Exciting news—our Darrington Press team has grown, adding Chris Perkins as our Creative Director and Jeremy Crawford as Game Director! We’re thrilled to welcome both Chris and Jeremy’s expertise in game design and storytelling, honed through decades of experience working together on tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars Roleplaying, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and Blue Rose. We’re enormous fans of their work and are honored to welcome them into our team.

At Darrington Press, they’ll be developing novel game concepts as well as expanding upon the games we’ve released so far! Here are some words from our new team members:

“Storytelling has always been at the heart of everything I do, and joining Darrington Press feels a bit like coming home,” said Perkins, Creative Director of Darrington Press. “I’ve loved being a part of the extended Critical Role family as a regular guest over the years and I’m beyond excited to help create new worlds full of adventure.”

“I’ve always believed that great games invite everyone to the table, and that’s exactly what excites me about joining Darrington Press,” said Crawford, Game Director of Darrington Press. “This team is passionate, wildly creative, and committed to building welcoming, connected, amazing story-driven experiences—I can’t wait to expand on what Critical Role has already created to develop some really fun and unique games.”

Welcome, Chris and Jeremy!

Please note that these broadcasts are only scheduled for the times listed below.

Tales From The Stinky Dragon

Campaign 3: Kanon

Go behind the scenes of Tales from the Stinky Dragon Campaign 3: Kanon with the cast and crew as they discuss each episode, player decisions, DM secrets, and life stories in this exclusive bi-weekly show!

• Episode 19 releases Monday, June 16th on Beacon and the Tales From The Stinky Dragon Patreon at 12am Pacific.

Weird Kids

Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe deep dive into their lives as the Weird Kids! This is a formal invitation to all the misfits, outcasts, and weirdos to take a seat at our table and join these former child actors as they embrace their unique upbringings and celebrate all things weird and wonderful.

• Episode 12 releases Tuesday, June 17th at 5am Pacific exclusively on Beacon
• Get a sneak peak of Episode 12 on Tuesday, June 17th by checking out @TheWeirdKidsPod YouTube Channel

Critical Role Abridged

All the twists and turns of an episode of Critical Role in half the time! In Critical Role Abridged, the rich tapestry of a Critical Role campaign is lovingly distilled to its most pivotal, hilarious, and poignant moments in about 60-90 minutes per episode.

• Campaign 3, Episode 58 releases Tuesday, June 17th at 10am Pacific on YouTube
• Campaign 3, Episode 58 Podcast out Tuesday, June 17th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Campaign 3, Episode 80 releases Tuesday, June 17th at 10am Pacific on Beacon

Everything Is Content

Magic The Gathering x Final Fantasy

A new Magic: The Gathering Commander throwdown is coming your way! Join Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Ify Nwadiwe, and Whitney Moore for an all-new episode of #EverythingIsContent as they pick their cards and face off in a Final Fantasy battle brought to you by TCGplayer.

• Airs Tuesday, June 17th at 7pm Pacific on Twitch and YouTube
• VOD and Podcast out Tuesday, June 17th at 7pm Pacific on Beacon
• VOD out Thursday, June 19th at 12pm Pacific on YouTube

Tag Team at the Teeth | Prologue

Two cities, two separate adventures, one overarching story. Check out our official prologue for Tag Team at the Teeth! For each of these live one-shots, party members from Bells Hells and the Mighty Nein will join forces as they fight a common threat, all threaded together by Game Master Matthew Mercer and the cast of Critical Role. Get a sneak peak of how these two cities will both be influenced by this overarching story!

• Releases Wednesday, June 18th at 12am Pacific on YouTube and Beacon

UNEND, Season 2

After their voyage of exploration goes awry, the crew of the Ship find themselves adrift in an unfamiliar realm where everything they know is called into question. With their beliefs, their bonds, and their lives at stake, they must decide how much they’re willing to sacrifice to find a way home.

• Episode 3 releases Wednesday, June 18th on the Midst Podcast YouTube at 10am Pacific and your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Episode 5 releases Wednesday, June 18th on Beacon, Midst.co, and Podcast Subscribers at 5am Pacific

Critical Role Live Show: Sydney

AND LIVE Beacon Backstage Pass

Join us LIVE on Beacon for an exclusive backstage tour before our Sydney Live Show​! Explore the venue and hang out with the cast as they prepare for a chaotic adventure in the Shattered Teeth!

• Airs Wednesday, June 18th LIVE only on Beacon at 6pm Pacific (11am in Sydney)

Critical Role Live Show: Sydney

Tag Team At The Teeth with Fathom Theaters

ONE NIGHT ONLY, in YOUR local movie theatre, see Critical Role Live: Tag Team at the Teeth | The Misty Ascent, featuring favorite Mighty Nein & Bells Hells characters for an epic team-up. Join your community in this exclusive event!

• In Theaters ONLY June 19th at 7pm LOCAL TIME in a movie theater near you!

Age of Umbra | Episode 4

Small communities hold fast against the darkness of a dying world in Age of Umbra, a dark, survival fantasy 8-part Daggerheart mini-series with Game Master Matthew Mercer and players Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham. Death lurks around every corner, but five characters of the small community of Desperloch must band together to fight for hope for their community, risking it all for those they love.

• Airs Thursday, June 19th at 7pm Pacific on Twitch and YouTube
• VOD and Podcast out Thursday, June 19th at 7pm Pacific on Beacon
• Rebroadcasts Friday, June 20th at 12am Pacific and 9am Pacific on Twitch
• VOD out Monday, June 23rd at 12pm Pacific on YouTube
• Part 1 Podcast out June 26th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Part 2 Podcast out July 1st on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific

Cooldown: Age of Umbra | Episode 4

Get a backstage pass to Age of Umbra! You’ll be right there at the table immediately after Matt says “Is it Thursday yet?”, experiencing the cast’s post-show reactions.

• Releases Thursday, June 19th at 7pm Pacific only on Beacon

Find your local participating theater for the upcoming live shows

(Especially that one on October 15th)

10 Years of Critical Role: We Are Never Going Away

After a decade rolling the dice, Dungeons and Dragons' biggest stars look back on their family business

written by James Grebey
photo by Gracie Hammond

Grog Strongjaw, a hulking barbarian warrior who once helped save the realm by splitting a terrible dragon’s skull in twain with a mighty cleave of his axe, did not expect to find himself dancing, doing the worm for the amusement of a fiendish emcee. As he writhed his body on the stage in front of a sold-out arena crowd, it’s fair to say that Travis Willingham didn’t expect this either. He and the rest of the cast of Critical Role were the ones who were actually dancing, slamming shots of tequila and hot sauce, and doing a ring-toss aimed at some particularly phallic helmets. (Later, the cast will see fanart online of their characters in “the Traveler dick helmets” — the sign of a successful show.)

It’s a far cry from what they normally do, the thing that made them famous enough to sell out arenas. Typically, they’re rolling dice around a table while playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons, weaving an elaborate fantasy story and streaming it weekly for hundreds of thousands of fans, known as “Critters.” Yet despite the outlandish action on the stage, it doesn’t feel all that different from usual, which is part of Critical Role‘s magic. Even as they’re the standard bearers of a whole new genre of entertainment, heads of an expanding multimedia empire, and creators of a fantasy lore whose complexity might outdo The Lord of the Rings (and whose total runtime, north of 1,500 hours, certainly does), Critical Role is ultimately a group of friends playing a fun game together. They’ve pulled it off for 10 years, turning that very friendship into a groundbreaking entertainment company. It’s what comes next that’s everybody’s question.

