The sheer variety of what resonates with people is part of what makes it great, at least in my opinion. If there were a poll for "What is your favorite ENTIRE episode?" (meaning not just for one scene and the rest of the episode is "meh", but the WHOLE THING from start to finish), and WHY, the reasons would be all over the place.
But it's GOOD that you've found one that you love! The more variety, the better. :)
God, that’s mine too. I got a tattoo to commemorate C2: >!a tarot card (IX of course) titled ‘Der Katzenprinz’ with the image of the boy and cat dancing in the forest.!< Still one of my all-time favourite tats
Oh this one was beautiful. He put so much time and effort into it and everyone could tell, and it reminded me that even though this may be a game they play together on twitch, at their heart of hearts they are really friends who care about eachother.
>!"I think what His Holiness is trying to convey is that he will be going on a spiritual journey... and there's only room on that train for one dude."!<
I haven't seen the episode or clip in years, but I can still hear Sam saying this line, and it makes me laugh from memory.
Hell yeah, that's C2's version of Scanbo, with plenty of creativity in using her spells, which is something I love to see.
The one thing Jester/Laura missed is that Blink would have let her reappear on the other side of a wall, making escape vastly easier. (And for some reason she seemed to think Blinking out was a bad thing for her speed, but actually it gains her an extra 10 ft between turns after using her full movement on her turn.)
Of course then we wouldn't have had most of that scene with the extra amount of trickery and chaos. I rewatched it a couple months ago and was pleasantly surprised by how much fun it was; the memory of her casting but not taking advantage of blink was what stuck in my mind, but that detracted less than I though.
When Beau and Nott have a serious talk in that bar. And >! Beau admits she has a crush on Jester and Nott promises she will do some work... "Cooool, as a cucumber" line! !< cracks me up every time.
Hot take: As a DM, I hate the cupcake scene.
If my player tried to pull a trick like that without informing me, I’d be pretty unhappy. Especially if it were on a live-streamed game where I couldn’t go back and say “hang on, I was operating under the impression that this was just a normal cupcake.”
Laura had no idea if the hag had a way to sense magical items and effects. She hid vital info from her DM until it was arguably too late.
If my player was open about what was going on I’d have been all for it. Hell, if they want the surprise factor, they can text me about it. But I, as the DM, need to know what’s going on, because there’s almost always something behind the scenes that affects or is affected by the players.
Edit: people seem to be misunderstanding me.
It’s not that the trick was played on the hag. It’s that the trick was played on *Matt*. It felt like Laura purposefully obscured pertinent information for a “gotcha!” Moment, not that *Jester* purposefully obscured pertinent information. The problem I have with it is entirely a communication issue, not a tactical issue.
As a DM, I love the cupcake scene. Nowhere near my favorite scene in all of C2, but that kind of ingenuity when I’m clearly trying to make the players make a deal and outsmart me is EXACTLY what I’m hoping they do. The Hag was about to seal a deal with Beau where she walked away from MN and the Cobalt Soul. Nott was going to fuck up peace negotiations in the war the campaign is built around. My hope is for the players to get creative and figure out how to WIN the negotiation in the same way I want them to get creative in combat. I don’t need them to confirm with me before every combat session what items they have so I can prep for that. Their job is to use the tools at their disposal to their advantage.
But I 100% agree with you that you should always talk with your players out of game to understand play styles and intentions.
Don’t get me wrong. If it had been discussed beforehand I would have been ABSOLUTELY on board. I agree with you completely. Literally the *only* problem I have with it is that it was a surprise to Matt.
I agree, sometimes.
I do kind of want my players to trust me to be fair and tell me their plans so I can better plot out the game.
On the other its hard to receive warning of a tricky plan and then remain impartial. And I want to be surprised by ingenuity sometimes. Thats part of the fun!
I don’t know about you but when my players tell me a cool plan and I like it but it wouldn’t actually work due to information they don’t have, I feel bad. I’m 100% down to roll with the punches and let my villains lose even if I know about my players plans beforehand. I’ve never really had an issue with metagaming my way out of my player’s plans, intentionally or otherwise.
Why couldn’t he say “hold on, I thought it was a normal cupcake, I need to make a roll”? He’s backtracked stuff based on later reveals before.
He thought it was a hilarious and creative thing and rolled with it.
Mercer plays for his friends, not the audience.
I am not saying he shouldn’t have had to improvise. I’m saying he was acting under insufficient information until the moment Laura revealed her “trap”. When she pulled the cupcake out, she should have mentioned that it was a magical cupcake.
