RPG: ‘Critical Role’s New Daggerheart, ‘Age of Umbra’ Miniseries Will Be A Meaty Course Between Main Campaigns
Clear your plates, there’s a veritable feast of a Critical Role miniseries set to premiere May 29th. The Age of Umbra is a dark delight.
Critical Role announced a new lengthy miniseries, running from May 29th (though actually May 22nd, see below) through July 24th, taking up a meaty chunk of summer to show off Daggerheart. In Age of Umbra, Matt Mercer will get to live out all of his sicko dark fantasy, soulslike dreams. And we’ll get to be along for the rollercoaster ride.
Critical Role‘s Age of Umbra Promises to Showcase The Dark Side Of Daggerheart
If you’ve seen Critical Role’s previous Daggerheart streams, you might have a picture of Daggerheart in your mind. The Critmas special, which was very 1980s inspired, or the Menagerie before it, which was even more whimsical, might give you some cozy feelings. Well, buckle up kid, you just fell for a classic soulslike ruse. A ruse that Critical Role‘s Matt Mercer has been dreaming of for some time.
One of the core pieces of Daggerheart is the variety of Campaign Frames that the world can be viewed through. Each of these is a lens that’s somewhere between genre and thematic tone. They’re ways of setting up your campaign. And in the case of the titular Age of Umbra, it’s a frame that is exceedingly Souls-coded.
What does that mean? It means a very bleak, deadly world. As Mercer Described it earlier in February:
“It’s my kind of like soulsbourne-esque super dark and deadly world campaign frame within the Daggerheart system.”
This is a world where there are no guarantees. Where you have to fend for yourself, find ways to survive and perhaps, if you’re lucky, thrive. The press release digs into that a little further, explaining that in the Age of Umbra, death is only the beginning.
“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, forebodinglan d 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.
This will be a “high-stakes” actual play, running Thursdays, starting May 29th with Episode one. But, if you want to take a look at how the game is meant to be played, with worldbuilding and character creation, you should tune in to Critical Role’s Session Zero, which won’t advance the story, but will show off all of the above.
You can catch the Session Zero on May 22nd, one week earlier. That’s one I’ll be watching for sure—I love seeing the collaborative ideas that go into the nuts and bolts of making the game/world. And this sounds like the perfect place to do it. You can catch it on Twitch, Youtube, or Beacon.
Critical Role: Age of Umbra runs through July 24th!
