One Hit Die - The Devouring Dungeon

Our heroes are once again questing, this time into the Devouring Dungeon in search of the Fountain of Experience.  Yes, when they find it, they will level up.  Typical player motivation.  One-eyed Cassandra (Mikaela Cochrane) the Paladin has brought a bard along to raise morale.  Torvold (Andrew David Long) finds this mostly distracting, especially since he is trying to disable a trap.  Sasha (Julie Orton) finds Cassandra to be exasperating.  Azurus (Phil Burke) needs to pee.  To make matters worse, rooms shift at regular intervals, thus changing the dungeon layout.

Though the party has been in a dungeon in a previous adventure, this one constitutes the whole of the adventure.  Each room has some sort of trap, puzzle, or monster to overcome.  Oddly, one room only has a mirror.  Odder still, their reflections are not reversed.  With a shrug, the party moves on to the next room.  Then their reflected selves emerge from the mirror!  A mirror of opposition!  Very cool and well done.  As is inevitable when there are dopplegangers of everyone, the party must split up and then reconnect with the wrong people.  Good fun.  Once again, Azurus finds himself in an animation storyline, thanks to eating mushrooms while drunk.

Sadly, it would appear that this concludes the adventures of the party.  It has been 6 years since this final adventure.  Fun while it lasted.  The whole series is recommended.  

One Hit Die - Legend of the Lich Lord

Nerrena the Necromancer (Victoria Souter) has brought the Lich Lord to this realm.  Only one thing prevents the Lich Lord from unleashing hordes of undead across the land: his orb.  He dispatches Nerrenea with his 3 Shade Knights to recover his orb from the Druids of Alden Green.  Mwhahahahahahaaa!

Meanwhile, our heroes are once again questing, but something is different.  The Chosen One - Gwen the Healer - has been replaced by Cassandra the Paladin (Mikaela Cochrane).  The party has only just conquered a dungeon and recovered an amulet of resurrection.  They have hardly left the dungeon when they encounter Willard the Druid.  He is a Sapling from Alden Green and seeks aid against a necromancer and zombies.  The party gladly kills the zombified druids, much to Willard's horror, but then must flee when Nerrena and the Shade Knights arrive.

Though the plot is fairly straight forward, there are twists and turns to provide entertainment.  This was probably the first time I had seen the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity portrayed.  Despite a warning, Torvald (Andrew David Long) tried it on and became a female version of himself (Joanna Gaskell).  That was funny enough, but it got even funnier when Azarus (Phil Burke) started hitting on female Torvald.  And it gets crazier from there.  Nicely done.  Other gags weren't quite as good.  The hat of invisibility was taken almost directly from Erik the Viking (1989).  Sasha (Julie Orton) acquires a magic weapon for use against the undead: a shovel.  Huh, that's really kind of appropriate.  The fancy runes sold it.

The production values are surprisingly good.  The special effects may not be top notch but still pretty good.  The use of animation while Azurus was under the effects of a hallucination potion was inspired.  I'm sure that saved a lot on special effects and worked just as well for the task at hand.

All in all, the Legend of the Lich Lord is great popcorn fun.  Highly recommended for gamers.

One Hit Die - Crushmas

Torvold (Andrew David Long) is haunted by a goblin he killed, just as Morley haunted Scrooge.  Before the goblin ghost can detail the 3 visitations that will purge the greed from Torvold, Gwen (Larissa Thompson) arrives.  The healer's presence destroys the ghost and the peril was no more.  Gwen offers Torvold a Christmas present: a face carved in wood.  He is indifferent.  Sasha (Julie Orton) arrives and tells how she used her carved face for kindling.  Neither Sasha nor Torvold got anything for Gwen.  It is then that Sasha describes the holiday of her people: Crushmas.  The goal is to travel into the woods and slay the white spirit of the forest and loot it.  Sasha, Torvold, and a reluctant Gwen trek into the snowy woods to find the spirit and kill it.  Azarus (Phil Burke) does not accompany them as he is combatting a gelatinous boob.  Through happenstance, the party encounters a snow troll, which Sasha gladly accepts as the spirit of the forest to be slain.  Comedy follows as the troll heals faster than they can injure it.

