Trapped in the Bird Cage is an Actual Play show hosted by Holly Conrad and set in more-or-less the same universe as Dice, Camera, Action!. It is set 25 years before DCA and in the City of Sigil, which is almost literally the center of the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse.
It starts with four complete strangers being sucked out of their universes and into a closet within a tea room run by an old lady wereraven called Crone, who then sets the newly-formed Crowbar Crew to various tasks which she says are necessary to save Sigil.
The players are:
- Holly Conrad: GM and Crone
- Anna Prosser Robinson: Wilhemina, more often called Wil, a human thief and major kleptomaniac.
- Jimmy Whetzel: Saturn, a human bard with a love for the triangle.
- Chad Quandt: Reader, a Warforged investigative rogue, looking for whoever killed his creator.
- Hadeel al-Massari: Nejma, an elven wizard and former circus performer with pyromaniacal tendencies.
Trapped in the Birdcage contains examples of:
- All Gays are Promiscuous: If you are an attractive male, Saturn will hit on you or at least give you the eye.
- The Cameo: A ten-year-old Strix (from Dice, Camera, Action!) shows up in Episode Six, working at a bakery that's been taking in Blood War refugees.
- Everyone Has Standards: When the team goes to the doughnut shop staffed by children, all of them but Wil worry that the children there are being exploited. They're refugees of the Blood War, willing working there to make ends meet.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Wil, in what Anna calls "a rare outburst of genuine emotion", is genuinely grateful after Reader saves Wil's life, both hugging and kissing him.
- Never My Fault: Nejma always has an excuse, usually flimsy, as to why it wasn't her who set that thing on fire.
- Playing with Fire: Nejma favorite spells are fire related and she's not at all careful as to what she uses them on.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: By design. GM Holly made the players all design their characters with no knowledge of what the others were making, which is why there's two rogues and no fighter type instead of a balanced party. The characters never even met each other until winding up in a dark closet together.
- Sticky Fingers: Wilhemina will basically grab anything that's not nailed down. And if it is, just give her a few minutes with her crowbar and it won't be.
- The Medic: Saturn, by virtue of being the only member of the party with healing spells.
- Token Evil Teammate: She's not evil in the murderous sense, but Will is clearly the team member who cares least for anyone but herself. When they visit the bakery where Strix lives, she's the only one who cares nothing about the children there.
