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.

 

[darjr]

Brennan is probably the second best-known DM out there, but as with D&D and other RPGs, the drop-off from Mercer to Brennan is still pretty huge.

Yea. Way back in the 90's I used to help run one of the largest Usenet sites on Earth. But our direct customer base was a tiny fraction of the number one and two.

 

[Burnside]

Brennan is probably the second best-known DM out there, but as with D&D and other RPGs, the drop-off from Mercer to Brennan is still pretty huge.

That gap has narrowed a LOT in the past year.

Plus, because of Dropout there are a ton of people who know Brennan due to non-TTRPG stuff. He may not be better known than Mercer as a GM at this point, but he might actually be more famous than Mercer overall. Dimension 20’s live shows draw just as big a crowd as CR’s now as well.

Throw in that the Calamity series Brennan DMed for CR is generally regarded as the best actual play CR has done in years.

 

[Seramus]

Matt posted this on Instagram.

View attachment 413369

At this point, I would run TWO games.

1) Brennan running D&D 5.5 to maintain the Critical Role brand association with the 800lb gorilla, and not alienate too much of their audience. Losing Matt here means the numbers are down a bit, but hopefully more than enough to keep everyone at Darrington Press paid. And just having Matt in the player seat is going to draw people.

2) Matt starts running Daggerheart games with many of the OG crew and a few new faces. This puts the star power of Matt and other familiar faces behind the new game launch, without risking everything on a complete swap to Daggerheart.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I got tired of C3 pretty quick. Sammy is playing the oddball again. Talison is playing the edgelord again. Etc

I’ve played enough D&D/RPGs that I know that most people just “play themselves” with a slight difference here and there, despite what race/class they choose.

Maybe I’ll like C4 more because IDK things got stale after C2.

 

[Burnside]

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At this point, I would run TWO games.

1) Brennan running D&D 5.5 to maintain the Critical Role brand association with the 800lb gorilla, and not alienate too much of their audience. Losing Matt here means the numbers are down a bit, but hopefully more than enough to keep everyone at Darrington Press paid. And just having Matt in the player seat is going to draw people.

2) Matt starts running Daggerheart games with many of the OG crew and a few new faces. This puts the star power of Matt and other familiar faces behind the new game launch, without risking everything on a complete swap to Daggerheart.

It's clear that Mercer is burned out and needs a break from running any long campaigns for a while. In the past ten years he has done three multi-year weekly (more or less) campaigns in front of a massive international audience. I can't imagine the pressure and fatigue of that. I think it'll be at least another 12-16 months before he attempts another long campaign, and frankly I'm not sure they'll EVER do another one that goes 120-140 ~4-hour episodes.

I'm also not sure folks here realize how seriously the weekly viewing numbers tanked during Campaign 3. The effect is masked by the success of the animated series and the massive, enthusiastic hardcore audiences at live shows. But the casual fans have tuned out in droves from the core streaming product. They needed to change things up.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm also not sure folks here realize how seriously the weekly viewing numbers tanked during Campaign 3. The effect is masked by the success of the animated series and the massive, enthusiastic hardcore audiences at live shows. But the casual fans have tuned out in droves from the core streaming product. They needed to change things up.

I think it's worth remembering that Critical Role benefitted a lot from people being trapped at home during lockdown. Four hours of video weekly is a huge commitment during normal* times.

* You know what I mean.

 

[Seramus]

I'm also not sure folks here realize how seriously the weekly viewing numbers tanked during Campaign 3. The effect is masked by the success of the animated series and the massive, enthusiastic hardcore audiences at live shows. But the casual fans have tuned out in droves from the core streaming product. They needed to change things up.

Weekly viewing numbers tanked, but overall streamed hours has increased. As you say, that includes people watching videos of their older campaigns after being drawn in by the animated series, and other promotions. So we know the casual fans are tuning out in droves during actual broadcast hours, but even more people are watching their stuff as a whole throughout the week.

I include myself in that. I can't remember the last time I sat and watched a stream when it came out, but binge several episodes at a time every few months.

 

[BRayne]

I'm also not sure folks here realize how seriously the weekly viewing numbers tanked during Campaign 3. The effect is masked by the success of the animated series and the massive, enthusiastic hardcore audiences at live shows. But the casual fans have tuned out in droves from the core streaming product. They needed to change things up.

Ostensibly by their own reporting the C3 period held yearly viewership records. Whether that seeming difference is due to diffusion of viewership across multiple platforms or based on people recommending starting with C2 more than any other is another thing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Todd Kenreck thinks it's Daggerheart. He doesn't say he has inside info, but he knows a ton of these people, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has gotten more hints than the rest of us.

 

[TiQuinn]

Weekly viewing numbers tanked, but overall streamed hours has increased. As you say, that includes people watching videos of their older campaigns after being drawn in by the animated series, and other promotions. So we know the casual fans are tuning out in droves during actual broadcast hours, but even more people are watching their stuff as a whole throughout the week.

I include myself in that. I can't remember the last time I sat and watched a stream when it came out, but binge several episodes at a time every few months.

True. I’m East coast and have never been able to watch an entire episode at actual broadcast time.