It’s a mid-April Thursday in the fantastic realm known as “Chicago,” hours before Critical Role’s live show at the Wintrust Arena, when Sam Riegel, the class clown of an already frequently silly bunch, compares the group to the mafia. “We’re a family that does business together and kills people,” he quips.

A professional voice actor by trade, like the rest of the cast, Riegel hasn’t done any killing himself, but he and his pals have slain plenty of evil-doers in a fantasy roleplaying game that quickly became one of the biggest businesses in this slice of the entertainment industry. In addition to a flagship streaming series, they have spin-off streaming shows, graphic novels, a behind-the-scenes subscription service, tabletop games of their own, and an animated adaptation streaming on Amazon Prime Video with a second show in the works. The show, The Legend of Vox Machina, was the most in-demand animated streaming series, according to Parrot Analytics, and Critical Role credits it with expanding their audience. There’s buzz about an upcoming video game, too.

In late 2012, two years before they live-streamed anything, Matt Mercer, a voice actor and lifelong tabletop gamer whose unflappable, collected demeanor as Dungeon Master — DM — belies the narrative chaos he can unleash at any moment, gathered the Fellowship. In his small Los Angeles apartment, he ran a game of D&D for some of his friends and fellow voice actors, including Riegel, Willingham, Liam O’Brien, Laura Bailey, Marisha Ray, and Taliesin Jaffe. It soon morphed into an ongoing campaign, with actress Ashley Johnson, known for voicing Ellie from the video game series The Last of Us, joining for the second session. It was here that they had their first adventures in Exandria, a fantasy setting of Mercer’s creation.

In 2015, Critical Role first shared their adventure with the world, broadcasting the game on Geek & Sundry, a once-prominent Twitch and YouTube channels created by actress and geeky icon Felicia Day. Three years after that, Critical Role went independent. By 2021, it reportedly made the most money of any channel on Twitch, bringing in over $9.6 million from August 2019 to September 2021.

In 2025, Critical Role is one of the brightest lights in an increasingly popular medium: actual play. Using a game like D&D as the rules to provide an engine for an adventure, players and their DM improvise and act out a story together. Audiences watch along as they become fans of both the fictional heroes and the people playing them. There is, of course, a little bit of a parasocial relationship aspect to this. (“A little?” says Willingham.) Actual play series have become big business with millions of fans. Another group, Dimension 20, recently rolled their dice before 20,000 people in Madison Square Garden. What was once a niche is becoming mainstream — or at least broadly understood.

“We’ve all had conversations with our parents trying to explain, ‘What is a ‘Critical Role?‘” says O’Brien, the thoughtful player behind characters like troubled wizard Caleb Widogast and moody rogue Vax’ildan. “But way more people that I encounter in the world now understand who we are. I meet people who are like, ‘Oh yeah. That’s that show where people play a game at a table and tell a story?’”

Jaffe, who sports a colorful mohawk and who, according to the rest of the cast, may or may not be an actual practitioner of the dark magical arts, says he’s heard them referred to as “one of those bands you’ve never heard of that can fill a stadium” — and they do just that.

Live shows are increasingly a big part of Critical Role; they’ve done more than a dozen over the past several years, and the Chicago adventure is first of a five-stop 10th anniversary tour that will take them from Australia to Radio City Music Hall. Typically these shows are just higher-energy versions of the games they normally record in a studio, sometimes entries of the ongoing storylines (known as campaigns), other times one-off adventures. Chicago is different. Robbie Daymond, a frequent Critical Role guest, makes a surprise appearance on the stage, playing the sadistic host of a fantasy reality show. Cackling with glee, in a top hat with golden demon horns poking through it, Daymond’s Malvolio has the characters compete against one another in physical challenges — like trying to pop balloons by slamming their butts down on them while a teammate holds them in place, ready for the squashing. This is not something that’s found in any copy of the D&D Player’s Handbook.

While the second act of the Chicago show does have the players banding together to fight Malvolio in a more classic (if still a little loosey-goosey) D&D way — butts in chairs and dice in hand — it’s still a departure from Critical Role’s normal routine. Campaign Three, which followed a ragtag bunch of heroes known as Bells Hells, concluded earlier this year. Although a highly anticipated fourth has yet to start (or be announced), they’re still in their Burbank studio recording spin-offs and other adventures.

“The live shows are all about surfing on a tsunami of energy from thousands of people,” O’Brien says.

A couple of weeks after their Chicago adventure, the cast is back at their studio, located on the other side of Los Angeles’ Mount Hollywood. It’s unassuming from the outside — the front still has the name of the now-defunct lighting company whose space Critical Role partially moved into in 2018 before fully taking over a couple of years later. Inside, geeky knickknacks cover the desks of the roughly 70 employees, including not one but two people whose job it is to know all the lore Critical Role has developed over its three main campaigns, five spin-off shows, and more than two dozen one-shots. There’s a room full of models and miniatures, including many-eyed tentacled horrors, fiery dragons in intimidating poses, and hordes of skeletal warriors. The vast majority are Mercer’s bespoke constructions, and every one represents an epic battle or memorable locale from Critical Role‘s history.

Walk past an epic mural of their fantasy exploits and eventually you’ll come to their main recording stage, a custom-made triangular table where the cast sits to play and record games of the main Critical Role campaign, though nobody has rolled a dice on its polished surface in a while. Instead, they’re a room over, at a more flexible table that they can re-decorate and reshape for one-shots or limited series. Today, they’re recording Age of Umbra, a limited series outside the main continuity of the main Critical Role lore. A grimdark fantasy adventure compared to the brighter tone of the main campaign, it’s a departure in another way, too. They’re not playing D&D but Daggerheart, a tabletop gaming system of their own design, created under their label Darrington Press.

Even this smaller studio, with spooky backdrops and featuring dramatic uplighting, is elaborate. The main table, surrounded by a background vaguely meant to look like a tavern, boasts projected screens that can add rain or smoke effects behind the players. From his DMing station at the head of the table, Mercer has a whole board of audio and lighting effects, including buttons for things like “city streets,” “arcane spaces,” “creepy,” and “big creepy.” Press one and the vibe of the table switches to battle mode, the lighting changing as one of the many original music tracks Critical Role has commissioned over the years begins to play. It’s impressive, but all of these bells and whistles are subtle. Though the possibility exists to add even more effects — like a dragon actually swooping behind them, should Mercer mention a dragon — that’s not what Critical Role wants to be.

“You can slowly turn D&D back into a video game. There’s a reason why we do it this way,” says Maxwell James, associate creative director and one of the many talented behind-the-scenes faces. “Not everybody can do this in their home, but the core of what you’re watching on the show, you can do too. You can do this.”

That tension between Critical Role being a legitimate production performed by professionals and feeling like any group of friends playing a fun game is real. It’s even caused something known as the “Matt Mercer Effect,” where DMs lament that they’re not running a game as complex or engaging as the one run by a high-profile professional who has been doing this on camera for a decade. Mercer has tried to push back against these comparisons, stressing that what’s important is that the people at the table are having fun. “The show at its core is about us and how much we care about each other, and people can see that,” O’Brien says.

Mercer looks at his friends. “Doing this for 10 years, we could have easily transitioned using it as a means of making money. But it’s still us wanting to play games and surprise each other, to make it for each other,” Mercer says. “I’m not excited to play it for the story or the audience. I want you guys to have fun.”

Of course, it is work. It may not feel that way when they’re sitting down playing, but the cast is unanimous and quick to stress that this is indeed their jobs — and since going independent, their careers. At a Q&A for VIP fans before the Chicago show, Ray, the spunky redhead who is Critical Role’s creative director in addition to playing an undead warlock and tomboy monk, is asked what the cast had learned from doing the show. “Taxes,” she deadpans. They’re no longer just on the hook for saving Exandria from an evil conclave of dragons; they need to make sure their employees have health insurance as they plan a future for themselves in the fraught entertainment industry.

