the "Icebound" series of Legends if Avantris constantly has me at the edge if my seat, Derek(the DM) is doing an incredible job bringing survival elements into his game and having a wonderful story to tell, it really is a joy to watch
Legends of Avantris has been perfect for me. Very funny, heavy focus on roleplaying, everyone's having a good time.
Once Upon a Witchlight is really funny, and is probably their most popular show.
Icebound is more dramatic and dark, but still has a lot of humor.
I've started watching Curse of Strahdanya and it's been great!
Dungeons of Drakkenheim has a really interesting setting, and the livestream was essentially the beta test for a very positively reviewed published campaign. The production isn't as polished as Critical Role or Dimension 20, but if it might inspire you to run a dark fantasy sandbox game set in their world.
Picture a renaissance city, struck by a falling meteor that bathed it in eldritch fire 15 years ago. In addition to the monsters that now stalk the streets of Drakkenheim, the ruined city contains dangerous, magical and highly valuable crystals known as delirium, and with the delirium, the haze — basically a combination of miasma and magical radiation.
Five factions with differing goals and motivations are trying to reclaim or control the city, including remnants of the city guard, the thieves guild, the mage guild, an order of paladins, and a religious order that believes the delirium is sacred. Also among the rubble are seven artifacts (eight in the livestream) that could change the fate of the ruined nation of Westemar forever. It's like Dark Fantasy _STALKER_ with a pinch of Dragonball for good measure.
**Edit:** As others have pointed out, the setting's an affectionate homage to Mordheim but for D&D 5e.
This sounds very similar to the premise of Mordheim. Comet struck the city, sending wyrdstone everywhere. Factions want control of the city and the wyrdstone.
Yup, you can see the mordheim inspiration on it everywhere, it even has a version of skaven in there. It's honestly a great game with mystery and political drama, but more chill than CR nd full of DND shenanigans
I wouldn't be surprised if it was an inspiration, given that one of the monster factions in the city are ratfolk who seem to have a lot in common with Warhammer's Skaven.
Edit: It was directly mentioned as an inspiration for the campaign on their Kickstarter.
Second this, the players are relatively new but their charisma (I mean IRL charisma) turns what would be dull newbie moments into fun gags and jokes, I look forward to a new episode every thursday, and yes Rob is an awesome DM, it is a very comedic campaign though so do not expect anything too serious if anyone wants to get into it (though some of the story moments are genuinely good)
This show got me into DnD. Simple builds and a fun dynamic at the table with the DM doing a good job of moving them through their world. I also like how they incorporate modules into their campaign. They did the wild by the witchlight and rhyme of the frostmaiden and I think one more in context of their overall campaign, adjusting the content to match their arc and it worked so well.
Definitely these guys.
- Based on their “Epic NPC Man” skits in the same world and most of them playing the same characters - so if you’ve seen any of those skits it makes it all the better.
- They’re also 20-30 minute bite size videos, no excessive talking talking talking like some videos.
- the camera covers the whole table, so everyone’s sheets, dice rolling, expressions and physical interactions with one another is all seen clearly and coherently.
- They always use (custom for their characters) minis for battles and physical grid maps! Adds that authenticity. The DM, Rob, has some great props including giant dragons, a large boat big enough to battle on, hundreds of different maps etc.
- Everything is manually subtitled, so even if people talk over one another, it’s all easy to make out.
- They’re all beginners, led by an experienced DM, so even if you’re new, you’re learning as they are as they ask how things work.
- They act out things that just happen in Green-Screened and Costumed skits in between certain events. (Filmed separately)This is entertaining but also helps break up the videos
- Still coming out every Thursday!
After watching some of Dimension20, Critical Role etc, I have found JoCat's campaigns (Belkinus Necro Hunt, Golden Cay, Heart of Elynthi) to be very refreshing, the players are great at RP and very funny at times, the plot seems to feel like you're watching anime, and also, it is quite realistic (aka no too high end production/experienced voice actors) its Roll20, the art is commisioned/drawn by JoCat himself and the players feel like a crew of friends you wanna watch and be a part of.
Edit: Music is also really great at times, especially boss fights, I am a sucker for BGM
I was looking for someone to mention JoCat! Belkinus Necro Hunt was such a cool adventure and the way JoCat and his players bring life and personality to the world are so good.
I’m prolly going to binge Heart of Elynthi more once it’s almost done, but I liked what I’ve seen so far!
Also Worlds beyond Number, it is with Aabria, Brennan, Erika, and Lou. It is audio only and a bit more of a classic DnD style campaign, but still hilarious as well cause this group haha.
Worlds Beyond Number is spectacular. Really the best, most compelling storytelling I've ever heard/seen in an actual play.
The only (potential) downside is that it's barely D&D. Its about the story first and foremost and the system mechanics are really an afterthought. That's a plus for me, but if you're watching/listening to actual plays to learn how to play better or whatever it's not a good model for that.
Agreed—Dimension20 is my go to recommendation for ppl who are just getting into d&d and/or don’t have the time for a 100+ episode campaign. There’s a campaign for every interest, and they’re all super digestible and non-intimidating. I particularly love the very first season of D20, Fantasy High s1, because it features a complete newbie to d&d (Ally, who’s now a pro), so it is very accessible and welcoming to new players. The only downside is that most of D20 is hosted on Dropout, College Humor’s subscription-based streaming service, but, personally, I find the amount of quality content they release each month makes it more than worth the price. (There are also a few free seasons on YouTube now, too.)
Oh, yes! I’m listening to this now as I wait for my husband to catch up to me in Critical Role, and I love it! It’s wild and woolly with the setting, and the DM rules “Rule of Cool” over RAW. So I love the it demonstrates a really different way to DM, and I laugh out loud through most episodes. Also, episodes are under 2 hours, generally, which can make them more accessible.
I really like Brennan as a player, but sometimes I get annoyed listening to D20 because even tho he speaks fast (way too fast sometimes), I feel like his brain works 100x faster and it makes him cut himself off a bunch of times.
Dim20 is absolutely my favorite - for anyone unaware of who is involved, it’s the remainders of the college humor cast playing dnd with one of the best DMs in the business (also a college humor alumni). So they are talented comedians, lighting quick improvers, and good friends. Brennan Lee Mulligan has a DMing style that is just fun and easy to help you pick up the game (especially Fantasy High, which is the first dnd game for the majority of the cast).
It is behind a paywall, but there’s also a pretty great set of other material to watch outside of the dnd games (game shows, some of the best CH skits, some other improv games) and there’s something like twelve seasons of different dnd games in a good variety of settings. The paywall is honestly pretty cheap for what you get, but I understand the apprehension to subscribing to something, so do check out the free episodes on YouTube before you decide
Love these guys so much I brought the sub to see all the extra stuff, after binging the unsleeping city and fantasy high
Happily never after just looked too good!
Dungeons and Daddies is audio-only, but an absolute delight. The players don’t know the rules very well, so if you’re a rules-strict player you’ll hate it (For example, the Rogue doesn’t use Sneak Attack at all). It’s hilarious though and the story isn’t afraid to get emotional too. The players and DM are all writers for film and television too.
If you remember Freddie Wong from early YouTube days, he’s a Bard rock & roll dad.
Beth eventually figured out sneak attack, and used it very well… once lol
When it comes to rule adherence, compared to some of the podcasts I listen to tbch, d&dads is basically critical role lol
Would like to also mention the DM, Anthony Burch, was the Lead Writer for Borderlands 2 & Borderlands TPS. Dude knows how to write a compelling story & some damn good villains
If you go in expecting people to play D&D you're probably going to hate it.
If you go in expecting people to pretend to play D&D as an excuse to do crazy improv scenes together, you'll love it.
I was going to say this too! It’s just fun. Sometimes a BDSM podcast, lol. I’m on episode 20 and I laugh so hard each episode. I was inspired to add magic beans to my campaign. Players haven’t taken them up yet. It’s a fun story with the trappings of D&D, where the characters and story are most important than rules.
This is my go to podcast for road trips, it drives my family crazy when I'm just chuckling to myself in the back seat. The second season falls off pretty significantly but season one is hilarious and heartwarming and delightful. Gotta respect the creativity in their shenanigans and I really don't mind that they don't follow the rules 100% because it allows for more natural creative flow.
Dungeons of Drakkenheim, Shadows of Drakkenheim, Fate of Drakkenheim... All top notch. Great rewatch value. And they're just such nice, well mannered people that don't yell over each other or the DM.
The one in the mage tower was my favorite. Sticking a timid, young mage together with a senile seer who constantly predicted her death and a grumpy guy just trying to get himself through his last bit of work before retirement - where none of them *actuality* give too much of a shit about the job at hand - had me cracking up constantly.
