At the end of EXU, they confirmed that they will be doing another EXU mini campaign continuing the story. So I doubt the EXU characters are going to stick around. My thought is that Matt might have asked Liam and Ashley to play Orym and Fearne in these first few sessions with Robbie, who I'm sure is just the first guest of Campaign 3 (their twitter lists Robbie as Dorian as a guest star), and playing Dorian was much easier for him than creating a whole new character.

The KZfaq comments are so much better than the twitch comments. You guys are really enjoying it for what it is and the new things instead of the chat on twitch which just really brought the mood down when things changed from the previous two campaigns. Thank you for honoring the true spirit of the critters

The story feels a lot more intimate, the music and the characters relationships feel really solid, yet newly budding

Marisha’s character is so interesting to me. We know she’s a person from Whitestone with an undead patron. That SCREAMS some tie to the Briarwoods to me.

All Sam's characters were small, except Tary. I think FCG will get bigger.

I’m loving Laudna. She’s probs gonna be my fav character

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that was thinking that Ser Bertrand Bell wasn't Travis's main character. I agree with the point that he and Matt are definitely planning the perfect introduction for his new character which I hope to be some form of spellcaster (a war wizard could be interesting)

travis has said that he would love to have a character die right away early in the campaign as a joke so i wouldn't be surprised if bertrand bit the dust pretty quick. i don't remember where he said that but i remember it pretty clearly

The characters feel different, to me, especially for Laura and Marisha - like they intentionally went a different way than they normally would.

Not gonna lie, everything about how this campaign started was so cool! Them starting at level 3, coming in pairs tripping me out (didn't expect Robbie, then I was wondering... where's Travis?), characters from EXU, and all that? It blew me away in the best way!

I think the great thing the cast did was make everyone interesting, FCG is funny and you wanna learn about how he works, I wanna know what’s going on with his relationship with Ashton, I wanna know what’s going on with Imogen and especially laudna cause she’s got some INTRIGUE, I think the best part is while Dorian orym and Fearne don’t seem too mysterious in their own, their secret reason for being in Jrusar is pulling me in to the three of them as well

So concerning the ExU characters: According to Matt's twitter it seems like Fearne and Orym are here to stay. They've always been intended to be Ashley and Liam's campaign 3 characters and ExU was a simple test run for them. My personal knee-jerk reaction is this: *Hell. YES.* For anyone not liking them or ExU or having not watched it, here are things you might wanna considered: -You really DO NOT NEED to have watched ExU to understand anything about them. It was a short story, that merely scratched a tit bit about Fearne and literally nothing about Orym. It actually makes sense now, since they've always been intended for Campaign 3. I felt like Liam played Orym really secretive and holding back, but the juicy stuff was always intended for C3. Watching it I did feel like they both held back to allow the first time players and Matt who is usually stuck to the DM seat. Just like you might have known Jester before c2 from a Oneshot but she fully gets delved into throughout the duration of the campaign, the same goes for Fearne and Orym for C3. They're not at all developed and established personalities. -The other PCs do not know them. Just like you. So Fearne and Orym obviously won't be treated like you're supposed to know anything about them. They will be questioned. You'll get to know them in the same rate as the other charas and possibly some cast members (Sam's reaction to Fearne's introduction "Are you drunk?" lmao) -It's only natural that not everyone likes everyone. But it's only been episode 1. Let the characters and players unfurl and stretch their wings a bit. Orym definitely seems very plain, but don't forget who his creator is. There's some big angst potential just cuz it's Liam lol. And he clearly has fun with being descriptive for fighter acrobatics, reminiscent of how descriptive he was for Caleb. Fearne is a hand stuck to a giant red button. I fucking love her lol

Considering that travis’s character is two levels ahead and at least 70 years old… I think that he will be playing a new character soon

Top 3 moments: 3. Ashton and FCG first moments: I am amazed about these two characters. I just love FCG so much and the contrast with Ashton. Additionaly, the amazing acting between Taliesin, Sam and Matt playing everyone in that tavern was just great. I think these two characters are gonna be my favorite. 2. Eshterros rushes. I just felt that Critical Role/Matthew Mercer rush of good storytelling and good acting when lord Eshterros flipped his cane and rushed forward. I just loved the character, how Matt played him and just an amazing end to an amazing episode. 1. Fresh Cut Grass backstory. This moment just shows how Sam is able to play what is essentially a joke character, so incredibly well that we go through a rollercoaster of emotions when he reveals his backstory. We laugh over the names of his brothers and sisters, we feel good because he is just such a sweet an amazing character and we cry because it's really sad. Sam is an amazing actor and one of the best if not the best player I've ever seen in DND and this moment shows that really well.

