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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

I also feel like, once a show takes off in popularity and more spotlight is on it, agendas beyond "make a good story" begin to fight for priority and creativity and/or good storytelling can begin to suffer

 

[sevenbastard]

The CR subreddit is weird. It’s the most toxically positive place I’ve ever seen.

Part of my resistance to anything CR is that nothing can be as good as people keep telling me that it is.

Whenever people are super loyal to a brand or have rabid fandom I get suspicious. Some sort of ingrained Gen X skepticism mixed with my own need to be contradictory to popular opinions to fuel my fragile ego.

 

[Meech17]

To be fair, TAZ's Balance campaign was incredibly good, IMO better than anything CR has done as a piece of entertainment, and as a podcast it's easier to consume. Nothing TAZ has done since then matches Balance, although I liked Ethersea and hope they return to it.

Maybe I just really prefer Griffon as DM...

Yeah, they really struck gold right out of the gate and then just set the bar way too high for any follow ups. I do think Griffin is the best DM out of all of them, so any season they pitch where someone else is running the show sets my expectations very low. It's a shame too, because I think Griffin is a stellar player as well. I had a lot of hopes for Steeple Chase because the premise seemed really cool, but it just did not work out like I had hoped.

 

[overgeeked]

Part of my resistance to anything CR is that nothing can be as good as people keep telling me that it is.

Whenever people are super loyal to a brand or have rabid fandom I get suspicious. Some sort of ingrained Gen X skepticism mixed with my own need to be contradictory to popular opinions to fuel my fragile ego.

I’m a cynical Gen Xer, too. I didn’t watch CR for awhile and laughed at the idea of watching other people play D&D. Then I tried their Call of Cthulhu one shot. Then I tried episode one of C2. Then I was in. Looking back, it took surprisingly little to hook me.

 

[billd91]

I’m a cynical Gen Xer, too. I didn’t watch CR for awhile and laughed at the idea of watching other people play D&D. Then I tried their Call of Cthulhu one shot. Then I tried episode one of C2. Then I was in. Looking back, it took surprisingly little to hook me.

I started listening in drives to and from my daughter’s college back around early 2018. She was going to school 2 hours away, so I’d conveniently get a whole episode done in one round trip. And it was more engaging than just listening to the radio which kept this tired old man awake. That was campaign 2. I then went back to all of campaign 1 while walking in the treadmill or making dinner. And there we are, hooked.

 

[Seramus]

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

They do that now. The shows are broadcast on Twitch at the iconic Thursday Night, where fans gather and chat as a massive watch party.

That's interesting. What do you mean by that?

The mods of the main CR Reddit are very strict about possible criticism or negativity, and many reasonable (by my standards) comments are removed. Many of the mild ones are downvoted into obscurity, and there's a strong "Well, don't watch it then" response.

A whole different CR Reddit subforum needed to be created as a place to discuss things freely. Naturally it does lean somewhat negative.

For example, discussion about Ashley forgetting her class features would be removed from the first subreddit, but allowed in the second.

 

[overgeeked]

The mods of the main CR Reddit are very strict about possible criticism or negativity, and many reasonable (by my standards) comments are removed. Many of the mild ones are downvoted into obscurity, and there's a strong "Well, don't watch it then" response.

A whole different CR Reddit subforum needed to be created as a place to discuss things freely. Naturally it does lean somewhat negative.

For example, discussion about Ashley forgetting her class features would be removed from the first subreddit, but allowed in the second.

Pretty much. Almost anything even slightly negative is voted into obscurity and/or deleted outright by the mods. Though there are the beginnings of cracks in this from the mods. They're allowing more questioning of the show of late. Maybe because they're not enjoying C3 as much themselves.

You're either a perfect, pure, amazing, 100% superfan of the show or you should stay off the main sub. It's a damned weird place.

 

[Yenrak]

Have you guys listened to D&D Is For Nerds? It’s an Australian real play podcast. I’ve only listened to the Tomb of Annihilation episodes. They were fantastic.

I mostly listen to the audio versions of these things so I can consume them while exercising. The Critical Role podcasts for Season 2 were great when I was doing long runs but I find their episodes just much too long for general purposes these days.

 

[EthanSental]

Have you guys listened to D&D Is For Nerds? It’s an Australian real play podcast. I’ve only listened to the Tomb of Annihilation episodes. They were fantastic.

I mostly listen to the audio versions of these things so I can consume them while exercising. The Critical Role podcasts for Season 2 were great when I was doing long runs but I find their episodes just much too long for general purposes these days.

I’ve enjoyed Dnd is for nerds….even nominated it for podcast on enworld a few years ago. I haven’t listened later due mainly to work and slipping my mind…time to listen in again!

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Are there any good podcasts that are predominately women playing? I find that the story lines and play are markedly different between women and men. I find both quite engaging but different which is really nice.