Campaign 4 of Critical Role has been exemplary in multiple ways. Brennan Lee Mulligan, taking over from Critical Role’s previous Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer, has shaken the formula up by adding new homebrew rules, resurrecting older ones, revamping mechanics like death, and introducing Critters to a brand-new world in the process. Mulligan’s latest trick, however, is to flip Dungeons & Dragons’ most basic rule on its head: rolling dice.
Ed. note. This article contains minor spoilers for Critical Role Campaign 4 episode 28, “Chasing Shadows.”
Now that the Soldiers, Seekers, and Schemers tables have converged once more in the city of Dol-Makjar, the 13-player cast has had plenty of questions waiting for an answer — either from each other or the shadowy figures that make up the powerful, magical Sundered Houses that have their taloned grip around Aramán.
It’s been proven in previous episodes of Campaign 4 that saying the wrong thing, or being somewhere at the wrong time, may just cost the players their lives. Despite that, Wicander Halovar (Sam Riegel) decided to go back to his family house, the Villa Aurora, and the seat of power for the religious organization of the Candescent Creed, despite not knowing whether his family was out to kill him or not.
Wicander needed to explain his sudden disappearance to his grandmother, Photarch Yanessa Halovar, who has proven several times how ruthless she can be, as in her recent plan to get rid of King Augustus from Timmony. But would she stoop so low as to kill a member of her own family?
We won’t spoil the contents of the conversation between Wicander, Tyranny (Whitney Moore), and Photarch Yanessa. However, Riegel’s role-playing performance staggered Mulligan so much that the Dungeon Master abstained from asking Riegel or Moore to roll their dice for a Persuasion or Deception check.
Any Dungeons & Dragons player knows that dice rolling makes up a good portion of the role-playing tabletop game. DMs will describe a scenario, the players will react to it, and then the DM will ask for a roll depending on the ability they feel best correlates with what the player is doing. This isn’t just about combat or physical feats either: social interactions are also usually resolved with a roll, using abilities like Persuasion, Performance, or Deception. The rules try to balance dice rolls with the role-playing performances, stating that a successful roll can change the attitude of an NPC, from “hostile” to “indifferent,” for example.
The randomization of Dungeons & Dragons is one of the key aspects of the tabletop RPG. Being dependent on rolling well to determine whether you successfully land that all-important last hit on a boss, or whether your character lives or dies, can take the game to new heights.
As a DM, Mulligan is more aware than most about how important dice rolls are for the game. The uniqueness of telling a story through the Dungeons & Dragons medium is that the DM and players are giving up some of their agency to Lady Luck. Dice rolls can shift things in an unfamiliar direction or force the participants to take decisions on the fly, thus reinforcing the collaborative storytelling aspect of the game. In Campaign 4, Mulligan has often asked players to roll for luck. This is where he’ll select a die type (d4, d6, d12, etc.) and then assign the outcome based on the roll result. While there is always a level of preparation and planning in Dungeons & Dragons, luck also adds randomness and improvisation to the game, keeping it fresh for both the DM and the players.
However, as Critical Role’s latest episode proves, there are also moments where, to use Mulligan’s own words in the Cooldown show, “to ask for a roll in that scene would have felt [so] wrong.”
As it so happens, one of those moments was Riegel’s incredible monologue to Yanessa. The impassioned speech rocked Mulligan completely, and by the end of it, he made sure to tell Riegel how stunned he was by the performance.
As a viewer, I have to say that I agree with Mulligan’s decision. If a player has just given the performance of a lifetime and said all the right things to turn the outcome in their favor, it feels almost mean-spirited to ask for a roll that could directly undercut the execution. This speaks to D&D’s nature: It’s not just a set of rules, but a role-playing game where a player’s actions (regardless of whether they are a DM or player character) can shape the narrative in the most monumental way, even more so than a roll of the dice.
Mulligan summed it up best: “Occasionally, while playing these games, players will, without rolling dice, give you a nat 20.”
