Here at GGA, we love Dungeons and Dragons. We love playing it, reading about it and watching others play it. And it looks like we aren’t the only ones! We recently had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with Chad Michael Collins about his upcoming live-play D&D game The Die Is Cast Gaming. Along with a great group of friends and fellow actors, the series will introduce us to an epic adventure set within the Border Kingdoms of the Forgotten Realms. Collins took the time to also share his love for fantasy and what he has been up to these last few years. Keep reading to find out more!
You can get a headstart on The Die Is Cast Gaming news and announcements by following their social media on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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Chad Michael Collins
Julia Roth: Let’s get this started! Everyone loves a good backstory. So, let’s hear yours.
Chad Michael Collins: Good backstory. We’re starting off with the D&D thing proper with the character backstory. Here’s my character backstory. I was born and raised in upstate New York. Eventually, I went to college out there, Ithica College before finding my way out to Los Angeles. I was a journalism major and got an internship opportunity with a Hollywood publicist, which was fun. Intern became an assistant, eventually became his partner.
I got into talent management a little bit with him…learned the entertainment industry from the business end of things. How it works at networks and studios with agents and managers and all these fun things. Then, I got into acting along the way as people had approached me from getting to know me and they put the bug in my ear, like “you ever…are you an actor? You ever thought about taking a class??” And I was like, “I’ll give it a shot,” so long story long, here we are. I’m an actor and I have no use for office life.
JR: You started moving into acting, but you also do a lot of voice acting. How did you slip into that role?
CMC: The voice acting has been a fun journey. I’m looking to do a lot more…I just enjoy the process so much. But I was able to star in a game called Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019, which ended up being a huge hit and very popular. Critically, commercially and that kind of was full motion capture, face capture, performance capture role and of course, the voice-over was me as well. That led to my character being put into Call of Duty Mobile, which is fun. From that point, I started to explore voice-over options, get the agent to learn what this arena is, learn about audio technical specs and gear and equipment, which is a whole different animal, as we know.
I’ve had a chance to do a couple of great audiobooks like The Power of the Dog, which is an immensely popular film adaptation that came out on Netflix, it’s all over award season right now. It’s been fun, it’s been a fun journey. I grew up in the eighties, so I’m a cartoon kid. And GI Joe and He-Man and ThunderCats, you name it. Any cartoon, I watched it. It was always very exciting to me to have the possibility of maybe one day getting to voice a character in an animated series, so we’re still working towards that and hopefully, that comes sooner rather than later.
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JR: If you could voice anybody? And it would make your entire life, who would it be?
CMC: Oh, my lord. That is such a great question. I’d love to voice a GI Joe character, whether that’s Duke or Falcon or Beach Head or Shipwreck. I’m not picky. As long as it comes from the GI Joe universe, that for me would be an ultimate bucket list item to be able to.
JR: We’ll put that out in the universe. It’s gonna happen. They’re gonna redo the series, you’re gonna headline it, that’s what’s gonna happen. Let’s switch gears a little bit. How did you get into Dungeons & Dragons?
CMC: I’ve always loved D&D. I grew up in a very small town in Upstate New York. A town of 2500 people and I grew up eight miles outside of that town in the countryside, so I, at a very young age, developed an affinity for fantasy. Reading Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and comic books were a huge part of my experience. I loved fantasy and would go into a KB Toys Store and they’ve got all this D&D stuff in the clearance rack and you’re like, “What is this?? That guy is rocking a sword and that looks like an elf lady!” and then I always picked up the books.
I would buy and read them because I was so fascinated by a game that could immerse you in fantasy. And of course, I’m playing Nintendo, I’m playing Legend of Zelda, I’m playing Final Fantasy. It just reinforces my love for that stuff, but I always had read the Forgotten Realms books, the novels, the World of Grey Hawk.
But as you know, D&D is a people game. And I had no people to play with. While I always loved it and was always aware of it, I had no opportunity to actually play it. Being in Los Angeles, meeting people who love D&D, play D&D all the time, four or five years ago I got invited to play my first game ever, The Lost Mine of Phandelver, with some friends and I got to be a player for the first time and I have never stopped. And now half of my schedule in a week is D&D-related.
