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.

 

[Jaeger]

C'mon guys you aren't any good at starting conspiracy theories, I'm kind of disappointed. Obviously this whole thing is a plot, create a dark and dreary game to show how unfun D&D is so they can push people into playing some other game! Since CR is almost singularly responsible for the success of D&D, this show will obviously cause it's collapse and bringing in a new era of Daggerheart.

The lack of proper tinfoil-hat territory theorizing on this thread is a bit of a downer...

I am still astounded that the DH rules were not a trimmed down and streamlined version of 5e similar to what Mearls is trying to do on his patreon. As that was the clear design direction to take based on how the CR cast plays D&D.

A trimmed down and streamlined version of 5e, based on a CR setting like the 5e adaptations of Lord of the Rings, and Symabroum, would have been something that could easily be transitioned into their live streams.

They would have been able to leverage the "5e compatible" label so as to not turn away the D&D fans from their live plays. And by using their version of D&D, they would have easily been able to leverage their live plays to sales of their game.

But Daggerheart went a different design direction.

We'll just have to wait and see how things will work out for CR as they gradually phase Daggerheart into their live plays.

 

[AlViking]

The lack of proper tinfoil-hat territory theorizing on this thread is a bit of a downer...

I am still astounded that the DH rules were not a trimmed down and streamlined version of 5e similar to what Mearls is trying to do on his patreon. As that was the clear design direction to take based on how the CR cast plays D&D.

A trimmed down and streamlined version of 5e, based on a CR setting like the 5e adaptations of Lord of the Rings, and Symabroum, would have been something that could easily be transitioned into their live streams.

They would have been able to leverage the "5e compatible" label so as to not turn away the D&D fans from their live plays. And by using their version of D&D, they would have easily been able to leverage their live plays to sales of their game.

But Daggerheart went a different design direction.

We'll just have to wait and see how things will work out for CR as they gradually phase Daggerheart into their live plays.

I'm sure there will be plenty of live plays for DH in the future. Meanwhile, a D&D live stream has been their golden goose so I'm not surprised they stuck with it especially with Brendan running things. DH may be the golden chicken at some point in the future but it's too early to tell, a lot of products start of with a bang and just kind of coast along for reasons that have little to do with how good the product is.

But yeah, the tinfoil hat fans (or at least fans of people with tinfoil hats) had their time to show their stuff a while back but it doesn't surprise me there was nothing to it.

 

[TiQuinn]

I, for one, am very happy at the lack of tinfoil hat theorizing in this thread, thankyouverymuch!

 

[Mercador]

As a complete newbie of Critical Role, is it a good idea to jump in at Campaign 4? I guess campaigns are semi-related but can they be watched unordered?

 

[overgeeked]

As a complete newbie of Critical Role, is it a good idea to jump in at Campaign 4? I guess campaigns are semi-related but can they be watched unordered?

Campaigns 1-3 are semi-connected and exist in the same world. There were crossovers at certain points. C4 is set in an entirely new world with no connections, that we know of, to the prior campaigns. So in terms of lore and what you need to know, C4 is a good place to jump in.

 

[Chaltab]

Something happened during the stream itself . If you back and watch it’s obvious the rest of the cast was tense around him and I think Matt was the only one who was saving him.
Once he was gone it really felt like the whole cast got to shine . He’s not mentioned in the animated series or even Dragonborn?
The actor tried to do his own playthrough but it didn’t go anywhere with the same Dragonborn and I’m speculating that they have no contact with him but who knows

There are Dragonborn and even Draconia (the kingdom Tiberius was from) in the animated series, though Tiberius himself isn't.

Season 3 actually has a character that feels like a very on-the-nose take that to Tiberius.

Spoiler: Season 3 Spoilers

Dohla, an unseen posthumous character from the stream that died heroically fighting an Ancient Red Dragon, is recontextualized in the animated series as a red-scaled Dragonborn sorceress who wears blue robes, is the jilted suitor of an NPC, betrays the party, and is killed by the same White Dragon that killed Tiberius in the campaign (after Orion left).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It’s one episode out of 120. The majority were very different from that.

Maybe a majority but not by much. Few episodes lacked levity.

 

[agrayday]

Every time i see and hear "Aramán" I get a spontaneous vision of a critical role cologne bottle on a shelf...

 

[Clint_L]

As a complete newbie of Critical Role, is it a good idea to jump in at Campaign 4? I guess campaigns are semi-related but can they be watched unordered?

It's hard to say, as none of us have seen anything of Campaign 4 yet. But also, it is a big change to cast and Dungeon Master. If what you are interested in is the "Critical Role Experience," I recommend watching the first few episodes of Campaign 2, which offer a complete story arc and will give you a great sense of the dynamic.

Campaign 1 is probably my favourite overall, but it takes a bit of getting used to as they are still figuring things out, and the first episode picks up as a continuation of their home game (plus has some production issues). Plus, there's the Tiberious situation alluded to above.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As a complete newbie of Critical Role, is it a good idea to jump in at Campaign 4? I guess campaigns are semi-related but can they be watched unordered?

I would actually start with the Legend of Vox Machina cartoon, which boils Campaign 1 down to a more zippy pace.

Critical Role episodes are, on average, four hours long and campaigns are each 100+ episodes. And these episodes take their time. There are whole episodes that are 99% shopping. One in Campaign 2 was about hiring NPCs to work in the group's tower HQ.

The cartoon will give you a sense of the characters, the story, the tone, etc., much more quickly. You won't need to invest multiple four-hour chunks to figure out if Critical Role is for you. (Or you might decide that consuming it as a cartoon is more your speed.)

The new campaign is apparently a fresh start, but it's a new-ish DM for Critical Role (Mulligan has done two important limited series runs, which were excellent, but were not the main campaign), a new format and includes a bunch of folks who have only been supporting players in the past. And Mercer, of course, is going to be a player, rather than a DM.

It may be good, it may be bad, but it will for sure be different.