"Please god, tell me this is a metaphor " is probably one of Pike's best lines

@maxxsbrother2

7 ай бұрын

That and “You’re alive, motherfucker?!”

To be clear, Critical Role tried pitching the idea of turning their D&D campaign into a cartoon show to all the major networks. No one was interested, so Critical Role decided to do a Kickstarter to fund a half-hour special. The fans (called Critters) made it one of the biggest KickStarters by raising over 11 million dollars. Basically finding the whole first season of Vox Machina. Only when Amazon saw how much money had been raised by the fans, did they get on board.

@JnEricsonx

7 ай бұрын

And now that I fully jumped into the Critter pool this year after seeing VM seasons 1 and 2, and now having met 5/8 of the crew....yeah.....

Kaylie was Matt's idea. Scanlan was actually the original flutist for Dr Dranzel's troupe, then he left eventually and they meet again and Kaylie is their new flutist. They have some banter, a competition (in which Scanlan bets his whole coin purse and then throws the match after forgetting he made that bet) and then they go up to Scanlan's room and Matt just springs her being his daughter on him, it was SUCH a good moment! The whole table flipped out. But yeah, Scanlan's backstory is basically, his mother was killed by goblins, he's basically a nomadic bard, and he does a lot of the sex. So it was pretty easy to introduce an unknown daughter. Like REALLY easy. Like Scanlan PROBABLY has a few more children without knowing it SOMEWHERE. Gnomes can live for 500 years too, so..... Yeah.

@ChaoticTabris

7 ай бұрын

Scanlan is inspired by Eminem and Dr Dranzel is Dr Dre. Scanlan kinda having mom issues also comes from Eminem.

@phobiawitch835

7 ай бұрын

I don’t know if it was just a joke, but I know Sam mentions during the end of the game (the epilogue, after THAT battle) that Scanlan is only 69. Not sure if it was just a joke or not though

@nosliwec

7 ай бұрын

Matt naming Kaylie is wild considering Sam used Eminem's life as the basis for Scanlan. Dr. Dre became Dr. Dranzel. Scanlan Shorthalt (S.S.) instead of Marshall Mathers (M.M.). And Eminem's daughter is Hailie (rhymes with Kaylie). So either Matt was aware of Sam's inspiration or it was complete coincidence. If Matt knew, I'm kind of surprised Sam was as shocked as he was with the mention of Kaylie. If he didn't know, that was a very weird happenstance.

@tiagoassis3249

7 ай бұрын

Also, Scanlan is 69 year old, because of course he is, at the time they start travelling together.

@Lenny-ue8hk

7 ай бұрын

Although they did change that backstory slightly for this show. Here he's never met Dr Dranzel until now and he's a big fan of Scanlan.

Raishan has been in Whitestone since Episode 1. Remember the small Child with Green Eyes ? yeah, that was her.

Animators really popped tf off with the Matron's design

@robinmatz6686

7 ай бұрын

If i stood in front of an altar like that i too would believe i was talking to a deity straight up

"There's no such thing as luck" says the man with the Lucky feat

Scanlan backstory absolutely had the DM tinkering around in there. Sam, Scanman's player, just had I'm a slut and have zero boundaries and DM was like okay, have an unexpected daughter!

You guys should definetly watch the side-by-side videos between campaign and show

The Dungeons and Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves, is absolutely worth it, and I'd love tto see you guys react to it. Likewise seeing you guys play a one shot or short campaign! Now you get to join the rest of us in looking forward to season 3.

@abaddonarts1129

7 ай бұрын

God yes I would LOVE to see Honor Among Thieves and an actual D&D session out of these guys. That'd be amazing

@kmkibble75

7 ай бұрын

Absolutely worth doing!

Scanlan activated Mythcarver with his singing and it blew Umbrasyl's head apart. That's what happened.

@JnEricsonx

7 ай бұрын

He basically went Bruce Dickinson/Rob Halford at the end!

“I recognize your eyes! Your hair!” Shows how narcissistic Scanlan is because Kaylie looks exactly like him and nothing like her mother. Of course he would recognize himself and not realize it

Vax meeting the Matron was perhaps my favourite scene in the entire season! In the most basic terms, Vax is now The Matron’s enforcer. Escorting souls to the beyond, protecting those whose time hasn’t come yet, and destroying those who try to ‘cheat the system’ so to speak

These characters are actually the first ones for Sam (Scanlan), Travis (Grog), Laura (Vex) and Ashley (Pike). Liam (Vax) had played as a kid, and Taliesin (Percy) and Marisha (Keyleth) had played more RPGs. Their first game was a birthday present for Liam from Matt, where Taliesin played a different character, Ashley wasn't there and Marisha just helped the new players. Laura and Liam, who share a birthday, decided their characters would be twins who had lost their mother to a dragon, and Laura wrote a whole short story about how she found Trinket. Sam tried to make the worst possible character and based his backstory of Eminem. Ashley joined later and played a cleric because they had no healer. Taliesin built a Gunslinger because he'd never played one before, and he gave Matt very limited information, only what Percy would know, relying on Matt to determine who the Briarwoods were. One of Scanlan's repeated gags when he wanted to bluff his way out of legal trouble was to call himself Burt Reynolds, Esquire, called back with him asking if Kaylie's mother's name was "Burt". In game, he told a different dragon "You leave when Burt Reynolds tells you to leave". The Vestige had that power. Umbrasyl had taken a lot of hits - shots from Fenthras, hits from the Titanstone Knuckles, and Keyleth's full Fire Elemental in his mouth - so he was really hurt. Mythcarver's ultimate attack enhanced by Scanlan's voice, was enough to finish him off.

