Preview by JD Piche, RCRs Producer, and Pop Culture expert, follow him on Twitter at @misadventurer
Just as every studio could get the rights to whatever comic book properties possible a few years back, the new trend is repacking Dungeons and Dragons podcasts. When Game of Thrones and The Witcher have made such deep cultural impact, it seems Swords and Sorcery is where everything is heading now. With the overwhelming success of Critical Role’s crowdfunding campaign to make an animated movie being parlayed into Amazon Studios picking their show up as an animated series, and the ongoing success of Dan Harmon’s Harmontown, now NBC’s “Peacock” streaming service is going to adapt the long running podcast distributed by Maximum Fun, “The Adventure Zone.”
Started in 2014, the podcast was created by Griffin McElroy, where he plays the Dungeon Master throwing obstacles at his players, comprised of his brothers Justin and Travis, and their father Clint. The Adventure Zone is just one of many podcasts The Family McElroy, produce for Maximum Fun, including ‘Rose Buddies,’ where Griffin and his wife recap The Bachelor suite of programs, ‘Sawbones’ where Justin and his wife discuss the origins of various medical devices and practices, debunking snake oil with historical references. ‘Bunker Buddies’ where Travis and a co-host talk about doomsday prepping and lifeskills. (A complete breakdown of all things McElroy can be found at McElroyShows.com).
The Podcast feed, features several different story campaigns, where the McElroys play different tabletop games, and the family members take turns as Game Master, with each different story. Amnesty, Balance, Commitment, Dust, Elementary, Fur, Graduation (current campaign) and (K)Nights, some are shorter stories to test different game systems, others go on for as long as the boys feel appropriate.
The Adventure Zone “Balance” was the first, and one of their longest campaigns, at 69 episodes of roughly an hour each, a story that spanned almost 3 years to tell, with audience members waiting two weeks or more between episodes. We followed the story of “Magnus Burnside” a human fighter, whom always rushes in played by Travis, Justin’s character, “Taako” a rather aloof High-Elf Wizard, and fan favorite, “Merle Highchurch,” a Dwarven Cleric armed with his Extreme Teen Bible of Pan, played by Dad, Clint. While the idea of playing Dungeons and Dragons with your parent could be enough to curl one’s toes, the boys lovingly keep their dad as on target as much as they can. For a fun party game, drink every time Merle uses “Zone of Truth.”
The Storyline of “Balance” begins with the three Adventurers hired on to investigate the disappearances of Merle’s cousins in Wave Echo Cave, where they befriend a Bugbear by the name of Klarg, and ends poorly for a nearby town thanks to the power of the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet. One of Seven Grand Relics, the Bureau of Balance, our boys secret employers, are tasked with recovering and destroying at their base, a fake moon in low orbit. The end of the first arc “Here There Be Gerblins” finds them officially joining the Bureau of Balance as Reclaimers, and seemingly the only members of the Bureau, immune to the thrall, the Grand Relics office such extreme power that inevitably corrupts their users. However, Merle, Magnus and Taako, honestly, are a bit too dumb to take the power for themselves.
There are 8 Story Arcs, within the Balance Campaign, each pertaining to a different Grand Relic, and the backstory to their creation. Each arc has a very different feel, and between arcs, the players Level Up, get paid, and go shopping at the Fantasy Costco on the Bureau of Balance’s moon base. The follow up to “Here There Be Gerblins” is, “Murder on the Rockport Limited” a fantasy take on the Agatha Christie classic, “Petals to the Metal” which is one part Wacky Racers, one part Fast and the Furious. “The Crystal Kingdom” deals with quarantine on the moon during holiday festivities, “The Eleventh Hour” they must save a town that will never know another tomorrow. Griffin puts his family through hell with “The Suffering Game” and we learn the truth about everything in “The Stolen Century” and have “Story and Song” to close the book on Balance. However they do dust off “Tres Horny Boys” for live shows, like a Casino Heist, or to hunt down the toy, Boy Detective, Angus McDonald, always wanted.
Griffin’s delivery and pacing feels on par with the semi-exasperated exposition of Justin Roiland riffing on any given episode of “Rick and Morty” – and feels like the Burt Reynolds / Dom Deluise romps where our familiar and lovable rogues tackle their situations in the most unexpected ways.
If you don’t feel like listening to 3 years worth of a podcast, the Arcs are being published in Graphic Novel form recounting the teams adventures, and hopefully the Peacock series will match the design of the Carey Pietsch art.