You are right to say that Liam was born to play a battle master. Do watch the rest of Exandria Unlimited, I think it is in the last episode he does a epic demonstration of what a battle master can be. It is cinematic, it is epic, and it is effortless. Pure D&D magic!

someone in the twitch chat last night said “Im betting that Esteros is going to ice Bertrand” and now i can’t think about anything else

My roommate had to listen to me be excited all day yesterday for this. He's never watched completely, only seen clips of the first two campaigns I've shown him. Yesterday he watched the first episode with me and he says "I can get down with this, that was fun." This was a great first episode, and now I have a watching buddy!

I definitely agree that it very much seems like it's gonna be a more comedic campaign. "Fun" seems to be the name of the game here. They're doing things that exist solely to make the game more fun. Sam is playing a character that gives him rhyme and reason to be an absolute troll, Tal has said before one of his favorite characters was a chaotic evil he once played, and Ashton is as chaotic as you can get, Liam described Orym as "the halfling of my dreams," (or something along those lines) and so on. Every character at the table this time around just makes sense for who that person is, and seems to be at the table so the crew can have as much fun as humanly possible.

I saw some theories on Reddit that Laudna is either: a) A dhampir child of Silas and Delilah Briarwood b) A corrupted de Rolo, maybe Vex and Percy’s child considering Percy’s siblings would be very old and Laudna seems to be relatively young. This is mainly because of the posh accent.

It’d be interesting to see Travis become a Cleric and channel his inner father figure for the party.

"Maybe he's got that heart of gold in him" - wouldn't even be surprised considering the race ...

I was 1000% excited for Campaign 3...................and now I'm 100,000% EXCITED! I love what they are doing this time around, I think we are going to get a lot of character rotation in and out on different missions or during different Arcs of the campaign. ALL BETS ARE OFF!!

Sam is clearly a warforged. I dig it. The whole setup is going to do well.

Marisha's body language at the table was pretty interesting, mimicking the spooky vibe of Laudna

Travis playing Bertrand is definitely sus. Going by the knowledge we have, we know that search for Grog took place in 812 and EXU took place in 842. And Bertrand was said to already be in his late 50s, early 60s during search for Grog. Technically, that would put him at like 88-93ish range. Now yes, Travis played him being old, but he didn't feel THAT old to me, not for a human. On top of it, Bertrand was level 18 at that time, yet he dropped 13 levels to be a mere level 5 warrior? It's extremely suspicious. At first I was just thinking he would be killed off pretty soon and Travis' real character would come forth, but now I'm left wondering is that even Bertrand? And if so, what happened to him that he lost so many levels? While I am excited for all the new characters, his has me the most immediately curious and suspicious over.

Drank myself sick with energy drinks to stay up to 0200 EST, but it was well worth it to see the cast sitting next to each other and how that served the storytelling beautifully. I love these nerds so much

I also love that Taliesins shirt that night was a representation of chronic migraine and I wonder if that ties into his character

Based on what we've seen, I'm convinced Laudna is going to be the group's weird mom friend.

I thought I was alone in the fact that the background music has been stuck in my head since the stream

I'm liking the new setting and characters. The party has the potential to more scary in combat than Vox Machina especially depending if Travis stayed as a Fighter or not. Even if that happens it'll be great encounters that'll be played, truly excited for the next session. Is it Thursday yet? 😩

Personally: I'm looking for Travis to play either a monk, rogue, or maybe an artificier. BUT... maybe there's another homemade archetype to be introduced.

