So much fun to watch people discovering this world. This is based on Critical Role’s first campaign; they’re currently on their third. This show is basically a tightened up narrative that follows their actual gameplay very closely. I can’t recommend diving into Critical Role highly enough. Its fucking fantastic.
Vex: Rogue: Stealthy, lockpicks, detect traps, sneak attack Vax: Ranger: Stealthy, has an animal companion (Trinket), has primordial awareness (Spidey Sense) Pike: Cleric: Healer, has limited # of spells per day Scanlan: Bard: Uses music to cast spells, illusions, Bigby'sHand is his go to spell, support class Keyleth: Druid: Nature magic, ability to shapeshift into animals Grog: Barbarian: Beats the ever loving fuck outta things, can rage and beat the ever loving fuck outta things even harder. Percy: Fighter: Gunslinger subclass, inventor of firearms in this world Glad you're enjoying the show man. Welcome to the critter hug!
For Pike, Keyleth and Scanlan they all have objects that focus their magic. Keyleth has her staff, Scanlan uses Musical instruments, and Pike has her holy symbol.
Very minor correction: the Ranger ability is Primeval Awareness, not Primordial. I only noticed because I came down here to make the same exact comment!
You did miss Keyleth. It's not Lord of the Rings, but all DnD groups tend to be kind of anti-LOTR. Instead of noble warriors who are sworn to fight the great evil, you will inevitably get a bunch of dumbfucks who just want to kill stuff. And eventually kill the great evil. Fun fact: the burp was actually from Vex and Keyleth's actresses, not Grog's actor. Vax is the guy, Vex is the girl. As one reviewer said, VAx is MAle, VEx is FEmale. There are 12 episodes; 3 per week.
Glad you enjoyed it! This one is special to me because the fans funded the first 10 epsiodes by raising over 11 million on kickstarter. All the main characters are from a D&D game that some neardy ass voice actors came up with then moved on line years ago. There are comic books if you want the origins of how they met! And over 1000 hours of content of them playing D&D with these characters and then others. They have cool behind the scenes videos too about making this show
The belches that Grog does are actually a combination of Laura Bailey (Vex) and Marisha Rey (Keyleth) apparently none of the blokes could manage a convincingly Goliath (Grog is Half Giant, known as a Goliath) burp, so the ladies stepped up. It bums me out that your reaction has gotten so few likes. The wholesome and accepting way you embrace my totally nerdy passion and just roll with it (pun intended) made me like legit happy. Please stick with it, it is only going to get better from here mate!
Vex=female, Vax=male, Vox=the group. We've all done it, don't sweat it. Also, voices you might recognize - Sovereign Uriel (Khary Payton, plays Ezekiel in Walking Dead), General Krieg (David Tenant, plays the 10th Doctor and the Purple Man in Jessica Jones), Lady Allura Vysoren (Ellaria Sand in Game of Thrones), Palace Guard (Bobby Hall, aka Logic).
I love how much attention and care you give to your watch throughs, always looking for details to pick up on and break down. It's going to be a fun series to follow you on! Happy to see you enjoy it!
Tabletop RPGs are basically interactive group storytelling, where you roll dice to find out: did an attack hit or miss? How much damage did it do? Did you successfully pick the lock? Etc. There are bonuses and penalties that you can get for skill level, character attributes, etc. Much of what you see in this story were the results of dice rolls as well as input from the players and the Dungeon Master (think of him as the narrator of the story). This particular game was played by a bunch of accomplished voice actors. If you watch any anime, you probably heard all of them. The guy playing Vax (the male twin thief) is the guy who voiced Ilidan from World of Warcraft ("You are not prepared!" from the famous trailer.) This particular group helped to cause the resurgance in popularity of D&D and other tabletop RPGs. They originally started out in a different ruleset, then switched to D&D. This other ruleset allowed for a gunslinger class. When they switched over to D&D, they had to use a crowbar and duct tape to make a gunslinger fit within the D&D rules and setting. They worked out custom rules that among other things included a high chance of failure every time Percy fires his gun.
Pike's holy symbol is a representation of the Everlight (named Sarenrae in Pathfinder) - the goddess of the sun, healing and redemption. Anyway, great review, loved your insight and looking forward to seeing you review the rest. And I need to check out your Invincible reactions!
@@Barris42 in Exandria, the Dawnfather has domains of the sun and healing, and the Everlight atonement and compassion, but they did depict her emerging from the sun, a nod to her Pathfinder roots, and had the flames "burn away" the lies. Essentially Sarenrae is the Pelor or Lathander of the PF pantheon.
1. You're one of the first reactors I've seen pronounce the name right without knowing anything about it. I'm impressed. 2. This is based on the first campaign of Critical Role, which is a huge stream series where it's, in their own words, "A bunch of nerdy ass voice actors sitting around and playing Dungeons and Dragons." They have different characters each campaign/season, a different story each campaign/season and they're on their third campaign/season right now. 3. The characters are Scanlan: A Gnome Bard Grog: A Goliath Barbarian Pike: A Gnome Cleric Keyleth: A Half-Elf Druid Vex: A Half-Elf Ranger Vax: A Half-Elf Rogue Percy: A Human Gunslinger (Readjusted from Pathfinder to D&D 5e) 4. The first two episodes are from before they started streaming their games and the third episode is mostly directly from their streams, but compacted into a 25 minute episode. I hope you, enjoy this series! Edit: The reason the king's voice may sound familiar to you is because that's Khary Payton, he voiced Cyborg in Teen Titans
Bidet and welcome! I'm super happy that you're enjoying our fandom. They are pulling from some of Critical Role's pre-streaming games and then about 35-40 hours of gameplay for this season. Yes, a typical session of DND goes between 3-4 hours (though some people like to play longer/shorter games, it all depends on. your group). I hope you enjoy the rest! It only gets better from here!
