Critical Role Turn To Crafting Tabletop Games In 2021
October 28, 2020 by brennon
The team from Critical Role announced this week that they are going to be turning their attention towards the crafting of tabletop gaming with a new string to their bow, Darrington Press.
Darrington Press // Critical Role
Darrington Press is going to be helmed by Ivan Van Norman who has been working within the tabletop world for a long time aided by Matt Mercer as a creative advisor. The aim is to create a selection of tabletop games which are not only based on the world created for Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein but new worlds too.
Uk'otoa
2021 is going to be the big year for Darrington Press and they are going to be releasing a game during each quarter! It starts with a small semi-cooperative experience called Uk'otoa which is based within the folklore of their second Dungeons & Dragons campaign.
Uk'otoa // Darrington Press
This new game will play with between three-to-five players and take around thirty-to-forty-five minutes. You'll be trying to escape the clutches of the leviathan known as Uk'otoa who is hunting through the depths of the ocean for errant sailors. This, of course, means that you'll be working together to survive but throwing people under the bus if it benefits you!
The game certainly looks very nice and I love the style of art here. Even the components look fantastic here and I am always a bit of a sucker for a meeple. You even get a big ol' miniature for Uk'otoa who is hunting through the ocean.
Future Games
As well as Uk'otoa, the team at Darrington Press also have three more games in the mix too. The first of these looks to be a massive box experience called Critical Role Adventures. This is a cooperative game and features legacy-lite elements. It comes with a big rich storybook full of narrative elements and ways to play out mighty quests and dungeon delves on the tabletop. Very cool.
You've also got a roleplaying game in the works called Syndicult helmed by Matt Mercer which is set in a modern-day world with low-magic elements and plenty of crime. You've also got Guardians of Matrimonia which is a cooperative card game where you take your pre-built deck and pit it against a band of monsters.
Are you tempted to delve in and check out what Darrington Press has to offer throughout 2021?
"Are you tempted to delve in and check out what Darrington Press has to offer throughout 2021?"
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
I do enjoy Critical Role and Mercer is a good story teller, so I’ll be interested to see what he comes up with as role-player.
I know of Ivan Van Norman too. Think he wrote Outbreak Undead.
Not as keen on the 3-5 player game, but Critical Role Adventures sounds interesting.
My one concern is price… the Crit Roll merchandise is a bit expensive… hopefully that won’t be true of their games. I don’t spending money, but when the price exceeds £100 it has to something special… which is why I have avoided Gloomhaven.
Well you do have Jaws Of The Lion to play to see whether or not you like the Gloomhaven experience now 😉 I can attest to Gloomhaven being bloody brilliant though, if different heh.
On the price point thing – I would hope that the games come in at a reasonable price. I could see this Uk’otoa game coming in around £20/30 based on what we’ve seen of the components.
> Gloomhaven OT, but you can find Gloomhaven’s Jaws of a Lion for under $40 USD. Only pick up Gloomhaven if you like hand management. It’s certainly different from the usual dice-throwing. GH is thin on story, so skip it if you want a narrative game (eg. Middara). I wouldn’t have picked up the original GH if I didn’t play the game first (and find it on sale for $90 USD). We also don’t have enough people to show up every time for a campaign game, and GH allows players to drop in and drop out of a campaign, including… Read more »
Mighty Nein be praised!