Dungeons & Dragons gets its own stream

Hasbro wants more after “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” grossed $200 million worldwide. eOne, owned by Hasbro, launched a free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel for the popular role-playing tabletop game on Thursday. Variety broke the news.

The 24-hour FAST channel Dungeons & Dragons Adventures launches this summer. It will include original content based on content creators’ campaigns, third-party content from top influencers, and older content like the 1983 animated Dungeons & Dragons series.

New channel shows include:

Encounter Party: The podcast-based show stars six people, including “The Walking Dead” star Khary Payton. The Forgotten Realms, a common game setting, hosts the campaign.
Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!: Variety improv show where celebrities and guests play first-level players fighting high-level monsters and beasts. Matthew Lillard, best known for playing Shaggy in the 2002 live-action “Scooby-Doo,” co-created the series.
Heroes’ Feast: cooking competition/talk show based on the bestselling cookbook. “Insecure” actress Sujata Day and chef and internet personality Mike Haracz co-host.
Variety reported that Hasbro’s Dungeons & Dragons Adventures FAST channel will air on multiple platforms, but no deals have been made.

Dungeons & Dragons is more popular now after a huge comeback. Many content creators livestream creative storytelling and impressive dice rolls.

“Critical Role,” a weekly show featuring a group of voice actors, signed multiyear deals with Amazon to produce TV series based on its two campaigns, Vox Machina and Mighty Nein, making millions.

It’s nice to see more content creators, like Encounter Party, get a platform to tell collaborative stories. We wonder if the shows will be popular.

FAST is booming, but viewers mostly watch old movies and shows like “The Twilight Zone” and “Teen Mom.” Is the FAST space good for D&D? No idea.

Given fan backlash earlier this year, it will be interesting to see what other content creators appear on the new channel.

Wizards of the Coast (WoTC), publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, was criticized in January for updating its Open Gaming License, which appeared to endanger creators.

However, WoTC licensed the game’s core mechanics under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license shortly after the protests, allowing anyone to publish and sell Dungeons & Dragons-based works. (Hooray!)

Content creators may still be wary of WoTC after the issue was resolved.

WoTC’s Dungeons & Dragons Adventures FAST channel is intriguing and may please fans.

Or fail. Who knows?