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

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.

 

[AlViking]

There are certainly people like that, but there is also a substantially different vibe between sitting in the nosebleed seats of a sold out 100k capacity stadium compared to being stood in front of the stage at your local basement club, and it's perfectly valid for a person to prefer one feeling to the other.

Okay. So if a band gets popular enough they're no longer doing local clubs, they're no longer any good? I can enjoy bands and never go to a single concert.

I've just never understood the "sold out" thing. Want to see some garage ban? You still can. In terms of TTRPGs that I was responding to? It makes even less sense, play the game you want.

 

[SkidAce]

"sold out" only has popular as a side effect.

If (in your opinion) the band changed their music to get more popular and make more money, then they sold out.

If they didn't change their style, and still got popular, then they did not sell out.

But if their style changed as they grew as a band, then some purists may think they sold out.

And the truth is never clear.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Indeed. BLeeM mentioned that Perkins and Crawford would be working on Aramán (the new world), and noted particularly about running homebrew mechanics by Crawford. Presumably both, but especially Perkins, would be helping with worldbuilding.

What's the actual name of the WWN podcast? I'd love to check it out but I'm having a hard time looking it up.

 

[Umbran]

There are also just different concerns for a large business than a small business. It may be a bit strange to think of a band or other performance art group as a business, but in the world we live in, they do have to be. Smaller businesses are dealing with smaller amounts of money, which means less riding on the success or failure of their endeavors, which enables them to take risks that a big business couldn’t.

I think if you tell the small business owner who will lose their home if their business tanks that they can take bigger risks because they have "less riding on it", they would be justified in laughing at that suggestion.

I expect that, more often, you have it backwards backwards. Large businesses, with huge reserves and large current profits can afford to rest on their laurels. Meanwhile, small businesses sometimes find themselves in the position where taking a big risk is their only option.

 

[AlViking]

There are also just different concerns for a large business than a small business. It may be a bit strange to think of a band or other performance art group as a business, but in the world we live in, they do have to be. Smaller businesses are dealing with smaller amounts of money, which means less riding on the success or failure of their endeavors, which enables them to take risks that a big business couldn’t. It’s an unfortunate result of our economic structures that when a small creator takes a big risk that pays off, it tends to rocket them into a position where they can no longer afford to take the same sort of risks that got them that initial success. I think this is often what people are lamenting when they talk about a beloved creator “selling out.” You may be glad that more people are appreciating their art, while at the same time being disappointed that it likely means their art will have to become safer and more palatable to a broader audience in order to retain that reach.

I've enjoyed some bands that fell into disfavor because one of their songs was too popular. Meanwhile, I didn't think there was much different from their previous albums.

Maybe something changed, maybe it didn't since almost all entertainers change over time. Best I could tell biggest difference was more people started listening.

 

[billd91]

I expect that, more often, you have it backwards backwards. Large businesses, with huge reserves and large current profits can afford to rest on their laurels. Meanwhile, small businesses sometimes find themselves in the position where taking a big risk is their only option.

Big businesses may also have a lot of bureaucratic/managerial structures that makes catering to smaller, niche or fringe markets or other specialty or experimental projects too expensive to pursue for acceptable return whereas smaller businesses with less overhead have opportunities to excel.

 

[GarrettKP]

That's a valid feeling, but personally it feels very different from 5e as it was conceived in 2014, even if the changes are relatively small. It is for me the attitude and assumed playstyle presented in the new books.

And that’s fine. I’m not saying it isn’t different, and new players can certainly feel the difference in my experience. But I played 8 games at GenCon all using 2024, many of them with players that said they haven’t tried the new update yet, and all of them basically came away saying “so it’s just 5e?”

Outside of a few things like Weapon Mastery, most casual fans would probably not be able to tell the difference between 2014 and 2024 by just glancing at a premade character sheet.

 

[JConstantine]

Okay. So if a band gets popular enough they're no longer doing local clubs, they're no longer any good?

Literally, at no point, did I assert or even imply that.

I've just never understood the "sold out" thing.

It seems you may have conflated what I said with regards to "selling out arenas" (as in filling to capacity) with "selling out" (compromising authenticity for personal gain).

 

[kermit4karate]

You can watch the Professor DM video. He said the majority of events were 2014 (not 2024). He said that D&D had lots of tables that weren't full and some that were cancelled because no one signed up.

Like, yes, absolutely! Absolutely D&D is the biggest RPG in the world. I was responding to a quote that "D&D has never been bigger." Like - since the very inception of the game it's never been bigger than it is in August 2025? That is what I'm refuting.

During the height of Baldur's Gate 3? Bigger.
During an active Critical Role campaign? Bigger.
During the release of the D&D Movie? Bigger.
During the excited leadup of 5.24 edition? Bigger.
During the COVID-19 Pandemic? Bigger.
During the height of Stranger Things? Bigger.

Right, and none of those indicators you cited reflect how popular D&D is in the actual world. I meet more and more people, more often, who talk about it -- people from all walks of life -- who've started playing it for the first time.

D&D no longer needs conventions, podcasts, shows or even new core rulebooks or published adventures to grow. It's well past the event horizon of still needing traditional marketing methods to continue to expand its reach.

 

[Reynard]

Right, and none of those indicators you cited reflect how popular D&D is in the actual world. I meet more and more people, more often, who talk about it -- people from all walks of life -- who've started playing it for the first time.

D&D no longer needs conventions, podcasts, shows or even new core rulebooks or published adventures to grow. It's well past the event horizon of still needing traditional marketing methods to continue to expand its reach.

Are you suggesting that D&D would continue to grow at its current rate without any new products or marketing? I think that's a bonkers suggestion.