Tabletop games are the beneficiary of the greatest cultural turnaround of any hobby of all time. Once considered the nerdiest possible activity, games like Dungeons and Dragons are the building blocks of hugely popular media empires. And a lot of that goodwill is the direct result of the rise of the Actual Play podcast.
The Legend of Vox Machina recently concluded its first season with tremendous fan support and all-around solid reception. The series is an animated adaptation of the astoundingly popular Actual Play series Critical Role. Though CR is the most popular D&D franchise, it's far from the only one. Years before Vox Machina, Harmonquest graced the screen.
People may not immediately know the name Dan Harmon, but they almost certainly know and love something he's created. Harmon is the creator and showrunner behind several groundbreaking and beloved comedy series over the past decades. His first big break came when he and frequent collaborator Rob Schrab penned the screenplay for 2006's Monster House. In 2009, he created, produced, and ran Community, which ran for three glorious seasons before he was pushed from the show. One rough season later, he returned for the fifth and sixth. Harmon's greatest legacy is his collaboration with Justin Roiland, iconic sci-fi comedy Rick and Morty.
The creative mind partially behind two of the best-loved comedy series of a generation found time in-between to run a weekly podcast called Harmontown, which he performed with Whose Line star Jeff B. Davis. On a whim, Harmon and Davis decided to incorporate a game of D&D into the podcast and brought up an audience member who volunteered to serve as the Dungeon Master. That audience member was Spencer Crittenden, and the campaign took on a life of its own. Eventually, the trio, along with Harmon's ex-wife and fellow podcaster Erin McGathy, turned Harmontown's D&D segment into its own show, and HarmonQuest was born.
The conceit of HarmonQuest is very simple; Dan Harmon, Jeff B. Davis, and Erin McGathy play a weekly tabletop game dreamed up by world-class DM Spencer Crittenden. In each episode, the trio is joined by a celebrity guest who typically dies or disappears by the episode's end. The players sit around a table in front of a live studio audience, banter in and out of character, try and fail to outwit Spencer's DM wizardry, and pack the brief runtime with explosive laughter. The in-game events are animated in a delightfully off-kilter style that puts the action on screen and plays out much as it does in most D&D players' imagination. The screen time is divided semi-evenly between the players in live-action and the characters chatting, running, and fighting in charming action scenes. The focus is very much on comedy here, but between the sheer creative talent on display and the randomness enforced by the game, some truly epic moments play out, often surprising the players as much as the audience.
In-game, the narrative follows Fondue Zoobag, Harmon's half-orc ranger, Beor O'Shift, McGathy's half-elf Barbarian, and Boneweevil, Davis's goblin rogue. The group is playing a somewhat homebrewed edition of Paizo's Pathfinder RPG, but the narrative is all Crittenden's foundation and the players' spin. Fans of Actual Play who can't stand when the players misunderstand the game will have mixed feelings about the series. There's a lot of loose play, but it's also better edited than most experiences in the genre, so it doesn't often drag. The entire cast is lightning-quick-witted, and the tone is almost always fast-paced comedy. Spencer Crittenden really doesn't get the credit he deserves, he belongs on the Dungeon Master Mt. Rushmore alongside Matthew Mercer or Griffin McElroy. Fans not acquainted with Harmon's unique idiosyncrasies will also get a fascinating look into the man that occasionally glimpses some of the DNA of his work.
Each episode of HarmonQuest features a celebrity guest role-player, who makes up a character on basically no notice and joins the trio on their adventure. Some of them are fellow warriors or helpful allies, others are enemies, and yet others are random bystanders who get dragged into the maelstrom. Elizabeth Olsen, Gillian Jacobs, Patton Oswalt, Jason Mantzoukas, Kumail Nanjiani, Steve Agee, Nathan Fillion, and many more beloved figures join the regular cast and bring incredible variety to the show. Every guest is game, even though many of them have never laid hands on 20-sided dice. This clever addition ensures each episode is a new anarchic experience, the regular trio has their idiosyncrasies and constant new blood interacts with the format in new and exciting ways.
HarmonQuest ran for three seasons, first on Seeso, then on VRV. The third and likely final season premiered in 2019. The series has a distinct fan base that still eagerly hopes for a new season. Fans of D&D, improv, comedy or Dan Harmon owe it to themselves to get into HarmonQuest. All three seasons are available to stream now on VRV.