Dungeons & Dragons

the like D and D culture or these like high fantasy things that people maybe felt burnt out on in the Lord of the Rings era and are back into these much more niche executions of these nerdier versions of things that, you know, feel fun and stranger thingsy and, and nostalgic while also feeling like new and refreshing and maybe easier onboarding points than like, Some of the high, high fantasy like D'Orc is really fun and plays with the tropes of all those things.

But I think at the end of the day is a much more accessible version of a lot of the tropes that get played with in these traditional Dungeons and Dragons type stories.

Yeah, it's exciting as a general all-around nerd myself.

It's exciting to see nerd culture get embraced and celebrated.

I've been moving backwards in time.

And it all started here with the fact that the Folger has done, God help us all, a D&D adventure using items from their archives and using the physical space of the Folger themselves.

as well as a new board game that's coming out from Fort Circle that's all First Folio.

And the Dice Tower is a printing press? It's so exactly my shit.

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting.

We're recording this on a Sunday night.

And for the last over last decade, I would normally be with my D&D group, which has existed for as long as Critical Role has been on the air.

But I'm far from them.

This is all just from the last about five days or so.

Army Painter unveiled their new Forgotten Realms-style paints for Dungeons and Dragons.

They're actually called Forgotten Pigments.

And of course, you know, they lean heavily on the Owlbear iconography and stuff.

They do.

From Dungeons & Dragons.

Okay.

When you play Baldur's Gate 3, like...

So, first of all, last week, I think it was you, Jess, asked who is it actually pitched for? I did.

Is it for World of Warcraft players? Is it for D&D players? Or who? And James White kind of commented on that.

He kind of said something along those lines.

And the way he pitches it to World of Warcraft players... um it's a chance to explore azeroth in a way that you couldn't beforehand so you can talk with anybody you can interact with people you can kill things that you're not supposed to kill in the game or not kill that you things that you are supposed to kill in the game so you can do things in a tabletop role-playing game that aren't limited by the confines of the mmo so basically that's how he pitches it to world of warcraft players is like this game that you like now play it without any boundaries

works for me.

I don't know.

I suppose the other way going D&D players to World of Warcraft is just quite simple.

You know, you're a D&D player and you want to play in World of Warcraft.

It's about, you know, the story rather than any actual gameplay.

BioWare itself was a gaming company known for its RPGs, starting with D&D.

or D and D setting games, kind of like a Baldur's gate.

And then, you know, they get into like star Wars nights of the old Republic.

But yeah, it it looks like it should be a kid's game and it is definitely not a kid's game.

On the other hand, Horrified Dungeons & Dragons, none of the Horrifieds really look like a kids game, so that's not really an issue here.

If you enjoy Dungeons & Dragons and like Waterdeep and Skullport and some of the other places involved with that, I'm less up on my D&D than you are, so you can correct me if you want.

This is an excellent melding of the two properties, the horrified board game with the Dungeons and Dragons property.

It felt very D&D influenced, I think is the way to put it.

And it might be that it's tucked somewhere... unexpected or something.

I don't know if it's like other D&D books where it has all the credits and stuff at the very beginning, but...

No, I don't think so.

But also I was just scrambling and then I was like going through, I ended up going through my email and just sort of like trying to find the email where they talked about who was doing the art.