Encounter Party Cast Talk Going Against Classic Dungeons & Dragons Tropes (2024)

Warning: Spoilers for Encounter Party's finale!

Encounter Party follows a group of pulled together by a strange twist of fate when a shared dream ties their futures. As they set out on a quest across Balder's Gate, they slowly learn to trust one another as they discover that each of their own motivations is connected to the larger threat they are chasing. However, things take a turn when it seems their nightmare may come true when a dark secret is revealed about one of their own.

Encounter Party began as a Dungeons & Dragons podcast before becoming a television series on the Dungeon & Dragons FAST channel. Unlike most Actual Plays the cast of Encounter Party strived to create a story that feels like a fantasy television show rather than a TTRPG game, in part due to their ability to lean into the drama instead of stepping away from it through inside jokes that break the tension. Encounter Party stars the original cast from the podcast: Ned Donovan, Brian David Judkins, Sarah Babe, David Lee Huynh, Landree Fleming, and Andrew Krug, with the addition of Khary Payton (The Walking Dead).

Screen Rant interviewed the cast of Encounter Party. They discussed how they wanted to go against classic D&D tropes and break expectations with not only the storytelling but with the decision to have 2 Dungeon Masters for the finale. Payton shared how reactions to Tolo have impacted him and Judkins broke down the rushed preparation process for the season.

Encounter Party "Ended Up Scrambling" While Mapping Out The First Television Season's Campaign

Judkins revealed that he only had six weeks to plan out the campaign for the first season of Encounter Party. He revealed how the cast helped him by giving him each of their characters' backstories, which allowed him to weave elements together, making the interconnected elements of the story feel natural as the season progressed.

Brian David Judkins: I had to write a second campaign. We had to start over about halfway through development for some reasons, and Wizard said, "Hey, we need you to start over." So, because we had such a short writing time, I called all the cast and said, "Hey, I need help." I think I had six weeks.

We ended up scrambling, and so that meant that everybody had to make new characters, we went into a really, really short writing time, and I just called everyone and said, "Hey, look, I need help. I can't go from scratch and if I go just on my own, we end up on rails and that's not fair, nor really what we're trying to do with this show."

And so we did something that I like to do with Encounter Party, which is, I don't want to hear about game mechanics, I don't want to hear about character class, I don't want to hear about Dungeons and Dragons. I want you to bring me a character that exists in a fantasy setting. We'll figure out what your character class is, we'll figure out all that stuff later.

Just bring me a person, from an acting standpoint, bring me a character with an objective, with a play style or an acting style you think you'd be able to helm confidently. And then I was able to fill in about half the writing work.

And so I was able to take all that stuff, and then I had this idea of the future and the Medigus and what I wanted to do with that, and then I just found a way to weave all that stuff in. Landree said that she wanted to be somebody who was sort of on the hunt for her sister. And then I was like, "Great. Her sister got sucked in by this group." And we had to do a little finagling with Ned and Andrew to make that connection there.

And the launch parts were kind of developed off of David. So we found a way to connect all this stuff. This was prior to Khary, so Khary was a late entry. That's why he's kind of on the outside. But that writing honestly goes to everyone else on this call except for me, because they helped just sort of make a very short writing schedule and make that effective.

The end of the season revealed that one of the main characters, Vinh, had been dead for the majority of the season, setting up a major betrayal. This was even more prominent in how it was delivered, with Huynh joining Judkins behind the DM screen to co-Dungeon Master in the final episode, with him fully becoming an antagonist for the rest of the party ti fight against.

Brian David Judkins: We had was an opportunity to do something that I think has never been done before, which is something we need to constantly be chasing. David and I found a way to not only make a twist, the betrayal is kind of one thing, but to double DM the finale. We've seen swap DMs, and we've seen back and forths, but I don't think we've ever seen a double DM in that way. For the danger to jump as everyone is getting ready for a six on one that suddenly becomes a five on two, the danger of that just escalates.

