Critical Role’s Matt Mercer to run Elden Ring one-shot game on Twitch

I’ve spent a good six hours so far playing Elden Ring, the latest high-concept action RPG by FromSoftware, and I have absolutely no idea what’s going on. I’m a Tarnished, I guess? Do you have a goat horse? What about your fingers? Having a great time, mind you, but it’s all very ephemeral. That’s why I think, this Tuesday night, I’m just going to let Critical Role’s Matt Mercer fill in the gaps for me. He’s hosting a special one-shot tabletop adventure on Twitch, and it sounds like just the kind of patter to turn on while I’m running around a swamp with a giant longsword.

Critical Role, of course, is the wildly popular actual play troupe co-created by Mercer and voice actors Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Tavis Willingham. The team is celebrating its seventh anniversary playing Dungeons & Dragons together later this month, and also is riding high following the success of the first season of its Prime Streaming animated series. Mercer is at the absolute height of his power as a game master, and the show — sponsored by Elder Ring publisher Bandai Namco — promises to be something special.

Ray and Riegel will also be joining Mercer. Also down to clown on the terrifically opaque game world — created by game director Hidetaka Miyazaki with a little help from Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin — are some other highly experienced role-players. These include Krystina Arielle (Star Wars High Republic ShowDimension 20 and Into the Mother Lands) Brennan Lee Mulligan(College Humor Dimension 20), as well as actor Alexander Ward.

This isn’t the first time that Critical Role has run one-shots inspired by video games; an adventure based on Diablo aired during last year’s Blizzcon. It is the Elden Ring One-shot begins Tuesday, February 1st at 7 PM PST on Twitch. The replay will begin Thursday. A podcast version of the interview will start Tuesday.