@ChaoticTabris

7 ай бұрын

Travis was also not there on the first session. He and Ashley joined the party in the same session, which is why they had a shared backstory. Percy is based on this story Taliesin had been working on and off about this guy making the very first firearm which Tal felt he was never really going to finish. Umbrasyl had also taken a direct headshot from Bad News (That really powerful experimental rifle Percy made), probably hurt a ton as well. Btw, if you want to see how Bad News looked in Taliesin's mind google Adolphus Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

@nosliwec

7 ай бұрын

Ashley also joined during a session where Travis wasn't able to attend. So she built her character to be long term friends with Grog and the party went out to look for their lost friend.

@nosliwec

7 ай бұрын

@@ChaoticTabris The first session included Taliesin as a dragonborn paladin, Laura, Travis, Sam, Liam and Orion Acaba (who is no longer mentioned). Marisha was there but only to help the others play the game. Unfortunately, the Between the Sheets episodes are now very hard to find, but he has talked about how his wife, Laura, went straight into character at the very beginning. He was convinced because Liam really wanted to do it for his birthday and Laura helped convince him. He got super intimidated by the races and classes and just said he wanted to play a really big guy that drinks and fights a lot.

@johnobrien7562

7 ай бұрын

@@nosliwec and was a cobbler! we mustn't forget that Grog made shoes, just like Gary Gygax!

This was Sam Riegel's (Scanlan) first time playing D&D and therefore his first character. You can hear him and Liam O'Brien (Vax) talk about it on the first episodes of their podcast, "All work, no play".

@syntia13

7 ай бұрын

"Um, Actually..." ;P If anyone wants to go find it, it is the second and third episode. In the second one they say they're going to play, and in the third they say 'we did it and it was awesome' and even play a bit of audio from that first session.

@KatabaticPlays

7 ай бұрын

Best way to get someone completely hooked on the game btw. If they make a fun backstory then really roll with it. And then give them something to care about.

Funny thing was in the campaign Vax's wings were activated because Gilmore pushed him off a cliff. Gilmore knew about the flying ability.

I don't know if you noticed. But one of my favorite things about when they got to the temple. You can see Keyleth in the background while she is hiding physically showing her low stealth roll if you have a high enough perception. The gold strings in the intro was also a tie to the Matron of Ravens which is why they mimic it when Vax gets his wings. I don't know if they are gonna do it here but in the game the vestiges have different levels of awakening that gives you more powers as you awaken them. Awakening happens when you do something of growth that harmonizes with the vestige. We see it happen with Vax's vestige (fight with Pervon unlocking the speed then accepting his role unlocking his wings). The work done to gain the vestige would be enough for a first level awakening on everyone so I don't know if it's still a vestige thing for everyone or if this is gonna be treated more like a boon here. Also at this point dnd wise Vax is a Rogue Paladin multiclass. Now that you know what Vax's deal is I love how they handled the Matron and divinity's POV vs mortal cause you can look back and see how helpful she was trying to be. She made the deal, then gave him a history lesson on what he was signing up for. Noticed he needed the power to deal with a threat so set him up so he could unlock it. After that she waited until he was calm and content to try and talk to him through visions to explain what the deal was. When she noticed he got worked up again like one would if an ambush happen she backed off. I mean she wad trying to be very helpful but it just came off as nightmare fuel instead. Also on the kickstarter they reached all of their first set of stretch goals the first day. They have a video on their channel where they were originally gonna go over the kickstarter and answer questions and the first part is just them broken in the best does not compute ways. I highly suggest for your own fun watching that or one of the CR cast reactions to kickstarter compilation videos you can find on KZread. It's awesome.

So if you want to jump into the critical role campaigns, you need to know up front things move a lot more slowly than in the animated series. You are watching people play DND around a table. However, it is totally worth it. Some of the best content I've ever watched. If you start at the beginning of campaign 1, the audio is a little questionable for a few episodes. But it gets better. Remember they were starting from scratch essentially. But watching the friends around a table was just as fun as watching this series. Thanks for reacting to it.

I highly recommend "table to show" videos as it would showcase the tempo of D&D without much time commitment AND you get to see what was changed for the cartoon :)

To answer your question about the arc situation: The Legend of Vox Machina starts on what is considered "Arc 2" or "the Briarwood Arc" of the original campaign. There are 5 arcs total in Vox Machina but with the length of those arcs and the changes made to some of the character backstories, I'm guessing the show will be 6-7 seasons. Hope that helps!

@kings_mark

7 ай бұрын

Yeah, Arc 1 was pretty much an audience introduction arc. The setup was a bit rough, and they were getting used to livestreaming their homegame. They were already playing with their characters for a while, but it's nice that the series started at Arc 2, where things really kick off.

@AndreyKrichevsky

6 ай бұрын

I don't know... I feel like they could reasonably do the final arc in one season if they streamline it like they have been doing. And the Chroma Conclave could probably be wrapped up in 2 seasons, maybe even one season. They'd probably insert Keyleth's Aramente into the main story like they did with the Pyrah story. So i feel like it's more likely to be 4-5 seasons.

