The Adventure Zone Podcast Co-Creator, Clint McElroy on Storytelling, Family, and the Magic of Dungeons & Dragons

In this episode of the Director's Dungeon podcast, my wife Katie and I sit down with Clint McElroy, co-creator of The Adventure Zone, veteran storyteller, and longtime radio host, to discuss the power of Dungeons & Dragons as a storytelling medium.

Clint shares how his background in theater and improvisation has shaped his approach to running RPGs, the unexpected journey that turned The Adventure Zone into a global phenomenon, and his experiences DMing at D&D in a Castle inside England’s historic Lumley Castle. Along the way, we talk about family, creativity, and the unique way RPGs bring people together.

Episode Highlights

🎲 D&D in a Castle – Clint’s experience running Adventure Zone-inspired games inside a real medieval fortress.

🎭 Theater & Role-Playing – How Clint’s acting and directing background helped shape his approach to D&D.

📖 Storytelling & Character Growth – Why D&D characters (and players) should evolve over time.

👨‍👩‍👦 Family & Fantasy – How The Adventure Zone started as a family game and became a worldwide success.

🎙 Chris’ Journey into D&D – How the making of 50 Years of Fantasy led him to start playing for the first time.

Clint also reflects on how RPGs create safe spaces for creativity and self-expression, and we share some unforgettable stories from D&D in a Castle, including smuggling candy across borders and the infamous Slim Jim incident.

Listen Now & Connect with Us

🔗 Follow Clint McElroy:

• Website: The McElroy Family

• Instagram: @mrbethere

🔗 Follow 50 Years of Fantasy

• Website: 50yearsoffantasy.com

• Facebook: 50 Years of Fantasy on Facebook

• Instagram: @dnd50years

• YouTube: 50 Years of Fantasy Channel

✨ Join us for an episode full of laughter, insight, and the kind of storytelling magic that makes Dungeons & Dragons truly special.

Support the film at: https://www.50yearsoffantasy.com/fantasy-fund

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Produced by: Build Something Media

Transcript

(Music)

(...)

How are you? Eeee It's so nice to meet you!

(...)

Ahh, that guy, I know what that guy looks like. I'll take my face off. Noooooo!

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Well, now that we have this time, Katie. Yeah, I put out my adventure zone.

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Good job!

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Yeah, wait, let me, let me sign those. Digitally.

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Oh, come back, Chris, you big baby.

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Fine. Well, well, well.

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Hey, W-men!(...) Feeling great. I've been nuts.

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I've been nuts. Just living La Vida Loca.

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You hanging out with Ricky Martin these days?

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Dickie Martin, maybe, and that's more my generation.

(...)

Oh, no, everything's good. Had good holidays.(...) We, we've got my mom in a nice facility. That makes it sound like she's nuts,(...) which she is. But, no, we've got her in an extended care place. And so that was, that was a big, big issue in 24. But,(...) yeah, we're doing good. Just, you know,(...) every day is a winding road to, to quote "Rascal Flats" and somebody else.(...) How are you guys doing?

(...)

I don't know. Just, you know, we have kids, so like you were sick and then we were sick. You know, we're in that, woohoo, no one's alive.

(...)

And Griffin and Rachel have this thing where Henry goes to school, gets something, brings it home, gives it to them. They give it to Gus.(...) Gus gives it back to them. They give it back to Henry. You know, it's like the black hole of Calcutta there at their house in Washington.

(...)

So,(...) and remind me where you guys are. We're in Chattanooga. Chattanooga. Chattanooga, right. Okay. Yeah. So we're having an iron-ton. I wasn't going to make you drive to iron-ton. Now we visit wherever he's like, like somewhere else. Cool. Let's go.(...) No, why not? Let's, there's, we can set up a camera and like at a river and like, there's a taco truck. So it'll be great. No problem. Well, do it, do it in the summer. Yeah. I'll have my pool open. My wife makes, uh, I have to tell you this story. No, I probably shouldn't tell you this. This is not on the record, right?

(...)

