Rolling from the Hip: Why a UK Improv Troupe is Building an Actual Play Studio

Hello Hello! Today’s story is all about Rolling From the Hip and its upcoming actual play company Stat Block Studios. Built in partnership with the veteran designers behind a Critical Role series, the improv group appears eager to shoot for the stars and make a big impression in its first year of AP.

I spoke with one of its members about how he got into D&D, why he’s making an Actual Play, how a career of shortform improv translates to the table, and more.

A popular improv troupe from the United Kingdom is moving from running its own TTRPG actual plays to funding a studio that can help support the local community of creators.

Shoot from the Hip is a local London-based improv troupe. Originally formed in 2011, the group is made up of Tom Mayo, Sam Russell-Holmes, Luke Manning, and Alexander "AJ" Jeremy. They started posting their comedy online in 2018 and eventually became popular after some of their sketch comedy went viral online. They now host monthly improv shows.

However, their latest endeavor is a partnership with Jasper Cartwright’s 12-Sided Studios to launch Stat Block Studios, a UK-based physical studio for actual play performers to record their games in. The team describes it as a place that other creators from the UK can use as well as a doubling down of invest

ment into AP by the comedy group.

The project started when SFTH decided to dip a toe into AP in 2024.

“A lot of people kept coming to us saying ‘you guys should do a podcast!" Mayo told TTRPG Insider. “I was working at the BBC at the time and had produced a lot of shows. I’d also started playing D&D recently and noticed it had a really similar skill set to improv.” Mayo was introduced to D&D through Dimension 20’s Fantasy High, consuming it all in a single go during the COVID-19 quarantine but didn’t start playing until years later.

The final step was initiated after a fan drew the SFTH team as D&D characters

So, Mayo and the other three recorded a one-shot as a Patreon exclusive. That one-shot later expanded into Roll From The Hip, the D&D spinoff from the SFTH team that launched as their first AP. Their first campaign? Playing schoolboys in a short fantasy campaign.

Roll From The Hip has seen significant growth since that launch, with three short campaigns and over 40,000 subscribers.

The group hopes to run multiple campaigns in the coming years and also performed its first live AP before a live audience in July.

While a majority of TTRPG creators and designers hold up improv as a key skill for running fun games, that doesn’t always mean it transitions well.

“I was really nervous the first time we sat down to record The Plagueround because we were all in like schoolboy uniforms, we had beards,” Mayo admitted. The need to do mental arithmetic while playing also caught him off-guard. But by the time DM TThomas Midgley got the story going, he found himself all-in.

It was a nice change for Mayo. Most improv shows had him swapping from character to character, barely able to spend more than 15 minutes in a particular role before the shorter sketch made him move on. The opportunity to play as someone for a significantly longer period really stuck with him.

The campaigns so far have been primarily comedic, Mayo noted, without embracing the more emotional roil that games like Critical Role or Transplanar strive to bring to the table. But fans have regularly expressed how much the campaigns and characters have meant to them.

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Partnering w/ 12-Sided Studios and Moving Forward

Stat Block Studios came about as a partnership with 12-Sided Studios, an up-and-coming organization led by 3 Black Halflings’ Jasper Cartwright and business owner Chad Pitel. The publisher launched its first TTRPG Kickstarter, Force of Extinction, earlier this year. 12-Sided has distinguished itself with producing high-production one-shots and series for Critical Role’s Beacon and Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives. Roll from the Hip also featured in the promotional campaign for Force of Extinction.

But the two organizations appeared to click fairly quickly. Cartwright and SFTD met at the World’s Lair in 2025, where they found common interests. As SFTH saw interest in their AP expand, they also saw an opportunity to grow their operations. So the two came together.

While SFTH initially approached Cartwright seeking advice on building an AP studio, common interests led to them creating the studio as they imagine it today. Not only will it offer a permanent preset location for both 12-Sided and SFTH to film, but it also opens up options to local creators in the UK market to film. Local creators will be allowed to rent the space and use it to film or edit as they see fit. Mayo also hopes that having a regular studio will help RFTH to expedite production. Past episodes required six or more months of production, according to the comedian. Having the studio and the team should significantly shrink that down.

The operation is a 50-50 split, which Mayo seems to think reflects a broader desire to collaborate and create within the TTRPG space.

“I've worked in politics, I've worked in journalism, I've worked in stand up, I've worked in improv and comedy clubs. The TTRPG creator community and the fan community are the loveliest group of people that I've met so far. They want other people to succeed, and they want a rising tide to raise all boats,” Mayo added.

The studio has already raised $200,000 and is expected to have an initial grand opening in August, albeit at an unfinished studio. The project isn’t expected to be finished until 2027.

RFTH also hopes to expand its production of APs in the coming months. Multiple series are in development, including Roll Against the Machine, an AP about aging British rockstars fighting record labels that made AI replicas of them. It also hopes to do regular D&D games before a live audience in the future.

Stat Block Studios is available on Kickstarter today and will be available for backing until late August.

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].