Critical Role Announces Age of Umbra Daggerheart Campaign, Starting May 29th

An 8-part Daggerheart miniseries is coming from Critical Role. Announced today, Age of Umbra is a new Actual Play series featuring Matthew Mercer as game master and co-founders Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham as players. The new miniseries will take up the bulk of the summer months, providing more of a break to the core cast ahead of an assumed fourth full-length D&D campaign.

Daggerheart is a new TTRPG developed by Critical Role's Darrington Press. Although the base game is intended to be a high fantasy RPG, the game includes several "campaign frames" that add additional rules for specific types of stories. Age of Umbra was developed by Mercer and draws inspiration from games like Dark Souls, Tainted Grail, and Kingdom Death: Monster.

The miniseries will air on Beacon, Twitch, and YouTube, with episodes airing every Thursday. The first episode debuts on May 29th, with Session 0 airing on various Critical Role platforms on May 22nd.

The full description of the series can be found below:

Age of Umbra

is an eight-part Daggerheart mini-series from Critical Role of dark, survival fantasy, debuting May 29 on Beacon, Twitch, and YouTube. Set in the Halcyon Domain, a world abandoned by gods and consumed by darkness, the series begins by following five people from the isolated community of Desperloch as they fight to protect their own in the face of rising horrors.

The Halcyon Domain is a lethal, foreboding land where the souls of the dead are cursed to return as twisted, nightmarish forms. A dark, ethereal mass known as the Umbra roams and holds these fiendish monstrosities, further corrupting anything it touches. Sacred Pyres keep the corruption at bay, and small communities endure through cooperation. Out in the beyond, whispers speak of ancient secrets and powers, wonders of a lost age, ready for discovery to those brave enough (or foolish enough) to seek them.

Game Master Matthew Mercer leads fellow Critical Role co-founders Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham in a high-stakes actual play exploring hope, sacrifice, and survival in a world where death is only the beginning.

 

[OB1]

Stories emerge from D&D gameplay. That isn't the same as that being what it is made for. I was just trying to draw a distinction between "trad" games like D&D and "narrative" games like DH.

Exactly! And even though that's not what it's made for, it's incredibly good at doing it. That, to me, is the weird bit of magic in what Gygax created. He made a small force mission simulator for wargaming, and yet the way it was put together turned into a story generator that has captivated players and audiences for decades.

Like, prior to CR, there was a podcast called Critical Hit. A bunch of theatre nerds who had a comic book spoiler podcast (in the mid/late 0s) and decided they wanted to play the new 4th edition of D&D. While they weren't professional voice actors, their theatre background certainly elevated their game. Their campaign lasted 10 years, and they played 4e through the entire game. I never played 4e, hadn't played D&D or an RPG in about a decade when I started listening to them, and yet I was enthralled with the story from the start and kept listening the entire time. They took breaks to play other systems, sometimes for months at a time, but none of those other stories resonated with me the way the D&D campaign did. I've tried every bit of non D&D content they've put out, but never lasted more than a few episodes. For whatever reason, it just doesn't work the same way. And their audience post D&D is a fraction of what it once was.

I'm not saying no system will ever be able to do what D&D does, only that that system doesn't exit yet. Maybe DH is that system. I'm going to give Age of Umbra a try (even though the previous DH one shots didn't work for me at all) and we'll see.

 

[Reynard]

Exactly! And even though that's not what it's made for, it's incredibly good at doing it. That, to me, is the weird bit of magic in what Gygax created. He made a small force mission simulator for wargaming, and yet the way it was put together turned into a story generator that has captivated players and audiences for decades.