JR: That’s fantastic! It’s a very social game. But, thankfully technology has made playing more accessible. I’m sorry you had to wait that long!
CMC: I know. I’m making up for lost time. But it’s time well spent and I could not love it more and you’re absolutely right, the way that it’s available digitally is incredible. I also played in the Adventurers’ League while I was shooting back-to-back movies in the Caribbean last year. For those 3-4 months that I was gone overseas, I hopped on the Adventurers League stuff every 3-4 weeks when they would offer it and if I was off that weekend, I would just play D&D! It was a great place to just sync up with a group on any campaign you choose from. I play games like that currently. I run a game now on Roll20 and I play an in-person game on Wednesday nights as well with some great people. I’m getting the experience every which way, which is so fantastic.
JR: Great! Let’s talk a little bit about The Die Is Cast Gaming. What can you share about that?
CMC: The pandemic was very good to me because it allowed me to play so much D&D. I ran games, I played in games, it was fun to stay connected to people through this wonderful game. Since then, I’ve always had the dream to put it out there for people to learn about the game, to watch, to observe, to have that interactive experience along with us because it’s entertaining.
I have always wanted to live-stream D&D and I found a great group of people to partner up with. Linsay Rousseau, who is a very accomplished voice-over actress in her own right and Jake Ynzunza who is a very experienced DM seemed very keen on the idea. The three of us got together and said, let’s do this, let’s find some talented people who come from an acting space and we could put this out there live and give people a unique experience whether they’re just casual players who just put it out there for fun.
As actors, we can breathe a certain kind of life into this game, into these characters that perhaps a lot of the other streams that are available can’t do, so we’re gonna launch in probably early to mid-April. Jake is our DM, he has home brewed an entire experience set in the Border Kingdoms, which he describes as the Wild West of the Forgotten Realms, so you won’t find it very much in the proper sourcebooks, but there’s a lot of stuff available on DMs Guild.
JR: That sounds fantastic. And it’s still enough of Forgotten Realms that people won’t feel lost.
CMC: Right. Exactly it. We’re not spaceships or anything like that, so it’s gonna pull on the same lore and have the same reference to Faerun, Forgotten Realms that people are used to, but at the same time, we’re just gonna do it in a whole different time and place. It’s gonna be fun and we’re gonna be streaming on Twitch. We’re lining it up, we got our technical director, we’ve rounded out our player group, I’m very excited about the players as well.
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I think they’re going to bring so much fun to the experience for everybody. And we also hope to be ambassadors to this great game that we love and to do a lot of Q&A streams, walk people through any questions they might have, teach them how to build a character, what the rules are and so we want to do a little educational, informational stuff as well as the actual immersive live-stream game and the campaign that unfolds.
JR: Okay, can you share who else is going to be at the table?
CMC: Uh, yeah. We have it locked into a wonderful actress named Andi Norris, whose well known in the motion capture world. I believe Milynn Moon, who’s a personality and a cosplayer with a lot of experience with D&D. We are still sorting out and locking that group in. As you know, with D&D, schedule is everything, so schedules become such a hard part, logistically speaking, to get these things going, but right now, that’s the core group as it stands. Me, Lindsey, Jake, Milynn and Andi.
JR: Do you have any bucket list people that you would want to play at your table?
CMC: We know a lot of people who play D&D and some of them are very recognizable, so we’ve certainly left this open to having some guest appearances and we are exploring that. There are so many wonderful people that we’ll be reaching out to to see if they can pop in. None of them are confirmed yet as we are still getting our ducks in a row, but I think that’s going to be a fun avenue to explore as we get going with this sort of stuff.
But in terms of a bucket list thing, I’ve read that Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine likes to play and Joe Manganiello’s game and Thor Knai runs that game and they’ve been all over the press for this Hollywood elite kind of D&D game. The creators of Game of Thrones go there. But, I grew up a Rage Against the Machine fan, so if I’m just throwing it out there as a bucket list player, Tom Morello would be pretty fun for me.
JR: Are you allowed to give us a little bit about your character for The Die Is Cast Gaming? Like do you have an idea about who you are going to be playing?
