Thread by @friede

Good morning! Between meetings it’s time to read the first #CriticalRole *adventure* (rather than setting) book, CALL OF THE NETHERDEEP. I’m finishing a chapter about CR’s narrative structures, & Netherdeep is the final case study. Throughout the day I’ll post some notes here. 🧵

A note: I’m going to try to avoid specific *spoilers* here (no promises about the chapter). My interest is in thinking about how the book is set up for different audiences.

The prior CR supplement books (Tal’Dorei Guide/Tal’Dorei Reborn, & Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount) were settings, not adventures. So while they were neck-deep in worldbuilding, they were sparing of full-on narrative (until the end of Reborn, which recaps Vox Machina 20 years on)

While people absolutely use those books to build campaigns, Netherdeep is the first playable narrative offered by CR. While Mercer has beat the drum of “this is our world, not just mine” for a while now (see: #ExU), this is a new form for that claim.

One of the things I’m most interested in from pre-pub discussion is that the adventure includes a full team of NPCs that the writing team has been lovingly hinting at in tweets. I’m curious as to whether the Rivals function as a way for a reader (rather than player) to engage.

The other big thing on Critter minds is what will be said of Ruidis, the weird little red moon of Exandria. What’s interesting is the way that (not unlike the “Legend” of Vox Machina), info given about Ruidis comes with an early caveat that the adventure will focus on “folklore.”

“The true nature of Ruidus is a topic to be explored in other Critical Role stories.”

This is an interesting spur back to the “source” (CR streams? Imagined other media?) and a space for canonical ambiguity.

Another interesting thing I’m noticing is that, in a different book, one of the mythic figures discussed would have absolutely been called “mad” (Hell, there’s “Dungeon of the Mad Mage” in the not too recent past). It would be easy, if cheap, to fall into that shorthand.

But instead there’s a sensitivity of description, focusing on the mental *state* in legible, arguably far more compassionate language: “All at once, centuries of accumulated grief crashed down upon him, and the Netherdeep roared with the strength of his tempestuous emotions.”

Like the other CR books we’ve seen, Netherdeep presupposes you have access to the main trilogy of 5e books (Player’s Handbook, DM Guide, and Monster Manual)

As is pretty typical for an adventure module, Netherdeep is “optimized” for a party of 5. Unlike many modules, Netherdeep (like CR itself recently) begins at Lvl 3, & points parties who want to start at Lvl 1 to an adventure in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount.

The adventure is built on a milestone leveling foundation, including a table mapping those milestones on to levels. Lvls 4-7 milestones look (on the table) as being fairly on-rails in terms of goals, while 8, 9, & 11 seem to allow for more branching paths.

In addition to the table, the DM is also given a “flowchart” for the seven chapters. I’m not entirely sure why it’s dubbed a flowchart, since it’s a linear summary of the scope of each chapter. I can only imagine how tricky it was to distill each into ONE SENTENCE.

We see @matthewmercer’s trademark gift for complex antagonists really shine here. The notes for the multidimensional adversaries are suffused with compassion. The recurring theme of grappling with trauma that CR tackles is evident here. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays.

And as if anticipating me, the next section on “story tone” notes that “Like other Critical Role stories, this adventure walks a line between optimistic heroism and morally ambiguous character dilemmas” & encourages a Session 0 to discuss lines and veils (without calling it that)

“Although this adventure is not a horror tale, it does involve elements of fear, suspense, and the grotesque.”

It’s interesting to read this in light of Campaign 3. (In C3’s case “grotesque” is putting it mildly)

While Netherdeep leans on the other source books, it does helpfully provide some key terrain info that is also in the PHB.

If C1 taught us about Whitestone’s residuum, C2 the power of Luxon beacons & their distillate, & C3 gave us brumestone, Netherdeep involves yet another new magical resource that characters can interact with. In this case, it’s not only a plot component, it’s a roleplaying engine.

The next pre-plot section covers the rival party, & how to use them. They are very specifically foils to the players, mirroring them in number & strength. Like the PCs, this unnamed party levels up across the adventure, & here at the start we get a first, entry-level intro.

Which is not to say stat blocks lead here — instead, we get origin stories, relationships, personality by the bucket.

I can hear the early C1 intro music that played under the player self-intros as I read these intros, if that gives anyone a sense of the vibe.

Dermot Wurder must be protected.

Another CR hallmark is very present with the rival NPCs: don’t judge by appearances.

Despite being referred to as the rivals, the vibe is *potentially* friendly competition. A handy table of their motivations is also available to the DM.

