Critical Role Campaign 2

Themes:

  • Adult humor: Jokes are often raunchy or deal with bodily functions. There is a lot of swearing.
  • Alcohol: Characters frequently drink, and many scenes take place in bars. Sometimes alcoholism is depicted or discussed.
  • Blood and gore: Frequent scenes of injury or combat, often to the death.
  • Complicated family relationships: Many characters have complicated relationships with their families, including abuse and neglect.
  • Death, dying, and grief: Character backstories deal with death, and characters lose people close to them during the story. Characters often discuss their grief and how they're processing it.
  • Food: Frequent scenes set at restaurants or during mealtimes. Often players snack at the table.
  • Horror monsters: Many different kinds of horror creatures appear. Including corrupted creatures, creatures that mutate, ghosts, giant insects, carnivorous plants, things that aren't animals, undead, and more.
  • Institutional childcare: A character's backstory involves growing up in an orphanage.
  • Law Enforcement: All cities have been shown to have armed guards with law enforcement powers.
  • Mental magic: Characters can shape the thoughts of others and control their behavior.
  • Missing memories: For various reasons, characters have large gaps in their memories.
  • Near death experience: Characters experience close calls with death. Their experiences and visions are described.
  • Reoccurring nightmares: Characters experiences recurring dream they are partially in control of and which sometimes affect their conscious lives.
  • Self-harm: A character's class abilities are activated through drawing their own blood.
  • Self-sacrifice: Characters frequently put themselves in serious danger to protect other characters.
  • Survivor's guilt: Characters express negative feelings about making it through traumatic experiences when other people they cared about did not.
  • Trauma: Characters frequently explore the trauma they've endured, how it's affected them in the past, and how it's affecting them currently.

Visual appearances:

  • Flashing lights: Effects on projections screens, post-production effects, and in many ads.

Campaign 2 Intro 1:

Time: 1:22

Occurrences:

  • Face Injury: A person is accidentally hit in the face and reacts in visible pain before recovering.

Visual appearances:

  • Glitch effects: VCR scan line tape effects. Small lines throughout, with occasional large blocks.
  • Fire: Fire effect on ending logo.

Sound effects:

  • Static: The opening starts with auditory static.

Episodes:

Campaign 2, E1: “Curious Beginnings”

January 11, 2018
The Critical Role cast is dressed as various 80's archetypes. Ashley Johnson and Sam Riegel as nerds, Taliesin Jaffe and Matt Mercer as punks, Travis Willingham and Marisha Ray in sporty outfits, and Laura Bailey and Liam O'Brien in preppy clothes. They're seated around a couch for a group shot in a house decorated like the 1970s.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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Campaign 2, E2: “Show of Scrutiny”

January 18, 2018
Sam Riegel and Laura Bailey stand shoulder to shoulder looking at each other in front of a yellow flowered wall. Sam has a white polo shirt with stripped edges on the sleeves and collar and rainbow suspenders. Laura has a striped sweater in muted yellows, reds, and blues. Sam is holding his suspenders and Laura holds her hands together in front of her chest.

Recurring Themes:
– Law enforcement: Interactions with law enforcement and the justice system are central to the episode. Guards secure a crime scene. They arrest a character. Multiple characters are brought before a judge. Unjust incarceration is shown to be common. Characters attempt to evade guards.

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Campaign 2, E3: “The Midnight Chase”

January 25, 2018
Travis Willingham and Liam O’Brien lean against the hood of a car in an open garage. Travis has his arms folded in front of his chest and is leaning slightly to the right. Liam leans with one arm against the hood of the car with the other resting on his cocked hip. Travis is wearing a red paisley headband, A sleeveless grey hoodie with light blue, blue, and red stripes over the left chest, and blue gym shorts. Liam is wearing a bright orange turtleneck, bright mustard yellow scarf, and dark mustard-colored pants.

Recurring Themes:
– Law enforcement: The first half involves many guards on patrol and involved in an attack, and one of which assaults an innocent person.

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Campaign 2, E4: “Disparate Pieces”

February 1, 2018
Marisha Ray leans against a white post next to some String of Pearls hanging plants and in front of a sliding glass door. She wears an orange cap sleeve t-shirt and a red, white, and blue puffer vest. Her arms are folded in front of her, and her head is cocked to the side as she smirks towards the camera.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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Campaign 2, “The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 1: Unfinished Business”

November 17, 2022
An illustration of the newly reunited Mighty Nein on a beach.

Recurring Themes:
– Sea Danger: Storms, shipwrecks, stranded at sea, etc.
– Sea Monsters
– Eating/Food: Sam’s flask has a popcorn bucket attached that the players eat from through the episode. Crunching/eating noises. There is food mess after Sam spills the popcorn while drinking from the flask and later in the episode Laura comments on his hands being sticky from the popcorn.

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Campaign 2, “The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 2: Uk’otoa Unleashed.”

December 1, 2022
The Mighty Nein on a wooden ship on a stormy sea with another wooden ship behind them.

Recurring Themes:
– Snakes: Visuals and theme for the episode deals with a snake god.
– Sea Monster: The party confronts Uk’otoa
– Eyes: Uk’otoa is covered in eyes

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