Bidet from Sweden. :) I follow your thoughts and love that people find out more about D&D. Used to play it with my 9-year older brother growing up and have just picked it up ~1 year ago and play two games per week with the same group. Often the games last for 3-4 hours but we still have our moments to sit 7 hours sometimes (campaign ending session and nobody wanted to stop playing) :D
There are so many amazing voice actors in this series. If you watch the Walking Dead then that is probably why you recognize who is the voice of Uriel. The two kids in the town were voiced by the children of two of the main cast in the show. The history of this show is probably the most unique in the history of entertainment. All of the cast are established voice actors in video games and animated shows. For a birthday party they all got together to play D&D for what was going to be a one time thing and they just kept playing together. Then they were approached to continue playing the game in an online show and it exploded in popularity. So now we have established award winning voice actors coming full circle to voice their own characters that they created, and played in a game together for years, in their own animated series.
Bidet! Welcome to our community. I’ve recently finished campaign 1 and wow was it a ride. I’ve cried and laughed more then I thought. If you have the time (or if you want to) I’d recommend watching the highlights to campaign 1 for a little background for the show. A campaign is a book, as an arc/act is a chapter. Thank you for the amazing reaction and I’m glad you are enjoying the show😁😁
Classes: Grog: Barbarian. Barbarians wear less armor than other melee classes, but have more hit points and a rage mechanic. When they get angry, they can have a variety of effects depending on their build: more health points, stronger attacks, more leaping, etc. They can also turn random large objects into weapons. Grog is a half-giant, and they also have lots of HP, so between his race and his class, he can take a LOT of damage. Pike: Cleric. The standard healer class in D&D is more combat-focused than healer classes in other RPG systems. They can wear heavy armor, generally prefer blunt weapons, and have a variety of spells that are very effective against the undead. Vex: Ranger. A class more or less based on Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. They are usually either using bows or dual-weilded melee weapons, can have an animal familiar (Trinket), have a number of outdoorsy-related skills, and can cast a few druidic spells at higher levels. Rangers can have a favored enemy. Vex chose dragons. That is why she can vaguely detect dragons or people associated with dragons. Vax: Rogue. The D&D thief class. Good at stealth, lockpicking, disarming or detecting traps, and backstabbing targets while they are engaged with another melee class in the party. Vax & Vex are half elves with an elf father and a human mother. Their elf father treats them like garbage. Keyleth: Druid. The standard nature-related spellcasting class. Their unique skill is shapeshifting into various animals. As they gain levels, they can shapeshift into more things. Keyleth is a half elf, but both of her parents are half-elves. She had a much healthier homelife growing up than Vax & Vex had. Scanlan: Bard. This class is pretty unique to D&D. Bards are characters with high charisma that use music to cast buffs on party members or debuffs on enemies. They are a jack-of-all-trades class that can dable in a variety of things from magic to swords-use to lockpicking. Because they are high-charisma musicians, most players play bard characters as sex-crazed lotharios. Percy: Gunslinger. As mentioned before, this is a class from a different game that was ported to D&D using special custom rules. As of this story, Percy is using the only guns in his world.
I’m not up on all the details but there a famous D&D group and they crowdfunded this production and sold it to Amazon. It’s based on one of their podcasted campaigns. (I think)
Yup, Critical Role is their D&D group/channel. Originally $750k kickstarter goal for 1-2 animated special, raised well over $1mil withing 24hrs, finished with $11.3mil after 45 days for a 12 episode season. Amazon picked them up for the 2nd season. Vox Machina(formerly "The S.H.I.T.s") are their characters from their original homegame and first campaign.
Man I'm happy I watched you watch this ..glad you you liked it ...and yes they do get stronger..I D&D as you move along in the story you get stronger and you learn different abilities.... this is a great community with lots of love ! I'm really glad that you paid attention and are asking questions. I've been a fan from the beginning and love this group. If I was trying to explain everything I'd be here for a while lol but...either way keep watching this is an animated series that was made from the actual people that played this d&d campaign...another long story but there's lots of content explain how if you're interested...welcome to the critter community: )
Thank you puffy cloud, happy to be apart of the critter gang, yall have been great already after only one upload. Will have more coming your way shortly😁
It's so cool seeing someone discover this world for the first time!!! You did a great breakdown, really loving seeing your reactions. Subscribed! The show is incredibly loyal to how they played the game, including keeping many of the improvised things they said. There are some adjustments for brevity but all-in-all it matches the choices the players made, the reactions they had, and the spells they cast. The players do level up slowly over the course of the story and that expands their powers.
1st two episodes are one arc from b4 the Critical Role ppl started streaming their dnd game, the rest of the season follows a fan favorite arc from the first campaign "the briarwood arc"... so happy non-CR fans are digging the show!
a lot of the adult animation shows are great because you have people who grew up loving cartoons as a medium but want something now that they can still enjoy as adults. For decades most adult animation has only been comedy shows usually with grossout humor like south park, simpsons, family guy. Not saying those are bad but they had a very niche market of being for a specific type of fans. So now you get animated shows that are for adults that are more varied with action shows, that doesn't mean they don't ahve any humor, but now they can focus on plot instead of just being a comedy show
Vanilla Ice 😂. I was hooked on this show within the first minute when dude got killed and the other was like “what the f&@k!” Show reminds me of Invincible.
Us critters don’t play if we gave it five stars it definitely held up to the game we love to watch. Even with adjustments and changes to make it fit the tv series better. At least the creators which are the players and people who run the company explained what changes would happen and why.
