Article by Christopher Cruz
It’s not just video games that dominate the digital airwaves on platforms like Twitch — there’s a huge contingent of viewers who yearn for the old days of pen and paper, with tabletop RPGs making a huge splash virtually in the last few years. In fact, once-niche games like Dungeons & Dragons (which turns 50 this year) have taken on new life in the age of livestreaming, and more popular than ever.
Leading the charge are “actual plays,” podcasts or web shows that feature groups of players creating narratives from their imaginations, without the aid of flashy video game visuals, and their popularity has led to a tabletop resurgence whose audience is now more inclusive and diverse. Spanning the genre mainstays, officially licensed extensions of existing franchises, and even homebrew titles people are making themselves, it’s one of the most unexpectedly engrossing ways to lose yourself online.
But how can watching folks roll dice and making up a story out of thin air be so engaging? Like anything online, it begins with the personalities. With known super geeks Vin Diesel, Joe Manganiello, and Wil Wheaton pushing their favorite hobbies in interviews and YouTube appearances for years, alongside the rise of content creators whose fans hang captive for hours on end, it was only a matter of time before tabletop games took hold of mainstream attention. Most groups in the space, like some of the ones featured below, are comprised of beloved figures of nerdom, from voice actors who dominate the anime and video spaces, to comedians who kill on socials, but what makes actual plays so addictive to watch boils down to what has always made them work. It’s about community.
For those who play, the appeal of games like Dungeons & Dragons has long been sitting down with a group of friends week after week just shooting the shit. It’s a shared experience, limited only by imagination, where people can work together (or against each other) to create worlds and stories that reflect their own desires. It’s a ritual. And nothing describes the rise of livestreaming itself than ritualistic viewing. Think of it as an ongoing audio book that’s written in real time, narrated by a handful of professional friends just having a good time. It’s all the joys of TTRPG without having to manage the rules…
Another live play show is out there that has the support of legends in the Voice Acting community, Natural Six.
The team recently broadcast an update on Twitch for the early backers on Kickstarter, everyone attempts to imitate Doug’s infamous “Winds…howling” from The Witcher, a reveal of some figurines, an appearance by Sam Lake, and reviewing some of the moments from the Session 0 meetups.
The cast:
Harry McEntire is the GM
Doug Cockle - Kelnys Spoonshaper, a dragonborn druid
Aoife Wilson - Dolly de Winter, a tiefling bard
Alex Jordan - I, a kobold rogue
Hollie Bennet - Endellion Renanne, a human champion fighter
Ben Starr - Raidion Thornbear, a wood elf wizard
Here is Harry’s opening to Session 0:
Welcome to Natural 6. This is session zero of the world of Reliquiae. We’ve rolled our characters, we know who our heroes are, and now it’s time to see how they met.
Before time.
Before sound and song, color and light.
Before mortal memory, a battle raged.
The gods of Good, Evil, and Chaos, known as ‘TheVirtuous’, ‘The Vile’, and ‘The Wild’ (respectively), fought for control of existence. When this war finally ended, it was ‘The Virtuous’ who triumphed.
And, being driven by a desire to create, having destroyed for so long, they called into being a world, Reliquiae. A vast and verdant crater, surrounded on all sides by a towering mountain range called the Allanites. A world in which mortality could multiply and flourish. Each of The Virtuous bringing forth a race in their image and imbued with a spark of their divine being.
So mortality came to be.
So began a time known as The Immortal Peace. Yet ‘Peace’ has never meant ‘Perfection’. Mortals still lie, cheat, murder, extort and expose one another to terrible cruelty. There are still the hopeless, the desperate, the lost…
And it’s souls such as these who turn to The Web. A nefarious, shadowy organization that offers protection, procurement, and power at a price. Those who find themselves caught within it’s silken threads may extracate themselves by two methods: By Gold or By Servitude. There are some who bind their families to The Web for generations. So strong is their desire to achieve their ends. Yet, despite the disperate paths that led them there, all agents of The Web are united in the knowledge of one thing: that they are not free until their debt is paid. There is no escape from The Web. For their eyes are as to the stars in the sky, and
The Web Is Wide.
Five agents of The Web are moving now in the northeast of the continent. Two days journey from the city of Brack on the edge of the northern swamps.
Just an award-winning director and game designer as the first in the Deck of Many Friends. No big. (Sam rolled an 18)
Harry with a fan at a convention. Perhaps foreshadowing of upcoming members of The Deck of Many Friends.