#harmonquest

[headbeater]

once again indulging in my day dream of Spencer Crittenden GMing a D20 side quest

[offbookkeeping]

yesterday i woke up to a text from my father saying "hey i'm with dan harmon, do you have any questions for him?" WHAT THE FUCK?? dan harmon, the guy who made community and rick and morty and harmonquest (WHICH JESS WAS A GUEST ON BY THE WAY!!AND CARL TART AND D'ARCY CARDEN)

so my father has met that man multiple times in casual social situations (once i was almost with him but i decided not to go at the last minute) and now dan harmon knows that my favorite episode of harmonquest is the one with jess mckenna. my father is acquaintances with dan harmon and i am one more person closer to a friend of jess mckenna. i am so normal and healthy about this. i really fucking hope my acting career goes further than being an extra and being in niche commercials because oh my god what if i meet jess eventually

i am so normal and healthy and not freaking out at all oh my god

[visit-me-here-in-wonderland]

now draw her all sweaty and mean with an axe

[fantasymisfitsquotes]

Zalith : I take out my new dagger and I just go right in the throat. I'll put daylight into your neck. Bowen : Yay! I like that! Figgs : I think we can all agree it was a boss thing to yell.

[xxtc-96xx]

What kind of show's do you usually animate for? (If you're allowed to say)

Rick and morty, season 1 of solar opposites, Harmonquest season 3

[merfolkplantgay]

That's very fair!

Although isn't it a common criticism that CritRole is also doing the same for DnD? That DnD is not best suited for social intrigue and a lot of the narrative multi-year story campaigns that CritRole is doing?

Frankly I can't remember any system that CritRole did where they really compromised on their format in order to fit the rules, they always made the system sort of inspire the vibe, and then figure out how to make it fit their show, which is first and foremost an improv storytelling show and not a tabletop show. I guess we have to accept that it's similar to watching Grey's Anatomy and being angry that the medicine isn't accurate. It's just not that kind of show.

Which I think is a good reason to argue that CritRole is a bad way to learn how pretty much any TTRPG's rules work in RAW, (rather than a defense of how they handled Monsterhearts).

I don't know how to say this other than that D&D 5e should not be taken as the template of what RPGs are supposed to be like and should not be allowed to set expectations for what to expect from RPGs in general. Like, D&D 5e making assumptions that an Adventuring Day will consist of Encounters which need to be overcome so the Adventure can progress and that those Encounters should be designed in such a way that the party can be expected to overcome them. That's not neutral! All of that is actually heavily opinionated and already encodes a lot of expectations.

[zedecksiew]

Mechanics as Bits

EDIT:

Freddie Foulds over on Bluesky found the post for me! It was a Chris McDowall post: Alien Dojos.

This is now a fan post about the genius that is Alien Dojos.

Every martial art described there (for use with Into The Odd) has a resolution mechanic that involves doing something tactile with dice, beyond just rolling.

For "Bafistan Fist Fighting" each punch is a d6, "rolled" by "throwing them into the air and punching them"---but you have to punch them in such a way they still land on the table; if you miss your punch, or punch them off the table, that's a failure.

Or, how about "Five Way Stick":

Initiate: When fighting with a Martial Stick (d6, Bulky) stack 5d6 in front of you and try to flick the top die from the stack. If any other than the top tie fall, fail and treat the roll as 1. Continue down the stack until you fail or choose to stop.

These are:

Functional subsystems (clear resolution mechanics);

Thematically appropriate to fiction they are meant to represent (little minigames of player dexterity to resolve character actions involving martial arts);

Physical spectacle (at the very least you will be focused on the "roll", if not dodging flying dice);

Goofy as shit (a virtue in itself).

I want to make rules like this.

+++

Today I spent a few hours watching this Alien-abduction themed actual play of Dread, on Smosh. I liked it a lot! More than I thought I would!

(Please don't laugh at me too much for my very vanilla Internet media consumption! I am an old, and very uncool. Today I was watching YouTube between digging up banana corms.)

I almost never watch actual plays, mind you. I tried Critical Role and bounced right off; I have seen maybe two Dimension 20 sessions ever; the last AP series I followed really was HarmonQuest, which was---what, the twenty-teens?

+

Watching the Smosh Dread thing got me wondering:

How often do mechanics / system talk come up in the course of big mainstream actual plays?

I don't mean:

"Pull from the Jenga tower." (simple resolution mechanics); or

"I cast Fireball!" (diegetic, arguably)

But:

"Okay so let's look it up. Fireball is 20ft x 20ft, and *doesn't* set stuff on fire." (non-diegetic rules clarification); or:

"You have four 'Mercury' symbols, and from last round you have the "somebody will betray you" narrative trigger, let's consult the relevant oracle table ..." (complex resolution mechanics)

This analysis by Trilemma of the transcript of a Critical Role episode [and additional commentary by Thomas Manuel] goes a ways towards answering how much general rules talk occurs, though it doesn't make a distinction between the types of rules talk in the sense I'm thinking of.

