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🕑 Added 2025-04-07 15:50:36 +0000 UTC

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Eric Justice

But also just under halfway through the overall game. They were almost lvl 10 when streaming started.

Nick Scholz

Feast of the realms was actually early in the beginning of Critical Role's streaming.

Christine

Not sure if anyone else brings this up, but you have to listen to the final credits - amazon doesn't make it easy, but there are often original songs during the credits - this one has the full version of beads of love

Bradley Hall

As anyone explained how the first 2 episodes were basically fan funded and thats why they seem seperate cause originally it really was only intended to be a small thing that blew up?

HBelmont 24

I love that 🤣🤣

AuroraZero_

Let's go!! The actual story begins!

Brandon Comer

The group played DnD for a home game for about 2 years (with these characters for the most part) before ever streaming, though as some people mentioned they occasionally posted Vines. The group went through a lot of adventures already before anything you see in the show, or even the livestream, so they were already like level 9 at this point. For a summary of how it all started read on..... The game started because Liam (Vax) had played DnD a couple times as a teenager and always wanted to try again, and then he got friendly with Matt Mercer. Liam and Sam (Scanlan) have been best friends for years and did a short-lived podcast at the time where it was their goal to try new things. At one point, they decided to have Matt run a game for them for Liam's birthday (Sam barely knew what DnD was). You can hear them on the podcast talking about their upcoming first game and basically coming up with the idea for Scanlan (AS A JOKE) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xhn5u7hIRg For their first game, Taliesin Jaffe (Percy) was brought in by Matt as a more experienced player he had already played games with to help the new guys, though he played a more basic character for their first few games until they decided to continue. Then they invited Travis (Grog) to come, who they had recently become friends with, and he insisted that his girlfriend (Laura) come too since she was way more into RPG video games and he knew she would love it more than him. The idea of Liam and Laura playing twins came up because it turned out that they have the same birthday, so the first game was on Laura's birthday too, and they had both wanted to play half-elf rogues during character creation, Laura switched to Ranger. After they had played for a bit, Matt brought in his girlfriend Marisha (Keyleth) who had just moved to LA as an aspiring actress... she is a few years younger than everyone else and was much less established as an actress, which comes through as part of Keyleth's personality at the start. Ashley Johnson (Pike) is a very well-known actress who had just started playing with some other people was invited into this group, rounding them out. Except for the OTHER PLAYER THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED.

H-Bomb 24

A big reason I want them to check those shows put is cause the MC in Castlevania: Nocturne looks JUST like Kenny.

H-Bomb 24

The Briarwoods are cool, but if you wanna see some REAL vampire action, I would highly recommend, either after Solo Leveling or Frieren, Castlevania, and it's sequel series Nocturne. 🌙

H-Bomb 24

They picked up on Grey Delisle's voice last episode.

gaymerlord

You guys didn't even notice Azula showing up and that is just wild to me from you two lol.

Bryan

As someone who’s watched all of vampire diaries I knew immediately

David Bodor

Honestly, ep1 was a banger, I'm really excited for the show.

dannydarko27

Although newer subclasses let you summon a beast magically, beast master originally did not. Trinket literally could die at any moment and Sam always hoped he would just to spite Laura. Beasts like bears hinder so many possible options for the party since Trinket can neither climb a rope, swim, nor sneak causing the party to choose alternate routes which were far less convenient. So Sam would always remind Matt that if Trinket was in the area of effect that he has to roll too. Now you can summon your beast after a long rest even if it has died

dannydarko27

Side note: the group didn't just decide to stream their campaign. They would occasionally post vines and then Felicia Day over at Geek&Sundry offered them a slot in their upcoming subscription service. They also wanted to promote D&D 5e and Matt saw that it would simplify combat for such a large party. They originally were against it but we see how it turned out. They became a phenomenon

dannydarko27

Theyre already season adventurers this isnt no level 1 party

Gage Eakins

No they were high enough level by this point. They were level 9.

