Like any good Dungeons & Dragons campaign, the world of Critical Role is populated by a wealth of varied and intricate characters. And oh, what characters they are.
Any tropes relating to the characters as they appear in The Legend of Vox Machina can be found here.
Setting
Tal'dorei (Campaign 1)
Wildemount (Campaign 2)
- The Mighty Nein (beware of spoilers)
- Wildemount Guest Party Members
- Allies and Other Characters
- Wildemount Villains
Marquet (Campaign 3)
One-Shots (Exclusive)
Exandria Unlimited
The Dungeon Master
The Dungeon Master
Played by: Matthew Mercer
Any good tabletop gaming campaign has someone in charge, keeping the game fun while preventing the players from driving everyone off the rails or up the walls. Voiceover artist and noted One of Us Matt Mercer takes the wheel for this particular group.
Aside from providing the story, battles, and world building for the game, Mercer also takes on the role of every NPC in the game.
- Apologetic Attacker:
- Matt really doesn't want to kill the players, and is just as pained as they are when a combat situation turns against the party. But it's his job to play out what the enemies would do in their situation. This is mostly clearly seen in Campaign 1 Episode 68.Marisha: Why would you do that to us?
Matt: It's what [Ripley] would have done. - Likewise, tragically in episode 26 of campaign 2, while Matt had no desire to kill Molly, Lorenzo did. So, Molly died.
- Matt really doesn't want to kill the players, and is just as pained as they are when a combat situation turns against the party. But it's his job to play out what the enemies would do in their situation. This is mostly clearly seen in Campaign 1 Episode 68.
- Author Filibuster: Goes into one in Episode 17 of Campaign 3. Chetney's tattoo reads "RTA", which means Recognize the Alpha, based on the idea of Alpha and Beta Wolves. Matt is so frustrated that he hops out of frame on his chair. He comes back in moments later, then has Imogen make an Intelligence save so he can say that the idea of an "alpha wolf" is based on flawed science that has long since been debunked.
- Author Vocabulary Calendar:
- He refers to any creature that's never been encountered before as an "entity".
- Many locations and items are covered in "sigils", which, due to his familiarity with Sigil of the Forgotten realms, he pronounced incorrectly until the audience got on his case about it.
- "Circumstance" is a catch-all term when he can't find a more specific word.
- Any beast with sharp teeth has a "toothy maw".
- Nobody ever "wakes up", they always "come to consciousness".
- There are no people who have a "body", everybody has a "form" or a "physical form".
- When an attack hits an enemy, it "finds purchase".
- Nothing appears or disappears, it "apparates" or "disapparates".
- Lots of things are "technically" something, even when there's nothing 'technically' about the thing he's talking about.
- Berserk Button:
- Selfie-sticks; he imposed disadvantage on Tiberius for using one until the party convinced him it was a selfie-staff. Naturally, a critter gave him one during a Critmas.
- Also, do not mention
Wil Wheaton around him.note - While there's plenty of meta-humor in the game — real-world pop culture and technology is mentioned in-character on a regular basis, passing either without comment or a Lampshade Hanging of other characters not getting the reference — Matt apparently has his limits, as evidenced when he prompted Marisha/Keyleth to explain the concept of skywriting to the other characters and immediately barked out "No!" when she began her explanation with "In the future..."
- On a similar note to the above example, mispronouncing words that have a hard-G sound with a hard-J, essentially making fun at Matt's expense over the sigil/siggle confusion. Case in point:Liam: Did you say "Bay of Gifs"?
Sam: Uh, "Bay of Jifs," it's pronounced.
Matt: (Beat) I'm gonna fuckin' fuck you.
- Catchphrase:
- "How do you want to do this?" When someone has just delivered a decisive blow, Mercer gives them the opportunity to choose how they dispatch their opponent. Saved for tough monsters or bosses, and has become something of a Borrowed Catchphrase for the Geek and Sundry Twitch chat, who chant it as a way of cheering when they think someone is about to get a kill.
- A member of the party asks if they can attempt something especially outlandish? "You can certainly try". In many ways, this phrase is Matt's credo as a DM.
- "I'll allow it", when he approves of an unorthodox interpretation of the game's rules.
- He likes to jokingly impose "disadvantage" on players for their antics, such as Liam mugging the camera or Orion using Presdigitation as a selfie-stick.
- A darker example is "it's what X would have done" whenever he has to be harsher on the players than he wants to because the characters they're fighting are evil.
