Rivals of Waterdeep Brings Comedy and New Faces to 'Dungeons & Dragons'

Dungeons & Dragons is partnering with a new streaming group called Rivals of Waterdeep, which is [...]

By Christian Hoffer

Dungeons & Dragons is partnering with a new streaming group called Rivals of Waterdeep, which is set to begin its weekly show on Sunday.

A large part of Dungeons & Dragons' resurgence is the rise in popularity of streaming groups and podcasts that show just how easy it is to play the popular tabletop game. Dungeons & Dragons has encouraged this trend by launching its own Twitch channel, with different streaming groups taking turns bringing their own stories and characters to life.

One of Dungeons & Dragons' newest partners is Rivals of Waterdeep, a new streaming group based of Chicago. The group streamed its first episode together earlier in June as part of D&D's Stream of Many Eyes, a special weekend-long event that helped announce two upcoming adventures in Waterdeep - the famous Forgotten Realms city in which Rivals of Waterdeep takes place.

The group quickly showed off an infectious humor - a character named Noc Noc elicited laughs and groans from the audience and a comment about "urban elven" dialect had the entire room in stitches.

Aram Vartian serves as the DM of the group, with Carlos Luna, Cicero Holmes, Tanya DePass, Shareef Jackson, Surena Marie, and Brandon Stennis playing the role of a motley crew of adventurers searching for treasure and fame in Waterdeep. Vartian, Luna, and Marie are all D&D liveplay veterans and have worked together on the Godsfall and Dungeon Rats podcasts. However, other members of the cast are D&D newcomers and the full cast didn't actually meet until shortly before the show started.

"We literally met them at a bar one night and then were going to play a little test game," Vartian told ComicBook.com at the Stream of Many Eyes event. "But we instantly knew during that test game that it was going to work, and we instantly became friends and became closer together, because that's what gaming does. It breaks down walls, it allows groups to easily get to know each other very quickly."

There's a couple of ways that Rivals of Waterdeep is unique among D&D streaming groups. The NPCs, who are traditionally played by the DM, will instead be played by Carlos Luna, who also controls a member of the adventuring party. Since Luna only knows the NPC's motivations and not the storyline, it helps prevent any sort of "railroading" or pushing the group towards a certain choice. In addition, Luna will also use a sound board to add ambient noise and voice modulation for some of the NPCs, to give the show more of an audio drama feel.

Rivals of Waterdeep is also a very diverse cast - all of the members of the group are a minority in some way. However, Dungeons & Dragons hasn't used that diversity as a marketing tool, even though the show is another example of the D&D team showing that the game is truly inclusive. "It's like you just need to show it and not tell it," said Marie. "And that's exactly what they've done, and I really appreciate their marketing strategy with that."

That's not to say that the importance of being an all-minority cast on D&D's official streaming channel is lost on the group. "People hang out in groups, and you only know people based on the boundaries of your own friendships," said Marie. "But I think with our shows, and with our background in general, that representation of someone who's younger and doesn't have that experience gaming - you don't have to solve D&D. And just seeing someone who looks like you - how magical is that?"

"So if we can also bring that representation, and just normalize it and be like, 'We're here too.'"

Rivals of Waterdeep's first episode can be viewed here. New episodes air on Sunday at 12 PM CT on D&D's Twitch channel.

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