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]

Ummm... did Hasbro deliver a bunch of money?

I thought the whole Daggerheart thing was because Hasbro wouldn't pay them.

If they don't even support their own system, what was the point of it? I mean the campaign was originally in Pathfinder (Percy was a Gunslinger). They dropped that for endorsement money, but that's a bit different than dropping your own product.

I've never heard of any endorsement money, they did eventually get sponsored by DndBeyond (before it was WOTC owned) and of course there's the Exandria book.

When they started they were happy if someone bought them pizza. Their first game was D&D 4e one shot, they switched to PF when they decided to do streaming.

Edit - ninja'd. I really should catch up on the thread before responding.

 

[Clint_L]

Ummm... did Hasbro deliver a bunch of money?

I thought the whole Daggerheart thing was because Hasbro wouldn't pay them.

I think you made an assumption. CR and WotC still work together.

If they don't even support their own system, what was the point of it?

They do support their own system.

I mean the campaign was originally in Pathfinder (Percy was a Gunslinger). They dropped that for endorsement money, but that's a bit different than dropping your own product.

No, it was originally in a modified 4e, then in Pathfinder, then migrated to 5e at Geek&Sundry's request, because D&D is a much better known brand. There was no "endorsement money" involved; indeed, nobody knew who CR were when their first game launched on G&S.

You seem to have received a lot of misinformation or made a lot of assumptions.

 

[Clint_L]

With regards to the OP, I'm not surprised. Daggerheart is not really built for long campaigns, but beyond that, its brand recognition is tiny compared to D&D's.

In a way, CR are victims of their own success in that DH has been popular enough that using it for their next campaign even seemed like a possibility. But D&D has massive brand awareness, and CR would be crazy to entirely cut ties with it. Their catchphrase is "a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors who sit around and play D&D," after all.

I think most of the speculation about CR switching to DH was driven by a lot of assumptions, and by folks rooting against D&D (which is a very vocal contingent).

 

[kermit4karate]

How much is $10 million split 13 ways...?

 

[darjr]

Here’s the link to the YouTube live video to wait. Over 300 people are waiting and chatting already! My stars! Fireside Chat LIVE With Matthew Mercer & Brennan Lee Mulligan

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Another advantage of a West Marches style campaign is that it will allow crossover between parties as other jobs and roles take up some of the time of the individual players.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Edit - ninja'd. I really should catch up on the thread before responding.

Oh, there are some threads here that will keep you very busy, thinking like that.

 

[Ghost2020]

[REMOVED]

 

[OB1]

I think most of the speculation about CR switching to DH was driven by a lot of assumptions, and by folks rooting against D&D (which is a very vocal contingent).

I think this is really showing to be true right now as half the DH reddit is losing it's mind, while the other half is trying to calm the waters. DH is a cool system with a lot of potential (emphasis on potential), but it's gonna get strangled by those who's only interest in it was as a D&D killer.

As for C4, well, I think it's a bold plan to split into groups around the three pillars (Combat, Social, Exploration) allowing something for everyone. Makes it feel Epic Fantasy novelish as well in that you'll follow one story for a while, then another, then another as they all weave together into a single tale (and the wheel weaves and the wheel wills, after all).

Will be interesting to see if the groups break up and reform throughout the campaign, or if the 3 groups will be pretty much set. I'm betting they will get mixed up fairly regularly.

And lastly, I just started listening to BLeeMs Worlds Beyond Number last month, and if he brings that level of world building and epicness to this, we're in for a real treat. One that could possibly GROW the audience again. And that may be the most important thing. CR isn't content to just sit back with x number of fans and sell them stuff. They want to keep growing, keep expanding, keep getting more and more people into enjoying the magic of TTRPGs. C4 seems built to do exactly that.

 

[CleverNickName]

I thought that they were moving away from D&D?

I can't figure out where this rumor came from. Was it here on EN World, or Reddit? I've never seen it on any of the official Critical Role sites/feeds*.

*I'm not on BlueSky or Twitter, so I don't know what's getting mentioned there. But I do subscribe to their newsletter.