High Rollers D&D



High Rollers D&D is a Dungeons and Dragons series being played on the Sunday Tabletop RPG Show, part of the daily Yogscast livestream schedule. The show is broadcast live on the Yogscast Twitch channel on Sundays from 5pm GMT. The series is currently focusing on the Lightfall campaign.

Backstory
For 1200 years the land of Arrak was a haven of peace and prosperity. This was the result of a once in a century event, the passing of a comet called Pelor's Light through the celestial plane. The comet blessed crops, healed the sick, and kept monsters in a magical sleep. However, on the 1300th year of the passing of Pelor's Light, the comet suddenly and mysteriously exploded, with the shattered pieces falling to the ground causing great destruction. This also awakened the monsters which had lain dormant and they once again began bringing chaos to the land. This event was called the Lightfall.

The adventure takes place in Arrak 46 years after the Lightfall. The world has slowly started to recover, with new towns and cities being formed. However danger still lies in the routes between these populated regions, and as such, groups travel in caravans between the cities for safety. We join our adventurers travelling as part of a caravan from the town of Greybell to Talis'Val, the capital of the Dawn Republic.



Dungeon Master - (Mark Hulmes)
Mark takes the role of DM for the series, using the D&D 5th edition rules, albeit with a few minor tweaks of his own such as swapping out dark vision for low-light vision, and doubling a single dice roll when a critical occurs where normally 2 separate die would be rolled. Mark also custom-made Arrak, the world specially designed for the Lightfall campaign.

Cam Buckland - (Chris Trott)
Cam is a human cleric, known for being a bit of a trickster. He was found as a baby and raised by a group of travelling gypsy entertainers called the Bucklands. He is well travelled and has developed a charming charisma, but is also somewhat devious at times. Cam has now decided to leave the Bucklands to go on a journey on his own.

His appearance is a cross between a gypsy and a magician, with long dark hair and a goatee. He wears a waistcoat and a cape and has a bandanna on his head. He has numerous daggers attached to himself in various places.

Elora Galanodel - (Katie Morrison)
Elf druid Elora is a very friendly though rather naive character. She is descended from royalty, her father being the leader of one of the great elven spires. Despite this she is not the least bit noble, instead being very casual and chilled. Elora wants to become a hero, praised for helping rebuild the world as others have before her following the Lightfall.

Elora has blue hair, while her clothing alludes to her regal heritage. A Bow and arrows are her weapons of choice, but she also carries a staff.

Jiutou Zhiji Jing - (Kim Richards)
Jiǔtóu is a tiefling, a humanoid with infernal ancestry. At a young age, she witnessed the brutal murder of her parents at the hands of the dragonborn and was subsequently taken away as a slave. She toiled for a years becoming increasingly depressed and angry, until one day she escaped and sought shelter at a monastery. The nuns and monks took her in and taught martial arts and meditation to help her through the trauma. She values freedom and her objective now is freeing other tieflings.

Jiǔtóu has the distinctive horns and tail of a tiefling, and her dress is influenced by traditional Chinese style. She wields a vicious guandao as a weapon. She wields a very powerful sentient magic item that is called Crownrend. Crownrend gives Jiǔtóu many benefits while not transformed, but she can also feed it her lifeblood to transform it into a powerful weapon.

Trellimar Aleath - (Matt Toffolo)
Drow warlock Trellimar is a mysterious character, mostly keeping himself to himself. He hears voices in his head at times. Following the Lightfall, the drow were forced to make uneasy alliances with other races, mainly dwarves, in order to hold onto some quality of life. Trellimar is now on a quest to the Capital in order to find a specific implement for reasons only he knows.

He has an elf-like appearance and has long hair and dark skin. He wears a cape with a high collar (described by Matt as being similar to the style of Jon Pertwee) and wields a crossbow.

Falk - (Martyn Littlewood)
Martyn joined the stream for Sessions 8 and 9, playing the half-orc, half-elf Falk. Falk has always been an outcast, disliked by the orcs for being half-blood. He was recently exiled from the orc camp because he was asking too many questions about the source of their power.

He is scrawny for an orc, and wears a scarf and goggles. He carries a slingshot which he constructed himself.

Loben Trogdor - (CaffCast)
CaffCast joined the stream for Sessions 13 to 15, playing as the wild magic sorcerer gnome, Loben Trogdor. Loben is a scholar, who has been studying the effects the Lightfall shards produced for decades. He desperately seeks to retrieve his research from the Broken Sky.

Loben is three-foot tall and is middle-aged. His body hair is bright pink in colour. He often suffers the effects of a wild magic surge.

Jasmina Celladore - (KatsOnFirex)
Kat joined the stream for Session 27, playing as half-human, half-drow Jasmina, or Mina for short. After losing her parents and family due to a fire set on the town they were in by a hobgoblin tribe, known as the Burning King, Jasmina now focuses on stopping them.

Jasmina has long, wavy hair ombre-coloured from white into blood red. Her eyes are different colours: one red, the other blue. Being a performer, she wears a belly top and a long split skirt, all coloured emerald green and adorned by inexpensive, homemade jewels. Burn scars are covered by an ornate jewelled armour piece that adorns her left arm, her burn visibly spread from her neck to her hip on the left side of her body.