And so you're dealing with the pain of the betrayal, the sort of wonder of the surprise, and suddenly everything gets twice as dangerous. And to watch David just relish in that. He did what good DMs do, which is, we like to say that players shouldn't say, "Oh, this is what my character would do." But DMs definitely get to say, "Well, this is what the villain would do." And to watch David abandon that friendship in order to step into the antagonist side, I think is something that was very unique for this show and this genre.

David Lee Huynh: I can also say, I think the way that all of our stories and all of our narratives interweave and move each other's plot forward, I'm thinking about Tolo and Ulavina and how they're young characters out in the world, they found this chosen family and at the end of the season, it's ripped away from them. I'm just so curious how that will impact their trajectory from here on.

Playing With Classic D&D Tropes And Expectations In Encounter Party

Babe made a compelling choice as a player by having Ulavina grapple with the moral implications of killing someone. In the world of D&D. players often kill NPCs without too much thought, but Babe chose to delve deeper into exploring Ulavina's struggle and show how this choice changed her moving forward.

Sarah Babe: First off, I usually play straight up murder hobos. It doesn't matter what role playing game it is, I'm usually like stab first, ask questions later. So this was a very big change from what I am usually accustomed to. I wanted to make Ulavina more real. And that made me think, as a real person, most people I know would be affected by that. I just wanted to show that Ulavina was, yes, a character, but she was also a person and real people have real feelings about things that are traumatizing because I've never taken someone's life, but I can't imagine it would be a fun time.

I just thought that was a very, again, like you were saying, it's not something that's really explored in a lot of role-playing games, especially D&D because you just kill someone and it's fine. Brian and I made the very conscious decision to make her kind of a pacifist because she wanted to be a healer and wanted to research into helping all of these animals that she finds and just doing good in the world. Her version of doing good in the world was not killing people. So it was fun, and it was an enjoyable exercise to bring that to a super fantasy world.

To kind of be like, "No, this is what happens. You are eliminating someone's life at the end of combat so you really need to think about that." I'm sure at some point we'll get into Ulavina's background a little bit more, but she has a very loving background. She has a very trusting a very, some would say privileged, some would say sheltered, and it felt like the right choice to make with Ulavina.

Donovan's character, Flik, faced his own challenges as someone who would retrieve cursed objects and take on the curses from these valuable relics. He explained why it was important to keep Flik a Rogue instead of dabbling in Warlock as he hears the voice of one of the curses he took on in the past.

Ned Donovan: When we were talking about it, we started saying, "Well, what happens if he gets hired to transport a curse item? Well, what is that like?" And so we started talking about the implications of that, if that'd work. We came up with this idea that maybe he launched with a curse item and the first item had a voice and so that was, I think, where that whole thing came from. It was built around what if at the start, there's just a voice and it'll probably go away because we'll get rid of the item, but we could have a fun meta narrative with Brian and do fun things.

And then it became sort of the story as a whole was, "Well, what if Flik always has a voice?" And then we debated like, "Well, does that make him a warlock?" And we were like, "No, let's make it very specifically this very different problem than what 1/10th of D&D characters always go through," which is a voice in their head. And so that's really where that came from is we started at, "Well, Flik transports things," and then it was, "Here's an interesting complication that could go with that problem." And then it was, "Well, there's an easy way to do that, make him a warlock."

And we decided that's not interesting or new. What is new is what if there's a voice that the audience just assumes is a warlock, if they play to find out it absolutely is not. That was, I think, where that whole thing came from. And then in terms of the degradation, Brian and I started talking about, "Well, what are the consequences here?" Flik has to be terrified of this thing and that terror can't just be, "I hate that there's a creepy voice in my head."

So we came up with a whole mechanic that Brian and I were tracking of degradation, different steps, how that affected Flik that we never really publicized, but if you go do math on my dice, there's one shot where I roll really well, and Andrew looks and nods, and then I say a number, and it cuts to Andrew and Andrew goes [shocked and confused face]. Because he saw what I rolled and has no reason to understand why the number is terrible.

Fleming revealed what surprised her about her character, Asher's arc, including her attraction to the power that the enemies wielded. Flemming also shared how the friendships that formed within the party developed authentically, which came as a surprise for Asher.

