Ugh I love you all so much 😭 super surprised and happy to see such a fun fan base! To update y’all I’ve started watching Critical Roles campaigns and they are hilarious 😂 👏🏾👏🏾
The Exandria Unlimited (EXU) are amazing as well! They are also shorter campaigns: EXU: Calamity with Brennan Lee Mulligan as DM, and EXU: Kymal with Aabria Iyengar as DM. Both are absolutely phenomenal.
@@AdamAmbrose2112 I feel like Calamity is an easy one to recommend to people you think may enjoy it. It's entertaining and constantly moving forward. It starts like a shotgun blast with the dream sequence taking place. Everyone playing is experienced, so it's incredibly smooth. It's a very short run, but I feel like it hit everything that Brennan had planned and nobody needed too hard of a shove. It's not my favorite overall, but asking someone to give something a try that has over 100 episodes of 3-4 hours each is intimidating and a big ask. Calamity is at least more reasonable at a glance and it's still bursting with both humor and feels. There are a lot of clips that I have shared with friends from the main campaigns, but it's so hard to provide the proper context as to why something is incredible/hilarious when it's been building over hundreds of hours and multiple events. I'm basically writing a Wiki page so someone can appreciate a joke. 😅
The reason the party is called Vox Machina is because it's latin for Voice Machine, and they're all voice actors. Percy wasn't kidding when he said it was a clever play on words.
@@SebastianWeinberg you know, I've known about them being called "The Shits" for years but I never knew that it was an acronym for something. I just remember seeing a vine like 10 years ago in which Sam was introducing the group to an NPC and he said, "we're kind of a big deal, we're the shits."
This started out as a Kickstarter by Critical Role to fund a 22min pilot/short/special to give to the fans because everybody wanted to see any official CR animation project. The goal was $750,000 and they reached that in 45min, ending with a total of $11.3 Million raised. Long story short, now the Critters (CR fans) funded 12 Episodes. Amazon Prime Video saw this and a deal was made that Amazon would fund a Season 2 and hopefully more to come. The show is an adaptation of the first stream campaign back in 2015. Episodes 1 + 2 are non streamed stories (played off screen back in 2013-2014ish) then episode 3 drops you into arguably one of the best Arcs of the campaign and where the story really ramped up.
I also love that this story is what made David Tennant agree to appear in the show as General Krieg. He was the first non-CR cast member to sign up for the show purely out of the realization that it was the fan community's love, dedication, and support that made the whole thing possible in the first place. He didn't even need to be pitched on what Critical Role was or what the story of Vox Machina was going to be. He simply heard about the fans coming together and blowing away every expectation they had to turn what was supposed to be a single animated special into a full blown animated series and he felt he needed to be a part of such a huge display of fandom support. That we made this show happen was enough for him to agree to appear in it, no matter what it was.
The background of the show is just as fascinating as the show itself is entertaining. Looks like other commenters explained the Kickstarter, but the fact they played a years-long D&D game and got to turn it into animated form is just rad I gotta shoutout Scanlan’s voice actor, Sam Riegel. He had never played before, but participated in the first game, which was a birthday request of Liam O’Brien (Vax’s actor). He didn’t know what to be so he asked his buddy Liam, a relative veteran, to pick the shittiest, weakest combo of class & race, and he would play it as a gag. Liam gave him Gnome Bard, a physically weak, tiny creature with seemingly only fun magic, and no big sword type skills. He went on to be…absolute, show-stealing, clutch, heart breaking character in the campaign. A bard is a lover, not a fighter. They sing, dance, joke and charm. Well, Sam Riegel was a child performer that toured for Les Miserables; he won an Emmy for directing an animated show, he has three decades as a voice actor, director, casting, and musical producer for Marvel, DC, video games, and a billion different properties ; oh, and his wife is a director/cinematographer. His comic timing and creativity are boundless; his shame does not exist. He will choke on three forms of candy and a bottle of cola on camera for a bit. You could not build a better bard in a lab.
By the end of the campaign, Sam proved to the whole world just how powerful a Bard can truly be if determined enough. Not bad for someone who had never played before at the start of the campaign.
It's always nice finding new Vox Machina reactions, especially when they start getting into Critical Role as well! Looking forward to the rest. Fun fact: The children in this episode were actually voiced by kids of some of the cast - the little boy was voiced by Maximus the son of Sam Riegel (Scanlan) and the girl was voiced by Zoe the daughter of Liam O'Brien (Vax).
