Leveling Up How We Talk About Actual Play
The art of pitching an unfamiliar medium to the masses
Let’s be honest: we kind of suck at describing actual play shows — we being people that like and create actual play — and it’s hurting our efforts to popularize the form.
If someone new to actual play asks me to recommend a D&D show, that on its own is not enough information for me to make a good pitch and feel confident that it will land for them. If I suggest they check out Dimension 20, Rivals of Waterdeep, or Dungeons & Daddies by pitching them all as “Popular D&D shows”, I’m suggesting three very different shows in a firehose approach when what would be more effective is a custom cocktail of a recommendation based on the individual’s tastes.
Are they the kind of person that would enjoy a chummy found-family adventure punctuated by dice rolls, or are they more the type to lose themselves in a tightly edited drama with a lush soundscape? What genres do they like most? Do already they play TTRPGs?
Learning from other art forms and developing our ability to describe and critique shows will benefit audiences, creators, and everyone in between.
A good recommendation for an actual play requires the same skills you’d use for a film or game — ask questions and use what you know about the person’s taste, then choose a work they’re most likely to enjoy and present it in a way that gets them excited to give that work a shot.
When I think about how people pitch me actual plays, it’s almost always focused on the cast or the system. “You should watch [SHOW], starring [THREE PEOPLE I’VE HEARD OF AND TWO I HAVEN’T], playing [SYSTEM].”
And most of the time, that kind of pitch just glances right off of me. No mention of tone, genre, and often no indication of what system is involved, because it’s probably D&D 5e. This pitch style flattens shows down to their big names. I’ve listened to a lot of D&D 5e shows already, and so as a novelty-seeking being, that default pitch is a hard sell for me. But when Rowan told me that the creators of The Heart is a Dungeon are legit boots-on-the-ground antifascist anarchists and bring that ethos to their show, I sat up and paid attention.
We can be more precise and more effective in our recommendations. And every successful recommendation can be a new viewer/listener. The more precise and evocative our pitches, the easier it will be to describe and differentiate different actual play shows. This will make it easier to identify excellence as well as giving us the language to articulate and work through challenges and faults in the form.
