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Critical Role: Voice Actors Playing D&D

Noticed lots of new people in the twitch chat right now, asking when the show starts, ect...

Looks like the outreach to various press/youtube outlets brought some new people to the show...

...

...Is it Thursday yet?
 
I tried watching the first episode of this, but audio quality seemed bad and there were too many people, I stopped after like 10 minutes. Does it get better? I guess I was expecting more when I heard they were voice actors.

I do like itmeJP's RollPlay stuff, 4 players and a GM. Production is usually pretty good with decent audio when Skype isn't being a piece of shit. West Marches and Swan Song are good long running series. Mirrorshades was awesome, but just ended. I haven't started watching their new Balance of Power show based on Star Wars yet, but am pretty excited to sit down and watch it soon.
 
I tried watching the first episode of this, but audio quality seemed bad and there were too many people, I stopped after like 10 minutes. Does it get better? I guess I was expecting more when I heard they were voice actors.

I do like itmeJP's RollPlay stuff, 4 players and a GM. Production is usually pretty good with decent audio when Skype isn't being a piece of shit. West Marches and Swan Song are good long running series. Mirrorshades was awesome, but just ended. I haven't started watching their new Balance of Power show based on Star Wars yet, but am pretty excited to sit down and watch it soon.

It gets A LOT better, production-wise, and story/character-wise too. What you saw in the first episode was literally a group of friends who had been playing a game at home for two years, suddenly thrust on video. They work a lot of things out.

There is also one less player now (The guy playing the Dragonborn Mage left the show a few months ago) so there are now six-seven regular party members, depending on whether Ashley Johnson is able to skype in or not. (Ashley is currently filming a network TV she stars in, but they are going on their season break soon, so she'll be back in person in a couple weeks.) They do have a very limited number of guests come in from time-to-time, but those shows turn out pretty good, and usually, the party size is not increased as a result of these guests.

You really should give Critical Role a second chance. It truly is the best RP show out there, and I've tried them all. Matt Mercer is the best DM doing a regular game on the internet, and I believe some of the characters are real standouts with a surprising amount of depth. It's WAY better than anything itmeJP has ever done, not saying that show is terrible.
 
Yeah, you basically have Critical Role and then everything else. Even Chris Perkins, who is viewed as one of the best DMs around, is a shadow of Matt Mercer.

That said, lately I've found Matt Colville's series on Running the Game to be the best series, though it's a very different niche than CR by far. His "Building a Fighter series" is pretty good too
 
It gets A LOT better, production-wise, and story/character-wise too. What you saw in the first episode was literally a group of friends who had been playing a game at home for two years, suddenly thrust on video. They work a lot of things out.

Alright, I'll give it another shot when I get a chance. Good to know it improves.
 

EYEL1NER

Member
They recorded an episode with Vin Diesel as part of his promotion of The Last Witch Hunter. He seems pretty psyched about it.
Before I got to this post I had forgotten about that. I was thinking 'I just got done watching The Last Witchhunter a couple days ago and love that it is just a big love letter to his DnD character. I'd watch Vin play DnD.'
I completely forgot that he sat down with them and played. I definitely want to see it.
 

Wookieomg

Member
Oh my god, that episode was one of the best yet. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time... Jesus... SO. EFFING. INTENSE. And so much new lore at the end. That battle, the puzzles... God I love this show.
 
Oh my god, that episode was one of the best yet. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time... Jesus... SO. EFFING. INTENSE. And so much new lore at the end. That battle, the puzzles... God I love this show.

Yeah. That was a great episode. Long, at almost five hours. But entertaining the whole time.

With
Scanlan's trololol distraction, the conjurations that went right into the pit, and the continued saga of the one-armed mapmaker
I thought "Oh this is going to be another funny, lighthearted episode"...but boy, did the intensity pick up.

Grog going insomniac to try to fill the sword was such a risk. Of course he had no idea he was walking into "Skill Check City" when he decided to take the exhaustion, which made it great. But boy, did it pay off with the transformation. I can't wait to see how that arc plays out. So many remaining questions about that sword. Crazy bad luck that the second thing he ever hit with the transformed sword would be Pike, but it made for great drama.

The list/locations of Vestiges the party got as a reward sound AWESOME. And I really loved the continued lore of The White Duke as a tribute to David Bowie, and his Vestige being a weapon for a bard. It would have been really easy to forget the White Duke thing that was just created as a tribute the week of Bowie's death, but not on Critical Role.
Sometimes Mercer still surprises me how he never lets a plot thread or an NPC drop, and makes something that you might just hear once, almost in passing, become a real thing in the story later down the line.
 
Grog going insomniac to try to fill the sword was such a risk. Of course he had no idea he was walking into "Skill Check City" when he decided to take the exhaustion, which made it great. But boy, did it pay off with the transformation. I can't wait to see how that arc plays out. So many remaining questions about that sword. Crazy bad luck that the second thing he ever hit with the transformed sword would be Pike, but it made for great drama.