Bidet Abi! While you seem to know (I went through the comments) that is a greeting from us Critters, you might ha e missed the Why of it. Basically Grog is an idiot. No, really. A standard beings Intelligence is 10, but Grog's is 6. The break down from Matt Mercer when he explained it once is that he uses the interval values. So if 10 is normal, then 8 can read but not write, & 6 is borderline barely capable of speech (there is an equal argument involving Druid's Awakening animals setting Int to 6 so they can speak). Not sure how much you might want to know, but the voice cast is pretty stacked. They did a series of "Making of" videos on their channel. I would recommend watching "The Legend of The Cast of The Legend of Vox Machina" which covers the voice actors. It doesn't necessarily spoil story for you, while also helping learn some names of characters.
She was also in the first Avengers film. She's the random waitress we keep seeing during the Battle of New York and had a lot of more scenes that were cut where we were following her around the battlefield. One of the original ideas for her was she was being set up as a potential love interest for Captain America in the modern day to replace Peggy.
Oh boy! This is my jam! I've watched a lot of Critical Role so here's the breakdown of this show. This show translates some key moments from "Campaign 1" of Critical Role. The first two episodes are from before the show officially began, and then the rest of this season adapts one of the first major arcs from campaign 1. They were trying to pitch this show for a long time, and eventually had to go to Kickstarter where the fans threw in a bunch of money. Then Amazon got interested and threw in more money. A lot of moments from the show are pretty accurately taken from the Live Play show. You can find comparisons online of the Animated version versus the Live Play show. Ultimately, Campaign 1 is a big tough to get into (it comes in halfway through a storyline) and takes like ~20 episodes to get up and running. Campaign 2 and 3 are much more accessible to get into. But campaign 2 ran for over 100 episodes, and campaign 3 is currently around episode 35 or 36. D&D is great! I've run games for years now and love it
Ayyy, what a nice surprise! Others have already shared the story about the Kickstarter and the Campaign, so I'll just add that it might be worthwhile to check out side-by-sides that some Critters made of certain key moments in the show as they happened in the game. As good as the show is at points, watching the players go through it live is a special experience.
When I say that I'm happy you started this show....I have no words. Im a mega Critter that loves Critical Role. I also would say watching EXU Calamity worked be great. It's 4 episodes and completely well done
After I watched this series I watched through the related episodes of Critical Role Campaign 1, just to see how it compared. Then I watched the rest of Campaign 1. Then so much more Critical Role. I never, _ever_ would have thought that sitting and watching people play D&D would be something that I'd love to do, but it shocked the hell out of me how easily engrossed I became. The show is good on its own, but the more you keep in mind that basically everything happening on-screen is happening due to the way a series of dice landed, the more you'll appreciate it. Also, Sam Riegel, the guy behind Scanlan Shorthalt, earned so much respect from me during my viewing of the actual campaign. That man is a "bit" machine, and the amount of preparation he put into his ceaseless barrage of jokes, gags, pranks, songs, and somehow t-shirts, had me wheezing on multiple occasions.
3 things got me into watching Critical Role. 1) Seeing vids of Scanlan singing 2) Seeing vids of Matt Mercers amazing twists 3) Seeing Joe Manganiello play with them and giving us one of the best moments of the campaign.
D&D Lore, at least what I remember of it: There are chromatic dragons, generally evil, and metallic dragons, generally good. Each type of dragon has various characteristics, environments they like, etc. They also have different breath weapons; red dragons breathe fire, but black dragons spray acid, green dragons poisonous gas, and blue dragons lightning. They are, generally, incredibly dangerous.
I got SOOOO excited when I saw this! I hope (and am pretty sure) you're gonna love this show! I'm starting up a D&D campaign based in the Critical Role world soon, so I'm fully invested in this content. :D
@@abi_corinne The only danger with watching their campaigns is the hundreds and hundreds of hours of amazing content that is then a gateway to hundreds and hundreds of hours of more games, like Dimension 20....say goodbye to sleep! :D
I think my favourite thing about this series is that every really bad or really great thing that happens to, or is done by, the characters is almost always based on their dice rolls in-game lmao
5:55 There's a running gag where minor characters who look like Critical Role's DM Matt Mercer keep having a bad time, usually thanks to the actions of Vox Machina
D&D is probably the number 1 game I would recommend for meeting new people and learning the world of Fantasy. I DM (Dungeon Master) a game that's in the timeline of Ancient Japan and my players love it. I would highly recommend learning what classes would suit you and have a better understanding of D&D
Yessss! I love this show! So happy that Critical Role was able to do this through the love and devotion of the people who just enjoy watching them play D&D together. Genuinely think you're gonna love this, Abi!
I am so glad you are getting into this! Pretty much from the first time I watched it, I actually thought it would be right up your alley and would be very fun to see a reaction from you!
