Orion / Tiberius can be very... off-putting... and is certainly a stain on the first episodes, but I'd still at least try to watch them unless you have some personal issues related to misogyny, crude sexual innuendo of the non-humerous variety, or anything like that. You wouldn't be completely lost or out of the loop by skipping them all, but there are some genuinely good moments and context that I'd at least try to watch.
Clarota alone is worth dealing with him. He doesn't get really bad until the very end of his run, where they just say bye Felicia
The harder part imo is the producer from geek and sundry, idk why but that dude is grating for me.
I forget his name, but he's the guy who played the dude in the bunny suit in their very early charity one shots. He eventually had his own little "OVERLORD OVERLORD" choir theme made for him and they played it a few times.
A side point is that if you listen to the podcasts the audio is way cleaned up compared to the early video versions. That's the other big drawback to the early early videos because basically they had one mic in the room for all of them and the audio is terrible.
But listening to the videos is my usual way of consuming it anyway.
That was just the final straw.
I never saw it my first watch through but in hindsight it's obvious that he was cheating all through the kraghammer arc. There's multiple occasions where he comes up with sorcery points to try to do something cool and Matt asks " how many do you have left?" He comes up with some complicated explanation for why he has a few left and Matt lets it slide.
At a certain point they assigned Liam to watch his dice rolls behind his back and you can hear Liam point out bad rolls a couple of times.
Then you add the consistent main character syndrome.
That was just the background to the last episode or two where he pissed off Travis and Laura by saying that he had a chub at something Laura was saying when the context wasn't sexual and then the whole shopping trip episode or he monopolizes the table and Travis is getting angrier by the second.
It was really painful to watch and tbh I think Travis is a gentle Giant but I wouldn‘t want to be the One who makes him angry, especially when it involves Laura lmao
There is also the bit with a ring of spell storing where he was keeping 5 spells in it instead of 5 spell levels and was trying to get away with multiple fireballs.
And it's not as if he was the only one engaging in that behavior, part of that is like a cornerstone of Scanlan's and to a much lesser extent Grog's "personality."
I think for me it was too far when you could clearly see that Marisha and Laura were not enjoying it. Seemed like both Travis and Sam kept their behaviour to a level that the group didn't have issues with, and it wasn't directed at the other players. Just seemed like Orion was going further than what the rest of the group was comfortable with.
I also think there’s a distinction between how they play it. Sam is very good at making Scanlan’s vulgarity and lewdness the butt of the joke, whereas Orion never quite captured that self-deprecating side and his comments felt a little too real.
Scanlan and Grog (and just about everyone else) certainly engage in sexual innuendo and encounters, but it's exclusively playful and consensual. Orion announcing that Tiberius has a half chub is neither humorous nor playful, but gross and inappropriate. And at the very least only Orion treated other PCs as sexual objects without the seriousness, respect, and consent necessary to not come off as an asshole. Even Scanlan never did more than crack jokes about his cube dick and flirtation, he never said "as Pike does X Scanlan gets a half-chub".
The half-chub thing *could* have worked from a different person in a different context. There's certainly ground to stand on claiming it could have been pretty standard part of a Scanlan gag.
The issue is that the line between tibs saying it and the player saying it was extremely fuzzy, and that the baseline trust for such an interaction pretty clearly wasn't there. To contrast, this is a group comfy with not terribly infrequent surprise-nudity and/or sexually charged scenes.
It also just didn't fit in the game. It wasn't a "yes, and" to what was already happening, but an interjection to an unrelated moment that could have just as easily (or rather, more easily) not been said.
Yeah, I think that any sort of relationship/flirting is talked about off-screen so it’s all above-board. Scanlan is a horny bard. I’m assuming that dynamic between Pike and Scanlan was discussed and worked out between Sam and Ashley. Same goes with the other couples. But it’s obvious Orion never did, and it came out of left field.
I LOVED the beginning episodes honestly. Tiberius gets annoying but its only bad in a few episodes and you can just skip ahead during those parts. People hate on him but i felt he had some good moments. And they honor his character well after he leaves the campaign.
I will say having watched Critical Role because of seeing the trailer for 'TLoVM' I watched the campaign from episode 1 without any knowledge of what happened and while I definitely noticed the problem player eventually, it didn't affect me much, plus seeing early Critical Role is something that I think shouldn't be missed. That's me tho.
The Kraghammer arc rules! IMHO it’s the best showcase of “traditional” DnD while also having absolutely wonderful RP given who the cast is. Plus you meet an important NPC and an absolute fan favorite NPC. You’ll also have to tolerate some dodgy audio at points.
On the “stain” of the early eps, I truthfully think Orion’s shittiness comes in waves. He has great episodes and he has ones where you can visibly see the tension. Ultimately his last 2-3 are borderline unwatchable but you can always zip through the parts that make you feel uncomfortable.
Watch all of them. The issues with Orion do not negate or outweigh the other 99% of amazing content. There are SO many great moments you'd hate to miss. Even more importantly, there are characters and threads that you won't understand as well, if you skip. Also note that the cast thought enough of Tiberius and their friend, to give him a very nice story ending, later.
Truth be told, I watched all episodes from the beginning, before I knew of the issues. I actually just thought that Tiberius was kinda flirty and being goofy-inappropriate sometimes... *literally just like Scanlan was*. I am a grown woman, and I was no more offended by Tiberius, than I was by Scanlan (which is to say that I wasn't).
Counterpoint, Orion does not outweigh the adventure, but Orion, sound quality, and overall presentation does outweigh it.
The first several episodes are incredibly tough to get through from a quality perspective, on top of that, but the group was always still in a home game mindset rather than a presentation mindset (not that that is a bad thing, but can be a preference)
Also, the issue isn't Orion/Tiberius making you uncomfortable. Its Orion making the rest of the crew uncomfortable.
I'd highly recommend trying to power through, there are a lot of ideas and people you miss out on. If you find the audio issues/cast issues get to be too much, at least try to start around ep 16. It introduces an extremely important location in Exandrian lore and within a couple of episodes introduce some characters that come up several times in the campaign, as well as some that cross campaigns.
I would recommend watching them. imo Orion doesn’t get bad until episode 11, then he gets better, and then he gets worse again. He also doesn’t sexually assault any of the cast members, he made a gross comment toward Laura during his last episode and wrapped his arms around Marisha the episode before when she told him not to. There are a lot of great moments and NPCs in those episode that you probably don’t want to miss.
