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News Roundup: CRIT Awards and Crit-ical Role Chats

Counting all the wins among the actual play and online creator space among the 2025 CRIT Award winners. We also got a better sense of why Brennan Lee Mulligan is sticking with D&D in his upcoming Critical Role campaign.

Author

Christopher Hutton
August 23, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 18 minutes

The CRIT Awards are out! We got the complete list for those of you who want all the details. We also got a scoop on more insights into Critical Role’s upcoming campaign, a closer look at a New Vegas-themed TTRPG for Fallout fans, and maybe a tease for Dark Sun? All that and more in this news roundup for TTRPG Insider!

In This Edition

CRIT Awards 2025

The Creator Recognition in TTRPG, or CRIT Awards for short, is one of the most significant awards for content creators, actual play producers, performers, and indie publishers who stand out among the community and the competition. While not as vetted as the ENnies, it is perhaps one of the more prominent platforms for people in the podcast, actual play, and creator space to get a closer look at what is popular and who is doing unique things within the AP space. I’m less informed on AP shenanigans, so awards like this help me to see what people are excited about.

The 2025 CRIT Awards were unveiled on Aug. 22 via Twitch stream. Here are the results (there are 50 categories, so stick with me. It’s a long list)

BEST PUBLISHED CONTENT:

BEST ACTUAL PLAY:

BEST CHANNELS OF THE YEAR:

The Best of Their Games of the Year:

The Best of Artists of the Year

The Best of the TTRPG Space

Outstanding Community Member Award: Jes The Human | They/Them (@jesthehuman) (Jes Is the bringer of “Good mornings” and is a tabletop charity content creator who specializes in producing TTRPG charity streams and creating TTRPG charity bundles. Since 2021, their charity efforts have raised over $330,000! Additionally, they also curate the ChariTTRPGs Newsletter!)

Congratulations to all the winners!

Critical Role Embraced D&D 2024 Due to ‘Player Comfort’, and Other Reveals from Fireside Chat

As we touched on in our Thursday issue, Campaign 4 of Critical Role got a lot of details dropped around it, from the rule system to the cast.

Matthew Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan hosted a fireside chat that same evening, which offered some significant insights into why they chose to do things the way they did.

  • West Marches was a chosen format due to the desire for a bigger cast, to offer support for a team who was increasingly busy annd because it’s something Mulligan is very familiar with.

  • Why 2024 D&D? While some suspect that this might be CR bowing to Wizards of the Coast in some silly way, Mulligan said that the choice was made in discussion with Perkins and Crawford and that they chose to stick with this new system so that Mulligan could emphasize “player comfort and a familiar toolset.” All the players are familiar with 5e in its 2014 and 2024 ruleset, so why not stick with what they know? Perkins and Crawford are very biased toward 2024 D&D, mind you, but it is still an understandable conclusion.

  • Mercer hasn’t played as an ACTUAL player in a long-term campaign in more than 15 years. He reportedly played in a six-month-long campaign in the late 2000s as a dwarf, but that was it. He’s a forever GM and I feel his pain.

  • Aramon is a world where the gods are dead, but that also offers some unique story elements to play with. Clerics may focus more on abstract domains instead of the gods themselves. Warlocks and druids were more prominent in religious life in the past. There are a lot of philosophical and lore-oriented questions at hand that should be interesting.

  • The first four episodes were already recorded as of August 21, 2025.

  • Mulligan and Mercer emphasized that now is a perfect time to bring new fans into Critical Role since no old lore to learn (I think they said this for all past campaigns, but now it actually is true.)

  • There isn’t a preset big bad, Mulligan emphasized. There will be a bunch of ‘bads.’ It’s up to the players to choose who the big ones are.

  • There will be an overarching narrative impacting all three tables, but player focus and motivation is the priority.

  • Mercer is just glad to not panic about having nothing prepared at the start of the session and to play with friends.

Campaign 4 will launch on Oct. 2, 2025. So stay tuned!

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New Vegas, the iconic Fallout game location, is going to get a lot of love in the second half of 2025. First up is season 2 of Fallout the TV show, which I am beyond excited for. Then there’s ROYAL FLUSH, a book of quests published by Modiphius. The book will go up for preorder on Sept. 24 and be released later this year (probably.)

But I want to appreciate the amazing art they released this week. I love Fallout as a setting, and I am hopeful this will get more folks to play the TTRPG with me.

The book will be available for preorder on Sept. 24, 2025.

Dark Sun Teased in D&D UA?

Wizards of the Coast

Dungeons and Dragons released the “Apocalyptic subclass” playtest, which adds four new subclasses to the roster.

  • Circle of Restoration Druid

  • Gladiator Fighter

  • Defiled Sorcerer

  • Sorcerer-King Patron Warlock

If you want to check out all the details about this new ruleset, you can do so here. Some people are claiming that the represented themes mean that Dark Sun, a controversial setting from D&D’s past, may be coming to a table near you. The setting is known for some ‘problematic’ depictions of racism and slavery that I do not see modern-day D&D wanting to return to any time soon.

Will we see Dark Sun return to the table? Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not holding my breath.

In Other News

Sword World RPG, an extremely popular TTRPG from Japan, is getting an English version of its quickstart for its updated ruleset. The game is currently on version 2.5 of its ruleset.

Zatu, one of the UK's largest board game distributors, is facing allegations of a toxic workplace. Rascal News got the scoop on this one.

Wizards of the Coast released the TTRPG version of Exodus (its space video game). The game, which had been previewed earlier, is built entirely on a d20 system that is VERY familiar to D&D players (according to Wargamer, at least.) Shocking? Hardly.

Paizo confirmed that it is releasing the Monster Core 2 for Pathfinder in November.

Dream Realm Storytellers, a publisher known for creating 5e supplements, experienced a shrinking team and has had to reshift its focus. That includes creating smaller books, converting their settings to Daggerheart, improving VTT conversions, and a lot more.

Hatchling Games, the publisher of Underisles, announced that it was hiring Kat ‘The Lore Mistress’ as its new creative lead. Congrats to Kat!

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 got an Oct. 21 release date and a trailer, but has also brought some scrutiny for fans over the decision to lock two of the available clans behind premium editions.

Other TTRPG Insider Stories 

This week was a very busy one.

First up, we spoke with Tabletop Vacations about DM University, their premium event offering training from professional DMs and creators in the TTRPG space.

Class is in Session: Looking Inside DM University

Getting a closer look at DM University, the premium training experience for dungeon masters that's being organized by the team behind D&D in a Castle.

We also covered all the new details from Campaign 4 of Critical Role.

Everything You Need to Know about Campaign 4 of Critical Role (So Far)

Dive into Critical Role's Campaign 4 with Brennan Lee Mulligan as DM, exploring the mysterious world of Araman and its brewing revolution against divine powers.

Dan Arndt and I also spoke with Greg Bilsland about converting the Forgotten Realms to D&D 2024 and all the new lore bits players should expect.

"It's A Gardening Exercise": D&D's Greg Bilsland On Remembering The Forgotten Realms In 2025 - The Fandomentals

Dan and Chris talk with D&D Executive Producer Greg Bilsland about the newest books exploring the wilds of Faerun

That’s all for this week! I know, I know. It’s a long one. Feel free to send us tips or emails at [email protected].

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