- [Zach] Dungeons & Dragons, what is it? - [James] I want to welcome
you to the land of Snowdonia. - D&D.
- Fire, fire, ignite within me, just
as I am forever sad. - Dungeons & Dragons. (Ned yelling)
That game the kids on "Stranger Things" play. - [Zach] Today, we are
creating characters, and we are going to
play Dungeons & Dragons for the very first time. - Are you ready to be a hero, Zachary? - Oh my God.
- Yeah. - Wow, I've been waiting for
that question all my life. (upbeat music) (whimsical orchestral music) Today, we are playing Dungeons & Dragons for the very first time, and to help us, to be our Dungeon Master,
our Dungeon Daddy, we're joined by James D'Amato
of "The One Shot" podcast. - James and I actually are old friends. We met in Chicago improv classes. - That's true.
- And I kinda feel like D&D is a little bit like improv. - D&D is exactly the same as improv. - [Ned] Wow. - During each round, different
players will take their turns telling us what their character
does in a moment of crisis. What do you do to intervene? - I think I'm gonna sing a song. - I played a few session in high school, mostly, we created characters. - You know, I'm not
really a board game guy. I've done zero role playing
outside of the bedroom. - [Group] Hey! - Yes, I can't wait to
get hard from this game. - Oh.
- Boner alert. - Yeah.
(dramatic music) Welcome to the magical land of Snowdonia, a frigid place full of
mysterious magic, wild weather, and dangerous forests. - It sounds sexy.
- It sounds like Seattle. - You guys are the heroes. So imagine, this is a TV
show that's improvised where I am the director,
producer, and casting crew all rolled into one. Darkness has fallen upon
the Snowdonian forest. Screams echo from somewhere deep within, while a cold rain begins to fall. (thunder booming)
- We appear through groves upon groves of
trees into a small clearing where a fire has been lit, and then, moving across the fire, lit up in this brilliant red, we see Ned. - So how does one go about
creating a character? - So there are a couple of decisions that we need to make up top. They are your race and your class. - Asian.
(James sighing) Cool?
- Ashkenazi Jewish. - That other white guy. - So this is gonna more like
elves and dwarves and whatnot, but there are a couple
races that are unique to D&D, like dragonborn and tiefling. - Tiefling?
- Tiefling. They're like devil people.
(Keith laughing) Every character in Dungeons
& Dragons has six core stats. You're gonna be good at
some things and not so good at other things. - Yeah, I mean, I was thinking like, you know, like a badass
warrior, but more crazy. - Okay, okay, so what
you're saying to me-- - Like not noble at all. - Please describe him. - [Ned] I am Edgar the Destroyer. (group laughing) 6'10 soaking wet, I am a human barbarian. I take no prisoners, and
I always skip leg day. I love my wife, I love my baby, but I was thinking like,
maybe in this universe, they've been kidnapped, and
that's my one mission in life is I have to get them back! - We see an incredibly muscular, beefy man with skinny chicken legs. He's holding his ax in defense against this looming skeleton. You are grappling with this thing. You're very, very strong, but
you're incredible top-heavy, and you just catch,
balance in the wrong way, and fall down, so the
creature begins to try and smash its mace down on you. As it's doing that, one of
your friends comes to your aid. Zach, who is your character? - I think people would expect me to be one of the little ones. But this is my imagination
realm, and I'm gonna be whoever the hell I wanna be. - You could be a bard.
- What? - [James] Bards combine
music and fighting powers, and they actually inspire
everyone around them. - I can inspire people with my song? - Oh yeah.
- I can sing to my friends all day?
