D&D unveils 'Dungeon Masters' - A new weekly Play-Along experience for Ravenloft. May 26, 2026 image: /images/ravenloft-play-along.jpg Wizards of the Coast has introduced Dungeon Masters, a new storytelling format that blends D&D's YouTube presence with playable weekly encounters - and the Season of Horror's flagship release, Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, is the first book to get the treatment. What is the Dungeon Masters series? Dungeon Masters is a weekly YouTube series that pairs episodes with playable content for your table. Each Wednesday at 6:30 PM PT, a new episode airs on D&D's official YouTube channel. After each episode, subscribers who pre-ordered Ravenloft: The Horrors Within gain access to a corresponding playable encounter from the Dungeon Masters: Ravenloft Play-Along Pack. Think of it as the D&D equivalent of a "watch-and-play" experience: you watch the story unfold, then bring the action to your own table with the provided encounter. The pre-order bonus. The Play-Along Pack is available exclusively to those who pre-order Ravenloft: The Horrors Within on D&D Beyond. It includes: * Weekly playable encounters synced to each episode of the Dungeon Masters series * D&D Encounters: Shadows of Sithicus - a mini-adventure included as part of the digital pre-order bonus * The Mists of Ravenloft Digital Dice Set The full book releases on June 16, 2026, with D&D Beyond Master Tier subscribers getting early access on June 2nd and Hero Tier on June 9th. What's inside Ravenloft: The Horrors Within? The book itself is a comprehensive return to the Domains of Dread. It covers: * 16 Domains of Dread, including the new cosmic horror domain of Innsmouth * New horror-themed subclasses, species, and backgrounds (dhampir, hexblood, lupin, reborn) * Dark Gift feats * Expanded Darklord and Domain of Dread mechanics * A bestiary of 41 monstrosities and 10 domain denizens * 47 maps and 28 digital quickplay maps for the Maps VTT * 10 genres of horror, from gothic to dark fantasy Supporting products include a Tarokka Deck, a Dungeon Master's Screen, and a Map Pack. A new kind of D&D content delivery. The Dungeon Masters series represents a shift in how Wizards of the Coast delivers supplemental content. Rather than a static book and moving on, the Season model now ties physical and digital releases to ongoing weekly programming - a strategy that feels borrowed from the streaming world. For groups who enjoy the Ravenloft setting, the Play-Along Pack offers a compelling bridge between watching and playing. For everyone else, it signals that D&D's content calendar is getting more aggressive about turning book launches into sustained experiences.

Why Onyx Path's virtual convention is a win for professional gaming. Links may earn Geeknative money (hopefully) Onyx Path Publishing has announced that it will again use the professional game-finding platform StartPlaying to coordinate its upcoming Onyx Path Virtual Game Convention, scheduled for 5-8 June 2026. The move underpins a trend in how established tabletop publishers manage online events, moving away from fragmented Discord-only solutions toward a centralised, commercial infrastructure. The partnership comes as StartPlaying, a San Francisco-based startup backed by over $6M in venture capital, appears to have reached a "virtuous cycle" of growth. By providing a stable marketplace where players can find reliable, professional Game Masters, the platform has secured the critical mass needed to attract industry giants like Onyx Path, who now use it to anchor their digital flagship events. For those of you who are interested in running or playing its games during the convention, Geeknative is partnering with Startplaying.Games to provide a place for folks to set up listings for their games! You can charge for games or set your listings up for free, and if you need an online place to host your game, Geeknative has several dedicated voice and text channels on the Onyx Path Discord for people to play!" This is not the first time Onyx Path has used StartPlaying. Geeknative wrote about it back in 2021. It's clearly working for the publisher. The flywheel effect. For years, "Looking For Group" sites have struggled with the "chicken and egg" problem: players won't join a site without GMs, and GMs won't list games without a player base. StartPlaying has broken this deadlock by leaning into the need for dependability. By allowing GMs to charge for their time, the platform ensures a level of reliability and quality that volunteer-run Discord servers often struggle to maintain. With Onyx Path bringing its "Game Night" events and the 2026 convention to the platform, the "flywheel" is spinning faster. This tactical endorsement introduces thousands of Scion, Curseborne, and World of Darkness fans to the ecosystem, further cementing StartPlaying as the industry's primary digital lobby. A new standard for Virtual cons. The convention will serve as a high-profile showcase for the new Storypath Ultra core manual and the urban horror setting Curseborne. While Onyx Path will still provide dedicated voice and text channels on their own Discord server, the logistical heavy lifting, scheduling, payment processing, and seat reservations are being outsourced to the StartPlaying tech stack. This shift represents a "coming of age" for the paid-GM model. While some community members remain wary of the transition from volunteer-led convention gaming to a service-based economy, the sheer efficiency of the StartPlaying model is proving difficult for publishers to ignore. Quick links. Topic Authority 6 Years Active Independently covering startplaying since 2020. Its archive includes 9 entries connected to this topic. Keep scrolling to discover what others think about this article.