January 4, 2021

440 words 3 mins read

Tabletopnotch - A D&D Livestream We Enjoy

Tabletopnotch - A D&D Livestream We Enjoy

Legendary DM Matt Colville once quipped that “Watching D&D livestreams is an acquired taste.” Some people don’t enjoy it.

But others of us can’t get enough. We go out of our way to be home when our favorite game’s livestream starts. We hunt for Critical Role fan art. We sink into a slump when a party has to call off their livestream. And we cheer at the screen when the wizard casts fireball.

To those of you that enjoy watching almost as much as playing, we at L&L hope to introduce some of our favorites. For that reason, we’re starting a What to Watch series.

And for us, it was easy to pick our first recommendation: tabletopnotch.

Why We Watch

Tabletopnotch is a well-balanced Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign that takes place in the group’s homebrew world of Anti-Suyu. The five characters, Beezaura, Graven, Orba, Safira, and Erland are engaged in a longterm campaign named “A Peak Beneath the Veil.” We love the acting, the story, the high-quality production… and the laughs.

If you like Critical Role, tabletopnotch is another series you are likely to enjoy. The players are all actors in real life, living and working in New York City. Their acting chops clearly show in the livestream. Moreover, they’re fun, funny, and thoughtful in the way they play. The format is a balanced combination of role playing and fast-action combat.

The DM (Matt) has constructed a beautiful world populated with engaging characters and nefarious plots. The long-running story arc is layered and complex. Secret societies. Peculiar artifacts. A particularly creepy pact deity. We love to speculate over the motives and goals of frequently returning NPCs.

The production quality of the Twitch stream is excellent. Everything from the audio and video to the graphics are excellent. It is clear that the folks at tabletopnotch have poured an extraordinary amount of creative time into this enterprise.

Each week, tabletopnotch posts a Too Long, Didn’t Watch summary. This is a feature we love. Miss a week or two? Watch the quick recap now and then catch up on the full episode later.

You can dive into the adventure today by heading over to their YouTube channel. Every episode (“chapter”) is available in full as well as in “Too Long, Didn’t Watch” format. Typically, the YouTube video is posted within a week of the livestream.

To get a taste, here’s tabletopnotch’s intro video.

Along with their Twitch and YouTube presence, tabletopnotch posts highlights, recaps, news, and other content on Instagram. They also maintain an active Twitter presence.

How (and When) to Watch

Tabletopnotch is live on Twitch Sundays at 7pm Eastern time.