Oh yeah, D&D is so much fun. My favorite way to describe it is Interactive Storytelling. One player plays the storyteller, and the rest of the players play the protagonists, responding to the world as the world responds to them. How fun it is, though, really depends on the group you play with. Every group will have different strengths; goofing off, having fun characters, strategy, roleplay, etc
Welcome to the wonderful world of Critical Role! Being a Critter myself, I love seeing new ppl watching this show cause it is such a perfect gateway to the shows they do playing the characters! Glad u enjoyed! And as for actually playing DnD, I just got to play myself after yrs of trying and I loved the heck out of it. But I think there are ways to find groups online to play more than a one shot on. It's kinda hard to find ppl u jive with to play a longer sort of game.
ah..welcome to the critter community. a few things for you to consider... you could look up the main voice cast and you will find that each of them you probably have heard before, in Anime, Animation or Videogames...sometimes even in rather prominent roles. The further voicecast is also surprisingly rich of celebrity cameos and voices (some of the names ARE going to surprise you)... there is a critical role channel on youtube on which you will find a series of making off videos, each called "the legend of.. somethingsomething".. they are an interesting watch. as for the main characters and their powers: Vex, female half-elven Beastmaster Ranger (the beast being Trinket the bear). she's an archer and tracker. Vax, twin brother to Vex, Rogue Assassin, deals a fair bit of damage, is stealthy and occasionally good with lockpicks. Percy, Human Gunslinger Fighter.. he's all about guns (actually invented them).. when they work, they pack a punch. Grog, Goliath Berserker Barbarian.. he's the tank, can take a lot of damage and deals just as much of it... not the smartest in the party. In the show they call him half giant instead of Goliath, for copyright reasons. Pike: Gnome War Cleric.. powerful healer and fighter. her magic is of a divinely inspired nature (as in, she obtains her powers from a divinity). Keyleth, Half elven Druid of the Moon.. powerful nature magic and a shapeshifter. Scanlan, Gnome Lore Bard.. his magic is arcane of nature, and tied into Music and performing arts. The campaign started as a homegame and we encounter the party already established, at level 9 (out of 20)... so they're well capable to take a punch and take on some strong opponents, but they are by no means undefeatable.
"Im super into that stuff. I know it doesnt look like it..." Ma'am, have you seen that wall that youre sitting in front of? 😂 Cant wait to watch your reaction and welcome, Critter!
Shiny day to you Abi, welcome to the critter community! We’ll happily answer any questions as honestly nothing makes us happier than helping someone new learn the ropes! As you go through the series there’s some Easter eggs to the stream and if you pay attention to the background characters you’ll see a recurring character (scanlan pees on him) that’s Matt Mercer the DM, they’ve made him the Stan lee of the series. Also Arsequeef on here has done comparison videos to stream moments in the series… you’ll definitely want to check these out afterwards cos yeh spoilers!! Bidet!!
Of all the misfits banding together shows i have watched, this one really feels like they are a family...maybe its because of the language and tone of humor but the way these characters interact with each other really feel like they are a family of friends that found each other
I really recommend reacting to Critical Role's mini D&D campaign Exu Calamity. It's relatively "short" and basically an independent storyline set in the same world as Legend of Vox Machina. It's about a historic apocalyptic event called Calamity in the legendary era of great wizardy (and their notorious wizardly hybris).. It's got an amazing cast and Scanlan's, Keyleth's and Grog's actors are in it as well. I'm sure you'd really like it!
Grog Strongjaw goliath barbarian berserker Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III human fighter custom gunslinger build Scanlan Shorthaul gnome bard Pike Trickfoot gnome cleric Kelith of the air ashari wild elf druid circle of moon Vax'ildan 1/2 elf rouge assassin Vex'ahlia 1/2 elf ranger Beastmaster + Trinket bear
Since you love LOTR so much- I HIGHLY recommend you look up Dimension 20's "Escape from the Bloodkeep" D&D campaign here on TH-cam. It is a short series, so not too many hours' of content, and is one of the most hilarious takes/parodies of LOTR I have ever seen.
Glad to see another person who appreciates fantasy discovering this series, and Critical Role. Looking forward to your next one! The whole 12 episode series is quite a ride. And they are already working on the second season. Enjoy!
If it's any help, there's a channel on YT called All Ages of Geek - couple of sisters who do fun story analysis - whose Discord server has started a few D&D games since they watched this. If you're short of opportunities to party up, they've got fair odds of having a space for you in a workable timeslot.
Yo, what is TH-cam doing?! I got an ad right after Scanlan said he needed to "drain the proverbial basilisk" and I'm not sure what the ad was for, but there was a song called Peepy's Theme singing about loving and hugging a tiny peepy...does not feel coincidental.