CMC: Yes, I am obsessed with knights. It’s all about the knights for me, so I’m going to be playing a character that’s designed to be a medieval hybrid of the acting roles I’ve been able to enjoy playing, like Alex in Call of Duty whose kind of an all-American hero-operator type, military-style and then I play a character called Brandon Beckett in the Sony Picture’s ongoing Sniper franchise that I’ve been fortunate enough to star in for the last ten years. It’s kind of a character, but we make it medieval-style, so I’m gonna play a Paladin, the ultimate protector, the ultimate sword-and-shield guy who is about justice and protecting his friends and everything else, too.
But I love Paladins, I love the marshal classes, that’s my favorite. If I have a choice between being the wizard and the front-line fighter, I’m gonna go front-line fighter probably 99% of the time. It just speaks to my sensibilities and I just have the most fun with those classes, so that I could tell you. I will be the “in yo face” Paladin in this campaign.
JR: They are fun to play. Any class of character that allows you to just pummel through stuff has become some of my favorite. I’ve played casters and there is just something about not having to worry about standing right next to an enemy.
CMC: I love it and the Paladin is great because combat is my favorite aspect of D&D. I love that chessboard, I love the strategy involved, I love running through your options as situations change. The Paladin is also geared towards the roleplay aspect, and I do enjoy that quite a bit. Paladins are a bit more social-friendly than the other smash-your-face classes. I play a barbarian in the Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign and it is a blast. But, he isn’t going to be the best at talking his way out of situations unless he is going to try and scare you into peeing your pants. The Paladin is the best of both worlds for me and I get to cast a little bit of magic here and there. It’s my bread and butter.
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JR: Can you share what the others will be playing in The Die Is Cast Gaming or is that a surprise?
CMC: I don’t know exactly. I think we’ve got a very handy rogue who will be joining us. There have been talks of a spellcasting-focused druid who will be joining us. That’s cool because who doesn’t like to eat Goodberries. I’m not clear on the other one or two as of yet. I made it easy for everyone and told them, ‘I’ll be the one charging in the front and you guys can do whatever you want from the back. Have fun!’
JR: I will be your meat shield. I think every group needs at least one of them. Outside of your upcoming game and D&D, what’s life like for you right now? Do you have anything in the works? Will we be seeing another Sniper film? When is the next time you get to hang out with Billy Zane?
CMC: Man, I love me some Billy Zane. What a cool guy. I have a movie coming out. It’s called Assailant and will be exclusively released on Redbox. It stars me, Poppy Delevingne, Casper Van Dien and Jeff Fahey. It’s a daytime thriller. The director, Tom Paton, decided to set this during the day. It is a chase movie about someone who is trying to stalk and kill you but takes place during the day and we get to see the contrast from nighttime horror thrillers. It turned out well and I am very excited for it when it drops on March 22. 2022.
I can’t say much about the Sniper stuff. I know stuff is in the works, but they like to let to the world know on their terms. So, until I get the green light to share, I will just hint that the world probably hasn’t seen the last of Brandon Beckett. We will reveal more when the time comes. Other than that, I have a few other movies coming out. Deadline just ran a nice piece on our movie Deadzone which I stared in with Michael Jai White and Jeff Fahey again.
I had a busy 2021 so now we are getting to see them all pop up in 2022. Plus, my character keeps showing up in Call of Duty Mobile which is fun and has introduced me to a whole new set of fans and gamers all around the world. I’m just trying to keep things going. Continue to find work, continue to scratch that nerd itch and then be ready for that GI Joe animated cartoon.
JR: It will happen! Netflix will jump on it and get Kevin Smith to direct it. It’s all going to work out. It’s been a great time chatting! Thank you for hanging out today and we can’t wait to check out The Die Is Cast Gaming when it drops in mid-April!
CMC: Thanks again! We hope everyone finds something to love in the series and we can’t wait to hear what people think!
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/amy-vorpahl-behold-her-dreams/
Who I Am: A nerd by the strictest definition. I enjoy diving straight into my favorite fandoms without a care in the world. I live on video/board games, fantasy movies and TV, and all things geeky.
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