Dark Dice is a horror-dark fantasy actual play podcast created by the husband and wife duo of Travis Vengroff and K. A. StatzCredited as K. A. Statz as staff member and gamemaster, and as "Kaitlin Statz" as a player and voice actress. and produced by Fool & Scholar Productions. It is set in an original medieval fantasy setting created by Vengroff and follows characters trying to overcome an evil shapeshifting being known as the Nameless God. Vengroff acts as gamemaster, joined by Statz as co-gamemaster in season 3.
Dark Dice emphasizes the potential deaths of all player characters, and the potential losses of their sanities, which affect their perceptions of the world; a player whose character dies does not get a new character, and instead leaves the show. The first season and campaign, Domain of the Nameless God, premiered on September 25, 2018, and concluded on January 14, 2021. The second season, a direct continuation called The Long Road and divided into dual campaigns, premiered on February 26, 2021 and concluded on April 16, 2025; during a hiatus for season 2, the third season and fourth campaign, Shores of the Silver Thrum, was started, and is currently ongoing.
The series features immersive sound design and original music, with all non-player character (NPC) dialogue being re-dubbed by voice actors during post-production. The show is fan-funded; it was originally released on a monthly basis before switching to a bi-monthly basis for season 3. The podcast was originally based on the 5th edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons, although references to Dungeons & Dragons were later removed from the podcast for legal reasons, while the crew switched to using their own tabletop role-playing game, Domain of the Nameless God.
Production Casting and recording The show features a number of voice actors having previously worked with Fool & Scholar Productions; season 1 notably featured exclusively players who were involved in The White Vault, namely Hem Cleveland, Eyþór Viðarsson, Peter Joseph Lewis, David Ault, and Kessi Riliniki, who, together with Lani Minella, formed the main cast of the first season of The White Vault, and Statz, who was the creator and writer of The White Vault, while Vengroff, the gamemaster, was its director, producer, sound designer and editor; Minella herself would later voice an NPC, Gunther, in season 2, and players who later joined the series include The White Vault cast members Eric Nelsen, Sophie Yang, Danilo Battistini, and, briefly, Tanja Milojevic.
The second season of the show was originally conceived as a shorter "epilogue" story, titled "The Long March"; instead, it became a fully-fledged season with dual campaigns renamed The Long Walk. Jeff Goldblum was announced as cast member for the second season in June 2021, as the character Balmur. The White Vault cast member Tanja Milojevic was also intended to join as a player in the B campaign, but her character died in battle shortly after being introduced, and therefore remained unnamed and is only briefly featured in the first episode of the campaign. Milojevic returned to voice the NPC Lirril, who, after being rescued by the party, becomes a player character, still portrayed by Milojevic. In the same episode Lirril becomes a player character, Drew Tillman also joins as Elias "Payne" Embertree, extending the original party of two making up the A campaign in its first five episodes, to four.
In a special release on April 14, 2021, Vengroff and Statz announced that, if they reached 2,500 subscribers on Patreon by May 12, they would switch Dark Dice from being a side-project of Fool & Scholar Productions to part of their yearly production schedule, "with seasonal releases every two weeks (or more if we're able)." The second season went into hiatus after episode 5A (the fifth episode of the A campaign), released in March 2023, due to the upcoming wedding of Cleveland and Viðarsson, the two players featured in season 2's A campaign; the following May 26, Vengroff announced that the rest of season 2 was postponed due to Cleveland and Viðarsson deciding to take time off following their wedding; he announced that the show would move forward with its third season, and would return to season 2 "after this new story concludes so our cast can enjoy the first few months of their marriage." Season 3 premiered on June 20, 2023, with a prologue episode featuring two of the eight new players, in which Vengroff confirmed that Dark Dice was now upgraded to a bi-monthly release. Domain of the Nameless God was always intended to be followed by a new campaign with a cast of all-new characters, and as such season 3, Shores of the Silver Thrum, featured new players playing original characters. The tenth episode of Shores of the Silver Thrum, "The Tempest", was released on May 28, 2024, with The Long Road resuming the following June 11; it is unknown whether Shores of the Silver Thrum has concluded, or if it will be continued after the completion of The Long Road.
Episodes 19 to 21 of season 2, all part of the A campaign, are a crossover with The Lucky Die, another actual play podcast; the events of the joint game session are canon to both Dark Dice and The Luck Die, with its events being featured on both podcasts, although some scenes are exclusive to either version while remaining canon to both; as a result of being the gamemaster of The Lucky Die, Hem Cleveland acts as co-gamemaster alongside Vengroff for these episodes, and her Dark Dice character, Rowena, spends most of the three-episode arc unconscious so that Cleveland does not act as both gamemaster and player simultaneously.