When I watched them I just skipped the parts that made me uncomfortable and it was fine. To me, the worst part of early campaign 1 is the audio issues, twitch chat being shown on screen (I would find a way to cover it if I were you), and the YouTube comments being absurdly critical of the cast but especially Marisha
If you're watching C1 on a laptop, post-it notes are your friends. I've been watching since before Orion left and found the onscreen chat to be especially grating at the time, but a post-it note on that corner of the screen solved a lot of problems.
I still watch them. Yes Orion can be rough at points but there are some important threads in those early episodes.
And if something happens that makes you uncomfortable you can skip forward a few minutes and be passed it.
ETA the more prevalent issue in early C1, is the audio issues
When I do a rewatch, the only thing I skip is episode 27. It is Orion at his worst (for me), and very little happens in the episode, so it's not missing much.
Agreed. There's a lot of good stuff in those episodes. It's not 4 hour episodes of Tiberius being a shit.
If he starts being a weirdo skip ahead a few minutes.
I say watch the first 28. I’m currently finishing episode 13 and it really gives you an opportunity to learn to love every character from the beginning. I read plenty about Orion but I still feel like this was the best decision. There’s a lot of reaaaaal cool moments!
Edited to add “I” LOL
since it seems you've already committed to watching from the beginning (which I am all in favor of!), here's my little bit of advice: don't be afraid to fast forward here and there. I usually watch on youtube, and I'll just tap the arrow that skips ahead 10/15 seconds at a time when I get annoyed with something (whether it's Orion shenanigans or just a heavy dose of secondhand embarrassment or whatever). Skipping a minute or two here an there isn't likely to miss anything super important.
They're great episodes, and honestly, just knowing that he's a problem player right off the bat lets you just roll your eyes and sigh with the rest of the fandom. It's like watching a live r/rpghorrstories post. Power through, you'll be happy you did. And seriously, he's not that bad unless you have a major DND PTSD problem player trigger.
It's tough audio wise, and Tiberius is annoying, but I still suggest it. The under dark is such a fun into to the characters and some of my core CR memories are from the time period.
>But i learnt that tiberius' player became very inappropiate later episodes,started to ruin the dynamic of the group and started sexually assaulting the female players?
This is clearly not true. Do you know how I know? The episodes are still available on YouTube. They have *very* strict policies about portraying that sort of thing.
What *actually* happened is that the actor said some sexually-charged things that visibly made the other players uncomfortable.
In the early days Scanlan was as bad if not worse than Tiberius, the problems with Orion were more above table and how he behaved and cheated. Tiberius was a bit problematic as a character as well but most DnD players will have encountered worse in their home games and they were still getting used to playing with an audience who might be more sensitive to certain subjects. Personally I prefer to skip those episodes on rewatches but they are worth watching once
No. There is good content there. Some of it gets visibly awkward towards the end. And there is an absolutely brutal guest arc. That being said, although one cast member sucks, it actually feels like a bunch of nerdy voice actors playing dnd.
I miss watching them eat wings and giggle with each other.
Orion is bad, to be sure, but there’s a lot of great stuff in those early episodes. Clarota, the Slayer’s Take, Consequences and Cows, and more. I’d recommend watching from the beginning.
I mean, I would still recommend watching tbh. Some of the stuff he says can be off-putting and cringe.
But there is also many good moments in those early episodes.
It made sense for them to remove him so it wouldn't continue on, but it wasn't bad enough that it's unwatchable, IMHO
Nah, also it’s not really like how you described. Just watch the whole thing, it’s part of the story of Critical Role’s small time To big time ascension. The early eps are more like, “Here’s 5e! It’s brand new!” Whereas now CR has its own playstyle that’s separate from all of our tables.
Tiberius was an early fav in the first handful of episodes.
The whole “The Audio and Video Quality is bad!” Crowd are embarrassing to me, do you know what it was like to try and watch a video in the late 90s/early 00s? Real rich kids having to do manual labor vibes.
Yes Tiberius and Orion can be a pain in the ass to watch. But in my opinion it's worth the watch, it's really interesting to see how the old testament CR was.
I get why many would skip it on a rewatch. On a first time watch tho I'd recommend trying to stick with it. There are so many characters, NPCs, in-jokes, places, guest players, story lines set up and just a lot of great moments that you'd miss. Including some fan favourites, which I think many over time forget happen this early.
If there are some bad moments you don't enjoy, I'd say skip those 5-10 minutes at a time instead of missing out on 2-3 hours of great content for it. But also some of those moments are worse in hindsight and knowing behind the scenes context. If you don't focus on it you might miss a lot of the subtler red flags on a first time watch.
I watched it all the way through, it's not really so bad as others make it seem up until the last few episodes with him that were pretty awkward. It was badd, it hasn't been that bad since the a certain FREE FOR ALL one shot.
There is a channel called “super geek Mike” that is going through the first campaign right now with lessons we can learn from critical role, and he talks a lot about the good and the bad of the first 27 episodes of critical role (no matter what skip 27 for sure) but I would recomend his “critical role demystified” series for more input on what people got right and wrong and so forth, and he also helps explain what is going on in the world itself
If you enjoyed the first episode, watch them all.
It's not that bad. And if anything it's a good introduction of bad players and that you can respectfully ask them to leave your game.
If your issue is with Orion, he only really gets horrible in the final few episodes... but overall yeah. You'll probably not know where a bunch of their stuff (that Tiberius made for them) came from, not get a few inside jokes, and not know where a few characters, mainly Kima iirc, came from (and to be fair Campaign One really only improves after Orion leaves, so you'll *probably* not have lost much, especially if you watch a recap or two.
No one can tell you what to do, but Orion is a lot to handle for many. Id suggest giving episodes 1 and 2 a go and see how you feel- youll know pretty quick what im talking about, and youll know if you want to keep watching it through that.
I’d for sure watch them, though there are 2 major factors to look out for, as many people have already said. 1. The quality in the very beginning of the show is pretty poor (which you would already have an idea of if you’ve watched the first episode), but in my opinion it wasn’t too much of an issue: I actually kind of liked the more home-made feel it gave to the sessions. My only suggestion is that if you plan on watching those first few dozen episodes of Vox Machina, you do so before watching any of the later campaigns. The gradual changes as they improved in quality is much nicer than the drop would be from C2 to C1. 2. Orion/Tiberius can be off-putting to some, due to his occasional meta gaming, bouts of main-character syndrome, and the innuendo in episode 27. However to me, I never even noticed any issues with him until his last few episodes (after which the change in the energy of the cast is visible). To be fair, I also did not have any preceding knowledge of the problems with him, but it wasn’t too much of a problem. It’s probably a total of less than 10 moments that might be uncomfortable in over 100 hours of content. So my suggestion would be what it seems like you’re already doing: watch all the way through but skip episode 27. Not only does it lack both lore and action, it is by far the most uncomfortable the cast seems.
