Warning: Spoilers for Gen Con’s D&D Live show!
Summary
This year is the 50th anniversary ofDungeons & Dragonsand the Dungeons & Dragons Live show at Gen Con was the perfect celebration, bringing back belovedBaldur’s Gate 3characters inAn Astarion and Karlach Adventure: Love is a Legendary Action. The show followed Astarion and Karlach on a side quest adventure as they join a couple of other adventurers who they meet in a pub while Tav is otherwise occupied. Things take a dramatic turn when secrets are revealed and their lives are threatened.
An Astarion and Karlach Adventure: Love is a Legendary Actionstars Neil Christie Newbon and Samantha Béart reprising theirBaldur’s Gate 3characters. The table also included Brennan Lee Mulligan as Dorbin Kragstone, a Dwarven Life Cleric, Anjali Bhimani Miriannan, a Human Evocation Wizard, and Aabria Iyengar as the Dungeon Master. The second half of the live show featured Project Sigil, the new “virtual sandbox” for Dungeons & Dragons that allows players, and the audience, to see the world brought to life visually on screen.
Every Baldur’s Gate 3 Ending Explained (& What Choices Change It)
Baldur’s Gate 3 can end in a number of different ways, but the overarching plot will generally remain similar between different endings.
Screen Rantattended theD&D Liveshow at Gen Con, where there was a press conference withthe cast including Aabria Iyengar, Anjali Bhimani, Neil Christie Newbon, and Samantha Béart. Newbon and Béart reflected on how they approached theirBaldur’s Gate 3characters and the importance of diversity. Bhimani also described using the Sigil system as,“It’s so much fun. It’s cool to see it all happening.“When asked about writing the"romancing the dragon source book,“she enthusiastically replied,“As soon as I convince everyone with the gold shirt on to let me back in the building. Come to Seattle, Lemme in! That was a good idea! I want it.”
Neil Christie Newbon Explains Why D&D Is The Perfect Way To Meet People
“You’re Meeting Them But You’re Also Meeting Their Creativity And Imagination”
At the start of the press conference, the cast shared what excited them most about playing at this table as a celebration ofDungeons & Dragons'50th anniversary. Newbon also explained whyDungeons & Dragonsis such a great way to connect with one’s inner child and get to know the people one is playing with on a deeper level.
Anjali Bhimani: What excited me most? To be at a table with these people and all of us love each other so much and for some of us it’s the first time that we’ve had a chance to meet but immediately we all gelled. We’ve all been so excited about this since we were first on that first zoom. I was just excited to be at a table with these people and see what happens.
Neil Christie Newbon: Same, really. We had a zoom group, obviously you’re not really meeting over Zoom as such, so us getting into the room actually being able to physically smell each other. [ALL LAUGH] Also, I’ve been fans of their wok as well, so it’s great to meet you guys, and play D&D, and be dominated by you.
Also it’s a great Brennan and I were talking about this, it’s a great way to meet people by playing role playing, by playing Dungeons & Dragons. Because you’re meeting them but you’re also meeting their creativity and imagination. Which is really interesting as opposed to getting to know them over coffee or whatever. So yeah, it was very cool. I like that aspect. Obviously you and I know each other as well [points at Anjali].
Anjali Bhimani: But we met playing D&D.
Neil Christie Newbon: We actually met 2018.
Aabria Iyengar: There’s nothing more fun than having a mixture of people that you know, and like, and will follow to the ends of the earth and the people that you’re like, Oh, I respect your work and I know through trusted individuals that everyone likes you. It’s just one of those things where you’re like, Oh, it’s my opportunity to show up and say hi and there’s something inside of a love language, of gift giving. If you laugh three times, I will float off of that forever.
So it’s just the fun of being like, I hope I can give you a little good time as you do exactly what we said, which is, I want to meet you, I want to meet your creativity. I want to play with you. I want it to feel like recess and coffee and dinner and all of those things. It just feels like it’s a speed run of getting to know you.
