# Geek & Sundry
**Geek & Sundry** is an online production company and YouTube channel focused on gaming and geek culture, co-created by actress [Felicia Day](https://www.edgepedia.org/felicia-day), who launched it in 2012 after the success of her web series *The Guild*.[1](https://time.com/3985836/felicia-day-book/) It became best known for tabletop gaming content, above all as the original home of the actual play series *Critical Role*, and after years of dormancy under its corporate owner it announced a relaunch in August 2024.[2](https://www.rascal.news/geek-and-sundry-is-back-sagas-of-sundry-goblin-mode/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2012, by Felicia Day as a YouTube channel and production company, following *The Guild*[1](https://time.com/3985836/felicia-day-book/) |
| Ownership | Purchased by Legendary Entertainment in August 2014; Day stayed on to develop scripted and non-scripted projects[3](https://www.nexttv.com/news/legendary-acquires-geek-sundry-132934) |
| Signature show | *Critical Role*, first aired March 12, 2015 on the Geek & Sundry Twitch channel[4](https://www.critrolestats.com/blog/2017/2/20/when-did-critical-role-first-air) |
| Critical Role departure | February 2019, when the cast launched their own Twitch and YouTube channels under Critical Role Productions LLC[5](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Critical_Role) |
| Website dormancy | From January 2022 the geekandsundry.com site redirected to Nerdist.com[6](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Geek_%26_Sundry) |
| Relaunch | August 2024, with the new actual play *Sagas of Sundry: Goblin Mode*[2](https://www.rascal.news/geek-and-sundry-is-back-sagas-of-sundry-goblin-mode/) |
## Founding and format
Felicia Day created and starred in *The Guild*, a web series about gamer life, and used that success to launch Geek & Sundry as a YouTube channel and production company in 2012.[1](https://time.com/3985836/felicia-day-book/)
**Tabletop programming** became the channel's most durable identity. [Wil Wheaton](https://www.edgepedia.org/wil-wheaton) hosted the board game series *TableTop*, and other shows included the RPG series *Titansgrave* and the miniature painting show *Painters Guild*, which was created by [Marisha Ray](https://www.edgepedia.org/marisha-ray) and hosted by [Will Friedle](https://www.edgepedia.org/will-friedle).[7](https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/exclusive-will-friedle-on-painting-minis-critical-role-and-his-new-series-mini-primetime) The channel also produced how-to-play videos and tabletop-focused articles on its website.[2](https://www.rascal.news/geek-and-sundry-is-back-sagas-of-sundry-goblin-mode/)
## Legendary acquisition
In August 2014, [Legendary Entertainment](https://www.edgepedia.org/legendary-entertainment) purchased Geek & Sundry, described at the time as a popular YouTube channel and community-based content network. Day, as co-creator, agreed to develop both scripted and non-scripted projects for television and digital platforms as a creator and star.[3](https://www.nexttv.com/news/legendary-acquires-geek-sundry-132934) The company sat within Legendary Digital Networks, and as a subsidiary its major policy changes required approval from the parent company, a constraint that distinguished it from independent actual play producers.[8](https://www.sjsu.edu/anthropology/docs/Merriam-Pigg-Ailea-project.pdf)
## Critical Role
Geek & Sundry's most consequential programming decision came through *Critical Role*. In 2015, the company, then helmed by Felicia Day, asked dungeon master [Matthew Mercer](https://www.edgepedia.org/matthew-mercer) to bring his private *Dungeons & Dragons* game to the Geek & Sundry livestream.[9](https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/983446/1/Hope_MA_S2018.pdf) The Geek & Sundry Twitch channel went live on March 3, 2015, began a regular schedule on March 9, and the first episode of *Critical Role*, "Arrival at Kraghammer", aired on Thursday, March 12, 2015.[4](https://www.critrolestats.com/blog/2017/2/20/when-did-critical-role-first-air) The cast of voice actors, including Mercer, Marisha Ray, Liam O'Brien, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Travis Willingham, and [Laura Bailey](https://www.edgepedia.org/laura-bailey), switched their home game from Pathfinder to the then-new D&D Fifth Edition when the livestream was arranged.[10](https://nerdist.com/article/critical-role-ttrpg-history-success-storytelling-ode/)
The show grew quickly. By August 2016, *[Critical Role](https://www.edgepedia.org/critical-role) had garnered over 50 million views since its March 2015 launch, and that month Geek & Sundry signed a licensing agreement with Green Ronin Publishing to release roleplaying game sourcebooks based on the series.[11](https://greenronin.com/critical-role/2016/08/14/press-release-geek-sundry-and-green-ronin-to-create-critical-role-rpg-books/) Episodes streamed live on Twitch and were archived on Geek & Sundry's YouTube channel, and the show drew celebrity attention from figures such as [Vin Diesel](https://www.edgepedia.org/vin-diesel) and Wil Wheaton.[12](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/critical-role-dungeons-and-dragons-ashley-johnson-matthew-mercer/) Academic accounts later described *Critical Role* as the most successful actual play show to date, and credited it with massively expanding the player base for tabletop roleplaying games.[13](https://journals.uu.se/IJRP/article/download/1194/1047)