Scanlan's daughter was in the campaign and was a surprise planted by the DM. I'm so glad you guys are loving this show and I can't wait for season 3 to come out. The new Dungeons and Dragons movie is also very good and would probably be a great reaction video for you guys to do.

Boom: "Does anyone elses (Vestiage) come with so many... 'strings' attached?" (Facepalms) Bravo. 😅

Vax meeting with the matron of ravens is my favorite scene in the whole show and it’s probably still gonna be even after the show is finished. I think it’s just so perfect and the music really ties it all together for me.

Really small thing that I find funny is when Vax says “be back in a flash.” The reason I find this hilarious is that Vaxs player Liam has voiced Reverse Flash a few times 😂

@elfbreath

7 ай бұрын

And Taliesin (Percy's player) voiced regular Flash!

@JnEricsonx

7 ай бұрын

And he's voiced Nightcrawler, which is what I first know him from!

@AndreyKrichevsky

6 ай бұрын

It's also just a reference based on the fact that Vax is literally a speedster.

This might kill the mood, but, according to Sam Riegal (Scanlan's player/voice actor) Scanlan's backstory is just that of the rapper Eminem. It was confirmed a long time ago and again on the Legend of Vox Machina reaction stream (much to the shock and disappointment to the head animator). That being said, Kaylie was created by the DM Matthew Mercer. Kaylie was not part of Scanlan's original backstory as Sam envisioned it.

@stingerbrg

7 ай бұрын

Sam was surprised no one else realized it til then, he assumed Kaylie was a play on Eminem's daughter's name.

@KingsBard

7 ай бұрын

Eminem*

@bendoucet8641

7 ай бұрын

Thanks @@KingsBard 👍

Since you ask so much about how these scenes would work at a D&D table you should totally watch some of the comparison videos people have made - they're usually called "table to screen". I even found one for the Kaylie reveal!

I think people would love to see you react to the mighty nein. The actual second campaign. It is so good and very newcomer friendly.

You guys gotta watch the video clips people have put out of Scanlan meeting his daughter in the campaign. It’s absolutely hilarious

I want to see both the dnd movie and the comparison between show and campaign reactions

Re: Titmouse. The word "tit" originally denoted something small, and today, among other things, refers to the family Paridae, which includes chickadees, titmice, and other small birds. So "big tits" is really an oxymoron, though they do have great tits (Parus major) in Europe and Asia.

Vax is meant to be The Ferryman, and his arc is my favorite in the entire campaign. It's called The Wheel of Time. Season 1 is pretty rough. The start, because they tried and failed at some stuff, and the end because one of the main cast members left part way through filming. Season 2 is much much better, and I enjoyed A LOT. Season 3 is being lauded by the creators as like where they finally hit their stride, so I'm hype AF. All that to say, the books are still way way better. lol

Ok so about how this show relates to the actual game they played: The cast all played together, as Vox Machina (though they were calling themselves the 'Super High Intensity Team' or 'The S.H.I.T.s' back then), for about two years before they started streaming a continuation of that same campaign they were playing at home on Twitch in 2015. That era is now referred to as the home game (and is being adapted in the Vox Machina: Origins comics if you wanna check those out). They continued to play those characters, that campaign, until they felt that story had come to a close, at which point they took a break and then came back at the beginning of 2018 with their second campaign. It is set in the same world, on a different continent (Wildemount) and about 20 years after the events of the first campaign. They also played new characters, the Mighty Nein. Again, they played that campaign, with those characters until their story was done and then moved on to their third (and current) campaign. The third campaign is, again, set in the same world, but a different continent (Marquet) and is set another 10 years after the second campaign, with yet new characters, known as Bell's Hells. The Legend of Vox Machina (so far) has adapted a small bit of the home game (the bit with General Krieg/the blue dragon Brimscythe) and the Briarwood Arc (which was the second arc they played on stream) in season 1 and part of the Chroma Conclave Arc (which came after the Briarwood Arc) in season 2. For reference these two seasons (except for the first two episodes of season 1 I guess) have covered about episodes 24-56 of campaign 1, which was a total of 115 episodes long (plus the home game). Season 3 is confirmed and will continue the Chroma Conclave Arc, though we don't know yet if it will be finished in season 3. They have said they are aiming for 5 seasons total, and that tracks with them trying to adapt the rest of campaign one. We also know that an as of yet unnamed Mighty Nein show is in the works, one season of which at least has been confirmed. This will adapt some part of the second campaign and will essentially be a sister show to TLoVM.

I hope you guys give critical role campaigns a chance and react to them actively act out their campaigns and how much effort they put into these

Watch the DnD movie! It’s such a fun ride even as a standalone experience outside of any dnd knowledge but I bet you guys would love it! Also, if you guys ever play a dnd campaign, you’d at least have me interested in watching it!

14:18 The DM mostly adds all the interesting plot twists to all of these characters’ backstories. For example, the Briarwoods? All that Percy made for the DM was basically “I’m from a rich family, the Briar Couple murdered them all, my sister and I was captured, and I escaped”. The DM was the one to make them vampires, to make them powerful and clever, to make the town suffer, to reveal the sister was alive, to make the whole story dark and messed up, etc. They give the DM the story beats, he fills in all the inbetweens. It’s pretty funny watching the cast be absolutely flabbergasted by their own backstories 😂

I love going back from time to time and watching the Kickstarter stream/reaction. Even the cut down version that shows the highlights is enough to see a glimpse of what kind of people they are. You could see the awe, wonder, fear, and appreciation on their faces as the whole thing went on.