- Yes, you can. - Oh, we're doing that for sure. - Zachary is a bard! - Hello, friends. Hi, I'm Hotankles, the
irresistibly charming, sexy little demon bad boy tiefling bard. When I'm not busy charming
the pants off of all those here in Snowdonia, I'm singing songs, and spreading joy and merriment and making people fall in love with ♪ My sonorous voice ♪ - We hear a zap in the background, and we cut over to Eugene. - I think what my main inspiration, is I just wanna be Cate
Blanchett as Galadriel but when she turns evil
for that hot second. - Yes. - Or Cate Blanchett in "Carol," where she has the amazing power of romantic lesbian influence. - There are no fantasy adventure movies about middle-aged divorcees. Why not? - (sighing) What Draconian
nightmare is this that I stumble upon the
company of two members of a sub-par male species? (group laughing) Did I leave the grasp of my
Druid husband who only thought he could make love as a bear? No, it was me, the beast
all along who left, into the arms of a female strident, a ranger who took me
into her womanly boughs and made me see the light
of art and discovery. Here I am, trying to find myself. Yes, I'm Carol.
(group laughing) I feel like maybe by joining this tiny, little ankled man--
- I am a normal sized man. (group laughing) I defined my character traits. This is fantasy.
- With that, I think we hear a rumbling
through some trees in a clearing and Keith, your character
is going to be face to face with a enormous skeletal beast. Why do you adventure? - My parents, you know,
didn't really believe in my pursuits. (laughing)
- (laughing) Uh-huh. - I wanted to be an artist, and they said, "You'll never succeed," they
kicked me out of the house. - Please introduce us to your character. I'm Joshua, I'm halfway
through a painting, I'm sorta trying to capture
what's going on here with the battle, Edgar's top-heavy torso, the beautiful Carol, the
tiny, tiny Hotankles. - I'm normal height--
- Only in comparison to all of us. I'm still often being
flooded with memories of my previous relationship
which, obviously, ended in a way that I didn't like, but I'm ever on my quest to
gather all the paints I can get. - [James] Pigments are
rare and hard to find. - Yeah, I'm definitely
trying to build my palette. Once my ultimate palette
is complete, I can rest. - I think we cut to a very
quick shot of all of you running out of the forest together. (all humming an adventurous tune) D&D has three major types of gameplay: role play, ability checks, and combat. As you exit this forest, you
see a small, hunched creature holding a sign. While the guys are the stars, and are gonna be driving the action, I play the rest of the
world, reacting to them. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, brave warriors. But would any of you be Hotankles? - Hello, I am Hotankles, and
these are my new friends. - My name is Kilometers,
and I have been dispatched by your friend Keith. To help you in this
new town, he booked you for a night of singing and heroism. We don't get a lot of acts coming through. Most of them die on the road, so I am extremely excited to see you. - Here's the thing. I've been traveling around as a solo act, but it hasn't quite saved the world yet, hasn't, it's moved people,
sure, but I don't know, what do you say, gang? - I'm really just an artist, but I could make some dope
banners for your show. - I'm searching for my family, therefore, I will help you.
(group laughing) - You remind me of the
daughter I left behind, and I would love to
see you prove yourself. - Snowdonian Idol. - I've prepared a few things for my story, but if I know the guys,
they're gonna go off book, and I can't wait to see what they do. I can't tell you how great this is. I'm so excited to welcome
you into our community that has been plagued by
a terrible, crimson mist. It rolls in through town,
and it causes all kinds of chaos, summoning
large, terrible monsters, and really, just wracking our community. - Carol hasn't had a crimson
mist since her mid-40s. - That was inappropriate.
- Pretty inappropriate-- - That was inappropriate. - In this non-denominated time. - We don't know commoners that well. - All right.
- What are you trying to say? - It liberated her, she feels great. - Nah. Liberation is all a bit relative, darling. - Maybe we'd all feel a little bit better after a nice dinner. - Hard cut to.
(bright medieval music) And so our heroes sat down
to a lovely meal together. After laughing and
chatting, they suddenly hear a commotion going on
outside in the town square. When players and their
characters confront challenges in the game, they'll have to overcome them using ability checks. - Carol.
- Yes? - You have been tasked by
your group to go outside and see what's going on unnoticed. So when you do something in D&D, first, you have to see if you succeed or fail. And to do that, almost always,
you roll a 20-sided die. For that, I'm going to ask
for a stealth skill roll. If you roll high enough, you'll succeed. If you fail, well, there
are monsters out there. (dramatic music) 20!
