Campaign One: Vox Machina

Campaign One: Vox Machina
The original cast of Campaign One.
Starring	Orion Acaba – Tiberius Stormwind Laura Bailey – Vex'ahlia Taliesin Jaffe – Percival de Rolo Ashley Johnson – Pike Trickfoot Liam O'Brien – Vax'ildan Marisha Ray – Keyleth Sam Riegel – Scanlan Shorthalt/Taryon Darrington Travis Willingham – Grog Strongjaw and Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master
Special guest(s)	Kit Buss – Lillith Daturai Felicia Day – Lyra Will Friedle – Kashaw Vesh Chris Hardwick – Gern Blanston Jon Heder – Lionel Gayheart Joe Manganiello – Arkhan Mary Elizabeth McGlynn – Zahra Hydris Jason Charles Miller – Garthok Darin De Paul – Sprigg Chris Perkins – Shale Patrick Rothfuss – Kerrek ND Stevenson – Tova Wil Wheaton – Thorbir Falbek
Game system	Pathfinder First Edition (pre-stream) Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
No. of episodes	115
Hosted on	Twitch (via Geek & Sundry)
Running time	± 4 hours
First aired	2015-03-12
Last aired	2017-10-12

Campaign One, or The Campaign of Vox Machina, is the first campaign of Critical Role. It follows a group of adventurers, Vox Machina, first in their adventures across the continent of Tal'Dorei and eventually the larger world of Exandria and other Planes of Existence.

The campaign that became Critical Role began in late 2012, with the players beginning the campaign at level 3. They began streaming on March 12, 2015, when the characters had reached level 9. The on-stream events took place in approximately 810 through 812 PD (Post Divergence).

The first campaign is broken down into five arcs on stream, with one arc pre-stream, and four special episodes following the completion of the main campaign, all detailed below.

The Cast

Actor	Character	Race	Class
Orion Acaba (episode 1-27)	Tiberius Stormwind	Dragonborn	Sorcerer (Draconic Bloodline)
Laura Bailey	Vex'ahlia	Half-elf	Ranger (Beast Master)/Rogue (Assassin)
Taliesin Jaffe	Percival de Rolo	Human	Fighter (Gunslinger)
Ashley Johnson	Pike Trickfoot	Gnome	Cleric (War Domain)
Liam O'Brien	Vax'ildan	Half-elf	Rogue (Assassin)/Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)/Druid
	Lieve'tel Toluse	Elf	Cleric (Grave Domain)
	Derrig	Half-elf	Fighter (Battle Master)
Marisha Ray	Keyleth	Half-elf	Druid (Circle of the Moon)
Sam Riegel	Scanlan Shorthalt	Gnome	Bard (College of Lore)
	Taryon Darrington	Human	Artificer (Battle Smith; formerly Alchemist)
Travis Willingham	Grog Strongjaw	Goliath	Barbarian (Path of the Berserker)/Fighter (Battle Master)
	Bertrand Bell	Human	Fighter
Matthew Mercer	The Dungeon Master