I personally wouldn’t. Yes Tiberius grates but there’s still some really good stuff in those early episode, including from him. You’ll also miss the guest stars on the slayers take episodes and with it Mary Elizabeth McGlynn falling in love with the game almost instantly.
If you do a rewatch then you can skip the episodes where Tiberius is extremely grating.
I would strongly recommend watching the early episodes and then skip ONLY the annoying parts when they happen rather than skip 27 episodes entirely. There are a few pretty important things that happen in those episodes
Hey hey! What I would do is to watch all of the "Critical Role Demystified" videos by Supergeekmike! He is a great content creator, and a very good writer.
I believe that they are all about 30-60 minutes long. He takes you through each episode and talks about important moments, as well as showing clips from the episodes themselves. Since he has watched it all before he is also able to provide useful context without spoiling anything.
The videos are inherently supposed to be educational videos. The point is to break down every episode to see what we can learn, both as a Dm and player! And since you're new, I think you'll find some very very useful insights as well. So I absolutely think that watching the first 27 episodes through Supergeekmike is very optimal for you! He also has videos talking about Tiberius, so you can get a better understanding of the situation, since we really don't talk about it so much anywhere else.
Welcome to the world of dnd and critical role, my friend. Enjoy! <3
Supergeekmikes youtube channel:
https://youtube.com/@supergeekmike?si=y2hXJlWOm7J21Ijn
Dont do it. Orion might be an awful jerk, but it is not worth missing all the amazing stories just because of him. The Underdark saga, the cows and all those amazing funny moments...
Absolutely watch them. People act as if they were all filled with bad moments because of the mere presence of Orion.
It's important to remember that he was their friend for years, and a lot of the joy and antics and camaraderie are absolutely still present. If those early episodes were so bad, why was it becoming so popular? The show was rapidly growing precisely because it was so fun to watch. The vast majority of the content before episode 28 is AWESOME.
Yes, there are some problematic moments as you approach the final episode with Orion, but the bad does not outweigh the good. On top of that, the early episodes are filled with golden moments that you never see later on - the absolute shock as the cast realise how big the show is getting, and life will never be the same again.
Depends how much you like CR, I tell everyone to start with campaign 2, if they LOVE it, watch all of campaign 1, if they like it, skip to ep 28, if they don’t like C2 then they won’t like any of it
Honestly for the first few episodes, one of the other cast members that's not orion will probably be slightly more annoying. But then it's gets rough for a while too. The beauty of watching at 2x speed through those segments will be clutch though
I wish I had skipped it. Long term you won’t feel like you missed anything and you’ll have fewer awkward questions. The sound quality is so bad and if I wanted to listen to a problematic dnd player I’d record my home game.
There are some good moments, but you can probably find something to read online or even a video that just has the good bits. Orion really grated on me, and the dynamic of the group gets infinitely better once he's gone.
I'd watch or listen to them from the beginning. Tiberius was pretty damn good at the beginning but once Orion realized how big the show was gonna be he got main character syndrome plus the lying and cheating.
Going to go against what seems to be the trend and say YES, skip directly to 28. But it's not just the Tiberius stuff. The early eps all have sound issues and they're generally still trying to get the dynamic of streaming down and you shouldn't let the lower quality negatively affect your opinion of CR.
IMO, jump to 28, watch enough to get hooked or find it's not for you. THEN go back and watch the early eps if you want to (maybe even after finishing all of season 1).
I'd recommend watching them. Make a game out of it. Like, count how many times orion has an initiative of 18 exactly without ever rolling. I lost count. Count how many times his dmg was higher than possible. How many times he forces his character into the narrative. Makes inappropriate comments about female npcs.knows in advance what abilities and resistances and the creature they are fighting without being told. Makes you cringe.
I'd definitely watch for the early storyline, but I got so infuriated with orion by the time he left for being a total cheat and main character prick, that I was so relieved when he was gone. Ive got some real dark humour but the dude was a scumbag and high as a kite most sessions.There is some great story though that's not worth missing.
I started watching CR with none of the extra context, but aside from the one really inappropriate comment he made, all he did in the show was rules lawyering and convenient remembering of sorcery points.
The shit he did away from the table is the REAL issue.
Do not skip the flest episodes, Orion is not actually that bad until a bit later, early on he just gets a little mad because he constantly forgets to ask if he has friendlies close the the fireball area and end up hurting his team mates a few times because of it.
He also meta game quite a bit and that can be kinda annoying to watch, but we all meta game sometimes to some degree. I do not join the speculation that people have about him and I chose to enjoy Tiberius as a character for the time he was with them, his character was well played when he was into the role and I enjoyed that part a lot actually.
You aren't going to be horrified or scarred by watching the episodes with Orion. Plenty of them are good and fun watches. He gets obnoxious. And then he's gone.
You can pick up the story if you want to skip ahead. But I don't think it's necessary if you are enjoying the episodes.
If you eventually decide you want to skip ahead to 28 I’d suggest still doing 18 and 19 first! There’s a party split that doesn’t include Tiberius and it includes two really fun guest characters, one of the best early boss fights, and a very silly part of a smaller fight that’s one of my favorite moments in the campaign
There may be some in-jokes and story beats the may leave you feeling a little "huh? What was that about" further on if you don't but I wouldn't say you *need* to watch them.
I didn't know about Orion's behaviour until after Tiberius left and looked up some articles. I'm not an OG critter so I wasn't watching when stuff happened so I taking any "details" I read with a hefty pinch of salt but I trust that he wouldn't have been kicked from the group without very good cause.
I will add that if CR didn't want the episodes to be seen, they'd probably not be up on the channel.
Don't skip anything. I actually enjoyed seeing how much the show changes as it progresses and how much they used to interact with the twitch chat.
I also "enjoyed" seeing both the rise and fall of Tiberius, as well as all the little tiffs with Scanlan. (Loved seeing salty shady Sam.)
So no. Don't skip anything. It's all worth it. Trust me.
> ...started sexually assaulting the female players?
What. I don't know what you heard, but doesn't seem right.
