This was a great reaction! one thing though, rolling doesnt apply to everything in the game. stuff like loot and shit is generally predetermined by the dm. similarly a lot of the character interaction is just given a pass based off of vibes. i’d say its more like.. 60/40 non rolls to rolls
so to answer your question vox machina translates to roughly voice machine. it’s a funny play on words because the cast of critical role is made up of voice actors
My favorite part of this show is that it only happened because fans funded it. I think they raised over 10 million dollars in a few days or something equally ridiculous. It
s beautiful and I cry every time.
I appreciate SeeOhKnee explaining Dungeons and Dragons for those who don’t know it. Critical Role got me into playing it with friends before I moved on to Pathfinder 2nd Edition. It’s often jokingly called MathFinder because it’s very rules dense but after years of D&D, I can easily recommend PF2 as easier on the Dungeon Master because You don’t have to make up nearly as many rules on the fly as You would in D&D.
My Favorite explanation of the game is “The DM decides if the next mission is a heist. The Players decide if the music for the heist is Mission Impossible or the Pink Panther.”
If You start watching the 1st Campaign of Critical Role, I would start at Episode 24. We don’t talk about Orion.
“I would like to rage” was Grog’s catchphrase. In D&D, “rage” is a mechanic for barbarians- a mode they can enter during combat that gives them special resistances and helps them do more damage when the requirements are continuously met. So at any dnd table if there’s a barbarian present hearing that phrase is likely, but it’s still an iconic catchphrase of Grog/Travis’s because of how he’d say it every time
omg if you guys are getting into sitcoms I would highly suggest How I Met Your Mother as one of the greatest sitcoms ever made. It will honestly change your lives.
When I was in Patreon I was the person that requested THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA. The 3rd Season is longer than Season 1 & 2 so Critical Role don’t have a official date yet. Ruff & Sean you guys are in for a ride of Season 1.
Aw that’s not fair on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia but I truly truly understand u guys. Love you guys and I’m glad you guys are reacting to Vox Machina ??
OK while I don’t think you should react to ALL of critical role, i’d love to see you guys watch like, a mini compilation of certain moments of this show during the actual campaign. At least once you finish the show, it could be an interesting one off video.
The campaign began as a home game which was played irregularly over the course of two-ish years. After a while, Felicia Day heard that this group of very talented voice actors were playing dnd together and thought people might like to watch. So she asked them if they would like to start a weekly livestream at her channel Geek and Sundry. (They later started their own company apart from G&S through which TLOVM was crowdfunded)
The first two eps of TLOVM loosely adapt aspects of that home game, both setting up future plot elements and establishing the status quo we find ourselves in by the start of the stream.
The kickstarter for the animated series was originally only planned to fundraise for these two episodes, marketed at “the never before seen early adventures”, with promises that any additional funding would go towards adaptation of actual streamed gameplay. This goal was thoroughly shot out of the water almost immediately and 10 episodes were funded through kickstarter alone.
The first 23 or so episodes of the stream were not adapted into TLOVM and are widely considered to be a poor starting point for Critical Role due to technical issues, a problem player who left shortly after and the fact that in the move to streaming they changed what game they were playing from Pathfinder to D&D 5e, which was newly released at the time, and players had some struggles adapting to the new system.
TLOVM episode 3 instead adapts episode 24 of the stream which is the beginning of the Briarwood arc, a fan favourite. This is a common recommendation for starting points into Critical Role.
Just for context these first 2 episodes summarize a story arc that occured when the campaign was played before stream. Episodes 3 and beyond cover content covered in the stream. Though the first arc of the stream is actually skipped over and aspects of the content immediately after that is tied into season 2.
the intro is a great example of a DM (Dungeon Master) setting up an encounter that the party clearly wasn’t ready for or couldn’t deal with (maybe to low level or just rolling shitty) and it leading to a TPK (total party kill) and then that’s it game over, witch might sound good if you are the DM, you won right? well no you don’t actually want to kill your players in the game because… well then you can’t play the game obviously, also maybe don’t think of it as a game but more of a chose your own adventure story neither the DM or the players in the game play to “win” but play to have a good story. also the “murder hobos” they mention in the start are a common term D&D use for groups of player who would rather use a sword than their words to interact with the world the DM has set up, but sometimes its w/e you just wanna have a good time with lost of combat for example a 1-shot campaign that is just player over a single game and you dont have time to build up your world for 4 hours with talking around a town
As someone who just recently got into Critical Role, this show is such a breath of fresh air. Vax is easily one of my favorite characters.
