On This Journey, Knowledge Will Be Your Shield
So at this point, I've watched through the first 3 discs of Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series, including probably the best episode of the lot, "The Dragons' Graveyard". (Okay, it's officially "The Dragon's Graveyard," but Michael Reaves, the writer, notes correctly that someone got the name wrong on the title screen.)
The animation is about what I remember, which is to say it's pretty typical mid-80s animation. The writing started more simplistic than I remembered, but it looks like the meat of the series got done in the second and third seasons, while the first season was still feeling out the concept, the characters, and how far the network's Standards & Practices (a.k.a the censors) would let them go. I had forgotten the sheer number of "give up your chance to go home or else someone else gets screwed over" episodes, done to varying degrees of interesting. I'd also forgotten about everyone but Eric, Sheila, & Hank falling in love along the way. (Yes, including 8-year-old Bobby.) Then again, Sheila & Hank pretty obviously have each other, so I guess poor Eric is the only one really left out. I really like the growing characterization of Eric through season two though, and hope it continues through season three and the last disc. Also, I'm slightly annoyed at a couple of small things--the beginning of every episode is a remastered beginning from the first season, though the others are viewable on disc five, and the score for some of the episodes, most notably the aforementioned "Dragons' Graveyard," is different from what was originally aired. Despite that small detraction, I'm really glad I got the collection.
I've gone through most of the "extra" content except the radio play of "Requiem," the unproduced final episode. That, for obvious reasons, I'm leaving for after I finish watching all the regular episodes. The audio commentary on the first pilot episode was somewhat interesting, with producers and former CBS people and writers talking about how the show came into being, and how much of the staff was reused for Muppet Babies, which I found interesting. The half-hour documentary on disc five goes into ... different detail, not really more nor less, about the show's origins and the voice actors. It concludes with an amusing montage of Dungeon Master's more mysterious sayings, whence the title of the post. (Bonus points for identifying the circumstances.) The audio commentary with Michael Reaves on "The Dragons' Graveyard" is much more about the episode itself, and insightful. The host has to ask obviously leading questions sometimes to keep the flow of conversation going, but they do generally help and sometimes lead to interesting tidbits. The fan short film is ... interesting. It's a speculation on the kids when they're somewhat older, and obviously doesn't include "Requiem" in its continuity. Neither the guy playing Hank nor the girl playing Sheila look incredibly the part, but it's an interesting somewhat dark take on older versions of especially those two main characters.
Which, in turn, brings up a problem I think I'd have with running the module included in the set with the characters from the series. There are no rules given for Hank's bow being able to do half of what it does in the show (most notably entangling), and the kids in the series specifically never kill anyone. Very specifically. Like, it's a plot point more than once. I'm not sure that most D&D groups would really get that; much of D&D is "gun it down, and walk off after it's dead/dying," and non-lethal damage is much more difficult in the game. I'm not sure how I'd feel about running the game and having the characters kill everything they encounter. I suspect I'd stay true to the series--I mean, why else run those characters through the adventure that basically ends with the start of "Dragons' Graveyard?--and have something "conveniently" happen to the PCs' foes when they got to Dead status. The last bolt from Hank's bow would wrap them up instead of killing them, or they'd fall off a chasm or into a river or something to be swept offscreen, or something. It's just part of the genre, at least for that specific genre.
As a side note, Venger is a half-fiend sorcerer 13 / archmage 5. (Yes, I know the combination should be impossible, since 13th level sorcerers don't have access to 7th level arcane spells, which is a pre-req for archmage. It's Plot. Feel free to bump it to Sor14.) I'd presume that the bolts he casts are mostly uses of Arcane Fire (which he has). It's no wonder that the generally-7th-level main characters have to run from him, even given their 25K-gp-equivalent special magic items. I was glad to see he's a sorcerer, though, and even more glad to see he has a listed Wisdom of 15, since he occasionally does some dumb things on the show that can be also attributed to arrogance and lack of insight.