I, I shared this story with, uh, my buddy, uh,(...) Brendan Pike. He's a, he's a filmmaker and he, uh, works for the Dan Patrick show, does all the videos for the Dan Patrick show and all this other stuff.(...) And, uh, he came down on a road trip. One time we were going somewhere to film a commercial I did with him and we, uh, we're driving around. And I told him about conjugal cheeseburgers.

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When Carol and I first got first got together, we had gotten together and afterwards she made the most amazing cheeseburgers I've ever tasted in my life.

(...)

And so I started calling them conjugal cheeseburgers. She'll say, what do you want? I want conjugal cheeseburgers.(...) And then her comeback these days is not with the trimmings that you want,(...) but, uh, so I told him about it. So she makes the best cheeseburgers and they're called the conjugal cheeseburger.

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That's fun.

(...)

I don't even know what to do with that. You walked right into, yeah.

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Don't open the door. I'll walk through it.

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Oh my goodness. So, um, we met you at D&D in a castle. Right. Yep.

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And so Katie didn't and I didn't know a whole lot. I did some, you know, basic research and she's like, do you know who's going to be there? And I said, who? And she said your name and I said, okay.(...) Again, who?

(...)

And so she filled me in and I was like, oh, now I am excited. This is really fun. You have to go find him. I think that you guys will really get along. I just feel like you will vibe. Go go go meet each other. And then the first night we met I gave him candy and we got into a fist fight. So I don't know why it was terrible. Not with each other.

(...)

You should see the guy that we took off. No, that's how I got that.

(...)

You know, Roughhouse, we took we took we used the well at Lumley and so there's now now there's another body.

(...)

That's what we did. Okay, I think the candy that he passed out like the candy that you passed out at your game. He brought back home to me and all of our children. He's like, you have click gave us this candy and everyone's going to love it. I filled a suitcase practically with candy because I kept bringing it free.(...) What are you gonna do? And you know, we and all the people in my group brought candy and tea cakes and shrimp flavored potato chips.

(...)

I'm sorry crisps that taste like prawns and it's called and people buy them with the name prawn on the bag. So love those Brits. Yeah, you know, we actually smuggled some some contraband into the country.

(...)

The guy who came with this DJ, he brought in Slim Jim's for his game that he read. Yeah, I know right.

(...)

And so luckily he didn't get stopped at customs, but he smuggled in some Slim Jim's the meat flavored stick and

(...)

and during his his game is Macho man Randy Savage your friend Chris Haightley got to try Slim Jim's for the first time. Lord and we never be the same. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah.(...) Well, they've asked me back for this coming fall too.

(...)

So yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

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This will be my third one coming up. I've done two D and D's in a castle or D and D in a castles

(...)

or D's and D in a ca- I don't know what it which it is. We're all D's and D'am in a castle. I'm not sure.(...) But I love it. I love it. So the adventures that you ran what were you doing at the end of your castle?

(...)

The first one the first time I did it I did a takeoff on the adventure zone told through the perspective of of Merle's daughter and son Davis and Mookie and it kind of springboarded off Merle's extreme teen adventures,(...) which was a a youth camp so to speak for for people learn how to be adventurers and it all kind of sprung from that in the in that one.

(...)

They they had to recover Merle. He'd been kidnapped and they had to go all through so it was it was all Taz adjacent, but you didn't have to know Taz to to have to play the game and it's funny. I had six people in the group and five of them were huge adventure zone fans and the one guy that wasn't was from the US and he even know and he kept saying now, I don't know these things. I'm going to be an I structured it so it wasn't but yeah, and then and then this time it was fun because most of the people I had.

(...)

I had I had five. I think this time and they all but one. It's an adventures on fans. So that was it was kind of cool not expected and kind of cool.

(...)

That is cool. Now, I believe Katie is obviously she's fan, but I think she wanted to tell you how she found you because you might enjoy that good because I'm lost. Yeah,(...) here is home someone please find that he's missed.

(...)