Landree Fleming: I think that there was a lot of surprise for me surrounding the attraction of the future. I think that I didn't expect there to be a reaction from Asher in terms of, "Oh, this kind of power is very attractive to me." Asher, she's the kid growing up that didn't get played with on the playground because she was really smart and didn't know how to relate to other people. I think so much of her identity, for many reasons, was about gaining power and knowledge, because that's how she could kind of control the uncontrollable around her. So I think that was really surprising for me.

Additionally, I think what was also really surprising was the friendships that she did end up making. I think deep down she knows that she's not super likable, and I think to have those moments creating and watching Tolo have these beautiful, magical moments that just emanate from his soul, watching that and getting to enjoy that experience with him and feeling like Ulavina was a little sister and admiring the intelligence of Dryddian and all these things. I think what was so surprising is that she became part of a team.

Khary Payton Explains How It Feels To See Fans React Positively To His Character Tolo

In a past interview with Screen Rant Payton explained how his son inspired him to create Tolo. Now that the season has ended, he shared how it has felt to see fans react to this character, especially those who have shared why this character is so important to them and their loved ones.

Khary Payton: I've cried so many times at how people feel about Tolo, the reactions I didn't expect, and the reactions I hoped for. It's been wonderful, gratifying, and fun. All I want to do is wrap my child in a beast that could be protective, let him know that he could live his life with a feeling of security.

What the character was about is that by being seen, I'm able to give him a certain fortification that being seen and having people see as a human and seeing as a soul gives them a certain protection because understanding brings a certain protection. It's been amazing.

This whole experience has been so ridiculously wonderful as far as the creative outlet, the story that we're telling on so many levels has been just an incredible experience. I'm both excited and worried about where we go next because I want this to live on, and I feel like this boat is getting pushed off towards the new world and all there is, is horizon.

We're like, "Here we go. Where are we going? We're going somewhere, I just don't know." I'm excited and terrified all at once because the thing is that the people who need to see this are going to see this.

Krug broke down how Dryddian deals with his loss by going on his quest and finding new people to connect with. Krug also explained how he handles the improvisation, which is something he admits can be difficult, but he combats this by crafting rich, deep lore for his characters and the world they live in.

Andrew Krug: Isolating himself is not how he's going to solve loss, and it is something that he feels like he has to solve. It's not something that just washes over you that goes away, it's something that he has to meet head on somehow. He gets sort of cast adrift finding his way through a world that he has never been in before, and it's only with the help of this found family that he's able to find his way forward towards some sort of conclusion. t's only by engaging with this group that he's able to forge a path forward in a world that is not his own.

Hopefully, we get a little closer to that resolution in season two. I think Dryddian, we lose more scenes from him than just about anyone else for time. I do this wonderful storytime bullsh-t where I come up with something that I have painstakingly written and then monologue about, and it does nothing to move the plot forward.

So the secret of having these off-the-cuff improv moments is that they're not off-the-cuff. I do an absurd amount of writing for each of these because I'm not good at improv. I can, "Yes, and," stuff, but the details are the things that make the story sing, and I've got to get those down somewhere.

It made me really nervous doing this on camera. We have done three seasons of a podcast where I have this nice, convenient laptop in front of me the entire time, and so I can refer to my giant biography, my 120 pages of lore. I couldn't do any of that for this. I had to get all of this down, internalize it, and then in the moment, do this stuff. I

About Encounter Party

Seven actors play Dungeons & Dragons to create an improvised high-fantasy adventure story. Over the course of twenty-two serialized episodes, Dungeon Master and co-executive producer Brian David Judkins and six talented players, including Khary Payton and co-executive producer Ned Donovan, guide their characters from the high seas to the dangerous streets of Baldur’s Gate, and into the very jaws of fate.

Encounter Party (2023)

Adventure

Cast

Khary Payton , Landree Fleming , Andrew Krug , Brian David Judkins , Sarah Babe , Ned Donovan , David Lee Huynh

Release Date

November 13, 2023

Seasons

1

Main Genre

Adventure