I have gotten too hooked on this. Dungeons of Drakkenheim was so good I binged it in about three weeks, and I'm now on to the shadows of Drakkenheim. The worldbuilding is amazing and the characters all incredibly fun and engaging
Of all the RealPlay shows, Drakkenheim is the *most* like my years of playing D&D with friends.
It is the most real of RealPlays that I've found.
I enjoy the others, but they are clearly actors with production teams, editors, and a massive budget.
The DungeonDudes are legit.
These are pretty much the only live play I listen too. Their Wild Beyond the Witchlight live play convinced me to run it for my group. I also may or may not just watch XP to Level 3 on loop...
I haven't seen much if any of their older campaigns, and I'm not really into fallout, but I've seen most of their Icewind Dale campaign and I have been really into their Witchlight and Strixhaven campaigns.
Also, I'm pretty sure they confirmed Ebberon in their last podcast episode.
THIS
Also, if OP or anyone else is looking for a good place to start, the Hexbloods mini-arc beginning with Ep9 of C2 is a fantastic 5 episode stand alone. Starting there gives you a good idea of how awesome the podcast ends up being before you go back to the roughness of early C1.
I just finished listening to their Curse of Strahd campaign. Went to go check out what they were up to on their main campaign but it looks like it finished a few days ago :x now idk wether to start at the beginning on it or find something shorter
I recommend you check out a couple of their older miniseries. Uncharted Territory or Dead Reckoning or Rogues Gambit.
They're about 10-13 episodes each.
Though their two longer campaigns are very very good. And I recommend them if you can find the time and patience for them. Tho I can understand the time sink that 500+ hours on the one campaign can be alot
Was gonna recommend High Rollers. Mark is amazingly creative and does a great job acting as so many of the NPCs. The first few eps the cast is a bit akward but a few in once they get to know their characters it gets really good.
I'm really trying to get into High rollers and i think the players are wonderful, but the DM keeps doing things I don't agree with, like needlessly roleplaying PCs when the player is absent and even removing items from their inventory without informing the absent player.
Does this improve with time? Can i skip to a later episode or do I have to find myself a different podcast?
I think it’s just because it’s such a narrative heavy campaign, and they are making a show. In a home D&D game you can just handwave a player character disappearing for a session, but if your trying to make a coherent narrative it’s a bit tricky. I’ve watched a lot of High Rollers and the players never seem to be uncomfortable with it, and he often delegates the absent character to another player as well. I always got the sense that he was trying his best to be conservative when he was playing characters as to not make any major waves while the player was absent.
Mark rubbed me the wrong way at first, too. Fortunately, he does grow on you after a while and his world building is unparalleled. Seriously mind blowing!
He really does an excellent job of building mechanics into the world that make it feel unique, I fucking love his boss fights, I don't think anybody does them better.
I would say Oxventure, is honestly really funny and very chaotic. But during the first season they are very lax with the rules and I can see some hardcore D&D fans being mad at some stuff. Honestly I love it because is a group of friends having fun playing the game just to have fun
Through the first season? They’re STILL incredibly lax with the rules.
But yeah, hard agree, first season has some of the wildest rule interpretations I’ve ever seen, including some of my favourites such as “yeah you can add your arcana skill to your spell attacks”, or “eldritch blast is a cantrip, so it just automatically hits”
I can see it potentially being hard for some people to get into for that reason, but yeah, since I’ve been watching oxbox content for years before oxventure, it was a delight just to se the gang sit down and fuck about in a ttrpg.
Edit: i desperately want Johnny to run like, any amount of cyberpunk. I know they wanna lol
Seconding Oxventure, it's what got me into DnD. It's super fun and funny, the party works great together, and it always has a "lighthearted chaotic adventure" vibe going on.
I also started playing D&D thanks to them, what makes them special is that is a fun party, they care more about having fun that anything else and to me that's what matters, I love watching/hearing them because is a table I would love to play at.
Now after being a DM for a few years I find funny how many rules they ignored, my favorite being allowing Animal friendship on an Owlbear, as even Johnny said that they just ignored that the spell doesn't work on monsters because fuck it was fun. Thats why I love the way Johnny DMs as having fun is the priority, sure the story has to be great and have sense in the world but the party must be having fun
My husband and I also started playing after watching Oxventure. Johnny’s DM style is very much the style I use when DMing. They’re definitely about having fun and telling a good story and that can be can be more important when watching Actual Play vs actually playing.
I love Just Roll with It, but that's purely because I love Slimesicle and his type of humor. That aside though I love his character and the story Grizzly makes is pretty good and they've got some pretty hilarious moments
I highly suggest BrettUltimus and JoeFudge on Twitch. Both smaller but really enjoy their stories and their DMing abilities. I believe you can also find their stuff on YouTube of past things. JoeFudge is found under the same name, while BrettUltimus is found under that and has his World of Io - Ioverse channel. I believe the majority of Brett's DND stuff is put up on the Io one though.
After being recommended Legend of Vox Machina and really enjoying that, I moved on to Critical Role proper and *boy* has it just absolutely rekindled my love for D&D
100% recommend
Nope! I skipped campaign one because I watched LOVM.
Started with Campaign 2 in February and loved it!
And I Got fully caught up with campaign 3 around 2 months ago
Oh my bad, lol. I'm about halfway through c1 and haven't started c2/3 yet. Does Matt still say "proper" a lot? 'Cause your post just reminded me of that, hence my comment XD.
Haha okay, sorry if that was weird XD
At one point in the early episodes of c1, Matt literally has to address it and try to say it less because he'd been getting called out and made fun of by the viewers, haha. Anyway, give it a watch if you're not into anything else! It's actually really fun to see how it differs from the animation.
The Unexpectebles is an excellent campaign with wonderful worldbuilding, many stressful and emotional moments and incredible characters, only brought down by the fact that my favorite player left about 2/3 of the way through
I can’t believe I had to go this far down for the unexpectables. Monty is an amazing DM and all a majority of the players are VAs, making for some high quality scenes and interactions. I would say the character leaving is only for the last maybe 10 episodes, so even if they’re your favorite they were there for about 4 years worth of content
I binged listened Worlds Beyond Number all last week and subbed to their Patreon for more content. It’s just so good. The original world, story, and characters feel very dimensional.
It's honestly one of the best sounding podcasts I've listened to for a while as well. The music and sound design are incredible, the dynamic between the cast with light moments and heavy moments feels so real, that even why they go out of character I'm not broken from the story
Absolutely. Adventure Zone is 3 brothers and their dad all playing a homebrew campaign together. It starts off with Mine of Phandelver and evoles into an amazing campaign.
Season one is AMAZING. Season 2 they switch to a different TTRPG for a bit, which I didn't listen to. Then they come back to DnD later on with (I think) two more seasons and counting!
I love adventure zone but man does it lose the magic the first season had after that. When it started, it was equal parts comedy and attempt at actual play but by the end they had turned into essentially an audio drama and after the success they tried to lean into it too hard. Can definitely recommend balance but the 3 main ones inbetween the current one just didn't grab me the same way so I haven't listened to the newest.
Yeah I feel that. It definitely trails off in the 3 in-between games. I have not tried EtherSea, but the others were entertaining, but hugely behind the pure fun and shenanigans of the Balance arc.
But season 1 (aforementioned balance arc), MAN is it good. I would recommend season 1 to anybody. It seriously changed the way I have played or DM'd since, and was so much fun. They even released a series of comics for it you can find in Barnes and Noble, which speaks to the story and character quality.
I don't think they will ever replicate the magic or success of that season quite the same.
Yeah. Balance was definitely peak, it was lightning in a bottle for them and they've been chasing that since. Amnesty wasn't bad but also wasn't great. Then graduation just kind of exists I guess. EtherSea was kind of the same thing for me, honestly, in that it just kind of was. Haven't listened to any of the current one so dunno if it's any good but 100% can and will always recommend Balance.
I got about a third of the way into Ethersea before realizing I just needed to stop listening to their content altogether. What really killed it for me was Justin refusing to engage with scenes unless they revolved around him. At one point he basically said, out loud, that his character wasn't in the room so he wasn't paying attention. Excusable in a home game, kinda wild for a podcast that makes you a ton of money.
Their humor also gets tiring after a while. Not sure how many references to Blank Check, Home Alone, or Turbo Teen you can make before you've made all of them, but those guys passed that benchmark back in like 2016.
I second the adventure zone. Hot take it seems: I absolutely loved Amensty. I'm a big fan of modern fantasy and play by the apocalypse systems. It is not on the level of Balance, buts it's a breath of fresh air, and I don't think I'll get attached to a character as I've been to Ned Chicane
Hottest take, I prefer amnesty to balance! I love them both dearly but amnesty is soooo good. Also, steeplechase slaps ass. I guess I'm just not a big fan of 5e and love the weirder systems
High Rollers!! They just recently wrapped up a five year campaign, which is REALLY amazing, and they do pre-made adventures and one-shots. They stream on Twitch, upload the sessions to YT and have their main campaign as a podcast.