- "I'll give you a visual perspective", when he brings up the map for an encounter.
- "Which brings you to a total of?", after a player rolls a nat 20 for a check he had a very high DC for. Matt doesn't do this often, but he rules some tasks so difficult that even a natural 20 won't guarantee success.
- "Take a picture of that shit!", whenever nat 20's are rolled back to back.
- "The day is yours", when he asks the players what their plans are for a given day after they have a long rest.
- "Welcome to Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons And Dragons", his usual greeting to the audience when a stream starts.
- Chronically Killed Actor: On the rare occasion he gets to step out of the DM's seat and become a player for oneshots and the like, things tend not to end well for his characters. This includes himself in "Liam's Quest: Full Circle", himself again in "Thursday By Night" and Clayton "The Coffin" Sharpe in "UnDeadwood".
- Cliffhanger: Is very fond of doing these whether at the end of an episode or before a break, much to the party's (and the audience's) dismay.
- Combat Commentator: Matt is especially fond of doing this to describe each hit. Exaggerated during his "How do you want to do this" moments.
- Combat Referee: A given as a Dungeon Master is that he has the final say on what happens in combat.
- Crazy-Prepared: A hallmark of a great DM, and Matt is no exception. One noteworthy example is during In Hot Water (C2, E43), where he reveals that he brought in a figure of a demon, despite not being sure if Fjord had the spell necessary to summon it.
- Deadpan Snarker: During his role as the DM, Matt wastes no time in snarking at the players when he can. He also snarks in-character as NPCs more often when possible.
- Didn't Think This Through: It's rare, but it does happen. Most notably, when he gives The Mighty Nein magic paint that can be used to make objects by painting them, and Nott immediately suggests painting dicks on everything.
- Face Palm: Frequently, whenever the party does something particularly foolish. Tiberius's endless shopping list in Episode 27 sends him into a full-on Head Desk.
- Finish Him!: Matt allows his players to describe the finishing blow to a boss monster or difficult encounter, and then adds a little more flavor on top. Matt will ask "How do you want to do this?" to whomever landed the killing blow, then roleplay out what happens after it's described.
- The GM Is a Cheating Bastard: Averted; Mercer plays entirely fairly with his dice rolls. He's even rolled his dice in full view of the players, and sometimes takes pictures of the dice with his smartphone's camera just to make sure the rolls can't be disputed.
- In the Final Battle against Vecna during Campaign 1, Matt rolled very badly on Vecna's attempt to resist the party's trying to imprison him. He made a point of taking a picture of his die rolls during the stream to show he wasn't just giving the party the victory.
- At the end of Campaign 2, he rolled two crucial rolls in full view of both the table and the camera. The camera even cut to the die rolling across the table both times, all to prove Matt wasn't making anything up or fudging the rolls. Matt rolled on the table twice for Mollymauk's resurrection ritual. The first roll was a 1, which failed. After Caduceus used Divine Intervention to force a re-roll, the second roll was a 12, which succeeded.
- In the middle of Campaign 3, Mercer made a dice roll to determine if a ritual used to bring someone back to life would work, since one of his homebrew rules is that resurrection spells have a chance to fail. The ritual ended up succeeding when Matt rolled a 16, which he took a picture of with his smartphone's camera to make sure no one could dispute his roll, and to prove that he didn't bring the target back because he felt like it.
- During a particularly brutal encounter in Episode 91 of Campaign 3, Mercer rolled consistently well (though not perfectly) for the enemy combatants, to the point it looked like a Total Party Kill was coming. Though Mercer was clearly uncomfortable with pushing the party as hard as he did, it's both what the enemy would have done, and it was to build tension. He even said that a TPK was "a potential for new opportunities" if it came to that. It almost did, but not quite. It took F.C.G. pulling a Heroic Sacrifice with 79 points of radiant damage to get to kill and win the fight, but at the cost of Sam's character dying.
- It Amused Me: His reason for having the Mighty Nein encounter a pet shop.Liam: Why did you put this in front of us, Matt?
Matt: You know exactly why. Because it's funny! - Guest-Star Party Member: Matt's played a few of these, bringing back popular ones multiple times. The most prominent is Lady Kima, the Boisterous Bruiser halfling paladin the party rescued in the Underdark.
