Did you know that Amazon picked up a new animated show after its Kickstarter raised over US$11,000,000? Or that NBCUniversal’s new streaming service will kick off featuring another brand new animated series?
Did you know that both of those shows are based on a group of people broadcasting their Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaigns to the public?
Critical Role and The Adventure Zone, a stream and podcast respectively, have gained massive audiences within a short few years since they began. Both shows have produced not only hundreds of episodes of content but also their own merchandise, published books, and even best-selling graphic novels.
It’s not like these two shows hold a monopoly over the actual-play medium, either (though they are arguably the most popular ones). There are hundreds of different long-form streams, podcasts, and even edited shows of people playing all types of tabletop games for the enjoyment of others.
Actual-play has evolved to become its own genre of entertainment now, and people often watch or listen to episodes that can go on for hours without even missing a single second.
The first question is: how’d we get here?
A Tabletop Renaissance
You’d think that since we’re in what’s considered the golden age of video games, board games would have disappeared by now. But really, it’s the opposite! In 2018, The developers of D&D sold more units of the game than ever before. Now, more than ever, people are turning to these classic games to spend some quality time with their friends.
The rebirth of tabletop gaming may not have caught many people’s attention before, but the renaissance sparked an avalanche of old and new fans in the second half of the 2010’s. Now, you can probably find a board game cafe tucked away somewhere in a corner of your city!
The resurgence can partly be attributed to the shows mentioned above, as thousands of people became inspired to start their own campaigns with their friends and replicate their favorite D&D stream. But in its wee beginnings, the webseries TableTop by Geek and Sundry played a major role in repopularising tabletop gaming.
Running from 2012 to 2017, TableTop was hosted by Wil Wheaton and featured celebrity guests playing different tabletop games in each episode. It eventually gave birth to the “TableTop Effect” where the games being featured on the show would get a significant boost in sales.
It’s a new way to connect and socialize - and since Joe Manganiello’s secret D&D group has become public knowledge, the concept of role playing tabletop games has perhaps shed some of its “geeky” first impressions.
Better Than Regular TV?
So what’s the deal with these streams? What makes them so special? Why are people committing to over 100 episodes that run on an average of 4 hours?
Firstly, you could attribute the popularity of these shows to the way they’re usually so candid. Even for a show like DROPOUT’s Dimension 20, which is filmed in advance and edited like any traditional show, there is a lack of overt professionalism between the cast.
More than likely, these people you watch play are friends and have an established rapport with each other. You get to witness mistakes live, or silly improvisations that become running jokes on the spot. Despite the fact that these people are playing for an audience, they are also playing for themselves.
There’s generally no disconnect from the people on the screen to the viewers in that regard. It’s possibly the most human-level viewing experience out there.
Then, there’s the matter of the story. More often than not, the stories that come from these shows are earnest since they are the lovechild of the Dungeon Master (DM) and the players. Because these people on these shows create these characters and stories themselves, it’s not wrong to assume they are the ones who care for them the most.
It’s easy to connect with these characters and storylines since there’s generally no cynical veil of “shock value” or the need to place some characters over others because they’re more ‘popular’. Characters are fleshed out properly and change drastically over time - they feel real, even if the story is set in some faraway fantasy world.
Finally, there’s also the simple fact that these shows are usually so easy to access. You don’t need a subscription to a streaming service to find these shows in their raw form. The majority, if not all, of these shows, can be found for free on the internet (with Youtube, Soundcloud, and even Spotify being the main platforms). As a result, fan communities for actual-play shows are also almost always rich and encouraged.
The Future of Actual Play
Where do we go from here, then? Of course, it’s hard to say if these shows will progress into the mainstream - though condensing the hundreds of hours of gameplay into a more traditional-form TV show could be a good start.
Plus, there’s so much to listen to that it’s not hard for someone who doesn’t enjoy the usual suspects to find another show to enjoy instead.
In the end, since this is all so new, trying to guess where it’ll go is a tricky game. And considering how popular all these shows are getting, the bubble won’t be bursting anytime soon.