Also I hope Felicia Day can get in on this somehow....she tried a series long ago with World of Warcraft characters like a day in a life kinda thing... didn't get off the ground... don't think we were ready for fan fiction gaming at the time....I'm sure she could be a great addition to this cast she has worked with or been on same shows as a couple of cast members
Since she was actually guest for two episodes in the original camapign, I hope her character at least makes an appearance in the background of season 2
@@hhylobates4098 While I was initially disappointed that certain characters from the city she's in wouldn't appear due to that entire arc being skipped for the animated series (it takes place immediately before the main arc of this show, won't say more for spoilers but you know who they are), it does occur to me as I'm doing a C1 rewatch and currently at the arc after that that the party does go back there for an ally-gathering mission. The Slayer's Take characters could absolutely appear then, as well as a certain black powder merchant...
Hello! So... I confess, the following comment is a copy and paste of one I wrote quite a while back, have tweaked several times, and so now I fall back on it to give a Critical Role explanation. Yes, it's a bit longer than average, but... there's A LOT of stuff to cover, I summarized as best I could. 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 he asked Matt Mercer, another well-established voice actor and talented GM (Game Master) 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. 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 25 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 is basically funding a second season 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 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. Personally, how the lead composer got the job is one of my fav stories. Here is that play list. th-cam.com/play/PL1tiwbzkOjQwJdoNetaNJE1zZVOE7xi8u.html 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!
Welcome to Critical Role! As a fan of the original campaign I love this show, but objectively I do think the first two episodes are rushed and a little all over the place, episode 3 is when it really picks up and then it just keeps getting better and better!
Worlds are colliding! You really need to watch the Critical Role campaigns sometime although it's a huge investment of time. Maybe just try to watch the session recaps you can find on TH-cam or whatever.
Ugh I love you all so much 😭 super surprised and happy to see such a fun fan base! To update y’all I’ve started watching Critical Roles campaigns and they are hilarious 😂 👏🏾👏🏾
Hell yeah. New critter alert. Campaign 2 is my favorite. Jester is hilarious 🤣
The Exandria Unlimited (EXU) are amazing as well! They are also shorter campaigns: EXU: Calamity with Brennan Lee Mulligan as DM, and EXU: Kymal with Aabria Iyengar as DM. Both are absolutely phenomenal.
Okay the intro, I just learned something new from you
@@AdamAmbrose2112 I feel like Calamity is an easy one to recommend to people you think may enjoy it. It's entertaining and constantly moving forward. It starts like a shotgun blast with the dream sequence taking place. Everyone playing is experienced, so it's incredibly smooth. It's a very short run, but I feel like it hit everything that Brennan had planned and nobody needed too hard of a shove.
It's not my favorite overall, but asking someone to give something a try that has over 100 episodes of 3-4 hours each is intimidating and a big ask. Calamity is at least more reasonable at a glance and it's still bursting with both humor and feels. There are a lot of clips that I have shared with friends from the main campaigns, but it's so hard to provide the proper context as to why something is incredible/hilarious when it's been building over hundreds of hours and multiple events. I'm basically writing a Wiki page so someone can appreciate a joke. 😅
the characters are all created and played by actual voice actors, like we see in The Last Of Us, Overwatch, Naruto and more
The reason the party is called Vox Machina is because it's latin for Voice Machine, and they're all voice actors. Percy wasn't kidding when he said it was a clever play on words.
Though, before they started streaming publicly, the group was known as the Super High Intensity Team - or the S.H.I.T.s for short. 😁
@@SebastianWeinberg you know, I've known about them being called "The Shits" for years but I never knew that it was an acronym for something. I just remember seeing a vine like 10 years ago in which Sam was introducing the group to an NPC and he said, "we're kind of a big deal, we're the shits."
The elf was a drow, which is basically dark elves in D&D. Like how WOW has the night elves and Skyrim has the Dunmer
This started out as a Kickstarter by Critical Role to fund a 22min pilot/short/special to give to the fans because everybody wanted to see any official CR animation project. The goal was $750,000 and they reached that in 45min, ending with a total of $11.3 Million raised. Long story short, now the Critters (CR fans) funded 12 Episodes. Amazon Prime Video saw this and a deal was made that Amazon would fund a Season 2 and hopefully more to come. The show is an adaptation of the first stream campaign back in 2015. Episodes 1 + 2 are non streamed stories (played off screen back in 2013-2014ish) then episode 3 drops you into arguably one of the best Arcs of the campaign and where the story really ramped up.
That’s really cool! I’m definitely checking out their campaigns and loving it so far. Also thanks for a bit of their back story
I also love that this story is what made David Tennant agree to appear in the show as General Krieg. He was the first non-CR cast member to sign up for the show purely out of the realization that it was the fan community's love, dedication, and support that made the whole thing possible in the first place. He didn't even need to be pitched on what Critical Role was or what the story of Vox Machina was going to be. He simply heard about the fans coming together and blowing away every expectation they had to turn what was supposed to be a single animated special into a full blown animated series and he felt he needed to be a part of such a huge display of fandom support. That we made this show happen was enough for him to agree to appear in it, no matter what it was.
hopefully they can switch season 2 to another streaming service since Amazon is terrible
@@Nexusofgeek that’s not happening considering season 2 is happening Because of Amazon’s money
There will be a season 3!