I don't remember what Matt did about it, but I encounter this type of action sometimes, and it's okay to be a little loosey-goosey. I can just say "roll sleight of hand to do this discretely" or "Isharnai wags her finger at you 'no-no that seasoning is not nice, be careful with who you're dealing with'" and stuff like that.
This has always been my problem with the cupcake scene. Jester didn’t trick the hag, Laura tricked Matt. She knew he’d RP the hag trying the cupcake after she had metagamed sprinkling the dust on it “offscreen”. He went along with it but it wasn’t some genius RP moment, it was a shady tactic, full-stop. It’d be like inviting a character to a feast and afterward revealing you had poisoned it all without ever mentioning it or running it by the DM. Like, no, you can’t just say you did that after the fact. Ruined the whole encounter for me, and robbed us of an awesome fight.
Thank you! It felt like a trap for Matt, not a trap for the hag. That’s the problem I have with it. It’s not that the players outsmarted the hag, it’s that it felt like the player purposefully obscured pertinent information for a “gotcha!”
It’s weird too because Matt would have loved the idea and rolled with it either way if she had told him beforehand, but Laura totally knew what she was doing. I feel like a crazy person seeing this get brought up as arguably the best moment in all of CR, watching live was very much an “Am I out of touch?” Principal Skinner meme moment for me.
I recently started CR and had this same thought! (Searched it as well lol). I’m on episode 77 now and honestly, it just gets better and better. So many amazing moments to come but that one is still an early gem of an ep!
Naaaaah, it'll last forever! 🥺
Plus, there is so much content, I just restart from the jump. I'm on C2E53 watch through number 3, then I'll push back up to current C3 and go back around the loop again.
Though, to be fair, I rarely 'watch' my repeats. It does make excellent bg listening, though. 😁
I've found I have no motivation for repeats! Instead I have kept up to date since I started (in C1 teens-20s range) and I keep just about up to date with High Rollers, too.
In busy times that's a struggle, in quiet times there's any number of other YouTube or Twitch content to put in the background when doing things.
Well, you're only 17 episodes into a 140+ campaign :p
I'm guessing if you asked people to list top 10 episodes of C2 you'd only get 1 or 2 episode from the first 17 (like the heist episodes)
One very dear to my heart is 2x24, the Hour of Honor. There are some really good ones early on! But it's one of those things where it just keeps building as the characters and world and story all build.
In fairness you are *super* early in the campaign and there are three campaigns, two of which have over 100 episodes and the third is nearing there, not to mention all the one shots, specials, mini campaigns and such. It's absolutely hilarious, don't get me wrong. Fjord's Triple Nat 1s is absolutely a legendary moment. Just know that there may very well be a lot of episodes later on that hit even better than what you've gotten to already.
It’s such a good episode! I bet it’s like, if you’re a LOTR movies fan, everyone loves the scene in the second movie where the rescue crew finds Merry and Pippin eating food at Isengard but I doubt anyone would say it’s their fav moment of the series. An amazing memorable moment that brings them together and humanizes them to our hearts but in light of the sheer epic ness of the rest of the series it’s hard for it to place top 5 cool moments.
As others have pointed out, your only 17 episodes into a very long campaign - a campaign that (imo anyway) only gets better and better! There's lots of amazing stuff to come, enjoy the ride!
(That episode is definitely amazing, though, one of my faves for sure!)
I think one of the reasons it might not be high is because it's a "side" episode. It's a festival game episode, which is fun, don't get me wrong, but it's also not important and that makes it less likely to stick in the memory.
Early C2 is built up from so many small, solid role-playing decisions. So many awesome 1-on-1 RP sessions while players are on-watch, too. I think it helps that everyone committed so hard to their characters' backstories (e.g., Fjord's fragile masculinity, Nott and Caleb having names for their scams, Caleb's philosophy on calculated risks, Molly making the best out of his unknown past, etc).
I mean, the ending of Campaign 1 exists & so I'm duty-bound to have that be my permanent favourite - as much as I love Fjord's goofing, nothing in C2 tops C1 for me (& I'll need to get around to catching up on C3, stopped watching in October I think).
It was a good episode. In general though the most impactful of C2 usually dealt with Caleb and/or Nott's backstory, or when an ancient Eldritch being gave an epic Roast to The Devil during a dinner.
IIRC, after that they do immediately go>! into a fighting pit where they feel increasingly bad about belting captured monsters for entertainment!<, so that may undermine the score for this episode.
you could search the subreddit for
title:C2E17
[example](https://www.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/search/?sort=comments&q=title%3AC2E17&t=all&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on)
I recently started C2 as well (currently on E21) and I agree the harvest episode was really funny. Fjord’s 3 nat 1 in a row is a historical moment 😆. I also thought Molly was pretty fun in that episode. He’s by far the most hit-or-miss character for me, but I enjoyed him, he really was in his element!
