A bombshell announcement from Critical Role has sent ripples across the internet. Announced on July 2, for the first time ever in Critical Role’s history, there will be a new Dungeon Master leading a core campaign. Instead of co-creator Matthew Mercer, Campaign 4 will have a new host entirely: Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dropout’s Dimension 20 Dungeon Master. Mulligan will step into Mercer’s role when the fourth campaign launches in October, while the latter will step in as a player for the first time.
There are still plenty of details to be revealed. Will the entire original cast return as players alongside Mercer (who has teased both “new and old” faces will join him)? Will they play Dungeons & Dragons or Critical Role’s own fresh new game, Daggerheart. It was still a massive announcement, met with mostly positivity, but there were also fans who seemed hesitant about the change. After all, is Critical Role still Critical Role if Matthew Mercer isn’t leading the charge?
To say that Critical Role pushed D&D actual play into the mainstream would be an understatement. When the first campaign launched in 2015, led by Mercer as the DM and with talented voice actors as players such as Laura Bailey and Ashley Johnson, it was met with almost immediate success.
The troupe reacts to Riegel’s decision to pull the pin, as it were.
What began as a D&D actual-play show has since spawned a multimedia corporation beast. Today, Critical Role has three campaigns (each having 100+ episodes with an average length of 3-4 hours each) under its belt, a variety of live shows from London to Chicago, and a successful animated show on Amazon Prime, The Legend of Vox Machina, with The Mighty Nein spin-off coming in November. It even has its own app, Beacon, that allows fans instant access to streamed content and VODs. Plus, a game (Daggerheart) that aims to challenge D&D for dominance in the world of tabletop role-playing games.
Yet its humble beginnings, when it really did just seem like a group of friends playing D&D together and kindly inviting the rest of us to sit down and watch, still color the perception of the company. In many ways, Critical Role is the blueprint, the ideal, of what Dungeons & Dragons is all about: playing games with your friends by crafting stories and characters that you’ll cherish forever. No matter who you are, if you’re a fan of Critical Role, you’ll have tried to channel your inner Mercer at least once – whether that means saying “how do you want to do this?” to a player after killing an enemy, or simply putting your whole being into creating a world as beautiful and deep as Exandria. Wanting to channel Mercer is so common it even has its own name: the Mercer effect.
To be clear, Mercer himself has spoken out about the unfortunate effect and that everyone should bring their own creativity when it comes to playing Dungeons & Dragons. There are more ways to play D&D than “the Critical Role way,” and everyone should find what they are most comfortable with.
It isn’t just Mercer, however, that makes up the heart of Critical Role. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Sam Riegel quipped that the main cast are much like a family. “[We’re] a family that does business together and kills people.” He is, of course, referring to the multiple baddies that their tabletop counterparts slay throughout the lengthy campaigns.
Joke it may be, the colorful cast has been slaying monsters together for up to 10 years now. With so much time together, it’s no wonder that some fans are hesitant at the change of dynamics, with Mercer becoming a player this time around and Campaign 4 not taking part in Exandria, but a different world entirely. After all, it feels close to the “passing on the torch” that Mercer has spoken about before.
“Outside of the creative legacy and storytelling legacies, we’ve worked so hard to build the foundation of this company that we want to be the rest of our lives in a way that will shepherd everything we want to create. And in time shepherd to the next generation of storytellers.” Mercer told Rolling Stone. “I hope to one day pass the torch to a bunch of incredible people with new ideas and new perspectives and give them the space to tell their stories. And we can be the distant creative grandparents to them and be proud from the shadows.”
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. Even when Critical Role had huge guests, the main core group still remained a focal selling point for viewers. The inside jokes and the casual intimacy that are typical of friend groups are an irresistible tug for viewers because it provides relatability in a way that doesn’t feel manufactured.
Which is why the passing of the torch to Mulligan this time around will undoubtedly shake some long-time viewers – something which Mercer himself acknowledges. More and more, it is becoming clear that this isn’t just an actual-play web series between friends anymore, but a business. For long-time fans, the distinction may be an uncomfortable one. But it doesn’t make it any less true. And, as far as I’m concerned, it was always a matter of when rather than if. As Critical Role continues to expand and grow through its animated TV series and other multimedia like video games — and has been vocal about passing the torch to a new generation — it would be naive to believe that it would remain the same format, same cast, same flavor forever. The reveal of Daggerheart, Critical Role’s very own TTRPG, is its own indicator that the multimedia corporation is looking to the future, to change.
Critical Role isn’t just Matthew Mercer. It isn’t just Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, or Liam O’Brien. Their influence and input are undeniable, and for some fans, it’s completely irreplaceable. But 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.
