‘Life-Size DnD’ is a roleplaying experience that lives somewhere between the worlds of LARP and tabletop Dungeons and Dragons. You can physically act out your fantasy adventures as in LARP, but you must obey the movement rules and dice rolls of a D&D-inspired system. I had a chance to try Life-Size DnD at this year’s MCM London Comic Con, and if you thought regular D&D was chaotic, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Before play begins, you’ll be handed something that looks an awful lot like a DnD character sheet. This also comes with a whimsical cape and an accessory based on your choice of the (vaguely similar) DnD classes. I became a spooky Warlock, complete with Eldritch Blast and a legally distinct version of Hex.
Next, our DM leads us to the dungeon entrance, where we take turns rolling for initiative. As in the tabletop RPG, this decides who acts when. On your turn, you can take up to four real steps forward, and you get one action and bonus action. So far, so Dungeons and Dragons.
We duck into the dungeon, a dark room with ominous shadows and unseen creatures making sounds in the distance. It seems like an episode of epic fantasy is about to begin, but all pretensions of that are left at the door. As soon as the DM starts narrating, the quest becomes slapstick of the Monty Python kind.
We ambush a Goblin while he’s peeing, and the party Paladin “whips it out” to match his energy (thankfully, the real person remains fully clothed). Combat ensues, and we spend as much time dodging the giant d20 rolling across the floor as we do fighting.
I try to loot the Goblin’s body afterwards, only to find his pockets full of excrement. From here on, my only goal is to make sure everyone else is as smeared with sh** as I am.
A tricksy skeleton merchant sells us a few DnD magic items that buff the party, but he also chains two of my companions together as a practical joke. I narrowly avoid taking damage from a Mimic because I chose to pet its lid rather than open it. We entered the dungeon in the first place to try and slay a legendary Ogre, but we’ve become thoroughly distracted by side quests.
Until, suddenly, that Ogre rears its ugly head. Alright, the Big Bad Evil may be a cardboard cut-out, but he’s imposingly large, and the narration of our DM makes the threat very credible. I launch into the offensive with an Eldritch Blast, using a recently acquired magic item to do some cheeky re-rolls.
It turns out there are no DnD death saves in Life-Size DnD. Once a character really, actually hits the ground, they’re dead and gone. One by one, our party falls, until only the Barbarian is left to take a swing at the Ogre. They attempt to use a magic item, and they cast a fireball on themself. That’s what we in the business call a TPK.
I’m informed afterwards that not every game of Life-Size DnD ends in a total party wipeout. Fragers, the events company behind the game, ensures every session is unique by swapping dungeon layouts, DnD monsters, and storylines on the regular.
Chaos seems to be the only consistency in this live-action game. The strategic wargaming roots of TTRPGs are nowhere to be seen, and there’s not much room for immersive narrative either.
What Life-Size DnD can offer is fun in the form of a bite-sized roleplay session designed to get you laughing. Just check that the floor looks clean before you plan on dying.
If you prefer to roleplay around a table, here are the DnD races and DnD 2024 backgrounds you’ll need to roll up a character. Or, for more recent Dungeons and Dragons news, here’s what we know about next year’s DnD release schedule.
Source: Wargamer
