Just a short post to recommend this fantastic article, ‘Fantasy Friends’ on The Rambling. It came out earlier this year, but I only just came across it.
Critical Role has built two imagined worlds: Exandria (the high-fantasy setting of their campaigns) and Critical Role LLC (an actor-owned company that “believes in the power of storytelling” and works to “leave the world better than we found it”). Both contain the stories of found families of friends, overcoming impossible odds, to do extraordinary things. Both are ever-expanding, as the cast-owners collaborate with producers, designers, writers, artists, animators, and more.
I hate to admit this because I probably shouldn’t even be attempting to write about actual play without it, but I haven’t actually watched Critical Role— I’m too overwhelmed by the amount of content I’d need to consume to catch up. But in this piece, Emily C. Friedman writes about the responsibility it holds as a ‘gateway’ for so many people to D&D as a game, but also to the concept of actual play itself as a narrative form and type of content to consume. Friedman writes about actual play as a scholar, and actually has a book coming out on the topic, which I now can’t wait to read.