I hope that the Exu guys will stick around mostly because Orym is the perfect straight man to any situation and the voice Liam does is so soothing

If Liam is gonna play a diffrenet character later Sam should find out the name and get FCT to mention the name to make him panic again XD

The one thing I’m kinda less happy about is Ashton, it felt like talesin was going with “Ashton is a dick but his relationship with a FCG will bring out a heart of gold over time” but it seems like he already has that heart of gold front and center

Sam's character has already stolen my heart immediately, which makes 4 for 4 now.

Happy positive action-comedy! I’m digging campaign 3! Matt’s pacing was so perfect in ep. 1.

call me crazy, but i love orym and fearne and dorian.

Im sooo happy that my favorit characters in this are Marisha's and Ashley's characters! Its so awesome that Marisha finally went charisma! (Im one of those that really didn't like her characters from 1& 2, not a hater mind you, but not a fan either of those). So that Im most hyped about her Sorlock are so cool 😊

The background song is the same song they used preshow and during the break for EU, and I've been trying to find the name of it since EU aired with no success. It was nice to hear it again, it's so beautiful.

I adore all of their characters. I’m glad that Orym, Ferne, and Bell are returning for a bigger role. Especially Ferne. There are also quite a few people in this party that are tied to Vox Machina.

Nicely done. I liked this breakdown a lot and I couldn't agree more. I am super hyped for next session!!! :)

Respect to you for getting something out that was so thought provoking and quick. Well done, sir.

I love that this is group seems set to really just wreck things. With several heavy damage dealers plus real support characters. And Sam has such a genius for combining humor with genuine emotion. Like the moment he explains his name. Perfection. I *LOVED* ExU and am excited that Robbie has joined the game. (And totally love Fern.) Especially looking forward to watching Marisha and Taliesin's characters unfold.

Stumbled onto your video and am happy to subscribe. Well done! Glad to see the algorithm is favoring you. I'll be here from now on!

When you started talking about fighters not being boring, I just got flashbacks of Edward Bosco going on a long tangent about “the versatility of the 5e fighter.”

Really loving your stuff. I feel we agree on a lot! Please keep doing these :) As far as PCs: I think we’ll see FCG drama in the campaign. There’s so much potential there (puppetmaster, him maybe killing his own party..) I’ll be sad to see Fearne go if they decide to change the ExU PCs. Ashley shines on her and I’m seeing her potential for the first time. Matt’s DMing brought the MAGIC back to CR for me. I came in with low expectations after the end of C2 and ExU and I’m hooked as well. Not going to repeat the points you made, but: Not a huge fan of the opening monologue, but mostly personal preference there. I think it does the job of presenting the big picture. Interested to hear your opinion about the starting location for Imogen / Laudna. I thought it was ballsy to start them at a place where they were going to be rejected! Thus, no clear direction afterwards? I think what I take away the most is how he builds the city by splitting the starting parties in different locations and then he zooms in and out as they move around. Some BIG description, then a small detail here and there (vendord, piss, Dreamscape Theater…) LOVED IT!

I wonder if the new characters played an off-screen session zero that established their bonds with their starting counterparts and got them to level 3

I love it so far! Not much else for me to say yet, we've only had one episode! I will say, while I didn't love ExU, I loved the characters.

i started dming my own campaign earlier this year and it's INSANE how good matt is at his craft

The premiere was at 3 am here in Ireland so I was able to watch the first half but I couldnt fight the sleep any further. Cant wait to watch the full session when the video is released on KZfaq.

I can't be the only one thinking Laudna is a Hexblood, right? Her dread form even had those long fingers... ugh I'm so excited for this campaign.

The fight againat Esteros is definitely gonna be a test to see if he wants them to do a job and that will probably have to do with dealin with the strange blue blur that caused the objects to come to life. Whether he becomes a foe later is up to the future.

Looking forward to Ashley being able to get into a campaign without having to leave for another show. With Robbie joining it feels like early Critical Role when they started with 8 players.

This campaign is already on fire. Everybody's creativity and role play chops are maxed out. I really love how Sam's character seems to have been designed just to annoy the rest of the cast. I also love the steampunk vibes of the city. I can't wait to see where this goes and to uncover the insane backstories.

