The Legend of Vox Machina (Spoilers)

[Stalker0]

So watched the first three epsiodes. I've never watched critical role, so really don't know anything about the crew, so took this as a complete newbie.

I liked it, decent animation, dragon fight was solid, I'm liking Percy's characterization in the third episode, I'm eager for more!

 

[Vael]

Also a newcomer, couldn't get into CR streams, but quite enjoyed the show

 

[Aeson]

I watched the first one. Too much . Do find the characters interesting. David Tennant's over the top Scottish accent was amusing. Solid voice work all around. The druid's reaction to the dragon was different. Was it dragon fear or a characteristic? It's an in game thing, but in games I've been in it was rarely used.

Questions:
The bard and druid couldn't attempt to heal the boy? What kind of cleric can't do a blessing?

What was the bartender? A werebull? A female voice but a masculine build?

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I watched the first one. Too much . Do find the characters interesting. David Tennant's over the top Scottish accent was amusing. Solid voice work all around. The druid's reaction to the dragon was different. Was it dragon fear or a characteristic? It's an in game thing, but in games I've been in it was rarely used.

Questions:
The bard and druid couldn't attempt to heal the boy? What kind of cleric can't do a blessing?

What was the bartender? A werebull? A female voice but a masculine build?

Looking Pike up on the wiki, I'm going to guess the cleric that can't do a blessing bit is partly because she's more of a battle cleric (looking at her character sheet on critrolestats.com even shows her background as Sailor). As I write this, I think about the typical spells the players I know ready, and I don't think a long-term blessing for a house is on there.

And as far as Scanlan and Keyleth not being able to heal the boy - at the table, I'm sure mechanically they could have, but for a narrative reason you need the boy to die to really put a personal cost on a bunch of mercs who don't really like each other and pull themselves together

 

[Aeson]

This is a retelling of one of their games? I'm not that knowledgeable of Critical Role and thought it might be original story for the anime.

 

[MarkB]

And as far as Scanlan and Keyleth not being able to heal the boy - at the table, I'm sure mechanically they could have, but for a narrative reason you need the boy to die to really put a personal cost on a bunch of mercs who don't really like each other and pull themselves together

It's also entirely possible that neither Vex nor Scanlan have actually learned healing spells.

EDIT: Keyleth not so much, but she might not have memorised them, or could easily also have been tapped for spell slots.

 

[MarkB]

This is a retelling of one of their games? I'm not that knowledgeable of Critical Role and thought it might be original story for the anime.

I believe episodes 1 and 2 are an original story. Episode 3 onwards are one of the main plot arcs from the first Critical Role tabletop campaign.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I think one thing that works great for this series is... someone pointed out how good the voice acting is. The players in the campaign are voice actors professionally - it's mindboggling when you look them up on IMDB and see what all they've been in, either as actors or as voice actors. I think that works because they professionally know how to play the characters, and since they did about 440 hours on Campaign 1 as those characters, they really have a grasp of who they are.

 

[Vael]

I think I'd expect rule of drama to supercede what they may or may not have on their character sheets

 

[billd91]

This is a retelling of one of their games? I'm not that knowledgeable of Critical Role and thought it might be original story for the anime.

It’s an adaptation of the original story - so some stuff will be given more emphasis, others downplayed, links between themes adjusted for the different storytelling medium, etc. But the general gist and characterizations will be preserved.
The first two episodes cover events before they started playing on the web/podcast.

 

[MadPuppy]

I watched the first episode....not an avid fan or watcher of Critical role either....
Well meh I feel it was overly campy, sophmoric humor. Over drinking and puking (even into anothers mouth), over sexed gnome.....
guess I just prefer my fantasy more serious.

 

[Aeson]

I watched the other two episodes. I noticed the Vox Machina crew are all the groups I've ever gamed with rolled into one. Much of what they say and do, was probably said, and done by those groups. Except the vomit. I recall much less vomit. Most of the time the DM would ask "Do you really say/do that?" More often than not, the player in question would respond in the negative, and provide a more appropriate action. Only thing missing is meta gaming and side conversations about other geekdom and girls.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I was pleased when Grog yelled "I WOULD LIKE TO RAGE" - felt like a nice throwback to the stream when the barbarians in C1 and C2 would say that (not sure that I've noticed as much emphasis on Ashton saying it in C3 the way it was in the other games)

 

[Mirtek]

Watched episode one and it remindet me why I stopped watching them during their first campaing. I am just not a big fan of the first group of characters.

My memory of the stream is hazy but I remember finding them particularily bloodthirsty and cruel. Seeing how in episode one they immediately escalated a tavern brawl (that hadn't even started yet) with lethal force just reaffirmed my impression of Vox Machina from Youtube.

Not even the first punch was thrown yet and Grog just starts with hacking someones hand off. Wow.

 

[Ryujin]

Watched episode one and it remindet me why I stopped watching them during their first campaing. I am just not a big fan of the first group of characters.

My memory of the stream is hazy but I remember finding them particularily bloodthirsty and cruel. Seeing how in episode one they immediately escalated a tavern brawl (that hadn't even started yet) with lethal force just reaffirmed my impression of Vox Machina from Youtube.

Not even the first punch was thrown yet and Grog just starts with hacking someones hand off. Wow.

Typically, in the games that I ran, when someone drew a weapon in a barroom brawl everyone turned on them.

 

[Mannahnin]

I happened to have Twitch up last night when the live watch party for the first three episodes started, so I stayed up late and watched them.

I thought overall it was pretty good. It's not a licensed D&D show, so not using spell names or having the full range of powers and such makes sense. As noted, at least two more characters would have healing spells if it was actual D&D, but the scene was there for dramatic motivation, and having Pike as the only healer in the party is going to give more opportunities for dramatic tension later. Sure, the humor is a bit sophomoric, but it's true to life for a whole lot of gaming groups.

The cast are all excellent; it's really a unique opportunity to have professional actors who've already played these characters FOR YEARS prior to making the TV series. So they've worked out all the chemistry, the dynamics of the interrelationships, etc. There's very little of that early episodes/seasons "finding their feet" stuff that regular TV shows usually have where those things are notably weaker to start while everyone figures out the dynamic.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

There were things I liked that were nods to D&D in general (such as the name of one of the mercenary companies being the Murderhobos) or specific to the CR streams (like Grog saying 'I would like to rage' as a bit of meta).

I liked how they took the trope of 'the game starts in a tavern'. I liked that the party already knew each other, so we didn't have to watch the 'get to meet each other' parts, and that they then addressed that with the discussion 'Why are we even TOGETHER?'. You don't always/often see that part in games around the table, although that's just my experience. In this, they stuck together because they needed money and went to the Sovereign, the ranger's Rangersense went off.

 

[Mezuka]

Episodes 4, 5 and 6 are out. It gets darker (and better) with each episode.

 

[Ryujin]

Episodes 4, 5 and 6 are out. It get darker (and better) with each episode.

It's like someone asked the question, "What could a high level necromancer REALLY do?"

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I think my advice to someone who isn't sold on the first episode is definitely that it takes a much darker, serious tone pretty quickly