Critical Role to Use D&D 2024 Rules For Campaign Four, Expands to Three Tables and Thirteen Players

The new campaign kicks off in October.
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Critical Role will continue to use Dungeons & Dragons as the play system for its upcoming campaign, with the cast expanding to three distinct tables consisting of a total of 13 players. Today, Critical Role announced new details about its new campaign, which is set to air on October 4th. The new campaign will feature the full founding cast members as players, alongside several new players. In total, the cast includes Laura Bailey, Luis Carazo, Robbie Daymond, Aabria Iyengar, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Whitney Moore, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Alexander Ward, and Travis Willingham, with the previously announced Brennan Lee Mulligan serving as GM.

The campaign itself will be run as a "West Marches" style of campaign, with three separate groups of players exploring the world. The groups are divided into gameplay styles, with a combat-focused Soldiers group, a lore/exploration-focused Seekers group, and a intrigue-focused Schemers group. All three groups will explore the world of Araman, created by Mulligan for the campaign.

Perhaps most importantly, Critical Role will not be switching to Daggerheart for the fourth campaign. Instead, they'll be opting for the new 2024 ruleset of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Daggerheart will be represented at Critical Role via the Age of Umbra and "other" Actual Play series, as well as partnerships with other Actual Play troupes.
 

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Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

Why create their own system if they're going to abandon it?
I don't get the sense they've abandoned it - in fact, I'd say this set up, where Matt can play D&D, frees him up to work more on Daggerheart.

And from where I sit, I always got the sense Daggerheart and Obscura were born of the same time as the OGL debacle, where suddenly every company had a theoretical D&D-killer ready to go.
 

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What I really appreciated and would like more of is "how the sausage is made." ie, that Mulligan is not creating all of this whole cloth on his own. There is a whole team of people crafting this campaign which he is running. While I think cries of the "Mercer Effect" are overblown, there is some truth in some folks not grasping that this is in no way to the scale of a game you or any other GM is running at home. This is a professional television show level of production work here.
 


Why create their own system if they're going to abandon it?
Choosing to use 5E D&D is not the same thing as abandoning Daggerheart.

Critical Role has always been "a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors who play Dungeons & Dragons." That formula has made them all very successful and very happy for a decade...why would they change it?
 

Since the system has been confirmed, the D&D vs Daggerheart debate is redundant (and it was already worn out) so, in a bid to move beyond it, I thought I'd engage in a different form speculation on campaign 4, based on the information revealed in the announcement.

The cast has been expanded from the core 8, to include Robbie Daymond, Aabria Iyengar, Alex Ward, Luis Carazo and Whitney Moore. BLeeM mentioned splitting up the cast into three (3) groups based on playstyle: Soldiers - a focus on combat; Seekers - a focus on lore and exploration; and Schemers - a focus on intrigue. In the fireside chat, BLeeM said he expects the groups to intermingle at some point, but also mentioned they've got the first 4 episodes recorded, so that means the starting groups are already locked in. Based on previous play, I think a potential grouping might be the following:

Soldiers (combat)
Liam: Liam seems to have a bit more balanced playstyle than others, however, his class choices have trended towards the combat focussed subclass - assassin rogue, evocation wizard, battle-master fighter.
Luis: In EXU, he played a paladin that tended toward action, and in Private Nightmares (a V:TM actual play GMed by Alex Ward) he played a Brujah-sired thinblood, so Luis seems to gravitate towards being combat-orientated. It should be noted that he's a notetaker (though not quite to the same extent as Marisha), which demonstrates an interest in the world, so Seeker is a possibility.
Sam: This might not be the obvious place for Sam, but his most iconic moments have been during combat: the Lv9 Counterspell during the Vecna fight in C1 and the self-detonation in C3. While he clearly enjoys a bait-and-switch, and likes his characters to have a secret that ultimately comes out, suggesting Schemers, Sam hasn't really demonstrated much interest in uncovering the machinations of others, nor the setting.
Travis: Action in general, and combat in particular, is where Travis gets the most enjoyment. He seems to enjoy plot twists and reveals, but he doesn't really engage much in investigation of setting or NPCs at the player level (as opposed to utilising those skills as a character). When the words "roll for initiative" are uttered, Travis perks up.

Seekers (lore/exploration)
Ashley: Ashley is a fairly passive player, so it's not immediately obvious what group she'd be in, but one thing that stands out with her is how she hangs on every word when Matt is engaging in exposition. She also tends to struggle with what to do in combat and hasn't demonstrated much interest in intrigue.
Marisha: More than anyone else at the table, Marisha takes notes. She's the one who remembers that thing Matt mentioned once 20 sessions ago. She's the one constantly asking questions and demonstrating curiosity about the world. This curiosity could push Marisha towards Schemers, but I think Seekers edges out.
Matt: This one should be obvious, but Matt's a worldbuilder. Exandria has some elements clearly inspired by Nentir Vale and Eberron, as well as various Soulslike games, highlighting Matt's interest in other settings. Coupled with the various chats where he nerds out about setting details, man's clearly a lore nerd.
Robbie: Not a lot to go with Robbie, but he chose a bard for C3 which isn't typically the class one picks if their main interest is combat. Granted, he chose College of Swords, but still gravitated towards words over action, and support in combat. Schemers is a possibility, but he seemed to have most enjoyment when elaborating on backstory elements like the family connection of Coriolis.

Schemers (intrigue)
Aabria: Given she played a abjuration wizard in EXU and a life cleric in C3, one might think Aabria would be in the combat group in a supportive capacity, but she's also played in two V:TM actual plays where her characters seemed interested in manipulating others either for fun or to get ahead. Both were shorter in length, so I could see her wanting to scratch that itch in a longer campaign.
Alex: Alex has a love of V:TM on par with Matt's love of D&D, and a core element of that is plots and schemes. This seems right up his alley.
Laura: This might seem an odd choice based on the characters actually played, but hear me out: for C1, Laura wanted to play a rogue, but was beaten by Liam, choosing ranger as the next best thing; for C2, she wanted to play a warlock, but was pipped by Travis, so went with a trickery cleric; then Sorcerer for C3, but she would consistently try a social approach first, so Laura seems to want to engage in guile.
Taliesin: Based on characters actually played, I'd say Taliesin is actually more combat-oriented, but given his love of Call of Cthulhu and Vampire: The Masquerade, I reckon he'll want to be in the intrigue group.


Whitney: Whitney is the wildcard since I haven't seen her in much - a show on Geek & Sundry which I can only describe as a post-apocalyptic Clarissa Explains It All, one of Ivan van Norman's games of Dread, and a cameo on a V:TM actual play. I have no idea which group she'd lean toward.
 


Not to mention all the other logistical hurdles. Thirteen players in a west marches game, while launching a new setting? That would be a nightmare to try and run and make entertaining while also learning to run a new system (and teaching players to play it).

I kind of suspected from the moment they announced Brennan as the GM that maybe Daggerheart wasn't a done deal.
 




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