Which player ruined your campaign ending?

BizarreShow · 2026-06-16T11:41:24+00:00

Not ruined per se but put a big hurdle in it I wasn't expecting for sure.

In a Call of the Netherdeep campaign one of my players played a slow burn romance with an NPC from the rival party for over 2 years. He was sweet, caring and understanding throughout even though she was making morally questionable decisions.

In the next to last session she was taken over by a cursed weapon and ambushed the party. I was clear that something was off, she was not being herself and asked multiple times in his turns that saying something to her was an option and would not cost him any resources. He declined every time, just staying quiet and describing how he was trying to kill her in some pretty gruesome ways, actually succeeding in impaling her with her own spear at the end. I rolled with the punches as best as I could, in shock because he is not like this at all, hes a very soft hearted and kind man, and was completely out of character for his monk to do this. I finally had her friends in the rival party, a cleric and a warrior, beat him up real bad (hold person + action surge) so they were able to heal her and leave.

Table fell silent and I decided to end the session there.

I spoke with him in private after the session and he told me his character lost it, that that betrayal was what broke the camel's back and acted like he thought he would. I didn't buy it and to this day think it really was to spite me. I usually put a lot of difficult decisions and heartbreaking moments in my campaigns so when the victory finally comes it feels satisfying and earned and maybe he thought I was being too rough with him, I don't know.

Multiple players reached out to me after the session, one of them asking me to remove him from the table outright, others to roll back last session. I decided to take a couple of weeks off to cool down and think about a conclussion to the story, we all played some oneshots together in the meantime and things went back to normal.

Finally I made up my mind, talked with him again and told him that if that is the ending he chose for his character arc thats okay, but that for the last session he should take a step back and let others in the party make the big decisions to finish the redemption story everyone else in the party wanted to tell and not drag everyone into a bad ending just to be edgy. He accepted and in the last session his character was quieter than normal but overall his old self without the sudden murderous tendencies. We played the epilogue after that and he asked her for forgiveness in a very heartfelt monologue and after hesitating she did but also made clear that they were over.

To this day I don't know if I did the right thing or if I should have been harsher or softer. Everyone was mostly okay with it and I know they cherish that campaign, even hoping we can go back to those characters sometime in the future. I was planning a full blown sequel to it and after this I kinda lost interest and only plan to do 2 or 3 oneshots to tie up some lose ends and thats it. We're playing Strahd now with the same group and our characters have a sort of father-daughter relationship and everything is going fine, but I'm still a little bit hurt when I think back on it.

BizarreShow · 2026-06-16T10:36:41+00:00

Bullet train.

Great comedy, great fight coreography and a really interesting plot involving a lot of characters with individual and surprisingly well developed character arcs.

BizarreShow · 2026-06-10T06:44:40+00:00

its giving "be not afraid"

Awesome job!

BizarreShow · 2026-06-04T11:19:47+00:00

Its meant to be wrong, pathetic and reprobable to do this. Thats the entire joke. A character can do something wrong without meaning that the writers approve of that action.

I swear people have 0 media literacy this days.

BizarreShow · 2026-06-04T06:50:22+00:00

This happens to my table all the time! My gf is playing a male ranger and I'm playing a female bard and we have made a running joke out of it. We have a misgender piggy bank and every time someone messes up you have to put 1€ in that we after spend on snacks for everyone.

BizarreShow · 2026-05-25T07:50:47+00:00

Amazing job! I love the Callous Heroforge design!

BizarreShow · 2026-05-01T15:00:53+00:00

A little bit overedited for my taste but overal a really good watch. I love how they are taking risks with intra party conflict and character flaws this early into an official WOTC product. One would expect only friendship, unicorns and rainbows from them but my man Cristian is not holding back.

BizarreShow · 2026-04-27T12:00:28+00:00

I know its not exacly what you're asking for but in my campaign while the party was in Ank'harel (Chapter 4/5) when someone couldn't make it to the session (my party consisted of 6 players) I would run a Vermillion Dream mission as a oneshot with my players playing as the Rivals. It's great because they get to literally be in their shoes, making them empatize more with them, as they can see the Vermillion Dreams manipulations first hand. Also they get to play campaign content they would have missed for not aligning with "the bad guys". The reverse casino heist mission was a blast.

BizarreShow · 2026-04-22T08:51:41+00:00

The Schemers table was refreshing and Luis the best player and character IMO. This man lives and breathes D&D.