The Briarwood arc starts the meta narrative for the campaign. Everything before that were unconnected adventures. It's kind of accepted in the Critter community to tell people to start with the Briarwood arc and go back to the earlier episodes before Chroma Convlave if you get hooked.

Episodes 1 and 2 of season 1 was part of the home game, basically. They decided to stream their game, but they just continued on with their home game. This campaign took place from 2015-2017 with 115 episodes at roughly 4 hours apiece. They had, essentially, 6 arcs in this one campaign: Pre-stream (aka Home Game), Kraghammer and Vasselheim (which weren't used in the animated show), Briarwoods, and Chroma Conclave. (There are a couple more, but I won't mention them lest they spoil future seasons.) The reason it is speculated for early 2024 is that has been the release window for both of the past season (S1: January 2022 and S2: January 2023). Also, with the WGA and SAG strikes, we have know definitive information how much had been completed beforehand and thus know idea how far behind they might be in producing the season.

Matt (the dm) says when when the dragon flew off with Scan, Vax, and Grog he was genuinely scared for them all 😂

The start of Season 1 with the dragon was part of their campaign before they started streaming themselves. So events we never got to see. After that the episodes went into the Briarwood Arc which technically was the 3rd in their campaign. The first two were skipped because of some drama involving someone who used to play with them and their character. When Scanlan mentions Kraghammer in his dream that's a callback to one of those skipped arcs.

While the members of Critical Role did play some DND off stream, some of which in their early life before adulthood, the majority of their play time together was this campaign that they live-streamed. The way it fell together was the awesome storytelling and improvisational skill of Matt Mercer, the whole groups improv skills and the overall magic of the dice.

When they started streaming they were level 9, moving from Pathfinder to dnd 5th edition. During the time they were fighting the briarwoods, collecting vestiges and fighting dragons, they levelled to like 15/16 out of a possible 20. There was an arc previous to the briarwoods that was streamed, and brimscythe was a pre stream arc for them when they played at home.

While waiting for season 3, you could do reactions of those comparison videos, where you see the moment from the show, and then the same moment in the original campaign.

To give a little backstory, the first dragon they killed in the show was never introduced in the actual campaign as it was when they were still playing their home game. They have left out some of the minor side adventures but make references to them. (The craziest things they killed episode) but this is thier first campaign.

Critical Role is currently airing their third campaign. If you want to get into something a little more manageable, Exandria Unlimited and Exandria Unlimited: Calamity will give you a good introduction to the genre without having to invest time into a full campaign. Many people have also uploaded clips of events that happened in the stream that have been translated to animation for comparison, and they're fun to watch. Personally, the Mighty Nein (campaign 2) were my favorite campaign (though I enjoyed all of them). They have announced an animated series for that as well, and I believe they have started work on it, but there are no release dates. I don't know if that will influence your decision to watch them.

@houseofsledge6891

7 ай бұрын

EXU Calamity would be GREAT to see reactions to. It's manageable in size and really its own thing but fully undergirds all the campaigns.

@dannybob42

7 ай бұрын

I feel like if they intend to animate Campaign 3 they'll have to do EXU Calamity and EXU Prime, which they should especially Calamity because it's great, since both storylines are quite interwoven into the C3 characters' lore

@gaflene

7 ай бұрын

@@dannybob42 I wonder if calamity could be a movie or miniseries

Fuck it boys! Keep the hype going!! Make special saturday reactions to the Live Campaign until you either reach the end of Season 2 or season 3 comes out! I'd be 100% down to rewatch the campaign with you guys! LETS GET IT!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

Kaylie was def matt's idea and that scene where scanlan didnt know it was his kid and finds out was 100% sam (playing scanlan) being shocked as well it was great

Vestiges of divergence have "stages" that unlock with character development, or storyline progression

This whole scene with The Raven Queen in episode 11 where Vax trust-falls through the blood and accepts her condition was the point at which he took his Paladin Subclass. Up until the initial meeting with the Raven Queen when he made a deal for Vex's life, Vax was purely levelled into the Rogue class. Meeting the Raven Queen initially, the next time he levelled up he took his first level of Paladin. This scene here was where he hit level 3 in Paladin, a hugely important story point for the class where you pick the ideal and/or deity you choose to utterly devote yourself to, with each subclass offering a varied wheelhouse of abilities. So as of this moment Vax is a Rogue/Paladin multiclass and a holy champion of The Raven Queen.

regarding the question about eras at the end, while the whole series is definitely based on the 1st campaign, it would be appropriate to say that it's divided into arcs. the briarwood arc is technically the second arc in the campaign, so you were right in saying the show started with the 'second era'. we are currently in the chroma conclave arc, which thankfully has pretty good mini arcs that can be divided into seasons, like they're doing right now. since i dont want to spoil anything, let me just say that a huge majority of the show plot is either taken 1on1 from the game, or just somewhat polished. so the big story beats and especially the character progression have been adapted from the campaign.

@adelina201

7 ай бұрын

also, if you want to watch the actual gameplay. please dont forget that campaign 2 is currently also in developement into a show. so keep that in mind if you dont want to be spoilered. however, while campaign 1 definitely isnt the greatest audio or video wise at the start, i can only recommend you watch that if you want more. up until the point the show stops at, to avoid being spoiled afterall. and since thats until about episode 63 (64 continues into spoilerville, so thats the cut-off point) and each episode is at least 3 hours long, thats PLENTY to tide you over until the next season comes out.

