Article by Christopher Cruz
It’s not just video games that dominate the digital airwaves on platforms like Twitch — there’s a huge contingent of viewers who yearn for the old days of pen and paper, with tabletop RPGs making a huge splash virtually in the last few years. In fact, once-niche games like Dungeons & Dragons (which turns 50 this year) have taken on new life in the age of livestreaming, and more popular than ever.
Leading the charge are “actual plays,” podcasts or web shows that feature groups of players creating narratives from their imaginations, without the aid of flashy video game visuals, and their popularity has led to a tabletop resurgence whose audience is now more inclusive and diverse. Spanning the genre mainstays, officially licensed extensions of existing franchises, and even homebrew titles people are making themselves, it’s one of the most unexpectedly engrossing ways to lose yourself online.
But how can watching folks roll dice and making up a story out of thin air be so engaging? Like anything online, it begins with the personalities. With known super geeks Vin Diesel, Joe Manganiello, and Wil Wheaton pushing their favorite hobbies in interviews and YouTube appearances for years, alongside the rise of content creators whose fans hang captive for hours on end, it was only a matter of time before tabletop games took hold of mainstream attention. Most groups in the space, like some of the ones featured below, are comprised of beloved figures of nerdom, from voice actors who dominate the anime and video spaces, to comedians who kill on socials, but what makes actual plays so addictive to watch boils down to what has always made them work. It’s about community.
For those who play, the appeal of games like Dungeons & Dragons has long been sitting down with a group of friends week after week just shooting the shit. It’s a shared experience, limited only by imagination, where people can work together (or against each other) to create worlds and stories that reflect their own desires. It’s a ritual. And nothing describes the rise of livestreaming itself than ritualistic viewing. Think of it as an ongoing audio book that’s written in real time, narrated by a handful of professional friends just having a good time. It’s all the joys of TTRPG without having to manage the rules…
Pathfinder Second Edition has had a massive resurgence in reaction to the controversy with Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. Tabletop Gold has been going strong since even before then and is entirely “theater of the mind”, so no visuals on screen.
In a quiet seaside town, an evil lain to rest centuries ago, has risen.
An abandoned fortress, deep in the swamp holds a secret that could save save the village or destroy it.
Now a band of adventurers sets out to dig up the wounds of the past and bring the light of day to:
The Roots of Ruin
Lars Casteen - GM
David Chernicoff as a Human Barbarian (Fury) named Magdaruna Lacewing Skullcrusher
Zoe Chernicoff as a Kitsune Rogue (Eldritch Trickster) named Ao Ukiyo
R. Matt Humphreys as an Elf Fighter named Halenhaplovel Vollys
Robin Lange as a Gnome Bard (Maestro Muse) named Trilfas “Trill” Huttlelob
It’s a brisk Spring morning and the Giant’s Wheel, Otari’s famous lumber mill is running at full capacity, just as it has for nearly 400 years. As the season’s first blooms appear around town, logs, stripped of their branches, drift lazily down the log flume towards the enormous water wheel that powers the mill.The men and women of the town’s workforce occasionally nudge each log to help it find its way from the flume onto the mechanized treadmill. The logs pass through a series of automated saw blades that each drop down with precision cutting each log smaller and smaller as sawdust rains down into the water below.
Next, a trio of 20-foot long blades swing back and forth. Their momentum maintained by workers on an elevated platform, who gently nudge them to make sure they cut the wood into evenly-measured, lengthwise pieces. At the end of the mill, the lumber falls easily into a second flume that carries it further down the hill towards Otari’s docks.
At the waterfront, watching the sunrise as workers lift the wood onto wading ships, is a tall woman, dressed in robes adorned with intricate gold leaf patterns. She pulls her cowl back over her head revealing flowing white hair, two pupil-less eyes, and long pointed ears leading up to a pair of horns rolled back like a ram’s. This tiefling-elf woman is Rin Sivinxi, the proprietor of Otari’s only magical curiosity shop. She turns towards the walking path leading back up the hill through town.
An hour or so later, Rin is at the entrance to Otari’s most extravagant building a beaufiful waterside temple and library built by the church of Sarenrae, goddess of fire, healing and truth. Her eyes search for a moment and then find a person waiting impatiently for the doors to open. Looking particularly out of place among all of this grandeur…