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.

 

[plecostomus]

Are we getting to the end of the season? How can they wrap up all these threads? And if they don’t, will they stay stuck in Ravenloft when it’s no longer the Season Of Horror?

Going by the Ravenloft pre-order bonuses on the webpage for the series, the current arc has 5 more episodes, with the last released July 1. It does seem like a lot left if each episode is about an hour, but if the final objective is gathering all 3 banshees and doing something with them rather than fighting Soth directly, it seems doable based on where this episode ended.

Here's my guess, based on nothing:

• 1 episode collecting the 3rd banshee
• 1 episode dealing with Carradoc
• 2 episodes rescuing Lavender and escaping or dealing with Soth
• 1 episode wrapping up, which could include some additional Soth, but also other interested parties like Strahd and Inza

 

[SothFan]

It would sure be awkward if you'd misspelled something in a post calling people illiterate over their spelling.

It sure would be awkward if someone violated the Wil Wheaton rule on a website that claims it as one of their core discussion tenents. You are being a ____.

I am not being paid to make a product and continuing to fail the basics of following ADA or similar for broadcasting, nor a multi-billion dollar corporation that has money to throw away in a landfill and could at least attempt to get the Closed Captioning correct for the hearing impaired. I am just an old woman typing on a phone, not a professional getting paid to have my spelling as tge product.

 

[SothFan]

Feeling I needed to finish Episode 6, the Anne Rice sexual fetish episode, I did and ended up needing it as much as this to follow Episode 7.


Episode 7 even follow that video very well. A whole lot of nothing. There is less game and more improv theater in this game than any I have seen. Granted, Crem is better than anyone from Critical Role in his presentation of his character. It really seems to be going nowhere fast. The little it does in each single hour, seems extremely fast to be getting the results it does. They could condense Gone With the Wind into 30 minutes at the annoying speed they are accomplishing anything with little to no effort. The only real drawbacks the have run into is the Ben Affleck and J-Lo style drama.

Add to it what was said here about Soth:


There was really no point to include Soth except for passing reference since all characters are now on individual paths to become Dark Lords themselves replacing existing ones or their sooners: Soth, Carradok, Inza, Strahd, etc. Which leaves the question why bother having a Ravenloft if the end result will be net positive for the players, either by becoming a Dark Lord or just therapy session? Whete is the horror or loss? In the character history and granted as a magic item as a therapy device granted by the current banshee? I do not see a reason any of this needed Ravenloft as it could have come out anywhere, as it did in the side quest episode replacing the Barbarian with the goblin assistant, now daughter.

5 episodes left to resolve this?

Predictions:

Crem leaves everyone behind.

Soth keeps Lavender.

Livid becomes a pawn of the mists.

Nora and Eloin join Barovia.

Wessley dies and to her credit, proves herself right, everyone eventually dies, but, the Mists revive her as a torturred soul becoming a proto-Dark Lord now possessing a seed of one.

There is just too much "family counselling" going on.

 

[Umbran]

It sure would be awkward if someone violated the Wil Wheaton rule on a website that claims it as one of their core discussion tenents. You are being a ____.

Mod note:

You just got back from a week-long vacation from the site, and you're escalating conflict with another user already?

That's is... inauspicious. Dial it back, please.

 

[nyvinter]

Episode 7 even follow that video very well. A whole lot of nothing. There is less game and more improv theater in this game than any I have seen.

I know you don't play at all, but you do realise that the conversation at the table is part of the game? It's not just combat and resolving a plot point by rolling a dice as it it were a boardgame prompt.

Sometimes the conversation might not be the kind you'd prefer — there's a big sliding scale between acting everything and describing in third person — but it's still part of the game. As is the agency of the player characters. They're not set in stone to follow a plot like a novel.

 

[SothFan]

you do realise that the conversation at the table is part of the game? It's not just combat and resolving a plot point by rolling a dice as it it were a boardgame prompt.