Man, it'd be great if the guys reacted to all the original scenes from the livestreams. Both to see and compare them with the scenes in the show, but also to see the players, their own reactions as stuff unfolded, and how damn talented everyone is at improv. Also to see Matt Mercer's DM magic for themselves.

You guys rock! So glad to see how excited you are about LoVM!!!

You guys need to watch the announcement for The Legend of The Mighty Nein. That's the name of the party from their next campaign (same world, different continent, 30ish years later), likely to be animated once Vox Machina ends. It's been confirmed that Mighty Nein's pilot episode has already been written. And that's after both the chroma conclave arc, and the [SPOILERS] arc after.

Hey! Hope you guys are still reading comments on this video so I have a have a lot of info for you as someone who has watched every Critical Role livestream from the beginning. Also some comments on some of the things you guys said. -Season two of the show “Vox Machina” is based around the second (Technically third) act of Campaign one, better known as the “Chroma Conclave” arc. -There are currently Three Campaigns for Critical Role. The first “Vox Machina”, the Second “The Mighty Nein” (Which has already been confirmed to be getting it’s own show!), and their current campaign “Bell’s Hells.” -If you want to watch Canpaign one their was a problematic player for the first twenty or so sessions who would eventually leave the group and he has been removed from the Stories cannon all together. -The “Whitestone arc” (Season One of Vox Machina are Critical role Sessions 24-38, however the “Slayers Take” Mini Arc actual comes before that in sessions 18-21. -You can watch the majority of campaign 2 without spoilers for campaign one. However Campaign 3 is full of spoilers for campaign one and in many ways is a follow up to some of the events of campaign one. -Matt Mercer the DM of Critical Role allows his players to make their own backstories but Sam Riegel is notorious for making his characters a blank slate and Matt did come up with the ideal of Scanlan having a daughter. -if you are looking for a good Fantasy Game Balder’s Gate 3 is literally D&D the Video game. -I would love to watch you all play D&D it seems intimidating at first but the learning curve is fairly easy and If you have a good DM/GM/Storyteller the game should be really fun. Love your guys reaction, money is tight right now but planning on becoming a Patreon. Can’t wait for season three. And to all my fellow Critters, bidet and is it Thursday Yet?

PLEASE WATCH THE D&D MOVIE. I speak for everyone here that we'd love to see not only a reaction to that film but also some kind of D&D playing on the channel. Vox Machina was their first campaign, the animated show and the original game online taking place halfway into the story (the players had been taking part in a home game before deciding to stream it). The next campaign, the Mighty Nein, is confirmed to be animated as well sometime down the line. As for LOVM season 3, we know that the previous 2 seasons have released in January, but we don't know for certain due to the Hollywood Strikes. (but I'm extremely hopeful it releases soon)

If you want a good entry into the live campaign shows, but not sure about dedicating hundreds of hours to one of their full campaigns like Vox Machina, then I highly recommend critical role’s Exandria Unlimited: The Calamity. It’s a 4 episode mini campaign that’s an absolutely incredible epic set in the Age of Arcanum, thousands of years before the Legend of Vox Machina takes place. Tragic tales, spooky mysteries, clashes with devils and gods! You will laugh, you will cry, you’ll be on the edge of your seat! From my analysis of the story and characters, I’d say it easily could be adapted into a blockbuster film. 100%. The story is that wonderful, and the way the DM Brennan Lee Mulligan tells this story is so enchanting. You’ll love it, guaranteed. It’s a fabulous listen if you can’t devote the time so watch. It’s just as good in podcast form.

In order to speak to death he had to accept death

By all means, there's tons of content to catch up with, to get you to the current point: You can also see how it translated from stream to screen. Bear in mind, if you watch Campaign 2 or 3, you'll be spoiled for the animated series: Campaign 2, The Mighty Nein, has been greenlit by Prime, and if for whatever reason Campaign 3 isn't, then yeah, it would just be Kickstarted again, lol. Campaign 1 would also give you a chance to appreciate Sam Riegel's musical genius. He writes all the show's musical lyrics, and it's his brother (in law?) who writes the music. I jumped in too late before you went to Season 2, but look up "Vox Machina Season 1 Musical Recap," guaranteed to put a smile on your faces!

Good thing I just found all your reactions!

The show follows two of the main arcs that aired on the podcast, the Briarwoods and the Chroma Conclave. There was another part where they journeyed through the mines of Kraghammer to find Lady Kima but seems to be noncanon in the show. It was however referenced as an easter egg in the beginning of the twelfth episode, which was cool to see. And before Critical Role started, they ran their own campaign that we only have a basic understanding of the events that happened, but it included when they defeated Brimscythe.

Since y'all seemed to like this so much, I highly suggest checking out Fool's Gold, it's a youtube series where the artist narrates and draws what happened in their D&D campaign and it's awesome. Not as visually amazing as a full-on animated TV series like this one, but still awesome

One thing to know is Matt mercer(critical role's dungeon master) said he really was planning on attacking scanlan as Kaylee but felt like she couldnt do it and ran away at the last moment leading to a great development between Scanlan and her.

@NuclearNoxi

7 ай бұрын

If I recall correctly, he made that decision as he rolled to attack and got a nat 1.