Raymond Hernandez

Fun info Aleks Le VA of Sung Jinwoo is playing a small campaign with Critical Role DMd by Sam Riegal and also playing is Brennan Lee Mulligan from Dimension20 another popular DND group

wanira 11

He's my favourite too, he has the best written lines in my opinion. Most of them were even improvised during the dnd session, such as: "Now, your soul is forfeit."

wanira 11

They were not bad at all and introduced the humor of the show quite well in my opinion, but the real story only starts from ep 3 onwards yes

patricia jimjimcherie

They’re level 9 when this season starts!

H-Bomb 24

Imma check it out as soon as I get home from vacation.

gamerx

My hero academia prequel show just released btw dub and sub

Lars

You’re right, Druids can’t do flying wildshape until later levels. I think they might have just done it for the show as a cool thing, being focused more on adapting story than gameplay (though some things are recognizable and iconic, like their inability to skill check through doors)

Sheldon Chambers

The meme is that Delilah is a Necromancer while Silas is a Neck Romancer.

TLKDesu

So going off of rulings, the party needed to be at least level 8 or at least Keyleth needed to be as that's when Druids in both 5e and Pathfinder can finally have a flying speed while shapeshifted. It would also make sense as to how they already had a few magic items.

Robert Bonfante

This reaction has me looking up facts about this episode including spells that were cast. According to what I looked up, the spell Delilah used on Pike was the Finger of Death, which explains why that spell seemed especially potent and terrifying.

Robert Bonfante

Honestly, most reactors don't notice. There are a few that do catch Silas' lack of a reflection, but most are sucked into the plot.

Cube Pylum

They were level 8 at the start of streaming but the briarwood arc starts over 20 episodes into the stream

Cube Pylum

Ice cold take

Robert Bonfante

Nature is my thing so I definitely am a Keyleth stan. Don't sleep on Pike though, she has some great moments this season!

Suplee215

Just for more context, they were playing their home game at a slower pace for 2 years before filming it

Suplee215

Agree. Just well made. I just think sometimes reactors of this show try too hard to recreate what happened at the table through the show. Some moments are directly from it.

Robert Bonfante

They also make some changes because of the change in story-telling medium -- to good effect. Certain game mechanics don't translate well 1 to 1.

Juan Solo

Vex: "Emotions aren't meant to be bottled up. Maybe you should cut loose once in a while." I bet she regretted saying that to Percy by the end of the episode.

Juan Solo

Definitely loving Keyleth, though I'd say Percy is my favorite so far. A gunslinger in D&D interests me.

Juan Solo

No reflection in the water during the fight either.

Zain Cassis

Yeah, true vampires in dnd go HARD

Zain Cassis

Stable individuals do not go on adventures lmao. ALSO I SEE YOUR RAINBOW FISH REFERENCE MONTANA!

H-Bomb 24

Are you guys still planning on maybe checking out some musical videos? Cause I KNOW you both would adore EPIC the Musical. 🎶🗡🔥

Kristopher Sy

Keep the shrieker in your own mind

Brian m

hearing general Tulius at the start made the Skyrim theme instantly play off in my head

H-Bomb 24

Scanlan included that in his song in episode one.

ItzWicho

Not sure if it’s a hot take, cause I believe that too! Obviously not saying that the first two are bad, but the rest is just soooooo good!

David Bodor

4:10 - Btw, this scene with Vex and Vax and the blue creatures is a Warcraft reference because both the voice actors voiced characters in Warcraft (Illidan and Jaina), so they made them fight these troll looking guys and the red flags behind them look like the Horde flag from Warcraft.

David Bodor

Kenny, was 'Briarmont' an intentional Castlevania reference - Bellmonts and Silas being a Vampire - or was it just a tongue slip bc Montana? Cuz that's a genius level wordplay if it was intended

David Bodor

They were probably 8 for the first two episodes but they leveled up since. There's an arc that's cut from the show to go straight into the Briarwoods. That said a dragon kill is worth plenty experience, we can jist hand wave it as them gaining two levels from the dragon fight

VVenture

Hot take, the first two episodes of this show are honestly the worst in the entire show. Every episode from this point gets progressively better, with each season having a notable jump in quality story wise. Excited for the future.