As for getting Ruff to watch LOTR, I’m 100% on board!
Critical Role did a kickstarter to make this show and it ended up getting like $11.3 million, and reaching the goal in what– a few days? It was some crazy record-setting speed or something.
They have 2 seasons with more on the way, another show for their 2nd campaign in the works, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they get to make their 3rd campaign as well (even though it is on-going) (BTW, they do live episodes on Thursday night on Twitch and Youtube).
Titmouse animated it (you’ll recognize a lot of their shows) and Phil Bourassa designed the characters transition to animation. He’s the guy who created the look for the DC animated universe the last decade or so (shows and movies).
Also, I know they have side by side comparisons between Vox Machina the show and Campaign 1… I’ve seen tiktoks about it, but there’s probably plenty on Youtube too. They did tweak a few things to get it all to fit narratively, but the story is pretty much how it happened in their campaign.
Well “live” episodes…. it’s pre-recorded, but they still air them LIVE at that specific time.
You could always watch a one shot to get into the mindset of how they play, but I’m not sure which one is the best to start with to be honest.
Actually Ruff Campaign 1 (the one with \Vox Machina) is a terrible starting point. Since this was their first campaign and they were pretty new to the whole recording and stuff Campaign 1 has a lot of technical difficulties. If I recall correctly some of the earlier episodes had almost unrecognizable audio. And the episodes does not even start from the beginning of the Campaign since Critical role had been playing on their own. Trust me you’ll be completely lost when you start episode 1. And on top of that since the group dynamics hadn’t formed yet the first few episodes have pretty awkward moments. If you really want to get into Critical Role a better starting point would be Campaign 2, Might Nein (which btw is also getting an animated series).
You’re right about the audio being bad sometimes but I disagree with there not being a group dynamic I’d say that was good from the start and just kept getting better, the only issue I see with starting at campaign one is all of the Orion/Tiberius metagaming and cheating like the mirror death ray incident, and skipping to after he leaves is always an option since that was around the beginning of the Briarwood arc.
They had already been playing this campaign as a group of friends before they started the show so critical role actually starts in the middle of their story.
Ok since Boom brought up Deus ex Machina I am going to nerd out a bit. Deus ex Machina is Latin for Machine of God. The original Deus ex Machina referred to a contraption used in Ancient Greek theater that used to lower actors, usually playing the character of gods, to resolve the conflict towards the end of the play. Since these resolutions were abrupt and seemingly out of nowhere hence over time Deus ex Machina came to be known as a plot device whereby an unsolvable problem is solved through by an abrupt and unlikely occurrence. For example the villain being knocked out by someone just as he is about to kill the hero.
Btw if you guys are wondering here are the classes of all the Vox Machina members:
Percy: Fighter
Vex: Rouge
Vax: Rouge/Ranger
Scanlan: Bard
Pike: Cleric
Keyleth: Druid
Grog: Barbarian
So happy you guys are watching this! I knew you’d love it and I’m excited to watch it with you!
So hyped for this one!!
WATCH METALOCALYPSE!
This was a great reaction! one thing though, rolling doesnt apply to everything in the game. stuff like loot and shit is generally predetermined by the dm. similarly a lot of the character interaction is just given a pass based off of vibes. i’d say its more like.. 60/40 non rolls to rolls
could you guys watch the boys
so to answer your question vox machina translates to roughly voice machine. it’s a funny play on words because the cast of critical role is made up of voice actors
you guys should check out rustage he has a one piece dnd with tekking and a couple other youtubers its great to listen to while doing other things
My favorite part of this show is that it only happened because fans funded it. I think they raised over 10 million dollars in a few days or something equally ridiculous. It
s beautiful and I cry every time.
I appreciate SeeOhKnee explaining Dungeons and Dragons for those who don’t know it. Critical Role got me into playing it with friends before I moved on to Pathfinder 2nd Edition. It’s often jokingly called MathFinder because it’s very rules dense but after years of D&D, I can easily recommend PF2 as easier on the Dungeon Master because You don’t have to make up nearly as many rules on the fly as You would in D&D.
My Favorite explanation of the game is “The DM decides if the next mission is a heist. The Players decide if the music for the heist is Mission Impossible or the Pink Panther.”
If You start watching the 1st Campaign of Critical Role, I would start at Episode 24. We don’t talk about Orion.
A Super Welcome Surprise! Thank You. I bet You’ll love it!
I would love to see all you guys play D&D, it would be so cool
Ruff you havent seen Lord of the Rings and Star Wars!? they are both a must!!!!
“I would like to rage” was Grog’s catchphrase. In D&D, “rage” is a mechanic for barbarians- a mode they can enter during combat that gives them special resistances and helps them do more damage when the requirements are continuously met. So at any dnd table if there’s a barbarian present hearing that phrase is likely, but it’s still an iconic catchphrase of Grog/Travis’s because of how he’d say it every time
As a Critter, I am so excited for this!
Thanks SeeOhKnee for the info. It made the show a lot cooler and it had me paying closer attention. I know very little about this stuff too. 🙂 ?
omg if you guys are getting into sitcoms I would highly suggest How I Met Your Mother as one of the greatest sitcoms ever made. It will honestly change your lives.
Yessss Boom! Make them watch Metalocalypse! The finale is coming soon!
When I was in Patreon I was the person that requested THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA. The 3rd Season is longer than Season 1 & 2 so Critical Role don’t have a official date yet. Ruff & Sean you guys are in for a ride of Season 1.
Aw that’s not fair on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia but I truly truly understand u guys. Love you guys and I’m glad you guys are reacting to Vox Machina ??
OK while I don’t think you should react to ALL of critical role, i’d love to see you guys watch like, a mini compilation of certain moments of this show during the actual campaign. At least once you finish the show, it could be an interesting one off video.
Ok, a brief history of Critical Role:
The campaign began as a home game which was played irregularly over the course of two-ish years. After a while, Felicia Day heard that this group of very talented voice actors were playing dnd together and thought people might like to watch. So she asked them if they would like to start a weekly livestream at her channel Geek and Sundry. (They later started their own company apart from G&S through which TLOVM was crowdfunded)
The first two eps of TLOVM loosely adapt aspects of that home game, both setting up future plot elements and establishing the status quo we find ourselves in by the start of the stream.
The kickstarter for the animated series was originally only planned to fundraise for these two episodes, marketed at “the never before seen early adventures”, with promises that any additional funding would go towards adaptation of actual streamed gameplay. This goal was thoroughly shot out of the water almost immediately and 10 episodes were funded through kickstarter alone.
The first 23 or so episodes of the stream were not adapted into TLOVM and are widely considered to be a poor starting point for Critical Role due to technical issues, a problem player who left shortly after and the fact that in the move to streaming they changed what game they were playing from Pathfinder to D&D 5e, which was newly released at the time, and players had some struggles adapting to the new system.
TLOVM episode 3 instead adapts episode 24 of the stream which is the beginning of the Briarwood arc, a fan favourite. This is a common recommendation for starting points into Critical Role.
I said I’d upgrade my Patreon when you started doing this show and I’m here, I’m a man of my word and a new diamond member
If you liked 2 of the sunny guys check one of those.
Mythic Quest
AP Bio
Just for context these first 2 episodes summarize a story arc that occured when the campaign was played before stream. Episodes 3 and beyond cover content covered in the stream. Though the first arc of the stream is actually skipped over and aspects of the content immediately after that is tied into season 2.
love the fact you guys are watching this ?. Lord of the rings reaction would be awesome those movies are masterpieces
I love the fact you guys are watching this 🙂
Yes! You can not believe how long I was waiting for you guys to react to this series! I love it so much and I hope you guys do too.
btw that loud ass burp Grog made in the throne room was not actually Travis(VA of Grog) but Laura and Marisha(Vex and Keyleth) together
Oh my god that’s amazing lmao
the intro is a great example of a DM (Dungeon Master) setting up an encounter that the party clearly wasn’t ready for or couldn’t deal with (maybe to low level or just rolling shitty) and it leading to a TPK (total party kill) and then that’s it game over, witch might sound good if you are the DM, you won right? well no you don’t actually want to kill your players in the game because… well then you can’t play the game obviously, also maybe don’t think of it as a game but more of a chose your own adventure story neither the DM or the players in the game play to “win” but play to have a good story. also the “murder hobos” they mention in the start are a common term D&D use for groups of player who would rather use a sword than their words to interact with the world the DM has set up, but sometimes its w/e you just wanna have a good time with lost of combat for example a 1-shot campaign that is just player over a single game and you dont have time to build up your world for 4 hours with talking around a town
As someone who just recently got into Critical Role, this show is such a breath of fresh air. Vax is easily one of my favorite characters.
