Critical Role's 8 co-founders say this is how they turned their 'Dungeons & Dragons' home game into an Amazon hit

• 'The Legend of Vox Machina' play 3's last batch of episodes dropped connected Thursday.
• Critical Role's 8 cofounders gave BI penetration into really their hobby crippled became an Amazon show.
• CR cofounder and Emmy Award-winning head Sam Riegel says they aren't done pinch nan "Vox Machina" story.

"The Legend of Vox Machina," a Critical Role animated bid connected Prime Video, aired nan past group of episodes from its 3rd play connected Thursday astatine midnight.

What started arsenic a crippled played by a group of sound actors looking for things to do successful their downtime has shape-shifted into a mega nerdworld business. Critical Role, nan institution by nan aforesaid name, has its ain streaming platform, an independent crippled publishing arm, and investments successful nan audio play business.

The founders, meanwhile, are now large names successful geek state — in nan US and beyond. They're moving connected two Amazon-backed series — a woody they secured pinch Prime Video aft a $11.3 cardinal Kickstarter fundraising information to create their show.

Business Insider sat down pinch each 8 cofounders, who discussed really their "D&D" campaign's hundreds of hours of streamed contented was rewritten and converted into an animated series.

"The writers' room collaboration was each of america getting connected a whiteboard what nan astir important moments were to each of us," main imaginative serviceman Matthew Mercer told BI.

"The Legend of Vox Machina" has had 3 seasons of 12 episodes apiece truthful far. But it was based connected a 115-episode-long "D&D" campaign, wherever each livestreamed section clocked runtimes of 3 to 4 hours.

This 3rd season, CR co-founders Liam O'Brien and Marisha Ray joined their colleagues — Sam Riegel and CEO Travis Willingham — successful nan writers' room, taking nan lead successful crafting 1 section apiece.

Mercer said nan CR squad wanted nan communicative to create "in a measurement that feels existent to nan original campaign, but besides leaving room for immoderate caller fresh things."

And nan unit besides made "some flimsy changes to support everyone connected their toes," Mercer added.

"It tin beryllium difficult astatine times to determine what things don't make it in, but that doesn't mean they ne'er will," Mercer said. "Some things, we clasp connected to for later. We get to play pinch clip and nan timeline a small bit."

The crippled thickens

At nan extremity of "Vox Machina's" 3rd season, nan star-crossed lovers Vax'ildan (voiced by O'Brien) and Keyleth (voiced by Ray) yet get together — seemingly for a happy ending — aft 2 and a half seasons of slow burn.

But nan show besides covers a tragic crippled point: The decease and resurrection of Percival de Rolo, a gunslinger played by CR cofounder Taliesin Jaffe.

Jaffe told BI he had immoderate nosy pinch what was, essentially, readying his ain funeral.

"I wanted pomp and circumstance," Jaffe said.

He added that nan play allowed different broadside of Whitestone — a metropolis he helped create astatine nan crew's "D&D" run array — to beryllium brought to life.

"Whitestone is my baby," Jaffe said. "I emotion seeing immoderate infinitesimal spent successful a caller location successful that metropolis that has haunted my dreams for a decade plus."

"Vox Machina" besides features original music, which Riegel — a songwriter and two-time Emmy Award-winning sound head — worked on.

One of nan songs Riegel wrote was astir nan Ruby of nan Sea — a famed courtesan from Critical Role's 2nd long-running "D&D" campaign. Mercer recorded nan song, and it later became an episode-ending track.

On nan casting front, CR's co-founders person looped their kids into signaling for nan show. Most recently, Ronin Willingham — CEO Travis Willingham's six-year-old boy — had a mini voice-acting role.

"I deliberation a fewer minutes into it, he decided he didn't want to do what we were asking him to do. He wanted to beryllium a dragon instead," Willingham said.

More stories to tell

Riegel and his unit person large plans for nan future. And connected Wednesday, Prime Video announced that CR is getting a 4th play of "Vox Machina" — a monolithic ballot of assurance from Amazon successful nan crew's expertise to support its nerdworld finance humming.

Riegel told BI up of nan 3rd season's motorboat that nan unit still has much stories to tell.

"As always, we near nan play ending connected nan smallest of cliffhangers," Riegel told BI. "There's evil forces still retired location to woody with."

The extremity of nan 3rd "Vox Machina" play besides portends ominous consequences for O'Brien's half-elf rogue Vax'ildan, who must now salary a dense value for having helped bring his friend Percival backmost from nan dead.

"If we are fortunate capable to show nan full communicative — that we dream to, sound connected wood — I deliberation he's conscionable getting started," O'Brien said of his character.

CR besides has its "Mighty Nein" animated bid successful nan useful pinch Prime Video.

An charismatic merchandise day hasn't been announced yet, but signaling for nan show is already underway. Jaffe told BI that viewers tin expect a "darker story" for nan "Mighty Nein," arsenic opposed to "Vox Machina's" heroic, dragon-fighting romp.

"That nan show has grown not conscionable into an animated series, but we're still going 10 years later, and there's comics and novels — it's very surreal," Ray told BI.