AmazonPrime’s adult cartoonThe Legend of Vox Machinahas become a hit ever since the first three episodes were released on January 28th. As one of the most-watched Prime shows in the U.S., it’s gained a five-star rating on the site andRotten Tomatoes has given it a 100%. But the show actually has a very humble beginning.
The Beginning of the Stream
For those unfamiliar withDungeons and Dragon(D&D), it is a tabletop role-playing game in which the dungeon master (DM) creates an imaginary world or follows along several official pre-made stories. The players will create their own characters using pre-built races and classes, and will use these characters to explore the world around them as the DM guides them through it. Due to the many possible choices and the fact that any story could be made, no one campaign is the same, so when they are streamed, people will watch to hear the unique story unfolding around the characters.
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In the first part of any episode ofCritical Role, you are greeted by the DMMatthew Mercer, who says the stream is “where a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons.” That’s all they ever intended to be when they began — a group of friends having fun and sharing their experience with the world. The campaign had already begun two years prior to their first stream, originally starting as a one-shot for cast member Liam O’Brien’s birthday. They all had a blast playing it, so they decided to continue exploring the world Mercer had created with the party they dubbed ‘Vox Machina.’ As a result, they began streaming in the middle of the campaign, where their game characters had already been together for a while.
Actress Felicia Day, founder of the YouTube channel Geek & Sundry,invited the group to stream on the channelwhen she found out about their game. Even starting out in an already established world with already established characters didn’t stop the fans from piling in. As they streamed every Thursday night, the line “Is it Thursday yet?” began to make the rounds, and now it’s how every episode ends. They slowly grew a fanbase, dubbing their fans ‘critters’ and starting to make merchandise based on either their characters or popular lines they would often repeat during the stream. The first campaign ran for two years, ending in October 2017 with 115 episodes.
The Critical Role Cast, Characters, and the World of Exandria
The current cast ofCritical Roleis made of eight people, seven of whom are players. Though they regularly have guests join the live stream, and for the first few episodeshad another player they’ve since parted with, the original eight show up whenever other commitments don’t get in the way. They are all voice actors, after all, and sometimes can’t make it. Every one of them reprises their characters in the animated showThe Legend of Vox Machina, with Mercer voicing many of the background characters along with the antagonist Lord Sylas Briarwood.
There are three half-elves in the party — Keyleth the druid (Marisha Ray, and the twins, Vex’ahlia the ranger (Laura Bailey) and Vax’ildan the rogue (Liam O’Brien). There are also two gnomes — Pike the cleric (Ashley Johnson) and Scanlan the bard (Sam Riegel). The outliers of the party consist of the Goliath barbarian Grog (Travis Willingham) and the human fighter/gunslinger Percy (Taliesin Jaffe). Though there are many game-based aspects to the characters that can’t be brought to the show, such as taking turns in combat or certain abilities that only boost their statistics, they still use the fighting techniques that their characters had in-game, and theyall still have the same personalities. The story they made is what really matters when translating it into a show, anyway.
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So how do they avoid copyright from the creators ofD&D? Well, thanks to Mercer, their world is completely his own design, meaning there are no copyright issues from premade stories. The world of Exandria is as detailed and extensive as any high-fantasy novel, like Middle Earth inThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Rings. Mercer didn’t leave a single detail out — he renamed the days of the week, he created an extensive history for the world and, most importantly, he populated the five continents, three oceans and vast subterranean region of this fictitious world. That’s what helps make their stories intriguing; as the players explore their own stories, the world around them slowly unfolds to reveal hidden truths and secrets known only to Mercer.
Turning the Game into a Show
Critical Roleeventually grew popular enough that they split from Geek & Sundry, creating their own YouTube and Twitch channels as well as getting their own studio. As they forged their way through campaign two, they continued to design and produce new merchandise, sometimes for new characters, sometimes for old. Not forgetting their beginnings, they opened a Kickstarter in 2019 to fundraise an animated one-shot that would feature Vox Machina during a pre-stream moment so that the critters could see some of what happened before they began. Critters blew their expectations out of the water, raisingover $11 million and smashing Kickstarter records, taking that one-shot and turning it into a full season. Then, due to its popularity,Amazon Prime picked it up and immediately ordered a second season.
With 115 episodes, however, each averaging about four hours long, it almost seems impossible to condense all that gameplay into the simple, 22-minute installments ofThe Legend of Vox Machina. Of course, there were some things that they had to change. Where the show picks up is not actually where the stream started; featuring a pre-stream moment in the first two episodes, the animated show then begins with the second story arc of the stream. There are several reasons why this could be the case — one includes the fact that it would be hard to write out the other cast member who would not be returning for the show. Another is that, while the stream did have a previous story arc, it was not as important as any of the future arcs in terms of the overarching story Mercer was creating. Perhaps the most likely, however, is that as the Kickstarter grew, and they realized they could fund more episodes, it was stated they would stick with the original plan, and then add this story arc in as well. It’s one of the most popular among the critters, and is where things really start picking up.
Though they adapted the gameplay, transitioning turn-based combat intoaction-packed fight scenesand cutting out any pop culture references they joked about (such as changing the ‘safe word’ if anything went wrong from ‘Jenga’ to ‘chenga’), they did have to change the introduction of some beloved characters. Fans of the stream recognize favorites such as Gilmore and Lady Allura taking up almost the same roles, but find others, such as Captain Jarett or Lady Kima, being altered slightly in order to stay in the show.
Minor story edits had to be made as well, in order to keep the impactful moments and lines in as well as keep the story progressing, because an entire 22-minute shopping episode wouldn’t really work well on TV. This brings a fresh take to the story for those who do know and loveCritical Role, and makes it easier for those just tuning in to understand. No matter how much you know before pressing play, one thing is for sure —The Legend of Vox Machinahas been carefully crafted to let anyone enjoy it, and it looks like veryone is.
