Critical Role is Launching Its Own Tabletop Publishing Company

Roleplaying games have been feeding the imaginations of gamers since the 1970’s, when iconic titles likeDungeons & Dragonswere shaking up the world of tabletop gaming with 20-sided dice and epic tales of adventure. Today, many gamers get their exposure to new settings and rule sets through streamers such as the team atCritical Role. Today, the company announced it is forming a brand new publishing company for its own line of tabletop games,Darrington Press.

Headed by tabletop gaming veteran Ivan Van Norman, with Matthew Mercer serving as creative advisor, Darrington Press is expected to publish its first work,Uk’otoa, in the first quarter of 2021. The flagship game is a semi-cooperative tacticalcard gamein which factions of sailors attempt to stay alive while their ship is being pulled under by a monstrous sea creature.

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Fans ofCritical Role’s previous campaigns will be excited to know that the game slated for Q2, titledCritical Role Adventures,is set in Exandria, the setting for many formerCritical Rolecampaigns, though it sounds like it will have its own storytelling mechanic rather than beingDnD-based. The third game coming out of Darrington Press will feature a simple dice-rolling mechanic to tell the story ofmob familiesvying for dominance in a low-magic modern setting. The fourth game,Guardians of Matrimonia, is a cooperative card game where players defend against a hoard of monstrous party crashers.

This is not Critical Role’s first foray into publishing for tabletop games. Last March, aDungeons & Dragonssource book based on Critical Role’s campaigns,The Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, hit store shelves with four starting adventures, three new subclasses, twenty-three creatures to encounter, and enough material to fill 304 pages of adventure.

Not only did Critical Role publish a source book already, but Wizards of the Coast recently started allowing players to accessCritical Role’s homebrew subclassesin the DnD Beyond character creator. Without a doubt Van Norman and Mercer have proven their chops when it comes to tabletop games, but the publishing company still needs to get product out the door and onto game store shelves. Hopefully, the true publishing date forUk’otoawill be announced soon.