Critical Role is Doing a Special Tears of the Kingdom Tabletop One-Shot Tonight

Nintendo and Critical Role are teaming up for a special one-shot tabletop RPG stream set in the world of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The special is set to air on Critical Role’s Twitch and YouTube channels, beginning tonight, May 30, at 7 p.m. PT. Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer — who is also the voice of Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom — will serve as game master for a cast starring Critical Role mainstays Liam O’Brien and Marisha Ray with Robbie Daymond, Emily Axford and Omar Najam also joining in.

Set in Hyrule, tonight’s game will present an original story scenario and original characters inspired by Tears of the Kingdom.

It’s rare to see Nintendo partner hand the keys to its franchises to outside organizations, but we’re starting to see more and more examples of it. The most obvious instances of this are Nintendo’s partnership with Universal for both Super Nintendo World and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but there are other, smaller occurrences of this such as an official The Legend of Zelda escape room experience. Mercer’s connection to both Critical Role and Tears of the Kingdom was surely a factor in getting this one-shot tabletop RPG off the ground.

Working with Nintendo is another partnership to add to Critical Role’s growing list of accomplishments, which includes a multiyear exclusive deal with Amazon Studios for shows like The Legend of Vox Machina and the upcoming Mighty Nein animated adaptation.

Tears of the Kingdom is off to a roaring start, with 10 million copies sold in just its first three days. For help with everything Tears of the Kingdom, take a look at our Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough and Guide about making your way through Hyrule. In fact, you can start here:

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.