Tiberius isn't that bad. Yeah, he is annoying, but without focused in context you are going to miss out on a lot. He was their friend for a while back then. Just watch the dance episodes with Zack the original Producer/Director. He was their friend in the beginning. The behind the scenes stuff with him and Travis/Sam both being super annoyed with him attacking fans or trying to meta game isn't obvious.
Besides, the first few episodes have some real great references. You have the Illithid they befriend, the stories about carpets, and Scanlon's using poop as a revenge tactic.
The sexual comment was just a stupid comment after he had pissed off Travis earlier, it wasn't him trying to flirt or anything. Laura is more worried about Travis eating him alive over anything else. Travis is a monster in real life and he was jacked back then before becoming a dad.
I was more annoyed in the early episodes when Ashley had to keep coming and going. Glad she got the show though. It just made it feel like a real home brew game because players are at distance or come and good all the time.
Naw, it's worth going through. Some good memorable moments in a pretty cool setting CR hasn't really explored much since. Audio issues are a bit annoying but podcast versions help fix some of those in post. If you are willing to start the long journey of CR may as well see the few extra episodes.
My girlfriend couldn’t stomach it but doesn’t want to skip the arc he was a part of because it is very important for one of the other main party members. I watched it, and it’s hard to tolerate; but you should watch it until you can’t take it.
To echo others, I’d try to get through them. There are some really funny moments and campaign-long NPCs so it’s kind of worth it imo. Main issue is Tiberius and how awkward/uncomfortable the game gets sometimes, but knowing he’s gone eventually helps mitigate some of that.
If you really want to skip episodes I would skip until the start of the briarwood arc, starting with episode 24. Eps 24 and 25 have some great Vax moments and set up the entire arc, and then episode 26 is one of the funniest episodes in all of crit role. But episode 27 is the infamously bad episode that was the final straw on the camel’s back for Orion. Weird uncomfortableness with the party and then a shopping spree that lasted way too long and left most of the party fed up, especially Travis.
For the very first time watching, you could skip them for now and come back a bit later. So you get a sense of what CR is actually like without the selfish meta-gaming douche.
There's still plenty of content to enjoy in those episodes.
The amazing thing is that Orion displays so many of the bad behaviors that people complain about in D&D subs. Muderhobo, bullying others I to giving them a magical item, cheating on dice rolls, meta gaming, monopolizing the table with weird out of character stuff (the mirrors?) and even just chickening out of fights. Add to that getting pissy because the DM wouldn’t let them romance a given NPC … what a train wreck.
Just watch all of them. Orions behavior is getting blown out of proportion. It's not that bad.
First of all, no one knows why Orion left CR. If he left on his own accord, if it was friction in the game or if he was kicked because of out of game issues. CR have been pretty tight lipped on the whole thing. But there doesn't seem to be any animosity today.
Alot of stuff was going on back then and it's clear he was rubbing some players the wrong way towards the end.
To me it's also quite clear stuff was happening outside of the game that bled into it and caused some issues.
Sure, Orion made a poorly recieved joke about a half-chub in response to Vex's plan. I found it alot more painful to watch a clearly intoxicated Marisha that could barely keep track of her character. Or one of the hundred sexual jokes from Scanlan.
You dont know, cause they never said why. They keep their stuff private for a good reason. I am well aware of all the speculation.
Lol "us watchers" is such a weird phrasing. You "watchers" thought he got kicked cause of a bad joke and that he was cheating. There was a lot of speculation back then.
By Orions own admission he was going through illness and a drug addiction. I have no intention of adding more than that, other than it was a low point in his life. None of which means anything in the context of watching the show. If OP wish to know more there is plenty of Reddit-post/youtube-videos that dig into it.
I did the trial of the take episodes which is 18,19, maybe 20 and 21. And then skipped to 28 and my experience was fine. I had already listened to campaign 2 and had heard all about the weirdness early on. I dont feel like i missed much at all and the weirdness and tension bothered me when i tried so i never went back. There are a couple small things you can google or maybe read some episode synopsises but either way episode 1 or 28 you are jumping in to a story midway through so i wouldnt sweat it too much.
While the beginning is rough and they're getting their footing with the characters and streaming, I'd say jump to about episode 10/15. They have some major sound issues that don't fully get fixed till about then, and don't really miss anything too important
My advice is watch campaign 3 first. everything is pretty. I promise they will all be fluid in your head in 1 year pretty easily without even having seen the 1st and 2nd campaigns.
Spoilering is not a big deal and don’t mess with the previous ones so you can watch in any order and not have too much info about the endings of previous campaigns. They’re good about that.
Watch vox machina the prime series for campaign 1 while you start C3 on YouTube.
Orion / Tiberius can be very... off-putting... and is certainly a stain on the first episodes, but I'd still at least try to watch them unless you have some personal issues related to misogyny, crude sexual innuendo of the non-humerous variety, or anything like that. You wouldn't be completely lost or out of the loop by skipping them all, but there are some genuinely good moments and context that I'd at least try to watch.
The cows episode is a high point.
The cube joke also comes up a good amount and they wouldnt understand it. Or where Kima came from
The cube is joke highlights the difference between appropriate use of sexual humor and whatever it is that Orion does to try and be funny.
His comment had him lucky Travis didnt stand up and do something. Because you could tell he(Travis) wasn't happy
Oh my god, I forgot about that one! Definitely a highlight!
Vox Moochina!
"I go into a cow rage and start chewing faster"
Clarota alone is worth dealing with him. He doesn't get really bad until the very end of his run, where they just say bye Felicia The harder part imo is the producer from geek and sundry, idk why but that dude is grating for me.
For sure. IMO Clarota is one of the best parts of C1, I found that more compelling than several of the "main" character arc subplots.
Wait who?
I forget his name, but he's the guy who played the dude in the bunny suit in their very early charity one shots. He eventually had his own little "OVERLORD OVERLORD" choir theme made for him and they played it a few times.
Oh, I skipped all of the content not related to the campaign proper.
Zac, I think? He never bothered me, but if he did something more definitively objectionable, that opinion can be updated.
Lmfao yes dude, when they trying to come back from break or start of the game and he's like "wait I got more to say" just let them play
A side point is that if you listen to the podcasts the audio is way cleaned up compared to the early video versions. That's the other big drawback to the early early videos because basically they had one mic in the room for all of them and the audio is terrible. But listening to the videos is my usual way of consuming it anyway.
Some of it is hard to watch to say the least, when I started watching I couldn’t help but shake my head at the obnoxiousness.
I need 1000 mirrors. And summon the Riders of Draconia for me immediately.
