Critical Role fans who don’t have a regular gaming group will get their money’s worth. Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer’s League, Wizards of the Coast’s organized play program, guides players through the entire game Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep Story. The new adventure module released on Tuesday is currently being adapted for organized play. Sessions begin on March 18th.
The latest iteration of D&D Adventurer’s League is powered by Baldman Games. It allows players to pay a small fee (currently around $15) to secure a seat at the table for a four hour session led by an experienced DM. Founder David Christ ran the 2020 load online, bringing the entire program to various virtual tabletops including Roll20, Fantasy Grounds and Foundry VTT. The league is still going strong, with Much of its activity is organized on Discord
Polygon had a brief chat with Baldman organizer Spencer Navarra-Chew, who explained that contractors working for Wizards have been busy chopping up the 224-page campaign book into manageable chunks. The goal is to break it down into a series of four-hour segments, each with a beginning, middle, and end. Players log in to experience them one at a time and sit down to play with a completely different group of players each time. Character progression—including leveling and loot—carries over.
The result is a D&D game that isn’t quite as open-ended as one you might play at home. Players are not encouraged to deviate from the main story, mainly due to the need to complete things on time and prepare players for the next part of the campaign. But the benefit is that you don’t need a regular group to experience the full story. You can show up at the table alone with your character, knowing that everyone else who joins you is up to speed and ready to keep the narrative going.
Registrations are now possible The Yawning Portal, the official online registration tool for the D&D Adventurer’s League. Those starting at level 1 can sign up for the Frozen Sick adventure to get started right away. Options for players joining at higher levels will be provided shortly. Go to Baldman’s Discord for more information, including a list of books and rules allowed to create your character.
