Four McElroys narrate a wizard battle-royale tournament across elimination trials on Octave Ziggurat.
The Adventure Zone is a fantasy role-playing show where dramatic quests keep getting mugged by table banter. Recent Royale episodes mix battle-royale stakes, spell-shop choices, revived rivals, and absurd character names into a story that can swing from graveyard dread to a hat joke in seconds.
PRESS PLAY
The Adventure Zone is a long-running actual-play podcast produced by the McElroy family under the Maximum Fun network. The show is structured as a narrated, multi-player tabletop RPG session: Griffin McElroy serves as dungeon master, while his brothers Justin and Travis McElroy and their father Clint McElroy play characters and improvise dialogue, jokes, and tactical decisions live at the table. The current campaign arc, The Adventure Zone Royale, reframes the format as a battle-royale-style tournament in which dozens of wizard aspirants compete through a sequence of magic-school trials — including elemental harvesting, abjuration, evocation, conjuration, and divination — with characters eliminated or killed off as the trials progress. Recurring elements include dice-roll outcomes (natural 20s and 1s), spell mechanics like Chromatic Orb and Fireball, and recurring in-world locations such as the Octave Ziggurat and the forbidden Crystallarium. Episodes are session-based and narrative in structure, alternating between staged combat encounters and unscripted comedic tangents, character bits, and callbacks among the three brothers and their father. Each episode typically closes with Maximum Fun housekeeping segments — pledge-drive updates, sponsor reads (Squarespace, Leesa), and charity shout-outs tied to the show's merchandise line. The show assumes some familiarity with D&D 5e rules but explains trial mechanics as they occur, making it accessible to listeners who aren't regular tabletop players. It suits listeners who enjoy actual-play and tabletop RPG podcasts, family-driven comedy, and serialized fantasy storytelling with persistent stakes like character death and elimination, rather than one-off bits. Production is unscripted and audio-only, centered on the four McElroys' live tabletop session rather than scripted narration or sound design.
Made for: Listeners of actual-play D&D and tabletop RPG podcasts who enjoy family-style comedic banter alongside serialized combat and elimination stakes.
What sets it apart: Unlike most actual-play D&D shows, it is run entirely by one family across two generations, sustaining a single battle-royale tournament campaign over dozens of consecutive episodes.
Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy from My Brother, My Brother and Me have recruited their dad Clint for a campaign of high adventure. Join the McElroys as they find their fortune and slay an unconscionable number of ... you know, kobolds or whatever in ... The Adventure Zone..
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The Adventure Zone makes wizard combat easy to follow while turning tactical choices, unstable alliances, and rules debates into character-driven comedy.
The Adventure Zone turns an actual play campaign into a wizardly elimination contest where alliances, rivalries, and survival matter as much as spell choices.
A wizard death tournament lets you fear every survival roll between aggressively stupid table jokes.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A haunted mansion trial turns undead survival into slippery alliances, kitchen panic, and sharp actual-play comedy.
The Adventure Zone Royale keeps tightening its haunted-house trial until every sensible choice looks a little suspect. The setup is clean: a dwindled field of wizards has to survive until sunrise while the undead press in, and the old ban on killing each other has been loosened…
A loose spell-shopping breather curdles into an undead survival trial with a sharp final turn.
A day off in The Adventure Zone Royale does not stay quiet for long. Hellgrammit starts by puzzling over a message written in his own hand that he cannot remember writing, then the table drifts into the kind of spell shopping that lets this show breathe: rules talk, jokes, odd…
Royale narrows the field to 12, keeps the fedora jokes alive, and ends with a grim fight for identity.
The Adventure Zone Royale hits that satisfying late-contest stage where the room suddenly feels emptier. Loravith is still standing on the bridge after punching Gracon hard enough to kill him, and the episode lets that consequence hang for a moment before swerving back into its…
A lethal conjuration trial gets loose, funny, and mean, with lightning, a split sea beast tentacle, and one filthy final indignity.
The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 19 stays inside the trial of conjuration, with the party split across the Octave Ziggurat and locked into chosen or assigned duels.
A post-trial breather turns team branding, fantasy drinks, and one botched prank into loose, funny campaign business.
