Critical Role Could Critical Role launch their own RPG?

[FormerLurker]

They have a book and game publishing sub-company (Darrington Press) headed by Ivan Van Norman, who has written RPGs before. Between him, James Haeck, and Matt Mercer himself they could easily craft a fun rules lite game designed for streaming. Maybe a little more narrative manipulation or even audience participation.

 

[BRayne]

They have a book and game publishing sub-company (Darrington Press) headed by Ivan Van Norman, who has written RPGs before. Between him, James Haeck, and Matt Mercer himself they could easily craft a fun rules lite game designed for streaming. Maybe a little more narrative manipulation or even audience participation.

Spenser Starke (Alice is Missing, Kids on Brooms) is on the Darrington Press team as well

 

[Bill Zebub]

Advice for Matt Mercer:

Step 1: Post on Enworld, "Hey gang, I'm writing a new Critical Role RPG, what should (and shouldn't) be in it?"

Step 2: Wait for consensus.

Step 3: Goto step 2.

 

[Haplo781]

They have a book and game publishing sub-company (Darrington Press) headed by Ivan Van Norman, who has written RPGs before. Between him, James Haeck, and Matt Mercer himself they could easily craft a fun rules lite game designed for streaming. Maybe a little more narrative manipulation or even audience participation.

They should literally just be using some flavor of PbtA honestly.

 

[FormerLurker]

They should literally just be using some flavor of PbtA honestly.

Matt seems like more of a simulism DM than one who likes the abstraction of PbtA.
And Van Norman might prefer to revise a ruleset he's already created and run, like Outbreak: Undead 2nd Ed - Pocket Book - Hunters Entertainment | Outbreak: Undead 2e | DriveThruRPG.com

 

[Clint_L]

CR has a custom agreement with WotC, so OGL 1.1 won't apply to them. They'll need to decide if staying with WotC will hurt their brand, and if so, I imagine Darrington Press will join Paizo's ORC hoard.

I don't know what you mean by "a custom agreement with WotC." Can you clarify?

They definitely have released products in some kind of licensed partnership with WotC, and they have advertised DnDBeyond both before and after it was acquired by WotC. But they do most of their stuff outside of WotC. The big ones are their Twitch channel, YouTube channel, and Legends of Vox Machina, of course, but they have a ton of other products (clothes, comics, games, miniatures, dice, etc.) that are outside of WotC.

I suspect that at best a small fraction of their business has any contractual ties to WotC: Explorer's Guide to Wildmount, The Call of the Netherdeep, the miniatures that are connected to those specific publications, and some advertising.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Matt seems like more of a simulism DM than one who likes the abstraction of PbtA.

Critical Role isn't a home game, though. A PbtA game would let his players just perform rather than everyone having to explain some rules element. It'd definitely be better for the show.

That said, I wouldn't put money on them changing unless things get a lot worse.

 

[Clint_L]

Critical Role isn't a home game, though. A PbtA game would let his players just perform rather than everyone having to explain some rules element. It'd definitely be better for the show.

That said, I wouldn't put money on them changing unless things get a lot worse.

They've done PbtA-style games as well. They're fun too. I don't know about "better for the show," though. For me, with decades in D&D, a big part of the fun of CR is seeing how they play it. When Laura Bailey combined Dust of Deliciousness with Modify Memory, that was one of the most entertaining things I have ever seen, and a huge part of that was seeing how she worked so ingeniously within the rules.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Critical Role isn't a home game, though. A PbtA game would let his players just perform rather than everyone having to explain some rules element. It'd definitely be better for the show.

I disagree. IMO pbta games end up referencing rules quite a lot until people get really familiar with them.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Don't get me wrong, I like Critical Role, but I'm not certain how good they are at actual game design. For example, they keep making blood magic spells and class features that don't work on a lot of common monsters (Blood Hunter, Blood Domain Cleric, School of Blood Magic Wizard; the latter of which takes the class with the least HP and makes its major gimmick taking random amounts of damage when casting a spell to reroll some damage dice for your spell).