Playing With Strangers: Dissecting Dark Dice
It seems to be a given in today’s abundant audio fiction atmosphere to be familiar with at least one Dungeons and Dragons podcast, whether or not you may actually listen to them. Even I, as a regular consumer of audio fiction, have only barely scraped the surface and mostly understand the general scope of Dungeons and Dragons styled shows through cultural osmosis.
Some of which are relatively popular and have gained a massive following over the years, The Adventure Zone hosted by the McElroy brothers being a standout and more mainstream example where in Critical Role is a televised event that has garnered quite the array of gorgeous fan art and dedicated viewers in it’s four year runtime.
Ironically enough, I stumbled across Dark Dice via an opening advertisement to a show that’s usually more my speed. It was Imploding Fictions, The Amelia Project that opened up one of their episodes advertising a dark and dreary show of this nature and something within me was compelled to at least give it a look.
The synopsis is relatively simple, a group of six travelers come together upon the disappearance of multiple children and they must explore the dangerous lands outside of the village in hopes of their rescue. The show is a nice blend of real time playing as well as some genuine acting and narration talent backed by immersive sound design. It has quite a few elements in place and though it may seem like a lot to juggle at first, the early two and a half seasons are gripping, dark and incredibly fleshed out.
Atmospheric is certainly a word that comes to mind which should always be the central goal of any Dungeons and Dragons podcast that considers itself more than a game session’s live recording.
For those who aren’t quite as nerdy as my general audience, Dungeons and Dragons, often dubbed D&D, is a type of role playing game in which a group of people take on the roles of fantasy archetypes who are free to interact with a fantastical imaginary setting anyway they choose. Being guided by a Dungeon Master who also works as the primary storyteller, they are given a specific set of rules and regulations that keeps everyone relatively in check while they take on a number of obstacles.
Be it defeating monsters, negotiating with locals, sneaking around a massive and dangerous landscape, or exploring forbidden lands, each and every move is calculated to an absolute T, all the while throwing in the stakes of complete chance into mix.
Dragons and Dungeons in itself is an excellent vehicle for storytelling as it is predetermined to set a group of characters on a dangerous quest and arise as many stakes as possible to impede their progress. The story writes itself though only those with a decent grasp on their own personalized lore and maybe a twinge of sadism can really make their games a spectacle to witness.
Dungeons and Dragons is about the risks and rewards of chance, a statement Dark Dice reminds the listener of in the beginning of each episode with the world weary statement “never play games of fate”.
While a character’s abilities can be pegged down via a list of numbers-giving a party’s heroes a number of stats in charisma, speed, strength, and magic to name a few-a very crucial element of Dungeons and Dragons and what keeps these types of game relatively interesting in the reliance on a pair of dice.
Aside from a large game board and accompanying book of rules and settings, a seven dice set is nothing short of a trademark visual to represent D&D and is the image that Dark Dice bases its key visual off of.
It reminds us that while very much a game, it is also a practice of trial and error, a grim reminder that a mere role of the dice can determine a player’s fate in an instant. Unlike a traditional video game, there is no guarantee of success or the promise of a happy ending, forcing the players to work around their handicaps or simply hope for a better outcome.
Where Dark Dice really throws its curveball is in it’s main gimmick. Among the party of main characters, who are all varying degrees of cruel and selfish in their own right, is a malevolent shapeshifter who changes to whatever form it needs to blend in before attempting to kill one of the characters. While the party is made aware of the creature’s presence early into the story, they still have yet to find a way to truly deal with the chance of an invader.
Especially for a Dungeons and Dragons setting, this makes for a rather intuitive twist of events that plays with the psychology of the players and viewers the whole way through. No matter how good things may seem, there is always an underlying threat lurking in the background that keeps us on our toes.
Dark Dice manages to combine not just being an immersive D&D game but also a suspenseful and dark take that has a recurring antagonist that can be anyone at any time. Thus, in some ways, the players all take turns playing two roles, whether or not they know they’re playing the imposter.
Though it’s mostly a personal preference, a podcast that is able to introduce a looming threat to the narrative that plays with typical audio drama tropes has always been a personal favorite that I don’t get to see a lot.
Though not a D&D, SAYER and The Magnus Archives come to mind when it comes to always thinking of new ways to stir conflict.
Maybe it’s my own special preference, but the inescapable feeling that something is always lurking overhead, ready to kick someone’s teeth in at a moments notice just gives stories that extra flavour.
Though Dark Dice certainly isn’t the first podcast to weave a central threat into its story, the execution is what really shines. Where in instead of having a single, tangible threat, we have am intelligent freak of nature that isn’t as directly affected by the game of fate that’s already began.
At the end of the day you’re still listening in on a group of friends playing a game together, but Dark Dice has some rather consistent psychological horror elements. That’s nothing to say of the actual violence that both the party members either partake or experience on a regular basis.
During especially stressful scenarios, it’s common for the dungeon master to issue a sanity check, which is equal parts amusing and tragic when you sit back and wonder if there’s ever going to be a breaking point on the party member’s psyches. A shapeshifting creature is already quite the psychological menace and makes one wonder if the creature is more than willing to drive the party insane and do all the killing for them.
From the current line up of episodes, episode five’s “First Watch” easily encompasses all the best elements of Dark Dice. Gratuitous violence, malevolent or morally ambiguous actions, some humorous side commentary, and the doppelgänger making its most ghoulish entry into the narrative. The tension is razor thin and the realization that none of these characters are immune to death and suffering becomes agonizingly clear.
Though the party members aren’t all exactly upstanding citizens, their failure to complete their quest means submitting to a much greater evil as well as the loss of multiple innocent children to a “Nameless God”.
With the way events are currently playing out and only so many episodes to go off of, there’s no definitive conclusion in sight, which just makes me more invested in what trouble the heroes will have to endure together…or, at least, who I assume are the heroes.
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