Bad News is the only one i've heard backstory about. It's not that Percy runs out of ammo, he has to roll for misfire or something. I think i heard Bad News has a 15% chance to misfire. No idea what Pepperbox was.
@@WaywardVet The List's misfire rate is 10%, I think (1 or 2). Retort's MFR is 5%. And Percy can run out of ammo; Percy has a one-of-a-kind weapon and has had to make his own ammunition. This is the reason we meet Victor; he collects the main ingredient Percy needs to make his bullets, even though he has no idea what to use it for (but he learns from his mistakes!)
@@JulianCommodus I would slap any game master that tells me my list isn't 100% accurate. Then I'd tell him to roll the dice and I'd slap him again before the dice finished rolling because I told you it's 100%
@@WaywardVet The List's 100% accurate; your aim may not be. And accuracy of the weapon has nothing to do with reliability of the ammunition. And slapping the game master would lead you to a situation where you would need to learn from your mistakes.
No one is the main character but this Arc is Percy's, by that I mean in D+D no one is a main character but everyone has their moment to shine in a good campaign, everyone has their moment the DM's gaze is on them, if the DM has skill, and Matt Mercer is a A+ DM, this is when his gaze fell on Percy
18:27 It's not so much that he ran out of bullets; the weapon misfired because it's a prototype. For all of them, ever. It's quite literally the first gun ever built in that world, so there are a few design flaws. Sometimes it just doesn't fire and he's got to clean the mechanism a bit.
Apparently Percy is based on a play that the player wrote. The play is about the man to first invent the gun and all of the emotions and thoughts he has.
When Percy woke up he put his hand on his neck. I only just realised that's a reference to episode 10. The attention to detail in this show is amazing.
The side of his neck was also slashed in the flashback/nightmare, his hand went to that scar when he woke up, while it may be foreshadowing for ep 10, I think that was probably just a coincidence of them being tortured by the same ppl.
the briarwood arc is the "percy's backstory" arc, and the other party members have their own personal conflicts throughout the season (but their background arcs would be in future seasons)
Fun fact: The Snake is a Enchanted belt that can become a snake with a 100 ft radius of movement from owner, the eyepatch is a reference to a joke made in Campaign. It's name is Simon (The one-eyed trouser snake) AkA Snake Pliskin (on stealth missions).
You sure it was a joke in campaign one? In the show party, they said the eye patch was a joke by the animators to see if they could push the boundaries with the crit roll folks. They actually thought it was funny, so the patch stayed.
In TTRPGs vampires are consider high-level/power undead. Most of their powers is pretty on par with vampires portrayed in movies, but in D&D being undead makes them susceptible to holy and religious classes. Undead are considered aberrations and unnatural, so classes like clerics and priests have spells designed to damage/kill undead as well as stunning/fearing them. That's usually why Pickle was targeted first, she's the only real direct threat to undead. Fun fact: The "no reflection" myth has some history. The myth came about at a time when mirror's reflective surface was made using a coating of silver behind the glass, and silver is considered "pure" in many cultures and would be not interact with "unnatural" things like vampires, werewolves, etc.
"I still wonder if we're going to lose a character..." Fun fact: during the actual gameplay for this session, Vax was almost going to die. Liam, the player behind Vax, even gave a short "What Vax is thinking about in his final moments" speech at the table. It was an incredibly tense and emotional moment for everyone, and the animated episode carried that mood across perfectly! The amazing thing about Critical Role is that they're all improvising and making choices - and sometimes, just like in life, those choices turn out to be deadly. Chances of success are better (or worse) depending on the character's skill sets, but failure is always a possibility. That's why it makes for such great drama when it's translated into animation. Not every dice roll/event is translated exactly from the table top game into the animated series, as the story is the most important part. But the story emerged from the interplay of chances and choices in the game, so we still get that feeling of real risk when all is said and done. (P.S. Also, the bisexual tension of this scene comes across SO WELL! 😅😍)
The first two episodes were part of the home game before they started streaming. The story there actually does relate to a major story arc from the streamed campaign, but we’re not there yet in the show. The rest of THIS season is a story arc from the streamed campaign. This wasn’t the first part of the campaign to air live (it’s actually the second story arc from the livestream), but it’s a huge fan favorite. It covered episodes 24-38 of Campaign One. Remember, too, that the streamed episodes were like 4 hours long. So they’ve condensed 50+ hours of gameplay into the rest of this season. Edit: also, “Chenga” is a nod to the fans. They used “Jenga” in the campaign but couldn’t use a brand name in the TV show.
