Was this a ‘one shot’ adventure? Or part of their continuing campaign?
It brought a retired party out of retirement at 20th level. Well, it was mostly retired PCs.
Critical Role is covered by a union, but the production was not categorized in a way that required them to cease production. Both Actual Play and Creator Owned projects had different treatment under the strike(s) than your typical streaming entertainment. They asked for and received confirmation (not sure if it was from their legal or the unions) that they could proceed.
Regardless, we've seen knock offs for a long time and very few of them go anywhere. Dimension 20 and NADDPOD are competitors - but realistically, anyone new getting into this is likely to gravitate to Critical Role eventually and there is currently enough content out there from Critical Role to make listening a full time job for over 8 months. Not everyone will - some will find the idea of a show that will continue on and on with no risk of unexpected cancellation daunting ... for ... reasons? But even when they've packed shows with
known names, it has not worked for a few reasons:
1.) By the time the cast started filming they were already family. They had a strong bond. You can't make the type of chemistry quickly. Dimension 20 created it by pulling together people that already had a similar bond. But if you shove 5 actors that worked togethe once in a while together ... it'd take a while to form.
2.) Despite being actors, they don't seem to be jerks. None of them are scene stealers. None of them are divas. They work to create moments for the other PCs. Nobody wants to be the breakout star of the show. They often forget they are filming a show and just role play.
3.) There are very few DMs that are as good as Mercer. I give him a 9 on his rules knowledge, but 10s across the board on everything else ... and the fans are merciless on DMs. Few can endure what he has over the years and stay as positive as he has been.
The only way I see something else coming around and getting this level of following again would be if Critical Role kills the Golden Goose. This transition between editions of D&D could be a turning point. If Critical Role does jump ship and run Campaign 4 in a new CR owned Rules Set, which there are signs they might, it would cost them viewers. That might be a small number, or much larger over time than they expect. I think a lot of the fans listening to the show like to ask, "what would I do if I were in that game at that moment". It isn't as easy to do that in a foreign rule set. And their rule sets focus more on story than mechanics, and I think they underestimate the need for structure in RPGs. You don't want to go too far down the rabbit hole of structure, but DMs and players alike want to know what to do to resolve a situation. And, they want it to make sense. They don't want a broad rule with a random factor that creates great story moments at the expense of feeling structured.
