Podcast / Dungeons & Daddies

A hippie, a drugged-out rock star, an overly-friendly coach, and an emotionally distant stepfather, all armed with mystical powers...What Could Possibly Go Wrong??

Dungeons and Daddies is a live Dungeons and Daddies drama/comedy Actual Play podcast started in 2019, hosted by Freddie Wong as Glenn Close, Will Campos as Henry Oak, Matt Arnold as Darryl Wilson, Beth May as Ron Stampler, and Anthony Burch as the DM (Daddy Master).

The series follows four fathers who wind up being sucked into a mystical and forgotten realm after taking their sons to soccer practice one quiet morning. Separated from their children and armed with very little knowledge or the world around them or their own newfound powers, the four fathers set off in their mini-van on a quest to find and rescue their children and perhaps even become better people.

Not to be confused with "Those" kinds of Daddies.

The 1st season concluded after 69 episodes in 2021, which was then followed up by a second season premiere titled, "Dungeons and D.A.D.D.I.E.S" in January of 2022. The season follows the grandchildren of the original four dads as they begin to realize that something is very wrong with their reality, and attempt to band together to stop the evil forces at work. Be aware that many of the characters from season 2, and the tropes pertaining to them, are Walking Spoiler for Season One.

The series has had several miniseries spin-offs, most of which are non-canon save for the 3 episode run of "Atop the Mountains of Dadness" which premiered as a Patreon bonus.

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This podcast contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Though the dads are all, at the very least, well-intentioned, their dads were less so, with the exception of Darryl's dad Frank. This comes into focus after revealing that the purple robes are said dads, with the dads being forced to confront the abuse that shaped them.
  • Ron's father was extremely cold and cruel to him, seeing him only as an annoying obligation and frequently forcing him to care for himself and his mother all alone. This culminated in him trying to kill Ron after a belated attempt to bond with him over fishing went awry.
  • Henry's father was a narcissistic cult leader who only saw Henry as a means to continue his legacy, and frequently chastised him whenever he fell short.
• Action Dad: Naturally.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Ron has a heart-to-heart with Terry Jr. after the dads have gone through D&D adventures to save him.
• Adaptational Villainy: In Dungeons & Dragons, gold dragons are Always Lawful Good, and as such would never willingly ally themselves with people as evil as the purple robes. Radiolab nonetheless ends up on the side of the villains in the Final Battle.
• Aerith and Bob: Early on, Anthony began taking names submitted from Patreon supporters. This resulted in NPCs having normal names like Erin O'Neal, whereas others are named Goose Moose Van Gloose or Sexcalibur Horsepower.
• All for Nothing: What it seems like every time the Dads go through a huge effort to find their sons, since every time they've encountered them thus far, their sons are teleported away from them again.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Double subverted. In the second episode, the dads find townspeople harassing a dragon named Garrtok, who says he's being harassed because the townspeople believe this about his species. Darryl promptly decides the townspeople are just racist, and offers to help Garrtok. However, it turns out Garrtok is only trying find his children to enslave them with Mind Control. This is apparently a normal thing for his species, as his children say they plan to do the exact same thing to their children after the dads rescue them, so they really are Always Chaotic Evil. Darryl ends the episode by saying that if they encounter any more dragons, they should murder them on sight.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Played straight between Darryl and Grant.
• Archnemesis Dad: The purple robes to Ron, Henry, and Glenn.
• Author Avatar: Anthony reveals that Scam Likely's alter ego Well Actually is based on himself as a teenager. Ashly ruthlessly exploits this by reading quotes from Anthony's embarrassing teenage fanfiction, which deals psychic damage to Well Actually.
• Back for the Finale: Just about every NPC featured in the series returns for the Final Battle, as well as Jodie Foster.
• Backstory Invader: More or less becomes the entire plot of episode 34, when a fifth dad, Dennis Anderson (voiced by Ashly Burch) is suddenly a part of the story. He even gets a dad fact in the intro and is treated as if he's always been a part of the dads by everyone except Ron, who seems to be alone in noticing that something's off. In the end, he turns out to be Scam Likely's brother Mark Likely, out for revenge.
