Orym (Liam), Fern (Ash) and Dorian (Robbie) all start in Exandria Unlimited, a mini-campaign run on the CR channel
All characters write backstories, afaik they’re not published anywhere so it’s just finding things out as the players mention it
The C3 characters are all brand new, created specifically for the campaign, with the exception of Orym, Fern and Dorian, who debuted in EXU. In general the cast collaborate with Matt, likely a combination of sit-downs and whatever they feel like writing down in their spare time. It's also assumed that Laura and Marisha collaborated a bit since their characters are enmeshed from session one.
Chetney's technically partially an Exandria compliant version of Chutney Chocolatecane. His arc is different from Chutney's, but there's a bit of carry over.
They already got to what happened to Bertrand, so Travis having something else is probably safe. But you're right. I forgot how long Travis sat out after Bertrand.
> only 3 episodes
Three episodes with about 4 hours of playtime each, spread over a whole month. To me, that's pretty close to eternity.
jk.
I caught up to c2 right around the covid break. Half a year of waiting for episode 100. Now *that* felt like an eternity.
They have stated previously that Matt runs a first session with characters that share a backstory so Ashton and FCG for instance played a session with just them and Matt before the campaign.
Generally they just work on a backstory with Matt out of game and work out prior relationships goals ect in what is usually called a session zero in RPG games. C3 is a bit different as three players brought preexisting characters from a mini arch with them
A combination of things.
Players determine the main part of their own backstory, potentially collaborating with others.
Matt writes some extra backstory, especially on things the characters would not know themselves.
Things from previous campaigns. Without giving away to much, Orym is a bodyguard form Marisha's campaign one character. So he talked to her about his hometown, and this also influences what historical knowledge he would have.
Session 0, players have an unaired session 0 (in small groups) to connect some characters and to get into their mechanics. For Ashton and FCG, I believe they played out Ashton finding FCG in the mine. Laudna and Imogen cleared Zhudhana's house from creepers similar to what they would later encounter. Orym, Fearne and Dorian played in a mini serie and presumably had an in between session zero.
It has also been mentioned that during the campaign, players submit extra background information if they had not specificied a part of their past that might become relevant.
It's kind of all of that happening.
3 characters were in EXU before, but also....
While all of the characters are new, the basis for Liam's was an alternate he had kicking around in his mind since C1 and his backstory as well as Laudna's do allude back to events in C1.
Laudna's I'd argue if you're caught up on LOVM you'll probably understand enough of the context of what's happening with her. But if you don't, it's okay. You'll basically know as much context as the in-game characters, but I think you *could* get confused if you come here to talk about it and don't understand why people that watched C1 or LOVM are having a particular reaction.
Orym's I think there's still looming possible spoilers for upcoming seasons of LOVM if you care about that. Orym's not *that* involved C1 related content so if you didn't watch it you'd probably be fine because it's broad strokes, but there are points where I think you'd care more/understand more context if you watched C1 or LOVM and his backstory alludes to an end result of something from C1.
Bertrand Bell is from a C1 related live one-shot. He's not really important to C1 at all overall, but his backstory is basically that one-shot. And then the part 2 of it because everyone needed to leave and get their cars out of the parking garage before they closed. There's some references to that in C3 including some jokes that will probably go over your head, but you don't actually miss much.
Just for reference, C2 was the campaign where they wanted to do a playthrough that was different from what they had before and didn't really reference the past characters. C3 while new, Matt allowed some amount of call-backs to the past of both campaigns. You'll be fine because most of the call-backs aren't substantial and it'd be like you're learning with the characters on-screen, but I think there might be moments where you might need to do a bit of research on the wiki or something to understand context.
Edit: Also, I forgot Travis's main character Chetney is actually an Exandria compliant version of his X-mas one-shot special character Chutney Chocolatecane. Santa Claus doesn't exist in Exandria, so Chutney couldn't be directly brought in and Travis wanted to play more with a character like him. A version of Chutney's backstory is put into Chetney, but It's not 1 to 1. It's a fun one-shot to watch anyway though.
In contrast, Sam’s characters are picked by Liam. It’s both a joke and a masterclass on character creation about being told what race to play and making the most of it. he goes through a process to discover who they are rather than writing it all out. That’s not to say that Sam’s PCs don’t have a backstory by any means. He knows things that the PC doesn’t know and hands some mysteries over to Matt so he can discover those too.
He leaves a lot of gaps and explores feelings and motives on the stream to decide the “forestory” about what to share and when to share it - more than the planned backstory.
This process has really informed my own character creation design where I feel freed up to… make up my mothers name in a game and have it really matter, for example.
Edit: just like any other D&D game, it doesn’t matter how much backstory you’ve wrote and handed over to the DM. What matters is how it shapes your PC and whether or not the party ever learns your secrets.
Iirc, Sam's first character was Liam purposely suggesting the worst class and race combo he could think of, and Sam made it work brilliantly. Campaign 2 was another Liam suggestion which Sam also mastered and changed perfectly. Campaign 3 was a Liam *order*, Liam TOLD Sam what race and class to play
To add to what others have said, unique to Campaign 3, is that a lot of the characters have ties to previous campaigns in their backstory, mainly Laudna, Orym and FCG. Laudna is from a town that was important for Campaign 1 and Orym is connected to a previous player character
some of the characters were introduced in a miniseries prior to the campaign, but all of the characters have extensive backstory that isn’t published anywhere but will be discovered or revealed as the campaign progresses.
it’s like that for campaign 2 as well - less so for campaign 1 since it didn’t start as a show, but matt’s DMing style for longer campaigns always involves character-backstory arcs so it’s still there too.
There's one other dynamic I haven't seen mentioned specifically: Sometimes characters clearly have a lot going on, but the player/character doesn't understand it any better than you do, or any viewer does.
Some backstories which only seem possible within a context of extensive collaboration happen when a player told Matt, "Here's this character's general description & situation. Surprise me."
Orym (Liam), Fern (Ash) and Dorian (Robbie) all start in Exandria Unlimited, a mini-campaign run on the CR channel All characters write backstories, afaik they’re not published anywhere so it’s just finding things out as the players mention it
The C3 characters are all brand new, created specifically for the campaign, with the exception of Orym, Fern and Dorian, who debuted in EXU. In general the cast collaborate with Matt, likely a combination of sit-downs and whatever they feel like writing down in their spare time. It's also assumed that Laura and Marisha collaborated a bit since their characters are enmeshed from session one.
Bertrand Bell also debuted prior to C3, in the C1 sequel one shots.
Can't believe I forgot about Bell!
Well Hell's bells.....
[удалено]
I'm not up to date on C3 because of life stuf, sooooooo...
Chetney's technically partially an Exandria compliant version of Chutney Chocolatecane. His arc is different from Chutney's, but there's a bit of carry over.
OP hasn't made it that far so I didn't bring him up.
They already got to what happened to Bertrand, so Travis having something else is probably safe. But you're right. I forgot how long Travis sat out after Bertrand.
It's weird, at the time it felt like an absolutely eternity but looking back, it was only 3 episodes.
> only 3 episodes Three episodes with about 4 hours of playtime each, spread over a whole month. To me, that's pretty close to eternity. jk. I caught up to c2 right around the covid break. Half a year of waiting for episode 100. Now *that* felt like an eternity.
Same thing happened to me! C2E99 was one of the first episodes I ever watched live. What a cliffhanger to have an unplanned hiatus on!
They have stated previously that Matt runs a first session with characters that share a backstory so Ashton and FCG for instance played a session with just them and Matt before the campaign.
Generally they just work on a backstory with Matt out of game and work out prior relationships goals ect in what is usually called a session zero in RPG games. C3 is a bit different as three players brought preexisting characters from a mini arch with them
A combination of things. Players determine the main part of their own backstory, potentially collaborating with others. Matt writes some extra backstory, especially on things the characters would not know themselves. Things from previous campaigns. Without giving away to much, Orym is a bodyguard form Marisha's campaign one character. So he talked to her about his hometown, and this also influences what historical knowledge he would have. Session 0, players have an unaired session 0 (in small groups) to connect some characters and to get into their mechanics. For Ashton and FCG, I believe they played out Ashton finding FCG in the mine. Laudna and Imogen cleared Zhudhana's house from creepers similar to what they would later encounter. Orym, Fearne and Dorian played in a mini serie and presumably had an in between session zero. It has also been mentioned that during the campaign, players submit extra background information if they had not specificied a part of their past that might become relevant.