Overall, thumbs up. It's a nice distraction, and in some ways a better show than even the one I remembered. Even if it includes an idiotic "beholder" in the second episode.
The animation is about what I remember, which is to say it's pretty typical mid-80s animation. The writing started more simplistic than I remembered, but it looks like the meat of the series got done in the second and third seasons, while the first season was still feeling out the concept, the characters, and how far the network's Standards & Practices (a.k.a the censors) would let them go. I had forgotten the sheer number of "give up your chance to go home or else someone else gets screwed over" episodes, done to varying degrees of interesting. I'd also forgotten about everyone but Eric, Sheila, & Hank falling in love along the way. (Yes, including 8-year-old Bobby.) Then again, Sheila & Hank pretty obviously have each other, so I guess poor Eric is the only one really left out. I really like the growing characterization of Eric through season two though, and hope it continues through season three and the last disc. Also, I'm slightly annoyed at a couple of small things--the beginning of every episode is a remastered beginning from the first season, though the others are viewable on disc five, and the score for some of the episodes, most notably the aforementioned "Dragons' Graveyard," is different from what was originally aired. Despite that small detraction, I'm really glad I got the collection.
I've gone through most of the "extra" content except the radio play of "Requiem," the unproduced final episode. That, for obvious reasons, I'm leaving for after I finish watching all the regular episodes. The audio commentary on the first pilot episode was somewhat interesting, with producers and former CBS people and writers talking about how the show came into being, and how much of the staff was reused for Muppet Babies, which I found interesting. The half-hour documentary on disc five goes into ... different detail, not really more nor less, about the show's origins and the voice actors. It concludes with an amusing montage of Dungeon Master's more mysterious sayings, whence the title of the post. (Bonus points for identifying the circumstances.) The audio commentary with Michael Reaves on "The Dragons' Graveyard" is much more about the episode itself, and insightful. The host has to ask obviously leading questions sometimes to keep the flow of conversation going, but they do generally help and sometimes lead to interesting tidbits. The fan short film is ... interesting. It's a speculation on the kids when they're somewhat older, and obviously doesn't include "Requiem" in its continuity. Neither the guy playing Hank nor the girl playing Sheila look incredibly the part, but it's an interesting somewhat dark take on older versions of especially those two main characters.
Which, in turn, brings up a problem I think I'd have with running the module included in the set with the characters from the series. There are no rules given for Hank's bow being able to do half of what it does in the show (most notably entangling), and the kids in the series specifically never kill anyone. Very specifically. Like, it's a plot point more than once. I'm not sure that most D&D groups would really get that; much of D&D is "gun it down, and walk off after it's dead/dying," and non-lethal damage is much more difficult in the game. I'm not sure how I'd feel about running the game and having the characters kill everything they encounter. I suspect I'd stay true to the series--I mean, why else run those characters through the adventure that basically ends with the start of "Dragons' Graveyard?--and have something "conveniently" happen to the PCs' foes when they got to Dead status. The last bolt from Hank's bow would wrap them up instead of killing them, or they'd fall off a chasm or into a river or something to be swept offscreen, or something. It's just part of the genre, at least for that specific genre.
As a side note, Venger is a half-fiend sorcerer 13 / archmage 5. (Yes, I know the combination should be impossible, since 13th level sorcerers don't have access to 7th level arcane spells, which is a pre-req for archmage. It's Plot. Feel free to bump it to Sor14.) I'd presume that the bolts he casts are mostly uses of Arcane Fire (which he has). It's no wonder that the generally-7th-level main characters have to run from him, even given their 25K-gp-equivalent special magic items. I was glad to see he's a sorcerer, though, and even more glad to see he has a listed Wisdom of 15, since he occasionally does some dumb things on the show that can be also attributed to arrogance and lack of insight.
Overall, thumbs up. It's a nice distraction, and in some ways a better show than even the one I remembered. Even if it includes an idiotic "beholder" in the second episode.