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.

 

[JLowder]

Now I just wonder why they did not do it from the beginning. Just have a book of gids fir different things fir people to pick from.

That's what the original Deities and Demigods was, really.

The reason it went in the other direction in the mid-1980s, with specific worlds, is a significant part of the general audience wants the company to do that worldbuilding. They also want to encounter the worlds in different media than just the TTRPG, which means fixed narratives such as novels and comics.

But that fixed narrative material will always create a tension with the way the TTRPG itself is played, as every table has its own narrative continuity and version of the setting being used.

 

[SothFan]

But that fixed narrative material will always create a tension with the way the TTRPG itself is played, as every table has its own narrative continuity and version of the setting being used

I can't see why. If all the gods were the same, the fiction and table would have no friction, but maybe that is just me?
__


Also, Episode 5 was a retcon, or episode 4 was miscut. I knew something seemed off.

Spoiler

Episode 4

Episode 5

There is also a One Shot people should watch as homework.

 

[JLowder]

I can't see why. If all the gods were the same, the fiction and table would have no friction, but maybe that is just me?

If that's set down in a fixed narrative, it clashes with every table playing the settings where the gods are not the same across worlds, etc, etc. See also Soth being in or not in or never in Ravenloft and on and on.

 

[BruceWright]

SO HEY what do people LIKE about this show?

I think Jasmine is doing a fantastic job. I love her voicework, but I also love the pitch shifting and other audio effects they do with her voice.

The new artificer is interesting. I feel like Neil is really working with all Crem's features. But I'm not seeing the other players really do things with their class features.

I really love it when Neil has a multi-step plan like he did with the wax monsters, activating lots of different features at once. I would love to see him combine more with the other players features.


I wish I understood more of what Wesley's subclass is, and what it brings. What is Zora's Hexblood sorcerer, and what does that do?

Does anyone know if they've released full character sheets for these characters?

 

[bedir than]

Does anyone know if they've released full character sheets for these characters?

They haven't yet, unless they're tucked into the must-preorder elements

 

[SothFan]

Does anyone know if they've released full character sheets for these characters

Might be parts of the new book they do not want to release yet, but you can see DNDBeyond, the origins for Eloin and Lividity, in that One Shot, since that is where both characters came from.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What is Zora's Hexblood sorcerer, and what does that do?

Hexblood is a very witchy ancestry (previously a lineage any ancestry could transform into, via hag intervention). The signature ability is pulling off a body part, like a fingernail or a tooth, and using it as a remote bug.

The least-gross possibility is that someone uses it as a long-range radio to communicate with the hexblood, but you could also be walking around with a toenail in your backpack while a hexblood is listening in on you.

Basically the ancestry for people who think cthonic tieflings are still too cute and fuzzy.

 

[M.L. Martin]

No they are different "people".

Depends who you're asking. According to Weis & Hickman, who have been very protective of Krynn's uniqueness from the beginning, they're not. According to Jeff Grubb in the 1st Edition Manual of the Planes--the man who created the Krynnish pantheon in the first place --Takhisis and Tiamat are the same, and it's implied Paladine and Bahamut are as well.

My own take? There's at least two Krynns--Krynn-1 for the original modules, Krynn-2 for the Weis & Hickman novels, and probably a few others--and some of those Krynns connect to the D&D cosmology, while others don't. (This also helps explain things like Preludes vs. W&H novels, or how the War of Souls books got so many Fifth Age details wrong ... )

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Depends who you're asking. According to Weis & Hickman, who have been very protective of Krynn's uniqueness from the beginning, they're not. According to Jeff Grubb in the 1st Edition Manual of the Planes--the man who created the Krynnish pantheon in the first place --Takhisis and Tiamat are the same, and it's implied Paladine and Bahamut are as well.

Honestly, I can't see any good argument for not taking Grubb's side on this.

We could introduce a new dude in a toga who loves to throw lightning bolts around and likes to cheat on his wife via shapechanging into animals and, no matter what we called him, he's still be Zeus at the end of the day.

 

[Imaro]

I do not know what you mean. If you are asking why I am expressing my opinions on a discussion website, well you have your answer there. If you are asking why I am postingly negative thoughts about the show, I am not alone.

Again (as I stated last time you posted a negative take from them) they glaze Critical Role and hate anything D&D.