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.

 

[TwoSix]

I don't go in for angry mobs. I don't think anyone has any responsibility to call out any influences they have at all beyond what's defensible through the courts as far as copyright infringement. If an allegation of infringement is made as far as someone alleging that someone has stolen an idea for something, that determination is for the actual courts to decide, not a court of public opinion, i.e. armchair attorneys.

Yea, I disagree. It's not an issue of legality, it's an issue of respecting the fact that you're part of a community that thrives on collaboration. Which they took to heart and corrected, which is a happy ending for all involved.

 

[mamba]

if they started releasing material for it that was dual-statted, that could help out DH honestly.

yep, that would be a pretty smart move, and why not, the two games are similar enough in theme to share the same setting

 

[Ruin Explorer]

a little more old school detail wouldn't exactly hurt a Daggerheart prep.

Yeah DH isn't allergic to setting details like Dungeon World for example is, it's more of a straightforward RPG just with narrative elements rather than a narrative RPG impersonating D&D rather convincingly (as DW was).

 

[mamba]

I mean, that's a bit of truism, isn't it?

Like, if you looked at 5E in 2014/2015 you might reasonably have said "Eh it'll probably do okay but it's not going to grow D&D, just please some old fans", based on sales and impact

it is even true for 2024. Current sales are good, but it too is too new to already talk about long term trajectory.

As you point out, even two years might not be enough to predict that

 

[kermit4karate]

It's not about copyright infringement or theft. It's generally just seen as good form in the indie scene to platform your fellow creators who influenced your work through theirs. It's a way of cross-promoting and building good relations in our tiny hobby.

One would be hard-pressed to find a copyright attorney who would advise a client of this. "Building good relations in our tiny hobby" may work as long as it remains a tiny hobby for everyone involved. As soon as anyone within that close-knit group, however, achieves a level of financial success, the closeness of those knits always begins to fail (see: the entire history of RPGs).

There's good decorum on one side, which anyone can appreciate because it feels good, but then there's also common sense in a very litigious country on the other.

 

[Aldarc]

One would be hard-pressed to find a copyright attorney who would advise a client of this. "Building good relations in our tiny hobby" may work as long as it remains a tiny hobby for everyone involved. As soon as anyone within that close-knit group, however, achieves a level of financial success, the closeness of those knits always begins to fail.

There's good decorum on one side, which anyone can appreciate because it feels good, but then there's also common sense in a very litigious country on the other.

I don't know why you are so hellbent on making this a copyright conversation and not the conversation that's actually being had. But don't worry, no one is requiring you to cite your influences for your non-existent TTRPG.

 

[kermit4karate]

I don't know why you are so hellbent on making this a copyright conversation and not the conversation that's actually being had. But don't worry, no one is requiring you to cite your influences for your non-existent TTRPG.

No one's hellbent. I do think it's a valid part of the conversation, but I said my piece. All done. Now you can go back to your...whatever you were doing.

 

[Afroconan]

They have kinda hinted on Aramon being created by Crawford and Perkins and they need to advertise the campaign world before they release it.

Have they? From what I've seen it seems to be almost exclusive BLM's creation. At most they've said that Chris and Jeremy have designed homebrew on demand.

 

[TiQuinn]

Because you cannot satisfy everyone, and it's futile and unwise to even attempt to. Even if one were to preemptively credit 10 different influences, it wouldn't stop another 10 or 200 people from later claiming some were overlooked, and the acknowledgment of influence could weaken future legal proceedings that were to arise.

And what often leads to charges of infringement in mass-market goods? Money, as in when something becomes wildly successful.

Acknowledgment sections are best kept vague and inspirational, like "I would like to thank Gary Gygax for inspiring my lifelong love of gaming," stuff like that. No specific claims, though, unless you want to pay someone down the road for admitting to steal their idea when your pockets are deeper.

All of that said, anyone publishing anything should take all reasonable precautions to ensure that they aren't infringing on any valid copyrights. Beyond actual valid copyright, though, doesn't matter. Defend what's yours, and don't knowingly infringe on a copyright held by anyone else.

Candela Obscura was very clearly inspired or derived from Forged in the Dark, so when that is not called out, it’s going to be noticed and questioned. The TTRPG community is a small one. Just seems like a smart thing when you’re clearly inspired by an existing product that’s already familiar to call that out to avoid friction.

 

[kermit4karate]

Candela Obscura was very clearly inspired or derived from Forged in the Dark, so when that is not called out, it’s going to be noticed and questioned. The TTRPG community is a small one. Just seems like a smart thing when you’re clearly inspired by an existing product that’s already familiar to call that out to avoid friction.

Consult with a copyright attorney if you have earnings you want to protect is all I'll say to that. Sometimes a "community's" gut feeling leads to financial ruin.