“There’s nobody that’s come before us to show the path. We made it with a machete,” says Bailey, perhaps the most naturally joyful member of the cast. Luckily, thanks to careful growth, the path is clear for the moment. Willingham, Critical Role’s CEO who can come off as a football-playing jock but is as geeky as the rest of his fellow players, says the company is “very, very stable.”

There are a lot of levels to Critical Role’s hierarchy. As the DM, Mercer is essentially in charge of the fantasy universe, as he created the setting and it’s his whims that primarily shape what happens next in the story. Meanwhile in every campaign there usually tends to be one character who emerges as the leader of the party. In the real world, Willingham’s the CEO, but there’s no sense that he’s the “boss” over any of his friends. On top of friendship dynamics, there are relationship dynamics; Willingham and Bailey are married, as are Mercer and Ray. Given all this, Critical Role seems to run remarkably without incident.

“The foundation of our friendship and as co-workers is problem-solving. All we know how to do together is collaborate,” says Johnson, who went from a child actor on Growing Pains to a fallen angel barbarian on Critical Role. “Even if we’re fighting, it’s like “Yeah, well also this’ or ‘Yes, and!'”

Since one of the unique aspects to actual-play like Critical Role is how audiences become attached to the actors as much (if not more) than their characters, the cast also has an inherently lopsided relationship with their fans, who watch them have fun with each other every week. They’ve all gotten a lot better at dealing with people online wanting input on their real-life friendship over the course of a decade in the spotlight, something Mercer says wasn’t always the case.

“Because this is something that is so special to us and so personal, at the beginning it was very difficult to hear anything,” Mercer says, though now he points to the relationships the Critter community has made with each other, as Critical Role has helped gaming groups, friendships, and even families get together. “That’s more important than any concerns of parasociality.”

High-stakes fictional drama on the table notwithstanding, there really doesn’t seem to be a hidden side to Critical Role. They really are as friendly off camera as they are in public and they work as well together as their fantasy heroes do — often better, in fact. To find any real drama you have to go back to the earliest days of Critical Role when another voice actor, who was part of that first home game, left the show after the 27th episode. The cast declines to talk about it, and the fan community has largely forbidden any online discussion of the exit. It’s fair to say, though, what few incidents like this exist have helped inform what Critical Role and the relationships that make it up aspire to be.

“We all realized, once the ball got rolling on this, how rare this opportunity is and how much focus and respect and care it really deserves,” O’Brien says. “That’s informed every month and year.”

The next year of Critical Role looks to be a big one. Willingham says 2025 will mark “the biggest changes” since the show began. (“The moon will turn to blood,” he jokes, prompting Jaffey to note that such an ominous event already happened in the show’s fiction.)

The cast won’t release any concrete information about the fourth campaign, though they promise they will before the year is up. There is a lot of speculation — and concern — about what they’ll do next. Perhaps most crucially, will all eight of them be at the table? After several years of bringing other players and creators in for limited series or spin-offs and demonstrating an interest in switching up the cast, it’s a possibility, one that the founders admit is an inevitability, it’s just a question of when. So, is Critical Role the brand they’ve created, or is it this specific group of friends who fans have come to know and love?

When Campaign Three started in 2021, Willingham did not make an appearance. Instead, Daymond, who had starred in a limited series spin-off earlier in the year, sat at the table. Willingham didn’t debut his character until a few episodes later. This perceived substitution was not announced ahead of time. “I remember watching the Twitch chat scroll when Travis didn’t show up and it was me. That’s a scary feeling,” Daymond recalls. “It just goes to the point — you’re never going to replace them.”

Fans might have been apprehensive when Daymond arrived in the Campaign Three premiere, but they were screaming in surprised delight when he appeared on stage at the Chicago live show. He fits right in, and that’s by design.

“It’s been a process of introducing friends and new faces into the community. ‘Look, we love them. If you like us, we know you’ll learn to love them too,’” Mercer says. “It’s less about us going away and more about bringing more friends into the fold. We would never just be like ‘Alright, great, thanks for coming. Here’s all the new faces,’ and vanish. We are never going away.”

“We are going to be like the Rolling Stones and have, like, a dozen farewell shows,” adds Ray, with Mercer suggesting he might eventually move into a “Professor X” mentor role rather than always being the DM. “I want to do this the rest of my life, to some degree,” he says. “This is the thing I’m most proud of.”

There are other questions ahead of Campaign Four, too, including whether or not it will be in the same setting as the first three or a rebooted canon. They’re aware of how important the start of a new campaign is as an onboarding point for new fans, especially those who may have learned about them from the animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina, and now want to see what the deal is without the stress of an intimidating backlog of three or four-hour long episodes. (“We’ve got more hours of content than The Simpsons and Law & Order,” Willingham says.) The lore of Exandria has gotten really dense. Mercer says he’s aware of the barrier this might present, and aims to consider it for the new campaign without “ruining what exists, which I think is a mistake that some creative spaces have done.”

There’s also the question of whether the show, which they describe as “a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons,” will still be them playing D&D. They’ve dabbled in other games for spin-off shows, and now they’re selling their own fantasy role-playing game, Daggerheart. Using different rules and gameplay mechanics that are supposedly more narrative-friendly and accessible, Daggerheart is one of many tabletop games coming for D&D‘s throne as the go-to system for fantasy adventures. Though they’ve said Daggerheart is a “major part” of their business going forward, the cast is noncommittal about what it means for Campaign Four. Mercer stresses how important the 50-year-old grandaddy of tabletop gaming has been to them and their success while also admitting that Age of Umbra is something of a trial balloon, since it runs on Daggerheart. (“I would be lying if I said there wasn’t this cloud in the back of my mind going, ‘Don’t fuck it up, Matt!'”)

The 10th anniversary is a yearlong celebration of the past and an extremely important marker for the future. Everyone is excited to play what comes next, and they confidently assume their fans will be excited once they learn the specifics, too. As long as these friends are having fun, success tends to follow. You can see it from the sidelines when they’re recording Age of Umbra. Once the cameras start rolling, there’s only a subtle change when they’re “on.” A hair more theatrical, sure, but only slightly. They’re the same old friends who were goofing around beforehand.

It’s the same in Chicago, as they’re waiting to get miked up. Johnson recounts a tale of childhood destruction, an incident when she accidentally set her mom’s kitchen on fire while trying to make Mother’s Day breakfast. Willingham follows up with one of his own, the time he accidentally drove a car into his mom’s just-renovated bathroom. Amazingly, these two stories are new to the rest of the cast. Friends after all these years and there’s still more to learn.

At this moment, waiting to perform before a legion of fans, they’re not the heroes of the realm or business owners. They’re just friends joking and razzing one another.

“We’re just fucking with each other,” Mercer says. “Everyone has butterflies in their stomach, but this is how we knock it out, just fucking with each other.”

