The way that Travis says “let’s do it again” says so much about him. His friends are sitting around him, tearily trying to grapple with the end of a story they’ve all been writing and living together. He’s not much of a crier, but this ending means just as much to him. What better way to say “I love all of you, and I love the story we made together” than to say “I want to make a story like that, with all of you, all over again.”
Wow your timing is always crazy and kind of scary. I’m about to wrap up my first full campaign after about 3 years and for the past month I’ve been watching these types of videos, love the work!
Wow, I'm jealous. Have been dming for over 7 years and never finished a long campaign once. Life often gets in the way, and makes the end of a campaign all the more special. Congratz to you 🎉
our first campaign ended with my character (Dhampir/tabaxi warlock) becoming Strahd of our DMs world after the bbeg was beaten and our final quest invade a death gods realm steal a contract and free my character and once the fight started our DM stood up and asked me to sit behind the screen to play my character one last time to kill the party being a CR 23 vampire lord gunning for everyone with no mercy was pretty hype
You posted this literally less than 10 sessions away from the end of the duet campaign with one of my best friends. We started as friends, then lovers and even when that ended, we still wanted to keep contact and we are still good friends. Its now just a handful sessions away from the grand finale, and even tho I don't believe in anything supernatural, I still think this was just a really cool coincidence. Amazing video as always!
That final part of the mighty nein always gets me. That is what got me into creative writing and story creation 2 years later im developing games and writing stores for a living.
I want you to know how happy I've been to be one of your players. It's been such a wild ride, from that first session when we met stopping a rampaging bear to becoming the guardians of the Plateau, it's been a true journey. We may not have had the ridiculous over the top badassery, but I assure you I've felt awesome so many times. Even when you made me kill my robot mom and then two sessions later I saw my dad die right after I finally got to see him again. I finally feel like Leo is living up to the standards his parents set, like he's a worthy legacy to their lives and their memory. And when this story is finally over, I take so much pride in having the opportunity to take the reins back and set out a brand new path to explore. Endings can be tough, but at their core they set up new chances to begin something new. Thanks, man, and I'm proud of you
Not close to an end, in fact, I am only at session 18 (everyone else is session 50 lol). But for us, the theme became obvious very early one. Like yours, it is about the gods, it is about them screwing up. It’s about who is allowed to have power. It’s about fate and change and autonomy. And most importantly, is about what each person defines as home and family. We actually named our group after that emotion (won’t say it here so as not to incriminate myself more lol). Ok, they named our group but I made my character too around this question. It’s….been interesting. I enjoy it. But yes, it is emotionally a lot of difficult subjects for us to go over, very much philosophical and in depth and complicated. It’s a campaign where there may not be any good answers. And we are ok with that. Our characters’ stories are about powerful people who feel powerless. Who want comfort. Who have very real and sincere emotions that are very messy. That’s the story we wanted to tell. It’s very roleplay heavy. I’ve been told by our dm that we are very skilled in combat as a group, but the combat and the enemies aren’t the full story, maybe only 20% of it. It’s everything else that we tend to focus on. I look forward to where we are when we finally reach the end of this campaign. I have no doubt it will be a journey I will feel a great deal of fondness for.
Just a few weeks away from ending a 1-20, 3 1/2 year campaign. The first 1-20 I have ever been a part of from beginning to end, and I'm running it. Your timing is impeccable. I've been both looking forward to and dreading the final session. I want it to be fulfilling for my players. An ending they will gush about for months to come.
Jay, I'm a long time DM and was wondering if you could look into making videos about transitions between story arcs. I run long term games for my friends but I find it hard to transition between story arcs and keep things flowing smoothly. I would love your input on this!
I left D&D behind during the Satanic Panic in like 1990. I returned to playing in 2016 -- yeah, the sweet spot. CR had just started, but wasn't EVERYWHERE, and 5e still felt knew but welcoming to an old grognard like me. So, after picking up the books at my FLGS and chatting with the attendant, he informed me they had D&D only tables on Wednesdays and they usually have an open seat in SOME group. I joined, I played, I got used to 5e, and then about five or so sessions in...the DM's job changed. I rolled up my sleeves then and offered to start a campaign for them. That was a table of 3. Perfect size. Then we added two players the following week. Five was fine, I can handle 5. One of them came back the following week and we added another player. The following week two more. Eventually, we hit like 12-15 at peak INSANITY. Someone volunteered to DM a new group and we split people down the middle. I had only 7-8 at that point. A couple people filtered in and out, but by the time we moved from the FLGS to my (new) house in the basement, we had eight solid players. We played as a table -- even if not my campaign -- throughout all these years, during and after covidty over Discord and Zoom. My health had us doing Waterdeep with one DM, CoS with another, then back to mine, then another break, and then Van Ricten's ("Curse of Strahd 2: Dread Domain Boogaloo"). Now, we're back to mine again. They're all level 12. They were SUPPOSED to be in space (a "stealth Spelljammer" campaign; "We're...IN SPACE???"), but things took weird turns. But this table -- these people -- are all close friends because of this game. Our personalities are only tied together by ADHD meds and autistic traits, but man, I love these people. Imma be a wreck when this campaign closes.
