Kansas City Chiefs Release Hour-Long D&D Actual Play Video

The video features six football players playing D&D.
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The Kansas City Chiefs posted an interesting video over the weekend, featuring six of their defensive players playing Dungeons & Dragons. The video, Dungeons & Defense, was posted over the weekend and has racked up over 29,000 views as of Monday morning. The video features Chris Jones, Mike Pennel, George Karlaftis, Derrick Nnadi, Mike Danna, and Ashton Gillotte in a session led by veteran Actual Play performer Anna Margaret in a homebrew session. The session itself follows typical D&D tropes - six adventurers enter a tavern and are tasked with retrieving a magical orb stolen from a sect of clerics. The full video can be found below.



The NFL and TTRPGs have had a series of recent crossovers. The Cleveland Browns had a well-documented game of D&D going for several years featuring defensive star Myles Garrett. The ringleader of that group, Johnny Stanton IV now produces tabletop RPG content. Additionally, former Dallas Cowboys player Travis Frederick co-founded Demiplane.
 
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Christian Hoffer
Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer

Christian Hoffer is a veteran tabletop journalist and Forever DM. His non-tabletop hobbies include Pokemon, Ohio sports, and building miniatures.
sevenbastard said:
I still feel the Nerd Shame and wouldn't tell anyone at my work I play D&D......
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I didn't for a long time. Particularly, when I was dating. A lot of the professional women would go icy cold when I told them I was a gamer. So, for a long time I played crouching cougar, hidden gamer. These days though im pretty open about it and my team finds it fascinating to hear my convention stories and see pictures. Its pretty cool and feels good.
 

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Ulorian - Agent of Chaos said:
As in, playing D&D as an event at a conference?
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The event is called Seat at the Tabletop and it's about using RPGs as a replacement for boring simulations and tabletop exercises. It's D&D heavy in the approach because the tropes with that game are part of the general zeitgeist.
I've had requests to run D&D games in evenings at conferences rather than the typical happy hours
 

sevenbastard said:
I still feel the Nerd Shame and wouldn't tell anyone at my work I play D&D......
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Used to be me but now? Nah, I let that nerd flag fly. Some people got pictures of friends and family on their desks, I've got a HeroForge mini of my PC painted by Den of Imagination. I have a Dimension 20 calendar, and a Gameboy lego set I built over several breaks. If someone else wants to embarrass themselves by having an issue with it, they are more than welcome to do so.

And I created a work environment of nerd acceptance that I wanted back when I was too shamed to share it, as there's been a notable uptick in others being happy to share the nerdy things they love. Further making it obvious to anyone who'd scoff or laugh at such things that they'd be the embarrassed one if they make it an issue.
 

bedir than said:
The event is called Seat at the Tabletop and it's about using RPGs as a replacement for boring simulations and tabletop exercises. It's D&D heavy in the approach because the tropes with that game are part of the general zeitgeist.
I've had requests to run D&D games in evenings at conferences rather than the typical happy hours
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Neat! Have you done a lot of these? What's the sign-up like? Beating folks off with a stick? Needing bribes to boost attendance?
 

Ulorian - Agent of Chaos said:
Neat! Have you done a lot of these? What's the sign-up like? Beating folks off with a stick? Needing bribes to boost attendance?
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The next one is at Seattle area gaming convention OrcaCon. OrcaCon 2026

At security events I've spoken to 120, 90 and 80 or so. I'm usually in smaller rooms, but the feedback is strong.

The mainstreaming of D&D opens up a lot of possibilities that aren't merely "neat its KC Chiefs doing something."
 

bedir than said:
The next one is at Seattle area gaming convention OrcaCon. OrcaCon 2026

At security events I've spoken to 120, 90 and 80 or so. I'm usually in smaller rooms, but the feedback is strong.

The mainstreaming of D&D opens up a lot of possibilities that aren't merely "neat its KC Chiefs doing something."
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Wow!!! Those are huge numbers.

I wouldn't poo-poo Chiefs players hosting D&D games though. The NFL is about as mainstream as it gets in American culture! It's hard to overestimate the impact of having NFL fans and their kids hearing about a marquee player like Myles Garrett playing D&D. Both of you are doing great things for the game... no need to sabotage one another.
 

Ulorian - Agent of Chaos said:
Wow!!! Those are huge numbers.

I wouldn't poo-poo Chiefs players hosting D&D games though. The NFL is about as mainstream as it gets in American culture! It's hard to overestimate the impact of having NFL fans and their kids hearing about a marquee player like Myles Garrett playing D&D. Both of you are doing great things for the game... no need to sabotage one another.
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Oh, for sure!

The mainstreaming of D&D is wonderful for nerds like us. I don't look down on it at all. In fact I reference moments like this in my event because I want to show people that the world has more understanding of D&D and RPGs now than ever before.
 


jdrakeh said:
I love it. D&D is surprisingly mainstream now. The group of folks I currently play with includes an investment banker and military brass.
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The military in general doesn't surprise me. There's been regular gaming going on for decades now. Nice to confirm it includes the brass now.

payn said:
I didn't for a long time. Particularly, when I was dating. A lot of the professional women would go icy cold when I told them I was a gamer. So, for a long time I played crouching cougar, hidden gamer. These days though im pretty open about it and my team finds it fascinating to hear my convention stories and see pictures. Its pretty cool and feels good.
Click to expand...

Sadly in my workplace, it's still not safe for me. The subject of D&D came up and one coworker just quipped, "Oh. That's satanic." in a very matter of fact voice. No drama but also like it was just fact. Weird. Outside my workplace, I've found that being a ttrrpg gamer now makes me the hip old dude with some of the younger crowd. Never saw that coming.

In my personal life, my finance will never play it but she respects my hobbies (especially since ttrpgs bring in a few nickels and dimes.) And now she's found some modern board games she likes.
 

Von Ether said:
The military in general doesn't surprise me. There's been regular gaming going on for decades now. Nice to confirm it includes the brass now.



Sadly in my workplace, it's still not safe for me. The subject of D&D came up and one coworker just quipped, "Oh. That's satanic." in a very matter of fact voice. No drama but also like it was just fact. Weird. Outside my workplace, I've found that being a ttrrpg gamer now makes me the hip old dude with some of the younger crowd. Never saw that coming.

In my personal life, my finance will never play it but she respects my hobbies (especially since ttrpgs bring in a few nickels and dimes.) And now she's found some modern board games she likes.
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I've fortunately never ran into the "D&D is satanic!" issue in any capacity. As a Gen X-er it was more folks thinking you were a stunted adult for playing kids games still. I think that view has greatly diminished with millennials and Gen Z.

One cool thing about sharing at a work an even older co-worker started sharing his Lego projects which he felt embarrassed to share before I started sharing my mini painting and 3D terrain printing. We have occasional chats now about what we are working on.
 

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