Published on September 13, 2026
Written by Bardic Quest
Annina Kaski is trained to level two in lightsaber combat and owns competition sabers. She also trained in motion capture under Neil Newbon, who you would know as Astarion. Wayne Ingram believes that YouTube is the new stage, and that “It’s not really the dungeon master’s responsibility to ensure you have fun. It is the dungeon master’s responsibility, in my view, to ensure that you are included and that you are part of the game…. It’s about facilitating the collective fun rather than the individual fun.” Callum Robertson spent nearly every copper of his starting gold on rope, traps and a grappling hook, deliberately leaving exactly two gold pieces — to put on his eyes when he dies.
▶ BARDIC QUEST: https://www.youtube.com/@BardicQuest · bardicquest.com
These are three professionally trained British stage actors. They run one of the better Dungeons & Dragons shows on YouTube, and I’m having a live chat with them Sunday 9-13-26, at 3 pm EST.
Wayne and Callum met as kids doing pantomime at their local theatre, went off to separate universities, both became working actors, and found each other again two decades later around a D&D table. Annina writes and stars in her own award-winning series, demonstrates board games professionally at conventions, and will tell you firmly that Lord of the Rings — not Star Wars — is her actual fandom.
Tomorrow night I am asking them what actually happens when trained actors play D&D. Whether performance training makes the game better, or makes everyone resist a bad dice roll because it ruins a good scene. Whether a DM is supposed to be a referee or a fan. The player character whose soul got written into the Shadowfell. The goblin that got named live on air, badly, because nobody had prepped a second goblin name. And a homebrew world where the gods stopped handing out magic. Elves kept theirs. Work out what that does to the price of an elf.
There is also a line Wayne has said about running a table that I have said almost word for word on this channel. I am going to ask him where he got it.
Set a reminder and come hang with us in the chat. And tell me below: has a trained actor ever sat down at your table? Did it lift the game, or did it take it over?
▶ WATCH FIRST: “The Best D&D DMs Are Referees, Not Fans” — my own take on the argument I am putting to Wayne tomorrow. https://youtu.be/U1zI-8QAQbI
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