Age of Umbra: What Is Gained, What Is Lost

Runtime	Break start
3h 05m	1h 22m

Last we left off our troop had delved deep within the Luzal Vaults until they reached the monastery atop the Firmament's Harrow. Where they had uncovered Velk (who had given in to divine ideas of destiny before being corrupted by a sourceless shadow seemingly erupting from a statue of one of the Veiled Gods). You battled the swollen, monstrous, feral form of Velk before casting him from the edge of the cliff face to plummet to his death within the shadow below. There you inspected the surrounding ruins of the ourter aspects of this monastery. Uncovered some useful relics of the Old World, and opened a sealed reliquary box at the base of the statue. Upon which a substance was inhaled by young Eryn who was helping unlock this reliquary. Her cough progressed into a fever, and (as opposed to pressng on into the monastery) you chose to bring her back to seek help and recovery in Desperloch.
There you took her to the local healer who treated her infection. You went and met an ally of Snyx's who was able to give a little bit of context and information for the skull that was found within the reliquary (before upsetting him). Upon your return you were given information from Truvo the Hedge (the local herbalist healer) that this was mroe than just a simple infection. Some of the Umbra shadow seems to grow within Eryn. When you turned to go and see if she was okay, she was gone, and the core of Desperloch village was filled with dark smoke.
The five of you pushed into the core and found the Sacred Pyre gone. Quenched with the blood of nearby townsfolk, and the Pyrekeepers that stood watch. It's at this moment that you see Eryn, little teenage Eryn standing there, turning back over her shoulder towards you and smiling.

Previous Episode: The Lost Monastery

Please note that these broadcasts are only scheduled for the times listed below.

Tales From The Stinky Dragon

Campaign 3: Kanon

A team of trained soldiers is caught in the middle of a war between distant deities and under-dwelling devils. As they turn the tide of this celestial crusade, a voice beckons them from the beyond—destiny or doom?

• Episode 19 releases Monday, June 9th on Beacon and the Tales From The Stinky Dragon Patreon at 12am Pacific.
• Episode 19 releases Wednesday, June 11th on your favorite podcast streaming platform and the Tales From The Stinky Dragon YouTube at 12am Pacific.

Weird Kids

Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe deep dive into their lives as the Weird Kids! This is a formal invitation to all the misfits, outcasts, and weirdos to take a seat at our table and join these former child actors as they embrace their unique upbringings and celebrate all things weird and wonderful.

• Episode 11 releases Tuesday, June 10th at 5am Pacific exclusively on Beacon
• Get a sneak peak of Episode 11 on Tuesday, June 10th by checking out @TheWeirdKidsPod YouTube Channel

Critical Role Abridged

All the twists and turns of an episode of Critical Role in half the time! In Critical Role Abridged, the rich tapestry of a Critical Role campaign is lovingly distilled to its most pivotal, hilarious, and poignant moments in about 60-90 minutes per episode.

• Campaign 3, Episode 57 releases Tuesday, June 11th at 10am Pacific on YouTube
• Campaign 3, Episode 57 Podcast out Tuesday, June 11th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Campaign 3, Episode 79 releases Tuesday, June 11th at 10am Pacific on Beacon

UNEND, Season 2

After their voyage of exploration goes awry, the crew of the Ship find themselves adrift in an unfamiliar realm where everything they know is called into question. With their beliefs, their bonds, and their lives at stake, they must decide how much they’re willing to sacrifice to find a way home.

• Episode 2 releases Wednesday, June 11th on the Midst Podcast YouTube at 10am Pacific and your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Episode 4 releases Wednesday, June 11th on Beacon, Midst.co, and Podcast Subscribers at 5am Pacific

Age of Umbra | Episode 3

Small communities hold fast against the darkness of a dying world in Age of Umbra, a dark, survival fantasy 8-part Daggerheart mini-series with Game Master Matthew Mercer and players Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham. Death lurks around every corner, but five characters of the small community of Desperloch must band together to fight for hope for their community, risking it all for those they love.

• Airs Thursday, June 12th at 7pm Pacific on Twitch and YouTube
• VOD and Podcast out Thursday, June 12th at 7pm Pacific on Beacon
• Rebroadcasts Friday, June 13th at 12am Pacific and 9am Pacific on Twitch
• VOD out Monday, June 16th at 12pm Pacific on YouTube
• Part 1 Podcast out June 19th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Part 2 Podcast out June 24th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific

Cooldown: Age of Umbra | Episode 3

Get a backstage pass to Age of Umbra! You’ll be right there at the table immediately after Matt says “Is it Thursday yet?”, experiencing the cast’s post-show reactions.

• Releases Thursday, June 12th at 7pm Pacific only on Beacon

Daggerheart Launch Events

Also!

At 5 locations of the Alamo Drafthouse you will be able to see and play the game in the theater.

Age of Umbra: The Lost Monastery

A desire to both protect and to learn has led to terror in Firmament's Harrow - but can that terror be contained?

Runtime	Break start
3h 46m	2h 3m

Last we left off, our troupe of fresh Delvers (from the small village of Desperloch here in the Halcyon Domain) have discovered that a rather practiced troupe had just returned from the depths of Luzal Vaults, half of their team slain or missing. Those who remained too wounded to pursue. You managed to convince the head of the Delvers (Rascelo) to go in their stead. To seek the missing member of their team, one of which you have some past relationship with.
Velk Dravenmoor.
You then went into the depths of these vaults, utilizing a map that was provided for you. A little lost at some point, but after tearing through some rising, shambling skeletons and some burning oozes that called that domain their own, you eventually came to the great gates that were recently discovered that supposedly lead to the long-sealed Luzal Monastery, the target of much of Desperloch's research and hope.
Upon arriving, you discovered that the gate guardian they had thought before which had been laid low, had begun to recover, and while still damaged, rose up and assailed your troop, tearing through you quite horribly in but a matter of moments. But nevertheless, through the majesty of an empowered boomerang you cut it down as well as the skeletons that it had risen out of the slain Desperloch delvers that remained.
You noticed that the gates were partially ajar and where a bloodstained hand smear, a series of blood pools, and a small trinket were left, and you believe that this insulates that your target, Velk, may have traversed beyond these gates towards the monastery himself. As such, hurt and winded, you closed the gate behind you just in case the guardian was still giving chase. You catch your breath here in the darkness, barely noticing the stone steps that ascend into shadow, up, up into the depths of the mountain. To where, no one yet knows. It is here inside this dark cave, as you catch your breath in silence. What would you like to do?

Previous Episode: Desperloch

YouTube Trailer

JETRUNNER is a parkour FPS, with cel shaded, comic like visuals, and a gameplay loop that can be best described as Trackmania meets Titanfall. Rich, expressive movement, and tight gunplay is what JETRUNNER is all about.

In a dazzling near-future where gravity is optional and style is mandatory, JETRUNNER is the planet’s most thrilling sport: a pulse-pounding fusion of first-person parkour, fluid controls and fast-paced FPS action, designed for only the boldest contenders. Run, jump, slide, and blast your way through hand crafted arenas as you climb the ranks and etch your name into the annals of Jetrunning history.

Please note that these broadcasts are only scheduled for the times listed below.

Tales From The Stinky Dragon | Campaign 3: Kanon

Go behind the scenes of Tales from the Stinky Dragon Campaign 3: Kanon with the cast and crew as they discuss each episode, player decisions, DM secrets, and life stories in this exclusive bi-weekly show!

• Episode 18 releases Monday, June 2nd on Beacon and the Tales From The Stinky Dragon Patreon at 12am Pacific.

Weird Kids

Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe deep dive into their lives as the Weird Kids! This is a formal invitation to all the misfits, outcasts, and weirdos to take a seat at our table and join these former child actors as they embrace their unique upbringings and celebrate all things weird and wonderful.

• Episode 10 releases Tuesday, June 3rd at 5am Pacific exclusively on Beacon
• Get a sneak peak of Episode 10 on Tuesday, June 3rd by checking out @TheWeirdKidsPod YouTube Channel

Critical Role Abridged

All the twists and turns of an episode of Critical Role in half the time! In Critical Role Abridged, the rich tapestry of a Critical Role campaign is lovingly distilled to its most pivotal, hilarious, and poignant moments in about 60-90 minutes per episode.