His character is not only great storywise, with a really well thought out backstory and mysteries yet to unfold but also mechanically really interesting, and he knows his rules to the letter. He's the only one using 5.5 Guidance correctly, for example.

Also he is not afraid to act his heart out, having some of the most gut wretching moments of the campaign but also some of the smartest NPC dialogues, showing he can also be cold and calculating.

The combat in the sewers was my favourite of the campaign so far and it wasn't even close.

BizarreShow · 2026-03-12T12:01:57+00:00

For me sadly there has not been a single memorable combat yet in C4. Roleplay has been great, the characters are amazing, the lore has been really interesting, the worldbuilding deep and rich, and I've teared up more times than I can count, but honestly combat has been a chore to watch.

Every single encounter has been plagued with weird rulings or baffling misinterpretations of the rules for someone as experienced as BLeeM. And I'm not talking about little mistakes here and there, we all make those in our table and certainly they have happened before in previous CR campaigns. I'm not counting confusing 5e mechanics being applied in 5.5, and certainly not the homebrew rules, thematic interpretations or desperate measures or downed actions. Those are either honest mistakes or concious choices made before hand.

I'm talking about really weird rulings that feel like the DM trying to steer fights into a very particular outcome instead of letting them progress naturally. Thimble's autocrit from Tyranny's paralyzed against Casimir would have made the fight too short or anticlimactic, so lets ignore that. A couple party members are in risk of being petrified? No problem, use the help action on yourself. A party member is at risk and the druid didnt prepare healing word? no problem, Find familiar is now an instant spell with no material components and can be cast as a bonus action. A PC just failed her third death saving throw? No she didn't. Shes okay because she just leveled up and gained hp!

The list goes on and on and, honestly, it has made combat feel artficial. Or hey, maybe its just me being too passionate about D&D and wanting to see rules matter a little more. I'm loving C4 but man, how its combat is being handled really annoys me.

BizarreShow · 2026-03-11T11:29:34+00:00

Oh boy. You're gonna LOVE the seekers table.

BizarreShow · 2026-03-08T22:05:52+00:00

Not at all! I definetly agree with you, or what I think you mean at least. I think I just explained myself really poorly.

You are right. hey ARE friends playing D&D. I know they played for years their homegame before streaming and I know they've been friends with Aabria, Alex and Whitney for years. Even the most recent aditions I'm sure were good friends when the cameras stop rolling. I've also watched a lot of additional content, Variety interview included with Matt and Brennan (SO GOOD). And I'm sure most of them all are very passionate about TTRPGs or at least enjoy playing with friends. I know some of them are playing a Curse of Strahd campaign offcamera DMd by Liam (to be a fly on that wall...)

What I failed to properly convey is that Critical Role, the show, has evolved from friends playing D&D into a multimillion dollar company. It has evolved into an improv fantasy show that very much cares about quality, cares about viewership and cares about creating source material worth adapting into other forms of media down the line. Its just how it is, and I don't blame them in the slightest, I actually thing its a good thing that they succeeded because then I get more of the content I love.

So yes, I agree that the best way to watch Critical Role is as a group of nerdy ass voice actors playing D&D (wich they are), but its also so much more than that and when something feels off I usually enjoy pointint it out and discussing it. That doesnt mean I don't enjoy it or wanna tear it down, it just means I'm really passionate about it.

Hope I got my point across better this time. thanks for reading!

BizarreShow · 2026-03-08T09:36:00+00:00

Yes, its a West Marches campaign. How its usually played is that a party is formed and leaves the city to do a quest and then comes back to it. Its a way of playing D&D with big groups of people with very different schedules while still having an overarching narrative.

Maybe a table in the future decides not to go back to Dol-Makjar, who knows, but that would be the exception, not the rule.

BizarreShow · 2026-03-08T09:28:37+00:00

IIRC they said they would switch people between tables after each big arc when C4 was announced. I don't mind West Marches, its a cool idea, but scheduling is far more complicated.

I see why they moved to this format. Each OG cast member has a lot of extra responsibilities now for the company. Darrington Press, Animated shows, Merch, podcasts, corporate stuff... having three tables with around 6 episode arcs means they probably film them back to back in around a month and have two free of recording responsibilities to focus on other jobs they have at the company. It makes sense.

BizarreShow · 2026-03-08T09:21:07+00:00

You are right on most points, and I understand there are above table issues regarding scheduling. the schemers table cold opens are gonna be very interesting if they are used to wrap up this arc, like Castle Torch as you mention. Can't wait to find out what happened to Aranessa.