The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 12 settles into the woozy aftermath of the evocation trial, with the party back from the swampy chaos and relieved to have avoided the kind of last-place finish that gets described, only half-jokingly, as death.
A rulesy, joke-dense elemental trial where spellcraft quickly becomes a fight over who gets to keep the motes.
The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 8 drops its players into the third Octave Ziggurat trial, where elemental motes have to be coaxed out of water, earth, and other primal stuff before someone else gets a hand on them.
Post-trial relief turns into key politics, brittle manners, and one nicely ridiculous burst of fire.
Taz Royale comes back from the trial of abjuration with all three heroes inside the Ziggurat, alive by a narrow enough margin that the relief still has singe marks on it. The fun is in watching survival curdle into etiquette.
A timed wizard trial lets The Adventure Zone lean into rules comedy, scrambling strategy, and looming disaster.
The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 4 stays in the thick of a wizardly trial, with a clock over the ziggurat ticking down toward a falling fireball and the players still trying to gather the keys they need before time runs out.
A continuous Fabula Ultima actual-play campaign following one party through the world of Perpetua.
An ensemble cast plays teen superheroes through Masks: A New Generation campaigns and guest one-shots.
A recurring cast plays full Pathfinder 2E, Shadowdark, and Pendragon campaigns session by session.
A Dungeon World actual-play campaign following three comedians battling villain Callum Blackhammer.
Twelve wizards try to make it to sunrise.
Hellgrammit gets a day off.
The Adventure Zone Royale hits the survivor count squeeze.
The duel keeps slipping off-script.
This episode of The Adventure Zone Royale continues a fantasy battle royale narrative where characters engage in magical duels and strategic combat.
This episode features a fundraising appeal for the Max Fun Drive followed by a narrative segment where characters face a magical trial involving duels with life-or-death stakes.
This episode features a promotional segment for the MaxFunDrive fundraiser followed by a narrative recap of previous events in the Taz Royale story.
This episode begins with a promotional announcement for the 2026 MaxFunDrive, encouraging listener support for the show, followed by introductions from the hosts Justin, Clint, and Griffin McElroy.
The episode begins with a MaxFunDrive pledge drive announcement before continuing a fantasy RPG campaign with comedic improvisation.
The McElroy family plays a fantasy tabletop RPG with comedic improvisation.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG campaign with comedic improvisation.
Third place still beats getting fired from life.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG with comedic improvisation and a fantasy adventure storyline.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG, combining humor and fantasy adventure.
This episode of The Adventure Zone Royale continues a fantasy competition where teams must harvest elemental motes and weave them into warriors, following a sponsorship message for the MaxFun Drive.
The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 8 centers on the third Octave Ziggurat Trial, where Trace explains a 10-minute elemental harvest for fire, earth, water, and nature motes.
This episode of The Adventure Zone Royale includes a fundraising appeal for the MaxFun network and continues a fantasy narrative with character interactions and magical elements.
The McElroys announce new live shows for MaxFun members, including TAZ vs.
Second trial over.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG, mixing comedy and fantasy adventure.
Fifteen minutes remain.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG campaign with comedic improvisation.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG campaign with comedic improvisation.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG campaign with comedic improvisation.
The McElroy family plays a comedic Dungeons & Dragons campaign, with this episode featuring a parody of Romeo and Juliet.
The hosts promote the MaxFunDrive fundraiser while setting up a scene where characters approach Dr.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG campaign, mixing humor and fantasy adventure.
The McElroy family promotes the Max Fun Drive and begins a comedic roleplaying session at Barker Innovations.
The McElroy family plays a comedic Dungeons & Dragons campaign, with this episode featuring a grease fire and a robot encounter.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG, mixing humor and fantasy adventure.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG campaign with comedic improvisation.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG, combining comedy and fantasy adventure.
The McElroy family plays a tabletop RPG called Abnimals, where they engage in a comedic superhero-style confrontation.
The episode begins with a MaxFunDrive pledge drive announcement, then transitions into a narrative about the 20-year anniversary of the last sighting of the Greenback Guardians, a superhero team.
The McElroy family introduces their kid-friendly actual play podcast, joking about avoiding profanity and setting up a fun story.