• Bag of Holding: In this case, it's The Fanny Pack of Holding.
• Battle of the Bands: The dads have to participate in a fantasy world-equivalent of this in episode 9.
• Bears Are Bad News: As the druid of the group, Henry gains the ability to shapeshift into different animals, including a bear. Carnage ensues.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The purple robes, later revealed to be the dads of Glenn, Henry, and Ron. However, of the three, Willy Stampler is rather unambiguously the top dog.
• Black Comedy: Definitely dips into this at times. One of the primary examples of this is the UFC, aka Unfortunate Foster Children, which still operates much like the actual UFC.
• Body Horror: More prominent in the horror spin-off/prequel mini series "At the Mountains of Dadness", but the main podcast has its moments as well:
  • The Library, an NPC which at first appears to be a normal humanoid, but soon reveals himself to be more of an Eldritch Abomination that walks like a spider, can store books within his own flesh and use his own tongue as a chainsaw. When the Dads finally fight him, some of his physical descriptions are aptly downright horrifying. His skin almost seems to have a mind of its own, starting to reach for Ron's hand when Ron tickles him (as if in hunger). He also can unhinge his jaw at will—specifically so he can shoot his Overly Long Tongue out of it.
  • When Glenn goes to jail, he gets his eye stabbed off with a lightning sword, and the narration is very in-depth.
• Brainwashing for the Greater Good:
  • The dads deal with Garrtok by forcing him to wear the Mind Control bracelets he used to control his own children, which force him to be a good parent and respect his children's decisions. This doesn't work very well, as his kids don't want anything to do with him and just abandon him instead.
  • The dads defeat Barry Oak by using the bracelets once again, forcing him to be nice to others instead of a self-centered Smug Snake.
• Breather Episode: In episode 30 the dads get a chance to rest and debrief everything happened in the series after fighting a trio of bosses.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Henry, when the group comes face-to-face with the purple robes.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Ron did this to Willie and Terry Jr. does this to Ron.
• Cards of Power: The Deck of Many Things.
• Casting Gag: Jodie Foster, a character introduced after the Courtroom Episode, is frequently placed in an antagonistic role against Glenn. The two characters are played by brothers Jimmy and Freddie Wong. They eventually end up as co-parents of Nicholas, with Glenn taking the role of a Cool Uncle.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Mind Control bracelets used by Garrtok in episode 2. While preparing for the final battle, Darryl goes back in time to change the commands on the bracelets so the dads can retrieve them. They attempt to use them on Willy, but fail, and later succeed at using them to neutralize Barry.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Played with. The Dads encounter a human-sized snake who disappears without any explanation. Played straight when it returns in episode 32.
• Check, Please!: Will does one for comedic effect at the end of episode 10.
• Childless Dystopia: Rocqueporte becomes this after the fake Terry Sr. kidnaps all of the town's children, turning them into vampires.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Too many instances to count. Usually committed by the citizens of the Forgotten Realms.
• Continuity Cameo: Many living characters show up for Ron Con.
• Courtroom Episode: Episode 46: The People vs. Glenn Close.
• Cozy Catastrophe: Not much actually changes for a while after Lark summons the Doodler, except that the sky turns weird. Everybody still has jobs, goes to school, etc.. Some knowledge is lost, but it's mostly for comedic effect. For example:
  • Everybody apparently forgets about what elevators are.
  • All Sonic the Hedgehog media is lost except for erotic fanart, which leads to the restaurant Sonic becoming "Sonic's", where the wait staff all dress as Sonic but with erect penises.
  • There's a theater adaptation of Joker.
  • It turns out that the reason for this is The world that the Season 2 protagonists were raised on isn't Earth, but the Forgotten Realms. Life is much worse on Earth.
• Creepy Child:
  • Played for Laughs with Lark, Sparrow, and Paeden, who are all hyperactive Blood Knights constantly trying to get into fights and stab people. Becomes a bit more serious with Lark and Sparrow after revealing that this tendency is due to the presence of an Eldritch Abomination within them, which is later released in Quest.
