"Blaine! Ken! Sarah! Sark! Don't forget Gerry!"
Each week, under dark of night, a group of warriors lead by Brian Posehn gather to play Dungeons & Dragons, and you’re invited to attend!!'
Nerd Poker: Dungeons & Dragons with Brian Posehn & Friends is a comedic roleplaying podcast featuring Brian Posehn and his comedian friends on the Earwolf Podcast Network. The cast consists of five adventurers who were brought together after the hijacking of the pleasure cruise liner known as "The Queen's Laurel" by mysterious beings known as "the Collectors."
- Amarth Amon, played by Brian Posehn, is a goliath barbarian that comes from a viking village and sets sail on The Queens Laurel in search of new villages to plunder and destroy.
- Blackee Green, played by Blaine Capatch, is a half-elf warlock who treated himself to a pleasure cruise so he could get away from the light pollution of civilization and see the stars. Because Blackee Green is worth it.
- Bartho Shett Boral, played by Ken Daly, is a Dragon born fighter of privilaged royal lineage. Bartho Shett decided to take a pleasure cruise on The Queen's Laurel for several reasons, including having people wait on him and because he could afford it, but mainly to just get his Drag on.
- Mildred Maxxton, played by Sarah Guzzardo, is a Dwarf fighter from a religious family that boards The Queens Laurel in order to broaden her horizons and see the world. Unfortunately, the world doesn't want to see her.
- El Ryan, played by Gerry Duggan, is a High Elf Shaman that is almost constantly nude and likes to point it out to other people. He awoken on the deck of The Queens Laurel after starting a forest fire under the influence of a psylocybin induced trance and then taking a wizard's staff to the face. He has a spirit bear companion that fights with him in battle.
As time went on, some new player characters were introduced to replace those that died:
- Sir Richard, played by Gerry, a human paladin from the "fucking rad" city-state of Glinnishmore, who often shows rather poor judgment in dealing with threats.
- Damien Wormwood Darkomen, played by Brian, a Priest of Judas who shops at Hot Topic and was designed with the intent of pissing Sir Richard off.
Starting at episode 74, the show started a 'second season' of sorts with a new campaign and characters, and with Blaine as the DM.
- Houg Denning, a human illusionist played by Ken.
- Lyra, a half-elf rogue played by Sarah.
- Dag Darkomen, a human fighter played by Brian. Also, a cousin of Damien Darkomen.
- Winter, a human mage played by Gerry.
The series provides examples of:
- Disguised in Drag: Blackee switches clothes with a kidnapped female guard in order to do some reconnaissance on the ship's galley. Also becomes a case of Attractive Bent-Gender due to Blackee's good looks and high charisma, which is rumored to be quite high. It's a 19.
- The Heart: Being the only female on the team, Mildred tends to fall into this category, despite having a fierce and intimidating nature. Although she does have a mothering side to her character, often its shown to a hostage...right after the party has just murdered their friends right in front of them.
- The Hero: While initially, no one in particular is the leader amongst the group. However, as the adventure progresses, the new addition of Sir Richard seems to fulfill this role.
- Hulk Speak: Nearly everything that Amarth says tends to come out in broken sentences or grunts.
- The Multiverse: The Collectors seem to be "collecting" people from other worlds for some dire purpose.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Happens with hilarious and/or disastrous results whenever anyone in the gang rolls a 1 on the dice, also known as a 'botch'. Amarth follows this to a tee and impales his own leg with his sword while on the catwalk of the Collector Base.
- In the flashback segments of the show, the party few a few historical botches from back in the day when they played casually.
- In one flashback, Sark recalls a time when Sarah's character attempted an elaborate acrobatic attack against a zombie horde and tripped, resulting in a zombie suckling on her leg.
- In another flashback segment, Brian and Gerry reminisce about the time Gerry's character died while trying to sneak up on a dragon that was protecting a horde of treasure (while in full plated armor) and then botching on the roll, resulting in Gerry's character being sat upon and killed.
- Parody Commercial: Blaine has a number of good ones that he throws out whenever there is a random stand-still in the show.Blaine: This dead air is brought to you by Mr. Pibb! If you were wondering what Dr. Pepper would taste like if it only had a GED, try Mr. Pibb!
- Pokémon Speak: Whenever Stargoyle is mentioned, Ken shouts out "Stargoyle!" in cute cartoony voice, mimicking a Pokemon and thus invoking this trope.
- Warrior Monk: El Ryan, complete with his Spirit Bear. Often refers to his connection with 'the Spirit World'. Sir Richard also is technically this, given that he is a paladin warrior. And both are played by Gerry Duggan...
