Critical Role (campaign two)

The second campaign of the "Dungeons & Dragons" web series "Critical Role" began on January 11, 2018 four months after the conclusion of the first campaign. It follows The Mighty Nein, a party of around seven adventurers, in their travels across the continent of Wildemount. Campaign two currently broadcasts each Thursday at 19:00 PT on Critical Role's Twitch and YouTube channel.
Synopsis.
Setting.
The campaign is set in Exandria, a fictional world created by Matthew Mercer for the game. The second campaign is set about 20 years after Vox Machina's final battle against Vecna in "Critical Role"s first campaign, and features an entirely new cast of adventurers with the exception of a few secondary characters. Most of the story takes place on the continent of Wildemount, which is located to the east of Tal'Dorei, the setting of the first campaign. It takes place at a time when tensions between the Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty—two of Wildemount's major powers, which are divided by the Ashkeeper Peaks mountain range—are very high and war is imminent.
Western Wildemount is governed by the Dwendalian Empire and is ruled by King Bertrand Dwendal. A council of powerful archmages called the Cerberus Assembly act as advisors to the House of Dwendal. The region of Xhorhas, which occupies the eastern side of the continent, is regarded as an inhospitable wasteland by the Empire. Xhorhas is governed by the Kryn Dynasty, ruled by the Bright Queen Leylas Kryn, and is primarily home to the drow and other races considered to be monstrous. The Menagerie Coast sits on the south-western coastline and is goverened by the Clovis Concord, a coalition of eight city-states which includes Nicodranas and Port Damali. The tundra in the northernmost region of Wildemount is known as the Greying Wildlands; the harsh environment leaves it sparsely populated compared to other regions. Some parts of the story take place on the Lucidian Ocean, off the shore of the Menagerie Coast, and on Eiselcross, a frozen continent north of Wildemount.
Plot.
Seven adventurers meet in the town of Trostenwald in the Dwendalian Empire and form an adventuring party after they are wrongly accused of a crime. Once they clear their names, they makes their way to Zadash, become involved with a local rebellion and make the acquaintance of a crime lord named the Gentleman. They also encounter a covert drow raiding party from the neighboring region of Xhorhas and come into possession of a magical artifact called the "Beacon of Luxon".
The Empire declares war on the Dynasty and the Mighty Nein avoid the fighting by continuing their journey northwards outside the Empire. Along the way they complete several tasks for the Gentleman, one of which sees them come into possession of a relic linked to Fjord's patron Uk'otoa. During their travels Fjord, Jester and Yasha are captured by a slaver group. During the first rescue attempt Mollymauk is killed, so the survivors recruit more allies, including Caduceus Clay, to attack the slavers' base. The second rescue is successful and the slavers are destroyed.
The party heads south to Nicodranas which gives Fjord the opportunity to learn more about Uk'otoa. They are forced to steal a ship and flee as inadvertent pirates. On the open water they meet Avantika, a pirate captain who shares the patronage of Uk'otoa. Avantika joins the party on an expedition to unlock a shrine to Uk'otoa, but relations turn sour when the Mighty Nein make port in the pirate haven of Darktow. The party realize that Avantika plans to overthrow the pirate leader, the Plank King, and rule the oceans of Exandria. Avantika is executed by the Plank King when the party exposes her treachery, but they are banished.
The Mighty Nein return to land to discover that Felderwin, Nott's home town, was attacked by the Dynasty. During their investigation, they learn that Nott's husband Yeza was abducted by the Kryn Dynasty so they secretly cross into Xhorhas to search for him. After completing a job in Asarius, the Mighty Nein are granted an audience with the Bright Queen in the capital. During this meeting, the party's Empire origins are exposed, but Caleb earns the party the favor of the queen by handing over the Beacon. They make the acquaintance of Essek Thelyss who releases Yeza to them and grants them a house in Rosohna. While carrying out mercenary work, the Mighty Nein uncover a conspiracy to break down the barriers between the Prime Material Plane and the Abyssal Plane. The Mighty Nein identify Obann as a key figure in this conspiracy and discover he intends to awaken the champions of the Betrayer Gods. Although Obann is defeated during their confrontation, he turns Yasha against the party and releases one champion. The party flees and Yasha revives Obann. The Mighty Nein return to the Empire to research Obann's cult, the Angel of Irons, as the Dynasty is unwilling to take the threat seriously. Their pursuit of Obann leads them to the Empire capital Rexxentrum where they prevent him from releasing Tharizdûn, the god of uncontrolled madness, from his prison. Yasha rejoins the party when Obann's control over her is broken. 
