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Actual Play
Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the gamemaster, and out-of-character engagements such as dice rolls and discussion of game mechanics. The genre emerged in the early 2000s and became more popular throughout the decade, particularly with the 2015 debut of ''Critical Role'', an actual play webseries featuring professional voice actors. History According to Evan Torner writing in ''Watch Us Roll'', actual play is rooted in phenomena including magazine "play reports" of wargames and internet forums dedicated to role-playing games. With the emergence of esports, livestreamed gaming, and Let's Plays, actual plays of TTRPGs became a popular podcast and webseries format, and contributed to the resurgence of TTRPGs in the 2010s and 2020s. In 2008, the creators of ''Penny Arcade'' pa ...
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The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website was launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media's proprietary multimedia publishing platform Chorus. In 2014, Nilay Patel was named editor-in-chief and Dieter Bohn executive editor; Helen Havlak was named editorial director in 2017. ''The Verge'' won five Webby Awards for the year 2012 including awards for Best Writing (Editorial), Best Podcast for ''The Vergecast'', Best Visual Design, Best Consumer Electronics Site, and Best Mobile News App. History Origins Between March and April 2011, up to nine of ''Engadget''s writers, editors, and product developers, including editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky, left AOL, the company behind that website, to start a new gadget site. The other ...
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Liverpool University Press
Liverpool University Press (LUP), founded in 1899, is the third oldest university press in England after Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. As the press of the University of Liverpool, it specialises in modern languages, literatures, history, and visual culture and currently publishes more than 160 books a year, as well as 50 academic journals. LUP's books are distributed in North America by Longleaf. History One of the earliest heads of LUP was Lascelles Abercrombie, the first poetry lecturer at the university.. Across its history a number of distinguished scholars have published with the Press, including the Nobel Prize winner Ronald Ross and the literary critic Hermione Lee. In 2004, the Press was restructured, changing from a department of the University of Liverpool to a subsidiary. Alongside its academic publishing, LUP is known for the Pavilion Poetry imprint. Inaugural poet Mona Arshi's collection, ''Small Hands'', won The Felix Dennis Prize for B ...
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USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in New York City. Its newspaper is printed at 37 sites across the United States and at five additional sites internationally. The paper's dynamic design influenced the style of local, regional, and national newspapers worldwide through its use of concise reports, colorized images, informational graphics, and inclusion of popular culture stories, among other distinct features. As of 2023, ''USA Today'' has the fifth largest print circulation in the United States, with 132,640 print subscribers. It has two million digital subscribers, the fourth-largest online circulation of any U.S. newspaper. ''USA Today'' is distributed in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and an international edition is distributed in Asia, ...
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Explorer's Guide To Wildemount
''Explorer's Guide to Wildemount'' is a sourcebook that details the continent of Wildemount from the ''Critical Role'' campaign setting for the 5th edition of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. Matthew Mercer, creator of the setting, said the book is "meant to be both ..for fans of Critical Role" and "for people who have never watched an episode. It's an entirely new setting to set an entire campaign or more in". It was published by Wizards of the Coast and released on March 17, 2020. Summary ''Explorer's Guide to Wildemount'' is the first official Wizards of the Coast ''Critical Role'' campaign setting book. Contents "The 304-page campaign guide takes players to a continent rife with conflict and magic" and details the four distinct regions of Wildemount in the world of Exandria. It also includes a starter adventure for each of the four regions (each designed to take characters from levels 1–3). This book adds a variety of options for both players an ...
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Rivals Of Waterdeep
''Rivals of Waterdeep'' is an American actual play web series, with a podcast adaptation, where the cast plays ''Dungeons & Dragons'' using the fifth edition ruleset. It is set in the ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting and the show's Dungeon Master changes each season. The show premiered in June 2018; the show's thirteenth season ended in August 2022. It is one of the longest running official ''Dungeons & Dragons'' web series. Cast * Aram Vartian as season one's Dungeon Master * Carlos Luna as Noc Noc, a half-orc fighter, and as season one and two's Dungeon Master * Tanya DePass as Selise Astorio, a human paladin, and as season eight's Dungeon Master * Cicero Holmes as Perrin Underbough, a halfling bard, and as season five's Dungeon Master * Surena Marie as Ashbourne, a half-elf ranger, and as season four's Dungeon Master * Brandon Stennis as Rinn Leodin, an elven sorcerer * Shareef Jackson as Shaka, a tiefling warlock, and as season three, six, and seven's Dungeon ...
