Campaign 3: Bells Hells

⬅ Campaign Two / Campaign Three

 is the third campaign of Critical Role. It began airing October 21, 2021, set on the continent of Marquet, chronologically within a year after the events of Exandria Unlimited.

Production
The fact that a third campaign would happen was first confirmed in an announcement on June 10, 2021. The premiere date was confirmed in an announcement on September 30, 2021, and it was announced that it would also air live in select theaters in the United States. The campaign is prerecorded. Unlike previous campaigns, the series will not air on the last Thursday of the month (starting in 2022) to give the cast and crew time to rest and prepare for upcoming episodes and to give viewers time to catch up with the show.

A brand new set was built for the campaign under Marisha's project direction. Matt stated that the idea of a campaign room that had windows fitted with LCD screens for effects comes from a high school art project that became a "white whale" for him. Projection effects were initially "dabbled" with in, many requested by Taliesin, and the new set was designed from the start to support using them more significantly. Named by the production team as the Tavern of Tales, the set's concept art was developed by Shaun Ellis and its lighting and projection design work was developed by Holly Hodges, who both worked in theme park development. It was built by Flip This Bitch, who built sets for Critical Role in the past. Marisha described the set as "a tool, and it's meant to enhance the expression of the story", and she felt that it not only had to look good for the audience but also for the players at the table. All lighting, screens, projections, music, and other atmospheric details are controlled directly by Matt.

In an open letter published a few days before the campaign premiere, Matthew Mercer confirmed that he was working with cultural and sensitivity consultants "throughout the worldbuilding and presentation of Marquet" to ensure that aspects of the continent of Marquet, the main setting for the campaign, would be "lending a familiarity and celebrating aspects of those same languages and cultures without appropriating them". In a December 2018 episode of Talks at Google, he had talked about his desire to revisit Marquet in greater depth:

Liam and Ashley were given the chance to playtest their characters, Orym and Fearne Calloway, through the miniseries Exandria Unlimited. They both decided to reuse them in Campaign Three. They were given the option to re-roll their character stats for the new campaign, which Ashley took for Fearne. Guest player Robbie Daymond also chose to re-roll Dorian Storm's stats.

According to Matth, Travis wanted to join the campaign a bit later than the others. To allow him to sit at the table from the first episode, Bertrand Bell, who had previously appeared in, was brought back as a temporary player character. Travis suggested that Bertrand be killed to allow him to introduce his new character, but didn't know when or how his death would occur.

Trivia



 * Between Campaign Two and Campaign Three, the Critical Role timeslot was filled by Exandria Unlimited and various special episodes.
 * The race and class of Sam's character were decided by Liam., similarly to how Sam's previous characters Scanlan and Nott had a race and class suggested by Liam.
 * Mighty Vibes episode 6, which aired six days before the State of the Role announcement, included a book titled Traveler's Guide to Marquet in the bookshelf, perhaps as a reference to the starting point for the campaign.
 * To help promote the campaign, Critical Role sponsored three videos from Quincy's Tavern featuring fictional foods and drinks with real accompanying recipes, in a series called "Taste of Marquet". They were posted to TikTok and Twitter.
 * The first features the Mage's Cloak, a drink made of the Marquesian mahika flower often used in potions, drinks and desserts with a recipe for a mocktail of butterfly pea tea.
 * The second features kip kebabs, skewered meat dry rubbed with fusaka spice often sold by street vendors, with a recipe for baked dry rub chicken kebabs.
 * The third features sandberry pies made from sweet sand crystals, mined from mountains caves throughout Marquet and used as an ingredient various desserts and drinks, with a recipe for peach mango hand pies.
 * Campaign Three featured a guest earlier than any previous campaign, with Robbie Daymond as Dorian Storm appearing in the first episode.
 * Campaign Three is the first campaign to feature returning player characters. Bertrand Bell previously appeared in and its sequel; Fearne Calloway, Orym and Dorian Storm previously appeared in Exandria Unlimited.