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.

 

[OB1]

Like anything, though, making a living selling a game intended to compete with, or be an alternative to, a behemoth like D&D has to be solvable. There must be ways to do it because we do see examples from time to time. It's a challenge, but most challenges are solvable.

Speaking as yet one more opinionated veteran gamer among millions...to me the biggest barrier to entry for most people when it comes to getting interested in a new fantasy TTRPG is the initial learning curve and the value proposition vis-à-vis D&D.

Why should I spend a few hours to learn it when I'm already familiar with D&D?
Why should I spend any money on it when I already have the books for D&D?
What's in it for me, versus what's in it for me if I just continue to play D&D?
How am I going to get a few other people in my circle of friends interested in it?

I bet the fantasy RPG game developers who answer those questions and address those concerns sell more copies of their games.

The best way to compete is to stake your ie. Unique space. For example, aiming to be the worlds greats space fantasy RPG is a better goal because WotC doesn’t already own the brand. It’s pretty consistent in business that once a brand is as established as D&D, it won’t ever give up its lead spot. So you can hope to be 2nd (like Pepsi to come, still good) or create a new space (like 7up) to go after consumers not interested in the top product.

I would LOVE a great scifantasy RPG in the tradition of dune/Star Wars/ phatntasy Star/ final fantasy and such a game would likely get me to abandon D&D.

 

[Afroconan]

I'm just sayin', the D&D brand isn't an invincible juggernaut and WotC doesn't always do everything right. They are easily the #1 TTRPG in the industry, but that hasn't always been the case. They dropped to #6 in the span of 3 years...even Fate outsold them for a brief moment. And it was only 11 years ago, but people tend to forget (or try to forget).

I would argue that it was less about these other games beating D&D, and was more about WotC making a series of bad plays. (However you feel about 4th Edition D&D, their attempts to strangle PDF sales and replace the SRD were bad plays.) IMO, better games didn't rise up and overthrow them, they dropped the ball.

TL;DR: Wizards of the Coast are their own worst enemy. Not other games/publishers.

No, they are saying it because "Pathfinder outselling 4e" is a myth that has been debunked by the people who were there at Paizo and WotC

Pathfinder Never Outsold 4E D&D (ICYMI)

The myth that Paizo's Pathfinder outsold Dungeons & Dragons 4E endures, but it is a myth worth slaying.

alphastream.org

ICV2 data is just a data point but it's not good to draw conclusions about the overall state of the hobby.

ICV2 is just a survey, they call hobby shops, talk to the owners/managers and see what's selling.

It doesn't count online retailers like Amazon or big-box stores.

Give Alphastream's blog a read it was an eye opener to me as a fan of both 4e and PF1.

Edit: long story short, 4e didn't meet WotC's targets so they weren't screaming their numbers, and Paizo was perfectly happy with the rumor and weren't going to debunk it themselves.

 

[Afroconan]

DH is missing a big pile of WotC cash according to this guy.

So if his sources are right D&D will be heavily advertising D&D 5.24e & D&D Beyond on Critical Role, in exchange for a ton of money, more then what extra cash from switching to DH would have brought them. Especially since DH sold out, so it really doesn't seem to need the help.

This is just smart from a business perspective. And no one can say they don't have faith in DH because they went with 5.24 instead, because instead WotC bribed them to do it so no hit to DH's rep. Matt Mercier clearly has the lobes for business as the Ferengi say.

Finally got the time to sit down and watch Glicker's "analysis" and boy is it a doozy.

He's not claiming WotC "bribed" Critical Role but almost all the way around.

Like Critical Role went to the negotiating table to tell them "We are going with Daggerheart, but if you 'advertise with us' we will do our next campaign with D&D 2024, you know you need us...".

My decision to "block" that channel is vindicated once again...

 

[mamba]

The tangent came up because someone stated D&D was just like MS and Windows. Except they have very little in common because MS used all sorts of anticompetetive practices to establish and maintain their dominance in both the OS and web browser markets.

WOTC may have won the popularity contest for now but they didn't do it through shady business practices.

that I agree with

 

[Reynard]

Finally got the time to sit down and watch Glicker's "analysis" and boy is it a doozy.

He's not claiming WotC "bribed" Critical Role but almost all the way around.

Like Critical Role went to the negotiating table to tell them "We are going with Daggerheart, but if you 'advertise with us' we will do our next campaign with D&D 2024, you know you need us...".

My decision to "block" that channel is vindicated once again...

Does Glicker lie? What is the theory behind ignoring him?

 

[mamba]

Not for a brief moment. During 4E's run, Pathfinder actually beat D&D from 2011 until 2024 (when 5E was released.)

2014 then. Lol, I should never mention this, when I say Pathfinder outsold 4e, people object, when I say 4e sold best or close to that (hedging already…) people also object. Can’t win with this one it seems

 

[Parmandur]

Does Glicker lie? What is the theory behind ignoring him?

I can't speak to the interior state of his mind to adjudication the truth value in his head, but he is most charitable engaging in fevered conspiracy theorizing.

This is, unfortunately, a habit, hence why many ignore him.

 

[CleverNickName]

2014 then. Lol, I should never mention this, when I say Pathfinder outsold 4e, people object, when I say 4e sold best or close to that (hedging already…) people also object. Can’t win with this one it seems

Yeah, and I should know better than to mention Pathfinder in the same sentence as...a certain edition of D&D...in these forums. (smh)

 

[kermit4karate]

2014 then. Lol, I should never mention this, when I say Pathfinder outsold 4e, people object, when I say 4e sold best or close to that (hedging already…) people also object. Can’t win with this one it seems

Some things are facts, like to say that D&D is a d20-based TTRPG, or that it's about 50 years old, or that it's the TTRPG industry leader, and other things are rumor and innuendo.

There's A LOT of rumor and innuendo when it comes to discussions involving D&D.

Really, do the rumors and innuendo matter?

 

[kermit4karate]

Not for a brief moment. During 4E's run, Pathfinder actually beat D&D from 2011 until 2024 (when 5E was released.) There was a whole bunch of threads about it back in the day.

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Ha! Nonsense. At no point in history were more people PLAYING Pathfinder than D&D.