Critical Role's The Mighty Nein Reveals First Look, Season 1 to Air on November 19th

The Mighty Nein will come to Prime Video in November. Alongside news that The Legend of Vox Machina would be picked up for a fifth season, Prime Video also revealed a first look at The Mighty Nein animated series and announced that the show would start airing on November 19th. You can check out a "sneak peek" of the season down below, which features six of The Mighty Nein's seven characters being interrogated after an incident at a traveling circus.


The Mighty Nein will star Critical Role's founding cast members (Matt Mercer, Marisha Ray, Liam O'Brien, Travis Willingham, Taliesin Jaffe, Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, and Sam Riegel) and will feature a group of misfit heroes swept up into the political intrigue of two feuding nations. While The Legend of Vox Machina is a prototypical heroic quest, The Mighty Nein's heroes are much more reluctant and face much more personal threats over the course of their adventures.

 

[Seramus]

And didn’t he end up not really liking playing a Warlock that much and multiclassing to Paladin?

There were several things afoot. Travis wasn't having fun playing a serious leader type, so he made an intentional character shift that involved stepping back from his serious persona to something more relaxed (and dropping the accent, but that was foreshadowed). He also mentioned feeling constrained by the Warlock's limited spell slots, and wanted a few more options. He debated Paladin or Ranger, and Paladin was the natural fit with his charisma.

In hindsight, he speculated that he might have enjoyed being a Paladin from the start. He just wanted to try out spellcasting, and Warlock seemed like a good introduction since they were more narrow than a full caster. Laura teased/grumped at him when he said that, because she wanted to be a Warlock from the start. =P

 

[overgeeked]

There were several things afoot. Travis wasn't having fun playing a serious leader type, so he made an intentional character shift that involved stepping back from his serious persona to something more relaxed (and dropping the accent, but that was foreshadowed). He also mentioned feeling constrained by the Warlock's limited spell slots, and wanted a few more options. He debated Paladin or Ranger, and Paladin was the natural fit with his charisma.

In hindsight, he speculated that he might have enjoyed being a Paladin from the start. He just wanted to try out spellcasting, and Warlock seemed like a good introduction since they were more narrow than a full caster. Laura teased/grumped at him when he said that, because she wanted to be a Warlock from the start. =P

I honestly can’t imagine Jester as a warlock. So much of her character is wrapped up in the “WTF do you mean I’m the cleric?” and her almost complete lack of healing.

 

[Seramus]

I honestly can’t imagine Jester as a warlock. So much of her character is wrapped up in the “WTF do you mean I’m the cleric?” and her almost complete lack of healing.

It definitely worked out for the best. Warlocks don't get Message or Spirit Guardians, and her reluctant healing gave us Caduceus.

 

[Sorinth]

The campaign has more false endings than Peter Jackson's Return of the King.

Fingers crossed they take advantage of redoing it for the TV series to either weave it all together into a single coherent narrative or to toss some of the bonus storylines overboard.

It was mentioned by I think Sam that when doing the TV show that they had to re-order a lot from the actual play because they were just wandering around aimlessly for so much of it. So there's been an attempt to make the storyline a little more coherent, but we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Seramus]

I think the issue is that Mercer has been overindulging in his epic storyteller tendencies, to the point that it is disempowering the players. They are doing improv with their characters in lieu of having real decisions to make.

He really does both. Matt loves the idea of classic D&D where the party wanders around in a sandbox, and his players tend to struggle with finding direction in that sandbox. It's clear they could use a few clear paths in times like these to keep the game coherent. On the other end of the spectrum, once Matt locks in on a major/epic story it tends to come about no matter what the players do. I do think he is genuinely open to the plot changing dramatically - agency is important to him - but it's usually behind a high DC roll instead of an equal choice his players get to make.

And in his defense, his players are famous for sitting back and letting Matt narrate/monologue. I can't count how many times I've said "Do something! Anything! Take action!" when one villain or another is executing their master plan, Matt looks up to see if any of his players are going to do anything, and they often don't.

