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  The Chosen One - Gwen the Healer - has been replaced by Cassandra the Paladin (Mikaela Cochrane).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.

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.