Critical Role Critical Role Launches Subscription Streaming and Member Service

Critical Role announced the launch of Beacon, a subscription service for fans of Critical Role. While all existing streaming content will be available as always on Twitch and YouTube, but the service will offer exclusives such as access to an exclusive Discord server, immediate podcast and VOD recordings of live shows, early access to Critical Role Abridged and The Re-Slayer’s Take, and exclusive new shows including Critical Role Fireside Chat and Critical Role Cooldown.

Critical Role Fireside Chat will be a monthly AMA interview show featuring a different cast member. Each episode will be live streamed taking questions from the members-only Discord lasting 30-60 minutes. The first episode on May 21 will feature Matt Mercer.

Critical Role Cooldown is a backstage pass to Critical Role each week with post-show reactions, pitching plans from the cast, and more. The first ten episodes are available now starting with Campaign 3, Episode 83, and new episodes will air every Thursday following the live stream.

Members will also have access to pre-sales for events starting with Critical Role Live at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on June 15, 2024. Paid members (not free trial accounts) will have access to purchase tickets on May 20 at 10:00 AM Pacific, while general sales open the following day.

Sign-ups are open now for a free 7-day trial, which will be auto-renewed for $5.99 at the end of the trial and on each month thereafter.

 

[BRayne]

Really I think the main difference between C3 and C1 (C2 was much more sandboxy and wandering) is that there was a connection between all the little "save the town" early quests and the big main issue. Those little quests still happened

 

[UngainlyTitan]

This is the inevitable byproduct of geek culture going mainstream.

On one hand, there's never been more fantasy RPG product out there.

On the other hand, there's never been more fantasy RPG product out there.

I must disagree with this, this is much more the result of the streaming/content display platforms. Even if geek culture was not mainstream this would be happening because relatively small audiences can make it worthwhile for a small band of niche content creators that get lucky enough to pull in enough followers to pay a subscription.

The entry cost is low, and the production cost is low, and it does not take a lot of paying followers to make it worthwhile. The difficult bit is to make content over the long term without creatively burning out.

On the other hand, no matter how mainstream geek culture is, take away the content platforms and this type of boutique content creation simply would not happen.

 

[Queer Venger]

I'm still wondering exactly WHAT IS GOING ON with this campaign. The last thing I thought was happening, based on the random bits I've read in Twitter, was some how doing a kind of Avengers Endgame type deal where the parties of the previous campaigns would converge/join with Bells Hell and they would kill the Moon or some Moon Demon.

I'll be honest, I just finished watching campaign 2 which was good, so far campaign 3 is just all over the place, still Im only on episode 7, from what Ive heard it gets worse.

I have YouTube premium, Im not interested in paying for another streaming service no matter the perks. And if they pull a Disney + on CR, then Im no longer watching CR

 

[overgeeked]

It's worth noting that they seem to be uploading the edited down versions of the episodes to YouTube. It might be a taste to get people to check out Beacon or they might put the whole thing up for free. No idea.

 

[Ringtail]

It's worth noting that they seem to be uploading the edited down versions of the episodes to YouTube. It might be a taste to get people to check out Beacon or they might put the whole thing up for free. No idea.

Just listened to the first one today, and I did find it more engaging than my first watch of the full episode.

But you can tell there are cuts and sometimes they can be a bit jarring. I think a hour podcast is ideal for actual plays, but they're usually designed that way from the get-go. Reducing a 4 hour episode to 1 hour and 23 minutes... yeah you can tell, something's off, at least to me.

 

[MNblockhead]

One of these days, the streaming services will start roping us into longer-term plans with fees for quitting early, but happily, they haven't figured that out yet.

They've figured it out, but currently there is too much competition and consumer get really upset at anything like that. What I don't understand is why Netflix and other video streaming services don't offer annual subscriptions with a healthy discount compared to monthly subscriptions. That's how I usually get roped into longer term subscriptions to other services (news, software, podcasts, etc.).

 

[MNblockhead]

It seems the current strategy is to try and offer incentives to buy longer term plans. A lot of places are offering discount 3, 6, and 12 month subs where you pay upfront and it ends up cheaper than the per-month price.

They're using carrots right now.. Eventually they'll switch to the stick.

I used to sell mobile phones a decade or so ago, and phone companies were already doing stuff like this. You notice all the best promotions are for opening new lines, so people would sign on the two year plan for Verizon, and then once that was up jump to T-Moblie, Sprint (They hadn't merged at the time), or AT&T depending on whoever offered the better deal. Then two years later do it again. The companies got savvy on this, and started classifying an old customer who opened a new line as a "Win-Back" and they'd be ineligible for the new customer promotion

Hmm...I just looked at the pricing plans for Netflix and didn't see any annual sub options. Same with HBO Max. Ah, but Disney+ Premium does.

 

[MNblockhead]

I wonder if this is something every actual play series will struggle with? I don't follow Critical Role, but I've noticed other D&D podcasts I've listened to always seem to draw the ire of the fan base the further they get from their breakout season. Name The Adventure Zone, and Dungeons and Daddies. I honestly didn't know if TAZ was going to survive Graduation response.

I find that is true with me. I listened to the Glass Canon Podcast's first season religiously, but subsequent seasons fell flat and their other shows even more so. Same with Not Another D&D Podcast. While I still listen to their Dungeon Court episodes and the occasional other non-live-play episodes, their live play campaigns never recaptured the magic of the first season. I think what it may come down to is that, like TV shows, it is the show's story and characters you fall in love with. You may really like an actor, but that doesn't mean you'll like every show and movie that they are in.

 

[MNblockhead]

Good thing you've kept out of it. I spent $$$/month on map Patreons before I started professional GMing. Going pro let me talk myself into spending even more since it'd be a write-off :')

I don't even have the excuse of a write off. Patreon is one of those sites where the costs can really sneak up on you. Each Patreon creator you support may seem like a great deal given the small payment per month, but it is easy to start accumulating subs, and easy to forget about them. Then when you look at how much of the content you are actually using, you often realize you'd be better off just buying map/art/token/terrain/music packs item by item or pack by pack from DTRPG or your VTT's markplace.

 

[MNblockhead]

There really isn't much difference between CR being live or pre-recorded, except how the cast got spoiled a few times watching chat theories.

The recorded stuff is handled almost exactly the same as the live shows. They barely do anything different.

I'm guessing the fans like to chat with each other why the show is live. It is basically a massive watch party.

Not my thing. I'm not going to schedule my life around a 4-hour live-play show each week. But for many fans, it is a social event as much as it is consuming content.