A new web series led by popular YouTube personality Jovenshire puts a unique spin on it Dungeons and Dragons. Stuff of Legends is a new 6-part web series that combines Dungeons and Dragons gameplay with puppetry. In the new series, Jovenshire will play the role of the Dungeon Master for a game starring Lisa Foiles, Brandon Rogers, Shanna Malcolm and Lasercorn. While ‘Let’s Play’ style D&D shows have grown in popularity in recent years, Stuff of Legends also uses bar-style puppets (similar to Muppets) created by the Las Vegas-based DLUX Puppets to reenact various combat and role-playing scenes. Jovenshire described the new series as Dungeons and Dragons meets Drunken history, but with puppets instead of actors.
“I’m a huge fan of dolls,” Jovenshire told ComicBook.com when asked about the decision to bring dolls to the D&D table. “Like many of us, I grew up with it. We had some ideas to help tell Dungeons and Dragons and we were talking about dolls. Frankly, the question is why not dolls? ‘
“I’ve worked on a number of animated projects for me,” Jovenshire continued. “And what I like about that is that when you work with cartoons, your imagination is as far away as possible and you can make whatever you can draw. But sometimes in cartoons you lose that physical comedy, you lose that physical aspect. That was just really important to me. And with dolls you get that. You get that slapstick humor, you get that tongue in the cheek, Three Stooges comedy, all while being really animated. And when you have something so wild like Dungeons & Dragons, and you want to come up with all these different crazy concepts and monsters and just turn them into puppets. “
The show features a mix of live-action gameplay and scenes played by puppets. Whenever the game enters into battle or dialogue, Stuff of Legends cuts away to the show’s puppets reenacting the scenes as the game continues. To bring this unique mix to life, Jovenshire explained that the show went through two separate production rounds – one with the players on a closed set and then a second shoot with the puppeteers reenacting the scenes played by the players.
Originally Jovenshire pitched Stuff of Legends as a potential project where Magic: The Gathering, the popular trading card game produced by D&D creator Wizards of the Coast. “[Wizards] had a green light program to promote Magic: The Gathering, and they were looking for different content creators to create life-sized products to boost the game, ”said Jovenshire. Magic fan, I pitched this idea to the D&D expansions that are provided Magic: The Gathering world’s. They liked the idea, but they said, ‘Hold on. This could actually just work for D&D, “and then we started looking at a bigger concept.”
Since Jovenshire is working with Wizards of the Coast, he was able to get official samples from the Monster Manual and set the game in the Forgotten Realms, the main campaign setting of Dungeons and Dragons. When asked if he actually made dolls out of iconic D&D monsters, Jovenshire said this was one of his favorite parts when planning the show. “I do have dolls from classic D&D monsters,” Jovenshire confirmed. “My favorite part of pre-production of this was literally through the Monster Manual and thinking to myself, “What looks cool as a doll?” I don’t want to spoil who our big bad is in the end, just the benefit to work with Dungeons and Dragons is able to use these classic monsters and give them a completely new look and vibe. So there will be some deep cuts where other DMs will look and think, ‘Oh yeah. I should use one of those creatures. We haven’t done that for a while. ‘
although Stuff of Legends features iconic D&D monsters, it won’t just be a series for proven D&D fans. Each episode lasts only 30 minutes for optimal viewing time. “My big goal when it comes to making RPG shows is to bring in that new audience,” said Jovenshire. “In the last two years in particular, I think D&D has become even more popular with new fans only. But not all of those fans can jump into a three-hour podcast or show with 50 episodes. So I wanted to make something that is digestible. fans, but also had deep cuts and was entertaining for people who have been playing for 30 years or so. So the way we tell our stories and use the puppets is a way to focus on the show and get jokes rolling. ”
Stuff of Legends will premiere on the Jovenshire YouTube channel on Tuesday 2 February.