**The departure.** In February 2019, *Critical Role* parted ways with Geek & Sundry, launched its own Twitch and YouTube channels, and began self-producing content under the name Critical Role Productions LLC.[5](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Critical_Role) The split proved pivotal for both parties: *Critical Role* went on to raise more than $1 million within an hour of launching its 2019 [Kickstarter](https://www.edgepedia.org/kickstarter) for an animated special, eventually becoming an Amazon animated series, while Geek & Sundry lost the property that had defined its channel.[14](https://time.com/7020897/dungeons-and-dragons-live-performances/)
## Decline and dormancy
After the departure of its flagship show, Geek & Sundry faded from view. In January 2022, the Geek & Sundry website began redirecting to Nerdist.com, and direct links to specific pages on the geekandsundry.com domain returned 404 errors.[6](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Geek_%26_Sundry) The tabletop journalist Rowan Zeoli, co-founder of the outlet Rascal News, wrote in May 2024 that "the collapse of Geek & Sundry [...] decimated the fledgling actual play industry".[2](https://www.rascal.news/geek-and-sundry-is-back-sagas-of-sundry-goblin-mode/) For years the site, which had once held a trove of how-to-play videos, high-production actual plays, and tabletop articles, simply redirected elsewhere.[2](https://www.rascal.news/geek-and-sundry-is-back-sagas-of-sundry-goblin-mode/)
## 2024 relaunch
In August 2024, Geek & Sundry returned with an announcement of a revival of its actual play series *Sagas of Sundry*, in an iteration titled *Goblin Mode*, a D&D actual play following the former minions of a now-defeated necromancer seeking their own purpose in life. Zeoli reported that the company had been working on the relaunch for a few years, and the announcement came after the site had replaced its redirect with a teaser landing page reading "Get Ready to Unlock a World of Wonder!"[2](https://www.rascal.news/geek-and-sundry-is-back-sagas-of-sundry-goblin-mode/)
## Legacy
Geek & Sundry occupies a specific place in the history of actual play media, the genre of recorded, unscripted tabletop roleplaying sessions distributed as podcasts, livestreams, and edited videos. Production teams such as Geek & Sundry and [CollegeHumor](https://www.edgepedia.org/collegehumor) included actual plays in their suites of media experiments, a move that academic commentary credits with helping these smaller studios survive the fallout of industry-wide overinvestment in scripted web video.[15](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/images/11_64.2infocus-intro.pdf) The channel's role in launching *Critical Role* is repeatedly cited in both journalism and scholarship as the moment that brought professional production values to tabletop livestreaming and helped turn actual play into a phenomenon in its own right, one that by the late 2010s drew notice from both the gaming world and Hollywood.[15](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/images/11_64.2infocus-intro.pdf)
## References
1. [Felicia Day on Her New Memoir, Life After #GamerGate and Ginger Emojis, Time](https://time.com/3985836/felicia-day-book/)
2. [Geek & Sundry is back, Rascal News (Rowan Zeoli, August 19, 2024)](https://www.rascal.news/geek-and-sundry-is-back-sagas-of-sundry-goblin-mode/)
3. [Legendary Acquires Geek & Sundry, Next TV / Broadcasting+Cable (August 4, 2014)](https://www.nexttv.com/news/legendary-acquires-geek-sundry-132934)
4. [When did Critical Role first air?, CritRoleStats](https://www.critrolestats.com/blog/2017/2/20/when-did-critical-role-first-air)
5. [Critical Role, Critical Role Wiki (Fandom)](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Critical_Role)
6. [Geek & Sundry, Critical Role Wiki (Fandom)](https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Geek_%26_Sundry)
7. [Exclusive: Will Friedle on hosting Critical Role's new series Mini Primetime, SYFY WIRE](https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/exclusive-will-friedle-on-painting-minis-critical-role-and-his-new-series-mini-primetime)
8. [Merriam-Pigg, Ailea, project paper on actual play production, San Jose State University Anthropology](https://www.sjsu.edu/anthropology/docs/Merriam-Pigg-Ailea-project.pdf)
9. [Hope, M.A. thesis (2018), Concordia University, on Critical Role's origins](https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/983446/1/Hope_MA_S2018.pdf)
10. [Exploring CRITICAL ROLE: From a Plucky Underdog to a Beloved Multimedia Powerhouse, Nerdist](https://nerdist.com/article/critical-role-ttrpg-history-success-storytelling-ode/)
11. [Press Release: Geek & Sundry and Green Ronin to Create Critical Role RPG Books, Green Ronin Publishing (August 8, 2016)](https://greenronin.com/critical-role/2016/08/14/press-release-geek-sundry-and-green-ronin-to-create-critical-role-rpg-books/)
12. ["Critical Role" takes Dungeons and Dragons out of the basement and online, CBS News (February 22, 2017)](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/critical-role-dungeons-and-dragons-ashley-johnson-matthew-mercer/)
13. ["How Do You Want To Do This?": Us, Role-Playing Games, and The End of the World, International Journal of Role-Playing, Issue 18](https://journals.uu.se/IJRP/article/download/1194/1047)
14. [Live Performances of Dungeons & Dragons Are Filling Stadiums and Going Mainstream, Time](https://time.com/7020897/dungeons-and-dragons-live-performances/)
15. [In Focus introduction, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 64.2, on actual play production teams](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/images/11_64.2infocus-intro.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Video games and digital play › Digital play culture and society › Fandom, media, and community*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license