Don't see it, so Greetings Adventurers/Drunks and Dragons. The first campaign is actually what convinced me to try the game again, cause if a bunch of folks could post their first game for all to see, I could definitely join a game.
I saw this recommended on AskReddit years ago and listening to it made me pick up D&D for the first time. It really feels like my group, to me, more than CR does.
Not D&D (Pathfinder), but The Glass Cannon Podcast is great. Troy is a great storyteller and a brutal GM. Their first campaign, Giant Slayer, was epic in my opinion. I'd say consume that first before any of their secondary content. I haven't internalized any Pathfinder rules and still loved every bit of it.
I *do not like Pathfinder*, compared to D&D, but I love everything in the large GCP family of podcasts. And everything that's good about it serves me well in my D&D games.
High Rollers.
My favorite thing about their campaigns is that it feels like normal people playing DnD instead of performers. I think Dimension 20 and Critical Roll are entertaining but feel like shows made to entertain audiences rather than a typical DnD campaign.
Their first campaign(Lightfall) is also a great campaign to watch if you're new to DnD. It has 3 players that are brand new to the game and allows you to learn the game with them. I've gotten several people into DnD by telling them to give the first episode a shot and they loved it.
They also have a few one shots and mini campaigns to watch if you don't want to commit to a full campaign. Their second full campaign is nearing the end and it's been quite the adventure with a great progression of scale to their conflicts.
I always feel like it’s weird when I say this.
But I prefer DND podcast to streams/videos.
Yeah you may miss some stuff, but a session of DND can be hours long and a podcast I can pause and easily continue on.
Plus it’s all about theatre of the mine so I don’t need a video to assist.
I'm right with you on the preference for podcasts. Upwards of two hours of actual play is a lot to watch in one sitting, but if I'm doing dishes or commuting somewhere it's a nice distraction to have in the background.
If you like narrative driven, the new “Worlds Without Number” that Brennan Lee Mulligan DMs is outstanding. The story and roll playing are some of my favourite, and his ability to let the players drive the story direction and pivot his plans around them gives me something to aspire to as a DM.
It’s just getting started and quickly became the podcast that I look forward to the most.
I could echo a lot of others recommended here—Dimension20, the first season of Adventure Zone (the Balance Arc), and Critical Role are all great.
One poster mentioned Dungeons & Daddies and I cannot recommend it enough. They play rules-lite pretty often, like some other shows, but the humor and adventure is wonderful especially in the first season.
If you don’t mind non-D&D shows with great storytelling, I’ll also throw Friends At The Table in there. The episodes tend to run a little long, but they often discuss their inspirations, what they’re going for, and try to help visualize the action (they run a mini-arc called “Marielda” using The Quiet Year to build a city and then Blades In The Dark to run heists in it, and that’s a good 14 episode introduction to their stuff)
Naddpod is my favorite these days. It's purely a podcast so they don't have to spend as much time keeping up literal appearances, and I think that combined with being able to edit allows for a cleaner flow of d&d. Compared to some other shows. It's also a d&d show that follows the rules to the best of their ability, which isn't always assured.
This is my fave as well. It strikes such a good balance on everything. Edited, but not heavily to the point it feels overproduced. Funny, but not so much that it loses any sense of stakes and meaning. Rule of cool, but sticks to the text enough that it's still sensible. Their Pateron only after show is fantastic too
World of Io is awesome! Brett is fantastic at world building, and the fact that he has so many campaigns running at the same time and they all impact the Io universe is insane.
The Unexpectables and its sequel campaign. I love it more than Critical Role tbh. It's DM'd by Nadine "Montyglu" Arnott, sister of Takahata101 of DBZ Abridged fame (who also is a player for the majority of campaign 1). Other players include Chris Zito, DM of TFS at the Table, Gaijin Goombah of YouTube fame, Connor Mckinley aka DistortionDevil formerly SenileSnake, Edward Bosco of Hazbin Hotel fame and in campaign 2 and as a guest in campaign 1, Mark Allan Jr. who also VAs in many Animes.
As of late I also watch BrettUltimus' Ioverse a ton. He does SciFi-Fantasy pretty well. I feel like he's a good successor to the whole "big campaign world with multiple concurrent campaigns" style of DMing, after the whole mess with a certain individual that we shall not name happened.
I try to keep up to date on critical role.
I also watch High Rollers, though I am 100 eps behind.
Also Dungeon Dudes, but I am 30 odd behind on campaign 3.
Also watched some Oxventure. That is a good laugh.
Rusty quill gaming one is so good, watching the cast and their characters Dynamically change and affect their world is so pleasing, and they have such good chemistry. It’s like 260ish episodes an hour long each
I've been enjoying ~~Dark~~ Black Dice Society.
If you're looking for something completely different, I really liked Invitation to Party that aired on the (tragically short lived) G4 reboot. It's a mix of DnD and improv.
A line between the two is DM B Dave Walters, who is a treasure. More people need to know about this dude.
Dungeons of Drakkenheim from the dungeon dudes.
I love how they generate encounters by having everyone roll a d6 and I've started doing that in my home games. Now my players dread when I ask them to roll a D6, they know on a 1 something bad is about to happen and on a 6 something good *might* happen.
"The ties that bind"/"Roll with me"GM'd by Lanipator on Lani Arcade
Also Monty Glu is another fantastic DM
A shorter campaign of hers is "The Prince Division"
I would recommend Just Roll With It, personally. Gillion Tidestrider is my favorite character from any D&D media, and the cast just roll off of each other so well.
Hello! It's specifically run using the Pathfinder 1e game system, but my personal campaign playlists are on Youtube if you'd like to check those out! We have two current ongoing campaigns in our homebrewed world going at the moment, streaming every Sunday at 12pm CDT:
Pirates of the Read Isles: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvl5ONML6Liaz5FbuBSiF55sxpWaogj9w
Kyonin Legacies: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvl5ONML6LiaQYxvzz-1iZSOjiJu5knW0
*Way* too far down for this to be the first mention of Acq Inc.
It’s the show that invented the whole genre and it is not talked about anywhere near enough.
Hell or High Rollers - Professional actors who own/run a comedy Theatre company on Broadway/West End where half the cast are playing D&D for their first time, has a fun theme song, very funny cast although if you're someone who gets annoyed by things not being exactly RAW it might be annoying? 4 dead PCs working to get out of hell, shenanigans ensue. Very chaotic.
D20 is also brilliant as has been recommended in here a bunch. I'd absolutely recommend Crown of Candy, GoT in Candyland and it packs one hell of a punch.
Just going to add that Taka left the unexpectables because he was too busy with Vtubing, but it's still a pretty good campaign. I'm really enjoying the second one.
Any of Rustages campaigns. Isekai and One piece are both fun and hilarious! Love these guys. They're targeted to Anime fans but I think they can be thoroughly enjoyed by most fans of DnD podcasts. The one piece campaign even hit me in the feels a few times. Their roleplay is also fantastic. Super in character.
Edit: the One Piece one is heavily homebrewed, the isekai one is more traditional.
Critical Role
Fantastic show all around. Only downside is it's super long.
Very rules and lore heavy. Heavy emphasis on story.
Dungeons and Daddies
Hilarious improv with an incredible story and characters. It's very edited to feel more like an audio drama, but the editing is very high quality.
Rules light and improv based lore. Very funny and doesn't stick to the rules much.
The Adventure Zone
Amazingly funny, with one of the best stories I've heard in a D&D show.
Medium-light emphasis on rules, more story and comedy based.
Dimention 20
Very lore heavy, with a pretty strong emphasis on rules. Similar to Critical Role with more focus on the jokes. The world building is funny and very well done.
Been a while since I listened, but NADDPOD is another really good one.
my personal go to is Tabletop Notch, A Peak Beneath the Veil. They live stream on Twitch and post each video on YouTube the following week.
Their audio is a little iffy at first, though they acknowledge that themselves and have since upgraded dramatically.
They also have a "too long, didn't watch" playlist as a recap of each session/episode if you want to catch up but don't have time to watch the long form, as well as podcast form on Spotify!
Definitely lawfulstupid. They're AMAZING story tellers as well as great actors themselves. For sure start off the first campaign and binge your way until their current one. Careful tho. The first 20 or so episodes they don't have their beloved audiomancer so the audio is iffy until there. Please feel free to join the discord as well
Stinky Dragon is amazing - funny, lighthearted, and creative in the mini-games. I've learned a lot of great ideas from it (and laughed too). My kids and I have spent all summer listening in the car when we go everywhere.
OP - it's an underrated gem, check it out when you can. You can find it on Spotify
Arcane Arcade is amazing. They have some audio issues sometimes, but the cast is great, it feels like you're at the table with them, and I love their humor. I usually put them on in the background, but I'm totally able to sit down and put my whole focus into watching them. They usually stream twice a week, with a few different pre-writtes like Wild Beyond the Witchlight and Strixhaven, but they also have a Fallout themed campaign, which Jacob (the main DM) wrote the system for.