The background of the show is just as fascinating as the show itself is entertaining. Looks like other commenters explained the Kickstarter, but the fact they played a years-long D&D game and got to turn it into animated form is just rad
I gotta shoutout Scanlan’s voice actor, Sam Riegel. He had never played before, but participated in the first game, which was a birthday request of Liam O’Brien (Vax’s actor). He didn’t know what to be so he asked his buddy Liam, a relative veteran, to pick the shittiest, weakest combo of class & race, and he would play it as a gag. Liam gave him Gnome Bard, a physically weak, tiny creature with seemingly only fun magic, and no big sword type skills. He went on to be…absolute, show-stealing, clutch, heart breaking character in the campaign.
A bard is a lover, not a fighter. They sing, dance, joke and charm. Well, Sam Riegel was a child performer that toured for Les Miserables; he won an Emmy for directing an animated show, he has three decades as a voice actor, director, casting, and musical producer for Marvel, DC, video games, and a billion different properties ; oh, and his wife is a director/cinematographer. His comic timing and creativity are boundless; his shame does not exist. He will choke on three forms of candy and a bottle of cola on camera for a bit. You could not build a better bard in a lab.
By the end of the campaign, Sam proved to the whole world just how powerful a Bard can truly be if determined enough. Not bad for someone who had never played before at the start of the campaign.
"I'm curious if it's gonna be very graphic or kid-friendly (Me in my head: You'll get your answer in, like, 10 seconds! LOL :p)
That intro got me 😅
It's always nice finding new Vox Machina reactions, especially when they start getting into Critical Role as well! Looking forward to the rest.
Fun fact: The children in this episode were actually voiced by kids of some of the cast - the little boy was voiced by Maximus the son of Sam Riegel (Scanlan) and the girl was voiced by Zoe the daughter of Liam O'Brien (Vax).
Bidet Abi! While you seem to know (I went through the comments) that is a greeting from us Critters, you might ha e missed the Why of it. Basically Grog is an idiot. No, really. A standard beings Intelligence is 10, but Grog's is 6. The break down from Matt Mercer when he explained it once is that he uses the interval values. So if 10 is normal, then 8 can read but not write, & 6 is borderline barely capable of speech (there is an equal argument involving Druid's Awakening animals setting Int to 6 so they can speak).
Not sure how much you might want to know, but the voice cast is pretty stacked. They did a series of "Making of" videos on their channel. I would recommend watching "The Legend of The Cast of The Legend of Vox Machina" which covers the voice actors. It doesn't necessarily spoil story for you, while also helping learn some names of characters.
Ive seen enough of your reaction videos to know Percy is DEFINITELY your type. Just wait!
I thought it was Percy too but then Grog and Scanlan kept showing up 😂
*YES! YES! YES!*
I knew this was right up your alley!
Welcome to the Critters, and _bidet_ to you, my lady! 🙋🏻♂️
Bidet! 👋🏾
Ashley Johnson, the voice of the gnome Pike, also stars in an incredible animated series Infinity Train.
She was also in the first Avengers film. She's the random waitress we keep seeing during the Battle of New York and had a lot of more scenes that were cut where we were following her around the battlefield. One of the original ideas for her was she was being set up as a potential love interest for Captain America in the modern day to replace Peggy.
@@VegetaLF7 Oooh, nice!
Lady Kima from the council is Mirabelle from Encanto 😄
Love it!
HELL YEAH this show is so good
100% agree! A fantastic group of characters 👏🏾👏🏾
Oh boy! This is my jam! I've watched a lot of Critical Role so here's the breakdown of this show.
This show translates some key moments from "Campaign 1" of Critical Role. The first two episodes are from before the show officially began, and then the rest of this season adapts one of the first major arcs from campaign 1.
They were trying to pitch this show for a long time, and eventually had to go to Kickstarter where the fans threw in a bunch of money. Then Amazon got interested and threw in more money.
A lot of moments from the show are pretty accurately taken from the Live Play show. You can find comparisons online of the Animated version versus the Live Play show.
Ultimately, Campaign 1 is a big tough to get into (it comes in halfway through a storyline) and takes like ~20 episodes to get up and running. Campaign 2 and 3 are much more accessible to get into. But campaign 2 ran for over 100 episodes, and campaign 3 is currently around episode 35 or 36.
