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.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

And thats the sound of any hype for Daggerheart utterly plummeting.

Which is a shame I really liked it as a game and CR basically abandoning it sucks. (Yes there are the side campaigns but those are considered second fiddle dont hold nearly as much care).

Oh come off it.

Who even expected DH to the game for campaign 4? The idea that they're "abandoning" it is just ludicrous nonsense.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I can't figure out where this rumor came from. Was it here on EN World, or Reddit?

EN World is the only place I've seen this idea taken seriously.

DH is amazing but they have a core audience which isn't ready for that yet.

 

[OB1]

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.

It came from people who have an anti WotC agenda. They were trying to manifest the end of WotC via Daggerheart/CR by making the presumptive argument that CR playing anything but DH for C4 would be an admission that the system wasn't good.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Watching the video now.

So, as expected, this setting has got some stuff going on, starting with "the humans won a war against the gods and killed them," with Perkins and Crawford creating new mechanics for it.

 

[darjr]

OK calling it now.

The new CR 4 campaign is post apoc and so is the Unearthed Arcana. WotC and CR are working together on CR4.

Just throwing it out there in silly shenanigan style.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

It's really weird: CR and Darrington haven't tried to present themselves as being in combative competition with D&D, their positioning has been positive and about having a cool new game to share. Not the only game.

 

[CleverNickName]

It came from people who have an anti WotC agenda. They were trying to manifest the end of WotC via Daggerheart/CR by making the presumptive argument that CR playing anything but DH for C4 would be an admission that the system wasn't good.

If that's true, it's a really weird thing to believe.

It presumes that Wizards of the Coast is only successful because of the D&D brand (not true), and that D&D is only popular because of Critical Role (also not true.) Daggerheart is a great game and I'm happy it's doing well, but Darrington Press has never said it was intended to be a replacement for D&D. They are happy to let it be its own thing.

 

[Parmandur]

OK calling it now.

The new CR 4 campaign is post apoc and so is the Unearthed Arcana. WotC and CR are working together on CR4.

Just throwing it out there in silly shenanigan style.

I mean...they do literally have an inside line to the folks at WotC still, the lines of communication are clearly oopen, the Darrington Press and WotC people were happily hanging out ar GenCon...

Maybe just tying into the next year's zeitgeist...

 

[CleverNickName]

(Bah. Ninja'd by @Parmandur)

 

[Parmandur]

If that's true, it's a really weird thing to believe.

It presumes that Wizards of the Coast is only successful because of the D&D brand (not true), and that D&D is only popular because of Critical Role (also not true.) Daggerheart is a great game and I'm happy it's doing well, but Darrington Press has never said it was intended to be a replacement for D&D.

Literally nobody involved is presenting it that way. People had just built this Edition War style narrative and were overlaying it onto reality.