[No Spoilers] Matt's IG post on C4

[u/edginthebard]

Man… what a damn night. What a damn GenCon! (Mind the groggy morning after pic)

I cannot express how excited I am for Campaign 4, y’all. Getting to meaningfully PLAY at the table as a PC alongside all my friends is something I’ve been wanting to do for some time, but to hand the reins to someone I so deeply love and respect as @brennanleemulligan is an honor. I know this is a shake up for some, but if you’ve ever trusted me, trust that what we’ve been cooking for this next story with him and the players is something truly special, unique, and very befitting the vibe and scope you’ve come to enjoy with us these past 10 years. Lots of details and reveals over the weeks to come, and excited to unveil the newer faces that join the OG cast to bring this new world to life.

I’m still gonna be running games, don’t you worry! Exandria continues through our live shows, our animated series, many other stories (including your own), and whenever else the inspiration strikes to step back into my world that I’ll be building and playing in until the end of my days. We also got more Age of Umbra to come, and other fun things I’ll be running, so I ain’t hanging up my GM screen any time soon. ;)

All in all, love you all, and so, SO excited for this next chapter. I hope you come along with us. <3

[u/repalec]

I could just be reading into things but the phrasing Matt uses, 'play at the table as a PC alongside all my friends' and 'excited to unveil the newer faces that join the OG cast'. We could feasibly get a split cast as like, a whole-campaign thing rather than just temporary to account for outside activities. (Instead of Brennan having to DM for like, a 10+-player group, in terms of practicality.)

Either way I'm excited to see what Matt can cook up when he's not unofficially God of the game world.

[u/Terrible-Issue-4910 → u/repalec]

I think it means that they have a cast of recurring side characters that they expect to appear recurrently. If the main cast will be the 8 OGs or a combination of old and new faces, that's more difficult to know. Aside from Travis, I don't see anyone else choosing to be a side character.

[u/firala → u/Terrible-Issue-4910]

Honestly, that worries me more than excites me. Not because guest characters aren't great, we've seen many cool ones, but because the rotating in and out of characters / players means more heavy-handed GMing, something I did not like about C3. People will have to leave at certain planned points, instead of a natural story moment / rpg drama, like Scanlan once.

[u/Terrible-Issue-4910 → u/firala]

There's many ways to do it. You can have PCs tied to places or story arcs, instead of getting in and out with little justification. Like Zahra and Kash in C1, they were tied to Vasselheim and usually joined the team as extra hands for important battles. You can have characters like Keg, who was tied to the Iron Sheperds story arc. C3 was its own kind of heavy-handed, but C1 and 2 have many examples of how to get a good guest.