News Digest: Critical Role Leaving Geek & Sundry, Origins Award Winners, Pathfinder 2nd Ed Previews,

Enevhar Aldarion · Jun 21, 2018

Dude, I know you type these in a hurry in the middle of the night, so a couple of typos can be excused, but in the Origins Awards section you spelled Xanathar with a "Z".

Abstruse · Jun 21, 2018

Enevhar Aldarion said:
Dude, I know you type these in a hurry in the middle of the night, so a couple of typos can be excused, but in the Origins Awards section you spelled Xanathar with a "Z".

My spellcheck hates me and I can't spell the name of 90% of the stuff in Forgotten Realms as it is. I'm pretty sure Greenwood and Salvatore named stuff by mashing their hands on the keyboard and hoping they got enough vowels. And yes, I will blame my spellcheck. It keeps trying to change Morrus's name to "Morris" no matter what I tell it.

Thanks, I fixed it!

(Also, you should've seen the first draft where I called Eric Lang and Ken St. Andre "gam designers"...I think it's because I've been playing LA Noire...)

Leatherhead · Jun 21, 2018

I must be one of like 20 people who watch Critical Role on Vrv. I wonder if they are going to drop it from that platform.

Abstruse · Jun 21, 2018

Leatherhead said:
I must be one of like 20 people who watch Critical Role on Vrv. I wonder if they are going to drop it from that platform.

As of right now, there's no changes to how the show is being distributed or streamed. Now for a more drawn-out version that involves going into television industry legalese!

I'm not sure what deal there is between Legendary (the parent company of Geek & Sundry) and VRV or their parent company/companies, but it depends on who it's in place with. If it's a sub-licensed distribution deal from Legendary and/or Geek & Sundry, it'll remain in place for anything that G&S has the rights to. If Critical Roll is leaving them with the back catalog, all the stuff that's been distributed previously or in the future on G&S would be part of it. If it's with Critical Roll independently (since they do own the rights to the show), it should stay in place even with the switch in production and distribution. But it really depends on who has deals with whom over what and what those deals specifically state and it's really hard to do more than speculate based on most common industry practices, which would mean CR will stay on VRV and other outlets including G&S for the remainder of this season before moving to their own channel afterward.

Okay, boring part over! If you're worried about CR leaving a platform you're (legally) watching it on, the best thing to do is email or tweet politely and ask about it. Don't spam, don't ask repeatedly, don't get angry or make demands. Just politely say something like, "Hello, I watch Critical Roll on VRV and was wondering if it'll still be on there after the change to your own channel?" It shows there's interest from users of that platform and makes it more likely that, if there is any chance of it leaving the service, that they'll look to make a new deal.

Jester David · Jun 21, 2018

I commented elsewhere that I do wonder how long Geek & Sundry will continue to co-stream Critical Role. Now that they'll be making less money from it: new merch will leave for the CritRole store and Twitch subscribers might opt to follow CritRole instead, to support the creators and their future projects.
I imagine a desire not to try and compete with CR in a timeslot they have locked down will be a big incentive for a while.

I also wonder if this is informed the decision to end Shield of Tomorrow and relaunch that show with a creator owned world that products could be created to support.

A friend also commented that this might enable them to bring back guests like Felecia Day and Wil Wheaton, who don't entirely like Legendary (who owns Nerdist and Geek & Sundry).

There's also the thought that this might lead to additional Critical Role shows and content. Like a second Exandria campaign run by a different DM. Bring in some of the regular guest stars and some new faces.

Abstruse · Jun 21, 2018

Jester David said:
I commented elsewhere that I do wonder how long Geek & Sundry will continue to co-stream Critical Role. Now that they'll be making less money from it: new merch will leave for the CritRole store and Twitch subscribers might opt to follow CritRole instead, to support the creators and their future projects.
I imagine a desire not to try and compete with CR in a timeslot they have locked down will be a big incentive for a while.

I doubt that would change in the near future. Geek & Sundry's Twitch channel is pretty much the House that Critical Role Built. They're doing very well for a multihost multishow variety Twitch channel and have a very strong fanbase, but their numbers skyrocket every Thursday. Their viewer numbers jump from several hundred or a couple thousand to tens of thousands. They're not going to let go of that until they absolutely have to, even if it means hosting via the Twitch system rather than multicasting. Because a lot of those fans don't necessarily read all the news or social media to know that Critical Role got their own channel, especially because Twitch channels are notoriously bad about communicating outside their actual streams (it's one of the reasons it took me so long to report on Zombie Orpheus taking over several of HyperRPG's shows - HyperRPG didn't announce they were closing their Seattle studio anywhere but the live stream).

So I'd expect that to go on for as long as possible if nothing else to keep the subscribers that are only around for Critical Role, at least until they could build up another show with as much pull from outside their normal hosts.

ChapolimX · Jun 21, 2018

On the Kickstarter segment is worth checking the The Angry GM: The Website: The Book. This project was overfunded in the first hours and is about to launch a book filled with advice for experienced and newbies GMs by the Angry GM. You can expect the same quality and depth present on his articles published on theangrygm.com now revised and condensed in a book format. If you're not familiar with his work I recommend start with this series that teaches the basics of adjudicating players actions, narrating scenes and starting your first game.

Abstruse · Jun 21, 2018

ChapolimX said:
On the Kickstarter segment is worth checking the The Angry GM--

No. It's really not worth checking out. For a wide variety of reasons.

Jester David · Jun 21, 2018

Abstruse said:
I doubt that would change in the near future. Geek & Sundry's Twitch channel is pretty much the House that Critical Role Built. They're doing very well for a multihost multishow variety Twitch channel and have a very strong fanbase, but their numbers skyrocket every Thursday. Their viewer numbers jump from several hundred or a couple thousand to tens of thousands. They're not going to let go of that until they absolutely have to, even if it means hosting via the Twitch system rather than multicasting.

But, of course, let's forward ahead a year. To when CR is doing its own Twitch channel and has its own exclusive content that isn't shared with G&S and the fans are ending their subscription to G&S to get the exclusive critrole.com content. Which they learn of because during the show itself they advertise and plug the new content regularly, advertising during breaks.
And, of course, G&S isn't making as much money from merch and advertisers like DnDBeyond and Backblaze are giving funds to CR instead of them.

Does G&S double down on it's variety show content and not try to compete with Critical Role (and D&D itself) as a streaming TTRPG channel? Do they decided to do their own game content? Focus on board games?