  • Grant becomes this after he is traumatized by Darryl forcing him to kill a monster in an extremely gory and disturbing way, gaining flat affect and a self-admitted inability to feel any emotion but adrenaline. A heart-to-heart with Darryl after the Supper Bowl helps him regain his emotions, but he remains disturbingly numb to death and violence, to the point that Carol arranges for him to go through therapy after he returns to Earth. (Fortunately, if Quest is any indication, he turned out alright, as he is probably the most emotionally healthy dad there.)
• Crucified Hero Shot: Ron does this to Darryl to keep him from falling in an episode recorded on Good Friday
• Disgusting Public Toilet: Played with. The For Knights game has a giant toilet where the loot is either amazing or literal shit.
• Disregard That Statement: Used a lot during episode 46.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Possibly the most disturbing passage in the entire podcast is when Ron coldly contemplates doing nothing as he watches his abusive father die.
  • Many of the NPCs screwed over by the players during the story come Back for the Finale on the side of the villains.
• Double Entendre: There's Water Deep and then there's Ball's Deep.
• The Dragon: Though Willy Stampler is the de-facto leader and the most evil of the Big Bad Ensemble, Barry Oak is a close runner-up and often supports the former's schemes. Becomes literal in the Final Battle, where Barry transforms into a dragon to hold off the dads after Willy is defeated prematurely.
• Dragon Their Feet: Downplayed. Though Big Bad Willy Stampler and The Dragon Barry Oak are fought simultaneously in the Final Battle, Willy is actually defeated first, making The Dragon the dads' final opponent.
• Dream Sequence: Every time the Dads go to sleep, they're pulled into a shared dream in a dimension filled with purple smoke and wind up interacting with the figure in the purple robe that brought them to the Forgotten Lands.
• Eco-Terrorist:
  • The witch Erin O'Neil isn't opposed to people getting wiped out and replaced by trees.
  • Henry joined an eco-terrorist group thinking they were a ski group.
• Family Theme Naming: Glenn Close and his grandfather Meryl Streep are named after female actresses. Glenn's wife is named after Male actor Morgan Freeman, also falling under this trope. At the end of episode 49 we meet Nicolas's alternate-reality father Jodie Foster (and later, his mother Dee Snider), and in season two, we are introduced to Glenn’s grandson, Taylor Swift.
  • Lark and Sparrow Oak is just a case of Theme Twin Naming, until we find out that their father’s real name is Hen.
  • Darryl Wilson's son is named Grant, and his dog as well as his grandson, is Lincoln.
• Fantastic Drug: The Water Mice live around plants that cause people to feel paranoid, think they are dead, and more! Glenn thinks about starting an empire with his son based around dealing these.
• Fantastic Rank System: Played with. Ron gives his friends military authority and a couple of them are promoted to "General-Colonel."
• Fate Worse than Death: Willy Stampler is ultimately trapped in a demiplane consisting of nothing but a lightless, empty room with no way out. Ron explicitly says he did this because he felt death would be too good for him.
• Father's Quest: The whole premise of the podcast.
• Fictional Sport: Supper Bowl (and later, Glenn Bowl).
• Fisticuff-Provoking Comment: Insinuating that Paeden can't fight or beat someone is an easy way to get him to try to fight or beat them. Scratch that: all he needs is pointing out that fighting someone, or even something, is fun, and he'll try to fight it.
• Four-Man Band:
  • Only Sane Man: Darryl.
  • The Smart Guy: Henry.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Glenn.
  • Butt-Monkey: Ron.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Episode 56 SWAP.
• Full-Frontal Assault:
  • The dads strip down when they are about to fight in the pits of Neverwinter, and remain naked in the resulting prison escape.
  • Henry canonically does not wear underwear, so when his pants are destroyed by Ron's soul entering his body in the "Freaky Friday" Flip episode, he's naked for the rest of the dungeon. He does, however, make a kilt for himself after they leave.
• Godhood Seeker: The purple robes desire to become Omega Daddies. It's never explained exactly what this is, other than that it would give them godlike power.
• Groin Attack: Happens a lot with Glenn while using his nunchucks and when he kicked himself in the balls.
