This was LITERALLY a Pathfinder campaign that was converted to 5e. You can actually tell which spells their using, especially if you know their subclasses.
Barbarians in D&D have the Fast Movement benefit. When Grog goes full-on rage on the fight with Brimscythe, he leap-runs towards the dragon, to give the final blow. I'm thinking that's how they chose to represent that. Also, Travis Willingham, who plays Grog, always says in the game "I'd like to rage" to activate the rage feat of his Barbarian class; so that's why he announces it like that in the show.
"mini Burt Reynolds" fun fact! when Scanlan needs to give a fake name, that's what he gives. Ah the names of the twins, even the official subtitles get them wrong sometimes. And we are introduced to VM's greatest enemy: DOORS
I loved in Exandria Unlimited, when Aabria mixed up Dorian and Dariax, the absolute joy on Matt's face as he excitedly yelled about having to deal with Vex and Vax for so many years 😂
Percy's class is a homebrew called a Gunslinger, and one of the mechanics of Gunslingers is that their weapon can have multiple types of malfunctions, not just critical failures. A crit fail is even worse than a normal misfire.
@@Syntell His class is Fighter, Gunslinger is his subclass. It's a homebrew subclass, based on the Gunslinger class from Pathfinder, since pre-stream their campaign was Pathfinder. They converted it to D&D 5e when they started streaming.
Yeah his gun could jam and he has to take time to fix it since they are the first guns in the world. But when Pepperbox (his six shooter) fails he can switch to Bad News (his much bigger rifle)
This also helps explain why everybody doesn't have guns in your fantasy world. They're unreliable, tricky and need constant maintenance by someone who knows what they're doing with them.
@@elbruces also it’s implied that Percy invented firearms in this world, and there really isn’t any way to get new parts without forging them himself. Also in the campaign, Percy has to deal with finding black powder so he can LOAD his guns, and I’ll be interested to see if that issue shows up in the series.
First off, so glad I subscribed. The dynamic of you two is the best and I'm 100% here for it. Gilmore is a HUGE fan favorite in Critical Role. He is amazing and we love him. ♥🧡💛💚💙💜 The first two episodes were to help introduce people not familiar with Vox Machina to the characters and the world. This story was actually part of their pre-stream days. The rest of the season will be from their steaming days.
@@Syntell I'm sure you've seen episode 3 by now, and you can definitely see a change of tone/dynamics. The first two episodes serve as a two-part pilot; but episode 3 really sets up the story arc for the season.
Gilmore is hands down one of the most beloved of all of the NPC's from the campaigns. Then again it is hard not to truly love several of the NPC's, Matt really brought them all to life in such a way that they felt like actual friends and allies to whichever group they interacted with.
So funny enough, you referred to Scanlan as Burt Reynolds, it's a running joke in their campaign that Scanlan also goes by Burt Reynolds Esquire at Law. Spot on judgement hahaha
Love your reactions. Scanlan is a bard. His song are funny af. He is played by Sam Reigel. This was his 1st D&D campaign. Grog, a Goliath Barbadian, has a low intelligence. But Travis Willingham plays it perfectly. Vax is a rogue. He is played by Liam O'Brian. Critical Role started as a birthday wish to have Matt Mercer DM a game. And after away they started to stream their sessions on Twitch. And it grew from there. The female twin is Vex with her bear Trinket. She is a beast master ranger. Keyleth is a druid. Pike is a cleric. And Percy is a gunslinger that was taken from pathfinder. He is played by Tailisen Joffrey (sorry probably misspelled). They all are voice actors, and some were also child actors. Tailisen was the little boy on Mr. Mom. And I've noticed they are putting Matt Mercer's face on one random npc in each episode so far. He was the one that Scanlan pee-ed on in the 1st one. Hope you two watch the whole series. Think it's going to be a good one. Oh, and if you like to check on a stream, they are on campaign 3 episode 11. They first 2 campaigns were over 100 episodes each, with each episode lasting 3 to 5 hours each.
