Critical Role Legend of Vox Machina

Critical Role's animated show (originally funded by a $10M crowdfunding campaign which broke $1M in under an hour, and then picked up by Amazon for 2 seasons) launches on 4th February 2022. You can now see a preview.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

What was the whole deal with Orion? Is there a bit of internal drama that I missed?

They had an (allegedly) mutual separation of which the exact details have never been publicly shared. We know he had a drug problem. We also know he (in some people's estimation) displayed a variety of behaviors in game, on stream that many would find problematic, including general powergaming, main-character syndrome, suspiciously good rolls, and some off-color remarks that others in the group seemed to not appreciate, but what, if any, of this in front of the cameras behavior may have contributed to him leaving the group and what else happened behind the scenes is unknown to us. Naturally observers trying to speculate as to what exactly happened try to parse the on-screen "drama" but that may be virtually the whole story or just the tip of the iceberg. And much of the on-screen "drama" is very much in the eye of the beholder.

Whatever happened, after leaving the show Orion kickstarted a spin-off series of audio-dramas about his character. There were accusations of mishandling funds, and he did and said some toxic things online. There was also some controversy over his (now non-player) character being killed off in the campaign.

I will note, however, that the Briarwoods arc this series deals with is the very same plot-arc he tried to derail in one of his final episodes on the show by insisting on trying to use his noble status to attempt to call in an army to just do all the work for them, when it was a whole elaborate plot-arc centered around another character's backstory. Had I been the DM we would have had to have a serious and uncomfortable talk after that, even if nothing else he did on the show was enough.

 

[ReshiIRE]

Think of Amazon as a $10 per month streaming service (with a 1 year commitment) that gives you all sorts of crazy perks, like free shipping!

EDIT: And, you'll also get The Wheel of Time, The Expanse, The Lord of the Rings . . . . .

Not to derail the thread, but I'm really not comfortable giving money to Amazon themselves (nor to the likes of Disney either). They aren't exactly... the best company, ya know.

 

[Azuresun]

Think of Amazon as a $10 per month streaming service (with a 1 year commitment) that gives you all sorts of crazy perks, like free shipping!

EDIT: And, you'll also get The Wheel of Time, The Expanse, The Lord of the Rings . . . . .

But on the downside, it's, y'know, Amazon. If there's some alternative legal way to check out the series in the future, I'll look into that.

 

[Dire Bare]

But on the downside, it's, y'know, Amazon. If there's some alternative legal way to check out the series in the future, I'll look into that.

Not to derail the thread, but I'm really not comfortable giving money to Amazon themselves (nor to the likes of Disney either). They aren't exactly... the best company, ya know.

Understandable. On the balance, Amazon isn't exactly a responsible corporate citizen.

On the other hand, big-budget entertainment is largely in the domain of large corporations, none of whom are truly responsible corporate citizens. And while corporations aren't people (sorry Supreme Court), they are not monoliths either, and often perform both good and bad actions towards society simultaneously.

In my area, we have one of those huge Amazon distribution centers. Warehouses known for worker-unfriendly practices. Yet, they pay more than most entry-level, unskilled work in our area, and our local companies who employ at that level aren't known for being worker-friendly either. I know more than a few who work at the Amazon warehouse, acknowledge Amazon's worker-unfriendly practices . . . but are still happy to work there considering the alternatives. And, Amazon is slowly improving conditions as more sunlight is being shined on their practices.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I am incredibly excited for this show.

Also, mildly huge tangent, Same Riegel did an amazing video about a year ago, highlighting just how much work goes into making these things. It is one of the best explanations of the ENTIRE animation process that I've ever seen

 

[billd91]

My kids and I are really excited about this. We’re all big fans.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

It is a shame that it is with Amazon...

Truly. I personally hope, it will be released as BluRay real soon (or at least at SOME point).

 

[wicked cool]

Very excited for this

 

[whimsychris123]

I’ve tried to get into Critical Role, but I just can’t. I figured when the animated series came out, I could take another stab at it. But based on this clip, I just don’t think it’s gonna be my thing.

But I’m happy for their success and I hope for all good things for this series and all D&D-related ventures!

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I’ve tried to get into Critical Role, but I just can’t. I figured when the animated series came out, I took take another stab at it. But based on this clip, I just don’t think it’s gonna be my thing.

But I’m happy for their success and I hope for all good things for this series and all D&D-related ventures!

That was my first response, trying to get into Campaign 1, also. For some reason, I cgave the second campaign a try and loved it. I think my problem with C1 was that when it started streaming, they were all already level 8 and had a lot of history between the characters already - made it hard for me to get into. Campaign 2 started up with the merging of a couple subgroups into one adventuring party, which made it easier to get into - if I recall right, C2E1 they had just dinged to level 2