Interview with D&D Podcast "Dungeons & Daddies"

Interview Conducted by Aesthel

“Dungeons and Daddies is a non-BDSM D&D podcast that started in January 2019. While tooling around in a rental car in Phoenix and ruminating on the fundamental nature of dads on Father's Day the previous year, Anthony and Freddie realized that a lot of D&D archetypes line up neatly with dad archetypes.

With that incredibly loose framework in mind (i.e. dad classes = D&D classes), the podcast was born!”

-Dungeons & Daddies

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CRM: Hello! You guys are the team behind the Dungeons and Daddies podcast. Can you please introduce yourselves to the CRM readers and let them know a bit about what your podcast is?

 

Freddie: We’re an actual play D&D 5e podcast about four regular suburban dads from our world on a quest to rescue our sons, who we lose in the Forgotten Realms during a trip to a soccer tournament. And to be clear - we play 5e extremely loosely.




CRM: Your website mentions finding similarities between the D&D classes and the “classes” of dads. How did each of you decide what “type” of dad to play as for this campaign?

 

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Freddie: Initially, I remember the prototype dads Anthony and I discussed were a hippie dad being a druid, and a dad rock cover band dad being a bard. For me, having played more combat oriented classes in the few times I’ve played D&D in the past, I wanted to try something a bit different so I went with the bard class.

Will: I grew up in Boulder, Colorado, land of the hippies, so I knew a ton of outdoorsy, granola-muchin, birkenstock rockin’ parents. So that was the inspiration for my character Henry Oak - a vegan, nature-loving “free range” parent whose two sons are completely out of control.  It felt very natural for him to have magical nature powers once he gets sucked int the Forgotten Realms. I was torn on making him a ranger or a druid, but the group needed a healer so druid it was! That’s D&D for ya. 

Beth: I think I had initially been asked to or personally assumed I’d play a mom, just to shake things up. But the thought of playing a dad was just magnetically funny to me, and I think playing a step-dad is my wink to the implied “otherness” of being the only woman on the podcast. So that’s how I ended up playing emotionally-detached stepfather Ron Stampler. I had a good idea of who Ron would be as a character, but having never played D&D in my life, I literally just took a Buzzfeed “what’s your D&D class/race” quiz as if I were Ron, and wound up as a rogue. 

Matt: By the time I finally checked my email and decided to work on this thing, everyone else already had their characters. Considering the kids only knew each other from soccer, It seemed stupid not to have at least one sporty dad in this story. And in terms of D&D class types, a barbarian seemed like the natural choice for the classic macho coach dad. But I didn’t want Darryl to be the cliche, and thought a stay at home dad just trying to be as good a role model to his son as his wonderful dad was to him, would be a fun nuance to what can often be a toxic sort of character. 

 

 

CRM: How did you all decide to run the Dungeons and Daddies campaign as a podcast?

 

Freddie: The obligation of a podcast solves the two biggest problems with D&D - 1. Getting a group to show up and play consistently and 2. The sessions taking way too long. Frankly, as adults who don’t live in the same house together, having a podcast was secretly the only way I could get a consistent D&D group together in the first place.




CRM: One thing we really love about this campaign is the themes of familial bonds that show up in it. Whether the relationships are good or bad, they’ve all felt very “real” as a listener. How have the unique themes of family been felt in this campaign for all of you?

 

Will: As someone who has plans to start a family in the next few years, it’s definitely made me think a lot about what kind of father I’d want to be, and what kind of father I’ll wind up being despite my best intentions. It’s also led me to reflect on my relationship with my own dad, who is very different from Henry. I think I’ll wind up somewhere in between. People talk a lot about that moment when you realize your parents are just normal people doing their best in a crazy world - in a very weird but very positive way, the experience of playing Henry has definitely brought that point home for me! 

 Beth: This is pretty cheesy, but for me it’s really reinforced the idea that a family isn’t bound by biology, and that it can be any supportive community you’re embedded in. Ron’s character in the podcast comes from a family that gave him nothing in terms of support or love, but he’s kind of adopted by the band of dads in a way that let’s him be himself. It’s also a realization I’ve made personally; I love working with Freddie, Anthony, Matt and Will so much. Meeting up to record feels like going home.

Matt: Awwww. Yes to everything Beth said. Also… I became a dad one month into the podcast. So its almost impossible for this podcast not to become an almost weekly reflection on what I want to be as a father and my own (mostly very positive) relationship to my own dad. What I didn’t expect was for the birth of my wonderful baby daughter to make my own roleplaying harder at times. I often find myself not wanting to make the decisions that Darryl, the character, or Matt the podcaster should make cause, well, its not what Matt the father, thinks is the right thing to do. And now with a real kid, that stakes feel more real. The cliche is true. Kids change you.

Freddie: As far as I can tell, having a kid means giving a lot of high fives and rolling to determine how dank the weed is, so parenting seems pretty chill.

