Dice Rolls, Flow Charts, and an Undead Cowboy: Inside Off-Broadway's Fun New Take on D&D

Before the scene in a magma cave stand three adventurers: a warrior, a mage and a rogue who, with a roll of the dice, prepare to defeat a tentacled chthonian monster. Across the stage, the Dungeon Master grins as he flashes the graphics that will soon appear on the massive LED screen behind him. The roll is a success, leading to each question Dungeons & Dragons the player longs to hear:

“How do you want to do that?”

The crowd roars in the off-Broadway theater as the con artist plays out the fatal blow, detailing his actions before the flickering stage lights and sound effects that accompany his attack take over. It's another exciting end to a night at The Tavern of Twenty Sidesthe streamlined comedy show-meets-tabletop gaming experience recently launched in New York, and no one had any idea how it would play — not even the actors themselves.

In basic terms, The Tavern of Twenty Sides is a live board game session that takes a streamlined approach to a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and is Hasbro's first officially sanctioned theatrical production Wizards of the Coast, who owns the rights to D&D. With a cast of actors who make up the party, led by the Dungeon Master as emcee and the Tavern Keeper as his sidekick, it's a show that combines the unpredictability of improvisation and the game itself into a feat of controlled chaos.

At frequent intervals in the performance, the audience is invited to use a web-based application to make decisions that affect the antics on stage. With short prompts, they will decide which characters the actors will portray, make decisions about their actions, and solve puzzles that will determine the outcome of a scene. There are even physical challenges where select attendees come directly on stage to throw darts, play beer pong or play the role of a character in certain scenarios.

Does this sound like a nightmare? It can. The idea of ​​an audience-driven interactive stage shows that piggies in board games shouldn't really work, at least not without being enjoyable. That too is cheesy, but that's part of the series' honest charm, which, combined with surprisingly deep layers of technical storytelling, manages to appeal to even those who'd never dreamed of picking up the fantasy RPG. Although developed by tabletop gamers, it is intended for gamers and non-gamers alike.

“I'm a big gamer,” says co-creator and tech designer David Carpenter. “I love the fact that we can all get in a room and play games together and it can be a show that's participatory — but honestly, it's authentic. The audience makes the choice and [we want] to feel that everything we do is real.”

With all the variables, it would be easy to keep most of the show scripted, and it is to an extent, with the main plot points mapped out. But the reality is very complicated. Behind the tavern bar is a script screen with pages of possible beats to come, but most of it won't be used in a performance. it's just there as a guide. Another screen shows the sequence diagram, a branching list of possible scenarios that can play out depending on each decision or die roll. What starts as a simple flow chart quickly expands as the game progresses, becoming a dizzying web of hundreds of possible outcomes for the narrative. It may even end with the characters dying, but there are contingencies for that too.

And while it would be easier to fake the dead end plot to keep things more manageable, it wouldn't be true to its ethos D&D: player selection.

This element means that audiences can see the show multiple times and never have the same experience. From the beginning, they are given the choice of which character each player will play from a shortlist drawn from a total of 33 characters designed for the show. In the show I watched, the players chose a comedic trio of a dwarf super-cowboy, a dead cowboy, and a warrior who are actually two kids in trench coats. Clearly, standard fantasy fare.

Despite the level of audience choice, there's still a ton of heavy lifting done by the actors, who not only have to improvise their scenes, but actually play the game (yes, the dice are real). It also has to be, you know, funny. Even with the legitimate chops of a D&D campaign behind it, a show like Twenty Sides Tavern he lives and dies on whether his cast can sell the ridiculousness of the premise while keeping the crowd laughing. Comedic talent is the key to casting. Ability to Dungeons & Dragonsless.

“The three things we say [actors] are: They must be funny, they must be good storytellers, and they must be nice D&D – in that order,” says author and Dungeon Master David Andrew Greener Laws, who belongs to DAGL. “We can teach people how to play D&Dyou can't teach people how to be funny.

The optimization element works to the show's benefit and detriment, but even the “damaging” results have the potential to make for good comedy. In our show, audience members chose to name many NPCs “Kate”. With many fictional characters of the same name, labeled only as “Kate 1” or “Kate-Too”, it was up to DAGL to embody both characters, sometimes in conversation with each other, leaving the DM and the players themselves to often confused or playfully riotous . But it quickly became a rush for actors to perform.

And if the idea of ​​creating a show based on audience votes and dice rolls seems difficult, imagine doing it all while directing. The game scenarios are displayed on a huge LED wall at the back of the stage, dynamically changing with hit counters and on-screen battle effect renderings, all manually controlled in real-time by the Dungeon Master and Tavern Keeper. Working in tandem to keep the gameplay and technical aspects of the series on track, the frenzy of their overlapping roles adds a precariousness to the card-based atmosphere of the series. However, they remain undaunted.

“It's every DM's dream,” says DAGL. “[To] they have access to sound, lights, smells and props.”

Like his best games D&D, The Tavern of Twenty Sides it's at its peak when it looks like it's going to explode, just for the improvised plan to tie it all together at the end.

“Tabletop players know,” says author and game designer Sarah Davis Reynolds. “We could try to fake it – come up with a story. Dice have a better idea.”