Critical Role Campaign 3

Themes:

  • Abandonment: Characters explore negative feelings of having been left by or separated from loved ones. Sometimes they are reunited and confront the person about their resentment.
  • Adult humor: Jokes are often raunchy or deal with bodily functions. There is a lot of swearing.
  • Ageism: Many jokes about dying from old age and what age effects.
  • Alcohol: Characters frequently drink, and many scenes take place in bars. Sometimes alcoholism is depicted or discussed.
  • Assassination attempt: A character's backstory involves being present for an assassination attempt on their leader and losing people in the attack.
  • Black goo: A black goo substance is part of a character's monstrous transformation and frequently described.
  • Blood and gore: Frequent scenes of injury or combat, often to the death.
  • Body Horror (Form of Dread): A spell is used that transforms the character into something horrifying of their choice and is described when used.
  • Body horror (transformation): Character backstories involve unwanted body transformations that occurred after traumatic events.
  • Class divide: The story highlights the way opportunities for people change based on their money and connections.
  • Complicated family relationships: Many characters have complicated relationships with their families, including abuse and neglect.
  • Conspiracies: Many in-world conspiracy theories are discussed. Some turn out to be true conspiracies affecting the characters.
  • Corruption: Certain powers cause a distressing progressive effect as the character levels up.
  • Creepy Whispers: When using mental communication spells, Laudna's words are echoed by the cast collectively overlaying their voices to make ghostly whispers.
  • Death, dying, and grief: Many 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.
  • Debates about personhood: A character questions when a conscious being qualifies as a person and the nature of agency and consciousness.
  • Dislocations, breaks, and decay: A character's body is partly decaying and frequently breaks down for comedic effect. This includes weak joints that frequently dislocate and are quickly reset and broken bones that quickly heal.
  • Exotic pet: A character has a dangerous supernatural exotic pet with some intelligence.
  • Experimental medicine: A character's backstory involves having experimental medicine used on them.
  • Exploitation (debt): Substantial debt is used as leverage against a person, forcing them to repay it in labor.
  • Fear of crowds: A character expresses distress at being in crowded spaces.
  • Flesh Tongue: Running joke that FCG has a fleshy tongue.
  • Food: Frequent scenes set at restaurants or during mealtimes. Often players snack at the table.
  • Guns: In Campaign 3, gun usage has become common knowledge and characters outside of whitestone now use and reference them more than before.
  • Heights: Frequent scenes where characters are on tall land formations, in cable cars, flying, or otherwise far above the ground.
  • 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, werewolves, and more.
  • Inconsistent time: Time in different planes working differently causing gaps in experienced time for characters.
  • Institutional childcare: A character's backstory involves growing up in an orphanage.
  • Kleptomania/petty theft: A character steals very frequently for the thrill of it, sometimes endangering the group.
  • Law Enforcement: All cities have been shown to have armed guards with law enforcement powers.
  • Loss of control/compulsion: Occasionally characters experience moments where they lash out without conscious direction. Repeated conversations happen acknowledging the possible triggers and mitigating tools to help each other manage it.
  • Lying: Characters frequently lie.
  • Mental magic: Characters can shape the thoughts of others and control their behavior.
  • Mind reading: Psychic powers are used to read and speak into other people's minds. Sometimes this is secretive or unwanted.
  • Misogyny: Repeated jokes that use sexism and alpha male beliefs to highlight that they are harmful and incorrect ideologies.
  • Missing time: For various reasons, characters lose long stretches of time in their lives and are separated from their past because of it.
  • Monstrous transformation: Characters transform into monstrous forms. Sometimes this is in their control and sometimes it's not. The transformations are often described in graphic and unsettling ways.
  • Near death experience: Characters experience close calls with death. Their experiences and visions are described.
  • Queer death/spouse death: A character's backstory involves their queer spouse dying.
  • Reoccurring nightmares: A character experiences a recurring dream that is frequently distressing and expresses doubt about what is real.
  • 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. Some characters have game mechanics that encourage this.
  • Social isolation and persecution: Characters share experiences of being ostracized, socially isolated, or forced to leave towns due to the circumstances of their upbringing and innate traits.
  • Survivor's guilt: Characters express negative feelings about making it through traumatic experiences when other people they cared about did not.
  • Taxidermy: A character has a puppet made of remains from multiple animals are stitched together that they frequently play with and perform for others.
  • Therapy: Poorly done therapy and positivity are used by a character to resolve conflicts and hard feelings. Sometimes this is unasked for. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vibes but not practices.
  • Toxic positivity: A character uses relentless positivity to respond to all situations. This is discussed with them.
  • Toxic work environment: A character's backstory includes a workplace where owners disregarded the feelings and expertise of workers to the point of violence.
  • Trauma: Characters frequently explore the trauma they've endured, how it's affected them in the past, and how it's affecting them currently.
  • Traumatic Injury: repeated discussions about the event and the long-term physical effects.
  • Undead: A character's backstory includes details of dying and being revived in an incomplete way through necromancy.