 

CRM: Anthony, you are the DM of this campaign. Being the DM for a group of dad characters as opposed to a group of traditional adventurers must have it’s own highlights and struggles. How did you first start to plan the story for this campaign?

 

Anthony: Since we knew the daddies' core goal would be "find their kids," I tried to build the story around highlighting each father and their relationship to their kid. No dad is perfect -- and these dads are more not-perfect than most -- so it seemed reasonable to break the campaign into discrete chunks that each dealt with a particular father and their son. That way, every daddy gets an opportunity to be a "main" character for a little while, and we get to learn more about them and their kids through the actions they take.




CRM: As the DM, you also take on the role of playing the children to each of these dads. How did you design the children characters? How did each of the dad’s parenting styles shape their personalities?

 

Anthony: The children (who we all essentially designed together -- I can't take sole credit for any of them) are all designed to highlight and challenge some element of their dad's personality. Henry thinks everything can be solved by hugging and love, so his twins only want to punch things and turn into wolves. Glenn is too immature to act like an actual father, so his son treats him like a best friend rather than an authority figure. Ron doesn't have any faith in himself, and the fact that Terry Jr. isn't his "real" son exacerbates his inferiority complex. Darryl is trying to be as good of a father as his own dad, so Darryl's son has no interest in Darryl's style of parenting.




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CRM: The Dungeons and Daddies podcast is on it’s 28th episode at the time of this interview. What have been some of your favorite moments from the behind the scenes of running this podcast?





Freddie: We do a joke-y recap at the beginning of every episode, and the ones where we parody other podcasts have been my favorite - the Radiolab intro and the Lore intro in particular.

Will: I loved doing the Lore intro SO much! I’ve been waiting for years to bust out my Aaron Mankhe impression, so it brought me great joy when we heard from a few listeners who thought they had accidentally played the wrong podcast. I’d say one of my favorite experiences recording the podcast thus far was when we recorded At the Mountains of Dadness, our Call of Cthul’hu prequel series featuring the dads’ grandparents. We all went out to a cabin in Lake Arrowhead to record the whole thing in one go and it was a great bonding experience. Plus the entire mountain was covered in fog the whole weekend - perfect mood setting for a creepy Lovecraft adventure!

Beth: Personally I always get really excited when we’re recording and Anthony brings some weird physical component into the story. Whether it’s throwing dice down a stairwell or writing out prop letters, or even just whispering important information to one player, it brings a very cool extra layer to the episode. Freddie’s wild intro recaps are amazing, and we had a total blast recording our Mountains of Dadness mini-series in a cabin at Lake Arrowhead.

Matt: Mountains of Dadness was a great experience, as my whole family got to come along to the cabin when we recorded. Also, I just really enjoyed that character and that story. I still think Ron and the band somehow singing “Oh Holy Night” so miraculously and powerfully that it upset the entire campaign is still my favorite moment, and the episode where I realized the podcast was something special.





CRM: Something that is very unique to podcasts and other shared D&D campaigns is the fandom that grows around them. What has it felt like for you all to see fanart of your characters?

 

Freddie: Glenn is definitely a lot cooler and a lot hotter than I imagined.

Will: It’s been wild. I don’t know which Henry I love more: hot manbun Henry or spindly Shaggy from Scooby Do Henry! Plus it’s been very, very entertaining to see fans take the Henry/Darryl ship and run with it.

Beth: The fanart consistently blows me away, and the wildest thing about it is that there’s a pretty big spectrum of what Ron looks like in the art, but it all feels uniquely and specifically “Ron.” I love our fans’ ability to carry the torch of the characters and develop them through art the way we develop them on the podcast. 

Matt: It’s the best part of the whole thing! It’s the content I get to enjoy from the podcast, cause I don’t have to do anything. Also, people making Darryl like 10x hotter than I originally imagined him is very very funny to me.

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CRM: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us! Is there anything else that you all would like to say?

Will: If you wanna cosplay Henry, his official sandals are Birkenstock Arizonas with Birkibuc straps in tobacco brown. He usually pairs these with hiking pants with the legs zipped off into shorts, and a t shirt purchased from a national park gift shop in 1994 that does not get washed nearly as often as it should be. Socks in the winter, toes out in the Spring through Fall.

Freddie: Glenn’s guitar is still a guitar of indeterminate origin, which means if Gibson or Fender or ESP or PRS want to be the official guitar sponsor of this podcast, please get in touch!


CRM: Please let the CRM readers know where they can listen to Dungeons and Daddies online and find more of your work!

Freddie: Dungeons and Daddies can be found on Spotify and any podcast app, and our site and merch is at dungeonsanddaddies.com

Will: Freddie, Matt and I also do a podcast called Story Break! It’s a “writers room” podcast where we give ourselves one hour to come up with a pitch for a movie based on a random idea or intellectual property. In past episodes, we’ve done episodes on The Legend of Zelda,  the Charmin Bears, and Casablanca 2, so it’s a pretty eclectic mix. We came up with a pitch for a Jar Jar Binks Star Wars movie that, I shit you not, has made people cry.

Aesthel