Critical Role Announces Age of Umbra Daggerheart Campaign, Starting May 29th

An 8-part Daggerheart miniseries is coming from Critical Role. Announced today, Age of Umbra is a new Actual Play series featuring Matthew Mercer as game master and co-founders Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham as players. The new miniseries will take up the bulk of the summer months, providing more of a break to the core cast ahead of an assumed fourth full-length D&D campaign.

Daggerheart is a new TTRPG developed by Critical Role's Darrington Press. Although the base game is intended to be a high fantasy RPG, the game includes several "campaign frames" that add additional rules for specific types of stories. Age of Umbra was developed by Mercer and draws inspiration from games like Dark Souls, Tainted Grail, and Kingdom Death: Monster.

The miniseries will air on Beacon, Twitch, and YouTube, with episodes airing every Thursday. The first episode debuts on May 29th, with Session 0 airing on various Critical Role platforms on May 22nd.

The full description of the series can be found below:

Age of Umbra

is an eight-part Daggerheart mini-series from Critical Role of dark, survival fantasy, debuting May 29 on Beacon, Twitch, and YouTube. Set in the Halcyon Domain, a world abandoned by gods and consumed by darkness, the series begins by following five people from the isolated community of Desperloch as they fight to protect their own in the face of rising horrors.

The Halcyon Domain is a lethal, foreboding land where the souls of the dead are cursed to return as twisted, nightmarish forms. A dark, ethereal mass known as the Umbra roams and holds these fiendish monstrosities, further corrupting anything it touches. Sacred Pyres keep the corruption at bay, and small communities endure through cooperation. Out in the beyond, whispers speak of ancient secrets and powers, wonders of a lost age, ready for discovery to those brave enough (or foolish enough) to seek them.

Game Master Matthew Mercer leads fellow Critical Role co-founders Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham in a high-stakes actual play exploring hope, sacrifice, and survival in a world where death is only the beginning.

 

[Reynard]

I have not watched any of C3 so maybe this is standard, but it just struck me that all the ads in Umbra are in-house. That is actually a pretty strong indicator of success, not having to take ad money. I wonder if the terrain and minis are sponsored.

 

[Reynard]

I finished Ep 2. I forgot how good a GM Matt is. Just 100% solid.

 

[Imaro]

Have their been any examples in this AP of the type of worlbuilding collaboration that the actual rulebook seems to push pretty hard. I'm thinking I may just have overlooked or forgotten about it but are there examples of Matt asking his player collaborative worldbuilding questions during the play of the game?

 

[Clint_L]

Have their been any examples in this AP of the type of worlbuilding collaboration that the actual rulebook seems to push pretty hard. I'm thinking I may just have overlooked or forgotten about it but are there examples of Matt asking his player collaborative worldbuilding questions during the play of the game?

Not that I’ve noticed. It’s very much like when they play D&D - Mercer has a hyper-detailed setting prepared. In episode 2 he even overruled Sam Riegel’s description of the killing blow against a tough mob and replaced it with his own. It was a very cool death, but still…

 

[Imaro]

Not that I’ve noticed. It’s very much like when they play D&D - Mercer has a hyper-detailed setting prepared. In episode 2 he even overruled Sam Riegel’s description of the killing blow against a tough mob and replaced it with his own. It was a very cool death, but still…

Yeah I'm honestly finding it hard to see how, other than less tactical/grid-based combat, this series is highlighting what makes Daggerheart stand out. No real collaboration and little if any narrative impact when hope or fear is rolled (other than passing out the meta-currency)...

I've actually looked to other AP's such as 3 Black Halflings City of the Black Rose and the Talking XP Bitten AP for a better job of showcasing Daggerheart, though neither with the budget & production values of CR.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not that I’ve noticed. It’s very much like when they play D&D - Mercer has a hyper-detailed setting prepared. In episode 2 he even overruled Sam Riegel’s description of the killing blow against a tough mob and replaced it with his own. It was a very cool death, but still…

I expect Mercer is finding it difficult to break out of a D&D mindset. I think I would too. I wouldn’t mind playing Daggerheart, but I don’t think I could run a game without it turning into D&D with the numbers filed off. Old habits are hard to break.

 

[stormwriter]

Yeah I'm honestly finding it hard to see how, other than less tactical/grid-based combat, this series is highlighting what makes Daggerheart stand out. No real collaboration and little if any narrative impact when hope or fear is rolled (other than passing out the meta-currency)...

I've actually looked to other AP's such as 3 Black Halflings City of the Black Rose and the Talking XP Bitten AP for a better job of showcasing Daggerheart, though neither with the budget & production values of CR.

I had the same feeling watching it. Reading the book, there are some neat ideas and it's super PbtA-inspired, with guidelines to narrate successes with consequences, etc. But watching CR, it looks like they are basically playing D&D with a different resolution mechanic, not much interpreting those mixed-result rolls and whatnot.

 

[overgeeked]

I had the same feeling watching it. Reading the book, there are some neat ideas and it's super PbtA-inspired, with guidelines to narrate successes with consequences, etc. But watching CR, it looks like they are basically playing D&D with a different resolution mechanic, not much interpreting those mixed-result rolls and whatnot.

Yeah. That's weird. In talking up the game they keep saying stuff like Daggerheart is designed to facilitate how they play or want to play...and yet Matt just runs it as if it were D&D. But, then he did the exact same thing with Candela Obscura.

 

[JConstantine]

It’s very much like when they play D&D

Yeah I'm honestly finding it hard to see how, other than less tactical/grid-based combat, this series is highlighting what makes Daggerheart stand out. No real collaboration and little if any narrative impact when hope or fear is rolled (other than passing out the meta-currency)...

I expect Mercer is finding it difficult to break out of a D&D mindset.

But watching CR, it looks like they are basically playing D&D with a different resolution mechanic, not much interpreting those mixed-result rolls and whatnot.

as we've seen from when he ran Monsterhearts and Candela Obscura, he really doesn't grasp that style of play.

 

[nyvinter]

If I ran 450 four hour long sessions of D&D (plus how many years before that), and then sometimes did 5 pbta/fitd sessions in total, I'd too probably default to D&D mindset. The only way to break it is by playing other things and getting things wrong — habits don't change right away.

(I'm the other way in that I try to run D&D as PbtA. It's not good.)