Wizards of the Coast is having a proper crack at the actual-play boom. The publisher's first official live-play series, Dungeon Masters, premiered on YouTube on 22 April with a two-episode special and now drops weekly, with a cast picked to pull in the Baldur's Gate 3 crowd.
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Find events near youBehind the screen sits Jasmine Bhullar, the DesiQuest host who has played at the Dimension 20 table. Her party features Mayanna Berrin, 13 Reasons Why's Christian Navarro, and the heavy hitters of the lineup, Neil Newbon and Devora Wilde, the actors who voiced Astarion and Lae'zel in Larian's Baldur's Gate 3. Their characters are originals this time. Newbon plays Professor Crem de la Crem, a rock gnome reanimator artificer, while Wilde plays Zora Thornska, a hexblood shadow sorcerer. The party is dropped into the misty foothills of Ravenloft.
The plot ties directly into Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, the gothic horror sourcebook landing on 16 June. Wizards is using the show as a slow drip of unreleased content, with cards and rules unlocking on D&D Beyond the same week each episode airs. Composer David Arkenstone, a five-time Grammy nominee, is scoring the whole thing.
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See how it worksIt's an obvious answer to the long shadow of Critical Role and the studio polish of Dropout's Dimension 20, both of which built audiences in the millions while Wizards stayed on the sidelines. Dungeon Masters is the first time the publisher has put its own table on camera, and the BG3 hire is a clear signal that they want the video game crowd watching too.
Episodes drop weekly. If you've been thinking about running your own Ravenloft one-shot, the first arc is a rolling preview of the book before launch, and that's not a bad excuse to rally a UK group together at your local. Find a tabletop community and pencil in a session.
Sources: Variety | PC Gamer | Business Wire
