May 23, 2019 Welcome to Critical Role, where a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons! Join Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer and an all-star cast of world-class performers each week as they travel through imaginary realms for more adventure than you can shake a magic staff at.
Filed Under, &Nothing embodies geek pop culture better than Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Gygax’s table-top fantasy game survived ridicule and the Satanic panic of the ‘80s to earn its spot as a landmark game for anyone with an active imagination or the need for an outlet. The game’s community, which includes some of Hollywood’s elite, is one of the most active fandoms– which hastaken their once exclusive, you-had-to-be-there tales to the internet and beyond.
The spread of these shows prove there is a demand for people sitting around a foldout table pretending to be half-elves. But which ones are the best?Whether you’re itching for some d20 action because you can’t get your busy friends to play together, or you’re a newbie looking to see how this “Dee-and-Dee” is actually played, look no further. Check out these shows that celebrate and document all that is Dungeons & Dragons. Critical RoleOne of the more popular D&D shows – given the novelty appeal and nifty presentation – Geek and Sundry’s from video games and cartoons playing Dungeons & Dragons, usually for a live-streaming audience but sometimes in front of a live studio, too. Critical Role is an ingenious concept: VO artists make a living portraying unique and weird characters just by speaking, so D&D is a perfect platform for them to perform some great improv.
Matthew Mercer (the English voice for Leon Kennedy in the Resident Evil franchise) is the show’s DM (Dungeon Master), who leads a cast that includes Marisha Ray, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, and more.As the show’s popularity increases, so does its production values, with episodes filmed in a dungeon set and its opening a CGI-heavy sequence featuring the show’s actors dressed up as their characters. It should be zero surprise that Community and Rick & Morty creator Dan Harmon is an avid D&D player. On the new VOD service Seeso, Harmon has led its programming with, where the TV showruner plays D&D with his celebrity friends for a live-audience. Unique to other shows is that HarmonQuest is intercut with cartoon animations of the campaign, which gives the game a visual element no miniatures can ever achieve. The first episode is up on YouTube for free, with the rest available on Seeso. Force Grey: Giant Hunters. Weibe, writer of the Eisner-winning comic series Rat Queens is the DM of D20 Babes, a live-streamed D&D campaign sporting an all-female party which Weibe credits its creation to his wife, Shannon.
“She’s the D20 Babe,” he told Inverse. “She wanted to stream a game, and she kept talking about it, working out the system, recruiting everybody. I told her I’d run the game as Dungeon Master, but the production of the stream and getting the team together, that was all her.”He added: “Opening it up and streaming the game has reached different fans: female gamers, female fans of high fantasy, fans of the comic.”If you want to see a quartet of cool as hell women play D&D — essentially bringing Rat Queens to life — then D20 Babes is for you. Acquisitions Incorporated. Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of the Penny Arcade empire have extended to tabletop with Acquisitions Incorporated, another D&D series made entertaining by the personalities sitting around the table.
Initially a live show at Penny Arcade’s annual Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) convention, Acquisitions Incorporated is now airing in weekly installments filmed in someone’s lavishly finished basement. Like HarmonQuest and Force Grey, Acquisitions Incorporated started up only recently, making it very easy to binge for a weekend. Dice, Camera, Action. Not to be outperformed by their own product, D&D owners Wizards of the Coast have started its own weekly video campaign, Dice, Camera, Action. Dungeon Master Chris Perkins leads YouTube streamers Holly Conrad, Jared Knabenbauer, Anna Prosser Robinson, and Nathan Sharp in the newest D&D campaign, Curse of Strahd. It’s not as cleverly presented as the other shows on this list, but it’s as no-nonsense as you can get and is probably the most accurate to any real D&D experience: Just a bunch of nerds having fun playing pretend.
BONUS: This YouTube Video of Vin Diesel Playing D&DBecause it’s Vin Diesel playing D&D.
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Read all the rules before submitting or commenting.We are a discussion-based subreddit about Critical Role. We are not an advertising, or a low effort/meme board. Keep that in mind when making submissions to the community.!Matt is the DM! It looks like we're getting a Critical Role Podcast!
I have no information about release schedules or what they will be posting, I just saw a familiar logo pop up in my recommendations.// // //Update: The audio from Episodes 1-10 have been posted to the feed!Update 2: Starting 'toward the end of the month' they will be releasing one episode every weekday until they're caught up (as announced on the show)Update 3: In case this podcast is your first introduction to Critical Role: they put together a video with all their previous adventures, which can be found. It should help give you context for what you're jumping into. There is also a in the sidebar.