Did you read what I wrote or just want to hen peck parts of it? Since the show first aired this discussion had gone dormant. On page 43, 3 days after Episode 1/2, I joined this community/website/whatever to discuss this show. My Google AI app told me this place was better and "safer" than Reddit for such discussion and as my search tool brought me to this discussion. Nobody was intetested in talking about the show until after I did. It had 800k views at the time on the proper D&D YouTube channel. I come along and people still fail to rrad what I say and just tell me I am wrong, as YOU just did again.

Since you refuse to read last time when you replied, I doubt you will read it this time, but here goes: The whole show has been about a threesome, thruple, whatever, resolving their marital issues. Now if you want to say infidelity goes hand in hand with being in a Domain run by Soth, I can not really disagree as that is the reason he is there (ask @JLowder ) in part, as well him being the reason Krynn was nearly destroyed.

However, I would be more interested in Soth's story of infidelity than the thetapy sessions for these characters tgat has gone on for 7 episodes now. Those why I included to evening soap opera as a point of reference. This is not a story about Soth, Ravenloft, or anything else fantasy related. It is using D&D, Ravenloft, and Soth as under tones for a sappy modern soap opera. It is Ravenloft 90210, Dawson's Sithicus, or if you prefer Days of our Strahd.

It is bad.

Now, if you or anyone else wants to argue any point of any of my reviews so far, I will happily entertain that discussion; but continued telling me my opinion is wrong because it is not given to me by a man will no longer be dignified with responses. That is all it seems anyone has done here for any review I have made about this show. I have not made comment on the rules of tge game, because I do not know them. You want to argue those, go watch Dreadmoor as he and his wife debate them as they watch live and look up the rules.

I am reviewing a "TV show", or what passes for one these days; as well as an over-produced commercial. To borrow from that Sam guy from Critical Role.

 

[Aellic Mornbringer]

I've been greatly enjoying the show. I am one of those that got watching live plays with Critical Role during season 2 and while I am a huge supporter in what the CR crew has achieved, I don't have the time to invest in keeping up with it. Which is to say, I find the episode length for the Actual Play to be great. I don't often catch it "live" but it doesn't feel imposing to catch up later, if that makes sense.

I also love the various skill levels of the players in the game too, it makes it feel more realistic and honestly, helps in terms of providing opportunities for rules to be showcased and explained as they sometimes do. The cast in general has done a great job.

I haven't tracked the dates in the calendar but given that they are doing a live episode at Gencon, does that line up with the series finale or no?

Finally and at the risk of sounding like Yogurt from Spaceballs, I'd love to see a basic ballcap and/or t-shirt for sale, supporting the show.

 

[Selas]

I haven't tracked the dates in the calendar but given that they are doing a live episode at Gencon, does that line up with the series finale or no?

No, the episode at GenCon covers the next season based on Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall. It's the upcoming Red Wizards of Thay adventure. I got tickets for it so I'm watching live

 

[JLowder]

Now if you want to say infidelity goes hand in hand with being in a Domain run by Soth, I can not really disagree as that is the reason he is there (ask @JLowder ) in part, as well him being the reason Krynn was nearly destroyed.

Something to keep in mind: If this were a novel or comic or some other fixed narrative, the NPCs and their tale could be front and center. As it's an actual play, the PCs' story should be foregrounded, as in any scenario played around your local table or VTT. Even if the backstory is included, it's all in how those player characters interact with it. Their tale can be interesting to you or not, but it's supposed to be the center of the TTRPG narrative experience.

The idea of Caradoc and Inza getting their own domains separate from Soth/Sithicus is pretty amusing, though. If a couple more characters I created score their own realms (I will always have a personal soft spot for Azrael the werebadger), I get to move up in the Dark Powers ranks.

But I've said too much...

 

[SothFan]

Finally and at the risk of sounding like Yogurt from Spaceballs

Where are Eloin, Nora/Zora, Wessley, Livid, and Crem on DNDBeyond? The put up characters for Ted to use, but not the ones playing through the new book? Maybe they will be in a slot machine?