@heaiiyasha

7 ай бұрын

@DeiaGoldenarrow that could be I just remembered seeing the interview with him

@NuclearNoxi

7 ай бұрын

@heaiiyasha I watched the episode of the campaign it was in, but it's been a few years since I saw it. I'm pretty sure though, that he had he attack and rolled a one, so he played it as her changing her mind about killing him.

You absolutely need to watch the side by side videos for both campaigns. It really shows the more vital parts of the show that mirror the campaign and what the differences are. It's also important to note that all 3 of their campaigns are connected, it's not something where you watch one episode of their game and then skip a few. You'll get heavily confused by it. Vox Machina was their first campaign, then Mighty Nien and now Bell's Hells - their current campaign. Any information that was left out or unexplained in the previous campaigns are either expanded on or finally explained in the next. A testament to how expansive their world is, there is even a 4 part campaign - Exandria Calamity - about it's ancient history that led to a majority of the plot of VM and their current campaign ( can't speak on MN, I haven't watched it yet, but I have 13 episodes of VM left. ). I highly recommend watching the EC 4 part mini campaign if you're interested in watching how they play. It's an in universe mini campaign where you don't need to know anything about the other campaigns in order to enjoy it.

The Matron of Ravens reminds of Nocturnal and the Nightingales, the armor the leap of faith in the trials, it’s so cool. 😮

This is all part of Campaign 1, The campaign has 4 main arcs, and multiple small side stories. Arc 1 of Campaign 1 was Journys in the Underdark. Arc 2 was the Briarwoods. Arc 3 was the Chroma Conclaive. I guess you'll have to wait to see if we get to the folowing Arc... lol

I might have posted this before, but I promise it answers a couple of questions you were asking. It's a post I have saved to give a basic introduction run down on Critical Role, mostly for new reactors. It's all behind the scenes info, no campaign story spoilers. ***** Welcome to the world of Critters. Once upon a time, many years ago a talented voice actor was about to have a birthday, and to celebrate Matt Mercer, another well-established voice actor and talented GM (Game Master) offered to run a role-playing game for a group of friends... who also all happened to be voice actors. So, a group of nerdy ass voice actors sat around and played D & D. The group had so much fun they made it a regular thing, Felicia Day of 'Geek and Sundry' heard about this game and approached them with the idea of streaming it... and it became a hit in its field, eventually growing into its own company and channel known as Critical Role. Parting on good terms with their previous home, Felicia Day has a small role in the beginning of episode 2 of Season One. Vox Machina was the group of characters they played in Campaign One, there has also been a Campaign Two, in which the cast plays a whole new group of adventurers. Both are set in the same world, but on different continents, and Campaign Two is set a few decades after the end of Campaign One. Each campaign ran for over a hundred episodes which are all over three hours long, and we are over 70 episodes into Campaign Three. They have also put out a bunch of other content, from talk shows to shorter games in other Role Playing worlds. They have played live shows to sold out theaters, become the number one channel on Twitch, have merch stores in multiple countries, have comics and actually published books of fan art (there are some talented as F*** Critters) they also started a nonprofit charity to... "Leave the World a Better Place." The whole cast would all tell you that they never expected any of this, that it has been a wild ride and they are just trying to hold on and be worthy of it. A few years ago they started looking into the possibility of an animation, but no one was buying, or at least not on their terms, so they went to the Critters to try and raise upwards of $700,000.00 over the course of 45 days in order to make a two-part special for themselves and their fans.... The Critters laughed, and smashed through not just the goal amount, but also ALL of their stretch goals within an hour. By day 45 they had raised nearly 11 and a half million dollars, added a bunch more stretch goals, and the two-part special became a season. Amazon took note and basically funded a second season (3rd season was green lit just before season 2 dropped) to get the streaming rights, but the show is created by Critical Role. Those Nerdy Ass Voice actors are the producers and have full creative control. Most of the people they hired, from writers to artists and composers are also fans who love and know the story and its world. It is one of the truest examples of a project of love I have ever seen. During the production of season one of the animation they put out a series of videos to keep their fans in the loop of how things were going. Interviewing the people behind the scenes and giving non spoiler info about the production. It's a good watch and will really help you understand the devotion and love that went into this project, as well as introduce the cast, the people who created these characters and this amazing story. Personally, how the lead composer got the job is one of my fav stories. Here is that play list. kzread.info/head/PL1tiwbzkOjQwJdoNetaNJE1zZVOE7xi8u The latest big news is that Amazon has signed off on producing a season based on the Campaign Two group, known as The Mighty Nein! And no I did not misspell Nein. They have also reached a multi year agreement that Amazon gets the first look at any new shows OR movies Critical Role wants to produce. Many a fans ears perked up at the mention of possible movies given the popularity of a particular 4 episode and done Campaign, “Exandria Unlimited Calamity” It is a separate adventure set in the same world, but way, WAY, before Vox Machina's or The Mighty Nein's Time. Once again, welcome to this new world, hope you enjoy your visit and stay for a while... it's a devoted community with a lot of heart... and dicks... so many dicks... LoL. Let Chaos Reign!

It would be pretty sick if you guys reacted to some of those videos comparing the scene in the show with the moment it’s based on in the actual campaign. Maybe as a Patreon exclusive even, or something

Be careful with watching out of order. Campaign 1 is Vpx Machina, Campaign 2 is Mighty Nein, Campaign 3 is Bell’s Hells. There are Vox Machina cameos/references in Mighty Nein after episode 80-ish. And with Bell’s Hells, you HAVE to watch it last, because almost all of it is a direct continuation of Vox Machina and even Mighty Nein story threads with past characters popping up left and right.