I quickly learned how loyal to the soil you critters are! Ya'll have established a helluva community ! Welcome to the ch. Hope ya enjoy the vox and critical role reactions 😉
In Exandria, (the world where the Land of Tal'Dorei is,) the gods are mostly absent. So, Clerics are powered by their faith, and bound by their body's limits. This means that "leveling up" improves their faith in themselves enough to channel more divine energy, (just like other spellcasters.) The gods can only be directly talked to in liminal spaces or their Temples. The difference is mostly flavor, but it changes the type of story that can be told to a slightly darker one, just on its face, with the potential for Self-Empowerment to be the focus of the Cleric or Paladin, rather than faith being the central narrative arc for them. This still takes the form of Spells/day, like it always did, but has a physical exhaustion component to it.
Each of them is a different 'class' Barbarian, Druid, Rogue, Ranger, Gunslinger, Cleric and Bard. They all have different skills and abilities within DnD that are useful in specific situations. Grog is a Barbarian, Keyleth is a Druid, Vax is a rogue, Vex is a ranger, Percy is a Gunslinger, Pike is a Cleric and Scanlan is a bard. They all do different things but the basic concept is that within the group their combined skills make them incredibly strong. (theoretically). As the series progresses you will see more of what those classes mean and are capable of. (I really hope you keep this going) Within the game, spell casters have a limited number of spells they can cast each day without exhausting themselves. (The kids were voiced by the actual kids of the voice actors of Vax and Scanlan)
Ima try my best spoil free so far, trying to be careful reading these comments lol. Ill be catching up this weekend. Welcome to the island IcePepperAjah 🏝
1 reaction in and i already know you're not lying lol. These characters are gonna keep me on my toes and the storyline already seems like something ill be fully invested in! Ep 2&3 reactions droppin soon!
I definitely think that first part was inspired by the classic fantasy party and absolutely seems to take inspiration from Lord of the Rings. The way I thought of it, it was like saying "Here's what you'd expect from this kind of show, but let me immediately subvert that expectation." I'm normally not a fan of that, if it's heavily integrated into a show or movie, but in this instance it was great as a way to surprise you right off the bat, as a throwaway joke.
Omg, I lost my shit when he mixed up the twins...epic! I am really enjoying watching people who never watched Critical Role before, discovering this wonderful story.
To be clear, when Scanlan was singing his intro song, the purple smoke *was* a spell. It was triggering an illusion, so everything we saw on screen during the song, the characters also saw. Which is actually important for later... Vex is the woman, Vax is the man; but don't worry, all the players (and even the DM running the game) got them mixed up so often it was a running joke 😁 Regarding Pike's ability to heal: since this is based on D&D, a lot of the things they do come directly from D&D mechanics. In D&D, if you're a magical character, you have a certain number of "spell slots" for each level of spell. Every time you cast a spell, you use up one of the slots of its level, and when you have no slots left, you're "too tired" and can't cast spells at that level anymore until you get a full night's rest. So Pike was out of spell slots, and wouldn't be able to cast healing spells until the next day. As you level up, you get more spell slots to use, so she would be able to grow and use more spells over time.
"I like how they aren't shorting the episodes" I wouldn't of said anything without seeing you've made another vid announcing your knowledge of the critter community but SHEEEEESH I had to digest hours just to catch up just to not spoil myself by watching this.
"Murder hobo" is a D&D slang term for players who just kill and loot every character they come across, often killing NPCs that were supposed to communicate some critical part of the story. So the name of that one group of adventurers was a D&D in-joke.
Great reaction! Looking forward to seeing you react to more of these. I felt you kept a really good pace and good balance showing the show and not. I hope people see how great this show is and go to Amazon and watch the whole series! There is so much story to uncover, and that is just the first campaign. I would love if this show became successful enough for them to make campaign 2 into a cartoon as well.
Scanlan is a Bard. In Dnd they are sort of minstrels (as a TLDR) who do indeed usually use song and music to cast spells. Once again, you came into this with no knowledge and still picking up on shit. Sorry for spamming you mate but its been a rough one and your reaction to this really picked me up. The moment Krieg spoke up and you said 'his voice sounds familiar'.. Ever seen Dr. Who? Or anything David Tennant is in? Because it may or may not be him. Again, sorry mate but this vid lifted me out of some shit so I feel like I'd be a dick if I didn't send compliments when they were due.
It's complicated to explain how closely it's based on the game of D&D. The storyline is very close to the game they actually played, but they don't actually have any kind of permission to use any D&D copywrited stuff so in that sense it's not based on D&D at all. I'd say it pretty accurately depicts the spirit of a D&D game even if they can't use any of the terminology.
