Posted in: Critical Role, Dungeons & Dragons, Games, Interview, Tabletop | Tagged: Aabria Iyengar, Alexander Ward, critical role, laura bailey, Marisha Ray, Matthew Mercer, Robbie Daymond, Sam Riegel

Interview: Critical Role Cast Roundtable Discusses Campaign IV

We got a chance to chat with several members of Critical Role about Campaign IV in a special roundtable interview before tonight's premiere

After months of waiting to see what the future of Critical Role holds, tonight, Campaign IV kicks off with a new GM and a new format, but the same goal of nerdy-ass voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons. Ahead of tonight's first episode premiere, we got a chance to chat with several members of the cast in a short roundtable. This included Laura Bailey, Robbie Daymond, Aabria Iyengar, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Alexander Ward, as they gave their thoughts and jokes about what we're all going to experience tonight on Twitch, YouTube, and Beacon starting at 7pm PT.

BC: What are your guys' thoughts on the West Marches version of this? This is the first time I think any actual play has tried something this bold on this grand a scale.

Sam: We are Trailblazers.

Alexander: Trendsetters!

Laura: I think all of us were equally nervous about it going into it, because it did seem like such a massive undertaking. How can this work with this many players? After we played our first game together, it was magic! Everybody was just like, "Oh my gosh, this is amazing, it's so fun!" Mow I'm just I'm beyond stoked.

Marisha: I do have a little anecdote that after that first episode, as Laura said, it's definitely, we had our fingers and toes crossed that this was gonna turn out well. And we wrapped the first episode, and Brennan [Lee Mulligan] came up to me and was like, "…I think we might be crazy people. We decided to do this, but it's working!" And I was like, "Yeah, it is working! And also, yes, we are crazy people!"

Alexander: It was very intense, I've never played a game like that, and what we're doing is just so different than anything I've ever done as a tabletop game that it's so much fun, it's so cool, I'm so excited.

Aabria: This just feels different than other campaigns. There is a summer camp to it, and there's an excitement to see how everyone shakes out and where they'll end up landing as we take the stories into more concentrated detours. But God, the opening, just running in and out, trying desperately not to get picked up on the mics as we like hoot and holler and enjoy our friends telling stories. That felt very special and was very different, and I will be holding onto that for a very long time.

Matthew:  I've played West Marches games in the past, so I had a perspective on it from experience that left me also wondering if it would work. If only because usually, West Marches as a format is used to facilitate rough schedules; that was a lot of its creation. So, intentionally using it as a medium to tell a grander story and to bring friends to the table, it solves a lot of the wants that we wanted to achieve as we continued to play. So it's just a lot about hoping that it would work. But we talked a lot about it, we've been in development on this for quite some time, and a lot of these concerns were meticulously discussed between Marisha, the production team, Brennan, and all the players here as well. We're all just very excited that it worked!

Robbie: And it's really good for people with rough schedules, too. Still works that way. It's good.

Alexander: Its intended purpose is still intact.

Obviously, you're not going to spoil anything, but what are your personal thoughts on each of your characters that you've created for this campaign?

Alexander: I love them so much.

Aabria: Would!

Laura They're all hot!

Sam: That's for sure, in their own way.

Aabria: Sam, why are you like sad about that? You're like, "Yeah… yeah… a lot."

Sam: Don't ask me about my fetishes in front of other people. (Group laughs!)

Aabria: To see it- Wick looks like if a tube of toothpaste which wished to be a real hot boy and the hottest witch.

Matt: Robbie just made that game! (Group laughs!)

Sam: I love how the characters, for a lot of us, were expected but unexpected. They fall into the same category that I thought that many of them would fall in, knowing our own personalities. But the execution is so different and unusual for a lot of us. It's so great to have this larger group where the chemistry and energy is so different now. Ten years after we've started streaming to be surprised at what people chose for their characters and the moves that they're making with their characters. It's so exciting to still be shocked by friends you've been playing with for so long, especially Matt.

Marisha: Yeah, I feel what we started ten years ago- we've been three campaigns in, and numerous amounts of one-shots and designed stories, in a way, it kind of feels like with this campaign, a lot of us are going back to our roots. We're coming home, baby. I know we're speaking very vaguely, Gavin, but I swear it'll make sense when you see it, and this all comes out.

