Critical Role campaign 4 got a brand-new trailer on September 18, and it highlights the epic D&D game's fresh setup. We mean setup in two senses, as the trailer shows off the actual table everyone is playing at and the plot hooks that kick off the campaign.
Critical Role first announced campaign 4 in August, and it's drip-fed us many tantalizing details since then. First, it established that Brennan Lee Mulligan would lead us on a West-Marches-style campaign (with more players than ever before). The setting is Aramán, the system is D&D (not Daggerheart), and the players will be split by play style across three tables.
Aramán is a world where mortals rebelled against their gods and overthrew them. Previous teasers tell us that we'll drop into the setting 70 years after Aramán's people destroyed their own creators.
This new trailer adds a few extra details to that hook. "It's been 12 years since the end of the Falcon's Rebellion", Brennan Lee Mulligan tells us, "and the Sundered Houses are stronger than ever, the Revolutionary Council a shadow of its former glory." We have no idea what this means at this stage, but we know it must be relevant to the campaign's inciting incident.
The official show description says this is the planned execution of a remarkable figure called Thjazi Fang. It's he that unites the three groups of players (the Swords, the Seekers, and the Schemers), and they'll come together to find out the truth behind his current predicament.
"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", the official description says. "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?"
The debut episode will premiere on Beacon.TV, YouTube, and Twitch on Thursday, October 2. An on-demand version drops on the following Monday, while podcast episodes will be split into two parts: one airing the Monday after the stream and the other releasing the Tuesday after that.
For more Critical Role news, here's all you need to know about Vox Machina season 4. Or, if you'd like to play some D&D yourself, here's our guides to DnD races and DnD backgrounds. We can even help you fine-tune your build over in the Wargamer Discord.