When Critical Role began streaming their Dungeons & Dragons campaign in 2015, not even they could begin to imagine where that endeavor would one day take them. The cast has often spoken of their doubts that anyone would even tune in to watch a bunch of nerds play D&D on Twitch, but the risk they took panned out in ways no one would have ever believed.

What started out as a group of friends playing Pathfinder for hours on end when they had time to get together escalated into a weekly live stream that tens of thousands of fans tune into on a regular basis. Their setup starting out wasn't the greatest, but it wasn't long before they had their own set and crew to make sure the technical difficulties became as few as they were far between.

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The cast of Critical Role

As the Critter community began to grow, the cast of gamers saw that they were not only devoted but generous and supportive in ways that would carry the name Critical Role into households all over the world. As their regular adventures began drawing old gamers back to the table to launch new campaigns or rekindle old ones, they also saw a number of new gamers ready to embark on adventures all their own.

The generosity of the Critter community saw the cast regularly gifted with artwork and hand-crafted items reflecting their adventures, and it wasn't long before the evident talent of their fanbase led to volumes of fan art they turned into beautiful books for everyone to see. In 2018, the first Critical Role comic book, Vox Machina: Origins, hit shelves, and the media empire only grew from there.

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In March 2019, just four years after they launched their online stream, Critical Role started a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising enough funds to create an animated series chronicling Vox Machina's adventures. With an original goal of $750,000, they had plans to make a single episode, but within an hour of the campaign's launch, they had not only met but surpassed their goal. Expanding their vision to include four 22 minute episodes, it wasn't long before they started breaking Kickstarter records, ending their 45-day campaign with over $11 million in contributions.

Production for a 10-episode animated series called The Legend of Vox Machina has been underway since 2019, with Amazon Prime airing the series in early 2022. But Critical Role won't be stopping with comics and animated series. Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer has written campaign guides set in his world, Exandria, and is partnering with Wizards of the Coast to release another Exandria adventure guide in 2022.

An image from The Legend of Vox Machina.

In November, Penguin Random House will release Kith & Kin, the first Critical Role novel. Detailing the early days of Vox Machina's half-elf twins, Vaxil'dan and Vex'ahlia, fans will get an even deeper look into the history of two beloved characters, and that is likely just the beginning of their endeavor into fictional novels.

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They also launched their own tabletop publishing company, Darrington Press, in late 2020, releasing their Campaign Two-inspired board game, Uk'otoa. With plans for several other games in the offing, their empire only continues to grow, and fans couldn't be happier with so much content to devour. Or could they? In a recent Variety article, agent Matthew Cohen confirmed that Critical Role is in early talks for a video game set in Exandria.

Because the process of creating a video game can take ages to complete, it will likely be a while before fans see any real confirmation or details, but in the meantime, Critical Role has an entire empire of content for fans to devour, and they're always producing more. The third campaign set in Exandria is set to launch on Twitch and YouTube on Thursday, October 21 at 7 PM Pacific.

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