Signal Boost: Critical Role Animated Kickstarter

Hey all, Dani here.

Today’s post is a part of a series that I haven’t really kept up with, but this is a project that I really care about, so I’m bringing back Signal Boost for the moment. And you may see more posts similar to this in the future. Anyway, this series was inspired by the web-series “Signal Boost,” created by Marisha Ray and aired on Geek & Sundry’s YouTube channel a couple years ago. It is basically a call for us geeks to share some of the geeky things we love, giving them a little boost into the universe.

Let’s just get started. Today I am here to talk about the Critical Role Animated Series Kickstarter campaign. This campaign will end at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time) on April 18, 2019.

At the time of me actually writing up this post (so Wednesday March 27th, around noon), the Kickstarter campaign for this animated series has earned almost $8.1 MILLION. Considering the original goal was $750,000 to make a 22 minute pilot adventure, this has been wildly successful. Actually, the initial goal was reached in about 40 minutes after the campaign went live.

The passionate support that the Critical Role fandom (known as the Critters) is almost legendary by this point, and it was a surprise to me that the cast was surprised by how much we have given them for this. But then again, most of us have been begging for an animated series since the early days of the show.

The final (???) Stretch Goal is $8.8 million, which will give us the final two episodes of the popular Briarwoods story arc. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll reach that goal. So the question is…will we reach it with enough time to spare that the Critical Role team will add another Stretch Goal? You can follow the Kickstarter’s progress by going here.

So, I’ve already given you the important campaign details. What I haven’t done is talk about what Critical Role is and what it means to me. Unless you’ve been following me for a while and you’ve heard me go on and on about this show of nerdy ass voice actors sitting around and playing Dungeons & Dragons. All the artwork, convention appearance, the Critical Role show schedule, and more can be found at their web site.

Critical Role is a group of professional voice actors who started a home game of Pathfinder, and after Geek & Sundry learned of it, they asked the group if they would be willing to Livestream their sessions. They agreed and the show was born. For the purposes of the stream they converted from Pathfinder to D&D 5th edition. In the years since it aired, Critical Role has amassed a significant fanbase (called “Critters”) and they have done a heck of a lot of fundraising, as well as doing live shows in theaters, convention appearances, and releasing quite a bit of official merchandise.

In the past year Critical Role opened up their own studio, and parted ways with Geek & Sundry to form their own company. It has been a fascinating geeky success story to follow.

Critical Role has been a wonderfully complex tale of a group of adventurers becoming friends, growing, and occasionally saving the world. There has been love, loss, intrigue, secrets, heartache, hope, dreams, and so many laughs. The world is expansive and diverse. The characters are wonderfully complex. And it has absolutely been a privilege to follow these people in game and out.

Critical Role has been there for me every time I’ve needed to escape the real world for a few hours. It helped me through my grandmother’s death and my parents’ divorce. Critical Role and D&D are what introduced me to Damian and the kind of romance I only dreamed in my wildest fantasies before.

I have been to two of the live shows and will be attending my third this August. I have met the cast a couple times and have several items signed by them.

Seeing a group of geeks be popular and successful honestly gives me hope that one day I can be successful with my geeky hobbies. I just have to keep trying and keep working towards that goal.

So I will obviously continue to rave about Critical Role, and I will continue to support them in this fantastically creative adventure that they have shared with all of us.

On my blog you can find several posts about Critical Role, such as the reviews for each issue of the comic, or my wrap ups from previous Gen Cons and live shows.

That is all for today. I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.