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]

No, DH are for the people who want to play it. But we should also allow people some lenience to unlearn rules baggage from other systems. It's not easy to get rid of that even if you know the new rules in theory.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have lenience in learning the new rules... though again I feel less so with the very basics of the game... I'm continuing to watch it and adding to the viewership because I like Daggerheart and want them to show what the system can do (as well as serve as a template for my own games). But I'm also not going to absolve them of all criticism to do that.

The subreddit started to watch with the consensus that "Matt will be terrible, Ashley will be terrible, the rest will also be bad theatre kids but perhaps not as bad. AoU will be horse manure unless characters die in session one." So of course they're going to be critical of it.

The entire subreddit huh?

 

[nyvinter]

The entire subreddit huh?

Not the whole but large parts of it yes. Positive things get voted down, negative voted up.

I'd argue that there are very few 5e actual play that plays according to the rules as written. If you want to rules lawyer someone else's game, go ahead. I personally think if people have fun, then let them.

 

[Imaro]

Not the whole but large parts of it yes. Positive things get voted down, negative voted up.

I'd argue that there are very few 5e actual play that plays according to the rules as written. If you want to rules lawyer someone else's game, go ahead. I personally think if people have fun, then let them.

I'm trying to reinforce my learning of the game through watching the game's owners play it professionally. Not rules lawyering (which to be fair... wanting someone to play a game by its principles and rules isn't that.)

 

[Neonchameleon]

I including why use DH instead of 5e if you're just going to play it like 5e... which admittedly is an intriguing question.

If you're going to play Daggerheart like a 5e game that can be played like DH then DH is the better game; my top 4 reasons would be the following:

• Combat is significantly faster and more engaging (the only actually bad rather than mediocre part of 5e IMO)
• They were able to pull 27 numbers off the stat sheet, more if you count calculations, by reducing stat, stat modifier, and saving throws to just the stat modifier and by reducing 17 skills to two experiences. And there are a lot of other simplifications.
• Rolling with hope/fear is more engaging than just rolling to see if you have to roll again
• It's much easier for the GM

Not every game of 5e plays like DH partly because it is a more focused game - but DH is a significantly better system for the 5e games that play like Daggerheart.

 

[overgeeked]

Not the whole but large parts of it yes. Positive things get voted down, negative voted up.

I'd argue that there are very few 5e actual play that plays according to the rules as written. If you want to rules lawyer someone else's game, go ahead. I personally think if people have fun, then let them.

Even Perkins and Crawford do not stick to the rules of D&D when they run games in public. They have even less loyalty to RAW behind closed doors.

Besides, the Daggerheart core even calls this out on page 7 with the Golden Rule and Rulings Over Rules. If the mechanics get in the way of the story, ignore them.

 

[Imaro]

If you're going to play Daggerheart like a 5e game that can be played like DH then DH is the better game; my top 4 reasons would be the following:

• Combat is significantly faster and more engaging (the only actually bad rather than mediocre part of 5e IMO)

Subjective, so cool... I will reserve judgement until I've played over an extended period of time and with higher level characters.

• They were able to pull 27 numbers off the stat sheet, more if you count calculations, by reducing stat, stat modifier, and saving throws to just the stat modifier and by reducing 17 skills to two experiences. And there are a lot of other simplifications.

You're misrepresenting alot here... but whatever floats your boat.

• Rolling with hope/fear is more engaging than just rolling to see if you have to roll again

Another thing AoU isn't showcasing. Nothing happens in the fiction dependent upon what they roll with. I think this is a prime area where new GM's and those new to narrative games could use examples and guidance...

• It's much easier for the GM

Disagree... it's difficult in a different way, of course if we're saying it's easier to run after ignoring rules... so is 5e.

Not every game of 5e plays like DH partly because it is a more focused game - but DH is a significantly better system for the 5e games that play like Daggerheart.

So if you're trying to play D&D like Daggerheart... you should play Daggerheart. Uhm...sure...ok. How about we see how DH really plays so I can make that decision while being informed.

 

[Reynard]

I'm trying to reinforce my learning of the game through watching the game's owners play it professionally.

Then you're in luck! Because when they mess up or don't follow a rule, you get to reinforce your learning by looking it up to see how or what. It's a win-win for you and for the people that don't care.

 

[Imaro]

It's crazy to me that a valid criticism of the AP is getting this much pushback from a couple of posters...not because it's incorrect... but because if others are doing it it shouldn't be an issue.

Going to step away because I like the game and am not trying to get soured on it (or it's proponents) before I actually play.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Subjective, so cool... I will reserve judgement until I've played over an extended period of time and with higher level characters.

Yeah, time is subjective. Right.

And higher level characters make the gap much much wider in favour of DH.

You're misrepresenting alot here... but whatever floats your boat.

Care to explain how?

So if you're trying to play D&D like Daggerheart... you should play Daggerheart. Uhm...sure...ok. How about we see how DH really plays so I can make that decision while being informed.

Can you tell me how D&D 5e "really plays"? Because there is more than one way to do most games. And playing Daggerheart as if it was a leaner 5e and have it still be an effective game is part of the design goals.

 

[nyvinter]

Titangrave on Geek & Sundry were a show made to showcase and teach Fantasy Age. It had graphics popping up and explained in depth rules you'd need to know and how the maths worked.

Age of Umbra isn't that. At all. There are tonnes of stuff in it that has me going "I really wouldn't have done it like that" but it's people trying to play their new game and getting things wrong — we've all be in agreement there, some things in the AP goes against explicit paragraphs in the book. It's very much highlighting the system = rules + table equation and as such it's not a good learning tool for what the rules do.

But it's okay, since that has never been the goal. It's entertaining which is what they want to do.