I’ve been a big fan of dungeons and or dragons since I was a kid but, being an introvert during the birth of at home video games, I missed the Stranger Things D&D vibe completely.
The first time the themes of dungeons AND dragons became unified for me was in college—A friend put a game together and I was suddenly holding my first PHB. I was laying foes low, throwing spells, and meting out justice for a good six months before that game collapsed, as many campaigns do.
From the embers of that game, the joyful fire sought any opportunity to recapture that glory but, as always, the dynamic would shift or the story flagger and I’d be left with embers again until I could find something else to catch on to.
Then it happened.
Wizards of the Coast released the Fourth edition of their game and, in collaboration with video video game culture legends, Penny-Arcade, an entirely new format of entertainment was born.
Enter Acquisitions Incorporated, the original TTRPG Live Play experience.
Penny-Arcade and Wizards of The Coast brought in contemporary talent and fellow nerds to put the game and all of its quirky mechanics, table talk, and fantasy out there for everyone to experience and, when the last die rolled and you hungered for more, you could start the story over again like your new favorite audiobook.
Fast forward fifteen years and see the impact. The Penny-arcade brand of irreverent reverence and borderline satirical capitalization on anti-capitalist capitalism gave birth to countless scores of shows, professional and amateur, married to the rise of e sports and streaming platforms, heralding this moment, today.
If this subject is new to you, search D&D on your favorite search, social media, or streaming platform and report back. We are en media res of a ttrpg that even management by corporate entities who can’t see that their dollar signs might be a mimic waiting to devour them can derail.
And then, last year, it ended.
Acquisitions Incorporated closed the book on the longest running DnD series in the genre at the 2022 Penny Arcade Expo live play show…
… and then opened the next.
The SECOND season—which may now be defined as roughly the equivalent of a cicada’s lifecycle—is now on the horizon, adapted to reboot the series and REdefine the that genre they themselves defined.
And you have an opportunity to be a part of it.
Join us.