A demon, a void dragon, and one awkward sleepover.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts is a science-fiction tabletop campaign run by a host who goes by dungeon maestro, with turn order, cooldowns and the odd natural 20. The stakes include a demon prince and a slain void dragon, but the same table will spend a scene on charcuterie, nail polish and baby pictures.
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Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts is an actual-play role-playing campaign set in space, run by a host who takes the title of dungeon maestro. A group of players voices the crew, among them Candle, Alex, Arthur and Nithya. Sessions tend to open with the host recapping where things were left, and those recaps are candid about the party's mistakes. One of them lays out a whole arc in a breath: three items gathered as ransom for a friend of Harlan's, a void dragon killed, a crash landing, a tower climbed, a puzzle solved. Then comes the twist. Harlan was a demon all along, and the crew had handed him the means to claim a soul. That recap comes at the top of 'Episode 53: Religion & Relaxation - Part 1', which makes the episode a sensible way in. The aftermath plays out as downtime. The crew collects pay and makes reports at headquarters, and one character walks into requisitions carrying four bottles of liquor by the necks. A slumber party follows with streamers, a banner, wine, charcuterie, nail polish and baby pictures scrolled up on a wristwatch screen. It also gets awkward. An innocent question about who is dating sends one guest out the door, Candle hints at a past as a high-profile stage performer under another name, and Swiftrunner's nails, or claws, get painted lime green. Faith gets its turn as well. The characters argue over whether the five stars of the setting are gods or merely very powerful beings, each star holding a domain such as kinship or strategy. Elsewhere, a camping trip ends with the tents ripped open, and a character called Red Sky tells Candle this is the survival experience Candle asked for. Another multi-part story, 'Episode 59: Xtreme Laser Tag - Part 2', turns a 13-year-old's birthday into a skirmish fought barricade by barricade in strict turn order. It closes with a slide into a space-approved limousine. The mechanics stay audible throughout: cooldowns, a natural 20, rolls called out mid-sentence. So does the table itself, with players cracking up, comparing their employer to Starfleet, and saying out of character how much they want to protect Arthur. The host even breaks off a recap to tell Kitty not to stand on the computer. The result is a space campaign in which a demon's double-cross and an awkward sleepover both get room to breathe.
Made for: Suits a listener who enjoys actual play for its characters and table chatter, and who wants a science-fiction campaign that stops between demon plots for sleepovers, liquor runs and a kid's birthday party.
What sets it apart: The space setting has real villainy, including a demon's betrayal and a slain void dragon, yet the show plays downtime just as carefully: an awkward slumber party, a trip to requisitions, and a laser tag birthday run turn by turn.
Space Based D&D spin-off adventure.
The mirror only turns 90 degrees; you'll want to grab the next torch yourself.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A laser-tag birthday party turns into a messy portal-hopping fight with a surprisingly soft landing.
Dwarf Stars and Dreadnoughts turns a 13-year-old's laser-tag birthday party into a loose, affectionate battlefield. After a long break, the dungeon maestro drops the table back into initiative, and the room quickly finds its old rhythm: barricade shots, platform mishaps,…
A casual sleepover turns into romantic panic, charcuterie chaos, and a wrecked campsite.
A friendly sleepover goes sideways when Candle assumes Clearia and Adari are already dating, pushing Clearia into panic and sending Radhira after her.
A blanket-piled slumber party turns lime-green claws, bad cheese, and one painful exit into comedy with a bruise underneath.
A blanket-piled apartment hosts a slumber party where cheerful planning keeps bumping into the awkward fact of other people being in the room.
After Harlan Maxilis's betrayal, the party drifts through downtime, bad stealth, workplace absurdity, and a quiet call about the stars.
The episode lingers in the awkward comic calm after Harlan Maxilis's betrayal, letting SEO headquarters become a place for pay, requisitions, loose ends, and quietly revealing downtime.
A booze-adjacent supply run turns into spellwork, bad decisions, and a demon problem handled with workplace confusion.
A routine stop at Requisitions becomes a messy little workplace mission, with four bottles of liquor carried in plain sight and a conversation with Drake about a week already sliding in the wrong direction.
Speculative stories, read with quiet precision.
A fan-made audiobook of Wildbow's superhero serial Ward.
Story-heavy actual play with sharp supernatural turns.
Local radio at reality's breaking point.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnoughts resumes a 13-year-old’s birthday laser-tag game, where Candle, Sol, Raydeara, Haven, Alex, Arthur, and Nithya use cover, portals, and children as improvised human shields.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnoughts Episode 57, "Religion & Relaxation - Part 5," opens with Clearia bolting from a sleepover after Candle assumes she and Andari are already dating.
Radira turns her apartment into a slumber party with blankets, wine, candy, a suspicious wheel of cheese, and guests arriving in silk pajamas, sweatpants, and a long white jacket.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts Episode 55 turns a month off at SEO headquarters into a sequence of character scenes, including a lake meditation, a commune memory talk, and a luxury-space ticket.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts: Episode 53, “Religion & Relaxation - Part 1,” follows the crew home after Harlan Maxillus betrays them, ascends as a demon prince, and escapes through a portal.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts Episode 54 moves from Requisitions, where Barthmere asks Drake for demon-killing gear, to a custom bracer built from void dragon claws and a hand crossbow.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnoughts: Episode 51 follows the crew after a wormhole crash onto Deshet, an uninhabited planet beyond humanity’s reach.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts: Episode 52: A Sudden & Inevitable Betrayal - Part 2 opens with the party confronting Harlan Maxilis, who says he waited 5,000 years for their arrival.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts: Episode 49 follows the crew after defeating a demon congregation beneath Valhalla’s mysterious meteor crash.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts: Episode 50: Through Time & Space - Part 2 follows Alex, Harlan, Haven, Radira, and Candle confronting a space dragon inside a wormhole.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts: Episode 48, “The Keht-cher in the Rye - Part 2,” follows Harlan and the party as they confront Ketosh Tet after defeating his army.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts continues Episode 47 with the party stranded atop a mountain after breaking barriers, defeating enemies, and failing to receive a trial reward.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts continues the Valravn Disturbed battle as Harlan, Haven, Radira, Barthamir, and their allies attack raven creatures linked to emeralds embedded in a stone statue.
Dwarf Stars and Dreadnoughts, Episode 45, resumes inside a strange meteor crashed on Northree Research Base, where the party has discovered that some ravens were formerly people.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts’ Episode 42 introduces Rico as Solas, a half-elf hired by Sayo to escort scientists after a meteor fell near the Valhalla research base.
Dwarf Stars & Dreadnaughts: Episode 41: A Jingle of Icy & Spicy follows a party crossing unstable ice platforms and decoding jade-pillar clues.
Dwarf Stars and Dreadnoughts' Episode 40 resumes at Northree's Valhalla research base, where Candle and Haven return from unconsciousness after Alex defeats Magni and Bodhi.
The DM recaps the previous session where the party defeated a brood beast and rescued an engineer in a space mining colony.
The party meets a Nostar creature and discusses setting up a beacon to find its mother, despite potential dangers.
A group plays a space-themed D&D spin-off, with characters boarding a ship and interacting in character.
The party returns to base and faces arrest by interplanetary guards, continuing their space fantasy RPG adventure.