Big fantasy stakes, live-table sparks.
High Rollers DnD follows an ensemble of heroes through Altheya: The Dragon Empire, where prison breaks, planar threats, strange dreams, and quiet emotional scenes share the table. It moves quickly, with rules checks, jokes, and vivid narration braided into the same momentum.
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High Rollers DnD is a live-table fantasy actual-play series built around Altheya: The Dragon Empire. Its recent run has the party emerging from Gallows Aerie, a stronghold of the Ecliptic Order, after a dangerous planar prisoner crisis leaves doubts, injuries, and uneasy questions behind. The show is brisk without feeling thin. Recaps set the stakes, then the table snaps into action with rules clarifications, tactical positioning, character questions, and side comments all competing for air in a way that feels natural. The fiction can get heavy. Magical corruption, prisoners, infected guards, and friends turning on one another give the campaign real peril, especially when a battle suddenly drops a character or a roll changes the room. It still makes space for jokes. A special tea moment can turn into a running gag, a dangerous pet can need training, and an inn room negotiation can become a small comedy of manners. That balance is the appeal. High Rollers DnD treats the fantasy world seriously enough for consequences to matter, but not so solemnly that the table loses its human messiness. The Azarr Steppe episodes show the group shifting from crisis recovery into travel, local customs, strange flora and fauna, and the next pull of Rowan’s mysterious dreams. The therapy scenes add another mode, using a quiet conversation and alchemical tea to turn inward without sanding off the table’s playful edges. Combat scenes are clear about damage, advantage, conditions, movement, and danger. Roleplay scenes are equally concrete, with food, lodging, clothing, pets, and awkward emotional check-ins grounding the larger mythology. Listeners who enjoy actual-play as both game and story will find a lot to hold onto here. It is not a detached fantasy serial. It is a table making decisions in real time, laughing at the wrong moment, then returning to the stakes because the world keeps moving.
Made for: For listeners who like Dungeons & Dragons actual play with tactical combat, ensemble banter, and character consequences that carry across episodes. It especially suits fans who enjoy fantasy travel, magical danger, and emotional roleplay without losing the table’s casual texture.
What sets it apart: High Rollers DnD stands out by keeping the machinery of play visible: rolls, rules, positioning, jokes, and scene narration all stay in the mix. The campaign feels expansive, but the moment-to-moment appeal comes from how quickly the table turns uncertainty into action.
Welcome to High Rollers, a live-play Dungeons & Dragons podcast! Join Dungeon Master Mark Hulmes and his players as they explore Altheya: The Dragon Empire on Europe's biggest independent TTRPG stream. Episodes go live Tuesdays and Thursdays, or watch live every Sunday at 5pm UK Time on twitch.tv/highrollersdnd or youtube.com/highrollersdnd!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
High Rollers DnD pairs readable tabletop action with character scenes that make every critical roll carry consequences beyond the fight.
High Rollers DnD turns a tabletop campaign into a character-led serial where tactical danger and personal history carry equal weight. Dungeon Master Mark Hulmes moves fluently between rules, scene-setting and consequences: a run of critical hits can drop Gruff, while a quiet…
Natural 20s and therapy tea await when you want your fantasy fights to leave room for feelings.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A talk-heavy Altheya episode turns a special tea into a quietly uncanny turning point.
High Rollers DnD keeps this stretch of Altheya centered on burden and what can be carried for others. One character asks how much of someone else's pain can be held, a chair is offered, and the special tea becomes the clearest hinge in the scene.
Travel, tiny beasts, and dream trouble keep this chapter moving.
The chapter carries the party from Gallows Eyrie into the Azar Steppe, with Rowan's strange dream pushing the journey ahead and the mountains around the Ecliptic Order's fortress setting the early pace before the plains and Yolt come into view.
Stonebloom Sanctuary turns a quiet RP stop into a lived-in, characterful pause.
High Rollers' Welcome to the Azarr Steppe! (Part 2) settles into a quiet stretch at Stonebloom Sanctuary, letting the party sort out rooms, ask about food, and make sure Rix has a place in the group.
A stronghold breach turns into a frantic fight, with Gruff dropped in a brutal round before Ophelia can answer.
High Rollers DnD returns to Gallows Airy with the heroes meeting Han Farrier, a Daever blacksmith who agrees to help forge an essence for Xanthius and to help Daisy with the Celestial Jaeger that pursues all Daever.
A tight prison break turns on stone magic, a metal curse, and a corridor fight.
Part 2 stays in the lower levels of Gallows Aerie, the Ecliptic Order stronghold, and lets the tension build around Han Faria as the talk about Daeva-related matters gets cut short by a sudden magical blackout.
A hotel-room blood mishap pushes the party into a comic negotiation with the watch.
Part two turns a hotel-room blood-drinking mishap into a problem with the watch, as Sister Ophelia's overindulgence leaves the companions managing the fallout at the Radiance Hotel.
A mountain crossing settles into spicy food, supply worries, and a quiet welcome at Stonebloom Sanctuary.
After leaving Gallows Eerie, the heroes descend from the mountains toward the Azar Steppe, with Gruff guiding the route and the blue archdragon's magic still weighing on the weather.
Grim fantasy at mud level.
Fantasy rereads with jokes sharpened into arguments.
In this Dungeons and Dragons actual play episode, the heroes face a dangerous ambush by creatures from the depths during their boat journey, with a sorceress turning the tide using a confusion spell.
The podcast episode follows a fantasy role-playing adventure where heroes in the Dragon Empire embark on a quest in a seaside town to slay champions of an evil sea goddess.
In this Dungeons and Dragons actual play episode, the heroes enter the fey realm on a quest to retrieve items for an elven mage, encountering unseelie soldiers and prisoners.
The party descends from the mountains into the Azarr Steppe, finding a road marker that leads them to the village of Yolt.
In part two of 'How to Get Away with Murder,' the party deals with the aftermath of Ophelia's blood-drinking incident at the Radiance Hotel.
In this fantasy podcast episode, heroes battle Yunaria, the emissary of Sovereign, as holy knights try to seal crown steel shards while facing her powerful attacks.
In this Dungeons and Dragons actual play episode, the heroes continue their rescue mission in the fey realm, battling unseelie forces to free satyr prisoners as magic and combat unfold.
Rowan pulls a landscape of the Battle of the Ash Hills from his bag of holding, adds an ornate frame, and Sister Ophelia hands it to Varys Evernight for the temple fundraiser.
High Rollers DnD’s “The Ossean Ball” follows Ophelia and her companions to Lady Glomiris’s undead-hosted gala in Kelskaris.
At halftime of the Ascension Alley Cats–Frosthill Foxes Hatchball match, Coach Gruff asks Hawkins to reset after a blocked first-half shot.
The table settles into a long, candid conversation.
The party leaves Gallows Eyrie with High Inquisitor Argus's gratitude, though doubts still sit heavy for a few of them.
The party arrives at Stonebloom Sanctuary.
This episode continues a Dungeons and Dragons actual play campaign where heroes, after defeating a magical curse in a prison, must decide whether to return home or venture into the Azarr Steppe based on mysterious dreams.
The heroes battle Edict and her bodyguard in a dangerous planar prison to rescue their friend Gruff, who has turned against them.
The heroes are inside Gallows Airy.
The group is still inside Gallows Aerie.