The Gamers: Hands of Fate

A new Gamers movie is out and it is mostly good stuff. Our story opens with Brother Silence the Monk, Luster the Sorceress, Daphne the Fighter, Sir Osric the Paladin, and Flynn the Bard storming into the lair of The Shadow, the chief villain of a longstanding campaign. The Shadow begins his villainous monologue when a phone starts ringing. All stare at Luster and insist she not answer it. Once the phone stops, The Shadow resumes his monologue but the phone rings again. Luster answers.

Cass (Brother Silence), Gary (Luster), Joanna (Daphne), Lodge (Sir Osric), and Leo (Flynn) are seated around a table with gaming stuff scattered. Cass proposes they continue next week but Leo (who is also owner of the gaming shop) says all his tables are booked for Romance of the Nine Empires, a card game not unlike Magic: The Gathering. Cass, a true RPG player, has a low opinion of card gamers. However, Natalie, a pretty redhead, shows up for the card tournament and suddenly he is interested.

The movie follows Cass's initiation into card gaming under the tutelage of Leo, who was heavily into the Romance of the 9 Empires in the early days and has an impressive card collection. In order to get a date with Natalie, he must win the High Throne for the Queen of Holden at GenCon. Cass accepts the challenge. The rest of the film takes place at GenCon where Cass disses Live Action Role Playing (LARP) that is associated with the card game. It struck me as odd that a card could be `killed off' at the big tournament though I am quite familiar with the introduction of new cards. It was also interesting that there was a history of the setting that evolved from GenCon to GenCon.

The card game format makes the in-game sequences repetitive. Cass plays the same deck and the same heroes go on the same quests. However, Myriad (the primary hero in his deck) becomes aware that she is repeating herself, that her fate is not in her hands. Whereas the in-game parts of the previous movies were comedy and farce, this setting is played straight.

Meanwhile, Gary is obsessed with Chibichan, an obvious Pikachu knockoff, who walks the con and says "Chibichan" incessantly. Gary has imagined conversations with this fluffy pink bunny and eventually attacks it. He is ejected from GenCon by security; that GenCon security is provided by Star Wars Stormtroopers was awesome!  Gary's bizarre obsession was the weakest part of the movie and a bit disturbing too. The attacks get pretty extreme. Gary should be in prison. Not funny.

The movie concludes with The Shadow once again delivering his villainous monologue and providing a clear need for a sequel.

Though not a collectible card gamer and having no interest in becoming one, I still enjoyed the movie. It was fun to see Cass being a jerk to a different set of gamers. The acting was surprisingly good for this sort of film. Many cast members of JourneyQuest find their way into this film, most notably the masked assassin shows up as the heroine Myriad and one of the orcs is her elfin love interest, Dundareel. Generally good stuff and recommended. The Gamers: Hands of Fate is available free online:

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.