The Series is losely based upon Campaign 1 of Critical Role. And If it has something todo with Critical Role, if you think you MAY have heard a voice before... the answer is always: YES, YES you have. As the intro to every Critical Role episode says: "Welcome to tonights episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass Voice Actors sit around and play dungeons and dragons"
Handy little tip for telling the twins apart; think of them with their full first names: Vex’ahlia, female, blue Vax’ildan, male, black Hope that is useful. :)
Welcome to the world of Critters. Basically, years ago a talented voice actor was about to have a birthday, and to celebrate Matt Mercher, another well-established voice actor and talented GM (Game Master) was asked to run a role-playing game for a group of friends... who also all happened to be voice actors. So, a group of nerdy ass voice actors sat around and played D & D. Trust me if you've played any big video games or watched animations through the last decade or so, you've heard them, even if you didn't know who they were. The group had so much fun they made it a regular thing, Felicia Day of Geek and Sundry heard about this game and approached them with the idea of streaming it... and it became a hit in its field, eventually growing into its own company and channel known as Critical Role. Parting on good terms with their previous home, Felicia Day has a small role in the beginning of episode 2. Vox Machina was they group they played in Campaign One, there has also been a Campaign Two where they played a new group of adventurers (set in the same world, but on another continent and a few decades later), each campaign was over a hundred episodes that are all over three hours long, and we are about to see episode 12 of Campaign Three on Thursday. They have also put out a bunch of other content, from talk shows to shorter games in other Role Playing worlds. They have played live shows to sold out theaters, become the number one channel on Twitch, have merch stores in multiple countries, have comics and actually books of fan art (there are some talented as F*** Critters) they also started a nonprofit charity to... Leave the World a Better Place. They would all tell you that they never expected any of this, that it has been a wild ride and they are just trying to hold on and be worthy of it. A few years ago they started looking into the possibility of an animation, but no one was buying, so they went to the Critters to try and raise 700,000.00 over the course of 45 days in order to make a two-part special for themselves and their fans.... The Critters laughed at that and smashed through not just the goal amount, but also ALL of their stretch goals within an hour. By day 45 they had raised nearly 11 and a half million dollars, and the two-part special became a season. Amazon took note and is basically funding a second season to get the streaming rights, but the show is created by Critical Role. Those Nerdy Ass Voice actors are the producers and have full creative control. Most of the people they hired, from writers to artists and composers are also fans who love and know the story and its world. It is one of the truest examples of a project of love I have ever seen. During the production of the animation they put out a series of videos to keep their fans in the loop of how things were going. Interviewing the people behind the scenes and giving non spoiler info about the production. It's a good watch and will really help you understand the devotion and love that went into this project, as well as introduce the cast. Personally, how the lead composer got the job is one of my fav stories. Here is that play list. czcams.com/play/PL1tiwbzkOjQwJdoNetaNJE1zZVOE7xi8u.html Once again, welcome to this new world, hope you enjoy your visit and stay for a while... it's a devoted community with a lot of heart... and dicks... so many dicks... LoL. Let Chaos Reign!
I dont know if you figured out vex vs vax. The way i remember is the second letter. Vax has an A which is also the second letter in Male. Vex has an E which is also the second letter in Female.
Yep! Took me a while lol but thanks to the comments i got it, some others gave great ways to remember too. Like Adam & Eve. Preciate ya Jonathan, welcome to the channel bro!
Hey missykender!! There absolutely will be, i was a little late to the show, so working on catching up now, just recorded 2 and 3!! 😲😲 soooo good, ill have em edited up and uploaded tomorrow or tues😁
Dude… you need to start playing D&D. Get some friends together and roll some Dice and play. It’s fucking incredible and it spawns amazing stuff like this
So much fun to watch people discovering this world. This is based on Critical Role’s first campaign; they’re currently on their third. This show is basically a tightened up narrative that follows their actual gameplay very closely. I can’t recommend diving into Critical Role highly enough. Its fucking fantastic.
When he sung the song to the king he did cast a spell. Most likely an illusion so the king could see what they were about.
Major Image
Bard spells are usually musical.
Illusion magic is great for giving yourself musical accompaniment.
Mate you are like a few minutes in and already realised Trinket is the most civil of the bunch. You get it. I think you will enjoy this series.
Trinket is the best. Gotta protect the bear mascot.
“The bear is probably the most civil of them all” is possibly the most accurate sentence I’ve heard. 😂
I was wrong. “You’re doing too much, vanilla ice” is most accurate.
🤣🤣 i try my best to maintain the balance between accurate and non accurate statements! I deff pat myself on the back for these 2 quotes tho lmao
And yes, Keyleth getting white-girl-wasted is a running joke in the broader story.
Vex: Rogue: Stealthy, lockpicks, detect traps, sneak attack
Vax: Ranger: Stealthy, has an animal companion (Trinket), has primordial awareness (Spidey Sense)
Pike: Cleric: Healer, has limited # of spells per day
Scanlan: Bard: Uses music to cast spells, illusions, Bigby'sHand is his go to spell, support class
Keyleth: Druid: Nature magic, ability to shapeshift into animals
Grog: Barbarian: Beats the ever loving fuck outta things, can rage and beat the ever loving fuck outta things even harder.
Percy: Fighter: Gunslinger subclass, inventor of firearms in this world
Glad you're enjoying the show man. Welcome to the critter hug!
You mixed up Vex and Vax. Vax is the rogue, Vex the ranger.
@@pichejf Lol yep. I could lie and say it was intentional...
For Pike, Keyleth and Scanlan they all have objects that focus their magic. Keyleth has her staff, Scanlan uses Musical instruments, and Pike has her holy symbol.
Very minor correction: the Ranger ability is Primeval Awareness, not Primordial. I only noticed because I came down here to make the same exact comment!
@@Liesmith424 Good call!
You did miss Keyleth.
It's not Lord of the Rings, but all DnD groups tend to be kind of anti-LOTR. Instead of noble warriors who are sworn to fight the great evil, you will inevitably get a bunch of dumbfucks who just want to kill stuff. And eventually kill the great evil.
Fun fact: the burp was actually from Vex and Keyleth's actresses, not Grog's actor.
Vax is the guy, Vex is the girl. As one reviewer said, VAx is MAle, VEx is FEmale.
There are 12 episodes; 3 per week.
Glad you enjoyed it! This one is special to me because the fans funded the first 10 epsiodes by raising over 11 million on kickstarter. All the main characters are from a D&D game that some neardy ass voice actors came up with then moved on line years ago. There are comic books if you want the origins of how they met! And over 1000 hours of content of them playing D&D with these characters and then others. They have cool behind the scenes videos too about making this show
The belches that Grog does are actually a combination of Laura Bailey (Vex) and Marisha Rey (Keyleth) apparently none of the blokes could manage a convincingly Goliath (Grog is Half Giant, known as a Goliath) burp, so the ladies stepped up.
