so if I want to watch Critical Role...where is the best place to start in the main campaigns? should I just go back from the beginning of Campaign 1?
So you wanna start watching critical role!!! Welcome to this insane fandom be prepared for utter chaos.
If I were you, the first thing I would do (if you haven’t already) is watch season 1 of the legend of vox machina. The show does an incredible job of summing up everything you need from the first arc of C1 without having to deal with the teething problems the stream itself faced in its first year or so. The first episodes of campaign 1 are difficult to deal with for a lot of reasons - mainly audio issues, out of game drama (which is a whole other fucking thing I can tell you about if you want to know), and poor set design. TLOVM will give you all the crucial bits from those early episodes, and will contain other bits of information you’ll want going into C2 and C3.
Following that, which campaign you decide to watch first is going to be down to you. I started on C2 and utterly fell in love, but there is nothing stopping you from starting with C1 (so long as you’re willing to deal with the teething problems for 15 or so episodes), C2 or C3!
Since C3 is currently our main source of content, and is early enough in its arc to not be super intimidating to catch up on, if I were you I would hop straight into the start of C3 after watching TLOVM. Either that, or start with something even smaller, like EXU (the original EXU!) which has an 8-episode arc and takes place just before C3 with some character overlap.
If you’d like a general lowdown on the characters or story content (without spoilers) of each campaign so you can figure out which one you wanna jump into first I am more than happy to provide that info, just let me know.
So, final recommendations:
- watch TLOVM S1 (not completely necessary but highly recommended for background info, especially if you’re gonna start with C3)
- Either start CR proper with EXU or C3
P.S. Timeline for reference and in case you want to watch in chronological order:
- Vox Machina one shots (search for grog/Bob, dalen’s closet)
- EXU Kymal (timeline overlap)
