[No Spoilers] Guide to watching campaign 2 for new viewers wanting to skip or trim some episodes to save viewing time. Covers 1-60 of campaign 2.
Hello all, I just caught up with the show this week. As a new critter as of almost 2 months ago, I started with campaign 2 and watched the entirety of each episode up to and including episode 60 (my first live episode on twitch).
I had the idea to make this guide once I was finished as I was passing on information to the rest of my family about what episodes could be skipped. Last night they watched episode 60 with me live and knew all the relevant backstory leading up to it.
So, without further ado, here is my guide.
Episodes 1-4 Watch. Intro to the characters and their first mini story as a team. Episodes 2 and 4 could be skipped if you don't much care about the process or the resolution of that first story and the RP that goes along with it. Beau's individual story starts in episode 4 after the break if you just want to watch that.
Episode 5 Watch. Important for Fjord's story as well as a good episode in general.
Episode 6 watch. Interesting stuff and some solid teamwork.
Episode 7 must watch. The episode that really sold me on the show and made me addicted enough to suffer through some of the episodes I will mention later. Do not skip this episode!
Episode 8 watch. There are some parts that drag in this one but there are also some great moments too and you would miss out on later interactions and references if you skipped this one.
Episode 9 Skip, watch if you care about setup for their upcoming quests. It's mostly town-wandering. Some great moments but I'd say this is the first truly skippable episode.
Episode 10 watch If you care about combat more than RP. Skip if the other way around and watch 9 instead.
Episode 11 Skippety skip skip unless you really love RP and wandering around. More skippable of an episode than 9.
Episode 12 Must Watch. Contender for my favorite episode of the entire campaign. Love this one.
Ep. 13 Watch I guess. Some pretty important RP but also some of the most cringe moments. Skip if you want to avoid carrying a grudge against some of the characters/cast that might never leave you for the entire campaign. Watch if you can handle the drama. This episode really should be watched but your mileage may vary.
Ep 14. Watch. A bit of a dragger but some stuff gets resolved and other things get started. You could skip but you'd be missing a fair bit of context for the next things that happen.
Ep. 15 Watch.
Ep. 16 Watch. Second half can be skipped if you so choose.
Ep 17. Watch. Some people might say you could skip the first half of the episode but personally I really enjoyed that half too.
Ep 18 Definitely watch. Important stuff happens that sets up the story for the rest of the campaign, both on an interpersonal level and a macro level for the game world.
Ep. 19 Probably watch but maybe skip depending on how you're feeling up to this point. Things are both setup at the start and done later but none of it is crucial to the long term. You could get the gist from the start of the next episode probably. Some interesting RP near the end of the episode.
Ep. 20 First half can be skipped if you don't care about low stakes combats. Entire episode can be skipped if you're doing a speed run. Maybe catch the last 30 mins if you want your bearings going into the next episode.
Ep. 21 Watch. Great guest, and while their overall arc thing is more of a sidequest, this is still a great episode. Cringe RP warning though, again, this one might make you dislike certain characters or cast members and it might stick with you. Even if you struggle with such things, this one probably still shouldn't be skipped.
Ep. 22. Watch. Some important story here.
Ep 23. Can be skipped. In particular the 2nd half. Some good moments but if you're feeling restless, skip.
Ep. 24 Can be skipped especially if you don't really care about the details of hupperdook. Some intrigue but nothing really too important.
Ep. 25 Watch if you want the most important Hupperdook episode, but if you don't care about Hupper, skip this too.
Ep. 26 You kinda have to watch this one, but it's one of my least favorite episodes. Your mileage may vary. Like any "bad" episode in this series, it still has some great moments.
Ep. 27 Watch, probably. Not super important but it has some important stuff. It's mostly a preparation kind of episode though so if you're speed running, skip this one.
Ep. 28 & 29. Watch both. Some audio issues during ep 29, but still an important episode.
Ep 30. Important RP moments thoughout the episode but still skippable if you're speeding.