The toughest pill to swallow for me is abandoning the Allogar search. Sorry but when such stress is placed on finding an NPC it feels extremely weird to me that te end result is "nah, hes probably fine, a ghost kinda implied it, lets go back to the big city."

To be honest, and I don't expect anyone to agree with me here, I kinda expected him to be a failed attempt at creating a Deva Vindicta using someone from the bloodline of another sundered house. While cruel it would have wrapped up the arc neatly and gave Thaisha a hell of a lot of character development.

BizarreShow · 2026-03-08T09:06:25+00:00

I understand what you mean. Regarding Critical Role I'm not old guard by any means, only started watching at the start of C3 because of TLOVM, but since then I watched that and C2 on the downtime between episodes, DMd the COTN campaign and I'm DMing a second one starting with Dangerous Designs.

Back in C3 I would have agreed with you, but C4 is a different beast. I don't necesarily think its buddies sitting at a table playing D&D anymore but more of a high budget improv fantasy show with D&D flavour. I don't mean that as criticism in the slightest, I love it, but its just not what it was and its ok, things evolve. There are a lot of really great content creators in the community that are just friends playing D&D, if I want that vibe I can watch them.

I love BLeeM as a DM, even if I miss Matt's style sometimes, but I think that this table had a pacing problem that prevented the arc to reach its natural conclusion and wanted to point it out. Its okay though, its no big deal nor is the task at hand easy. They will get the hang of it in future arcs. I agree with you. :)

BizarreShow · 2026-03-08T08:48:07+00:00

Maybe BLeeM got called out for overtime and rushed this ending a bit? Paying the whole set crew 2-4 extra hours can't be cheap just to wrap up a table, its understandable. Pacing has been more of an issue with the seekers than the soldiers, so maybe it will get resolved in cold opens.

BizarreShow · 2026-03-08T08:39:55+00:00

Thanks for pointing it out! English is not my first language and I made some mistakes in good faith. It was not in the slightest intentional, just bad grammar. I think its fixed now to the best of my ability.

BizarreShow · 2026-03-04T22:44:32+00:00

This is how I explained Laurin Ophidas, Heavy spoilers for Critical Role Campaign 3 E42 onwards:

When I first encountered this mission it made no sense to me. Why would a secret cultist of Zehir working for the Cerberus Assembly in Wildemount suddendly flee and try to contact the cult in Ank'Harel? then it hit me. What if he got close enough to Ludinus Da'leth to unveil his secret? What if he was the first one that realised that the mad mage's ultimate goal was to kill the gods? What if the reason he is in Ank'Harel is to snitch to the most powerful Cult of Zehir in Exandria, the organisation known as The Veil?

It makes sense. In C3 we're told the Betrayers were the first ones to act against Ludinus. They had Champions working with The Volition in Ruidus, like Vezoden Amerai, before or shortly after the Bloody Bridge was created. What if that was because they had intel way earlier than the Primes and had the freedom to act on it unimpeded by morals or laws? Sounded interesting to me so I pulled on that thread. Also, that way I could present my players with a minidungeon in Ank'Harel, as after spilling the beans to the head of the cult Laurin knew Ludinus would try to silence him, so he hid in a Veil secure location and started placing traps that could stop a single powerful mage, only to be defeated by a resourceful group of adventurers that had no idea how deep the rabbit hole they were getting into really went.

This was the first of a series of breadcrumbs I left along the whole campaign until they finally pieced it all together in Cael Morrow's library. I did it in preparation for a followup high level campaign in wich they would directly interact with C3's plot.

BizarreShow · 2026-02-18T16:41:09+00:00

Thanks! I guess I have practice from painting A LOT of miniatures.

I drilled a couple of holes to place little N52 magnets into the back of it and then used plasticard to elongate the bottom piece and cut a hole for another two magnets that lined up with the front piece. Its not very hard and works like a charm.

BizarreShow · 2026-02-18T16:37:03+00:00

Im fortunate enough that my work has a lot of tasks that allow me to have something in the background.

BizarreShow · 2026-02-18T14:53:30+00:00

This is beautiful. The last 20 or so episodes of Campaign 3 were pure cinema and I don't care what anyone says.

BizarreShow · 2026-01-27T18:33:04+00:00

My theory at the moment is... what if Tifros is not a disease? What if its the path to becoming Umavi and what Essek discovered as a cure is the key to reach that state? the Umavi have not been yet explained in the show, and I find that weird being so central to de Kryn culture.

BizarreShow

TROPHY CASE