D&D is great! I've run games for years now and love it
I am watching a campaign right now! Absolutely love them already😂 Am I going down a rabbit hole, yes, yes I am
@@abi_corinne they're so good at what they do and they all love each other so much. It's a beautiful thing
Omg yesss, welcome to the Critter Family, definitely recommend you watch these 3 episodes at a time.
Ayyy, what a nice surprise! Others have already shared the story about the Kickstarter and the Campaign, so I'll just add that it might be worthwhile to check out side-by-sides that some Critters made of certain key moments in the show as they happened in the game. As good as the show is at points, watching the players go through it live is a special experience.
When I say that I'm happy you started this show....I have no words. Im a mega Critter that loves Critical Role. I also would say watching EXU Calamity worked be great. It's 4 episodes and completely well done
I’ll check out EXU Calamity for sure!
Yes VOX MACHINA!!
Interesting I never thought I would react to this. I just started watching the Critical Role people do this live, they’re so good.
Yoooo you’re watching this gem? Let’s gooooooo
After I watched this series I watched through the related episodes of Critical Role Campaign 1, just to see how it compared. Then I watched the rest of Campaign 1. Then so much more Critical Role. I never, _ever_ would have thought that sitting and watching people play D&D would be something that I'd love to do, but it shocked the hell out of me how easily engrossed I became. The show is good on its own, but the more you keep in mind that basically everything happening on-screen is happening due to the way a series of dice landed, the more you'll appreciate it.
Also, Sam Riegel, the guy behind Scanlan Shorthalt, earned so much respect from me during my viewing of the actual campaign. That man is a "bit" machine, and the amount of preparation he put into his ceaseless barrage of jokes, gags, pranks, songs, and somehow t-shirts, had me wheezing on multiple occasions.
You’re gonna LOVE this show Abi!!!
3 things got me into watching Critical Role.
1) Seeing vids of Scanlan singing
2) Seeing vids of Matt Mercers amazing twists
3) Seeing Joe Manganiello play with them and giving us one of the best moments of the campaign.
I loved Treasure Planet! Thanks for reminding me of a that gem!!
D&D Lore, at least what I remember of it:
There are chromatic dragons, generally evil, and metallic dragons, generally good.
Each type of dragon has various characteristics, environments they like, etc. They also have different breath weapons; red dragons breathe fire, but black dragons spray acid, green dragons poisonous gas, and blue dragons lightning.
They are, generally, incredibly dangerous.
Oh thank you for this break down! Dragons are so cool…or hot? 🔥🔥🔥
@@abi_corinne white dragons have ice breath so it’s a mix heh
You are going to LOVE LOVE LOVE this series! And somebody is going to volunteer to run D&D for you and you should DEFINITELY take them up on it.
Letssss gooooooooo. I remember putting money on this show but when it was on patron
I got SOOOO excited when I saw this! I hope (and am pretty sure) you're gonna love this show! I'm starting up a D&D campaign based in the Critical Role world soon, so I'm fully invested in this content. :D
I just started watching their campaigns on their channel 😂 it’s a lot of fun to watch them!
@@abi_corinne The only danger with watching their campaigns is the hundreds and hundreds of hours of amazing content that is then a gateway to hundreds and hundreds of hours of more games, like Dimension 20....say goodbye to sleep! :D
@@abi_corinne Well... you won't be bored for the next few years...
I think my favourite thing about this series is that every really bad or really great thing that happens to, or is done by, the characters is almost always based on their dice rolls in-game lmao
Love that little tid bit! Makes this even more enjoyable 😍
5:55 There's a running gag where minor characters who look like Critical Role's DM Matt Mercer keep having a bad time, usually thanks to the actions of Vox Machina
D&D is probably the number 1 game I would recommend for meeting new people and learning the world of Fantasy. I DM (Dungeon Master) a game that's in the timeline of Ancient Japan and my players love it. I would highly recommend learning what classes would suit you and have a better understanding of D&D
Yessss! I love this show! So happy that Critical Role was able to do this through the love and devotion of the people who just enjoy watching them play D&D together.
Genuinely think you're gonna love this, Abi!
The guy who animated it is from the dc animated movies fyi
Glad you're watching this Miss Corinne. You're gonna love it! Looking forward to your reactions.
I am so glad you are getting into this! Pretty much from the first time I watched it, I actually thought it would be right up your alley and would be very fun to see a reaction from you!
Oh yeah, D&D is so much fun. My favorite way to describe it is Interactive Storytelling. One player plays the storyteller, and the rest of the players play the protagonists, responding to the world as the world responds to them.
