Rainbow Dice Club: Tale of Three Review
Quick info:
Audio: High Quality (minor room noise and some plosives, slight Misophonia warning for the first episode)
Vibes: Quest for Camelot, The Folk of the Air series and The Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black, Pan’s Labyrinth, Godkiller by Hannah Kaner, Frieren, The Lord of the Rings
Extras: Patreon, Discord, Ko-fi
Number of Episodes Review is based on: 10
System: D&D 5e
Average Episode time: 1 hr
Accessibility: Content Warnings, and Transcript available in Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Representation: Majority Fem-presenting, LGBTQIA
Platforms: Audio Only, Podcast (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Goodpods, iHeartRadio)
Language: English
Uploads 1 episode per week on Fridays
You can read the TL;DR and the end of the article.
Why this Podcast?
Traditionally, to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), you have players and a Dungeon Master (DM). Tales of Three, a podcast by Rainbow Dice Club, breaks that tradition as all three players are also the DMs of the same campaign. This means that while traditionally the DM does a lot of world-building themselves, in this case, everyone at the table has an equal hand in creating the world and its secrets. This method requires trust and a lot of communication that may not work for home games, but in regards to podcasting, it works exceptionally well.
The focus of this production is primarily on the story and role-play, giving the listener an audiobook or audio drama experience. They still make quips and asides, but they flow in tandem with the storytelling. Arianna, who edits the episodes said, “We just kind of trust, that's going to work, and when it doesn't we just fix it in post.” They put so much time and care into each episode, including going back and re-recording, and the editing is so clean you would have never guessed it's recorded online. And to cap it off, listeners enjoy a few minutes of bloopers at the end of each episode.
Make sure when approaching this podcast to be aware of the content warnings as there will be moments of horror, detailed descriptions of bodily harm, mechanized spiders, and romance. They do a great job of making sure that content warnings are clearly stated.
Starting The Pod
The podcast opens with a prologue establishing the lore of the world as we peak over the shoulder of an unnamed woman, deep in some kind of historical research. The prologue suggests this woman is reading the story as we, the listeners, are listening. You even get a snapshot of what may be to come which further emphasizes the audio drama style of this podcast compared to other Actual Plays.
Each character is introduced individually so the audience gets an intimate introduction and more information about the situation that develops into our first story arc. We watch Elara wander off the path while on a tour of a haunted cavern, Ivy is distressed trying to find a wizard, and Vères picks up a job escorting people home for curfew.
About the World
The campaign is set in the fantasy plane known as Elisora, on the continent of Thylacair. “Iristys saw a spark of possibility within the Astral Sea and rescued it, nurturing it, helping it grow into a thought and then an idea, and following it through until it became a world fit for living.”
The listeners learn of a rich and long history full of magic, innovation, and unrestricted travel between planes. But some of that history has been covered by ink spills. Over time mortals gained more and more power, tipping the scales. The gods tried to level out the power, but this only caused mortals to blame the gods and hunt them into extinction. Despite mortal gluttony and hubris, they manage to stabilize enough that portals and magic return, but they are heavily monitored.
About the Team
Elara Spinelspark (She/Her) is played by Arianna (She/Her). Elara is a half-elf artificer. Her homebrewed artificer subclass has a modern flair (warning, mechanized spiders) and is unique to this podcast. (Switch) I found myself relating to Elara more than most characters. She is an introvert who still wants company, is very focused on her work, and appears to be neurodivergent. When in the DM seat, Arianna focuses on what she knows the other players would be interested in interacting with. “No matter how good, how well we know each other, they manage to surprise me every single time, no matter what, and they always do really cool stuff.”
Vères (They/He) is played by Wayra (She/They). He is a “Half-Orc Half-Elf wandering sell-sword with the misfortune of ruining every fancy poet shirt they own.” Veres is often the most responsible member of the group but also the most mysterious. Wayra is phenomenal at playing a male presenting character, channeling their theatre performance experience, and translating it into voice acting. Even their teammates lauded their skills. Once they take the DM seat for the first time, they described prioritizing what would make the other players shine and giving them the chance to be in the spotlight.
Ivy Nightbreeze-Tinkerfey (She/Her), played by Dusty (They/She), is a young Eladrin druid from [redacted] who has left home for the first time. She is accompanied by Bea her pseudo dragon who only she can understand. Dusty sarcastically described Ivy as, “so mild-tempered, mild-mannered, so easy-going, very chill, so sweet.” Ivy rounds out the party as the character who challenges the rules of Elisora and pulls the others out of their comfort zone. She is also the kind to wear designer clothes on a stealth mission. As GM, they favor puzzles and homebrewed monsters. Arianna explained, “I made a supercut for an upcoming episode of just me and Wayra's reactions to a combat scene where Dusty homebrewed a weird monster. And it's like five minutes long of us just going, Ew, what the fuck, ugh, come on, no, just five minutes or so.”
To help divide the responsibilities of DM, they have assigned acting out the roles of certain important Non-Player Characters (NPCs) among themselves. Dusty said, ”We already parsed out important NPCs to each character’s backstory.” Dusty plays a character named Zath who is linked to the character Vères’ backstory. I asked how much information they share versus how much they keep as a surprise to the other players, “We know a lot of things, but, we've all individually been surprised so many times.”
When asked how the team worked together to build the world, they talked about how Ariana and Wayra are very similar world-builders, while Dusty balances them out, keeping them from getting too caught up in the minute details.
“I think we have a recording of me going, Hey guys, do you want to come back into the road or are you frolicking in the weeds?” Dusty said.
“We were frolicking in the weeds,” Wayra responded.
“Frolicking? Shit, I was tangled,” Arianna added.
As a final note to those who love to know more about character mechanics, all their subclasses are homebrewed. To those unfamiliar with the terms, you can think of a D&D class as a profession and the subclass as your specialty, and you can choose from a subclass in one of the many D&D books, but Rainbow Dice Club made their own, which is referred to as homebrew.
Extras
When I am looking to review a podcast I will often join into the discord to get a glimpse of what the audience will experience. In this case, I was instantly welcomed and had a lot of great conversations. The Rainbow Dice Club has fostered a friendly and supportive community in their discord, where they will host community nights and game nights, and we even started a book club! Besides Discord, Rainbow Dice Club posts bonus content on Patreon, and a lot of it is free. I asked what plans, given the chance, they had for the future of RDC and they listed ideas like expanding into multiple seasons, publishing short stories related to the Tales of Three lore, merch, and a charity foundation to give to the queer community.
TL;DR
All three players are also the DMs. Everyone at the table has an equal hand in creating the world and its secrets.
Shared responsibility in playing NPCs.
Focuses on storytelling and roleplay, creating an audiobook-like experience.
Clean and professional editing.
Set in the fantasy world of Elisora with a rich history of magic and planar travel that is controlled by those in power.
Features three unique characters with home-brewed subclasses.
Releases weekly episodes on Fridays, averaging 1 hour in length.
Offers inclusive representation and provides content warnings for sensitive topics.
Welcoming Discord community with events, game nights, and a book club as well as a Patreon and a ko-fi to support them.
Future ideas, if they are able; expanding into multiple seasons, published short stories related to the Tales of Three lore, merch, and a charity foundation to give to the queer community.
(Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Goodpods, iHeartRadio)
