Buster Bluth and Veep’s Richard Splett will play D&D with Critical Role for charity

Actors and comedians Tony Hale and Sam Richardson will join some of the Critical Role cast as they play Dungeons & Dragons for charity. Dungeon Master Matt Mercer will lead the two guests along with Critical Role regulars Laura Bailey, Liam O'Brien and Taliesin Jaffe in their third special one-shot adventure, "Choose Your Own Adventure....Again”, as part of the Red Nose Day charity event.

Hale is best known for his role of Buster Bluth, the youngest son of the dysfunctional Bluth family at the centre of Arrested Development. Hale and Richardson played off each other as Gary Walsh and Richard Splett in the vice-presidential comedy series Veep. The adventure will be livestreamed via Critical Role’s YouTube and Twitch channels on November 28th and can be watched the following day as a VOD.

Critical Role has brought back donation-focused polls that allow the audience to vote on what Mercer and the players must include in their largely improvised high fantasy romp, from the character classes and obstacles to deep, dark secrets and whether a magical saddle that lets one character ride another might show up. Donations give the public access to polls via Tiltify with the total money raised going directly to Comic Relief US and Red Nose Day.

2023’s Red Nose Day adventure will be the first time either actor has sat down with Critical Role and toss dice, but Hale boasts a previous connection with the massively popular actual play series - he voiced Sir Gregory Fince in the animated adaptation of The Legend of Vox Machina. Previous Red Nose Day special have included The Colbert Report and late night host Stephen Colbert, both in a one-on-one with Mercer and a larger campaign in which they let the audience build and direct Colbert’s grizzled fantasy pastiche of a character.

Longtime Critical Role fans will be interested to find out that this year’s Red Nose Day adventure will take place in The Shattered Teeth, an area of Exandria that Critical Role’s mainline seasons have yet to explore in great detail. The crew visited the elemental-blasted islands during a few episodes of Season Three but have otherwise left it shrouded in legend and rumour.

Red Nose Day began in the UK as a charity where comedians, actors and entertainers raise funds through performance that are used to end child hunger within the UK and around the world. In 2015, the US founded its own version with the same goal. The Critical Role Foundation, the charity-focused arm of the company registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation, has officially partnered with Red Nose Day since 2019. More information as well as a link to the donation polls can be found here.