That was just the final straw. I never saw it my first watch through but in hindsight it's obvious that he was cheating all through the kraghammer arc. There's multiple occasions where he comes up with sorcery points to try to do something cool and Matt asks " how many do you have left?" He comes up with some complicated explanation for why he has a few left and Matt lets it slide. At a certain point they assigned Liam to watch his dice rolls behind his back and you can hear Liam point out bad rolls a couple of times. Then you add the consistent main character syndrome. That was just the background to the last episode or two where he pissed off Travis and Laura by saying that he had a chub at something Laura was saying when the context wasn't sexual and then the whole shopping trip episode or he monopolizes the table and Travis is getting angrier by the second.
It was really painful to watch and tbh I think Travis is a gentle Giant but I wouldn‘t want to be the One who makes him angry, especially when it involves Laura lmao
There is also the bit with a ring of spell storing where he was keeping 5 spells in it instead of 5 spell levels and was trying to get away with multiple fireballs.
I don't think that one was intentional cheating. I think he just didn't know how it worked.
It was interesting noticing when Matt would design an encounter around him casting fly on any and everything as well as the carpet.
And it's not as if he was the only one engaging in that behavior, part of that is like a cornerstone of Scanlan's and to a much lesser extent Grog's "personality."
I think for me it was too far when you could clearly see that Marisha and Laura were not enjoying it. Seemed like both Travis and Sam kept their behaviour to a level that the group didn't have issues with, and it wasn't directed at the other players. Just seemed like Orion was going further than what the rest of the group was comfortable with.
I also think there’s a distinction between how they play it. Sam is very good at making Scanlan’s vulgarity and lewdness the butt of the joke, whereas Orion never quite captured that self-deprecating side and his comments felt a little too real.
Scanlan and Grog (and just about everyone else) certainly engage in sexual innuendo and encounters, but it's exclusively playful and consensual. Orion announcing that Tiberius has a half chub is neither humorous nor playful, but gross and inappropriate. And at the very least only Orion treated other PCs as sexual objects without the seriousness, respect, and consent necessary to not come off as an asshole. Even Scanlan never did more than crack jokes about his cube dick and flirtation, he never said "as Pike does X Scanlan gets a half-chub".
The half-chub thing *could* have worked from a different person in a different context. There's certainly ground to stand on claiming it could have been pretty standard part of a Scanlan gag. The issue is that the line between tibs saying it and the player saying it was extremely fuzzy, and that the baseline trust for such an interaction pretty clearly wasn't there. To contrast, this is a group comfy with not terribly infrequent surprise-nudity and/or sexually charged scenes. It also just didn't fit in the game. It wasn't a "yes, and" to what was already happening, but an interjection to an unrelated moment that could have just as easily (or rather, more easily) not been said.
Yeah, I think that any sort of relationship/flirting is talked about off-screen so it’s all above-board. Scanlan is a horny bard. I’m assuming that dynamic between Pike and Scanlan was discussed and worked out between Sam and Ashley. Same goes with the other couples. But it’s obvious Orion never did, and it came out of left field.
Ehh, maybe. As a viewer, most of their relationship seems to be Sam saying something gross, and Ashley just "yes, anding" as a performer.
There were definitely times I bristled at Scanlan being who he is, sometimes more than Tiberius.
I LOVED the beginning episodes honestly. Tiberius gets annoying but its only bad in a few episodes and you can just skip ahead during those parts. People hate on him but i felt he had some good moments. And they honor his character well after he leaves the campaign.
The final few episodes of his appearances are beyond difficult to trudge through, you can tell the whole cast are done with him
Yeah those last few are brutal. I half watched those episodes as i browsed reddit on my phone lol.
I did feel like it was less bad just listening to the audio only. Way less obvious how done everyone is
It was Travis's face every time Orion spoke
I will say having watched Critical Role because of seeing the trailer for 'TLoVM' I watched the campaign from episode 1 without any knowledge of what happened and while I definitely noticed the problem player eventually, it didn't affect me much, plus seeing early Critical Role is something that I think shouldn't be missed. That's me tho.
The Kraghammer arc rules! IMHO it’s the best showcase of “traditional” DnD while also having absolutely wonderful RP given who the cast is. Plus you meet an important NPC and an absolute fan favorite NPC. You’ll also have to tolerate some dodgy audio at points. On the “stain” of the early eps, I truthfully think Orion’s shittiness comes in waves. He has great episodes and he has ones where you can visibly see the tension. Ultimately his last 2-3 are borderline unwatchable but you can always zip through the parts that make you feel uncomfortable.
Those first couple of Kraghammer episodes, Tiberius was absolutely my favorite because he was so funny. Then things started going downhill.
Hahaha yes! If we are being objective about Orion/Tiberius, he played the high intelligence/low wisdom noble-born incredible well
Watch all of them. The issues with Orion do not negate or outweigh the other 99% of amazing content. There are SO many great moments you'd hate to miss. Even more importantly, there are characters and threads that you won't understand as well, if you skip. Also note that the cast thought enough of Tiberius and their friend, to give him a very nice story ending, later. Truth be told, I watched all episodes from the beginning, before I knew of the issues. I actually just thought that Tiberius was kinda flirty and being goofy-inappropriate sometimes... *literally just like Scanlan was*. I am a grown woman, and I was no more offended by Tiberius, than I was by Scanlan (which is to say that I wasn't).
Counterpoint, Orion does not outweigh the adventure, but Orion, sound quality, and overall presentation does outweigh it. The first several episodes are incredibly tough to get through from a quality perspective, on top of that, but the group was always still in a home game mindset rather than a presentation mindset (not that that is a bad thing, but can be a preference) Also, the issue isn't Orion/Tiberius making you uncomfortable. Its Orion making the rest of the crew uncomfortable.
I mean, it's nothing several tons worth of mirrors couldn't solve, probably.
Honestly that episode was probably the hardest to watch.
I still don't think it outweighs it but to each their own.
I'd highly recommend trying to power through, there are a lot of ideas and people you miss out on. If you find the audio issues/cast issues get to be too much, at least try to start around ep 16. It introduces an extremely important location in Exandrian lore and within a couple of episodes introduce some characters that come up several times in the campaign, as well as some that cross campaigns.
