In 2015, a group of voice actors sat down together and uploaded their game of Dungeons & Dragons to the internet. It marked the beginning of Critical Role, which has since blossomed into a massive franchise comprising three complete D&D games (and a fourth, which began in 2025) and various spinoffs. In 2022, they partnered with Amazon to release The Legend of Vox Machina, an animated series based on Critical Role’s first D&D game, with each player returning to voice their character, and Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer voicing a wide array of side-characters and villains. The success of the show led to four seasons and a spinoff, The Mighty Nein, which premieres later this week.
Given that the show is adapting 115 episodes between 3 and 6 hours long on average, a lot of changes had to be made in this adaptation. Some are very big and result in major alterations to the flow of events, for better or for worse. This list will discuss the biggest differences between Critical Role’s first campaign and The Legend of Vox Machina, highlighting how they separate both projects and whether the changes were effective or not.
Kraghammer
The Legend of Vox Machina begins with an early arc of the campaign that was played before they started streaming, where the team faced off against the Blue Dragon, Brimscythe (David Tennant), before jumping into the Bryarwood Arc. However, the live-play had several more arcs before the Bryarwoods showed up, with the first ones audiences got to watch taking place around the dwarven citadel of Kraghammer. Vox Machina got involved in a deadly adventure through the Underdark, where they faced armies of evil dwarves called Duergar, brain-eating Mind Flayers, and a powerful Beholder who had merged itself with a demonic artifact.
The most likely reason for Kraghammer’s omission is that it centered around Beholders and Mind Flayers, two of Dungeons & Dragons’ most iconic and trademarked creatures. While the adventures in the Underdark were fun and introduced memorable characters, like the rogue Mind Flayer Clarota, it would have been a nightmare to re-tweak everything to work around copyright, and it would delay what many people consider the best arc in Campaign 1. The main casualty of this arc’s drop is that this was when Lady Kima (Stephanie Beatriz) was introduced to the story, and became fireforged friends with Vox Machina, something that doesn’t happen until midway through Season 2 in the show.
Thordak’s Eggs
After his Chroma Conclave conquers the capital city of Emon, Thordak (Lance Reddick) transforms the city into a volcanic hellscape while the citizens deliver all their treasure to him. Thanks to the Soul Anchor embedded in his chest, Thordak undergoes a transformation that increases his size, strength and gives him the ability to reproduce asexually. As his mind degrades, Thordak commits himself to protecting the eggs so that his progeny can hatch and claim the world for dragonkind.
In the live play, Vox Machina didn’t learn of the eggs until after Thordak was killed, and they were swiftly dealt with before any could hatch. The show had the characters learn about the eggs at the beginning of Season 3 to stress the importance of getting as much power as possible. The eggs are also allowed to hatch, meaning that we get to see Vox Machina hold their own against an army of baby dragons the size of ponies, which is just as cool as it sounds.
Missing Vestiges of Divergence
To defeat the Chroma Conclave, Vox Machina is told of powerful artifacts created by the gods called the Vestiges of Divergence. Unfortunately, each Vestige is guarded by a fierce guardian, including a mighty sphynx who has never felt pain and an archfey from the Fey Realm corrupted by heartbreak and jealousy. Unfortunately, they’re not alone in the hunt, as the black dragon member of the conclave, Umbrasyl (Matthew Mercer), also wants the Vestiges to use their power for himself.
Every member of Vox Machina got a Vestige in the live play, but the show cuts out three, claimed by Keyleth (Marishia Ray), Percy (Taliesin Jaffe), and Vax’ildan (Liam O’Brien). Keyleth’s, called the Spire of Conflux, is a magic staff that had to be retrieved from the belly of a demon named Yenk (Matthew Mercer), while Percy’s is Cabal’s Ruin, a magic cloak that can absorb magic. Vax at least gets to keep his first Vestige, the Deathwalker’s Ward, but he also claimed Whisper, a dagger that allows its wielder to teleport when thrown and frighten those it strikes.
A Bard’s Lament
The gnome bard, Scanlan Shorthalt (Sam Reigel), is first introduced as the group’s comic relief, who always looks for an excuse to make a raunchy joke. Season 2 sees him begin to re-evaluate things when he learns that he has a daughter, Kaylie (Aisling Franciosi). Their relationship is understandably rocky at first, but by the end of Season 3, Scanlan decides to travel with her when Vox Machina decides to temporarily disband following the defeat of the Chroma Conclave.
Scanlan’s departure was far from a happy goodbye in the live play. Rather, it was a messy argument that was the culmination of a long arc of Scanlan spiraling into depression and drug use, made even worse because his friends let Kaylie see his dead body (smeared with pudding and wearing a dress) during a resurrection ritual, not knowing that Scanlan had promised Kaylie that he wouldn’t die on his quest. It makes sense to end the season on a happy note (especially since they didn’t know if they would get a 4th season), but it would have been awesome to see the actors act out this scene with polish, especially when Scanlan calls out the rest of Vox Machina for not asking about his past.
Anna Ripley
Dr. Anna Ripley (Kelly Hu) worked alongside the Briarwoods to kill the De Rolo family and take over the city of Whitestone. She used her brilliant mind to help produce an acidic compound to refine a magic ore called residuum, and also tortured Percy, the last son of the De Rolos. Once her work was finished, Ripley was betrayed by the Briarwoods and locked in prison, but she escaped with help from Vox Machina and came back later to cause trouble during their hunt for the Vestiges of Divergence.