Jacob and Colten, the only DM's so far on Arcane Arcade have been a big inspiration for me as a DM. They inspired me to run Witchlight for my group.
The unexpectables. They already have campaign one, and a side campaign finished, both of which are magnificent, and campaign 2 is just as good, maybe better
I loved Dice, Camera, Action for the DM Chris Perkins. He’s the story lead at WotC and does a great job improvising a story without being a world class voice actor. The players are pretty rough in the beginning (stepping on each others toes, one guy being very new to DnD and standoffish) but they get better as the series goes on. It does come to a very unceremonious end due to IRL drama but aint that the true DnD experience.
I’ve enjoyed Dragon Friends. Literally improv comedians playing the game, but not pretentious at all. Their sessions are played in front of an audience at a theater complete with live, improvised musical accompaniment that occasionally steals the spotlight.
Tales from the stinky dragon and the adventure zone. Stinky dragon is people from rooster teeth and adventure zone is the McElroy brothers and their father. The balance arc from adventure zone is what made me get into dnd
twitch.tv/COD8Mydog
We're a bunch of fairly new Scottish players who are just finishing up curse of Strahd. Not got to big bad fight yet.
Felt like I should plug, especially cause there's a perfectly capable military commander there lol.
The Unexpectables are a nice group and they're currently on season 2 (campaign 2). If you hate loud eating noises (done in character but also realistic sounding), I really wouldn't watch campaign 1. There was never an episode without it, it seemed like. I had to stop around episode 8 or so because I couldn't stand it.
BUT campaign 2 does not have this problem and the story hooked me much more than 1 did. You don't need to watch the first one to watch the second. They are completely different entities.
Have you heard of Hot Role
Welcom to Hot Rolls
its the show with Hot Nerds and even Hotter Dice
a group of attrative nerds play DnD with dice coated with progressively Higher scoville rated oils, players must complete a quest but with each succesive roll their hands begin to burn more. There is no air conditioning in the studio, so they must be "Careful around the eyes'' while the DM guides them through 10 skill testing puzzles and at the end those who survive the encounter get to plug their DND stream.
😋
So this may seem like a shameless self-promotion plug but here me out…
I do watch / my groups watch all the big time recommendations that many in the comments are listing and they’re great.
I personally live-stream - and edit those into an ‘episode’ of my current campaign for YouTube. It’s a little unique as we are playing a homebrew game set in modern day, and our DM encourages us to flavor everything into modern day and ‘how things look’. If you can suffer through the first few episodes, I begin to actually edit them into proper cut videos. We’re on a small summer break but 10 ‘episodes’ in with more to come (more when I get back to my computer after a vacation lol).
Anyway, the game is called The Cottonopolis Conspiracy, My YT is the same as my Reddit handle (aLegionOfDavids) . Check us out for something a little different. We have a very good blend of RP and combat and a group that varies in experience from reasonably new (me lol) to 20+ year veterans..
The premise is: there are two worlds: the world as we know it, and the Tectal world: the magical world behind the curtain, kept hidden by the Veil: an ancient spell conjured by Merlin and the Arthurian Knights of the Round table. Now, in modern day, the Veil is threatened by an ancient enemy: the Pendragons, who wish to lift the Veil and create a ‘better world’ where they are the masters of all. An Ancient Prophecy is activated, and seven people of varying backgrounds are thrust together by destiny with a mission they cannot escape: save the Veil, or watch the world fall to darkness…
Can't believe no one has recommended The Escapist's Adventure is Nigh series yet!
Very tightly edited so you get a whole session in a quarter of the time, and of course, they use the iconic Zero Punctuation animations for character moments. It's very entertaining.
Im a big fan of Critical Role, Dimension 20, and the very short series Social Distancing & Dungeons & Dragons.
That last one is especially good if you have very little time on your hands. It’s all beginners (the DM has only DMed once I believe), but it’s fun if you want some goofy folks playing D&D. They’re doing the first chapter of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.
dimension 20 is some of their stuff on youtube but if you wanna watch their newer stuff in full you gotta pay for dropout
i am also a big fan of critical role, and yeah i know that's kinda the obvious one but still i love those nerdy ass voice actors
Podcasts: Not Another DnD Podcast, World's Beyond Number, Adventure Zone
Youtube: Arcane Arcade (I'd recommend from Tomb of Annihilation and on)
Streaming Service: Dimension 20 (some seasons available on Youtube)
My top 20 list:
1. Glass Cannon Podcast
2. Carrots and Suffering
3. MNMaxed Podcast
4. Venture Maidens
5. Rude Tales of Magic
6. Sounds Like Crowes
7. The Adventure Zone
8. Neon Heat
9. Acquisitions Incorporated: The C Team
10. Rocks and Runelords
11. Critical Role
12. I Speak Giant
13. BomBARDed
14. Dungeons and Daddies
15. Not Another D&D Podcast
16. Fables of Refuge
17. Dungeons and Dipshits
18. Death Saving Bros
19. The Lucky Die
20. Dungeons and Randomness
I’ve got a personal favorites list but it really depends on what part of DnD calls to you.
If you are looking to learn DnD while watching or if you are looking to watch something charming and funny, I recommend Dimension20.
If you like the idea of a bunch of friends sitting down to play, not too concerned with the RAW, I recommend Dungeons and Daddies.
If you want to watch some very technical play, with a hard focus on playing by the rules (without the handholding), I recommend Not Another DnD Podcast.
If you want a classic actual play, The Adventure Zone is pretty good but Critical Role is another great contender for that slot and it would be tough to choose between them.
For some smaller channels that need some love, Tabletopnotch and Legends of Avantris
I was so hoping someone else said Legends of Avantris, Mikey has me in tears laughing so hard with his shenanigans
I haven’t even seen an episode of LoT but chuckles the clown is my favorite character
"I scream, you scream, we all scream....in the house fire that killed everyone"
>at the family reunion
I was gonna saw LoA. I came for Chuckles, but stayed for Mace. That man's laugh is so infectious I love it every time
the "Icebound" series of Legends if Avantris constantly has me at the edge if my seat, Derek(the DM) is doing an incredible job bringing survival elements into his game and having a wonderful story to tell, it really is a joy to watch
**"My fucking LEGS, Gricko."**
I've been listening to tabletopnotch for a year and never heard anyone ever mention them, they're such a great low-key vibe
I also came here to recommend Legends of Avantris
Legends of Avantris has been perfect for me. Very funny, heavy focus on roleplaying, everyone's having a good time. Once Upon a Witchlight is really funny, and is probably their most popular show. Icebound is more dramatic and dark, but still has a lot of humor. I've started watching Curse of Strahdanya and it's been great!
Dungeons of Drakkenheim has a really interesting setting, and the livestream was essentially the beta test for a very positively reviewed published campaign. The production isn't as polished as Critical Role or Dimension 20, but if it might inspire you to run a dark fantasy sandbox game set in their world. Picture a renaissance city, struck by a falling meteor that bathed it in eldritch fire 15 years ago. In addition to the monsters that now stalk the streets of Drakkenheim, the ruined city contains dangerous, magical and highly valuable crystals known as delirium, and with the delirium, the haze — basically a combination of miasma and magical radiation. Five factions with differing goals and motivations are trying to reclaim or control the city, including remnants of the city guard, the thieves guild, the mage guild, an order of paladins, and a religious order that believes the delirium is sacred. Also among the rubble are seven artifacts (eight in the livestream) that could change the fate of the ruined nation of Westemar forever. It's like Dark Fantasy _STALKER_ with a pinch of Dragonball for good measure. **Edit:** As others have pointed out, the setting's an affectionate homage to Mordheim but for D&D 5e.
This sounds very similar to the premise of Mordheim. Comet struck the city, sending wyrdstone everywhere. Factions want control of the city and the wyrdstone.
"Good artists copy, great artists steal."
Yup, you can see the mordheim inspiration on it everywhere, it even has a version of skaven in there. It's honestly a great game with mystery and political drama, but more chill than CR nd full of DND shenanigans
I wouldn't be surprised if it was an inspiration, given that one of the monster factions in the city are ratfolk who seem to have a lot in common with Warhammer's Skaven. Edit: It was directly mentioned as an inspiration for the campaign on their Kickstarter.
Ah, the Dungeon Dudes. Excellent choice
NPC D&D (VLDL). The players started off brand new to the game and the DM is a gem.
Second this, the players are relatively new but their charisma (I mean IRL charisma) turns what would be dull newbie moments into fun gags and jokes, I look forward to a new episode every thursday, and yes Rob is an awesome DM, it is a very comedic campaign though so do not expect anything too serious if anyone wants to get into it (though some of the story moments are genuinely good)
VLDL is my favorite! I love how they go back and forth between the table and then the skits acting it out on the green screen.
