Czech Games Edition, publisher of the popular party game Codenames, has announced a crossover with star D&D players, Critical Role. A CGE video from March 3 confirms that a new Critical Role Codenames expansion is on the way this summer. This is a fully co-op spin on the game, where one player acts as a Game Master, leading players (and their chosen Critical Role characters) through multiple themed missions.
This is a very different beast, then, from the original Codenames. The base game is a head-to-head word-guessing game where you must find a secret combination of words before your opponent. Codenames: Critical Role still relies on this core guessing game, but players work together to hunt down the right words, similar to Codenames: Duet.
One of the biggest changes is the introduction of characters. Seven Critical Role characters are included: Vex (and Trinket), Percy, Grog, Jester, Nott, Dorian, and Fresh Cut Grass. Each has the ability to level up and unlock abilities. Instead of pointing to a word you want to guess, you’ll instead place your character on that word’s card. This opens your character up to the consequences of failure, but they can also use abilities to even the playing field.
CGE says the expansion offers three separate campaigns for your team to play through, and each mission comes with its own twist on the rules and set of themed words. And, because this is a D&D spinoff, there’s a custom D20, too.
Codenames: Critical Role releases this summer at Gen Con, with pre-orders open for a month from March 10. There’s also apparently a Vox Machina expansion pack that will release with the core expansion.
This is the first licensed Codenames expansion that CGE has announced since July 2025, when its Codenames: Back to Hogwarts expansion was met with extreme backlash from board game fans. CGE released a public apology, but it did not cancel production of the expansion. Instead, the publisher vowed to give 100% of the profits to charities supporting trans people.
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Source: Wargamer
