Felicia Day on how Twenty-Sided Tavern changes the game for D&D

D&D and improvisational comedy already share much of their respective DNA: colorful characters, unscripted scenes, and a shared, communal approach to storytelling. In this way, it seems only natural that the two would inevitably combine. Although actual plays often have a comedic bent (Dimension20 perhaps chief amongst them), Twenty-Sided Tavern has endeavoured to take it to the next level. The off-Broadway show presents a D&D adventure in which the audience are active participants, choosing the performers’ characters, making some decisions for them, and deciding the trials or monsters they’ll face, all done through their phones. The show is never the same twice.

It certainly seems ambitious, and no effort has been spared in the spectacle, from the set-design to the interactivity to the incorporation of Wizards of the Coast licensed materials (this is an official D&D show). With that in mind, I enlisted Felicia Day ahead of her run on Twenty-Sided Tavern as a guest performer earlier this year to talk through what makes it such an alluring project to be a part of.

"It’s D&D and improv, in New York, off Broadway. How [could] I say no to that?" There is an infectiousness to Felicia’s excitement, and despite taking on a role in which the script is minimal, the rehearsals unable to reflect the actuality of the performance, she seems in her element. "Going with the flow is the name of the game, and, in a sense, it’s actually freeing, because you can’t mess up on stage."

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"The fourth wall is non-existent with this production"

Whilst praising the creativity and liveliness, one of the criticisms levelled at Twenty-Sided Tavern by those who have participated in the audience focussed on the lack of a meaningful, emotional storyline, often found in good D&D, the best tabletop RPGs, and good theatre performances. From the outside, it seems like a fair critique. After all, how can a performer be expected to carry a satisfying narrative arc when the audience is deciding many of their actions?

"It’s really due to the masterful crafting of the show. You have a [Dungeon Master] on stage, and a tavern keeper (another on-stage non-player presence), and so you have two anchors holding the ship. It’s really fun, the way everything keeps moving, but at the same time incorporates everything we love about RPGs and improvisation. [...] You're not watching a scripted play where people zone out, or they're watching something passively. You're constantly with the audience, and the rapport between the actors gets you on stage because there's in jokes, there's winks to the audience, there's involving the audience. The fourth wall is non-existent with this production. I know they developed it for years, and I can see why, because this is not something you come up with overnight, to make this heightened theatrical experience feel as intimate as it is."

Bringing in guest-stars such as Felicia, Aabria Iyengar, and Erika Ishii gives the sense the production is leaning on the RPG side as much as they are on Twenty-Sided Tavern’s improvisational performance side, given their relative fame within the RPG sphere of the internet. As such, it’s easy to imagine the skills any of us pick up slaying princesses and saving dragons at the table might translate to the stage, and certainly it seemed they were applicable for Felicia’s experience.

"I have learned a lot in doing RPGs to make big, bold choices, and don't be afraid to mess up," she says. "And, you know, leading with your emotion, that's what I always do in improvisation. You want to come in with a motivation and an emotion, and that will get you into a more interesting place than coming in in a neutral way. That's for all writing too. [...] I think what I've learned is that when you're playing off somebody else, supporting them, heightening what they're offering is always fun because you're in it together and not antagonistic. It's more fun to play collaboratively, supporting each other as a party than it is to butt heads most of the time."

"You just have to be present and have a point of view"

Within that, there’s good advice for anyone feeling unsure of themselves during an RPG session too, on bringing that emotion to your games, and how to ‘activate yourself’ as Felicia eloquently describes it.

"Basing it on something you know, whether it's a character from a TV show that you know. Natniss, a ranger. If that activates you, that's great. If you're playing your mom, that activates you, or you're gonna just play yourself with one really strong adjective. The thing I've learned about creativity is that you just have to learn how to activate yourself where you're having fun and overcoming your inhibition. And so what's going to make you excited to share something about yourself is always the way to go. You just have to be present and have a point of view. And that's half of life, but it's also a big part of being a role player."

As our conversation winds down, we touch on some work from Felicia’s past, specifically the inclusion of her costume from The Guild’s Do You Wanna Date My Avatar music video into the Smithsonian museum. In a microcosm, that’s an evocative image of what this veteran creator, musician, performer, and producer has achieved: a pushing of the boundaries, in web series, in live plays, and now in improvisational RPG theatre shows. It’s not hard to imagine Felicia Day being sculpted onto the Mount Rushmore of Geekdom.

But boundaries never stop being explored, and as our world, and its online counterpart, constantly changes, I couldn’t help but ask Felicia where she thinks the next great innovators in our nerdy hobbies will come from.

"For me, creativity comes from technology evolving, right? Technology pushes the envelope, and then all the creators jump in because they're excited to work with new toys. [...] It's all about a platform giving a new voice and new interest to people. And so I don't necessarily know what that thing is, but I'm always trying something new. I'm excited, because the times in history when the big corporations don't own everything, that's [what] I really liked, I like the undermining of that. Web video kind of went away because streaming came in and it professionalised all of it, and so that long form, especially scripted content, it doesn't really exist in the same way. But who knows? I just want to make things, and with fewer gatekeepers, cool things get made."

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