Critical Role campaign three

The third campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role premiered on October 21, 2021 and concluded on February 6, 2025; it is set after the conclusion of the second campaign and Exandria Unlimited. The series stars Marisha Ray, Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Liam O'Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, and Sam Riegel as the players with Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master. Campaign three aired each Thursday at 7 p.m. PT on Critical Role Productions' Twitch and YouTube channels and the Beacon streaming service except for the last Thursday of each month.

The campaign is an actual play which follows the Bells Hells, a party of adventurers who met on the continent of Marquet. The campaign begins two months before the Apogee Solstice, a celestial event which influences the ley lines of Exandria and magnifies magical abilities. The party gets drawn into the mystery surrounding Exandria's second moon Ruidus and the superstitions around the Ruidusborn, people born during spontaneous flares of the red moon. They eventually discover that the gods crafted Ruidus to imprison an ancient evil known as Predathos and that the Ruby Vanguard – founded and led by Martinet Ludinus Da'leth – seek to free this entity during the Apogee Solstice. The Bells Hells attempted to prevent this by targeting the Malleus Keys, magical devices built by the Ruby Vanguard to aid their ritual. The party interferes with the ritual preventing the release. Afterwards, Ruidus is locked in place over the Hellcatch Valley Malleus Key which allows people to travel between the moon and Exandria. The Exandrian Accord brought together nations and factions from across the world to form a military alliance in opposition to the forces of Ruidus; Bells Hells, along with the adventuring parties Vox Machina and Mighty Nein, lend their aid as coordinated strike teams against various Ruidian targets.

Campaign 3 has maintained the previous Campaign 2 main cast members, consisting of seven players and the Dungeon Master. The characters met in the city of Jrusar and later named their adventuring party the Bells Hells after a fallen member. Some of the cast played as mortal incarnations of the Prime Deities during the Downfall special. During the later part of the campaign, the cast also reprised as their Vox Machina and Mighty Nein characters from Critical Role's previous campaigns.

Additionally, the following guests have made appearances:

The story takes place roughly 10 years after the events of the second campaign, shortly after the events of the limited series Exandria Unlimited. It is set on the continent of Marquet, which was briefly visited during the Vox Machina campaign. SyFy Wire highlighted that Marquet is "home to massive deserts, mountains, and even a volcano" and that it is "uncharted territory for the series".

Multiple characters in this campaign are returning characters. Dorian, Orym, and Fearne premiered in Exandria Unlimited while Bertrand premiered in the one-shot "Search For Grog". Mercer noted that both Johnson and O'Brien brought character concepts they were toying with for Campaign 3 over to Exandria Unlimited, where they had the chance to develop them with Aabria Iyengar. There was no expectation to carry the characters over to Campaign 3, but the two players enjoyed the characters so much, they decided to keep using them moving forward. Daymond was brought in a special guest to help carry them forward over into Campaign 3. Willingham's second character, Chetney, was inspired by a character he had previously played in the non-canon one-shot "The Night Before Critmas". Additionally, Mercer has brought back several player characters from previous campaigns as NPCs such as Vox Machina's Keyleth and Pike and The Mighty Nein's Caleb and Beau.

The format is largely unchanged from the second campaign, with videos of the cast and any battlemaps presented in 3-5-hour episodes. Technical changes introduced during the second campaign such as subtitles, character information and pre-recording were maintained. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show had broadcast live, but has been pre-recorded since Campaign Two Episode 100. A new set, designed by professional amusement park designers Shaun Ellis and Polly Hodges, was built for the third campaign. The cast are no longer divided into socially distanced individual tables, but returned instead to a common table as had been the case prior to the pandemic. The campaign featured "enhanced set designs, music, lighting and effects, along with improved sound (each actor will have an individual mic)."

The show aired each Thursday at 19:00 PT on Critical Role's Twitch and YouTube channels. In a change from the previous campaign, campaign three of Critical Role did not air new episodes on the last Thursday of every month; instead, other content by the studio aired in its time slot. The third campaign's premiere was simulcast live in Cinemark Theatres along with the regular Twitch and YouTube livestream. Similarly, the 17th episode of the third campaign was simulcast in Cinemark Theatres, Landmark Theatres, and Cinépolis alongside the regular livestream as part of their 7th anniversary celebration. The campaign went on hiatus from the end of May 2022 until June 30, 2022 (during which Exandria Unlimited: Calamity aired). In May 2024, Critical Role announced that Episode 98 will be filmed live at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 15 before airing on June 20, 2024. Brennan Lee Mulligan hosted a Q&A before the live show.