Ep 31. Meh. Some people LOVED this episode, especially the 2nd half. Personally I'm not big on the choose your own adventure town episodes, even when they're doing things. If you're more into it for the core story, this one can be skipped. I personally would skip this one.
Ep 32. Skippable, but this episode had Talesin in his finest form so maybe you want to see that because it's pretty good stuff. Skip if you dislike episodes where they are on the road.
Ep. 33. Zzzzzz.... Skip! Just watch from like... 2:30:00-2:40:00 Seriously though, this episode I found intensely boring.
Ep. 34. Unless you're enraptured, skip to the 2nd half of the episode.
Ep. 35. Watch, unless you're skipping this entire chunk.
Note on Ep 35-49. This entire chunk can be skipped without seriously hurting your involvement in the show. There are a few great episodes in here, but this chunk of episodes almost turned my wife and I off of the show entirely. A number of episodes have an awkward tension, and there are also a lot of episodes where there just isn't that much going on. If you only want to skip the awkward parts, you could pick it back up at the second half of episode 42.
Ep. 36. Very skippable. Just boat stuff.
Ep. 37. Pretty important to the plot but I'd still probably skip. Pick up after the break if you want to know what's going on but it does have some negative RP moments and does drag a bit. Was also a live episode and had large issues with audio quality.
Ep. 38. Skippable. Some decent moments but its mostly just setup.
Ep. 39. Watch. Great episode, lots of good stuff here.
Ep. 40. Continuation of 39 and should be watched. Really good episode including the 2nd half.
Ep. 41. Can be skipped. Nothing important here. Watch if you're big on the interpersonal tension from the situation they're in.
Ep. 42. Your choice. You can watch the whole thing, but if you want to skip, skip the first half. If you want to skip more than that, only watch the last 30 minutes.
Ep. 43. Watch. If you're wanting to skip though this section, at least watch from 20:00-25:00 for one of my favorite bits of the campaign.
Ep. 44. This one was pretty cool. One of the episodes I'd mostly highly recommend for watching during this part of the show. It and 39 are the two I'd recommend most in this section.
Ep. 45. Watch, but be prepared to come away from this episode feeling a bit of a grudge over choices made. Amazing guest in this episode, probably the best one they had. It's either this guest or the one from episode 21. Personally I'd put this one at the top. Moments in it may influence your opinion of characters moving forward. This episode can be skipped if you're speed running as there is nothing crucial to the overall plot.
Ep. 46. I'd skip. Watch the beginning if you want to see some people eat crow with a side of egg on the face. Has one understandable exception, and one frustrating exception. May influence your opinion of characters moving forward.
Ep. 47. Watch if you want a resolution to this shit. Decent episode but nothing particularly special. Can be skipped if you're just feeling done with this whole arc. You could watch up to the break and then skip the rest if you want resolution but are generally impatient with these episodes.
Ep. 48. I personally skipped large chunks of this episode. You should watch the second half I guess. At least watch from 1:50:00 onwards. Parts around 2:00:00-2:20:00 and 3:00:00-3:20:00 may influence your opinion on characters/players moving forward. Do not skip the last 40 minutes of the episode.
Ep. 49. Important RP in first half. 2nd half can be skipped.
Ep. 50. I thought this episode was cool but it is skippable.
Ep. 51. Watch. At least the first half. Personally I'd say watch the whole thing. Definitely watch from at least 50:00-break.
Ep. 52. Watch. If you want to skip, skip the 1st half. The 2nd half has the more important stuff. The first half has some good moments though and personally I was fascinated with this part of the story. I'd say watch the whole thing.
Ep. 53. I'd watch but the first half isn't terribly important. Watch from 2:24:00-end.
Ep. 54. Watch at least the 2nd half. The first half has its moments and it depends on how important Beau as a character is to you as a viewer. If nothing else at least catch 1:10:00-1:30:00 in the first half. Then watch from after the break until the end of the episode.
Ep. 55. Watch the entire thing. I'll know if you didn't!
Ep. 56. Watch 2nd half. You can watch the whole thing if you want to really follow along with the party as the first part is the more direct resolution of what happened in episode 55. The 2nd half is what has the really important stuff though.
