We Interview The Creator of Dungeons & Dragons: The Immersive Quest

Posted in: Dungeons & Dragons, Events, Games, Pop Culture, Tabletop, Tabletop Publishers, Wizards of the Coast | Tagged: d&d, Dungeons & Dragons: The Immersive Quest, Eric Brouillet

Vibrant’s Eric Brouillet spoke to us about Dungeons & Dragons: The Immersive Quest, an interactive experience, inspiration, Wizards & more.

With the advent of immersive experiences from theme parks, dinner shows, and escape rooms, it was only a matter of time before the world of Dungeons & Dragons would take that bold step for mainstream audiences beyond the Gary Gygax-created tabletop experience. No longer is the fantasy role-playing game simply a niche experience with pop culture contributions from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings franchise, Netflix’s Stranger Things, Geek & Sundry, and Critical Role. Even Paramount’s latest live-action entry in the franchise, Honor Among Thieves (2023), has garnered acclaim among fans and critics alike. Eric Brouillet, president and founder of Vibrant Marketing, spoke to Bleeding Cool about their latest venture, Dungeons & Dragons: The Immersive Quest, which takes the board game experience into a roaming adventure, the inspiration behind the idea, how they expanded D&D to become a bankable commodity, working with Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, and more.

How Mainstream Success Allowed for the Dungeons & Dragons Interactive “Immersive Quest”

BC: What’s the inspiration behind D&D: The Immersive Quest?

EB: There are multiple levels of inspiration. First, I’m one of the leads who designed the project with the support of Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, but I’ve been playing D&D since I was 12 years old. I guess I’d be lying if I didn’t say this is a love letter for the original game, so that was a little bit of an inspiration. The biggest inspiration was also how we find a way to democratize this mythology, those fantastic adventures, and broaden the horizon so people can experience it, whether you play the game or not, whether you know D&D or not, you feel at home, being an adventurer for an hour with you and your family or friends, and having fun. That was one of the drivers that was also important for us.

With this event being around now in 2025 and not say, 10-15 years ago when Dungeons & Dragons wasn’t as mainstream, how do you feel like the franchise has evolved since we have groups like Twenty-Sided Tavern, Geek & Sundry, and Critical Role? Do you think those outlets helped bridge that gap into the mainstream and carved that path for D&D: The Immersive Quest to be possible?

That’s a good question. I’ll give you the business side of the answer, because it’s important. It’s a love letter to the brand, but also, we’re the businesspeople behind it, so we want to make it worthwhile. In our analysis, we come from the experiential marketing world, so we do a lot of brand experience for brands as a mandate, but we were eager to start our own immersive studio and build immersive storytelling for the general public based on existing IP.

We selected D&D because we think it’s the next Harry Potter as a franchise. There are so many tropes in there that are so cool, and we arrived at the right time when [Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)] came out, what Geek & Sundry and Critical Role are doing, and whatnot, Stranger Things. It’s become more mainstream, so it was a way for us to capitalize a little bit on that, but also our own variation in the appeal with the unique immersive experience. It doesn’t exist the way we build it, right? There’s the D20 Tavern, but it’s mostly like a play, an attractive game, and everything like that. For us, it’s like you’re stepping into the Forgotten Realms. You’re creating your character, you’re fighting a dragon, and you try to save the day, so all the tropes of the games or the mythology of the lore are there that you can experience for yourself.

When you were formulating this partnership with Hasbro and Wizards, were there like things that were off limits, or did they give you leeway on the whole sandbox?

It’s a great question. Obviously, on our end, we’re expert marketers, so we come from the brand side, and we work on multiple brands. You need to respect the story of the brand, like the brand guidelines and everything like that. It’s something we were familiar with, so it was not like a shock for us to step into the sandbox and have some rules to follow, right? Wizards and Hasbro were really hands-on and great creative collaborators, so we designed the whole story, but for us, it was important to build a story around the Forgotten Realms, showcase a little bit of Waterdeep in this market.

It was the first time that was brought to life to a certain extent, so that creative collaboration was very important, but we had to follow the brand books, what the city and characters looked like, showcasing the monster manual, like how the owlbear looks a specific way, like we cannot have it be yellow. All those things, the gelatinous cube is that type of color, and everything like that. As fans, we’re in the know, but it was important for us to follow this. Also, creatively, one thing we try to do is not to break the illusion of disbelief.

What I mean by that is when you step into The Immersive Quest, like you show up as a participant before we try to transform you as an adventurer, right? That transformation happened in a place called The Destiny Room, which is run by the dungeon master, and you have four statues that represent the four classes that you can pick. This room is outside the world of D&D, like you create your character, then after that, you open the magic door to the D&D universe, and you step into the Yawning Portal as your character. So the off-world type of mindset was something that we pay attention to create the illusion that you’re stepping into another world. That was important for us.

D&D: The Immersive Quest is available in Plano, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and runs through February 2026. For more information, you can check it out here.

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