As for getting Ruff to watch LOTR, I’m 100% on board!
Critical Role did a kickstarter to make this show and it ended up getting like $11.3 million, and reaching the goal in what– a few days? It was some crazy record-setting speed or something.
They have 2 seasons with more on the way, another show for their 2nd campaign in the works, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they get to make their 3rd campaign as well (even though it is on-going) (BTW, they do live episodes on Thursday night on Twitch and Youtube).
Titmouse animated it (you’ll recognize a lot of their shows) and Phil Bourassa designed the characters transition to animation. He’s the guy who created the look for the DC animated universe the last decade or so (shows and movies).
Also, I know they have side by side comparisons between Vox Machina the show and Campaign 1… I’ve seen tiktoks about it, but there’s probably plenty on Youtube too. They did tweak a few things to get it all to fit narratively, but the story is pretty much how it happened in their campaign.
Well “live” episodes…. it’s pre-recorded, but they still air them LIVE at that specific time.
You could always watch a one shot to get into the mindset of how they play, but I’m not sure which one is the best to start with to be honest.
nice! been waiting for an opportunity to pick back up on this! And yes, we need Ruff to see LOTR!! Hoping you guys also do a GOT season or 2 for fun.
Actually Ruff Campaign 1 (the one with \Vox Machina) is a terrible starting point. Since this was their first campaign and they were pretty new to the whole recording and stuff Campaign 1 has a lot of technical difficulties. If I recall correctly some of the earlier episodes had almost unrecognizable audio. And the episodes does not even start from the beginning of the Campaign since Critical role had been playing on their own. Trust me you’ll be completely lost when you start episode 1. And on top of that since the group dynamics hadn’t formed yet the first few episodes have pretty awkward moments. If you really want to get into Critical Role a better starting point would be Campaign 2, Might Nein (which btw is also getting an animated series).
You’re right about the audio being bad sometimes but I disagree with there not being a group dynamic I’d say that was good from the start and just kept getting better, the only issue I see with starting at campaign one is all of the Orion/Tiberius metagaming and cheating like the mirror death ray incident, and skipping to after he leaves is always an option since that was around the beginning of the Briarwood arc.
They had already been playing this campaign as a group of friends before they started the show so critical role actually starts in the middle of their story.
Ok since Boom brought up Deus ex Machina I am going to nerd out a bit. Deus ex Machina is Latin for Machine of God. The original Deus ex Machina referred to a contraption used in Ancient Greek theater that used to lower actors, usually playing the character of gods, to resolve the conflict towards the end of the play. Since these resolutions were abrupt and seemingly out of nowhere hence over time Deus ex Machina came to be known as a plot device whereby an unsolvable problem is solved through by an abrupt and unlikely occurrence. For example the villain being knocked out by someone just as he is about to kill the hero.
I knew the beginning would be hilarious. Such a great start.
Vox Machina is Latin for Voice Machine. They used that name since well they are all voice actors.
Omg yes!! Y’all should totally watch Metalocalypse! It’s brutal lol
Did not expect a reaction to this but I’ll never complain about Vox Machina
Btw if you guys are wondering here are the classes of all the Vox Machina members:
Percy: Fighter
Vex: Rouge
Vax: Rouge/Ranger
Scanlan: Bard
Pike: Cleric
Keyleth: Druid
Grog: Barbarian
Vax is the pure rogue and Vex is the ranger
So Vex and Vax is doing a lot of makeup huh? Or after the Chaos Emerald?
I love that I actually understand the classes now because I started playing Baldurs Gate
Oh wait I guess SeeOhKnee can fill that role.
Wished Hman was on this too as the resident DnD player but this is good too.
My big guess is he already saw the original campaign amd doesnt want to spoil
Wow this is amazing timing, I just caught up to where the first season ends in critical role and was about to watch this today.
BTW I was one of the guys that bombed you with Vox Machina Love!
They should watch Link Click next, or at least do a poll! Its 2nd season is great so far!