The 50th-anniversary D&D actual play at Gen Con is now on YouTube

Wizards of the Coast had a lot going on at this year’s Gen Con — in addition to the regular hubbub of being the biggest name in tabletop role-playing games at the biggest tabletop convention whose namesake is literally Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. You know, the place where D&D was born. But this year’s D&D Live presentation was also an opportunity for Wizards to show off its new project: a virtual tabletop that goes by the codename Project Sigil.

Framed as an actual play performance, the event was originally slated to last only two hours, but unsurprisingly ran long thanks to excellent showmanship by the star-studded cast. Participants included Aabria Iyengar as Dungeon Master, Brennan Lee Mulligan as a Dwarven cleric, Samantha Béart reprising her role as Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3, Neil Newbon as Astarion from BG3, and Anjali Bhimani as a human wizard.

Polygon senior editor Charlie Hall attended the event in person and said the actors “chewed through the scenery in the first half,” leaving slightly less time for the team to switch to play around with Project Sigil. Hall said the Project Sigil showing was “halting” but ultimately well-received — and any snafus aren’t too much of a surprise given the platform hasn’t even entered closed beta yet. (Wizards is still accepting requests to join the closed beta, which is expected in fall 2024.)

Lucky for us, Gen Con filmed the whole game, lovingly titled “An Astarion and Karlach Adventure: Love is a Legendary Action,” and you can now watch on YouTube in all its silly glory. According to Hall, the entire playthrough is worth a watch.

“Let’s just say,” said Hall, “there’s an epic reveal in the second half that gives your favorite actual play performers plenty of room to explore… the source material.”

You can see — or, rather, hear — Lee Mulligan and Iyengar both in their ongoing actual play series The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One. Bhimani also has more D&D in her future — She’s soon to appear on Jon Hamm’s thriller podcast based on D&D’s infamous period of the Satanic Panic.