Replying to the edit-- it's also the reason pike's God's name is 'the everlight' instead of 'sarenrae' or magical spells like 'scanlan's hand' instead of 'bigby's hand'... since the show doesn't have direct ties to WOTC or Paizo proprietary names had to change bc of copyright.
@@ticozayas6430 Sarenrae is actual Paizo IP, as that was when they played Pathfinder pre stream. They shortened it to Rae in the WotC Wildemount book for the same reason.
Basically for Liam O'Brien's (Vax'ildan) birthday he wanted to play Pathfinder(D&D but different), he knew Matt Mercer (DM, Sylas Brairwood) did D&D stuff and asked if he would DM, they got their other voice actor friends to start playing, after a while they realized they had something special with this story and wanted to share it, Felicia Day (Emon Captain) had a Twitch/RUclips channel called Geek&Sundry and gave them a spot/show, they switched to D&D 5e, called it Critical Role "The show where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors get together and play dungeons and dragons", and the rest is history. The first arc streamed isn't in this show because it had a lot of hold over from pre-stream and a party member that has been essentially ret-conned out of the story. But this Arc is where people feel Critical Role really got good.
If I remember right it wasn't that they thought they had something special they could show it's that Felicia Day did, they where convinced it wouldn't be a big thing, but it might pay for some drinks and snacks so why not... $11 Million Kickstarter later...
Umm Actually... Felicia Day heard about it from Ashley at a party, and Felicia asked if they would like to stream it on her twitch channel, 'Geek and Sundry'. BTW, Felicia voiced at least two of the characters in this season, though short lived, as they quickly met gruesome deaths.
I think I know that character. It was a Dragonborn wizard; blanking on the name. He appeared in the graphic novels they made. Just appeared in the first adventure, then sod off in the next volume.
Fun fact tidbits' Vax has two belts. One lets him teleport his knife back to him the other is the snake belt. It's name is Simon and he's a reference to Snake Plisskin.....and is also a One Eye Trouser Snake reference. Also Vex covers her mouth her her fan because she can read lips. But you can never tell if someone is reading yours so she does it out of caution. Also say hello to No Mercy Percy
Just because the DM picks up one character's backstory doesn't mean everybody won't get a chance to shine. But we see here that there's a lot more to Percy than maybe we thought.
The Briarwood Arc is very heavily entwined with Percy's backstory. There are small bits and pieces of other backstories brought up in conversation (Keyleth's aramente, Vex and Vax losing their mother in a dragon attack, etc) but you won't see much development of their stories until season 2 (or beyond, if it continues to be successful). Scanlan's past should catch up with him near the beginning of season 2...Keyleth's is an ongoing journey that will take a while to complete, as she has to travel to visit 3 other Ashari clans. Grog, Vex and Vax will be focused on later. Really, Pike is the only one besides Percy who gets some attention this season. Minor spoilery bits: Scanlan meets someone who forces him to deal with the consequences of his hedonistic lifestyle. Keyleth must prove her worthiness to lead her people by meeting the leaders of their sister tribes and passing their tests. Vex and Vax seek out their estranged father (who they lived with briefly in their teens until they ran away to their mother, only to find out her terrible fate) for help. Grog confronts the family members who beat him nearly to death and abandoned him because he showed mercy to an elderly gnome. The gnome's granddaughter (Pike) saved him with magical healing, and the elderly gnome raised Pike and Grog as adoptive siblings.
