The Adventure Zone is a live-play Dungeons and Dragons podcast hosted by Griffin, Travis, Justin, and Clint McElroy. Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop game that involves dice and a lot of roleplaying improvisation, so the podcast is exactly that. Travis, Justin, and their father, Clint, roleplay as their characters: Magnus, Taako, and Merle, while the youngest son, Griffin, is their DM (Dungeon Master) and guides them through the world with his words and plays every NPC (Non-Playable Character) that they come across.
It’s a podcast that originated from another series that the brothers do, so it was initially intended for fans of that podcast. However, it grew and attracted people from the “nerdier” side of the spectrum, as well as young adults that are interested in this form of interactive storytelling. It is all unscripted except for a basic plot that their DM, Griffin, has outlined and features music scored by the aforementioned.
There is advertising in the podcast, usually sponsorship from companies like Blue Apron. Other times, it is sponsored wholly by their network, Maximum Fun. They have a yearly drive to encourage listeners to donate and also sell shoutouts (“Jumbotron”) that are read by Griffin in the podcast during their ad breaks.The ads are usually in the middle of the episode.
The Adventure Zone is a pretty popular podcast with more than 130,000 subscribers and 80.7k followers on their Twitter account. It definitely made positive waves with their portrayal of sexually diverse characters. It can also be argued that their podcast made Dungeons and Dragons popular again among younger generations. A graphic novel based on the adventures of their characters is set to be released next year.
They recently finished their first season, the Balance Storyline, which has 69 episodes split into 8 arcs. A good place to start is episode 2 or at the second arc: Moonlighting. It is serial in nature, so for the best experience, starting at Episode 1.5 is fine, as long as you’re alright with vague discussions about the rules of Dungeons and Dragons.