Critical Role is a DnD group made up of popular voice actors who livestream their journey through their campaign. They first started in 2015 and have exploded in popularity and have been a big reason why DnD is more mainstream(1). The cast of critical role consists of Matthew Mercer, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, Liam O'Brien, Ashley Johnson, Taliesen Jaffe, and Marisha Ray. They've created a great world that allows fans to interact in a lot of ways.
Cosplay is a big thing in the Critical role community and in the DnD community as a whole. Cosplay stands for Costume play where people dress up as characters they like as a way to appreciate the character and the person who made it. Since critical role has been going on for 7 years there are a lot of characters to cosplay. Cosplayers will often go to conventions or meet ups and show off their cosplay. They also post it online and they garner a lot of attention(2). Critical role themselves also show off this cosplay on their website. They can also show off their cosplay live at the live shows.
Live shows are another way that the fans can show their support. Live shows are where the cast does their show in front of the fans usually in a big auditorium. Fans buy tickets and watch the magic happen live. These shows are packed with fans showing their love to the cast. The cast usually isn't just talking with the crowd but playing the campaign in real time and the fans get to be a part of it. While the fans are there they can show off their art and cosplay live as well. They are really dedicated so the cosplay is usually some of the best out there. These shows are super popular and some of the best moments have happened live and seeing the fan reactions is crazy. The fans go wild at the shows and I don't blame them, watching these moments on my computer can get my heart racing so it must be crazy when it happens in front of you.
Art is a huge way that the fans interact with Critical Role. Fans create fan art which is a when they draw the characters or scenes that they like. This is done a lot and attracts a lot of attention. Critical Role goes into a lot of detail about their characters and scenes so it makes it easy to make really good looking fan art. It is such a big thing in fact that they have a whole page dedicated to showing off fan art they like. The art goes so far that critical role has their own coloring book based off of their second campaign(3). This is nice because not everyone is artistically inclined.
In the end Critical Role is a great show and a great stepping stone into DnD. The critical role fandom is one of a kind, they show off all of the best ways to be a fan and support something you love. They have a lot of talent and show it off in a lot of different ways. I'm glad I can be apart of a such a great fandom.
2. https://criticalrolecosplay.com
3. https://screenrant.com/critical-role-mighty-nein-coloring-book-dark-horse/
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