Audio Dungeon Interview | Arcane Eye

Arcane Eye writer and founder Mike Bernier will be appearing on Audio Dungeon on July 1, 2020 at 8:30pm ET. Tune in on the Audio Dungeon Facebook page or visit twitch.tv/audiodungeon.

About the Audio Dungeon Podcast

Led by a crew of seven, Audio Dungeon is a Dungeons & Dragons, gaming, and comedy podcast with an ongoing campaign set in the fantasy world of Andaria. In Audio Dungeon’s weekly quests, six ordinary citizens try to stop the onset of the Second Celestial War.

The crew also has segments where they play unique and fun improvised D&D minigames, such as Escape the Dungeon, where one of the crew members is challenged to escape a difficult scenario, D&D style. The crew member has one mundane item and a bag, which the other cast members place in it, both good and bad items, which the player must bet (roll) to obtain. Another minigame is Riddles in the Dark, where the crew members try to solve difficult D&D style riddles posed by the Riddle Master. The problem is, while the crew members are trying to find the answers, they can only ask questions that can be answered with a yes or no.

We had the chance to sit down with Tony Hansen, founder and DM of The Audio Dungeon. Read on to learn more about running a long-running D&D podcast, building your own world, and tips on creating a great atmosphere and set for your own D&D table.

Interview

Tell us about Audio Dungeon, how did it start?

Audio Dungeon started in May 2018. Construction of the studio room was completed in December of the same year, and filming began immediately!

The group came together with the idea of ​​combining classic pen-and-paper play with technology to create a large-scale Dungeons & Dragons production filmed by my company, Fenix ​​Studios.

Everything we put into our studio room was inspired by the idea of ​​”Wouldn’t it be cool if this happened?” We are very passionate about what we do and really wanted to see where we could go.

D&D parties are hard to find, but it’s even harder to find a D&D party with six committed players. How did you all meet?

Rob and I have been friends since grade school, he was one of the first people to actually start playing my campaign 30 years ago, and we still have a level 75 cleric in our campaign.

I met Vinnie at a Magic the Gathering tournament through a mutual friend in high school, Brooke went to the same high school as Vinnie and ended up marrying one of our best friends.

I met Tom and Dan through mutual friends in college, and then finally met Scuro when I was both teaching music at a local music school during my college years!

We also have a lot of other members who have been playing together for a long time and have become friends, so you’re sure to see them hanging out any time!

The Celestial War has been the setting for campaigns for the past three seasons. What advice would you give to new DMs looking to create their own homebrew world?

Everyone has to start somewhere, so don’t be afraid to borrow ideas from books or shows.

When I started this campaign 30 years ago, I originally based it on D&D’s Dragonlance setting. Once I gained confidence, I ventured into my own world and created what would eventually become Audio Dungeon.

Over the years I’ve created new races, new cities, and even new timelines (the Wish spell is truly evil!) Be creative, use your imagination, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. DMing is indeed a great storytelling art form, and you won’t get better at it if you don’t dive in.

Have you ever been confused by players? How did you react?

Anytime! That’s one of the things I love most about D&D – anything can happen at any time. I actually count on it and consider it the final stage of story writing.

What’s the point of a story without surprises?

The Audio Dungeon has got to be one of the best D&D setups out there. Was it hard to keep the energy flowing when you went from a top-tier in-person setup to online?

Well, it was difficult at the beginning of the pandemic.

We didn’t know whether to continue through this crisis or put it on hold until it was safe to return to the studio. We always strive to bring the best quality possible to our streams, and we were concerned that filming from home would alienate our fans.

Initially, they decided to try it out for a week or two to see if it was still effective, but to their surprise, fans wanted more. However, there is obviously a big difference between interacting in person and online.

During my research, I stumbled across a post I upvoted on Reddit 6 months ago showcasing your new table. Can you tell us about this project that is the envy of over 15,000 Reddit users?

It took nearly six months to create this table, and we experimented with five different versions before settling on the current design.

One of the first buildings we designed was going to be made entirely out of woodwork – we even went to the lumber yard and tried to mill a center cut to our specifications – but in the end we decided it needed to be more “dungeon-like” and decided on masonry.

We are really proud of the results!

Does your campaign allow Homebrew classes or subclasses? If so, do you have a favorite?

The entire crew is playing homemade characters, and we decided from the start that we would use a modified version of 5e.

We wanted something that wouldn’t interfere with our roleplaying action while streaming, and once we were up and running we slowly started to transition to our own rule set, which we use today.

I’ve created a new version of the Bard for myself and I’m very happy with it. The premise is that a Bard learns to sing and becomes a mimic and scholar by learning. This class allows for incredible adaptability, which is probably the essence of the Bard.

In 5e, there are a few different stages that a campaign progresses through based on the level of the PCs: Do you prefer to DM early game (levels 1-7), mid game (levels 8-15), or late game (levels 16-20)?

We had some issues initially when starting out in the high-level campaign, but have since adjusted them.

I think you’ll get used to lower level campaigns quickly as they become more common, but if you think about it, there are still plenty of ways to continue to challenge very high level epic characters, and you can still have an exciting game without having to directly threaten them all the time.

Audio Dungeon has been hyped up for over a year now, but what’s in store for the next year?

We have a lot planned for next year’s Audio Dungeon.

We’re currently introducing new immersive technology to the studio that will allow us to bring some NPCs to life on-screen as we play, so fans can really feel a part of these characters. We’re also working on upgrading our Twitch and Discord channels to integrate with custom bots, which will allow fans to become even more involved in the story and further influence the outcome of events across Andaria.

Getting started as a DM can be daunting. What advice would you give to someone wanting to try it for the first time?

Don’t close your mind. DM is a privilege and a trust given to you by those around you.

It’s okay if the story changes from your original intent – part of being a good DM is knowing the story, reading the moment, understanding your players, and creating believable characters and situations.

The most important thing is that ultimately you can take your players to any place and obstacle you want, but most importantly remember, as long as they’re having fun, you’re doing it right.

Conclusion

Thanks again to Tony for giving us some behind the scenes info on the exciting things happening at Audio Dungeon.

We hope you enjoyed this interview. You can watch Audio Dungeon live every Wednesday at 8:30pm EST on their Facebook page and at twitch.tv/audiodungeon. You can also support them on Patreon or join their Discord channel.

If you have any questions or would like to see more interviews and news about upcoming products in the D&D universe, post a comment below. If you like our content, subscribe to Arcane Eye.