Magic & Stuff is an exciting liveplay Dungeons & Dragons series created by Elisabeth Riley and Meredith Kesh, who saw a need for diverse voices and content that could be more accessible to the D&D curious. Elisabeth Riley, who started playing D&D during the pandemic, had the idea after being surprised at not being able to find D&D content that felt welcoming for someone just starting to explore TTRPGs (that stands for table top role-playing games!). She pitched the idea to the Lab, and Meredith - a long time D&D player - was the first to see the potential, and together they fleshed out the concept adding in animations and explainer tips to help viewers both visually and with gameplay rules. They knew they needed a director who understood their vision and knew the game well, and found the perfect match in Derek Benig, a director experienced with creating D&D content who loved their idea from the jump!

With an all queer, female-identifying cast, varying levels of experience, and animated segments and gameplay explanations throughout, this show is friendly to newcomers and a breath of fresh air in an often male dominated genre that can feature hours-long unedited content.

Magic & Stuff also brings in a lot of firsts for the Animation Lab - our first mixed live-action/animated show, our first foray into longform content, and our first gamer focused content.