Taliesin Jaffe, Laura Bailey, And Liam O'Brien Turn Critical Role Into The Legend Of Vox Machina

Speaking of people that are involved, there are a lot of people involved that are new. David Tennant, Tony Hale, Stephanie Beatriz, Tom McMahan, Gina Torres all provide guest voices. What was that like having those folks come in?

Bailey: We were so excited to work with a lot of new people. A lot of times, it was instances where we had worked with somebody in the past, and had a voice in mind as we were coming up with, who is... Who can play these NPCs that have been loved by us for hundreds and hundreds of hours and many, many years. How do we bring that to life? We got some amazing, amazing people that came in and really did that.

O'Brien: I can still remember Matt [Mercer]'s version of every character, male or female and creature in between. And some part of me is like, "That's the character," because the memories from the table game are so ingrained, but then to get to see people come to life even more was pretty cool.

Can you each name an NPC that you especially loved that has gotten to show up without spoiling who played them?

O'Brien: The Briarwoods. I was waiting for that from day one.

Bailey: Gilmore.

The Briarwoods story is the first one you chose to tell. Why was that the one that made the most sense to use as an introduction for new fans of this world?

O'Brien: I think it's where everything really gelled and started firing on all cylinders for us around the table. Not that we didn't have huge ... We have amazing memories and thrills and scares at our home game. We were still finding our sea legs in the earliest days of Critical Role. It was when we got into the Briarwood arc that all these inner party relationships really started to crystallize and become distinct. The stakes were raised and the themes became darker.

Bailey: That was the first time that Matt within the campaign had brought in a character backstory elements that we had created, and brought it into the story. And the realization that he could do that because none of us... I mean, maybe Taliesin you had, but I didn't even think about that as an option.

Jaffe: Travis [Willingham] panicked at me after he was like, "That can be a thing? Oh no, what did I ... I wrote that? Oh no, I wrote some things I don't want to see."

Bailey: It's going to come back to haunt us. I think all of us in that moment leaned forward in the table and we're like, "Oh gosh, what's happening? And I'm sure the audience at home saw that recognition within us. And it just, I don't know, it just felt like the right moment to dive in.