A lot of new things, but also kind of not, hard to judge after just first episode) Overall I think it was the best first episode out of 3.

Stoked!

Thank you for such a positive and upbeat reaction to the new campaign. I found CR quite recently and it really helped me get through lockdown. I never seen a session live until this one…and I was so deflated by the reactions in the twitch chat. I understand some of it, and I think they could have managed expectations better through the pre-show marketing but still…I was so excited to be a part of what seems like a super supportive and welcoming community and it just wasn’t that. It’s nice to find the supportive trusting side of the fan base too.

We actually do know Imogen’s subclass she talked about class ability and then was able to read minds… I think she is an aberrant mind sorcerer. Which I vibe with

I'm expecting Travis's character to leave if just because he started at a different level than the rest of them. Robbie is supposed to be temporary from what I heard, but that makes me wonder if maybe Ashley and Liam will be bringing in new characters as well when Dorian leaves (for whatever reason). Those 3 are a pre-established party, so it would be weird if 2 stay while 1 goes.

Just remember that making Sam play a robot was Liam's plan. Sam just has the perfect sense for how to pull it off.

As far as Ashley and Liam, I am loving Ashley's character - I hope she keeps the eye makeup or look going, because it felt intentional and aided in my liking of the character. Liam said he wanted an "easier" character after season 2, and I am glad to see him in this role as well.

I like how Taliesin took the failed attempt at a melee fighter that was Mollymauk and made a TOTALLY melee dependent fighter type character for this campaign. No hiding in corners this time.

Awesome video! I'm still riding high from this episode. It was great.

Not sure I understand the silver fox point. Other than Bertrand, they all seem like literal children haha

Ashton is probably my favorite character design that ever came from CR. They looks so fucking cool. Mad props to taliesin for creating the idea and the artist for executing it because holy shit the final piece looks extremely badass and unique.

been desperate for well done content like this! keep it up! I subscribed. Your pace was on point, loved the pictures, and enjoyed your thoughts! would love this every Thursday!

I came across CR with the luxury of being able to binge watch all of Campaign 2 and more than half of ExU. I am really happy to be able to follow Campaign 3 in real time but also the wait is fucking torture lmao IS IT THURSDAY YET??? I am gonna watch C1 in my waiting time but good god, I had a lot of fun watching C3 episode 1. I cannot wait! I'm happy to see you're having positive anticipation. I feel like a lot of people watching and commenting have kind of a severe anxiety against changes, so it's nice that you're going at it with an open mind and the acknowledgment that this is episode 1. A lot can happen.

Thank you for this video! It gave me many new perspectives and this positivity is very refreshing after the cesspool that Twitch chat and Reddit can be.

Love this breakdown! Your voice is pleasing to listen to as well. You have a new subscriber!!

Personally, while im not yet a fan of every character (for one im kind of sad that Liam is playing a fighter after he showed how amazing he is at playing characters that benefit from a lot of planning) overall i have enjoyed this start a lot more than campaign 2. Everyone felt like they already knew their own character much more than at the start of campaign 2.

Ugh! I'll have to watch this after the 25th, when I get to watch season 1!! So excited!!

I feel like the 3 EXU won’t stay the whole campaign, but getting more Fern and Dorian is such a fucking treat

Am I the only one remenbering Bell from the SEARCH FOR GROG ? Pretty sure not but just wanted to say amazing for travis coming in with that character that I truly love EDIT: just realized the chapter about bell is called an old friend returns ._.

Dude, I really wanted to watch this whole review, but man, unholster just a little bit. You have great production and presence, just please realize there is a difference between being a fan and enjoying something and hamming it up so much you belong in a SPAM can.

The one thing they need to fix on the set, tiny criticism, the camera angles make Matt's arms pass in front of the cameras. A lot of times his arms were in front of people's faces.

Great video!

Great narrative, brother. I much agree with everything you said. It is as if you took my thoughts and feelings and put them in words!

