Critical Role Announces Publishing Company

The first game will be a board/card game called Uk’otoa. This will be followed by role playing game products including Syndicult, “an original modern magic roleplaying game designed by Matthew Mercer in which mob families jealously guard secrets and battle it out for power on the city streets.”

Announcing Darrington Press, Our Game Publishing Company | Critical Role

critrole.com

I’ve long wondered whether there might one day be the official Critical Role role playing game, and whether CR's massive influence could make a dent in WotC, the traditional 800lb gorilla.

 

[MerricB]

There are plenty of RPG-esque boardgames which allow you to play out specific scenarios and present a curated storyline, but while many of them have a lot of flexibility built in and allow you to replay them multiple times, experiencing different scenarios, I haven't heard of many that push it to the extent of character progression and an extended campaign. This sounds like it could be closer to a full-fledged rules-lite RPG system.

Do these count?

• Gloomhaven
• Tainted Grail
• Descent
• Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth

Cause all have character progression and extended campaigns.

 

[MarkB]

I think they probably should have proofread their announcement a bit more though: there is no way that Uk'otoa is a "flagship product" - first product, yes. But the centre of their company's strategies? I think not. (Dungeons & Dragons and Magic are flagship products).

I suspect it may be an attempt to position themselves as non-threateningly as possible, by introducing themselves as being a boardgame company rather than an RPG company. Whether that's true, and whether anyone believes it, time will tell.

 

[MarkB]

Do these count?

• Gloomhaven
• Tainted Grail
• Descent
• Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth

Cause all have character progression and extended campaigns.

Thanks, my knowledge of the boardgame market is limited, and somewhat out of date these days.

 

[MGibster]

What is CR's viewership? (Have the vast majority of D&D players never seen an episode or never heard of it? Or is it the gateway to 5e that most players have seen at least a few episodes of?)

I just glanced at some of their videos on Youtube, and we're talking about millions of views for videos that are two years old. The Chase Begins, Campaign 2, Episode 112 was released a week ago and has 717,000 views as of the time of this post. I may not watch them, but they're clearly a force to be reckoned with.

 

[Cadence]

I think it's the opposite. I think most people underestimate the impact this stuff has.

Is there a critical threshhold for the social media stuff where it hits the main stream media? Having an upset employee vent on twitter and not getting tractions vs. an upset employee venting on twitter and the story getting traction and showing up in google news...

 

[MerricB]

I suspect it may be an attempt to position themselves as non-threateningly as possible, by introducing themselves as being a boardgame company rather than an RPG company. Whether that's true, and whether anyone believes it, time will tell.

Thanks, my knowledge of the boardgame market is limited, and somewhat out of date these days.

I am very heavily invested into boardgames at the moment, and there are some companies that have started recently that are making waves with incredibly innovative designs and well supported on Kickstarter. Awaken Realms (who make Tainted Grail, Nemesis, and Etherfields) are one that I definitely watch, and they do story-telling games with character progression VERY well.

Gloomhaven is the #1 game on Boardgamegeek, and its sequel, Frosthaven, raised over $12 million on Kickstarter. That features dungeon crawling, character advancement, a linked (branching campaign) of about 90 scenarios, and strong tactical gameplay.

And then there's Serious Poulp and their "Seventh Continent" and "Seventh Citadel" games, the latter raised almost $4 million on Kickstarter, which also come into the same ballpark as Critical Role Adventures.

(Also consider Clank Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated, and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game).

Do I think Critical Role Adventures could do well? Yes, I do. But the pricetag may be hefty based on their description.

The other products seem no more than curiosities.

 

[Cadence]

I just glanced at some of their videos on Youtube, and we're talking about millions of views for videos that are two years old. The Chase Begins, Campaign 2, Episode 112 was released a week ago and has 717,000 views as of the time of this post. I may not watch them, but they're clearly a force to be reckoned with.

I'm always amazed about the Minecraft Youtubers. Looking at what my son watches, Little Lizard has 4.1 million subscribers, Preston has 15 million subscribers and 90 million views this past month. And then there's the toy unboxers and random gamers -- I just have no idea what counts as popular.
[Edit: He doesn't watch thsi one, but Ryan's World has 26.9M subscribers, and the videos from today, 2 days ago, and the 3 day old video has 853k views; one of his 5 year old unboxing videos has 1B views].

What's the current estimate of how many D&D players there are?

 

[MerricB]

I'm always amazed about the Minecraft Youtubers. Looking at what my son watches, Little Lizard has 4.1 million subscribers, Preston has 15 million subscribers and 90 million views this past month. And then there's the toy unboxers and random gamers -- I just have no idea what counts as popular.

What's the current estimate of how many D&D players there are?

Google says 13.7 million. Take that with a grain of salt.

Wizards said 40 million players have played the game over its lifetime.

 

[Cadence]

Google says 13.7 million. Take that with a grain of salt.

Wizards said 40 million players have played the game over its lifetime.

So a million Critical Role subscribers is nothing to sneeze at! Credit them with some more who watch but don't subscribe and say the D&D player estimate is optimistic and that could be somewhere in the 10-20% range.

 

[OblivionDrive]

So a million Critical Role subscribers is nothing to sneeze at! Credit them with some more who watch but don't subscribe and say the D&D player estimate is optimistic and that could be somewhere in the 10-20% range.

Yeah I think the live viewers on each week's episode when it airs are somewhere in the zone of like 50-80k folks? But they also air in a timeslot that isn't especially conducive to folks overseas watching live so I would imagine a good chunk of their international viewership just watches the VOD when it hits Youtube. Even for folks on the east coast of the US, staying up from 10pm-2am can often be a trial, so...