Desiquest Season 1 Review

I recently finished watching Season 1 of Desiquest, and it feels appropriate to write a review about it. It was an amazing campaign with great visuals and a stellar cast.

Let's dive deeper to get to know the show a little bit better without spoiling the story.

What is Desiquest?

Desiquest is a D&D campaign created by Desi people and set in an original world called Vehaar. The DM, Jasmine Bhullar, wrote the setting.

In September 2022, Desiquest was Kickstarted successfully thanks to the table-top role-playing community and made over 150k dollars to help make the dream a reality.

Fourteen months later, in November 2023, the first episode of Desiquest aired on YouTube and had 68k views as of writing these words.

You can find the Desiquest playlist here on EffinFunny, which is Sandeep's production company.

Once published, I'll also link my episode reviews below.

Now let's talk about the worldbuilding!

Desiquest Worldbuilding

The image above is the map for Vehaar, Jasmine's original setting for this campaign. What I love about this map is that it has so much more potential. The first season only touches on one city and the Rak Tibba mountain in the top left.

There's so much more left to introduce! What's up in Lakhpun or Dhardaan? What more is there to see in Diwaney?

Jasmine has experience creating source books, and I believe she used it to the fullest to create this map. Maybe one day, we will also get a sourcebook for Desiquest.

I fully expect this production to grow in popularity. In the same way that people want to play in Critical Role's Exandria or the many different worlds in Dimension 20, I'm sure people will want to explore Vehaar. If you have a Desi D&D player who doesn't know Desiquest, introduce it to them.

It might be a good opportunity for them to share some of their culture with us. India has a vastly rich culture that we largely ignore in Western culture.

Now, let's talk about the stellar cast.

Desiquest Cast

Desiquest characters are comprised of four core cast members. Outside of the first episode, most, if not all, episodes introduce a guest player who is also quite well-known in the table-top role-playing space.

Let's get to know them!

Sitara - Played by Anjali Bhimani

Sitara is a famous actor in Vehaar. Her character probably draws the most inspiration from India's Bollywood.

She's also a complex character with a unique perspective on the world. Her journey through the campaign has been intriguing to watch.

Anjali is an awesome dice goblin. I also loved her character in The Ravening War, and I feel her experience in previous D&D campaigns made Sitara all the more interesting to watch.

Omar Najam - Murkha

Murkha is quite literally the last character I expected to see in a campaign set in a fantasy world. I expected medieval times, but Vehaar is also a technological place where a scientist like Murkha makes sense.

At some point in the campaign, we meet an NPC who is an influencer with an online following, which is not as medieval as I thought.

In my interview with Omar, he said his inspiration for Murkha was to be the character who is curious about how things work. And that's an amazing type of character to be. You help flesh out the worldbuilding with your questions.

Rekha Shankar - Laddoo Auntie

Laddoo Auntie represents the strict Indian parents. Those that expect you to either be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer. Those that expect you to marry early and have kids.

I think Rekha's take on this character is amazing. She's funny but also intimidating. She's also Sitara's aunt. Through their family connection, we get to experience and shine some light on the strictness, but it's also funny because Rekha is a comedian.

Sandeep Parikh - Ash

Sandeep plays Ash, a foreigner to Vehaar who hails from a completely different type of place. Ash's whole deal is that he is on a quest to reconnect to his culture.

The way I see it, Ash represents all of the Indians born outside of India in various parts of the world who want to visit it so they can reconnect with their culture and maybe meet family members who live in India.

Guest Players

The show has three guest players: Luis Carazo, Persephone Valentine, and Erika Ishii.

Each appearance heavily ties into the storyline, so I won't share who they are. But I will say that each of them performed exceptionally.

Production Value

A lot of production value was added to this show. It could have been a Zoom recording with roll20 for when there are fights, and that would have been enough to tell a good story.

Instead, we have a full studio where all players play in person. We have Rick Perry minis and the fantastic direction of Mike Schaubach. The latter two are primary production people for Dimension 20.

In addition, I loved that the players allowed themselves to BE Desi. They didn't need to suppress using a foreign word, and there was a nice translation visual explaining what it meant.

I loved that the players also dressed according to their culture at times and let it shine through. I can't tell you how fascinating it is to see someone share their culture with you so openly.

General Vibes

The general vibe of this campaign is fun. While Jasmine is an expert DM who can take you from 0 to 100 in a split second, there wasn't an episode where I felt the vibes were off. Even when the stakes were high, they still found ways to make the situation lighter and more fun.

Most, if not all, of the people around the table are improv actors. They know how to crack a joke whenever and wherever. Every day, I feel like learning improv is not necessary, but it is a lovely stepping stone towards richer D&D sessions.

Should You Watch It?

HELL YES.

I recommend you watch it and follow Desiquest on Social Media. I'll be there when the call arrives to help support a second season. I hope you will, too.

Let me know what you thought of the season in the comments below or if you have any further questions! I'll make sure to update the review with those extra details.