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).

 

[UngainlyTitan]

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.

A consensus on ENWorld!!!!
I am not sure I could achieve a consensus on this forum with myself.

 

[Steampunkette]

I'd just love them to get a De-OGL-ified Level Up and use that.

It's a lot closer to 5e than Pathfinder was, so it'd be a ton easier to swap over without reworking most stuff. It would also make Level Up massively more popular, I think.

 

[FormerLurker]

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.

PbtA is much more of player controlled game where the player can narrate and describe what they do, which is something Matt tends to save for deathblows. It's described as "a conversation" in many books with a back-and-forth. Which is fun to play, but less fun to watch.
The more traditional RPG experience of the DM presenting the story works better as the viewer and players experience the story at the same time, rather than one.

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

It's a new market they can sell products in. Critical Role might be very happy to have the excuse to sell RPG books and supplements.

 

[Staffan]

Step 2: Wait for consensus.

 

[jgsugden]

I have a feeling that if Critical Role makes their own RPG, it will be cooperative with other groups to ensure support and that it will be designed to appeal to the D&D audience. Darrington Press announced that Matt was working on an RPG system when they revealed DP, and we've heard nothing more of it, so it may be that they redirected and he has been working on a full RPG with people behind the scenes for a while ... it is a possibility.

 

[Reynard]

If CR was to leave D&D I think they would do so in partnership with another publisher and launch a new game at the launch of the next season (and keep it pretty quiet up until then).

 

[FormerLurker]

If CR was to leave D&D I think they would do so in partnership with another publisher and launch a new game at the launch of the next season (and keep it pretty quiet up until then).

CR quickly left G&S to be its own brand. They've always valued independence.
After being negatively associated with D&D and dndbeyond over the OGL and people calling for a CR boycott over taking sponsorship money, why on Earth would CR partner with someone else and risk this happening again when they're on a first name basis with a dozen excellent game designers?

 

[Reynard]

CR quickly left G&S to be its own brand. They've always valued independence.
After being negatively associated with D&D and dndbeyond over the OGL and people calling for a CR boycott over taking sponsorship money, why on Earth would CR partner with someone else and risk this happening again when they're on a first name basis with a dozen excellent game designers?

Are people calling for a CR boycott? I haven't seen such a thing cross my news feed and I feel like that would be a pretty big story.

And the reason they would partner with someone is that they aren't a game studio on the scale of Paizo or Kobold. I guess Darrington press could expand, but that is a lot of investment for an uncertain venture.

 

[FormerLurker]

Are people calling for a CR boycott? I haven't seen such a thing cross my news feed and I feel like that would be a pretty big story.

Yes.
There are multiple threads on one of the CR subreddits and calls fir an official statement breaking ties with dndbeyond

 

[Reynard]

Yes.
There are multiple threads on one of the CR subreddits and calls fir an official statement breaking ties with dndbeyond

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