• Campaign 3, Episode 56 releases Tuesday, June 3rd at 10am Pacific on YouTube
• Campaign 3, Episode 56 Podcast out Tuesday, June 3rd at 10am Pacific on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Campaign 3, Episode 77 releases Tuesday, June 3rd at 10am Pacific on Beacon

Fireside Chat

Daggerheart is out in the world! Join our Senior RPG Producer Elise Rezendes and Game Designer Matthew Mercer as they answer everything you need to know about Daggerheart!

Ask your questions in the Beacon Discord!

• Premieres LIVE on Tuesday, June 3rd at 10am Pacific only on Beacon

UNEND, Season 2

After their voyage of exploration goes awry, the crew of the Ship find themselves adrift in an unfamiliar realm where everything they know is called into question. With their beliefs, their bonds, and their lives at stake, they must decide how much they’re willing to sacrifice to find a way home.

• Episode 1 releases Wednesday, June 4th on the Midst Podcast YouTube at 10am Pacific and your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Episodes 1-3 releases Wednesday, June 4th on Beacon, Midst.co, and Podcast Subscribers at 5am Pacific

Age of Umbra | Episode 2

Small communities hold fast against the darkness of a dying world in Age of Umbra, a dark, survival fantasy 8-part Daggerheart mini-series with Game Master Matthew Mercer and players Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham. Death lurks around every corner, but five characters of the small community of Desperloch must band together to fight for hope for their community, risking it all for those they love.

• Airs Thursday, June 5th at 7pm Pacific on Twitch and YouTube
• VOD and Podcast out Thursday, June 5th at 7pm Pacific on Beacon
• Rebroadcasts Friday, June 6th at 12am Pacific and 9am Pacific on Twitch
• VOD out Monday, June 9th at 12pm Pacific on YouTube
• Part 1 Podcast out June 12th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Part 2 Podcast out June 17th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific

Critical Role Cooldown | Age of Umbra | Episode 2

Get a backstage pass to Age of Umbra! You’ll be right there at the table immediately after Matt says “Is it Thursday yet?”, experiencing the cast’s post-show reactions.

• Releases Thursday, June 5th at 7pm Pacific only on Beacon

Age of Umbra Episode 1

The Enduring, safe beneath the pyre fire of Desperloch, brace against the harsh realities of their world all while holding onto hope for a brighter future...

Runtime	Break start
3h 42m	1h 46m

Desperloch

This is the Halcyon Domain.

A once golden realm of verdant valleys, majestic mountain cities, and the expansive golden city of Amber Reach (where the seat of the God-King Othedias and his Grand Ordinants oversaw the rule of law, faith, and magic) under the guiding miracles of the Veiled Gods.
It is said by many who scrounged the shreds of history that it was the clandestine machinations of the God-King and his constituents that sundered the divine laws and caused the Veiled Gods to punish the realm and abandon our world. Others speak of misuse of the Aetherweave itself that spurned their retribution. What is know is that the century since the Apostasy (when the Veiled Gods blanketed the lands in shadow before vanishing into the dreams beyond) this realm has been dying.
Society has slowly crumbled under an ever-desperate populace, the clergy and nobility shutting themselves within their strongholds and cathedrals, while nightmarish magic and heinous creatures arose to feast upon the surviving citizens of the domain, the ashen sea spilled into the valley to leave a sinking marshland, host to mutating beasts and horrid demonds. Holy heroes and great warriors combated the swelling evils, galvanizing the scattered peoples to defend their villages, or found new ones where the burning flames of the miraculous Sacred Pyres could keep the darkness at bay.
Some became great leaders, while others succumbed to the howling evil force known as the Umbra that now spreads and corrupts the realm. Those that survived, despite this divine death sentence, now call themselves The Enduring. Over these few generations defined by hardship, survival, and a gently-kindled hope, new heroes arise to protect their families, to reassemble the truths of the past, to change the tides of fortune for all, or die trying.
The Old World is dead. Welcome to the Age of Umbra.
It is here, in the Halcyon Domain, where we instead come in the midst of a dark night. Here in the jungles of Aveidoora, the sounds of heavy breathing push through the dense, hanging vine and canopy tangle.
Snyx, what do we see as you rush through the jungles?

The Harder to Breathe Podcast Presents:

The Power of "Yes" and Finding Your Passion: A Candid Conversation with Sam Riegel

In this powerful episode of The Harder To Breathe Podcast, Ryan Dusik and Brian “Duck” Maillard welcome voice acting legend Sam Riegel (Critical Role, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) for a candid and moving conversation. Sam shares his extraordinary journey, from childhood fame to a career in voice acting, his 9/11 survival story, and his recent battle with cancer.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
[00:00:42] Duck’s Shoutout: A huge congratulations to Duck’s son's team for winning in the playoffs.
[00:02:13] Navigating Realities: Discussion of where the balance is between helping someone face their realities versus finding peace to keep them happy.
[00:05:00] Compartmentalize: The hosts dive into how compartmentalization can help and hurt people.
[00:15:45] Welcome Sam Riegel: The guys officially welcome Sam to the show
[00:16:08] Early Days: Listen to Sam and Duck reminisce about when they first met in New York.
[00:20:50] Community: Sam talks about the community between all actors
[00:24:12] Career Journey: Hear about Sam's journey of being an actor and finding out what works.
[00:35:50] Survival Story: Sam tells the harrowing and empowering details from surviving 9/11.
[00:42:12] The Big Diagnosis: Sam reveals that he had cancer in his mouth
[00:48:50] Coping Through Life: Sam and the hosts dive into people’s coping mechanisms.
[01:05:26] A Reminder to Live Your Life: Sam discusses how his diagnosis has not stopped him.

Don't miss this inspiring conversation! Watch now to learn about resilience, the power of saying "yes" to opportunities, and finding humor in the face of adversity.

by Lisa/Leviatherys

The Harder to Breathe Podcast is a space to have honest and vulnerable conversations about the challenges we face and how to work through them. Hosted by founder drummer of Maroon 5, registered therapist, author and advocate Ryan Dusick, H2B will feature interviews with top performers in their respective fields of entertainment, sports, business, and more, sharing helpful tools, perspectives and insights for helping you navigate the challenges in your life.

Gather by the Ghost Light Presents

The Other Me

THE OTHER ME written by Jonathan Cook starring Laura Bailey and Khary Payton.
A therapist uncovers crucial evidence in a bizarre missing person case and soon finds that knowing the truth puts her life in danger.

Timestamps
(00:00) THE OTHER ME Audio Play
(23:54) Interview with Laura Bailey - Voice Acting origin
(28:35) Laura Bailey - Difference in Videogame and Animation Acting
(29:21) Laura Bailey - Performance Capture and Motion Capture
(30:59) Laura Bailey - Playing Abby in Last of Us 2
(33:36) Laura Bailey - Noises, Grunts, and other Sounds in Voice Acting
(36:55) Laura Bailey - Critical Role to the Legend of Vox Machina
(40:18) Laura Bailey working with Khary Payton
(41:08) Laura Bailey advice to aspiring voice actors
(43:19) Laura Bailey on THE OTHER ME and GBTGL
(44:30) Outro

Launched in 2020, Gather by the Ghost Light is a part of the Broadway Podcast Network and has produced over 85 audio play productions written by playwrights from around the world and regularly has writers and voice actors as guests on the show. Hosted by Jonathan Cook and Devon McSherry.

Comicbook.com's show Character Sheet presents

Matt Answers Your Questions!