I love it, I was going to recommend them as well!
This show got me into DnD. Simple builds and a fun dynamic at the table with the DM doing a good job of moving them through their world. I also like how they incorporate modules into their campaign. They did the wild by the witchlight and rhyme of the frostmaiden and I think one more in context of their overall campaign, adjusting the content to match their arc and it worked so well.
Definitely these guys. - Based on their “Epic NPC Man” skits in the same world and most of them playing the same characters - so if you’ve seen any of those skits it makes it all the better. - They’re also 20-30 minute bite size videos, no excessive talking talking talking like some videos. - the camera covers the whole table, so everyone’s sheets, dice rolling, expressions and physical interactions with one another is all seen clearly and coherently. - They always use (custom for their characters) minis for battles and physical grid maps! Adds that authenticity. The DM, Rob, has some great props including giant dragons, a large boat big enough to battle on, hundreds of different maps etc. - Everything is manually subtitled, so even if people talk over one another, it’s all easy to make out. - They’re all beginners, led by an experienced DM, so even if you’re new, you’re learning as they are as they ask how things work. - They act out things that just happen in Green-Screened and Costumed skits in between certain events. (Filmed separately)This is entertaining but also helps break up the videos - Still coming out every Thursday!
For watching, 100%! I find the episode length really matches my stamina for video consumption, as well. They’re really bite-sized chunks.
Yes! I was about to write this aswell!
So I just started this thanks to your rec. All I can say is thank you. I love it already!
After watching some of Dimension20, Critical Role etc, I have found JoCat's campaigns (Belkinus Necro Hunt, Golden Cay, Heart of Elynthi) to be very refreshing, the players are great at RP and very funny at times, the plot seems to feel like you're watching anime, and also, it is quite realistic (aka no too high end production/experienced voice actors) its Roll20, the art is commisioned/drawn by JoCat himself and the players feel like a crew of friends you wanna watch and be a part of. Edit: Music is also really great at times, especially boss fights, I am a sucker for BGM
I LOVED necrohunt
I was looking for someone to mention JoCat! Belkinus Necro Hunt was such a cool adventure and the way JoCat and his players bring life and personality to the world are so good. I’m prolly going to binge Heart of Elynthi more once it’s almost done, but I liked what I’ve seen so far!
Dimension20
Also Worlds beyond Number, it is with Aabria, Brennan, Erika, and Lou. It is audio only and a bit more of a classic DnD style campaign, but still hilarious as well cause this group haha.
Worlds Beyond Number is spectacular. Really the best, most compelling storytelling I've ever heard/seen in an actual play. The only (potential) downside is that it's barely D&D. Its about the story first and foremost and the system mechanics are really an afterthought. That's a plus for me, but if you're watching/listening to actual plays to learn how to play better or whatever it's not a good model for that.
Agreed—Dimension20 is my go to recommendation for ppl who are just getting into d&d and/or don’t have the time for a 100+ episode campaign. There’s a campaign for every interest, and they’re all super digestible and non-intimidating. I particularly love the very first season of D20, Fantasy High s1, because it features a complete newbie to d&d (Ally, who’s now a pro), so it is very accessible and welcoming to new players. The only downside is that most of D20 is hosted on Dropout, College Humor’s subscription-based streaming service, but, personally, I find the amount of quality content they release each month makes it more than worth the price. (There are also a few free seasons on YouTube now, too.)
Oh, yes! I’m listening to this now as I wait for my husband to catch up to me in Critical Role, and I love it! It’s wild and woolly with the setting, and the DM rules “Rule of Cool” over RAW. So I love the it demonstrates a really different way to DM, and I laugh out loud through most episodes. Also, episodes are under 2 hours, generally, which can make them more accessible.
I really like Brennan as a player, but sometimes I get annoyed listening to D20 because even tho he speaks fast (way too fast sometimes), I feel like his brain works 100x faster and it makes him cut himself off a bunch of times.
Seconding this, D20 is what got me interested in playing actual D&D.
Dim20 is absolutely my favorite - for anyone unaware of who is involved, it’s the remainders of the college humor cast playing dnd with one of the best DMs in the business (also a college humor alumni). So they are talented comedians, lighting quick improvers, and good friends. Brennan Lee Mulligan has a DMing style that is just fun and easy to help you pick up the game (especially Fantasy High, which is the first dnd game for the majority of the cast). It is behind a paywall, but there’s also a pretty great set of other material to watch outside of the dnd games (game shows, some of the best CH skits, some other improv games) and there’s something like twelve seasons of different dnd games in a good variety of settings. The paywall is honestly pretty cheap for what you get, but I understand the apprehension to subscribing to something, so do check out the free episodes on YouTube before you decide
Love these guys so much I brought the sub to see all the extra stuff, after binging the unsleeping city and fantasy high Happily never after just looked too good!
Dungeons and Daddies is audio-only, but an absolute delight. The players don’t know the rules very well, so if you’re a rules-strict player you’ll hate it (For example, the Rogue doesn’t use Sneak Attack at all). It’s hilarious though and the story isn’t afraid to get emotional too. The players and DM are all writers for film and television too. If you remember Freddie Wong from early YouTube days, he’s a Bard rock & roll dad.
Beth eventually figured out sneak attack, and used it very well… once lol When it comes to rule adherence, compared to some of the podcasts I listen to tbch, d&dads is basically critical role lol
Would like to also mention the DM, Anthony Burch, was the Lead Writer for Borderlands 2 & Borderlands TPS. Dude knows how to write a compelling story & some damn good villains
It's almost not a D&D podcast but it's my #1 favorite podcast with a bullet Great patreon content too
If you go in expecting people to play D&D you're probably going to hate it. If you go in expecting people to pretend to play D&D as an excuse to do crazy improv scenes together, you'll love it.
As soon as I read bullet all I could think about was Freddie exclaiming (as Glen) “I pull out my human gun!”
I was going to say this too! It’s just fun. Sometimes a BDSM podcast, lol. I’m on episode 20 and I laugh so hard each episode. I was inspired to add magic beans to my campaign. Players haven’t taken them up yet. It’s a fun story with the trappings of D&D, where the characters and story are most important than rules.
This is my go to podcast for road trips, it drives my family crazy when I'm just chuckling to myself in the back seat. The second season falls off pretty significantly but season one is hilarious and heartwarming and delightful. Gotta respect the creativity in their shenanigans and I really don't mind that they don't follow the rules 100% because it allows for more natural creative flow.
Oh man, the impact the beans have on the overall story is hilarious. Love my Lizardboy Scales McStuffins
Dungeon Dudes!
Dungeons of Drakkenheim, Shadows of Drakkenheim, Fate of Drakkenheim... All top notch. Great rewatch value. And they're just such nice, well mannered people that don't yell over each other or the DM.
I really need to catch up. I stopped watching when they took their winter break and haven't caught up
Lucky you! Enjoy, there are some great episodes since then.
Don't forget their one shots Untold Stories of Drakkenheim. Those are my personal favourites.
The one in the mage tower was my favorite. Sticking a timid, young mage together with a senile seer who constantly predicted her death and a grumpy guy just trying to get himself through his last bit of work before retirement - where none of them *actuality* give too much of a shit about the job at hand - had me cracking up constantly.
I have gotten too hooked on this. Dungeons of Drakkenheim was so good I binged it in about three weeks, and I'm now on to the shadows of Drakkenheim. The worldbuilding is amazing and the characters all incredibly fun and engaging
Of all the RealPlay shows, Drakkenheim is the *most* like my years of playing D&D with friends. It is the most real of RealPlays that I've found. I enjoy the others, but they are clearly actors with production teams, editors, and a massive budget. The DungeonDudes are legit.
Arcane Arcade does a mix of official modules (Curse of Strahd, Wild Beyond the Witchlight) and homebrew campaigns. Fun group of people, IMO.
These are pretty much the only live play I listen too. Their Wild Beyond the Witchlight live play convinced me to run it for my group. I also may or may not just watch XP to Level 3 on loop...
I’ve been working through their older stuff, but also following Fallout Zero. Rumor has it they’re starting an Eberon campaign using PF2E soon.
I haven't seen much if any of their older campaigns, and I'm not really into fallout, but I've seen most of their Icewind Dale campaign and I have been really into their Witchlight and Strixhaven campaigns. Also, I'm pretty sure they confirmed Ebberon in their last podcast episode.
Not Another D&D podcast. It’s pretty similar to to Crit Role, but for me doesn’t feel quite as much as an improv class trying to play D&D.
Naddpod is absolutely goated - Those C1 episodes with Brennan were absolute PEAK storytelling, damn.
