Wizards of the Coast launches official Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play show

Wizards of the Coast is getting back into the Actual Play game. Today, Wizards announced via Variety that they are launching a new Actual Play show called Dungeon Masters, starring Jasmine Bhullar as the Dungeon Master along with players Mayanna Berrin, Christian Navarro, Neil Newbon and Devora Wilde. Wilde and Newbon are veterans of Baldur's Gate 3, a smash hit for the Dungeons & Dragons IP. However, both actors will be playing new characters and not their Baldur's Gate 3 characters.

Of note is that the show will feature "official, unreleased D&D content" which will be put up for sale on D&D Beyond following every episode. The first arc takes place in Ravenloft and will feature content from Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. New episodes will be released weekly on YouTube, starting on April 22nd.

Wizards of the Coast previously produced several official D&D Actual Play series, including Dice, Camera, Action and Force Grey. Dice, Camera, Action was their flagship D&D program for years until it unceremoniously ended due to a scandal involving two of its players.

 

[Mournblade94]

it’s not completely due to the rules, but I doubt 4e would have been able to profit from the moment in anywhere near the same way

If you had Geeks and Sundry set up a critical role with Pretty actors for 4e, it would have become the standard. The 5e rules didn't make 5e massively popular, the shows about people playing Dungeons and Dragons did. But 2 variables are tough to isolate here. The professional actors of Critical Role making the game seem more acceptable, and the Covid Isolations. The Covid Isolations may have got people to tune into AP's when they other wise wouldn't. Baldur's Gate and its spinoffs brought people into D&D but didn't make it popular or mainstream. Critical Role is the single most important thing in RPG Rise to popularity. Its the variable that is different coupled with the Covid lockdown.

 

[Mort]

If you had Geeks and Sundry set up a critical role with Pretty actors for 4e, it would have become the standard. The 5e rules didn't make 5e massively popular, the shows about people playing Dungeons and Dragons did. But 2 variables are tough to isolate here. The professional actors of Critical Role making the game seem more acceptable, and the Covid Isolations. The Covid Isolations may have got people to tune into AP's when they other wise wouldn't. Baldur's Gate and its spinoffs brought people into D&D but didn't make it popular or mainstream. Critical Role is the single most important thing in RPG Rise to popularity. Its the variable that is different coupled with the Covid lockdown.

5e was becoming successful before Critical Role, and has/had a reach FAR beyond Critical Role. Of my friends/a acquaintances who play 5e maybe 10% have even seen an episode let alone been influenced by it.

Critical Role is hugely popular and has certainly had an impact on 5e popularity, but it was FAR from the only impact and 5e would 100% still be around where it is without it.

 

[AlViking]

Actual plays are scripted. The other difference between their game and my game besides production value is everyone knows how the encounters are going to end ahead of time so they are prepared for it. Just like WWE knows how the matches end. That's why I use it as an analogy. There is nothing "objective" about it not being scripted. Its just a way to use RPG's in a performing art. It is no different than Vox Machina except it is not animated.

The survey says ... BZZZT ... false. You can't predict the outcome of the roll of the dice and there's no reason to believe they are scripted. PCs were killed off in CR because of bad rolls and decisions by players made in the heat of the moment, in other cases according to the after-show discussions the players made life-changing decisions (for the PCs) on the spot. People have asked this many times about CR and they deny it every time. Having watched their show I see no reason to disbelieve them.

If you had Geeks and Sundry set up a critical role with Pretty actors for 4e, it would have become the standard. The 5e rules didn't make 5e massively popular, the shows about people playing Dungeons and Dragons did. But 2 variables are tough to isolate here. The professional actors of Critical Role making the game seem more acceptable, and the Covid Isolations. The Covid Isolations may have got people to tune into AP's when they other wise wouldn't. Baldur's Gate and its spinoffs brought people into D&D but didn't make it popular or mainstream. Critical Role is the single most important thing in RPG Rise to popularity. Its the variable that is different coupled with the Covid lockdown.

Nope. I watched some early live streams of 4e play and remember thinking that the people did not appear to be having near as much fun as we did playing, they were constantly looking at their powers and reading through them to figure out what to do instead of just moving forward. Double checking spells or abilities still happens sometimes in 5e of course but in 4e? With CR their first game was home game one shot in 4e, they switched to PF for long term campaign and switched to 5e because the flow was smoother and more presentable. Besides, 5e was already growing by double digits before CR was released and certainly before it became popular.

We all have preferences, we all like and dislike different things. It's find if you enjoyed 4e or thought it was a better game but your statements have no basis in fact.

 

[Mort]

Actual plays are scripted. The other difference between their game and my game besides production value is everyone knows how the encounters are going to end ahead of time so they are prepared for it. Just like WWE knows how the matches end. That's why I use it as an analogy. There is nothing "objective" about it not being scripted. Its just a way to use RPG's in a performing art. It is no different than Vox Machina except it is not animated. I used to watch the early shows of Critical Role to see if there was any sort of good tips for Gming. I couldn't find any because I couldn't even tell if they were making proper calls on rulings. It was all just a performance art, using D&D as a structure not actual rules. It changed the game from a game to a performing art. Like d20 tavern that my daughter and wife tried to get me to go to.

