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 think it is a little presumptuous for folks to assune/decide that this current stream is explicitly intended to be a "teaching Daggerheart" stream. NONE of the CR participants are considered lead designers, and only Mercer is credited at all.

These are folks that of course have a financial stake in DH, but they aren't game designers.

 

[Imaro]

I think it is a little presumptuous for folks to assune/decide that this current stream is explicitly intended to be a "teaching Daggerheart" stream. NONE of the CR participants are considered lead designers, and only Mercer is credited at all.

These are folks that of course have a financial stake in DH, but they aren't game designers.

I dont think CR necessarily needed to have designed the game to showcase it by having the rules down. Regardless of whether it's a "teaching Daggerheart" stream or not... its their product, and the expectation that you would showcase it properly seems a pretty low standard. No one's claiming it has to be a perfect Daggerheart game but yeah you should know the basic rules of the game you are pushing and selling to people... especially amidst claims it is specifically designed to facilitate the way you all play.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

the expectation that you would showcase it properly seems a pretty low standard

I think it's a bit higher than you're suggesting.

D&D streams/podcasts, including ones which involved actual D&D designers playing their own current edition rarely actually "showcase properly" D&D's rules. In fact, most D&D 5E podcasts showcase ignoring the hell out of 5E's rules!

the game you are pushing and selling to people...

I think the language you're using here is... interesting.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I think it's a bit higher than you're suggesting.

D&D streams/podcasts, including ones which involved actual D&D designers playing their own current edition rarely actually "showcase properly" D&D's rules. In fact, most D&D 5E podcasts showcase ignoring the hell out of 5E's rules!

To mention one Darrington Press and former WotC employee we couldn't reliably trust Sage Advice/Jeremy Crawford on rules clarifications. Never mind things in actual play.

 

[Imaro]

I think it's a bit higher than you're suggesting.

I don't... can you elaborate, because I feel like people are literally asking for basic rules competency not perfection. Right now, if my only experience was watching their actual play... I'd honestly be asking myself what the actual difference is in play between DH and D&D... why do I need to spend another $60 on it.

D&D streams/podcasts, including ones which involved actual D&D designers playing their own current edition rarely actually "showcase properly" D&D's rules. In fact, most D&D 5E podcasts showcase ignoring the hell out of 5E's rules!

Sooo...whataboutism. To be frank I think the vast majority of people are more familiar with running a traditional ttrpg than a narrative one and for many this is their exposure to Daggerheart and how to run it vs. the multitudes of D&D AP's, advice, blogs, etc. So yes i think there needs to be a higher standard than D&D has if they expect to grow their audience and consumer base.

I think the language you're using here is... interesting.

Don't be vague...In what way? please don't try to paint me as a hater because I am being frank. CR are heavily pushing and trying to sell this game to their audience (as they should since it's their game). How would you phrase it?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don't... can you elaborate, because I feel like people are literally asking for basic rules competency not perfection. Right now, if my only experience was watching their actual play... I'd honestly be asking myself what the actual difference is in play between DH and D&D... why do I need to spend another $60 on it.

You're seemingly illustrating your own mindset, not what they're actually doing.

Your mindset appears to be "THIS ENTIRE SHOW IS/SHOULD BE BASICALLY AN ADVERT", you can deny that, but your language and concerns make it hard to believe that not how you view Age of Umbra. Especially as all your complaints boil down to "THEY ARE NOT ADVERTISING IT WELL ENOUGH!!!".

Whereas I strongly suspect this is not the primary purpose here - that in fact literally everyone involved is primarily there to run a fun campaign and do their thing - indeed, none of them but Mercer were even involved in the design of DH, and we don't know how much even he was involved - he's certainly not the primary designer.

Sooo...whataboutism. To be frank I think the vast majority of people are more familiar with running a traditional ttrpg than a narrative one and for many this is their exposure to Daggerheart and how to run it vs. the multitudes of D&D AP's, advice, blogs, etc. So yes i think there needs to be a higher standard than D&D has if they expect to grow their audience and consumer base.

LOL "whataboutism", pull the other one, it's got bells on! It's called context and you know it perfectly well. DH is not a pure "narrative RPG" so this whole complaint falls flat - it's a bridge between narrative RPGs and traditional ones, and functions well in that hybrid role.

As for "I think there needs to be a higher standard", well, yes, if it the whole thing was intended by all participants as an advert, that would make sense.

Which suggests it is not, in fact, primarily an advert.

Don't be vague...In what way? please don't try to paint me as a hater because I am being frank. CR are heavily pushing and trying to sell this game to their audience (as they should since it's their game). How would you phrase it?

I mean, you're using the language of someone who believe this is an advert, not a "hater". "Pushing" and "selling". You don't seem to be allowing that actually they're just doing typical Critical Role tries a different game stuff? It's not like they understood the rules of any of those deadly well, is it?

What I'm pointing out is that you, because of how you view CR, are seeing this series as purely an advert - or actually an educational advert about a product, and are judging it as a failure on the basis that it is insufficiently, in your view, showing off what is peculiar and specific to DH and insufficiently explaining why we, as consumers, should dutifully purchase this consumer product on the basis of this advert.

