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.