A 2-episode Christmas special, it is brief yet entertaining.  Recommended.

One Hit Die - Prologue

Gwen (Larissa Thompson) is a healer who is leading a party to recover the Orb of Maldova, an artifact that will allow them to defeat the Obsidian Sorcerer.  Her party consists of Sasha the Fighter (Julie Orton), Torvold the Rogue (Andrew David Long), and Azurus the Wizard (Phil Burke).  While trekking toward the Goblin Mines, Sasha slays something that looked evil.  That started an argument.  Torvold is angry that, yet again, Sasha has proven to be an experience hog.  Gwen is upset that she didn't get to talk to the creature; maybe it knew something about the Orb of Maldova.  Azurus is annoyed because he is suffering from a hangover.  No sooner have they resumed their trek than a goblin appears.

"Hello," the goblin says.

Sasha hacks the goblin, who does not die.  Torvold finishes it off with a stone from his sling.  "We share experience for that one!" he declares triumphantly.  Gwen is again upset that they didn't talk to the goblin.  Azurus is again annoyed when Torvold wants him to use magic to identify a clearly worthless dagger.

Titled Prologue, this 4-episode adventure introduces a mostly incompetent set of heroes on a failed mission.  They are not yet high enough level to tackle the quest and must return to the Rat Forest to slay rats and gain experience before they again venture back toward the Goblin Mines.  There were several times where the series clearly identified itself as a gaming session.  When Torvold ran the numbers on four standard goblins vs. his party and decided it would take the goblins 28 attacks to finish them while it would take 35 to take out the goblins.  Yes!  The complaints about experience point hogs and the constant reference to leveling up.  Good gamer fun.

Will the party return for further adventures or was this a pilot that didn't spawn a series?

Walking in Circles

The Walking in Circles web series had two seasons, the first in 2011 and the second in 2014.  Though I watched many such web series at the time, I somehow missed this one.  Better late than never.

Season 1: The show opens with Krag (Eric Radic) sits down in a tavern and puts on a microphone for an off screen interviewer.  Ah, this is going to do The Office in a D&D setting.  Krag explains that he is a barbarian prince on a quest to avenge his father, who was eaten by a dragon.  He recruited the various party members, but now regrets virtually all of them.  Markus (Adam Rady) is a wizard school dropout whose debt has been sent to collections.  Though he can do magic, he never got the wizard hat (which is like the diploma in this world).  Angie (Katie Wilson) is a pacifist druid who mostly serves as healer.  Garrand (Jonah Priour) is a bard who is either terrified of the latest encounter or singing very badly while strumming his lute.  Lastly, Alex (multiple actresses) is a black-clad knife-wielding psychopath.  She is the most competent member of the party and almost completely mute.

Except for the first episode, each installment begins with Garrand recapping the last story in a song that always ends with "Walking in circles again and again and again and again."  Though brief, the episodes are often slow.  Pacing could use some work.  The fight choreography is unimpressive.  It was funny how Alex was repeatedly recast through the series (5 different actresses played the part) and was largely ignored beyond the first switch.  There were some really good gags.  Garrand's countersong against the sirens was hilarious.  Despite his bad singing and often being annoying, Garrand was the stand out character.  By the end of the season, the party has reached the dragon but discovered that the quest was not what it seemed.  A new quest is set for the next season.

Season 2: The episode begins with the party teleporting into a wooded area.  Sadly, Garrand has materialized inside a tree, only his arm sticking out with his lute.  Well, so much for that character.  Dang.  With the absence of Garrand, the opening song recap is no longer part of the show.  Also, the tavern interviews have been dumped.  Yes, it is a very different format.  It turns out that Markus teleported them to the wrong place and now the party has to go on a series of mini-quests to undo a curse.  Once that is done, Markus teleports them to the right place.  And that's the end of the series.  Really?  Sigh.

