Waterdeep adventures with earned emotional fallout.
Rivals of Waterdeep follows a Dungeons & Dragons party through fantasy chaos, emotional decisions, and generous table comedy. Its episodes move between introductions, rules chatter, character scenes, and big campaign goodbyes with an ensemble that clearly knows its shared history.
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Rivals of Waterdeep is a Dungeons & Dragons actual-play campaign with a strong ensemble pulse. The episodes captured here show a table comfortable enough to joke about Zoom cameras, overlays, late arrivals, season structures, masks, and sudden production logistics before stepping straight into story. The banter is quick. The campaign itself carries years of accumulated relationships, with Waterdeep, Chult, Trollskull, journals, classrooms, dire wolves, divine duty, strange magic, and character identity all sitting close together. The cast knows the lore. That familiarity lets small details land, whether Shaka is showing someone through a shop, Ghazrik is making impossible plants for demanding animals, or Dahani is helping Walter understand the difference between obedience and judgment. It is funny first. Then it gets pointed. Several excerpts turn on moral questions rather than combat spectacle, especially around Selyse, Kent, Fenris, and the pressure of deciding what a paladin is after the old reasons stop fitting cleanly. The show likes table chaos. It also likes aftermath. Characters talk through what happened, what it meant, and what it might require from them next, often while the players interrupt themselves with jokes about fan art, spell names, weird class combinations, or someone forgetting exactly where they are in the rotation. The fantasy is communal. So is the production. Indiegogo supporters, Patreon thanks, raids, studio thanks, and live post-show energy appear repeatedly, making the campaign feel tied to a larger circle around the table. The final-season material adds tenderness. The cast is not only playing toward an ending; it is marking the end in real time, with gratitude, jokes, and the threat of more tears just off microphone. That gives the loose comedy a sharper edge. Every silly aside sits beside the knowledge that the story is closing. The result is a show for actual-play fans who enjoy character continuity as much as plot movement. It rewards patience. Newcomers hear a welcoming, funny table, while long-haul listeners get the heavier pleasure of old choices, returning characters, and a party learning how to say goodbye without flattening the messiness that got them there.
Made for: For Dungeons & Dragons actual-play fans who like ensemble banter, long campaign continuity, and character scenes that can turn serious without losing the table’s humor. It especially suits listeners who enjoy play shaped by friendships, regrets, and running jokes.
What sets it apart: Rivals of Waterdeep stands out through its lived-in ensemble history: the episodes feel less like isolated quests and more like a group processing years of fantasy consequences together. Its final-season excerpts mix community gratitude, table comedy, and unusually direct character reckoning.
The podcast of a long-running 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons actual play campaign featuring a talented cast and crew. Watch us live Sundays @ 10a Pacific, Noon Central, 1p Eastern, https://twitch.tv/RivalsOfWaterdeep
A sentient computer and a guilty gunner turn your fantasy quest into impromptu group therapy.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A teary Chicago farewell folds into a strange, journal-led final table scene.
Rivals of Waterdeep closes by letting farewell and fiction occupy the same room. The cast gathers in Chicago for the final episode, jokes through a setup that only looks live, brings in Latia as Dahani and Masoud Huck as Gazrik Nomrad, then eases toward the table as Shaka, back…
Wedding tasks, strange flowers, and old grief give Shaka and Dara's big day its restless shape.
Shaka and Dara's wedding gives the episode its shape, turning preparation into both practical business and emotional weather. Everyone has a job to solve: keeping Shaka where he needs to be, finding fresh flowers for Dara, and figuring out whether Clippy can fill a role until…
Kent's question to Selyse turns easy party banter into a thoughtful look at why someone keeps serving.
The episode settles around Kent asking Selyse why she would stay a paladin when doing good has taken such a visible toll. It gets there through the party's loose comic rhythm, as introductions spin Ghazrik's druid construct status into a joke about social constructs and literal…
Walter's guilt turns a chaotic return into a sharp question about who gets to make the choice.
Rivals of Waterdeep returns from a two-week break with a messy, lightly comic start: Zoom adjustments, uncertainty about who is DMing, and jokes about randomizing character slots.
Gosser becomes the forest's overworked helper as creatures keep piling on requests.
Gosser spends the week as the forest's reluctant service desk, fielding one favor after another from creatures who leave him with almost no room to sleep.
Messy monster hunts with table-side sparks.
Sci-fi actual play with a long memory.
Actual play with jokes, care, and table noise.
Scrappy D&D, sharp banter, real table chaos.
Chaotic dice, big fantasy fallout.
Chaotic friends, cosmic trouble, terrible plans.
Rivals of Waterdeep's final episode opens in Chicago with the full cast joking about green-screen cameras, then introducing Latia, Masoud Huck, Sharif, Brian Gray, Eugenio, and Tanya for the last time.
Shaka and Dara bring a wedding plan to Trollskull Manor, and Dara says they are looking for a place to get married because Shaka will not say it.
["Kent opens a cold package with a letter from his mother and starts crying, while Solis spends the episode asking whether sending Faye away broke her oath.", "Before that, Solis asks Kent to go shopping so she can talk through sending Faye 'several feet down,' and Kent tells her they have killed people for less.", "At the Halls of Justice in Castle Ward, Tyr says Solis has 'tested the boundaries,' tells her he would have a hard time imagining anything that would make him stop loving her, and urges her to notice when right and wrong conflict.", "The recap also revisits Lairn, Walt Hare, Ghazrik on his hill with Kevin, Shaka's puzzle-shop future, and a street preacher the group turns into a cat."]
Rivals of Waterdeep's All in Good Time, Seasons Turn!
Rivals of Waterdeep, season 15 episode 5, opens with Tanya, Brian, Yadio, Sharif, and Masood Huck introducing the table and noting Litya's travel delay.
The cast of Rivals of Waterdeep introduces themselves and their characters for a new season of their Dungeons & Dragons actual play campaign.
The cast of Rivals of Waterdeep engages in pre-show banter before beginning the penultimate episode of season 13 of their D&D campaign.
The cast introduces themselves and their characters before starting a new episode of their long-running D&D campaign.
The cast of Rivals of Waterdeep introduces themselves and sets up a lighthearted breakfast scene in their ongoing D&D campaign.