The Legend of Vox Machina is Amazon Prime's newest adult-geared animated fantasy series based on a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (D&D) campaign by Critical Role, a well-known D&D roleplay group. If you just read DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and immediately thought “nerd-fest” and “LARPing”, I’m here to tell you it’s way more than that. While DUNGEONS & DRAGONS has a bad rap from non-players and conservative parents alike, it’s actually a really fun roleplay game, great for any group of friends wanting to take on new personas and/or flex their improvisation and quick-thinking skills. Vox Machina, while based off a D&D campaign, really appeals to more than just the tabletop game fanatic and is a great choice for anyone looking to broaden their streaming horizons or discover their next favorite fantasy show.

To understand how this show came to be, here’s a speed run of how a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS campaign works. In role-playing games in general, a campaign describes a sequence of events or storyline that contains multiple adventures, usually with the same set of characters. Each player develops and roleplays their own character. The DM or Dungeon Master, acts as the director of the campaign, inventing obstacles and introducing new plot points throughout. A typical campaign can span any number of sessions, wherein each session acts as its own chapter in the overall development of the story. The campaign ends when the story ends, or when the characters have reached a logical stopping point in their journeys.

Critical Role has gained a lot of attention for their well-formulated campaigns and dynamic characters, not to mention the fantastic voice acting accompanying game plays. The group centers around a bunch of voice actors playing DUNGEONS & DRAGONS each week. According to the the official Critical Role website, the voice actors began playing D&D as friends in 2012, yet as their story and characters developed, they decided to begin streaming their gameplays. According to the Critical Role Wiki, the first D&D session of the series was recorded in 2015. Since its inception, Critical Role has now become one of the most popular streamed gameplays and has launched several comics and merchandise. Now on its third campaign, the Critical Role friends continue to stream their sessions each week.

The Legend of Vox Machina is based on the group’s first campaign, spanning over 115 sessions (with each session lasting from 2-4 hours). This is, understandably, a lot of content to watch, considering actions in the game are not performed but described, which takes twice as much time. Luckily for you, The Legend of Vox Machina animated series was able to condense the two year-long gameplays into 12 twenty-minute episodes by cutting out the time it took to roll dice, describe events, and make campaign choices (not to mention potty breaks).

The Legend of Vox Machina, streaming on Amazon Prime, tells the story of the group's first campaign, wherein a group of mercenaries for hire, Vox Machina, go on numerous adventures, slay monsters, and save towns. These heroes take an unconventional, comedic spin on the traditional hero archetype, presenting themselves as selfish, reckless and, at times, uncoordinated anti-heroes. More interested in money than heroics, the characters make their way through towns fighting evil only when something is in it for them. But, when one of their members must fight to take back his home, this ragtag group must join together to support him and defend the town of Whitestone from the malicious and cruel Briarwood family.

After watching the show, I was inspired to watch the Critical Role campaign, but I found that the campaign started in a different location than the show - the first episode describing an adventure in Kraghammer, an underground dwarven city. This is because the campaign is broken up into several smaller adventures, called “arcs” and the show starts at a different arc in the campaign, called the “Briarwood” arc. As I continued to watch the show, I realized why they decided to start later in the campaign. The first arc seems more like an introductory classic role-play, focused on defeating the creatures in the underground city. Unlike the first arc, the “Briarwood” arc has a connection to one of the character’s (Percy) backstories. This adds a level of depth and personal stakes that the first arc is missing. Not only that, but the second arc has more drama and romance between characters as their dynamics develop. Ripe for good television, it’s still early enough for the show to continue telling the story from there.

Although mixed reviews came in from long-time fans of the campaign, the majority of the reviews and impressions seem to be pretty positive. Like with any adaptation, some details and plot-points are lost in the transition, but based on the fan reviews I read, it seems that the general themes, dynamics and sentiments were retained.

For example, in her review of the show, author Meaghan Colleran from Bell of Lost Souls writes:

“Despite its drawbacks and issues, The Legend of Vox Machina is pretty fun and I’ll be back if – let’s be honest here… when – they make a season two...Season one, though, is a fun watch. Established Critical Role fans will surely enjoy seeing one of their favorite stories animated and all of the subtle inside-jokes. And new fans will have no trouble jumping in with both feet and never missing a beat.”

I can’t speak for Critical Role purists, but as an outsider, I really enjoyed watching the show. I love the fantasy genre and have dabbled in a bit of D&D myself. This show hit every mark for me, incorporating elements of action, romance, drama and comedy in a really enjoyable way. As a newbie to the show and campaign, I can say that Vox Machina does a good job of introducing us to the traditional D&D fantasy world without confusing audiences with the specifics. While sometimes it did feel like the show was shoving exposition down my throat, I still felt like it did a good job of world-building within the limited episodes the group was able to produce. Moreover, the voice acting is phenomenal. It was so well cast (obviously) and really apparent that the voice actors were extremely comfortable in their roles. I also enjoyed the one-liners and situational humor sprinkled throughout. There was an occasional cringey quip by the group’s resident bard, Scanlan, but I could forgive those because they played into his try-hard character. A lot of the comedy was definitely geared towards adult audiences, but I actually liked that. Considering there are very few animated adult fantasy shows, Critical Role saw a need and fulfilled it. The show felt really well-planned and intentional. I think, for what it is, it’s a great show. Maybe not as life-altering or drawn out as Game of Thrones, but I will certainly be tuning in to watch the second season (speculated to come out either at the end of this year or the beginning of next).

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Did you know there are easy ways to get involved with D&D here at FSU? Meet folks through joining the Discord for FSU Game Committee and learn more about tabletop gaming socials we offer at the ASLC as well. There are also students involved with Multiplayer at FSU who can be an excellent resource for D&D connections at FSU. You can find information about both organizations (and other gaming organizations at Florida State) by visiting gaming.fsu.edu to learn more.

Written & Art by: Mia Hernandez