Critical Role Critical Role's Kickstarter Breaks $1,000,000 In About An Hour!

For those hoping for a new D&D cartoon, Critical Role has just launched a Kickstarter for an animated show based on their livestream campaign. It broke a million dollars in about an hour, and has 45 days left to go...

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"Critical Role's The Legend of Vox Machina reunites your favorite D&D heroes for a professional-quality animated special!"

Also on offer are theme song MP3s, production art prints, sticker sets, dice, playing card sets, plushies, pin sets, canvas bags, and more.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Here's where it currently stands in the chart:

1. Pebble Time $20,338,986
2. Coolest Cooler $13,285,226
3. Pebble 2 $12,779,843
4. Kingdom Death $12,393,139
5. Pebble Watch $10,266,845
6. Travel Jacket $9,192,055
7. Exploding Kittens $8,782,571
8. Ouya $8,596,474
9. 7th Continent $7,072,757
10. Critical Role $6,812,881

Pebble has three in the top five. Dang!

Didn't do Pebble that much good! I was part of number 5

 

[Parmandur]

$7 million and counting, with 51,404 backers. Still getting six figures a day.

 

[Waterbizkit]

As of right now it's showing at $7,055,104 which means in all likelihood it'll push past 7th Continent at some point later today and become the 9th most funded project ever.

And man oh man am I eager to see the Briarwood arc in all its glory. I'm hoping they hit a point where they can finish the arc.

 

[jmucchiello]

https://twitter.com/JoelGHodgson/status/1104925474227146753

Thread 1

Joel Hodgson
Way to go #CriticalRole! Their new project "The Legend of Vox Machina" has surpassed #MST3K for the highest funded film and video project of all time! So happy for you, and will be proud to join you on the final day of the #Kickstarter to award you with the World Record belt

Sam Riegel
We are fanboying and fangirling out over here, Joel. It’s an honor to be in the same league as you and #MST3K. Appreciate the kind sentiment.

Joel Hodgson
Let's talk deets on the world record belt, I'm serious.

Sam Riegel
I LOVE this idea. My waist is like 33”. But there’s eight of us. So rather than making 20-foot diameter belt, I’ll get an average and hit you back on DM. Would love to meet ya in person too!

Marisha Ray
I know a guy who can make this. True story. Also, Holy , Joel, thank you!!

Joel Hodgson
Ha! Great.


Thread 2

Taliesin Jaffe
Okay now I no longer believe this is happening


Thread 3

Matthew Mercer
Thank you sincerely, Joel, from the bottom of my heart. MST3K has been such an important part of my life, your years specifically, and to even be mentioned alongside you guys is an honor I can’t express. <3

Joel answers just about everyone who also posts in that thread of tweets. (I had to write something to post this big quote) Oh, and these tweet happened Saturday and Sunday.

 

[André Soares]

Joel answers just about everyone who also posts in that thread of tweets. (I had to write something to post this big quote) Oh, and these tweet happened Saturday and Sunday.

His bio is great to:

"Creator of the worlds most funded film and video project in Kickstarter history for a few more days until Vox Machina eats my lunch."

 

[Prakriti]

Maybe this will lead to a Critical Role cameo in Season 13 of MST3k.

Jonah Ray has actually played D&D with Matt Mercer before (they did the whole Force Grey series together), so there's already a professional connection.

 

[CleverNickName]

I know I'm a crusty old grognard straight out of the 1986 Red Box days, but I am really happy to see that geek culture is still alive and well in the Age of the Internet. Rock on, you fabulous modern nerds.

 

[Parmandur]

This is now the #9 most funded Kickstarter of all time. It looks like just north of $100,000 per day will be the groove for the middle of the campaign, so the stretch goal should go down this week.

 

[André Soares]

I know I'm a crusty old grognard straight out of the 1986 Red Box days, but I am really happy to see that geek culture is still alive and well in the Age of the Internet. Rock on, you fabulous modern nerds.

What is this? A gronard that is friendly to new stuff... Is this allowed?

Just kidding, it's awesome that something like this can unite so many generations, from so many different backgrounds.

 

[CleverNickName]

What is this? A gronard that is friendly to new stuff... Is this allowed?

Someone called "The Gatekeeper" once told me that I wasn't a "real" grognard. Maybe that's what he was talking about? I dunno, I was trying to listen to Critical Role and ended up tuning him out.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Someone called "The Gatekeeper" once told me that I wasn't a "real" grognard. Maybe that's what he was talking about? I dunno, I was trying to listen to Critical Role and ended up tuning him out.

Someone called "The Gatekeeper" once asked me if I was "The Keymaster".

Things got pretty weird after that.

 

[André Soares]

Someone called "The Gatekeeper" once told me that I wasn't a "real" grognard. Maybe that's what he was talking about? I dunno, I was trying to listen to Critical Role and ended up tuning him out.

I love that a person called "The Gatekeeper" was gatekeeping you... Makes sense

 

[Bagpuss]

and Polygon's take on it...

https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/11/18256668/critical-role-kickstarter-animated

Critical Role is too white.