How fun it is, though, really depends on the group you play with. Every group will have different strengths; goofing off, having fun characters, strategy, roleplay, etc
Welcome to the wonderful world of Critical Role! Being a Critter myself, I love seeing new ppl watching this show cause it is such a perfect gateway to the shows they do playing the characters! Glad u enjoyed! And as for actually playing DnD, I just got to play myself after yrs of trying and I loved the heck out of it. But I think there are ways to find groups online to play more than a one shot on. It's kinda hard to find ppl u jive with to play a longer sort of game.
Abi just said you can't trust a dark elf!! omg I'm dead 🤣
I'm glad you're watching this, I think you're really going to enjoy it!
Glad you're watching this! it's such a fun show :D
ah..welcome to the critter community.
a few things for you to consider... you could look up the main voice cast and you will find that each of them you probably have heard before, in Anime, Animation or Videogames...sometimes even in rather prominent roles. The further voicecast is also surprisingly rich of celebrity cameos and voices (some of the names ARE going to surprise you)...
there is a critical role channel on youtube on which you will find a series of making off videos, each called "the legend of.. somethingsomething".. they are an interesting watch.
as for the main characters and their powers:
Vex, female half-elven Beastmaster Ranger (the beast being Trinket the bear). she's an archer and tracker.
Vax, twin brother to Vex, Rogue Assassin, deals a fair bit of damage, is stealthy and occasionally good with lockpicks.
Percy, Human Gunslinger Fighter.. he's all about guns (actually invented them).. when they work, they pack a punch.
Grog, Goliath Berserker Barbarian.. he's the tank, can take a lot of damage and deals just as much of it... not the smartest in the party. In the show they call him half giant instead of Goliath, for copyright reasons.
Pike: Gnome War Cleric.. powerful healer and fighter. her magic is of a divinely inspired nature (as in, she obtains her powers from a divinity).
Keyleth, Half elven Druid of the Moon.. powerful nature magic and a shapeshifter.
Scanlan, Gnome Lore Bard.. his magic is arcane of nature, and tied into Music and performing arts.
The campaign started as a homegame and we encounter the party already established, at level 9 (out of 20)... so they're well capable to take a punch and take on some strong opponents, but they are by no means undefeatable.
This is a fun animated show. Glad I'm able to rewatch it 🔥
Glad you're watching this. Hope you continue I promise it's good
It shall all be watched! Far to good of a show not to finish!
Really REALLY enjoying your vibe. Critters love to fill in gaps so I can't wait for you to enjoy this.
Found your channel through this reaction and thoroughly enjoyed it:)
"Im super into that stuff. I know it doesnt look like it..."
Ma'am, have you seen that wall that youre sitting in front of? 😂
Cant wait to watch your reaction and welcome, Critter!
holy shit i didnt see you reacting to this series ever, your channel gets so much better all the time tyy
So glad you're watching this series!
Very enjoyable reaction + that treasures planet mention
This was so fun. You're really good at cutting between important things and your reactions.
Yaaaaaaas I am so fucking psyched for this.
Your in for a treat
Shiny day to you Abi, welcome to the critter community! We’ll happily answer any questions as honestly nothing makes us happier than helping someone new learn the ropes! As you go through the series there’s some Easter eggs to the stream and if you pay attention to the background characters you’ll see a recurring character (scanlan pees on him) that’s Matt Mercer the DM, they’ve made him the Stan lee of the series. Also Arsequeef on here has done comparison videos to stream moments in the series… you’ll definitely want to check these out afterwards cos yeh spoilers!! Bidet!!
Of all the misfits banding together shows i have watched, this one really feels like they are a family...maybe its because of the language and tone of humor but the way these characters interact with each other really feel like they are a family of friends that found each other
Welcome to the critter family! Looking forward to seeing you enjoy the rest of the series!
It is really refreshing different realm...its own little I.P. good story good writing... not something often seen
AHHH YAY I am so happy you are watching Vox finally :D I hope you enjoy!!
I really recommend reacting to Critical Role's mini D&D campaign Exu Calamity. It's relatively "short" and basically an independent storyline set in the same world as Legend of Vox Machina. It's about a historic apocalyptic event called Calamity in the legendary era of great wizardy (and their notorious wizardly hybris).. It's got an amazing cast and Scanlan's, Keyleth's and Grog's actors are in it as well. I'm sure you'd really like it!
Oh wow, I found you through this video - your reactions are great! I can't wait to see your journey through more of these episodes!
Grog Strongjaw goliath barbarian berserker
Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III human fighter custom gunslinger build
Scanlan Shorthaul gnome bard
Pike Trickfoot gnome cleric
Kelith of the air ashari wild elf druid circle of moon
Vax'ildan 1/2 elf rouge assassin
Vex'ahlia 1/2 elf ranger Beastmaster + Trinket bear
Auw, your eyes turn so alive as you watch. You *definately* want a group and start playing.
This show is amazing you will love it. Also DnD is fun hope you get to experience it one day.