- Wow! - That's incredible, his
first roll is a Natural 20? - [James] We cut to you in the shadows in this gothic little town. You can see people carrying
torches and chanting. "We've found another one! "We're gonna burn them, and chase away "this crimson ruby mist,
as quickly as possible," and there are cheers from
the rest of the crowd. - Hm, well, we must save this person. I'm going to return back to
my new comrades, I guess. Hotankles, Hotankles.
- It's you, Carol. - They've got a poor soul out there, chained up to manacles. - [Edgar] How many of them are there? - Upwards of 55.
- Doesn't matter. I will do it. - Edgar, I would like
you to burst out and roll an intimidation check.
(Ned yelling) (dice clattering)
(dramatic music) Three.
(group laughing) - I think that is bad enough as a check, you're not the smartest in this group. I think you go out, people are chanting, you're yelling, and you just
get swept up in the crowd. (group laughing) You go, "Yah," and the
people in the crowd go, "Yah," and you're like,
oh yeah, this is great. - [Ned] Not what I meant. - Okay, well, Edgar didn't do the best. Who's got another idea? - I think I can use a
spell to confuse the group. First, I'm gonna go by and
I'm gonna tap each of them on the shoulder, make 'em go, huh? Then, I'm gonna start
tickling the ringleader, and he's gonna go crazy. All right, here we go. - Oofah, doofah. So there's this beautiful green color, this light green hand that
you summon up into the air. It's moving along the
ground like the Thing from Addams Family, and somebody goes, "Hey, wait a minute. "That one over there's made
a green, magical hand appear. "It's another witch. "Get him!" ♪ No, oh, oh ♪ - [James] And I think
Edgar is going to run over, grab Hotankles, and lift him in the air, I got another witch!
- Wow. You must be so strong,
because I'm a normally sized human being, and so, for
you to be able to carry me is incredible.
- I am so strong. Yes, thank you. - Well, okay, so if we
assess the situation, aggression didn't work,
trickery didn't work, maybe we should just try to talk to them? - [James] So this sounds
like a persuasion roll to me. - Yeah.
(dice clattering) A three, so I don't know. (group laughing) I don't know, okay, so we gotta-- (group laughing)
Guys, we have to get along. You can't be so stupid
and spend all your time fighting each other. Are you even listening to me? What's wrong with all of you? Sit down, pay attention, and
let's stop being the mob. - Well, he's not a witch, but it is a very condescending dragon. Can we just maybe add him to the fire too? And everything kind of
murmurs in agreement, and they go to grab you, and suddenly, you are next to Hotankles, the poor soul who was being tried earlier,
and your friend Edgar is there. - I feel like I need to
go divert their anger towards someone else. - All right, roll your deception. - Come on, Carol.
- Oh, come on, Carol. - 16 is the base roll. What's your--
- Stealth is +8. - Yeah, so that's 24,
which is really good. You are going to tell
a very convincing lie that is going to get you
close to the ringleader of this group of people. - Well, I first let him
look at me from behind, catch his attention,
and when he's hypnotized by my form, I catch him, and
I get him right in the gut. - So you stab him?
- Oh, yes, I stab him, I just, I full on stab him. - All right, so then, I
think I'm gonna need y'all to roll for initiative, as
we enter a formal combat. - Oh, shit.
(dramatic music) - In combat, we break
down the action of play moment to moment. Everything takes place in rounds, which are small increments of
time that we've zoomed in on so that we can really get a
sense of what the action is. Once you've rolled your
20 sided die to determine whether or not you hit,
you'll roll damage dice, which can be of different die sizes to determine how effective your hit was. (dice clattering) - Double sevens.
- You run this person through and kill them immediately.
- Yeah, Carol! - Carol.
- What do you say to him before he dies? - What don't I say, Dungeon Master? But only two words. Gay rights.
(group laughing) - The majority of the
crowd recoils in horror, but a few, their eyes
glow an emerald green and they lean in.
