Dungeons and Dragons has inspired creators and story tellers since the game was created. We've all shared many strange and heroic tales. We lived the lives of our characters as they carved out grand, heroic destinies or great and wicked villainy. Anything the combined imagination of our Game Master and the players around us.

Some stories can take us to a particularly fruity and adult place. As with our own lives, the attention of a pretty stranger across the room can lure us anywhere. Sometimes we may wish “rolling to seduce” were as easy in person as it is in game. The particularly lusty bard has always been able to do this, and it's become one of Dungeons and Dragons' greatest memes as of late.

We've looked a lot at the antics of All For One here on the Apotheosis Studios blog. Their third season has been a real treat, and the look down memory lane has been enlightening. It's great to see how a team has grown over the months and years of making D&D comedy web shorts. In this great call back, we get to see how this troupe of D&D heroes handle the strange nature of trying to seduce the NPC.

This is going to be a longer review than the ones we've done in the past. There's a lot of stuff that can be unpacked in an episode of any media. Looking at why a creator chose to do something, and how effective it is, is reviewing at its core.

Roll To Seduce

It's a welcome and common sight for the gaggle of adventurers to come to their, not so reputable, employer to see how they did on their last, not so reputable mission. This is the fourth outing we've seen with these characters, so their antics and slightly villainous methods aren't a surprise. It's got them in trouble in the past, and it seems to do so again here.

The entire episode, as with many of the early All For One skits takes place in the one room. The lavish, flower interior and the arrogant Tiefling Warlock reclines surrounded by beautiful servant girls wearing very little. It's clear the Game Master was inspired by Jabba the Hutt for this crime lord, but then again it's a strong comparison to draw. The reason we don't see these servant girls is we get that amazing continued joke from episode one. The GM's face under the platinum blonde wig smiling at the Fighter. It's a thing for some players to imagine their GMs as every NPC, so imagining this one person as the bright red Tiefling and his lovely assistants is funny and consistent across the series.

The action we get that opens up the skit serves a masterful double role. We see Evandra, our brash Elf Fighter aggressively shunt her sword off to one of the guards outside the room. A little later in the episode, we hear Andrius the Bard say that “they took our weapons off us”. It's great continuity to show this. It's also the way she did it. She pushed her sword into the guard's chest. This shows off her confrontational attitude. This simple effort keeps things so welcome and consistent across many episodes of a few minutes long.

The consistency of the production is so satisfying in this show. Even for something done for Youtube TV. Deerstalker Productions applies great care and attention to their work to make it feel truly Dungeons and Dragons, even in an episode that has very little in the way of grand cosmic magic or the great clashes and threats we would know from Dungeons and Dragons. This, for me, is typified in the look of the other character than the main three. The Marquis in his floral sitting room. This garish, swirling wallpaper feels Elvish and aristocratic, and it matches the deep dark suit he wears. The costuming is what makes it feel truly D&D too. We feel like he's a Tiefling, effortlessly here. We're used to it from the character, Nixie, who's bright pink every episode and has classic, up curling horns. This Tiefling's deep red is generally classic given what we would expect from a Tiefling, or at least someone partly devilish. This Tiefling's curls backwards from his brow and up again, which truly seems ram like but different enough from the main character to show the diversity we'd get from realism and as it says in the rules. His tail is also an amazing detail. Each Tiefling tail I've had in the games I've been involved with. Some have a triangle point, or a pitch fork, or even barbs. While the end of his tail isn't much visible, I love the almost dragon like ridges that go up along it. That's a detail I've never thought of, and it's a treat to see them here.

Something I commend throughout the entire existence of All For One is its queer friendliness. We Dungeons and Dragons players are a pretty open and tolerant people, despite the reputation of some of its creators. We saw Evandra feel up the barmaid in episode one, and similarly enough she checked out one of the lovely assistants here in this episode. The uncompromising and in your face style of queer is what I have always appreciated. We get no shyness or hesitation from the creators, the overt appreciation of a hot lady is on full force here. This appreciative queer representation continues as the male Bard rolls to seduce the male NPC. Our DM, fully in character bends to the narrative that the dice make, as a good Game Master should. This is their good comedy at full force. We see the meme we know in our games of Dungeons and Dragons be extended out to it's greatest extent.

As I discussed with other content creators on a larger show, the best representation – in my opinion, is the self assured one. We do not need to make any attention in the fact that a character is queer. If it comes naturally in conversation, and you the Game Master divulge the detail with little room for follow up, then the players will go with it. The Drow matriarch can simply “say I do not care for the company of men” or the gruff Goliath Guard Captain, can walk hand in hand with a Half-Elf with an immaculate, shaped beard. I've been in the situation where I've Game Mastered for people who are from much more insular backgrounds, and aren't as familiar with LGBT people and how they're represented. The right kind of people can easily just take it in their stride, if you the Game Master stay resolute in how you deliver a detail that may be strange to them but shouldn't be in this day and age.

We have to address why this grand comedy was able to happen at all. Three natural twenty rolls in a row. I'm going to look past the mathematical unlikelihood of this, and instead talk about what the natural twenty means. In the game's meme culture, the natural twenty has become an unshakeable beacon of success. That all depends on the Game Master you're rolling with. For the kinds of people who take it strictly as rules as written, the natural twenty means nothing. It's just the highest a die can possibly roll, and outside of the automatic, double damage hit in combat, it's just a roll for some. For other Game Masters, it has that same automatic success that you can expect as in combat. It's a real debate that can get quite heated among some players. As a Game Master, I personally look on a twenty with a great deal of favour but it's not necessarily an automatic win as some would like it to be. For a moment like this, for a show taking the antics of Dungeons and Dragons to its most extreme, we can laugh along with it. No need to take it too seriously.

The Seduction is In

This episode, as with many offered by All For One is a hilarious and relatable look into the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Even the grand conclusion, bringing us to the end is a nod to the rules and how things work for Paladins. Comedy all players can truly relate to.

Now we want to hear from you. Can you relate to the antics of flirting with an NPC only for it to go very wrong, or very right? What other Live Action D&D content should we look into? Let us know in our discord server or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, they write all kinds of gaming press, while they write news about the League of Legends Card Game on RuneterraCCG. On Youtube, they can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Find where they dwell by climbing their Linktree.

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'But He's Attacking You...?' - A Review for 'Roll to Seduce'

Roll To Seduce

The Seduction is In

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