You’ve probably been hearing a lot about Dungeons & Dragons and Critical Role lately, and with good reason: We’re currently in a sort of renaissance for tabletop RPGs, with live stream shows leading the charge to make these games feel accessible and exciting. Critical Role has blazed a trail over the last seven years, adapting their live stream home game into everything from a podcast to graphic novels to a new animated version of their first campaign, The Legend of Vox Machina, premiering January 28th on Amazon Prime. If you’re new to live-watching D&D games (or to D&D in general), then welcome! You have so much awesome content awaiting you…
Critical Role isn’t the only game in town, though it’s quite possibly the biggest. There is a flourishing world of tabletop RPG games that you can join in and follow, and tonally they run the gamut from slapstick comedy to tense drama and terrifying horror. Plus, if you’re new to tabletop RPGs and D&D in general, watching a live stream is a great way to start learning the rules so you can start a campaign of your very own. What better way to learn the ropes than watching some of the best DMs out there–folks like Matt Mercer, Johnny Chiodini, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and Aabria Iyengar?
Personally, watching tabletop RPG live streams has helped keep me going over the past few years, and I’ve watched hundreds of hours of Critical Role and other shows. They’re not solely a visual medium, so you can have them playing in the background or treat them like podcasts or audiobooks. The stories tend to be unique and engaging, with each DM acting as master storyteller guiding a group of passionate players, all ready to embody their characters as fully as they can. Many of the people involved in these shows come from voice acting backgrounds, so the vocal performances are always top-notch. The experience is so much different than watching a television series–nothing is scripted, and huge, life-or-death decisions come down to a roll of the dice.
So, if you’re all caught up on Critical Role and ready to give a different show a try, or simply curious about live streams, but aren’t sure where to start, then you’re in luck! Roll for initiative, read on, and prepare to be ensorcelled by these other D&D live stream shows and podcasts!
The Oxventure Guild
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dODNZYyHLsk
This D&D game was started by two video game review channels, OutsideXbox and OutsideXtra. Their DM, the absolutely incredible Johnny Chiodini, suggested they branch out from playing video games and try a tabletop RPG instead. That initial idea has blossomed into one of the most charming and hilarious D&D live stream shows out there right now. The Oxventurers play fast and loose with the rules, intent on telling the funniest and most absurd story they can, with a cast of characters that will live in your head rent-free long even after you’re done watching. How can you go wrong with a shameless pirate rogue, a delightfully dim half-orc bard who plays a double necked ukulele, or a well-meaning wood-elf druid who accidentally creates something called “Merilwen’s Meatgrider”? If you love Critical Role, The Oxventure Guild should be the next show on your list. It’s one of my personal favorites.
Where to find: Youtube
Dimension 20
This live stream channel is home to multiple unrelated campaigns, so there’s something for everyone. There’s the hilarious Fantasy High campaign where the players are magical teenagers, Escape from the Bloodkeep, a Lord of the Rings parody where everyone plays as orcs and demons, and A Crown of Candy, which takes place in a Candyland-esque world. The single best campaign, in my opinion, is The Unsleeping City. It’s a D&D campaign that takes place in modern-day New York City, using D&D game mechanics to explain everything from weird bodegas and bizarre Broadway plays to the nefarious background of SantaCon. The players include everything from a NYC firefighter and a Staten Island hairdresser to a literal subway rat. It’s an incredibly well-done and heartfelt love letter to New York City. The plot is wildly inventive and the DM, Brennan Lee Mulligan, is an unhinged delight to watch. If dragons and elves aren’t necessarily your thing, then The Unsleeping City should be right up your alley.
Where to find: Youtube and the Dropout streaming service (formerly CollegeHumor)
The Adventure Zone
The Adventure Zone podcast (known simply as TAZ to it’s loyal fan base) is the brainchild of those loveable scamps the McElroy brothers (and their Dad). What started as an experiment on their incredibly successful My Brother, My Brother, and Me podcast has now become a juggernaut in its own right, with four campaigns under its belt already. I suggest starting at the beginning, with the beloved Balance Arc. It sets the tone for the whole show and features Griffin McElroy playing the long-suffering DM enduring his brothers’ nonsense. The Balance Arc is an irreverent, fast-paced campaign that treats the classic D&D rules as more of a suggestion, but makes up for it with heart and humor. It also stars what are possibly their most memorable characters; Merle Highchurch, Magnus Burnsides, and the frankly iconic Taako. What began as kind of a joke quickly turned into an epic adventure that might move you to tears even while you’re laughing your head off. It’s an unmissable show, and well worth a listen.