• Happily Married: Henry and Ron appear to have this relationship. Glenn's wife passed away. Darryl's wife is thinking of divorcing him
  • By the end of the series Carol and Daryl have reconciled through their hardships
• Happy Ending Override: Season 1 ends with most of the daddies making it back home. The sons are safe. Glenn still visits. Morgan is alive again. And then the blood of the unsung hero is spilled.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Of the Big Bad Ensemble, Bill Close is the least antagonistic and offers to help the dads on a few occasions. This culminates in them joining the dads' side in the Final Battle... but this moment of heroism is undercut by them slipping away to parts unknown immediately after.
• Hired Swords: The Bad Dog Mercenaries.
• Immortality Seeker: The purple robes seek to use daddy magic to extend their life, with Willy and Bill explicitly saying their primary motive is a fear of death.
• I Owe You My Life: Happens for a short while with Cern and his "Wookie/Gungan Life Debt" towards the dads.
• It's Personal: Cern goes after the fathers with this motivation after his return at the end of episode 18.
• Junkie Parent: Played for Laughs when Nick is caught with a joint, Glenn smokes some and they put it in their mailbox for later.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Although the mechanics change throughout the campaign, the dads are simultaneously rewarded and punished for making dad jokes.
• Level Ate: Anthony Burch mentions rivers that smell like chocolate as a throwaway line and the dads stop to check it out.
• Like Father, Like Son: Subverted with most of the dads/sons but played straight with Glenn and Nick. They are the ones that resemble each other the most, with Nick copying his father's love for drugs, rock 'n' roll and overall rebellious behavior. (Perhaps not surprising, considering that Glenn is a single widower that acts more like a buddy than a proper dad to Nick.)
• Living Drawing: The blood pact contract that Darryl is tricked into signing features a living picture of Grant screaming in agony.
• Lizard Folk: Cern.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The purple robes are the dads' parents, except for Darryl.
  • Paeden is Darryl's dad.
• Meta Casting: Scam Likely/Well Actually, like all NPCs, is voiced by Anthony Burch, though it goes a step further as Anthony says Well Actually is based on a younger version of himself. Scam's sibling Mark Likely is voiced by Ashly Burch, Anthony's real-life sister. Ashly exploits this during the battle with Well Actually by reading quotes from Anthony's embarrassing teenage fanfiction, which apparently exist in-universe as they deal psychic damage to Well Actually.
• Mind Control: The bracelets used by Garrtok to control his children. This is apparently normal for his species. Ends up Hoist by Their Own Petard when his children force the bracelets onto him, allowing them to escape. In the finale, the dads regain the bracelets and use them to Mind Control Barry Oak into subservience.
• Mood Whiplash: Even in the most dramatic and tear-jerkingly serious moments, be sure to expect one of the dads breaking up the mood with a silly dad joke or one-liner.
• Mr. Fanservice: Dennis Anderson, according to his Dad Fact in episode 34, and an Innocent Fanservice Guy at that. Although, that may not be true for his actual identity.
• Murder by Inaction: In "Death of a Salesman", it is revealed that Ron contemplated doing this as Willy was beginning to drown. After that moment of hesitation, he did decide to intervene, but by that point it was too late.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the heat of battle Darryl throws magic beans and one of them creates a pyramid which erupts and kills hundreds of people.
• Nobody Loves the Bassist: Turns out some bassists really enjoy this fact during the battle of the bands.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Sheriff Boreanaz, who also happens to look exactly like Season 2 of Angel-era David Boreanaz.
  • J. J. Abrams in the mini-series "At the Mountains of Dadness".
• Nonindicative Name: Walter the Immoral is actually a very good guy.
• No-Sell: As is standard for D&D 5th edition, the Big Bad has three Legendary Resistances that allow them to ignore the results of specific attacks against them. Two are used up when Willy infiltrates the dads' camp and is forced to No-Sell both Glenn's Brittle Mind spell and Ron's attempt to inflict him with the Mind Control bracelets; the third is used to save him from entering Ron's demiplane, though he is later pushed in anyway.
• No Such Thing as Dehydration: Henry: "We've forgotten to eat for two years!"