when percy was shooting at the briarwoods around 18:18 i don't think his gun ran out of ammo it misfired. I don't know the exact mechanics but in the campaign I believe he had to roll to see if it would fire properly and if not the gun would misfire and smoke/spark
So all of the episodes all 12 are from the same campaign same characters. The first two episodes were events that took place in the campaign prior to them turning a camera on the stream. So it's story elements that no one had ever seen before although events had been alluded to during the campaign. From episode 3 on, it is all storyline elements that we got to hear played out during the stream
Yes, it's all one story. Basically the cast of CR got together to play DnD (for a now infamous brithday party) and liked it so much they kept going. This went on for 2-3 years, during which, at some point the events with zhe dragon that got turned into the first two episodes took place (though slightly differenty, because adaptation). There's a video on their channel summarizing all of these events, of what's now referred to as the 'home game'. Then in 2015 they were approached ba Felicia Day of Geek and Sundry about streaming their game. They didn't think anyone would watch, but decided to give it a shot nonetheless. The first livestreamed story arc (The Underdark Arc) was about going to rescue Lady Kima (who'd gone missing on her holy pilgrimage) at the behest of Lady Allura. This arc is not going to be animated an isn't part of the series' canon. After returning from that quest the dinner that you saw in this episode happened and pretty much kicked off the next story arc (The Briarwoods Arc). It's a cast and fan favourite, so they decided to start the series there (but they included the part about Krieg for various reasons, not least of which to give old critters something new to watch as they promised originally in the kickstarter).
So I'll give you a little insight to critical role. Matt Mercer (the dm) has no issues with killing characters. This becomes extremely evident in campaign 2.
I'm sure someone else has put this info in by now, so humor me here. :) CR's streamed campaign starts with Kraghammer arc. The Briarwood arc, which we see here, starts ep 24 in the streamed campaign, iirc. Also, as you've seen, the Briarwood arc focuses on Percy. There are other arcs throughout the campaign which focus on the rest of the party. Season 2 of Vox Machina covers some of them. Glad you guys decided to do the entire series!
Yes & no this is definitely2 separate scripts.. the first 2 episodes was one of the ideas for the shorter release when they first asked for money(but the events did happen in game when they played at home b4 stream) They wrote & drafted a different first 2 episodes but scraped it(never been told what it was in any extra stuff on their twitch) & re wrote what we got(released info from an after show one week), the 2nd half is a mash up of new twist & more fleshed out characters. Plus one of the various story arc(Briarwood Arc) from the streamed first season
Each of the characters have their own backstory and storyline; this one happens to be Percy's. Each character will most likely have their own trials and tribulations later in the series.
I’m glad y’all are continuing to watch! I enjoy your reactions to this series, and I’m happy to see you invested in the story we all love so much as well. In terms of rolling, every action had a difficulty class/number needed to meet or beat for it to be successful. That number varies depending on what you’re tryin to do, but you don’t necessarily need to roll a 20 achieve the goal intended just higher than whatever the DM has set the dc at. For example pick pocketing from a distracted person may be a dc of 13 while trying to do a backflip off a rooftop and not break your legs might be a 18. I hope that clears it up a little. Something low key to note: Vex has a feat(ure) called observant that lets her read lips if she’s knows the language being spoken, so she has a fan to cover her own!
Episode 1 and 2 are events that happened in their home game of the Vox Machina Campaign before it turned into an online stream. It was literally just a group of friends in Matt's dining room that happened to be played by ridiculously talented voice actors, they had absolutely no intention of filming it, it was just a regular DnD game lol. By the time they started filming it Vox Machina were level 9 or 10 I think and had already been on many adventures together in the privacy of their homes. But they've told us about some of the previous adventures in interviews and later in comic book runs called Vox Machina origins.
Campaign 1 doesn’t start at this episode. There is another arc before the Briarwood arc so viewers of the livestream already knew the characters before this arc starts.
“I do want to know more about the lore and battle systems….” You will learn more about the lore in the show, but I don’t think the show is going to get too “in the weeds” about battle systems (although in a later episode, there’s a bit about Keyleth explaining a spell’s rules in kind of a comedic “hat tip” to D&D) or skills or spells. If you want to learn about the systems, that’s as simple as buying a copy of the 5E Player Guide. Most all of Vox Machina’s races, classes, skills, etc. are there, as well as everything about how the rules work. Or you can probably watch two or three episodes of Critical Role to pick it up through osmosis, in the context of the game. As far as deep diving into the lore goes, there’s quite a few resources online. There’s also the recently re-released and updated Tal’dorei setting guide book! Warning: you may get spoilers from those resources, so if you’re sensitive about that sort of thing…
I have my official DnD "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount' which specially covers the world Matt Mercer created for these campaigns. All three campaigns (3rd is ongoing) take place in this world, but at different times and with different characters. In campaign 1, I can't pick just one character as my favorite. In campaign 2, Jester (Laura Bailey / Vex) is by far my favorite. I would love to see them start that animated series along with this one.
