Critical Role is a multimedia company that produces books, games, literature, tabletop games, and webseries.
Critical Role is their weekly Actual Play web video series where a group of well-known voiceover artists and actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. The story takes place in Exandria, where epic adventures are had. What began as an experimentnote turned into something extraordinary.
There are three main campaigns, with the third currently being ongoing.
- Campaign One that focuses on Vox Machina on the continent of Tal'Dorei.
- Campaign Two follows The Mighty Nein in Wildemount.
- Campaign Three follows Bells' Hells in Marquet.
After the success of the original series Critical Role has spawned its fair share of Spin Offs.
Exandria Unlimited began in 2021. It's an anthology series which airs whenever the main campaign is on a break.
In 2023, Critical Role has started a new series using their in-house developed RPG system "Illuminated Worlds". The first of such series is Candela Obscura, with the first episode being released in June 2023 and airs the last Thursday of the month.
Comics and Graphic Novels
- Comic books and graphic novels: Various series of comic books and graphics novels that cover off-stream adventures of the main characters and NPCs.
Literature
- Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith & Kin (2021) - A prequel novel by Marieke Nijkamp, focusing on the twins. The audiobook version is narrated by Robbie Daymond, with Liam O'Brien and Laura Bailey reprising their roles as Vax'ildan and Vex'ahlia.
- Critical Role: The Mighty Nein - The Nine Eyes of Lucien (2022) - A novel by Madeleine Roux that chronicles the life of Lucien, the leader of the Tomb Takers and Final Boss of the second campaign. The audiobook version is narrated by Robbie Daymond, as well as the core cast reprising their roles as The Mighty Nein.
- Critical Role: Bell's Hells - What Doesn't Break (2024) - A prequel novel by Cassandra Khaw that delves into what happened in the "lost years" before Laudna joined her adventuring party.
- Exquisite Exandria (2023) - A
Spin-Off Cookbook featuring recipes for many of the foods described in the show, as well as many others from across Exandria.
Tabletop Game:
- Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting (2017) - A setting guide written by Matt and released
by Green Ronin, allowing fans to craft their own journeys in the world of Critical Role. The guide was designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. The first version went out of publication. In 2021, a newly updated version - Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn - was announced, written by Hannah Rose, Joey Haeck, and Matthew Mercer.
- Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount (2020) - A 5th Edition campaign guide published by Wizards of the Coast and written by Matthew Mercer with a team of designers including Chris Lockey, James Introcaso, and James Haeck.
- Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (2022) - A 5th Edition adventure module published by Wizards of the Coast in collaboration with the cast of Critical Role. In this module, adventurers must travel across the vast world of Exandria in search of a legendary hero from ancient times.
- Candela Obscura (2023) - A Horror Tabletop Roleplaying Game using the Forged in the Dark system, published by Darrington Press
- Daggerheart (Open Beta as of 2024) - A narrative-first, high fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game using an original "Duality Dice" system, published by Darrington Press.
Podcast
- Midst: In April of 2023 they purchased the podcast, which is a space western, created by three people known as Third Person.
Web Animation
- Crit Recap Animated: An abridged Animated Adaptation of campaign 2, narrated by lore keeper Dani Carr.
- Mighty Vibes (2020-2021) - A series of animated videos of the player characters set to lo-Fi music with occasional interspersed voice clips.
Web Video
- Talks Machina (2016-2021) - A long-running Companion Show hosted by Brian W. Foster, where the cast discuss recent events in the campaign.
- Handbooker Helper (2018-2020) - A series of short D&D tutorial videos for beginners.
- Between The Sheets (2018-2019) - An in-depth, one-to-one interviews with the cast and celebrities, hosted by Brian W. Foster.
- All Work No Play (2018-2020) - An adaptation of Liam and Sam's original pre-stream podcast where they try new activities. Re-branded past March 2020 as AWNP: Unplugged, where the cast caught up with their social-distancing friends on Zoom.
- MAME Drop (2019) - Taliesin Jaffe and the cast play retro games.
- Pub Draw (2019) - A series of streams where artist Babs Tarr teaches Marisha to draw.
- Travis Willingham's Yee-Haw Game Ranch (2019-2020) - Travis and Brian W. Foster play video games while trapped(?) in an increasingly complex framing device with puppets. Re-branded past March 2020 as Yee-Haw Off the Ranch, featuring Ashley Johnson in Travis' place.
- Mini Primetime with Will Friedle (2019) - A Talk Show hosted by Will Friedle where he teaches the cast and the audience how to paint their characters' miniatures.
- Critter Hug (2020-2021) - Matt and Mica Burton talk about lesser known creators in the Tabletop Gaming sphere.
- Narrative Telephone (2020-2021) - A game in which one member of the cast records themselves telling a story, sends it to another, who must watch it once and only once, and then retell it, rinse and repeat.
- Exandria Unlimited (2021-) - An anthology of miniseries set in the same cannon as the main campaigns, featuring guest Dungeon Masters and new players alongside some original cast members. The series so far includes:
- Exandria Unlimited, an eight episode limited series that premiered on June 24, 2021. It takes place in Tal'Dorei thirty years after the adventures of Vox Machina. The lineup featured Dungeon Master Aabria Iyengar with players (and TTRPG newcomers!) Aimee Carrero and Robbie Daymond, joined by veterans Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, and Liam O'Brien.
- Exandria Unlimited: Kymal, a two episode limited series that premiered on March 31, 2022. Set not long after the first EXU installment, featuring most of the same cast & DM plus newcomer Erica Lindbeck as they plan and execute a casino heist.
- Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, a four episode limited series that premiered on May 26, 2022. Taking place during the Age of Arcanum (almost a thousand years prior to Vox Machina), it follows a party of powerful adventurers as they uncover a hidden corruption beneath the city they've sworn to protect.
- Four-Sided Dive (2022-) - The spiritual successor to Talks Machina, a Companion Show with a rotating cast and host, where the cast of Critical Role plays games and answers questions about recent events in the campaign.
- Candela Obscura (2023-) - A horror based anthology series based on the Tabletop Game of the same name. Each chapters are 3 episodes long, and follows a different set of investigators, a different GM for each chapter.
Western Animation
- The Legend of Vox Machina (2022) - In March 2019, Critical Role launched a Kickstarter to produce an 22-minute animated special with Titmouse. They hit their $750,000 minimum funding in 40 minutes, hit $1 million in 56 minutes, and in a mere seven hours and 20 minutes smashed through all their initial stretch goals by raising $3 million. They added extra stretch goals, and finally ended with over $10 million: enough to turn the animated special into a two-episode original story, fund an adaptation of the Briarwoods arc spanning eight episodes, and force Travis to be filmed while going through a haunted house. By the time the Kickstarter ended they'd raised over $11 million, making them one of the most successful projects in Kickstarter history. Prime Video picked the show up for 2 season as the 88888th backer, with its premiere on February 4, 2022. A third season is in development.
- Mighty Nein: A follow up to The Legend of Vox Machina in production for Prime Video. Titmouse will once again provide animation services.
