Brennan Lee Mulligan to GM Critical Role Campaign 4

Critical Role's fourth campaign will launch on October 2nd, with Brennan Lee Mulligan behind the GM Screen. Critical Role announced that Mulligan, best known as the DM for Dropout's Dimension 20, will be the Game Master for the entirety of Campaign 4. The announcement was made this evening ahead of tonight's live show in Indianapolis, with Mulligan running a campaign in a brand new world assumably created just for the show. Critical Role stated that more cast announcements and other details about the campaign, such as what game system it will use, will be revealed in the coming months.

Mulligan has worked with Critical Role in the past, with both of his Exandria Unlimited miniseries having received high praise from fans. The news is also a major shakeup as this will be the first time that a full-length Critical Role campaign has not featured Matt Mercer or the world of Exandria. Both Mercer and Exandria are "taking a break" according to a press release, although Mercer is working on a second Age of Umbra miniseries that will assumably be released sometime in 2026.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That’s an interesting point - didn’t Jeremy say he was working on a full campaign world? And we now know series 4 will feature a new world…

Clearly Jeremy joining couldn’t have been the start of this venture (too recent) but it could easily have been in train when he joined and he has taken over management of the project to ensure its success?

The way Crawford talked about the setting in the video interview it seems very unlikely that it was anyone's idea but him and maaaaaybe Chris Perkins, and also it didn't sound like it was remotely complete and playable to me.

So I will be very surprised if his setting has anything to do with Campaign 4, and especially surprised if he took over someone else's setting design and then just acted in an interview like it was his. Doesn't seem like his style.

 

[JConstantine]

and Candela Obscura?
They still run that. It's still available for purchase. They absolutely compete with themselves.

Does every game company that makes more than one RPG compete with themselves in your view? Free League? Green Ronin? Chaosium?

Yeah, this is an odd take. Most people who play RPGs outside of D&D are more willing to play a variety of RPGs, especially when they're offering different experiences. Candela Obscura and Daggerheart are very different systems with different premises - that's not competing with oneself; that's diversifying one's portfolio.

There are two companies I can think of where this would be an understandable claim:
1. Paizo, where PF1e and PF2e are broadly catering to the same demographic.
2. Cubicle 7 where there's overlap between multiple Warhammer RPGs.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

2. Cubicle 7 where there's overlap between multiple Warhammer RPGs.

Even then I think there's good evidence that the same people play multiple different Warhammer RPGs, and certainly own multiple.

 

[bedir than]

Yeah, this is an odd take. Most people who play RPGs outside of D&D are more willing to play a variety of RPGs, especially when they're offering different experiences. Candela Obscura and Daggerheart are very different systems with different premises - that's not competing with oneself; that's diversifying one's portfolio.

There are two companies I can think of where this would be an understandable claim:
1. Paizo, where PF1e and PF2e are broadly catering to the same demographic.
2. Cubicle 7 where there's overlap between multiple Warhammer RPGs.

They also still play D&D, in multiple shows. In fact their current longest active show is D&D.
Does playing two D&D shows and only one Daggerheart show prove that Critical Role isn't supporting their own game?

Or more likely it means that they're play multiple systems, as they've always done?

 

[JConstantine]

Even then I think there's good evidence that the same people play multiple different Warhammer RPGs, and certainly own multiple.

For sure, but that's more true when they're offering differing experiences. Any of the 40k RPGs are offering different experiences to the Fantasy/AoS ones; Imperium Maledictum differs from Wrath & Glory; WFRP differs from Soulbound. But then you get to Old World, and is it really offering a different enough experience from WFRP that it can escape claims of cannibalising it's own audience?

 

[JConstantine]

They also still play D&D, in multiple shows. In fact their current longest active show is D&D.
Does playing two D&D shows and only one Daggerheart show prove that Critical Role isn't supporting their own game?

Or more likely it means that they're play multiple systems, as they've always done?

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here or how it relates to your claim that Darrington Press are competing with themselves beyond trying to move the goalposts.

 

[Vael]

I think they had already said he was.

I haven't played Daggerheart myself yet, but my impression is that it handles bigger parties better then 5e does. And with Matt as a player plus Robbie with the whole crew + guest stars that they no doubt want to continue having, that's a pretty unwieldly party size in D&D.

Daggerheart's main advantage is there is no initiative, so I've found it more fluid and that keeps players engaged. I don't know whether or not it stalls out with a large party or not (I have 5 PCs), but I imagine that fluidity should help in that respect at least.

TBH, even with Brennan (who I do adore, and I watch Dimension20 content more than Critical Role), I'm unsure if I'll be tuning in ... Critical Role sessions are long.

 

[Sorinth]

Daggerheart's main advantage is there is no initiative, so I've found it more fluid and that keeps players engaged. I don't know whether or not it stalls out with a large party or not (I have 5 PCs), but I imagine that fluidity should help in that respect at least.

TBH, even with Brennan (who I do adore, and I watch Dimension20 content more than Critical Role), I'm unsure if I'll be tuning in ... Critical Role sessions are long.

There's the fluidity element that should help either speed up the combat, or at least remove the sort of dead space of a player spending a couple minutes trying to decide what to do which is pretty common for CR. But additionally the spotlight swinging back to the DM often through either failed rolls or using fear means a single boss monster doesn't get wrecked by the action economy of a large party.

 

[overgeeked]

Daggerheart's main advantage is there is no initiative, so I've found it more fluid and that keeps players engaged. I don't know whether or not it stalls out with a large party or not (I have 5 PCs), but I imagine that fluidity should help in that respect at least.

If you run into trouble with initiative, just use the optional spotlight tracker. Works great.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

If you run into trouble with initiative, just use the optional spotlight tracker. Works great.

I haven't checked the DH since the early playtest. How does it work?