Visual appearances:

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

Critical Role Logo

Time: 0:16

Visual appearances:

  • Flashing lights and fire: The logo has a fire effect flaring up on a dark background.

Campaign 3 Intro 1:

Time: 1:44

Visual appearances:

  • Colonialism: Costumes based on late 19th century to early 20th century British explorer stories.
    Flashing Lights: Lanterns carried in dark scenes throughout, camera flash at 1:11, and fire effects at the end.
  • Fire: Fire effect on ending logo.

Sound effects:

  • Repetition and whispers: Opening starts with ghostly whispers repeating the same words over and over before the lyrics start.

Campaign 3 Intro 2:

Time: 1:47

Epilepsy and light sensitivity

  • Rapidly alternating colors: High contrast bright colors, often on bright white, that rapidly shift with frequent jump cuts.
  • Flashing motion effects: Low frame animation without blur frames. Motion blur at the beginning Jumping stills with bright white lines on a dark background appear to flash as they change.
  • Jumpy rotoscoped shots: Short cuts for rotoscoped animation with a lot of movement can appear jumpy and disorienting. May affect motion sensitivity.

Episodes:

Campaign 3, E11: “Chasing Nightmares”

January 20, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 11 thumbnail features Sam Riegel with his hands in his pockets and Robbie Daymond grinning with his index fingers up. They're wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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Campaign 3, E12: “Make It Fashion”

February 3, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 12 thumbnail features Travis Willingham and Liam O'Brien laughing. They're wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Wearing a face as a mask (joke): Multiple brief jokes throughout the episode about wearing a face as a mask.

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Campaign 3, E13: “A Dance of Deception”

February 10, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 13 thumbnail features Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, and Sam Riegel standing shoulder to shoulder, each with a character specific pose. Taliesin has a sarcastic expression and a raised fist, Ashley is looking intensely with her hand outstretched at hip height towards the camera, and Sam has a friendly smile with his head tilted forward as if he's listening intently.They're wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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Campaign 3, E14: “In Too Deep”

February 17, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 14 thumbnail features Matt Mercer and Robbie Daymond side hugging. They're wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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Campaign 3, E15: “The Tunnels Below”

March 3, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 15 thumbnail features Travis Willingham leaning down with his hands over his mouth in surprise and Marisha Ray resting her hand on his shoulder and making a shushing gesture towards the camera. They're wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Horror Monsters: Shade creepers in the second half.

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Campaign 3, E16: “The Shade Mother”

March 10, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 16 thumbnail features Laura Bailey making a sweeping jesture and Liam O'Brien pulling his arms back. They're wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Slugs: A monstrous slug-creature with stinger.
– Mind Control: Throughout the fight.

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Campaign 3, E17: “Heart-to-Heartmoor”

March 17, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 17 thumbnail features the cast sitting on crates or standing. They're wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Emotional conversations.

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Campaign 3, E18: “A Hungry Jungle”

March 22, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 18 thumbnail features Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, and Laura Bailey wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background. Taliesin and Laura are punching out to the sides. Ashley is punching and kicking to the front.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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Campaign 3, E19: “Omens Above”

April 7, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 19 thumbnail features Sam Riegel with a wide smile waving and Marisha tilting her head to the side with her hands in an exagerated creepy way. They're wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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Campaign 3, E20: “Breaking and Entering…”

April 14, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 20 thumbnail features Travis Willingham in a predator pose with his fingers splayed and Ashley Johnson creeping away and shushing him. They're wearing black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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