• Offing the Offspring:
  • Since the Big Bad Ensemble are the main characters' dads, every fight with them naturally involves them attempting to do this. Sometimes extends to them trying to kill their grandchildren, as they only need one for their plan.
  • More directly, Willy attempted to drown Ron as a teenager. This resulted in him drowning instead, which may be considered a case of Self-Made Orphan, as Ron deliberately chose not to save him.
• Production Foreshadowing: The Mountains of Dadness prequel.
  • Anthony makes it clear that Hildy is alive when she is thrown through the portal at the end.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: As in most games of Dungeons & Dragons, the player characters murder a truly shocking number of people in very grisly ways, but this is mostly glossed over by the story, even though they express horror at NPCs committing similar acts of violence.
• Pushover Parents: Henry and Mercedes Oak-Garcia are conducting free-range parenting with Lark and Sparrow. This is deconstructed by showing just how profoundly dangerous Lark and Sparrow have become due to this permissiveness, with their unchecked lust for violence bordering on psychopathic. Barry directly calls Henry out on this, with an implication that his parenting style has allowed the Doodler to flourish within them. Henry becomes more assertive towards them from then on.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • The purple robes tend to give the dads one of these every time they meet.
  • Henry also has a tendency to lash out and give one of these when he disagrees with one of the other dads(usually Darryl or Glenn) on some moral/ethical issue.
• Redshirt Army: The Bad Dog Mercenaries are professional, have 100% completion (if not success) rate, and are disposable soldiers.
• Reincarnation: Of sorts. Paeden has the soul of Darryl's father.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: The dads assume that their own dads died long before the story begins. In actuality, with the exception of Darryl's dad, they were instead dragged to the Forgotten Realms to become the purple robes.
• The Reveal:
  • The mummies in the pyramid are actually Henry, Darryl, and Ron's wives from the future who fell into a time vortex of magic looking for the dads and the kids.
  • The Old God threat from The Mountains of Dadness is named The Doodler.
  • The identity of the purple robes is an ongoing mystery for the first half of the series. In episode 28, the truth is finally revealed: They are the fathers of Henry, Ron, and Glenn (though Darryl's father is mysteriously absent).
    • The additional question introduced by this reveal is answered in the Supper Bowl arc: Darryl's father is in the body of Paeden, though his memories are sealed by the Supper Bowl.
  • In episode 44, Henry draws the Rogue from the Deck of Many Things, which curses him to gain an adversary somewhere in the world. In episode 59, it is revealed that this person is his own son, Lark Oak.
• Riddle Me This: Happens to the dads when they finally meet Scam Likely.
• Sadistic Choice: The dads have to play a game of truth or dare. Each time they fail to answer a truth or do a dare then they would lose thousands of gold worth of gems. The truths and dares cut at the core of who the characters are as people: Henry has to answer if he loves Lark or Sparrow more. Glenn loses his rock star ability and becomes a DJ for his least favorite band. Darryl has to answer why he isn't a good father. And Ron has to stop wearing pants.
  • The Purple Robes give Glenn the option to never have been Nick's father and bring his wife back to life.
  • At the end of episode 48 Glenn has to choose between execution or no longer being Nick's Father.
• Sadistic Game Show: The Tournament for Knights ends with a lot of people dead.
• Safe, Sane, and Consensual: In the BDSM bonus-episode, Mistress Hardball Coughdrop more or less explains BDSM to the dads in this way.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Most of the Mooks in the Final Battle flee after seeing what the dads are capable of.
• Self-Made Orphan: Surprisingly averted, given the Big Bad Ensemble are the main characters' dads. Willy is subjected to a Fate Worse than Death and Barry is brainwashed into being good. Glenn loudly expresses a desire to kill Bill, but he escapes the battle before Glenn can follow through.
• Shout-Out: Many. To name a few:
  • Geralt of Trivia in episode 16.
  • For Knights, the Battle Royale that the Dads participate in.
  • The For Knights announcer is explicitly said to be the Two-headed Podrace Announcer.
  • Snake? Snake? Snaaaaaaaaake!
  • Many of the episode recaps are shout-outs to other media.
