Critical Role

Matt Colville does an excellent job with the characters and dialogue: having seen the campaign and knowing its progress and results, it’s super fun to see these new old characters and the shadow of Vox Machina shaping them. I loved watching the burgeoning character dynamics in this arc, especially between Keyleth and Vex (that hug, aww). And although I love the new campaign and characters, it’s always great to return to Vox Machina. Really missed Pike and Percy, though. Hope to see them show more in the next arc.

Also, funny, how I thought that no one could topple Vax from the position of an all time fave, with him being a tragic disaster bi and all. But, same as with the campaign, Scanlan just saunters over and steals every scene. show less

I borrowed this hefty coffee table book from my husband who has been a Critical Role fan for years and has played Dungeons & Dragons for even longer. While I do have some basic knowledge of these things, I really only know what he has told me and I started reading this book without any specific expectation. However, I must say that I was blown away and I enjoyed it much more than I would have thought.

The book presents itself as a facsimile of an archival book, in which information and diary show more entries from the campaign of The Mighty Nein, a group of adventurers, have been collected. Each chapter focuses on a specific member of The Mighty Nein or someone they met on their travels. Although I don't know the story and the characters and did not understand everything it was fun to read the chapters and I was able to understand parts of the story bit by bit.
What really fascinated me, though, was the artwork. There is much, much more art than text in the book, and it was contributed by many different artists - "friends and fans of Critical Role" as the book says. There are many different styles and the pictures depict different subjects, mostly characters, but also scenery, buildings and fights. I simply loved looking at these artworks and savored each page of the book. The detail and world-building of Critical Role fascinates me and the love for it clearly shines through every single one of the artworks featured. show less

Ahh this is a great series so far. This time poor Grog gets summoned by his dead father and winds up possessed by a ghostly demon. His friends rescue him but he is not yet 100% better. His friends need to find magical items to help him before he is lost for good. Graphics are amazing as well as the banter between the group of adventurers. Looking forward to the new volume coming out this year!

Pretty good for the comic book media tie-in prequel to an ongoing podcast where you basically listen to people play Dungeons & Dragons. I have never listened to the podcast or played D&D, so I was hesitant to try this, especially since I got burned by The Adventure Zone series, graphic novels based on another D&D podcast I do not follow. At least the humor in Critical Role is not as forced, desperate, and unrelenting as in The Adventure Zone.

The actual story here is a convoluted affair with show more a whole mess of factions -- mercenaries, assassins, adventuring groups, a criminal organization, and a demonic organization -- investigating and causing deaths among poor people in a generic fantasy world port town. A small group of adventurers -- a fairly typical mix, maybe a little too similar the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy -- coalesce out of the chaos with meet-cutes, grudging enemy-of-my-enemy alliances, and routine team in-fighting and snarking.

The characters are all likable in their roguish, brutish, and brooding ways and almost carried the book for me, but I think once was enough for me and this franchise. show less