Critical Role

Critical Role is an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons. The show started streaming in March 2015, partway through the first campaign, which ran for 115 episodes and ended in October 2017. The second campaign started in January 2018 and continues to this day. Two of the show's cast members, Sam Riegel and Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer, have appeared as guests on Smosh Games.

History
Critical Role is an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors plays the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons. The show started streaming in March 2015, partway through the first campaign, which ran for 115 episodes and ended in October 2017. The second campaign kicked off in January 2018 and continues to this day. One-shots are also frequent. The series is broadcast live on Thursdays on Twitch and YouTube. The series is set in the world of Exandria, a custom word of Matthew Mercer's creation.

The cast includes Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master and players (who played goliath barbarian-fighter Grog Strongjaw in the first campaign and half-orc warlock-paladin Fjord in the second),  (who played half-elf druid Keyleth in the first and human monk Beauregard Lionett in the second),  (who played human gunslinger Percival de Rolo in the first and tiefling blood hunter Mollymauk Tealeaf and firbolg cleric Caduceus Clay in the second),  (who played gnome cleric Pike Trickfoot in the first and aasimar barbarian Yasha Nydoorin in the second),  (who played half-elf rogue-paladin Vax'ildan Vessar in the first and human wizard Caleb Widogast in the second),  (who played half-elf ranger-rogue Vex'ahlia Vessar in the first and Jester Lavorre in the second), and  (who played gnome bard Scanlan Shorthalt and human artificer Taryon Darrington in the first and goblin rogue Nott the Brave in the second). The first campaign also initially featured, who played dragonborn sorcerer Tiberius Stormwind.

The group's first campaign began two years before the start of the series as a one-off D&D 4th edition game for Liam's birthday. The players enjoyed this initial game so much that they continued to play while switching to Pathfinder. After Felicia Day heard about the private home game from Ashley, she approached the group about playing it in a live-streamed format for Geek & Sundry. To streamline gameplay for the show, the game's characters were converted from Pathfinder to Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition before the web series began airing in March 2015. Since then, they have launched related shows that include Talks Machina, Handbooker Helper, and UnDeadwood, comic books published by Dark Horse Comics, art books, campaign setting books, as well as an animated series titled The Legend of Vox Machina that started as a Kickstarter project that smash both its initial goal and records, raising by the end of its run over $11 million.