Legacy
International Tabletop Day originated as an event hosted on Geek & Sundry in 2013, and became a recurring annual event globally. While disrupted by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the event is still celebrated worldwide.[1] Founder Felicia Day, who left the company in 2016, spoke positively of the influence of the company and its inclusion of geek voices. "I'm just happy I got to give people opportunities they wouldn't have otherwise and take a leap."[71] CBR commented in 2023 that "with huge shifts in management, a lawsuit between the company and Will [sic] Wheaton, and countless people leaving the company, it only makes sense that the company would largely cease its operations. [...] While Geek & Sundry may not be operational anymore, it made quite an impact on geek culture that is quite lasting. [...] Although Critical Role 's departure sparked its rapid decline, Geek & Sundry has done a lot for the resurgence of interest in tabletop gaming and geeks everywhere are sure to look upon the company's golden years fondly".[58]
Em Friedman, for Polygon, commented on the impact of Geek & Sundry's experiments in actual play cinematographic style; the simultaneous display layout, pioneered with Critical Role, would come "to dominate actual play".[72] Friedman highlighted that Critical Role 's "layout eliminated the awkward elements of the wide-angle lenses and multipurpose tables, cables, and other clutter. By cropping and arranging, it showed all angles of a table, simultaneously, live"; a simultaneous display led to player reactions becoming "a significant part of the audience experience".[72] However, this "look wasn't a foregone conclusion. There was no standard look early on. Even in 2015, as Critical Role began to stream, Geek & Sundry was producing fullscreen, edited multi-camera shows like Wil Wheaton's Titansgrave. The channel continued to refine both styles, producing fullscreen shows like Sagas of Sundry and We're Alive: Frontier alongside simultaneous-display shows like Shield of Tomorrow, ForeverVerse, Callisto 6, and LA by Night".[72]
A number of former Geek & Sundry shows continued airing in other formats after leaving the network, some continuing beyond when G&S had largely ceased operating in the late 2010s. Vampire the Masquerade: LA by Night was moved to the World of Darkness channel and received a fourth and fifth season before its conclusion in October 2021. LA by Night is also considered canon to the broader ongoing Vampire metaplot.[73] Em Friedman, for Polygon, stated that L.A. by Night "survived Geek & Sundry's decline [...] in no small part to the masterful work of storyteller and series creator Jason Carl". A successor series, New York by Night, began in 2022.[74] In May 2024, Rowan Zeoli of Rascal commented that "the collapse of Geek & Sundry [...] decimated the fledgling actual play industry".[75] Friedman, in an interview with Zeoli, explained that "Critical Role is the only Geek & Sundry show that was able to recover its own episodes. Everything else still belongs to Geek & Sundry, including LA By Night. But Critical Role was as smart as Legendary was dumb. Legendary [the company that owned Geek & Sundry] didn't make them sign a contract until Critical Role LLC had already existed".[75]
Several senior Legendary Digital Networks staff joined Critical Role Productions after it split in 2019, such as Ed Lopez, Rachel Romero, and Ivan van Norman who became head of their tabletop game publishing division Darrington Press.[76][77][78] In addition to Critical Role itself, Critical Role Productions continued airing episodes of Talks Machina until the show was cancelled in 2021.[79] By 2021, Critical Role was the highest earning channel on Twitch.[80] The first campaign, which aired in its entirety during the G&S era, would receive an animated adaptation which began airing on Amazon Prime Video in 2022. Critical Role has also been credited with the renaissance of Dungeons & Dragons in the late 2010s, along with similar shows such as The Adventure Zone
