The time has come, the Walrus said… to get more details about Critical Role Campaign 4. Critical Role recently broke the internet by announcing that longtime Game Master, Matt Mercer, would be stepping down from his ten-year position. Instead, Critical Role Campaign 4 will have the talented Brennan Lee Mulligan at its helm. This announcement immediately incited a flurry of questions. Would Matt Mercer still be involved in Campaign 4? What would the cast of Critical Role Campaign 4 look like? What world would it take place in? What kind of game would it be? Well, Critical Role wasn’t telling… YET. But now we have answers to all these questions and more.
One thing we love about Critical Role is a fun linkup. A recent YouTube short revealed that Rhett & Link of Good Mythical Morning fame are getting into the Critical Role fun. You can check them out as they “audition” to be Game Masters for Critical Role campaign four. They do not make great Game Masters, but they sure are fun to watch. We love to see it.
Will Matt Mercer Be in Critical Role Campaign 4?
Yes! For the first time in 10 years, Matt Mercer will participate in a Critical Role campaign as a PLAYER. We’re excited to see what he does.
Who Is in the Full Cast of Critical Role Campaign 4?
But Matt Mercer isn’t the only player in Critical Role Campaign 4. Joining him in the cast are Critical Role founders Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham, alongside Luis Carazo, Robbie Daymond, Aabria Iyengar, Whitney Moore, and Alex Ward. Of course, Brennan Lee Mulligan joins as Game Master.
Critical Role Campaign 4‘s Trailer
Critical Role Campaign 4 has officially shared a trailer so that we can see these players in action. You can check it out below and read more about it here.
What Game System Will Critical Role Campaign 4 Use?
Critical Role Campaign 4 has revealed that it will be played using Dungeons & Dragons (2024 rules), as well as some homebrew from Darrington Press’s own Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins. Very exciting stuff! We can’t wait to see what the homebrew brings us.
Marisha Ray, Creative Director, co-founder, and cast member of Critical Role shares of Critical Role‘s system choice for Campaign 4, “When creating the worlds that we build and explore in all of our content at Critical Role, we have always held strong to the belief that we should use the system that best supports the story we want to tell. We are certainly spoiled for choice when it comes to TTRPG systems that the cast knows and loves, so we are very excited to explore more of both Daggerheart and Dungeons and Dragons in our near (and hopefully distant) future.”
Or as Matt Mercer shares in the video above, “Daggerheart or D&D, we say ‘Both!'”
What World Will Critical Role Campaign 4 Take Place In?
Critical Role Campaign 4 will be leaving Exandria behind and heading to the new world of Aramán in a West Marches-style approach to gameplay. For those unfamiliar, a West Marches approach is one that prioritizes exploration of a world and player-driven narratives. It offers the players much more agency in their gameplay than other approaches to TTRPGs. Brennan Lee Mulligan reveals, “The West Marches campaign style is effectively a shared world with more adventurers that are player characters than can fit at the table in one session. And also, on a storytelling level, it really maps the form of fantasy storytelling that people are intimately familiar with and know and love.”
As for the world of Aramán, the setting of Critical Role Campaign 4, well, we don’t know too much about it yet, but we feel eager to find out. Mulligan does share with us, “This is a world very much in conversation with Exandria. And so much of that story is about mortals and their relationships with gods and gods and their relationships with mortals. I talked to Matt, I went, ‘What is a relationship to divinity that would be based in the same logic and principals of everything we know and love about Exandria, but where they made a radically different choice. So we see the gods make a decision to put themselves and their role in the cosmos over the well-being of the mortals. And the mortals responded by then banding together themselves. Gods and mortals fight a terrible war, with many mortals staying loyal to the gods in that conflict. But the gods are defeated and killed, oops!”
And that leads us to Aramán, 70 years after that revolution and “what we’re dealing with is that magic is wild, chaotic, and unpredictable, it doesn’t work like it used to. The issues of the afterlife, where do the souls of the dead go now that gods do not part the souls to various afterlives?
More About Aramán
Critical Role teases that Aramán is “a world of wonder with sorcery stemming from the graveyard of the gods and carrying forward the spirit of epic sagas reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.” Sounds epic to us.
What Will the Story of Critical Role Campaign 4 Be?
Game Master Brennan Lee Mulligan introduces us to the story of Critical Role Campaign 4, sharing, “In the world of Aramán, there exists a growing darkness in the shadow of revolution. 70 years ago were the Shapers cut down, those seven lords of creation that saw fit to cast their children into shadow and ruin forever. Now, a new age, a new conflict arises, and our heroes must rise to the task.”
