How ‘Twenty Sided Tavern’ tech is revolutionizing Dungeons and Dragons
Few activities get nerds activated like a good Dungeons and Dragons session. Whether you’re the player or the dungeon master, for years now queer TTRPG lovers have gathered to roll dice, fight monsters, and build a community through the game mechanics they love.
Dungeons and Dragons has proven itself as an essential method of bringing nerd communities together — and through the Twenty Sided Tavern, David Carpenter wants to bring that community to more people (at the same time) than we’ve ever seen before.
Established in early 2024, the Twenty Sided Tavern is a groundbreaking stage show that sees a team of hilarious improvisers come together and play a one-shot in front of a live audience. This setup itself isn’t that unusual; whether it be Los Angeles’ Dynasty Typewriter or New York’s Madison Square Garden, many venues have invited audiences to come and watch a thrilling DnD session. But what sets the Tavern apart is not only its diverse casts and hilarious side quests, but the fact that it does something that none of these other shows have been able to: it makes the audience a player every step of the way.
Through an easy-to-use computer program, every viewer becomes a legitimate player in the game onstage as they vote on decisions that will impact the entire story being told. Gayming Mag got to sit down with the Tavern’s founder and creator of this program, David Carpenter, with the man excitedly discussing this groundbreaking show, the software company that started it all, and how it feels to give queer fandoms a kind of power they’ve never had before.
“One of the early ways that we sold [the show] was: What if you were playing D&D with 500 of your closest friends?” Explained Carpetner, describing what first made him consider the computer program that would eventually make Twenty Sided Tavern possible. “At the time, you know, actual plays were huge: Critical Role, Dimension 20, The Adventure Zone…partially it was the perfect fit for my software company, and partially it was [us asking], ‘How would you pull off a DnD game as a stage show with the audience participating the entire way?”
Along with being Twenty Sided Tavern’s Founder, David is also the CEO of Gamiotics, a company specializing in software that makes it easier for audiences to interact during live performances. This background, when combined with Carpenter’s lifelong status as a huge DnD nerd, meant that he intimately understood what fans would need to feel like they were actually taking part in the one-shot happening onstage. “When people come into the theater, they [scan] a QR code, and it allows everybody in the audience to essentially play along with the show and make decisions that are affecting the narrative as it’s going along.”
It’s a software that has not only become one of Gamiotics’ crowning achievements but has launched one of the nerdiest, most successful Dungeons and Dragons live shows in history. David raved about how well it’s been received — one show had 2000 people in the audience playing along — and how astounding it was to bring it to audiences all over the world with their latest tour. But while he’s so happy about every part of Twenty Sided Tavern, there’s one aspect of the project that Carpenter is proudest of: what it does for queer nerds everywhere.
“Fandom is community,” he emphasized. “[And] with DnD, it’s allowing [people] to come and celebrate together in this thing that they all love, in a way that they’ve never quite experienced before.” It’s a unique sense of community that Carpenter (and thousands of other LGBTQ+ nerds today) have benefited from. And while he was happy to see so many people take part in it through small groups, he wanted to create a huge setting where these people can come together, have fun, and realize they weren’t alone. “I love the idea of having agency, because so much in this world today, we’re having so much agency taken from us — on so many different levels.”
Carpenter explained how this is why every Twenty Sided Tavern show is diverse; the players are not only some of the biggest TTRPG stars today, but are of various sexual orientations, gender identities, and cultural backgrounds. This is not only to provide representation but to make it clear to everyone in the audience that they belong, that TTRPGs are made for us all. And not only that, but its LGBTQ+ players like the ones onstage that are making this medium better for everyone every single day.
The Twenty Sided Tavern is currently on hiatus after wrapping up its most recent tour, but Carpenter assured fans that it would not be the last time they see this hit show — and that he plans for it to come back bigger and better than ever. “I am pursuing [new] ideas, like what if we are able to do something that’s a little bit more competitive with an audience? [With] the audience competing in different factions…it’s something I’m interested in!” The man raved, clearly excited about the many things he’s cooking up at Gamiotics. And it’s that excitement, truly, that Carpenter has been able to package through Twenty Sided Tavern and delivered to thousands of fans worldwide. “That’s the thing about a DnD game,” he emphasized. “We’re all working together to get to the end of the adventure and stay alive.”
It’s a common goal that has united millions of queer TTRPG players. And, through Twenty Sided Tavern, it’s one that audiences can all join in on, building a DnD community more connected than nobody has ever seen before.
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