Agreed. If you want to learn the mechanics of D&D (and watch actual D&D), then you want to watch Critical Role. If you want just the polished story that was crafted from the D&D game, then that's LoVM. There's distinctly D&D DNA throughout the show. But it feels like to me that you need to have some rules knowledge to catch how they're being represented in the action. There are some good YT vids out there that provide some interpretations linking animation to rules.
I look at the 1st two episodes as establishing tone (sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll), characters (basic personalities, non-heroes, screwballs with potential that are likely to get knocked around), and some semblance of world. Episode 3 is when it starts to do something with all that (fans will notice the little lie I just told).
Percy's voice actor just told Matt, 'OK my whole family is dead. all he gave Matt was he was a Noble lived in Whitestone. Matt went OK, and gave us one of the best and Darkest story's of campaign 1, and Percy just rolled with it, a great testament to the skill of both DM and Player, Vaxs reaction to the Plague DR mask was the same as Liam (Vax) at the table Small spoiler, you don't really have to worry about PC death, as Vox Machina are practically Gods
Percy's actor also gave Matt the name's Silas and Delilah Briarwood as the people who killed his family... But didn't give ANY details about those characters other than their names. So who they are and their backstory is completely created by Matt. Taliesin(Percy) didn't know that Silas was a vampire until the group found out that Silas was one.
That someone that walked into their keep is one of the most powerful wizards in the continent. (Notice she doesn’t even flinch when the door rockets past her.) Percy’s reaction matches Talisen’s reaction in the game. This was the moment when they realized Matt was going to use their backstories in the game. Note the Matt NPC in this episode - the weapons check guard You should be afraid a character could die. Characters DID/DO die in the Critical Role games. There is no plot armor. What do you want to know about the combat system? Turn based, order based on initiative rolls, actions/movement/bonus action per turn, d20 rolls for attacks, d20 saves vs most spells, damage vs hit points, 0 hit points = unconscious and making death saves. Each turn is 6 seconds.
Grog & Vax playing balltag Dude on the left in green: "And that little moment there ruined highschool for so many thousand ppl. " Yes probably, but if so, there is also the higher cost of babys never born cuz of too many nut punches. (Sry don't know your names, first time watching, but you made me laugh)
oh no, gun dude gets hotter with every episode edit: also if anyone stumbles across this in the future, check out their other reaction videos. I've been binging them for two days and they're all amazing, even if you don't care about the series they're watching
the only problem i have with the op is that i think it ought to have more obnoxiously kickass music. All the ques the animation takes from anime just makes me Yearn for like. the Death Note op to be playing instead.
I noticed something during the intro that only Crit Fans in the know would spot, but def made me go "Oh shit...foreshadowing~" "Its extremely unlikely that would happen" Veteran Critical Role Fans get Campaign 2 Flashbacks "Yeah....Unlikely...."
"you need a bigger gun"
Percy has some Bad News for you.
Nothing travels faster.
Bad News is the only one i've heard backstory about. It's not that Percy runs out of ammo, he has to roll for misfire or something. I think i heard Bad News has a 15% chance to misfire. No idea what Pepperbox was.
@@WaywardVet The List's misfire rate is 10%, I think (1 or 2). Retort's MFR is 5%.
And Percy can run out of ammo; Percy has a one-of-a-kind weapon and has had to make his own ammunition. This is the reason we meet Victor; he collects the main ingredient Percy needs to make his bullets, even though he has no idea what to use it for (but he learns from his mistakes!)
@@JulianCommodus I would slap any game master that tells me my list isn't 100% accurate. Then I'd tell him to roll the dice and I'd slap him again before the dice finished rolling because I told you it's 100%
@@WaywardVet The List's 100% accurate; your aim may not be. And accuracy of the weapon has nothing to do with reliability of the ammunition. And slapping the game master would lead you to a situation where you would need to learn from your mistakes.
20:50 Vax's player legit thought he was dead in this scene and gave a great monologue before he was revived.
I legit got choked up when he gave that mini speech about his last thoughts 🥹🥺😭
😢 The whole table in tears, the Critters in tears, the DM impressed. Oof.