(That table made me cry)

The rivals (multiple, scaled) stat blocks are in the back appendix (and if you’re like me, they’re a click away in the @DnDBeyond edition). The “tiers” (rather than levels) are keyed to different chapters, the way that the PC leveling is also tied to chapters/events.

Through the rivals changing stats, we get a miniature narrative, compact but rich. Their adventures are not always in contact with the PCs, & over the adventure they bear the impact of those other, “offstage” experiences.

This is, as boxed text highlights, another trademark CR emphasis: NPCs who make the world feel real, & dynamic. (As @otdderamin has noted from @CritRoleStats data, Exandria has thousands of named NPCs at this point voiced by Mercer)

I’m coming off of running Witchlight for multiple groups, so I do find myself wishing for a sheet for tracking the rivals similar to the adventure tracker in WBtW. Given that the party’s relationship to each rival can be different, and can all change over time, it’d be handy.

And now we get to character creation — which starts by mentioning Session 0 explicitly, both for expectations & character creation. This points to Tasha’s for guidance on Session 0.

All PHB races are playable here, & the DM is also pointed to Monsters of the Multiverse, as “bugbear, duergar, goblin, hobgoblin, kobold, lizardfolk, minotaur, & orc” as further setting-appropriate characters in Xhorhas. I’m guessing this will amp a fair number of folks.

I found it interesting that this section also includes boxed text on “Making Mistakes” — it’s never a bad reminder, though I’m curious as to its specific placement here.

Players are pointed out to the “Heroic Chronicle” section of EGtW for guidance in character backstory, though the character creation section in Netherdeep also provides an overview of what player characters would know that would be sufficient for play.

Those familiar with CR campaign 2 will already know about the Kryn Dynasty & the Luxon Beacons, though the location of Jigow will be new.

This section is followed by a handy pronunciation guide that also serves as a quick guide to named NPCs & locations.

(OK, OK, we are at Chapter One, and I have to hop on Meeting 1. Back in a bit!)

[hey! Short meeting. Love it when stellar students become enormously capable colleagues who run a tight meeting]

Chapter One.
We begin… in a party. Well, festival.

And this illustration of joyful little goblin kids is the Pi(e) Day content I needed yesterday. WOTC really going in for chipper goblins of late, it feels like.

But seriously, Netherdeep continues a WOTC pattern of starting with literal fun & games as a way for low-level characters to navigate the world with a *bit* of safety. The location itself is also described in character-like terms (in addition to useful details about leadership)

It would be interesting to think about the initial location (Jigow) in comparison to Byroden in Tal’Dorei, which @quiddie enriched with flavor related to “militia, mining, & merriment” (not to say Jigow is the same, but it would be interesting to think about descriptive language)

The opening text then creates a map of options to explore. I find myself (inevitably) thinking of Witchlight’s map, though there isn’t a comparable clock on this exploration. Encounters with different rival NPCs are woven here — the DM doesn’t need to create them.

The Witchlight comparison is only at first glance: there’s more wordcount devoted to each, in part because of more complexity, in part because of the presence of the Rivals.

Side note: is there anyone else aside from Mercer who refers to Gods’ “portfolios,” or is this his linguistic quirk present?

After the exploration/fun phase comes a timed competitive component that sets up the call to adventure. It’s more complex than I expected, with as many moving parts as the first half of the intro.

This is another space where the DM is doing tight tracking — here, of rounds.

The end of Chapter One is the first place where player decisions throughout the chapter now lead to a major fork in the road that transforms everything that comes after.

What I find most interesting is that it’s entirely possible for a party to find themselves in a situation where they are not the “heroes” (I’m using the book’s term, & still mulling over what that means narratively)

(This is also where I put my Professional Hat on and go YES THAT’S WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR)

Chapter Two! Which begins with one of my very favorite pieces of art so far, a swirling skyscape over the wastes of Xhorhas.

Because of the multiple endings of Chapter 1, Chapter 2 has to start with 3 possible rationales for the journey, more different in terms of motivation and roleplaying than mechanically.

Rather like recent CR, Netherdeep has built in a ton of ways to lure players towards the adventure’s central quest (you know, the CALL of the Netherdeep). The Rivals help immensely as a mechanic, because if the party doesn’t care, THEY will.

I’ve lost count of the number of times the book has already given the DM a way to gently nudge a distracted party back on track. So far the “rails” are more like moving walkways broken up by playgrounds. (That may be a terrible metaphor, but I was just in the Atlanta airport)

Brief digression: I ain’t mad at an adventure on rails, though it’s a constant debate in terms of assessing CR campaigns. My own ForeverDM paused our Waterdeep campaign & is running SKT in large part because his life right now means he needs the lower prep that linearity brings.

