Fresh initiative breathes new life into an old game.
"Your Turn to Roll" sung by the cast of Critical Role.
It's the first Sunday evening of 2021.
My mind buzzes as I return to my desk after dinner, dumping a set of seven swirling teal-and-white dice from their miniature holding bag. I reach for the twenty-sided one as I wait to connect to the Zoom meeting, giving it a discretionary roll before a chorus of greetings crackles through my headphones. Soon after, each of our six characters take turns placing bets on a tavern's fight club. Some of us step into the ring to face the champion ourselves— and take our beatings between several fits of laughter. A Dungeons and Dragons renaissance has been happening over the past few years. Productions like Dimension20 and Critical Role popularized the game to new levels and showcased the endless creative potential of a 40-year-old tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) that continues to attract new players today.
The game was created in 1974 by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and acquired by Hasboro’s fantasy and science fiction game publisher Wizards of the Coast in 1997. The company released an official fifth edition of the game in 2014, which streamlined rules and requirements to make it more beginner-friendly. This, coupled with the sweeping popularity of fantasy behemoths like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and later, Stranger Things, catapulted the former geek-fest that was Dungeons and Dragons into the mainstream.
THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
Several professional-grade Dungeons and Dragons streams sprang up in the mid-2010’s, each with their own flavor and play style.
Dimension20 prides itself on short, self-contained series set in places like New York City or the hallways of an 80’s high school. Still open to orcs, elves, and everything between. However, the undisputed juggernaut of the game’s revival has been Critical Role, a web series which features seven professional voice actors playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Matt Mercer leads the table as Dungeon Master, guiding players Ashley Johnson (Yasha), Marisha Ray (Beau), Laura Bailey (Jester), Travis Willingham (Fjord), Liam O'Brien (Caleb), Taliesin Jaffe (Caduceus), and Sam Riegel (Veth/Nott) through the world of Exandria in a group known as “The Mighty Nein.” Starting as a home game between the actors, Critical Role began streaming their first campaign in 2015 to massive fan acclaim. After ending with 115 episodes in late 2017, the show kicked off the second campaign at the beginning of the following year and have been playing ever since.
In 2017, 9 million people watched others play D&D on Twitch, immersing themselves in the world of the game without ever having to pick up a die or cast a spell.
“D&D streams are a growing market- and a way to hook new gamers. In 2017, 9 million people watched others play D&D on Twitch, immersing themselves in the world of the game without ever having to pick up a die or cast a spell,” wrote Mary Pilon in The Rise of the Professional Dungeon Master for Bloomberg Businessweek.
Critical Role broadcasts new campaign episodes on Twitch on Thursday nights, each bringing around 60,000 live viewers a week. The sessions garner an average of 600,000 views once uploaded for on-demand viewing on YouTube, though some plot-heavy episodes have reached over a million. Sessions range from 3-6 hours in length, but the long duration certainly isn’t a detriment; their YouTube channel boasts 1.2 million subscribers, and their Twitch presence is followed by another 700,000 users.
Creative fans are encouraged to submit their work on the show's website, or by using the hashtag, "CriticalRoleFanart" on Twitter. Critical Role incorporates them in an art reel that plays before and after the show, and during a 20-minute intermission. It features hundreds of digital and traditional artists, animators, and cosplayers each week. The greatest testament to the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons presented itself in early 2019.
Critical Role launched a Kickstarter to fund a 20-minute animated special based on their group from the first campaign, Vox Machina.
Their finance goal of $750,000 was smashed in the first hour as fans raised over $1 million. It became the most successful crowdfund on the site when it ended with a total of $11.3 million contributed by ninety thousand fans. Amazon Prime acquired the rights to the show in November 2019, where it’s been green-lit for two full seasons.
I started watching Critical Role midway through quarantine. I heard its name in passing after becoming a fan of The Last of Us series, whose protagonist is voiced and motion captured by Ashley Johnson. Live broadcasts were suspended last spring as the team modified their studio to adhere to COVID-19 safety regulations.
I was over a hundred episodes- over-400 hours- behind.