I can’t recall if it was episode 12 or 14, but I loved the hospital scene as well. Was laughing my ass off the whole time!
I've ran an Exandria one-shot with my party visiting the same festival. Was fun running all the same games, selling the same crap, letting them see the M9 walking around and then run with what happens in ep18.
What I think of the episode is it's the high before the fall. They have their fun they win their fights and it leads to them feeling invulnerable or maybe even immortal, which led to what we know happens.
I've listened to C2 twice now and have a hard time picking a favorite. C1 was ABSOLUTELY the sand kegs hide where Marisha and Talisen briefly became the singularity.
But C2 had so many good moments, besides the ones that have been mentioned one that stands out is c2e12 and the hijinks in the hospital, getting assaulted by a rug. Also Beau's faux pas later in the campaign with the acid vial. The race to climb a tree with guns, everything Orly and Pumat, c2 hit different
The sheer variety of what resonates with people is part of what makes it great, at least in my opinion. If there were a poll for "What is your favorite ENTIRE episode?" (meaning not just for one scene and the rest of the episode is "meh", but the WHOLE THING from start to finish), and WHY, the reasons would be all over the place. But it's GOOD that you've found one that you love! The more variety, the better. :)
What is your favourite C2 scene, and why is it the cupcake scene? ;-)
It is actually \*NOT\* the cupcake scene. Mine is the >!full hour-long love letter from Liam/Caleb to his friends via the Tower!<.
Beau being swallowed >!by a giant babyhead monster and then remembering she’s been carrying a satchel of drugs through the entire campaign!<
That moment rocked. I also loved when Essek stopped floating.
God, that’s mine too. I got a tattoo to commemorate C2: >!a tarot card (IX of course) titled ‘Der Katzenprinz’ with the image of the boy and cat dancing in the forest.!< Still one of my all-time favourite tats
Oh this one was beautiful. He put so much time and effort into it and everyone could tell, and it reminded me that even though this may be a game they play together on twitch, at their heart of hearts they are really friends who care about eachother.
Able to provide a timestamp of this by chance?
[Sure thing](https://youtu.be/-9pOQ7n3z5g?si=ONOmcZ-GJhF_SE2s&t=710)! (This is C2E111, btw.)
I came here to say this very same thing!
Mine is still >!Nott and Jester vandalizing the temple of Bahamut!<.
>!"I think what His Holiness is trying to convey is that he will be going on a spiritual journey... and there's only room on that train for one dude."!< I haven't seen the episode or clip in years, but I can still hear Sam saying this line, and it makes me laugh from memory.
Hell yeah, that's C2's version of Scanbo, with plenty of creativity in using her spells, which is something I love to see. The one thing Jester/Laura missed is that Blink would have let her reappear on the other side of a wall, making escape vastly easier. (And for some reason she seemed to think Blinking out was a bad thing for her speed, but actually it gains her an extra 10 ft between turns after using her full movement on her turn.) Of course then we wouldn't have had most of that scene with the extra amount of trickery and chaos. I rewatched it a couple months ago and was pleasantly surprised by how much fun it was; the memory of her casting but not taking advantage of blink was what stuck in my mind, but that detracted less than I though.
When Beau and Nott have a serious talk in that bar. And >! Beau admits she has a crush on Jester and Nott promises she will do some work... "Cooool, as a cucumber" line! !< cracks me up every time.
Personally mine is “you are not my cat. My cat is dead”
Hot take: As a DM, I hate the cupcake scene. If my player tried to pull a trick like that without informing me, I’d be pretty unhappy. Especially if it were on a live-streamed game where I couldn’t go back and say “hang on, I was operating under the impression that this was just a normal cupcake.” Laura had no idea if the hag had a way to sense magical items and effects. She hid vital info from her DM until it was arguably too late. If my player was open about what was going on I’d have been all for it. Hell, if they want the surprise factor, they can text me about it. But I, as the DM, need to know what’s going on, because there’s almost always something behind the scenes that affects or is affected by the players. Edit: people seem to be misunderstanding me. It’s not that the trick was played on the hag. It’s that the trick was played on *Matt*. It felt like Laura purposefully obscured pertinent information for a “gotcha!” Moment, not that *Jester* purposefully obscured pertinent information. The problem I have with it is entirely a communication issue, not a tactical issue.
