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.

 

[Imaro]

The rules definitely encourage that kind of play. Critical Role has really high production values, though, so there’s only so much players can add when the hyper detailed battle maps are already prepared, for example.

I don't think this is that big of an issue as far as collaboration goes. I get that Matt is running a plotted game but even along that plotted path there are chances for the players to add color, interesting facts, and build out their relationships with NPC's in a collaborative fashion... he just isn't really prompting them and they aren't seizing the opportunity.

It kind of feels like an odd situation where CR are not the best at demonstrating their own game.

This is, IMO, it right here. Some of my thoughts around this are that the majority of the CR group (with the exception of Matt himself) aren't...

1. Knowledgeable of the principles or even most of the rules of Daggerheart. (They had this same problem in D&D... they don't actually learn the rules)

2. Would, if given creative narrative control in the moment, either slow momentum to a crawl or possibly clash with /destroy the mood, tone and genre of AoU that Matt is trying to maintain. (Some would definitely be more egregious in this are than others)

3. Are just not as good at or interested in worldbuilding/storytelling as Matt is.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

2. Would, if given creative narrative control in the moment, either slow momentum to a crawl or possibly clash with /destroy the mood, tone and genre of AoU that Matt is trying to maintain. (Some would definitely be more egregious in this are than others)

3. Are just not as good at or interested in worldbuilding/storytelling as Matt is.

Yeah I think these are major issues that most actual PtbA games address primarily by strictly limiting the players in terms of what moves they can make, and what the results of those moves can be, and often by having a much more formal structure over how the game progresses (one which would clash with how a lot of the CR people play their characters). DH doesn't have the strictly limited moves PtbA/FitD does, because you'd essentially have to make the moves campaign-frame-specific (Age of Umbra would be a different PtbA game to Beast Feast, with different moves, even if some were shared), and because, I think, they want to make the game easier to play and run your way, rather than a way carefully delineated by moves (for better or worse). That does mean a DM is likely to be involved in managing things more.

The not as good at/interested in worldbuilding thing can be a major issue with any game where the players potentially significantly add to the narrative or setting. A lot of players just aren't very interested in doing that on a regular basis, in my experience - many players want to add a little bit here and there, I've seen that since the early 1990s, they have ideas, but god help you with most players if you want them to describe like improv-describe a town in the way a DM often has to (even many players who are also DMs struggle with this in a player role, in part due to mindset). Whereas getting them to describe a contact or a bar their PC hangs out at or something? They might do a great job.

 

[Matchstick]

1. Knowledgeable of the principles or even most of the rules of Daggerheart. (They had this same problem in D&D... they don't actually learn the rules)

I've been enjoying Umbral overall, but this is the big criticism from my point of view. They're in a situation where they are putting out content that they KNOW will be used to judge and evaluate Daggerheart, yet the majority of them don't seem to be even passingly familiar with the rules. This is the first big actual play with your company's brand new ruleset, wouldn't you think you'd want to present it in as positive a light as possible?

But, much as I think they're great, these (as you say) are the people that have played more D&D over the past ten years than possibly anyone on the planet and the players still don't know a chunk of those rules either.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But, much as I think they're great, these (as you say) are the people that have played more D&D over the past ten years than possibly anyone on the planet and the players still don't know a chunk of those rules either.

I mean, I feel like we've all met these players, some of them are in our groups!

I think D&D particularly has an issue with people not learning the rules because it's so DM-centric - more so than most TTRPGs - the DM generally tells you what to roll and so on, so I think a lot of players get away with not learning the rules by just saying what they want to do and having the DM tell them what to roll, and then the DM also tells them what happens, so they basically don't have to know much, if they don't want to.

That's less true of a lot of RPGs, where in order to play them properly, you kind of do have to actually understand the rules. This goes back even into the 1990s. You could get away with knowing very few of AD&D 2E's actual rules and not lose out on much, especially if you weren't a caster. But Shadowrun? Vampire? If you didn't understand the rules and just said what you were doing, you were much more likely to be genuinely losing out.