Like, prior to CR, there was a podcast called Critical Hit. A bunch of theatre nerds who had a comic book spoiler podcast (in the mid/late 0s) and decided they wanted to play the new 4th edition of D&D. While they weren't professional voice actors, their theatre background certainly elevated their game. Their campaign lasted 10 years, and they played 4e through the entire game. I never played 4e, hadn't played D&D or an RPG in about a decade when I started listening to them, and yet I was enthralled with the story from the start and kept listening the entire time. They took breaks to play other systems, sometimes for months at a time, but none of those other stories resonated with me the way the D&D campaign did. I've tried every bit of non D&D content they've put out, but never lasted more than a few episodes. For whatever reason, it just doesn't work the same way. And their audience post D&D is a fraction of what it once was.

I'm not saying no system will ever be able to do what D&D does, only that that system doesn't exit yet. Maybe DH is that system. I'm going to give Age of Umbra a try (even though the previous DH one shots didn't work for me at all) and we'll see.

That feels like selection bias. D&D is the biggest game, so it is going to draw the biggest watch numbers, which is then going to draw more viewers, etc. But it doesn't say anything about the quality of the storytelling by way of the game being played.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That feels like selection bias. D&D is the biggest game, so it is going to draw the biggest watch numbers, which is then going to draw more viewers, etc. But it doesn't say anything about the quality of the storytelling by way of the game being played.

Yeah I don't think it has much to do with the inherent characteristics of D&D, rules-wise, but rather to the overwhelming popularity of D&D as a brand, which is largely down to marketing, cultural factors and the difficulty of getting people to try other RPGs.

It is true that getting people to play RPGs other than D&D for these things is a bit of risk, because the audience expects D&D, but I suspect it's less of a risk now, in 2025, than it was in say, 2017.

The only thing I do wonder about is the relative success of narrative RPGs for these kind of podcasts/streams vs. more simulationist or gamist RPGs. I sometimes feel like narrative-oriented RPGs might be almost "too easy" for the actors to deal with, but I suspect there are counter-examples.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah I don't think it has much to do with the inherent characteristics of D&D, rules-wise, but rather to the overwhelming popularity of D&D as a brand, which is largely down to marketing, cultural factors and the difficulty of getting people to try other RPGs.

It is true that getting people to play RPGs other than D&D for these things is a bit of risk, because the audience expects D&D, but I suspect it's less of a risk now, in 2025, than it was in say, 2017.

The only thing I do wonder about is the relative success of narrative RPGs for these kind of podcasts/streams vs. more simulationist or gamist RPGs. I sometimes feel like narrative-oriented RPGs might be almost "too easy" for the actors to deal with, but I suspect there are counter-examples.

People often mention that the non-D&D CR videos don't do as well as "evidence" that D&D is a better storytelling engine. That seems totally backwards to me. People are afraid to learn other games -- and evidence suggests it extends to simply watching people play.

That seems crazy to me -- but I love system shopping. As a writer and designer, i love to see what folks are doing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

People often mention that the non-D&D CR videos don't do as well as "evidence" that D&D is a better storytelling engine. That seems totally backwards to me. People are afraid to learn other games -- and evidence suggests it extends to simply watching people play.

That seems crazy to me -- but I love system shopping. As a writer and designer, i love to see what folks are doing.

Some of those other systems are pretty quirky, too, or the games they play with them are. They've played Tales of Equestria (My Little Pony) and Monsterhearts (Twilight-style horny teenage monsters, if the novels and movies were massively better written and had more sex). Those are bigger asks of an audience, as are many of their videogame one-shots.

(I really enjoyed the Monsterhearts episode, for what it's worth, and apparently so did other people, as the game sold out the night the episode dropped.)

 

[OB1]

That feels like selection bias. D&D is the biggest game, so it is going to draw the biggest watch numbers, which is then going to draw more viewers, etc. But it doesn't say anything about the quality of the storytelling by way of the game being played.

Maybe, but isn't it also possible that D&D enhances the abilities of storytellers in a way that results in a better end product than when they use other TTRPG systems?

Again, going back to BG3, we know that the vast majority of players hadn't played or engaged with D&D beforehand. It wasn't D&D fans who were the catalyst for BG3's success. Meanwhile, Pillars of Eternity was made by the same team, but didn't have the same resonance with the audience and never caught on beyond the die hard CRPG crowd. Larian admited that they felt incredibly restrained by the '50 year old engine' of D&D in making BG3. and yet the end result was something incredible.