Death saving throws are stressful
No one is the main character but this Arc is Percy's, by that I mean in D+D no one is a main character but everyone has their moment to shine in a good campaign, everyone has their moment the DM's gaze is on them, if the DM has skill, and Matt Mercer is a A+ DM, this is when his gaze fell on Percy
18:27 It's not so much that he ran out of bullets; the weapon misfired because it's a prototype. For all of them, ever. It's quite literally the first gun ever built in that world, so there are a few design flaws. Sometimes it just doesn't fire and he's got to clean the mechanism a bit.
Apparently Percy is based on a play that the player wrote. The play is about the man to first invent the gun and all of the emotions and thoughts he has.
When Percy woke up he put his hand on his neck. I only just realised that's a reference to episode 10. The attention to detail in this show is amazing.
Thank you. I missed that too
It took me a while to spot that as well
The side of his neck was also slashed in the flashback/nightmare, his hand went to that scar when he woke up, while it may be foreshadowing for ep 10, I think that was probably just a coincidence of them being tortured by the same ppl.
3:35 Taliesin and thus Percy is amazing at one liners. They put several of his iconic lines in this season
the briarwood arc is the "percy's backstory" arc, and the other party members have their own personal conflicts throughout the season (but their background arcs would be in future seasons)
Fun fact: The Snake is a Enchanted belt that can become a snake with a 100 ft radius of movement from owner, the eyepatch is a reference to a joke made in Campaign. It's name is Simon (The one-eyed trouser snake) AkA Snake Pliskin (on stealth missions).
You sure it was a joke in campaign one? In the show party, they said the eye patch was a joke by the animators to see if they could push the boundaries with the crit roll folks. They actually thought it was funny, so the patch stayed.
@@cschwally yes, there was a joke about it being a one eyed trouser snake. And yes, the animators put it in as a joke and the cast went with it.
In TTRPGs vampires are consider high-level/power undead. Most of their powers is pretty on par with vampires portrayed in movies, but in D&D being undead makes them susceptible to holy and religious classes. Undead are considered aberrations and unnatural, so classes like clerics and priests have spells designed to damage/kill undead as well as stunning/fearing them. That's usually why Pickle was targeted first, she's the only real direct threat to undead.
Fun fact: The "no reflection" myth has some history. The myth came about at a time when mirror's reflective surface was made using a coating of silver behind the glass, and silver is considered "pure" in many cultures and would be not interact with "unnatural" things like vampires, werewolves, etc.
"I still wonder if we're going to lose a character..."
Fun fact: during the actual gameplay for this session, Vax was almost going to die. Liam, the player behind Vax, even gave a short "What Vax is thinking about in his final moments" speech at the table. It was an incredibly tense and emotional moment for everyone, and the animated episode carried that mood across perfectly!
The amazing thing about Critical Role is that they're all improvising and making choices - and sometimes, just like in life, those choices turn out to be deadly. Chances of success are better (or worse) depending on the character's skill sets, but failure is always a possibility. That's why it makes for such great drama when it's translated into animation. Not every dice roll/event is translated exactly from the table top game into the animated series, as the story is the most important part. But the story emerged from the interplay of chances and choices in the game, so we still get that feeling of real risk when all is said and done.
(P.S. Also, the bisexual tension of this scene comes across SO WELL! 😅😍)
The first two episodes were part of the home game before they started streaming. The story there actually does relate to a major story arc from the streamed campaign, but we’re not there yet in the show.
The rest of THIS season is a story arc from the streamed campaign. This wasn’t the first part of the campaign to air live (it’s actually the second story arc from the livestream), but it’s a huge fan favorite. It covered episodes 24-38 of Campaign One.
Remember, too, that the streamed episodes were like 4 hours long. So they’ve condensed 50+ hours of gameplay into the rest of this season.
Edit: also, “Chenga” is a nod to the fans. They used “Jenga” in the campaign but couldn’t use a brand name in the TV show.
Replying to the edit-- it's also the reason pike's God's name is 'the everlight' instead of 'sarenrae' or magical spells like 'scanlan's hand' instead of 'bigby's hand'... since the show doesn't have direct ties to WOTC or Paizo proprietary names had to change bc of copyright.
@@ticozayas6430 Sarenrae is actual Paizo IP, as that was when they played Pathfinder pre stream. They shortened it to Rae in the WotC Wildemount book for the same reason.