There are so many Easter eggs in it as somebody who's watched critical role for 7 years but it's really cool getting a perspective from somebody not familiar with the show from somebody who played Dungeons & Dragons as well as somebody who hasn't.
Vax, or is it Vex? The never-ending question. Even Scanlan has trouble with that one. And a sandwich for a song sounds like an even trade to me. Anyway, great reaction, and I enjoy both your insights as well. Keep 'em coming, and enjoy your day.
@@Syntell Yeah, Sam Riegel (the one who played Scanlan) used to joke that he would make a character called Vix just to fuck with the DM and the others becasue they always mixed them up :P
The full names make it easier. Vax'ildan and Vex'ahlia. Vax's name contains "Dan", a traditionally male name. Vex's name contains "Leah" ("lia"), a traditionally female name.
aaahh! This will relate to the campaign but I'm pretty sure it wont come up in the series. I had to type this up immediately after you said that Scanlan's a mini Burt Reynolds, he actually used his name as an alias and a gag in the campaign!
This tiny man staring at a dragon and yelling "You leave when burt Reynolds says you can leave" was hilarious, but that it worked? Had me on the floor. (Not sure that storyline will be adapted for the show sadly)
I came here to type the same thing and was glad to see someone had it covered. Scanlan as Burt Reynolds was a gem of the first campaign. It and Boulder, Parchment, Shears were instant favorites for me.
Loving these! You two are on point with your observations, and I’m enjoying the fact that we get both the reaction from someone who is familiar with the game and someone who is not.
So, about Percy's gun, called "Pepperbox". In terms of D&D mechanics, (as I understand it) guns have what's referred to as a "misfire score". usually a 2 or 3 will cause the gun to misfire. a natural 1, I think, means the gun breaks entirely and will need tools to repair outside of combat. If I got it wrong Critters, please let me know.
I think you're correct. In terms of the breaking, though, if it's not a nat 1 on the initial firing, the unjamming/fixing/whatever of the misfired gun costs an action, but I believe it was usually played as an attack. So, for example, Lvl 20 Percy gets 4 attacks: fires once, misfires, fixes, and then fires one more time in terms of what Matt would do. Whether it should've been an entire action rather than an attack, eh, Campaign 1 rules are weird (casting up to 2nd lvl spells as bonus actions to give Pike/Scanlan more to do). The fixing required a successful role, I assume of 10 or higher, to fix the gun so it could continue to be used in combat. An unsuccessful roll required a workshop and, usually, several hundred gold.
I'm sure someone's already posted but a helpful tip for keeping Vex and Vax straight is Vax has an "A" as in mAle and Vex has an "E" as in fEmale (or Adam and Eve if that's easier).
this battle scenario is very similar to that of Rhimefang, the white dragon they killed for the Slayer's Take. the final blow was dealt by Zahra, a Tiefling warlock played by Mary McGlynn, who is the voice director here.
The door thing is hilarious, because Vox Machina, in the game, had a really unfortunate amount of bad luck when they encountered doors they were trying to get through. Like, ridiculously bad, took actual damage from trying to get through locked/barred doors bad luck.
The pacing of the first two eps is kind of weird, but it is mostly to set up the characters. Can't wait to see your reactions to the next one! The shopkeep is named Gilmore, and he is absolutely a fan favorite. Percy's gunslinger class was made by Matt Mercer, and rolling a 1 does indeed cause it to misfire! He has to spend an action to fix it. They don't really do crit fails in 5e games otherwise, unless it's funny.
YO! love your reations! But straight up, I think homie has definitely played DnD in his day for sure.... He just knows too much about the game to not have played at some point. Good looks trying to keep that from home girl tho! hahahahaha
😆 I’ve definitely played a few times but only as a casual player. I am by no means an authority on the subject matter. But let’s just keep that between us.
Hi Syntell! As a medium-time (not new but not long-time either) Critter I'm thoroughly enjoying your reaction - keep up the good work! Sidebar: How do I spell the name of your co-host? I'm not sure if I've seen it written down somewhere and I don't want to be rude! ;)
