This past Friday, October 18th, the newest series on Critical Role premiered. This series, titled UnDeadwood, is loosely based on the show, Deadwood. I’m going to back up for a second, and tell you what Critical Role exactly is, for those unfamiliar. Critical Role is a show where “a bunch of nerdy ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons”. It is streamed weekly Thursday nights at 7pm PST time on their Twitch channel. Critical Role originally was part of Geek and Sundry, but broke off over a year ago, and now have their own channel, and content on their Twitch and YouTube channel. Critical Role’s main campaign currently features the Mighty Nein, a group of “heroes” who get into trouble, but who are also trying to save the world and their friend, even if they make mistakes along the way. They also have one-shots DM’ed by other members of the cast, and even have one shots featuring characters from their first campaign, Vox Machina. Critical Role has other non-DND shows, such as Travis Willingham’s Yee Haw Game Ranch, #EverythingIsContent, PubDraw, MameDrop and soon will feature even more shows. UnDeadwood is just an amazing one in this new line up.
UnDeadwood isn’t your typical DnD game. It utilizes the Deadlands Reloaded RPG system. This game features playing cards, poker chips, and drinking (okay, most DnD games probably have drinking). Instead of rolling for initiative in combat, players are dealt it with cards. Players also receive three poker chips that can be exchanged for something they may need. If you’re wounded, you have to take a shot, but after you take three, you become incapacitated. This game is GM’ed (Game Marshall-ed) by Brian W. Foster, who is the host of Critical Role’s talk show, Talks Machina. The cast features Travis Willingham, Marisha Ray, Matthew Mercer, Khary Payton and Anjali Bhimani, the first three of which are part of Critical Role’s main campaign. Ivan Van Norman plays the role of the Bartender, someone the characters can go to for tips. The first part introduces you to the characters, and you get some of their backstory. They were hired by someone in the town, to go investigate strange occurrences. They get ready by buying supplies (with 250 gold they each received) such as guns and horses, and are off to the location they were told to go. On the way there though, two of the characters, fall off their horses due to a stampede. The rest of the group circles back, to pick up the ones without horses (good thing they didn’t name them…). At the pit, they encounter weird snake like people, and humans, all dead, in a pit. While investigating however, the snake people come out and attack them. After the fight, they all pass out, and get visions. This is where the first visions come in, about what they saw burning. They ride back, and as they get into town, the lights are on and they hear gun fire. Their vision starts to go black, and hear the same voice they did earlier. This time however, they start seeing a colorful aura emit from each other-magic. This is where the episode ends. (The theories that have come out online about this episode are also interesting to read, especially if you need something to hold you over until next Friday)!
This show is a lot different from the main campaign of Critical Role, but that’s a good thing. It’s a more immersive story, without a lot of dice rolling. Brian does a great job getting watchers and the players engaged. The rest of the casts play their characters well, even when one cracks a joke and they all break character (especially when Brian made the “high moon” joke, and Matt gave him a death glare). This is only a four part series, and the first episode clocked in at 2 hours. Even though it was short, it threw a lot at us, including a dream sequence with burning churches, and ending with magic powers (or so it seems). Nobody really knows whats going on, but all of these characters have secrets, and are deeper than they appear on the surface. The production value is incredible with the cutscenes of the small set in front of them, and the atmosphere around them as well. This mini series is a great way for people to get into Critical Role, and other RPG shows that are out there! This has made me want to watch Deadwood, and I can’t wait to see where this series goes!
UnDeadwood streams Fridays at 7pm PST time on twitch.tv/criticalrole. You can watch the VOD on YouTube Sundays after it airs, and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEIGOY6WDoA
Remember, don’t forget to love each other, and is it Friday yet?
Amateur Hour 