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]

Thanks, this is fascinating, but it's still predominantly anecdotal as opposed to the search graph peaks for Stranger Things and BG3. It doesn't refute my original point that streams are going to be more of a slow burn either?

I'm not dismissing CR or other streamers at all (see my original post,) I'm just pointing out that they're a smaller part of the picture across the lifetime of D&D 2014.

Also, unfortunately, that article is from 2018 so it would be much more interesting to have relevant data from 2024/5, I'd love for WotC to release that. With my data analyst hat on for a moment, a point in time snapshot like the article is fine as a data point, but it can't be used as a measure of future growth or different markets.

Edit: Just to add, I'm not saying that every Stranger Things fan or BG3 player is going to immediately go out and buy D&D, as with the streamer example, it's just interesting data to include. My own experiences are also anecdotal so as far as data goes, they're effectively irrelevant because the sample size is too small and bespoke.

Most people have started playing D&D for the past half century because someone else introduced them to the game. Streaming is just another version of that. I'm certain some people only became interested in gaming because of streaming but that meant that it was an activity they thought they might enjoy, who knows how many still would have started playing.

We don't know how the survey was worded, the margin of error, how it was conducted, whether or not people heard about a D&D club and checked out a stream first. Streaming has absolutely been part of the level of D&D along with many other things like, I don't know, the game itself.

My other point still stands as well. There's nothing stopping any other game from being streamed and gaining traction. D&D certainly has traction because of it's history, but it's current dominance was in no way preordained.

 

[thatOneLinuxDM]

Most people have started playing D&D for the past half century because someone else introduced them to the game. Streaming is just another version of that. I'm certain some people only became interested in gaming because of streaming but that meant that it was an activity they thought they might enjoy, who knows how many still would have started playing.

We don't know how the survey was worded, the margin of error, how it was conducted, whether or not people heard about a D&D club and checked out a stream first. Streaming has absolutely been part of the level of D&D along with many other things like, I don't know, the game itself.

My other point still stands as well. There's nothing stopping any other game from being streamed and gaining traction. D&D certainly has traction because of it's history, but it's current dominance was in no way preordained.

Exactly, and I don't refute the majority of that, I pine for data because it's in my interest to do so, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get it. The success of D&D (and TTRPGs) is always a cluster of factors and streaming just makes up one part of that.

If someone gets into the game because of their local game shop salesperson, Stranger Things, Baldur's Gate 3, Acquisitions Incorporated, or any of the myriad other D&D cultural touchstones there have been over the last 50 years, it's still good that the hobby attracts people. Just because people like me like numbers and correlation doesn't change any of that.

 

[TiQuinn]

Exactly, and I don't refute the majority of that, I pine for data because it's in my interest to do so, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get it. The success of D&D (and TTRPGs) is always a cluster of factors and streaming just makes up one part of that.

If someone gets into the game because of their local game shop salesperson, Stranger Things, Baldur's Gate 3, Acquisitions Incorporated, or any of the myriad other D&D cultural touchstones there have been over the last 50 years, it's still good that the hobby attracts people. Just because people like me like numbers and correlation doesn't change any of that.

It sounds like what you’re looking for is a smoking gun in the data which is hard to find largely because the actual full success of D&D and the TTRPG industry is obfuscated - by Hasbro or Google not wanting to publish certain metrics or by the difficulty of gathering that data from the smaller players in the industry. But that doesn’t mean than data doesn’t exist. It’s just not everyone agrees on what it says.

 

[thatOneLinuxDM]

It sounds like what you’re looking for is a smoking gun in the data which is hard to find largely because the actual full success of D&D and the TTRPG industry is obfuscated - by Hasbro or Google not wanting to publish certain metrics or by the difficulty of gathering that data from the smaller players in the industry. But that doesn’t mean than data doesn’t exist. It’s just not everyone agrees on what it says.

Sorry if you came across that way, but that wasn't what I was going for at all, perhaps it was my wording that confused things.

As I said in my very first post on this particular topic, I was effectively agreeing with the initial poster that was talking about dubious claims of '5e succeeding because of CR.'

I've pointed out several times that it's a confluence of factors that contributes to success, the issue I take is with people looking for a single, 'It was Dimension20 what won it' level of thinking. My very first comment pointed out that there were multiple factors involved, and I cited my own experiences along with Stranger Things and BG3.