Great timing on this. Ive been DMing a 4 arc campaign, running for 7 years, going on 8. We're past half on the 4th arc, and I'm wrapping it up by summer. The slight twist is it's an epic level campaign: they started at level 5, and are now level 23. Theyve ascended to various forms of godhood or demigodhood. So as far as fulfilling player desires, this has already been accomplished. We even debated ending it at Arc 3, but being a lucky DM, the players wanted to see what i had in store for the 4th arc. Without spending forever on this comment by explaining the 7yr lore of my world, the ending (which the players are aware of) is a big bang type situation: it's not just the campaign thats ending, it's the world. Edit: on the note of sharing a dice set with the players on a longform campaign is a great idea. I did exactly this, and got dice themed on the player characters: this has been more impactful then it would seem.
I ended my 5.5 year long campaign last month, and it was a wild ride. It’s so bittersweet and I found myself thinking about how much I and my players have changed. Our characters changed of course, but us as people have gone through so much. We all graduated high school, one of my players is married, another one graduated college, I’m starting my career in video production, and way more that I can’t list. Since the game ending I find myself emotional looking over notes from the game or listening to my soundtrack for it, but it’s not sadness that it’s over, it’s that I’m glad I had that time with close friends. I’ll always be thankful to these games for everything they do
Jay making this video is 100% him mentally preparing to finish the campaign. Great video! hope your campaign ending went well/goes well, in case you havent finished it yet
I cant believe that Matt got more emotional at the closing of Mighty Nein than he did for Vox Machina. I guess, some of the Critical Role group loved their Mighty Nein characters and campaign more than they did Vox Machina ones, but Vox Machina was THE BEGINNING. Their first child and creation and a unique experience that none of them will ever be able to relive or top
I currently have a moral-dilemma campaign running. My players, at the end, will be tasked with determining what's best for the kingdom. A benevolent ruler who is secretly the pawn of a Lawful Evil god, secretly tainting the populace to have their souls be consumed after their death, but having the most prosperous rule in the history of the kingdom for the commoners... Or the resistance fighting against the king, despite the ire of the masses, for every single person deserves the truth of freedom in their lives, even if it means that life is harder than it is now. I plan on commissioning a special set of d20's with symbols representing each side, with the 20 being whatever side they decide to join, and the 1 being the symbol of the opposite. It's cheesy as hell, and this campaign isn't exactly perfect as its my first ever homebrew campaign, but so far it's been fun to leave little breadcrumbs for and against both sides of the coin. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they happen to oppose BOTH sides
Losing friends after campaigns is so real. Youve spent years building a bond with a group and then its over. So much emotional ties have been made and when its done, sometimes you never see them again. It was precious for that moment, and the memories remain.
My game has been going about 3 years and it's probs about halfway over from what I expected to do and accomplish with my players. I'm terrified. I always feel like I'm moving too slow, but they always tell me they're happy. And I really hope I can maintain that when it's time to close the game.
I actually don't like the idea of every villain being somewhat redeemable I'm planning to run a campaign with 2 bbeg and nither of them are redeemable characters. Because it doesn't make sense for the story
Don't forget to check out onlycrits! You can also use the code PLAYYOURROLE for 15% off! www.onlycrits.com/PlayYourRole
9:50 "and a lot of groups don't get to play regularly, they might play bi-weekly..."
**Crys into my bi-monthly game**
Bi-monthly with 0% chance of there being any rescheduling when something comes up (often) is painful 😢
The way that Travis says “let’s do it again” says so much about him. His friends are sitting around him, tearily trying to grapple with the end of a story they’ve all been writing and living together. He’s not much of a crier, but this ending means just as much to him. What better way to say “I love all of you, and I love the story we made together” than to say “I want to make a story like that, with all of you, all over again.”
Wow your timing is always crazy and kind of scary. I’m about to wrap up my first full campaign after about 3 years and for the past month I’ve been watching these types of videos, love the work!
Congrats!
