Today Critical Role's development and production company, Metapigeon, has announced the acquisition of the narrative podcast Midst. Midst is a semi-improvised audio drama that already has two seasons under its belt with a third on the way. While Critical Role has expanded multiple times in recent years into their publishing branch Darrington Press, creating board games such as Uk'otoa and Till The Last Gasp, and into animation with the first two seasons of The Legends of Vox Machina available to stream on Amazon Prime this is the first time that Critical Role has purchased an existing entertainment IP and brought it under their umbrella.
Midst is a podcast run by three unknown narrators, that's not even an in-universe thing as the narrators are truly not known to the public. These "unreliable, playfully omniscient" narrators tell the story of three protagonists living in the space-western town of Stationary Hill, on the islet of Midst. These characters are a crotchety outlaw, a struggling cultist, and a 'diabolical bastard'. While not an actual play of a role-playing game as fans of Critical Role might have come to expect the unique storytelling style and distinctive audio lends itself closely to the genre. Not only do the anonymous narrators voice all of the action taking place in Midst, but they perform all of the characters interchangeably and even break the fourth wall to talk directly to the listener.
For ongoing fans of Midst what this acquisition means is that the already released two seasons will be re-released under Critical Role with remastered audio and a video edition of each episode featuring original pieces of art from artists such as Ricardo Bessa, Lenka Simeckova, Sam Bosma, Artem Chebokha, Lap Pun Cheung, Will Kirkby and more. The creators of Midst had the following to say on the acquisition:
In lieu of the trumpet and explosion emojis that would be the truest expression of our feelings, we can say with full sincerity that we are over the moon to have found partners with such phenomenal passion and talent for creative multimedia storytelling. Critical Role and Metapigeon are enabling us to bring Midst to life in ways we never imagined possible, and we can’t wait to share what’s in store with fans both old and new.
The first three remastered episodes will release for free via Critical Role's YouTube channel on April 11th, 12th, and 13th. These will also be available on podcast apps such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. After that episodes will release weekly every Wednesday at 5 pm Pacific. Those who subscribe via the Midst website will be able to get future episodes two weeks early and other bonuses such as additional documents and items from the world of Midst.
