Critical Role, the wildly popular live-play Dungeons & Dragons podcast, spawned the animated series The Legend of Vox Machina. The cast and crew of Vox Machina appeared at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), where Travis Willingham took the stage to discuss what’s in store for the show’s third season. In an interview at SDCC, Travis discussed the success of Critical Role and the future of D&D Storytelling.
Vox Machina’s Travis Willingham at SDCC
The Critical Role gang seems to be juggling a lot of projects. Travis assures us that this was not some planned-out cinematic universe. He also touches on how he and his friends got themselves to where they are. He also gives us some insight into what might be coming down the line.
“There was no plan. This shit, we were making it up as we go. This is project catchup. Like, we said at one point while we were playing at home, we should have someone make art of these characters, which seemed ridiculous because they just existed in our head and we commissioned an artist friend and put ideas to picture and saw them and we were like, god, these characters look awesome. And that was it. Right? We just like the way that it looked. And then Felicia Day over at Geek and Sundry talked to Ashley Johnson because she heard about this D&D game. She had wanted some D&D programming. And when Matt Mercer brought it to us, we’re like, nobody’s gonna watch this. Nobody’s gonna sit around for hours and watch this thing, and now we’re almost 10 years later being dead ass wrong about that. The master plan is, I guess, dream big and then until someone tells you that you can’t pursue it. Right? We started with, little like we started with a comic book. Could it be a comic book? Dark Horse stepped up in a big way, and now we’ve got an amazing run of comics with them. We thought the animated series was definitely out of reach. We did all the traditional pitching. Nobody really bought out of it. We’re like, we’ll do the Kickstarter, see what the audience does. Holy shit. Then all those people that we pitched to came back. You know, we’re like, oh, okay. And so now, I think we’re thinking things like, is there a video game out there that we can make? Because we’re gamers at heart and that’s such an amazing vehicle for storytelling. You give players agency instead of just being passive in it, and we’re always interested in that. So we’re always just seeing how we can how we can advance storytelling, what other areas of our, universe and IP can we touch or, like, shine a light on that maybe we didn’t get to hit in the live stream or that we’re not able to touch in the animated series and just continue to make more and more offerings. But we’re really only limited by how much we can do, like, at one time, so we don’t explode. And that’s that’s fun to push. Yeah.”
With so many projects Travis gives us some insight into the storytelling process.
Travis discusses how storylines are planned out, and he also talks about what it’s like not knowing where certain stories will play out. He even touches on Matt Mercer’s genius and his store of ideas and storylines.
“It is a massive collection of whiteboards and post it notes, and they constantly shift. So even with season 3 of Vox Machina, seasons 1 and 2 of the mighty 9, we are in campaign 3, Bell’s Hells on our weekly livestream. The stuff that’s happening now, like, week to week is changing. Stuff that happens in season 3 right up to delivery, things that are in season 1 and 2 of 99, and it’s constantly evolving. So, you know, we try and make it so that if you watched all of Vox Machina, if you watched all of Mighty Nein, and you’re like, I might check it out. We’re trying to let people know that it’s not gonna be a one for 1 adaptation. We’re actually gonna change it a fair amount because we want you to be surprised. Right. We want you to be we we honestly want that kinda nerdy dialogue where it’s like, maybe this is where they’re going with it or is this what they’re starting to tease. We wanna make it interesting and there’s an obvious, economization that has to happen with an adaptation that’s that long. So it’s just right for picking apart, smashing it back together. But I think in terms of forward projection, it’s just Matt Mercer in his little tree house in the backyard. Right? Like, we try to sneak in there all the time and I try to trip him up. I’m like, hey, Matt. So if we had gone down this dungeon hallway, like, what would have been down there? He’s like, I guess you don’t know. Like, if you don’t tell me, no one will know. It’s gonna die with you. I can’t tell you. And, you know, sometimes he doesn’t. He’s told me has promised me that he has a list of things that have been unexplored and untouched that we’ll go into, I don’t know, because I’m kind of using him somewhere there.”
Travis talks about the creative process of playing D&D
We discussed how live-play D&D works, and Travis shared his insights on collaborating with fellow players to craft a story. He also delved into his motivations as both a player and a storyteller, touching on the elements of a compelling story and how they achieve them.