Music Steven Melin wrote the opening theme of the series, "Domain of the Nameless God"; Melin, Brandon Boone, and Vengroff act as main composers for the series' original music. Other contributors include players Hem Cleveland and Eyþór Viðarsson, who wrote and performed the song "Funeral Song 1"Also released as "Funeral Rites of Celègon (Minor Key)" in the album release. in Icelandic for the show, and the song "Elven Wood Cutting Song" improvised on the spot by player Jeff Goldblum while recording season 2 (with fellow cast members Russ D. More, Peter Joseph Lewis, and Holly Billinghurst joining in), with Melin, Vengroff, and Mike Pettry later adding orchestration in post-production.
On August 3, 2022, Japanese video game composer Hitoshi Sakimoto was announced to create new music for Dark Dice, with the recording sessions taking place on August 12 and 22. The two tracks written by Sakimoto are "Echo of Seasons" and "The Sufferers' Cant". David Wise, the British video game composer, has also composed music for the series and is credited for the outro theme in season 3. Austin Wintory, Ryan McQuinn, Dallas Crane, Yuzo Koshiro, and Nobuo Uematsu have also contributed to the series.
Plot Season 1: Domain of the Nameless God
The first season of the podcast revolves around a party of six characters attempting to find and rescue the children of Ilmater's Hope, a town whose children inexplicably disappeared. The party consists of Dwarven cousins Rowena Granitepike and Father Westpike, Human ranger and necromancer Soren Arkwright, innkeeper Iaus Innskeep, whose son Barrin is among the missing children, paladin Sister Cavernsfall, and the witch Flygia of Zarketh, feared by the townspeople. The team follows the trail of the missing children into the Dead Pines forest, where they start being hunted by The Silent One, a sinister creature that has the ability to shapeshift into whoever it pleases. The first loss of a party member happens in Chapter 7, when Rowena, under the influence of a cursed dagger, attempts to stab Father Westpike, only for Sister Cavernsfall to sacrifice herself by taking the blow in his place. The second casualty is Flygia, who is separated from the party and finds herself in a hall of mirrors in Chapter 9; although the end of the scene is left ambiguous, and she seemingly reunites with the rest of the party, "Flygia" turns on the party in Chapter 12 and is killed by Iaus in self-defence, with necromancy revealing that she had been killed and taken over by a creature in Chapter 9, with Flygia's player secretly playing as the creature afterwards.
Rowena, Father Westpike, Soren and Iaus reach a bastion at the heart of the domain of the Nameless God, who had abducted the children in order to sacrifice them, allowing it to reach its full strength. Although most of the children have already been sacrificed, the team manages to save the two still alive, including Barrin, as well as a third child of unknown origins also present; however, a huge mistake from Iaus' player results in the ritual being successful. The four barely manage an escape from the Nameless God's domain with the three children, but learn that they must sacrifice someone in order to seal the gateway linking its domain to their world. In an ambiguous scene, Soren seemingly stabs himself to seal the gate, only to be revived by a being which might have been the spirit of Sister Cavernsfall or the Nameless God. The campaign ends on a bittersweet note, as the party of four returns to Ilmater's Hope mostly unsuccessful in their rescue attempt, and with two of their members dead; they also realize that time passed differently within the domain of the Nameless God, and that 10 months have passed in the outside world since their departure; the village suffered a harsh winter, a food shortage, and with the children missing, many of the townspeople took their own lives. However, Iaus got his son back, and the four know that by sealing the gate, they stopped the Nameless God, at least for now.
Season 2: The Long Road The second season is a direct continuation of the first, and is divided into two campaigns, "A" and "B"; the series alternates between the two campaigns, mostly focusing on the B campaign originally while focusing on the A campaign for a lengthy period afterwards; both notably question what really happened at the end of the previous season during Soren's "sacrifice", which the characters remember differently from each other.
The A campaign follows Rowena and Father Westpike, staying at Ilmater's Hope with Aud, the child of unknown origins they rescued the previous season; Rowena remembers the end of the previous season as it was presented to viewers, while Father Westpike struggles to remember it, and both are left with severe trauma from their rescue mission. Their new life is troubled by the hostile townspeople, who doubt their story; Aud similarly claims that she saw Rowena kill Soren, and that he did not come back to life. The two go to the town's church to attempt to help the people inside, who turned their backs on their gods, but are attacked by them and kill one in self-defense; as the behavior of the townspeople worsens, the cousins flee Ilmater's Hope with the help of Gunther, the third kid they saved with Barrin and Aud, and head north for Westman's Hold, to reunite with Father Westpike's family, whom he is worried about, and fight against the Kordalum, a family related to them they wish to take revenge against.