“We All Play D&D to Escape Everyday Life:” Jason Charles Miller Muses on Dungeons & Dragons

Jason Charles Miller has been a force to be reckoned with in the music industry for three decades, but his talents go well beyond music. A prominent actor, voice actor and tabletop gaming advocate, there were a lot of fans who first came to know Miller after he wrote the intro music for Critical Role Campaign One. Known now as “Your Turn to Roll,” the evolution of this iconic song is a Critical Role cornerstone that even went on to shape the intro music for Prime Video’s animated Critical Role series, The Legend of Vox Machina.

Miller also hosted Geek & Sundry’s Starter Kit for a time, which laid out the rules of the game during a time when more people than ever were itching to learn how to play Dungeons & Dragons and can often be found at gaming conventions running TTRPGs that have players so invested they forget for a moment there are thousands of people all around them, looking on in awe as he orchestrates unforgettable adventures. Currently on tour for his latest single, “Digging in the Dust,” Miller took time out of his busy schedule to sit down with CBR and talk about music, gaming, and being in the right place at the right time.

CBR: Hi Jason! It’s so nice to finally meet you. I actually played D&D at the table next to you earlier this year at Gary Con XVI, and half of us were just marveling at the intensity of your game.

Jason Charles Miller
: Was I doing the Dome of Doom? That’s a new adventure I’ve concocted for conventions, which seems like a typical PVP until it isn’t. I don’t want to reveal the secret, but it starts off as PVP and ends up as something completely different.

I wanted to dive right in and start talking a little bit about your music, which… wow, you’ve been making music for thirty-plus years now. I’m going to be completely honest, one of the initial ways I was introduced to you and your music was through Critical Role. Shortly after that, there was actually a D&D livestream that same year, and you’d done all the music for it. I remember being blown away by how amazing it was. One of the things that really stuck out for me was just how well the music worked, especially with Critical Role Campaign One; it just fit!

Thank you.

Where did you find your inspiration? It just fit so well. Were there specific moments in the campaign, or was it something else? What inspired you to create that song?

The Campaign One theme was actually a theme that I had in my head for a long time and I knew it was sort of fantasy adventure-based, and I wanted to find the right project for it. And so, when Matt (Mercer) was telling me about Critical Role, I was like, ‘Do you need a theme song?’ So, I was literally in the right place at the right time. Luckily, everybody loved it. Then, forty episodes in they did a refilming of a proper intro, so I did a more extended orchestral version, and it was nice to be able to have different versions of it coming up.

At the beginning of Campaign Two, they said, ‘We would like something almost retro, disco like the early
Dallas
theme song, but still use your title.’ So, that was when I came up with that version. Later in Campaign Two,
Sam (Riegel)
approached me and said, ‘Hey, I took your theme and I wrote some lyrics on top of it and sort of changed some things around,’ which was great. We got together to hash things out, and that’s how it became “Your Turn to Roll.”

That eventually became the theme song for

The Legend of Vox Machina

with Neal Acree. So, it’s fun that this fantasy melody idea that I had just brewing in my head for years before
Critical Role
existed continues to live on in various different forms.

That’s amazing just seeing the evolution, how it just started in one place and continued to evolve and grow like that.

Can I just say that I am extremely lucky that happened. So I am just extremely thankful for my luck.

I think it’s luck and also talent. You’re incredibly talented. Even being in the right place at the right time, and knowing what you’re already capable of was a huge contributing factor. The fact that you all love D&D so much is also a major component. How long has the game been a part of your life? How old were you when you first started playing Dungeons & Dragons?

It’s hard to say, either eight or 10. My cousin first introduced me to it, and then I got the first red box Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. Then I started getting the AD&D stuff. I never really stopped playing. There was a time when I didn’t play too much 4e, but I played 3.5e and Pathfinder. When 5e came out is when I went back to really playing it. But I played lots of other RPGs, like
Gamma World
,
Star Frontiers
,
Traveler
,
Shadow Run
. I tried to play as many things as I could.

Vampire (the Masquerade) first edition used some Godhead song lyrics in one of their expansion books, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever to have that. I think it was just sort of well known among the people who knew that has always been something near and dear to my heart. When you have those things imprinted on your DNA it’s just something you don’t have to think about. This is part of your personality and your life.

I know you travel a lot, when you’re on tour and on the road like you are right now. Do you game when you’re traveling? Is that something you do to pass time?

It’s funny that you should say that because it’s so serendipitous that you are interviewing me today. Right when this interview is over, somebody from the
Java Game Haus in Jacksonville, Florida
, is picking me up, and I’m gonna go run a game over there. And then we’re actually doing a concert over there, we’re doing a storyteller style concert. Right now we are tour with Steel Panther, but they have a night off. We played Destin, Florida, with them last night, and we’re playing Fort Lauderdale with them tomorrow. They had a night off tonight. I didn’t want a night off, so I knew the folks at Java Game Haus, and I knew my friend Max, who runs Ancient City Con, which is this weekend. We won’t be here for that, but tonight, my game and our concert is sort of the official pre-party to the Ancient City Con.

I, in general, don’t have a lot of time to game on the road, but I have also recorded two episodes of the
Glass Cannon podcast
since I’ve bene on this tour. This will actually be my third gaming session in a four-week tour, so considering how busy we get, if I can game even once a week, that’s still pretty good odds.

Those are pretty good odds, especially if you don’t really have that extra time. In conjunction to that, thinking back to inspiration for music, how often when you’re playing or DMing, is there a soundtrack in your head about how you might make this world or that game sound?

