D&D General Critical Role Season 4 and the Ship of Theseus

[TheAlkaizer]

I just subscribed to them. They put out an avalanche of content each week!

It is! I like actual plays. My main issue with them? Too much content! I always fall behind and then lose interest.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It is! I like actual plays. My main issue with them? Too much content! I always fall behind and then lose interest.

I'm going to have to set my podcast app (Downcast) to retain a bunch of unplayed episodes once the Shadowdark stuff begins.

 

[Charlaquin]

So the question I am proposing is this: How will Critical Role Season 4 be Critical Role?
Well, what unifies the previous seasons? What traits do they share that make them Critical Role seasons as opposed to other APs that the Critical Role studio has released up to this point?

1) It's D&D. (For the pedants who may wish to speak to the origins of the game they are playing, we are only speaking about the public facing campaign, not what they privately played before.)
2) Matt Mercer is DM.
3) The setting backdrop is Exandria, a setting Mercer developed.
4) The players around the table are mostly consistent of a core group. People have left and been added and there have been guest players, but the core has endured.
5) Campaigns are drawn out. They take years to play out in their entirety.
6) The Campaigns are in order and exist in the same continuity and timeline. Campaign one happens before Campaign two and events in Campaigns change the setting in ways that affect future Campaigns.
7) The games try to balance drama with mechanics. The dice shape the story.

So given the shakeups for Season 4, how will it still be Critical Role? Of the above points, the only one we know for certain is changing is #2. Brennan Lee Mulligan is taking over behind the screen. Every other point we can only speculate that they may change. They are being coy about many of these, especially #1 and #3. There is also an assumption that while several players are returning, some may not and some new players may join up, so thats #4. #6 requires #3, so if we aren't in Exandria, it's a new continuity, but it's entirely possible that given a new DM, even if the setting is the same, we may see less looking backward.

I don't see #7 changing. It's been part and parcel to how these sort of APs work overall.

The wildcard for me is #5. I think that if this changes to something shorter, then it will be challenging to view the result as being in the same vein as the first three campaigns.

Change happens. The Superman film that came out this year isn't the Superman created by Siegel and Shuster in 1938 but it's still Superman. The differences are the result of many changes over the years. So will Campaign 4 still be Critical Role? I am curious to see what changes and how much it still feels like it to the fans.

I don’t think they’re being coy about #3. The three things the announcement actually said were new campaign, new world, new DM. New world being one of only two concrete pieces of information tells me it’s as likely to be set in Exandria as it is for Matt to be DM. Which is to say, confirmed not to be the case.

 

[Charlaquin]

For me, it's gotten stale and a change up is needed. Stuff like Talieson always playing some sort of edgelord and Sam the quirky funny character etc. Laura and Ashley being the only ones to seem to have actual range. And I get that most people play themselves with a small twist when playing an RPG but yeah fresh blood.

I dropped Season 3 pretty quick because it was just more of the same in a slightly different way. I found none of the characters interesting. Hopefully Season 4 brings me back.

I mean… they are playing a game. They’ve got to play characters that interest them. And having “a type” is in my experience very relatable. Play with any group of people long enough and you’ll start to notice they have strong preferences. Using my own group as an example, I know to expect (using fake names in the interest of privacy) Cassie will play some weird 3rd party or partially-homebrewed character, with some kind of physical disability, most likely in some kind of unfavorable arrangement like a warlock pact, or owing money to the wrong sort of people, etc. Amanda will play a super lighthearted, silly character, probably a caster, and probably with a really rich and emotionally compelling backstory she wrote but never brings up and doesn’t really care if it ever becomes relevant to the campaign or not. Duffy will play a big, dumb, muscly dude with some kind of addiction (booze, gambling, drugs, etc.) who’s just along for the ride and down to fight whoever, whenever. Judy will play a character who acts up-beat and ditzy to an almost annoying degree, but is actually low-key clever and cynical and constantly sneaking dry sarcasm in behind the saccharine front. When I’m playing, there’s a very high likelihood I’ll be playing a shady character with a fake name or similar big secret. Maybe those kinds of preferences make for worse TV, but part of the appeal of Critical Role is that it feels very real and relatable.