Dungeons & Dragons’ free TV shows launch later this month with cooking, character deaths and Patton Oswalt
Two actual play series and a cooking show will fill D&D’s latest attempt at a primetime television takeover
Dungeons & Dragons has announced a launch date for its FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV) channel, bringing three weekly series to streaming channels starting November 13th.
Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures will air a pair of actual play series - Encounter Party and Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! - and cooking show Heroes’ Feast as its launch slate of programming, along with “legacy content” such as the 1980s animated D&D show. A preview week beginning November 8th will give audiences an advance taste of what’s in store.
Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! will air new episodes on Thursdays and Saturdays beginning at 9 p.m. ET and PT. This actual play series will invite celebrity guests such as Seth Green, Anjali Bhimani, Skeet Ulrich, Sean Gunn, Mica Burton and Patton Oswalt to join co-creator and actor in his own right Matthew Lillard in improvised, intentionally comedic adventures using D&D 5E’s rules. Audiences should expect high-stakes, epic action and plenty of character death.
The other actual play, Encounter Party, airs Tuesday and Fridays at 9 p.m. ET and PT. It features seven actors creating a 22-episode narrative hosted and DM’d by Brian David Judkins. Group members will include Khary Payton and Ned Donovan as the party explore D&D 5E’s Forgotten Realms, including the eponymous city at the centre of the very popular video game Baldur’s Gate 3.
Odd duck out amongst the original programming, Heroes’ Feast will air Mondays and Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET and PT. Chef Mike’ Haracz will be joined by fellow co-host and actor Sujata Day as the pair create dishes from D&D’s official cookbooks with the help of special guests. Some of these names also appear on other Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures shows while others hail from the wider world of D&D actual play podcasts and streams - Michelle Nguyen Bradley, Jonah Ray and Freddie Wong are confirmed to don the aprons in this adventurous kitchen.
D&D’s FAST channel makes good on a promise that owner Hasbro has expressed to investors multiple times - the brand isn’t monetised enough for their liking. While D&D’s intellectual property recently found considerable box office success with Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, the tabletop RPG itself has yet to be leveraged as a Hollywood asset, until now. Actual play series such as Critical Role, Dimension 20 and Not Another D&D Podcast boast large and devoted fan bases, so it makes sense that Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro would attempt to recreate their own official products at some point.
Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures will initially launch on Amazon Freevee and Plex, with additional platforms expected in the future. Catch trailers for all three serialised programs below.