Where to find: Wherever you get your podcasts
The Black Dice Society
Comedy is all well and good, but maybe you’re in the mood for something a little more creepy? Have I got just the live stream for you! The Black Dice Society is a campaign that takes place in the gothic Ravenloft campaign setting. It’s dark, spooky, and horrifying. Ravenloft is the D&D realm dedicated to the eerie and monstrous, home to vampires, werewolves, and mad scientists. The campaign is helmed by the fantastic B. Dave Walters, who leads the terrifying proceedings with a level of gravitas that wouldn’t be out of place in a Shakesperian production. The cast features a rogues’ gallery of hunted, haunted, cursed, and mysterious characters just trying to make it out alive (or at least, still undead). If you like your D&D dark and scary, then break out the garlic and wooden stakes before you tune in to this wonderfully dread-drenched show.
Where to find: Youtube
What If D&D Isn’t Your Thing?
Live streaming tabletop RPGs aren’t limited to D&D only–there are lots of great shows that use other game systems! L.A. By Night is a dramatic, gothic live stream using Vampire: The Masquerade as its rule set. It’s a dark, bloody affair that pits vampires against each other as they try to survive and thrive in a weird, nighttime version of Los Angeles. If science fiction is more your scene, there is the wonderful Into The Mother Lands, with a story that is part Star Trek and part Black Panther, created by people of color, both in terms of its designers and cast. It’s a fabulous Afrofuturist adventure, and it’s honestly one of the coolest RPG systems I’ve seen in a long time, as well. If you like watching old favorites try new things, the lovely Oxventurer Guild has a fantastic Blades in the Dark side campaign that’s basically just a Victorian crime simulator. The team must battle ghosts and rival gangs if they have any hope of not ending up in prison (or worse). Critical Role itself has even dabbled in Call of Cthulhu, Deadlands, and Honey Heist games. Tabletop RPG live streaming is a small world, and if you find yourself really enjoying a specific actor or DM, a quick Google search often brings up other awesome shows they’ve been involved with.
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You can’t go wrong with any of the shows above, and I hope you find a new favorite somewhere in the mix. And if watching some live streams motivates you to grab a Player’s Handbook and try the game out for yourself, even better! May the dice roll ever in your favor, and may your favorite character survive until the end of the campaign!
Meghan Ball is a writer, editor, and goth disaster. She enjoys playing guitar, doing cross stitch, and spending way too much time on Twitter. You can find her there at @EldritchGirl. Her work has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Tor Nightfire, and the 3,2,1… Action! series of roleplaying games. She currently lives in a weird part of New Jersey.
OTOH, a series of well-timed critical failures caused my DG character to drop and break an evil artifact, which seems to have ended the ongoing issues with the artifact. Anyway, I am sure there will never be any untoward complications down the road.
I have to spend fifteen minutes a day with my eyes covered (weird aging eye thing) so audio entertainment is a plus. I’ve been listening to A Familiar Quest, which seems to be about a group of familiars exploring Ravenloft. Which I am sure can only end well. Before that, it was a bunch of Runequest and Lyonesse-related shows: I find I pick up rules better listening to them in action.
I highly recommend Fun City (podcast) as well. Very very well done.
I was going to recommend the Oxventurers’ BitD campaign, but you beat me to it at the end. It’s somewhat less silly than the D&D campaign for those who are put off by that.
I’d also recommend Penny Arcade’s The C-Team, which recently came to a rather emotional conclusion. Although it’s tied to the long-running Acquisitions, Incorporated campaign, familiarity with that isn’t really necessary. During lockdown, they also did a short Tales from the Loop arc with analogs of their characters as human high school students.
Dames and Dragons (podcast) got me through last winter!
I will watch pretty much anything that Brennan Lee Mulligan is in. He is an absolute utter hilarious delight as both a GM and a player.
Dungeons & Daddies (NOT a BDSM podcast) is one of my favorite. Its really funny, rules light, and the episodes are mostly around 1 hour. It also caters to my love of Isekai stories. Its about 4 dads from our world who get flung into the Forgotten Realms and have to find their lost sons. There are some absolutely absurd situations, and some genuinely heartfelt moments. They just started their second campaign this week.
I have to recommend High Rollers. They’ve just hit their 6th year of streaming and are heading towards the end of their second full length campaign, but they also have a few shorter mini-series. Mark Hulmes is a wonderful DM and the players are an entertaining group. Mark’s name may be familiar, he was a guest on CR in campaign two, playing Calianna. If you enjoy Critical Role’s story & character driven play, HR is in a similar vein, although they are not professional actors / voice actors.
