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, E21: “Fight at the Museum…”

April 21, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 21 thumbnail features Liam O'Brien and Taliesin Jaffe wearing black against a watercolor-themed background. Liam his holding his hands together near his stomache. Taliesin is holding his hands together adjusting his collar.

Recurring Themes:
– Covid-19: Ashley is out with asymptomatic Covid-19, and comments are made about it throughout.

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Campaign 3, E22: “Promise and Potential”

May 5, 2022
E22: Campaign 3, Episode 22 thumbnail features Matthew Mercer in a black jacket with his arms folded against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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Campaign 3, E23: “To The Skies”

May 12, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 23 thumbnail features Marisha Ray and Laura Bailey wearing black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Heights: Most of the episode takes place on an airship.

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Campaign 3, E24: “The Hellcatch Valley”

May 19, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 24 thumbnail features Travis Willingham and Sam Riegel wearing black and gray against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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Campaign 3, E25: “A Taste of Tal’Dorei”

June 30, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 25 thumbnail features Ashley Johnson and Erika Ishii wearing black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Unresolved personal conflict: Old friends talk with others separately about being upset by an argument that’s come between them.

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Campaign 3, E26: “Hidden Truths”

July 7, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 26 thumbnail features Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Laura Bailey wearing black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Betrayal and deception

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Campaign 3, E27: “A Race for the Prize”

July 14, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 27 thumbnail features Liam O'Brien and Erika Ishii wearing dark gray and black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Deception: Suspected from formally trusted people.
– Death racing: Intentionally deadly racing culture and participation.

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Campaign 3, E28: “The Deathwish Run”

July 21, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 28 thumbnail features Travis Willingham, Taliesin Jaffe, and Matthew Mercer wearing black and gray against a light watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Deception: Suspicion that trusted people are being deceitful.
– Death Racing: Intentionally deadly racing culture and participation. Including drivers, spectators, unsuspecting bystanders.

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Campaign 3, E29: “Dark Portents”

August 4, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 29 thumbnail features Ashley Johnson and Matthew Mercer wearing black against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– Deception/manipulation: Including long discussions about who characters should trust and why.
– Parental Absence: Discussions about the time periods and emotional reactions to parents being gone for years.
– Political Fugitive: Characters discuss the events and consequences of being on the run from a government.

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Campaign 3, E30: “Reunion & Revelation”

August 11, 2022
Campaign 3, Episode 30 thumbnail features Liam O'Brien and Laura Bailey wearing dark colors against a watercolor-themed background.

Recurring Themes:
– None

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