What were your impressions of the world that Brennan has created? Obviously, you're going into a brand new area with an entirely different thing that you've been doing for the past decade. So what were your thoughts when you first encountered what he had waiting for you?

Matthew: From my perspective, because I spoke with him early on, we were just kind of spitballing larger cosmology with world-building philosophy stuff, and then the rest was all him on his own. It's been delightful, from my perspective, to see his form of large-scale world-building and how unique it is compared to Exandria and the ways that we've been playing for so long, too. But still fits kind of in that tapestry that everyone on this call and beyond have been building in their own individual stories and places for so long. It's really refreshing and I'm really proud. It's been really wonderful to pass that torch to him in a meaningful way, and everyone here support him in what he's been wanting to do with this, and then all of us step to that table and then be wowed and taken in and immediately kind of fall in love with the beautiful chaos that he's developed.

Sam: I've only ever seen him GM for us in smaller mini-series-type of chunks, so it's exciting to see Brennan not have a time limit. He can tell as much story as he wants, and I think it frees him up to do all kinds of wild, wild things.

Alexander: Yeah, as someone who's only played with him in those short four-episode arcs, I'm so excited for all the weird stuff he has planned.

Matthew: Watching him build all his long-form stuff in his Worlds Beyond Number campaign that he was running for a long time, and this is an extension of him feeling free, free to just run.

Sam: Run naked through a field.

Aabria: I'll chime in as someone who has spent time with him inside long-form worlds. There's nothing I'm more excited about than the fact that everyone gets to learn my favorite thing about him, which is that the well doesn't run dry. So he comes out swinging at a pace that feels untenable, and every time he reaches for something new, there's something new there. So it really feels breathless and breakneck in the best possible way, because he will jam so much story into every moment. It's already so exciting, I'm already deeply in love with Aramon in the same way that I love Exandria, and the same way I love Lamora. I'm so excited for people who haven't seen him and his long-form tops yet, because they're gonna learn. It's just crazy already.

Any personal goals each of you has for this particular season that you want to do, either as players or storytellers or for the campaign overall?

Matt: To die messily.

Aabria: Seconded!

Alexander: Yeah, I could agree with that.

Marisha: I don't want to die.

Aabria: To kiss Marisha!

Marisha: Yes, let's go, yeah!

Sam: My goal is to watch Aabria kiss Marish. (Group laughs!)

Marisha: I mean, I will say going off of that, because I've had three for three on very healthy long-term steady relationships… I just kind of want to slut it up a little. Just a little, you know?

Laura: With thirteen players!!! You gotta!

Aabria: The options are endless!

Matthew: A smorgasbord!

Marisha: I think it's good, we can use some representation for people who just want to be whores.

Aabria: Hoe rep is so important!

Alexander: I thought you said horse. I was like, we're putting centaurs in the game!

Sam: Sam already did it.

Laura:  I'm just excited. I'm so excited to explore the world as much as possible with everything that Brennan's laid out. In the games that we've already played with him in this campaign, it feels so supported. His world is so expansive, but in the moments that you veer off and you do something strange and you think, "Is this a weird choice?" He immediately latches onto it, and as a fairy, he puts his little hands underneath you, and you feel like you did the right thing. It's just so beautiful to get to play that way. Obviously, we've been playing like that for years with Matt, but to have a new experience with it is so exciting in a brand new world to wreak havoc in.

Robbie: Yeah, I've been writing Kattigan for about a year and a half, and I got about 50 pages of final draft backstory, yet strangely no specific character goals. (Aabria looks shocked)

Laura: And all this shipping talk, I created a teeny character. So maybe my goal here is… angst. I love angst, so maybe that's where I'm coming from in this one, I'm not sure.

Aabria: I'm excited to watch a thousand TikToks that begin with "She was a fairy."

Alexander: I'm very excited to play. I've been friends with a lot of the cast for a long time, some more than others, but I've played with very few of them in a game setting. So, I'm so excited to play with my friends for the first time.

Any final thoughts before the premiere?

Alexander: Just screaming.

Matthew: Yeah, after 12, almost 13 years of dealing with these seven assholes, I'm excited to pay it forward to Brennan and make his life a living hell as a player.

Marisha: Yeah, I'll say I feel like obviously there is a lot that is different with Campaign IV. We've mixed up a lot! But at the heart of it, I think everyone can expect it to still feel the same. The identity of Critical Role is still there at its core, even though the hard candy shell around it is a brand-new flavor.

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