Combine this DM-centric approach with loads of editions over the years, and a lot of rules that, frankly, don't really matter and are kind of boring/pointless in a lot of those editions (especially 3.XE), and I think D&D has an almost unique issue with people either not knowing or being confused about the rules.

It's notable with my group even - these people have mostly played since the 1990s, they've played countless different RPGs, they pick up new RPGs well, but what RPG is most likely to lead them into rules-confusion or rules-forgetting? It's D&D.

 

[Imaro]

I've been enjoying Umbral overall, but this is the big criticism from my point of view. They're in a situation where they are putting out content that they KNOW will be used to judge and evaluate Daggerheart, yet the majority of them don't seem to be even passingly familiar with the rules. This is the first big actual play with your company's brand new ruleset, wouldn't you think you'd want to present it in as positive a light as possible?

But, much as I think they're great, these (as you say) are the people that have played more D&D over the past ten years than possibly anyone on the planet and the players still don't know a chunk of those rules either.

Yeah I've been enjoying the story as well, and I agree, it's a disservice not to know the rules of your own game... especially since it's new and many are watching to get a feel for how to play, run and adjudicate this new game.

I can also imagine that it puts major, unnecessary pressure on Matt, who even though I have been a little critical of how he's showcasing the principles of the game, does try to correct and teach the rest of CR when they either get something wrong or try to do something contrary to the rules. The more I think about it, the more I feel their lack of rules knowledge is probably a major factor in his comfortability in handing over more narrative control to the rest of CR. If you can't be bothered to learn the rules... can I really expect that you will learn and implement the principles of the game...

 

[Mannahnin]

Yeah, it's tricky. Ideally the players should learn the rules and know what the heck they're doing. OTOH, quite a lot of our players in real life don't do that, so playing with those kind of players is showing off an extremely common use-case.

 

[billd91]

I've been enjoying Umbral overall, but this is the big criticism from my point of view. They're in a situation where they are putting out content that they KNOW will be used to judge and evaluate Daggerheart, yet the majority of them don't seem to be even passingly familiar with the rules. This is the first big actual play with your company's brand new ruleset, wouldn't you think you'd want to present it in as positive a light as possible?

Well, sure. But it's also modeling a group that's still learning its way around a new game system, which is how a lot more games are gonna look when they first pick up Daggerheart. It can be helpful to see other groups that aren't perfect with their system mastery when you're unsure about your own level of mastery.

But, much as I think they're great, these (as you say) are the people that have played more D&D over the past ten years than possibly anyone on the planet and the players still don't know a chunk of those rules either.

I mean, I feel like we've all met these players, some of them are in our groups!

In other words, they're a lot more like the average gamers around the table than a lot of people assume. Playing in the fishbowl may pressure them to change some behavior (fewer asides, more concentration), but some remains the same - including not mastering all of the rules.

 

[Arilyn]

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.)

Well, sure. But it's also modeling a group that's still learning its way around a new game system, which is how a lot more games are gonna look when they first pick up Daggerheart. It can be helpful to see other groups that aren't perfect with their system mastery when you're unsure about your own level of mastery.


In other words, they're a lot more like the average gamers around the table than a lot of people assume. Playing in the fishbowl may pressure them to change some behavior (fewer asides, more concentration), but some remains the same - including not mastering all of the rules.

Yes, I agree. Having the players ask questions, or getting reminders from Matt how the rules work can be helpful for new players observing the livestream. I like how Matt sometimes lets them know what they can't get away with too!

I've watched very few livestreams but am wondering if the more structured approach, which isn't exactly in line with DH philosophy, works better as a streamed show? And may seem less foreign to more traditional D&D players.

 

[Reynard]

I'm not sure there's much to be gained from harping on the CR crew playing DH in a 5E style. Their goals are different than our goals in that regard. They are showing off the game so far as it goes.

And really, I'm not sure any hard-core PbtA players would be intrigued or put off. They already know how to do the nuanced results bit.

Now that I think of it, I would be really interested in.what folks whose only "narrative" game is FFG's Star Wars think of DH. That's the first that comes to mind as being a real bridge between traditional and narrative RPGs.