So one Chris wanted me to so I have I have adventures on books, but my very first one of the Macarola universe is actually saw bones. Yeah,(...) that's I work in clinical research. Oh, really? So like in oncology, so I used to sit and do data entry and read people's charts how they were doing with their treatments good bad, whatever and would listen to Taz because it's a nice take note. You know, like this is hard news. This is fun. Laugh laughter and yeah, I was like, this is so good and then I tried to take him to a ta a live task show who couldn't make it but saw my bam instead. I was like, it's it's so good. It's added.

(...)

My day is happier dealing and I did did they do saw bones as the pre-show for that one?

(...)

Oh, yeah, sometimes sometimes Sid goes along. Yeah, good boy.

(...)

And we and yeah, and sometimes sometimes it shmanners and sometimes it saw bones and it a couple of times it's been wonderful too. So I'm not describing it. I'm just saying that's the podcast that Griffin and Rachel do. No, the universe.

(...)

So I will suck him in. So I it's already started out.

(...)

So what did you I've run into him of in them? What did you bring me to all the games?(...) This is gone. And did you enjoy it? I did. It was a great time. It was a great time. Yeah, getting ready to start.

(...)

The Nashville is always a great way. Oh, yeah. Yeah, one of my favorite favorite live shows we've ever done. We did a Taz and we had we came up with a thing for live shows called hootie and the nannies and they are a a country music band in outer space and we used what lasers and feelings and did this whole game and we did it on the stage of the Rhymon in Nashville and I and then at the end of every hootie and the nannies we sing a song together as a family and it was first time it was space worms and one time in the joko cruise we did space oddity one time we did save a horse right a cowboy big and rich and and that's one of my favorite favorite I'll send you a picture. I have many pictures and you know, we dress in sci-fi cowboy gear and get up and sing and then I'm standing there singing this song and I'm thinking I'm standing on the same stage where Porter Wagner and Hank snow and Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton and it was awesome and you talk about what do they call it Pretender syndrome or imposter syndrome. Oh, yeah, I had serious imposter syndrome that day.

(...)

How are you know,(...) we what we do and it was packed and you're going through the here's the home church of country music and they've got all these plaques and all that said they must be mad. I really admit it's incredible though. I mean, did you ever think that that you would step on stage because of a silly little podcast that you do with your family? No, you know, no, I mean, I mean I I always I always kind of thought in the back of my mind that my boys would do something and you know, we were always in the periphery. We always you know, I directed a lot of stage shows and they were in a lot of them and I taught at Marshall University. I taught theater and acting at Marshall University and like I said directed a bajillion shows here local theater and you know, I always kind of thought well, they you know, they've got the chops to do it and I you know,(...) but how you going to get that break? How you going to get that chance and to come about it from a goofy ass D&D board but playing experience was insane, but I wouldn't wouldn't trade it for anybody's life. You know, it's with you. Do you think do you bring a lot of that theater experience to your D&D games now? Yeah. What skills do you think it boost your well number one, I think improvisation is is incredibly important when you're playing D&D for both the players and I think for the for the DMS you got to be able to think on your feet. You got to be able to change gears whenever you it's called upon and you can't you really can't work from a script you because especially if you play with us in adventure zone, you don't know what the hell is going to happen next and you know when we first started playing Griffin DMed from

(...)

module the minds of

(...)

Van Delver. Is that what it's called? Then anyway, and very quickly went off the rails and we kind of did our own our own thing and to be honest with you,(...) one of our main motivations was to screw with Griffin.(...) So if he presented a choice, we were going to take the most ridiculous one to mess with him because that's what families do.(...) But I think improvisation is extremely important character

(...)

presentation and creation. I think is is well informed by things I used to teach in an acting class of you know, character descriptions and you know, how you how you come up with a character figuring out their past their present their future taking tips from the script, which doesn't exist in the but building that character so that you have something to grow into.

(...)

I think one of the most important things that has to happen in a D&D campaign, especially the long campaigns like like we do it, you know D&D in a castle, which is, you know, basically three eight-hour sessions is characters have to change in every form of creative storytelling, whether it's drama or novels or poetry or whatever by the end of the work.

(...)

All the characters have changed in some respect in some way shape or form might be small might be huge.

(...)

