Critical Role has said that i🃏t is in “active pursuit” of a video game deal,👍 potentially expanding the team’s reach even further.
The team of voice actors, headed by Matt Mercer, has become a powerhouse in the geek publishing world with its own D&D campaign str𓆉eaming series, its own campaign settings, novels, an Amazon Prime animated series, its own tablet🔜op game, and more.
From humble beginnings
Critical Role started as part of the Geek & Sundry channel and essentially streamed a group of voice-actor friends playing D&D campaigns. In 2019, Critical Rol💯e decided to move awa🎐y from Geek & Sundry. The split led to the decline of Geek & Sundry but also saw Critical Role go from strength to strength with the creative freedom it desired.
In September 2024, Geek & Sundry partnered with Realm Media and started to produce new content. In contrast, Critical Role has amassed more than 2 million followers on YouTube and 🌳is just concludin🧔g its third streamed campaign. Those campaigns have spawned novels, comics, and even an animated show on Amazon Prime.
There have already been three full seasons of The Legend of Vox Machina aired on Amazon Prime, and a fourth season has been announced. The show is essentially an animated version of the group’s streamed campaigns and features all of the cast from the mainstream as voice actors in the show. A fourth season of the show was commissioned around the time💜 the final episode of season three aired.
Critical Role games
Matt Mercer, Critical Role’s Dungeon Master, has announced the launch of his own TTRPG, coming in 2025. Daggerheart aims to do things differently from traditional Dungeons & Dragons, and the game’s early rules show that it is meant to be more narrative-based.
One criticism that has been leveled at the system is against that of the combat system. There’s no rolling for initiative, which is how D&D determines who will attack or move first. Instead, fight order and actions are determined narratively. This effectively means that players and the DM will be able to determine play order on the fly. This lack of structure will please those who struggle with D&D’s rigid structure, but𝔍 it won’t appeal to d𓆏ie-hard TTRPG fans.
Mercer is the architect behind Critical Role’s homebrew adventures, and Daggerheart is designed for homebrew DMs, which makes perfect sense. And, with Critical Role’s success, Daggerheart will likely enjoy a similar level of popularity.
During an , the Critical Role team talked about legacy and what was next for them. They said they were actively pursuing a video game move, and suggested that an announcement could be made as soon⛎ as the end of this year or the beginning of 2025. They also said that they hoped to one day pass the Critical Role baton on to another team of creators.
There have been no further details about a likely video game, except that it will be separate from the team’s D&D streaming adventures and Vox Machina. Players should probably expect something more on the narrative side of gaming, rather than a D&D-style game like Baldur’s Gate 3.
More from Critical Role
In the meantime, Critical Role fans have a lot more content to look forward to. The gang is releasing a Christmas album featuring songs performed by the Critical Role cast both as themselves and as their characters from the stream. The track list includes Silent Mind and Deck the Bear. It 💞is available on streaming platforms, while standard and deluxe vinyl 𒈔editions can also be pre-ordered for delivery in Spring 2025.
Fans of the second campaign will be able to read Tusk Love. Tusk Love was originally featured in the second campaign as an inside joke, but the smutty novel is due to be published by Penguin Randon House. Tusk Love has been written by New York Times bestselling author Thea Gauzon and is the 7th book published as part of the collaboration 🉐between Penguin and the Critical Role team.
Published: Dec 5, 2024 07:56 am