It bums me out that your reaction has gotten so few likes. The wholesome and accepting way you embrace my totally nerdy passion and just roll with it (pun intended) made me like legit happy. Please stick with it, it is only going to get better from here mate!
The voice of the King is Khary Payton, you might know him as Ezekiel from the Walking Dead or Cyborg from Teen Titans.
Vex=female, Vax=male, Vox=the group. We've all done it, don't sweat it.
Also, voices you might recognize - Sovereign Uriel (Khary Payton, plays Ezekiel in Walking Dead), General Krieg (David Tenant, plays the 10th Doctor and the Purple Man in Jessica Jones), Lady Allura Vysoren (Ellaria Sand in Game of Thrones), Palace Guard (Bobby Hall, aka Logic).
I love how much attention and care you give to your watch throughs, always looking for details to pick up on and break down. It's going to be a fun series to follow you on! Happy to see you enjoy it!
Tabletop RPGs are basically interactive group storytelling, where you roll dice to find out: did an attack hit or miss? How much damage did it do? Did you successfully pick the lock? Etc. There are bonuses and penalties that you can get for skill level, character attributes, etc. Much of what you see in this story were the results of dice rolls as well as input from the players and the Dungeon Master (think of him as the narrator of the story).
This particular game was played by a bunch of accomplished voice actors. If you watch any anime, you probably heard all of them. The guy playing Vax (the male twin thief) is the guy who voiced Ilidan from World of Warcraft ("You are not prepared!" from the famous trailer.)
This particular group helped to cause the resurgance in popularity of D&D and other tabletop RPGs.
They originally started out in a different ruleset, then switched to D&D. This other ruleset allowed for a gunslinger class. When they switched over to D&D, they had to use a crowbar and duct tape to make a gunslinger fit within the D&D rules and setting. They worked out custom rules that among other things included a high chance of failure every time Percy fires his gun.
Pike's holy symbol is a representation of the Everlight (named Sarenrae in Pathfinder) - the goddess of the sun, healing and redemption.
Anyway, great review, loved your insight and looking forward to seeing you review the rest. And I need to check out your Invincible reactions!
It's also the focus she needs to cast her divine magic.
Isn’t the Dawnfather the god of the sun? And the Everlight is the goddess of redemption (at least in the Exandria setting)?
@@Barris42 in Exandria, the Dawnfather has domains of the sun and healing, and the Everlight atonement and compassion, but they did depict her emerging from the sun, a nod to her Pathfinder roots, and had the flames "burn away" the lies. Essentially Sarenrae is the Pelor or Lathander of the PF pantheon.
1. You're one of the first reactors I've seen pronounce the name right without knowing anything about it. I'm impressed.
2. This is based on the first campaign of Critical Role, which is a huge stream series where it's, in their own words, "A bunch of nerdy ass voice actors sitting around and playing Dungeons and Dragons." They have different characters each campaign/season, a different story each campaign/season and they're on their third campaign/season right now.
3. The characters are
Scanlan: A Gnome Bard
Grog: A Goliath Barbarian
Pike: A Gnome Cleric
Keyleth: A Half-Elf Druid
Vex: A Half-Elf Ranger
Vax: A Half-Elf Rogue
Percy: A Human Gunslinger (Readjusted from Pathfinder to D&D 5e)
4. The first two episodes are from before they started streaming their games and the third episode is mostly directly from their streams, but compacted into a 25 minute episode.
I hope you, enjoy this series!
Edit: The reason the king's voice may sound familiar to you is because that's Khary Payton, he voiced Cyborg in Teen Titans
I only just realised that the tune Scanlan was whistling while going to take a leak was a song he sings in episode 3.
This dude is rolling 20s in perception! It’s awesome to see people who put stuff together like that! Loved the video
Welcome to the critter hug! So so so excited to see people get into vox machina with this series.
Thank you katie im so happy i gave this show a try, im loving it so far and you critters are pretty dope too. More uploads commin soon for yall😁
People get Vax and Vex confused all the time. The easy way for me to remember is Vax with an "A" like Adam, and Vex with an "E" like Eve.
Bidet and welcome! I'm super happy that you're enjoying our fandom. They are pulling from some of Critical Role's pre-streaming games and then about 35-40 hours of gameplay for this season.
Yes, a typical session of DND goes between 3-4 hours (though some people like to play longer/shorter games, it all depends on. your group).
I hope you enjoy the rest! It only gets better from here!
Bidet from Sweden. :) I follow your thoughts and love that people find out more about D&D. Used to play it with my 9-year older brother growing up and have just picked it up ~1 year ago and play two games per week with the same group.
Often the games last for 3-4 hours but we still have our moments to sit 7 hours sometimes (campaign ending session and nobody wanted to stop playing) :D
There are so many amazing voice actors in this series. If you watch the Walking Dead then that is probably why you recognize who is the voice of Uriel. The two kids in the town were voiced by the children of two of the main cast in the show.
The history of this show is probably the most unique in the history of entertainment. All of the cast are established voice actors in video games and animated shows. For a birthday party they all got together to play D&D for what was going to be a one time thing and they just kept playing together. Then they were approached to continue playing the game in an online show and it exploded in popularity. So now we have established award winning voice actors coming full circle to voice their own characters that they created, and played in a game together for years, in their own animated series.
Bidet! Welcome to our community. I’ve recently finished campaign 1 and wow was it a ride. I’ve cried and laughed more then I thought.
