“Art has always been important” – Aabria Iyengar
Tonight marks the return of Critical Role with Campaign 4, an epic tale representing the biggest story yet told by the Critical Role team. For the first time, Matt Mercer will be a player of the game with Dimension 20 and Exandria Unlimited GM Brennan Lee Mulligan in the chair. For the story that Mulligan is telling, the CR crew also brought in new players: Aabria Iyengar, Alexander Ward, Robbie Daymond, Whitney Moore, and Luis Carazo.
The story that we know so far is this:
At the center of this tale is Thjazi Fang, a hero to some and enemy to others, whose looming execution pulls together disparate figures from across his life. In a land still suffering from the fallout of dead gods and living in the shadow of a tumultuous rebellion, these disparate people will come together across the fractured world of Aramán and connect in ways they never imagined.
As hope and victory fade, a question hangs over Aramán. Without the Gods, what great deeds now fall to us? And who, or what, shall grab their crown from themselves?
We live in a time of ICE Raids and Palestinian Genocide, of people being arrested and imprisoned for speaking out. From musicians to actors to, yes, even tabletop RPGs, everyone wonders what do we create in times like this. How do we create? How do we weave stories of resistance when our neighbors might be detained by the secret police? For Critical Role, the story of Campaign 4 couldn’t help but be such a story.
“We had a lot of discussions going into this,” said Marisha Ray, Critical Role Creative Director who also is playing Murray Mag’Nesson. “When Brennan was presenting the world in the current state of where Aramán is, this kind of big turning point of society, there were a lot of consequences that civilization is still reckoning with. They’re in the middle of it. It’s not necessarily a long forgotten past. And of course, a lot of those themes are revolving around resistance. It’s one of those things that’s almost inevitable. At its best art is going to be influenced and reference life, we’ve never shied away from that at Critical Role. We’ve always wanted to put our money where our mouth is in lot of ways and show that you can enact these changes in our audience, in our fandom, through story. And I think that that’s something that’s been very precious to us that we try to hold onto that you can show by example, even if it isn’t this fantasy world.
“Sometimes things like this are easier to digest and wrap your brain around when not in the real world,” said Alexander Ward, who portrays Occtis Tachonis. “When you put them into a fantasy setting, it allows you to more accurately handle them in a way that makes it so that then you can enact that change in your real life.”
The power of art as a messenger for change has been a part of Critical Role’s work through both advocacy (the cast are all pro-labor members of SAG) and philanthropy (the Critical Role Foundations has raised funds for Red Nose Day, OutRight Action International, and more).
“I do think that art exists to help us process reality,” said Aabria Iyengar, who is joining the table as Thaisha Lloy, “but to sort of steal from Ursula K. Le Guin, it’s the the idea of building revolutionary imagination in people. Like, how do you imagine a better world? You imagine it, and you play in it, and you model it. And then people can imagine better for themselves. Art has always been important.”
The characters they’ve chosen all represent reactions to the world of Aramán. According to the cast, the reality of the setting naturally bleeds into who they will be playing at the table. And they are changed by the world as much as they enact change themselves.
“You’re hard pressed not to consider when you build a world that runs deep into these themes, to how these themes affect your character,” said Mercer. “What their current drives are, where they might go, and then build what feels not just exciting, but true as you explore those themes. I think it would be an extremely challenging experience to try and have it not affect how we built these characters and their relationships.”
“The build is awesome because you use that backstory, unlike scripted theater where you’re trying to reverse analyze a character’s motivations based upon their actions,” said Robbie Daymond, who is playing Kattigan Vale. “Instead, if you create a character that already has a set fundamental personality, and you do your best to inhabit them and then are presented an improvisational fictional moment…you surprise yourself. Because if you are acting as that character, it’s a really cool social experiment because there’d be many moments where you’re surprised by the people around you, even if you thought you had an understanding of how you would behave in that circumstance. I think that’s one of the unique parts of being a part of an improvisational experience that’s telling a larger story that you don’t even know what it is. Creation is so important.”
“That’s one of the reasons that tabletop RPGs are so good for helping people understand empathy, right?” said Laura Bailey, who portrays Thimble the fairy, “because you’re putting yourself in a situation that you might not always be in, or you might not experience personally. And then you can see what somebody else is feeling.”
According to Daymond, that creation and ability to explore outside of yourself requires some trust…even from the DM.
“I scared the bananas out of Brennan because I told him what kind of guy I wanted to play,” he said. “And he’s like, there’s so many pitfalls for that. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, just put me in the world. Let me play. And I think that we all experience that sometimes, you know, wondering how we think these characters might behave. And you don’t know until you’re in that space.”
Campaign 4 premiere airs TONIGHT, Thursday, October 2nd at 7pm Pacific on YouTube & Twitch (@CriticalRole). For Beacon Members: VOD and Podcast out Thursday, October 2nd at 7pm Pacific. Beacon members will also get exclusive access to all episodes of Critical Role Cooldown for Campaign 4, where the cameras keep rolling and you get a front row seat to the cast’s post-show reactions. Rebroadcasts Friday, October 3rd at 9am Pacific on Twitch. VOD out Monday, October 6th at 12pm Pacific on YouTube Podcast released in two parts on Thursday, October 9th and Part Tuesday, October 14th.
Visit Critical Role’s website or follow along on Instagram at @Critical_Role, TikTok at @CriticalRole, and Critical Role’s newsletter to stay up-to-date.
Images via Critical Role
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