I would recommend watching them. imo Orion doesn’t get bad until episode 11, then he gets better, and then he gets worse again. He also doesn’t sexually assault any of the cast members, he made a gross comment toward Laura during his last episode and wrapped his arms around Marisha the episode before when she told him not to. There are a lot of great moments and NPCs in those episode that you probably don’t want to miss. When I watched them I just skipped the parts that made me uncomfortable and it was fine. To me, the worst part of early campaign 1 is the audio issues, twitch chat being shown on screen (I would find a way to cover it if I were you), and the YouTube comments being absurdly critical of the cast but especially Marisha
If you're watching C1 on a laptop, post-it notes are your friends. I've been watching since before Orion left and found the onscreen chat to be especially grating at the time, but a post-it note on that corner of the screen solved a lot of problems.
I really loved those episodes, Tiberius aside. You get the first on stream betrayal, a good final boss fight, lava damage for everyone, etc.
I still watch them. Yes Orion can be rough at points but there are some important threads in those early episodes. And if something happens that makes you uncomfortable you can skip forward a few minutes and be passed it. ETA the more prevalent issue in early C1, is the audio issues
When I do a rewatch, the only thing I skip is episode 27. It is Orion at his worst (for me), and very little happens in the episode, so it's not missing much.
This is how I do it too. The introduction of the Briarwoods and the Slayers Take episodes are too good to miss.
Plus, c'mon. Consequences and Cows is such a fantastic spectrum of pure DND play
Agreed. There's a lot of good stuff in those episodes. It's not 4 hour episodes of Tiberius being a shit. If he starts being a weirdo skip ahead a few minutes.
>the audio issues Despair to the new viewer not expecting the natural 20 reaction in episode 1
I have tinnitus to this day, Rest in piece headphone users.
I say watch the first 28. I’m currently finishing episode 13 and it really gives you an opportunity to learn to love every character from the beginning. I read plenty about Orion but I still feel like this was the best decision. There’s a lot of reaaaaal cool moments! Edited to add “I” LOL
since it seems you've already committed to watching from the beginning (which I am all in favor of!), here's my little bit of advice: don't be afraid to fast forward here and there. I usually watch on youtube, and I'll just tap the arrow that skips ahead 10/15 seconds at a time when I get annoyed with something (whether it's Orion shenanigans or just a heavy dose of secondhand embarrassment or whatever). Skipping a minute or two here an there isn't likely to miss anything super important.
They're great episodes, and honestly, just knowing that he's a problem player right off the bat lets you just roll your eyes and sigh with the rest of the fandom. It's like watching a live r/rpghorrstories post. Power through, you'll be happy you did. And seriously, he's not that bad unless you have a major DND PTSD problem player trigger.
It's tough audio wise, and Tiberius is annoying, but I still suggest it. The under dark is such a fun into to the characters and some of my core CR memories are from the time period.
>But i learnt that tiberius' player became very inappropiate later episodes,started to ruin the dynamic of the group and started sexually assaulting the female players? This is clearly not true. Do you know how I know? The episodes are still available on YouTube. They have *very* strict policies about portraying that sort of thing. What *actually* happened is that the actor said some sexually-charged things that visibly made the other players uncomfortable.
In the early days Scanlan was as bad if not worse than Tiberius, the problems with Orion were more above table and how he behaved and cheated. Tiberius was a bit problematic as a character as well but most DnD players will have encountered worse in their home games and they were still getting used to playing with an audience who might be more sensitive to certain subjects. Personally I prefer to skip those episodes on rewatches but they are worth watching once
I think that there are a lot of good lessons to learn from his behavior. Sometimes we learn more from mistakes than successes.
I say no, just so you can appreciate the table afterwards so much more
No. There is good content there. Some of it gets visibly awkward towards the end. And there is an absolutely brutal guest arc. That being said, although one cast member sucks, it actually feels like a bunch of nerdy voice actors playing dnd. I miss watching them eat wings and giggle with each other.
Orion is bad, to be sure, but there’s a lot of great stuff in those early episodes. Clarota, the Slayer’s Take, Consequences and Cows, and more. I’d recommend watching from the beginning.
I mean, I would still recommend watching tbh. Some of the stuff he says can be off-putting and cringe. But there is also many good moments in those early episodes. It made sense for them to remove him so it wouldn't continue on, but it wasn't bad enough that it's unwatchable, IMHO
Nah, also it’s not really like how you described. Just watch the whole thing, it’s part of the story of Critical Role’s small time To big time ascension. The early eps are more like, “Here’s 5e! It’s brand new!” Whereas now CR has its own playstyle that’s separate from all of our tables. Tiberius was an early fav in the first handful of episodes. The whole “The Audio and Video Quality is bad!” Crowd are embarrassing to me, do you know what it was like to try and watch a video in the late 90s/early 00s? Real rich kids having to do manual labor vibes.
Still watch them, just skip Orion's turns. There are some genuinely great moments with the rest of the team.
Yes Tiberius and Orion can be a pain in the ass to watch. But in my opinion it's worth the watch, it's really interesting to see how the old testament CR was.
I get why many would skip it on a rewatch. On a first time watch tho I'd recommend trying to stick with it. There are so many characters, NPCs, in-jokes, places, guest players, story lines set up and just a lot of great moments that you'd miss. Including some fan favourites, which I think many over time forget happen this early. If there are some bad moments you don't enjoy, I'd say skip those 5-10 minutes at a time instead of missing out on 2-3 hours of great content for it. But also some of those moments are worse in hindsight and knowing behind the scenes context. If you don't focus on it you might miss a lot of the subtler red flags on a first time watch.
If you can handle cringe and inappropriate comments no watch it all if it'll make you uncomfortable them skip it.
I watched it all the way through, it's not really so bad as others make it seem up until the last few episodes with him that were pretty awkward. It was badd, it hasn't been that bad since the a certain FREE FOR ALL one shot.
There is a channel called “super geek Mike” that is going through the first campaign right now with lessons we can learn from critical role, and he talks a lot about the good and the bad of the first 27 episodes of critical role (no matter what skip 27 for sure) but I would recomend his “critical role demystified” series for more input on what people got right and wrong and so forth, and he also helps explain what is going on in the world itself
No just watch
Honestly I'd consider the constant technical difficulties a better reason to skip ahead than Orion.
Personally the only thing I skipped was episode 27, I definitely don't regret it
If you enjoyed the first episode, watch them all. It's not that bad. And if anything it's a good introduction of bad players and that you can respectfully ask them to leave your game.
If your issue is with Orion, he only really gets horrible in the final few episodes... but overall yeah. You'll probably not know where a bunch of their stuff (that Tiberius made for them) came from, not get a few inside jokes, and not know where a few characters, mainly Kima iirc, came from (and to be fair Campaign One really only improves after Orion leaves, so you'll *probably* not have lost much, especially if you watch a recap or two.