I missed that part. How did it fill up?
 

Grexeno

Member
Man some of the locations for those Vestiges are insane. See you guys for the first Chroma Conclave fight in 2 years.
 
Man some of the locations for those Vestiges are insane. See you guys for the first Chroma Conclave fight in 2 years.

To be honest though, the arrival of the conclave and the
destruction of emon
was kind of signposted as endgame stuff. I fully expect them to fight Thordak once they're lvl.20.
 
I missed that part. How did it fill up?

Grog didn't take a short rest after the big fight on last week's episode, so he kept his strength bonus that he gets when he hits w/ the blade and they fail their saving throw. Grog had just finished killing everything in the Orc camp, and was REALLY buffed out with extra strength points, and he had one of those conversations with his blade. Instead of telling Grog he was "sooooo hungry...." or whatever like usual, the blade told him he was almost full. Grog decided to forgo all rest, so he could keep his buffs.

Grog ended up taking an exhaustion point, so he had disadvantage on all skill checks in the temple. He rolled really lucky though, and made it through, somehow.

At the fight with the Sphinx, the Sphinx failed a save vs. the blade and the blade transformed into a bigger, badder blade. Longer, with spikes, and more darkness. It also now deals necrotic. No idea if the blade will revert after Grog rests. I kinda think it's a permanent transformation.
 
Grog didn't take a short rest after the big fight on last week's episode, so he kept his strength bonus that he gets when he hits w/ the blade and they fail their saving throw. Grog had just finished killing everything in the Orc camp, and was REALLY buffed out with extra strength points, and he had one of those conversations with his blade. Instead of telling Grog he was "sooooo hungry...." or whatever like usual, the blade told him he was almost full. Grog decided to forgo all rest, so he could keep his buffs.

Grog ended up taking an exhaustion point, so he had disadvantage on all skill checks in the temple. He rolled really lucky though, and made it through, somehow.

At the fight with the Sphinx, the Sphinx failed a save vs. the blade and the blade transformed into a bigger, badder blade. Longer, with spikes, and more darkness. It also now deals necrotic. No idea if the blade will revert after Grog rests. I kinda think it's a permanent transformation.

I know the first two parts, it was the last bit I missed.
 

Nbz

Member
I just started getting into this after the promotion on Gamespot and Kinda Funny, and I remember that someone linked it to me about a year ago when they only had a few episodes. Back then, the starting audio was so horrendous that I didn't even bother sticking with it.

However I started again. pushed through it, and now I'm in deep. There is soooooo much to catch up on though when each episode is ~3hrs, but I'm actually very happy about that because I love it so much.

I do feel that first impressions are important, and that first episode is super unfortunate in starting out with the most horrendous audio that I feel turns most people off without even giving it a chance.

Also people should check out the crossover they did with Kinda Funny, because it convinced me to give the show another shot and is also a hilarious off shoot episode.
 

Calcium

Banned
I'm still plowing through this show, just finished episode 17. I'm very impressed that the show hits a high level of quality and just coasts for hours on end without dropping. I was really sad that
Ashley/Pike is gone for a while, she is great and her interactions with Scanlan are usually gold.
It was also surprisingly sad when
Grog/Phillip got his ass kicked in the fighting pit. Poor guy.

Does Percy ever come out of his shell? Of all the characters I like him the least just because the dude is silent like 90% of the time. I find his backstory to be interesting, but it's kind of wasted if he doesn't develop the character.

I have a question for those who play DnD or at least understand the rules better than I do. Is Trinket pretty useless or does Laura just not utilize him properly? It just seems like he is a burden to the group more often than not. Don't get me wrong, I love the damn thing and Laura is just adorable talking about him. Just wondering.
 

Grexeno

Member
Does Percy ever come out of his shell? Of all the characters I like him the least just because the dude is silent like 90% of the time. I find his backstory to be interesting, but it's kind of wasted if he doesn't develop the character.
*knowing chuckle*
 
Does Percy ever come out of his shell? Of all the characters I like him the least just because the dude is silent like 90% of the time. I find his backstory to be interesting, but it's kind of wasted if he doesn't develop the character.

*knowing chuckle*

*knowing chuckle at the knowing chuckle*

I have a question for those who play DnD or at least understand the rules better than I do. Is Trinket pretty useless or does Laura just not utilize him properly? It just seems like he is a burden to the group more often than not. Don't get me wrong, I love the damn thing and Laura is just adorable talking about him. Just wondering.

*double knowing chuckle*

Trinket being useless and a burden becomes almost a meme at a point. Especially to Scanlan. But he has a few moments. His "utilization" has gotten much better lately (like in the last month or so of recent episodes,) but not for any reason you'd expect...
 
