Critical Role campaign four
| 'Critical Role campaign four | |
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| Original release | October 2, 2025 |
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Search Critical Role campaign four on Amazon.
The fourth campaign of the web series Critical Role is set to premiere on October 2, 2025. Brennan Lee Mulligan is taking over Game Master duties from Matthew Mercer,[1] with Mercer switching to a player-role.[2][3] The campaign will be set in a new world, rather than the Exandria setting used in the previous three campaigns.[1]
It has not yet been announced which role playing game system the fourth campaign will use.[4]
Cast
Main cast
Production and format
Casting
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The casting of Brennan Lee Mulligan as the Game Master for campaign four was announced during the August 2, 2025 live show in Indiana and a press release from the studio, Critical Role Productions. Matthew Mercer was the Dungeon Master for the first three campaigns;[5][6][7] however, for the fourth campaign, Mercer will appear in a player-role.[2][3][8] Rolling Stone stated that "the inclusion of Mulligan is huge, but not entirely surprising" given Mulligan's background as "a well-established Game Master" who created the "titanic success" Dimension 20 along with previous comments made by Mercer on eventually shifting "into a 'Professor X' role as a mentor to the next generation of storytellers rather than remaining the face of the brand in perpetuity".[5]
Game system
Critical Role is an actual play which uses a tabletop role-playing game system.[4][9] Cheryl Teh of Business Insider commented that while the previous campaigns used Dungeons & Dragons as their game system, Critical Role's tabletop game imprint Darrington Press has also just released their own tabletop role-playing game, Daggerheart. Teh noted that the announcement of the fourth campaign did not reveal which game system the campaign will use.[4]
Broadcast
The fourth campaign is scheduled to premiere on October 2, 2025.[1] It will broadcast on Critical Role's on Twitch and YouTube channels as well as on the studio's streaming service Beacon. The public VOD will be available the Monday after each episode "and podcast episodes will drop in two parts: the first one the week after the premiere, and the second on the following Tuesday".[1]
Setting
The fourth campaign steps away from Mercer's Exandria – the world setting used in the first three campaigns and the Exandria Unlimited anthology web series.[1] In August 2025, the name of the new world was teased through an augmented reality game (ARG).[10]
Episodes
2025
| Episode | Title | Original air date [1] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TBA | October 2, 2025 | – |
Reception
Pre-release
On the announcement of the new campaign with a new game master, Kenneth Shepard of Kotaku highlighted that "Mulligan was broadly welcomed with open arms, but many Critical Role fans noted they were sad to see Mercer step down from the GM role, even if he will be a part of the campaign as a player".[11] Dais Johnston of Inverse commented that after a decade and with additional "projects in development", it was understandable that the Critical Role cast might "want to shake things up" or reduce their involvement, though doing so altered a "formula" that had repeatedly proven successful.[12] Aimee Hart of Polygon highlighted Mercer's previous "passing the torch" comments and noted that "stepping back to let new people into the limelight always comes with its fair share of risks, particularly for a company like Critical Role, whose fame, while it cannot be pinpointed to a single thing, was certainly helped by the electric chemistry these friends have with one another".[13] She noted that the original cast has "remained a focal selling point for viewers", even when the show has included guests, due to their non-manufactured "relatability".[13] However, Hart also felt it was "becoming clear" that Critical Role was more of a business than a "web series between friends" at this point and that "Critical Role has long outgrown its indie-like roots, especially with its fingers in pies like Amazon and AdHoc Studios. The only difference is that as time goes on, it's become impossible to ignore that Critical Role will, one day, outgrow its creators too".[13]
Shepard also highlighted the additional surprise of a new setting for the campaign – "while diehards are mourning a fantasy setting they've been invested in for a decade along with Mercer's shift out of the GM's chair, this likely will make Campaign IV a better entry point for newcomers, as they won't have to catch up on years of lore to jump in and watch".[11] Johnston similarly remarked that the campaign four changes "could be the shot in the arm the franchise needs to attract new fans daunted by the sheer quantity of episodes to catch up with, or it could mean failing to recapture the magic that happened on Twitch in 2015".[12]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Maas, Jennifer (August 2, 2025). "Critical Role Sets Brennan Lee Mulligan as Game Master for Next Core Campaign as He Signs New Three-Year Deal With Dropout (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved August 3, 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Critical Role Direct: Campaign 4 Announcement (YouTube). Critical Role. August 2, 2025. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Reboe, Dana (August 7, 2025). "Critical Role's Campaign 4 Is Coming. Will It Change the Show Forever?". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Teh, Cheryl (August 3, 2025). "Critical Role's Matt Mercer is giving up control of a core pillar of the crew's booming business". Business Insider. Retrieved August 3, 2025.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cruz, Christopher (August 2, 2025). "Critical Role Announces Their Next Campaign With New Game Master Brennan Lee Mulligan". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 3, 2025.
- ↑ Russell, Mollie (August 3, 2025). "Critical Role campaign 4 announced, with Brennan Lee Mulligan as DM". Wargamer. Retrieved August 3, 2025.
- ↑ Rusak, Rotem (August 2, 2025). "CRITICAL ROLE Announces Campaign 4 & NEW GM Brennan Lee Mulligan (Matt Mercer 'Takes Breather')". Nerdist. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
- ↑ Garrido, Alberto (August 4, 2025). "Critical Role enters a new era with announcement of Campaign 4". Gamereactor UK. Retrieved August 4, 2025.
- ↑ Friedman, Em (February 18, 2025). "'A New Age Begins' for Critical Role. Let's hope it's one for actual play and TTRPGs, too". Polygon. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
- ↑ Hoffer, Christian (August 19, 2025). "Critical Role Teases Campaign 4 World Via ARG". EN World. Retrieved August 20, 2025.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Shepard, Kenneth (August 4, 2025). "The Internet Reacts To Critical Role's Big Shakeup". Kotaku. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Johnston, Dais (August 5, 2025). "The World's Biggest D&D Campaign Is Changing Forever". Inverse. Retrieved August 12, 2025.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Hart, Aimee (August 4, 2025). "Is Critical Role still Critical Role without Matt Mercer as DM?". Polygon. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