If you have the time (or if you want to) I’d recommend watching the highlights to campaign 1 for a little background for the show.
A campaign is a book, as an arc/act is a chapter.
Thank you for the amazing reaction and I’m glad you are enjoying the show😁😁
Classes:
Grog: Barbarian. Barbarians wear less armor than other melee classes, but have more hit points and a rage mechanic. When they get angry, they can have a variety of effects depending on their build: more health points, stronger attacks, more leaping, etc. They can also turn random large objects into weapons. Grog is a half-giant, and they also have lots of HP, so between his race and his class, he can take a LOT of damage.
Pike: Cleric. The standard healer class in D&D is more combat-focused than healer classes in other RPG systems. They can wear heavy armor, generally prefer blunt weapons, and have a variety of spells that are very effective against the undead.
Vex: Ranger. A class more or less based on Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. They are usually either using bows or dual-weilded melee weapons, can have an animal familiar (Trinket), have a number of outdoorsy-related skills, and can cast a few druidic spells at higher levels. Rangers can have a favored enemy. Vex chose dragons. That is why she can vaguely detect dragons or people associated with dragons.
Vax: Rogue. The D&D thief class. Good at stealth, lockpicking, disarming or detecting traps, and backstabbing targets while they are engaged with another melee class in the party. Vax & Vex are half elves with an elf father and a human mother. Their elf father treats them like garbage.
Keyleth: Druid. The standard nature-related spellcasting class. Their unique skill is shapeshifting into various animals. As they gain levels, they can shapeshift into more things. Keyleth is a half elf, but both of her parents are half-elves. She had a much healthier homelife growing up than Vax & Vex had.
Scanlan: Bard. This class is pretty unique to D&D. Bards are characters with high charisma that use music to cast buffs on party members or debuffs on enemies. They are a jack-of-all-trades class that can dable in a variety of things from magic to swords-use to lockpicking. Because they are high-charisma musicians, most players play bard characters as sex-crazed lotharios.
Percy: Gunslinger. As mentioned before, this is a class from a different game that was ported to D&D using special custom rules. As of this story, Percy is using the only guns in his world.
I’m not up on all the details but there a famous D&D group and they crowdfunded this production and sold it to Amazon. It’s based on one of their podcasted campaigns.
(I think)
Yup, Critical Role is their D&D group/channel. Originally $750k kickstarter goal for 1-2 animated special, raised well over $1mil withing 24hrs, finished with $11.3mil after 45 days for a 12 episode season. Amazon picked them up for the 2nd season.
Vox Machina(formerly "The S.H.I.T.s") are their characters from their original homegame and first campaign.
Man I'm happy I watched you watch this ..glad you you liked it ...and yes they do get stronger..I D&D as you move along in the story you get stronger and you learn different abilities.... this is a great community with lots of love ! I'm really glad that you paid attention and are asking questions. I've been a fan from the beginning and love this group. If I was trying to explain everything I'd be here for a while lol but...either way keep watching this is an animated series that was made from the actual people that played this d&d campaign...another long story but there's lots of content explain how if you're interested...welcome to the critter community: )
A warm critter welcome and congrats on 1k 😉
Thank you puffy cloud, happy to be apart of the critter gang, yall have been great already after only one upload. Will have more coming your way shortly😁
Welcome to the family, new Critter 🤗 And strap in lol
Thank you dillion, happy to be part of the critter crew. Im strappin up as i type lol! Welcome to the island my guy 🏝
I just started this too, glad to see ya on it! Amazon prime has alot more quality content then i thought tbh. Another great react bro!
You picked up the reference to the lotr so quickly, faster than any other reactors I've seen
How much You discuss the show is a great highlight. Theorizing and practicing to remember was also great. Keep up the great work!
Armando i appreciate ya brother. Im glad you enjoy the discussions and theories no matter how wild they might get lol. Strap in!!
All the different classes have their time to shine. Each one specializes in something and a balanced party offsets each other's weaknesses.
It's so cool seeing someone discover this world for the first time!!! You did a great breakdown, really loving seeing your reactions. Subscribed! The show is incredibly loyal to how they played the game, including keeping many of the improvised things they said. There are some adjustments for brevity but all-in-all it matches the choices the players made, the reactions they had, and the spells they cast. The players do level up slowly over the course of the story and that expands their powers.
Late to the party! Enjoying some of the reactions to Vox Machina as we get ready for season two!!!! HYPE!
Ah, the humble beginnings.
1st two episodes are one arc from b4 the Critical Role ppl started streaming their dnd game, the rest of the season follows a fan favorite arc from the first campaign "the briarwood arc"... so happy non-CR fans are digging the show!
a lot of the adult animation shows are great because you have people who grew up loving cartoons as a medium but want something now that they can still enjoy as adults. For decades most adult animation has only been comedy shows usually with grossout humor like south park, simpsons, family guy. Not saying those are bad but they had a very niche market of being for a specific type of fans.
So now you get animated shows that are for adults that are more varied with action shows, that doesn't mean they don't ahve any humor, but now they can focus on plot instead of just being a comedy show
Vanilla Ice 😂. I was hooked on this show within the first minute when dude got killed and the other was like “what the f&@k!” Show reminds me of Invincible.
7:05 he actually is casting a spell here, using illusion to make them see what we're seeing
Us critters don’t play if we gave it five stars it definitely held up to the game we love to watch. Even with adjustments and changes to make it fit the tv series better. At least the creators which are the players and people who run the company explained what changes would happen and why.