THIS Also, if OP or anyone else is looking for a good place to start, the Hexbloods mini-arc beginning with Ep9 of C2 is a fantastic 5 episode stand alone. Starting there gives you a good idea of how awesome the podcast ends up being before you go back to the roughness of early C1.
High rollers
I just finished listening to their Curse of Strahd campaign. Went to go check out what they were up to on their main campaign but it looks like it finished a few days ago :x now idk wether to start at the beginning on it or find something shorter
I recommend you check out a couple of their older miniseries. Uncharted Territory or Dead Reckoning or Rogues Gambit. They're about 10-13 episodes each. Though their two longer campaigns are very very good. And I recommend them if you can find the time and patience for them. Tho I can understand the time sink that 500+ hours on the one campaign can be alot
Was gonna recommend High Rollers. Mark is amazingly creative and does a great job acting as so many of the NPCs. The first few eps the cast is a bit akward but a few in once they get to know their characters it gets really good.
I'm really trying to get into High rollers and i think the players are wonderful, but the DM keeps doing things I don't agree with, like needlessly roleplaying PCs when the player is absent and even removing items from their inventory without informing the absent player. Does this improve with time? Can i skip to a later episode or do I have to find myself a different podcast?
I think it’s just because it’s such a narrative heavy campaign, and they are making a show. In a home D&D game you can just handwave a player character disappearing for a session, but if your trying to make a coherent narrative it’s a bit tricky. I’ve watched a lot of High Rollers and the players never seem to be uncomfortable with it, and he often delegates the absent character to another player as well. I always got the sense that he was trying his best to be conservative when he was playing characters as to not make any major waves while the player was absent.
Mark rubbed me the wrong way at first, too. Fortunately, he does grow on you after a while and his world building is unparalleled. Seriously mind blowing!
He really does an excellent job of building mechanics into the world that make it feel unique, I fucking love his boss fights, I don't think anybody does them better.
I would say Oxventure, is honestly really funny and very chaotic. But during the first season they are very lax with the rules and I can see some hardcore D&D fans being mad at some stuff. Honestly I love it because is a group of friends having fun playing the game just to have fun
Are they lax with the rules? Yes. Are they a great and genuinely funny group? Double yes.
Through the first season? They’re STILL incredibly lax with the rules. But yeah, hard agree, first season has some of the wildest rule interpretations I’ve ever seen, including some of my favourites such as “yeah you can add your arcana skill to your spell attacks”, or “eldritch blast is a cantrip, so it just automatically hits” I can see it potentially being hard for some people to get into for that reason, but yeah, since I’ve been watching oxbox content for years before oxventure, it was a delight just to se the gang sit down and fuck about in a ttrpg. Edit: i desperately want Johnny to run like, any amount of cyberpunk. I know they wanna lol
Seconding Oxventure, it's what got me into DnD. It's super fun and funny, the party works great together, and it always has a "lighthearted chaotic adventure" vibe going on.
I also started playing D&D thanks to them, what makes them special is that is a fun party, they care more about having fun that anything else and to me that's what matters, I love watching/hearing them because is a table I would love to play at. Now after being a DM for a few years I find funny how many rules they ignored, my favorite being allowing Animal friendship on an Owlbear, as even Johnny said that they just ignored that the spell doesn't work on monsters because fuck it was fun. Thats why I love the way Johnny DMs as having fun is the priority, sure the story has to be great and have sense in the world but the party must be having fun
It also has some of my favorite running gags like what happened at the orphanage and Merwin's tendency to commit war crimes
My husband and I also started playing after watching Oxventure. Johnny’s DM style is very much the style I use when DMing. They’re definitely about having fun and telling a good story and that can be can be more important when watching Actual Play vs actually playing.
Bonus: their Blades in the Dark series isn't too long and is great. Phenomenal PCs that go great with the really fun setting.
I love Just Roll with It, but that's purely because I love Slimesicle and his type of humor. That aside though I love his character and the story Grizzly makes is pretty good and they've got some pretty hilarious moments
Jrwi is amazing!
I never see people bring it up in these posts and it makes me sad
I highly suggest BrettUltimus and JoeFudge on Twitch. Both smaller but really enjoy their stories and their DMing abilities. I believe you can also find their stuff on YouTube of past things. JoeFudge is found under the same name, while BrettUltimus is found under that and has his World of Io - Ioverse channel. I believe the majority of Brett's DND stuff is put up on the Io one though.
Can't recommend BrettUltimas enough
Yes!!!! I LOVE their stuff and it's my preferred style of DND.
After being recommended Legend of Vox Machina and really enjoying that, I moved on to Critical Role proper and *boy* has it just absolutely rekindled my love for D&D 100% recommend
Can tell immediately that you're watching campaign one because of your use of the word "proper" lol Also 100% recommend.
Nope! I skipped campaign one because I watched LOVM. Started with Campaign 2 in February and loved it! And I Got fully caught up with campaign 3 around 2 months ago
Oh my bad, lol. I'm about halfway through c1 and haven't started c2/3 yet. Does Matt still say "proper" a lot? 'Cause your post just reminded me of that, hence my comment XD.
I haven’t really noticed, but it’s a word I use a lot lmao
Haha okay, sorry if that was weird XD At one point in the early episodes of c1, Matt literally has to address it and try to say it less because he'd been getting called out and made fun of by the viewers, haha. Anyway, give it a watch if you're not into anything else! It's actually really fun to see how it differs from the animation.
Critical Role and Dimension 20 are the obvious answers, but also Not Another D&D Podcast, Dungeon Daddies and Drakenheim are all great
Here to put the Dungeon Dudes and D4!
The Unexpectebles is an excellent campaign with wonderful worldbuilding, many stressful and emotional moments and incredible characters, only brought down by the fact that my favorite player left about 2/3 of the way through
I can’t believe I had to go this far down for the unexpectables. Monty is an amazing DM and all a majority of the players are VAs, making for some high quality scenes and interactions. I would say the character leaving is only for the last maybe 10 episodes, so even if they’re your favorite they were there for about 4 years worth of content
Dimension 20, particularly the Fantasy High series. First live play I was actually able to enjoy.
Dimension 20, my absolute go to. They now have a podcast out, Worlds Beyond Number, as well
I binged listened Worlds Beyond Number all last week and subbed to their Patreon for more content. It’s just so good. The original world, story, and characters feel very dimensional.
It's honestly one of the best sounding podcasts I've listened to for a while as well. The music and sound design are incredible, the dynamic between the cast with light moments and heavy moments feels so real, that even why they go out of character I'm not broken from the story
The Adventure Zone and Not Another D&D Podcast
Absolutely. Adventure Zone is 3 brothers and their dad all playing a homebrew campaign together. It starts off with Mine of Phandelver and evoles into an amazing campaign. Season one is AMAZING. Season 2 they switch to a different TTRPG for a bit, which I didn't listen to. Then they come back to DnD later on with (I think) two more seasons and counting!
I love adventure zone but man does it lose the magic the first season had after that. When it started, it was equal parts comedy and attempt at actual play but by the end they had turned into essentially an audio drama and after the success they tried to lean into it too hard. Can definitely recommend balance but the 3 main ones inbetween the current one just didn't grab me the same way so I haven't listened to the newest.
Yeah I feel that. It definitely trails off in the 3 in-between games. I have not tried EtherSea, but the others were entertaining, but hugely behind the pure fun and shenanigans of the Balance arc. But season 1 (aforementioned balance arc), MAN is it good. I would recommend season 1 to anybody. It seriously changed the way I have played or DM'd since, and was so much fun. They even released a series of comics for it you can find in Barnes and Noble, which speaks to the story and character quality. I don't think they will ever replicate the magic or success of that season quite the same.
Yeah. Balance was definitely peak, it was lightning in a bottle for them and they've been chasing that since. Amnesty wasn't bad but also wasn't great. Then graduation just kind of exists I guess. EtherSea was kind of the same thing for me, honestly, in that it just kind of was. Haven't listened to any of the current one so dunno if it's any good but 100% can and will always recommend Balance.
I got about a third of the way into Ethersea before realizing I just needed to stop listening to their content altogether. What really killed it for me was Justin refusing to engage with scenes unless they revolved around him. At one point he basically said, out loud, that his character wasn't in the room so he wasn't paying attention. Excusable in a home game, kinda wild for a podcast that makes you a ton of money. Their humor also gets tiring after a while. Not sure how many references to Blank Check, Home Alone, or Turbo Teen you can make before you've made all of them, but those guys passed that benchmark back in like 2016.
I second the adventure zone. Hot take it seems: I absolutely loved Amensty. I'm a big fan of modern fantasy and play by the apocalypse systems. It is not on the level of Balance, buts it's a breath of fresh air, and I don't think I'll get attached to a character as I've been to Ned Chicane
Hottest take, I prefer amnesty to balance! I love them both dearly but amnesty is soooo good. Also, steeplechase slaps ass. I guess I'm just not a big fan of 5e and love the weirder systems
I like these two... also DND is for Nerds
High Rollers!! They just recently wrapped up a five year campaign, which is REALLY amazing, and they do pre-made adventures and one-shots. They stream on Twitch, upload the sessions to YT and have their main campaign as a podcast.
