High Rollers D&D



High Rollers D&D, often stylised as HighRollers, is a Dungeons & Dragons series part of the Yogscast Twitch Livestreams. It runs two campaigns per week: Lightfall every Sunday, 5pm GMT/BST, on the Yogscast Twitch channel since January 17, 2016, and Uncharted Territory every Friday, 8.30pm GMT/BST, on both the Dungeons & Dragons and Yogscast Twitch channel since June 30, 2017. Mark Hulmes is the dungeon master for both campaigns, with Chris Trott, Katie Morrison, Kim Richards and Matthew Toffolo role-play their characters on the respective campaigns.

Lightfall
Lightfall is a campaign designed by Mark Hulmes and begins 46 years after the titular cataclysm event. It 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.

Uncharted Territory
Uncharted Territory is a campaign based on Tomb of Annihilation, an upcoming Dungeons & Dragons storyline set to be released in September 2017. It 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 it is planned to run for ten weeks beginning June 30, 2017.

Untitled 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 be "based on Eastern mythology" and to have "loads of custom contents" either homebrewed by himself or purchased from the Dungeon Masters Guild.

One - Shot Campaigns
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 June 3, 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!, 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 world of Arrak, assisting the main characters on their journey across the lands while enhancing their exploration experience. NPCs with major roles include Dimitriv, Korak the Champion, Nalistri, Varesh and Vixanis. NPCs that are fan favourites include Barris, Enoran, Granamyr, Gurli, couple Shalana and Payla, and Tharizdun the Spectator.

Most NPCs are members of various Major Factions and Minor Factions, while some are categorized under Deities or Heroes. Factions can influence multiple settlements or even as big as an entire nation. There are three known major factions: Broken Sky, Council of Elves and a mega-faction Government of the Dawn Republic, which have smaller factions such as Council of Guilds and Council of Wizards. Known minor factions include Burning King, Darkscar Clan, the various Drow Houses, Grimfang Clan, Powder Beards and the Bucklands.

Mark Hulmes Multiverse
Unofficially known as Mark Hulmes Multiverse, all High Rollers D&D campaigns revolve around the multiverse homebrewed by Mark Hulmes. All campaigns to date take place on Arrak, a continent on the Surface. Arrak itself has four regions, Bresseras, Dawn Republic, Troubled Lands and Unbroken Empire, and a massive underground region known as the Underdark. The five regions have their own settlements, which varies in size from as big as towns or cities to as small as villages and spires. Key regions and settlements visited in the series include Tallfield, Longwood Forest, Feyden, Talis'Val, Garden of Stones, Melody, Spire of Winter and Hallow.

Mark Hulmes Multiverse is based on the planes of existence from Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition. The Surface has two parallel planes, Feywild and Shadowfell. These three planes are connected to the Inner Planes and Outer Planes, each hosting planes connected to the physical and the philosophical respectively. Arborea, Astral Plane, Far Realm, Sigil and The Abyss are planes that have either been mentioned or visited throughout the series.

Episode Guide

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

Music
High Rollers (Official Soundtrack) is the official soundtrack album of the series. It is composed by Steve Bruce and release on May 27, 2016. 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. A second soundtrack album is in production, which includes a royal theme for Elora and a dark theme for Trellimar.

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 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