Everyone: “Bertrand is probably a temp character or one that Travis is planning to kill off.” Me whose favorite character is already Bertrand and didn’t know he was returning from campaign 1: “oh.. ok” T-T

They make characters, we love them....they pitch products, we buy them.....easy

Just found you from Your last critical role video and am loving the content

I feel like I might be in the minority but I don't really mind if Ashley and Liam play as Fearne & Orym for this campaign, especially given how short overall all EXU was. On another note, anyone got thoughts on Laudna's race?

I think Ashton was hired to kill FCG and his adventure group. Badly damaged himself doing it and when he got to FCG he felt too much guilt to finish the job and brought him back with the parts of his party and got his friend to fix the both of them. And FCG either A) doesn't recall that his first "friend" after trauma is his attacker or B) Knows its him, but is such a pure soul, some how is trying to help fix a guy who showed a potential to be better by not going 100% through his original job to kill all of FCG's O.G. party.

I think their break really helped the entire cast they all seemed so excited and in the moment

Wow i really love this video! I was very surprised by quite a bit of negativity from the community regarding the new campaign and characters and this video really brought me new hope hehehe

The new setting is amazing! That city is such a great design. Them starting at Lv.3 is also a great idea, that's what I do with my players as well. Everyone starts at Lv.2, then we do 1v1 "session 0's" to establish that individual character and it gives the player a chance to ask any last minute questions about their character and the layout of the world. Then the first official game with everyone is at Lv.3 Also I'm calling it now Sam and FCG are not as innocent as they look. I bet he killed his OG party. Maybe not intentionally, but I bet he known's more.

I feel that Sam plays the joke characters in a dark world for the last two campaigns. FCG is interesting though.

Absolutely agree with your take on FCG likely having a lot more depth to him behind the backstory we found out episode one, or all of that even being a lie or false memory etc. Am really excited to see what Sam has hidden with FCG, and what sort of development they are taken on alongside Ashton too. Of course Sam is the perfect player for FCG too, after we saw him play Scanlan It even makes sense because Sam paired with Taliesin who we know will have some incredible story behind Ashton. Even just looking at his character drawing, you can see there's a good story behind them.

I've been blown away by the first episode. I'm a pretty die hard fan of the series... But I will say campaign 1 is my favorite just due to it's "Old school D&D-ness" feel. It just always felt like what a great D&D campaign should be. C2 was amazing, though. There's so many amazing story beats and epic moments... There was a lot of amazing story, but it just kinda felt that the way it was revealed was almost haphazard. It felt like like everyone stumbled through 50% of the campaign (but hey, again, D&D), and while there was massive story hooks and info dumps, the players didn't really bite too much into the hooks. It also felt like everyone was trying to go full-on epic backstory, and everything just felt like it was trying to be epic in scale, but while everything was dealt with in an amazing fashion it just didn't feel like things were resolved with as much effort as there was put into the backstories. But it still resolved amazingly well and still a great campaign (again, this is just D&D and how it works out sometimes). I've kinda been worried about C3 though. I've had this thought that it's just not going to live up to the hype, the characters aren't going to vive with me... all that. But Holy Hell I'm excited for C3. The characters that have been revealed so far are amazing. I can't wait to see more of them and already invested in them from the moment they were introduced. However, I feel like Travis has some aces up his sleeve and Bertrand isn't his main character. And if I'm wrong, I'd still be happy. There's a lot of potential in that character regardless. I just get the feeling there's going to be a bit more revealed with that, and it's going to be great no matter what happens. Robbie... I'm split on. I love him, he's such an amazing charismatic person, he fits in perfectly with the rest of the cast and kinda really hoping he stays on. My only con isn't he hasn't been there from the beginning and that really isn't a con to begin with. Even if his character moves on, I kinda want him to stay on. The rest of the EXU characters... I feel like they might not keep on with the rest of the group. If they do, I'll be happy as they are great characters and the people behind them feel comfortable playing them. They're great additions, but still have this feeling they will go their separate ways. It just feels like a setup for story, and I kinda really don't want to lose Robbie. He almost feels like he should have been there from the start. Laura and Marisha's characters: Holy hell, I love them. There is so much depth and personality revealed in what little we got to see them. I can't wait to see more. There's this great connection between not only their abilities, but their friendship while seemingly being polar opposite in their abilities. Talesin I think has crafted an amazing character. I think there's going to be a lot centered around him, and it's going to be amazing. Regardless of how hard he pushes everyone away, I think a lot of the team will center around him. And then we have Sam. Jesus... I think this is his best character yet, thank you Liam, and plan to laugh my ass off and cry just as much because of them. On top of the characters being so unique and great, the world Matt has set up is so fantastic. I can not wait to see all the environments and locales that show up. I get the impression those really will have almost character as the PCs. I can't really express how excited and hopeful I am for C3. I feel like there's going to be some great twists and turns right out of the gate, and we're going to go down so many unique and exciting avenues CR and D&D quite haven't gotten to yet.

