High Rollers D&D



High Rollers D&D is a Dungeons & Dragons series part of the Yogscast Twitch Livestreams. It is broadcast live every Sunday, 5pm GMT/BST, on the Yogscast Twitch channel. The series features Mark Hulmes as dungeon master, with Chris Trott, Katie Morrison, Kim Richards and Matthew Toffolo role-playing as their characters. They are currently playing the Lightfall Campaign on Mark Hulmes' multiverse.

Backstory
For 1200 years, the world of Arrak was a haven of peace and prosperity. This was the result of a once in a century event known as the Passing of Pelor's Light. It is a comet, a gift from Pelor, that radiates positive energy, which blessed crops, healed the sick and kept monsters in a magical slumber.

There is a celebration for the 13th Passing of Pelor's Light. The comet emerged into the world and rises up to the sky. As it reaches its peak, however, tragedy strikes. The comet shatters into thousands of shards! It fell across Arrak, flattening homes and cities, and destroying governments and economies. Monsters are now awaken and start ravaging the lands. Everything is thrown into chaos. Till this day, no one knows how or why the event, known as the Lightfall, happened.

46 years have passed. The world is slowly recovering. Heroes have come and re-established cities and nations. The towns and cities act as beacons of light in the darkness. They are safe-havens, with organised armies and militias, as they protect the people against monsters and dangers that lurk in the hills, woods and dungeons.

Our four adventurers are travelling to Talis'Val, the capital of the Dawn Republic. As it is safer to travel in groups, Cam, Elora, Jiǔtóu and Trellimar are in a caravan with other people. The story starts here as our adventurers begin their journey across Arrak to help the people and fight against monsters, eventually becoming Heroes of the world.



Dungeon Master - (Mark Hulmes)
Mark takes the role of Dungeon Master 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 lightborn 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 monk, 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 and wears a powerful sentient bracer called Crownrend.

Trellimar Aleath - (Matt Toffolo)
Drow warlock Trellimar is a mysterious character, mostly keeping to himself. 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 save his kind from the evils in the Underdark.

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. He also carries a magical mask, Shroud of Eyes, bestowed unto him by his patron Dah'Mir.

Guest Characters

 * For non-canonical guest characters, see Duncan's Herb Green and Kit Buss' Mistle.

Falk - (Martyn Littlewood)
Falk is a half-orc, half-elf battle master that guest-stars in Sessions 8 and 9. 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)
Loben is a rock gnome wild magic sorcerer that guest-stars in Sessions 13 to 15. 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)
Jasmina (commonly known as Mina) is a half-human, half-drow bard that guest-stars in Sessions 27 to 29. 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 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 four major factions: Broken Sky, Burning King, 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 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 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, 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, 9 and a One-Shot Campaign; CaffCast on Sessions 13 to 15; Kat on Session 27. Kat, Kit Buss and Duncan are also 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:
 * Solo Campaign: In Session 7.5, Mark ran a solo campaign with Kim. A Q&A session is held afterward.
 * One-Shot Campaigns: One-Shot campaigns were held on 31 July 2016 and 28 August 2016, with Kim replacing Mark as dungeon master. A Christmas special One-Shot campaign 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 and 26 February 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 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