Story arc summaries

Story arc	First episode	Last episode
Pre-Stream	A Myriad of Possibilities (pre-stream)	Six Months Later... (pre-stream)
The team met in the swamp town of Stilben as a ragtag group of mercenaries in search of work. After doing a few odd jobs they traveled to the city of Emon, where they managed to halt a demonic insurrection within the throne, and gained a reputation as heroes and had a keep built in their honor.
Arc 1: Kraghammer and Vasselheim	"Arrival at Kraghammer" (1x01)	"The Rematch" (1x23)
Lady Allura asks Vox Machina to find her friend, Lady Kima, who disappeared into the mines of Kraghammer upon learning of a great evil resting beneath it during a vision quest. After completing their quest, trouble with the law in Vasselheim splits the party into two separate groups as they attempt to make amends, and during their stay, they encounter new friends, new enemies, and new revelations before eventually returning home.
Arc 2: The Briarwoods	"The Feast" (1x24)	"Echoes of the Past" (1x38)
Knowing that they were responsible for the deaths of his family, Percy decides it's time to achieve his vengeance. Following his lead, Vox Machina is accused of destructive behavior and kicked off the Tal'Dorei Council. Now they need to clear their names, but the cost might be Percy's soul.
Arc 3: The Chroma Conclave	"Omens" (1x39)	"The Deceiver's Stand" (1x83)
As Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei II announces his abdication, four dragons calling themselves the Chroma Conclave attack the city of Emon. After saving whoever they can and resettling them in Whitestone, the members of Vox Machina gather the power of the Vestiges of the Divergence and rally their allies to kill the dragons and take back their home. Raishan, a member of the Chroma Conclave, proposes an alliance with Vox Machina to take down the leader, Thordak, and although the party does not trust her, the dragon's strength and knowledge would be a great asset to them. As Thordak swells with madness and power from his position within Emon, time is running out until the final confrontation with the Cinder King.
Arc 4: Taryon Darrington	"Loose Ends" (1x84)	"Masquerade" (1x99)
Having taken care of the major threat facing Tal'Dorei and quickly making a new acquaintance, Vox Machina sets out to tie up some loose ends, including the final leg of Keyleth's Aramenté and the ever-present threat of Hotis' return.
Arc 5: Vecna	"Unfinished Business" (1x100)	"The Chapter Closes" (1x115)
With the return of an old foe leading a band of cultists as they seek to raise the archlich Vecna to godhood. Vox Machina must race against time to stop this new threat as the ascension of Vecna looms ever closer.
Post-Campaign	The Search For Grog (Sx42)	The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade (Sx49)
Vox Machina search for their lost friend, helping another friend to get home, two members of Vox Machina get married, and Taryon Darrington have one final adventure.

Production

Vox Machina art before the Critical Role stream began.

Before Critical Role began, Liam O'Brien and Sam Riegel planned to play Dungeons & Dragons with some friends for Liam's Birthday and share their experience on their podcast. Liam enjoyed the game so much that he messaged the other players shortly after, asking if they would like to start a continuing game. The original cast played a Pathfinder campaign together for two years, which started on December 8, 2012. The very first session was played by Liam, Sam, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Taliesin Jaffe, and Orion Acaba, with Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master. All the players began the campaign with the same characters they had on the stream, with the exception of Taliesin who played a dragonborn paladin for their first session. Marisha Ray and Ashley Johnson joined the game in later sessions.

In 2014, they were approached by Felicia Day to stream their campaign live on the Geek & Sundry twitch channel. When Matt told the other cast members about her offer, the group's reactions were recorded for posterity. In preparation for the streamed series, Matt converted the game over from Pathfinder to Dungeons & Dragons, to speed up combat and because D&D has more name recognition. When converting their game, Matt had to create a custom fighter's Martial Archetype for Taliesin Jaffe's character, Percy, as the Gunslinger subclass didn't exist in 5th Edition D&D. On March 12, 2015 the first live episode of Critical Role was aired: "Arrival at Kraghammer" (1x01). Liam and Laura Bailey decided to play twins in Campaign One because they share their birthday, May 28th. Before the game, the two of them spent about two hours at a diner creating their character backgrounds.

The series aired live on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel and YouTube on Thursdays at 7pm (Pacific Time). The stream began on March 12, 2015 with "Arrival at Kraghammer" (1x01), and after two-and-a-half years and 115 episodes, the adventures of Vox Machina came to an end on October 12, 2017 in "The Chapter Closes" (1x115). After the first campaign ended, the group played three canonical one-shot games featuring Vox Machina, "The Search For Grog" (Sx42), "The Search For Bob" (Sx45) and "Dalen's Closet" (Sx47).

On October 28th, 2015, it was announced live on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel that due to a mutual parting of the ways, Orion Acaba would no longer appear on Critical Role.

Trivia

• A slideshow of images, accompanied by narration from each member of Vox Machina, served as an opening for the first few episodes of the show. The video was put together by Matthew Mercer, using a combination of stock pictures and art by Kit Buss and various other artists. However, because some of the art was used without permission, and the Twitch border covered some of the artist credits, the slideshow was later blurred when uploaded on YouTube to avoid copyright infringement.
• The campaign was adapted for television in 2022 in the animated series The Legend of Vox Machina.
• At one point after the end of the campaign, Geek & Sundry substituted thumbnails for all 115 episodes.

References

Art: