I don’t watch much Dungeons & Dragons. I know thousands of people fill stadia to watch Dimension 20, YouTube channels such as Critical Role have garnered fervourous fanbases, and even the Baldur’s Gate 3 cast have got in on the actual play action. But it’s not for me. I love playing Dungeons & Dragons, because it’s something I do with my friends. We have our own characters, in-jokes, and adventures, and they’re fun because we’re a part of a co-operative storytelling adventure.
I like the world of Dungeons & Dragons, but not because it’s interesting in and of itself. I love it as a blank canvas that my friends and I can tell our stories within. I like the quests and stories that my DM weaves (don’t tell her, though, her head won’t fit out the door), and I like trying to figure out her puzzles and combat encounters myself. It’s for this reason that I didn’t watch the Dungeons & Dragons movie, I don’t watch actual plays on YouTube, and I solely engage with the roleplaying game by being an active participant. That and Baldur’s Gate 3.
However, I do watch a fair few Warhammer videos on YouTube. Whether it’s lore explainers from Arbitor Ian, battle reports from Tabletop Tactics, or all manner of podcasts and interviews, I find it the perfect second-screen viewing while I work.
It was deep in this WarTube (HammerTube?) rabbit hole that I found OddVoid, a new channel with just over a thousand subscribers that is producing a Warhammer D&D actual play campaign. But this isn’t some half-arsed group of gamers uploading their personal campaign, this is a series with high production value, custom miniatures, and a cast made up of professional voice actors and former Games Workshop presenters.
Heretic Hunt
This eclectic cast consists of voice actors Jamila Hall and Greg Jones, former Games Workshop presenters Louise Sugden of Rogue Hobbies and Chris ‘Peachy’ Peach, all wrangled in roughly the right direction by writer and DM Dan Saye.
The setting is a Hive City, as our unlikely Inquisitorial retinue makes its way through the underhive to foil a heretic plot at its heart. You know how the old joke goes: a ganger, a noblewoman, an officer of the planetary defence force, and a tech-priest walk into an occult ritual…
The punchline is an eight-episode series of capers and combat, three episodes of which are currently live and the rest will follow weekly. Judging from those that are currently available, this will be a classic D&D adventure with all the roleplaying and frivolity you’d expect, just in the setting of the 41st Millennium. And, quite frankly, it’s brilliant fun. The cast has natural chemistry, Saye is an excellent DM who rolls with the weirdest punches his players throw at him with aplomb, and the production quality is top tier. From satisfying sound effects, to atmospheric shots of miniatures in appropriate environments, Heretic Hunt is as much a visual treat as a roleplaying one.
Rather than using any of the Warhammer RPGs that have been created, Heretic Hunt uses a modified version of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. In the current climate of YouTube actual plays, I think this was the right decision. D&D will be familiar to nearly all viewers, who will only need to adapt to a couple of rule tweaks rather than learn a whole new system.
The tweaks in question mean that the party members receive grievous injuries if they’re reduced to zero hit points and a general ‘rule of cool’ pervades through proceedings. This group is playing for fun, and that shines through in both episodes that are live so far.
I’m not sure that this will get me into watching actual plays of Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, and I’m certainly not going to dive into hundreds of hours of backlogs for the most popular groups, but I get it now. Heretic Hunt is a perfect intersection of two of my interests, and I find myself excited to watch the next instalment of these awkward adventurers lying and slashing their way through the dim streets of Hive Serrix Prime.
I still feel like a bit of a voyeur at times, peering into someone else’s roleplaying game like a sicko at the window. But it’s easy to get swept up in the fun, to relate to these characters who are not your own. It probably helps that I know Sugden and Peach from their miniature ranges and Warhammer YouTube channels , and that I’ve been immersed in Games Workshop’s sci-fi universe for over two-thirds of my life. But Heretic Hunt has finally got me into actual plays, and episode four can’t come soon enough.