Ep. 57. Even though it's just RP, I'd probably recommend watching the whole thing.
Ep. 58. Can be mostly skipped. Some good or important moments. 2:00 (start), watch Ashley in the pre-show stuff. 10:00-50:00 skip. 50:00-1:30:00 watch for relevant stuff. Skip 1:30:00-1:40:00. Watch 1:40:00-break (fun). 2:30:00 watch until they leave then skip to 3:10:00 and watch until the end.
Ep. 59. I'd watch this whole thing. Pretty cool episode.
Ep. 60. Watch the whole thing.
There it is! Some people may have differing opinions on what to watch and skip, but this guide will at least keep you on top of the overall plot and character developments and not miss any really important moments.
Posted Apr 27, 2019, 12:57 AM UTC · edited
Props on the work you put into this, but I'm going to disagree with the concept. Sure, there are episodes of varying quality, but that's just media and story-telling in general.
There is no time limit on the CR story, so my advice to anyone getting into it is to take your time and watch/listen to every episode, otherwise you'll miss out on the many small moments that add up to make CR great and the story-world so rich. Chopping and flipping through a campaign seems to me like what Fox did to Firefly and is bound to lessen the overall experience.
But that's just my 2c, each to their own.
Agreed. This is practically blasphemy. Why do people enjoy robbing themselves of content? If you can sit through half the episodes, you can sit through all of them.
Yeah, totally. I know it's a significant time commitment, but why not just work your way through it at your own pace? Honestly, why try to catch up at all? Once you have you then have the frustration of waiting each week/fortnight for new episodes.
Even in the slow episodes there is gold to be found, and if you chop a lot of that out you're really just there for the major story beats, and that seems counter to the whole philosophy of CR to me. This show is about collaborative story-telling between good friends, and the small moments are just as important as the big ones.
If you had to fast-forward bits I'd say fast-forward through the combats, stopping near the end of each one, but watching all of the really fun ones all the way through. In fact, a list of the best fights in the campaign would be a good idea. Off the top of my head in chronological order: Spoilers >!Kalre, Allfield gnolls, Manticore, kidnap troll, Merrow boss, Molly's demise, Lorenzo's demise, dockside, Blue Dragon, Darktow, Ashkeeper Peaks, Asarius well.!< Sure I missed one or two though.
You can pretty much skip through a lot of the other fights, although there are some other amusing ones - I know a lot of people really got into Spoilers >! the first battle with the drow, the carnival battles, the fight against the construct guardian, Beau's ring fight in Asarius !< and others, although personally I prefer fights where the stakes are very high.
Further to that, people who are thirsting for week-by-week content should make sure to be ready when C3 starts. ;)
I understand your perspective, but this guide was made for the people who look at the length of episodes as well as the total number of them and say "this is way too much content, I can't get into this if I watch the entire thing for every episode!". Hopefully those people can look at a guide like this and be able to save 1/3rd to 1/2 the time they otherwise would've spent.
I know that for a number of people, just knowing they can cut down on some time would make the difference between whether they start watching the show at all, and I want lots of people to experience the joy that is this show.
Fair enough, and I certainly respect the fact you did this for people. I just disagree with the premise... and maybe I'm a purist. If people can't commit to the whole thing maybe they shouldn't be Critters? And in case anyone goes crazy about that comment, I was joking... but only kinda. lmao
That's fine, I mean I obviously watched all of the episodes. This inspiration from this guide came from talking to family members and them needing to filter out episodes in order to start watching the show. They went with my recommendations of what to watch and what can be skipped and now they're caught up to present with only having missed 1/3rd (ish) of the total content.
Edit: it's relevant to mention as well that they love the show and are now tuning in live on Thursdays. I did have a few of them ask me at different times during their viewing to sum things up or to let them know when things picked back up because they were losing steam. I get that for some of us, we don't need a guide like this in order to keep watching, but in my personal experience some people do, and when those people have that guide they end up loving the show, so its worth doing. So here it is.