to make stuff.  Apologies for missing last week, life got in the way. I'm finding things a bit hard at present because I'm consuming too much news content and even though I'm in the UK, current events in the US are weighing heavily on my mind. It feels like life has become that much more difficult and, in the themes of Werewolf, that what's happening will only lead to the planet suffering more. It feels like our cities will become darker and less pleasant too, though perhaps not to the extent that they would be in the World of Darkness. At least we can be relatively sure that what's happening in the "real world" (if such a...
Post a Comment
Read more

101 Changeling: the Dreaming Story Seeds

I've put together 101 Story Seeds for Changeling the Dreaming which is free to anyone to use for their Changeling Chronicles.. You can find it as a PDF download here: 101 Changeling the Dreaming Story Seeds . I've detailed possible subplots for the game, the same as I did with Hellfrost. The thing I should say before you go a-scrolling, is that some of the plot lines are for adult gamers, be that because they deal with adult subjects or because they're the sort of things that are a bit more to do with planning and so on. I'm planning to put together a Changeling micro setting, set at a campus university, please let know if that would be of interest. Changeling the Dreaming, Kithain and other official game terms are copyright White Wolf Games (1995), while original characters are copyright of Steve Cotterill (2018) Permission is given to use original characters for home use. 101 Changeling the Dreaming Story Seeds Mean: Some of the Kithain ar...
5 comments
Read more

The Traveller's Guide to the Umbra

 Welcome back, or if you're here for the first time, then hello. These blog posts are dedicated to the roleplaying game Werewolf: The Apocalypse , one of my favourite games. They're intended to form a primer for the game, to explain it to potential new players. Most of what I've written has been tagged with the Werewolf label, and I'm working to ensure everything I've published for the game here has the tag.  This week, we're returning to the mysterious spirit world, the Umbra, to discuss travel and survival. Last time we got a basic idea of the part of the Umbra werewolves interact with the most (there are other realms, but those appear in Mage: The Ascension and Wraith: The Oblivion far more than in Werewolf, and can be challenging for the Garou to visit, so I'm only going to cover them if it's requested. This content is designed for the 20th Anniversary Edition of Werewolf, which is what I'm sticking with. Apologies if you're a 5th Edition f...
Post a Comment
Read more