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]

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.

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.

Not saying that D&D makes a game or a show good, I said that when talented people use it, the outcomes are better than when they don't. So Solasta would have been worse if it had used it's own system.

I've watched and listened to quite a few, though the vast majority were from groups who's main game was originally D&D. I remember listening to Crit Hit do a two month series using Fate, which had it's moments, but for the most part I felt like it was probably a lot more fun for them to play it than it was to listen to it.

If you have any good suggestions for a non D&D AP I should listen to, I'd love to give it a try!

 

[Scribe]

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.

And you attribute this to the D&D 5e rule set?

 

[JConstantine]

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.

I looked into the views for the various CR content a while ago, and there are some conclusions that can drawn based on them, as well as speculation.
The main campaign gets the most views by far, naturally. The one-shots all get pretty lacklustre numbers in comparison, including the D&D battle royales. The mini series are unsurprisingly in the middle, however, Exandria Unlimited had far higher numbers than Candela Obscura and Undeadwood (before it understandably got purged). The question is whether that's due to using D&D or being tied to the campaign world.
I've long thought that they should test that by putting out two different mini series: one set in Exandria using Daggerheart, and another using D&D in a different setting (say Eberron, since Matt clearly draws inspiration from it). If the hypothetical Daggerheart one got comparable numbers to ExU while the hypothetical D&D didn't, that would suggest the draw is Exandria, but the reverse would suggest D&D is the draw. I guess we'll get part way to knowing once Age of Umbra airs.

People are afraid to learn other games -- and evidence suggests it extends to simply watching people play.

While I'm sure there's an element of that at play, I don't think it's the whole story. There are viewers - like myself - who want the combination of entertaining players and a system they enjoy/are familiar with. I play a variety of RPGs, not just D&D, and I've watched other actual play shows of those - the aforementioned Undeadwood; Haunted City for BitD; LAbN and NYbN for V:TM (and currently watching Private Nightmares). Meanwhile, CR and Relics & Rarities are the only D&D shows I've cared to watched, so it's not like I'm a D&D or nothing sort of person, but I have no interest in Daggerheart as a system after trying the playtest, and a lack of interest in a system used kills any interest I might have in an actual play. I doubt I'm the only CR viewer like that.

 

[Reynard]

Not saying that D&D makes a game or a show good, I said that when talented people use it, the outcomes are better than when they don't. So Solasta would have been worse if it had used it's own system.

What I am curious about is why you think this is true.

 

[JConstantine]

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.

While they didn't make up the bulk of the playbase, I'd argue it was absolutely D&D fans that were the catalyst for it's success - they were the ones who bought it in early access and sang it's praises.

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.

Pillars of Eternity was made by Obsidian, not Larian. Larian's previous game was Divinity: Original Sin (2).

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.

Even with support, I'm dubious that it will even hit Pathfinder's numbers, never mind compete with D&D. I imagine it will be on par with 13th Age.

 

[JConstantine]

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.

BG3 completely outshone both Solasta (as the fellow D&D game) and D:OS 1+2 (as the fellow Larian games), it was clearly the combination of D&D with Larian's efforts and dedication.

 

[nyvinter]

I looked into the views for the various CR content a while ago, and there are some conclusions that can drawn based on them, as well as speculation.
The main campaign gets the most views by far, naturally. The one-shots all get pretty lacklustre numbers in comparison, including the D&D battle royales. The mini series are unsurprisingly in the middle, however, Exandria Unlimited had far higher numbers than Candela Obscura and Undeadwood (before it understandably got purged). The question is whether that's due to using D&D or being tied to the campaign world.

Other explanations are that they're not the main campaign with the core cast, so the shorter format will not hit the same kind of "want to see these characters grow over two+ years" kick nor the "I'm here for these people" due to the guests (which is a bit rude but it seems a lot of people tune out if it's not all of them there).

 

[Reynard]

BG3 completely outshone both Solasta (as the fellow D&D game) and D:OS 1+2 (as the fellow Larian games), it was clearly the combination of D&D with Larian's efforts and dedication.

No, not "clearly." It was a combination of a much anticipated IP (Baldur's Gate, not D&D) and Larians absolute dedication to the quality of the game and responsiveness during early access. People that are absolutely certain that D&D is what put it over the top have a deep misunderstanding of the monetary scale of video games vs tabletop RPGs, even D&D.

 

[JConstantine]

Other explanations are that they're not the main campaign with the core cast

That is a potential contributing factor for why the miniseries don't hit the same numbers as the campaign, but doesn't explain ExU dominating the other miniseries, since it also has partial main cast.

 

[JConstantine]

No, not "clearly." It was a combination of a much anticipated IP (Baldur's Gate, not D&D) and Larians absolute dedication to the quality of the game and responsiveness during early access.

You think the Baldur's Gate moniker was a larger draw than the D&D IP? No. The previous instalment was 23 years ago, and 5e was already massive when BG3 went into development.

People that are absolutely certain that D&D is what put it over the top have a deep misunderstanding of the monetary scale of video games vs tabletop RPGs, even D&D.

I have no such misunderstandings. I'm well aware that video games absolutely dwarf RPGs. They overtook the movie industry in profitability a few years ago.