- Killer Game Master:
- Averted. Mercer's style of presentation as a Dungeon Master can be described as "challenging, but fair." According to the Episode 10 Q&A, Mercer never fudges his rolls out of a belief it would take the fun of chance out of the game, and even takes photographs of important rolls so that no-one can dispute them. That said, if a character does die, then Mercer increases the tension by giving their resurrection spells the chance to fail. This isn't because he wants them to stay dead, but because it gives the moment the emotional weight it deserves. It also helps to avert Death Is Cheap, since Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein eventually have enough disposable income to cast Raise Dead or Revivify a hundred times over.
- Occasionally, it will be Played for Laughs when the party runs into a dire situation.Laura: He is trying to kill us!
Matt: [grins evilly]
- Magic Hair: Played for laughs, when it was speculated in a Q&A after Episode 4 that Matt couldn't DM without his hair. On the rare occasions Matt's hair has been cut fairly short, it often doesn't turn out well for the players. Episode 68 of campaign 1 saw a stressed and overwhelmed Travis tell Matt never to cut his hair again.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: By necessity, as he plays everyone who isn't the party note with the exception of a few guest players. That said, his players (all of whom are professional voice actors in their own right) have said in Q&A sessions that they're impressed at how wide Matt's range is.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Matt sometimes gets this reaction from the players when he reveals a particularly dangerous monster like a beholder or a dragon turtle.
- Meta Game: Players acting on knowledge their characters wouldn't have is explicitly forbidden. So Sam had to pass an intelligence check to see if Scanlan could polymorph into a triceratops (as a bard he'd read/heard stories about creatures similar to them), and Keyleth couldn't sunbeam a mist-form vampire until someone told her what it was.
- Monty Haul: If one goes by the DM guide for Fifth Edition, Mercer has consistently given his players well above the recommended number of magic items for their level, but he adjusts the difficulty of the fights accordingly. They did transfer over from Pathfinder, which is a bit more generous with magic items, rather than starting in 5E. They actually seem to find fewer than the usual number of magic items, but then buy magic items from Gilmore's Glorious Goods.
- Mr. Exposition: Matt will sometimes give the players and the audience information about the places and history of the world, including things that the player characters would be expected to know.
- Not So Above It All: It's part of his job to keep Vox Machina/the Mighty Nein/Bell's Hells relatively on track, but he's not above making jokes (like claiming "fish" is a type of arcane damage) and he occasionally encourages their wackier scenarios. For example:
- When he basically goads Grog into headbutting a captive Fomorian.
- Also seen in Episode 44 when Scanlan asks if he can use Bigby's hand to Fastball Special Grog at a beholder. Matt reacts with unbridled glee at the thought.
- He lets the Mighty Nein meet a travelling pet shop, knowing full well that he enables the chaotic nature of some of his players this way, even though he might not have realized that they would buy THREE animals.Travis: [accusing him] You did this.
Matt: [grinning widely] Yeah. Yeah, I did. - After revealing that the Nein's ally Viridian is actually Keyleth's mother Vilya, Matt simply smirks and says that he's been waiting to drop that particular bombshell for five years since the beginning of Campaign 1.
- Not So Stoic:
- He's a master of staying poker-faced while the players argue over the best course of action, or as they walk blithely into his traps. But his DM's mask has been known to slip when the PCs are in mortal danger (though it doesn't stop him endangering them, naturally) or even when his own campaign is on the verge of coming to a screeching halt due to horrible cases of oversight. Notably, when one episode ended with Percy dead on the ground and Pike absent, his end-of-episode expression was not his usual jovial one, seeing as five of his six players were either crying or close to.
- In the Pathfinder one-shot where the whole party is playing as goblins, he finds it impossible to keep a straight face for more than a few minutes at a time due to their antics. Taken even further when they describe their sadistic finishing moves.Matt: [on the verge of tears from laughing at Taliesin's latest move] You're horrible!
- Sports a clear facial expression when Scanlan busts out a sixth-level Thunderwave from inside Umbrasyl's stomach.
- When Keyleth, the party's only way out of the Nine Hells, is brought extremely close to death in Episode 93 and she has to roll one death saving throw (with a 45% chance of failure), the look on Matt's face says it all. He mentions after she makes the save that if she had died, in his own words, "that would've been Campaign Over".
- In episode 97, when Keyleth recklessly jumps off a cliff leading to her immediate death, while he's more successful at keeping his composure than most of the others, it's still clear how he was in utter shock about the event.Matt: [barely holding his laughter] This was not in my plan!
- A way less funny one. During Episode 8 of Campaign 2, Marisha turns awkwardly and injures her rib. When she comes back to the table in genuine pain, Matt instantly drops his DM persona and asks if she's alright. Since this happened right before the break, he says, "I'm going to take care of my wife".