@@brettchristensen6734 ur right that's bc they started in pathfinder and switched to 5e for the stream... I always forget they did that, I'll edit now
Basically for Liam O'Brien's (Vax'ildan) birthday he wanted to play Pathfinder(D&D but different), he knew Matt Mercer (DM, Sylas Brairwood) did D&D stuff and asked if he would DM, they got their other voice actor friends to start playing, after a while they realized they had something special with this story and wanted to share it, Felicia Day (Emon Captain) had a Twitch/RUclips channel called Geek&Sundry and gave them a spot/show, they switched to D&D 5e, called it Critical Role "The show where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors get together and play dungeons and dragons", and the rest is history. The first arc streamed isn't in this show because it had a lot of hold over from pre-stream and a party member that has been essentially ret-conned out of the story. But this Arc is where people feel Critical Role really got good.
This is true but it was actually a one shot for Liam O'Brian's (Vax) birthday that started it.
@@neali9989 you're totally right, don't know why I thought it was Travis
If I remember right it wasn't that they thought they had something special they could show it's that Felicia Day did, they where convinced it wouldn't be a big thing, but it might pay for some drinks and snacks so why not...
$11 Million Kickstarter later...
Umm Actually... Felicia Day heard about it from Ashley at a party, and Felicia asked if they would like to stream it on her twitch channel, 'Geek and Sundry'. BTW, Felicia voiced at least two of the characters in this season, though short lived, as they quickly met gruesome deaths.
I think I know that character. It was a Dragonborn wizard; blanking on the name. He appeared in the graphic novels they made. Just appeared in the first adventure, then sod off in the next volume.
Fun fact tidbits'
Vax has two belts. One lets him teleport his knife back to him the other is the snake belt. It's name is Simon and he's a reference to Snake Plisskin.....and is also a One Eye Trouser Snake reference.
Also Vex covers her mouth her her fan because she can read lips. But you can never tell if someone is reading yours so she does it out of caution.
Also say hello to No Mercy Percy
Just because the DM picks up one character's backstory doesn't mean everybody won't get a chance to shine. But we see here that there's a lot more to Percy than maybe we thought.
The Briarwood Arc is very heavily entwined with Percy's backstory. There are small bits and pieces of other backstories brought up in conversation (Keyleth's aramente, Vex and Vax losing their mother in a dragon attack, etc) but you won't see much development of their stories until season 2 (or beyond, if it continues to be successful). Scanlan's past should catch up with him near the beginning of season 2...Keyleth's is an ongoing journey that will take a while to complete, as she has to travel to visit 3 other Ashari clans. Grog, Vex and Vax will be focused on later. Really, Pike is the only one besides Percy who gets some attention this season.
Minor spoilery bits:
Scanlan meets someone who forces him to deal with the consequences of his hedonistic lifestyle.
Keyleth must prove her worthiness to lead her people by meeting the leaders of their sister tribes and passing their tests.
Vex and Vax seek out their estranged father (who they lived with briefly in their teens until they ran away to their mother, only to find out her terrible fate) for help.
Grog confronts the family members who beat him nearly to death and abandoned him because he showed mercy to an elderly gnome. The gnome's granddaughter (Pike) saved him with magical healing, and the elderly gnome raised Pike and Grog as adoptive siblings.
when percy was shooting at the briarwoods around 18:18 i don't think his gun ran out of ammo it misfired. I don't know the exact mechanics but in the campaign I believe he had to roll to see if it would fire properly and if not the gun would misfire and smoke/spark
I love how everyone misses it's a "one-eyed trouser snake" LOL
So all of the episodes all 12 are from the same campaign same characters. The first two episodes were events that took place in the campaign prior to them turning a camera on the stream. So it's story elements that no one had ever seen before although events had been alluded to during the campaign. From episode 3 on, it is all storyline elements that we got to hear played out during the stream
17:59 yeah this was... REAL bad lol. In the stream Vax was alone with them for a bit and it did NOT go well lol. So that's pretty accurate.
Yes, it's all one story.