 

[André Soares]

and Polygon's take on it...

https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/11/18256668/critical-role-kickstarter-animated

Critical Role is too white.

well, they are not worng. I found the article to be interesting, and it's a good thing to bring up this kind of discussions. I really liked the info about the hobby and how much money there's in it. The only thing I think they didn't do in the article is mention that CR is trying to shoutout small RPG kickstarters, and more diverse games...

 

[CleverNickName]

and Polygon's take on it...

https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/11/18256668/critical-role-kickstarter-animated

Critical Role is too white.

There's a lot to unpack in that article.
Yes, "Critical Role’s massive crowdfunding success is kickstarting some interesting conversations."
It's clearly kickstarting some rather boring ones too.

According to industry publication ICV2, retail sales of TTRPGs accounted for only $55 million of the $1.5 billion hobby games category in 2017. If those estimates are true, then Critical Role has already earned more than 12 percent of the revenue of the entire TTRPG retail sector in just a few days.

How much of that will Wizards of The Coast (WoTC), publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, receive? According to Critical Role’s Kickstarter page, nothing.

*groan*

 

[Parmandur]

well, they are not worng. I found the article to be interesting, and it's a good thing to bring up this kind of discussions. I really liked the info about the hobby and how much money there's in it. The only thing I think they didn't do in the article is mention that CR is trying to shoutout small RPG kickstarters, and more diverse games...

Critical Role has been extremely diverse in guests they have brought on the show, and several of the cast members would not have been accepted as "white" a few decades ago.

 

[CleverNickName]

Critical Role has been extremely diverse in guests they have brought on the show, and several of the cast members would not have been accepted as "white" a few decades ago.

The core cast of Critical Role is diverse in ways that a lot of other similar content creators aren't. Nearly half the cast is female. Taliesin came out as bisexual back in 2017. Like [MENTION=6780330]Parmandur[/MENTION] said: they have been extremely diverse with the guests to the show, as well. The cast is white, but I wouldn't say they lack diversity.

 

[gyor]

Who cares, diversity is good, but as long as they didn't discriminate against anybody, it's fine if it's not. Japanese movies, Bollywood Movies and so on aren't exactly know for racial diversity, no one complains. Don't get me wrong, I like diversity, but not everything has to have it, they have mistreated no one.

 

[Hussar]

There's a lot to unpack in that article.
Yes, "Critical Role’s massive crowdfunding success is kickstarting some interesting conversations."
It's clearly kickstarting some rather boring ones too.

*groan*

Wow, it's almost like people deliberately cherry pick quotes and ignore context. The fact that the article spends about half the time fanbois gushing over Critical Role doesn't seem to matter. They said something bad about CR??!!?!?!? THEY MUST BE CRUSHED!!!!!

Gimme a break.

Here's the full quote that [MENTION=50987]CleverNickName[/MENTION] left out:

According to industry publication ICV2, retail sales of TTRPGs accounted for only $55 million of the $1.5 billion hobby games category in 2017. If those estimates are true, then Critical Role has already earned more than 12 percent of the revenue of the entire TTRPG retail sector in just a few days.

How much of that will Wizards of The Coast (WoTC), publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, receive? According to Critical Role’s Kickstarter page, nothing.

Now, don’t get bent out of shape on WoTC’s behalf. It’s sitting on the most iconic franchise in TTRPG history, one that’s incidentally enjoying the biggest growth period in its history. The reason for that success? D&D’s designers tell me that it’s streamers like Critical Role.

But when one group of streamers, all by themselves, start pulling down more than 12 percent of the revenue generated by the entire hobby, people start to get anxious. That’s why there’s been a lot of chatter on social media about this project.

And, an even more telling couple of quotes:

This doesn't mean that the designers hate Critical Role, the people behind it, or their fans. They're just upset some streamers make more money off RPGs than the people who actually make the games, and fans don't support the designers the same way they do streamers.

So who are the most popular actual play performers out there? Comparative numbers are impossible to come by, but if we dig just a bit into the comments from the Diana Jones folks, we can begin to form a list. They mention Critical Role, of course, but also The Adventure Zone from the McElroy family. There’s also Maze Arcana, the Acquisitions, Inc. performances from Penny Arcade, and the One Shot and Campaigns podcasts on the One Shot Network.

Taken in the aggregate, all of these shows have something in common: They’re all pretty white. While women are well represented in the most popular actual play experiences, people of color are not. In fact, the team behind the Critical Role Kickstarter may be the least racially diverse group of the bunch.

“Nobody is ‘turning’ on critical role,” writes a TTRPG podcaster. “If you think that pointing out that things could and should have diversity especially with the ability the cast has to promote it is ‘turning’ on them then i really don’t know what to tell you. ppl have been pointing it out for years.”

By and large, the tenor of the conversation is that the folks behind Critical Role are good people. They’ve done incredible work to carve out a niche for themselves, and in so doing they’ve helped legitimize the hobby of role-playing.

But they could, and should, also do better.

So, [MENTION=6670153]gyor[/MENTION], if your models for diversity are Japanese or Indian cinema, well, I really don't know what to say.

No one is "getting out the pitchforks". It's a comment that yes, as a public entertainment, some of us at least think that diversity is important. Is CR doing well? Absolutely. Does that mean that they get an automatic free pass just because we like them? Nope.

 

[CleverNickName]

My apologies, I didn't mean to imply that racial diversity wasn't important.