Armed with highlight videos and a list of major plot points, I was able to catch up watch live shows by October. The Nein were gearing to start the campaign's penultimate arc. Barring holiday breaks and a pandemic, the show broadcasts year-round. I used it as a motivational tool to get work done during a busy semester; if you finish this essay, you can watch the show tonight. I was no longer interested in television series with ten-episode seasons, but somehow had no trouble sitting through a four hour improv show. Why was it so easy to become invested? Two Australian students conducted a survey on contemporary D&D players to discuss key factors in the game's resurgence. Once participant cited that Critical Role's fun and unedited portrayal friends playing together promoted increased interest in the game. This relaxed, open appeal is the crux of Dungeons & Dragons today. Wizards of the Coast aligns the game to a similar message in their site's overview, stating, "The core of D&D is storytelling. You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, courtly intrigue, and much more."
INSPIRATION IS WAITING
Part of the attraction comes from how casually representative it can be; unless you’re playing with a particularly boring group, these imagined worlds aren’t limited by the same prejudices as this one. In fact, most groups actively welcome the wide array of races, classes, backgrounds, and sexuality combinations a player can choose for their characters.
It certainly appealed to me. For one night a week, I could become the half-elf warlock of my dreams; crawling through taverns with my party until the innkeeper tells us about the mysterious dealings around town and sends us off to investigate.
“I like to flesh out my character, their background, trajectory, and their different interests and abilities,” said Gillian Hass, an Iowa State junior who began playing in 2015 and has since ventured into DMing.
While many games take on medieval-esque settings and features, Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop RPGs are beloved for their versatility. If Dungeons and Dragons doesn't call, there are hundreds of other games and settings to explore, drawing inspiration from everything between Lovecraftian horror to Star Wars.
Hass mentions her plights as a Dungeon Master. “I just ran a one-shot [single session] that’s set in a 1980’s mall, with the bad guy being rats that steal jewelry from Kohls. I like seeing where the players end up and trying to specialize the game to [them].”
I like seeing where the players end up and trying to specialize the game to [them].
While there are certain technical rules for each game, the settings, characters, and lore are completely malleable. Stories can be reflective of today's society, or made as fantastical as one desires.
And with the real world rife with high political tensions and COVID-19, the allure of escaping into one of endless potential and boundless expression is hard to resist.
Senior professional lecturer Charles Cox summed up the appeal in a 2012 American University article, theorizing, "The real world is morally murky and troublingly complex, so the black-and-white worlds of traditional fantasy can be a calming antidote to that."
THE WORLD'S IN YOUR HANDS
Gillian and I combined our friend groups for three virtual sessions at the beginning of this year- a brave endeavor considering it was everyone’s first actual venture into the game. Our campaign and characters were all input into DND Beyond, the official online toolset and resource for players. In addition to hosting rulebooks and other supplements, the site offers character builders, digital character sheets, and even dice.
(Super convenient, though I urge any new player to invest in at least one physical set. There’s nothing quite like the rush of rolling high with your own hand.)
Point is, the game itself is more accessible than ever.
Roll20 serves as a virtual tabletop for over 8 million players, containing many of the same tools as DNDBeyond and stepping- ehem- beyond with features like battle map creators, initiative trackers, media players, and specialized forums where players and DM's can connect with one another. While always helpful to players who struggled to find local groups, the online tools have become an invaluable resource to keep the dice rolling when real-life dangers started to creep into game night.
"DND Beyond is free to use, and there are platforms for people to join [so] the community can grow," says Hass.
And grow it has.
DND Beyond is a staple sponsor of Critical Role, and the world of Wildemount- created by DM Matthew Mercer- became canon lore after Wizards of the Coast published a sourcebook with home brewed materials from the Critical Role campaigns.
In addition to their programming, Critical Role has also rolled out "Handbooker Helper," a series to guide players new and old through character creation, DM strategies, and more.
Spurred by the passion and generosity of their fans in response to the Kickstarter, Critical Role set up the Critical Role Foundation in late 2020, a non-profit dedicated to assisting a variety of charities. They partnered with organizations such as Red Nose Day, OutRight International, and 826LA. The foundation also allocates ten percent of all donations to an emergency relief fund, under a mission statement imparted by a fallen character: leave the world better than we found it. The convergence with Amazon Prime and Critical Role's continuously expanding presence outside of the game will surely bring Dungeons & Dragons to an even wider audience- and isn't showing any signs of slowing down. The game may circle back to its former dweeb status in the distant future, but today? It's your turn to roll.
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