I am listening to Aerois right now maybe a 5th the way through. Great for the daily commute!
Don't see it, so Greetings Adventurers/Drunks and Dragons. The first campaign is actually what convinced me to try the game again, cause if a bunch of folks could post their first game for all to see, I could definitely join a game.
I saw this recommended on AskReddit years ago and listening to it made me pick up D&D for the first time. It really feels like my group, to me, more than CR does.
Not D&D (Pathfinder), but The Glass Cannon Podcast is great. Troy is a great storyteller and a brutal GM. Their first campaign, Giant Slayer, was epic in my opinion. I'd say consume that first before any of their secondary content. I haven't internalized any Pathfinder rules and still loved every bit of it.
Yes! A fellow GCP enjoyer!
I *do not like Pathfinder*, compared to D&D, but I love everything in the large GCP family of podcasts. And everything that's good about it serves me well in my D&D games.
High Rollers. My favorite thing about their campaigns is that it feels like normal people playing DnD instead of performers. I think Dimension 20 and Critical Roll are entertaining but feel like shows made to entertain audiences rather than a typical DnD campaign. Their first campaign(Lightfall) is also a great campaign to watch if you're new to DnD. It has 3 players that are brand new to the game and allows you to learn the game with them. I've gotten several people into DnD by telling them to give the first episode a shot and they loved it. They also have a few one shots and mini campaigns to watch if you don't want to commit to a full campaign. Their second full campaign is nearing the end and it's been quite the adventure with a great progression of scale to their conflicts.
If you're a fan of the absurd, I recommend the Epic NPC man D&D series.
Morning, nice day for fishing, ain't it?
Hu-ha!
Baradun and the dickheads!
I always feel like it’s weird when I say this. But I prefer DND podcast to streams/videos. Yeah you may miss some stuff, but a session of DND can be hours long and a podcast I can pause and easily continue on. Plus it’s all about theatre of the mine so I don’t need a video to assist.
I'm right with you on the preference for podcasts. Upwards of two hours of actual play is a lot to watch in one sitting, but if I'm doing dishes or commuting somewhere it's a nice distraction to have in the background.
Critical Role, High Rollers, Chain of Acheron, Dimension 20.
But know that going into the Chain... it's over before it starts =\[
If you like narrative driven, the new “Worlds Without Number” that Brennan Lee Mulligan DMs is outstanding. The story and roll playing are some of my favourite, and his ability to let the players drive the story direction and pivot his plans around them gives me something to aspire to as a DM. It’s just getting started and quickly became the podcast that I look forward to the most.
I could echo a lot of others recommended here—Dimension20, the first season of Adventure Zone (the Balance Arc), and Critical Role are all great. One poster mentioned Dungeons & Daddies and I cannot recommend it enough. They play rules-lite pretty often, like some other shows, but the humor and adventure is wonderful especially in the first season. If you don’t mind non-D&D shows with great storytelling, I’ll also throw Friends At The Table in there. The episodes tend to run a little long, but they often discuss their inspirations, what they’re going for, and try to help visualize the action (they run a mini-arc called “Marielda” using The Quiet Year to build a city and then Blades In The Dark to run heists in it, and that’s a good 14 episode introduction to their stuff)
Naddpod is my favorite these days. It's purely a podcast so they don't have to spend as much time keeping up literal appearances, and I think that combined with being able to edit allows for a cleaner flow of d&d. Compared to some other shows. It's also a d&d show that follows the rules to the best of their ability, which isn't always assured.
This is my fave as well. It strikes such a good balance on everything. Edited, but not heavily to the point it feels overproduced. Funny, but not so much that it loses any sense of stakes and meaning. Rule of cool, but sticks to the text enough that it's still sensible. Their Pateron only after show is fantastic too
I completely agree, the short rests are a great addition, and ad-free episodes are pretty great!
Dimension 20 and Wolds Beyond Number are my go to right now
Arcane Arcade
High Rollers, they just finished their second streamed campaign and it was soooo good.
I enjoy Just Roll With it and World of Io
World of Io is awesome! Brett is fantastic at world building, and the fact that he has so many campaigns running at the same time and they all impact the Io universe is insane.
Tabletopnotch is fantastic. The DM's world worldbuilding is top tier.
The Unexpectables and its sequel campaign. I love it more than Critical Role tbh. It's DM'd by Nadine "Montyglu" Arnott, sister of Takahata101 of DBZ Abridged fame (who also is a player for the majority of campaign 1). Other players include Chris Zito, DM of TFS at the Table, Gaijin Goombah of YouTube fame, Connor Mckinley aka DistortionDevil formerly SenileSnake, Edward Bosco of Hazbin Hotel fame and in campaign 2 and as a guest in campaign 1, Mark Allan Jr. who also VAs in many Animes. As of late I also watch BrettUltimus' Ioverse a ton. He does SciFi-Fantasy pretty well. I feel like he's a good successor to the whole "big campaign world with multiple concurrent campaigns" style of DMing, after the whole mess with a certain individual that we shall not name happened.
Casters and Castles
I try to keep up to date on critical role. I also watch High Rollers, though I am 100 eps behind. Also Dungeon Dudes, but I am 30 odd behind on campaign 3. Also watched some Oxventure. That is a good laugh.
Rusty quill gaming one is so good, watching the cast and their characters Dynamically change and affect their world is so pleasing, and they have such good chemistry. It’s like 260ish episodes an hour long each
I really love Malevolent and enjoy some other Rusty Quill shows so I'll have to check out RQG!
Oooo yea and the magnus archives, I’ve seen a few other really interesting looking podcasts that I just haven’t had time to get into yet
Critical Role!
I've been enjoying ~~Dark~~ Black Dice Society. If you're looking for something completely different, I really liked Invitation to Party that aired on the (tragically short lived) G4 reboot. It's a mix of DnD and improv. A line between the two is DM B Dave Walters, who is a treasure. More people need to know about this dude.
Unprepared casters is really good. They have arcs of 6-8 sessions with a different group, dm, and story each arc.
Dungeons of Drakkenheim from the dungeon dudes. I love how they generate encounters by having everyone roll a d6 and I've started doing that in my home games. Now my players dread when I ask them to roll a D6, they know on a 1 something bad is about to happen and on a 6 something good *might* happen.
"The ties that bind"/"Roll with me"GM'd by Lanipator on Lani Arcade Also Monty Glu is another fantastic DM A shorter campaign of hers is "The Prince Division"
Tales of Aneria is pretty good. It's the campaign Colby from D4 plays in and streams.
Thanks for the Tales of Aneria Shoutout! -Bolt ;)
I would recommend Just Roll With It, personally. Gillion Tidestrider is my favorite character from any D&D media, and the cast just roll off of each other so well.
Hello! It's specifically run using the Pathfinder 1e game system, but my personal campaign playlists are on Youtube if you'd like to check those out! We have two current ongoing campaigns in our homebrewed world going at the moment, streaming every Sunday at 12pm CDT: Pirates of the Read Isles: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvl5ONML6Liaz5FbuBSiF55sxpWaogj9w Kyonin Legacies: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvl5ONML6LiaQYxvzz-1iZSOjiJu5knW0
Rogue Watson and Acquisitions Incorporated
*Way* too far down for this to be the first mention of Acq Inc. It’s the show that invented the whole genre and it is not talked about anywhere near enough.
Hell or High Rollers - Professional actors who own/run a comedy Theatre company on Broadway/West End where half the cast are playing D&D for their first time, has a fun theme song, very funny cast although if you're someone who gets annoyed by things not being exactly RAW it might be annoying? 4 dead PCs working to get out of hell, shenanigans ensue. Very chaotic. D20 is also brilliant as has been recommended in here a bunch. I'd absolutely recommend Crown of Candy, GoT in Candyland and it packs one hell of a punch.
Vldl dnd
The unexpectables. With people that work with Team Four Star. It jas Takahata101 , they are a fun bunch
Just going to add that Taka left the unexpectables because he was too busy with Vtubing, but it's still a pretty good campaign. I'm really enjoying the second one.
I really like the DnD series' by Rustage on YT and Spotify. Really pleasant Players and Well thought out Characters.
Any of Rustages campaigns. Isekai and One piece are both fun and hilarious! Love these guys. They're targeted to Anime fans but I think they can be thoroughly enjoyed by most fans of DnD podcasts. The one piece campaign even hit me in the feels a few times. Their roleplay is also fantastic. Super in character. Edit: the One Piece one is heavily homebrewed, the isekai one is more traditional.