Wow, I'm jealous. Have been dming for over 7 years and never finished a long campaign once. Life often gets in the way, and makes the end of a campaign all the more special. Congratz to you 🎉
We're in the same situation! Cool to see someone else so close to a cool finale!
our first campaign ended with my character (Dhampir/tabaxi warlock) becoming Strahd of our DMs world after the bbeg was beaten and our final quest invade a death gods realm steal a contract and free my character and once the fight started our DM stood up and asked me to sit behind the screen to play my character one last time to kill the party being a CR 23 vampire lord gunning for everyone with no mercy was pretty hype
I’ve never played, but Travis’s “let’s do it again” just evokes some intense emotion from me every time I see it. It says so much with so little
I was just about to say that exact same thing. it feels so invigorating.
DMs do all the work, put in all the effort... and this guy's buying dice for each final encounter.
Love your DM. They're underappreciated.
No one does it better than Matt. Okay Brennan at the end of Calamity hit me in the feels too
"Why do we tell stories?"
You posted this literally less than 10 sessions away from the end of the duet campaign with one of my best friends. We started as friends, then lovers and even when that ended, we still wanted to keep contact and we are still good friends. Its now just a handful sessions away from the grand finale, and even tho I don't believe in anything supernatural, I still think this was just a really cool coincidence. Amazing video as always!
That final part of the mighty nein always gets me. That is what got me into creative writing and story creation 2 years later im developing games and writing stores for a living.
I want you to know how happy I've been to be one of your players. It's been such a wild ride, from that first session when we met stopping a rampaging bear to becoming the guardians of the Plateau, it's been a true journey. We may not have had the ridiculous over the top badassery, but I assure you I've felt awesome so many times. Even when you made me kill my robot mom and then two sessions later I saw my dad die right after I finally got to see him again. I finally feel like Leo is living up to the standards his parents set, like he's a worthy legacy to their lives and their memory. And when this story is finally over, I take so much pride in having the opportunity to take the reins back and set out a brand new path to explore. Endings can be tough, but at their core they set up new chances to begin something new. Thanks, man, and I'm proud of you
Not close to an end, in fact, I am only at session 18 (everyone else is session 50 lol). But for us, the theme became obvious very early one. Like yours, it is about the gods, it is about them screwing up. It’s about who is allowed to have power. It’s about fate and change and autonomy. And most importantly, is about what each person defines as home and family. We actually named our group after that emotion (won’t say it here so as not to incriminate myself more lol). Ok, they named our group but I made my character too around this question. It’s….been interesting. I enjoy it. But yes, it is emotionally a lot of difficult subjects for us to go over, very much philosophical and in depth and complicated. It’s a campaign where there may not be any good answers. And we are ok with that. Our characters’ stories are about powerful people who feel powerless. Who want comfort. Who have very real and sincere emotions that are very messy. That’s the story we wanted to tell. It’s very roleplay heavy. I’ve been told by our dm that we are very skilled in combat as a group, but the combat and the enemies aren’t the full story, maybe only 20% of it. It’s everything else that we tend to focus on. I look forward to where we are when we finally reach the end of this campaign. I have no doubt it will be a journey I will feel a great deal of fondness for.
Just a few weeks away from ending a 1-20, 3 1/2 year campaign. The first 1-20 I have ever been a part of from beginning to end, and I'm running it. Your timing is impeccable. I've been both looking forward to and dreading the final session. I want it to be fulfilling for my players. An ending they will gush about for months to come.
Jay, I'm a long time DM and was wondering if you could look into making videos about transitions between story arcs. I run long term games for my friends but I find it hard to transition between story arcs and keep things flowing smoothly. I would love your input on this!
I left D&D behind during the Satanic Panic in like 1990.
I returned to playing in 2016 -- yeah, the sweet spot. CR had just started, but wasn't EVERYWHERE, and 5e still felt knew but welcoming to an old grognard like me. So, after picking up the books at my FLGS and chatting with the attendant, he informed me they had D&D only tables on Wednesdays and they usually have an open seat in SOME group. I joined, I played, I got used to 5e, and then about five or so sessions in...the DM's job changed.
I rolled up my sleeves then and offered to start a campaign for them. That was a table of 3. Perfect size. Then we added two players the following week. Five was fine, I can handle 5. One of them came back the following week and we added another player. The following week two more. Eventually, we hit like 12-15 at peak INSANITY. Someone volunteered to DM a new group and we split people down the middle. I had only 7-8 at that point.
A couple people filtered in and out, but by the time we moved from the FLGS to my (new) house in the basement, we had eight solid players. We played as a table -- even if not my campaign -- throughout all these years, during and after covidty over Discord and Zoom. My health had us doing Waterdeep with one DM, CoS with another, then back to mine, then another break, and then Van Ricten's ("Curse of Strahd 2: Dread Domain Boogaloo").
