Critical Role Linda Codega interviews Critical Role on Fandom, Rumors and the Open DnD Movement

[Clint_L]

I cannot fathom Critical Role putting at risk their massive Prime Video contracts in order to keep a minority of their fans happy. Whenever they play non-D&D the viewership plummets.

Hmmm...I checked, and that's not what I see. It looks to me like whenever they play non-campaign stuff viewership plummets. Whether it is using D&D or another system (some of their non-D&D games are among their most popular one-offs).

Which makes sense - folks are naturally more inclined to want to keep up with a serialized story than a one-off, particularly when those one-offs often feature different casts.

This leaves open whether viewership would plummet if they switched the main campaign to, say, Pathfinder (where it began in their home game) or their potential home-made system.

 

[Haplo781]

Hmmm...I checked, and that's not what I see. It looks to me like whenever they play non-campaign stuff viewership plummets. Whether it is using D&D or another system (some of their non-D&D games are among their most popular one-offs).

Which makes sense - folks are naturally more inclined to want to keep up with a serialized story than a one-off, particularly when those one-offs often feature different casts.

This leaves open whether viewership would plummet if they switched the main campaign to, say, Pathfinder (where it began in their home game) or their potential home-made system.

I'd argue that fans are loyal to the CR brand, not the D&D brand.

 

[Azzy]

"Grandiose"

Matt sure loaded that word.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I didn't know who Linda Codega was before this mess. So happy I do now.

I've been following them since they appeared on io9 with amazingly snarky review of the Thor Love & Thunder trailer (which turned out to be pretty prescient), and they've been just really doing great with TTRPG news, by far the best of any non-specialist TTRPG publication/site, and better than many that do have that as a major focus (like Bell of Lost Souls). Just really fun as a person and good knowledge of the TTRPG scene (like, not as familiar with older RPGs as me, but much more familiar with what's going on right now).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Whenever they play non-D&D the viewership plummets.

That's a misunderstanding.

Whenever they play non-campaigns their viewership plummets.

If they played a campaign, with full main cast, no-one would care what the system was. The cartoons and their success helps show that - they're barely even recognisable as D&D - you could as soon see them as almost any fantasy RPG.