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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7318672" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>Been avoiding talking about D&D online for a while for personal reasons. I decided to start this thread because I was actually kinda stunned it wasn't a major news story and ENWorld wasn't getting into the pre-campaign hype. </p><p></p><p>Dungeons & Dragons is currently undergoing a surprising revival. And no small part of this renaissance is online streaming of games. Streaming makes it easier to get into D&D: explaining what the game is and how it plays far better than any number of in-book descriptions. And it's a way to play the game without playing, to engage in the hobby between sessions or when a group is lacking. At the vanguard of streamed D&D games is Critical Role. </p><p>One of the barriers to watching Critical Role has been the <em>massive</em> back catalogue of shows coupled with how there wasn't really a "start" to the campaign, as there was several years of play & story prior to the stream. This new campaign (in the same setting) is an easy entry point for what is already a hugely popular show. This is when a wave of new people can jump into the show. It's where new viewers or people curious about D&D will be directed.</p><p>Or... it could be an easy off ramp. A time for people to stop watching CR now that its main story has ended, freeing them to move onto other campaigns or shows. Which will free up the audience's time for other shows, creating ripples throughout other fanbases and generating new D&D streaming celebrities. </p><p>But either way this is big news. </p><p></p><p>It's January and I'm going to call it here: the start of Critical Role's new campaign is potentially one of the top twenty D&D events of the year. If not the top ten!</p><p>You can guess some of the others. The biggest one will likely be the June announcement event for the summer & fall releases, with associated hype on the new Neverwinter expansion, minis, and board game. The smaller announcement of the spring release (likely in a few week!) will be #2 news story. The release of the three books themselves will be news events #3 through #5. And I'm sure some other surprises or news will catch the interest. </p><p></p><p>But a new campaign with new characters, stories, enemies, and locations for the biggest streaming show on the net? A flurry of new fanart and a wave of fans trying to get jump in on the ground floor. Hype for an inevitable sequel to the bestselling campaign book? That's huge! And somehow absent on ENWorld…</p><p></p><p></p><p>As a couple points of data on the influence of CR on the hobby, last year it released its first RPG supplement, the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Role-TalDorei-Campaign-Setting/dp/1934547840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515776893&sr=8-1&keywords=Tal%27Dorei+Campaign+Setting" target="_blank"><em>Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting</em></a>. It's regularly in the top 5000 books on Amazon and consistently been in the top 25 gaming books since its release. Two months after its release, and it's currently outselling several D&D books and every Pathfinder and Starfinder book. (And I'm sure Green Ronin is moving a few on its store as well. Plus retail and game store sales). As a point of comparison, Starfinder peaked at #89 while the Tal'Dorei book peaked just a little lower at #110. It's very possibly <em>Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting</em> is one of the best selling RPG books of 2017. </p><p>And anyone who visited the Dungeon Master Guild during its first year knows how the gunslinger subclass and blood hunter class dominated the sales chart. (With the classes in the new campaign, I wouldn't be surprised to see the blood hunter class make a sales spike on the Guild.) It's also worth noting that CR's homebrew content was also deemed important enough to be added into D&D Beyond, while CR is being used as a marketing platform for that service. </p><p></p><p>just some thoughts ratting around the brain I wanted to get out...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7318672, member: 37579"] Been avoiding talking about D&D online for a while for personal reasons. I decided to start this thread because I was actually kinda stunned it wasn't a major news story and ENWorld wasn't getting into the pre-campaign hype. Dungeons & Dragons is currently undergoing a surprising revival. And no small part of this renaissance is online streaming of games. Streaming makes it easier to get into D&D: explaining what the game is and how it plays far better than any number of in-book descriptions. And it's a way to play the game without playing, to engage in the hobby between sessions or when a group is lacking. At the vanguard of streamed D&D games is Critical Role. One of the barriers to watching Critical Role has been the [i]massive[/i] back catalogue of shows coupled with how there wasn't really a "start" to the campaign, as there was several years of play & story prior to the stream. This new campaign (in the same setting) is an easy entry point for what is already a hugely popular show. This is when a wave of new people can jump into the show. It's where new viewers or people curious about D&D will be directed. Or... it could be an easy off ramp. A time for people to stop watching CR now that its main story has ended, freeing them to move onto other campaigns or shows. Which will free up the audience's time for other shows, creating ripples throughout other fanbases and generating new D&D streaming celebrities. But either way this is big news. It's January and I'm going to call it here: the start of Critical Role's new campaign is potentially one of the top twenty D&D events of the year. If not the top ten! You can guess some of the others. The biggest one will likely be the June announcement event for the summer & fall releases, with associated hype on the new Neverwinter expansion, minis, and board game. The smaller announcement of the spring release (likely in a few week!) will be #2 news story. The release of the three books themselves will be news events #3 through #5. And I'm sure some other surprises or news will catch the interest. But a new campaign with new characters, stories, enemies, and locations for the biggest streaming show on the net? A flurry of new fanart and a wave of fans trying to get jump in on the ground floor. Hype for an inevitable sequel to the bestselling campaign book? That's huge! And somehow absent on ENWorld… As a couple points of data on the influence of CR on the hobby, last year it released its first RPG supplement, the [url=https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Role-TalDorei-Campaign-Setting/dp/1934547840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515776893&sr=8-1&keywords=Tal%27Dorei+Campaign+Setting][i]Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting[/i][/url]. It's regularly in the top 5000 books on Amazon and consistently been in the top 25 gaming books since its release. Two months after its release, and it's currently outselling several D&D books and every Pathfinder and Starfinder book. (And I'm sure Green Ronin is moving a few on its store as well. Plus retail and game store sales). As a point of comparison, Starfinder peaked at #89 while the Tal'Dorei book peaked just a little lower at #110. It's very possibly [i]Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting[/i] is one of the best selling RPG books of 2017. And anyone who visited the Dungeon Master Guild during its first year knows how the gunslinger subclass and blood hunter class dominated the sales chart. (With the classes in the new campaign, I wouldn't be surprised to see the blood hunter class make a sales spike on the Guild.) It's also worth noting that CR's homebrew content was also deemed important enough to be added into D&D Beyond, while CR is being used as a marketing platform for that service. just some thoughts ratting around the brain I wanted to get out... [/QUOTE]
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