Critical Role

Format

Matthew Mercer serves as the show's Dungeon Master, running the ongoing campaign that is the basis for the show. The campaign began two years prior to the series as a one-time Pathfinder game at a birthday party for Liam O'Brien. The group enjoyed this initial game so much that they continued to play privately until they were approached by Felicia Day. In order to streamline gameplay for the live show, the game's characters were converted from Pathfinder to Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition before the web series began airing on 12 March 2015.

Critical Role is filmed with three cameras and is a mixture of a traditional weekly show and a modern gaming Twitch stream. Each episode runs from 3 to 5 hours, is streamed live, and is made available on Geek & Sundry's Twitch channel immediately afterward to their more than 30,000 subscribers.

A number of the streams have also served as a donation drive to support nonprofit organizations such as St Jude's, 826LA, Extra Life, and Doctors Without Borders.

Campaign structure

The Critical Role storyline occurs in a campaign made up of a series of story arcs that are played over multiple episodes. Between the major story arcs, the characters rest, resupply, or go on side quests. In addition, each character has a backstory, an unfinished part of their history that enters into the campaign at irregular intervals.

Pre-series history

The series takes place in the fictional kingdom of Tal'Dorei, and follows the actions of an adventuring party known as Vox Machina, previously known as the Super High-Intensity Team, well known residents of the city of Emon. In their adventures prior to the start of the series, the group saved the family of Uriel, the ruler of Emon. In appreciation, Uriel gave the group seats on the city council, and provided them with a residence called Greyskull Keep, which is located just outside the city. Episode 36 featured a summary of the pre-series history, with artwork created by Wendy Sullivan Green and voice-overs provided by the cast. Geek & Sundry also produced a series of web comics that describes a "Winter's Crest Festival" that occurred pre-series. The web comics are written by cast members Marisha Ray and Taliesin Jaffe, and feature artwork by Wendy Sullivan Green.

On-stream story arcs

1. The Kraghammer story arc (episodes 1-16) takes place primarily in the Underdark, and culminates in a battle between Vox Machina and a beholder named K'varn who is controlling an entire city of Illithid.
2. The Vasselheim story arc (episodes 17-23) splits the party into two groups to prove their worth to the "Slayer's Take," a local adventurer's guild. This arc features guest appearances by Felicia Day, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Wil Wheaton, and Will Friedle, adding a new twist to the now-divided adventuring band. This arc also includes the first back-story related episode (Episode 22), as Keyleth visits a related druid tribe.
3. The Briarwood story arc (episodes 24-38) is dedicated to following Percy's backstory, and brings the adventurers up against Lord and Lady Briarwood who are ruling in Percy's ancestral home. The powerful couple turns out to be a vampire and a necromancer, and Vox Machina must stop them from completing a ritual that could endanger the entire kingdom.
4. The Chroma Conclave story arc (episodes 39-83) begins when the red dragon, Thordak, and four chromatic dragon underlings attack Tal'dorei and divide the kingdom between them. In order to defeat the dragons, Osysa—the gynosphinx who leads the Slayer's Take—sends Vox machina on a quest to obtain "The Vestiges of Divergence": a series of famed magic items that are scattered throughout the world.

Cast and characters

Former cast members

Guests

Talks Machina

On September 28, 2016, Geek & Sundry announced Talks Machina, a fan-centered after/talk show hosted by Brian Wayne Foster.

Reception

As of January 2016, each episode of the show is watched for more than a million minutes on Twitch, totaling over 37 million minutes watched for the whole series. Additionally, the YouTube archived videos have over 3 million views.

In a January 2016 article, Polygon described Critical Role as a "thoroughly modern" show with a business model that is still developing.

The show has caught the attention of the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast, who discussed it at length on their official D&D podcast, along with cast members Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, and former member Orion Acaba. In an interview with the online gaming magazine Polygon, lead D&D designer Mike Mearls commented about the show, stating "It was really cool, as a guy who works on Dungeons & Dragons, to open up my Twitch app on my iPad and see Dungeons & Dragons in the first row".

Viewer responses to the show have been overwhelmingly positive, with many fans creating content such as fanart, fan fiction, character-inspired music, and fan-created merchandise for the show. Fans also send in many gifts for the cast and crew, resulting in occasional "Critmas" episodes during which the gifts are opened and distributed.

The cast of Critical Role are active participants on sci-fi/comics convention circuits, appearing for panels and signings at San Diego and New York Comic Cons. For the 2015 New York con "critical rolls" were available from one of the food vendors.

Nominations

Charity involvement

The 16 October 2015 Extra Life fundraiser episode raised over $20,000 for the Children's Miracle Network during the broadcast. This charity episode included a reappearance of the Critical Rejects, as well as three members of the Critical Role cast, Liam O'Brien, Marisha Ray, and Orion Acaba.

During the show, viewers are invited to donate money to 826LA, which is later provided in a lump sum to the charity. Donation amounts and messages appear live on the stream, and on earlier episodes a list of donors was read at the end of each session. During Geek & Sundry's 2015 Extra Life fundraiser, a special interactive episode was broadcast. This episode alone brought in over $20,000 for the Children's Miracle Network, and the event as a whole raised over $76,000. In late November 2015, Geek & Sundry's Twitch channel held a special Doctors Without Borders fundraiser, with nearly half of the $10,000 goal being raised during the 4-hour Critical Role broadcast. In December 2015, the cast released a "Critter's Guide to Critmas" in response to the flood of gifts they were receiving from fans, asking them to instead donate to a variety of charities, with a cast member sponsoring each charity.