In their first own Direct on YouTube, Critical Role announced their upcoming next campaign alongside some other innovations. With Campaign 4, quite a few things will change.
Who will take Matthew Mercer’s place? The popular Game Master (Dungeon Master) Matthew Mercer will take a break from his role as DM after 10 years with Critical Role. Brennan Lee Mulligan, who has many years of experience as a DM, for example with the group Dimension 20 (on YouTube), will take his place, and he has also made a name for himself as a comedian outside the role-playing world.
He will step into the role of Game Master for the entire campaign duration and provide a completely new experience. However, you will not have to miss Matthew Mercer entirely, as he will join the cast of the campaign as a player. The new campaign will launch on October 02, 2025, and will also bring some other innovations.
You can watch the entire Direct on YouTube.
Here Matthew Mercer introduces you to his own role-playing system Daggerheart:
Campaign 4 will also be attractive for newcomers
What else has been announced about Campaign 4? Campaign 4 will, like all previous campaigns, deliver its own self-contained story, which can also be enjoyed as a single long story and does not require any prior knowledge of the other stories. Unlike before, however, the campaign under Brennan Lee Mulligan will not take place in the world of Exandria created by Critical Role.
Instead, a completely new world is supposed to be built with him as DM, making Campaign 4 particularly exciting for newcomers. As Mulligan himself reveals in an interview with Variety, more information about the exact cast, the world, and the game system will only be announced in the coming months.
Whether Campaign 4 will be played with the rules of Dungeons & Dragons or possibly with Critical Role’s own system, Daggerheart, remains to be seen. A completely different system has also not been ruled out so far. You will also have to wait and see whether, besides Matthew Mercer, your favorite players will also be there this time or if new faces will join in.
The announcement of Mulligan’s takeover as DM and Matthew Mercer’s transition to the role of player was well received by the audience of the Direct and generated a lot of excitement. Campaign 4 could also offer a good entry point for newcomers into the realms of Critical Role. A Reddit user had watched some games from Mulligan’s group on YouTube and found some decisions to be strange: User watches a game of Dungeons & Dragons for the first time and asks if they always go so strangely – Community enlightens him
