Critical Role

Critical Role is a weekly web series of voice actors playing Dungeon & Dragons, chronicling the adventures of a group known as Vox Machina. The series airs live on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel on Thursdays at 7pm (Los Angeles time), and episodes are archived on their website. The series began on March 13, 2015 with, but the group began playing together in 2012.

Cast
&rarr; See also:  Category:Cast.

Main Cast

 * Laura Bailey as Vex'ahlia
 * Liam O'Brien as Vax'ildan
 * Taliesin Jaffe as Percy
 * Ashley Johnson as Pike
 * Marisha Ray as Keyleth
 * Sam Riegel as Scanlan
 * Travis Willingham as Grog
 * Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master
 * Orion Acaba as Tiberius (formerly)

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. Matt Mercer repeated the announcement at the beginning of. Orion last appeared in.

Guest Stars
During, , , and the regular cast was split into two groups and joined by two guests each. Felicia Day as Lyra and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Zahra joined the first group, Wil Wheaton as Thorbir and Will Friedle as Kashaw joined the second.

Kit Buss, one of the artists for the show, appeared as Lillith in, Jason Charles Miller made an appearance as Garthok in , Chris Hardwick appeared as Gern Blanston in , Chris Perkins appeared as Shale in , and Patrick Rothfuss appeared as Kerrek in.

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Will Friedle have 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.

The Game Before the Show
Although Critical Role as a show did not begin until March 13, 2015, the campaign itself started on December 8, 2012. The very first session consisted of Liam O'Brien, Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Taliesin Jaffe, and Orion Acaba as players, with Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master. All the players began with the same characters they had in the first episode of Critical Role, with the exception of Taliesin who played a dragonborn paladin for their first session. Marisha Ray and Ashley Johnson would join the game in later sessions.

Episodes
&rarr; Main article:  List of episodes.

Other Media
Two of the regular cast members, Marisha Ray and Taliesin Jaffe, wrote a comic series with art by Wendy Sullivan Green. It told the story of Vox Machina's first Winter's Crest festival.

After, Geek & Sundry began airing a show called Talks Machina which serves as an after-show for Critical Role. Hosted by Brian Wayne Foster, Talks Machina is a weekly show airing on Tuesdays where Brian and several guests talk about the most recent episode of Critical Role and answer questions submitted by fans. The guests usually consist of the regular cast of Critical Role, but guest players like Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Will Friedle, behind-the-scenes people such as Geek & Sundry's Pit Crew, and fans such as Andrew from CritRoleStats have also appeared on Talks Machina.

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.

So overwhelmed with their fans' generosity, the cast of Critical Role were inspired to each choose a charity and encouraged their fans to donate to them instead of sending gifts. Though this is not the first time they have promoted giving to charity.

Charities
During each broadcast, viewers are encouraged to donate to a charity, usually 826LA, and donators are thanked at the end of the session. During Hoomanism Appreciation Week in September 2015, the cast of Critical Role visited 826LA, where they presented creative director Joel Arquillos with a cheque for $15,000.

Many of the cast members of Critical Role were involved with the Geek & Sundry Extra Life charity drive in October 2015, including a special episode, Critical Trolls for Extra Life featuring the Vox Moronica crew.

Critters
"Critters" is a term that refers to the fans of Critical Role. The cast openly interact with their fans via social media, and Liam gathers fanart from various artists to display in a gallery on the Geek & Sundry website every week. In return, Critters often show their appreciation by sending gifts and letters to Matt and the players, which they occasionally open on-stream in a segment called "Critmas".