Critical Role has always had plenty of range in its episode content. There are hours-long boss fights, exploring wild and treacherous places, they spend way more time than expected reading in libraries, and even that one time in Campaign 3 that the Bells Hells tried to fool an air elemental into thinking they were shooting a porno. But there’s one activity in Dungeons & Dragons that, until Campaign 4, even Critical Role struggled to make fun: shopping.
There have been plenty of shopping episodes across multiple campaigns in the show’s history. Episode 14 of Campaign 1, ‘Shopping and Shipping,’ stands out because it is largely taken up by Vox Machina shopping for items to take on their next adventure. However, even that pales in comparison to episode 27, ‘The Path to Whitestone,’ where former Critical Role cast member Orion Acaba spends hours shopping for mirrors and bargaining for an army. That episode went down in Critical Role history as an infamous example of how shopping can turn even the most exciting adventure into a snoozefest, and Critical Role’s Travis Willingham is famously known for hating shopping.
Thankfully, shopping episodes in Critical Role have mellowed over the years and are now more engaging, rarely lasting more than an hour. But that’s nothing compared to the spin given in Campaign 4, run by Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan.
During episode 19 of the post-game talk show Cooldown, the Schemers table discussed how they felt they had done so much during the latest episode, yet so little at the same time. For most of the runtime, the players went around Dol-Makjar, looking for NPCs affiliated with their faction or job. It’s here that Taliesin Jaffe (who plays Archanade curator Bolaire Lathalia) pointed out that the table had, for all intents and purposes, “gone shopping.”
“Instead of stuff shopping, this is NPC shopping,” Jaffe said, referring to how each player character in the episode spends time reaching out to their allies to ask for help in setting the stage for their rebellious activities against the Sundered Houses. For example, Murray (Marisha Ray) suffered a blow to her pride when she apologized to the new dean of the Penteveral, the magical school where she works, hoping to use that relationship to establish a program that would allow her and Bolaire to select rebellious students for internships at the Archanade. Then there’s Azune, who leverages his position as arcane marshal of Dol-Makjar to try to inspire his platoon to trust him instead of the shady, powerful Sundered Houses that have been working to bring the city’s armed forces under their control.
Every Dungeons & Dragons player knows how important it is to prepare for adventure with a good arsenal and range of items; in some cases, it really can be a matter of life or death. But that doesn’t change how tedious it can become to spend hours shopping before you can dive back into the plot and combat. For the Schemers table, a group where role-playing, scheming, and interpersonal dynamics with both cast and NPCs are crucial, gameplay focuses less on spending coin on magical items and more on choosing which NPCs will best serve their goal of sowing discontent among the people of Dol-Makjar.
What’s fascinating about the Schemers table’s use of NPC shopping is that it follows the same structure as item shopping. Players had to make several charisma-based rolls, such as Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation, to effectively “haggle” with the people they interacted with. Some proved very successful in convincing others to trust them, like Murray, while others, like Azune, learned that they were on their own in their fight against the Sundered Houses due to poor rolls.
However, what makes NPC shopping much more interesting than item shopping is that each character’s interaction with an NPC helps shape the world of Aramán in a more tangible, impactful way than it would in a typical shopping episode. While players can purchase unique items that add flavor to combat and role-playing, the Schemers’ gathering of allies will ultimately impact not just them and the player characters, but the city of Dol-Makjar as a whole. Azune knowing he can’t rely on his captain or fellow soldiers in the Revolutionary Guard may mean that, when the time comes, the party’s overall strength and reputation in the city could be weaker than it would be if Azune had managed to convince them.
Moreover, this style of play really suits Mulligan’s strengths as a DM. Unsurprisingly, he relies “a lot on improvisation,” which allows him to take a “toy box” approach to his Dungeons & Dragons games and make up an NPC without having to rely on notes to make them fit into his world. This aligns well with the Schemers’ activities because, since their backgrounds are closely tied to the city of Dol-Makjar, Mulligan can use them to introduce NPCs with these background elements that resonate with the players, making interactions more engaging and meaningful.
This resonance also encourages players to interact with that NPC more and continue exploring relationships by shopping around for others. In that way, both DM and players surprise one another — Mulligan doesn’t know how they’ll react to his NPCs and the personalities he gives them, and the players don’t know whether these NPCs really will align with them in their goals. It’s not a small task to let four players freely wander around a city, asking the DM to come up with NPCs on the fly, but Mulligan is surely the right person for the job.
Ultimately, the Schemers’ use of NPC shopping leans into what will make their arc so unique. Unlike the Soldiers and Seekers, who have more straightforward goals, the Schemers’ play style is a far more sandbox-like experience that allows players to define their own objectives and relationships. It also makes watching these episodes feel way more exciting than a loathed shopping episode, because viewers have no idea which NPC Brennan will pull out of the box and how the players will interact with them.