The Character Sheet is back with more fantasy and TTRPG news, and today we are sitting down with Critical Role's legendary DM and the man who created the Age of Umbra frame for Daggerheart, Matthew Mercer, along with Daggerheart lead designer Spenser Starke, to talk about the settig for Critical Role's upcoming Age of Umbra mini series! Is Age of Umbra just set in an alternate version of Exandria? Will horse stacking return as Critical Role dives back into a soulsborne setting? Just how did games like Kingdom Death: Monster inspire Matt Mercer in the creation of Age of Umbra? Find out as we talk with Critical Role's Matthew Mercer and Spenser Starke in our exclusive Age of Umbra interview!

Timestamps
0:00 Coming up
0:23 Introducing Matt And Spenser
3:17 How Age Of Umbra Was Created
7:00 What Is The "Umbra"
11:44 Is This An Alternate Exandria
15:56 Kingdom Death Inspirations
20:52 Favorite Kingdom Death Monsters
24:13 Age Of Umbra World Guide Book
26:47 Lighting Round: Soulsborne or Salzburg!

~ 17:33
Matt Mercer: "The way it begins and kind of evolves in this terrifying, survivalist space where you don't really know why you're here and why things are the way they are, you just are being hunted. In that dark realm, what little bit of light there is, is found through community and the survival of the community. That theme to me is very cool and inspiring and terrifying especially in a world that is ever terrifying in its own right where the survival of community is so important. So, to me, if anything that was definitely the biggest element I wanted to carry over into Age of Umbra was the idea of "These small communities are all they have" and what little bit of connection they have to work together and try and work towards trying to reverse this decay, to try and find a way to save the world in the midst of this very very dark space. That sort of heroic plight was very very interesting and something we didn't quite have in a campaign frame. So that was definitely what I pulled from Kingdom Death Monster."

Please note that these broadcasts are only scheduled for the times listed below.

Tales From The Stinky Dragon

Campaign 3: Kanon

A team of trained soldiers is caught in the middle of a war between distant deities and under-dwelling devils. As they turn the tide of this celestial crusade, a voice beckons them from the beyond—destiny or doom?

• Episode 18 releases Monday, May 26th on Beacon and the Tales From The Stinky Dragon Patreon at 12am Pacific.
• Episode 18 releases Wednesday, May 28th on your favorite podcast streaming platform and the Tales From The Stinky Dragon YouTube at 12am Pacific.

Weird Kids

Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe deep dive into their lives as the Weird Kids! This is a formal invitation to all the misfits, outcasts, and weirdos to take a seat at our table and join these former child actors as they embrace their unique upbringings and celebrate all things weird and wonderful.

• Episode 9 releases Tuesday, May 27th at 5am Pacific exclusively on Beacon
• Get a sneak peak of Episode 9 on Tuesday, May 27th by checking out @TheWeirdKidsPod YouTube Channel

Critical Role Abridged

All the twists and turns of an episode of Critical Role in half the time! In Critical Role Abridged, the rich tapestry of a Critical Role campaign is lovingly distilled to its most pivotal, hilarious, and poignant moments in about 60-90 minutes per episode.

• Campaign 3, Episode 55 releases Tuesday, May 27th at 10am Pacific on YouTube
• Campaign 3, Episode 55 Podcast out Tuesday, May 27th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Campaign 3, Episode 77 releases Tuesday, May 27th at 10am Pacific on Beacon

Get Your Sheet Together | Game Mastering in Daggerheart!

Step into the Daggerheart game master’s seat! Whether you’re learning to GM for the first time, are a new-to-Daggerheart GM, or are just looking for ways to hone your GM craft, Matthew Mercer has all you need to know to run an epic Daggerheart game for your team of players.

• Releases Wednesday, May 28th on Beacon and YouTube

News from the MIDST Cosmos

The UNEND-ing wait for Season 2 is coming soon…

• Wednesday, May 28th at 10am Pacific

Age of Umbra | Episode 1

Small communities hold fast against the darkness of a dying world in Age of Umbra, a dark, survival fantasy 8-part Daggerheart mini-series with Game Master Matthew Mercer and players Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham. Death lurks around every corner, but five characters of the small community of Desperloch must band together to fight for hope for their community, risking it all for those they love.

• Airs Thursday, May 29th at 7pm Pacific on Twitch and YouTube
• VOD and Podcast out Thursday, May 29th at 7pm Pacific on Beacon
• Rebroadcasts Friday, May 30th at 12am Pacific and 9am Pacific on Twitch
• VOD out Monday, June 2nd at 12pm Pacific on YouTube
• Part 1 Podcast out June 5th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Part 2 Podcast out June 10th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific

Critical Role Cooldown: Age of Umbra

Get a backstage pass to Age of Umbra! You’ll be right there at the table immediately after Matt says “Is it Thursday yet?”, experiencing the cast’s post-show reactions.

• Releases Thursday, May 29th at 7pm Pacific only on Beacon

An Astarion and Karlach Adventure: Love is a Legendary Action

What happens when Tav strikes out on adventure but leaves Astarion and Karlach from Baldur's Gate 3 behind? You get a romp through the Underdark with new friends and unexpected challenges!

Dungeons & Dragons hosted a star-studded D&D Live show at Gen Con to celebrate the game's 50th anniversary. Fans gathered to a surprise cast including Dungeon Master Aabria Iyengar and players Anjali Bhimani, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Neil Newbon, and Samantha Béart. The ensuing adventure showcased the 2024 rules update and gave fans an early look at Project Sigil, the immersive 3d sandbox from Wizards of the Coast.

Astarion and Karlach from Baldur’s Gate 3 strike out on their own adventure after Tav doesn’t choose them for their adventuring party, meeting new friends and encountering challenges as they explore the Underdark.

• Aabria Iyengar as DM
• Anjali Bhimani as Miriannan, Human Evocation Wizard
• Brennan Lee Mulligan as Dorbin Kragstone, Dwarven Life Cleric
• Neil Newbon as Astarion, Elf Arcane Trickster Rogue
• Samantha Béart as Karlach, Tiefling Barbarian

Astarion by Miss Fidonyo

Karlach by Rikudompo

Why Daggerheart?

~ 00:19:40

Matt Mercer: I will say the more so than most of their systems and this definitely leans into kind of the new school game design facet incorporating questions as a GM to a player as a main narrative focus and empowering players to to build in those questions.
You know if a player's actively trying to search uh you know an abandoned shack in case something interesting is down there and they successfully break the lock and open the door and then you turn to the player and say
"What do you find?"
And let the player go "Oh well I find the..." and give them the opportunity to kind of build that hope and expectation then you know as the GM you can temper it a bit and kind of rein it in you know back in that push and pull you learn more trust in each other as the game progresses uh because some players might be like
"Well then I find a million gold pieces and I win the game!"
and you're like and then you break from your daydream and look within the empty shack and find there's nothing.
You know it's an opportunity to build that trust over time but also for players that are already in that space it it's a really cool invitation to kind of build the world from there. And as a GM that's that's an option whenever a player is wanting to do something very risky in the game and you can you can offer them the opportunity like if you really really want this even though you failed the role I'll give it to you but this is the consequence if you take it and then you leave the choice to the player and kind of you know you have the opportunity to kind of lean into that that devil's bargain aspect of the story uh within the actual game mechanics and the way that it's presented to you which leads to some really really fun tense moments at the table

Drag Queens vs Dungeon Masters Presents

Defend This! (Round 3)

ROUND 3 turns up the heat with a rapid-fire gauntlet of hot takes so deranged, they should probably be illegal. Meatball, Matt Mercer, Ify Nwadiwe, and Jonnie Reinhart go head-to-head defending points like: "Is Meryl Streep the worst actor of her generation?" and "Is it okay to date someone who looks like your sibling?" These freaks seem to think so. It’s part philosophy, part trash fire, and 100% unhinged fun.