I've said a few times, I don't think I actually disagree with anyone on what's been said, other than the very first claim (which wasn't even in the thread, it was referential!) that 5e succeeded because of CR?

 

[kermit4karate]

They literally did do it for free originally. I also run my games for free. It is possible for something to be both a job and a passion.

Oh, please. Free publicity and "free" are not the same things.

 

[AlViking]

Exactly, and I don't refute the majority of that, I pine for data because it's in my interest to do so, but that doesn't mean I'm going to get it. The success of D&D (and TTRPGs) is always a cluster of factors and streaming just makes up one part of that.

If someone gets into the game because of their local game shop salesperson, Stranger Things, Baldur's Gate 3, Acquisitions Incorporated, or any of the myriad other D&D cultural touchstones there have been over the last 50 years, it's still good that the hobby attracts people. Just because people like me like numbers and correlation doesn't change any of that.

There are innumerable reasons for D&Ds success. Name recognition, acceptance of gaming culture, desire to connect on an individual level, rise of superhero and fantasy movies, people who played TTRPGs when they were young playing with their own kids. We also can't discount a ruleset that in my opinion does a better job at balancing simplicity and options than previous versions. After all, getting people to try a product and maintaining them as customers are two different things.

But we'll never really know how much each of those contributed, even if we had perfect survey data because people are really bad at self-analysis.

 

[thatOneLinuxDM]

There are innumerable reasons for D&Ds success. Name recognition, acceptance of gaming culture, desire to connect on an individual level, rise of superhero and fantasy movies, people who played TTRPGs when they were young playing with their own kids. We also can't discount a ruleset that in my opinion does a better job at balancing simplicity and options than previous versions. After all, getting people to try a product and maintaining them as customers are two different things.

But we'll never really know how much each of those contributed, even if we had perfect survey data because people are really bad at self-analysis.

Exactly.

You mentioned other games streaming too, which I think is an important point to consider. I think D&D lends itself to Actual Plays and to cite Justice Arman from that NPR link, "they often need the rules less, because they have that chemistry..."

Good table chemistry is also important to consider. I like listening to Glass Cannon, but that's because I like their chemistry and I like that they mostly get the Pathfinder 2e rules right, but it's got a much lower viewership than other streams. I am fascinated to see what happens to them when they flip to Shadowdark for their next season, because I think it might be better for a stream, but until I see the numbers I guess I won't even have an inkling of an idea.

 

[TiQuinn]

Sorry if you came across that way, but that wasn't what I was going for at all, perhaps it was my wording that confused things.

As I said in my very first post on this particular topic, I was effectively agreeing with the initial poster that was talking about dubious claims of '5e succeeding because of CR.'

I've pointed out several times that it's a confluence of factors that contributes to success, the issue I take is with people looking for a single, 'It was Dimension20 what won it' level of thinking. My very first comment pointed out that there were multiple factors involved, and I cited my own experiences along with Stranger Things and BG3.

I've said a few times, I don't think I actually disagree with anyone on what's been said, other than the very first claim (which wasn't even in the thread, it was referential!) that 5e succeeded because of CR?

I think if there’s any disagreement at all is whether what SlyFlourish pointed out is purely anecdotal or not.

 

[thatOneLinuxDM]

I think if there’s any disagreement at all is whether what SlyFlourish pointed out is purely anecdotal or not.

That's fair, maybe I should have said unsubstantiated or presented without evidence?

It's a bit tricky when it comes to citing journalism because it's not generally good data.

Edit: But, again, data when presented can still be interpreted in many different ways, and I can't see an example of anyone suggesting otherwise. I don't think anybody in this thread has specifically thought of the 'smoking gun' element as being actual-plays or CR specifically in D&D's popularity.

 

[Reynard]

It sounds like you're mostly agreeing with me, which I do appreciate, I promise.

In terms of surveys, my main point is that we don't have recent data, and again, with my favourite hat on, I would love to see that data and for it to be made public. Even if we ignore the self-report bias (can't have everything unfortunately.)

The only data we have to go off is the public data, streaming has grown in general in the 7+ years since that data (article,) I agree, but equally (and as with the ST and BG3 examples) we can't directly match consumers to those who actively play D&D without evidence that WotC is unlikely to provide. As much as I would like to believe that an old dataset is still relevant, we just can't take that for granted.

Unfortunately, all I have to go off is my own experience here (and the 'interest' relative data which is biased.)

It seesm strange that you really, really want streaming to not have contributed to the rise in popularity of D&D. Why?