As any good Dungeon Master will tell you, when creating a new campaign, it’s paramount to have a deep well of inspiration. The inspiration could come from literally anything: the concept behind a TV show, or even a conversation you heard on the bus. It doesn’t matter where it’s from, as long as you have it. For Brennan Lee Mulligan, award-winning storyteller and the Dungeon Master of Campaign 4 for Critical Role, the inspiration comes from an unlikely source.
Mulligan has shaped some of the most intriguing worlds in Dungeons & Dragons history — and not all of them are set in your standard high-fantasy settings. Just look at the brilliant Dimension 20 Fantasy High series. The world of Aramán is no exception, with viewers already witnessing perilous environments like Tannesar during the Seekers arc, as well as seedy plots that turned mobsters into lords during the Soldiers arc.
Now we join the Schemers in the fourth arc of the campaign. Unlike the other tables, who left the city to explore and complete their own quests, the Schemers table’s adventures are less linear and adopt a more sandbox play-style, with the majority of the action revolving around the ongoing political machinations brewing under the surface in the city of Dol-Makjar.
As it turns out, Mulligan’s inspiration for this arc of Campaign 4 comes from his own time running a West Marches campaign.
“A game in a city is what I spent all of my college years doing,” Mulligan revealed on episode 19 of Cooldown, a talk show where the cast of Critical Role speaks about what happened during the most recent episode. “You think of adventure, and you think ‘I go to a place and there’s adventure waiting there.’”
The Schemers table has already proven itself distinct from the others, largely because the characters have responsibilities that require them to remain within the city. In that way, the Schemers are redefining what it is to be adventurers by highlighting that, unlike typical fantasy examples like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (both of which feature protagonists who leave their homes to go out on an adventure), there’s plenty of excitement to be found within city and town walls.
A clear example that Mulligan’s inspiration for city-confined storytelling is brilliant comes from Dungeons & Dragons itself. The IP has plenty of instances where a large bulk of the plot is set within a city, such as Larian Studios’ award-winning video game, Baldur’s Gate 3. By the time you get to Act 3, the main focus is the city itself and the communities that live there. One moment, you’re talking to a dijnn circus performer who can turn you into a wheel of cheese, and the next you’re crawling through the muck of the city’s sewers in search of a death cult. Did we mention you can even fight a dragon underneath the city itself? Who’s to say there aren’t exciting encounters to be found within the city limits?
Even outside the realm of video games, Wizards of the Coast has adventures where the heart of the adventure isn’t what you fight, but what you protect. In The Ghosts of Saltmarsh, a 5th Edition adventure book, most of the adventures are centered on the coastal town of Saltmarsh. While there are opportunities to sail away on a naval adventure, there are also plenty of reasons to stay behind: namely, to ensure the safety of the people who, depending on how you play it, you can grow closer to throughout your time in the town.
Every character has their own motivation to leave their old life behind, but there can be something inspiring about giving characters a reason to stay. With Mulligan having tackled telling a tale within the constraints of the city of Dol-Makjar before in his college days, we’re excited about how the Schemers arc — and their efforts to undermine the oppressive institutions woven into the city’s structure through relationships among themselves and with NPCs — will play out.