The best part of 'Dungeons & Dragons' is the storytelling. This L.A. stage show leans in

When I archetypal started playing “Dungeons & Dragons” arsenic a tween, my friends christened maine with a caller good-natured nickname: gamer geek. While we could walk hours successful beforehand of a surface with the latest “Zelda” title, the dice-focused tabletop role-playing crippled was viewed with suspicion, a ’70s-era invention that belonged to a definite subset of nerd.

Times person changed.

Today, “Dungeons & Dragons” enjoys mainstream recognition, and unrecorded crippled sessions from the likes of Critical Role and Dimension 20, the second of which past summertime enjoyed a day astatine the Hollywood Bowl, person lone further cemented its wide appeal. Now a heavy improvised theatrical production, “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern” has travel to the Montalbán Theatre successful Hollywood.

The show, which ran off-Broadway successful 2024 aft years of development, is celebratory, a triumph thigh for a crippled that has endured much than fractional a century. It invites participation, with actors performing the enactment inspired by the dice rolls and allowing the assemblage to power the absorption of the amusement by making choices via a smartphone.

Alex Stompoly, left, and Anjali Bhimani successful “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern,” a accumulation that invites assemblage participation.

(Andromeda Rodriguez)

“Twenty-Sided Tavern” brought maine backmost to days and nights crowded astir my family’s surviving country table. My begetter was an enforcement with TSR, Inc., the institution that created “Dungeons & Dragons” — determination were solid dragons connected our fireplace mantle, pewter dragons connected our bookshelves, painted dragons connected our walls and adjacent a metallic dragon that hung from a necklace I wore excessively often (and that astir apt didn’t assistance maine with getting dates). As a inferior precocious kid, the crippled was a refuge, a originative instrumentality wherever I could envision characters, worlds and fantastical scenarios.

There was a batch of math, too, and rather a spot of rules, not to notation addendums to rules and good people to those rules, but I discovered aboriginal connected a cardinal to its idiosyncratic appeal, 1 that apt makes galore hardcore followers of the crippled cringe: Story comes first, the rules a distant second. In fact, I discarded immoderate directive that got successful the mode of a much fanciful tale.

It pleased maine that “Twenty-Sided Tavern” does arsenic well. When my showing the different week began not with beholders and battles but alternatively a yarn astir trying to flirt with and seduce a dragon, I couldn’t assistance but smile. For the champion “D&D” games, nary substance however serious, tense oregon melodramatic they whitethorn get, are ever a spot silly, oregon astatine slightest they are to me.

“I cognize we perceive astir toxicity successful gaming each the time, but erstwhile I picked up my archetypal ‘D&D’ acceptable that my member gave to maine erstwhile I was 8 years old, what was unfastened to maine was not conscionable a satellite of storytelling,” says Anjali Bhimani, a co-producer of the accumulation arsenic good arsenic a regular performer successful it. “It was a satellite wherever a halfling could termination a reddish dragon, wherever it didn’t substance wherever you came from. There was ever a spot for you astatine the table.

Anjali Bhimani successful a accumulation of “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern.” The histrion views the crippled arsenic a storytelling tool.

(Andromeda Rodriguez)

“I deliberation the consciousness of belonging that tabletop RPGs and ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ tin supply is so, so, truthful powerful, and I deliberation it truly is simply a means to conscionable bring radical unneurotic successful a mode that a batch of different media can’t,” she adds.

“Twenty-Sided Tavern” does person immoderate constraints. It is, aft all, staged successful a theater. But it besides throws the accepted rules of theatre by the wayside. Expect, for instance, to beryllium connected your telephone astir of the show. We’ll lightly nonstop the production, voting, for instance, to research a castle’s catacombs oregon the mysterious woods. Many volition cheer a bully dice roll, and it wasn’t retired of the norm astatine my matinee for the assemblage to outcry suggestions oregon requests. When, for instance, said storyline astir romancing a dragon became a spot risqué, a pistillate kindly reminded the formed that determination were children present. It was toned down, but not earlier an histrion made a gag astir the amusement being educational.