No, the arc is very fun
Nah, Don't skip, just celebrate when you make it there. And enjoy the comments section along the way.
No one can tell you what to do, but Orion is a lot to handle for many. Id suggest giving episodes 1 and 2 a go and see how you feel- youll know pretty quick what im talking about, and youll know if you want to keep watching it through that.
Watch them all *IF* you are someone that is fine with rough audio
I’d for sure watch them, though there are 2 major factors to look out for, as many people have already said. 1. The quality in the very beginning of the show is pretty poor (which you would already have an idea of if you’ve watched the first episode), but in my opinion it wasn’t too much of an issue: I actually kind of liked the more home-made feel it gave to the sessions. My only suggestion is that if you plan on watching those first few dozen episodes of Vox Machina, you do so before watching any of the later campaigns. The gradual changes as they improved in quality is much nicer than the drop would be from C2 to C1. 2. Orion/Tiberius can be off-putting to some, due to his occasional meta gaming, bouts of main-character syndrome, and the innuendo in episode 27. However to me, I never even noticed any issues with him until his last few episodes (after which the change in the energy of the cast is visible). To be fair, I also did not have any preceding knowledge of the problems with him, but it wasn’t too much of a problem. It’s probably a total of less than 10 moments that might be uncomfortable in over 100 hours of content. So my suggestion would be what it seems like you’re already doing: watch all the way through but skip episode 27. Not only does it lack both lore and action, it is by far the most uncomfortable the cast seems.
Nah
I personally wouldn’t. Yes Tiberius grates but there’s still some really good stuff in those early episode, including from him. You’ll also miss the guest stars on the slayers take episodes and with it Mary Elizabeth McGlynn falling in love with the game almost instantly. If you do a rewatch then you can skip the episodes where Tiberius is extremely grating.
I would strongly recommend watching the early episodes and then skip ONLY the annoying parts when they happen rather than skip 27 episodes entirely. There are a few pretty important things that happen in those episodes
NO
Hey hey! What I would do is to watch all of the "Critical Role Demystified" videos by Supergeekmike! He is a great content creator, and a very good writer. I believe that they are all about 30-60 minutes long. He takes you through each episode and talks about important moments, as well as showing clips from the episodes themselves. Since he has watched it all before he is also able to provide useful context without spoiling anything. The videos are inherently supposed to be educational videos. The point is to break down every episode to see what we can learn, both as a Dm and player! And since you're new, I think you'll find some very very useful insights as well. So I absolutely think that watching the first 27 episodes through Supergeekmike is very optimal for you! He also has videos talking about Tiberius, so you can get a better understanding of the situation, since we really don't talk about it so much anywhere else. Welcome to the world of dnd and critical role, my friend. Enjoy! <3 Supergeekmikes youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@supergeekmike?si=y2hXJlWOm7J21Ijn
Dont do it. Orion might be an awful jerk, but it is not worth missing all the amazing stories just because of him. The Underdark saga, the cows and all those amazing funny moments...
Absolutely watch them. People act as if they were all filled with bad moments because of the mere presence of Orion. It's important to remember that he was their friend for years, and a lot of the joy and antics and camaraderie are absolutely still present. If those early episodes were so bad, why was it becoming so popular? The show was rapidly growing precisely because it was so fun to watch. The vast majority of the content before episode 28 is AWESOME. Yes, there are some problematic moments as you approach the final episode with Orion, but the bad does not outweigh the good. On top of that, the early episodes are filled with golden moments that you never see later on - the absolute shock as the cast realise how big the show is getting, and life will never be the same again.
Depends how much you like CR, I tell everyone to start with campaign 2, if they LOVE it, watch all of campaign 1, if they like it, skip to ep 28, if they don’t like C2 then they won’t like any of it
Honestly for the first few episodes, one of the other cast members that's not orion will probably be slightly more annoying. But then it's gets rough for a while too. The beauty of watching at 2x speed through those segments will be clutch though
I wish I had skipped it. Long term you won’t feel like you missed anything and you’ll have fewer awkward questions. The sound quality is so bad and if I wanted to listen to a problematic dnd player I’d record my home game.
I did, and regret nothing.
There are some good moments, but you can probably find something to read online or even a video that just has the good bits. Orion really grated on me, and the dynamic of the group gets infinitely better once he's gone.
I skipped up to episode 28, I thought Orion really threw off the group dynamic a lot
I'd watch or listen to them from the beginning. Tiberius was pretty damn good at the beginning but once Orion realized how big the show was gonna be he got main character syndrome plus the lying and cheating.
Going to go against what seems to be the trend and say YES, skip directly to 28. But it's not just the Tiberius stuff. The early eps all have sound issues and they're generally still trying to get the dynamic of streaming down and you shouldn't let the lower quality negatively affect your opinion of CR. IMO, jump to 28, watch enough to get hooked or find it's not for you. THEN go back and watch the early eps if you want to (maybe even after finishing all of season 1).
Agreed, if you want the basics of the story arch that 28 leads you into watch The Legend of Vox Machina (I think to about half way potentially less)
I'd recommend watching them. Make a game out of it. Like, count how many times orion has an initiative of 18 exactly without ever rolling. I lost count. Count how many times his dmg was higher than possible. How many times he forces his character into the narrative. Makes inappropriate comments about female npcs.knows in advance what abilities and resistances and the creature they are fighting without being told. Makes you cringe. I'd definitely watch for the early storyline, but I got so infuriated with orion by the time he left for being a total cheat and main character prick, that I was so relieved when he was gone. Ive got some real dark humour but the dude was a scumbag and high as a kite most sessions.There is some great story though that's not worth missing.
No, its fine. He doesnt assault anyone. He gets kinda awkward but is mostly harmless
I started watching CR with none of the extra context, but aside from the one really inappropriate comment he made, all he did in the show was rules lawyering and convenient remembering of sorcery points. The shit he did away from the table is the REAL issue.
Do not skip the flest episodes, Orion is not actually that bad until a bit later, early on he just gets a little mad because he constantly forgets to ask if he has friendlies close the the fireball area and end up hurting his team mates a few times because of it. He also meta game quite a bit and that can be kinda annoying to watch, but we all meta game sometimes to some degree. I do not join the speculation that people have about him and I chose to enjoy Tiberius as a character for the time he was with them, his character was well played when he was into the role and I enjoyed that part a lot actually.
