Critical Role Announces Two New RPGs

Critical Role’s publishing arm, Darrington Press, has released a ‘State of the Press’ video announcing two new tabletop RPGs.

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Two new RPG systems we’ll be releasing: Illuminated Worlds, optimized for short story arcs and adaptable to myriad settings, and Daggerheart, a fresh take on fantasy RPGs with emphasis on longer campaigns and rich character options.

At Gen Con this year, you’ll be able to play AND purchase Queen by Midnight, and you’ll even be able to take our two upcoming RPGs for a spin. We hope to see you there!

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Most CR fans are fans of the show and the cast first and fans of D&D a distant second. The CR subreddit is abuzz with people excited by the announcement.

I agree! I think they are fans of CR first, and D&D ... and RPGs in general ... second.

Look- we have all sorts of people that are even bigger fans of the MCU, or Star Trek, or Lord of the Rings ... yet all of those properties that people love (and are infinitely more popular than CR) haven't become huge RPGs. The one exception, kinda sorta, is Star Wars. And even that is tiny.

So maybe this will be different. Eventually things change. But as a gambling man, I prefer to side with the house.

 

[overgeeked]

It's an interesting choice.

Put in the most basic terms ... most companies, other than WoTC/Hasbro, don't get rich making RPG products. And even there, it was only the unprecedented success of 5e that really allowed that in terms of sales of the system itself.

Critical Role doesn't make the bulk of their money from their campaign settings. No- they are about entertainment. On the one hand, they have a lot of people that love the entertainment. On the other hand, it seems like quite a gamble to risk the entertainment empire they have built in order to sell an RPG system. Sure, they get more control, but it doesn't seem worth it.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is a cunning strike. But if you've bet against D&D for the past 50 years, you would have lost a lot of money. And I don't think CR is going to be the one to change that.

Well, their entertainment empire isn’t beholden to a game system. It’s not playing 5E that made them popular. Any game they played was bound to get a boost from CR fans. As said a few times now, CR fans are fans of CR first…then fans of D&D a distant second.

They did a Call of Cthulhu one-shot and Chaosium sold out their stock way faster than they expected. As long-time gamers we tend to think system first. So it’s an easy assumption to make that 5E made CR popular. That’s not the case. At the very least, CR made themselves popular…if not CR actively making 5E more popular than it otherwise would have been.

They’re risking nothing but the time and money it took to develop the games. CR will keep trucking. Another season of VM on Prime, a new MN show on Prime, they just bought Midst. They’re doing fine. It’s not going to all vanish because they play something other than D&D.

 

[darjr]

Maybe I’m in a different “space” but most CR fans I know do play games and RPGs. To different degrees. And many of the ones I’ve discovered who didn’t soon did.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting. This could add something unique to the upcoming mix of fantasy Heartbreakers.

 

[ReshiIRE]

Depending on how this goes, this could be a shakeup.

Timing could be everything. If they think either system will sell really well, campaign 4 could easily be done in one or the other. And depending on timing, that could coincide with D&D's 2024 release.

If campaign 3 doesn't adopt those books or, assuming campaign 3 ends earlier than others and campaign 4 decides to go with one of these systems instead? That would be a major co-operator turned competitor for WoTC.

Could that have an effect similiar to Paizo deciding to make Pathfinder into their own system?

The effect on Critical Role's audience - and what RPGs they go towards - could be very interesting as well. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a part of the Critical Role audience that tried 5e but didn't like it or things pet ered out. A new system could cause people to reconsider and try TTRPGs again - just with the money going towards Critical Role. It may also entice newcomers to any TTRPG system to try something new.

I think 2024 is going to prove to be a very interesting year in TTRPG development.

 

[overgeeked]

Depending on how this goes, this could be a shakeup.

Timing could be everything. If they think either system will sell really well, campaign 4 could easily be done in one or the other. And depending on timing, that could coincide with D&D's 2024 release.

If campaign 3 doesn't adopt those books or, assuming campaign 3 ends earlier than others and campaign 4 decides to go with one of these systems instead? That would be a major co-operator turned competitor for WoTC.

Could that have an effect similiar to Paizo deciding to make Pathfinder into their own system?

The effect on Critical Role's audience - and what RPGs they go towards - could be very interesting as well. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a part of the Critical Role audience that tried 5e but didn't like it or things pet ered out. A new system could cause people to reconsider and try TTRPGs again - just with the money going towards Critical Role. It may also entice newcomers to any TTRPG system to try something new.

I think 2024 is going to prove to be a very interesting year in TTRPG development.

Yeah. Exactly. Edition changes are great times for disruption. Pathfinder for example. Some will dig R5E, some won’t. There will be a mound of 5E heartbreakers on the market around the time R5E lands. All hoping to snatch some market share. They will most likely all split the disaffected fans rather than any one of them taking the lion’s share. Personally, I think it’s smart of CR to try something new instead of trying to add to the dogpile of 5E heartbreakers. If they make a fiction-first, story-focused RPG that plays they way they want to play, I get the feeling a lot of people will follow.

 

[gorice]

I agree! I think they are fans of CR first, and D&D ... and RPGs in general ... second.

Look- we have all sorts of people that are even bigger fans of the MCU, or Star Trek, or Lord of the Rings ... yet all of those properties that people love (and are infinitely more popular than CR) haven't become huge RPGs. The one exception, kinda sorta, is Star Wars. And even that is tiny.

So maybe this will be different. Eventually things change. But as a gambling man, I prefer to side with the house.

Counterpoint: I've never seen any ads for Edge of Empire on Disney+.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah. Exactly. Edition changes are great times for disruption. Pathfinder for example. Some will dig R5E, some won’t. There will be a mound of 5E heartbreakers on the market around the time R5E lands. All hoping to snatch some market share. They will most likely all split the disaffected fans rather than any one of them taking the lion’s share. Personally, I think it’s smart of CR to try something new instead of trying to add to the dogpile of 5E heartbreakers. If they make a fiction-first, story-focused RPG that plays they way they want to play, I get the feeling a lot of people will follow.

It has the possibility of breaking out similar to recent Apocalypse World games like the Last Airbender one (whichbhad a similar number of Kickstarter backers to the vox Machina show one did).

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Counterpoint: I've never seen any ads for Edge of Empire on Disney+.

Sure. One of the stages of acceptance is realizing that CR, as successful as it is ... is not Disney.

 

[ReshiIRE]

So they are apparently going to be at Gencon in August - a few months away.

That leaves an interesting possibility - will they do a Jumpstart edition like Cyberpunk Red did, or something like a test edition like Pathfinder 2e?