And I think that is also reflected that that also is kind of a theater standard for good theater. At least if you're writing a play your characters are going to change and become somebody else by the time it's all done. So I think that's a strong theater correlation working with others collaboration man. Oh man. I mean theater is a collaborative art. So many arts are obviously film TV and music and so many are collaborative but theater I think is the most collaborative of all arts and and playing any kind of game like an RPG is is extremely collaborative if it's going to be successful. But it's not collaborative. It's not working.

(...)

Yeah, we so I don't know if you knew this but I actually started playing D&D this year started as we started making this film(...) kind of really fallen for it. It's a lot of fun. It's brought us closer together as a family and so hearing your story,(...) you know as we were interviewing you at the castle really kind of struck a chord with me personally because I get to I get to see that same sort of thing develop with my kids and my 15 year old I get to see him open up and kind of say things that I didn't even know were in him and that was oh man, you don't have a 15 year old you would have had to been five when the kid was born. We'll catch you both.

(...)

You're in for I I appreciate that but I do.

(...)

But no, I mean it's the fact that it that that there's this part of him that I that I get to now see and discover because of it. I'm sure that you got to see and discover as you were doing the pass, right? That's yeah, beautiful. Well, that's when I started I had never played D&D before I had never played and the boys have kind of back stepped from that but they hadn't played very much at all. And I never had which always seems to surprise people and I don't know how to take that statement. You never you you so mr. Sci-fi fantasy comic books what but I never had and so it was all really new to me and I was a terrible player. Oh terrible, but the difference for us.

(...)

I kind of came about it ass backwards or bass awkward says my dad used to say I came about a bass-acords because for us we started doing Taz it was really about the storytelling. It wasn't really about the game.

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And so we had different motivations. We had different goals when we started and still do you know, we may we make narrative decisions that aren't necessarily what is the best thing to be playing a game.(...) We try to make it a fascinating interesting fresh narrative

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story and that that was one of the differences when we started and and it still is and we make a lot of decisions based on(...) you know, is this a good story?(...) And we choose our seasons and choose our arcs.

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It's not just you know, this is a game we like and we kind of know this one.

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It's it's more of well, can we tell a good story with this?

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Right and so after that I tried to get better at D&D just for functionality sake because I think the better you are the more you know the game the more you can work, you know, the things you want to do to the game that you're playing.

(...)

Yeah, no, I agree. And that's what I've been also I've been learning that the past year and running games here at home and I've had the I've actually had the probably the wildest education. I think anyone probably could ever get through D&D. You know, it's my second game was with Ernie Gygax Jr.

(...)

Yeah, well, you know, it's saying Gygax. I'm trying to gee, Merry Christmas.(...) Was that pressure for you? No, it's fun. I love going into a situation and being kind of unaware because I don't have to have that that that all-struck moment. I get to talk to a person kind of on a human level first and I like that that makes it easier. I think to get into kind of the real story beneath this the history of whatever it is.(...) But you can't even how long you've been playing. Who's interviewing whom here? Oh, but I'm curious. How long have you been playing? I played a little bit in in college and taught people a lot of how to make their characters. I'm a little type A individual. So I love a form and a sheet.

(...)

But now we play as a family and it's a lot looser and very story-based.(...) He will design games that that I want to do puzzles. I'm a big. I was like a World of Warcraft player and stuff like that. Yes, me too. I love a side quest. Don't go in a dungeon. Yeah, I want to go. I want to do all the side quests. I'm getting my like flaming pony because I was a dwarf. Yeah, so I was like, that's my goal. Okay, like I'm solving every puzzle here. I'm collecting all the goods. And so that is my style of playing is a lot different than most campaigns, right? So so he designs games where like, okay, Katie, we're in an open room.

(...)

Proceed and I get to like, we got the children. Well, I like, you know, I'm really figuring out what's happening in the room. My children are blowing up things around me. Right. Like real life, you know, yeah.

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Oh, I've seen the Adams family. I know how it works. Yeah. Well, and see, that's one of the things I play World of Warcraft and I mean, I played all of those. I was one of those 3 30 in the morning realizing I had to go to work in 15 minutes at the radio station. Oh God.