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Geek & Sundry
Geek & Sundry, Inc. is a commercial YouTube and Twitch (service), Twitch channel and multimedia production company. It was launched on April 2, 2012, by actress Felicia Day with Kim Evey and Sheri Bryant as part of YouTube's YouTube Original Channel Initiative, 100 million dollar original channel initiative. The company is primarily known for their launch of the D&D show ''Critical Role'', which aired on their channels from 2015–19. Geek & Sundry operated independently until it was acquired by Legendary Entertainment in 2014. ''Critical Role'' was a breakout hit for the channel the following year, and became the most popular show on the network by far. Geek & Sundry went on to produce many shows exclusively for Legendary's streaming service, Legendary Entertainment#Legendary Digital Networks, Alpha, from its launch in 2017. In early 2019, Critical Role Productions separated from Legendary; in the wake of their departure, Alpha was shut down and Geek & Sundry went into decline. T ...
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The Masquerade
Masquerade or Masquerades may refer to: Books * ''Masquerade'' (book), a 1979 children's book by Kit Williams that sparked a worldwide treasure hunt * ''Masquerades'' (novel), a 1995 Forgotten Realms novel by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb * ''Masquerade'', a 2007 ''Blue Bloods'' novel by Melissa de la Cruz Theatre * ''The Masquerade'' (play), a 1719 play by Charles Johnson * ''Mascarade'', a 1724 comedy play by Ludvig Holberg * ''Masquerade'' (play), an 1835 Russian play by Mikhail Lermontov * Masquerade (theatre group), an English theatre group in Chennai, India, since 1994 Films * ''The Masquerade'', a 1913 animated film by Émile Cohl * ''Masquerade'' (1929 film), an American drama film * ''Masquerade'', a 1931 film starring Vivienne Osborne * ''Masquerade'' (1941 film), a Soviet film * ''Masquerade'' (1965 film), a British spy spoof starring Cliff Robertson and Jack Hawkins * ''Masquerade'' (1988 film), an American thriller starring Rob Lowe and Meg Tilly * ''The Masque ...
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Paradox Interactive
Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an independent company in 2004. Through a combination of expanding internal studios, founding new studios and purchasing independent developers, the company has grown to comprise nine first-party development studios, including their flagship Paradox Development Studio, and acts as publisher for games from other developers. Paradox is best known for releasing strategy video games, especially historically-themed grand strategy games, and has published strategy games in different settings, as well as games of other genres such as role-playing video games and management simulators. They typically continue development of their games after initial release with the creation of downloadable content, and are also known for creating games that are easy to m ...
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Playtest
A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, puzzle hunts, role-playing games, and video games, for which they have become an established part of the quality control process. An individual involved in testing a game is referred to as a playtester. An ''open'' playtest could be considered open to anyone who wishes to join, or it may refer to game designers recruiting testers from outside the design group. Prospective testers usually must complete a survey or provide their contact information in order to be considered for participation. A ''closed'' playtest is an internal testing process not available to the public. ''Beta testing'' normally refers to the final stages of testing just before going to market with a product, and is often run semi-open with a limited form of the game in ...
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Polygon (website)
''Polygon'' is an American entertainment website created by Vox Media covering video games, movies, television, and other popular culture. At its October 2012 launch as Vox Media's third property, ''Polygon'' sought to distinguish itself by focusing on the stories of the people behind video games and long-form magazine-style feature articles. The site was built over the course of ten months by eight co-founding editors which included the editors-in-chief of the gaming sites '' Joystiq'', '' Kotaku'' and '' The Escapist''. Vox Media produced a documentary series on the founding of the site. In May 2025, ''Polygon'' was sold to Valnet. History Vox Media (2012–2025) The gaming blog ''Polygon'' was launched on October 24, 2012, as Vox Media's third property. The site grew from technology blog ''The Verge'', which was launched a year earlier as an outgrowth of sports blog network ''SB Nation'' before Vox Media was formed. Vox Media's chief executive officer, Jim Bankoff, a ...
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The Adventure Zone
''The Adventure Zone'' is a weekly comedy and adventure actual play podcast, in which the McElroy family play ''Dungeons & Dragons'' along with other role-playing games. The show is distributed by the Maximum Fun network and hosted by brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy, and their father Clint McElroy. Regular episodes of the podcast feature the family solving puzzles, fighting enemies, and leveling up their characters in a series of cinematic and humorous encounters. ''The Adventure Zone'' originated as a special episode of '' My Brother, My Brother and Me'' in 2014, which was spun off into a separate biweekly podcast later that year. The first 69 episode campaign ''Balance'' was followed by a series of short experimental arcs in the late 2010s, and subsequent campaigns have generally run for 30 to 45 episodes. To date, ten campaigns have been depicted in a variety of game systems, with further settings used for live shows and donor bonus material. The show switch ...
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Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules, Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, later a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargaming, miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game ''Chainmail (game), Chainmail'' serving as the initial rule system. ''D&D'' publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, which also deeply influenced video games, especially the Role-playing video game, role-playing video game genre. ''D&D'' departs from traditional wargame, wargaming by allowing each player to create their own Player character, character to play instead of a military formation. These characters embark upon adventures wi ...
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