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Subscribe from just £3 Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£9.99Subscribe now PS5 State of Play Ghost of Yotei Battlefield 6 New Games for 2025 Don't miss these Board Games The best board games 2025, with over 25 recommendations tested, reviewed, and rated by experts Board Games Fate of the Fellowship is the most anticipated board game of the year, and it's a thing of absolute genius Tabletop Gaming Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork is rip-roaring chaos I suspect Sir Pratchett would have approved of Tabletop Gaming The new D&D Stranger Things crossover is all about continuing "Eddie's legacy" with max '80s "faux-stalgia" Tabletop Gaming This tabletop RPG is shaping up to be a true D&D rival, and I can't wait to see where it goes next Tabletop Gaming The new D&D Starter Set solves problems I didn't even know I had, and overcomes some of the game's most daunting systems Tabletop Gaming I didn't expect to like the latest D&D book, but after an utterly stupid adventure I'm all in on Dragon Delves Tabletop Gaming Will romantasy be the next great crossover for Dungeons & Dragons? Fourth Wing could be the perfect D&D setting, if you ask me Tabletop Gaming A Diablo tabletop RPG aims to fix a D&D problem with "no inexperienced and squishy 1st level" characters Animated Shows Following the success of Legend of Vox Machina, Critical Role's new animated Prime Video series gets first look and 2025 release date Board Games This D&D board game could be the magic item needed to refresh your game nights, but it won't be a critical hit for everyone Board Games I've played board games like Frosthaven for decades, but the digital version convinced me that it's a better introduction to the epic RPG Tabletop Gaming MTG Spider-Man designers aren't worried about diluting the brand, because "the beauty of Magic is play with what you enjoy, do what you want" Action RPGs As The Outer Worlds 2 embraces "crunchy" role-playing, its directors say people are "more open" to deeper RPGs after Baldur's Gate 3: "It's good to bring that stuff to the forefront again" Tabletop Gaming This new wargame is a revelation because it mixes some surprising games together, but there's still room to improve Tabletop Gaming Dungeons and Dragons Critical Role Campaign 4 is told like Game of Thrones with multiple storylines, and Matt Mercer says it tackles fantasy narratives in a "much more realistic way" James Grebey 26 September 2025 The cast of Critical Role explain the benefits of West March and homebrew for Campaign 4 When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Critical Role) One of the gospels of playing Dungeons & Dragons is to never split the party. And yet, Critical Role is doing exactly that for its upcoming fourth campaign - but for a good reason. In a big change from the three previous campaigns that the titans of actual play ran, Campaign 4 will have Brennan Lee Mulligan replace Matthew Mercer as the Dungeon Master, the story is set in a brand new fantasy world of Mulligan's creation, five new players are joining the cast, and the game will be what's known as a "West March" campaign. When the campaign begins on October 2, the 13 players will split into three different groups all on their own quests (with the potential for crossover) as they traverse across the mythical land of Aramán. "We're all fans of that kind of storytelling, whether we've watched Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, or other kinds of epic fantasy series," Critical Role's Sam Riegel tells GamesRadar+ during an interview with the cast. "It's so fun to be able to check in on characters in different phases of their journey and wonder how and when those journeys will intersect and how their quests will become one quest." A new adventure (Image credit: Rollin Bishop) Although Campaign 4 still uses D&D, Critical Role recently released a tabletop RPG system of its own - Daggerheart. The core set is currently available for $59.99 at Amazon, or direct from Darrington Press. Typically, one of the big benefits of a West March-style campaign for home games of D&D is that it boasts modular, quest-based gameplay which makes it easy for players to slot in or out of a session due to scheduling concerns. As professionals, scheduling woes (the bane of any normal D&D group, or anyone playing the best tabletop RPGs) are not an issue for Critical Role. Instead, following the soldiers, schemers, and seekers will let the players explore a world on several levels like never before. You may like The new D&D Stranger Things crossover is all about continuing "Eddie's legacy" with max '80s "faux-stalgia" This tabletop RPG is shaping up to be a true D&D rival, and I can't wait to see where it goes next The new D&D Starter Set solves problems I didn't even know I had, and overcomes some of the game's most daunting systems "There is something very fun about West Marches often being used to help people flow in and out of campaigns. It's a logistical thing, often," Aabria Iyengar, one of the new additions who has previously DMed Critical Role spin-off series, explains. "But you get to live in and tell a story in a world that's so big, you get the opportunity for there to be different things that different groups care about. It's a really fun complexity to add to this kind of storytelling." Mercer, playing in a main campaign rather than DMing for the first time, adds that one of the challenges of running a game is figuring out how to continue making it so that "all of the important things are only the responsibility of the people at this table," a plight that Iyengar sympathized with. "West March actually allows for a much more natural fracturing and stakes between multiple different perspectives and groups," Mercer says. "In an interesting way, it actually makes for a much more realistic way that a lot of these stories would be tackled in a fantasy world like this." Critical Role IV | Official Trailer - YouTube The first four episodes of the new campaign will introduce everybody, Marisha Ray says, adding that "the stakes are high from minute one. This is not your average adventuring party meeting in a tavern." Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. This quartet of "overture episodes," as the cast is calling them, will give audiences an idea of what everybody's motivations are before they split off. After that, episodes will follow one group for a little bit before switching to another group as supposed to rapidly jumping back and forth. It's possible that characters might switch from one group to another, mixing up the parties, at some point during the campaign, but the cast says nothing is planned. Ensuring that the expanded cast and wider format is coherent and easy to follow was an early concern, according to Ray, and one they've taken steps to assuage—successfully, they think. "After that first episode, we were like 'Oh, this is working wonderfully,'" Mercer says. There's been another big change for Campaign Four, behind-the-scenes. In June, Critical Role announced that it had hired Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins to work for their publishing arm, Darrington Press. Crawford and Perkins both came from Wizards of the Coast, where they were lead game and rules designers for Dungeons & Dragons. This gives Critical Role a whole new resource when it comes to homebrewing—creation of classes, monsters, items, or other content that's original to the table rather than pulled from an official source. You may like The new D&D Stranger Things crossover is all about continuing "Eddie's legacy" with max '80s "faux-stalgia" This tabletop RPG is shaping up to be a true D&D rival, and I can't wait to see where it goes next The new D&D Starter Set solves problems I didn't even know I had, and overcomes some of the game's most daunting systems Sharing worlds and words (Image credit: Future) Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan have a lot of interesting things to say about the wonderful world of tabletop RPGs, and we caught up with them earlier this year about sharing worlds and what they want next for Exandria Unlimited. You can catch the entire interview here. "If we come up with an idea, we can take it to Jeremy and Chris and say 'Is this possible? Can we make this balanced and make it work?' And they either say yes or no," Laura Bailey explains, and new cast member Alexander Ward says that the pair helped refine his first-ever homebrew for his character. "It's hard to call it homebrew when the people who are helping us shore it up are Jeremy and Chris," Mercer jokes. With a new campaign style, bigger cast, better homebrew, and a new setting, there's plenty for everybody—players included—to look forward to exploring in Campaign 4. Mercer said he had some "coffee dates" with Mulligan near the end of Campaign 3 to talk cosmology and to make sure that the events of Campaign 3's finale and Mulligan's new campaign wouldn't cross over the same beats or retread the same territory, but otherwise he takes no credit for Aramán and is excited to learn about it as he plays. As far as the players know, there's no connection to Exandria or Campaigns 1 through 3—"other than the Orc naming convention that involves adding a fussy little 'J' in," Iyengar quips. (The elves of Aramán, like the elves of Exandria, tend to have apostrophes in their names, too.) One thing that won't change? The relationship that Critters—the fans—have with the cast and characters. "I think the parasocial relationships are still gonna be there," Ray says. "We've had the character art out there for, what? A week? And there's already shipping happening. It's so fun." More Critical Role The Mighty Nein Origins: $49.99 $23.63 at Amazon Smiley Day! A Good Advice Book: $14.87 at Amazon Want more tabletop recommendations? Check out the best board games. James Grebey Contributor James is an entertainment writer and editor with more than a decade of journalism experience. He has edited for Vulture, Inverse, and SYFY WIRE, and he’s written for TIME, Polygon, SPIN, Fatherly, GQ, and more. He is based in Los Angeles. He is really good at that one level of Mario Kart: Double Dash where you go down a volcano. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. The new D&D Stranger Things crossover is all about continuing "Eddie's legacy" with max '80s "faux-stalgia" This tabletop RPG is shaping up to be a true D&D rival, and I can't wait to see where it goes next The new D&D Starter Set solves problems I didn't even know I had, and overcomes some of the game's most daunting systems I didn't expect to like the latest D&D book, but after an utterly stupid adventure I'm all in on Dragon Delves Will romantasy be the next great crossover for Dungeons & Dragons? 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Wednesday season 2 part 1 review: "Complex and exciting but weighed down by too many subplots" GamesRadar+ is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. Contact Future's experts Terms and conditions Privacy policy Cookies policy Advertise with us Review guidelines Write for us Accessibility Statement Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. Please login or signup to comment Please wait...