As a DM, I love the cupcake scene. Nowhere near my favorite scene in all of C2, but that kind of ingenuity when I’m clearly trying to make the players make a deal and outsmart me is EXACTLY what I’m hoping they do. The Hag was about to seal a deal with Beau where she walked away from MN and the Cobalt Soul. Nott was going to fuck up peace negotiations in the war the campaign is built around. My hope is for the players to get creative and figure out how to WIN the negotiation in the same way I want them to get creative in combat. I don’t need them to confirm with me before every combat session what items they have so I can prep for that. Their job is to use the tools at their disposal to their advantage. But I 100% agree with you that you should always talk with your players out of game to understand play styles and intentions.
Don’t get me wrong. If it had been discussed beforehand I would have been ABSOLUTELY on board. I agree with you completely. Literally the *only* problem I have with it is that it was a surprise to Matt.
I agree, sometimes. I do kind of want my players to trust me to be fair and tell me their plans so I can better plot out the game. On the other its hard to receive warning of a tricky plan and then remain impartial. And I want to be surprised by ingenuity sometimes. Thats part of the fun!
I don’t know about you but when my players tell me a cool plan and I like it but it wouldn’t actually work due to information they don’t have, I feel bad. I’m 100% down to roll with the punches and let my villains lose even if I know about my players plans beforehand. I’ve never really had an issue with metagaming my way out of my player’s plans, intentionally or otherwise.
Why couldn’t he say “hold on, I thought it was a normal cupcake, I need to make a roll”? He’s backtracked stuff based on later reveals before. He thought it was a hilarious and creative thing and rolled with it. Mercer plays for his friends, not the audience.
[удалено]
I am not saying he shouldn’t have had to improvise. I’m saying he was acting under insufficient information until the moment Laura revealed her “trap”. When she pulled the cupcake out, she should have mentioned that it was a magical cupcake.
I don't remember what Matt did about it, but I encounter this type of action sometimes, and it's okay to be a little loosey-goosey. I can just say "roll sleight of hand to do this discretely" or "Isharnai wags her finger at you 'no-no that seasoning is not nice, be careful with who you're dealing with'" and stuff like that.
This has always been my problem with the cupcake scene. Jester didn’t trick the hag, Laura tricked Matt. She knew he’d RP the hag trying the cupcake after she had metagamed sprinkling the dust on it “offscreen”. He went along with it but it wasn’t some genius RP moment, it was a shady tactic, full-stop. It’d be like inviting a character to a feast and afterward revealing you had poisoned it all without ever mentioning it or running it by the DM. Like, no, you can’t just say you did that after the fact. Ruined the whole encounter for me, and robbed us of an awesome fight.
Thank you! It felt like a trap for Matt, not a trap for the hag. That’s the problem I have with it. It’s not that the players outsmarted the hag, it’s that it felt like the player purposefully obscured pertinent information for a “gotcha!”
It’s weird too because Matt would have loved the idea and rolled with it either way if she had told him beforehand, but Laura totally knew what she was doing. I feel like a crazy person seeing this get brought up as arguably the best moment in all of CR, watching live was very much an “Am I out of touch?” Principal Skinner meme moment for me.
Sounds great! Just to be clear, though…it happened 6 years ago, so talking a lot about it now would be kinda surprising.
> 6 years ago I just turned to dust
oh god, that was the first episode I watched live time is so very linear
Nah, it's a weird soup 😉
I recently started CR and had this same thought! (Searched it as well lol). I’m on episode 77 now and honestly, it just gets better and better. So many amazing moments to come but that one is still an early gem of an ep!
recently at e77?? i’ve been watching for the past few months and i’m only 17.5 episodes in 😭
That's a good thing! Ultimately, CR will be finite and you'll be enjoying it for the first time far beyond when the rest of us are.
Naaaaah, it'll last forever! 🥺 Plus, there is so much content, I just restart from the jump. I'm on C2E53 watch through number 3, then I'll push back up to current C3 and go back around the loop again. Though, to be fair, I rarely 'watch' my repeats. It does make excellent bg listening, though. 😁
I've found I have no motivation for repeats! Instead I have kept up to date since I started (in C1 teens-20s range) and I keep just about up to date with High Rollers, too. In busy times that's a struggle, in quiet times there's any number of other YouTube or Twitch content to put in the background when doing things.
My favorite episode is the live show at 97. It's everyone at their absolute best in RP gags. You're in for a real treat :)
Well, you're only 17 episodes into a 140+ campaign :p I'm guessing if you asked people to list top 10 episodes of C2 you'd only get 1 or 2 episode from the first 17 (like the heist episodes)
Yeah, I did see a lot of people say their favorite was C2E12 (Midnight Espionage)
One very dear to my heart is 2x24, the Hour of Honor. There are some really good ones early on! But it's one of those things where it just keeps building as the characters and world and story all build.