With Garrand gone, the character of Squire Quigley (Ben Burch) was added.  Quigley is every bit as annoying as Garrand but lacks the positive qualities.  The fight choreography is marginally better and mostly sees Alex outclassing multiple guys at a time with her tiny knife.  Markus has a wizard's duel that must have drained the special effects budget.

As with many of these web series, it had promise but didn't last long enough to tell its story.  Definitely worth watching for some of its gags and funny takes on gaming.

AFK

Q wakes up to find that she is her online character. She is stuck in game as an elf ranger. The NPCs and monsters are all gone, only other players who have also been stuck in game are around. Some characters, such as Brendon the Wizard, are particularly disadvantaged as magic no longer functions. Rather than a powerful wizard, he is just a portly human with a staff. Of course, there are characters who find themselves very different from their real world versions. Mabel is playing a male gnome and finds peeing awkward and embarrassing. Stephen now finds himself as a barely clothed woman who is regularly targeted for rape.

The show explores what might happen if random players from around the world suddenly became their characters. It was funny to see Stephen declare that she's an American while Vanya the Russian forced her to join his gang. The rule of law has no meaning in the game; this is the rule of might. The show is an interesting mix of comedy and drama. I particularly enjoyed when the character who was a zombie started dancing like she was in Thriller. And then some other player shot her through the head. Comedy and tragedy. Death in game is a real mystery. Is it a means of escaping the game or do you really die? This is not the first 'stuck in game' series but it does it well based on its budget.

 

The series has a YouTube page.

The Wizards of Aus

This series has the greatest opening of any web series ever!  A mountain fortress is being assaulted by hordes of orcs and goblins.  Blood and gore are everywhere.  A dragon takes flight from a nearby peak.  As the camera soars over the vast melee, it zooms in to show us a sassy female archer.  She stabs an orc in the eye with a pair of arrows before spinning around and planting those two arrows in a pair of approaching orcs.  Yeah, she's high level to be doing this.  Then she turns to find someone is arriving via teleport.  Friend or foe?  She aims an arrow.  It's Jack!  The archer offers sassy banter in the midst of battle.  What follows is awesome.

Tired of his life in the wizards' realm, Jack decided to migrate to... Melbourne, Australia.  With occasional flashbacks to his life in the wizards' realm, the series details Jack's efforts to adjust to life in Melbourne.  Of course, this is made quite difficult since his arch-nemesis, Skulldrich, has moved in next door in an effort to get him to return to the wizards' realm.  The constant, over-the-top villainy of Skulldrich is awesome.

The effects are amazingly good.  From the CGI to the makeup, it was all very professional.  The show even managed to get Guy Pearce to star in the first episode.  There are constant corny references to recent movies in the fantasy genre.  There is a scene with a deciding hat, Jack says he is glad he can get mail without being inundated by owls, there is a guy with a flaming skull in a leather jacket.  No, not Ghost Rider.  He is Ghost Writer.  Nice.  We have a Conan-like guy, a mummy who keeps talking about staring with Brendan Frasier in... Monkey Bone.  Jack himself is basically a young Gandalf, complete with pipe and floppy wizard's hat.  The show's conclusion is very strange and puts further episodes in doubt.  Even so, highly recommended for all the antics that preceded it.

 

Ren: The Girl with the Mark

Our story opens with Lyanna and Hunter stealing a peculiar lamp that doesn't seem to offer much light.  As they flee though the woods, they are pursued by red-clad soldiers known as the Kah'Nath, an order that 'protects' the people from the 'marked ones.'  Hunter leads the soldiers away from Lyanna so she can escape with the peculiar lamp.

Next we meet Ren.  She drawing a stag in the woods when Karn suddenly holds a knife to her throat.  He scolds her for not being more wary but she blithely dismisses his concern.  Karn is something of a mentor to Ren, having taught her archery.  He lives in the woods away from the village and is viewed as dangerous.  Back in the village, Ren discovers some Kah'Nath soldiers who are searching for Lyanna.  Their presence triggers an argument between her and her father.  She flees town only to stumbled into Lyanna and Hunter just as they are fighting a contingent of Kah'Nath.  And then the strange lamp is broken, allowing a glowing entity to join with Ren.  Soon thereafter, she is quite literally marked, a physical manifestation of her symbiosis with a spirit.  She is also marked for death at the hands of the Kah'Nath.

