DnD Far and Wide is a Dungeons and Dragons 5e adventure set in the homebrew world of Illyria. A product of the Choose Your Roll Twitch channel, the game is a virtual campaign on the Roll20 platform.
The stream is easy to hear, although there is some sound disparity between characters. This is especially noticeable when party members start talking over each other.
DnD Far and Wide features a custom overlay on screen — when cast members speak, their cards light up, which makes it easy to determine who is talking.
The stream cards also include the character name, race and class, as well as custom art of their characters. When not utilizing a battlemap, the stream overlay has the stream cards for each character, while during combats and encounters they utilize well designed battlemaps from a variety of sources.
Episodes listened to:
- On recommendation of D&D Far and Wide’s DM, AJ Pasta_Parade, I began on episode 55 and listened through that “arc” of the show, through episode 59.
- I then doubled back to listen to Episode 2 and 3, where the campaign officially starts on YouTube, to get a feel for how the story began.
- Finally, I jumped forward to the most current episode, Episode 77 to get an understanding of progression.
- I have also tuned into a few livestreams.
Total Listening Time: 32+ Hours
Story and Setting
The story takes place in Illyria, an entirely homebrew setting meticulously crafted by AJ.
The story follows a group of immigrants attempting to gain citizenship to the city of Illyria, where the PC’s meet. The PC’s, in an attempt to gain their citizenship, apply for a life of adventure, where they take odd jobs that most would consider too dangerous to attempt.
After bonding adventures and much success in the jobs they accept, the group eventually gains citizenship and forms a guild of crafters, as all of the party members are artisans in their own right.
The story sees the party taking dangerous jobs to better their standing in Illyria, gaining favor with different factions and guilds. In a heroic fashion, the party tends to accept jobs that better the world, earning themselves notoriety as well as plenty of coin in the process.
Most of the story can be described as “guild based adventures” and as such, does have significant down time where the party furthers their craft skills, go out on shopping sprees, and even has interparty as well as sought after romance.
The DM does a fantastic job of selling the story that the party embarks on, while also engrossing the players into the world in such a way that they very rarely talk above table or out of character. AJ focuses on keeping the story moving forward, while not intending to derail what the party is doing or attempting to accomplish.
From the standpoint of a fellow DM, there are very minor cases where design choices can be questioned, but every DM has their own style and AJ does a great job of maintaining and even improving and building on that style.
Meet the Cast and Characters of D&D Far and Wide:
- Kat plays Flora the Tiefling Wizard – Artisan Craft: Brewing
- Selkis plays Palius the Tiefling Pugilist – Artisan Craft: Pottery
- Odyn plays Dahlia the Fire Genasi Bard – Artisan Craft: Painting
- Toma plays Scrap the Kobold Alchemist – Artisan Craft: Alchemy
- Micah plays Yordrick the Tortle Warlock – Artisan Craft: Jeweler
The show highlights a diverse cast of LGBTQIA+ people and allies.
The starting cast is not the current cast — a few members changed due to a variety of reasons, while one player moved abroad. The current cast, mentioned above has been in the campaign for the majority of its run, however. Scrap and Dahlia have been with the party from the beginning, and Selkis has played more than one character over the course of the campaign.
The cast does an amazing job of driving the story, so much so that I would consider this campaign player driven as opposed to DM driven. The DM provides the guidelines, while the cast takes the prompts and setting and run with it, roleplaying their characters to such an impressive degree that at times it is hard to separate the player from the player character.
Their extent of roleplay can occasionally lead to unnecessary and sometimes tedious scenes that prolong sessions, but their ability to be their character is commendable and not something that in any way detracts from the story.
D&D Far and Wide incorporates some degree of third party D&D 5e content, some of which are AJ’s own creations and some of which come from other publishers. The Pugilist and Alchemist classes are from the Ultimate Adventurer’s Handbook by Benjamin Huffman and many other of creators, and Valda’s Spire of Secrets by Mage Hand Press, respectively.
My Scores for DnD Far and Wide:
- Humor – 7/10
- Drama – 7/10
- Fantasy – 8/10
- Heroism – 8/10
- Roleplay – 9/10
- Party Cohesion – 8/10
- Storytelling – 9/10
- Setting – 8/10
- Campaign – 8/10
Overall Impression:
The entire cast of DnD Far and Wide does an incredible job of telling a story and you can tell that, despite it being a streamed product, at the end of the day it is a group of friends, playing a game, that they all look forward to week after week. This is not a group of professional actors selling you a product, it is a group of friends inviting you to watch their game.
Their enthusiasm and interest in the story is an easy way to draw viewers into the world with them. Despite the occasional interruption from personal lives, technical difficulties, or even unscheduled breaks, it is easy to get lost in the story alongside the players.
The group and DM even occasionally interact with the stream audience, which is a nice way to have the viewers feel included. Overall, if you are more interested in being a part of a story, as opposed to being sold on a story, then this show, and channel, are the right place for you.
Where to Watch DnD Far and Wide:
- You can catch the DnD Far and Wide stream live on Twitch every Saturday at 7 p.m. EST.
- You can catch the DnD Far and Wide stream replays on the Choose Your Roll YouTube.
More From Choose Your Roll
- You can follow AJ Pasta_Parade on Bluesky.
- AJ also creates homebrew Dungeons and Dragons 5e content, including a great elemental spell compendium that was featured a few weeks ago in The Weekly Wobble. Check out AJ’s creations at his Ko-fi shop.
- The Choose Your Roll channel also hosts One Piece Endless Horizons, which airs every other Monday at 7 p.m. EST
- Tides of the Fallen Kingdom is a new campaign launching on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST, with an estimated debut date of Tuesday 2/11/2025. The campaign is expected to feature many of the same cast members of DND Far and Wide.
- The channel also includes some one-shot sessions.
About The Author
Hi, I’m Reforged Existence! Or, RexBrews for short!
I’m a highly dedicated DM, Homebrewer of magic items and spells, worldbuilder and writer! Playing TTRPGs for nearly 10 years, I have a variety of games under my belt, but specialize in D&D! I will be publishing TTRPG actual play, podcasts and stream reviews! These reviews will highlight what is special about these shows, pros and cons to watching or listening and other important information (format, setting, cast etc.).