Earlier this week, Dungeons & Dragons dropped the first two episodes of their newest actual play, Dungeon Masters. The new YouTube series on the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube channel is part of an overall play experience that Wizards Of The Coast will implement, called Seasons. To kick off the first Season, Season Of Horror, Dungeon Masters are using material from the upcoming book Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. Personally I’ve been very excited to see what Seasons will look like, and was even more excited when I heard the cast list for the first season of Dungeon Masters.

As part of the experience, Wizards of the Coast will release the episodes of the new show weekly on Wednesdays (the first Season having 8 episodes). In addition, they will release a Play Along Pack, which is an encounter experience based on what was played in the episode. It will consist of an adventure outline (Hook), a map that was used, and early access to a monster from the new Ravenloft book.

I had a chance to watch the first two episodes and also ran the Play Along Pack at my local gaming store the day it was released. Here are my thoughts about this experience so far.

Dungeon Masters As Inspiration For Playing D&D

When Wizards Of The Coast announced the “Official D&D Actual Play”, there’s been a lot of discussions around what kind of series this would be: Will this be purely for entertainment? Is it another marketing strategy? Is it trying to beat out Critical Role? Will it be instructional and show people how D&D is played?

After watching the first two episodes (and running the Play Along Pack, which is important here), I think the series can serve as a source of inspiration for what’s to come in the Seasons of Dungeons & Dragons. The cast for the Season of Horror includes Jasmine Bhullar, Mayanna Berrin, Christian Navarro, Neil Newbon, and Devora Wilde, who are all fantastically talented people. I saw 5 different people with 5 different ways of playing Dungeons and Dragons. Bhullar’s use of voice modulation to instill the sense of Fear at her table was captivating. Newbon’s incredible skill of bringing a character to life with their quirks and mannerisms continues to amaze me. Navarro’s ingenious way of describing how his character casts Speak With Animal (his character speaks to a raven by having his mouth turn into a raven’s beak to talk). Berrin’s vivd details of her character’s weapon and magic to include the senses. Devora’s genuine reactions to the game as a new player in the hobby. It showed that there are diverse ways to play and experience the game, which all are powerful, fun, and valid.

This series is not, however, meant to be instructional. Although they have some great visual callouts that appear on the screen when certain terms are used for those not familiar with the game, this wouldn’t be a series that I would recommend people watch to learn how to play the game. I would, however, suggest this series to someone who wants to know what it is like to play Dungeons & Dragons with a caveat that this is how it can feel. New viewers to the hobby should be aware that this is a highly produced show with professional actors telling amazing stories. Will this be how you experience the game at every table? No. But you can definitely watch it to gather ideas on how you may want to play or run your game that you may not have thought of before.

The production value of the series is definitely phenomenal. The visuals that the production team created to enhance the gameplay viewing experience is exemplary. I also love that each episode is 1 hour long. I have yet been able to watch an entire episode of my favorite actual play group, Critical Role, because of their standard 4 hour long episodes. But a 1 hour episode with a talented cast and production team that can tell wonderful stories in the form of Dungeons & Dragons? I feel like this series is definitely for me.

But probably the biggest highlight for me about this series is how it’s paired with the Play Along Pack. I’ll discuss more about what the Play Along Pack is below in detail, but you essentially get an encounter to run that’s based on the series episode. This is something that can support Dungeon Masters by giving them a way to see how an Encounter can be ran before running it themselves. Having that kind of feedback and inspiration built into the experience is a great way to feel more confident and creative about running the adventure. We don’t have a lot of YouTube series where you watch someone run a written module, so having this as a resource, especially for new DMs, is a good tool to have for the community.

Easter Eggs and… Future Sneak Peaks?

In watching the episodes, there was an Easter Egg (or maybe it’s called something else, I’m not sure) that some may have missed. In the series, Crem (played by Newbon) and Zora (played by Wilde) have a daughter named Lavender. We see in the episode some artwork for this character, which is the same character that is in the hands of Lord Soth on the cover of the Play Along Packs and other pieces in D&D marketing, so that was fun to catch.

