Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Tartan Tabletop: A Dungeons & Dragons Comedy
Tartan Tabletop
Genre: Comedy, Improvised Theatre
Venue: Bramley at Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Tartan Tabletop: A Dungeons & Dragons Comedy is Scotland’s answer to the Critical Role phenomenon – a live D&D game where guest comedians dive head first into ridiculous characters and let the dice decide their fate. Different every night and full of anarchic energy. Whether or not you’ve ever rolled a d20, this is one quest well worth joining.
Review
Comedy outfit Tartan Tabletop: A Dungeons & Dragons Comedy is Scotland’s answer to the hugely popular Critical Role style roleplay experience. For those not in the know, this means a live game of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D from here on out) with hand-picked comedians who use their improv skills and lack of inhibition to inhabit characters that have a Race, Class and fleshed out background (usually chosen in conjunction with the Dungeon Master – DM from here on out). The DM then guides them through whatever the quest of the day is. Typically, this is a ‘one-shot’ quest – a mission designed to be completed within the hour. D&D games can be a wonderful experience when played with friends – heartbreak, questionable decisions, poor dice rolls and terrible accents all usually feature. With comedians, however, it goes up another level.
One of the guest comedians played a Rogue (a sneaky, thief-type role) octopus masquerading as a human, named Inkburt McSquirt. With this level of silliness on offer, the quest itself fell quickly to the wayside as the DM smartly let the four other comedians run with the chaos. This evening’s goal was a shipwreck and rescue aboard the good ship Soggy Biscuit, with Captain Fatherfigure at the helm and his ragtag crew of miscreants in tow. Together, they plumbed some seriously deplorable depths – we’re talking adopting an adorable orphan and then two minutes later, choosing not to save him from falling overboard kind of deplorable – all in pursuit of completing the mission.
This time though, completing the quest in one go was not on the cards. Perhaps that is part of the marketing strategy to encourage audiences to return. The DM promised it would conclude the following night and if you could not make it, then it would be summarised on social media. In truth, the incomplete story didn’t matter: people were there for the laughs and they came thick and fast thanks to the quick wit and brilliant ebb and flow between the five improvising comedians. They looked like they were having a wonderful time. Given rich source material and the freedom to do, say and roll for literally anything, the results were consistently hilarious. Live D&D with guest comedians is not a novel concept at the Fringe but like any improv troupe it’s different every night – and that makes it exciting.
Tartan Tabletop: A Dungeons & Dragons Comedy deserve to be far better known and their growing online presence suggests they are on the rise. You don’t need to be a nerd or even know anything about D&D to enjoy the show. You might, however, need to leave your ethics and sensitivities at the door – because when comedians and dice collide, absolutely anything can happen. If you are torn over whether or not you will have a good time, roll the dice – the odds are in your favour.
