Everything You Need to Know about Campaign 4 of Critical Role (so far)

Critical Role Season 4 has been a topic of quite a bit of speculation after the popular actual play show decided to close out the chronicle on its original world of Exandria and hand over DMing to Brennan Lee Mulligan.

Now, we know everything.

The World: Mulligan confirmed it is set in “Araman”. What’s Araman? Here’s his tease:

Mulligan’s playing his cards close to his chest, but it does echo similar themes that Mercer has explored in Exandria around the relationship of gods and mortals (an intentional decision, Mulligan confirmed)

System: Campaign 4 is a D&D campaign but will use 2024 rules, a decision that really should not surprise folks, considering the addition of Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford to the Darrington Press team. The pair are already going to be involved in creating new subclasses to fit Araman as a setting.

BUT what we will see is the campaign shifting to a West Marches style. This is a campaign where multiple tables will play in a singular world, and is good for larger amounts of players, and can allow folks to jump in and out. Or at least that’s how Mulligan describes it. I’m sure people will feel inclined to be pedantic about the term from now on, and West March discourse will see a surge.

This was chosen, Mulligan claims, in part to allow Matt and the other CR founders to keep working on projects outside of the show since CR has so many media properties to maintain now, from Darrington Press to the two Amazon TV shows to Beacon. It also lets Matt take a break and just be a player.

WORRY NOT, my dear Daggerheart fans. Mercer confirmed that we will see Age of Umbra season 2 in the future as well as future campaigns featuring other frames from the setting. Darrington Press is already bringing several creators, AP performers, and influencers onto their channel to play around with established campaign frames.

Players: The entire CR cast is returning, but we will also see five new additions.

• Luis Carazo, best known for playing Zerxus Ilerez in ExU Calamity and that same character in Legends of Vox Machina. He’s appeared on a ton of traditional TV shows.

• Robbie Daymond is returning after his run as Dorian in Campaign 3. He’s best known for his VC work in games like Spiderman, Devil May Cry. He’s also the mind behind Date Everything and co-owner of Sassy Chap Games

• Aabria Iyengar, long-time guest and DM for Critical Role, will also be returning. Iyengar is best known for her appearances on Critical Role and Dimension 20 as well as a TON of other projects.

• Whitney Moore, who fans probably know best for her role in the Critical Role Avowed one-shot, will also be a regular attendee. She’s best known as an emcee and host talking about fan content back at Geek and Sundry

• Alexander Ward, a long-time actor and regular performer on shows like LA By Night.

Most of these faces are pretty familiar to long-time CR fans, so adding them as full-time cast makes a ton of sense.

Broadcast Plans: The campaign will divide the tables into three distinct styles of play, according to Mulligan. Each table will fit a particular set of storytelling preferences.

• Soldiers: Those interested in conflict/combat-driven storytelling and who prefer scenarios where combat is the best answer

• Seekers: Those more interested in lore, cosmology and the magic of Mulligan’s world

• Schemers: The players who most enjoy intrigue, espionage and cloak-and-dagger style.

We don’t know who will play at each table yet, as that has not been confirmed.

The first four episodes (which will begin their premiere on Oct. 2, 2025) will serve as an “overture” to set the stage and introduce the characters before they expand into the three separate tables.

For those who do want to do a deep dive on this, there will be a Fireside Chat featuring Mulligan and Mercer covering all the details on Aug. 21 for everyone to watch. If anything is interesting or newsworthy, expect to see it in Saturday’s issue.

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CR’s Augmented Reality Game

Araman was initially previewed through a word jumble posted by Critical Role to their newsletter that contained random letters, which led fans directly to the Beacon streaming service page and a password-protected page. Players began by posting random lines of prose and interpretations to see if they could figure out the password. But a look at Brennan Lee Mulligan’s Pinterest page (OF ALL PLACES TO LOOK) revealed the word “ARAMAN”, which was confirmed to be the password to a 20-second clip featuring Mulligan stating the following.

The choice to use an ARG to tease the upcoming campaign is interesting since it reflects the level of hype Critical Role intends to build for its forthcoming campaign. It’s going to be an EVENT in the sense of something with cultural weight, akin to the premiere of your favorite TV show season. It’s the kind of thing I got really into in between the releases of GRAVITY FALLS and LOST episodes when I was a kid, and it consumed my brain.

Will we see additional teases in the coming days, or is this a one-off? Maybe.

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].