D&D General Comic Relief Plays D&D

British comedians Nish Kumar, Sue Perkins, Ed Gamble and Sara Pascoe will be playing Dungeons & Dragons on Friday, 8th May at 7pm, rising money for charities responding to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The DM will be Paul Foxcroft of Questing Time.

Elves, warlocks and… stand up comedians? Join Nish Kumar, Sue Perkins, Ed Gamble and Sara Pascoe as they delve into the imaginary world of Dungeons & Dragons for Comic Relief. You can join us live on Tiltify, and vote in polls to influence the hilarious outcome of their quest! Friday 8th May 7PM.

Donate and help raise some money towards charities that urgently need support to respond to the devastating impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

I asked them about the tone of the show, and Sue Perkins was awesome enough to reply.


Sue also tweeted here about the event:


Comic Relief itself also answered:


As did Sara Pascoe:

 

[Parmandur]

Well, WOTC has absolutely no direct presence at conventions and the like here, or involvement in the community. It’s all Modiphius and Cubicle 7 and folks like that. Even Paizo makes it over here.

In context, he was talking about working to change that, but that he was getting better headway in Continental Europe than the UK.

 

[Morrus]

In context, he was talking about working to change that, but that he was getting better headway in Continental Europe than the UK.

To be honest, I think it needs an actual presence on exhibit floors, and attendance by lead designers and the like. The personal touch. It needs more than AL tables.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Are we still in an era where we need to be reassured four times that the cool kids are not going to make fun of us roleplayers? The Disney-Pixar colossus, grand arbiter of mainstream social acceptability, just released a two-hour love-letter to Dungeons & Dragons starring Tom Holland and Chris Pratt. I don't think we have to keep bracing to get kicked like that.

 

[cbwjm]

I'd watch this for Sara Pascoe alone (maybe because she's the only one I know) I love her comedy.

Are we still in an era where we need to be reassured four times that the cool kids are not going to make fun of us roleplayers? The Disney-Pixar colossus, grand arbiter of mainstream social acceptability, just released a two-hour love-letter to Dungeons & Dragons starring Tom Holland and Chris Pratt. I don't think we have to keep bracing to get kicked like that.

I don't think we'd need to really brace for it even if they were making fun of DnD players, I like seeing stuff like that. I don't take the hobby so seriously that I can't laugh along with people making fun of it. Kind of like the WoW Southpark episode. There were people who hated it because of how it portrayed WoW players but I thought it was brilliant.

 

[EthanSental]

It made me look on Amazon - the PHB is still way down compared to the US in all books (around 700), but this is... highly interesting: Amazon.co.uk Best Sellers: The most popular items in Hobbies & Games References

I noticed it dropped out of the top 100 in all books on amazon for the first time as well but just checked and it is up to 65 again in all books. I wonder what the blip up and down was or is.

 

[ccooke]

I noticed it dropped out of the top 100 in all books on amazon for the first time as well but just checked and it is up to 65 again in all books. I wonder what the blip up and down was or is.

It dropped out of the top 100 in the US. I'm not sure it has ever been in the top 100 in the UK.
(Based on discussion in other threads, it looks like there was a huge surge in people buying educational books around when lots of schools closed)

 

[Mistwell]

This starts in 3 hours

 

[Badvoc]

To be honest, I think it needs an actual presence on exhibit floors, and attendance by lead designers and the like. The personal touch. It needs more than AL tables.

Absolutely agreed. If there's any comparative lack of success in the UK then that has to be, at least partly, due to the absence of any meaningful community engagement over here.

WOTC's convention attendance is surprisingly limited given their market share. Gencon and Origins are noticeably absent from the list, and they don't have a presence at any cons outside of the US: Gather Together | Dungeons & Dragons.

My wallet can testify that Chaosium and Paizo have both had a significant presence at the UKGE over the last few years however...

The marketing strategy for D&D is more focused around streaming. Their big marketing event each year is a three day live stream. They have Critical Role and other third-party streams driving popularity on their behalf. Even the article in the current edition of Dragon+ about D&D in the UK was focused on groups of live streamers.

 

[Waller]

Absolutely agreed. If there's any comparative lack of success in the UK then that has to be, at least partly, due to the absence of any meaningful community engagement over here.

WOTC's convention attendance is surprisingly limited given their market share. Gencon and Origins are noticeably absent from the list, and they don't have a presence at any cons outside of the US: Gather Together | Dungeons & Dragons.

My wallet can testify that Chaosium and Paizo have both had a significant presence at the UKGE over the last few years however...

The marketing strategy for D&D is more focused around streaming. Their big marketing event each year is a three day live stream. They have Critical Role and other third-party streams driving popularity on their behalf. Even the article in the current edition of Dragon+ about D&D in the UK was focused on groups of live streamers.

They've chosen their market -- young (20-something) Americans. If you're older or not American, you're welcome to buy their stuff, but they aren't factoring you in.

 

[darjr]

Well, WOTC has absolutely no direct presence at conventions and the like here, or involvement in the community. It’s all Modiphius and Cubicle 7 and folks like that. Even Paizo makes it over here.

Chris Lindsay was at UK Expo last year, as an official from WotC. They even posted about it on their web site and I sent you an email about it. I think this photo is from then.