CritRole.com

The "HDYWTDT?" on the main page.

**CritRole.com** is the official website for the *Critical Role* franchise. Created in April 2015 by Geek & Sundry, the website is owned and maintained by Critical Role Productions LLC. It originally featured a cast list, episode links, and a merchandise store. In April 2017, the website was seemingly taken down for unknown reasons, and by that July, the URL redirected to the *Critical Role* page on Geek & Sundry's website. The website was brought back up by May 2018, with a number of new features, including links to every episode of the first campaign, the second campaign, and other series on the *Critical Role* YouTube channel.

Other features on the site include a list of upcoming events, a weekly schedule of shows, blogs, links to the Critical Role Store, and a link to the Kickstarter project for *The Legend of Vox Machina*.

## **History**

The domain "critrole.com" was registered by April 2015, likely because the domain "criticalrole.com" was unavailable; however, according to Rachel Romero, the team behind *Critical Role* has been working on acquiring the "criticalrole.com" domain.

The website was launched later that month with a simple design, featuring only a page for the cast with links to their Twitter accounts, a page with links to episodes, and an online merchandise store. The banner was the thumbnail for the first episode of the series. The website received a small update in May 2016, when Orion Acaba's portrait was removed and the banner was changed to a group photo of the cast's photoshoot dressed as their characters. Also included was an image reading "How do you want to do this?".

This iteration of CritRole.com stayed up for about a year before it was suddenly taken down in April 2017. In July, the URL redirected to the page on *Critical Role* on GeekAndSundry.com. In May 2018, however, the website was brought back, with an entirely new layout and a variety of new features, including new sections for videos, series, events, merchandise, blog posts, an FAQ, and a proper home page and footer.

## **Features**

### **Home page**

The home page of CritRole.com features a gallery of links to galleries of fan art, links to new uploads on the *Critical Role* YouTube channel. Below is a "HDYWTDT?" image, and scrolling down features an embedded YouTube video of the latest episode of *Critical Role*, as well as a list of upcoming events, the current weekly upload schedule, and a gallery of companies and organizations associated with *Critical Role* (namely Steamforged Games, Dark Horse Comics, 826LA, Obsidian Entertainment, and D&D Beyond).

### **Videos**

The "Videos" section of CritRole.com includes links to all episodes of series related to *Critical Role*, including episodes of the first and second campaigns, *Talks Machina*, *UnDeadwood*, *Mini Primetime*, *Travis Willingham's Yee-Haw Game Ranch*, *Pub Draw*, *Between the Sheets*, *Handbooker Helper*, *MAME Drop*, *All Work No Play*, one-shots, and miscellaneous videos under "Other".

### **Podcast**

The "Podcast" section of CritRole.com features podcast versions of episodes of the first and second campaigns, *Talks Machina*, *UnDeadwood*, *All Work No Play*, *Between the Sheets*, and one-shots. The episodes are edited to be more friendly to the podcast format.

### **Events**

The "Events" section of CritRole.com features links to recent and upcoming events, such as panels at conventions and talk shows.

### **Schedule**

“
"For broadcast times in your time zone, check out wheniscriticalrole.com."
”

–
A message under the "Schedule" section.
[!h]

The "Schedule" section of CritRole.com features a table showing the current upload schedule on the *Critical Role* YouTube channel in Pacific Standard Time. As of February 2020, the current upload schedule is episodes of *EverythingIsContent* at 4:00 pm and *Talks Machina* at 7:00 pm on Tuesdays and episodes of *Critical Role* on Thursdays. Below that is the message in the quotebox on the right, linking to wheniscriticalrole.com.

### **Blog**

The "Blog" section of CritRole.com features link to blog and news posts on the website, including Fan Art Galleries, Critical Recap, content results announcements, and other posts and news.

### **Shop**

The "Shop" section of CritRole.com links to the *Critical Role* merchandise store for the United States, the Critical Role store, and the merchandise store for the United Kingdom, the Critical Role UK store.

