Sam Riegel Talks Wildmount Wildlings, Beau and Yasha's Adoption Plans, And The Campers Of The O.L.G.A Cabin

We've only just seen the close of Critical Role Season 3, some entertaining sponsored games related to the world of Assassin's Creed Shadows and Suikoden, but Critical Role fans are in luck because this week we go back to Exandria. Sam Riegel is the GM for Wildmount Wildlings, a new adventure following Veth, Yasha, and Beau as they attempt to help some troubled campers earn some badges.

Ahead of the shows release on April 3rd, 10th, and 17th at 6pm Pacific I got to sit down with the GM and Camp Director Sam Riegel to hear what it was like to bring his home game back to the public, where this game picks up, and what level of "rules lite, entertainment heavy" gameplay we can expect.

"That's what the Wildmount Wildlings is, it's a camp"

To give a brief recap of what led to the Wildmount Wildlings Riegel explained "In Campaign 2 of Critical Role Nott The Brave/Veth Brennato retired from adventuring to open a summer camp for adventuring kids. Ever since then she's been running this camp with her family."

Riegel explained that he's been using Veth's post-campaign story to run a game of D&D at home for his children and their friends as they're campers. "They all play campers, and they learn stuff and go on adventures. Sometimes on weekend breaks they go off and explore Wildemount and it's been a lot of fun".

I asked him about what decision led to bringing a part of Exandria that he's taken home and made himself back to the public's eye with this mini-series. The answer came in two parts "Everything we've ever done at Critical Role starts from a place of us wanting to have fun, and us playing games". He referenced the origins of Critical Role and how Vox Machina began as a home game between friends. "It just felt natural to take some of the fun that I've been having at home and put it up on Beacon, and Twitch, and YouTube for our fans to see."

The second part of his answer referencing the business side of Critical Role as he stated "also we're between campaigns right now, we finished Campaign 3 and frankly we need stuff to put on on Thursday night and Marisha (Ray) has been amazing at programming some really great one-shots and mini-series and specials that have been airing and this just felt like a good one to throw up there and it's within our world and it's a different take on our content and we thought it would be really fun"

Where in time is Wildmount Wildlings?

"Right at the end of Campaign 3 Yasha and Beau were talking about what they were going to do next and I think they mentioned something about taking some time off, maybe visiting Veth at her camp, or at least taking some time off to explore and so Wildmount Wildlings, our little 3-episode series, picks up right after the events of Campaign 3 and Yasha and Beau are going to come to the camp, partly for vacation, but partly to check out what it's like to hang out with kids"

This did lead to a question about Yasha and Beau's other current objective, to figure out if they want to adopt a child yet, when asked if we'd be seeing them consider adopting one of these campers Riegel explained "Beau and Yasha have been debating whether to have kids, or if they're ready to be parents"

"I think this little three shot is a way for them to figure out where they are in their life, if they're ready for kids, what kind of parents they would be, and to work out some stuff with each other." Riegel compared it to the real life conversations that many couples have to go through when they're growing up together

"This will be [Beau and Yasha's] opportunity to have that conversation and for the audience to get a glimpse at it"

Knowing that this session was taking place after the level 20 party of The Mighty Nein took on the Weave Mind on Ruidus I did ask about how the party balance worked between seasoned adventurers and literal children.

"The kids are all level 1, all the kids in the O.L.G.A Cabin (Oops, Let's Go Again) are outcasts. They're underperforming kids, they need a little extra help. Beau and Yasha are being brought in to give them a little bit of tough love, almost like a scared straight program to whip them into shape so that they can advance up a level"

"Beau and Yasha are terribly overpowered, and could mop the floor with these kids, however Veth as a good counsellor and also Sam Riegel as a decent GM comes up with ways to nerf them so that they are a little bit less powerful"

Building A World With A Childs Eye

Riegel explained that when this idea was first drafted there were early thoughts to have kids be the players, "we quickly decided that that wasn't a good idea because our channel is very dirty, we have a lot of adult themes." Instead though the adventure, including monsters that the party will face, were created with the input of Riegel's children and their friends that are part of his homegame.

"We had these brainstorming sessions with these kids where they came up with monsters, encounters, traps, NPCs that Beau and Yasha and the campers are going to meet. Not only did we have this pitch session but you're actually going to get to see those pitch sessions."

When asking for clarification if those sessions would be Beacon exclusive Riegel clarified "I believe they're going to be part of the episodes. You're going to see at the beginning of each episode kids coming up with the encounters for each episode. Later when you see the monster you'll know exactly where it's coming from"

Two Riegel's for the Price Of One

Moving on to talk about the cast of campers for this season – Eden Riegel (Crash Bandicoot 4), Aleks Le (Solo Leveling), Brennan Lee Mulligan (EXU: Calamity, Dimension 20), Libe Barer (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Sneaky Pete) – I asked about how it was having family at the table.

"I've been wanting to get Eden involved in one of our shows for years now and schedules haven't aligned. But because this is my game I get to do what I want. Eden has not played a lot of D&D, in fact this is the second time she ever played. The first time was a week earlier when she came over to my house and I taught her how to play"

Riegel explained that aside from Brennan Lee Mulligan, who has obviously played a lot of D&D and TTRPGs, all of the other campers are very very new to tabletop roleplaying games. "They've either only played once, or not at all."

"It worked great. As level 1 campers at a camp where they're supposed to be learning about their powers it works great that they don't really know what they're doing. It fit in beautifully."

Riegel explained that Mulligan being an "expert in all things tabletop roleplaying" his character was able to help the other campers along.

Who Are The Campers?

I didn't get too much information about the campers of the O.L.G.A cabin but Riegel was able to share that "they're all between the ages of 14-16, they're all the lowest rank at the camp which is called Dainty Feet." He didn't want to spoil their introductions but that they're newly coming into their powers.

He referenced mages having trouble casting their spells, a rogue who isn't good at stealing or attacking."Over the course of these three episodes they sort of figure it out, or at least try to."

Talking about the ranks at cap Riegel began to explain that by obtaining these badges they'll work to achieve the Three Below rank.

Riegel talked further about the world of Wildmount Wildlings that he's build up. "For the home game I have the campgrounds set, there's different areas of the camp that I identify that the players know about that they can go to."

"I developed camp counsellors, other camp cabins, other campers who my kids have met, and definitely spots around the campground that they either need to avoid or that they can go interact with."

Listing off some of these locations Riegel told me about "the 'Do Not Hike' trail, the Hubbub Hub where they meet for camp meetings, the Gross which is the cafeteria and Phyllis the Centaur lunch lady, Salmon Lake which has no salmon in it, it's just a disgusting lake that's the color of salmon."

"There's all kinds of spots that my kids are familiar with and now our audience and these campers will also be familiar with too"

For the show they also had artwork developed to better define the look of the setting, a camp map, and new creations. One of these was a curfew creature that "is so adorable and weird and so I'm going to bring that into the home game."

A setting for your own home games

Riegel's hope for Wildmount Wildlings, a setting that he created for his kids, is that "people watch these episodes and can maybe set their own home game for their kids in this camp. It would be so cool if other people around the world were playing set in this weird camp that my kids play in"

Before we hit our time limit I wanted to know what Riegel really wanted to make sure the audience knew coming into this three-parter. "I hope it's going to be a fun time, as many people know who have watched me GM before, I'm Rules Lite and Entertainment Heavy. You'll see me flounder a bit as I try to remember rules, and I even turn to Brennan Lee Mulligan a few times and ask him to help me"

"We had a lot of fun, this series is done out of love, it's done out of family, and it really celebrates being a kid, being who you are, and just Wilding out"