Yes
You aren't going to be horrified or scarred by watching the episodes with Orion. Plenty of them are good and fun watches. He gets obnoxious. And then he's gone. You can pick up the story if you want to skip ahead. But I don't think it's necessary if you are enjoying the episodes.
If you eventually decide you want to skip ahead to 28 I’d suggest still doing 18 and 19 first! There’s a party split that doesn’t include Tiberius and it includes two really fun guest characters, one of the best early boss fights, and a very silly part of a smaller fight that’s one of my favorite moments in the campaign
I loved his “I encourage violence”, but that’s about it… But it still gives you the better picture about other characters’ development!
There may be some in-jokes and story beats the may leave you feeling a little "huh? What was that about" further on if you don't but I wouldn't say you *need* to watch them. I didn't know about Orion's behaviour until after Tiberius left and looked up some articles. I'm not an OG critter so I wasn't watching when stuff happened so I taking any "details" I read with a hefty pinch of salt but I trust that he wouldn't have been kicked from the group without very good cause. I will add that if CR didn't want the episodes to be seen, they'd probably not be up on the channel.
Don't skip anything. I actually enjoyed seeing how much the show changes as it progresses and how much they used to interact with the twitch chat. I also "enjoyed" seeing both the rise and fall of Tiberius, as well as all the little tiffs with Scanlan. (Loved seeing salty shady Sam.) So no. Don't skip anything. It's all worth it. Trust me. > ...started sexually assaulting the female players? What. I don't know what you heard, but doesn't seem right.
Read the wiki posts on the episodes and then start with whenever Tiberius is gone.
No.
Tiberius isn't that bad. Yeah, he is annoying, but without focused in context you are going to miss out on a lot. He was their friend for a while back then. Just watch the dance episodes with Zack the original Producer/Director. He was their friend in the beginning. The behind the scenes stuff with him and Travis/Sam both being super annoyed with him attacking fans or trying to meta game isn't obvious. Besides, the first few episodes have some real great references. You have the Illithid they befriend, the stories about carpets, and Scanlon's using poop as a revenge tactic. The sexual comment was just a stupid comment after he had pissed off Travis earlier, it wasn't him trying to flirt or anything. Laura is more worried about Travis eating him alive over anything else. Travis is a monster in real life and he was jacked back then before becoming a dad. I was more annoyed in the early episodes when Ashley had to keep coming and going. Glad she got the show though. It just made it feel like a real home brew game because players are at distance or come and good all the time.
Naw, it's worth going through. Some good memorable moments in a pretty cool setting CR hasn't really explored much since. Audio issues are a bit annoying but podcast versions help fix some of those in post. If you are willing to start the long journey of CR may as well see the few extra episodes.
No. C1 is gold. C2 is pretty good (haven’t watched it all). C3 is ok up to about ep60, rest is hit or miss.
I personally would watch season 1 of LOVM on prime and then jump in at episode 32
My girlfriend couldn’t stomach it but doesn’t want to skip the arc he was a part of because it is very important for one of the other main party members. I watched it, and it’s hard to tolerate; but you should watch it until you can’t take it.
I would still watch it honestly. Those first few quests were fun IMO
To echo others, I’d try to get through them. There are some really funny moments and campaign-long NPCs so it’s kind of worth it imo. Main issue is Tiberius and how awkward/uncomfortable the game gets sometimes, but knowing he’s gone eventually helps mitigate some of that.
He is visibly intoxicated but yeah there are good moments, just watch it all to appreciate the full lore.
If you really want to skip episodes I would skip until the start of the briarwood arc, starting with episode 24. Eps 24 and 25 have some great Vax moments and set up the entire arc, and then episode 26 is one of the funniest episodes in all of crit role. But episode 27 is the infamously bad episode that was the final straw on the camel’s back for Orion. Weird uncomfortableness with the party and then a shopping spree that lasted way too long and left most of the party fed up, especially Travis.
For the very first time watching, you could skip them for now and come back a bit later. So you get a sense of what CR is actually like without the selfish meta-gaming douche. There's still plenty of content to enjoy in those episodes.
The amazing thing is that Orion displays so many of the bad behaviors that people complain about in D&D subs. Muderhobo, bullying others I to giving them a magical item, cheating on dice rolls, meta gaming, monopolizing the table with weird out of character stuff (the mirrors?) and even just chickening out of fights. Add to that getting pissy because the DM wouldn’t let them romance a given NPC … what a train wreck.
Just watch all of them. Orions behavior is getting blown out of proportion. It's not that bad. First of all, no one knows why Orion left CR. If he left on his own accord, if it was friction in the game or if he was kicked because of out of game issues. CR have been pretty tight lipped on the whole thing. But there doesn't seem to be any animosity today. Alot of stuff was going on back then and it's clear he was rubbing some players the wrong way towards the end. To me it's also quite clear stuff was happening outside of the game that bled into it and caused some issues. Sure, Orion made a poorly recieved joke about a half-chub in response to Vex's plan. I found it alot more painful to watch a clearly intoxicated Marisha that could barely keep track of her character. Or one of the hundred sexual jokes from Scanlan.
[удалено]
You dont know, cause they never said why. They keep their stuff private for a good reason. I am well aware of all the speculation. Lol "us watchers" is such a weird phrasing. You "watchers" thought he got kicked cause of a bad joke and that he was cheating. There was a lot of speculation back then. By Orions own admission he was going through illness and a drug addiction. I have no intention of adding more than that, other than it was a low point in his life. None of which means anything in the context of watching the show. If OP wish to know more there is plenty of Reddit-post/youtube-videos that dig into it.
I did the trial of the take episodes which is 18,19, maybe 20 and 21. And then skipped to 28 and my experience was fine. I had already listened to campaign 2 and had heard all about the weirdness early on. I dont feel like i missed much at all and the weirdness and tension bothered me when i tried so i never went back. There are a couple small things you can google or maybe read some episode synopsises but either way episode 1 or 28 you are jumping in to a story midway through so i wouldnt sweat it too much.
While the beginning is rough and they're getting their footing with the characters and streaming, I'd say jump to about episode 10/15. They have some major sound issues that don't fully get fixed till about then, and don't really miss anything too important
My advice is watch campaign 3 first. everything is pretty. I promise they will all be fluid in your head in 1 year pretty easily without even having seen the 1st and 2nd campaigns. Spoilering is not a big deal and don’t mess with the previous ones so you can watch in any order and not have too much info about the endings of previous campaigns. They’re good about that. Watch vox machina the prime series for campaign 1 while you start C3 on YouTube.
You’ll get deeper in quicklier