D&D TV -- It's real and how to make it better?

 The other day I stumbled upon the most fascinating live TV channel. It's the Dungeons and Dragons Adventures Channel on Plex. 

I like free . . . I like good free even better.

What?! What is this world?! What have I stumbled upon?! An actual Duneons and Dragons TV channel that isn't on demand and that isn't some random video on YouTube?  You mean, I can just leave this channel on in the background to torment everyone in earshot with my nonsense? My family might not agree with me, but this is the best!

Always with the crackling fire in the background

At least that's what I thought for the first few days of letting this run in the background at our house, but the reality is a bit like this:

• It's the same 4 programs that run over and over on a schedule
• There aren't enough advertisers to fill the commercial breaks
• I always seem to miss big chunks of information from the programs that are playing.

And that's ok . . . That's what makes it feel like an awesome version of old-school TV, but let's talk more about this starting with what IS available on this channel:

~~

The Old 80's Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon

I had all of these recorded on VCR tape from a kid . . . complete with commercials from the 80's and everything. It was awful quality, and unfortunately, you can see that even in high definition it's awful quality. Not to mention that you could just watch all these old episodes already on YouTube since they're already uploaded, including the fantastic fan-made final episode, which I doubt you'd see on Plex's Dungeons and Dragons Adventures Channel.

Still . . . just flipping on the TV and a random Dungeons and Dragons cartoon being played from my childhood is pretty great. Love it.

Pour one out for The OGs and their unicorn pet.

Heroes' Feast

Anyone that's walked into a game store over the past year or two has seen the Heroes' Feast book. It's a recipe book that features D&D themed food.  Well, they've gone and made a cooking show from it, and you can watch the heck out of it on the Dungeons and Dragons Adventures Channel. They do it up right, and you can be assured your TV chef is a legit D&D player.

Cooking with Dungeons and Dragons.

Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!

This is a D&D comedy show akin to Whose Line Is It Anyway with actual dice rolling.  The basic premise of this show is that four level-one characters with intricate and funny backgrounds are presented in depth and given a situation. You are endeared to these characters and their players for over half an hour and then, in the last bit of the show they encounter a MEGA-feared CR monster (Like a purple worm, like the Tarrasque, like a Lich) and ultimately die, every time. It's mildly entertaining -- moreso depending on who is sitting at the table/

Yes, that is Matthew Lillard as a final boss.

Encounter Party

This is a full-blown campaign adventure featuring a DM and six adventurers, ala Critical Roll. My main problem is that I keep tuning in at the wrong time, I've seen them at level four, I've seen them at level three, and I still don't know really what's going on here.  I like everyone's characters though for sure! Much to my surprise Khary Payton from Walking Dead fame was sitting at the table and the show got 100 percent more awesome.

Can I have a game table like this for my house, please?!

 And that's it . . . those four programs play endlessly over and over.

~~

Now let's talk about commercial breaks. Some commercials do play, but unfortunately, these ads aren't really relatable. Even worse, at certain points during the show, they just throw up a splash screen that says "We'll be right back after this break" and the VOLUME OF THE BACKGROUND MUSIC GETS REALLY LOUD! Presumably, this is because they don't have enough advertisers to fill the time allotted to commercial breaks. 

This image is actually painful on my ears

Every time the commercial breaks background music pops on my wife yells WILL YOU TURN THAT DOWN and gets super irritated with me. LOL. It's pretty funny, but also not very funny at all. Did they really have to crank it for a non-commercial commercial break?

~~

Now let's talk about what would make this channel 100 percent more awesome!

1- The Easy fix. Show the D&D movies. I know they didn't age well, but so didn't the D&D cartoons. Show 'em.  Show all three of the old movies and the latest movie as well.  Just put them on once in a while. 

• Dungeons and Dragons
• Dungeons and Dragons Wrath of the Dragon God
• Dungeons and Dragons 3 The Book of Vile Darkness 
• Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves

LOL. So bad it's good.

2- Break away from official D&D content and dip into adjacent Anime. I've been watching a lot of Delicious in Dungeon and let me tell you, it's Heroes Feast the cartoon. Really, just adding this anime to your lineup would be a fantastic addition. And then there are other options. Just imagine watching these as your Saturday morning cartoons on Dungeons and Dragons Adventures:

• Delicious in Dungeon
• Goblin Slayer
• Record of Lodoss War
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
• Made in Abyss
• The Slayers

I love watching Delicious in Dungeon with my oldest

3- Go hard with the documentaries. One of the best D&D documentaries I've watched in recent days was Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons and Dragons. I wrote about it on Mutant Reviewers. Now, I know that it takes a bit of a critical look at Hasbro, and probably for that it makes it a hard sell, but really having honest conversations about our past is healthy!  Another D&D adjacent documentary I wrote about on Mutant Reviewers was Monster Camp. A Larping documentary on Dungeons and Dragons Adventures would be amazing.

• Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons and Dragons
• Monster Camp
• Dungeon Life: A Dungeons and Dragons Documentary
• The Dungeon Masters
• The Dwarvenaut

Artists talking about D&D -- I love it.

4- Gaming convention coverage. When a gaming convention happens, cover it like a news program with a constant stream from a booth. Just think of tuning in to watch the crowds at big conventions like these:

• GenCon
• Origins Game Fair
• PAX Unplugged
• Dice Tower East
• Essen Game Fair

Just give me a cam and a few interviews from GenCon, and I'm good.

5- Embrace Adult Content . . . nah this probably wouldn't work. Sigh, but it would be such an easy win by adding Vox Machina, Critical Role, Adventure Zone . . . heck, just run more adult-language programming from 1am to 4am. I'm sure Hasbro would have some beef with this though.

6- Make a funny late-night program. Again, this probably wouldn't work. You'd have to actually produce a live show and commit to it, but having a Stephen-Colbert-type digesting the news with a Dungeon Master's mind behind it would be fantastic. Again, Hasbro would shy from politics, but MAN I want this now. Guess you could just watch Stephen Colbert when he talks about Lord of the Rings, but I want a half hour to an hour of that every day.

7- Make advertising affordable and easy for nerds and nerd products. Think of all the gaming convention booths, the Kickstarter projects, the local conventions, the renfaires, and all of it that could be advertised, but aren't. I'd rather watch one of those than a Pella Windows advertisement. 

I mean, how expensive would it be to advertise on the Dungeons and Dragons Adventures Channel anyway? They should make it way more easy than running through all this bidding nonsense. Make it easy, please!

I need some Scented Realms advertisements, stat!

8- More D&D Lore-based shows. YouTube has a plethora of fantastic shows that talk about the Lore behind D&D. I'd love to see a heavy lean into Lore with the writers of the game. Every book I buy for D&D seems to have a section where it expands on the background of a race -- I'd love to see this shown in a more cinematic and artistic style. Imagine seeing a program about the fascinating background of the Illithid society. 

Just a half-hour show on Mind Flayers, please. Thank you!

So tell me, fellow nerds, what would you do to make this channel a hit? A reality dating show that happens with a one-shot dungeon? DM Tips and Tricks videos? Whatcha got?!

Happy Dueling!