Critical Role has given fantasy lovers plenty of adventures over the years in the world of Exandria. Across three campaigns, viewers have experienced love, friendship, grief, and a whole lot of inside jokes that have made the brand feel almost like family. After launching its first in-house tabletop role-playing game, Daggerheart, Critical Role has set its eyes to explore a new realm entirely: the world of video games.
The multiplatform and multimedia entertainment phenomenon made up of incredible talent such as Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Ashley Johnson, Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey, and Liam O’Brien, teased the potential of Critical Role spin-offs, including video games and films, before. After the successful The Legend of Vox Machina show on Amazon Prime Video, a foray into the world of video games has now become a reality.
Revealed via an interview with Variety, Critical Role has partnered up with AdHoc Studios to develop their own video game set in the wonderful but dangerous world of Exandria. This comes on the heels of Critical Role collaborating with AdHoc for its latest game, Dispatch.
Photo: Critical Role
AdHoc Studios is comprised of industry veterans from some of the most narratively renowned studios within the gaming space, including Telltale Games, Ubisoft, and Night School Studio. Their upcoming superhero game Dispatch allows players to build their superhero rescue team, complete with its actions and consequences that impact the player character and the overall story. Dispatch aims to further lean into the team’s roots as strong storytellers, where the story is just as important as the mechanics. The strong narrative lean is, unsurprisingly, one of the things that drew Willingham, who, alongside being a legendary voice actor and cast member, is also Critical Role’s CEO, to the studio in the first place after he received an audition for the game.
Willingham was so impressed that, after speaking with AdHoc Studio co-founder and COO Nick Herman in 2024 about the possibility of creating a game that looks like Dispatch for Critical Role, it quickly became a done deal. Though, don’t expect to be traipsing through Exandria anytime soon — it’s still early days in the companies’ co-development. That said, what players can expect is that the game will follow the same narrative template as Dispatch, as there will be plenty of choices for the player to make.
Image: Amazon Video
As for setting and timeline, Willingham has confirmed that it will be a brand-new adventure, rather than rehashing old beats from the web series. Critical Role’s three campaigns take place across several different regions and years, so where the game will fit in the timeline is undoubtedly something that the two studios are thinking about.
“We’re tossing around ideas, what are we thinking about in terms of scope and budget, and some of the things we must have,” Willingham told Variety. “You are going to want to see your favorite characters.”
With so many characters across three different adventuring parties — Vox Machina, The Mighy Nein, and Bells Hells — there’s plenty to explore from a video game angle. It’s just a matter of picking the right time and place.
Either way, we’re certain that Critical Role fans won’t ever say no to a brand new adventure — whenever it gets here.