Basically the cast of CR got together to play DnD (for a now infamous brithday party) and liked it so much they kept going. This went on for 2-3 years, during which, at some point the events with zhe dragon that got turned into the first two episodes took place (though slightly differenty, because adaptation). There's a video on their channel summarizing all of these events, of what's now referred to as the 'home game'. Then in 2015 they were approached ba Felicia Day of Geek and Sundry about streaming their game. They didn't think anyone would watch, but decided to give it a shot nonetheless. The first livestreamed story arc (The Underdark Arc) was about going to rescue Lady Kima (who'd gone missing on her holy pilgrimage) at the behest of Lady Allura. This arc is not going to be animated an isn't part of the series' canon. After returning from that quest the dinner that you saw in this episode happened and pretty much kicked off the next story arc (The Briarwoods Arc). It's a cast and fan favourite, so they decided to start the series there (but they included the part about Krieg for various reasons, not least of which to give old critters something new to watch as they promised originally in the kickstarter).
So I'll give you a little insight to critical role. Matt Mercer (the dm) has no issues with killing characters. This becomes extremely evident in campaign 2.
Oh by the way Delilah’s voice actress is azula from avatar the last air bender. If you seen the show
8:18 yes those were the dignitaries that got ambushed and destroyed the bandits
I'm sure someone else has put this info in by now, so humor me here. :) CR's streamed campaign starts with Kraghammer arc. The Briarwood arc, which we see here, starts ep 24 in the streamed campaign, iirc. Also, as you've seen, the Briarwood arc focuses on Percy. There are other arcs throughout the campaign which focus on the rest of the party. Season 2 of Vox Machina covers some of them. Glad you guys decided to do the entire series!
Everybody will get their moment, and, honestly multiple moments, in the spotlight, if they translate the story properly, which, so far so good.
Yes & no this is definitely2 separate scripts.. the first 2 episodes was one of the ideas for the shorter release when they first asked for money(but the events did happen in game when they played at home b4 stream)
They wrote & drafted a different first 2 episodes but scraped it(never been told what it was in any extra stuff on their twitch) & re wrote what we got(released info from an after show one week), the 2nd half is a mash up of new twist & more fleshed out characters. Plus one of the various story arc(Briarwood Arc) from the streamed first season
Each of the characters have their own backstory and storyline; this one happens to be Percy's. Each character will most likely have their own trials and tribulations later in the series.
I’m glad y’all are continuing to watch! I enjoy your reactions to this series, and I’m happy to see you invested in the story we all love so much as well.
In terms of rolling, every action had a difficulty class/number needed to meet or beat for it to be successful. That number varies depending on what you’re tryin to do, but you don’t necessarily need to roll a 20 achieve the goal intended just higher than whatever the DM has set the dc at. For example pick pocketing from a distracted person may be a dc of 13 while trying to do a backflip off a rooftop and not break your legs might be a 18. I hope that clears it up a little.
Something low key to note: Vex has a feat(ure) called observant that lets her read lips if she’s knows the language being spoken, so she has a fan to cover her own!
Episode 1 and 2 are events that happened in their home game of the Vox Machina Campaign before it turned into an online stream. It was literally just a group of friends in Matt's dining room that happened to be played by ridiculously talented voice actors, they had absolutely no intention of filming it, it was just a regular DnD game lol. By the time they started filming it Vox Machina were level 9 or 10 I think and had already been on many adventures together in the privacy of their homes. But they've told us about some of the previous adventures in interviews and later in comic book runs called Vox Machina origins.
the safeword in the campaign was Jenga, but they couldnt use it because of copywrite
This show just keeps getting better!! I am so excited to see you react to the rest of this!!!
Campaign 1 doesn’t start at this episode. There is another arc before the Briarwood arc so viewers of the livestream already knew the characters before this arc starts.
“I do want to know more about the lore and battle systems….”
You will learn more about the lore in the show, but I don’t think the show is going to get too “in the weeds” about battle systems (although in a later episode, there’s a bit about Keyleth explaining a spell’s rules in kind of a comedic “hat tip” to D&D) or skills or spells.
If you want to learn about the systems, that’s as simple as buying a copy of the 5E Player Guide. Most all of Vox Machina’s races, classes, skills, etc. are there, as well as everything about how the rules work. Or you can probably watch two or three episodes of Critical Role to pick it up through osmosis, in the context of the game.