  • Episode 45's recap It's time to du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-draw from the Deck of Many Things!
  • Episode 55's recap references Role, NADDPOD, and Brennen Lee Mulligan. All as better actual play D&D games
  • Episode titles are also shoutouts to other media.
  • Episode 54: A Game of Tomes
• Special Guest:
  • Ashly Burch as Dennis and Mark Likely
  • Jenna Strober as Ratticus Finch
  • Jimmy Wong as Jodie Foster
• Surprise Witness: During the People v Glenn Close the dads aren't notified of who any of the witnesses will be.
• Talking Animal: Near Oakvale.
• The Intern: Doug the unpaid intern from the Bad Dog mercenaries.
• The Old Gods: Fought in The Mountains of Dadness. And its name is The Doodler.
• The Trickster: Scam Likely.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Time moves differently in the forgotten realms.
  • Inside the pyramid the mothers from the future are already dead, but they are still alive when the daddies call them.
• Totem Pole Trench: In episode 3 The Lord of Chaos is actually Lark and Sparrow doing this. It doesn't last long.
  • Returns with their trip to Oakvale.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Darryl has a secret stash of Charleston Chews.
  • Paeden even finds his last one and returns it to him.
• Trapped in Another World: The four Dads getting sucked into the Forgotten Realms and separated from their sons in the process is what kicks off the plot.
  • When the dads try to drive home they are anchored to the Forgotten Realms by Daddy Magic.
• Unstoppable Rage: Darryl's specialty as a barbarian.
• Unwanted Rescue: Played with to varying degrees. After being sold into slavery, the sons don't appear to be in distress when the dads find them.
  • Lark and Sparrow ruled as The Lord of Chaos
  • Nick joins a gang that he is on good terms with.
  • Terry Jr. Is happy with a vampire who is pretending to be his biological father.
  • Grant voluntarily joined the game For Knights after surviving it already.
• Vague Age: Discussed by the players. The kids either have very different levels of maturity, or their soccer team has a wide range of different aged kids. The dads are also "dad-age."
• Voices Are Not Mental: In episode 56, the dads undergo a "Freaky Friday" Flip, with the twist that every player acts as the person swapped into their character's body, rather than their own character. This makes more sense in an audio medium, resulting in a confusing but hilarious mess.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Being a Dungeons & Dragons podcast, the heroes murder countless mooks over the course of the show, but this is only ever Played for Laughs with the exception of the pyramid in Neverwinter, where the survivors of the debacle return to criticize them.
• Wham Episode:
  • In "Carry On My Wayward Son", the usual hijinks of making silly jokes, a fight involving a 2-D dragon breaks out, and the Dads appear to be on the verge of getting away. Then the gavel comes down and Glenn is forced to decide if he will die, or stay alive but have reality re-written so that he has never been Nicks' father. He chooses to stay alive to spare Nick the trauma of losing another parent, and wakes up in a maximum-security prison, meanwhile the rest of the Dads discover Nick with a brand new father.
  • "Death of a Salesman" is even darker, as it is almost entirely a Whole Episode Flashback to Ron's horrifically abusive childhood. It's bad enough that Anthony feels the need to give a content warning not just to the audience but the players.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Though it has some preliminary scenes set in the present day, episode 62, "Death of a Salesman", entirely revolves around Ron's childhood memories, shown through a Journey to the Center of the Mind.
• Would Hurt a Child: "We did not think about how many children could get stabbed when we started this podcast."
  • Even the dads aren't immune to this trope when said child is a vampire.
• You All Meet in an Inn: Lampshaded in episode 30. The players decide to pretend to be a party of new adventurers. Anthony even says they see another party filled with a disproportionate number Rogues because nobody wanted to be a cleric.
• You Won't Like How I Taste: Attempted by some of the dads in episode 32 when Orcs begin cooking them.
  • Averted with Ron who said Henry tastes delicious.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: The daddies learn that time moves more slowly in the real world.
  • In the finale they learn it changes as objects pass through the universes.
• You're Not My Father: Terry Jr. to Ron.

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There was a time when you could read between the lines. No they never brought you down.

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