DnD Immersive Quest Experience (Review & Walkthrough)
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If you’re a Dungeons & Dragons fan living in or visiting Toronto, Ontario, Canada, you’ll now be able to experience the game in a completely new way, thanks to Dungeons & Dragons: The Immersive Quest. It’s all-ages interactive experience that’s blends live theatre, amusement park rides, escape rooms and audio-visual technology to bring D&D to life.
The event (which started in December 2024 and ends in early May 2025) has been officially licensed by Wizards of the Coast and designed by Vibrant Studios, a company which has produced a number of other high-profile interactive experiences. Tickets are available for purchase now via the official website. We recently had the chance to check it our for ourselves and walk through the full experience.
So just what can DnD fans expect when they enter the Immersive Quest? Below, we break out all the details and our thoughts.
What Is “Dungeons & Dragons: The Immersive Quest”?
*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Dungeons & Dragons: The Immersive Quest is a 60 minute interactive experience that takes place at the Square One GYGO Entertainment complex in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada (a suburb of Toronto). The experience starts with a massive red dragon mural on the exterior of the building. Once inside the lobby, you’re surrounded by more DnD artwork, including a photo op station that includes cutouts of a variety of creatures, including a goblin, elf wizard, mindflayer and dragon. There’s also a check-in desk where you receive an RFID-embedded wristband, which you’ll use throughout the adventure to interact with various elements.
After check-in, you enter into an antechamber where a guide in full costume explains what lies ahead. You’re then led into the character selection room, arranged in an X-shaped layout with four alcoves representing the available classes: Fighter, Wizard, Rogue and Druid. Each alcove contains class-specific props (like armor or robes), a giant tome describing the class, and a wristband scanner to officially select your role and difficulty level (Easy, Normal or Hard).
The room also includes a range of lighting effects, audio narration and a few interactive moments from the guide who will show you how to use your new abilities (for example, you can gesture while wearing your RFID band to cast various spells). Once all the players have made their selection, the DM casts a “spell” to open the door to the next area and you officially begin your adventure.
The next room is a themed recreation of the infamous Yawning Portal tavern from the Forgotten Realms, where actors playing a tieflling, human wizard and elf druid introduce you to the quest. They explain that the city of Waterdeep is under attack from a red dragon who has stolen a magical crystal that protected the city from draconic invaders. It’s up to you to retrieve the crystal and restore order.
The room is further rounded out by high-res OLED screens that are designed to look like windows showing the outside world. During the actors narration, the scenes dynamically change from peaceful city to dramatic chaos, complete with magical attacks and darkening skies.
From here, you’re free to explore the main dungeon area. A “Dungeon Master” staff member is also available to assist and offer tips. Scattered throughout the dungeon are 10 interactive stations, each representing different adventuring challenges.
These include memory games with an Intellect Devourer, psychedelic visuals inside a giant mushroom, pun-filled advice from skeletons in coffins, and a “lava crossing” using rune-marked pillars. More physical challenges include a reaction game fighting a Roper, testing keys on a mimic chest, tracing spells to cast magic, and sneaking past a Beholder’s eye rays. There’s also a Gelatinous Cube sensor display and petting an Owlbear to find its purring sweet spot. Throughout the dungeon, pieces of a hidden phrase can also be found to earn bonus experience points.
Once you’ve completed all the tasks and gained enough experience point, you can then proceed to the final confrontation: a battle with the red dragon. In this room, you’ll stand on vibrating platforms facing a massive curved screen that displays the dragon. The battle mechanics are simple. You wave your arm to attack and hold a “stop” gesture to block the dragon’s fire breath. Your attack visuals change based on your class, but the gameplay is otherwise identical no matter what class you picked. It’s a fairly straight forward experience, but still looks pretty cool.
With the dragon defeated and the crystal recovered, you can then return to the Yawning Portal Tavern where you’re given a final wrap up. Of course, like most events, you’re then ushered into the gift shop where can look over a wide range of DnD merchandise, including books and accecessories. Themed snacks and drinks (both of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic variety) are also available.
Almost all of the staff are also fully dressed in DnD costumes and remain in character virtually the entire time. You’re also able to go in costume if you choose (a few people did on the group we went with). One thing to note is that you aren’t allowed any video or photography while you’re in the premise, although you can snap plenty of photos in the main lobby (for this review, we snagged all of the images from the DnD Immersive Quest experience website).
*** END OF SPOILERS***
When does the DnD Immersive Quest Experiencce run from?
Dungeons & Dragons: The Immersive Quest started on December 18th, 2024 and ends on May 4th, 2025. Notably, if you want to attend you’ll have to prebook your 60 minute session well in advance as there are only a select number of spots available. This does mark the first time the Wizards of the Coast has officially licensed out a D&D event like this anywhere in the world, so it is quite popular (we reserved our spots a few weeks out, but several of the dates we were looking at were completely sold out).
It’s also not clear if the event will be traveling to any other locations outside of Canada, although it’s likely given the investment in the event and the amount of props, technology and work required to set something like this up.
How much are tickets to “D&D: The Immersive Quest”
There are currently a variety of pricing options available. General admission tickets start at $49.99 CAD. You can also purchase VIP versions that include discounts and exclusive merchandise. There are also family packages available and kids under 4 enter free. Bear in mind that this covers only the full 60 minute experience, although you can always hang around afterwards at the gift shop and have a few snacks and drinks.
Final Thoughts & Review Score
The Immersive Quest isn’t the only live DnD multimedia event taking place this year. In fact, there are several similar events, including the off-Broadway improv show The Twenty Sided Tavern, which opened in New York and Universal Studios Hollywood’s Fan Fest Nights.
If you’re in Toronto or planning to visit, however, the DnD Immersive Quest is an absolutely amazing experience and well worth the price tag. While it’s not exactly a challenging game experience, the props, actors, set pieces and technology is incredible and really does feel a love letter to Dungeons & Dragons. In short: if you’re a fan, chances are you’ll find it a critical hit.
Review Score: 19 out of 20
You can pick up your tickets from now until May 4th via the official DnD Immersive Quest website.
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Jason Volk is the Publisher of Dungeons & Dragons Fanatics and lives in the wilds of Western Canada. He has been playing D&D for over 25 years and is a huge fan of Dragonlance and the Forgotten Realms. His favorite character of all time was a Necromancer named Neek who spent most of his adventuring career resurrecting the corpses of slain monsters. When he’s not playing TTRPGs, Jason enjoys video games, Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer 40K, watching football and spending time with his wife and adorably nerdy children.