Fern is amazing and Ashley play her perfectly. The way Fern acts, no spoilers, is just so unique and perfect.

I’m watching back after episode 17 and what you said about Laudna being the best of them broke me

i watched so many of ur vids and just now i noticed that am not subed , instantly subed , keep doing those vids i love watching em

Holy crap what are all these awesome formal wear photos and why have i never seen them?! :O

I was so scared Travis was replaced by Robbie. So glad when he showed back up.

Laudna is very interesting to me because I love characters that subvert stereotypes like using dark powers for good. I'm going out on a limb and thinking she is 1 Shadow Sorcerer/2 Undead Warlock. With this she would have Eyes of the dark (120 darkvision), Strength of the grave (Comes back to 1 hp if she passes the charisma save), Form of dread, 2 invocations (agonizing blast + another one), 6 cantrips (4 from sorc, 2 from lock) and four 1st level spell slots with two recharging on a short rest. That's a pretty hard character to take down at lower levels and she'll only get stronger if she goes full 14 into warlock with eldritch blasts dealing additional necrotic damage, having another way to get up from 0 hp with Necrotic husk and spirit projection. All that is further amplified if she decides to go a little coffee lock and stockpile sorcery points from sacrificing her lock spell slots before a short rest. Marisha I think is going to go for the damage record of percy.

The only thing that wasn't fantastic was the fire effects on the CR animation, and it wasn't even that bad. I already like these guys better than the M9. Also, I like how Matt switched the order and trapings of the gathering at the bar, the brawl on the streets, and the mysterious old man to sen the party on a quest, real class act!

with you liking fearne and liam's fighting flavor, i definitely recommend exu! you (obviously) will get much more of both!! liam is particularly amazing.

People are wild on Twitch and TikTok! Glad to see people just enjoy it for what it is. I watched it in theaters (such a fun way to kick it off! That was a treat) and felt disappointed with how negative the twitch chat was- to see people hateful towards something they claim to be apart of is weird to me, Critical Role said “have no expectations.” You can tell this is going to be a very in-depth ride for the whole team. That being said I came out of the theater happier than when I went in. It was seriously such a fun watch and I’m excited with where they all go in this. You can see how much joy they all had this first episode, that’s why I love watching it. Thats at the core of the whole thing and they’re preserving that, the love, friendship and effort they individually bring and give to each other. And to everyone that’s super duper upset, remember it’s their game, they can’t make you love their character choices. They are very considerate and listen their community- but in the end it’s theirs to create and explore and they’ve invited us all to watch:)

It’s been so long since I’ve watched the intro episodes to C1 and C2 I don’t remember if much happened in those episodes or not. This episode felt a little slower than what I do remember of the first 2. Not much really happened and I don’t think I felt like the party coming together/meet cute was that creative or interesting. However I am really enjoying each character individually and some seem to mesh better than others. I am excited to see how everything progresses. We all know one episode is no indication of where the season will go. You watch C2 40 episodes later and it feels like a different campaign. I’m excited to see where this goes.

While I haven't watched C1 from what I gather it was mostly lead by Percy with Vex as second in command. C2 was Fjord with Beau as second. I'd really like to see what it would be if Marisha and Laura were the dual leaders this time round and them both playing high charisma classes makes me hopeful.

I hope that Travis will be The Anger character that Orym is searching for. Maybe a Minotaur Wizard or something like that. The look when Travis heard Liam say The Anger was similar to when Nott said Bren in C2.