D&D: Adventures – Hasbro Launches New Streaming Channel With a Star-Studded Event
Hasbro is about to step once more into the world of streaming with Patton Oswald, Matthew Lillard, and more.
It was only a matter of time before the big bad parent company of Wizards of the Coast decided to bring its billions to bear on the world of actual play streaming. And with the launch of Hasbro Entertainment’s D&D: Adventures, a new FAST (because it’s Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) channel, Hasbro brings to bear three new series.
All of these are D&D streams. All of them are designed to sell D&D’s actual product, their audience of millions of gamers, to advertisers. And that might sound a little cynical. But that is absolutely what is going on. WotC and Hasbro have said for a while that D&D is under-monetized.
Critical Role was the highest-paid Twitch streamer according to leaked data back in 2021. When you look at the money that was made, it’s easy to see why they might think that. D&D doesn’t even have a multimillion-dollar Kickstarter to fund an animated special!
It’s just a product made by a literal billion-dollar company owned by another bigger billion-dollar company. Who’ll think of the poor, under-monetized souls at D&D? Which is why Hasbro is trying to bring the considerable audience of gamers who watch Actual Plays back under their own umbrella so they can package you up and sell you to marketers.
Which, to be fair, is all any of us are trying to do. Even here at BoLS! The product we sell isn’t the articles we write, but the people who read them. Our customers aren’t you, the reader, but whatever advertiser is interested in gamers who like Warhammer and D&D this week.
So it is with Hasbro Entertainment.
All hail the number. It must go up. Especially if that means making life actively miserable for “the poors”.
Making something good is up to the hard-working people in the shows. And from the look of it, they’ve put together some amazing stuff. Hopefully, they’ll have the freedom to get creative and explore and be messy and weird. That’ll help them grow an audience the way other actual play shows have for years — free of executive meddling.
At any rate, Hasbro’s new FAST (free ad-supported streaming), Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures launches on November 13th. It’ll feature three new shows. There’s also a preview week starting on the 8th, where they’ll feature “legacy Dungeons & Dragons content”.
Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures Premieres November 13th
“Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!” serves up comedic mayhem with tabletop gaming stars and celebrity guest players, including Seth Green, Anjali Bhimani, Skeet Ulrich, Sean Gunn, Mica Burton, Patton Oswalt, and series co-creator Matthew Lillard. Perfect for seasoned gamers and newbies alike, every episode features an improvised, stand-alone story along with epic, hilarious character deaths.
In “Encounter Party,” seven actors play Dungeons & Dragons to create an improvised high-fantasy adventure story. Over the course of twenty-two serialized episodes, Dungeon Master and co-executive producer Brian David Judkins and six talented players, including Khary Payton and co-executive producer Ned Donovan, guide their characters from the high seas to the dangerous streets of Baldur’s Gate, and into the very jaws of fate.
On “Heroes’ Feast,” hosts “Chef Mike” Haracz and actor/filmmaker Sujata Day prepare dishes, desserts, and cocktails from the Dungeons & Dragons cookbook with the help of special guests including Khary Payton, Michelle Nguyen Bradley, Jonah Ray, Freddie Wong and more.
These all look pretty great. And with such phenomenal creatives involved, we’re excited to see where they go. As long as they’re allowed to run wild.
Plus the “legacy preview” will rerun the D&D 80’s cartoon, as well as Rivals of Waterdeep, High Rollers, DesiQuest, and more.
D&D: Adventures launches on November 13th on Amazon Freevee and Plex!