- At the end of episode 113 of campaign 1, after an emotionally grueling scene featuring a cruel The Reveal and demonstration of just how far the Big Bad will go, Matt is smiling and giggling as he tells the players (and audience) that he hoped they had a great time. On the heels of said players calling him a monster.
- In the penultimate episode of Campaign 2, Taliesin successfully rolled for Divine Intervention after Mollymauk's failed resurrection roll. The re-roll it bought him succeeded. Matt tried valiantly to hold onto his DM persona before breaking into a laugh and muttering incredulously under his breath.Matt: God I fucking love this game so much.
- The final episode of Campaign 2 saw Matt start openly crying once he brought the campaign to a close. He had to give his usual sign-off phrase "is it Thursday yet?" to the audience with tears visibly rolling down his face.
- Episode 91 of Campaign 3 saw Mercer tearing up during an emotional high point in the action. When F.C.G. pulled a Heroic Sacrifice and did so for the sake of the rest of Bell's Hells, Matt was emotionally touched, and spent the rest of the evening after combat was over with an emotional tone in his voice as he let the gravity of what happened sink in.
- Only Sane Man: Generally tries to act as this to his players' antics. Emphasis on tries.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Whenever the players defeat a powerful monster, he states, "How do you want to do this?" as a leadup to allow them to deliver a stylish finishing blow.
- Previously on…: At the beginning of every episode, there's always a recap of events that happened prior.
- Rule of Cool: Matt has stated this is one of the fundamental principles in his approach to DMing, and that if a rule is keeping a player from enjoying the game, he'd rather find a way to work around the rule then strictly enforce it.
- So Proud of You: Matt will happily tell the players that he's proud of them when they do something dramatic or take a big step in their character's development, even if it screws up his own plans.Matt: As a dungeon master, that was one of the more frustrating moments - like, as a person that's built to an intense encounter like this - and one of the most proud I've been of a player outsmarting me.
- The Storyteller: A bit on the nose, but one of the main responsibilities of a Dungeon Master is telling an immersive story.
- Subverted Catchphrase: Matt's had to ask himself "How do I want to do this?" when an NPC he was controlling got the final kill instead of one of the players. He was more than a little embarrassed, especially when the players razzed him into saying it.
- Swapped Roles: Matt has traded sides of the table with several of the players, playing a character in games they run. His most notable example is being one of Aabria's players in Exandria Unlimited.
- The Unreveal:
- The "perception whisper" he does when he only wants one character to know something, which may or may not be revealed later on.
- Early in the second campaign, there were a few instances in which Matt asked certain players to leave the table; these moments were functionally the same as the whispers, but with the intention of letting the viewer know what was going on - such as the first time Fjord received a vision from his patron.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: He reacts this way a few times, especially when he rolls badly at key moments. While Mercer tries his best to be Crazy-Prepared, it wouldn't be D&D if the DM wasn't floored at least a few times.
- He was momentarily shocked when Keyleth's attempt to feeblemind Raishan succeeded, effectively ending a threat handily.
- When he rolled for Vecna's saving throw against the party's attempt to imprison him, he stood there in surprise for a moment, and then took a picture of his dice roll to prove he wasn't fudging anything when he described Vecna's final defeat.
- He was clearly surprised when Jester employed a gambit to cast Modify Memory on a hag, using a cupcake and the Dust of Deliciousness to make her fail the save. He even chuckled to himself a little bit after the hag failed the save.
- When an NPC ally he was controlling struck the final blow on a major villain, Matt was briefly stunned at what just happened. He then had an Oh, Crap! moment as he realized he was going to have to apply his Catchphrase to himself, which he did with a "How do I wanna do this?" callout. The players teased him mercilessly.
- Matt was floored when the Mighty Nein were about to be arrested by the Bright Queen in episode #56 in the Wildemount campaign, and Caleb gave her the Dodecahedron the party had been carrying for several months. He said he'd anticipated a few different paths the players might take, but he never expected that. He mentioned how glad he was that there wouldn't be a session next week, since he'd have to really think about how this would impact the campaign.
- His biggest reaction of all came during the Search For Grog one-shot after Grog was revived. Grog immediately went into a rage, and Travis rolled two natural 20s in a row. Matt was so shocked, he said multiple Precision F Strikes (out of surprise rather than anger) and got the other players to confirm it. Once it was confirmed, Matt turned into a Large Ham in describing how Grog beheaded the session's main villain in one blow.