🌟 Featuring:
💄 Drag Queens - Meatball, Jonnie Reinhart, & Pickle
🐉 Dungeon Masters - Matt Mercer, Damien Haas, & Ify Nwadiwe

The Void

An exclusive playtesting hub where fans of Daggerheart can explore in-development content before its official release! Designed for creators and players alike, The Void offers early access to experimental classes, subclasses, ancestries, communities, adversaries, loot, weapons and more . Bring these playtest materials to your table, then send feedback to the Darrington Press team to help shape the future of Daggerheart.

HOW TO DIVE IN:

Bring it to the table: Download the Void content you want to playtest and use it during your game, or simply give it a read and see how the draft materials are shaping up!

Playtest with the community: Jump into the Darrington Press Discord to find others who are looking to try the playtest material and spark discussions about new Void releases.

Give us your feedback: Similar to the Daggerheart Open Beta in 2024, there is a survey for all content in The Void. Help new mechanics come to life by providing direct, actionable feedback to the developers based on your playtesting.

Why Playtest Void Content?

This space is about more than just playtesting—it’s a bridge between the game’s developers and the community, ensuring that the content we make is content you’ll love! and the community, ensuring that the tools we make are ones you’ll love.

New Class Templates (direct PDF links)

Warlock

Fighter

Original Class Template Combo Pack

Bard, Druid, Guardian, Ranger, Rogue, Seraph, Sorceror, Warrior, and Wizard

Additional Materials: Cards, Maps, etc

Please note that these broadcasts are only scheduled for the times listed below.

Tales From The Stinky Dragon

Second Wind, Campaign 3: Kanon

Go behind the scenes of Tales from the Stinky Dragon Campaign 3: Kanon with the cast and crew as they discuss each episode, player decisions, DM secrets, and life stories in this exclusive bi-weekly show!

• Episode 17 releases Monday, May 19th on Beacon and the Tales From The Stinky Dragon Patreon at 12am Pacific.

Weird Kids

Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe deep dive into their lives as the Weird Kids! This is a formal invitation to all the misfits, outcasts, and weirdos to take a seat at our table and join these former child actors as they embrace their unique upbringings and celebrate all things weird and wonderful.

• Episode 8 releases Tuesday, May 20th at 5am Pacific exclusively on Beacon
• Get a sneak peak of Episode 8 on Tuesday, May 20th by checking out @TheWeirdKidsPod YouTube Channel

Critical Role Abridged

All the twists and turns of an episode of Critical Role in half the time! In Critical Role Abridged, the rich tapestry of a Critical Role campaign is lovingly distilled to its most pivotal, hilarious, and poignant moments in about 60-90 minutes per episode.

• Campaign 3, Episode 54 releases Tuesday, May 20th at 10am Pacific on YouTube
• Campaign 3, Episode 54 Podcast out Tuesday, May 20th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Campaign 3, Episode 76 releases Tuesday, May 20th at 10am Pacific on Beacon

Get Your Sheet Together (GYST)

GYST is a series for those looking to learn how to play Daggerheart. We will provide an overview of the general rules, walk through character creation, offer guidance on how to GM your own campaign, player tips, and more!

Part 1: A mystery long forgotten stirs in the abyss, as the Thresher crew makes a treacherous descent into the lost station of Rán-Beor.

Part One

Created in collaboration with 12 Sided Studios and Paragon Pictures, Thresher is a two part underwater epic taking place in a unique world created by Matt Linton and Jacqueline Emerson and homebrewed for gameplay by Jasper William Cartwright, based on Candela Obscura, an Illuminated Worlds game from Darrington Press.
Deep in the abyss where ancient creatures lurk, a motley crew must unite onboard the S.S. Thresher submarine to explore the abandoned Rán Boer station resting in the ocean’s unforgiving depths. Battling claustrophobia, paranoia, lurking behemoths, and hidden horrors, only one thing is certain; from the deep, power rises...

Part 2: After Rán-Beor's power is switched back on, the crew confront one another as tensions and unexpected truths bubble up to the surface.

Part Two

Future Games yT Channel

The official YouTube channel of the Future Games Show, unearthing the most innovative, visually creative, and extraordinary games worth your attention.

The Future Game Show is broadcast on all major streaming platforms and across multiple outlets including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Steam, BiliBili and more. Of course, if you would prefer some virtual company as you watch the show, check out our official co-streamers who will be streaming the show and reacting live on their channels.

The Future Games Show is built on the ethos of ' Discover Something New'. We believe that bringing interesting, innovative and hotly-anticipated upcoming games to our audience is of key importance.
Throughout the show we'll have world premieres, gameplay reveals, dev interviews and more from across the gaming landscape.

For more information on any of the games in the show, take a look at our dedicated Future Games Show Steam page and get them on your Wishlists.

article by Rob Weiland

The wait for Critical Role’s summer blockbuster release is nearly over. Daggerheart, from Darrington Press, is the company’s big foray into fantasy role-playing with a home grown system. Dungeons and Dragons may have made them famous but they are looking to change things up this year with their next series using Daggerheart instead.

In advance of the game’s wide release, Darrington Press sent an exclusive page spread reveal. They also arranged for an interview with the designers of the game. I asked them how it felt for the game to finally be out and some tips for Critters looking to take their friends on an adventure using the game.

“It feels unreal,” said Spenser Starke, lead designer of Daggerheart. “I think one of the great parts about the open beta was getting to see people talk about the same things we were excited to see people spin on the same ideas that we were turning our wheels on. So the final is going to be that times 100. I think for me, every time people bring characters to the table or campaigns or sessions or whatever that have even a little bit of the DNA that we play in our own home games. It feels like an extension of how we’re playing with our friends that we just haven’t met yet.”

“Once when you put out a TTRPG,” said Rowan Hall, co-designer of Daggerheart, “every person who picks it up is going to interpret it differently. Every table is going to make tweaks that are just perfect for them. I feel very glad that it’s going to continue to ebb and flow and breathe as we keep going.”

Daggerheart Principles

The chapter on running an adventure dives into advice that the designers felt they needed to give potential GMs. The first bit looks at GM Principles whih are basic concpets that GMs should focus on. If they get stuck and don’t know what to do, the idea is to come back to these principles to find a way forward with the story.

“The one that I try and embody the most when I’m running games at my own table is ’ask questions and incorporate the answers,’” said Starke. "One of my favorite things is turning to the players and backstory, asking them stuff about a piece of the world that their character would know better than anybody else. These are the guards that are chasing you from your hometown that you escaped from. What does their armor look like? How do you know it’s them? What sigil is on their shoulder that tells you they’re from that town? Turning those questions back to the players and allowing them to be involved in the fiction is something that is really near and dear to my GMing style."

“I think when people’s eyes light up when they have the opportunity to explain something,” said Hall. “when they realize that they have ownership over the fiction, that is the secret sauce.”

Many of the priciples reflect the idea that the GM, while central to the experience, doesn’t have to create everything ahead of time. It’s okay to ask players to definte parts of the story in play. Sometimes choices made in the moment are more satisfying than ones written as backstory.

Daggerheart Best Practices

While GM Principles offer a solid foundation, the book also offers advice on how to run the game. These are techniques the designers use when they run not just Daggerheart but any role playing game.

“I’ll take ‘cut to the action’, said Hall. ”I particularly like this practice because it keeps everything moving in a nice clip. It makes everything feel really cinematic. I think that I have at different times in my life, whether I’m working on writing books or stories or scripts, felt that I had to compensate for every moment, even the moments of downtime, even the dinners and the lunches. But I found the longer I’ve played, the more that I eagerly cut into the action. I think is such a beautiful way to uphold the adventurous tone of the game to truly drive home the characters feeling like protagonists even on a meta level. That’s one thing that I live and die by personally. Keep sessions snappy. I love a quick session, especially as an adult person that has to organize schedules with other adult people."

