Tickets are, as usual, $14 from bellaunion.com.au or $15 on the door – and this is your last chance to catch the show until we return in February, so we hope to see you all there!

If you’re looking for other nerdy ways to celebrate Christmas, by the way, you should definitely book your tickets now for The Terminativity, Nick Caddaye and Casey Bennetto’s musical mashing up The Terminator and the nativity story. Featuring many Dungeon Crawl favourites including Steven Gates, Scott Edgar, Andrew McClelland, Lawrence Leung and no less than three McKenzies – Adam, Ben and, as the Terminator, Richard! Book now for the smash hit of last year, returning for three shows only, Tuesday December 20 to Thursday December 22; tickets $34/$24 (or $27 for groups of six or more) from bellaunion.com.au.

Four brave adventurers – Toby Halligan, Amanda Buckley, Nick Caddaye and Geraldine Quinn – will strap on the armour and pick up the sword, wand, bow or magical thingamebob in order to ward off the forces of darkness that emerge at this time of year. Like, um…sunshine? Redbacks? Yes! But more evil. Like…giant redbacks!

Whatever those horrors may be, you can be sure your Dungeon Master Ben McKenzie won’t make it easy for your heroes. Certainly, he has plans to be as horrible as his usual minion Richard McKenzie, who can’t be with us this month as he will be suffering unspeakable torment in the ninth circle of Carceri! Or on holiday on a tropical island, it’s hard to say. But in any case, standing in will be the redoubtable yet surprisingly evil Sean Fabri.

As usual, it all kicks off at 8:30 PM at the Bella Union. Doors open from 8, tickets $15 on the door or $14 in advance from bellaunion.com.au. This is our second last one for the year, and we’re taking a break in January, so let’s make it a big one!

In September, Dungeon Crawl returns – but our fearless Dungeon Master Ben McKenzie will be far across the seas, in the Lands of Scot, Eng and Ire! (So, er…the United Kingdom.) In his stead, Dungeon Minion Richard McKenzie steps up to the DM screen – and surely has a surprise or two up his sleeves… That’s the next monthly Dungeon Crawl on September 7, 8:30 PM at the Bella Union bar in Melbourne. Tickets $14 at bellaunion.com.au or $15 at the door. Line-ups to be announced in the next week or so!

When Ben returns, it’ll be Melbourne Fringe Festival time – and we’ll be doing a late night free edition of Dungeon Crawl on October 5! That’s 10PM at the Bella Union bar.

But in the month of August, trouble is brewing. There will be more Dungeon Crawl than can possibly be contained by one city. Our regular monthly show looms on Wednesday, August 3, with guests including comedian Jack Druce (Too Short to be a Stormtrooper) and actor Toby Truslove (ABC1′s Laid)! After visiting Hogwarts and the lands of literary fantasy, including Westeros, Whoville and Fantasia, it will almost come as a relief to return to the all-things-to-all-games magical medieval setting of Dungeons & Dragons.

But a call is being heard from distant lands. That brave citadel, the Bondi Pavilion, must be defended against the forces of Winter; the flames must be fanned; the beacon must not go out. Yes, Dungeon Crawl must summon its allies and head North to defend it: the Keep on the Bondilands! For one night only, as part of the Bondi Rock Surfers’ Hot Damn Festival, Ben and Richard present a Dungeon Crawl by the beach, with an amazing line-up of local guests including Dave Harmon, Carlo Richie, Susie Youssef, Dave Bloustien (Wit Large, Good News Week), Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen (ABC1′s Good Game) and maybe even more!

And as if that’s not enough, this special Dungeon Crawl is part of a double-bill with those lovely folk from Wit Large. They’ve invented a whole new kind of comedy debating – one that doesn’t involve teams! – and called it Word Fight. The topic for the first outing is the ever so Dungeon Crawl compatible “The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth”, and your word fighters will include Dan Ilic (Hungry Beast, Can of Worms), Doug Bayne (ABC’s Double the Fist), Jen Wong (Comedy Zone), Shaolin Punk’s own Ben McKenzie and the members of Puppy Fight Social Club!

You can get a ticket to each for $18 – or go the full nerd and see both for only $30! You know you want to.

Dungeon Crawl in Melbourne returns on Wednesday, August 3rd at 8:30 at the Bella Union, Melbourne Trades Hall, corner of Lygon and Victoria Streets. Tickets $14 from bellaunion.com.au or $15 at the door.

Word Fight: The Geek Shall Inherit and Dungeon Crawl: Keep on the Bondilands are at 7:30 PM and 9 PM on Thursday, August 4th at the Bondi Pavilion theatre, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Bondi Beach. Tickets $18 for one show, $30 for both; book online here or buy tickets at the door.

But this post’s title doesn’t just refer to our mash-up of Dungeon Crawl and the boy wizard, oh no! Because this Thursday, July 21, we’re mixing Dungeon Crawl with another great taste: Geek Mook! Dungeon Mook: Crawl to Mount Geek, the fundraiser event for Vignette Press‘ Geek Mook journal, is only three sleeps away – and we are proud to announce the killer line-up! As well as your regular Dungeon Masters Ben McKenzie and Richard McKenzie, you’ll see returning crawlers Sean Fabri (one of the driving forces behind the upcoming live superhero radio play Bullet) and Xavier Michaelides (star of the MICF award-nominated Future World), plus some of the brightest stars of Melbourne’s literary scene: satirist and podcaster Ben Pobjie (The Drum, The Punch, Gather Around Me), award-winning essayist, author and poet Emmett Stinson (Wet Ink: The Magazine of New Writing), novellist and columnist Meg Mundell (Black Glass), writer and filmmaker Sofija Stefanovic (John Safran’s Race Relations, Beyond Our Ken), and editor and book critic Estelle Tang (Oxford University Press, Kill Your Darlings).

Plus we’ll have a second half of readings from even more talented folk: award-winning poetry slammer Emilie Zoey Baker (who will be performing a new work commissioned by your Dungeon Master about his current nerdy obsession), artist and author  Tom Cho (Look Who’s Morphing) and columnist and comics critic Ronnie Scott (The Book Show, The Lifted Brow). It’s going to be one hell of a night!

You can book tickets for the usual, insanely low price of $14 at bellaunion.com.au, or you can buy them on the door for the slightly saner price of $15. We’ll be donating most of the night’s profits toward the costs of producing Geek Mook, and you’ll also have a chance to support them further by purchasing copies of the previous Vignette journals, Sex Mook and Death Mook, on the night.

See you there!