There’s a new way to play Dungeons & Dragons, and it includes up to 500 adventurers.
Dungeons & Dragons The Twenty-Sided Tavern (D&DTST) is an interactive, immersive experience based on Hasbro’s role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). Located at Stage 42 in New York City, the officially licensed show invites audience members to participate in a D&D campaign from their theater seat (and sometimes from the stage itself).
Throughout the two-hour and 30-minute show (with a 15-minute intermission), audience members will help the cast members create and play a D&D campaign. Audience members are assigned a specific color, which correlates to the character they will make choices for, such as a Mage, Trickster, and Warrior. There are 33 playable characters, and the ticket holders choose who graces the stage that evening.
Throughout the show, fans will use their phones to respond to different prompts to determine their assigned character’s build and next steps. Audience members simply scan a QR code to open Gamiotics, the technology that the creators of D&DTST use to interact with the audience. Like any game of D&D, a roll of the dice — rolled onstage under cameras for all to see — also determines how the journey continues.
Fans can choose to hurt or heal, persuade or deceive, and more. But, since D&D campaigns feature various elements, choices, and dice, the show’s creative team and Hasbro were faced with two daunting tasks: how to accurately bring the game to the stage, and how to let the audience be in control of a stage show.
BASIC RULES
D&D campaigns require communal input, evolved characters, and a dedication to the story. When creating a large, live version of a game based on choice and chance, the adventurers need to have the ability to influence the actions of their characters.
When creating the immersive experience, the D&DTST creative team Curious Hedgehog — which features D&D experts Sarah Davis Reynolds, David Carpenter, and David Andrew Laws (DAGL) — aimed to adhere to the specific values that D&D members love about the game.
“At the forefront, the pillars that we have built this experience on are authenticity, agency, and comedy.” DAGL says. “Those are so integral to this experience, it’s something that all three of us are so passionate about — no matter what angle we’re approaching this experience from, we are making sure that we’re telling a fun story, and that the audience has control over and that cannot happen without them in the room.”
At D&DTST, the cast and crew are subject to the audience’s decisions. While the team can prepare for how to proceed after each choice, they don’t know what choice will be made until the results are on the screen or until the die lands on a number. In addition to Gamiotic questions and live dice rolls, fans can participate in trivia, tap-games, physical games, and more to move the story forward — and Curious Hedgehog is certain to make sure every audience member feels the impact of their opinion.
We really want it to feel like a game of D&D that you are playing around your kitchen table at home.
“Even though it is an audience of 500, we really want it to feel like a game of D&D that you are playing around your kitchen table at home,” Reynolds says. “It’s that idea that every one voice in the space is essential to the story that we are telling that night and that it feels like you are part of that table no matter how involved or how loud you are: you are very essential in being there that evening.”
There are even a few chances for ticket holders to step on stage and represent a side character or help the trio. Participation from the seat or on stage is 100% voluntary: fans choose how involved they are with the decision-making, and consent is a key value during the entire experience.
And like a D&D game that fans play at the kitchen table, each choice has consequences, and fans will watch the results of their decisions unfold throughout the show. If the audience votes for the trio to deceive another character, that decision might reappear negatively or positively later in the show — something that can easily happen during a campaign.
In order to keep the story moving, the cast and crew must combine improv with a tree of optional outcomes. Depending on what options the audience favors (such as which village to visit) DAGL and Reynolds — who remain onstage throughout the show and serve as the game’s Dungeon Master and Barkeep — and the actors portraying the characters must quickly react. While the cast can prepare different avenues to travel, they can’t predict what number the dice showcase or how unhinged the audience will be that night. According to Carpenter, “there’s no such thing as a producer-forced choice,” it’s truly in the hands of ticket holders.
“There’s no decision that you [the audience] make from the moment you enter the space to the moment you leave that doesn’t have a consequence, that doesn’t affect an outcome, that isn’t a variable being tracked through the whole show. It all culminates in a very unique bespoke experience,” DAGL says. Carpenter adds that “It’s about giving the audience stakes and not just the active participation, but that their choices are very real consequence.”
