At mxdwn, we’ve covered with much enthusiasm the exploits of the ever-growing success story of actual play Dungeons & Dragons series and the associated companies that have grown from them. Critical Role, Dimension20, and Relics and Rarities have all captured our hearts and shown how much the venerable role playing game system enables a canvas for brilliant acting. Now, the company that spawned the game system itself, Dungeons and Dragons, has a new actual play show all its own featuring a killer cast of talented voice actors. The new show, Dungeon Masters, is a super polished and approachable presentation of the wicked popular D&D actual play format.

Jasmine Bhullar (Relics and Rarities, DesiQuest, Dimension20, Critical Role) takes up the chair as dungeon master, taking the cast through the legendary pressure cooker of the horror-inspired Ravenloft demiplane. The cast features Neil Newbon (Baldur’s Gate III, Resident Evil Village), Devora Wilde (Baldur’s Gate III, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33), Christian Navarro (13 Reasons Why, Critical Role) and Mayanna Berrin (Dispatch, The Dungeon Run) all bringing a fun-loving and nuanced take on their respective characters. Navarro plays a fierce and insightful interrogator, a wood elf winter walker ranger named Eloin Emberleaf. Berrin’s character is a moribund and whimsical drow grave domain cleric named Wesley. Newbon and Wilde play husband-and-wife characters Professor Crem de la Crem and Zora Thornska respectively, the professor a rock gnome reanimator artificer and his better half a mysterious shadow sorcerer.

We had the good fortune of being able to attend a private media event to watch the first episode of this new series. In episode one, Bhullar introduces the characters as existing nestled in the familiar city of Baldur’s Gate before slamming them into a seemingly impossible combat sequence almost immediately. We also meet the Crems’ adopted daughter Lavindria. All the players are challenged in an extreme fashion in a high-level combat with a mysterious sorceress. They narrowly escape from the harrowing encounter via timely help from an unseen ally. They end up whisked off to a total different plane of reality. Initially, they have no clue where they landed, but we soon learn they have arrived at the legendary land of horror, Ravenloft. As the story unfolds a magical crow named Solus, seemingly made of paper, helps explain their circumstances and how they have been brought by his patron Enza to Sithicus, a domain of Ravenloft. They then have to navigate this new treacherous world and try to navigate local politics, harsh monsters and find a way to trust each other (even though they do not seem to at all). The cast makes the most of each thread, either making for hilarious and entertaining banter or biting, intense drama.

Given the show is fully produced and edited in advance, as opposed to recorded to be live streamed quickly, there’s a flawless production quality to it. Also, it’s generally aimed to be informative for viewers whether they’re experienced D&D players or brand-new fans tiptoeing up to the experience. Tooltips show up at nearly all rules-based moments of significance—attack rolls, saving throws, long rests taken, spell errata—to give a concise explanation of what the rules mean and how it works. It’s a refreshing and super helpful approach to the endless mechanics of the game system, even when it’s something as well-known as a character casting “Pass Without a Trace.” There are also animations to demonstrate the modifier a player has on a particular role and the difficulty check number they have to meet to succeed in the effort.

Episodes will launch weekly on the official Dungeons & Dragons YouTube account ( @DNDWizards ) starting with episode one on Wednesday, April 22nd at 6:30 p.m. PST. Also, this is not a one-shot or mini-series, this will be an ongoing campaign where each campaign will take place in a different slice of the enormous Dungeons & Dragons mythology. This particular season takes place in Ravenloft and ties into the newly announced Ravenloft: The Horrors Within book releasing on June 16th. It’s also being tied into premium content that comes from preordering The Horrors Within. Buyers will receive weekly play-along packs via download on D&D Beyond if they want to have their own playable tie-ins to the show’s encounters.

As a part of the press junket for the event we had the good fortune of speaking with the cast Jasmine Bhullar, Mayanna Berrin, Christian Navarro, Neil Newbon and Devora Wilde. The full transcript of that interview follows below.

mxdwn: Hey everybody, this is Raymond Flotat from mxdwn.com, that’s Mixdown, and I feel like a kid coming down the stairs from Christmas. That’s right, the Sugar Plums, Prancer, Dancer, Rudolph, the whole thing, and there is an incredible array of presents right in front of me, a murderer’s row of talent. From left to right, Devora, Neil, Jasmine, Christian and Mayanna.

Everyone here from Dungeon Masters, the new D&D actual play series. How are you doing today?

All: Great!

Mayanna Berrin: Having a blast!

mxdwn: I want to go macro before we go micro. I know we don’t have a lot of time. We live in a very dark world right now.

Neil Newbon: Yes, we do.

mxdwn: Things are crazy terrible. There are two different schools of thought. Things like this, as evocative of the perils of the moment, or escape from it. Which do you think this is more?