Neil Christie Newbon: It’s also a reminder, an echo back to, as long as we have a good childhood in that way, the ability to meet other kids and you don’t have any preconceptions about them, they’re just another kid. You meet in a playground or play or a swimming or vacation, whatever the thing is.
You don’t really know each other, but you start playing as a way, when you were that young, when you were not teenager, when you were a young kid, there is no, you don’t worry about what you look like or where they’re from necessarily. You’re kind of like, hi, hi, let’s play. And then maybe later when you start getting information out when you start.
Samantha Béart: I would say yes and, because I feel such an amateur among, I mean you guys. You guys do this professionally all the time. I normally get the words on a screen.
Aabria Iyengar: You have to act to nothing. You are doing improv-
Samantha Béart: I have directors. Just let me be slightly in awe. As well as everything you said about the interpersonal stuff, what really excited me about this was surprising the players, the audience. It was such a gorgeous little secret to have because we didn’t have to have it for four and a half years. It was just a couple of months and then the surprise dragons was delightful.
Anjali Bhimani: I just love an opportunity to wear corset really. I will say one of my favorite things about playing with Aabria as my DM is that every moment through the entire, no matter if it’s a tragic scene, if it is a hilarious scene, there is a gleam in her eye that shows you that no matter what is happening here, you are going to be okay.
There are no wrong answers and we’re here to have fun. Even if that fun is doing the saddest, most tragic scene, there’s just this childish wonder that is behind everything and it just elevates everyone at the table because you know that nothing you do here, there are no wrong answers, there are no wrong answers when you’re with Aabria.
Astarion “Has Probably Meant More Than Almost Every Character I’ve Played”
Newbon and Béart clarified that they aren’t voice actors. They shared how their experience on stage and with mocap is a central part of their performances, but praised the skill of voice actors.
Samantha Béart: Actors. We’re not voice actors. We’re trained Shakespearean actors. We also do mocap and particularly you points to [Neil Christie Newbon]. A lot of you’re career has been in mocap.
Anjali Bhimani: It’s a common misconception.
Neil Christie Newbon: I think the important point is that we do voice work, we do mocap, we do theater work. But the thing that I’ve experienced, I think you’ve probably experienced as well Sam, is that we get a lot of kids coming up to to us saying, Hey, I want to do voice acting and stuff? It’s like, Cool, don’t run to that first. The first thing to run to is the acting craft. A lot of kids are trying to get into it, which is great.
Samantha Béart: But they also think it’s big bucks.
Neil Christie Newbon: But also with that it’s still a craft form.
Samantha Béart: And also with me it’s to put respect on the names of voice actors because I feel like it’s such a different discipline. They grew up possessed with voices. They start voicing inanimate objects. They’re absolutely into that. My thing’s more narrative. I think that’s why I ended up having a journey I did.
Newbon shared how he connects with his characters and tells their stories with empathy. He also revealed how important Astarion is to him personally. Béart broke down how they approached finding the voice for Karlach. Bhimani explained why they don’t necessarily feel the need to put aside a voice they’ve used for only one character.
Neil Christie Newbon: As an actor, I firmly believe you can’t judge a character. So I play you some of the worst skum on the planet, I also play some fun characters. The point is that if I start judging those characters for what they do as opposed to trying to help ‘em through their journey without judgment, then I’m not doing my job. So even if I have a moral, I mean I don’t think murderers are good people.
I play murderers often because it’s fun from an acting safe point of view, but what I’m trying to do is that’s their life. I cannot judge ‘em for what they do. I have to help them through their journey as best I can in the most interesting, entertaining way. Therefore, even though I have, most people I hope, have issues with people that murder people, I can’t bring that, as an actor, into the room because that’s to audience to judge.
