It’s sort of a weird thing to talk your way around with a volume like this, because…well it’s not like this is the book you buy if you’re not sure about the property, right? This is the tome for folks with a vested interest a platonic ideal of the comics that were originally released in single issues. Of course, all this is meaningless if the comics inside the book aren’t great. Do I know where I’m going to keep it? No.
I spoke before in a Patreon essay about Transformers comics, and how I love IDW’s huge hardcover tomes collecting them, and this book is even bigger than those. It’s 12¼” tall, 9¼” wide, and 1¼” thick, three hundred and twenty glossy, thick pages, and it weighs…look, I dunno, a ton? I feel like I could do arm curls with it to tone my biceps. It’s larger than a comic, it’s larger even than a D&D book. Look, I love a heavy book, and this thing is MASSIVE. I very nearly bought the trades of these comics this past summer to read but then I saw an email announcement with the words “LIBRARY EDITION.” I, being both the opportunist and the sensualist I am, immediately reached out in response to review said edition. Vox Machina is the name of the adventuring party as a whole in the first campaign, thus, their origins. Because of that, and because I’m the kind of absurd person who hyperfixates on the details, the barrier of not knowing how these characters started, how they came to know each other, how they felt about each other initially all of that kept me from connecting with these characters like I (felt I) should.Īnd now, nearly five hundred words into this review, we come to the subject at hand! As a means of bridging that gap, Dark Horse Comics began publishing Critical Role miniseries, entitled Vox Machina Origins. It’s engaging, dramatic, and utterly addictive.Īnd yet, I still couldn’t get into their first campaign (they are on their second now)! I tried it three separate times, but was always hindered by the way the show started that game was originally their private one, and DM Matthew Mercer continued it when they started the stream.
Vox machina origins hard copy professional#
In the case of this show, because everyone at the table is a professional voice actor, there is a level of skill with improv and character development that goes far beyond what’s present at most tables. In case you aren’t familiar with Critical Role, an actual-play stream (or podcast) is exactly what it says on the tin you watch (or listen to) players playing an actual game, detailed discussions of how rules work, fumbled rolls and all. With the rise of live-streaming, the actual-play show has gained a lot of prominence. I mean, presumably they did-there were books! Comics! The actual games themselves! That stuff was being made for somebody! It’s just that…I didn’t know any of those somebodies at the time. Lest you think this is about establishing credentials and gatekeeping: All of that time, the one major, major thing I always wished for was for other people to love these worlds and these adventures like I did. When I wasn’t doing that I was reading Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels, or occasionally Ravenloft, or maybe Dark Sun…well, you get the idea.
Vox machina origins hard copy how to#
I was a kid at the time, I had none of the core books, and so I didn’t actually know how to play as much as I spent hours and hours poring over lore and doing my best to reverse engineer NPC stat blocks in order to figure out what a character I made should have. I’ve been an ardent player of D&D specifically since the old second edition days, when I found a Greyhawk boxed set nearly complete in a used bookstore. I love it, and I have loved it for a long time. Here’s my poorly-kept secret: when I’m not yelling on the internet about comics (or action figures), I am thinking at nearly all times about tabletop gaming. 1 and 2 Hunter Bonyun (Cover Artist), Matthew Colville (Writer), Jody Houser (Writer), Ariana Maher (Letterer), MSASSYK (Colorist), Matthew Mercer (Writer), Chris Northrop (Letterer, Colorist), Olivia Samson (Artist) Hey, uh…you guys like Critical Role? You know, that show with the voice actors and the Dungeons & Dragons? Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins, vols.
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