Tonight debuted the first episode of the second season of JourneyQuest. 

My first exposure to Dead Gentleman Productions, and later Zombie Orpheus came with the original Gamers movie, a low budget production that spawned a fandom.  It’s now available to watch in it’s entirety via YouTube, and worth it for anyone who has ever played a tabletop RPG (or even WOW heads can appreciate).  The premise was simple: a bunch of guys are sitting around playing a tabletop role playing game, and you saw not only their real life conflicts as gamers, but also got a peek into the internal mind’s eye of gamers.  It was so funny and intelligent that the sequel, Dorkness Rising, boasted not only better production quality but also a cameo by D&D godfather Monty Cook.  (Also available to watch in it’s entirety at the link/on Youtube).

Then came JourneyQuest.  As I’m a bad nerd and don’t follow things, I didn’t realize it was out until it became available on Hulu’s streaming service.  Because of that my husband and I were able to watch the first season all in one go.  And then watch it again.  And then force everyone else to watch it.  Seriously, if you haven’t watched it go watch it right now.  I’ll wait.

Good! See what I mean?

For those of you too lazy to watch something awesome, the premise is basically the kind of story you’d find in a tabletop RPG, but minus the inference that there’s a “real world”.   This story follows a bard writing her first epic based on secretly observing a party of adventurers: a cowardly inept wizard, an elf ranger, a noble cleric, and a murderous glory hogging knight.  They are obviously a little less than legendary, with a wizard who doesn’t care about the quest, and a knight who just wants to kill orcs… even women and children orcs.

The first season left on a bit of a cliffhanger, but season 2 is well funded (YAY Kickstarter!) and does not pick up the storyline right away.  This first episode gives us some good backstory on our bard, with a pretty kickass opening sequence involving miniature puppets.  Seriously, you read that right.

To my delight, the new storyline has introduced two really great cast additions: Bob Sapp as Karn the barbarian king, and Fangirl Favorite Jen Page as his queen Starling.  (You can check out the interview with Jen on our Podcast page for the radio show… episode 27)

The hardest part is that this time I have to wait for the weekly show to come out, just like any other peasant… but it’s well worth it, and my delight in this first episode is unbounded.

If you like it, I strongly recommend making a one time donation to this fan-funded Creative Commons production company.  This is one of those rare cases where the success and continuation of this show are truly in the fan’s hands.  There’s no middle man,  and every little bit makes a difference.