Whereas I think the main thing be sold here is not Daggerheart, but Critical Role and the people involved in that, and that they're DH because they made it, sure, and to see how it works, but I don't think any of them are actually sitting and thinking "How can we best sell Daggerheart". I would suggest the same applied to when they played Candela Obscura, note. I don't think the focus was on selling or educating people about that game, I think the focus was on the campaign and characters as it always is in all CR productions.

TLDR: You're making a category error - this isn't primarily an advert that's why it's not a good advert.

 

[Imaro]

You're seemingly illustrating your own mindset, not what they're actually doing.

Your mindset appears to be "THIS ENTIRE SHOW IS/SHOULD BE BASICALLY AN ADVERT", you can deny that, but your language and concerns make it hard to believe that not how you view Age of Umbra. Especially as all your complaints boil down to "THEY ARE NOT ADVERTISING IT WELL ENOUGH!!!".

Whereas I strongly suspect this is not the primary purpose here - that in fact literally everyone involved is primarily there to run a fun campaign and do their thing - indeed, none of them but Mercer were even involved in the design of DH, and we don't know how much even he was involved - he's certainly not the primary designer.


LOL "whataboutism", pull the other one, it's got bells on! It's called context and you know it perfectly well. DH is not a pure "narrative RPG" so this whole complaint falls flat - it's a bridge between narrative RPGs and traditional ones, and functions well in that hybrid role.

As for "I think there needs to be a higher standard", well, yes, if it the whole thing was intended by all participants as an advert, that would make sense.

Which suggests it is not, in fact, primarily an advert.


I mean, you're using the language of someone who believe this is an advert, not a "hater". "Pushing" and "selling". You don't seem to be allowing that actually they're just doing typical Critical Role tries a different game stuff? It's not like they understood the rules of any of those deadly well, is it?

What I'm pointing out is that you, because of how you view CR, are seeing this series as purely an advert - or actually an educational advert about a product, and are judging it as a failure on the basis that it is insufficiently, in your view, showing off what is peculiar and specific to DH and insufficiently explaining why we, as consumers, should dutifully purchase this consumer product on the basis of this advert.

Whereas I think the main thing be sold here is not Daggerheart, but Critical Role and the people involved in that, and that they're DH because they made it, sure, and to see how it works, but I don't think any of them are actually sitting and thinking "How can we best sell Daggerheart". I would suggest the same applied to when they played Candela Obscura, note. I don't think the focus was on selling or educating people about that game, I think the focus was on the campaign and characters as it always is in all CR productions.

TLDR: You're making a category error - this isn't primarily an advert that's why it's not a good advert.

Not an advert... an example/sample/guide to how to run/play this new game... which I think many who bought the game are expecting. I tune in to see the game's biggest proponents (along with being the owners) play the game they claimed was specifically made to cater to their playstyle in order to better run my own upcoming game... and yes when they ignore, or don't follow the principles/best practices and rules of their game it causes a dissonance for me and I would assume others as well. I don't think this expectation is particularly uncommon just go check out the various reddit's dedicated to Daggerheart and Critical Role.

 

[Mannahnin]

TLDR: You're making a category error - this isn't primarily an advert that's why it's not a good advert.

I think you're excluding the middle.

It's at least partly an advert, and should be a showcase for the awesome things the game does better than/differently from D&D.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It's at least partly an advert

Is it though, in any meaningful sense? It's like, I get that logically it should be, but they seem almost to be treating it more like some cool game they're running rather than a product they're trying to advertise.

should be a showcase for the awesome things the game does better than/differently from D&D

Shoulda woulda coulda.

You can say "should" but clearly that's not something anyone involved is terribly interested in.

I feel like there's something really grim and fin de siècle and consumerist about this whole "THESE GUYS ARE TOO BUSY HORSIN AROUND AND TELLING THEIR LITTLE STORIES TO SHOW OFF THEIR CONSUMER PRODUCT PROPERLY!!!".

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Not an advert... an example/sample/guide to how to run/play this new game...

Distinction without a difference.

But again this is you telling us about you and your frustrated expectations rather than anything else. Which is fine, but like, "should in my opinion" is not really the same as "They're screwing this up!".

I don't think this expectation is particularly uncommon just go check out the various reddit's dedicated to Daggerheart and Critical Role.

I don't think it's uncommon among a tiny number of us TTRPG nerds who already bought the game, no. But I doubt it's a common expectation at all in CR community as a whole (and indeed, I doubt many of them are even seeing any issues, because they're not familiar with narrative games, let alone Daggerheart specifically), and looking at the CR subreddit I absolutely nothing about this and nothing to support your claim it's common expectation there (whereas on the Daggerheart subreddit there are threads which do). In fact on the CR subreddit, all the commentary re: AoU I could find on the Best and Hot tabs and in the AoU E4 discussion thread was positive about the series and system, and there was no "Omg they're doing it wrong!" at all.