EXU Dungeon Master
Played by: Aabria Iyengar
The Dungeon Master for Exandria Unlimited (where Matt is a Player Character this time).- Borrowed Catchphrase: Had been wondering who would earn her first "How do you want to do this?" moment and gave it to Matt as Dariax in the first episode.
- Catchphrase: Besides borrowing Matt's iconic line when she's in the DM's chair, she has a couple of her own:
- "Make a (stat/skill) (saving throw/check) for me", or "Give me a (stat/skill) (saving throw/check)" when she asks the player to do this.
- "Paint me a word picture" when a player does something particularly evocative like changing into a wild animal or casting a powerful spell, and she wants them to give a more detailed description.
- Distaff Counterpart: She is this for Matt, acting as DM while he moves to the other side of the table. Also like Matt, she switched sides with him by becoming a player when he returned to the DM's chair for Campaign 3.
- Monty Haul: A bit like Matt before her.
- When the party visits Gilmore's Glorious Goods, she has Gilmore give them the "friend discount", which reduces his shop's prices somewhat.
- More specifically to Aabria, she can be very forgiving with low rolls on skill checks, as she tends to operate on a "if the information is crucial to the campaign you will get it regardless but if you roll high you'll the info will be more revealing" ideology more than some DMs.
- Aabria is also generous with granting inspiration and advantage, especially when the players impress her with Rule of Cool.
- Mrs. Exposition: She gives the players and the audience information about the places and history of the world, including information the player characters would know.
- Scenery Porn: Aabria is very good at creating evocative descriptions of the people and places the party encounters. She'll also make the players give extra descriptions for particularly spectacular uses of their abilities and spells.
- The Storyteller: Aabria is the one crafting the story the players and audience are following.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: She's had to do this when bad dice rolls make things go pear-shaped.
- Swapped Roles: Just like Matt, her first appearance was as the DM for Exandria Unlimited. She later became a player in both Matt's and Brennan's campaigns.
- Tantrum Throwing: Downplayed; DM and player Aabria has a habit of throwing away any dice that rolls badly.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Much like Matt, she has these moments when bad rolls come up. One of the most notable examples is in episode 4 when the players roll hilariously badly when trying to control Gilmore's wagon.
EXU: Calamity Dungeon Master
Played by: Brennan Lee Mulligan
The Dungeon Master for Critical Role: Exandria Unlimited: Calamity.- Berserk Button: It wouldn't be Brennan if he didn't go on an absurdly petty rant about something minor. In this case, he goes of on his fellow dungeon masters because they don't snack while playing, accusing them of being elevated godlike beings who look down on his frail human self with smug elitism.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Like Aabria before him, he also inherits "How do you want to do this?" and "Is it Thursday yet?"
- Heel: Like in his own show, Brennan enjoys playing up his sadism for laughs, even though he's ultimately on the heroes' side.
- Killer Game Master: Enforced. The fact that his characters suffer is not entirely his fault, since the Doomed by Canon nature of the story, and the setting being Just Before the End with regard to the Calamity, means that tragedy was always going to take place. It doesn't change the fact that he's clearly enjoying the hell out of tormenting the players though.
- Mood Whiplash: He has a habit of injecting comedy into the worst moments. His first example is telling a stressed-out table that they hear explosions, only to immediately reveal that the explosions are fireworks instead of dangerous Stuff Blowing Up.
- Mr. Exposition: Calamity keep the lorebombs raining down on the cast, both immediately story-relevant facts and reveals that make truckloads of sense for previous players but none for newbies.
- Suddenly Shouting: He weaponizes yelling for dramatic effect, particularly while playing as Asmodeus.
- The Teetotaler: In response to a joke about a tavern (named after him) having the third best ale but the best company, Brennan remarks that it works for him since he doesn't drink.
- Vocal Dissonance: Played for drama. He'll have a habit of telling his players about the horrific things they're going through — such as losing an arm, massive trauma, and countless deaths taking place in the span of only one second — with a very soft and soothing tone to his voice. The dissonance is intentional, as it highlights just how terrifying the situations are since the creepiness of the dissonance heightens the tension.
- Xanatos Gambit: Being the DM of the prequel episodes, he had to make sure that, whatever the players would do, they can't stop the Calamity from happening. Brennan placed several triggers within the game and the characters' backstories to ensure that, even if they did the best they could, there'd be at least one world-ending event that they can't stop.
