The Game of Rassilon began life as a series of live shows billed as The Game of Rassilon: Funny People Playing the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game at two California-based Doctor Who conventions.
Format[]
Conventions[]
Live shows at conventions take a different format that predates the podcast. For convention live shows, each player picks a companion and Doctor from the run of Doctor Who, and at the top of the game Ben Paddon, serving as DM, rolls dice to determine who will be playing as the Doctor, with everyone else assuming their selected companion characters.
Live shows taking place at conventions are not considered canonical to the podcast, though the Gallifrey One 2018 Live Show is notable for marking the debut of the Somnivores, and the events of that live show are alluded to in Lethargica, in which the Somnivores make their podcast debut.
Other[]
Outside of conventions, live shows typically feature the characters from the podcast in stories set between other adventures from the podcast. For instance, the live show Roll For Initiative takes place between The Inside Job and The Russian Worm.
As the live shows predate the podcast, the core podcast group would not participate in a live show together until Gallifrey One: 30 Years in the TARDIS in 2019. Prior to this, however, Dan Peck and Michael Nixon had appeared in live shows prior to this.
A free online streaming live show, The Search for Fnarg, took place on March 27th, 2021. The show streamed on the Game of Rassilon YouTube channel. It was later released in edited form on the main podcast feed.
To date, all non-convention live shows are canonical, but have not featured elements which impact the ongoing narrative of the podcast.
List of live shows released as podcast episodes[]
| Show Date | Episode Release | Title | GM | Players | Characters | Enemy | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-08-23 | 2019-11-06 | Roll For Initiative | Ben Paddon | Michael Nixon Dan Peck Riley Silverman |
Slough Birdslinger Travis Killian Riley!Doctor |
The Keepers | First live show not held at a convention. |
| 2020-02-14 | 2020-05-20 | Valentine of the Daleks | Ben Paddon | Christopher Jones Drew Hamilton Michael Nixon Dan Peck Riley Silverman |
Second Doctor A Third Doctor Ian Chesterton Craig Owens Tegan Jovanka |
Daleks | First Gallifrey One live show released as a podcast episode. |
| 2021-03-27 | 2020-05-26 | The Search for Fnarg | Ben Paddon | Michael Nixon Dan Peck Riley Silverman Châu Kate Lê |
Grarg Travis Killian Carrie Vu Riley!Doctor |
TransMat Pad Bootleggers | Livestream show. The VOD is also available here. |
| 2022-02-19 | 2022-03-09 | Time Squared | Dan Peck¹ | Michael Nixon Ben Paddon Riley Silverman |
Roman² Eleventh Doctor Donna Noble |
Various |
¹ Dan Peck is the first person other than Ben to GM a live show.
² This is the first appearance of a character originating from the podcast to appear during a convention live show.
List of other live shows[]
Each entry shows the participants and which character they played as. The player marked in bold was selected as the Doctor in that particular game.
| Date | Event | GM | Players | Characters | Enemy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2016 | San Diego Who Con 2016 | Ben Paddon | Ray Bender Samma Jones Mazz Mazzacano |
Jack Harkness Donna Noble Tenth Doctor |
Daleks |
| 2017-02-17 | Gallifrey One: 28 Years Later | Ben Paddon | Christopher Jones Dan Peck Lauren Peck Joseph Scrimshaw |
K9 Twelfth Doctor River Song Peri |
Weeping Angels |
| 09-2017 | SD Who Con 2017 | Ben Paddon | Ray Bender Mazz Mazzacano Paul J. Salamoff |
Jack Harkness Amy Pond Fourth Doctor |
Weeping Angels |
|
2018-02-16 |
The 29 Voyages of Gallifrey One | Ben Paddon | Christopher Jones Michael Nixon Dan Peck Joseph Scrimshaw |
Nardole Turlough Jack Harkness First Doctor |
Somnivores |
| 2018-10-21 | SD Who Con 2018 | Ben Paddon | Drew Krassowski Lynne Martens Mike McFly Mandy Oquendo |
Twelfth Doctor River Song Rory Williams Mandy's Dad, Eddie |
Somnivores |
| 2019-02-15 | Gallifrey One: 30 Years in the TARDIS | Ben Paddon | Melinda-Catherine Gross Michael Nixon Dan Peck Riley Silverman¹ |
"The Stranger" Doctor Cushing Doctor Tenth Doctor King James I / Missy |
Missy |
¹ To celebrate Gallifrey One's 30th annual convention, this show was dubbed an "anniversary special" and so became a multi-Doctor story with the dice roll determining who would play as a non-Doctor character. For the purposes of the narrative, however, the dice-roll was faked to ensure Silverman would be selected as the Companion. The actual dice roll instead determined which character Silverman would play as before being revealed as Missy in disguise.