🎵Crawling Dungeons in the Mooooor-ning🎵
July 15, 2016 6:58 AM   Subscribe

Yesterday, all the episodes of Dan Harmon's new show Harmonquest went up on Seeso. The first episode is on Youtube for free. In Harmonquest, Dan Harmon, Jeff Davis, and Erin McGathy play D&D in front of a live audience, and their hijinks and misadventures are animated. Each week, they're joined by a hilarious comedy guest. Ep. 1's guest is Paul F. Tompkins, and other guests include Patton Oswalt, Ron Funches, and Kumail Nanjiani.
posted by Maecenas (26 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
If you like this, also check out the Acquisitions Incorporated series (YouTube playlist), which has been going on for years first as a podcast, then live at PAX conferences, and now also a YouTube series.
posted by sutt at 7:34 AM on July 15, 2016 [2 favorites]


Seeso streams in the US ONLY.

Grumble grumble grumble I don't even know why I click on any post about streaming media these days.
posted by thecjm at 7:35 AM on July 15, 2016 [4 favorites]


Reminds me of an animated Critical Role. If you have never seen critical role, it's sorta like a mix of geek culture, improv comedy, and live radio show.
posted by stilgar at 7:37 AM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


If you like D&D silliness, check out The Adventure Zone, a D&D podcast run by the wonderful and hilarious McElroy brothers of My Brother, My Brother & Me (Mbmbam) fame, who have enlisted their dad for goofy, emotionally redemptive, occasionally "erotic" fantasy adventures! MeFi Fanfare here
posted by Queen of Spreadable Fats at 7:40 AM on July 15, 2016 [6 favorites]


And also the Wil Wheaton run Titansgrave.
posted by sutt at 7:47 AM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


This was inspired by the role-playing segments from the Harmontown podcast. Someone has put up clips of just the Pathfinder and Shadowrun games (and a few other things.) They occasionally reference stuff from earlier in the show, so the best (albeit longer) way is to just listen to the 'cast. (The first handful don't have an RPG segment, and they largely dropped it when this project began.)
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:49 AM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


Is it sad or impressive that I've listened to/watched/heard of/loved all the geeky table gaming stuff being mentioned in here?

My bf told me about this just this morning and I literally "squee"'d with delight on this, the eve of our second D&D encounter with the third DM in our casual campaign rotation. This will surely provide us with an extra spark of inspiration (that, and the two Inspiration points I've sneakily accumulated, even though I know technically you should only have one at a time...).
posted by Mooseli at 7:52 AM on July 15, 2016


Chainmail bikini. For fuck's sake.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:55 AM on July 15, 2016 [5 favorites]


There's also a couple of previews of Aubrey Plaza's episode.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:05 AM on July 15, 2016 [3 favorites]


Canadian tears. Managed to VPN the pilot on Amazon last week, but SeeSo needs a US credit card. Will be scouring the net for less legal options which is a shame as I would totally pay.
posted by yellowbinder at 8:10 AM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


I watched the first episode and loved it.

Coincides nicely with the return of I Hit It With My Axe. (which if you don't know is pornstars playing DnD, and so is NSFW)
posted by lumpenprole at 9:12 AM on July 15, 2016


You had me at Paul F Tompkins.
posted by littlesq at 9:49 AM on July 15, 2016


I started playing D&D this year because I thought it sounded so much fun on the Harmontown podcast. Spencer Crittenden is an amazing DM/improv storyteller and it shines through on this but it's really amazing in a less structured, more inebriated setting like the podcast.

Signed up for a SeeSo trial for this and the Jonah Ray show which some friends worled on and I'm excited that I can watch all the Young Ones episodes before my brokeass cancels in 30 days
posted by elr at 11:08 AM on July 15, 2016


Great post title.
posted by resurrexit at 11:37 AM on July 15, 2016


I like this! It's cool (and probably economical) to see people getting creative with improv-y formats in different media. It's interesting to see, though, the ways in which post hoc animation is a flawed match for the live improvised event, i.e. the animators can throw in jokes like PFT baubling the fire, but it feels weird knowing the audience doesn't see that joke (and crucially they do not laugh at it). And there are certain times when narrating something without giving it a precise visual depiction yet is effective, but the animation sort of necessitates making those decisions (like when the demons came out of the rift).

It's really too bad we can't improvise animation yet, but I think that will lead to a lot of cool abilities in comedy and elsewhere.
posted by little onion at 11:51 AM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


Prior to this, a fan provided animation for a couple of early Harmontown D&D session from a couple years back. They are very, very good.

Episode 1
Episode 2
posted by sourwookie at 1:09 PM on July 15, 2016 [3 favorites]


We've come a long way from a card table in the garage to finding the Mountain Dew to Geek and Sundry network to a live studio audience.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 2:44 PM on July 15, 2016


That was a lot of fun, thanks!
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:08 PM on July 15, 2016


Chainmail bikini. For fuck's sake.

Yeah, shame. Seems it isn't retconned in later episodes either.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:11 PM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


Chainmail bikini. For fuck's sake.

Well, she's basically playing Red Sonja, so it makes sense on that level.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:32 PM on July 15, 2016


No, it doesn't make any sense on any level. I'm pissed off about this. One main female character and not only does she run around in a bikini, but they make fucking visual jokes about it with her reaching into her bra to get some money out -- because she doesn't have any pockets, you see, ha ha ha.

I've talked before about how my Girl Scout troop plays D&D. I would love to show them something like this -- but hell no am I going to help spread the idea that to be a female character in fantasy, you have to be naked.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:09 PM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


I really want to be able to get into these RPG shows. But I noped out of this one at the bikini. And my introduction to Critial Role was an episode where one of the male characters was giving nonstop unwanted sexual attention to a female character, and it was played for laughs. Nope to that, too.

I'm still gonna check out the other links in this thread (and thanks to everyone who posted!), but I'm not feeling super optimistic about finding a good show without sexism.
posted by Banknote of the year at 12:02 PM on July 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


Presented without comment: Chainmail Bikini [Warning: TV Tropes]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:35 PM on July 16, 2016


I am aware that chainmail bikins is not something they made up for this show.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:51 PM on July 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


OK.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:01 PM on July 16, 2016


@The corpse in the library: Check out the Roll20 channel on YouTube. Lots of different games, lots of women, many of the GMs and players are explicitly committed to improving diversity in gaming. Their main GM, Adam Koebel (one of the designers of Dungeon World), identifies as queer and puts in real effort to making gaming a more inclusive hobby.
posted by robcorr at 6:46 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


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