### **Kickstarter**

The "Kickstarter" section of CritRole.com links to the record-breaking page on Kickstarter for *The Legend of Vox Machina*. The actual URL "https://critrole.com/kickstarter/" redirected to the video post for The Legend of Vox Machina Kickstarter Q&A.

### **FAQ**

The "FAQ" section of CritRole.com is a "frequently asked questions" page containing basic information on the *Critical Role* franchise, community, and platforms.

The FAQ questions include:

* What is Critical Role?
* What is the Critical Role podcast?
* Where can I watch Critical Role?
* How do I submit fan art for the Critical Role art reel?
* What is Talks Machina?
* Where can I watch Talks Machina?
* How do I submit my cosplay or art for the Talks Machina Fan Art of the Week or Cosplay of the Week contests?
* Where can I send gifts to Critical Role?
* Where can I find other Critical Role fans and community sites?
* Website artist credits
* Can I come and watch the live show at the Critical Role studio?
* A note about content warnings
* Is Critical Role kid-friendly?

### **Contact**

The "Contact" page on CritRole.com is simply a fillout page to message the *Critical Role* team directly.

### **Other features**

The following are major sections and features on CritRole.com not immediately linked by the navigation.

#### **Footer**

“
"What began in 2012 as a bunch of friends playing in each other's living rooms has evolved into a multi-platform entertainment sensation, attracting over half million viewers every week. Now in its second campaign storyline, the show features seven popular voiceover actors diving into epic Dungeons & Dragons adventures, led by veteran game master Matthew Mercer."
”

–
"About Us" on the CritRole.com footer.
[!h]

The footer on CritRole.com features an "About Us" section that provides a brief description of the *Critical Role* franchise, a "Contact" section linking to the "Contact" section and the website's email address, a "More" section linking to information pages on the most prominent *Critical Role*-related shows, the "Team" section, a rules pages for contests and sweepstakes, and the website's privacy policy; and a "Where To Listen" linking to *Critical Role* on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Finally, on the bottom of the footer is a series of links to each main part of the website and links to the official *Critical Role* accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Apple Podcasts, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube.

#### **The Team**

The "The Team" on CritRole.com features links to information pages on each of the team members behind *Critical Role*, including cast members Matthew Mercer, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Liam O'Brien, Sam Riegel, and Ashley Johnson, show host Brian Wayne Foster, Chief Operating Officer Ed Lopez, SVP of Marketing Rachel Romero, SVP of Business Development Ben Van Der Fluit, Head of Production Vinnie Singh, Director of Events Brittany Walloch-Key, Art Director Aaron Monroy, Senior Producer Maxwell James, social and content producer Chris Lockey, Production Coordinator Dani Carr, Project Manager of Consumer Products and Licensing Adrienne Cho, Online Operations Coordinator Christina Farber, and Producer Steve Failows. The artwork for the staff members' portraits was done by artist Meg.

### **Shows**

The "Shows" section of CritRole.com features links to information pages on each show on the *Critical Role* YouTube channel.

## **References**

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7  CritRole.com home page on **CritRole.com**
2. ↑ critrole.com on Alexa.com
3. ↑  Rachel Romero (miss\_r) on the *Critical Role* subreddit: "Hi! We are working on it :)" (May 17, 2018)
4. ↑  Videos on **CritRole.com**
5. ↑  Podcast on **CritRole.com**
6. ↑  Events on **CritRole.com**
7. ↑  Schedule on **CritRole.com**
8. ↑  Schedule on **CritRole.com**
9. ↑  Blog on **CritRole.com**
10. ↑  Shop on **CritRole.com**
11. ↑  Kickstarter on **CritRole.com**
12. ↑ 12.00 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 12.10 12.11 12.12 12.13  FAQ on **CritRole.com**
13. ↑  Contact Us on **CritRole.com**
14. ↑  The Team on **CritRole.com**
15. ↑  Shows on **CritRole.com**