For a web series, this is surprisingly good.  The costumes are good, the village is well-realized, the acting is better than usual for such shows, and the setting is interesting.  I really liked the propaganda about being marked and the reverence that villagers held for the Kah'Nath.  The bad guys are viewed as heroes and the good guys are seen as evil.  By the end of the five episode season, the adventuring party has coalesced.  There will by Ren the Magical, Hunter the Fighter, Baynon (Ren's brother) the Rogue, and Karn the Ranger.  Exactly how magical Ren is will have to be revealed next season.  I liked it enough that I look forward to another season.

 

Korath - Dawn of Darkness

This web series opens in the world of Korath with a rogue escaping from a prison that is populated by incompetent guards.  Next, we meet a rather tall dwarf with a Gandalf pipe and a huge warhammer.  He hears someone off the forest trail and demands that he show himself.  Suddenly, the escaped rogue has a blade held to the dwarf's beard and insists on gold.  The dwarf gives up some gold but, when the rogue moves to take it, the dwarf makes his move.  A battle commences.  Though the dwarf gets the better of the rogue, he doesn't finish him.  "I could use a man like you."  He offers more gold for the rogue to help him track down a band of brigands who slaughtered his people, including his family.  The rogue accepts.  The duo next meet a sorceress who has been attacked by the very band the dwarf seeks.  She joins them on their quest.  Though the heroes succeed in finding the remaining members of the brigands and reclaiming the stolen items, it is clear that some villain was behind them and that villain has grand plans.

 

It is a low budget show with mediocre acting.  I found the dwarf rather plaintive, his voice reminding me a lot of Daniel Day-Lewis in Last of the Mohicans.  Yeah, that is an unusual accent for a dwarf.  However, he is clearly the central character, at least to this point.  The fight choreography is no better than the acting.  The fights last much too long and consist mostly of telegraphed blows and easy parries.  Even so, I enjoyed it and look forward to any further episodes that may come.

Gamer Chick

This web series, currently in its second season, details the trials and tribulations of Gia, the titular gamer chick. The story opens in game as Nin the Thief is blasted by a spell. The party healer revives her. Moments later, she takes an arrow to the chest. Gia, Nin's player, demands a private conversation with Colin the DM. She asks if he's mad at her. It turns out they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Bad goes worse and they break up then and there. Gia storms out. The other gamers soon follow, preferring Gia to Colin. Sans Colin, gaming resumes the following Saturday.

Unlike The Gamers series where roughly half is in game and half out, this series is mostly out. There is no plot or discernible storyline in game. However, one classic bit was when every monster looked like Colin. A considerable number of episodes concerns Gia's dating life. This is sometimes funny but mostly forced. The slapstick elements are particularly bad.

Of note, I have no idea what game they are playing. There appear to be humans, elves, and fairies. I'm a bit unclear on the classes. Gia plays a thief. Magic Users can cast healing spells. It's all very vague, probably because not a lot of time is spent in game.

It is mildly entertaining and, seeing the higher production values of the second season, it promises to improve. Worth a look.

Standard Action, Season 2

Yes, Standard Action was so successful that it spawned a second season (and it has even managed to get `renewed' for a third season). This new season builds on the loose ends that were left in the wake of Torval's defeat, which is very satisfying in a continuity sort of way. Yes, it is cool that all of those hints of a deeper campaign from the previous season are actually meaningful.

To refresh, our heroes are Edda the Elfin Barbarian, Martin the Druid, Fernando the Half-Halfling Bard, and Gwenivere the Sorceress. Our story opens with a series of weak comedy skits before the next episodes leads to their banishment to an alternate plane. Sadly, the alternate plane is a modern Earth office building. Sigh. The sets were cheap, I suppose. This resulted in the party being split and it does not rejoin for the rest of the season.

