Watch Party: Sunday Spy Club

Background

How did I end up watching Sunday Spy Club?

After watching some of Into the Mother Lands RPG in 2020, I started following Krystina Arielle on social media. Which is how I first learned about PixelCircus. This past summer, Krystina posted about playing in a miniseries with Mica Burton (who I first heard of through Critical Role). What caught my attention next, was their branding. It reminded Power Rangers mixed with 2000s animated spy shows (Kim Possible, Totally Spies, or Powerpuff Girls, anyone?) Then, while at Comic-Con in July, I attended a panel which included Saige Ryan, founder of PixelCircus. Saige discussed her perspective on the creator economy and the growing TTRPG media space. Needless to say, her words encouraged me even more to check out their show, Sunday Spy Club.

Character Building

Game Master (GM) Mayanna Berrin kicks off Episode 1 with a bang. She immediately drops the four players into a chase scene. Tag-teaming with their GM, the players describe their characters and what they’re doing. By introducing a mechanic or two, viewers can start guessing which class they might be playing.

Each of the four characters leans into a stereotype. We have Becca Scott playing Malware, pushing up her glasses and explaining incredibly nerdy solutions. I’m pretty sure she’s a wizard class. Mica Burton plays Tori, Daddy’s princess who puts beauty before brains. I think she’s a warlock. Krystina Arielle plays Tinsley, the All-Star, striving past perfection in both sports and academia. At first I thought she was playing a paladin, but by the end I’m pretty confident Tinsley is actually a cleric. And last but not least, Saige Ryan plays Summer, who reminds me of some of my high-achieving classmates from undergrad. She quotes her as a pre-law student, and notes Summer’s class is a bard.

My Experience as a Viewer

As someone who has watched and listened to a handful of actual play tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), a few things stuck out in particular with Sunday Spy Club.

1. The episodes all are under 2 hours long. This means I can watch them in one or two sittings, without feeling like I need to dedicate a whole evening to them. There is editing for (seemingly) the sole purpose of shortening the watch time. When listening to a podcast, you can set your player to eliminate/trim silence. I’m under the impression that PixelCircus does something similar to that post-production for Sunday Spy Club. They also cut out some awkward in-between time, as a player decides what to do next, and stretches of silence.
   
2. Characters are fun and find complexity despite the playtime only being about eight hours in total. Because each character leans into modern-day stereotypes, it’s easy to ‘fill in the blanks’ and assume some backstory elements. This adds a perception of depth to the characters, without the players needing to spend hours (or days) developing these backstories in real time. For example, some comments Tori makes about her father and access to his credit card. These fleeting moments provide hints about what her family life may be like, and how she differs from her friends. Leaning into these stereotypes also allows the characters opportunities for growth in just four short sessions.
   
3. There is a complete story arc with a satisfying ending. In storytelling, how the tale wraps up often leaves the most lasting impact on the listener. I remember many English essay topics asking us to reflect on the ending of a book or movie. When I’m asked how I enjoyed the Game of Thrones HBO series, my entire perception is tainted by how it ended. Six of eight amazing seasons, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and all I can think of when someone asks me about it is how disappointing the end was.
   
   TTRPGs are almost all improvisation. It’s difficult to get the ending you want without the GM “railroading” the players. This is especially the case when you only have a limited time to play out the adventure. I enjoyed how GM Mayanna navigated getting the players to an ending that felt right, without making it feel forced. She gave them enough space to have fun and make stuff up, but kept them on track too. Mayanna provided players with time at the end of the adventure to tie up loose ends to their character’s arcs.
   
4. The use of sound effects was fun and kept things immersive. While special effects can often come off as gimmicky, I found the voice modifications and sound effects gave the show some extra goofy fun.

Gameplay Mechanics

Other than Critical Role, I’m used to watching or listening to actual plays where the cast discusses gameplay mechanics more. Whether they’re playing D&D or another TTRPG, I tend to see players introduce who they’re playing, what class, race/ancestry, and sometimes some other background at the start of the first episode. Often the GM will talk about their homebrew rules/classes, the setting, or adventure background.

Spy Club jumps right into the action. It’s not even clear what level they’re playing at. (I’m guessing they’re level 5 because Tinsley uses a third-level spell at some point, and Becca laments about using up her limited resources). Mayanna has a few homebrew rules that come up, which she explains on the fly. And she asks the players to read out mechanics of a few spells they cast. But other than that, you could almost miss that the game they’re playing is D&D.

I liked Mayanna’s home rule about critical hits so much that I’ve now adopted into my own games.

When a player rolls a critical hit, the target takes the maximum damage on the dice from a regular hit plus the rolled amount of damage they would normally take. 

For example, if a player gets a critical hit with their greatsword, they would do 2x6 (maximum hit dice amount) plus 2d6 (rolled) plus strength modifier's worth of damage. Instead of a random 4d6 + str. The first way has you getting at least 14 plus strength on your critical hit. The second way, rules as written, could theoretically have you getting as low as 4 plus strength, which is so very lame for a critical hit.

Instead of making the players roll for everything they wanted to do, Mayanna would often ask them to describe what they wanted to do in more detail and then just say “yeah, okay”. The game felt forgiving, but I think that’s the vibe they were going for.

Mayanna also had the players roll for persuasion on the GM a few times, which was fun. She also did a great job in providing players with individual vignettes. There were a few scenes where not all four players were in the same place at the same time (they seemed very okay to ‘split the party’). I thought Mayanna balanced the ‘screen time’ well in going from player to player.

Finishing Thoughts

I would recommend anyone who’s considering dipping their toe into the TTRPG, D&D, world to watch Sunday Spy Club. It’s also great entertainment for folks who enjoy actual plays but are looking for something a little different. Spy Club is a great example of using D&D as a platform for gameplay very far from the typical high fantasy we’re used to seeing.

I do wonder if younger generations get as much enjoyment out of it. There are a lot of references and callbacks to early 2000s television and movie bits. I came for the millennial memes (like sharks with fricken laser beams on their fricken heads) but stayed for the high-quality entertainment and feminist themes.

Thanks, PixelCircus!