As far as deep diving into the lore goes, there’s quite a few resources online. There’s also the recently re-released and updated Tal’dorei setting guide book! Warning: you may get spoilers from those resources, so if you’re sensitive about that sort of thing…
I have my official DnD "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount' which specially covers the world Matt Mercer created for these campaigns. All three campaigns (3rd is ongoing) take place in this world, but at different times and with different characters. In campaign 1, I can't pick just one character as my favorite. In campaign 2, Jester (Laura Bailey / Vex) is by far my favorite. I would love to see them start that animated series along with this one.
Agreed. If you want to learn the mechanics of D&D (and watch actual D&D), then you want to watch Critical Role. If you want just the polished story that was crafted from the D&D game, then that's LoVM. There's distinctly D&D DNA throughout the show. But it feels like to me that you need to have some rules knowledge to catch how they're being represented in the action. There are some good YT vids out there that provide some interpretations linking animation to rules.
15:20 great catch! Almost no one notices it on the first watch. Some reactors edit in they noticed during editing
I look at the 1st two episodes as establishing tone (sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll), characters (basic personalities, non-heroes, screwballs with potential that are likely to get knocked around), and some semblance of world. Episode 3 is when it starts to do something with all that (fans will notice the little lie I just told).
The first season is basicly Percy's ark.
Snake belt with an eyepatch = one-eyed trouser snake 😂
Can't wait to see your reactions to the rest of the season!
Great reactions! I can't wait to see what you think about the upcoming storyline.
Life needs things to live….
there are some narrative differences between this and the original campaign, all for the better imo
So happy to see another reaction from you guys to this.
Percy's voice actor just told Matt, 'OK my whole family is dead. all he gave Matt was he was a Noble lived in Whitestone. Matt went OK, and gave us one of the best and Darkest story's of campaign 1, and Percy just rolled with it, a great testament to the skill of both DM and Player, Vaxs reaction to the Plague DR mask was the same as Liam (Vax) at the table
Small spoiler, you don't really have to worry about PC death, as Vox Machina are practically Gods
Percy's actor also gave Matt the name's Silas and Delilah Briarwood as the people who killed his family... But didn't give ANY details about those characters other than their names. So who they are and their backstory is completely created by Matt. Taliesin(Percy) didn't know that Silas was a vampire until the group found out that Silas was one.
That someone that walked into their keep is one of the most powerful wizards in the continent. (Notice she doesn’t even flinch when the door rockets past her.)
Percy’s reaction matches Talisen’s reaction in the game. This was the moment when they realized Matt was going to use their backstories in the game.
Note the Matt NPC in this episode - the weapons check guard
You should be afraid a character could die. Characters DID/DO die in the Critical Role games. There is no plot armor.
What do you want to know about the combat system?
Turn based, order based on initiative rolls, actions/movement/bonus action per turn, d20 rolls for attacks, d20 saves vs most spells, damage vs hit points, 0 hit points = unconscious and making death saves. Each turn is 6 seconds.
Not Percy his backstory was really simple he let it be developed by Matt Mercer the DM and thus the Whitestone ark
I'm dead lol I love Scanlan until he says those things... lol that's all he does
Grog & Vax playing balltag
Dude on the left in green:
"And that little moment there ruined highschool for so many thousand ppl. "
Yes probably, but if so, there is also the higher cost of babys never born cuz of too many nut punches.
(Sry don't know your names, first time watching, but you made me laugh)
oh no, gun dude gets hotter with every episode
edit: also if anyone stumbles across this in the future, check out their other reaction videos. I've been binging them for two days and they're all amazing, even if you don't care about the series they're watching
Fun fact, Vax genuinely almost died here lol
Bro you guys need to see the April fools for adult swim and there is a pibby update
Eyyy! Durarara!
Nice.
the only problem i have with the op is that i think it ought to have more obnoxiously kickass music. All the ques the animation takes from anime just makes me Yearn for like. the Death Note op to be playing instead.
I noticed something during the intro that only Crit Fans in the know would spot, but def made me go "Oh shit...foreshadowing~"
"Its extremely unlikely that would happen" Veteran Critical Role Fans get Campaign 2 Flashbacks "Yeah....Unlikely...."
The story is really starting to take off. Buckle up, and bring a flashlight, it can get a bit dark. Looking forward to more of your reactions.
It's amazing that you 2 don't catch half of the jokes, granted that you talk too much to get them.....