I just started getting into this after the promotion on Gamespot and Kinda Funny, and I remember that someone linked it to me about a year ago when they only had a few episodes. Back then, the starting audio was so horrendous that I didn't even bother sticking with it.

However I started again. pushed through it, and now I'm in deep. There is soooooo much to catch up on though when each episode is ~3hrs, but I'm actually very happy about that because I love it so much.

I do feel that first impressions are important, and that first episode is super unfortunate in starting out with the most horrendous audio that I feel turns most people off without even giving it a chance.

Also people should check out the crossover they did with Kinda Funny, because it convinced me to give the show another shot and is also a hilarious off shoot episode.

I've never seen this show and won't continue (I'm not into D&D or RP in general), but I watched the Kinda Funny crossover. Holy shit, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.
 
I've never seen this show and won't continue (I'm not into D&D or RP in general), but I watched the Kinda Funny crossover. Holy shit, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

You say that but that's pretty much what Critical Role is. Yeah it can be serious. Not everyone is cracking jokes all the time. But they never take the show too seriously (especially Sam).
 
You say that but that's pretty much what Critical Role is. Yeah it can be serious. Not everyone is cracking jokes all the time. But they never take the show too seriously (especially Sam).

I know that's what it is. :)

I only watched the episode because of Kinda Funny. And their side is the only side that really made me laugh.
 

Calcium

Banned
Wow, just finished the first two parts of Trial of the Take last night. That shit was intense. Felicia Day and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn were amazing. If guest appearances always go that well I hope they do much more of that in future episodes.

Laura yelling at Sam
"Don't laugh right now! It's dangerous!" when Scanlan was about to die was hilarious.
It's cool to see them so invested in the characters that they visibly freak out when things start to go south. And I have to say
Grog sliding Scanlan to safety was just amazing.
 
Wow, just finished the first two parts of Trial of the Take last night. That shit was intense. Felicia Day and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn were amazing. If guest appearances always go that well I hope they do much more of that in future episodes.

I have a ridiculous crush on Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's appearances on Critical Role. <3

(The second time she comes around is even BETTER.)

Mercer has stated in interviews and on panels that while they love doing the guest shots, the have to be disciplined and limit the number they do. Critical Role is about Vox Machina, and the focus should stay on those characters. (And frankly, it's a big party as is.) His idea is to have a few guests from time to time, but anything which would bring in lots of guests would be more one-off, one-shot things.

Those Trial of the Take episodes happened because IIRC, Sam was going to be out a couple weeks and somebody else was going to be out a couple weeks after that, so it made sense. I'd love to see another party split thing with some guests again, especially with Kashaw and Zahra. Gern was pretty great too. Maybe they have to spilt the party to go after two Vestiges at the same time?
 

Calcium

Banned
I'm up to the point where they announce Orion is leaving the show. Not going to miss that dude at all. Over the course of the first few story arcs it became ridiculously obvious that the notoriety went to his head and instead of "Vox Machina" it was "Tiberius Stormwind and Friends". From trying to bend the rules to do "cool" stuff, constant interruptions during dialogue, running off by himself to do random things and getting visibly annoyed when the focus wasn't on him. There was a point where the Briarwood arc was starting up he left the party to do something and understandably Matt kept his focus on Percy and the rest of the party, Orion tried to get Matt's attention a few times and was ignored repeatedly so he said something snarky about him being "secondary" to Sam. Yeah, you are secondary when you run off by yourself and the DM is focused on introducing a major story arc for another character. Such annoying behavior, even Travis snapped at him during episode 27 for taking forever shopping. Not sure how the group dynamic will work now, but I think I'll be happier.

I see what you guys meant about Percy now. Yikes.
 
Also, a reminder that Matt Mercer is DMing a Pathfinder one-shot tonight on Geek&Sundry's twitch channel at 7PM Pacific Time with Taliesin, Marisha, Phil Lamar, Ashly Burch and Ivan Van Norman.

https://twitter.com/GeekandSundry/status/722126154514059264

Yeah watched some of it. Wasn't too impressed. I had the same problem with Vox Moronica.

I'm up to the point where they announce Orion is leaving the show. Not going to miss that dude at all. Over the course of the first few story arcs it became ridiculously obvious that the notoriety went to his head and instead of "Vox Machina" it was "Tiberius Stormwind and Friends". From trying to bend the rules to do "cool" stuff, constant interruptions during dialogue, running off by himself to do random things and getting visibly annoyed when the focus wasn't on him. There was a point where the Briarwood arc was starting up he left the party to do something and understandably Matt kept his focus on Percy and the rest of the party, Orion tried to get Matt's attention a few times and was ignored repeatedly so he said something snarky about him being "secondary" to Sam. Yeah, you are secondary when you run off by yourself and the DM is focused on introducing a major story arc for another character. Such annoying behavior, even Travis snapped at him during episode 27 for taking forever shopping. Not sure how the group dynamic will work now, but I think I'll be happier.