You know, honestly, when I’m playing, I often have ambient music in the background, but I don’t really hear a soundtrack at the moment because there’s a lot of stopping and starting, rolling dice, checking for tables, rolling for damage, and that can all slow things down. So, I’m not thinking about a soundtrack necessarily while I’m playing, but then if I think back to what happened during the day, then i definitely do. If I’m scoring something, I definitely do.

But while I’m DMing, so much of my brain is being used to make sure everyone is having a good time because I am a people pleaser. I want to make sure everyone at my table is having an amazing time, so I put an incredible amount of pressure on myself to make sure that’s happening. So, the wheels are definitely turning at all times.

You used to teach celebrities how to play TTRPGs on Geek & Sundry with your show there, Starter Kit, which I think brought so many people an opportunity to get into something that wasn’t always accessible. Dungeons & Dragons was so taboo during the 1980s, and even into the ’90s because of the Satanic Panic, but even as I personally got older, I found myself wishing I had people to play and explore with. Then the Internet came along, and Geek & Sundry starts introducing people to Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop and Critical Role and your show that was on there. Suddenly, everyone wants to play D&D and that’s amazing. So, thank you for your contributions to that effort.

Hey, no, no problem. I mean, I don’t know if I had anything to do with it, but at least maybe it helped a few people learn. I know I’ve run into people in the most random of places, and they approach me and say, ‘Hey, I learned how to play D&D watching your show,’ or ‘I was trying to teach people how to play, but I didn’t quite understand how to explain it, so I sent them your show.’ The idea behind Starter Kit was that we wanted to make bite-sized consumable episodes that weren’t four hours in length so that you could learn what everyone else was watching. It was specifically designed by Sean Becker at Geek & Sundry, who was like, ‘Look, we have Critical Role, but if you don’t know the game of D&D, it’s harder to jump on board. So, let’s make a show that makes people jump on board and get more people into it.’

That’s great, and I am personally grateful for that whole time period in gaming because I think that was one of the catalysts that helped 5e succeed and bring D&D into everybody’s household, which is amazing.

I think so, too.

D&D has become such a life-saver for so many people, an outlet for creativity and expression, so it’s just a really exciting time to be a gamer. Now, I wanted to ask you one more D&D question before we dive in and talk a bit about your current tour and most recent single, “Digging in the Dust.” It’s a little bit of a fun question. If D&D classes and subclasses were a real world thing, would you consider yourself a straight up bard, or do you feel like you multiclass a little bit?

No, I’m a straight bard. I can’t do anything else well, honestly. I’m a klutz. I took kung fu for years, but I would probably go down in a fight quickly. If anything, maybe druid. I like being outside, so maybe I could be a bard/druid or a bard/ranger maybe, but I would have many levels in bard and only one or two in druid.

Just enough to cast that cantrip to make the flowers.

Yeah. The ironic thing is, I don’t like playing a bard in
D&D
because we all play
D&D
to escape our everyday life, right? So, I usually like to play a fighter or a wizard or a rogue.

Let’s talk a bit about your new single, “Digging in the Dust.” You’ve been getting a lot of attention for it, and with good reason! It’s a good song. It has that Americana vibe to it, the blurred boundaries between rock and country, which makes it really timeless. And that song, it’s great.

Oh my gosh, thank you. I love the fact that genres have really blended together in a lot of natural ways. We all have any style of music available to us now at our fingertips, and so, if you are a creative person, you’re going to like more than one style of music, and you’re going to try to blend them together in seems best for you. I feel that’s what I’ve done with this new album. I’ve blended rock, country, and even elements of metal into our sound.

What was the inspiration behind the song?

You know, it’s kind of inspired by relationships from long ago, maybe one or two or more co-dependent relationships I found myself in a long time ago. We pull inspiration from different things and times of our life, things that remind us of long ago. The idea that both parties know that it’s over, but neither can admit it, so they’re trying everything they can to recapture that feeling they had when they first got together, but it’s not happening. A lot of people can relate to that.

What’s interesting about the music video is that the director kind of flipped that and made it so that the love these two characters have together actually keeps them, or their spirits, alive until they can be reunited again. I try to make my lyrics—unless it’s about a specific point in time or story—I try to make my lyrics somewhat ambiguous, so people can apply what they are interpreting in it to their own lives, or how they want to interpret it.

When it comes to songwriting, I’m actually going to draw us back around to Dungeons & Dragons for my final question because I’m curious about whether you’ve ever had an experience while gaming, DMing, or maybe a character experience in-game that inspired you to write a song?

Absolutely. During lockdown, the company Codename Entertainment Inc., who puts out
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms
, they approached me about hosting a show. Then I pitched to them, ‘Why don’t we do a songwriting show. You guys are a D&D licensee, so you have the rights to every D&D character, so, let’s do a show where I write a song live with the audience where they throw suggestions at us. Every week it can be about a different character or monster or iconic place in D&D. They thought I was crazy a little bit, so we did one test episode. It went really well, so we signed a contract for ten episodes. We ended up doing 75.

So, from there, I went into the studio and recorded 27 of those songs, and now all those songs are in
Idle Champions
. If you go to play
Idle Champions
, and you click on the jukebox, you’ll hear all those songs we wrote during that time. We had a song that really reminded people of Voltaire, and so I called up Voltaire and asked him to sing on this song, and he did!

That’s amazing! Thank you so much for joining me today, Jason, it was such a pleasure, and good luck out there on the road on tour.

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  Dungeons and Dragons

  A fantasy roleplaying tabletop game designed for adventure-seekers, the original incarnation of Dungeons & Dragons was created by Gary Gygax in 1974.