Like last season, the fights are scant, often ending rather abruptly with little combat. The best choreographed fight happens when Edda has a run-in with some masked fellow who makes her look foolish in a comedic fight. Also, multiple characters from last season return, most notably Edda's wizard boyfriend, Cedric. He was last seen in the first episode of season 1 but is reintroduced in the last episode of season 2. His brief appearance is entirely unrelated (as far as I can tell at this point) from the story arc of the primary heroes, which seems like a waste of time. Peculiar. Of greatest importance is the revelation of the power behind Torval.

Much like the first season, this one lacks coherence. It often seems to ramble about and waste precious story-telling time. Notably, the reintroduction of Cedric. It's like breaking off from the story of Aragorn at the gates of Mordor to see what Mr. and Mrs. Proudfoot are having for dinner in the Shire. Really? There are paper Mache kobolds? Enough said on that subject. Season one saw 14 episodes but this one only had 8. Worse still, this season lacks the greatest strength of last season: a conclusion. It ends in the middle.

Brothers Barbarian

Though only now reviewing it, this was the first D&Dish web series I encountered and got me looking for more. The story follows Art and Russ, a pair of dull-witted brothers who have been cursed by a witch. The witch, for reasons unknown, made them middle-aged sometime before the first episode. They are currently seeking the witch to restore them but are easily distracted from that task. The two prove to be amazing fighters who lay waste to any opposition with little trouble. There is a wizard (played by Larry Elmore, the great gaming artist and author of SnarfQuest) who likes to teleport himself and others but has trouble including clothing and gear. Awkward. Orcs are plentiful and the brothers kill the largest of them several times before discovering he is part troll and heals after every fight.  Classic. Perhaps the funniest part is the band of low-level adventurers who constantly find themselves in the brothers' wake. There is the too cool-looking fighter, a typical wizard, a cleric who is always in his helmet, and a dark elf who is obviously a rip off of Drizzt Do'Urden (aren't they all). Anyway, this band is always out looking to accomplish great deeds and no sooner do they arrive to save the day than they stumble upon the havoc wreaked by Art and Russ. However, the townsfolk inevitably discover the four heroes standing over the corpses shortly after the Brothers Barbarian have departed and thus give credit to the bemused four. It doesn't match the Dead Gentlemen stuff but it on par with Standard Action.

The best thing about the show is the theme song. Sure, these other web series have musical introductions but not a song. It is worth listening to the lyrics with such gems as "They look like they are fortyish and death is close at hand" or "middle-aged in Middle Earth, flat of foot and wide of girth." The song is a big selling point.

There are frequently bonus bits at the end or during the credits so it is worth watching all the way to the end. Besides, the song will keep you entertained.

The show went on to have a second season which was okay.  It too is posted on YouTube.

 

JourneyQuest

A surprisingly well-made web series, this one follows a band of misfits (it seems most web series follow misfits) on a quest for a magic sword that they have been hired to destroy. The story opens with Wren (Emilie Rommel Shimkus), a bard, being accosted by orcs. She quickly whips out her bard badge and the orcs let her be. In this world, Bardic Immunity is kind of like diplomatic immunity. The orcs ask if she will include them in her epic.

As the final step of her bard training, Wren was dispatched to follow this band of heroes and chronicle their deeds. She is supposed to avoid interacting with them lest she become part of the chronicle - sort of like Star Trek's Prime Directive. When the orcs start relating what they saw, we meet the party:

Perf (Christian Doyle) is a wizard who says he knows three spells. He wears a yellow ensemble, which matches his bravery. Unlike his fellows, he is not at all happy to be on this "sodding quest" but, each time he tries to run, Glorion beats him and drags him back to camp. He is fluent in orkish, which proves funny when he starts correcting the grammar of some orcs trying to kill him. He's got a crush on Nara the elf but does nothing about it. When challenged to a magic duel, he throws a rock. Does it come as any surprise that Perf is our central character?

Glorion (Kevin Pitman) is a fighter whose confidence is inversely proportional to his wits. When chided for slaying every woman and child in an orc village, he declares that he did it bravely. When the wizard and the cleric solve a riddle with the answer of `river,' Glorion instantly concludes that he must kill the river and proceeds to stab the water. All problems can be solved with the proper application of a sword.  He wears red.