- Oh no. - To attack. Clearly, the mayor was part of some plot. You can attack with a
weapon, cast a spell, or use one of your other abilities, but you can always fall
back on your creativity. Unlike a video game, the
options that you have aren't pre-prescribed. You can come up with whatever you want. - I am going to run into
the center of the demons, and I'm gonna cast Burning Hands. - Spell casters have a list of hundreds of potential different spells, but they have to choose wisely
what they bring with them. (dice clattering) - [Keith] Three, one, five. I put my hands together, and say, "Fire, fire, ignite within
me, just as I am forever sad." (fire booming) And--
(group laughing) - A jet of flames shoots forth, engulfs one of these
creatures entirely in fire. The other two, I think, are
going to turn on Hotankles, who is currently--
- Up onto Edgar. - [James] Up on Edgar's
shoulder right now. Our heroes fight
valiantly, using the powers of friendship they learned
along the way, until, Hotankles, there is one boy left. One of your cantrips, Vicious Mockery. - Yeah.
- It's literally, you insult someone so
hard, they take damage. That's probably gonna be better
than most of your weapons. I'm just using boys as a general term-- - No, now I'm--
- No, it's a child. He's no more than eight years old, and I'm gonna kill him.
(group laughing) - [James] A simulacrum
of an eight year old. - Yes.
- I'm gonna use Vicious Mockery, and
I am just gonna insult the shit out of this demon child. - All right. Please tell me what insult
you are saying to this person. - You are a stupid child. I bet you can't even read
books past the 4th grade level. Yeah, you're smaller than me,
and that's saying something. You can't eat candy unless
your mom gives you permission. You have to lie to log into YouTube, because you're under 13.
(James laughing) - All right, roll this one, the D4. (dice clattering)
(dramatic music) Four!
- Yeah! - You insult him--
(all cheering) until he's dead!
(all cheering) - Yes.
- No, no, you can see, with each
insult, it's melting deeper and deeper into the ground. Edgar, it's your turn. You are going to roll a D12. (dice clattering)
(dramatic music) - 11!
- Okay. - Plus 4, plus 2.
- Yeah, that is 17 damage. You annihilate this kid.
(Ned yelling) You take out all three of these. (all yelling) - Yeah!
- Dun, dun, dun. I take it like a baseball bat,
and I go from low to high, kuh, kuh, kuh. In one fell swoop, the first
guy gets sliced completely like a diagonal windowpane. The second guy gets his chin
chopped off up into his brain. - No! - And the third guy just gets hit, completely bludgeoned
in the side of the head and falls dead on impact. Immediate concussion. - Suddenly, everybody in town is like. (clapping slowly)
(Ned laughing) - Listen, townsfolk. We come in peace, we are here to help. - The person who was manacled
before turns to Carol, and they just say, "Thank
you so much for saving me. "I can't tell you what it means. "No one would listen to me." The witch that our heroes
had rescued closed her eyes and waved her hands. The crimson mist that had plagued the town evaporated in an instant. Our heroes and the witch
had saved the day for now. (hopeful music) - This was so much fun. Everything seemed like
it was moving on the fly, and we were storytelling the
five of us in the moment. - Props to you for being
such an amazing DM. You were just brilliant at
really weaving things together as a storyteller, so I think
it should just be something everybody who is a storyteller should do. - I mean, who would've thought that a Cate Blanchett-based character could exist in this universe,
but it worked really well. And certainly, a really fun
way to express yourself, especially with a group of friends. - Go get your friends, play
Dungeons & Dragons with them. You best believe that
Hotankles is gonna dance again. (upbeat music) - I think next time we have the
option to cosplay something, we might as well bring
these characters to life. - Yeah.
- Oh my gosh. - I think you're right.
- That's true.
My wife loves the Try Guys and I watch it with her, so when this popped into our feed I had a real worlds collide moment. Its fun to see the connections that are out there!
It was really weird to see and hear James at the same time though. I've not caught any of the streams or live events, so he's always been a magnificent audio only beast to me.