Review of Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - The Phenomenon

The Phenomenon that Revived an Industry

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“Critical Role is the live-play DnD show that breathed new life into an entire genre of tabletop gaming. Is it true that early on some of the technical aspects were less than stellar? Yes, but folks here may forget or not know that initially these folks all played on a set for a live Twitch stream back before Twitch streaming was what it has become today. This was a hobby and a side hustle for a group of professional voice actors, but it rapidly became the reason that thousands (millions?) of people who’d never played DnD or any TTRPG were suddenly enthralled with it. Speaking for myself, I’d been a video game RPG fan in my youth (Final Fantasy FTW) but adulthood, marriage, and kids steadily robbed me of all my hobbies. Then I discovered CR on YouTube just before the pandemic. I don’t like to give too much credit to mere mortals, but Vox Machina became a companion to my long, miserable days stuck at a computer “teaching”. When I literally saw not another face all day long, I would see these doofuses and giggle along with their hijinks and thrill to their victories. For those who wonder about why the podcast cuts off suddenly after the start of campaign 2, CR had been distributing through a network named Geek & Sundry, but they started their own Critical Role Podcast Network and that’s where all their stuff has posted since then. In the meantime I believe Geek & Sundry was bought out by Realm, and they seem to be the ones who choose to put ads at the points of greatest tension in the gameplay. I’ve listened to other Realm podcasts and it’s the same way with them, too. But, if that annoys you, that’s the point, because that’s when you’re most likely to be paying attention. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. As for the sometimes repeated audio snippets, that’s a glitch on Realm’s end, which may have come from compressing the files, or their distribution software, or who knows what. I do know that the YouTube videos playback seamlessly, so you can always see them that way. And these ads are certainly less annoying that the constant barrage of Raid Shadow Legends advertising I got in 2019. Sheesh. So, to the ragamuffin band of adventurers that Matt Mercer himself later called “slapdicks”, three cheers and a huzzah!”

ch3mboi via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 05/27/24

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found it!

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“i was wondering why i couldn’t redownload episodes from the ol purple pod. nice to have all the talks now!”

Omaewamu via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 07/18/20

Late to the party but loving this!

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“I don’t have the time to play a D&D game much anymore, but listening to this podcast while working helps a lot :)”

paladinartea via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 06/14/22

Only heard two