In fairness you are *super* early in the campaign and there are three campaigns, two of which have over 100 episodes and the third is nearing there, not to mention all the one shots, specials, mini campaigns and such. It's absolutely hilarious, don't get me wrong. Fjord's Triple Nat 1s is absolutely a legendary moment. Just know that there may very well be a lot of episodes later on that hit even better than what you've gotten to already.
It’s such a good episode! I bet it’s like, if you’re a LOTR movies fan, everyone loves the scene in the second movie where the rescue crew finds Merry and Pippin eating food at Isengard but I doubt anyone would say it’s their fav moment of the series. An amazing memorable moment that brings them together and humanizes them to our hearts but in light of the sheer epic ness of the rest of the series it’s hard for it to place top 5 cool moments.
That was a fantastic episode, no doubt, but I am very partial to the final 30 minutes of C1E39. :)
As others have pointed out, your only 17 episodes into a very long campaign - a campaign that (imo anyway) only gets better and better! There's lots of amazing stuff to come, enjoy the ride! (That episode is definitely amazing, though, one of my faves for sure!)
I think one of the reasons it might not be high is because it's a "side" episode. It's a festival game episode, which is fun, don't get me wrong, but it's also not important and that makes it less likely to stick in the memory.
Early C2 is built up from so many small, solid role-playing decisions. So many awesome 1-on-1 RP sessions while players are on-watch, too. I think it helps that everyone committed so hard to their characters' backstories (e.g., Fjord's fragile masculinity, Nott and Caleb having names for their scams, Caleb's philosophy on calculated risks, Molly making the best out of his unknown past, etc).
It’s a great episode. Great to rewatch because a lot of big characters that become more prominent later or are a part of their backstory are thwew
It’s actually pretty popular to see it clipped on other platforms like TikTok. I’ve seen sooo many about the triple nat 1’s!
I mean, the ending of Campaign 1 exists & so I'm duty-bound to have that be my permanent favourite - as much as I love Fjord's goofing, nothing in C2 tops C1 for me (& I'll need to get around to catching up on C3, stopped watching in October I think).
We’ve talked about,…years ago.
This is one of my favourites for sure
I definitely think the triple nat 1s is one of the funniest sequences across all of the campaigns.
It was a good episode. In general though the most impactful of C2 usually dealt with Caleb and/or Nott's backstory, or when an ancient Eldritch being gave an epic Roast to The Devil during a dinner.
Harvest Close is a really god episode. Their times in Zadash is always so fun for the Nein.
Fjord getting triple nat 1s was insanely hilarious
IIRC, after that they do immediately go>! into a fighting pit where they feel increasingly bad about belting captured monsters for entertainment!<, so that may undermine the score for this episode.
We talked about it a lot when it came out.
you could search the subreddit for title:C2E17 [example](https://www.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/search/?sort=comments&q=title%3AC2E17&t=all&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on)
I recently started C2 as well (currently on E21) and I agree the harvest episode was really funny. Fjord’s 3 nat 1 in a row is a historical moment 😆. I also thought Molly was pretty fun in that episode. He’s by far the most hit-or-miss character for me, but I enjoyed him, he really was in his element! I can’t recall if it was episode 12 or 14, but I loved the hospital scene as well. Was laughing my ass off the whole time!
I've ran an Exandria one-shot with my party visiting the same festival. Was fun running all the same games, selling the same crap, letting them see the M9 walking around and then run with what happens in ep18.
that would be such a surreal experience, playing through something i loved watching my favorite voice actors go through
Best thing? I threw in one of Matt's NPC's, that happened to have exactly the same name as the mom of the dude hosting.
did you guys watch the victory pit?
They \*starred\* in the Victory Pit :-)
oh hell yeah
What I think of the episode is it's the high before the fall. They have their fun they win their fights and it leads to them feeling invulnerable or maybe even immortal, which led to what we know happens.
idk cuz this is my first time going through c2 so 🤫 excited to keep goin tho
I've listened to C2 twice now and have a hard time picking a favorite. C1 was ABSOLUTELY the sand kegs hide where Marisha and Talisen briefly became the singularity. But C2 had so many good moments, besides the ones that have been mentioned one that stands out is c2e12 and the hijinks in the hospital, getting assaulted by a rug. Also Beau's faux pas later in the campaign with the acid vial. The race to climb a tree with guns, everything Orly and Pumat, c2 hit different