“Mine would be ‘reframe rather than reject’,” said Starke. “When somebody tries to do something, especially a player who is coming to RPGs new, a lot of times they come in and want to do a really cool thing that’s not in the rules. They’re like, ‘I want to try XYZ’ And that isn’t an ability that they have or isn’t a rule that they can use because their character doesn’t have the feature or whatever. And so I think that as a GM slowing down and instead of just saying, ‘No, you can’t do that,’ instead saying, ‘it sounds like you want to do this.’”

Daggerheart Pitfalls To Avoid

Daggerheart deals in themes of Hope and Fear. Players gain Hope points to activate special abilities and tilt the odds in their favor. GMs use Fear points to make their bad guys stronger and create plot twists for the heroes to overcome.

“One of the ones that I particularly like for pitfalls to avoid is hoarding Fear,” said Hall. "Guiding people not to do that because I think that having Fear or a resource similar to Fear might be something that some GMs have for the first time. It goes hand-in-hand with Hope. It’s guidance that I find that we give both the GMs and the players which is Hope and Fear are resources that should, according to the statistics, be coming in your way about half the time."

“One of the pitfalls that I look to avoid in any heroic fantasy game is undermining the heroes,” said Starke. ”which means that when you get a success with Fear or what generally in the storytelling space tends to be called a ‘mixed success’, it is a success and then there’s a consequence but the consequence doesn’t undermine what the player character was trying to do. So, if you’re sneaking and you roll a success with Fear, you do sneak, you do that, that succeeds, but the room that you sneak into might have more people in it or you might take a stress because you almost get caught, right?"

Daggerheart releases on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. Fans who wish to see the new game in action can check out Age of Umbra, a new miniseries from Critical Role starting May 29th, 2025.

Weird Kids x Third Person (MIDST)

Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe welcome the creators of the Midst Cosmos and fellow weirdos Matt Roen, Sara Wile, and Xen to their Weird Kids table! From role-playing games to nostalgic artifacts to neat gadgets to just a shared love of scents, this motley crew of magnificent misfits has plenty of delightfully strange topics to show-and-tell.

Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe deep dive into their lives as the Weird Kids! This is a formal invitation to all the misfits, outcasts, and weirdos to take a seat at our table and join these former child actors as they embrace their unique upbringings and celebrate all things weird and wonderful.

Several decades after the events of MIDST and Moonward, a supernatural ship and a remarkable crew set forth on an expedition to explore the highest heights, deepest depths, and furthest reaches of the known cosmos. But their journey is fraught with peril as they discover truths and realities far stranger than any of them could ever have imagined.

UNEND Season 2 coming this June to your preferred podcast platform and the Midst Podcast YouTube

Follow Midst Cosmos

article by Darcy Ross

Small communities hold fast against the darkness of a dying world in Age of Umbra, a dark, survival fantasy 8-part Daggerheart mini-series with Game Master Matthew Mercer coming May 29th with players Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham. Death lurks around every corner, but five characters of the small community of Desperloch must band together to fight for hope for their community, risking it all for those they love.

Daggerheart is an endlessly flexible system, and Age of Umbra stands as a dark mirror to the brightly playful fantasy of The Menagerie one-shots (during the Open Beta Playtest) or the holiday themes set in the 1980’s of A Daggerheart Critmas Story. Buckle up for a whole new flavor of Daggerheart.

The World of Age of Umbra

Lethal and foreboding, the world of the Halcyon Domain is a world abandoned by gods, where souls of the dead are cursed and reborn into twisted, nightmarish forms. A dark, ethereal mass known as the Umbra roams and holds these fiendish monstrosities, further corrupting anything it touches. But flickers of hope remain—Sacred Pyres keep the Umbra at bay, with small communities enduring and surviving 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.

Age of Umbra is a playable campaign frame designed by Matthew in the Daggerheart Core Set, but like any Daggerheart game, it is made anew through collaborative worldbuilding of the players and GM.

OUR Age of Umbra: Session Zero Worldbuilding

In a Session Zero airing May 22nd, you can watch players Sam Riegel, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, and Ashley Johnson work with Matthew to make their characters and tie them into the setting of the Age of Umbra, creating adventure hooks, locations, and campaign elements that will reemerge throughout the mini-series.

Where to Watch & Listen

In a Session Zero airing May 22nd, you can watch players Sam Riegel, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, and Ashley Johnson work with Matthew to make their characters and tie them into the setting of the Age of Umbra, creating adventure hooks, locations, and campaign elements that will reemerge throughout the mini-series.

The 8 episode mini-series premieres Thursdays at 7pm starting May 29th on Beacon, Twitch, and YouTube, with a break week on July 3rd and the finale on July 24th. VODs on YouTube are available the Monday following the premiere. Podcast versions are available instantly and ad-free to Beacon subscribers, or in two parts anywhere podcasts are found: part 1 available the Thursday after the premiere, and part 2 the following Tuesday.

Teaser Trailer

Please note that these broadcasts are only scheduled for the times listed below.

Tales From The Stinky Dragon

Campaign 3: Kanon

A team of trained soldiers is caught in the middle of a war between distant deities and under-dwelling devils. As they turn the tide of this celestial crusade, a voice beckons them from the beyond—destiny or doom?

• Episode 17 releases Monday, May 12th on Beacon and the Tales From The Stinky Dragon Patreon at 12am Pacific.
• Episode 17 releases Wednesday, April 2nd on your favorite podcast streaming platform and the Tales From The Stinky Dragon YouTube at 12am Pacific.

Fireside Chat with Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe!

Our resident weirdos Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe are making their way to the Tavern for a joint Fireside Chat to answer all your delightfully strange questions, give you the inside scoop on Weird Kids, and chat about the latest shenanigans in Critical Role land!

• Airs Monday, May 12th LIVE on Beacon at 7pm Pacific.

Weird Kids X Third Person Crossover!

Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe welcome the creators of the Midst Cosmos and fellow weirdos Matt Roen, Sara Wile, and Xen to their Weird Kids table! From role-playing games to nostalgic artifacts to neat gadgets to just a shared love of scents, this motley crew of magnificent misfits has plenty of delightfully strange topics to show-and-tell.

• Releases Tuesday, May 13th at 5am Pacific on Beacon, Midst.co, and your preferred Midst Cosmos podcast platform and 10am Pacific on the Midst Podcast YouTube, Critical Role YouTube, and Weird Kids YouTube

Critical Role Abridged

All the twists and turns of an episode of Critical Role in half the time! In Critical Role Abridged, the rich tapestry of a Critical Role campaign is lovingly distilled to its most pivotal, hilarious, and poignant moments in about 60-90 minutes per episode.

• Campaign 3, Episode 53 releases Tuesday, May 13th at 10am Pacific on YouTube
• Campaign 3, Episode 53 Podcast out Tuesday, May 13th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
• Campaign 3, Episode 75 releases Tuesday, May 13th at 10am Pacific on Beacon

Narrative Telephone

Much like the game of telephone we all played in elementary school, Narrative Telephone involves a group of friends telling and re-telling a short story from one person to the next; with only their memory to help them recount what they heard. As the story inevitably changes and distorts it becomes more and more outlandish and hilarious. They then gather to watch the results and react, comment, commiserate, and joke about the chaos that ensues.

• Episode 8 releases Wednesday, May 14th on Beacon at 12pm Pacific
• Episode 8 releases Wednesday, May 28th on YouTube at 12pm Pacific