Ganondorf himself is hosting Critical Role's Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom D&D session

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A Nintendo-sponsored Zelda tabletop roleplaying session? Sure, why not

Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Critical Role is hosting a The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom-themed tabletop role-playing session that's being officially sponsored and promoted by Nintendo.

The event is set to broadcast on Critical Role's Twitch and YouTube channels later today, May 30, at 7pm PDT / 10pm EDT, or 3am BST on May 31. Nintendo says in a press release that this broadcast will focus "on an original story scenario and characters inspired by the world of the Nintendo Switch game." Players will include Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Robbie Daymond, Emily Axford, and Omar Najam.

Matthew Mercer, voice of Ganondorf and longtime dungeon master for Critical Role, will DM the session. There's no word on what ruleset this session will use, but this isn't the first Critical Role special sponsored by a video game. Previous one-shots based on games like Elden Ring, Doom Eternal, and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands have typically used homebrew rules based on the d20 system used in Dungeons & Dragons.

As popular as Critical Role is and as mainstream attention as Tears of the Kingdom has gotten since launch, I'm not sure I ever would've put 'Nintendo-sponsored tabletop Zelda stream' on my marketing bingo card. In any case, it should be fun to see Hyrule explored in the context of an even more open-ended sandbox. And, like, I'm not saying I want any Koroks to be tortured in this session, but just think of the possibilities when we're freed from even the loose restrictions of Nintendo's sandbox.

Check out our Zelda Tears of the Kingdom tips.

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.