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And so but and and I'm a completist that's that's what has really tripped me up. That's why it's taking me three years to play Elden Ring. And however long it's been is I've got to have every weapon. I have to find every piece of armor. And Travis said you can't you can't possibly do it. Watch me, but I can't. I'm doing Hogwarts Legacy. I think we're like you can be Hogwarts legacy really quickly. And I'm like, no, not again. Friend, no, there's so much. I look. Oh, look, a rabbit hole.

(...)

That man will crossing.(...) Oh goodness. I Lord. Yeah.

(...)

At one point I was on Animal Crossing Carol. My wife was on it. Our granddaughter Charlie was on it. Our other granddaughter another granddaughter Lydia was on it.

(...)

Henry is now discovered it but we would get on and go to each other's islands and I mean, it looked like family reunion.

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Seven nieces and nephews. And so we'll they'll come and look at Katie. Can we come to your island? I'm like, yes, I'll come to my island and then they always want to go shopping. Take a shopping fight. Yeah. Let me catch all your fish. I left my trash all on your beach. Bye.

(...)

Oh, that's cute.

(...)

Children.

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Yeah, they're delicious.

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Yes.

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You have a list of questions yet. Me?

(...)

Yes, you did you do any with you?(...) What is the difference between bread and unleavened bread? No, don't don't no.

(...)

Why is why is it that when you lose something when you do finally find it people say?

(...)

It's always in the last place you look.

(...)

Well, yeah, cuz you stopped looking or if you lose something and people say, well, where was the last place you had it? Well, if you knew the last place you had it, you wouldn't have lost it. Sorry. Those are my only two questions go for it. Mine are why do they call a driveway a driveway when you park in it? Mm-hmm and a parkway a parkway when you drive on it. It's called the plastic glass syndrome jumbo shrimp. What?

(...)

Yeah, sorry.

(...)

Welcome to tangent the imagination Channel.

(...)

Oh, this is fun.

(...)

All it makes me think about is how I make my Siri be British. So it's always like pulling to the parking garage. Would you like to go?

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I think on Tom shows they sometimes do clips. Would you like to see a clip?

(...)

Yeah. Okay, let's find. I'll find one. Hang on. Let's see.

(...)

And then we won't keep you much longer because you know, unless you want us to I mean, I'm fine with it. Well, I want to know what else is there anything else you're working on? Are there is there? I would be at her events something cool that you just think is neat. What what are you doing?

(...)

Always working on something.(...) Of course, the podcast is ongoing. I don't know, you know, exactly what you're going to do with this, but my we are currently in a season called Abnamals because we wanted to do a season that kids could listen to.

(...)

We have a lot of kids that listen to Taz.

(...)

But this was be one where with no cursing and you know, no(...) Deviant behavior and we've gotten I don't know 60% out.

(...)

But we're working on that. We're probably I don't know three-quarters of the way through that maybe more Travis is running that one. We are planning the next season.

(...)

We are getting ready to hit the road for our live shows.

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We're really excited about about that because we two seasons ago, we did Taz versus Dracula.

(...)

And it was huge.

(...)

It was extremely popular. Abnamals is to all the arcs. We've done have been very very popular but Taz versus kind of kind of struck. It was kind of us getting back to having fun with it and not worrying so much about anything else just making each other laugh, which is always our standard.(...) And so most of the live shows we've done since then have been versions of Taz versus we've done Taz versus Moby Dick. We've done Taz versus the great Gatsby. Well, because we have to go with public domain things.(...) So we do public domain and it's been a blast and we're going to continue doing that this season.

(...)

We've got the we've got the final Taz graphic novel final balance graphic novel that'll be coming out. It's double-sized.

(...)

And it's I think I think that's known if I know it probably everybody else does and we've got a few pitches out there to do some other things. We're always know we've got our hand in a lot of stuff. We do something called the McElroy Family Clubhouse and it's a live stream every Tuesday at noon.

(...)

And so we're working on that every week and it's yeah, my plate is more full now than when I was working full-time before I retired,(...) except I don't have to get up at 3.30 in the morning unless I'm already up from playing World of Warcraft.

(...)