The Mighty Nein receive an audience with King Dwendal which allows them to broker peace negotiations as they have connections in both nations. During their downtime, the Mighty Nein spend time with Essek, the party frees the Clay family from petrification in the Whitedawn Lagoon and Jester tricks a hag into releasing the curse on Nott that keeps her in goblin form. This allows Caleb to attempt the transmogrification of Nott returning her to halfling form. In Nicodranas, the party confronts Essek on his role in stealing the Beacons for the Empire. On the way to the negotiations, the party is attacked by minions of Uk'otoa and they make acquaintance with Lady Vess DeRogna of the Cerberus Assembly.
They then carry on to Rumblecusp, a remote island where they plan to host a gathering of followers of Jester's god, the Traveller. However, the Traveller reveals himself to be the archfey Artagan; the Mighty Nein agree to use the gathering to end the fledgling religion building up around him. Upon arrival, they find the island is already home to a false deity named Vokodo, who is controlling the people living there. The party defeats Vokodo whereupon they receive visions of an insane, sentient city in the Astral Sea. They carry on with their plans for the Traveller's gathering where they narrowly avoid incurring the wrath of an actual god, but successfully disband the cult.
The Mighty Nein are hired by Lady DeRogna to support an investigation of the crashed floating city of Aeor. Before they depart, the party learn that Mollymauk has been resurrected. En route to Eiselcross, the party is once again attacked by minions of Uk'otoa including an undead Avantika. At the Empire's base of operations, Lady DeRogna is murdered by the resurrected Mollymauk, who now goes by the name Lucien. The Mighty Nein pursue Lucien and his party, the Tombtakers, as Lucien is planning to summon the last remaining survivors of Aeor. Realizing that these survivors hail from the city in their visions, the Mighty Nein enter into an uneasy alliance with the Tombtakers in the hopes of stopping them.
Production and format.
The format is largely unchanged from the later episodes of the first campaign; with videos of the cast and any battlemaps presented in 3-5 hour episodes. Technical changes however were introduced during the run of the second campaign, regarding subtitles and character information. Since February 28, 2019, a D&D Beyond branded Twitch overlay has been available to viewers using a web browser to watch live. The overlay displays character status information and allows viewers to access digital character sheets; but it is not available on the VODs on Twitch or YouTube. Episodes 1 through 53 were captioned by the same fan group who transcribed campaign one. From Episode 54 onward, episodes were transcribed live on Twitch by a professional transcription service. The YouTube VOD relies on YouTube's auto-generated captions until the broadcast transcription is reviewed and added "within a week or so of upload". 
Episodes 1 through 51 were distributed in much the same way as the previous campaign, airing live on the Geek & Sundry Twitch and YouTube channels and on the Legendary Digital Networks Alpha service. Critical Role split off from Geek & Sundry and Legendary Digital Networks in February 2019. The show ceased to distribute on Alpha with live broadcasts and VODs distributed from then exclusively on Critical Role's YouTube and Twitch channels. Alpha shut down several weeks after the split.
Ashley Johnson was absent for several lengthy periods over the first 86 episodes, due to her filming schedule for the NBC drama "Blindspot", which ran from 2015 to 2020.
On March 17, 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the show went on an unplanned hiatus. The show returned with the 100th episode of the campaign on July 20, 2020. Prior to the show's return, a video was uploaded to Critical Role's YouTube channel; explaining how the production team was implementing the guidelines within the Hollywood White Paper, and setting out the social distancing requirements that would be followed. The measures included the cast no longer being sat around their custom gaming table—instead they are seated at separate tables, spaced at least seven feet apart. In addition each cast member now has an individual camera, and the on-set production team has been reduced to a skeleton crew. The show also switched to pre-recording episodes, rather than airing live. 
As of January 21, 2021, the show broadcasts each Thursday at 19:00 PT on Critical Role's Twitch and YouTube channels.
Reception.
