Your 2024 actual play gift guide

For the last two years I’ve been doing roundups of what I consider to be the most interesting actual plays of the year, from new tricks from established shows to shows that don’t use Dungeons & Dragons to the highlights of the best moments in actual play to predictions on the trends that would dominate the year (why yes, I was right about this being a year about gods!).

But this year, I’d like to do something a little bit different: I’d like to think about the best actual plays for different kinds of audiences. To that end, I’ve rounded up some of the new shows and arcs that my friends and family haven’t stopped talking about.  In several cases, these are actual plays that aren’t to my taste, but I can see their strengths. In a time when actual play desperately needs to reach beyond its core audiences, such thoughtful, audience-aware innovation is desperately needed.

So consider this your actual play gift-giving guide for 2024.

For audio fiction nerds: Gutter, My First Dungeon, and The All Night Society

Audio-only actual play podcasts have always been at the forefront of production innovation, because unlike their livestreamed counterparts there’s always the need for editing. In the wake of the success of Worlds Beyond Number’s sensitively produced sonic landscape, more and more shows are upping their game in response. The show’s producer, Taylor Moore, will not stop singing the praises of Gutter, a new Delta Green/Cthulhu actual play from the makers of Shadowrun actual play NeoScum: “It’s the exact kind of show I WISH with every fiber of my being that I could make.” The horror-comedy podcast is the kind that keeps player banter in (sometimes to a distracting degree), but those fond of the kind of imagined post-apocalyptic United States seen in shows like HyperRPG’s Kollok or the world-building of Midst will find comparable setup in these first two episodes.

Moore has also recently tapped Brian Flaherty of My First Dungeon as audio producer for recent one-shots, and his trust was well placed. My First Dungeon has made a name for itself with limited-run, thoughtfully sound-designed seasons using a variety of indie games, including some created by team members. (Disclosure: I have appeared on both My First Dungeon and its sister series, Talk of the Table.) 

Both My First Dungeon and Queen’s Court Games’ Vampire actual play The All-Night Society have been high on the leaderboard for the Audio Fiction World Cup, with many awards between them. The All-Night Society too leans into the audio fiction style of production, with an insistent audio scoring, though comparatively restrained in its palette. While sometimes one might wish the audio mix was slightly less insistent, overall the vibe is quieter, softer, less flashy, allowing for gameplay to stay at the forefront of the audience’s attention.

For your favorite grad student in gender studies: Godkiller

This year I organized the inaugural Big Bad Academy, a symposium that meets during tabletop convention Big Bad Con. We combined early career researchers working on the cutting edge of game studies with practitioners of different parts of the tabletop field. Doctoral students EA Wilcox and Adriana Burton spoke lovingly and with great care and detail about the work of Connie Chang, well known for his work leading Transplanar, a dark fantasy anthology series that weaves together different systems to tell stories in a “noncolonial, antiorientalist multiverse.” This year Chang’s duet game Godkiller (out in ashcan, with an upcoming release with Evil Hat Games) has inspired a flurry of actual plays, including Chang’s own first-ever studio miniseries, Godkiller: Last Hope, prerecorded and edited with thoughtful post-production touches. The show was featured on the first front page of Twitch for its debut, and held a steady if modest audience for the rest of its run.

Godkiller is actual play in an operatic style, in keeping with the rest of Transplanar’s commitment to passionate intensity. Transplanar often reminds of the 19th century theater’s taste for melodrama, designed to move the emotions through performances that can reach all the way to the cheap seats. Godkiller is more refined and quietly intense, but released from the constraint of remote performance styles. The effect is now black box theater: experimental, full of ideas, and definitely polarizing. Like abstract art or molecular gastronomy, Godkiller isn’t for everyone, but for those who it has touched, it is indelible.

For your kid (or inner child): Re-Slayer’s Take

Finally, over a year ago I noted that one of the trends I was anticipating this year was shows intended for children. Even before this year, several dozen shows fell under the “family-friendly“ label — and I’d listened to every single one. For most, “family-friendly” means either the literal participation of children, or the removal of elements like profanity or R-rated content (though usually violence is a-OK!). Very little actual play has been produced from the ground up thinking about the ways that kids and families listen to narrative.

And it’s not surprising that Critical Role’s Sam Riegel, who has a long career tied to children’s animation, would champion the company’s first “all-ages” podcast, The Re-Slayers Take. The show combines the work of the team from Hero Club with a stable of actual play performers well known as guests on Critical Role, as well as cameos from the company’s founding cast members and a suite of nerd-famous celebrities like Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd. This isn’t Critical Role’s trademark long-form structure, with every dice roll and player reaction included. Instead, players have been directed to speak in third person, which helps clarify the action for younger (or easily distracted!) listeners. For some this will feel like a loss, but there’s definitely an audience for concision, as the Critical Role Abridged series has also revealed. Post-production effects have been added, and only key rolls are included. This is pedagogical actual play, explaining how a spell functions as it is being cast, as well as major class abilities. 

My niece (age 6) and nephew (age 9) are obsessed. When I sent the first episode to them to get their perspective, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. The two had no experience of actual play, though they do have some experience with modified versions of D&D and other TTRPGs. But their attention spans are short, and audio fiction is not always the easiest sell to any age. Imagine my surprise and delight to receive a video call from my niece excitedly describing in great detail the events of the first several episodes, and their love for Idrin (Jasper William Cartwright) and Heera (Jasmine Bhullar). This was the latest proof that actual play could indeed innovate to capture new audiences. While it’s not the version of Exandria I’ll be devoting my time to, I’m glad it’s bringing in new audiences by meeting them where they are.

This is just a sample of the different kinds of actual play that are pushing the form in different directions, trying to capture new audiences. By definition, no actual play can appeal to everyone, nor should it. As a critic, my job is to focus on what the goals of an actual play are, and whether they are fulfilled. 

But I’m curious what you think: What are the great actual plays that you’ve encountered in the last year, and what makes them worth tuning into?