That moment, where he looks up to see if they do anything, is usually where Matt would give them that high DC roll and proceed as planned when they likely fail. So it's possible they've been trained to just sit back and watch, but they could still try.

But take all this with a tone of laughter and kindness. I love his games.

 

[thatOneLinuxDM]

I used to argue against the widespread argument that CR is scripted. I still don't think the minute by minute play is scripted, but I do think that the overall plot is more and more tightly controlled.

I think it's pretty obvious that big parts of it are going to be scripted, that's how you write a cohesive story, even if individual elements build on the overarching narrative.

The animated show was okay, it didn't do anything new in the genre (but that's partly because the world seems very "default fantasy" from the outside) but it was still an enjoyable show for what it was. As someone who couldn't get into Critical Role I found the show to be a bit tedious in moments, things happened that had no emotional buildup, which I think was probably because a lot of the audience will have already had the context for both the character and the events which unfolded, but if you didn't have that (me) then some moments just came off as a bit out-of-left-field.

I was [redacted] when [redacted] happened because I didn't have any emotional connection to [redacted].

Ideally, the show should appeal to established fans who already know most of what's going to happen, and the characters involved, but also appeal to the casual watchers who might be very familiar with D&D but who don't follow the podcast or any of the characters. There's nothing wrong with Critical Role (the podcast) being fantasy soap-opera because it's clearly a very popular approach, and works for a much longer format over hundreds of hours. The TV show has to be much tighter, and I feel like it was somehwat flat in that respect.

Without question, I'll probably end up watching this next incarnation, all I know about it is that this is a different party, but it's set in the same world? Looking forward to it.

 

[Seramus]

all I know about it is that this is a different party, but it's set in the same world? Looking forward to it.

Same world - 20 years later - different continent. Mighty Nein stands out as having few cross-overs with Vox Machina, which makes it pretty easy to watch/listen since you don't need to know what happened in VM to enjoy it.

The third campaign happens on a third continent, and stands out as having MANY cross-overs. Both with several guest players like campaign 1, and their own characters from previous campaigns.

 

[thatOneLinuxDM]

Same world - 20 years later - different continent. Mighty Nein stands out as having few cross-overs with Vox Machina, which makes it pretty easy to watch/listen since you don't need to know what happened in VM to enjoy it.

The third campaign happens on a third continent, and stands out as having MANY cross-overs. Both with several guest players like campaign 1, and their own characters from previous campaigns.

That's good to know! Hopefully it feels a bit more cohesive than the VM series did (again, still enjoyed it, I think it was just that they've tried to fit too much into a short TV show.)

 

[overgeeked]

I think it's pretty obvious that big parts of it are going to be scripted, that's how you write a cohesive story, even if individual elements build on the overarching narrative.

That’s not true. Improv comedy groups manage it all the time. Lots of writers jump in without a plan. Lots of RPG groups manage to get a cohesive story without a script.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That’s not true. Improv comedy groups manage it all the time. Lots of writers jump in without a plan. Lots of RPG groups manage to get a cohesive story without a script.

Yeah, I would compare Critical Role to Dimension 20 or Not Another D&D Podcast. While Mercer has the classic fantasy worldbuilding down (especially compared to Not Another D&D Podcast, which is full of names recycled from World of Warcraft), he's playing with voice actors, while the other two's players are all (or almost all, in the case of Dimension 20) professional improvisers.

The improvisers aren't waiting for Brennan or Murph to tell them the story. In fact, both DMs sometimes have to scramble to keep up with their players' crazy ideas. Brennan has said, because they build sets and minis ahead of time, he tries to have concrete ideas for what's going to happen, but it often spins out of control. (Luckily, the art team is now very good about making miniatures and sets very fast when a player impovs something unexpected, and the appropriate set or mini can show up pretty soon thereafter.)