Critical Role Releases New Campaign 4 Trailer

Critical Role has released a new trailer for their upcoming fourth campaign. The trailer, embedded below, lays out the overarching premise of the plot, as well as a look at the full 13-player table that will participate in the early parts of the campaign. The trailer not only explains the background of Araman, a world whose people overthrew the gods 70 years ago, but also hints at more recent conflicts.


A description of the show notes that the show opens with the planned execution of a person named Thjazi Fang. His scheduled execution leads to three groups coming together to seek the truth behind his grim fate, spinning off into its own series.

As announced earlier this year, Campaign 4 will feature three groups of players simultaneously exploring the world of Araman in what's described as a West Marches-style campaign. Early episodes will feature all thirteen players, but the show will eventually break the groups out into smaller tables, although there will still be some crossover between the groups.

Critical Role's fourth campaign starts on October 2nd.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think there is plenty of acting talent. But there’s a reason no one goes to the improv for serious drama.

Critical Role has the actors. Dimension 20 and Not Another D&D Podcast (overlapping casts) have the professional improv folks. Nerd Poker has the professional stand-up comedians.

If I wanted to DM an actual play campaign of high drama, I'd go with the Critical Role cast, myself.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Age of Umbra already handled that theme, and it was a slog, basically Diablo the TTRPG. I was hoping this new campaign would be fun, not more existential angst. Maybe it will be, but this trailer makes it look bleak.

I think with BLM at the help, it should still have have plenty of humor.

On paper, The Wizard, the Witch and the Wild One (the first campaign of Worlds Beyond Number) is extremely serious, with an overarching plot about which institution will take over the world, forcing everyone to conform to their "benevolent" plan for the future, no matter how many people they have to kill to get there.

In practice, there's some of the funniest bits and characters that have ever been seen in an actual play, including -- hands down -- the funniest familiar of all time. Brennan has a good sense of when to step on the gas and when to let off, creating breaks in tension, etc. He goes into this kind of theory a lot in his Adventuring Academy show on Dropout.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

As stated, that was one episode.

Like, the biggest complaint that CR fandom was repeating over and over again was that Campaing 3 is too comedic and "everyone made Jester" was a popular phrase like half of videos about why Campaign 3 doesn't work dropped.

 

[Clint_L]

I think with BLM at the help, it should still have have plenty of humor.

Absolutely! And that's my hope!

But then why this trailer? I was buzzing for this campaign and now the trailer has me all worried that it will feel more like Mulligan's last stint on CR (though to be fair, that story didn't come from him, and the ending was literally preordained).

Edit: going back to my earlier point about improv, I think games are most fun to play or, for me, to watch when the unexpected happens. At their best, I think TTRPGs are essentially improv to a significant degree, because player choices and the luck of the die should allow the story to go in strikingly different directions and tones. And improv thrives on novelty, whereas these epic, tragic arcs depend on a predetermined structure to a significant degree. If we want to go all the way back to the Greeks, to a significant degree comedies rely on chance while tragedies are all about fate (using "comedy" here in the more traditional sense - more like romantic adventure than a sitcom).

I don't think tragedy is a good fit for a long campaign, because it really limits the player's options, and the tone tends to get very same-y, whereas comedy/romantic adventure can make space for tragic arcs amongst the side-quests, shopping episodes, and everything else.

And I also recognize that these are not absolutes, so I'm not arguing that there was no tragedy in earlier games of Critical Role, and no comedy in later ones. I am talking about the overall tone and trend, which seems to be headed more in the tragic direction than the comedy/romantic adventure direction.

 

[Mort]

Like, the biggest complaint that CR fandom was repeating over and over again was that Campaing 3 is too comedic and "everyone made Jester" was a popular phrase like half of videos about why Campaign 3 doesn't work dropped.

I was thinking more about Exandria unlimited and Calamity. More specifically the actors other than the original critical role crew. The other actors are the ones I've seen treat this as less of a gaming session and more as an acting gig.

Combine that with the seriousness, without the game night feel, and you get a whole different vibe - that, for me, just didn't have the fun with it.

We'll see how it goes.