+

Here's a (totally untested) hypothesis:

If actual plays are edited / watched for the uninterrupted flow of action / banter / emotion at the table (as ones geared towards general, non-TTRPG-enthusiast audiences like Smosh and HarmonQuest certainly are);

and:

If certain kinds of complex mechanics tend to divert attention into cul-de-sacs of meta-narrative detail, interrupting said flow of action / banter / emotion (these are generally absent from the APs I can sit through, or at least edited out);

then:

The games that work best for actual play are basically party games, with light and (more importantly, for this post) VISCERAL resolution mechanics:

Jenga-d suspense;

The sleep rituals in stuff like Werewolf;

An overdramatic rock-paper-scissors game; etc

Or, alternatively, they are games whose systems can get out of the way enough to function like party games. I'd argue that D&D counts as one such game. It is go-to mainstream TTRPG actual play system because yes, of Name Brand Recognition---

But also because it is possible to not play with any actual D&D rules (and therefore avoid the tedium of looking up what stuff like Conditions mean) and still be playing D&D culturally.

+

Basically:

How suitable a tabletop roleplaying game is for actual play depends on how easily its mechanics can function as bits or performances, in the improv sense.

+++

So this is very shaky ground for me; I don't watch actual plays and I am talking out my ass. But through the sewage of my bullshit is perhaps the firmer ground of a design opportunity, maybe?

Namely:

Could we be designing TTRPG mechanics as performances / for performativity?

+

I'd argue that Dread is so well-known because its simple core mechanic is a novel for precisely this reason: you and your friends enact your suspense around the Jenga Tower physically and viscerally (even if it is anxious silence), for each other (if not for an outside audience).

There is the sense that you are acting. Doing something.

+

How else could we manage this?

Rolling dice or revealing a card are already performances, technically---but for our purposes here I'd argue that they are very "small"; they don't have enough presence.

How can we treat dice rolls with the pomp of ritual, construct more ceremony around a card-based resolution system?

Boardgames are already good at fun counters and tactile props and click-y dials---but these are also small, in that they live mainly on the table. You are still sitting on your ass.

Props that make you get up! Rulesets that necessitate play-fighting!

LARP totally fits. Throwing pouches and yelling "Magic Missile! Magic Missile!" 10 out of 10 no notes.

+

Finger games (rock paper scissors; lat ta li lat ta li tam pong; thumb war) fit.

A chase scene in fiction resolved by a game of tag is maybe too on the nose, but also fits.

+

I've been trying to find this blogpost I vaguely recall, that proposes exactly the kind of thing I'm thinking about.

It suggested a list of unusual fighting styles (or maybe martial arts) for D&D. It has stuck in the substrate of my mind because the proposed fighting styles all had non-standard, action-based resolution mechanics.

Ie: the GM tosses a handful of dice; you (the player) try to punch as many of them in mid-air with your fists; how many you get determines how many hits you score in fiction.

Something like that. Imagine that goofy shit at the table!

I can't find this post any more. Does anybody else remember something like it? Help! I want to find it again!

+++

[jkcorellia]

Genuine question with no snark intended toward either actual play as an entertainment medium or players who like to play their TTRPGs like this:

For those who were playing TTRPGs over a decade ago, before the rise of actual play as a major influence in the TTRPG world, was trying to be funny and zany a major part of play back then?

I've only been into TTRPGs as a direct result of actual play, only within the last 5 years, and I see (on reddit, tumblr, everywhere I see people talking about their own TTRPG campaigns) a lot of emphasis on funny moments, antics, totally off-the-wall plans, joke characters, etc. I'm wondering how much of that emphasis comes from the fact that comedians are pretty foundational (as far as I can tell) to the medium of actual play: Dimension 20, The Adventure Zone, HarmonQuest, among others. Are those things as correlated as I think they are?

Of course, funny people have always existed, as has the emphasis on fun in TTRPGs. So this might be totally a lack of perspective on my part!

[amongxthexcrowd]

Get to know the mun

Tagged by: @disposablelover

Tagging: you ;)

𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐒 / 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄: raven

𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘: feb 27

𝐙𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐂 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐍: pisces

𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓: 5'ft

𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐒: writing, reading, beading / making earrings, art, gaming

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑:  usually purple & greens

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊: this is hard bc there is a lot i love, but i will always love the Thief of Alway by Clive Barker, the wayward children series by Seanan McGuire also is up there.

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆: Bloody Mary- Dead on a sunday

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄 / 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖: lmao Harmonquest

𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃: currently reading 'Somewhere beyond the sea' by TJ Klune

𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: music, and an overactive imagination

𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐔𝐑𝐋: i'll be real, it was vaguely inspired by the song 'someone in the crowd' from LaLa Land lol

𝐅𝐔𝐍 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐓: I honestly love doing these things but i always fuckin forget to actually fill them out and i lose track of them.

[rookie-critic]

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (dir. John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein) - review by Rookie-Critic

Making a Dungeons & Dragons film is not something you think would be difficult, but it has proven to be quite a challenge. Since the original tabletop RPG's release in 1974, only four official films have even been released, and the first one of those didn't come out until 2000, 26 years later. That original trilogy of D&D films had a rough go of it, all three being both commercially and critically panned, and none of them even coming close to truly capturing the wondrous and, frankly, kooky spirit anybody who has actually played the game before knows it to have. With literally endless narrative possibilities, how can filmmakers keep failing to capture the essence that makes this fantasy role-playing game so much fun? Honor Among Thieves bursts through the theater wall like some kind of medieval Kool-Aid Man with answer to that question, and the answer is: comedy.