For the most part, Ripley follows the same plot as her live show counterpart, but the show gives her more screentime that greatly fleshes out her character. Her backstory sees her lose her family to powerful mages, which helps to explain why she is so committed to the mass production of firearms, and sets her as an even greater foil to Percy. She’s also given a bit of a manipulative streak, as she gets in good with Umbrasyl to begin the hunt for the Vestiges, and later tells Thordak about Whitestone, so his children can feed on its people.
Raishan
Thordak might be the leader of the Chroma Conclave, but the real brains behind the alliance is the green dragon Raishan (Cree Summer). She formed the conclave for Thordak and freed him from the Fire Plane in exchange for his knowledge of a cure to the druidic disease that is slowly killing her, but he withheld the information. Thus, she turns to Vox Machina for revenge, though it is a very shaky alliance, especially because of Raishan and Keyleth’s mutual hatred. Summer does a great job voicing Raishan, and overall, she hits the same story beats as her original self, but the show’s take on Raishan feels like a less effective antagonist.
Live play Raishan was not only intelligent and cunning, but a wizard who had access to some of the strongest spells, which she used to augment her natural draconic strength and kill several members of Vox Machina across two fights. Show Raishan, meanwhile, feels much weaker because she’s always in human form, and only fights Vox Machina once when she possesses Thordak’s corpse. This approach not only makes the fight feel like Thordak 2.0 (especially since Raishan barely casts any magic), but she’s pretty much defeated solely by Keyleth, which makes her feel like quite a letdown, especially since this fight in the live play still had Keyleth be the key member thanks to a game-changing Feeblemind spell.
Percy’s Death
The existence of resurrection magic can lead to a problem in stories, as it risks making death feel cheap if the characters can just be easily brought back to life. This feeling was pretty rampant in the live play, with each member of Vox Machina dying at least once, so the show kept things limited to allow for the best deaths from the live play to hit with maximum emotional weight. Yet nobody was expecting Percy’s death at the hands of Anna Ripley to wind up like it did.
While in the live play, Percy was resurrected relatively quickly; the show plays Percy’s death as if there’s no bringing him back, complete with a funeral and intense grief among the surviving members of Vox Machina. It’s only when Vax learns that Percy’s soul was claimed by the demon Orthax (Matthew Mercer), who previously made a deal with Percy to help him create his first gun, that they can perform a ritual to allow Vax into Orthax’s realm. An intense battle between Vax and Orthax over Percy’s soul ensues, with Vex’ahlia (Laura Bailey) delivering one of the best lines of the show to help bring him home.
Kashaw and Zahra
Critical Role often invited their fellow voice actors to appear as guest characters for an episode or two. Some of the best-received characters were the human cleric, Kashaw (Will Friedle), and the tiefling warlock, Zahra (Mary Elizabeth McGlynn), who first teamed up with Vox Machina to hunt monsters for a guild called The Slayer’s Take. They rejoined Vox Machina several times, so it was natural to see them appear as recurring characters in the show.
While Zahra and Kashaw very quickly form a friendship with Vox Machina in the live play, their show counterparts are far more antagonistic, with Zahra even unleashing the Onlooker so they can steal the Deathwalker’s Ward, forcing Vax to save them when it goes on a rampage. The biggest change came during the battle against Thordak, where Kashaw is killed, leaving Zahra distraught. This change adds more stakes to the battle against such a mighty dragon, and to deny Vox Machina access to his resurrection abilities when it was time to bring Percy back. With Season 4 greenlit, we’ll have to wait and see how his death with affect Zahra’s role during the final arc.
The Journey to Hell
The quest to get Pike Trickfoot’s (Ashley Johnson) Vestige, the Plate of the Dawnmartyr, is drastically different between the two mediums. In the live play, they traveled to the Plane of Fire, had to navigate a city where one slip up could see them enslaved, and battled a deadly Pit Fiend to get the Vestige from a Fire Giant. In the show, the Plage is instead located in Hell, guarded by a powerful demon named Zerxus (Luis Carazo), who challenges Pike to a card game that leaves her questioning her faith in her goddess.
Vox Machina did go to hell in the live play, but it was to kill a Rakshasa named Hotis, who had sworn vengeance against Vax and nearly killed him by taking the form of their sorcerer friend, Shaun Gilmore (Sunil Malhotra). The show instead turns Hotis into a cameo in Season 1 when the group is talking about their strangest kills. Zerxus is also a character from a spinoff campaign, Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, and his backstory to Pike directly references that campaign, making it an example of Critical Role using the show to bridge their various projects.
Tiberius Stormwind
During the early days of the campaign, Vox Machina had an eighth member: a red dragonborn sorcerer named Tiberius Stormwind (Orion Acaba), from the floating isles of Draconia. He accompanied the group while searching for missing Draconian artifacts, but left them shortly after their first battle with the Briarwoods. When Vox Machina later went to Draconia to hunt the white dragon Vorugal (Liam O’Brien), they found Tiberius’ frozen body, indicating that he died trying to defend his city from the Fridgid Doom.
The reason for Tiberius’ sudden departure was due to Acaba’s actions, both on and off camera. It’s a shame because Tiberius was a pretty fun character thanks to his bumbling mage archetype, but the longer those early episodes went on, the more of Acaba’s habits seeped into the character. The show did include a dragonborn sorcerer named Dohla (Rachel House), a former ally of Kima and Allura (Indira Varma)—the latter of whom Tiberius also had a crush on—who betrays them due to jealousy before being unceremoniously killed by Vorugal. It’s especially strange because Dohla, like Tiberius, died heroically in the live play, but in combining the two characters, the show chose to only focus on the negative traits, making her a superfluous villain and robbing Vox Machina of a heroic dragonborn ally.
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