Play the new KPop-inspired D&D Idol class in this neon fantasy playtest

Polygon can exclusively reveal the first public playtest for Idols of the Neon Dark, an upcoming neon-fantasy tabletop RPG adventure compatible with Dungeons & Dragons 5e (2024) that debuted on Kickstarter in a pre-launch phase back in December. The playtest — available in the updates section of the Kickstarter page — introduces The Idol, a unique class inspired by K-Pop stars who fight evil with weapons, magic, and music. But it also firmly establishes the setting of Lumenica, a neon-soaked cavern-city that glows with the light of a magical crystal.

In a video interview with Polygon, creator Dan Thut explained the playtest includes a one-shot adventure, along with standees and a battlemap that can be printed out and played on tabletops. There are also digital tokens and a breakout map made specifically for virtual setups like Roll20. The playtest serves as a preview for the bigger project, currently aiming for a full Kickstarter launch sometime in March.

“The whole premise of the document is giving a little bit of The Idol class, the first three levels, so you can actually have a proper go at it,” Thut told Polygon. “And then a 60-minute one-shot, so you can get a feel for how this actually works.”

The Idol

“Blending performance and presence with combat, Idols are masters of elevating their allies and combining the power of those around them to devastating effect,” the playtest reads.

At a glance, The Idol overlaps with the stylish appeal of Netflix’s K-Pop Demon Hunters: performers by day, supernatural protectors by night. But the playtest makes it clear that Idols of the Neon Dark draws inspiration from wider K-Pop culture. The project explores why fantasies like K-Pop Demon Hunters resonates so well with audiences in the first place: because it emphasizes the importance of cooperation and harmony, treating emotional coordination as a heroic trait rather than just flavor.

“I really understand that the instant analogy people make is K-Pop Demon Hunters — I totally get it. But it was never our intention to park our bus on someone else’s IP. What we’re building is distinct, unique, and independent,” Thut said. “We’re trying to earn our space within this wider cultural moment with something that actually has real, lasting value.”

Despite the obvious comparison, The Idol carves out a space in D&D that stands apart from the Bard. It’s unlike anything else in the game right now, earning its space as a standalone class. The Idol does not have access to traditional spellcasting. Instead, they invest heavily in using reactions — and actions in some cases — to activate Harmonies that link two creatures of your choice in various ways.

Right at level one, The Idol has access to Harmonic Casting, tapping into the natural rhythms of existence to learn two different 2-Part Harmonies. (This implies that, at higher levels, they unlock 3-Part Harmonies.) Functionally, it feels similar to the Sorcerer’s Metamagic, except rather than warping magic, these Harmonies adjust the action economy between two allies to protect or buff them. Unlike a one-off Bardic Inspiration or the passive, ongoing Auras of Paladins, Harmonies forge an ongoing link between player characters in the midst of battle. The Idol also unlocks Harmonic Resonance at level one, allowing them to roll a hit die and take damage from the roll in order to boost the effects of their Harmonies — a fairly novel mechanic that’s reminiscent of how the homebrew Blood Mage class works.

Image: Dan Thut

As a bonus action, Sequential Harmony links two characters, but only if their turns are back-to-back. If one of the linked characters makes a successful attack roll before the end of The Idol’s turn, the other one can use their reaction to make an attack against the same target. This means, in the ideal scenario, those two players can each attack twice — even at level one. The mechanics here feel a bit like the Commander’s Strike Battle Master Maneuver, which lets a Fighter use its bonus action to direct a companion to use their reaction to attack. But this is so much better.

Offensive options also include Empowering Harmony, which functions sort of like a linked version of Absorb Elements, absorbing elemental damage taken and channeling it into the other character’s next attack. Blinding Harmony is a bit like Blinding Smite, linking The Idol with a party member and letting them potentially blind an enemy they hit.

Other Harmonies provide buffs to AC, allow allies to swap skill scores for saving throws or checks, or ignore negative status effects for a limited window of time. Collectively, The Idol delivers on its promise of emphasizing harmony and cooperation at the table in a way that’s unlike anything else in the game.

Though the final product will include five subclasses for The Idol, the playtest only includes one: Cadence of Ceremony, which grants temporary hit points and a 1d4 bonus on the next roll to a creature targeted by The Idol’s Harmony.

Where many classes express teamwork through positioning or pre-planned buffs, The Idol treats cooperation as something more fluid. The class works best when players are narrating their actions and leaning into that idea of shared momentum. Thematically, you have to care about everyone else in the party succeeding.

Image: Dan Thut

That design carries over into the playtest adventure itself, a short scenario built to introduce the class without overwhelming new players. It’s an introduction to the city of Lumenica, where Idols train at an academy called the Spontaneum. There, Idols learn not just magic, but how to perform, cooperate, and protect their world in meaningful ways. The one-shot opens with a group of students rushing to arrive on time for a test only to find out that their professor has summoned a spirit from the elemental plane called a Dokkaebi to see how students might handle the creature.

Since Idols of the Neon Dark is positioned as a kid-friendly D&D play option, these sorts of encounters are built with a variety of alternatives to straightforward combat. Success hinges on how well the party coordinates rather than how quickly they can attack and defeat an enemy like a Dokkaebi. Harmony isn’t just flavor text here — it’s the point of the whole enterprise.

The Future of the Neon Dark

Since Thut published Idols of the Neon Dark on Kickstarter in its pre-launch phase, the project has gathered more than 4,000 followers and spawned a dedicated Discord server. Over time, the project evolved into three books or booklets: a standard D&D supplement geared towards players 12 years and up, another bundle of one-shots geared towards parents playing with their younger kids, and a third book that uses the setting to deliver a tutorial for D&D.

“There’s a really large proportion of people who either have never played a TTRPG at all, or they’ve never run a game, or they’re going to have people at their table who’ve never played a game,” Thut said. “We realized that there is no tutorial about how to play D&D. It all relies on either you reading the book or someone else teaching you.”

D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast does offer various kinds of starter kits, sometimes with simplified, streamlined versions of the Player’s Handbook. But even starter adventures like Lost Mine of Phandelver still require either an experienced Dungeon Master or someone willing to study up enough to make their first attempt at running a game.

Thut pointed out that virtually every video game presents you with some kind of experiential tutorial that teaches you how to play the game. But D&D doesn’t really have that. “We will show you one way of playing the game which will feel fun and give you enough confidence that you don’t get consumed by rules overwhelm,” Thut said. “We want to remove the barrier to entry entirely. Now you can play the game and have fun, whether you’re playing with a bunch of children or adults who have never played. Because of our subject matter, we are uniquely positioned to do that.”

An experiment worth testing

As a playtest, Idols of the Neon Dark doesn’t promise a finished solution. High-level scaling remains an open question, and the class’s reliance on table awareness will live or die on how clearly it’s taught. But what’s here already feels intentional in a way that much third-party 5e content does not.

The Idol isn’t trying to reinvent D&D or predict its future. It’s asking a narrower, more practical question: What if the game treated being in sync with your party as something worth risking yourself for? That question alone makes the experiment worth paying attention to — and worth sitting down at the table to try.