High Rollers D&D



High Rollers D&D, often stylised as HighRollers D&D, is a Dungeons & Dragons series part of the Yogscast Twitch Livestreams.

It currently runs the Lightfall campaign every Sunday, 5pm GMT/BST, on the Yogscast Twitch channel since January 17, 2016. Mark Hulmes is the dungeon master for the Lightfall campaign, with Chris Trott, Katie Morrison, Kim Richards and Tom Hazell role-playing their characters.

Lightfall


Lightfall is the first campaign of the series. Designed by Mark Hulmes, it begins 46 years after the titular cataclysm event and follows a group of adventurers helping the people of Arrak, as well as to discover and confront their individual past. The campaign began on January 30, 2016, and is planned to run for two loose seasons ending in 2018.

Untitled Main Campaign (2018)
During a Q&A Episode on June 11, 2017, Mark Hulmes announced a new campaign that will take place once Lightfall ends. It is set for a 2018 release and is currently under planning. Mark described the new campaign to have areas "based on Eastern mythology" and to have "loads of custom contents" either homebrewed by himself or purchased from the Dungeon Masters Guild.

Uncharted Territory
Uncharted Territory is the first spin-off campaign of the series and is sponsored by Wizards of the Coast to promote their then-upcoming adventure module Tomb of Annihilation. Lasting eleven episodes, the campaign follows a group of archaeologists in Chult who are looking for treasure and ancient artefacts. The Prologue episode aired during the Stream of Annihilation on June 3, 2017, and concluded its campaign finale on September 8, 2017.

Dead Reckoning
Dead Reckoning is the second spin-off, twelve-episodic, campaign of the series and is sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. The campaign follows a group of antiheroes in Thay who are looking to find out more about The Death Curse and who or what is causing it. The campaign is designed by Mark Hulmes and is said to be his interpretation of events preceding Tomb of Annihilation. Mark also described it to be an anti-hero campaign, akin to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Its first episode aired on September 27, 2017.

One - Shots
On several occasions, One-Shot campaigns are held whenever the full HighRollers crew could not be present for Lightfall or a special campaign is created to coincide with a holiday. All of the one-shot campaigns have taken place in the world of Arrak and the players sometime assumed new identities.

The following are a list of One-Shot campaigns:
 * Jiutou's Solo Adventure, played on March 6, 2016
 * The Haunting of Ennis House, played on July 31, 2016
 * The Cabin in the Woods, played on August 28, 2016
 * Christmas Special 2016, played on December 18, 2016
 * A Dish Best Served Cold, played on January 22, 2017
 * The Horror of Overlook Inn, played on April 23, 2017
 * HighRollers Live! (May 2017), played on May 28, 2017

Characters
The table below lists all playable characters of High Rollers D&D. Any characters whose player did not appear for that campaign will not be listed.

NPCs and Factions
Non-player characters (NPCs) are there to populate the the respective campaign worlds and to assist the main characters on their journey across the multiverse. It is common for a NPC to be a member of a faction, which typically consist of members with a common agenda or goal.

Major factions include:
 * Broken Sky, Council of Elves and Government of the Dawn Republic in Lightfall.
 * Waterdeep Historical Society in Uncharted Territory.

NPCs with major roles include:
 * Dah'Mir, Dimitriv, Korak the Champion, Nalistri, Varesh and Vixanis in Lightfall.
 * Laskilar Flisk in Uncharted Territory.

NPCs that are fan favourites include:
 * Avandra, Barris, Enoran, Gurli, couple Shalana and Payla, and Tharizdun the Spectator in Lightfall.
 * Favour in Uncharted Territory.

The Multiverse
Like in any D&D game, all campaigns of the High Rollers D&D series revolve around the planes of existence multiverse, which comprises of multiple inner, outer and transitive planes centred on the main material plane unofficially known as the Surface.

Listed below are the Surface worlds of the series:
 * Arrak — used in Lightfall and all One-Shot campaigns except HighRollers Live! (May 2017).
 * Toril — used in Uncharted Territory, Dead Reckoning and HighRollers Live! (May 2017).

Episode Guide

 * See also: List of High Rollers D&D episodes

Main Campaigns

Spin-Off Campaigns

One-Shot Campaigns

Specials

Music
The two official soundtrack albums of the series, High Rollers (Official Soundtrack) Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, were composed by Steve Bruce and released on May 27, 2016, and September 8, 2017, respectively. The soundtracks are used as background music during the livestreams of the series, usually selected to fit the ambience of the events happening as it is.

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. Certain background music are from Epidemic Sounds.
 * Fan-art videos: "Adventure Calls (Extended)" by Alan Sutch from Session 7 to 11; "For Your Smiling Face 5" by Bo Järpehag and "Perceptible Shades 3" by Johannes Bornlöf, both for Epidemic Sounds, from Session 15 onwards, with "Dreaming of Tomorrow 1", also by Johannes Bornlöf for Epidemic Sounds, added in much later.
 * "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, and sometimes Becky Hardy and Sam Gibbs, runs the livestream behind the scenes. In Session 6, Steve 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 and 9; CaffCast on Sessions 13 to 15; Kat on Sessions 27 to 29; Tom Hazell on Session 41. Martyn, Kat, Kit Buss, Duncan, Mike Fleming and Tom Hazell have also been invited to various One-Shot 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 D&D sessions can have touch-ups to coincide with holiday celebrations: Session 4 receiving a Chinese New Year treatment; the crew dress up in costumes for Halloween in Session 30; a Christmas-inspired One-Shot campaign was held in 2016.
 * 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:
 * One-Shot Campaigns: Mark ran a solo campaign with Kim, followed by a Q&A session, on 6 March 2016. Several One-Shot campaigns were held on 31 July 2016, 28 August 2016, 22 January 2017 and 23 April 2017, with either Kim or Trott replacing Mark as dungeon master. A Christmas special One-Shot campaign with a full cast and a guest was held on 18 December 2016.
 * Q&A Sessions: with Mark on 7 April 2016, 1 May 2016 and 18 June 2016; with gameplays on 11 September 2016, 25 September 2016 and 27 November 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.
 * No Stream/Cancelled Stream: There was no High Rollers livestream on 28 May 2016, 18 September 2016, 19 February 2017, 26 February 2017 and 16 April 2017.
 * 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 High Rollers D&D sub-Reddit, 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 Discord
 * Facebook
 * Twitter
 * Subreddit
 * Official High Rollers D&D fanart submission email address: highrollersdnd@gmail.com