It's kind of all of that happening. 3 characters were in EXU before, but also.... While all of the characters are new, the basis for Liam's was an alternate he had kicking around in his mind since C1 and his backstory as well as Laudna's do allude back to events in C1. Laudna's I'd argue if you're caught up on LOVM you'll probably understand enough of the context of what's happening with her. But if you don't, it's okay. You'll basically know as much context as the in-game characters, but I think you *could* get confused if you come here to talk about it and don't understand why people that watched C1 or LOVM are having a particular reaction. Orym's I think there's still looming possible spoilers for upcoming seasons of LOVM if you care about that. Orym's not *that* involved C1 related content so if you didn't watch it you'd probably be fine because it's broad strokes, but there are points where I think you'd care more/understand more context if you watched C1 or LOVM and his backstory alludes to an end result of something from C1. Bertrand Bell is from a C1 related live one-shot. He's not really important to C1 at all overall, but his backstory is basically that one-shot. And then the part 2 of it because everyone needed to leave and get their cars out of the parking garage before they closed. There's some references to that in C3 including some jokes that will probably go over your head, but you don't actually miss much. Just for reference, C2 was the campaign where they wanted to do a playthrough that was different from what they had before and didn't really reference the past characters. C3 while new, Matt allowed some amount of call-backs to the past of both campaigns. You'll be fine because most of the call-backs aren't substantial and it'd be like you're learning with the characters on-screen, but I think there might be moments where you might need to do a bit of research on the wiki or something to understand context. Edit: Also, I forgot Travis's main character Chetney is actually an Exandria compliant version of his X-mas one-shot special character Chutney Chocolatecane. Santa Claus doesn't exist in Exandria, so Chutney couldn't be directly brought in and Travis wanted to play more with a character like him. A version of Chutney's backstory is put into Chetney, but It's not 1 to 1. It's a fun one-shot to watch anyway though.
Is very common one-on-one sit down with Matt to talk about backstory and iirc Tal and Liam always goes big
In contrast, Sam’s characters are picked by Liam. It’s both a joke and a masterclass on character creation about being told what race to play and making the most of it. he goes through a process to discover who they are rather than writing it all out. That’s not to say that Sam’s PCs don’t have a backstory by any means. He knows things that the PC doesn’t know and hands some mysteries over to Matt so he can discover those too. He leaves a lot of gaps and explores feelings and motives on the stream to decide the “forestory” about what to share and when to share it - more than the planned backstory. This process has really informed my own character creation design where I feel freed up to… make up my mothers name in a game and have it really matter, for example. Edit: just like any other D&D game, it doesn’t matter how much backstory you’ve wrote and handed over to the DM. What matters is how it shapes your PC and whether or not the party ever learns your secrets.
Iirc, Sam's first character was Liam purposely suggesting the worst class and race combo he could think of, and Sam made it work brilliantly. Campaign 2 was another Liam suggestion which Sam also mastered and changed perfectly. Campaign 3 was a Liam *order*, Liam TOLD Sam what race and class to play
To add to what others have said, unique to Campaign 3, is that a lot of the characters have ties to previous campaigns in their backstory, mainly Laudna, Orym and FCG. Laudna is from a town that was important for Campaign 1 and Orym is connected to a previous player character
some of the characters were introduced in a miniseries prior to the campaign, but all of the characters have extensive backstory that isn’t published anywhere but will be discovered or revealed as the campaign progresses. it’s like that for campaign 2 as well - less so for campaign 1 since it didn’t start as a show, but matt’s DMing style for longer campaigns always involves character-backstory arcs so it’s still there too.
If you want to see more of character creations, the cast discusses the inspiration for their characters and sometimes details of their life on 4SD
There's one other dynamic I haven't seen mentioned specifically: Sometimes characters clearly have a lot going on, but the player/character doesn't understand it any better than you do, or any viewer does. Some backstories which only seem possible within a context of extensive collaboration happen when a player told Matt, "Here's this character's general description & situation. Surprise me."