Carrow (Brian Lewis) is a cleric who doesn't seem to wear armor or carry a weapon. He's a personable fellow but has an attitude of diffidence, almost as if he finds this quest to be nothing more than a mildly entertaining diversion. He gets along with all three of the other party members because he is able to read them. His encounter with the orcs is one of the funniest scenes in the show.  He wears blue.

Nara (Anne K. Brady) is an elfin archer. As an elf, she has the keenest senses of the party and yet she has not noticed Wren, who is always on the periphery. She holds herself apart from the others because she has different plans. She is unaware that Perf is enamored with her. She is the straight man in this show of comedians.  She wears green.

The orcs are the green-skinned variety and have surprisingly good and well-maintained equipment. Their beards are groomed and their teeth are white and straight. That they could engage in a discussion about grammar says good things about the advanced state of their culture.

Lastly, there is the assassin, a black-clad masked woman (Samara Lerman) who has also been following the party and even Wren didn't notice her until recently. She is here to kill the party members if they stray from their task.

As mentioned, the narrative starts at the end with Wren trying to find out what happened. The initial flashback follows our adventurers including the times they almost stumble onto Wren. A second flashback followed Wren as she follows the party. That sounds more confusing than it proves to be. Perhaps next season there will be a flashback of the assassin following Wren following the party.

The show has been approved for a second season and I look forward to it.

 

The second season was fun but add a lot of complexity to the story, leaving even more loose ends.  However, a third season was funded and should be released before too long.  Really great stuff.

 

This show is just one of many made by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment.

Spellfury

Here is the worst web series I have yet encountered but it is also has the most episodes. How does that happen? The episodes are extremely brief at the start, rarely exceeding two minutes. By the end of the series, episodes are five minutes. So, despite having 15 episodes, it's not very long.

The story follows Druinia the elf maid who, while traveling from A to B, got tangled up with a stupid rogue. She finds herself suddenly in possession of a magic elf sword which she promptly loses to a slightly less stupid rogue. The villain - who may be a lich - has a bunch of goons who might be bugbears. There are demons and some sort of giant polar bear-like monster that is always hungry. There are several pixies, a lizardman, an ogre, and some sort of hairy monster who mill about in a tavern and serve as a distraction from Druinia's epic.

The production values are horrendous. I mean really bad. There is a surprising amount of bad puppetry; one recurrent character is only a shade above a sock puppet. Almost every shot is done in front of a green screen and it is done very badly. The bugbears are wearing furry body suits and have some face makeup. Maybe they are Wookies. When Druinia wields the magic sword, the blade glows blue; sadly, the special effects department had trouble keeping the blue glow on the blade so there is a bit of a wobble to her magic sword.

In the second season (3 episodes only), product placement is not at all subtle. When characters are admiring products and offering websites, the show becomes more a commercial than a fantasy story. In fact, the tavern scenes appear to be for blatant commercials, sock puppetry, and horribly rendered pixies. The acting is often atrocious. The show might appeal to the 12 year-olds. However, the show must have something going for it since I managed to watch all the episodes. Take a look for a laugh.

 

The webpage is still active, the show is not yet dead.  Though the last entry (Season 2, Episode 5) was posted in August 2013, there is a comment by show creator dated only a few months ago that he has one "so close to being done."  The CGI in the last episode was pretty good but the story was still advancing at a snail's pace.  The first episode was released in 2008.  If a new episode really does appear, the cast is going to noticeably age from scene to scene.  Perhaps it was all filmed back in 2008 and he is just releasing parts as he finishes the effects.

 

 

Standard Action

Here is another D&D web series that follows a band of low level adventurers into the wild forests on the outskirts of civilization. The heroes are introduced over the first 3 episodes. There is Edda the happy-go-lucky barbarian elf maiden who has just broken up with her effeminate human wizard boyfriend. There is Martin the abrasive, hay fever-suffering druid who has been tossed out of his last party. Next is Fernando the ever-cheerful bard who likes to charge into battle armed only with a bold and noble monologue. Oddly, he is a half-Halfling, which explains why he is so tall. Lastly is Gwenevere (aka Wendy) the image-conscious sorceress who is constantly concerned that her party will embarrass her.

