The Gamers: Dorkness Rising

Yes, The Gamers was sufficiently successful to spawn a sequel. Dorkness Rising opens with Rennard the Rogue, Turk the Fighter, Fastidian the Cleric, and Nodwick the pack animal... er... henchman trekking through a dungeon and doing battle with zombies. Before the heroes move on, they leave Nodwick to stay with the treasure chest until they return. Soon after, they meet the great villain, Mort Kemnon, Avatar to the God of Death. Fastidian calls upon his goddess but finds he is cut off from her; his clerical powers are gone. In short order the party is wiped out.

Cass (Brian Lewis) curses at the death of his character, Rennard. Gary (Christian Doyle) and Leo (Scott C. Brown) are less upset and talk about trying something different next week. Cass refuses. He wants to run the adventure again, much to Lodge's (the DM) surprise. He is angry that the DM essentially gelded the party cleric. "That can't happen in the rules!"

"Story trumps rules," the DM replies. Oh, that is awesome! These are some gamers!

Anyway, the group decides to try the adventure again though they want more players to round out the party. Cass manages to get his ex-girlfriend, Joanna (Carol Roscoe), to play. He then complains that she has created a 9th level fighter with 45 hit points. "45 hit points?!" He is even more astounded that she has no strength bonus, no constitution bonus, and put her best scores in intelligence, dexterity, and charisma! "Charisma?" To talk their way out of fights, she explained. The reactions at the table are great. Gary opts to play Luster (Jennifer Page), a chaotic neutral (read evil) sorceress who is hot. Leo, who has always played fighters, decides to go with a bard named Flynn. The bard is uproariously funny in the adventure, strumming his lute while the other characters fight. Cass, ever the thorn in the DM's side, brings Brother Silence the monk, a class the DM had specifically forbidden for not fitting his setting.

"It's in the core rules. I should be able to play it." Oh, how many times have I heard such things?

The DM acquiesces with a sigh. Lastly, Sir Osric (Nathan Rice) the NPC Paladin is added to the group since no other players volunteered to game with this bunch. Sir Osric elicits groans from the men, who see him as a babysitter, but a smile from Joanna. And so the campaign begins.

As with the previous Gamers, there are frequent gaming references both in and out of game. All the other players have already done this campaign and know where to go but Joanna doesn't. This sparks the Player Knowledge vs. Character Knowledge debate; I love that one. The fumbled will save is awesome. That the bard seduces every female he encounters is hilarious, especially in the throne room. Of course, Gary playing a female is hilarious since he frequently forgets his character is female and even tries to seduce Joanna. When she reminds him, he suggests some girl on girl action. Also awesome was when Luster used animate dead on the chicken they were roasting for dinner. Gamers!

The production values are surprisingly good and the acting far exceeds expectations. As a Dead Gentlemen Production, many of the actors are familiar. Gary/Luster plays Perf the Yellow Wizard in JourneyQuest. The DM/Sir Osric played Newmoon the Elf in The Gamers and the gargoyles in JourneyQuest. Cass/Brother Silence plays Carrow the Cleric in Journey Quest. Paula the angry coed from The Gamers appears as the Goddess Theron here.

Like Gamers and JourneyQuest, this is posted on YouTube. I liked it so much that I bought the DVD. Totally worth it. Highly recommended.

The Gamers

This low-budget movie was made by a group of gamers back in 2002. The story opens with Paula in a co-ed dorm during finals week. While she tries to concentrate, a bunch of boys are loudly proclaiming the greatness of their D&D characters. Paula confronts them then storms back to her room to study. "Gamers!" she curses.

The 5 gamers begin the adventure. Their characters are Ambrose the Wizard, Nimble the Thief, Newmoon the Elf, and Rogar the Barbarian. One player, Mark, is missing, having said he would show up later. The gamers are astonished that Mark would miss game night for a girl.  The campaign begins and suddenly the scene changes to a fantasy world with the players in the garb of their characters. The shift back and forth between the game world and the gamers around the table is surprisingly entertaining. In the campaign world, there are 5 characters but Mark just stands silently while the other characters discuss. When Mark finally arrives, his character leaps into action - classic.

The adventure is pretty basic stuff: rescue the princess (who looks exactly like Paula the angry girl) from the Shadow, a longstanding villain in the campaign. It is the stuff that happens along the way that makes the movie fun. The party wizard, Ambrose, dies. One person suggests they bury him and the other characters are perplexed by such a waste of time. Ah, but it will get them piety points. Once the piety points are distributed, the pillaging commences as everyone calls dibs on this or that piece of equipment. Very funny. Shortly afterwards, the party meets Magellan the Wizard who is a twin to Ambrose. Though he is milling outside an evil dungeon, the party gladly accepts him into the fold. Awesome. Then there is the bend bars/lift gates roll. Rogar is the strongest and is almost certain to succeed but blows the roll. So, here comes Newmoon with his 8 strength. You can guess how that works out. Then there are the exchanges like this:

Nimble the Thief, after having been killed by a trap: I should have had a search check.

DM: You didn't say you were looking.

Nimble: I'm a master thief. Of course I was looking for traps.

DM: <sigh> Fine, you look for traps.

Great stuff! The show is full of such comic D&D oddities.

The show is available on YouTube. It is broken into 5 parts of about 10 minutes each. Of note, Newmoon the Elf is played by Nathan Rice who also appeared in Journey Quest as the lying gargoyle. He has been in several gaming-related shows which are likely to be reviewed in the near future.

 

Since my review (June 2012), the show has been posted as a full movie:

This is the first offering of Dead Gentlemen Productions.  It has also spawned a series of Gamers movies as well as a web series.