However, the immersive experience begins before audience members cheer for the first dice roll, watch their decisions immediately have a consequence, or decide what their assigned character will look like (and, Undead Cowboy is one option). The experience begins even before they see the large map of Waterdeep in the lobby: when purchasing tickets online, prospective audience members have three options: Traditional Path (buy tickets directly), Story Mode (answer a few questions, receive a section/price block and purchase within the block), or Roll for Initiative (let the dice decide how buyers get tickets).
Once the tickets are purchased and the show starts, the audience, cast, and crew are in it together, and no one in the building knows how it’ll end.
LEANING ON THE LORE
While audience members sit next to 500 strangers, the show aims (and often succeeds) to make ticket holders feel like they’re playing a campaign with their close friends and family. This is a direct result of Curious Hedgehog’s personal admiration of the game, which will help D&D fans understand that they can trust their Dungeon Master and Barkeep.
“I think it’s important to note that it is a love letter to the game that we all play. And we say a lot that this is ‘by fans for fans’ … there’s so much love and care poured into truly every element of this from the game design and the story to the gelatinous cube lamp to the class symbols carved into the set to the fact that the runes on the set do actually spell out things,” Reynolds says. “So there’s just so much care and detail because we all get excited about it. We’re not doing the care and detail because we feel like we have to or to make it bigger or anything, we want to because we’re excited about it and we’re just really excited to share that with everyone else who loves the same game that we do.”
Their dedication to the game is an integral part of creating D&DTST. Similar to every good game of D&D, creating the show — such as what options the audience will have and how to best represent a beloved game at this level — was a collaborative effort between IP-owner Hasbro and Creative Hedgehog, who had worked on the show as a unofficial fandom experience before Hasbro entered the set. But, once Curious Hedgehog and Hasbro partnered to present the show as an officially licensed experience, everything was akin to a natural roll 20.
“We [Hasbro] definitely helped them [Creative Hedgehog] get into a verse or storyline that more aligned with where the brand was and brand is; the show that they had before was a campaign that they had kind of created on their own … we wanted that to be better aligned with the story and the characters … and we where see the brand moving into the future,” Matt Proulx, Senior Vice President, Global Experiences, Partnerships and Music at Hasbro, says. Despite some small changes, Curious Hedgehog and Hasbro understood exactly how to continue the journey.
“But, what we found is that there was a tremendous amount of alignment on how the show got brought to life … it was even alignment on terms of the core tenets of the story,” he continues.
This has been an incredibly collaborative, very much a partnership process"
“As a whole, there was never a piece where I felt the teams weren’t aligned or that there was significant friction.” Proulx says. “So this has been an incredibly collaborative, very much a partnership process where I feel all people that were involved helped create the overall process, which just made it what it is now and created the great experience that you [The Pop Insider] had and others had.”
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
The show wasn’t created just for seasoned D&D players, either. Despite being a larger-than-life version of the RPG game, people who have never played or even recognize the game can enjoy the show. The cast members provide a quick introductory D&D onboarding session once the show starts, and seasoned players will want to pay attention as it describes both the game itself and how everyone in the room will come together to play over the next few hours.
D&D players can also join a D&DTST Discord and potentially influence the show and merchandise offerings. The Discord features several different channels such as Past Quests, where audience members can chat about the show they saw; Upcoming Quests, which includes new information pertaining to the show; and On Tap, a channel where Discord users can discuss other D&DTST things.
Past and prospective audience members can interact with the creative team directly through this Discord: they can provide feedback, ask questions, and discover different parts of the show from the people who made it. This feature expands on the intimacy of the show — audience members rarely get to interact this closely with the team creating stage content.