“This doesn’t person to beryllium a stuffy, fourth-wall drama,” says Michael Fell, the show’s originative director. “We tin make a consciousness of community. As overmuch arsenic determination is simply a publication — determination benignant of is — we purpose to person engagement with the assemblage each 2 pages. That means they’re calling retired a name, asked to travel connected signifier oregon it’s conscionable an predetermination connected your telephone wherever you marque a prime oregon play a tiny mini-game. No engagement connected the telephone ever lasts much than 9 seconds.”

In “Twenty-Sided Tavern,” determination are 3 halfway actors playing and acting retired the game, 1 dungeon maestro and a benignant of tavern keeper helping to support people and way of the story. There’s a setup astatine a barroom and a quest involving a menace to the town, but each amusement is unique. The formed whitethorn swap roles, the assemblage whitethorn concoct a monster — my radical envisioned a giant, destructive portion of pumpkin pastry — and settings volition displacement based connected assemblage vote, done via smartphone.

It’s a small spot similar theatre arsenic sport.

“This is gamification of unrecorded entertainment. Part of what I’m doing is mirroring what happens successful sports entertainment, but successful a unrecorded theatrical setting,” says David Carpenter, the laminitis of Gamiotics, which co-developed the amusement and powers the smartphone tech down it. “This amusement has amazed maine for years, but 1 of the aboriginal surprises was the full assemblage losing their caput erstwhile idiosyncratic rolls a 20. It’s similar idiosyncratic scoring a touchdown. The assemblage goes nuts due to the fact that they didn’t spot it coming.”

Anjali Bhimani, left, Will Champion and Jasmin Malave look acceptable for conflict successful a accumulation of “Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern.”

(Andromeda Rodriguez)

Like the game, “Twenty-Sided Tavern” theorizes that stories tin beryllium astatine their astir almighty erstwhile they are not passive, erstwhile we arsenic assemblage members person a relation to play and invitation to interact.

Carpenter is funny however acold the assemblage prime tin beryllium pushed to displacement a narrative. He talks successful the aboriginal of experimenting much with motivation oregon ethical decisions. There are nary successful “Twenty-Sided Tavern,” wherever occasionally the assemblage whitethorn power an enactment successful a mode akin to a dice roll. We’ll tap, for instance, to capable up a metre connected a screen, and wherever it lands whitethorn bespeak a occurrence oregon a failure. Here, the smartphone gamification is utilized to prod a communicative alternatively than specify it, a reminder to maine that “D&D” is successful immoderate ways a communicative instauration tool.

“There are stories that we person told successful tabletop games that I person played that I ne'er would person imagined coming up with successful the writers’ country due to the fact that the dice told the communicative that they did,” says Bhimani.

The large-scale assemblage information of “Twenty-Sided Tavern” people invites a jovial, party-like atmosphere. It succeeds successful extending a manus to the audience, welcoming america into what tin beryllium a complex, daunting phantasy world. It argues that “Dungeons & Dragons” is for all, overmuch arsenic I did arsenic a inferior precocious kid who made it thing of a ngo to person my name-calling friends with the hopes of showing them the joys of gathering with small much than paper, pencils, dice and an imagination.

“It’s inactive somewhat intimidating to a batch of radical due to the fact that they think, ‘I person to cognize each these rules and larn each these spells and work each these books,’” Bhimani says. “Coming to the ‘Twenty-Sided Tavern,’ it’s astir telling a large story. Yes, we rotation dice. Yes, determination are spells. But ultimately, that’s conscionable scaffolding to archer a beautiful, improvised story.”

I retrieve erstwhile I played play games successful precocious school, my friends utilized to gag that I, arsenic dungeon master, would “lose” due to the fact that I did everything successful my powerfulness to support everyone’s quality live and playing, wanting to spot a communicative to a decision that didn’t extremity successful anyone’s death. They wondered if I was moving the crippled incorrectly due to the fact that they ever succeeded. Yet I saw “Dungeons & Dragons” arsenic a wholly collaborative endeavor, and I felt that mode again watching “Twenty-Sided Tavern,” an ode to the thought that “Dungeons & Dragons” is champion erstwhile shared.

And a reminder, too, that determination is nary incorrect mode to play it.