That’s the audience, the players, that’s your experience that you make the judgment call morally speaking. I just have to show you the honesty of the truth of it, and it’s the honesty of the truth of it. That they kill everybody in the room, then that’s what you have to do
Anjali Bhimani: I think also the idea of like, oh, this is so-and-so’s voice, and so no, I can no longer do that for anything else. It’s tempting to think you have to do that, but the fact is there are so many people on the planet that sound very similar in terms of their vocal tone or tenor, but they are completely different human beings with completely different life experiences who have reacted in completely different ways and come from different places and you are imbuing each character with that uniqueness, even if their voice sounds the same.
There’s so many film and TV actors that we have watched do multiple roles essentially being themselves, but they’re bringing that emotional backstory. They’re bringing that full life and uniqueness to every character. So you don’t ask, well, do you put that voice aside because that voice is just part of the instrument. It’s not the full story.
Samantha Béart: I was going to say the voice for me is a result of the internal work…I’m so eager to jump into 260 hours of mocap, 11 hours of vocal in the end. So there was an intellectual exercise, there’s an emotional reaction to the text. Then we found her physically and then I’m going, Well, she’s got to be southern English, she’s got to be working class, and that narrows it down, but the voice is the last thing. It’s not, there’s no sort of judgment.
Like [Neil Christie Newbon was] saying no judgment, but also no trauma attached to it, for me. I’m not method in any way. So it’s more like, Oh, does this character now sound like that other character I played? Do I want to make it a bit different? What I do avoid is using my own voice. I will change it slightly because I don’t like opening my mouth and people go, You are that, exactly that person. So Karlach’s close to my accent, but it’s not exactly the same.
Aabria Iyengar: Have you ever clocked yourself, starting off really adjacent to a character before you start adding the lens of all the context?
Samantha Béart: Yes, actually, because the job is you got that and then you put them together.That’s the game isn’t it. It’s close to real.
Neil Christie Newbon: I think, like Sam, I don’t like using specifically my own voice unless it’s appropriate for a character. But I think weirdly with a couple of my characters now, only because it’s done for me. Astarion I think for me is always going to be Astarion just because the character has probably meant more than almost every character I’ve played.
That particular voice for me actually, weirdly probably, yeah, I’m probably not going to look to repeat that particular thing. There may be another high inflected voice I do. There might be something of qualities of it obviously, but I wouldn’t try to go for that voice that way only because I don’t want to. Not because it’s emotional, just because I don’t want to do that again.
Samantha Béart Reflects On How Different Fans Connect With Karlach
Bhimani shared how the themes of breaking free from abusive relationships was not deliberately built around this show being a side quest for Karlach and Astarion. Instead, she explained how those naturally weave together because of the characters and the chemistry of the players at the table.
Anjali Bhimani: I think that was definitely coincidental, but also I think as we are telling stories, anytime that we’re doing something like this that is fully improvised and we’re leaning into the story, we’re also clocking things. That we’re picking up little gems that our friends are dropping for us and getting the sense of the tone. Getting the sense of, Oh, that’s a piece of her history. Oh, that’s a piece of his history.
And, Oh, how can I weave that into this so that the entire story has things that are commonalities? I think it naturally happens a lot when you’re playing at a table where everybody is coming together to tell a unified story, whether it’s ridiculous or whether it’s dramatic or whatever it is. You end up sitting back and being like, Oh look, yeah, we did pick that up and you picked up that string and you picked up that string and look at what we wove together so that now this story could be written and you would still pick up those themes.
Newbon explained that catharsis from him comes from completing the role. However, Béart had a completely different experience with their portrayal of Karlach. They discussed the trauma of Karlach and how specific moments for the character were cathartic because of the story arc.
Neil Christie Newbon: I think catharsis for an actor, I’ll speak [from my experince] is always doing a good job and feeling proud of what you’ve done to affect a change of whatever the audience feels. Whether somebody hates a character, likes character, as long as it’s not that great dishwater middle ground, of like, “Eh.” So as long as catharsis, we had four and a half years of this game it was great. And the whole table was just a beautiful experience. But again, it’s like the audience as well.
