Critical Role Announces Two New RPGs

Critical Role’s publishing arm, Darrington Press, has released a ‘State of the Press’ video announcing two new tabletop RPGs.

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Two new RPG systems we’ll be releasing: Illuminated Worlds, optimized for short story arcs and adaptable to myriad settings, and Daggerheart, a fresh take on fantasy RPGs with emphasis on longer campaigns and rich character options.

At Gen Con this year, you’ll be able to play AND purchase Queen by Midnight, and you’ll even be able to take our two upcoming RPGs for a spin. We hope to see you there!

 

[wicked cool]

Ohh I thought all the other announced rpgs were the wotc killers

This campaign started off great but the split has slowed it down until the last few minutes of the latest episode

 

[ReshiIRE]

And considering the ORC requires all mechanics be open, that’s not likely either.

Why do you think that?

My understanding is that Mercer and Darrington have released free and open content for different homebrew relevant to Critical Role; in edition, with the streams being as they are, a lot of this content is easily recreatable by anyone willing to scrub through the streams. The wiki itself features a lot of detail about how certain mechanics work.

I honestly think there's a good possibility that Darrington could follow the Paizo approach, and win people beyond the Critical Role sphere with that. After all, mainly speaking for myself, a lot of my interest in Pathfinder 2e was sparked by the fact that the rules and mechanics could just... be looked up. I didn't need to buy the books to use the game; and that seems to be a common enough story within the community.

Daggerheart could quickly become an interesting choice to experiment with if one doesn't require the books to run the mechanics or games with. With the fact that so much of Critical Role's success comes from lore, characters and stories from the show, I can see them wanting to primarily focus on that as the main selling point of buying the books, rather than direct mechanical access.

We'll have to see of course, but Paizo's model is doing fairly well for them, and I can see it being an attractive, working model from a commerical point of view, and a way to win good will with fans and prospective buyers.

 

[overgeeked]

Why do you think that?

My understanding is that Mercer and Darrington have released free and open content for different homebrew relevant to Critical Role; in edition, with the streams being as they are, a lot of this content is easily recreatable by anyone willing to scrub through the streams. The wiki itself features a lot of detail about how certain mechanics work.

I honestly think there's a good possibility that Darrington could follow the Paizo approach, and win people beyond the Critical Role sphere with that. After all, mainly speaking for myself, a lot of my interest in Pathfinder 2e was sparked by the fact that the rules and mechanics could just... be looked up. I didn't need to buy the books to use the game; and that seems to be a common enough story within the community.

Daggerheart could quickly become an interesting choice to experiment with if one doesn't require the books to run the mechanics or games with. With the fact that so much of Critical Role's success comes from lore, characters and stories from the show, I can see them wanting to primarily focus on that as the main selling point of buying the books, rather than direct mechanical access.

We'll have to see of course, but Paizo's model is doing fairly well for them, and I can see it being an attractive, working model from a commerical point of view, and a way to win good will with fans and prospective buyers.

There’s a big difference between opening a few mechanical bits that you make for someone else’s game and opening all the mechanics of the game you’re trying to sell. I’m convinced they’ll have some kind of license, I’m just not sure how open.

 

[ReshiIRE]

There is a difference but especially if they're going to live stream the game, I don't see why they wouldn't do it, considering their past behaviour and the fact streaming would reveal most of the core mechanics regardless.

 

[innerdude]

Counterpoint: I've never seen any ads for Edge of Empire on Disney+.

I imagine that the terms of most RPG licensing agreements have minimal revenue implications to the license holder after the initial agreement is signed and paid.

Disney’s cut of royalties for copies sold is probably miniscule or possibly nonexistent. It would likely cost them more money to produce a single ad for their service than they would earn in net return.

 

[overgeeked]

There is a difference but especially if they're going to live stream the game, I don't see why they wouldn't do it, considering their past behaviour and the fact streaming would reveal most of the core mechanics regardless.

It’s not about “revealing” or people knowing the rules. It’s about having legal permission to use those rules to make your own products without the fear of being sued.

 

[ReshiIRE]

It’s not about “revealing” or people knowing the rules. It’s about having legal permission to use those rules to make your own products without the fear of being sued.

I can sdee your point, but I was under the impression that it is somewhat difficult to publish rules online without an open license (and I definitely think they'll make the rules freely available in that manner), and I can see them wanting to play nice with fan homebrew due to the size of the community.

I again, do not see a major reason why they wouldn't follow the lead of their main competitors, and instead go for something much more competitive, in a manner that won't be of benefit to them financially or critically

 

[Autumnal]

Don't get me wrong, CR has been a positive factor for D&D, but it's part of the trend, not the cause.

Ray Winninger said a year or two ago that more than half of all new players - those for whom 5e is their first RPG - cited streaming media and related traffic like YouTube as their point of entry. That means a significant number of people didn’t start there, and it’s specifically about people new to rolegaming. But it’s still a really significant group.

 

[Parmandur]

Ray Winninger said a year or two ago that more than half of all new players - those for whom 5e is their first RPG - cited streaming media and related traffic like YouTube as their point of entry. That means a significant number of people didn’t start there, and it’s specifically about people new to rolegaming. But it’s still a really significant group.

Exactly, and there are a lot of shows out there thst people are getting into, though CR is top of the heap.

 

[Autumnal]

I've been following the development of the different 5E offshoots and Daggerheart strikes me as the one with the best likelihood of being successful, on the basis of the creators alone. You don't have to market it to fans because the fans are already there. Now will it be a good game? Don't know. But I know that a lot of people will hear about it and give it a try based entirely on who's making it.

I’m in this category myself. I don’t follow Critical Role and find their style mildly off putting. But their game goals align well with mine, so I am very curious to see what they come up with.