I have only played Dungeons & Dragons a few times, but just from what little experience I have with the game, I can tell you that the one constant the D&D experience offers is humor. The main game mechanic of having to come up with your own solutions to problems, with everything revolving around some arbitrary numbers on a page and a roll of the 20-sided die, is a veritable stomping ground for quirky hijinks and mayhem. Having the utmost confidence in yourself and your plan to get past an obstacle only to roll a one and fail miserably, having to act out the ensuing embarrassment in real time, that's what makes D&D so much fun. The fantasy world is almost just a vehicle to introduce wild NPCs and gadgets and magic to even further induce mischief. The thing that makes Honor Among Thieves work so well is that it takes all of these aspects of the game and just slaps them onto the big screen. I can just as easily have seen this as a HarmonQuest-style internet show where Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and the rest sit around a table with some cameras pointed at them as we watch them actually play this campaign out in actual Dungeons & Dragons. Characters shit talk each other, deliver quippy one-liners when appropriate, get caught off guard by something they didn't expect to happen, come up with crazy solutions that logically shouldn't work, but then it somehow miraculously does. Literally everything about the spirit of this film is perfect, and the most wonderful part is you don't have to be into D&D in order to enjoy this, it's mostly just a fun adventure comedy.

The whole cast shines perfectly in their respective roles (I'm always a huge fan of Hugh Grant in anything comedic), but a truly special shout out needs to go to Chris Pine on this one. If Chris Pine isn't the perfect choice for a too-sure-of-himself, slightly annoying, but lovable bard-type character, then I don't know who is. I would say my one reservation with the film is that there are a couple of moments where the writing leans a little too heavily on over-exposition when explaining some of the deeper lore the audience needs for context on characters. There was probably a way that could have been weaved a little more naturally into the dialogue, but I can probably just chalk it up to yet another D&D trope. Maybe when the writers were playing through this campaign (which I'm almost certain they did), they had a slightly over-zealous DM who got a little too into it sometimes. These moments never last too long and, ultimately, do provide a lot of necessary information regarding certain important characters in the story, so they didn't end up detracting from the viewing experience hardly at all. This was a fun, heartfelt, and hilarious journey into one of the most famous mythical lands there is that the film makers clearly put a whole lot of love and personal experience into. It makes for a D&D film that anyone, regardless of age or interest in the source material, can have a fantastic time with.

Score: 9/10

Currently only in theaters.

[muppetjackrackham]

Have you seen Solar Opposites? Dan Stevens voices an uptight alien dad named Korvo (starting in season 4) and he's pretty good

I HAVE NOT BUT I'VE DEFINITELY THOUGHT ABOUT IT FOR THAT VERY REASON LMAO i was never much of a justin roiland fan to begin with (i was always more of a dan harmon fan because of community and the little bits of harmonquest i've seen over the years) so solar opposites wasn't really something i was interested in but dan's voicework is so genuinely fantastic that i've considering jumping in and watching it from s4 on and just watching a recap of the other three seasons so i don't have to put up with justin roiland

[offbookkeeping]

when i was younger i would obsessively watch the show harmonquest, and i just realized that jess was a guest!! so was paul f thompkins and d'arcy carden! and aubrey plaza, her character hawaiian coffee was a highlight. i can't believe i didn't notice till now!! i guess i've been a sleepy baby longer than i thought. i don't remember the episode at all but her name was flairance sparrow. wow i haven't thought about this show in years i think i need to rewatch it just for that episode

[fantasymisfitsquotes]

Ewyn : I want him to take the book from you, and then I want y'all to die. Cassan : You want- you want this cleric to take it from us? Ewyn : Well he wants to join the order... Cedrich : So if I kill these motherfuckers, I can be in the order like my dad, my grandpa, and my great-grandpa, and my great-great-grandpappy? Ewyn : That's all it would take, a triple homicide.

[concertconquest]

Troy & Abed (Special Guest)

Welcome back to Troy and Abed in the Morning, hosted by Greendale's finest: Troy Barnes and Abed Nadir! Community's best friends are making an appearance in the tournament as the interviewers! They'll invite all sorts of characters onto their morning show and ask them questions. And their music? It's cool. Cool, cool cool. One thing's for certain, Troy and Abed can't be beat! 

- Music from Dan Harmon Media (Community, Rick & Morty, Harmonquest, Channel 101)

- Music by Childish Gambino (Bonfire, 3005, Summertime Magic, This is America)

Render by weh, Stock Icons by @psyalola​, Bio by @greenofrain​

[xxtc-96xx]

If you don’t mind me asking what shows did you work on did you ever work on say centaur world

Only Harmonquest season 3, solar opposites season 1, Rick and morty season 4-present and other stuff I don’t even know if they were ever released lol