The major story beats in the show are from the campaign. The have made changes but not with the main characters and caharacter stories. For example Raishan had been disguised as a diffetent NPC. Sam, Scanlan's player, was surprised by Kaylee

I rarely compliment ; But Know I clapped for "strings attached". Nice one ^^

9:34 such a great scene, fantastic lines

I mean, if we call each campaign an era, then Vox Machina is Era 1 of Critical Role. Era 2 AKA The Mighty Nein has been greenlit for a season 1 of that campaign (no word on when that will begin yet) and Era 3 AKA Bell's Hells is still going on so there's no word on when that could be on its way to animation.

Well, now you've caught up on the show you guys should definitely react to the side by side comparison compilations of actual game moments vs how it went into the animated show!

Vox Machina is their first campaign, but the stream of it on Twitch started dealing with mindflayers and an undead beholder in the Underdark. The blue dragon happened before it, but was mentioned later on, but after underdark, it went right into the Briarwood arc

@KrayzieStiles

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The vasselheim trip to give the horn of Orcus that K'Varn had to the Platinum Sanctuary was betweem the underdark arc and the briarwood arc. They also had the Slayers Take mini arc as well.

Ok, the specific question about Kaylie has already been answered multiple times, but more generally regarding backstories: Disclaimer: different players and DMs will vary in the amount of information provided originally and added on top, respectively. But the general idea is for the player to prepare some basic backstory: who they were before, why did they decide to seek adventures instead of normal work, whether or not was there a personal tragedy involved, etc. Some players will limit that to a single page. Others (like Taliesin) will write something that would very well fit into a short story category. Based on that background, experienced DMs can then expand on those past events to provide more personal motivation, challenges, and rewards for that specific player (and, by extension, the entire party, who will want to help out their buddy). Think Briarwood Arc. You may not want to investigate a creepy couple in a faraway town just because they're kinda sus. But if that same creepy couple happened to murder your party member's entire family... now shit's personal and they gotta pay for it.

Ok a couple of things now that you finished the season and because you seem to still have some questions. 1) All the mayor events of the series are based on what happened in campaign altho not beat for beat. ie, the party was never separated when going to the feyrealm (but that took a LOT of time so they edited the story so it was faster), and Kaylie was always Scanlan's daughter. BUT they have done some story beat changes to make things move more fluidly and to keep OG critters on our toes. The dragon never went after the vesteges, and Grog actually died when trying to get rid of Kraven Edge and Garmielie was with the party for a bit longer and wanted an actual exchange which the party cleverly got out of because smarty pants. 2) Party members made their backstories and no more, so any events that happen during the show that surprises the characters also surprised the players cuz Matt weaved it into the story like the mad man he is. Scanlan didn't know about his daughter, Percy didn't know the Briarwoods were gonna come to Emon, etc. 3)If you go to the final episode of the 1st season, the demon explains to Percy that him getting the idea for the guns is what he got in exchange for the demon to give him the power of vengeance. So yeah, Percy made guns and if you remember, Ripley had a protptipe of a gun when they bust her out of prison meaning she is OBSESED with them and Percy. 4) Vax is the new champion, the champion is Vax. There is no alternate personality of "the champion", champion is a title. The deal he made was to devote his life to the Matron in exchange for Vex to be brought back to life. The Matron severed his fate line from Vex and attached it to herself to symbolize that they are now united. Also the Matron is not the Godess of the dead but the goddess of death. She is the one that takes souls to the afterlife but no more. Like the ferryman if you will. She is also the godess of ravens, fate and winter.

So Vox Machina was the first campaign, but when Critical Role started streaming, they were already two years into the story--in the first ever episode of Critical Role, the characters were already level 9. The first two episodes of season one of TLOVM took place before the streaming began (back when they were in their home game) and everything else is loosely following the first few arcs of the campaign, specifically the Briarwood arc and the Chroma Conclave arc (which was over 40 episodes long, which almost a year's worth of content). Fans of the campaign will already know the general trajectory of the television show, but the CR cast has already said that they're using the show as an opportunity to trim and patch up some of the slower, less-interesting bits of the campaign. The second campaign, The Mighty Nein, is ALSO being animated soon and we should hopefully be hearing about that in the near future--you will absolutely have to check it out, as it is a fan favorite amongst most critters and is a wonderful, dramatic espionage-war epic, whereas Vox Machina is much more traditional hero/fantasy tropes. The Mighty Nein takes place about 30 years after the end of Vox Machina, and the third and current campaign, Bells Hells, is only seven years after the end of the Mighty Nein and 37 years after the end of Vox Machina, so the stories are all interconnected and interwoven beautifully.

lost of people move on to watching Calamity from here, it is a live play and would be super long XD but it won't have any spoilers as it is a prequel of any other prequel XD its goes back like over 1000 years before Vox :o

They've announced that their second campaign is going to be made as a series too, FYI.