Invitation to Party on G4 (YouTube, Twitch, G4 TV Network) has been getting better with every episode – it’s another great one to check out. It’s also helmed by B. Dave Walters, and mixes in some LARP with the traditional rolling of dice.
If you enjoy dimention 20 you should check out Not another d&D podcast (naddpod for short) in that show Brian Murphy Emily axford and Caldwell tanner have alll taken turns dming diffrint campaigns across 3 diffrent worlds along with jake hurwitz and along with them every member of the d20 cast save Ally has guested
The Balance Arc of TAZ is the only one that actually sort of resembles dnd. It goes downhill starting at the 100 year arc and the other campaigns they do after that are just story telling.
Can also recommend Crit-Sandwich, especialy if you’re new to D&D. Easy to follow, alot of great characters and campaigns and entertaining roleplaying.
If you are already DnD savvy, I recommend Dungeon Dudes Drakenheim shows…good play, funny and engaging without being overly pretty people just being chrismatic…best balance between show and game.
The WizardTank guys seem small time, but pretty cool.
Try Table Story. They have multiple series featuring different systems. Depending on what you are looking for, they have something should appeal to you.
Cr is a bunch of friends playing dnd.
Dimension 20 is a buch of actors enacting people who are enacting imaginary characters.
Dumbgeons & Dragons was my initial foray into live play D&D podcasts. Filled with hilarity, great story and some amazing guests! Also recommend North By Northquest for one of the most engaging and heartbreaking stories I’ve ever followed.
I’d also highly recommend people check out High Rollers DnD. They’re a group made up of members of the Yogscast. Their campaigns are always incredible and their GM/DM, Mark Hulmes, is, in my opinion, one of the best out there. They have a YouTube channel and also a podcast, and they’re in the middle of their second campaign called “Aerois”.
I would highly recommend Happy Jack’s podcast and youtube channel for a lot of non dnd5e content.
I also highly recommend High Rollers, as well as Dungeons and Daddies (sometimes a BDSM podcast). Both are highly entertaining.
@10, They’ve actually gone back to their D&D roots with TAZ: Ethersea this campaign, and theoretically TAZ: Graduation (though I can’t actually say much about Grad because I never listened to it). They’ve actually been holding pretty close to traditional D&D rules, just adding in a system to pilot their ships and submarines, and even that tends to work pretty well with D&D rules.
There’s also Rusty Quill Gaming, a long-running series that just ended that uses Pathfinder as their system. It’s award-winning, long-running, and apparently very good, though I never really managed to enjoy it the way I’ve seen other people enjoy it.
I can recommend Dice Friends from LoadingReadyRun. They have done many RPG series, from 1 to 10 sessions or more in all different genres and systems, run and played by all different people.
Friends at the Table does not play D&D, but other systems — The Quiet Year, Blades in the Dark, Beam Sabre, TechNoir, The Sprawl… If you are interested in other systems, they’re particularly good, but I would still recommend listening, as they have told some incredibly good and moving stories.
What?? No mention yet of the insane Branson Reese’s Rude Tales of Magic? Perhaps this comment section simply isn’t rude enough…
I’ve spent the last 6 months working my way through HELLO FROM THE MAGIC TAVERN and been loving every minute of it. Lowbrow comedy meets high fantasy.
My wife and I are big fans of TAZ (our dog is named Taako) but Dimension 20 has been THE THING in our house for almost a year now. Every campaign is so different but still so good– the players are so varied with not only the types of characters they play but the strengths and approaches they bring to the table, and Brennan is without a doubt one of the best storytellers I’ve encountered.
Have to second the rec for Rude Tales of Magic. It’s a big part of how I got through 2021 [relatively] sane.
A few people from The Escapist just ran through their first campaign called Adventure is Nigh! I found it thoroughly entertaining.
So happy to see the Oxventures guys here!
Also, for italian speakers, there’s the InnTale Youtube Channel with their Luxastra’s lullaby campaign: they quickly reach a semi-pro level, the lore is huge, and there are laughs and tears at each episode.
Yes. I love the Oxventurers. They’ve made me laugh out loud several times on my morning walks. If you want a mix of Pratchett and D&D with silliness, I’d highly recommend them. Combat is sometimes the worst part but it’s generally over quickly.
Rusty Quill and Cthulu and Friends (sadly no longer around) kind of ruined me for most other role play podcasts. I mildly follow Negative Modifier (Delta Green) and Garblag Games (Masks of Nyarlethotep, I think?). Critical Role just…I dunno. Annoyed me, like they were trying too hard. But I am very clearly a minority opinion.
Oh, and Call of Cthulu Mystery Program. The (intendedly annoying) misogyny of the first season was too much for me, but I enjoyed the second season. I’m ready for the next season to drop.