It’s time again for the cutest campaign in Dungeons & Dragons. The Puppy Roll is back for another round, and once again, it’s supporting the best cause of all: our pets! But what is The Puppy Roll exactly? Well, it’s when a party of D&D heavy hitters, including Critical Role’s Matt Mercer, Aabria Iyenger, and Ashley Johnson, and DM/creator Anjali Bhimani (Overwatch, Ms. Marvel) get together to play a D&D one-shot as their dogs for charity, in this case for Petco Love. Yes, this all-star team of players will run the game AS their real-life pets. Honestly, we’re obsessed with this concept. But what’s a campaign full of canine creatures like? Well, you can get a taste of it below when you watch The Puppy Roll 2‘s teaser trailer, and also check out some insights on The Puppy Roll 2 from the people bringing it to life.
The full cast of The Puppy Roll 2 includes Anjali Bhimani as Charley, Aabria Iyengar as Suvi, Ashley Johnson as Sully, Matthew Mercer as Omar, Maggie Robertson as Cricket, Jonathan Graziano as Milton, Ginny Di as Pablo, and special guest Emily Axford as Bruce.
To truly immerse players in this world of The Puppy Roll 2 and help them embody their own pets, event creator Bhimani and her company Bad Auntie Entertainment worked closely with Wizards of the Coast to trans-meow-grify features from D&D’s upcoming Forgotten Realms books Heroes of Faerûn and Adventures in Faerûn. So be on the lookout for some unexpected spells, subclasses, and other surprises!
Viewers will be able to not only affect the course of the game in real-time, but support animal shelters and help furry friends find forever homes too! To celebrate the arrival of this totally paw-some livestream on Monday, Nerdist caught up with event creator Anjali Bhimani, as well as players Jonathan Graziano and Ginny Di to get the inside scoop on what to expect when the fur starts flying.
Nerdist: Where did the idea for The Puppy Roll originally come from?
Anjali Bhimani: It was kind of meant to be for a long time because it combines two of my very favorite things in the world, but the first inspiration came from a Kickstarter I ran in 2021. One of the rewards was a remote seat at the table for a one-shot with me and B. Dave Walters, and I decided I wanted to play our pup, Charley, as my character. As soon as I did, and it was as fun as I had ever hoped it could be, I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind that we really needed this to happen for a whole game.
So many of my friends have wonderful dogs, and I have been an advocate for animal shelters and adoption ever since I adopted him. It just made perfect sense to do it as a charity live stream. So when I met the wonderful team from Petco Love at an award ceremony where they brought adoptable dogs to the red carpet, it felt like the stars were aligning. They do so much good all over the country, and the more time I spent working with them, the more I knew this was the group of people I wanted to do this for.
Nerdist: What inspired the idea to play as your own real-life pets?
AB: I knew that I wanted to create a world in which our dogs were actually our dogs, not anthropomorphized versions of them. I wanted it to be an adventure I could imagine coming out of Charley’s own imagination, so even though at that point I had only DM’d once before I decided to jump in and create the lore and the world myself. This year, doing this means even more since we lost our sweet boy in August. And while at first I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to handle it emotionally, it quickly became clear that this adventure, this charity campaign, and this event were Charley’s legacy way more than any human’s. He inspired so much in my heart when he was with us, and I just want to keep that legacy of love going for as long as we possibly can.
Nerdist: Will any other animals be joining The Puppy Roll this year?
AB: As you might guess from the title, we do have a couple of feline friends joining us this year, played by their humans, Ginny Di and Emily Axford. If we thought last year’s adventure was deliciously chaotic, I don’t know that we are ready for what is about to ensue with those two and their cats!
Nerdist: What is it like play your dog on an adventure? How did you go about creating their “character”?
Jonathan Graziano: It is SO much fun. The thing is, people essentially do this all the time, but just don’t put confines around their pets as [D&D] classes. Milton has always had a fun personality, so to get to play him as a character–especially having my previous dog, who passed, Noodle, be his Great Old One patron–was such a special and sincerely cathartic way to celebrate The Blessed Deceased while introducing my new dog, who is so special in his own right.
Ginny Di: I’m really looking forward to playing Pablo in a tabletop game, because I already spend so much time voicing his inner monologue around the house! I often joke that he’s a demon in angel’s clothing, because he’s this beautiful pure white cat, but he is one of those “too smart for his own good” cats who is constantly causing trouble. So it made total sense to me for him to be the antagonist of the first Puppy Roll, and I’ve built his character sheet around that concept — sort of a misunderstood bad boy.
Nerdist: Describe your pet’s D&D persona to us. What role do they fill in the game, and does it match their IRL personality?
JG: Milton plays a Great Old One warlock with Noodle as his patron, and it’s truly an ideal match for his real-life personality. Noodle has been gone for a few years now, but somehow he still dictates much of what Milton and I do with opportunities presented to us.. It’s weirdly poetic, and I think anyone who has ever lost a pet will understand how special it is that we get to honor Noodle in this way. He was a Great Old One his entire life.
GD: Like many cats, Pablo can be extremely sneaky when he wants to get away with something, so Rogue felt like a very natural fit. He has all kinds of tricks up his furry sleeves, like the one where he cries so pathetically that I assume my husband hasn’t fed him yet (Deception), or the one where he lurks nearby while my other cat Fitz eats his prescription food from his insane, futuristic microchip-activated feeder, so he can sneak in at the last minute before it closes and steal a mouthful (Sleight of Paw). I imagine he’ll be a handful (er, pawful) for the other characters in the party, since the devil on his shoulder is apparently a lot more persuasive than the angel on the other one.
AB: Charley is 100%, without a doubt, a Bard of the College of Glamour. It takes one look at his handsome face to see that. His strength may be very low, but his charisma is through the roof. In his later years, he definitely became vocal, almost a singer really, but was very eloquent when telling us exactly what he wanted from his humans. And he has been a purveyor of inspiration his whole life, so it’s a no-brainer. Plus, he has the chef background, because he is a doctor of biscuitology. Chartleby Barkenter, Bard and Biscuitologist, at your service.
The Puppy Roll 2 will take place on October 20, 2025 at 6 pm PST at Youtube.com/sweeetanj. Proceeds from the event will go to Petco Love. Petco Love “is a life-changing nonprofit organization that makes communities and pet families closer, stronger, and healthier. Formed in 1999, we have helped find loving homes for pets for 25 years and we’re just getting started! Petco Love helps find loving homes for pets in partnership with Petco and more than 4,000 rescue organizations across North America, with 6.8 million pets adopted and counting.” Visit PetcoLove.org or follow them on Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, and TikTok to be part of the lifesaving they do. You can donate to the cause here.
Editor’s note: Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity