We spoke to the cast and DM of Critical Role’s Campaign 4 about the upcoming West Marches style campaign, premiering tonight!
Critical Role Campaign 4 premieres tonight. The hype is real among the many-splendored critters, of course. But it’s also palpable among the cast and crew. We had the chance to speak with some of the folks from Campaign 4, including DM Brennan Lee Mulligan, about the upcoming West Marches style of play the show will embrace for the new campaign.
But it’s not just a new play style. There are new faces among the cast, a new DM at the head of the table, and even a whole new world to play in. The world of Aramán is a mystery – to both the audience and the players. And, speaking with Brennan Lee Mulligan about it, it’s even a mystery in part to the DM. So with a new campaign premiering, here’s what the folks involved had to say.
A Blank Slate – An Even Playing Field
One of the strongest sentiments among the players was the excitement offered by the unknown. Aramán is a whole new world to play in. Travis Willingham, who will be playing Teor Pridesire in Campaign 4, spoke about the electricity in the air at the beginning of this particular campaign:
“I love that we’re all starting from 0 here. We get to come in swinging with PC builds and jump into the ocean Brennan has crafted for us. We don’t know anything about it, so it’s a whole new experience for us, as well as a new experience for the audience. We’re excited to take them with us.”
It’s a sentiment that fellow Critical Role founding players Sam Riegel and Ashley Johnson echoed. Riegel, who plays the magic-user Wicander Halovar, spoke about the possibility of doing things that you’re scared of doing: “We get to play different types, you know, in Travis’ case it’s a big furry, and that’s one of the exciting things, is you get to try things you might not ordinarily try.”
Meanwhile, Johnson, who plays a drow named Vaelus, spoke about the variety of flavors that the new players and new DM will bring to the table:
“”You get used to the shorthand of each other – we’ve been playing together for more than a decade now. We know we can set each other off with a look – but the new people bring more flavors, new ingredients that bring up new jokes, new ways of looking at the world, things that you wouldn’t have thought of with anyone else.”
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New Faces At The Table
One of the big format changes for Campaign 4 is the size of the players in it. There are 13 players altogether, and they’ll be split up, eventually, over three tables. But that means having whole new party dynamics.
Whitney Moore, who plays the tiefling Tyranny in Campaign 4, commented on what a big undertaking the whole experience was and how the new world meant everyone was on an even playing field. “We’re all playing on an even field here, it’s a new playground, and nobody knows anything, so it makes it easy to feel like you can find your little nook.”
The new beginning of the campaign and the multiple tables offer up particular thrills to Taliesen Jaffe, who plays the striking, some might say terrifying-looking, Bolaire Lathalia. Jaffe seemed enamored by the prospect:
“There’s something exciting about new beginnings. You have this blank space that you get to fill in along with the other players. It’s a journey we’ve made before, but this time we don’t have to worry about someone on the internet saying ‘that’s not what you said before’ – we get to discover it, together.”
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A Whole New World
It isn’t just a new table with new faces; there’s a whole new world to explore. And that’s where DM Brennan Lee Mulligan is glad to have so many players. With three different tables to play with, there are so many viewpoints, and each character is a great signifier to Mulligan of how the world should be explored:
“When building a world, there are lots of brushes you can use to color in the details. But the most important paintbrush is not the creativity of the DM, it is the attention to the players and where they focus. Because each choice they make helps me build the world. The players are a lens for me to see what they want to see in the world, and it’s my job to make them happy.”
And across the tables, the multiple parties give Critical Role’s Campaign 4 a familiar storytelling style. A West Marches campaign often focuses on multiple groups of PCs that aren’t predefined. And though the parties will split into three tables at the beginning, those groups aren’t locked in. When asked about the format, the cast spoke about being able to establish multiple parties.
And Mulligan pointed out that the tables could move among each other. Their actions could impact a whole other side of the world. But also, the parties could change and intermingle and go forward, giving different viewpoint characters in the style of sweeping fantasy stories like A Song of Ice & Fire or The Lord of the Rings, where one chapter might tell you what’s happening in one part of the world, while elsewhere dark forces are on the rise. It’s epic in scope.
And more importantly, it’s all driven by the story. This is something that Critical Role has always been all about – being story first. Which means that as the campaign goes, it’ll be important to keep track of what’s happened. An Ogre escaping from one party might have huge consequences for the other. But with such a big group of creative folks, they can come together to talk about what that means.
Critical Role’s Campaign 4 premieres tonight at 9 pm Central Time on both YouTube and Twitch.
See you in Aramán!
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