They are members of Critical Role
where they voice the characters, Vex
and Vax, and these characters
are even further fleshed out in a
new book from
Critical Role called Vox Machina
Kith and Kin.
The author is Marieke Nijkamp.
You can find it everywhere today.
It's out right now.
So please welcome to the stream.
Laura Bailey and Liam O'Brien.
Hello.
Hello. Hello.
I like your dances that you did.
Really excited.
I got a copy of the book right here.
Really excited. This came out today.
Yeah, yeah.
First, I want to talk to you both
being the characters that voice the
primary characters in this book.
Do you know how the idea
got originated to
turn their story into a whole novel?
Well, Laura and I
are big nerds who
have loved fantasy most of our lives
and we kind of cut our teeth
on fantasy novels
in the past.
And, you know, we've been doing this
critical role tabletop
adventure for years now, and
I think it's been one of the things
on our like dream list of things to
do is sort of bring
our story back to novels
in the same way that
we got yanked in into
this sort of nerdom and
love of fantasy.
And apparently, we fucking
did it.
How did we look out, though, Liam,
that it was the twins that
got the book?
Yeah, was it just
us vying for it so hard?
It might have been.
Well, I mean, we've been talking
about for years how
much we love novels, so maybe that's
sunk in with people around
us. It's something we've been aiming
at for years and years.
I mean, not since the beginning.
From the beginning, we were just at
home eating nachos and playing this
game. But as the thing started
to chug along
the road up the mountain side,
we began to wonder, like, could we
do this, could we do that. And it's
just something that I've always...
It's just been on my bucket list for
the longest time.
You know, this book takes place
obviously before the first campaign
and everything, and kind of gives
readers a good idea of
who these people are before
they even start on their journey.
But from that perspective,
are these things that you two have
thought about in voicing these
characters before?
I imagine voicing these characters
and creating this world
around them, you had to do a lot of
thinking about where they came from
and who they are.
Yeah. I mean, Liam and
I sat down for a long time
and just came up with what our
backstory would be
over coffee, breakfasts
that we always went to the same café
and ate and talked.
And yeah, and it was it was kind of
a dream come true. It kind of
fleshed itself out as we were
playing the game. And then when this
book came around, we got
a chance to actually deep
dove into some of that...
Deep dive into some of that stuff
that we had talked about in the past
and flesh it out.
Who came to you with the idea 'let's
do a book'?
How did you both get involved in
that process and also meeting the
author too.
You know, we basically live on top
of each other, the eight members of
Critical Role and we're a growing
company, and we talk to each other
constantly.
And it's been no secret to anyone
that that
a novel is something a novel
or more something that we had hopes
and dreams for, so
wasn't any surprise to anyon
after a few years.
Marieke was was chosen as the writer
just because,
well, we wanted somebody who was
obviously excellent at the job.
But it's such a big ask..
A D&D campaign.
To know someone else's Dungeons and
Dragons campaign or
any tabletop game.
That's a that's a big ask.
It's hours. Hundreds of hours of
storytelling that the eight of us
did around the table, so
we didn't really want to have to try
to download that into someone's
brain. And Marieke has
had watched the whole show from the
beginning. So she was there blow by
blow with it and really was ready
to go on up to speed when we began.
Yeah. And so we we lucked out that
she's also a phenomenal writer.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, she sounds like the perfect
fit. I mean, she's like a New York
Times bestseller fantasy writer,
so it's pretty phenomenal.
Worked out really well for you guys.
Sure did.
There were steps to the process.
In the beginning, we kind
of had a loose meeting about the
things we wanted to tackle and
when-ish it would be.
And then Marieke
penned this amazing outline
of the sort of ride we would go
on with the twins.
And, you know, there was a little
bit of discussion at that stage as
well.
And then she went away for
a long time and wrote a
draft and came back, and we just
had a massive tome, Laura and I, to
consume over a couple of weeks.
Yeah, we got to read
every draft along the way and
make comments and notes
for things that stuck out that we
really loved and stuff that maybe
wasn't exactly in character
and got to make tweaks and give
comments to her along the way, which
is awesome.
One thing I love about
this novel is that
it is...
There are so many... There are a few
factors to why it is what it is, one
of which is just there's all these
moments that Laura and I again over
lunch or texting or playing
the game together have agreed
on and fleshed out over the years.
So we knew that we wanted to touch
on a lot of that stuff, but also
just sort of the skeleton
for this story or where it set is
is based...
It kind of came from a single
game that Matt
ran for myself
and Ashley Johnson in the group
back when we were playing this game
at home would all get together and
play for 12 hours straight.
But there was one day where
Ashley and I couldn't make it,
and we were all sad sacks about it.
And Matt said, well, I'll just run a
game for you to only so just
show up at my place and we'll
see what happens. And we're like, Oh
my God, you can do it just with two
people. He's amazing, he's a wizard.
And he...It
was just Ashley and I sitting across
from a coffee table from Matt.
And he began to unspool this story
of Vax's past
connections to
a thieves guild, which is now a
major part of our universe and the
story.
And and then
and then we all got back together
again, and we played many, many
games and then the games...
And I knew nothing of it.
You kept it a secret from me.
That's right.
And then a year or two into
the actual show,
we've been playing for many hours
in front of a camera and then
Matt just sort of like rolled or
dumped out this storyline
that existed one night
years past and in my
back, my brain I'm like, we got,
what's this? Well, what did he say
five years ago, six years ago?
What's going on? Who's that?
OK. OK.
All right. Game face on.
And now that
plus all of these moments that Laura
and I have discussed ad nauseum
married together to make this novel.
Well, it's the nerd cycle of life.
Those books made us nerds, and now
we're making other nerds nerds.
A new cabbage patch of nerds
or the world to see.
I like that this is your symbol for
a cabbage patch.
They're like little cabbages.
Little cabbage children.
Please don't screencap us, please.
Did you play Dungeons Dragons before
you entered Critical Role?
Why yes Jon, I did as a young lad
play a decent amount of Dungeons
and Dragons with my friends in Grade
School and Highschool, and
I'm happy to have carried that
tradition on to the present day.
I didn't.
I'd always wanted to play,
but I didn't have like a group
of friends that were interested in
that, and me and my sister were
like, Maybe we can play, but is that
weird? It was just the two of us, I
don't know.
So, yeah, the first time we
actually got to sit around the table
and play with
each other.
It was a blast.
It was so much better than I could
have ever dreamed it being.
You know, I've always been a fan of
RPG like video games
and realizing that it
was, it was that, but
so much more because I wasn't
confined to this
dialog tree of options.
I could do whatever I wanted
to do, and Matt
would go with it.
One hundred percent.
It just it's such
a beautiful experience and
it just opens up your brain in a way
that it's not possible in any
anything else.
In our first game
where most of us were like, What is
this? Laura just dropped in
and started going, she's like,
Listen, I'm going to do the same
thing I do in the voiceover booth,
and you can fucking keep up or get
left behind. Here we go.
And we just chased after it
and never looked back.