Crude jokes, audible dice, and a search for Rufus.
Reroll Expectations is an actual play Dungeons and Dragons podcast with Jeff Nabors running the game as Dungeon Master. In its arc The Search, a party tries to find out where Rufus is, through ring fights, tunnels with alchemists closing in and an unwilling prisoner, and the dice and rules haggling all stay on the recording.
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Reroll Expectations is an actual play Dungeons and Dragons podcast. Jeff Nabors is the Dungeon Master, and the cast listed with him is Cayce McWilliams, SynicalBeanical, Anthony Carluccio and Aidan Diamond. The recent episodes belong to an arc called The Search. The titles alone show its range: 'Battle Worthy', 'Negotiation Tactics', 'Into the Web', 'Mercy Me' and 'Sorry for all the Hot Dog Jokes'. The story running through them is a party trying to find out where Rufus is, with a group of alchemists caught up in whatever is going on. On the way, the party fights for a crowd in a ring and gets ambushed at the house of a character named Tana. It also keeps an unwilling prisoner in a pocket dimension inside a cape, then looks for the fastest way out of the tunnels as alchemists close in. The mechanics stay on the recording. Initiative gets rolled out loud, someone lands a natural one and a strength check comes up plus six. A player asks to move an enemy as a free action and is told it has to be a grapple, made at disadvantage. That back-and-forth over what the rules allow is a real part of the show, and so is the table forgetting spell names and fumbling its own arithmetic. Against all that chatter, Nabors describes scenes with care. He gives them specifics: a lush park beside a war memorial, a steel door whose lock was broken long ago, and a catwalk that ends at a cliff with a huge airship resting under a military stronghold beyond it. Non-player characters get room too. One is a self-described ageless being who warns of something to do with magic itself that even its own kind cannot perceive, and who tells the four of them they may be the only ones capable of the task at hand. The humor runs crude. One recap bluntly reminds the players that they spent about eight hours torturing a captive, and one of them answers that he deserved it. An interrogation drifts into an awkward question until someone calls 'end scene' and asks for the recording to be cut. There are sincere moments as well. After one ring victory, the winner drops out of a rage and carries a sobbing opponent to the medic tent, and the moment takes that character back to memories of fighting as a soldier for the alchemists. Outside the story, the show is open about how it gets made. One note from Jeff apologizes for a gap in recording caused by a broken air conditioner. Another explains that the show is moving onto a podcast network, which brings ads in the middle of episodes and after the credits. The credits point to the group's Twitter account, Rerollcast, and to a Ko-fi page, and the show calls word of mouth the only way it gets around. The episodes of The Search are numbered, so it is easy to follow the arc in order.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants actual play with the mechanics audible, from initiative rolls to arguments over grapples, and who is fine with profanity and dark, crude humor alongside a fantasy quest.
What sets it apart: It stands out for the contrast between Jeff Nabors's careful, detailed scene descriptions and players who haggle over the rules and use the story as a place for crude, sometimes dark jokes. The dice, the arithmetic and the arguments all stay on the recording.
Reroll Expectations is an Actual Play Dungeons and Dragons / Tabletop Roleplaying Game Podcast featuring Cayce McWilliams, SynicalBeanical, Anthony Carluccio, Aidan Diamond, and Jeff Nabors as your local benevolent Dungeon Master.
The arena chants for Gander; you get a victory lap with a side of guilt.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A stronghold search becomes a slippery underground descent with a striking airship reveal below.
A possible backdoor into the Bolton Stronghold pulls the party from the Grove into a buried complex, where a tampered steel door leads from near-darkness to a much larger find: a gargantuan airship hidden beneath the stronghold.
A frantic tunnel escape where vines, crossbows, spiders, and sudden darkness turn grim banter into real peril.
A rescue through Osus's Retreat becomes a tightening chase as alchemists close in, a tunnel snare buys time, and the party searches for a northeast way out.
A captive interrogation slips into rope jokes, disadvantage, and questions the DM has to stop.
A captive, a pair of glasses, and a rope joke that never quite lands turn this D&D interrogation into a negotiation the players can barely steer.
A chaotic return to combat, with a missing character sheet, a ballista operator, and a lightning breath weapon driving the scramble.
Real Expectations brings combat back as the party reaches Tana's house, ready to share its read on Rufus and the Alchemist and to show Jade. No one is there, though, and the sound of footsteps quickly turns into an attack and an initiative roll.
A loose tabletop quest gains sharper stakes from a debate over whether fate can be changed.
A missing companion and a strange book draw ReRoll Expectations into Midorak, where the party searches for answers and ends up before ageless beings bound up with fate.
Dice, divine mysteries, and the trouble with good intentions.
["Reroll Expectations episode 15 follows the party through the Grove on the southern edge of Kill Earth as they investigate a fountain and a memorial beneath Bolton Stronghold.", "A scratched spider web with the letters N-E and a spider carving on the monument send the group toward the northeast side, where the statue rotates and reveals hidden stairs.", "Below the graveyard, the party opens a broken steel door, burns down three draconic humanoids with fireball and lightning bolt, and then fights a blue dragon wormling.", "After the fight, the group reaches a catwalk and sees a gargantuan airship under the stronghold, turning the memorial clue into a much larger underground discovery."]
Reroll Expectations: The Search: Ep.
Reroll Expectations episode 13, Negotiation Tactics, opens with Jeff saying two months without AC in Florida delayed recording and pushed him to take over editing from Casey.
Reroll Expectations turns into an ambush at Tana’s house after the party returns with news about Rufus and the Alchemist and finds the place empty.
ReRoll Expectations: The Search Ep.
Reroll Expectations: The Search Ep.
Reroll Expectations follows the party from the Onyx Spire library to Madam Weaver's docks after learning that Rufus Vaughn was created from magic as the Prodigal Son.
Reroll Expectations follows a party investigating an archive connected to the Prodigal Son after the Weaver points them toward additional information.
A comedic actual play D&D one-shot where the party finishes a combat encounter and recovers in a destroyed room.
A band of bards inherits a mansion and must survive a night while being searched by soldiers.
A group of bards investigate a mysterious mansion after their host disappears, facing supernatural threats like murder hornets.
A group plays a spooky D&D one-shot called 'The Man Who Casts No Shadow'.
The party is summoned to a war tent for a briefing before a mission, with humorous banter among players.
The party attends a masquerade party to find an informant, but one member accidentally impersonates a prophet, drawing attention.
The party recaps their journey and rolls initiative to fight a group of bandits in a D&D campaign.
In this episode, the characters navigate a dangerous ravine crossing with comedic mishaps and teamwork.