The plot, such as it is, has Fernando and Wendy escaping from a band of hobgoblins and seeking new party members to help rescue the two they lost. The hapless party heads back into the woods where they face a variety of goofy dangers before finally facing the hobgoblins and their human allies.

The setting is standard D&D with a few quirks. Halflings are only a bit shorter than a human. The Half-Ogre just looked like a big human with a beard. Martin's badger familiar, Snuffles, is represented as a piled of dirt or, in one battle, as a stuffed animal. Weak. Then there was a French Mime as a villain! Beyond the overly-comical oddities, there was the problem that most of the battles take place off screen, our characters either awakening after defeat or gasping as they stop to hide. Not until the last couple episodes do you see a choreographed fight, and those are subpar. Still, the story is sufficiently engaging - especially for a gamer - to keep one's attention and even dare to watch the next episode.

The series runs 14 episodes and, unlike some web series, comes to a conclusion. That is probably its greatest strength. I didn't just waste three hours to come to the middle when a sequel is not likely to be made. There is clearly room to carry on but this adventure has finished. Another awesome bit was how the heroes pillaged. Oh, how they pillage! Yes, these are PCs who know that they are supposed to plunder their fallen enemies. The ultimate bit was what elf barbarian did with the captured enemy leader at the end of the series. Outstanding! You are so PC, Edda!

 

 

Since I wrote this (May 2012), two more seasons worth of Standard Action have been produced.  It isn't great but it manages to be entertaining.  The show just couldn't resist the urge of putting the characters in the modern world for a while.  It does have a bad habit of descending beyond campy by including talking spoons, paper mache monsters, evil clowns, etc.  Very silly.  Even so, I've watched it all.

Dragon Age: Redemption

This six-part web series takes place in the Dragon Age setting, a game by Bioware. The story follows Tallis (Felicia Day), an elfin assassin who serves the Qunari. As any good female character in a fantasy setting, what armor she wears clings nicely to her curves. She wields a pair a short swords and is a talented tracker; might be a ranger? Oddly enough, elves are a slave race in this world that is mostly dominated by the humans of the Chantry and Kossith of the Qunari. The Kossith are 7 foot tall gray humanoids with horns and white hair. Free elves are called Dalish and keep to themselves. Mages are hated by both sides and, when not killed, are imprisoned or enslaved by each side.

The story begins with a Kossith mage - Saarebas (Doug Jones) - escaping the Chantry prison. The Qunari learn of this and want Saarebas captured to serve the Qunari. Tallis is chosen for the task. She trails another escapee and learns from him where Saarebas is bound. She also learns that she is not the only one tracking the mage.

Cairn, a Templar of the Chantry, is trailing the escaped mage as well. Templar seems rather like paladin which is a pretty good description for Cairn. He has powers that appear magical - which is odd in this magic-hating society - but they are not explained. Perhaps this is clerical vs. wizard magic. Also, they look to be associated with his equipment; perhaps his gear is enchanted.

Though they start as adversaries, Tallis and Cairn eventually ally until the mage is subdued. They agree to duel to see who gets the mage at that point. In a Dalish village, they pick up an elf mage named Josmael - who causes Cairn considerable consternation; mages must be killed or imprisoned. Lastly they capture one of Saarebas' mercenaries, a woman named Nyree. Nyree is a reaver, the barbarians of the setting, and she gladly signs on with the band when gold is poured in her hand. With the party complete, the heroes engage in a tavern brawl before meeting the villain in an epic battle.

The production value is a shade below Xena but not bad. The acting is okay. The weakest character was probably Cairn who looked a bit too shiny in his armor. He should have been more brooding and angry. His plate armor that lacked a helmet or even a chain mail coif was jarring. All in all, a fun series that gives a glimpse of a rich campaign world.

 

I have never played any of the Dragon Age games and have no idea how well the series reflects it, if at all.  Felicia Day is famed for her other web series, The Guild.  That is comic gold for any who have invested time in online gaming.