I see what you guys meant about Percy now. Yikes.

It's much better know without him to the point where I can't go back and watch those early episodes with him in it.
 

Calcium

Banned
It's much better know without him to the point where I can't go back and watch those early episodes with him in it.

That's good to hear. I was so annoyed earlier when he was trying to get the Draconian army and making changes to Grayskull Keep without talking to anyone else about it. I do hope they add someone to the game eventually if only for the party dynamic. Seems that missing a spellcaster would be pretty rough.
 
I think the very early Tiberius was pretty cool because he was the only player to think of the game like a game. Which worked out well at the start of the stream because Orion hadn't yet been influenced by a legion of fans praise so he didn't try to single handedly solve every problem.

I think it was the praise he got for those moments that changed things and Tiberius went from a bumbling old wizard with moments of grand power (basically a Gandalf the Grey archetype) to a wizard who was constantly scheming and casting to circumvent or stretch the limits of what was reasonable or allowed so he could appear to be cool.

I feel like Orion is a cool enough person and his intent wasn't to take over or derail thw game flow but that he was trying to live up to the praise and ideals his personal fans had for him. The whole thing is just unfortunate really. I hope that he gets his personal projects off the ground and does well with them.
 

Calcium

Banned
I think the very early Tiberius was pretty cool because he was the only player to think of the game like a game. Which worked out well at the start of the stream because Orion hadn't yet been influenced by a legion of fans praise so he didn't try to single handedly solve every problem.

Yep, I agree. I like Tiberious, every time he gives the old bumbling "I'm Tiberius Stormwind from Draconia..." gets a chuckle out of me. It was around the K'Varn fight where I started to dislike Orion as a player, though. Initially I thought he was just really, really RPing his fear of the Beholder but looking back I think he just didn't want Tiberius to die so he let everyone else handle it until he could come in and get the killing blow and look cool. Horrible attitude to have for a game like this.
 
I'm up to the point where they announce Orion is leaving the show. Not going to miss that dude at all. Over the course of the first few story arcs it became ridiculously obvious that the notoriety went to his head and instead of "Vox Machina" it was "Tiberius Stormwind and Friends". From trying to bend the rules to do "cool" stuff, constant interruptions during dialogue, running off by himself to do random things and getting visibly annoyed when the focus wasn't on him. There was a point where the Briarwood arc was starting up he left the party to do something and understandably Matt kept his focus on Percy and the rest of the party, Orion tried to get Matt's attention a few times and was ignored repeatedly so he said something snarky about him being "secondary" to Sam. Yeah, you are secondary when you run off by yourself and the DM is focused on introducing a major story arc for another character. Such annoying behavior, even Travis snapped at him during episode 27 for taking forever shopping. Not sure how the group dynamic will work now, but I think I'll be happier.

I see what you guys meant about Percy now. Yikes.


Totally agree and I said as much when he left. He was dragging the show down and I could see the other players getting annoyed.
 
Amanda-Oliver-Elm-@flyboy_elm.png


Awesome!!!
 
What is it with matt trying to
kill off characters
on special events. First it was
Vex on the anniversary
and tonight it's
grog
 
Seems like it would've just kept on going if Grog had been able to stick with that original 20. All stemmed from getting remembering disadvantage via exhaustion and getting a 1.

Grog pushing onward without rest in the last session made it an option, which was all him. Don't think Matt's particularly gunning for people, but he's not pulling punches either.

That was a crazy opening to the episode. I love this show.
 
Seems like it would've just kept on going if Grog had been able to stick with that original 20. All stemmed from getting remembering disadvantage via exhaustion and getting a 1.

Grog pushing onward without rest in the last session made it an option, which was all him. Don't think Matt's particularly gunning for people, but he's not pulling punches either.

That was a crazy opening to the episode. I love this show.

Oh I know. Was just giving matt shit.
 

Wookieomg

Member
Crit Role Stats just put up total gameplay time of all 50 eps so far. 151:22:38

Wow... That is pretty incredible! I've watched all 151 hours of this show <3

And for tonight's episode, I was not expecting it to get so intense! I half expected it to be a light-hearted episode to balance out last week's wild ride, but nope... Mercer kept the tension high! I love it. Outstanding episode, and it was so good to see Ashley Johnson return! I decided to finally subscribe to G&S tonight. Couldn't help but want to support this show that has given me so much entertainment for the last year. ^_^
 

Fafnir

Member
Goes without saying but Ashley at the table is way better than Skype Pike. Wow at those weapons they got for Critmas, Liam got's quite the arsenal of daggers now. Too bad Sam only got instruments to bug everyone with lol

cJIWqdn.jpg
 
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