“I think the thing that we realized early on was that at our home game, we would jump maybe a couple months between games, just kinda when we could make it work with our schedule. And in the first couple months of shooting the show, we had already played more in the studio than we had at home because you’re playing every week. So really at the top of each episode, Matt will give us, like, a refresher on what happened in the last game just in case you don’t have, like, on, you know, at the ready what happened in the last 4 hours of gameplay. But we’re all gamers, like, video gamers, and most of us are the ones that can’t leave a level without checking each of the corners in every fucking room trying to platinum that shit. I need some side quests, and I love to push the buttons. And like I said, if you don’t, if you don’t go down the hallway, you won’t know what’s there, and It makes me crazy. So if there’s, like he’s, like, there’s a dangerous looking button in the room. I’m, like, BOOP even if it can kill all of the characters because I wanna see what his mind has cooked up. I know that if it’s important to him and he puts it in there and it’s gonna be dangerous for the characters, let’s just say, we all love drama, we should see it. Now, I think that’s why we work so well. There’s a balance of red button mashers and then also people that are, like, concerned for the characters and making sure that everyone’s safe and not. That’s a yin and a yang. Right? So, you know, I think that balance works really well in making sure that nothing is left on the plate. We get as much out of it as we possibly can, and also just making sure that, for me, it’s not boring. Right? Because so much in a D&D game can be, I’m super careful. I avoid all the traps. I’m so meta smart that I avoid any of the snares or any of that. Man, a lot of people watching our show have never played the game and don’t know what happens when shit goes wrong. I wanna see shit go as well. So that’s my motivation, and I know a lot of other people enjoy it as well. And we’re always pushing for those story moments.”
Travis Willingham talks about starting D&D for the first time.
Travis discusses getting into tabletop games, focusing on the benefits of live-play Dungeons & Dragons. He also talks about the community and how newcomers can get started.
“So this is something we’ve talked about for years. I always went into comic book stores and always saw Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, whatever it was, those adventure modules on the shelves. Beautiful, early covers, D&D, big dragon, awesome. I would open it up, see a bunch of words, and just close it. Right? I was like, nah. 300 pages of words? Holy shit. No. No way. But I grew up, as an athlete as well as a nerd. And, what I’ve told people is if you took the NFL rule book for football and put it on the table, nobody wants to play that game. If you look out a window and you see a bunch of people throwing around a ball and tackling each other and running and laughing, you’re like, I wanna do that. I’ll pick up the rules as I go. That’s why we think Critical Role is so special because it’s a group of friends messing it up and having a blast while they do it while not really caring about the rules so much, and you just kind of pick it up as you go. Right? So I think there are some systems that are, what people, I think, affectionately call crunchy, where it’s, you know, more rules heavy and more details. We actually started development on an RPG called, Dagger Heart. It’s a little more rules light. It kinda works you through a character creation a little more seamlessly from a creative narrative perspective. So it’s not like picking a class, here are a bunch of numbers that are stats, come up with a character, and it sort of teases questions out of you, makes you answer some things, and that just naturally will build a character from a storytelling perspective. But there are so many good inflection points, whether it’s, you know, the 50 years of D&D and you want that nostalgia, jump in, man. There are other ones in Pathfinder, Daggerheart. There’s a lot out there. But, you know, the one thing I found about tables is if you jump in and you’re like, I’ve never done it before, you will look up and see a bunch of, like, eyes turn towards you and they’re like, welcome. The water is warm. Oh. Come join us. Yeah.”
With so much D&D content out there, Travis talks about other live play shows.
When it’s your job, it’s a little difficult to consume or play D&D for fun. Travis talks about what it’s like experiencing other D&D universes and touches on his feelings about the expansion of these worlds.
“God, no. No. It’s the same question we got from we used to be, when we were dubbing, working in the anime industry so much. They were like, what anime do you watch outside of it? And we would say, look. We’ve recorded for 8, 10 hours a day. The last thing we’re gonna go home and do is go and watch some. However, it does happen because the folks at Dimension 20 are doing amazing stuff. I always listen to clips from, you know, Taz, Adventure Zone. The Dungeon Room people are doing amazing things, and it’s really amazing to see sort of the newer games and the newer actual play shows spring up. So we always try and keep an eye on what people are doing and how we can help, you know, promote other voices, other shows, because there’s so much out there, but it’s still so new, and it’s still so niche. And I don’t think it has to be. You know, we’re not gatekeepery about it. I think there’s so much about playing the mainstream folks would love if they just understood what it was. So, yeah, we don’t get to watch a ton outside of our own stuff. And I admit, even when we’re not at the table in our own show, I have trouble watching some of those episodes just because we’re running a company at the same time. And so, like, if there’s 2 episodes that we’re not in, finding 8 hours to do that with the company and the 6 year old. I think it’s a little challenging.”
The Legend of Vox Machina will be getting a third season. The Critical Role cast will also be developing Mighty Nein and Travis mentioned their own tabletop games as well. The Legend of Vox Machina is currently streaming on Prime Video. Everything is at stake in the long-awaited Season Three of The Legend of Vox Machina. The Chroma Conclave spreads destruction, and the Cinder King hunts Vox Machina. Our lovable band of misfits must conquer inner (and outer) demons to save their loved ones, Tal’Dorei, and all of Exandria.