Details aside, Mulligan shares that he boiled down his storytelling into five parts: “Swords: conflict, combat, bravery, danger. Family: Deep relationships, the nature of deep bonds of love. Death: Finality. Magic: The fundamental premise of Fantasy that anything is possible. And kissing. That one’s just kissing. People like kissing. And those five brought together create what we want in fantasy storytelling.”
More About Campaign 4‘s Plot Synopsis
Additionally, Critical Role Campaign 4 has officially revealed the following plot synopsis, sharing, “In a land still suffering from the fallout of dead gods and living in the shadow of a tumultuous rebellion, these disparate people will come together across the fractured world of Aramán and connect in ways they never imagined. As hope and victory fade, a question hangs over Aramán. Without the Gods, what great deeds now fall to us? And who, or what, shall grab their crown for themselves?”
And additionally revealing, “Campaign 4 sets the stage for a world on the brink. A hero to many, and enemy to some, when Thjazi Fang is marked for execution, various figures from across his remarkable life unite to uncover the truth behind his grim fate. “
Meet the Characters of Critical Role Campaign 4
Critical Role finally revealed the names and character art of ALL of the characters featured in Campaign 4. We also learned who will voice each character. For the full breakdown of all 13 new Critical Role characters, who plays them, and what we can glean about them from their names and artwork, check out our piece here:
Yes, that’s Matt Mercer’s Critical Role Campaign 4 character above.
Do We Know Anything Else About Critical Role Campaign 4‘s Characters?
The first thing we learned about the characters of Critical Role Campaign 4, is that they will divide into three categories: “Soldiers, Schemeres, and Seekers.”
A release reveals that bit of character information, alongside a reveal that the cast listed above won’t all be playing together all the time. Critical Role shares that the first four episodes of Campaign 4 “will act as an Overture, introducing and weaving all 13 cast members through intersecting scenes before the story splits into three smaller tables – the Soldiers, Schemers, and Seekers – for the rest of the campaign, with overarching themes and genres tying them altogether.”
This system, shares Brennan Lee Mulligan, will give us “an expanded view of the world through different tables that mix and match.” But the challenge of it is “to take an enormous party of epic heroes across multiple adventures concurrently, on a scale and size I have never attempted before.”
In the end, Critical Role Campaign 4 divided people by the particular playstyle they were interested in engaging with. In the end, Critical Role formed the three tables, “Soldiers, Schemers, and Seekers.” The Soldiers, Brennan Lee Mulligan shares “The Soldiers table are the people who are interested in a traditionally charged combat and conflict-driven story mode—where the non-violent answers were few and far between.” Meanwhile, “The Seekers are people that tie directly into lore, cosmology, magic, big questions around problems facing this universe that are in the weave of the dance between divinity and arcane, and magic, and demons, and fairies, and dragons, and these big kinds of questions. It’s very classical fantasy.” And finally, “The Schemers table is very much set in intrigue, espionage, skullduggery, and relationships with each other and other NPCs and institutions and the machinations of power. Their adventuring looks like cloak and dagger. There are enemies right here in your hometown, and they are moving against you as we speak.”
Curious and curioser. We think we’ll love the Schemers. But we can’t help but wonder what the Seekers are seeking.
When Will Critical Role Campaign 4 Release and How Can You Watch It?
Here are the details you need to know about when Critical Role will premiere Campaign 4 as well as podcast and VOD information, rebroadcast, and more:
- Airs Thursday, October 2nd at 7pm Pacific on Twitch and YouTube
- VOD and Podcast out Thursday, October 2nd at 7pm Pacific on Beacon
- Rebroadcasts Friday, October 3rd at 9am Pacific on Twitch
- VOD out Monday, October 6th at 12pm Pacific on YouTube
- Part 1 Podcast out Thursday, October 9th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
- Part 2 Podcast out Tuesday, October 14th on your favorite podcast streaming service at 5am Pacific
Previously, Critical Role said this campaign “will premiere with instant access on Beacon.tv as well as streamed to Critical Role’s YouTube and Twitch channels, with the VOD available for everyone the following Monday and podcast episodes available in two parts: the first one week after the premiere, and the second on the following Tuesday. Beacon members will also get exclusive access to all episodes of Critical Role Cooldown for Campaign 4, where the cameras keep rolling and you get a front row seat to the cast’s post-show reactions.”
In the meantime, you can go back to the beginning with Critical Role‘s very first episode, ever. And stay tuned for any new announcements by keeping an eye on Critical Role’s website or Instagram at @Critical_Role.
Originally published August 21, 2025.
The post CRITICAL ROLE Campaign 4 Reveals Exactly When You Can Watch Episode 1 appeared first on Nerdist.
Source: Kiat Media
0 Comments