Critical Role is a twitch stream where eight “nerdy voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons” as Matthew Mercer starts every episode. The party, Vox Machina, comprises of Marisha Ray, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Ashley Johnson, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, Liam O’Brien, and Matthew Mercer as Dungeon Master. It started off as a Twitch stream under Geek and Sundry. Since then, they’ve parted ways and continued under their own production company, Critical Role Productions LLC.
10 Fitting Art & Animation
Obvious, but an art style that fits the tone of the series is an absolutely must to maintain Critical Role’s perfect balance of epic, heart-wrenching moments and other times of downright silliness.
Luckily for the artists, Kit Buss, Critical’ Role’s resident portrait artist, inadvertently gave direction for the artists to work with by establishing a canon look to the characters. Also said to air as an adult cartoon, the audience don’t need to worry about too much censoring of gore from epic battles or Scanlan’s dirty jokes.
9 Terrific Visual World-Building
In tandem with the art, the visuals of the environment is crucial. One of the audience’s favorite parts about Critical Role is Mercer’s thoughtful world-building complete with a political and social infrastructure, history, and detailed visual descriptions that sends the imagination of every viewer running wild.
However, now that the visuals are in the artists’ hands and are no longer left to the imagination, there is pressure to provide the same level of wonder Mercer gave the fans.
8 Epic Battles
via: @Viktormon
The downside of Critical Role as a Twitch stream is the long hours of battles which literally lasts only a minute or two in in-game time. Luckily, with the benefit of visual storytelling (one that the stream couldn’t achieve asides from moving miniatures back and forth), the audience no longer has to sit through repetitive dagger throwing at every round or tedious dice calculations.
Instead, the fights can finally be the fast, epic battles against the most ruthless monsters with bursts of magic, flying arrows, and a raging Grog.
7 Famous Quotes
“I have an intelligence of six, I know what I’m doing.” - Grog Strongjaw
“I’m killing someone. Hold please.” - Vax’ildan
“The buttflap of my soul is down.” - Percival de Rolo
Critical Role graced the internet with many unforgettable quips that many fans now use as their life motto. Said in the moment and perfectly in-character, fans hope that while scripting the series, the scenes could embody the moment as well as when the quotes were first said. Also, hearing these quotes would drive fans to a frenzy, making each viewer laugh and scream “I remember that!”
6 Vox Machina’s Shenanigans
via: @nomoshobia
Main plot aside, Critical Role also thrives from the crazy antics Vox Machina get themselves into, such as the ever-strong and heroic party bested by a locked door, or when Grog pulled from the Deck of Many Things after specifically being told not to.
These moments not only act as comedic relief but it brings more balance to the story, showing the relationship dynamic between each character. If the animated series removed these downright silly shenanigans, the audience would miss all the laughs the show brought.
5 Well-Timed Music
Dungeons and Dragons is a game where the players’ actions are unscripted and the Dungeon Master’s plan don’t always go the way it’s supposed to. So, since Critical Role happens live on Twitch and Mercer (the Dungeon Master) can’t see the future, there is no way to timely choose the appropriate music for every single scene.
This makes for occasionally awkward moments where epic battle music plays over what is otherwise a sweet scene. However, now that they can plan the music beforehand, a more open and better timed music selection would make for a fuller experience.
4 Scanlan’s Songs
Scanlan, played by Sam Riegel, set a new standard for bards through his Dungeons and Dragons parodies of relevant pop songs. As most bard players usually voice out, “I play my lute”, Riegel actually brings a musical element to a musical class through comedic song.
However, fans can only hope that Scanlan’s songs can even make it to the series considering there might be copyright issues that Critical Role Productions LLC may not be able to afford and thus, use the music or tune for.
3 The Briarwood Arc
via: @alienfirst
The Briarwood arc is the first character arc ever streamed on Critical Role. Prior to this, no one knew much about this history of Vox Machina. But in this arc, the audience can see the truth strength of the Vox Machina bond as it explores the darkness hiding under the usually well-mannered Percy, their royal gunslinger.
As the initial animation was meant to focus on this arc, the audience hopes that as Critical Role Productions LLC extends the animation into a series, the plan of adding future arcs don’t overshadow this one.
2 Beloved NPCs
via: @wargodart
Mercer’s NPC’s were more than just quest carriers and plot drivers. Each with their own distinct personality that the audience adores, they pulled Vox Machina outside their bubble and strengthened the party’s relationship with the world.
So, whether it’s Victor the wily gunpowder vendor or Gilmore the charismatic and flirtatious salesman, it would devastate the fans if any of these NPC’s and their interactions with the party didn’t get the full spotlight they deserve.
1 How Everyone Met
via: @maxwellthebeech
Whether it be the blood-hungry Goliath barbarian or his virtuous gnome cleric best friend, Vox Machina is like the second family everyone wish they had. Fighting all their struggles together, whether it be a group of dragons or personal family issues, Vox Machina has an unbreakable bond. But because the streams started in the middle of a campaign, the audience got a brief history behind each character, but never how they all met.
And although Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina also starts in the middle of the campaign and probably won’t show too much of their past, nothing is stopping the show from showing flashbacks of how the infamous party came to be.
NEXT: 5 Staple Dungeons & Dragons Podcasts (& 5 Obscure Ones Worth A Listen)
