Streaming of actual play D&D has become tremendously popular. With the recent switch to a much more accessible play style in 5th edition D&D as well as the prevalence of some hyper-popular streams such as Critical Roll, this article is likely not the first time you’re hearing about streaming D&D.
I remember finding live play streams for the first time. It was so interesting… I’d find myself enjoying watching or listening to D&D actual play much more than watching a movie or TV series. Maybe it’s because I could relate with the players in their challenges… or maybe it’s because there is a certain magic in the improvisational, in-the moment collaborative storytelling that really only ever happens in this way when we play tabletop games.
As for our article today, our goal is to bring you a resource that you can perhaps bookmark and use. This can be a jump-off point to finding your next binge-worthy series. There are different tastes… so we realize that one person’s favorite stream will be different than another’s. That’s why we’ve included a wide variety of streams in this list. Some are high production value professional streams, while others feel a bit more like a few geeks and their webcams. We’ve watched some of these streams for many hours, and feel comfortable giving them our rating. We want to be honest about the shows that we’ve found, and are on our watch list, but have not had the time to consume just yet. So if you see “pending” in the Cloud 9 Score section, it’s yet to be watched (for more than 10 minutes) by us.
This table shows 13 D&D streams, one of which might be your new favorite. The “Type” column was our way of tagging the overall feel of the stream. Wizards Official and Professionally produced streams will have dedicated sound, video, pre/post-production crews. They produce a video that feels polished and professional. Individually produced streams may have had pre/post-production work done on them but they are more so individuals or small groups that have put together a stream. None of these types are “better” than the other, but understanding the general kind of “budget range” of the show helps you understand what you’re getting into.
If you’re going to start anywhere, I’d strongly recommend checking out the Provokers series which is on the Fist Full of Dice YouTube Channel. These guys were my original inspiration and helped me learn the game. Their play style is one that I try to replicate in my games personally.
2020 Update
Since we wrote this article last year, we’ve started our own actual play live stream. Our style is very much a few friends in a home game streaming our shenanigans for others to have some fun with us. We play and post live and uncut. We’d be honored if you checked us out in addition to the great series below. Here we are on Twitch (new episodes) and YouTube (Archived Episodes). We clearly cannot be unbiased in reviewing ourselves so we’ll omit that part from our review.
Heads Up: Turns out this table looks pretty clunky on mobile browsers. We’ve got some plans to spruce it up soon but in the meantime you may want to check it out on desktop.
| Series (YouTube Link) | Type | Notes | Cloud 9 Score |
| Dice Camera Action – Curse Of Strahd | Wizards Official | Well made official stream always playing the latest official released adventure. | Pending |
| Force Grey | Wizards Official | Pending | |
| Critical Roll | Professionally Produced | Viral and Famous. DM Matthew Mercer leads a game with a cast of voice actors. | (Most Professional) 9.5 |
| High Rollers | Professionally Produced | Part of Yogscast. Mark Hulmes runs adventurers through his excellent homebrew content. | Pending |
| Maze Arcana – Fury’s Reach | Professionally Produced | Fantastically Produced. Maze Arcana runs many different games. | Pending |
| The Provokers | Individually Produced | Our personal favorite. DM Matt from Fist Full of Dice leads a group of YouTube personalities. | (Best Overall) 10 |
| RollPlay | Individually Produced | Tons of video content. Quality of the stream looks great. | Pending |
| Dice Friends | Individually Produced | These guys “feel” like the geeks next door. Fun stream to watch. | Pending |
| Missclicks | Individually Produced | Has a handful of different streams. Good | (Girl Power)Pending |
| The Dragon Friends | Individually Produced | Zany group from Australia that tends to game in suits! | Pending |
| D20 Babes | Individually Produced | All-female cast. Approachable and fun. | Pending |
| One Shot | Individually Produced | I love the One Shot Channel as they have many one session games. They also have a decent campaign in the link. | (Variety) 7 |
| Encounter Roleplay – Tomb Of Annihilation | Multi-Stream Collaboration | Content Producers from multiple channels play the Tomb of Annihilation. | Pending |