"It’s like inviting people to go swing" – Neil Newbon shares his love of role-playing games

You may already know him as the host of Dungeons & Dragons & Dramas, a hilarious new podcast in which Newbon plays Dungeon Master to a gaggle of theatrical actors who are venturing – against their will – into a high-fantasy world, telling a mostly-improvised comedy story that’s bound together by the rules and dice rolls of D&D.

But, as it turns out, Newbon’s relationship with D&D started way before either of these projects came to light. In fact, it goes all the way back to his school days.

We learned this, and a lot more, in our ‘Arcade Hang’ interview with Neil Newbon – you can watch the edited highlights on YouTube or find the full audio on the Radio Times Gaming podcast feed.

“When I was about eight,” Newbon remembers, “one of my best mates, a guy called Will Crosby, arrived in our classroom.

“This fuzzy-haired creature came in, and he sat down next to me, and he was quite quiet and very intelligent, a real observer of people. And I think during the first break, he pulled out this book, and it was Dragon Warriors.

“I was like, ‘What's that?’ He was like, ‘It’s a role-play.’ I was like, ‘What’s that?’ And, yeah, we became very close friends. And immediately, I started playing Dragon Warriors. Badly, probably. It was probably horrendous, the way we played it. But yeah, I started role-playing at the age of eight.”

From there, Newbon got into everything from Warhammer to Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, it was Warhammer that crossed his mind when Baldur’s Gate 3 first crossed Newbon’s desk under the codename Drachenfels.

As Newbon recalls: “I thought it was a Warhammer role-play thing, which I was very excited for. Then I found out it was D&D, and I was like, ‘Holy s**t!”

Newbon went on to play Astarion in the game (to much acclaim) and he worked behind the scenes on the mo-cap production.

Newbon did not predict that BG3 would be quite such a mega hit (“I don't think any of us knew that”), and he’d love to revisit his loveable vampire character at some point (“I really hope that I get to reprise a Astarion in some form or another again”).

Giving his fans something to enjoy in the meantime, Newbon has created Dungeons & Dragons & Dramas, a serialised podcast in which he calls the shots and guides a number of other familiar faces through a custom D&D campaign.

This idea stemmed from Newbon’s own love of the material, which has continued into adulthood.

Newbon notes: “I got to a point where I was an adult... I had to stop playing role-play because none of my friends were near me. And the ones I did know, I said, ‘Role-play?’ It’s like inviting people to go swing or something.”

Newbon eventually did find some like-minded friends, and even started a Warhammer role-play stream called The Vagabonds during the COVID-19 pandemic. And now, his next public-facing role-playing project has taken shape in the ‘D3’ podcast.

Newbon reflects: “It’s really nice to feel that what I was ridiculed for as a kid… I was bullied, and I had the piss taken out of myself and my friends for being geeks, for a long time, playing games, especially role-play games.

“We did it at school for a while, and I remember all of the sports jocks, the equivalent of the sports jocks, stood up in a line and just started hurling abuse from the window, because we were in a classroom after school ended about 17:30 whatever, we'd still be at school playing with our role-play club, and they just took the piss out of us, just stood in front of a window and just laughed at us.”

He adds: “And then, to be able to make a podcast on a whim, that's fun and full of laughter, it's an amazing experience. It's amazing to come back and go, ‘Oh, wow. I get to do this again, but now I get to do this with a purpose.’ And I get to do it with more than just enjoying myself. I now get to help people with it, and I get to earn a living from it, which is extraordinary.”

Dungeons & Dragons & Dramas has been supported by paying fans on Patreon from day one of its existence, and the fan art has already been coming thick and fast.

“You don't need to be into role-play to listen to our show,” Newbon assures any newcomers that might be tempted to listen to Dungeons & Dragons & Dramas.

“If you like comedy – hopefully, good comedy – and if you like radio plays, that kind of feel to it, stories that you can laugh along with, then come along.

“I mean, it's basically D&D for Dummies... which I think is actually a book. It's basically like that. It's like, you don't need to be into D&D or role-play to understand how the game works. We describe it pretty easily. We're pretty laissez-faire with the rules. It's really about character and story and having a good time.”

Having listened to the first few episodes of D3, which sees a group of actors sucked unwittingly into a fantasy world, we can confirm that it’s a good time. Expect plenty of laughs and surprises along the way!

Dungeons & Dragons & Dramas is available now on Patreon.

You can hear the full audio of this interview below, or on your podcast app of choice.

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