Jasmine Bhullar: I think it’s both. Sometimes we want to engage in escapism and try to dabble in something a little bit lighter. For me, catharsis comes from actually being able to change things and being empowered to change things in a way that sometimes you feel helpless in real life. In some ways, I think our story is one of a little bit of hopelessness. It does feel oppressive and difficult at times, but also our characters find strength in each other, and find strength within themselves, and they can change things. I think that that’s beautiful.

mxdwn: I started with Ravenloft with Dungeons & Dragons when I was trained in the mid-90s. I died three times in the first day. I got killed by a vampire three times in the first day. I found it to be oppressively difficult in that phase, in that iteration of it. How oppressively difficult did you make it in this form?

Bhullar: I think my players should answer that. I think as a Dungeon Master, it’s hard to know difficulty.

Newbon: We know she doesn’t fake or fudge rolls. All the rolls are as they are, which is in itself a thing. I’ve been a DM before. I’ve definitely curved a few rolls, just because I was like, “I kind of don’t want them to get that screwed over,” or to screw them over. Both are equally acceptable. But yeah, you don’t blow anything, right?

Bhullar: No. I think because of that, when you have a resounding success, it’s because the boss rolled it. I’ve never thumbed the scale.  Sometimes the players get to completely obliterate a boss fight that I thought was going to be difficult, and sometimes the boss completely obliterates the players.

Berrin: Tough but fair.

mxdwn: There you go. That’s the way to be as a DM. Absolutely. Now, not to get into any spoilers or anything that people haven’t seen or will not see for a minute, but because characters die in D&D, that’s a thing. You can fail the best saving throws and not make it. And I know that this cast is going to be going through, I don’t want to say too much, but, forward. Is there a plan for what happens if that happens? Do we roll new characters into the same game? Are people taking a break for a minute?

Bhullar: I remember talking to the players about this extensively, in terms of one of the things that’s important for me is, how attached are you to your character? Especially, I’m Punjabi Sikh,  and so coming from a community that’s historically been… we’ve survived a lot.  Sometimes, if you’re playing certain characters, it’s like, I don’t know that this is how this character’s arc should end, you know? And so, I always work as a DM with the players to determine which of you… And these guys are freaks. They were all like, “Kill me, do whatever you want to me. We’ll figure it out.”

Berrin: I’m all green, baby.

Newbon: We dare you. Come on.

Bhullar: {pointing to Mayanna Berrin} That’s exactly what you said!

Berrin: Yeah, I said, I’m all green, baby.

mxdwn: Oh, indeed. And just to keep things moving, try to get a little bit for everybody in here, Christian. I felt like Matthew McConaughey in the first season of True Detective. Were you a negotiator in a past job, or were you a person who got interrogation and confessions out of people?

Christian Navarro: I wanted to be an FBI profiler. My father and my mother are both cops, and I grew up thinking I was going to go into law enforcement and then politics.

mxdwn: I literally, the moment that you were doing that, I was like, “I’ll tell you everything. I surrender.”

Navarro: My dad would be happy. I read a lot about the subject, and my father was a beat cop and then worked in the drug task force and stuff like that. I’ve just become my father. I just act for a living.

mxdwn: Everything is and begins again, always.

Neil, I wanted to ask you, not without saying that it’s impressionistic of a particular voice or thing that existed, but when I heard your voice, immediately I landed somewhere between Professor Frink and then Rick Moranis in like the Nutty Professor. I was wondering if you, and it was a really nice, soft, happy place…

Newbon: You actually fucking nailed it. So it’s Professor Frink. It’s a little bit of the OG Jerry Lewis.

mxdwn: Okay!

Newbon: There’s a smattering of Christopher Lloyd in there. And just for shits and giggles, a little bit of Rick Moranis.

mxdwn: I was so happy and so comfortable in that the second it happened.

Newbon: I kind of like the trope of the mad, crazy professor. As a setup, because like Jasmine was saying, she’s such a brilliant DM, and we’re working with such wonderful people as an ensemble. There’s places we’re going to go. I always liked the idea of having the setup to then be able to gazump and change and twist and turn and really go into much greater depth in different ways than you might expect from just an initial smack of a character.

mxdwn: Outstanding. And lastly, Jasmine, I’ll put you on the spot just a little bit. You may not be able to say anything. My D&D adventure in the actual play space came from a little show you did with Xander Jeanneret, Relics and Rarities.

Bhullar: Yes!

mxdwn: And I wanted to ask if there’s been any thought or discussions with Deborah Ann Woll about doing that again. I know that the entire crew wants to play again. I miss that game all the time. I saw Deborah DM for (Jon) Bernthal just a little bit, and anytime Deb wants to call me, I will be happy to take up the mantle of Beryl again, and I would love to come back to Relics and Rarities. It’s kind of what started a lot of this for me. Very special place in my heart.

mxdwn: Well, the incredible cast of Dungeon Masters, I hope to speak to you again, and we look forward to seeing everything else. Thanks so much.

All: Thank you!