I love how excited you are, I had a smile on my face the entire time! Hope you enjoy the ride, shit starts getting really wild at episode 3!
Grog was always the best and funniest.
So happy to see you jump into this! Hope you enjoy the ride and learn about the game along the way.
Im so happy I found your channel!!!! 🥰🥰❤❤❤
Yes!!! Was hoping you would react to Vox machina.
Since you love LOTR so much- I HIGHLY recommend you look up Dimension 20's "Escape from the Bloodkeep" D&D campaign here on TH-cam. It is a short series, so not too many hours' of content, and is one of the most hilarious takes/parodies of LOTR I have ever seen.
Ahh im so excited I love this show
Glad to see you reacting to this; enjoy!
Omg I'm so excited to see you react to this!
Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also...bidet!
Glad to see another person who appreciates fantasy discovering this series, and Critical Role. Looking forward to your next one! The whole 12 episode series is quite a ride. And they are already working on the second season. Enjoy!
this show is so good! Glad you are reacting to it
If it's any help, there's a channel on YT called All Ages of Geek - couple of sisters who do fun story analysis - whose Discord server has started a few D&D games since they watched this. If you're short of opportunities to party up, they've got fair odds of having a space for you in a workable timeslot.
abi: i wonder if it's going to be like gorey or for everyone
me, knowing what the first five minutes have in store: 😅
LLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET'SS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
welcome! hope you continue to enjoy the show and I really hope that you get to play D&D really soon.
Been a huge Critical Role fan since about a third of the way into C1. Very glad you're enjoying this and giving it some exposure.
Love the energy!
Yo, what is TH-cam doing?! I got an ad right after Scanlan said he needed to "drain the proverbial basilisk" and I'm not sure what the ad was for, but there was a song called Peepy's Theme singing about loving and hugging a tiny peepy...does not feel coincidental.
OMG IM SO EXCITED.
Much hype, so wow!
They call him King Cyborg.
This is such a fun show. ;)
Stumbled onto your channel with Rings of Power. I’m into anyone that is positive. Will definitely be here for the CR ride with you. 👍🏽
Bidet friend! This show is god sent👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 I can’t believe I’ve missed out for so long
❤#thelegendofvoxmachina ❤ ur #reaction as always
Just remember dnd can be lord of the rings, but usually devolves into benny hill lol
Also I hope Felicia Day can get in on this somehow....she tried a series long ago with World of Warcraft characters like a day in a life kinda thing... didn't get off the ground... don't think we were ready for fan fiction gaming at the time....I'm sure she could be a great addition to this cast she has worked with or been on same shows as a couple of cast members
She actually voices a side character in the next ep! :D
Since she was actually guest for two episodes in the original camapign, I hope her character at least makes an appearance in the background of season 2
@@hhylobates4098 While I was initially disappointed that certain characters from the city she's in wouldn't appear due to that entire arc being skipped for the animated series (it takes place immediately before the main arc of this show, won't say more for spoilers but you know who they are), it does occur to me as I'm doing a C1 rewatch and currently at the arc after that that the party does go back there for an ally-gathering mission. The Slayer's Take characters could absolutely appear then, as well as a certain black powder merchant...
@@procrastinator99 thanks for the info I appreciate it...I don't think I would of caught that
So happy you are doing this show. really hoping you will continue What we do in the shadows though
Welcome to one of the best stories you could possibly get into, Critical Role's The Legend of Vox Machina
Bidet! 🧙🐲⚔ Welcome new Critter! 😄
Hello! So... I confess, the following comment is a copy and paste of one I wrote quite a while back, have tweaked several times, and so now I fall back on it to give a Critical Role explanation. Yes, it's a bit longer than average, but... there's A LOT of stuff to cover, I summarized as best I could.
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 he asked Matt Mercer, another well-established voice actor and talented GM (Game Master) 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.
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 25 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 is basically funding a second season 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 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. Personally, how the lead composer got the job is one of my fav stories. Here is that play list.
th-cam.com/play/PL1tiwbzkOjQwJdoNetaNJE1zZVOE7xi8u.html
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!
Welcome to Critical Role! As a fan of the original campaign I love this show, but objectively I do think the first two episodes are rushed and a little all over the place, episode 3 is when it really picks up and then it just keeps getting better and better!
on the end note of the episode going really fast, they were released 3 at a time and you might enjoy the watch better if you go that way too.
Worlds are colliding! You really need to watch the Critical Role campaigns sometime although it's a huge investment of time. Maybe just try to watch the session recaps you can find on TH-cam or whatever.
Ingenuity.... important word.... also: you are interested in Percy?...
but... but the others are not so quiet and boring humans!
All the ladies love Percy. Maybe I need to bleach my hair or something.
YAS!
I see Vox, I Sub.