NPCs

 * Main articles: High Rollers D&D/NPCs, Broken Sky NPCs

Non-Player Characters (NPCs) are designed to assist the main characters on their campaign, be it in a passive or aggressive manner. Granamyr is Trellimar's pet pseudo-dragon who assists him throughout the campaign. Some NPCs such as Torwen and Wald are played temporarily by the D&D participants if their main character is out of action over a period of time. Korak the Champion is the NPC with the largest role in the campaign so far, having story arcs linked to most of the adventurers. Other notable NPCs with major roles in the campaign includes Dimitriv, Nalistri, Varesh and Vixanis. Minor NPCs that are fan favourites include Barris, Enoran, Gurli, couple Shalana and Payla, and Spectator.

Once-Off Campaigns
On several occasions, once-off campaigns are held whenever Mark could not be present as dungeon master for the Lightfall campaign. All of the once-off campaigns have taken place in the world of Arrak and the players assume new identities.

Music
The High Rollers (Official Soundtrack), composed by Steve Bruce, was released on May 27, 2016. The soundtracks from the album are played in the background during the livestreams, selected to fit the current mood or events of the campaign.

Other songs and soundtracks used during the livestreams include:
 * "Halfling Camp (Hear Ye All You Rascals)", composed by Battle Bards. This song is considered the unofficial theme song for the show. Its popularity lead to various fan-covers, including a ukelele cover and a svirfneblin parody.
 * Ambient sounds and sound effects are provided by Battle Bards.
 * Fan-art videos: "Adventure Calls (Extended)" by Alan Sutch from Session 7 to 11; "For Your Smiling Face 5" by pond5 and "Perceptible Shades 3" by Epidemic Sounds from Session 15 onwards.
 * "Rise of the Dragonborn", composed by Steve, is usually played during boss fights.
 * Steve's other original compositions, including "Chroma".

Trivia

 * Note: More trivia such as meta-games and Cam's penis size can be viewed on other High Rollers D&D articles.


 * # rollonsunday is made the official Twitter hashtag for High Rollers D&D at Trott's suggestion.
 * Steve Bruce runs the livestream behind the scenes. In Session 6, he added blood splat overlays whenever anyone took damage, and a skull over Kim's face to represent her death on numerous occasions.
 * Several special guests have appeared on the show: Martyn on Sessions 8, 9 and a Once-Off Campaign; CaffCast on Sessions 13 to 15; Kat on Session 27. Both Kat and Duncan are also invited on various once-off campaigns.
 * Before High Rollers D&D, only Mark and Trott plays Dungeons & Dragons regularly on different campaigns with other D&D players such as Smith. Kim played a campaign long time ago but is inexperienced. Both Katie and Matt had not played D&D before, although Katie had watched Critical Role and is somewhat familiar with the mechanics of D&D. Martyn shares that he did play D&D Fifth Edition once a few years ago, but has forgotten some of its rules, although Mark exclaims that he re-learn some of the rules quickly before his first guest appearance in Session 8.
 * High Rollers sessions can have touch-ups to coincide with holiday celebrations, with Session 4 receiving a Chinese New Year treatment.
 * A new livestream setup is revealed in Session 26. The main change is that the whole crew is now playing D&D together on a single table, unlike the previous setup where they had to play on three separate tables.
 * With scheduling issues either due to game conventions or personal matters, not all streams have the regular High Rollers D&D crew aired live on Sundays:
 * Solo Campaign: In Session 7.5, Mark ran a solo campaign with Kim. A Q&A session is held afterward.
 * Once-Off Campaigns: Once-off campaigns were held on 31 July 2016 and 28 August 2016, with Kim replacing Mark as dungeon master.
 * Q&A Sessions: with Mark on 7 April 2016, 1 May 2016 and 18 June 2016; with gameplays on 11 September 2016 and 25 September 2016; with miniature painting on 16 October 2016.
 * Recap: CaffCast provided a recap of Sessions 1 thru 9 on 27 March 2016.
 * On Saturdays: Sessions 16 to 18 aired on Saturdays, but as Nilesy's livestream takes place immediately after High Rollers D&D, donation messages are not read out in order to keep with the streaming schedule.
 * Cancelled Stream: There was no High Rollers livestream on 28 May 2016 and 18 September 2016.
 * Cut-out Replacement: In Session 3, Trott was replaced by a cardboard cutout of himself.
 * The mini figures used are 25 - 28-millimetre scale.
 * The crew gave shout-outs to High Rollers D&D summary contributors, including LadyFufu on the subreddit, TV Tropes and the Yogscast Wiki. Mark adds that he sometimes refer to such sites to refresh his memory on certain events that happened in the game.
 * Critical Role's Matt Mercer has given shout-outs to Mark and High Rollers D&D, one of which was during a Q&A at Wizard World Portland. He later appears as a special guest on the Q&A Session, hosted by Mark, on 18 June 2016.
 * Mark published a homebrewed race, the Lightborn, on the Dungeon Masters Guild. Trott's character Cam Buckland is a buffed-up version of the Lightborn.
 * Throughout multiple sessions, the green screen fell on the players on several occasions.

Links

 * Official High Rollers D&D Twitter
 * High Rollers D&D Subreddit
 * Official High Rollers D&D fanart submission email address: highrollersdnd@gmail.com
 * High Rollers D&D Fans Discord server