The cast of Critical Role has often been pushed to the limit in Campaign 4. There have been close scrapes, as well as the introduction of brutal death and dying house rules. In Campaign 4’s four-episode overture, there was even a character death so shocking that it continues to play a major part in the campaign’s unfolding narrative. With all this in mind, we can’t help but wonder if it’s only a matter of time before the next Critical Role character dies.
Death is far from a new concept when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons actual play, particularly for Critical Role. In Campaign 1, almost the entire party of Vox Machina has bitten the dust once. In Campaign 2, the eventual loss of Mollymauk Tealeaf shook the Mighty Nein’s foundations to the point audiences wondered if they would ever recover. Furthermore, in Campaign 3, Laudna endured another death at the hands of the villainous Otohan.
Notably, Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan has stated multiple times that Campaign 4’s enemies and encounters do not scale with its players. With everyone at level 4 right now, there are still many creatures and people within the world of Aramán who could easily make a pincushion out of our respective heroes.
Speaking to Critical Role cast members and co-founders Liam O’Brien and Taliesin Jaffe, Polygon asked whether the two of them had backup characters ready — just in case their characters Halandil Fang (O’Brien) and Bolaire Lathalia (Jaffe) met a gnarly end.
“I have a backup character that I don’t want to get to, but I have one, and I love the idea, and I pitched it to Brennan, and he loved it too, which makes me nervous,” O’Brien shared with Polygon via Zoom call. However, O’Brien stressed that he was not ready for his orc bard to shuffle off into purgatory just yet. “I’m hoping to spend some time in the theater before departing this mortal coil.”
Jaffe shared that he had also prepared a backup character. “I’ve got a backup, just in case, but I’m nowhere near finished. I’m really finding this character fun, and I have not delved the depths yet, so I’m really looking forward to getting deeper into what I’ve got before moving on.”
Both O’Brien and Jaffe are currently seated at the Schemers table, best known for a great deal of skullduggery and underhanded maneuvering against the oppressive Sundered Houses of Dol-Makjar. While the Soldiers and Seekers tables have been hard at work in bloody combat, the Schemers must use the political landscape to their advantage instead. The result is tension-filled episodes from start to finish, where saying the wrong thing could be deadly.
For now, O’Brien and Jaffe are thriving with their characters. But with the stakes so high in Aramán, who knows whether their characters — or anyone else’s — will make it right to the very end of Campaign 4?