We also may of had a sneak peak into future D&D products without even realizing it. Episode 1 opens with the party fighting a Red Wizard of Thay in Baldur’s Gate. This may be a monster that may appear in the future Season Of Magic, given that one of the books, Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall will be an adventure centered around the Red Wizards of Thay. But the one that did get my attention is when Devora looked at what appears to be a spell card when she was reading a spell description. Wizards of the Coast did confirm that D&D Reference Cards will be a product coming out later this year, and they may already be using them in Dungeon Masters.

What It Was Like Running The Play Along Pack

When an episode of Dungeon Masters airs, Wizards of the Coast will release a Play Along Pack, a D&D Beyond exclusive Encounter scenario the next day (the first one, Zombie Clot, is free. The remaining Play Along Packs will be available for purchase). Each Pack contains a Hook (similar to adventure outlines we’ve seen in Dungeon Master’s Guide and Forgotten Realms: Adventures In Faerun), a location/battle map to use in Maps, D&D Beyond’s Virtual Tabletop (VTT), and early access to a monster from the Ravenloft: The Horror Withins book.

Wizards Of The Coast have said that these Play Along Packs were “adapted for play rather than to recreate exact scenes from the show, making it easier to bring them to your table no matter where your adventures take you.” Although this is true, it is the same formula they’ve been using since the release of 5.5. So if this is not your style for running an adventure, this will be a similar experience. It provides you the bare bones of an adventure, leaving you to fill in the details. A lot of Dungeon Masters like having something to spring off from; others want more details in their adventures.

When the first Play Along Pack was released on Thursday, I spent my lunch hour reading through the Pack, planning to run it at my game store later that evening. Here were my biggest takeaways from running it at a table with very little prep time:

• I’m genuinely surprised how well I can run an adventure from this structure. I always feel like improvisation is something I’m not comfortable with and yet during the session, it felt easy to fill in those details on the fly.
• I do wish there were some more guidance in the adventures so that I have a better understanding of how the adventure was intended to run.
• The Zombie Clot was gnarly. Their Flesh Entombed ability was the highlight of the session.
• Having environmental factors in the encounter really brought the challenge a level higher. I also enjoyed the Initiative 20 ability of the Zombie Clot where zombies would fall right out of them before attacking.
• After running it, I realized that I didn’t use the same kind of details or story structure as Bhullar used, giving my players a different kind of play experience. In the future, I plan to read through the Play Along Pack then watch the episode to jot down further ideas to run the one shot.
• The Maps VTT Quick Play option had a couple of issues with running it, such as missing monsters in Initiative and the wrong dimensions for the bog. But other than that, I was able to drop that map into Maps, pull it up on my TV Monitor, and jumped right in to play.
• All of my players absolutely loved playing this encounter.

Overall, I think the Play Along Pack is a good option for those who want to run a one shot and be able to watch Dungeon Masters to get ideas, strategies, and inspiration for it. It’s an easy way to check your understanding of the adventure without needing to rely on the availability of someone else.

Is This A Winning Strategy For The Community?

I’m not oblivious to the fact that the Seasons model is a marketing strategy to get people to buy the many products centered around the books that they’re releasing. Dungeon Masters and Play Along Packs are certainly part of that model to help sell their products. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s bad for the community.

Did I wish that they would open up Play Along Packs in a non-D&D Beyond digital or physical format that people can use? Absolutely.

Do I think that someone can find a lot of value in trying their hand at becoming a Dungeon Master by running a Play Along Pack and watching the episode to see how the cast did it? Also emphatically yes.

I think this is a step in the right direction. It’s still a long way to go, but seeing the many support systems in place to bring the many diverse fans of Dungeons and Dragons to the table more and more will continue to grow the hobby.

I remember when I first started to get into the hobby, I didn’t know where to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons. I didn’t know how to find a table to learn how to play the game or where else I could turn to. Luckily, a video game called Baldur’s Gate 3 let me learn the basics of D&D at my own pace, being able to get a sense of how the rules of Dungeons & Dragons work on my own time, and giving me a safe space to fail, free of embarrassment from my peers. Dungeon Masters and Play Along Packs can give a similar experience and open up doors for many people who may be wanting to take the leap, finding that safe landing spot by getting inspiration from someone who ran the adventure, watching it on YouTube at their own pace in their own time.

I am personally looking forward to future episodes and Play Along Packs.