Dungeon Masters is the perfect D&D offering for the curious nerd

A quarter century ago, I gathered around a table with my middle school friends and rolled 20-sided dice — my first ever game of Dungeons & Dragons. Rolling dice is easy, but learning about the ruleset in tabletop role-playing games takes time to master. It would have been much easier if I could watch Dungeon Masters, a new YouTube show from the creators of D&D, Wizards of the Coast.

In recent years, online tabletop RPG offerings such as Critical Role and Dimension 20 have exploded in popularity. Viewers watch as dungeon masters lead players on adventures that take place in the Theater of the Mind, describing what happens when heroes attempt great feats, suffer setbacks and triumph over villains. It makes sense that Wizards of the Coast would want to be a success, especially since many of these shows use Dungeons & Dragons rules (by far the most popular tabletop RPG system, although many others exist).

It’s smart for Wizards of the Coast to start a show to promote their products (more on this later), but Dungeon Masters also does its best to help newcomers. It’s hard to figure this out if you’re not a giant geek like me who watches and listens to other RPG shows and podcasts, which edit out a lot of slower dice rolls and rule explanations to keep things moving.

In turn, the Dungeon Masters team researches the new player, briefly explaining things like spells and conditions so that people watching the game at home can understand the rules behind the rolls.

I watched the first episode of Dungeon Masters at a media screening at the Universal Studios offices in Los Angeles, and afterwards I was able to chat with the cast. If you’ve watched Critical Role or any other tabletop RPG shows, you know how an energetic actor can elevate the game and immerse viewers in the fantasy world.

Dungeon Masters has an ensemble cast from television shows, video games, and other tabletop RPG series. The four players include Neil Newbon (Astarion in Baldur’s Gate III), Devorah Wilde (Lae’zel in Baldur’s Gate III), Cristian Navarro (Tony Padilla in 13 Reasons Why, Critical Role) and Mayana Perrin (Janelle/Coupe in Dispatch, StoryQuest). The honorary dungeon master for this season of the show is Yasmin Bhullar (Dimension 20, DesiQuest).

Fans will be able to watch the first two episodes of this first season of Dungeon Masters via live stream on the Dungeon Masters Channel Official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel at 6:30 PM PT on April 22, with additional episodes coming every Wednesday at the same time. Details indicate guests will appear, although we’ll all have to watch to find out who they might be.

What I saw in the first episode was familiar to a D&D veteran, but promising in what it offers to beginners (or those who need a rules refresher every now and then).

Dungeon Masters is the perfect D&D offering for the curious nerd

If you’ve ever watched a tabletop RPG show, you’ll recognize the show’s setup for Dungeon Masters, in which the four players gather around a table while the titular dungeon master sits far above them, playing their multiple roles as narrator, world builder, and monster controller.

The first episode of Dungeon Masters begins with the characters introducing themselves – Newbon as the inventive Professor Artificer gnome Crem, Wilde as his witch wife Zora, Navarro as the half-vampire ranger Eloin and Berrin as the cleric of the Wesley Cemetery – before Bhullar throws them into disarray through an attack by a powerful spellcaster. They are soon transported to a different world, Ravenloft, one of Dungeons & Dragons’ most beloved places for haunted gothic adventures.

In fact, the show is inspired by never-before-seen features from the upcoming D&D expansion book, Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, which will be released on June 16. (Viewers can purchase a Play-Along Pack to download monsters and content featured in the episodes on the D&DBeyond online site to play with in their own games.) So, yes, it’s a bit of a commercial for the next Wizards of the Coast product, but that doesn’t make the game the actors are playing any less authentic or the drama any less unpredictable. It’s designed to show what players will be able to do once they get their hands on the materials, which is reflected in what I think is the standout feature of Dungeon Masters: explaining what actually happens in the game with visual aids.

With most other tabletop RPG offerings, the cast goes through a typical process of seeing what happens: the player says what they want to do, the dungeon master says what kind of dice roll to make, the player rolls and the outcome is determined.

But Dungeon Masters goes further, by not only having players explain the menus (what bonuses can be added or subtracted) but also displaying information on the screen about what is being discussed. If it’s a spell, they’ll explain what it does. If it rolls, it shows the score that must be overcome. If a devastating fireball hits a large area of ​​the battlefield, they will make a circle on the map to show who is within range – friends and enemies alike.

This fits the spirit of D&D,” Newbon said during my interview with the cast. The Dungeon Master is there to help guide the story and explain the rules, bringing everyone at the table closer together.

“In most of the games I’ve played in D&D, we’ve always had someone need a little help with the rules. It creates a sense of togetherness and teamwork since you’re there to support each other,” Newbon said. “Nobody knows where the story is going, but it’s all about cooperative, cooperative storytelling. Even if you end up fighting each other, which happens.”

Bhullar added that it also helps that the show moves more slowly when explaining new material that no one has seen before, including players who learn about it in real time in each episode.

The cast was careful not to spoil what happens to their characters and what’s in store for viewers over the course of the show, but I couldn’t resist staring at CNET’s signature question: What gadget would each of their characters want, and what gadget should they never get their hands on?

“A camera to capture memories,” Navarro said of his guardian Elwin, a half-vampire.

“I think the scanner that lets you know who’s a zombie or not might be a thermal reader,” Perrine said of Cleric Wesley, perhaps a reference to what he’s hiding. “Don’t give her a thermal reader! She knows who the undead are, and she’ll bring them back to Earth.”

“I think maybe Zora shouldn’t be allowed access to a phone that has any dating apps on it, I think that would be a huge mistake, or maybe a really good time,” Wilde said sheepishly of her wizard.

“I think Kareem would like an MRI machine. Maybe he shouldn’t get his hands on an MRI machine,” Newbon said. (Good luck reading this one.)

What the cast hopes viewers take away from Dungeon Masters is that they watch and want to have the experience with their friends. Newbon says people get nervous when writing stories, but the point of doing it is to have fun — it’s not all supposed to be hard work.

“Yes, there may be a lot of preparation that (dungeon masters) do, but it’s all done in the spirit of fun,” Newbon said. “So if they’re having fun, they can be…”

“Dungeon Master!” Wilde said on cue.