You take talented people and put the constraints of D&D on them and time and time again you see excellent end product (Adventure Zone, Critical Hit, Dimension 20, Critical Role, Dungeons of Drakenheim, BG3, etc). I don't believe that's a coincidence. Maybe AoU will prove that DH can be used to create stories as entertaining as the ones CR created with D&D, we'll find out over the course of the next few months.

If they have found that formula, then there is no question that DH will become a true competitor to D&D. My money is on DH needing 2-3 more years of development before it will be ready to do that. But if everyone labels DH a failure because the cast doesn't switch to it right now, CR may abandon it before it get's a real chance, which would be a pity.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Maybe, but isn't it also possible that D&D enhances the abilities of storytellers in a way that results in a better end product than when they use other TTRPG systems?

That's Brennan Lee Mulligan's argument. He likes there being so few rules for the roleplaying aspects of D&D, so that his players feel free to go wild there without worrying about that conflicting with their character sheet. (This is, in a weird way, similar to why Mothership has no sneak rules.)

 

[Reynard]

Maybe, but isn't it also possible that D&D enhances the abilities of storytellers in a way that results in a better end product than when they use other TTRPG systems?

I don't think there is any evidence for that.

Again, going back to BG3, we know that the vast majority of players hadn't played or engaged with D&D beforehand. It wasn't D&D fans who were the catalyst for BG3's success. Meanwhile, Pillars of Eternity was made by the same team, but didn't have the same resonance with the audience and never caught on beyond the die hard CRPG crowd. Larian admited that they felt incredibly restrained by the '50 year old engine' of D&D in making BG3. and yet the end result was something incredible.

I think this is failing to understand that Larian's success with their recent D:OS games gave them the money and space to really go all in with BG3. If D&D was what made that game successful, Solasta would have been a bigger hit. It wasn't, because Solasta, while a good game, did not have near the quality of BG3.

You take talented people and put the constraints of D&D on them and time and time again you see excellent end product (Adventure Zone, Critical Hit, Dimension 20, Critical Role, Dungeons of Drakenheim, BG3, etc). I don't believe that's a coincidence. Maybe AoU will prove that DH can be used to create stories as entertaining as the ones CR created with D&D, we'll find out over the course of the next few months.

Out of curiosity, how many non D&D APs have you watched? Are you certain that the D&D ones are always better?

Again, it feels like selection bias. You like D&D, so you elevate D&D APs.

 

[OB1]

That's Brennan Lee Mulligan's argument. He likes there being so few rules for the roleplaying aspects of the game, so that his players feel free to go wild there without worrying about that conflicting with their character sheet. (This is, in a weird way, similar to why Mothership has no sneak rules.)

Exactly!

Also, agree that Monsterheart was fantastic content. Probably the best non D&D one shot they've done (Tailsen's Cthulu adventure may be a close 2nd). And, while I didn't purchase it, I'd definitely be down to play Monsterheart. Once. And same with watching someone play it, once was plenty.

There are plenty of systems which can create a single good story (maybe in 4 hours, maybe in 20 or 30), but being able to create multiple 400-500 hour stories that entertain from beginning to end is a whole nother ballgame.

 

[nyvinter]

There are plenty of systems which can create a single good story (maybe in 4 hours, maybe in 20 or 30), but being able to create multiple 400-500 hour stories that entertain from beginning to end is a whole nother ballgame.

And if we're going on personal anecdotes as evidence, Critical Role do not succeed on that. The moment they're high enough in levels that a fight takes more than three hours then it's a chore to watch and everything just stops.

And I think Brennan's argument was "we're improv actors, we know how to handle the social RP without any issues. We need to be handheld with rules for combat." Most people playing D&D are not improv actors trained in this, and judging from horror stories it's pretty obvious that there should be better guidelines for that part than is in D&D.