Alayna Petty

Percy will always be my favorite. That’s my BOY

Ellie

Helpful context for vex and vax is that they are actually twins! I think it makes their closeness make even more sense

David L

According to CritRoleStats, this is accurate (except for Pike who was about 1 level off everyone else). Specifically, the streaming started with them being level 9 but they had a whole adventure before this that wasn't included in the cannon of LoVM. It was a pretty rough around the edges era of the show, but it brough them up to level 11. They hit 12 at various timings during the course of this adventure. That all being said, this show definitely smooths over a lot of their nonsense to keep the story tight (as it would have to considering it's packing like 50hrs of gameplay into ~5.5hrs of show)

Robert Bonfante

I could be wrong too! My source is a 3rd party Critical Role YouTube fan (who goes by Sadknight). I've never watched the actual campaigns and became a fan through the show. After watching the show I did some research (but stopped because I would keep spoiling myself).

H-Bomb 24

Yes, we do. 😈

Letts React

Yep BEEN there

Letts React

I heard they were level 8 actually, I’ll double check! I thought I recognized insect plague, knew that could NOT be low level

Kristopher Sy

We don't need that to plague my mind

Rydis -

Thought you would find this interesting bard concept we had in a D&d campaign. Guy was a bard, but he had a guitar and everytime he played rock songs, basically call lighting and stuff - long story short...it was Rufus from Bill & teds excellent adventure - was fun concept

David Bodor

Delilah is actually a wizard, since you saw ep4 I think you know which subclass. Silas I believe is just a monster, straight up vampire lord, no class.

Robert Bonfante

I believe Vox Machina are around level 11 at this point. Insect plague and Wall of Thorns are both pretty high level spells.

Zelkova LRU

I'm surprised they didn't pick up on that. I'm so excited for them to watch no Mercy Percy in Whitestone.

H-Bomb 24

Love that mirror foreshadowing.

Cube Pylum

They're about level 12 at this point, they had already been playing a long while before they started streaming and the show skips the first 23 episodes

Zelkova LRU

There was a few signs that silias was a vampire, rare steak, no reflection in the mirror as they walked past them.

Oscar Rich

Intresting thing about this fight, the DM did not intend for VM to fight them this early, so they were all very underleveled and really close to death.

H-Bomb 24

That, and her reaction to Scanlan's bead comment is too funny. I laugh SO hard at the way her voice actor delivered that, "Ewww." 🤣🤣

H-Bomb 24

Nooooo, they didn't listen to Scanlan's full song in the credits. 😫

Raymond Hernandez

If you want to play beast master ranger check out the revised rules bc beast master the original version is kinda lacking or you can play drake warden you get a small dragon type companion that levels with you

H-Bomb 24

On the subject of Scanlan being a charismatic Mineta, y'all should 100% make an edit of Mineta singing Scanlan's song. It's soo perfect, and whether for this episode or the upcoming MHA movie or final season, it would be SO funny. 🤣🤣🤣

Suplee215

Ine thing is this isnt a 1 to 1 thing with the game. It's adapting but not every single thing is a roll. Still a man good adaption and really keeps the spirit of what happened

David Bodor

They played together for years before streaming, it's just that the first two episodes are the only pre-stream stories included in the show. Originally they got together to play as a one-off for Liam's (Vax) birthday, but they liled it so much they kept playing.

Visenna

They're about level 11 or 12 here. I think they leveled up after this fight/ before the next arc

H-Bomb 24

Keyleth being the only one who stood for Uriel's arrival, and her face towards the others, is so good. Keyleth's my favorite. 😍 Also, I just noticed that Montana's intro art looks just like Keyleth's formal clothes this episode.

H-Bomb 24

Agreed. It never gets old.

H-Bomb 24

"Briarmont" "You just hear 'Mont' everywhere." I see what you did there. 😅

💥Katsuki BakuGOAT💥 (Tobio)

Begging that we listen to the intro often!

Chandman

Yes general Tullis the military governor. The thalmor were with him too.

Suplee215

Just quick correction and hope it's not annoying. It's less they decided o this can turn into soemthing and more Felicia day who owned a nerdy streaming channel at the time was looking forncontent and asked her friends if they wanted to stream. Also the first 2 epsidoes are not the only stories told before they streamed. They're the only story that's part of the TV show that was pre stream.

Braden Jackson

Man it must suck to be a normal person in a DnD world like you just show up for a assistant job and then find out that they are literally monsters and you are now their forever servants or just get killed simply walking around