There’s even a “Refusing the Call” (hello, Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, you old chestnut) box that directs the DM how to use the chapter’s encounter table to direct the heroes towards the main plot if they refuse to be baited in any other way.

We then proceed to an overland travel component, where speed determines the number of encounters likely. Half the encounters can occur only once, the rest can recur. Most are Xhorhassian-flavored variants of wilderness encounters, though Ruidis nerds will find a little morsel.

The chapter also includes (perhaps surprisingly) a dizzying number of quickly-sketched NPCs to engage with. Details about areas not *required* for plot momentum are similarly rich. Again, on-brand for CR-style worldbuilding.

Chapter Three!

Out of the wilderness and on to a new town. Thus, the chapter is nonlinear exploration, designed to move players towards their next big milestone. The players are at Level 5, and their rivals are at their second tier.

This chapter is also, frankly, catnip to a segment of the CR fandom, as it gives details about an NPC *never seen* and mentioned once.

This is a short chapter, designed to keep the players moving. There’s an NPC encounter table of unnamed citizens who provide ways of setting tone and doing a bit of foreshadowing, but who aren’t as full realized as the NPCs in the map locations.

There is, as there was in Campaign 2, another Total Fucking Nerd with big theories about the nature of the world (in this case, history). I can imagine my mostly-historian local table questioning her methods.

I love her.

Trigger warning for folklorists for the end of this chapter.

(Well, not end. But end-adjacent)

A key location is given a map, but DMs are welcomed to expand it, as it’s ever-mutable.

As someone who spent years in the Tomb of Annihilation, this is both ickier and less puzzle-y. And occasionally kinky. (Acererak could never)

This chapter also ends with a forking path, depending on player choices/success (which may or may not be tied to their current relationship with the rivals — it’s just one possible factor)

As with other parts, there’s redundancies built in to help the players stay in the hunt/on track/able to move forward somehow.

And so Chapter 4 jumps continents. The structure here is faction-based — depending on who/how the players ally themselves sets them on a different chain of tasks.

All roads — and here, factions — lead the players to the same knowledge, and ultimately toward the same location. But the roleplaying experience will be wildly different.

We’re at the halfway point, & this chapter also includes updates on the rival’s own development. These details aren’t about plot points but about state of mind & motivations.

(I can’t help but think of the off-camera personal growth of NPC Essek Theyless as I think of these details. We don’t strictly *need* them but they turn a function NPC into a beloved one)

As with the other locations in this book, there’s a crash course in lore that’s loosely familiar to many CR viewers, but with additional specificity not previously seen.

As with Campaign 3’s Jrusar, there’s a web of “political, academic, & criminal factions” (what a parallel construction!) to navigate.

Fair warning: I am an academic with some expertise in archival studies. I am braced and will try to suppress my worst instincts for pedantry. But this is my jam, and I find it fascinating.

It’s not really a spoiler to say that Exandria has more than its fair share of roving nerd gangs. Some of them are horrible (Cerberus Assembly). Some are officially good (Arcana Pansophical). Some are secret, others have whole institutions built around them.

Many of the public-facing ones operate in a very Old Wizards Network sort of fashion: entry by introduction. Getting that intro was Fjord’s first driver, as well as Imogen’s & Laudna’s.

HOW education works is totally unclear. Bren’s polycule “graduated” at 17 from Soltryce to become … full-time murderers? Did Astrid continue with higher Murder-Magic education? Are Scourgers basically stabby grad students?Who the fuck knows.

(Ditto the long-running joke that Essek is just doing what any graduate student in need of research funding would do)

I DIGRESS. My point is that while looking for lore relevant to their quest, the party has the possibility of falling in with one of three kinds of nerd factions. One is conservative, one rogue, & one a bit of both, weirdly.

One has schools, one gets its cash from patrons, & one has a creative understanding of what librarians do.

(For more on this subject, see @darling_sammy’s pieces, including pop-archives.com/post/pop-archi…)

In other worldbuilding details irrelevant plot but that I eat up with a goddamn spoon, there’s also a designated area for storytelling/performance/literary readings.

OK, OK, OK. Stay on task.

The map here is keyed to locations that are largely not tied to plot beats. It’s almost like we’ve stumbled into a setting book for a bit here. Again, I ain’t mad about it, and neither will folks with C3 interests.

Also, FREE COLLEGE.

Some areas of the city get mini neighborhood-level maps during this overview, to be keyed to the Faction Story Tracks that follow in the next section.