First of all "Actual plays" are not a monolith. There are many of them, and they don't follow the same format.

Second, I've watched many, and while some are certainly more performative then others, they all seem to still be players playing a game - some just clearly cater to an audience more than others. My preference is heavily against the overly performative, but I would never claim it's scripted.

Take the current season of Critical Role. Mulligan seems to be pushing a clear narrative (more than Mercer did) but the players are still reacting and playing, not following some script they are privy too (there might have been some of that in the first 4 episodes, as I mentioned earlier, but that was to get some backgrounds etc. into place - a collaboration). I have expressed my dissatisfaction with the, IMO, overly performative nature of the current season, but that doesn't mean scripted - they have been accused of this several times but not in any way credibly.

Can you name an actual play that claimed to be playing, but was found to be scripted? I've never heard of one.

 

[Mort]

The survey says ... BZZZT ... false. You can't predict the outcome of the roll of the dice and there's no reason to believe they are scripted. PCs were killed off in CR because of bad rolls and decisions by players made in the heat of the moment, in other cases according to the after-show discussions the players made life-changing decisions (for the PCs) on the spot. People have asked this many times about CR and they deny it every time. Having watched their show I see no reason to disbelieve them.

I remember watching Critical Role campaign 2 when the first PC death happened (relatively early). It was clearly caused by some questionable decisions and even worse dice rolls.

The players seemed very genuinely surprised, and if they were faking it they are truly, truly gifted actors! But I don't think so, their decisions (and, again, bad rolls) led to where they led, and Mercer, IMO to his credit, didn't soft pedal or retreat from it.

 

[saviirkad]

I remember watching Critical Role campaign 2 when the first PC death happened (relatively early). It was clearly caused by some questionable decisions and even worse dice rolls.

The players seemed very genuinely surprised, and if they were faking it they are truly, truly gifted actors! But I don't think so, their decisions (and, again, bad rolls) led to where they led, and Mercer, IMO to his credit, didn't soft pedal or retreat from it.

Or when

Spoiler: Campaign 1 Finale

Sam started to quietly break down after casting Wish to stop the boss, because he wanted to use Wish to save his friend.

Mid-campaign 3 spoiler, when

Spoiler: mid-campaign 3 spoiler

Sam saw chat had figured out the real identity of an NPC before anyone on cast had.

Or early campaign 4, which has already been discussed here minus a key point (or I hadn't noticed it mentioned yet), which is that Alex and Brennan had collaborated, but in the moment, Alex thought he'd messed up bad and was dead for real up to the moment he came back.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Actual plays are scripted. The other difference between their game and my game besides production value is everyone knows how the encounters are going to end ahead of time so they are prepared for it.

This is false.

Just like WWE knows how the matches end. That's why I use it as an analogy. There is nothing "objective" about it not being scripted. Its just a way to use RPG's in a performing art. It is no different than Vox Machina except it is not animated. I used to watch the early shows of Critical Role to see if there was any sort of good tips for Gming. I couldn't find any because I couldn't even tell if they were making proper calls on rulings. It was all just a performance art, using D&D as a structure not actual rules. It changed the game from a game to a performing art. Like d20 tavern that my daughter and wife tried to get me to go to.

You are incorrect. Completely. In fact CR especially is so clearly adjuticating the rules that this take is laughable to the point where i initially assumed you were joking.

Dude literally stops and looks up rules when he can't remember them, and sometimes makes the more RAW ruling even when a different ruling would serve the format better.

Even the much more "produced" Dimension20 is very clearly still playing dnd and relying on the dice ti decide what happens, Brennan just rules a tighter game than sandbox dnd fans prefer.

The idea that actual plays are scripted like wwe is just absurd to a degree that is hard to even believe a person thinks it is real.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

In addition it's not like we'd have these kind of short adventures at all if they weren't being provided on DDB. The days of dead tree distribution like Dragon Magazine are long gone.

What an extremely weird and inaccurate take.

DriveThruRPG offers POD for probably thousands of short adventures.

 

[saviirkad]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" is an adage that can be stretched to other subjects, I think.

It's not scripted, they're just good at being improv storytellers.

 

[Reynard]

Not speaking any specific AP, but I would not be surprised if some of them have "scripted" moments -- in the same way, some campaigns have "scripted" moments because players and GMs decide they want to hit certain beats or explore certain stories. is it "scripted" if I ask my Gm to include my estranged father as an NPC in the game because I think that would make for a fun and interesting thing to explore in game? Is it "scripted" if the GM puts the McGuffin in a dungeon and the PCs have to go there to get it?