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

Mort · 2026-04-20T02:32:13+0100

Maxperson said:
I doubt it. You are only looking at people directly influenced by it. What needs to be considered is that there are not only huge numbers who were directly influenced by it, but even larger numbers influenced by people playing 5e because they were influenced by Critical Roll. And then more influenced by those people. Critical Rolls influence is like a snowball rolling downhill, but you're just looking at the initial snowball.

5e would absolutely be around and be successful without Critical Roll, but it wouldn't be where it is now without it. It wouldn't even be close. And that also doesn't account for those brought in by Stranger Things, Big Bang Theory, Ghosts, and more.

But that's my point, it wasn't just Critical Role, it was many other references, mentions etc. And then there's the chicken and egg issue. Did Big Bang Theory raise up 5e or did Big Bang Theory keep referencing 5e BECAUSE it was already so well known and an easy go to.

Point Being, did Critical Role make 5e more popular? Undoubtedly. Would 5e have succeeded without Critical Role, also undoubtedly. And I don't think "it wouldn't be close." Critical Role is popular. But Stranger Things was more popular.

And Big Bang Theory? It was generationally popular. The last D&D centered episode of Big Bang Theory hit over 13 million viewers. Critical Role is popular, it's not that popular (at it's peak episodes were getting 2 million YouTube views, which is crazy for a Livestream).

I wonder what kind of numbers WoTC is expecting for this Livestream? The BG3 cast will certainly lend an initial boost, but then it will have to succeed on its own merits.

Maxperson · 2026-04-20T02:42:09+0100

Mort said:
But that's my point, it wasn't just Critical Role, it was many other references, mentions etc. And then there's the chicken and egg issue. Did Big Bang Theory raise up 5e or did Big Bang Theory keep referencing 5e BECAUSE it was already so well known and an easy go to.

Point Being, did Critical Role make 5e more popular? Undoubtedly. Would 5e have succeeded without Critical Role, also undoubtedly. And I don't think "it wouldn't be close." Critical Role is popular. But Stranger Things was more popular.

And Big Bang Theory? It was generationally popular. The last D&D centered episode of Big Bang Theory hit over 13 million viewers. Critical Role is popular, it's not that popular (at it's peak episodes were getting 2 million YouTube views, which is crazy for a Livestream).

I wonder what kind of numbers WoTC is expecting for this Livestream? The BG3 cast will certainly lend an initial boost, but then it will have to succeed on its own merits.

Stranger Things was more popular as a an entertainment show, but I very much doubt that it brought in as many D&D players as Critical Roll. D&D was mentioned several times over the seasons, but Critical Roll is all D&D and fans of that show are much more likely to move to 5e.

Out of all of the outside influences, I think Critical Roll has the lion's share of that influence on 5e's success.

Maxperson · 2026-04-20T03:15:09+0100

abazaba said:
'space' does not even exist

Dang it! Now I can't move.

Reynard · 2026-04-20T03:15:30+0100

My contention is that ANY version of D&D would have seen a major boost if all the other elements were in play. I don't think we can actually know whether media references or actual plays were more important in the grand scheme -- but we can be pretty sure that the pandemic is what kicked the game into overdrive growth. I'm not saying 5E's streamability was not a factor, or its accessibility. But to say it HAD to be 5E is wrong, I think.

Maxperson · 2026-04-20T03:20:09+0100

Mournblade94 said:
I never viewed as if they were hiding it at all. Its like an open secret that nobody cares about. If they're making millions and selling out stadiums it DOESN'T matter if its scripted. Its making money like any other performace. I honestly didn't think people that watched it even cared if it was scripted one way or the other, they're there for the show not the game. There's no crime in it being scripted. I don't get into it because it very much looked scripted to me and I see nothing to convince me otherwise.

There's no way that it's scripted. I can fully believe that they know in a general way what major plot points are coming up, but they don't know the details of that plot point, nor do they know what will happen on the way there. Not unless they are better actors than most of the A listers out there. I've listened to many episodes and watched others. There's too much genuine puzzlement and real sadness/tears when things go badly for it to be scripted.

AlViking · 2026-04-20T03:28:57+0100

Maxperson said:
I doubt it. You are only looking at people directly influenced by it. What needs to be considered is that there are not only huge numbers who were directly influenced by it, but even larger numbers influenced by people playing 5e because they were influenced by Critical Roll. And then more influenced by those people. Critical Rolls influence is like a snowball rolling downhill, but you're just looking at the initial snowball.

5e would absolutely be around and be successful without Critical Roll, but it wouldn't be where it is now without it. It wouldn't even be close. And that also doesn't account for those brought in by Stranger Things, Big Bang Theory, Ghosts, and more.

We have no way of knowing how big 5e would have been without CR ... but it's also false to say that 5e is only successful because of 5e. For that matter we could argue whether CR would have been a success without 5e. They were playing PF in their home game after all.

As far as ST, there were no plans initially to make D&D such a big thing, it was supposed to be the 10 minutes or so in the first season and never really mentioned again. The Duffer brothers were MtG fans and had minimal knowledge of D&D.

So there's kind of a feedback loop here with both game and media building off each other. A lot of what makes D&D work for CR and the other most popular actual play streams also makes it work around the table for a lot of people.

P.S. They played 4e (or at least used the 4e books) for The Big Bang Theory. I remember references to D&D going back to The X Files.

Mort · 2026-04-20T03:36:13+0100

AlViking said:
P.S. They played 4e (or at least used the 4e books) for The Big Bang Theory. I remember references to D&D going back to The X Files.

That makes sense, as Big Bang Theory predates 5e by many years. But I'm pretty sure they switched to 5e by the later seasons. Certainly by the last season, for the celebrity D&D group

cbwjm · 2026-04-20T03:37:58+0100

I loved the community episodes for DnD, basically any show which does a DnD episode I generally enjoy because I understand the references.

Kind of curious to see how well this show does, there are quite a few actual plays out there, how many are people going to watch?

Maxperson · 2026-04-20T04:09:09+0100

AlViking said:
We have no way of knowing how big 5e would have been without CR ... but it's also false to say that 5e is only successful because of 5e. For that matter we could argue whether CR would have been a success without 5e. They were playing PF in their home game after all.

As far as ST, there were no plans initially to make D&D such a big thing, it was supposed to be the 10 minutes or so in the first season and never really mentioned again. The Duffer brothers were MtG fans and had minimal knowledge of D&D.

So there's kind of a feedback loop here with both game and media building off each other. A lot of what makes D&D work for CR and the other most popular actual play streams also makes it work around the table for a lot of people.

P.S. They played 4e (or at least used the 4e books) for The Big Bang Theory. I remember references to D&D going back to The X Files.

I'm very confident that 5e would be significantly less without Critical Roll. Not only are we looking at all the people Critical Roll brought in directly, and all the others it brought in indirectly through those people it brought in directly, but we are also looking at every other major D&D streaming group. Critical Roll paved the way for them, so all of the people those groups bring in are also at Critical Rolls feet.

Again, I'm not saying 5e wouldn't be successful without them, or even that it wouldn't be very successful, but it wouldn't be close to where it is now. Critical Roll has directly and indirectly brought in a huge number of people.

Maxperson · 2026-04-20T04:11:54+0100

AlViking said:
As far as ST, there were no plans initially to make D&D such a big thing, it was supposed to be the 10 minutes or so in the first season and never really mentioned again. The Duffer brothers were MtG fans and had minimal knowledge of D&D.

Oh, and they still don't. One of the cast in this last season was declared a sorcerer with innate powers who differed from a wizard who used a spellbook, but sorcerers didn't appear until 3e.