Samantha Béart: I’m going to contradict you to that just because it’s just my personal experience. For Karlach, everything was so rooted in trauma. Everything she did, and there’s two types of Karlach enjoyers. Those who say, Oh, she’s fun despite everything she’s been through. She’s such a laugh. And then other people say, Oh, I have PTSD as well. And I knew that and that was a secret in her. She wants to be accepted, she needs people around her for her mission. So if she lets loose that she’s all kinds of messed up. They don’t want her, so she got a cover it.
We know that soldiers do it, police do it. Anyone that has a grim job, they’re the sense of humor. So it really tracked and there’s a scene where she can get revenge, doesn’t quite go the way she expects and then the lid’s blown off. I was holding onto that secret for months and then it just all vomited out and it was very enjoyable to do that and just get there. We don’t do it chronologically. It was relatively early in recording, but it was already making me quite tense and just holding onto this.
The more she jokes, the more I know she’s covering. So that was just, and I’m not method in any way, just very empathetic. So we get to it, I’m like, Finally and it’s there and the truth is there. And then it’s almost like we go back where you rewind to before then and it’s like, It’s okay. You’ve had that moment. You are all right, I’ve got you. So yeah. Yes, personally very cathartic and not because something happened to me or anything. It’s because I’m highly empathetic to her situation.
Anjali Bhimani: It’s also hard when you’re doing film or television or mocap because you are usually shooting things out of order. Whereas again, with a TTRPG, generally speaking, there is a narrative that is in chronological order. You’re going on that ride the whole time. So I definitely feel like by the end you’ve created something and that is the catharsis.
You’ve gone on the journey and then you can put it away as opposed to carrying that and knowing, Well I’ve got to shoot 43 scenes before I get to that one, but that one’s in the middle. So how am I going to move all of these pieces of my internal everything and play my own emotions to get to that, knowing that that is what’s in the middle of it, but we’re not going to shoot it until day 45.
Samantha Béart: We have the most wonderful directors just to guide us through that and just keep it consistent.
Whenever Brennan Lee Mulligan & Aabria Iyengar Appear On Stage, “There’s Usually Some Quirky Stuff”
Screen Rantasked Iyengar about working with Mulligan on the major twist surrounding his character. Iyengar discussed not only collaborating with Mulligan, but how surprising both the audience and the players became the guide post for theD&D Liveshow. This idea was sparked by how quickly tickets sold out without the cast even being announced.
Aabria Iyengar: It was such a delight. There was so much inside of the meta on this where we were like, Hey, the ticket sold out before any word was announced. So then internally it was like, What if we let it be a surprise? And then that became the sort of north star for writing. It was like, Okay, we’re going to surprise. You’re going to be surprised by the past and if you’re able to recreate any amount of on the stage, then everyone feels that sense. So it was Okay, what if we make one of them a dragon and then we make the other one also a dragon. [ALL LAUGH]
And then you have that thing where you’re like, Okay, whenever Brennan and I appear on stage, there’s usually some quirky stuff. That is one of my best friends and I was like, Oh, if I come out the gate and I’m like, Hey everyone, there’s a black dragon on the loose. How quickly will they be like it’s that man, that one, there. I was like, Okay, so that’s not the reveal.
Even if they start figuring out that maybe there’s something happening at the table, having the double reveal and having the reveal of you guys playing your characters here at this table, it just felt like one of those things where you’re like we can replicate surprise. We’re all doing this together. And even if you guys figured it out from me being a little sloppy with the name, I think Anjali started picking up on something, I missent a text at some point.
Anjali Bhimani: I was like, That’s okay.
