Critical Role to Run Grimdark Daggerheart Miniseries

Critical Role has a new Daggerheart miniseries in the works, which will showcase the Age of Umbra campaign frame developed by Matt Mercer. In a recent video posted to social media, Mercer showed off the final print version of Daggerheart's core rulebook, which will release in May. During the video, Mercer discussed some of the campaign frames that will appear in the new book, including the previously announced Age of Umbra setting. In the video, Mercer announced that Age of Umbra will be featured in the next Daggerheart Actual Play miniseries being developed by Critical Role.

Mercer developed the Age of Umbra campaign frame as an intentionally grimdark setting inspired by Dark Souls and Kingdom Death: Monster. Speaking at PAX Unplugged, Mercer discussed the setting in further detail. "The campaign I created, Age of Umbra, is [similar to] a Soulsbourne," Mercer said. "It is a dark, challenging very grim place by design. In Daggerheart, our menagerie games are very silly and very fun and lean on flexing and going over the top with our characters. Age of Umbra is meant to be the opposite. It is a landscape that has been without gods for over 100 years; they abandoned the people and the realm itself is kind of rotting and dying. The survivors that exist there have to hold on to what community there is to get by as the dark things in the shadows grow darker and larger as time passes."

"There are threats and dangers whenever you rest that might give the GM more Fear," Mercer said later in the panel. "You might actually be attacked before you finish resting, so you want to have somebody take the Watch action while you have downtime to mitigate that danger. There are mechanics in this frame to set that theme that no place is really safe. There are things lurking out there and there's longstanding corruption beyond just damage that exists in this space."

The announcement, while minor, has some major implications for Critical Role. The popular actual play show recently wrapped up its third campaign and there was speculation that the show would switch from Dungeons & Dragons to Daggerheart for the next ongoing campaign. Considering that Age of Umbra is developed by Mercer and is being featured in a new miniseries, it seems like the plan is still for Critical Role to focus on Exandria in their ongoing campaign and use various miniseries to explore other kinds of stories and worlds. We'll have to see as Critical Role said they'll make more announcements about its future later this spring.

 

[Reynard]

It depends on what you use for inspiration. For me, it would be The Black Company by Glen Cook. Humans only, almost unkillable high-wizards, demons, undeads, evil cults, ancient gods and mutation weirdness. That's it.

I don't think the Black Company would suffer from nonhuman PCs, especially when you consider how weird everything is. First Law I'll give you, since it is much more grounded.

 

[beaumontsebos]

I think Mercer has been following my campaign wiki.

https://ur-delth.obsidianportal.com/

 

[Cergorach]

Dark Souls 1 hard proves that isn't true anyway!

Basilisk | Dark Souls Wiki

Basilisk is an Enemy in Dark Souls. Basilisk location, drops, tactics and tips and tricks for DKS and Dark Souls Remastered

darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com

Sure they're called Basilisks, but they are definitely "frogs" in every way which counts in-game!

I just see chickens...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I just see chickens...

Wait until you see them move/attack!

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I wish them success! Anything that shows off Not-DnD ttrpgs to big numbers of players is appreciated :'D

CR has been pretty solid about putting out miniseries/one-shots of systems that aren't D&D - there was Undeadwood with Deadlands (but, due to Brian Foster, is probably now lost to the ether), Monsterhearts, Honey Heist a few times, etc.

 

[stadi]

Re grimdark and frogs: it's probably not what the definition of what grimdark is, but there was a Netflix animation called Kulipari: An Army of Frogs (based on some novels, but I haven't read them), that is about frogs that fight against scorpions and other evil enemies. And it gets quite dark. I'm generally not a big fan of anthro species, but this show was quite good, so in the right setting, with the right style, why not.

 

[Reynard]

I think people conflate "grimdark" and "low fantasy." Which is weird because there is no inherent connection.

 

[Kichwas]

I wish them success! Anything that shows off Not-DnD ttrpgs to big numbers of players is appreciated :'D

That's how I feel as well.

Personally 'grimdark' sums up everything I dislike about modern fantasy.

I like heroic fantasy, and I like the older swords and sorcery (at least from the 60s-70s). But Grimdark isn't for me at all.

However it's popular, and if someone shows off a good live play using a new tRPG in a poplar style, that's a net positive.

 

[Argyle King]

I think people conflate "grimdark" and "low fantasy." Which is weird because there is no inherent connection.

I think that's partially true because the tone implied by "grimdark" can be difficult to take seriously when combined with certain approaches to gameplay and power levels.

Certainly, there are people who can pull it off. Warhammer 40k embraces the gonzo elements of the setting and it mostly works. You also have approaches like what you may have found in Heavy Metal some years ago.

There are also a lot of "bad" (subjective) attempts at it that are jarring because the mechanics and fluff seem to be telling two different stories. I think an example of that could (arguably) be the default D&D 4E setting (as described in the preview books and DM guide) clashing with the mythic & super heroic nature of 4E PCs. Both pieces were good but not necessarily good together; things that were (I think) intended to be serious and grim parts of the game came across as comedic. "The demon lord that was the scourge of the universe died while being stunlocked by the PCs and never even got an action?"

In a similar way, I've personally never been able to take Ravenloft seriously when playing modern D&D. I have had the luck of having great DM's who can find ways to have me want to emotionally invest in the experience, but the fear normally associated with horror feels disingenuous when PCs have little reason to fear most situations.

Maybe Mercer will do great at it. I think anything that introduces a broader audience to a variety of games is a good thing. His style isn't particularly my cup of tea, but, for others, hopefully he can provide the Groß Mocha they'd like to order.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Both pieces were good but not necessarily good together; things that were (I think) intended to be serious and grim parts of the game came across as comedic. "The demon lord that was the scourge of the universe died while being stunlocked by the PCs and never even got an action?"

You're actually seriously undermining your own point there. That's absolutely a grimdark thing to happen. No question about it. Grimdark applies to the bad guys too, there's absolutely grimdark fiction where bad or powerful and moral guys get absolutely bodied in seconds after think they're the "king of the universe" or w/e (Malazan has some examples, for one, I suspect Joe Abercrombie has some bad guys who absolutely go out like suckers too).

You're confusing it with heroic fantasy, where that would never happen, and indeed, most heroic fantasy, the good guys wouldn't even interrupt the badguy's monologue, let alone absolutely body him in seconds!

The fact that you find it funny is all about how the event was presented and what your expectations were. You were presumably expecting heroic fantasy with some grimdark tropes (which to be fair, is a much better description of 4E than "grimdark", so not an unreasonable expectation), based on what you've said. What would really make it "grimdark" or not isn't "demon lord gets absolutely bodied in seconds", that's 100% within the realms of grimdark possibility, it's whether killing him is really a victory, really anything more than a temporary respite. If killing him brings a thousand years of bounteous peace then... that's probably not grimdark. If killing him temporarily halts a war that might start up again next year or next generation or even next century, and maybe this time it's worse, then it could well be. Also, 4E still screwed up, but it screwed up because it failed to fulfil heroic fantasy tropes, not grimdark ones.