D&D Campaigns Merge Fantasy with Political Resistance
Just before election day, six Los Angeles city council candidates stood on stage at Hollywood's Fonda Theatre. They weren't there for a debate or a black-tie gala but to play Dungeons and Dragons. Comedian Brennan Lee Mulligan guided the politicians through a short D&D campaign to defeat corporate villains and an evil dragon. Hundreds of fans pledged additional donations up to $150 each to give the candidates an "auto crit" for maximum damage to the dragon.
"Most people want to be tapped and told how to help," said Mulligan, a longtime DSA member and dungeon master of Critical Role and Dimension 20. "Then, lo and behold, there's this new way to participate, bringing the platform I have to bear." The DSA-LA show raised $30,000 for the city's primary election in June; five of the candidates onstage either won re-election or advanced to the general election.
A Growing Movement of Tabletop Activism
This event is part of a wider resistance movement by players of D&D and other tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) against the current political climate—ICE raids, attacks on transgender rights, and the rise of artificial intelligence. Over the past few years, groups across the country have played TTRPGs online and in person to raise money, develop games expressing frustration with the federal government, and instruct people on how to help those most impacted by its policies.
"There are different archipelagos of the fandom, but what unifies each and every one of them is that they are very responsive to calls to action from the people who are there watching and feeling that they're in community with," said Emily Friedman, an English professor at Auburn University who teaches classes on D&D and TTRPGs. "They feel like this is a space that is welcoming them."
Safe Spaces and AI Resistance
Many TTRPG organizers and creators say these role-playing games align naturally with resistance. In D&D, a dungeon master and players determine human-created stories and characters—aspects many do not want to relinquish to AI. In 2023, D&D's parent company, Wizards of the Coast, banned the use of AI to develop and create art in the game. Comparatively, 90% of video game developers used AI in workflows, according to a 2025 Google Cloud survey.
"One of the appeals of a game like Dungeons and Dragons or tabletop role playing is to disconnect and use real imagination," said DSA-LA member Andoni Elias-Nava, the primary organizer of the Los Angeles event. "The left is facing these AI attacks from the corporate elite, the billionaires—they are just all in on these deceptive tactics, making it feel like a D&D game."
Many D&D and TTRPG players also relate to attacks against marginalized communities. While early D&D players were often white males, the game has always attracted people who feel like outsiders—including people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and neurodivergent people—because players band together against evil, creating belonging and a safe space.
Actual Play and Fundraising Success
"Actual play," the performance of TTRPGs for an audience, became popular thanks to Critical Role, a series featuring eight voice actors playing long-running D&D games that debuted in 2015. It has garnered over 2.8 million YouTube subscribers, two successful animated spinoffs on Amazon Prime, and the Critical Role Foundation, a non-profit established in 2020. Over the past six years, the foundation has raised nearly $5 million, supporting a wildfire recovery fund in California, aid in Gaza, campaigns to end childhood poverty, and more.
"The progression of what this has turned into has blown all of us away, but it has grown so much because of the community," said Ashley Johnson, the Critical Role Foundation president and longtime cast member.
Popular D&D player Jes Wade's ChariTTRPGs initiative has more than 1 million YouTube views and has raised more than $1.1 million since 2021 through Twitch livestreams and selling bundles of creator-donated games on Itch. Fundraisers benefited charities such as the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, and Trans Lifeline.
"It led me to connect with incredible people in the community who sometimes wanted to be able to give back but didn't have the experience to do it on their own," said Wade, who goes by Jes the Human online. "Maybe they don't have hundreds of dollars to donate, but they have this game that they've put their love and soul into, and they can at least donate that."
Innovative Charity Livestreams
In April, the Brooklyn-based TTRPG company Twice Rolled held a charity livestream called Operation ICE Breaker on YouTube, raising $3,000 for the National Immigration Law Center. With each $75 pledge, the entire actual play group interrupted the story to yell "Fuck ICE." Donors also received "Bleed," a mini TTRPG designed as a zine to inspire players to "be a kickass fascism fighting machine" in the real world.
"It walks people through the emotional steps of 'I have done this hard heroic thing at a table surrounded by friends, and that's something I can do in other places,'" said Linnie Schell, an author and Twice Rolled's director of creative development and production. "It's all just getting people to take that first step to help."
Political Nature of Games and Platforms
With forces of good and evil battling, the games themselves and the platforms they're on are inherently political, said many players. "The big illusion would be to pretend that fantasy doesn't reflect our values or doesn't describe a relationship between people and their surroundings—it does," Mulligan said, noting that Star Wars was inspired by the Vietnam War.
Last year, the online RPG marketplace Drive Thru RPG removed 9th Level Games' Rebel Scum, an anti-fascist space drama inspired by Star Wars, for having "overt political agendas or views," citing a line about punching a space "Republikan" in the face. For nearly a year, 9th Level Games tried to work with Drive Thru RPG to reinstate the game but ultimately refused to remove the line and sold more copies through its site and Itch. "We're trying to create games that matter," said Chris O'Neill, the game's creator, who is working on Portland, Oregon Trail, an anti-capitalist take on the classic '90s video game.
Breaking Ties Over ICE Surveillance
Earlier this year, Rough Magic Games planned to run D&D and TTRPG games at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. Then, they discovered Relx, the event's parent company, also owned LexisNexis, a data and analytics company ICE used for surveillance. Rough Magic Games ended the partnership and started its own Chicago Charity Con Crawl, raising more than $1,500 for Organized Communities Against Deportations.
"We had a conversation with our community in the Discord about it, and a lot of people were concerned about us leaving this contract behind that we were going to lose visibility," said Tara Bouldrey, who handles operations for Rough Magic Games. "But what it comes down to is, our rooms are safe places for our people, regardless of background. As long as you've come there in good faith to connect with others, we want to keep you safe in all possible ways."