The show's length has been emphasized as a potential viewer barrier to entry by multiple critics. Alexandria Turney, for "Screen Rant", highlighted that starting "Critical Role" can be a "little daunting" and that campaign one's "quality is noticeably lacking compared to future episodes which can be off-putting for those not already invested", while campaign two is "highly recommended for new Critters to watch, as it makes it easier to fall in love with the cast, which then makes it easier to go back and watch some of the lower-quality sessions of the first campaign". Turney wrote that viewers "should not stress about completing all episodes in a certain amount of time and just enjoy it at their own pace"; "there are also multiple "Critical Role" summaries and recaps that can be found online for Critters who want to quickly catch up to a certain arc". Dais Johnston, for "Inverse," included campaign two on their list of "8 Shows with Hundreds of Hours of Content for Your Quarantine Stream"; the total runtime of episodes 1-99 is "623 hours (25 days, 23 hours)". Johnston wrote, "that hefty episode length is daunting, but there's a perfect starting place in the middle: halfway through, a new campaign started, featuring all-new characters and storylines. It's only just now nearing 100 episodes". Brie Mihele, for "TheGamer", wrote, "It can be a huge barrier to starting a show where catching up seems like an uphill battle due to the sheer enormity of content that is produced every week and has been for the past two years". She highlighted three ways to catchup: Critical Role's official "Critical Recap" videos, the fan run website "CritRoleStats", and traditional binge-watching.
In December 2018, Chey Scott, for "Inlander", wrote: "one of the most popular live-play "Dungeons & Dragons" web series is "Critical Role" [...]. The first episode of the series' current season, which debuted in January 2018, has more than 3.1 million views". In February 2019, Jeremy Thomas, for "411Mania", wrote that "the cast of voice actors regularly garners viewership in the tens of thousands each Thursday night. It and its Tuesday discussion show Talks Machina are Geek & Sundry's most popular shows by far, both on Twitch and Legendary's Project Alpha".
Tyler Wilde, for "PC Gamer", wrote on the impact of Molly's death on both the community and the cast: "Twitch chat was inconsolable. A scripted show would probably not have casually rolled Jaffe's character, a carnival performer named Mollymauk and a favorite subject of cosplayers and fan artists, into a shallow grave just 26 episodes in. And neither would that show include a scene in which the actor is told they've been written off. [...] It was heartbreaking, but chance is partly what makes Critical Role and other tabletop gaming shows alluring. [...] Molly's death changed how the players play, too, as well as how their play is interpreted. Recklessness now indicates that a player is dead certain their character would behave recklessly in a given situation, whereas when mortality hadn't been directly experienced, risky playfulness didn't feel nearly as bold".
Christian Hoffer, for "ComicBook", has highlighted multiple reveals in campaign two such as Keyleth's mother being alive and that "Mollymauk's body seems to be once again among the living". The reveal of Keyleth's mother was "the first time that one of the unanswered questions from Campaign 1 has been answered in the current campaign". On Molly, Hoffer wrote, "Molly's seeming resurrection is one of the biggest twists of the series and seems to be pushing the game towards even bigger threats and adventures. With the Eyes of Nine looming in the background, we could be heading towards another an epic storyline centered around the only "Critical Role" PC who died in the middle of a campaign and wasn't brought back to finish his story".
Andy Wilson, for "Bleeding Cool", called "Critical Role" "the best show I've watched all year" in 2020 and highlighted their COVID-19 safety filming protocol that allowed their show to continue "in a safe way where no one has gotten sick". He wrote, "But even more important is what they did this year. They are, weekly, one of the most-watched streams on Twitch. [...] They gave fans something to look forward to every week– an incredible feat given the endless monotony and despair of socially distant quarantine life. [...] We cheered for characters in their growth and development. We got gigantic payoffs for story seeds planted literally years earlier, mysteries uncovered, and romances finally consummated. There is more heart, more pain and glory, more comedy, more tension on "Critical Role" every week than any other show on television. And they do it all with the most basic of methods".
Emily Duncan, for "Tor.com", wrote "the second campaign somehow has a radically different flavor to the first, while still being just as charming and chaotic". Duncan highlighted that campaign two "has player character deaths [...], more than one evil purple boy (one of them does do a war crime and I do love him), a city of Drow elves, a seafaring arc, so many fascinating interactions with the divine pantheon, and five kobolds in a trench coat. Something I really love in campaign two is that the setting moves into cities that are full of goblins and kobolds and bugbears, [...] and ignores the problematic Dungeons and Dragons concept of 'evil races.' There’s a different kind of tension in campaign two than in campaign one, as countries are at the brink of all out war and the party is forced to make tense political maneuvers (at times accidentally) to keep the worst from happening. It has less of a point A to point B feel and more of a wide expanse of story arcs that are all being woven together. The party is carrying a lot of trauma and watching them slowly work through it and start to heal is wonderfully rewarding".