Mega popular DnD web series Critical Role has announced it’s airing a new one shot next week. Bizarrely, this latest adventure started out life as an advert for the VPN service NordVPN. Titled Generation Nord, the one shot, set in 1995 amidst the rise of the internet, features five teenage hackers on a government “techno mission” to save the “information superhighway”.
Generation Nord is an offshoot of Critical Role’s skit series slash advertising segment The Nordverse, which began in 2019, as a way to promote the show’s then new sponsor NordVPN. Featuring nonsensical technobabble, costumes that mix 90s neon with random computer parts, and a lot of breaking character to burst into fits of giggles, The Nordverse told the story of a quest to stop the mysterious Ultra Kodex – who turned out to be Matt Mercer.
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Generation Nord is billed as a prequel to The Nordverse, so we can expect the one shot adventure to provide origin stories for many of the latter series’ characters. It’s GM-d by Sam Riegel – who was the creator of and main character in The Nordverse (plating greatest hacker ever, BlackWillow69). It stars the following actors and roles:
- Christian Navarra – the Code Monkey,
- Laura Bailey – The Hardware Whiz,
- Liam O’Brien – The Gamer Geek
- Aimee Carrero – The Darkweb Robin Hood
- Lou Wilson – The Dude with the Car
- An unknown special guest
Generation Nord is launching on Tuesday, November 8th at 7pm PT on Critical Role’s Twitch & YouTube channels. Of course, it is sponsored by NordVPN. It’s not yet clear whether the gang will be using DnD or some other tabletop RPG system.
Check our sister site PCGamesN for more details about NordVPN gaming.
This article was originally published on November 3, and updated on November 4 to include more details about NordVPN.