Critical Role

Critical Role is a weekly web series in which a group of voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons.

History
The original cast of Critical Role had been playing a Pathfinder campaign together for two years before they converted their home game into a livestreamed webseries. The campaign began as a one-off game organized for Liam's birthday. The campaign itself started on December 8, 2012. The very first session was played by Liam O'Brien, Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Taliesin Jaffe, and Orion Acaba, with Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master. Afterwards, the group met every month to month-and-a-half and played for about eight hours. This infrequency was problematic, as many of the players needed to be reminded by Matt of elements of the storyline, how to play, etc. All the players began the campaign with the same characters they had on the stream, with the exception of Taliesin who played a dragonborn paladin for their first session. Marisha Ray and Ashley Johnson joined the game in later sessions.

In 2015, they were approached by Felicia Day to stream their campaign live on the Geek & Sundry twitch channel. When Matt told the other cast members about her offer, the group's reactions were recorded for posterity. In preparation for the streamed series, Matt converted the game over from Pathfinder to Dungeons & Dragons, to speed up combat and because D&D has more name recognition. When converting their game, Matt had to create a custom fighter's Martial Archetype for Taliesin Jaffe's character, Percy, as the Gunslinger subclass didn't exist in 5th Edition D&D. On March 12, 2015 the first live episode of Critical Role was aired:.

The series initially aired live on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel and YouTube, and subsequently on the Critical Role Twitch channel, on Thursdays at 7pm (Pacific Time). The first campaign and a part of the second campaign were live streamed on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel. In February 2019, Critical Role parted ways with Geek & Sundry, launched their own Twitch and YouTube channels, and started to self-produce new shows and content under the name Critical Role Productions LLC. Eventually the live broadcasts of Critical Role and VODs aired exclusively on Critical Role's channels. Episodes are archived on the Critical Role website and the Critical Role and Geek & Sundry YouTube channels.

On 17 March 2020, Critical Role announced that it was suspending all live broadcasts of both the D&D stream Critical Role and Talks Machina due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the hiatus, they produced new content, as well as re-imagined versions of existing shows that followed the COVID-19 safety guidelines. Critical Role returned in a prerecorded format on 2 July 2020 with the broadcast of.

Starting with Campaign 3, the show no longer airs on the last Thursday of the month to give the cast and crew time to rest and prepare for upcoming episodes and to give viewers time to catch up with the show. The prerecorded format was also made permanent.

First Campaign
The first campaign features a group of adventurers called Vox Machina originating from Tal'Dorei. The stream began on March 12, 2015 with, and after two-and-a-half years and 115 episodes, the adventures of Vox Machina came to an end on October 12, 2017 in.

After the first campaign ended, the group played three canonical one-shot games featuring Vox Machina,, and.

Second Campaign
The second campaign started on January 11, 2018 with, and ended three and a half years and 141 episodes later on June 3rd, 2021 with. This campaign began approximately 20 years after the end of the Vox Machina campaign and told the story of the Mighty Nein in Wildemount. Most of the players participated in a session 0 before the stream with Matt so that they could get a feel for their characters and the setting they would be playing in.

Third Campaign
The third campaign started on October 21, 2021 with and is currently airing. This campaign begins approximately six years after the end of the Mighty Nein campaign and within a year after the events of Exandria Unlimited, and is set on the continent of Marquet. The players who weren't part of Exandria Unlimited participated in a session 0 before the stream with Matt so that they could get a feel for their characters and the setting they would be playing in.

Live Shows
Some episodes of Critical Role are performed before a live studio audience, where the cast take on adventure with a live audience gasping at every roll of the die, and cheering them on with every victory. was the first episode of the series to be performed before a live studio audience.

Podcast
All the main episodes of Critical Role through Campaign 2, Episode 51 were released as a podcast version on the Geek & Sundry official website as part of the Nerdist Industries podcast network.

As of December 19, 2019, starting with Episode 20 of Campaign 2, podcasts moved to the Critical Role podcast network. The podcast links can be found though the Podcast section of the Critical Role website and via Podbean, iTunes, Google Podcasts, and on Spotify.

Openings
Most of the Critical Role episodes begin with an opening video, usually played after the announcements.

Main Cast
The main cast appears in every episode of the main series, Critical Role, with a few exceptions.


 * Laura Bailey as Vex'ahlia/Jester Lavorre/Imogen Temult
 * Liam O'Brien as Vax'ildan/Caleb Widogast/Orym
 * Taliesin Jaffe as Percy/Mollymauk Tealeaf, Caduceus Clay, and Kingsley Tealeaf/Ashton Greymoore
 * Ashley Johnson as Pike Trickfoot/Yasha Nydoorin/Fearne Calloway
 * Marisha Ray as Keyleth/Beauregard Lionett/Laudna
 * Sam Riegel as Scanlan Shorthalt and Taryon Darrington/Veth Brenatto (aka Nott the Brave)/Fresh Cut Grass
 * Travis Willingham as Grog Strongjaw/Fjord/Bertrand Bell and Chetney Pock O'Pea
 * Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master

The original cast also included Orion Acaba as Tiberius Stormwind. On October 28th, 2015, at 6:40 PST, it was announced live on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel that due to a mutual parting of ways, Orion would no longer appear on Critical Role.

Guest stars
Occasionally, a guest star or two join the main cast. These guests play their own characters who encounter Vox Machina, The Mighty Nein, and/or Bells Hells while on their own individual journeys and decide to team up with our protagonists for as long as their goals are aligned.


 * Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Zahra Hydris
 * Felicia Day as Lyra
 * Will Friedle as Kashaw Vesh
 * Wil Wheaton as Thorbir Falbek
 * Kit Buss as Lillith Daturai
 * Jason Charles Miller as Garthok
 * Chris Hardwick as Gern Blanston
 * Chris Perkins as Shale and Spurt
 * Patrick Rothfuss as Kerrek
 * ND Stevenson as Tova
 * Jon Heder as Lionel Gayheart
 * Darin De Paul as Sprigg
 * Joe Manganiello as Arkhan
 * Khary Payton as Shakäste
 * Mark Hulmes as Calianna Mordsson
 * Ashly Burch as Keg
 * Sumalee Montano as Nila
 * Deborah Ann Woll as Twiggy
 * Mica Burton as Reani
 * Robbie Daymond as Dorian Storm
 * Erika Ishii as Yu Suffiad

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Will Friedle returned on several different occasions to reprise their roles as Zahra and Kashaw. Patrick Rothfuss also returned as Kerrek for several episodes near the end of the Chroma Conclave story arc. Other guests appearing in multiple episodes include Khary Payton, Ashly Burch, Sumalee Montano, and Mica Burton, Erika Ishii. Chris Perkins has appeared in both Campaign one and two as Shale and Spurt, respectively. Robbie Daymond has appeared in both Exandria Unlimited and Campaign 3 as the same character.

Series

 * Talks Machina, a talk show discussing the events of Critical Role that aired from November 15, 2016 to May 25, 2021. The show was hosted by Brian Wayne Foster, with commentary by Dani Carr. The guests usually consist of the regular cast of Critical Role, but guest players, behind-the-scenes people, and fans such as Andrew from CritRoleStats have also appeared.
 * The Legend of Vox Machina, an animated adaptation of Campaign 1 and funded by a Kickstarter campaign. It premiered on January 28, 2021 and has a third season greenlit.
 * Mighty Nein, an animated adaptation of Campaign 2.
 * Critical Recap, a short video series hosted by Dani Carr that summarized the events of the previous week's episode. It ran until, and recaps thereafter appearing in written form on the Critical Role website.
 * Crit Recap Animated, animated recaps of Campaign 2 and Campaign 3
 * Exandria Unlimited, a series of canonical short-campaigns set in Exandria.

Books

 * The Chronicles of Exandria, art books featuring artwork from the community. They also include backstories of the main party members as well as some of the NPCs. Three have been published: Volume One: The Tale of Vox Machina, Volume Two: The Legend of Vox Machina, and The Chronicles of Exandria - The Mighty Nein.
 * The World of Critical Role, a non-fiction book containing archival photos and cast interviews, and presenting a hitory of Critical Role.
 * Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, a campaign guide for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition published by Green Ronin Publishing
 * Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, a campaign campaign guide for D&D 5th edition published by Wizards of the Coast.
 * Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, an updated re-release of the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting pubished by Darrington Press
 * Kith & Kin, a prequel novel to the adventures of Vox Machina, and the backstory of Vex and Vax.
 * The Nine Eyes of Lucien, a novel following Lucien before and after his encounters with the Mighty Nein in Campaign Two
 * Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep, an adventure module published by Wizards of the Coast

Comics
Several comics, both online and in book form, have been produced covering the story of Vox Machina before the streams began.
 * Winter's Crest Festival comic, a series that tells the story of Vox Machina's first Winter's Crest festival.
 * Vox Machina Origins, a comic series covering how Vox Machina met each other and the adventures of the fledgling group.
 * The Mighty Nein Origins, a series that explores the backstory of each of the group's eight main characters.
 * The Tales of Exandria, a comic series following non-player characters

Merchandise
Laura Bailey is in charge of Critical Role merchandise and often announces new releases at the beginning of new episodes of Critical Role. Since the initial airing of Critical Role, merch of all shapes and forms has been created, including t-shirts, hoodies, keychains, pins, collectible figures, plushies, dice, dice accessories, blankets, mugs and prints.

In 2018, Steamforged Games(SFG) raised approximately $1.2M in a Kickstarter campaign for a collection of miniature figures based on player characters (PCs) and non-player characters (NPCs) from both Critical Role campaigns.

In 2020, a line of official Funko Pop figures of the members of Vox Machina was released.

In February 2020, it was announced that Critical Role had partnered with Hot Topic to sell branded apparel both online and in their stores.

Official merchandise is sold in five online shops to accommodate international shipping:


 * USA shop
 * UK shop
 * AU shop
 * Canadian shop
 * European shop

Community
Soon after the stream started, fans of the show, known as Critters, began to show their support, first by sending food during the stream, and soon after, fan art, creations, and gifts. The cast would open these gifts and thank their fans at the end of a gaming session and the segment began to be known as Critmas. The cast openly interacts with their fans via social media.

Critters are known for their dedication. Within an hour of the Legend of Vox Machina Kickstarter launch, more than $1 million in funding had been raised. By the close of the campaign, "Critical Role" fans had shelled out more than $11.3 million, making the fundraiser the most successful film or television project in Kickstarter history. More than 88,000 people contributed to the campaign.

The Critter community produces an incredible amount of creative content including fanfics, cosplay, and thousands of fanart pieces. A number of fan artists have seen their work published in an official Critical Role artbook. Some Critters also write and perform original music based on the show. A group of Critters known as the Cantata Pansophical even wrote and performed a rewritten version of the Hamilton soundtrack telling the story of Vox Machina.