“I love our Discord. It is genuinely one of my favorite places to hang out. And what is so cool about the community that we have built — because we all know how integral community is to the D&D experience at large — but we have our TST community as well, and it is so full of people who have been with us since this show was folding tables and boxes of props to people who are just discovering us on social media and going, ‘I heard about this, what is this?’” DAGL says.
ROLL FOR MERCH
The current merchandise, available both online and at the show, feature the show logo and a call-and-response phrase that audience members learn during the show. Fans can sport the D&DTST Logo Tee ($40) while drinking from their D&DTST Tankard Mug ($30), or they can introduce the D&DTST Dice Set and Bag ($25) to their next meet.
At the time of publication, the rest of the merch includes a jacket and magnet, but similar to the outcome of each show, anything is possible. Hasbro and the creative team have both expressed interest in expanding the merchandise offerings to feature the different characters from the show, phrases, and more. Both teams aim to create products that the fans will feel confident owning and wearing.
Fans can play the RPG game at home with dice from the show. | Source: D&DTST
The T-shirt features a phrase used in the show. | Source: D&DTST
The Tankard Mug will make a great addition to any D&D game night. | Source: D&DTST
The entrance features a large map that fans of the game will recognize, and just up the escalator is a lobby that resembles the tavern vibe created on the stage. Guests can grab a drink, plan their next campaign ‘fit with items from the merch stand, and take a picture in their D&D-themed outfits with an oversized 20-sided die at the photo opp. Next to the photo opp is a large chest full of different colored die. Audience members can exchange their die for a new one or start their die collection after reaching into the monsters mouth. According to DAGL “The idea is it’s a take a D20, leave a D20. We would love to develop a little ecosystem of people leaving us their trinkets and taking something with them from the show.”
As long as the show runs, fans could receive new merch or become involved in the storyline in new ways. “We’re always going to look for those opportunities to enhance the brand, to be able to create merchandise that help exemplify the brand that our consumers, fans, and guests want to have in their lives … but we also want to make sure we’re very measured with how we’re approaching that so it doesn’t also feel like it’s a label slap or a brand slap … Then it just becomes a cash grab versus about how you’re actually creating that authenticity for the brand, again, for the consumers to be able to say, I’m wearing this as a badge of honor, as a badge of who I am.”
CONTINUOUS CAMPAIGNS
Since Hasbro and the D&DTST creative team understand that some players cannot make it to New York, the show will eventually embark on a quest to different cities. While specific details concerning the D&DTST tour are not yet available, fans can look forward to joining the campaign from their hometown soon.
“Our plans for this show, of course, is to have a long run, of course, and then have a long run out on tour as well and be able to do this stuff that we want to see. So we’re going to have to again, continue to evolve, and for those repeat guests coming, we want to have new stuff for them as well too. So it’s just going to be, I’d say it’s a constant evolution and will continue to be a constant evolution,” Proulx says.
“We are very much in tune with everything that’s happening, and if there’s ways to make things better, we’re going to make things better. There’s things that people are really enjoying that, Hey, don’t change this. We’re going to listen. Sometimes we might push it a little bit as well. So I think, again, it’s just important to make sure that you are aware of what your fandom wants”
At the end of the show, you’ll likely leave with new friends and potential member additions to your campaign; at the performance we attended, audience members filled intermission by chatting about their personal D&D strategies, characters, and where they think the D&DTST campaign will lead. Seasoned adventures taught newer players the ropes, while others compared the die they snagged from the lobby chest.
Whether fans attend the show once in their life or once a week, they will have a unique experience each time. The show is recommended for views ages 8-80, but audience members slightly younger or older could also enjoy the show.
Fans can start their campaign on Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. and/or 7:30 p.m. or Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 7:00 p.m. Tickets range between $24-144. In addition to purchasing tickets online at thetwentysidedtavern.com and at the box office, fans can enter the digital lottery for a chance to win $39 tickets or rush the box office in the morning for a chance to purchase $29 tickets.