So the animated is kinda the new saga/version from their original game. They had original played at home and were playing pathfinder (a different system). They started streaming D&D and the animated picks up like 20 episodes into the stream. . While they have added things to the story to make it flow better, none of it (so far) has been added solely for character development. A big example is the feywyld/biggie smalls split. In the stream, everyone was together, they ran into pixies, werewolves, a nymph, a bunch of stuff really funny things happened when they would camp but as far as big beats/character moments that all was there. Grog and the gnomes (Biggie Smalls) were with the group, and they kind of condensed a lot of relationship between Pike and Scanlan, but they haven't really ADDED or CHANGED anything. . If you were to watch the campaign itself, you could watch from episode 1 (which would get you some interesting background not included in the animated) to, conservatively episode 55 realistically episode 63(though you may run into a few smaller spoilers), however the animated show picks up around episode 24,but you'd miss some Keyleth stuff as well as the introductions of Kash and Zarah. Each episode runs about 3 hours. So not really a worry about running out of stuff to watch.

"People who are really into DnD go hard, they make their own backstories and sh*t" - The backstory is literally the most important part of any DnD character, that's not something that only "hardcore" players do, it's DnD 101 (also the bit that a lot of players struggle with the most XD)

About fantasy games. Baldur's Gate 3 just came out, it's literally based on D&D and got GOTY. Avowed by Obsidian comes out next year as well. Recently there is also the Dark Souls series, Elden Ring and Dragon's Dogma (Which is getting a sequel next year)

check out the side-by-side videos between the campaign and the show. It's fun to see where some of the inspirations came from.

And thats why I call Scanland "Peanut". its just a small piece of the hole...

hi watching from Kenya. I absolutely love you reactions. keep up!!!

Imagine throwing craven edge in that blood pool

Speaking of fantasy genre games, particularly after watching this Baulders Gate 3 (just won GOY) is based off of D&D rules and is the best RPG I've ever played! Big time commitment but 100% worth it if you want more of the genre

The way Scanlan managed to killed the dragon was because he had the vestige and because he rolled a natural 20

So what you are telling me is, you guys (and we critters) would love you to react to some Critical Role Compilations and/or Highlights.

41:22 Bad news, guys (well, great news) - their next campaign's getting an animated show too!

In D&D, Scanlan’s background is literally “Charlatan” so there is so much to go into your backstory with that and the players face Matt gave them soooooo much room to play with!

Ok now you are cursed to wait for what could be months or even a year. The writers strike surely slowed down production

It's not 1:1 more because of how much content they had to cut. 400 hours being cut into 12 episodes that are only about 20 minutes apiece is a massive task that the cast help oversee directly. I've loved watching your guys discussions on this! This was their first campaign, though they didn't begin streaming right away when they were playing. The Meight Nein is their second party/campaign and they have an animated recap that cuts down an even LONGER campaign to a 45 minute comedic summary! Exandria, the world the characters are living in, is entirely Matt Mercer's design and imaginative construct, while using tidbits of his player's written backstories to inform the history of the world. He has plans that span all 3 campaigns and STAYED TOTALLY HIDDEN THE WHOLE TIME. Campaign 1 is roughly 100 episodes Campaign 2 spanned 144 episodes plus new specials Campaign 3 is entering episode 80 this week! You can count on each episode to last about 4 hours, but specials occasions will warrant 6 hour episodes as well. There are SO many juicy conversations and utter tearjerkers when you're seeing the real people saying these words,

OCTOBER 3RD! Season 3 releases October 3rd, and I am dying waiting for it!

Campaign 2 is a good entry point if you want to start watching the live streams.

They've released each season around late January or early February. So hopefully season 3 will follow suit for 2024. Additionally campaign 2 "The Mighty Nien" was also greenlit. So who knows when that'll drop.

Watching some of those campaign-to-cartoon compilations might be fun. I'd be back if you watched the D&D movie. It's fun. If you want to jump into actually watching Critical Role actual play, the four-episode mini arc called EXU: Calamity is probably a good starting point just to see if you like the long-form game, which is paced very differently. It has no spoilers for the show, since it's a prequel set centuries before Vox Machina. It is got a guest DM and some guest players in addition to a few of the CR regulars, but they're all very good. Recommended. Or for watching Critical Role proper, you'll get a lot of suggestions. My favorite is to start at Campaign Two, where they've ironed out a lot of technical and playing for an audience difficulties, and they've taken pains NOT to be referencing or relying on campaign one most of the time. Plus the characters are so so fun. But Campaign One can also be good, it's just got some growing pains. Many people at least recommend skipping to the first full arc (the Briarwoods, I think) to get past the worst of the tech problems and most of the player who left the show after the first few episodes. I'm with them, but of course, you miss some stuff that way. And Campaign Three has been a blast as well, though the references to earlier campaigns are much thicker on the ground. In that case, it MAY be worth starting with the first EXU mini campaign, which introduces some characters who are relevant.

Guys ESO is the latest, you can play with others or solo. It has so many expansions, and has made vast improvements. Skyrim was great as well. Avowed is another big title coming out on Xbox that has Dungeons and Dragons.

I would guess one more season to wrap up the croma conclave arc and another 2-3 seasons for the rest of the campaign. Then there’s a separate show called Mighty Nein coming that’s their second campaign which will hopefully be another 5-6 seasons

No recent high fantasy games?!?!? What about Balders Gate 3? It came out a few months ago, and has won multiple game of the year awards? It's a straight up d&d video game. Also, last years game of the year was Elden Ring, which is a fantasy game as well ..

I think I speak for Critrole fans when I say we would happily watch you react to the Vox Machina and/or Mighty Nein campaign(s)! But it would be a huge undertaking because those campaigns are 100+ episodes long, and each episode is roughly 3-4 hours.