Elden Ring has been out less than a week, but the videogame lovechild of Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin has already transformed into a tabletop RPG. Who would be up to the behemoth task of translating Elden Ring into a TTRPG? None other than Matt Mercer – the mind behind the massively successful D&D actual play series Critical Role (CR).
In case you missed the announcements from CR over the last week, Mercer – accompanied by CR favourites Marisha Ray and Sam Riegel as party members – hosted a one-shot adventure on CR’s Twitch channel yesterday at 10pm EST / 3am GMT. The stream will be rebroadcast for anyone who was unavailable (or, like us UK lot, asleep) today at 3am EST / 8am GMT and 12pm EST / 5pm GMT. Mercer’s Elden Ring adventure will also tarnish YouTube and podcast platforms, but not until March 3 and March 8 respectively.
While the upcoming Dark Souls RPG opted to use D&D 5E rules, it’s not clear from CR’s announcements or Twitch channel what RPG system Mercer used to bring Elden Ring to life. However, viewers of the initial Twitch stream seem pretty certain that Mercer created his own homebrew based on the mechanics of the original FromSoftware videogame.
Elden Ring’s publisher Bandai Namco sponsored the one-shot (and sent Mercer a snazzy looking Elden Ring sword as a bonus). Sharing the sponsorship on his personal Twitter on February 28, Mercer addresses Bandai Namco directly, saying “hope you aren’t too mad about how weird we get in the CR one-shot this coming week!”
Whoa… ok, this is probably the coolest promo box I’ve ever received. Thank you so much @BandaiNamcoUS for the amazing #EldenRing box!! Hope you aren’t too mad about how weird we get in the CR One-shot this coming week! pic.twitter.com/nlZhB4Q3xa
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) February 28, 2022
A trip into the Lands Between isn’t the only thing on the table for CR lately. Call of the Netherdeep – a crossover sourcebook from CR and D&D – is due to release on March 15, and the CR cast is due to celebrate the show’s seventh anniversary with a broadcast on March 17 at 10pm EST / 3am GMT – which will be shared in select theatres across the US and Brazil as well as on Twitch and YouTube.
If you wanted to put together your own Souls-like RPG without using Matt Mercer’s homebrew, the Dark Souls RPG is available for pre-order now. You can learn more about how faithful it remains to Miyazaki’s vision in an exclusive interview with Wargamer.