Vox Machina gives Critical Role’s Matt Mercer a second chance to run the perfect campaign
Matthew Mercer is an extraordinary Dungeon Master, but even the best ones make mistakes. With The Legend of Vox Machina, he’s getting an opportunity that virtually no one ever does — well, aside from the “making an animated television series” bit, I guess. He’s getting the chance to play out his Dungeons & Dragons campaign for a second time, with the original players all sitting at the table. And this time, it’s going to be perfect.
“One of the cool things about it was going back and being able to find the moments where I’m like, how could I have done this a little better?” Mercer told Polygon recently in an interview. “How could I bring this NPC to be a little more important and impactful to this moment, give them a little more life?”
Dungeon Masters (DMs) will often spend as much or more time crafting NPCs (non-player characters) as players do crafting their characters. NPCs give the imaginary world narrative texture and emotion. They become the object of quests, and the villains propelling the action. For Mercer, a professional voice actor, they’re also an expression of his skill as an artist.
Of course, sometimes you just need a random bartender and have to pull a name and a personality out of a hat. It’s not uncommon for those ad hoc characters to suddenly attract a lot of attention. A weird die roll can make a nobody into an integral part of the plot, and that was certainly true for Critical Role’s Vox Machina campaign.
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“Originally you’re telling the story to be the stage for your players,” Mercer said. “You’re creating improvised NPCs on the fly, and you kind of fumbled through it. It worked okay in the moment, but now when you come back to refine it you have the chance to really kind of flesh those out
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