D&D General D&D Live Play Dimension 20 At Madison Square Garden

Popular Dungeons & Dragons livestream Dimension 20 will be appearing live at New York's famous Madison Square Garden next year.

The one-night-only game will take place on January 24th 2025, and will be called Gauntlet at the Garden. It will feature six of the series' regular cast--Emily Axford, Ally Beardsley, Brian Murphy, Zac Oyama, Siobhan Thompson, and Lou Wilson, with Brendan Lee Mulligan as the GM. Tickets will go on sale this Friday.

Madison Square Garden is a multi-purpose arena in New York and has a capacity of about 20,000 people. Last year, Critical Role played Wembley Arena in London.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Pearl Jam for the new generation.

The feds are apparently coming for Ticketmaster.

Never ever cross Taylor Swift, people.

 

[Reynard]

A lot of "if I don't enjoy it,it obviously isn't a viable form of entertainment" energy in this thread. Just shrug and move on, maybe shake your head and mumble about "some people" if you are extra salty about it. But let people like what they like.

Also,not all actual plays are alike. There are different degrees of production, different styles of presentation, and, of course, different people involved. One might dislike D20 but think Faster Purple Worm, Kill Kill is the best thing ever, or that Candela Obscura is the right way to do it, or whatever.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One might dislike D20 but think Faster Purple Worm, Kill Kill is the best thing ever, or that Candela Obscura is the right way to do it, or whatever.

clutches pearls

reluctantly gives pearls back as the paladin glowers at him

 

[Kickero]

Watching an actual play may be different from playing an rpg, but posting on the internet about rpgs is also quite different from playing rpgs. In my home game, for example, it’s actually rare for someone to pop up and tell us that we are playing incorrectly and aren’t real gamers. It goes to show that these are distinct hobbies that attract different fan bases.

 

[Jaeger]

I don't think the analogy is misplaced. Not all popular live plays are as heavily produced as Critical Role. Beside, taking Critical Role as one example, it very much like a home game. And if using different voices for your characters isn't part of your game, not all live games run like this. Acquisitions Incorporated drew huge crowds without professional voice actors.

I stand by my statement of it being an apples to oranges comparison.

And that better analogy in my opinion is that TTRPG Actual Plays are to Home games in the same way that P*rn is to S*x.

Acquisitions Incorporated may not have "professional voice actors", but the payers are filling the same purpose as the players on Critical Role: To put on a show.

People put up their actual home games on YT all the time. And they will never be as popular as the actual plays that draw large audiences because they are not doing the same things.

Due to the same "core" activity being there; if you want to find similarities to point out between the popular actual plays and 'home games', you will find plenty.

But it is the things that actual plays like CR and AI are doing differently from the 'home games' that makes them popular with large audience outreach.

I don't understand why some people struggle with the fact that a TTRPG could draw spectators.

They shouldn't.

The popular actual plays are a modern improv version of the old-style radio plays, for RPG fans.

Their popularity, and the size of the audiences that they continue to draw is beyond dispute.

 

[Kickero]

I stand by my statement of it being an apples to oranges comparison.

And that better analogy in my opinion is that TTRPG Actual Plays are to Home games in the same way that P*rn is to S*x.

Acquisitions Incorporated may not have "professional voice actors", but the payers are filling the same purpose as the players on Critical Role: To put on a show.

People put up their actual home games on YT all the time. And they will never be as popular as the actual plays that draw large audiences because they are not doing the same things.

Due to the same "core" activity being there; if you want to find similarities to point out between the popular actual plays and 'home games', you will find plenty.

But it is the things that actual plays like CR and AI are doing differently from the 'home games' that makes them popular with large audience outreach.

Video game streamers have the same distribution of very popular streamers and a long tail of less popular streamers, even though they are literally playing the same games. That's just the nature of content on the internet.

 

[Jaeger]

Video game streamers have the same distribution of very popular streamers and a long tail of less popular streamers, even though they are literally playing the same games. That's just the nature of content on the internet.

Video games are still apples to oranges.

Because unless you are specifically running a mod; You are playing the exact same game, in the exact same way.

Once you look past the obvious similarities; The differences between what the popular 'table top' actual play shows are doing, and what home groups do becomes apparent.

 

[Reynard]

Video games are still apples to oranges.

Because unless you are specifically running a mod; You are playing the exact same game, in the exact same way.

Once you look past the obvious similarities; The differences between what the popular 'table top' actual play shows are doing, and what home groups do becomes apparent.

There are certainly differences when you a playing to an audience. I don't think anyone disputes that.

But that doesn't mean they aren't still playing, and the people involved aren't actually engaged in the game.i think we have ample evidence that says that not only are they actually playing, but that is significantly The Point. They know people will just see through improv voice actors following a WWE script. They kind of have to be authentic in order to be successful.

 

[Jaeger]

There are certainly differences when you a playing to an audience. I don't think anyone disputes that.

That's all I've been saying.

But that doesn't mean they aren't still playing, and the people involved aren't actually engaged in the game.i think we have ample evidence that says that not only are they actually playing, but that is significantly The Point. They know people will just see through improv voice actors following a WWE script.

People that claim that these style of actual plays are "scripted" do not understand what they are looking at.

Like I said; The popular actual plays are a modern improv version of the old-style radio plays, for RPG fans.

They need to be actually playing the game to make it all work.

 

[Gradine]

I think it is clear in some of the larger APs (D20, CR) that there is definitely discussion between player and DM about direction and character arc, which is definitely not the same thing as being "scripted" and is actually pretty solid practice for the kinds of narrative-based games that work well for live-play but is pretty anathema to kinds of groggy old-school "no metagaming" crowd that are least inclined to be interested in live play in the first place.