Three Critical Role players talk priorities, the Mighty Nein show, and whether TV changed their role-play sessions
article by Tasha Robinson
With the third season of the animated series The Legend of Vox Machina wrapped, the Critical Role role-playing team is now looking forward and back at the same time — back to the Vox Machina storyline of their D&D campaign as they hope and plan for a season 4 of the TV adaptation, and forward to their next TV series. Polygon sat down with Legend of Vox Machina writer-producer Travis Willingham (the voice of goliath barbarian Grog Strongjaw) and writers Marisha Ray (half-elf druid Keyleth) and Liam O’Brien (multiclass elf Vax’ildan) to talk about different projects and hard choices.
The cast had a lot of “regerts” and wins to unpack from season 3, but they’re also looking ahead to their next animated show: Mighty Nein, an adaptation of Critical Role’s second major campaign. Which gave us a chance to ask a cruel question about their priorities and their favorite child.
This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
Polygon: Where are you at this point in developing the Mighty Nein animated series?
Travis Willingham: We have written all of season 1. The storyboards are all being locked, if they haven’t been already. So it’s off to our overseas studio. We’re getting animation tests back and seeing things come back in color. We’ve designed all the characters. The magical spells and effects are being considered. We’re talking about music, and how it’s going to be different from Vox.
So it’s definitely more than halfway done, and I think everybody’s going to be really thrilled with the way it’s turning out. It is not going to be the same tone as Vox Machina. In Vox, they start together. They’re kind of a bunch of slap-dicks that are just making the best of their situation. But I think we did that because we knew we had a short runway to start with. [With Mighty Nein], we wanted to back up even further, and start from what I think we would call a Session Zero perspective, which is meeting the characters individually, taking our time with How do they come together? and really letting people see the earliest parts of their journeys.
Because as anyone that knows the Mighty Nein campaign would know, the characters don’t even know if they’re the good guys or the bad guys. That’s something we’re excited to explore.
Marisha Ray: Yeah, we did not start off as friends. [Everyone laughs] We did not like each other.
Polygon: What have three seasons of Legend of Vox Machina taught you that you’re taking into Mighty Nein from the beginning?
Travis: So much. I think the biggest thing from an animation perspective, which we had never endeavored at before, was that when you have seven characters on screen at the same time, it’s hard to draw. So we had to find clever ways [with The Legend of Vox Machina] to split up the group, or make sure that focus was given to certain characters. If it’s really two characters talking, does everybody else need to be there in the background?
When we were playing at the table, the motto was “Never split the party.” It is the exact opposite in animation: It’s “Try and find any opportunity to split the party.” Not just for the animation, but also so the character focus can really be there.
Polygon: Has the process of developing the shows — these condensed, intensified versions of these arcs — changed how you role-play at the table? In the backs of your minds, are you thinking, This game needs to play as a TV show someday?
Liam O'Brien Some people might think that. But if you look at the Bells Hells team we’re playing as now, they are the most Suicide Squad bunch of weirdos. You’re like, Why are they together? I mean, I know where they are now, but at the beginning, you’re like, Who are these people? What’s happening?
So it would not appear to our audience that we came in going like, OK, cartoon number three, here’s what the focus group said would be best. Everybody just gravitated toward something they thought would be fun. And that’s all we’ve ever done at the table. There are definitely moments where we’re like, “That was cool. I can totally see that animated.” But that’s an after-effect, not the goal.
Marisha: Yeah, I feel like when we got into Mighty Nein, we were like, Oh man, this group, they’re so crazy. Look at them, they’re the Suicide Squad! And then Bells Hells was like, Hold my beer. When it comes to the miniseries, like something with Calamity or any of Exandria Unlimited, we have a turn of phrase we use when doing them: “Drive it like you stole it.” You only have four episodes or eight episodes at best, so you have to go hard, go fast, commit.
But I think that’s more indicative of just having fewer episodes in a miniseries in terms of doing anything at the table differently. The only thing that really changes is, sometimes something cool will happen and we’ll be like, “Damn, that’ll be cool animated.”
Polygon: So speaking of those series, Mighty Nein and Bells Hells, here’s the meanest question I can think of for you. Amazon comes to you with one big pile of money and says, “You can use this to finish Legend of Vox Machina as you imagined it, or make a Mighty Nein show, or make a Bells Hells show, or make an original show of your choosing — but only one of those, and nothing else, ever.” What do you choose?
Liam: Meaning we have to kill off the other children? I love it! This is good.
Ray: Yeah. Ow.
Willingham: This is a Hells of Despath question. Man. I would probably hit — oh gosh. I would say Mighty Nein, because we’ve had a chance to chew on Vox Machina. And I think the larger world would be richer for it. Season 3 [of Legend of Vox Machina] ends in a nice place. If that’s the end of the story, then great, but at least we get Mighty Nein out of it.
O’Brien: That’s true, that’s true.
Willingham: That was a cold-hearted decision!
Ray: I know! It’s so hard!
Willingham: I don’t want to be the president of the United States. Don’t make me push the button!
Ray: I mean, I would love to just tap into Calamity. If they give us a big pile of money, like “This is your $100 million-an-episode, Rings of Power-level stuff”… Imagine that with Calamity.
Willingham: Now I have regerts!
Ray: It’s OK! We’re spreading it out! We’re spreading it out.
O’Brien: But a different answer — even though those are both great answers and Travis’ argument specifically sways me — however, the audience and I would feel choked to death if we don’t get to see Vox Machina, the story that we started with, finish. I love all our babies, but they’re our first child. We learned how to do everything that we’re doing with those assholes, so I’d like to see them reach the finish line.
Willingham: We covered our bases. Thank God.