I quickly learned how loyal to the soil you critters are! Ya'll have established a helluva community ! Welcome to the ch. Hope ya enjoy the vox and critical role reactions 😉
the kings voice is the actor for king Ezekiel from the walking dead
In Exandria, (the world where the Land of Tal'Dorei is,) the gods are mostly absent. So, Clerics are powered by their faith, and bound by their body's limits. This means that "leveling up" improves their faith in themselves enough to channel more divine energy, (just like other spellcasters.) The gods can only be directly talked to in liminal spaces or their Temples. The difference is mostly flavor, but it changes the type of story that can be told to a slightly darker one, just on its face, with the potential for Self-Empowerment to be the focus of the Cleric or Paladin, rather than faith being the central narrative arc for them. This still takes the form of Spells/day, like it always did, but has a physical exhaustion component to it.
Liked and Shared!
Each of them is a different 'class' Barbarian, Druid, Rogue, Ranger, Gunslinger, Cleric and Bard. They all have different skills and abilities within DnD that are useful in specific situations. Grog is a Barbarian, Keyleth is a Druid, Vax is a rogue, Vex is a ranger, Percy is a Gunslinger, Pike is a Cleric and Scanlan is a bard. They all do different things but the basic concept is that within the group their combined skills make them incredibly strong. (theoretically). As the series progresses you will see more of what those classes mean and are capable of.
(I really hope you keep this going)
Within the game, spell casters have a limited number of spells they can cast each day without exhausting themselves.
(The kids were voiced by the actual kids of the voice actors of Vax and Scanlan)
Oh I'm going to enjoy watching you watch this. Im a fan of Critical Role, so I've watched half of season 1. This is going to be GREAT.
Try to stay unspoiled it’s fun to watch newbies!
Ima try my best spoil free so far, trying to be careful reading these comments lol. Ill be catching up this weekend. Welcome to the island IcePepperAjah 🏝
i'll have you know Grog is the brains of the group he has an intelligence of six he know what he's doing 😉
You are in for one will ride with this show.
1 reaction in and i already know you're not lying lol. These characters are gonna keep me on my toes and the storyline already seems like something ill be fully invested in! Ep 2&3 reactions droppin soon!
I definitely think that first part was inspired by the classic fantasy party and absolutely seems to take inspiration from Lord of the Rings. The way I thought of it, it was like saying "Here's what you'd expect from this kind of show, but let me immediately subvert that expectation." I'm normally not a fan of that, if it's heavily integrated into a show or movie, but in this instance it was great as a way to surprise you right off the bat, as a throwaway joke.
Looking forward to seeing any of your future reactions to this series!!
Hey katie! Glad you're enjoying! Episode 2 reaction may just be dropping today at 615 pm est..... wink wink 😉 lol. Welcome to the island 🏝
Omg, I lost my shit when he mixed up the twins...epic! I am really enjoying watching people who never watched Critical Role before, discovering this wonderful story.
all the d&d players' facepalmed when she cast call lightning on a blue dragon
To be clear, when Scanlan was singing his intro song, the purple smoke *was* a spell. It was triggering an illusion, so everything we saw on screen during the song, the characters also saw. Which is actually important for later...
Vex is the woman, Vax is the man; but don't worry, all the players (and even the DM running the game) got them mixed up so often it was a running joke 😁
Regarding Pike's ability to heal: since this is based on D&D, a lot of the things they do come directly from D&D mechanics. In D&D, if you're a magical character, you have a certain number of "spell slots" for each level of spell. Every time you cast a spell, you use up one of the slots of its level, and when you have no slots left, you're "too tired" and can't cast spells at that level anymore until you get a full night's rest. So Pike was out of spell slots, and wouldn't be able to cast healing spells until the next day. As you level up, you get more spell slots to use, so she would be able to grow and use more spells over time.
"I like how they aren't shorting the episodes"
I wouldn't of said anything without seeing you've made another vid announcing your knowledge of the critter community but SHEEEEESH I had to digest hours just to catch up just to not spoil myself by watching this.
"Murder hobo" is a D&D slang term for players who just kill and loot every character they come across, often killing NPCs that were supposed to communicate some critical part of the story. So the name of that one group of adventurers was a D&D in-joke.
Great reaction! Looking forward to seeing you react to more of these. I felt you kept a really good pace and good balance showing the show and not. I hope people see how great this show is and go to Amazon and watch the whole series! There is so much story to uncover, and that is just the first campaign. I would love if this show became successful enough for them to make campaign 2 into a cartoon as well.
Bruh that yugioh intro sound is so nostalgic.
I’d say as someone who watches them actually play every Thursday I can say every episode is like 8 to 10 hours of table top gameplay
Most of that being them making plans they immediately abandon XD
So far 2 seasons, both seasons 12 episodes each.
This was fun!
Ayyyee preciate ya ruvi! Welcome to the island 🏝!
@@BobbyChill2 :DDD YOU TOO!♡♡ and Thank You!!:DD
Scanlan is a Bard. In Dnd they are sort of minstrels (as a TLDR) who do indeed usually use song and music to cast spells. Once again, you came into this with no knowledge and still picking up on shit. Sorry for spamming you mate but its been a rough one and your reaction to this really picked me up.
The moment Krieg spoke up and you said 'his voice sounds familiar'.. Ever seen Dr. Who? Or anything David Tennant is in? Because it may or may not be him.
Again, sorry mate but this vid lifted me out of some shit so I feel like I'd be a dick if I didn't send compliments when they were due.
Dig your style of reviewing! Keep it up!
Hey y’all the coalition is rolling a Nat 20 here on Chilligan’s Island 🌴
Don't sleep on the "I think you could have found that, it looks like a big ass footprint" Comment. I laughed for a bit at that.
Super enjoyable reaction!