So yeah, we've always got a bunch of stuff we're working on. I'm working on a couple of film projects and working on a novel actually of my own. So we'll see. We'll see what happens.(...) Yeah. Yeah.

(...)

It's a yeah, it's good to be busy when you're 69 years old. What a time. Nice. Yeah.

(...)

All right. So this is a bit of an extended clip. I'll probably cut some of it out, but I just want to know what you think mostly because you're awesome and I have your opinion. So okay.

(...)

Before video games and stream TV, we read these things called books and spoke to each other. We built our minds guided by our experiences and intuition.

(...)

The characters were new and raw and unlimited in possibilities.

(...)

And it was the 1970s shifting economic and social conditions saw factory workers throughout the American Rust Belt losing their good paying factory jobs as CEOs and politicians told Americans it was better to make all their stuff somewhere else.

(...)

And during a period when groceries are hard to come by, you can't imagine spending a lot of money on entertainment. And if you combine that with the rebellious ethos of the 1970s D&D fit in quite well.(...) It offered a new way to challenge traditional notions of entertainment and creativity appealing to those disillusioned with mainstream culture.

(...)

So it was a little bit strange in that aspect, but when you were at the dungeon, you were with your people, right? It didn't matter. You were in that group. You weren't those people. Everybody else was those people at that point as a matter of fact.

(...)

Finding a home.

(...)

For a lot of us who were a little marginalized when we were kids, right?(...) I mean, my group was my that was my friends. You know, that was that was that got me away from the bullies and the jerks and the mean people who because I was I was a little fat and you know, my name was Kim. That's a tough name to grow up with when you're you know, and all of that stuff. And but I do think that they gave us a place to go where we could be heroes not goats, right? Where we could be we could help save the world and change things for the better and you know, that was that was magnificent. The greatest thing about this game is that you can do it in all sorts of ways. There are so many different styles. You get lost in it and there's a lot of stuff like in your day to day life, whether it's you know, just world things or just your own personal struggles or you know, I have these tests or I have work. There are so many stressors in your life and when you end up playing you don't have to do that. You don't have to you get to forget for a second and you get to just fall into the story that you're telling with your friends and it's it's kind of a beautiful experience. (Music)

(...)

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is a tourist town frozen in time and overflowing with history from gangsters like Al Capone and Babyface Nelson to business and entertainment tycoons like the Pullmans and Hugh Hefner.

(...)

But it also served as a backdrop for a group of seven friends to sit around a table embarking on the challenge of an adventure(...) requiring cooperation communication and critical thinking. There it is right there. All right. We're coming up on it. 330 Center Street.

(...)

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson started as tabletop war gamers(...) controlling whole regiments of armies directing them through historical battles practicing strategy war and geopolitics while incorporating applied mathematics as a fair structure for competitive gaming.

(...)

Yeah, they're super nerds.

(...)

My dad was a complete gamer a nerd and to the fact that my mom hates games because it stole so much of his time and a lot of their personal time because he worked into the evening so much he'd fall asleep in his chair and then just go over to his little couch and pass out. It came out of wargaming, you know, and it became it was a guy's thing to do back in those days. So I was raised a war gamer and that was that was the only thing that was around. So now we're moving into less of the war games and more into the RPG games. It was seven. That was sort of the founding group. I think it was seven. Of course, Dave and and Gary being the the drivers and Gary of course being the primary driver of it.

(...)

I mean, they did they change the world and and really did change the world. I mean, there are people's lives who have been dramatically impacted change for the better because they played this goofy game and that's something I mean, that is something.

(...)

Wow.

(...)

It's a little light on me, but I was thinking the same thing. No, that's really good. Chris. That's really good. I like your use of archival footage. I like your drone shots.

(...)

Good audio quality on on interviews. That's that's some nice work. I want to keep watching.

(...)

Nope. So we're finished. Dang it. I am working on it. It's happening. It's that's what I keep telling him because I run the Patreon and I need clips.

(...)

I need a team that social media machine. Yeah, beat it. Keep those people happy.

(...)

I know. I know.

(...)

It's happening. Hey, thank you so much for your time Clint.