Aabria Iyengar: It was just enough to be like, Hey, if you pay attention at all, you’ll figure that out. So I’m going to need you to care about anything else. But it was such a delight to play with the surprise of the things that are possible inside of that digital sandbox [Sigil]. It just became a little game of like, here’s a little gift. It feels like being Oprah, you’re like we’re at Gen Con, everyone’s dragons. You guys can loot the joint. They were banging. Yeah, a hundred percent And that just ended up being the game and everyone leaned in so beautifully.
“Diversity Naturally Weaves Itself” Into Badlur’s Gate 3 Gameplay
The cast also discussed diversity in the live show,Dungeons & Dragonsas a whole, andBaldur’s Gate 3. Bhimani explained how Dungeons & Dragons is built for diversity to intrinsically be a part of the game. Newbon broke down the importance of diversity and inclusivity inBaldur’s Gate 3, revealing how they re-recorded a number of lines to use they/them pronouns.
Samantha Béart: I’ve got a little pin with the non-binary flag on it. They let me wear it, but otherwise the rest is kind of cast.
Anjali Bhimani: I think what’s really cool is that I started playing D&D when I was eight years old and because of the fact that there are halflings killing red dragons and there are orcs and there’s all of these different characters you can be, what I saw in that example was I can be other but not othered. At this table, this table, our imagination is all that matters.
And I think that’s really being reflected so much now in the last few years at the tables that we are seeing on screen, that we are seeing live, people are really embracing that and that’s inclusion. Inclusion is not seeing one of everything. Inclusion is come play at my table. Whoever you are, you can play any character, you can be yourself, you can not be yourself. It does not matter. So I think the diversity naturally weaves itself into this gameplay in a way that if you just let it be there, it’s there.
Neil Christie Newbon: I think it was also important for all of us for instance, it would’ve been very easy to have made Astarion a gay fem man as opposed to what Larian decided, and obviously I was really thrilled about, was pansexual. That it wasn’t about what you looked like, it was just about a connection or in his case manipulation. So it’s both, but also then having a connection with whoever you are. I think the important thing is that the Tav can be anybody.
Samantha Béart: But they’re all hot for each other. Cause we always talk about Tav-sexual, but we’re not. Everyone is pan in Baldur’s Gate.
Neil Christie Newbon: Yeah, but on top of that, this is an interesting experience because we started filming for about a year and then Larian hit us with a whole chunk of stuff to go back over the stuff we were doing, which was simply to add they/them pronouns. Now the cost of that was astronomical and I tried to work it out and I’m probably under what it really was. It was a huge amount of money. They felt compelled to do it because they wanted to do it.
They understand that the representation of D&D now is really diverse and actually has the possibility, you can play whoever you want, however you feel. Whether you want to represent yourself, whether you want to play something wildly different. It’s really important because what the aim for all of this is, is to normalize it. Is to be whoever you are, like [Anjali Bhimani] said, come to the table.
I think it’s really important franchises like D&D or games like Baldur’s Gate 3 are the games that are also getting really progressive now. Let you be who you are. Then eventually nobody gives a sh-t. It’s like that’s your hope. And eventually we look back and go, Can you believe people used to kill each other because of who they like to sleep with that wasn’t them?
At some point we can look back on that, look back on your ethnic background and go, Can you believe people were horrible hundreds of years ago because of the melatonin count and the historical geography of their ancestors? It hopefully it normalizes. So that conversation is, Thank God we’re not there anymore. You know what I mean? So I think it’s really cool that we got to be a part of all this.
About D&D Live: An Astarion and Karlach Adventure: Love is a Legendary Action
D&D’s star-studded live show at GenCon celebrating the game’s 50th anniversary, previewing the 2024 rules update and an exclusive look at Project Sigil, the immersive 3d sandbox from Wizards of the Coast. Astarion and Karlach from Baldur’s Gate 3 strike out on their own adventure after Tav doesn’t choose them for their adventuring party, meeting new friends and encountering challenges as they explore the Underdark.
Check out our otherGen Con interviewshere.
D&D Live: An Astarion and Karlach Adventure: Love is a Legendary Actionisavailable on YouTube now.