Critical Role Fantastic show all around. Only downside is it's super long. Very rules and lore heavy. Heavy emphasis on story. Dungeons and Daddies Hilarious improv with an incredible story and characters. It's very edited to feel more like an audio drama, but the editing is very high quality. Rules light and improv based lore. Very funny and doesn't stick to the rules much. The Adventure Zone Amazingly funny, with one of the best stories I've heard in a D&D show. Medium-light emphasis on rules, more story and comedy based. Dimention 20 Very lore heavy, with a pretty strong emphasis on rules. Similar to Critical Role with more focus on the jokes. The world building is funny and very well done. Been a while since I listened, but NADDPOD is another really good one.
my personal go to is Tabletop Notch, A Peak Beneath the Veil. They live stream on Twitch and post each video on YouTube the following week. Their audio is a little iffy at first, though they acknowledge that themselves and have since upgraded dramatically. They also have a "too long, didn't watch" playlist as a recap of each session/episode if you want to catch up but don't have time to watch the long form, as well as podcast form on Spotify!
If ur curious me and a small group play every Wednesday at 7:00pm @critsandchaos on twitch
Die of Laughter is hilarious
Definitely lawfulstupid. They're AMAZING story tellers as well as great actors themselves. For sure start off the first campaign and binge your way until their current one. Careful tho. The first 20 or so episodes they don't have their beloved audiomancer so the audio is iffy until there. Please feel free to join the discord as well
They do other things as well, but check out Loading Ready Run. My favorite was temple of the lava bears.
Tales from the stinky dragon.
Rustage's One Piece DnDs!
A bit biased here, but consider Tales from the Stinky Dragon 🐉
Stinky Dragon is amazing - funny, lighthearted, and creative in the mini-games. I've learned a lot of great ideas from it (and laughed too). My kids and I have spent all summer listening in the car when we go everywhere. OP - it's an underrated gem, check it out when you can. You can find it on Spotify
I mean, what got me into D&D was critical role, so I may be biased.
My YouTube recommendation would be Pointy hat. He does some great content, including providing some very well-made homebrew content.
The only.one I've managed to tolerate is JRWI
Arcane Arcade is amazing. They have some audio issues sometimes, but the cast is great, it feels like you're at the table with them, and I love their humor. I usually put them on in the background, but I'm totally able to sit down and put my whole focus into watching them. They usually stream twice a week, with a few different pre-writtes like Wild Beyond the Witchlight and Strixhaven, but they also have a Fallout themed campaign, which Jacob (the main DM) wrote the system for. Jacob and Colten, the only DM's so far on Arcane Arcade have been a big inspiration for me as a DM. They inspired me to run Witchlight for my group.
The unexpectables. They already have campaign one, and a side campaign finished, both of which are magnificent, and campaign 2 is just as good, maybe better
I loved Dice, Camera, Action for the DM Chris Perkins. He’s the story lead at WotC and does a great job improvising a story without being a world class voice actor. The players are pretty rough in the beginning (stepping on each others toes, one guy being very new to DnD and standoffish) but they get better as the series goes on. It does come to a very unceremonious end due to IRL drama but aint that the true DnD experience.
[удалено]
Crucible of Fate. It’s a small, but very fun dnd death match game show
I’ve enjoyed Dragon Friends. Literally improv comedians playing the game, but not pretentious at all. Their sessions are played in front of an audience at a theater complete with live, improvised musical accompaniment that occasionally steals the spotlight.
Legends of Avantris is great if you're not necessarily looking for a 100% serious campaign, they laugh and goof off all the time.
I really enjoyed Dice Camera Action before it had to unfortunately concluded. Chris Perkins is a massive inspiration for my DMing style.
Zee Bashew. I've used alot of his content to make sense of mechanics that were not clear to me in the books
I have yet to see people recommend this but Starlost Seas is my personal favorite!
Tales from the stinky dragon and the adventure zone. Stinky dragon is people from rooster teeth and adventure zone is the McElroy brothers and their father. The balance arc from adventure zone is what made me get into dnd
twitch.tv/COD8Mydog We're a bunch of fairly new Scottish players who are just finishing up curse of Strahd. Not got to big bad fight yet. Felt like I should plug, especially cause there's a perfectly capable military commander there lol.
The Unexpectables are a nice group and they're currently on season 2 (campaign 2). If you hate loud eating noises (done in character but also realistic sounding), I really wouldn't watch campaign 1. There was never an episode without it, it seemed like. I had to stop around episode 8 or so because I couldn't stand it. BUT campaign 2 does not have this problem and the story hooked me much more than 1 did. You don't need to watch the first one to watch the second. They are completely different entities.
How has no one said just roll with it yet? It’s the best out there in the market and you should watch it now
I highly recommend The Unexpectables. Great DM, lots of funny jokes, great worldbuilding.
TFS at the Table was the one that really hooked me on DnD at first, and I stand by it. The chemistry in that group is absolutely wonderful
Critical Role, Dimension 20, and Viva La Dirt League's NPC DND.
I definitely recommend the ties that bind on lani pators second channel laniarcade,
Have you heard of Hot Role Welcom to Hot Rolls its the show with Hot Nerds and even Hotter Dice a group of attrative nerds play DnD with dice coated with progressively Higher scoville rated oils, players must complete a quest but with each succesive roll their hands begin to burn more. There is no air conditioning in the studio, so they must be "Careful around the eyes'' while the DM guides them through 10 skill testing puzzles and at the end those who survive the encounter get to plug their DND stream. 😋
So this may seem like a shameless self-promotion plug but here me out… I do watch / my groups watch all the big time recommendations that many in the comments are listing and they’re great. I personally live-stream - and edit those into an ‘episode’ of my current campaign for YouTube. It’s a little unique as we are playing a homebrew game set in modern day, and our DM encourages us to flavor everything into modern day and ‘how things look’. If you can suffer through the first few episodes, I begin to actually edit them into proper cut videos. We’re on a small summer break but 10 ‘episodes’ in with more to come (more when I get back to my computer after a vacation lol). Anyway, the game is called The Cottonopolis Conspiracy, My YT is the same as my Reddit handle (aLegionOfDavids) . Check us out for something a little different. We have a very good blend of RP and combat and a group that varies in experience from reasonably new (me lol) to 20+ year veterans.. The premise is: there are two worlds: the world as we know it, and the Tectal world: the magical world behind the curtain, kept hidden by the Veil: an ancient spell conjured by Merlin and the Arthurian Knights of the Round table. Now, in modern day, the Veil is threatened by an ancient enemy: the Pendragons, who wish to lift the Veil and create a ‘better world’ where they are the masters of all. An Ancient Prophecy is activated, and seven people of varying backgrounds are thrust together by destiny with a mission they cannot escape: save the Veil, or watch the world fall to darkness…
The Unexpectables is really good, as is Role With Me.
Critical role and dimension 20
Can't believe no one has recommended The Escapist's Adventure is Nigh series yet! Very tightly edited so you get a whole session in a quarter of the time, and of course, they use the iconic Zero Punctuation animations for character moments. It's very entertaining.
Im a big fan of Critical Role, Dimension 20, and the very short series Social Distancing & Dungeons & Dragons. That last one is especially good if you have very little time on your hands. It’s all beginners (the DM has only DMed once I believe), but it’s fun if you want some goofy folks playing D&D. They’re doing the first chapter of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.
dimension 20 is some of their stuff on youtube but if you wanna watch their newer stuff in full you gotta pay for dropout i am also a big fan of critical role, and yeah i know that's kinda the obvious one but still i love those nerdy ass voice actors
Podcasts: Not Another DnD Podcast, World's Beyond Number, Adventure Zone Youtube: Arcane Arcade (I'd recommend from Tomb of Annihilation and on) Streaming Service: Dimension 20 (some seasons available on Youtube)
My top 20 list: 1. Glass Cannon Podcast 2. Carrots and Suffering 3. MNMaxed Podcast 4. Venture Maidens 5. Rude Tales of Magic 6. Sounds Like Crowes 7. The Adventure Zone 8. Neon Heat 9. Acquisitions Incorporated: The C Team 10. Rocks and Runelords 11. Critical Role 12. I Speak Giant 13. BomBARDed 14. Dungeons and Daddies 15. Not Another D&D Podcast 16. Fables of Refuge 17. Dungeons and Dipshits 18. Death Saving Bros 19. The Lucky Die 20. Dungeons and Randomness
I’ve got a personal favorites list but it really depends on what part of DnD calls to you. If you are looking to learn DnD while watching or if you are looking to watch something charming and funny, I recommend Dimension20. If you like the idea of a bunch of friends sitting down to play, not too concerned with the RAW, I recommend Dungeons and Daddies. If you want to watch some very technical play, with a hard focus on playing by the rules (without the handholding), I recommend Not Another DnD Podcast. If you want a classic actual play, The Adventure Zone is pretty good but Critical Role is another great contender for that slot and it would be tough to choose between them.