It's complicated to explain how closely it's based on the game of D&D. The storyline is very close to the game they actually played, but they don't actually have any kind of permission to use any D&D copywrited stuff so in that sense it's not based on D&D at all.
I'd say it pretty accurately depicts the spirit of a D&D game even if they can't use any of the terminology.
Bidet bruv.
Watched the role play and the new series
Both magical. Enjoy!
Good reaction, hope you do more!
Thank you RJH, TRUST!! Im doin all of em😁
Great reaction
Thank you Facu! Glad ya enjoyed 😉
Vax has an A in his name because he’s mAle
Vex has an E in her name because she’s fEmale.
At least, that’s how I remember it. 😅
Your voice is nice and chill. thank you for this sir.
The Series is losely based upon Campaign 1 of Critical Role. And If it has something todo with Critical Role, if you think you MAY have heard a voice before... the answer is always: YES, YES you have.
As the intro to every Critical Role episode says:
"Welcome to tonights episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass Voice Actors sit around and play dungeons and dragons"
9:50 Vex is the girl, Vax is the guy. (Vex'ahlia and Vax'ildan, properly)
Handy little tip for telling the twins apart; think of them with their full first names:
Vex’ahlia, female, blue
Vax’ildan, male, black
Hope that is useful. :)
With Vex and Vax if you think of their full names it is easier. She is Vex'ahlia, He is Vax'ildan.
Welcome to the world of Critters. Basically, years ago a talented voice actor was about to have a birthday, and to celebrate Matt Mercher, another well-established voice actor and talented GM (Game Master) was asked to run a role-playing game for a group of friends... who also all happened to be voice actors. So, a group of nerdy ass voice actors sat around and played D & D. Trust me if you've played any big video games or watched animations through the last decade or so, you've heard them, even if you didn't know who they were. The group had so much fun they made it a regular thing, Felicia Day of Geek and Sundry heard about this game and approached them with the idea of streaming it... and it became a hit in its field, eventually growing into its own company and channel known as Critical Role. Parting on good terms with their previous home, Felicia Day has a small role in the beginning of episode 2. Vox Machina was they group they played in Campaign One, there has also been a Campaign Two where they played a new group of adventurers (set in the same world, but on another continent and a few decades later), each campaign was over a hundred episodes that are all over three hours long, and we are about to see episode 12 of Campaign Three on Thursday. They have also put out a bunch of other content, from talk shows to shorter games in other Role Playing worlds. They have played live shows to sold out theaters, become the number one channel on Twitch, have merch stores in multiple countries, have comics and actually books of fan art (there are some talented as F*** Critters) they also started a nonprofit charity to... Leave the World a Better Place. They would all tell you that they never expected any of this, that it has been a wild ride and they are just trying to hold on and be worthy of it.
A few years ago they started looking into the possibility of an animation, but no one was buying, so they went to the Critters to try and raise 700,000.00 over the course of 45 days in order to make a two-part special for themselves and their fans.... The Critters laughed at that and smashed through not just the goal amount, but also ALL of their stretch goals within an hour. By day 45 they had raised nearly 11 and a half million dollars, and the two-part special became a season. Amazon took note and is basically funding a second season to get the streaming rights, but the show is created by Critical Role. Those Nerdy Ass Voice actors are the producers and have full creative control. Most of the people they hired, from writers to artists and composers are also fans who love and know the story and its world. It is one of the truest examples of a project of love I have ever seen. During the production of the animation they put out a series of videos to keep their fans in the loop of how things were going. Interviewing the people behind the scenes and giving non spoiler info about the production. It's a good watch and will really help you understand the devotion and love that went into this project, as well as introduce the cast. Personally, how the lead composer got the job is one of my fav stories. Here is that play list.
czcams.com/play/PL1tiwbzkOjQwJdoNetaNJE1zZVOE7xi8u.html
Once again, welcome to this new world, hope you enjoy your visit and stay for a while... it's a devoted community with a lot of heart... and dicks... so many dicks... LoL. Let Chaos Reign!
Check out the actual voice cast. I think some of them will surprise you. There is some big names involved. Critical role has a video on it.
More of this content for sure. LoVM is fantastic.
Justin!! I got you ep 2 reaction dropping later today and ep 3 is rendering. Glad you're digging the content, welcome to the island my guy🏝 !!
I dont know if you figured out vex vs vax. The way i remember is the second letter. Vax has an A which is also the second letter in Male. Vex has an E which is also the second letter in Female.
Yep! Took me a while lol but thanks to the comments i got it, some others gave great ways to remember too. Like Adam & Eve. Preciate ya Jonathan, welcome to the channel bro!
It’s so nice hearing the opinion of someone who knows nothing about the whole thing 😊
🙏🏾 glad you are enjoying! Appreciate having ya on the journey!
To nerf spell casters, all magic based classes have spell slots. The number of spells and spell slots are based on levels.
Are there any other critters out there just browsing random react videos just to see a whole new demographic exposed to CR?
Have there been any more reaction episodes beyond the first? I have been looking for more, and can't find them. Thanks!
Will there be more episodes beyond the one? I've looked through your videos and can't find episodes 2-6.
Hey missykender!! There absolutely will be, i was a little late to the show, so working on catching up now, just recorded 2 and 3!! 😲😲 soooo good, ill have em edited up and uploaded tomorrow or tues😁
Dude… you need to start playing D&D. Get some friends together and roll some
Dice and play. It’s fucking incredible and it spawns amazing stuff like this
10/10 no but the art and animation are awesome
Love the animation of this show, its just so clean to me!
Welcome to the family, new Critter 🤗 And strap in lol
Welcome to the family, new Critter 🤗 And strap in lol