Now, we're back to mine again. They're all level 12. They were SUPPOSED to be in space (a "stealth Spelljammer" campaign; "We're...IN SPACE???"), but things took weird turns. But this table -- these people -- are all close friends because of this game. Our personalities are only tied together by ADHD meds and autistic traits, but man, I love these people.
Imma be a wreck when this campaign closes.
I am not crying. It’s raining. Indoors.
Great timing on this. Ive been DMing a 4 arc campaign, running for 7 years, going on 8. We're past half on the 4th arc, and I'm wrapping it up by summer.
The slight twist is it's an epic level campaign: they started at level 5, and are now level 23. Theyve ascended to various forms of godhood or demigodhood. So as far as fulfilling player desires, this has already been accomplished. We even debated ending it at Arc 3, but being a lucky DM, the players wanted to see what i had in store for the 4th arc.
Without spending forever on this comment by explaining the 7yr lore of my world, the ending (which the players are aware of) is a big bang type situation: it's not just the campaign thats ending, it's the world.
Edit: on the note of sharing a dice set with the players on a longform campaign is a great idea. I did exactly this, and got dice themed on the player characters: this has been more impactful then it would seem.
Awesome dice souvenir idea
Dude, your wife talking about the dice. Absolutely special.
This is crazy how this is a topic as soon as I have just rolled into my campaign's final chapter. Level 20 PCs here we go!!!
I ended my 5.5 year long campaign last month, and it was a wild ride. It’s so bittersweet and I found myself thinking about how much I and my players have changed. Our characters changed of course, but us as people have gone through so much. We all graduated high school, one of my players is married, another one graduated college, I’m starting my career in video production, and way more that I can’t list. Since the game ending I find myself emotional looking over notes from the game or listening to my soundtrack for it, but it’s not sadness that it’s over, it’s that I’m glad I had that time with close friends. I’ll always be thankful to these games for everything they do
Wow, no dancing squirrel today. Thats sad 😭
Jay making this video is 100% him mentally preparing to finish the campaign. Great video! hope your campaign ending went well/goes well, in case you havent finished it yet
I cant believe that Matt got more emotional at the closing of Mighty Nein than he did for Vox Machina. I guess, some of the Critical Role group loved their Mighty Nein characters and campaign more than they did Vox Machina ones, but Vox Machina was THE BEGINNING. Their first child and creation and a unique experience that none of them will ever be able to relive or top
I currently have a moral-dilemma campaign running. My players, at the end, will be tasked with determining what's best for the kingdom.
A benevolent ruler who is secretly the pawn of a Lawful Evil god, secretly tainting the populace to have their souls be consumed after their death, but having the most prosperous rule in the history of the kingdom for the commoners...
Or the resistance fighting against the king, despite the ire of the masses, for every single person deserves the truth of freedom in their lives, even if it means that life is harder than it is now.
I plan on commissioning a special set of d20's with symbols representing each side, with the 20 being whatever side they decide to join, and the 1 being the symbol of the opposite. It's cheesy as hell, and this campaign isn't exactly perfect as its my first ever homebrew campaign, but so far it's been fun to leave little breadcrumbs for and against both sides of the coin. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they happen to oppose BOTH sides
That was.. truly the smoothest, deepest ad transition I've ever seen. 😨
This is perfect timing, I just finished watching Critical Role campaign 2 yesterday, and the wrap up today
My first campaign was made to be a sequel. I think the answer to our question is that there was no answer. Were starting the sequel in a month.
Losing friends after campaigns is so real. Youve spent years building a bond with a group and then its over. So much emotional ties have been made and when its done, sometimes you never see them again. It was precious for that moment, and the memories remain.
yup illegal to be this early
It absolutely is, I'm calling the cops on you now you criminal
I thought this was an older video before I found your comment
having just wrapped up a campaign, this video could not have come at a better time
All the comments about you releasing this at the end of their campaigns is crazy. I’m actually running a final session this week.
Wait… y’all actually end campaigns?
I don’t get out of bed for sessions less then 4hrs
Love the content man keep up the grind you're awesome :D
love it
Someone call me Cody Rhodes because I haven't finished a story in 2 years
My game has been going about 3 years and it's probs about halfway over from what I expected to do and accomplish with my players. I'm terrified. I always feel like I'm moving too slow, but they always tell me they're happy. And I really hope I can maintain that when it's time to close the game.
My sessions are 4.5 hours long as weekly games. Last campaign ending was after over 3 years. Over 200 hours worth of campaign
That hair is looking fresh!
I actually don't like the idea of every villain being somewhat redeemable I'm planning to run a campaign with 2 bbeg and nither of them are redeemable characters. Because it doesn't make sense for the story
i do not understand kids and their haircuts anymore.
how am i this early?
@dofu1233 straight to jail