[Meeting 2 beckons. Laters!]

Meeting luck holds!

Back to Factions.

The Faction pathways have the players take on increasingly challenging/secret tasks for a given faction, gaining information & perks along the way. Lots of details reward those with high passive perception — one can easily imagine those as CR Whispers.

Interestingly, the rivals also choose a faction — and box text guides the DM in how to make that choice in relation to player choice.

In keeping with CR’s moral universe, all factions are described from their own POV (everyone’s justified/a hero in their own mind). There’s definitely differences in approach, & ultimately each factions’ goals impact whether players are on a hopeless mission or a winnable one.

No matter how events proceed in Chapter 4 (which will take a fair chunk of both playable time and in-world clock/calendar time), they’ll end up in the same location for Chapter 5.

At this point, the party is at Level 9, and their rivals have reached their third tier stat block. As with the prior “development” update, what’s provided is primarily guide to DM roleplaying of their evolving personalities & goals.

Trigger warning: there’s an adjunct professor of archeology in this chapter.

(I love her and I have questions)

(She is also the leader of a major project and an archivist. Again, I have questions)

OK, OK. What’s striking to me is that, in a non-CR WOTC adventure, this is where you’d see the number of NPCs go down. It’s an exploration chapter. But nope, MOAR NPCs. People errywhere.

If C2 ended with ruins in ice, here we have ruins in water. (Not a big spoiler I think, given the press push). Unlike Aeor, we don’t see the presence of ancient humanoids (understandably, I think)

Like C2 (and as also noted in press), by Chapter 6 it’s a quick step from ancient ruins to multiplanar adventuring.

Ch 6 begins with a note to the DM to go back to the Introduction before running it. Psychology, not stat blocks: the CR hallmark.

While not a megadungeon, Chapter 6 contains the most extensive dungeon-based structure of the adventure.

The players cannot reach the goal until they’ve encountered what I’m going to call (mechanically) narrative empathy engines. Encounters, but not what you’d think.

As with C2, the same mechanic that can (or must) aid players hurts them. Like C2, visions/dreams play a role. But here, they are more narrative, and far more of them.

At this point the DM can choose to turn even friendly rivals into enemies if they choose, which I thought was interesting to note.

This chapter explores — literally — memory, unrelieved suffering, empathy.

I look forward to seeing what @otdderamin makes of this as a counterpoint/companion/something to Liam’s Quest.

Nostalgia, rage, self-delusion all take their turn on stage for the audience that is the players.

It’s Sleep No More, in Abyssal.

In Tomb of Annihilation, players could let the gods ride along in their head in exchange for flaws/gifts. There’s a similar mechanic here as the players go through the different narrative empathy beats.

And we reach the final chapter, Chapter 7. The players now must make a choice between three judgements that determine the outcome. The rivals can, in theory, have been left behind, overcome, or can have joined the party at this moment.

This section follows Quaker consensus rules (all must agree or no decision is made). There’s no easy answer — which is to say, no answer that brings a good ending easily.

As @robowieland has noted, this (like the end of C2), shows the debt CR has to Final Fantasy. It’s not a strict parallel, in keeping with the unexpected.

I’m going to put in a mild spoiler here, because I think it’s very important
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A D&D adventure with a boss fight that is not only winnable by deescalation, but BEST won by deescalation, is the most CR part of this book (even though that’s not how either campaign ended)

I use “best” precisely how the book does, which categorizes the multiple endings into worst, neutral, and best. The reverberations upon the rivals are also multiple. The Gods themselves are given prompts the DM can use.

And we’ve reached the end! A solid set of appendices follow, including stat blocks for NPCs (as mentioned, multiple tiers for the rivals), nifty magic items (& how the context of the adventure does some gnarly stuff to magic items), the narrative-based bonuses, concept art & map.

Final first impression: even having read the whole thing, I would play this in a heartbeat. Like some of the best indie games, Netherdeep gives committed roleplayers an experience that reveals much about the characters who move through it.

@jamesjhaeck @incandescaent @LaTiaJacquise @MakenzieLaneDA Cassandra Khaw @ChrisPerkinsDnD and yes, @matthewmercer — you’ve exceeded expectations. Many thanks.

In this thread I’ve concentrated on narrative design. There’s far, far more to say about the book as object, among other things.

But now I’m going to, you know, turn my brain off for a lil’ bit.

OK, conked out solid for a late nap and woke up with this final thought:

Looking at Netherdeep’s structure like this, I can see how you can get to a Critical Role video game.

(Which I mean in a positive way)