On September 17th 1983 it will have been thirty four years ago, sinse Dungeons & Dragons The Animated TV Series came onto Saturday morning cartoons on Television Screens across America. Whether you think this was a good thing or a bad thing probably depends (as some old wizard/crazy old man once said) on your own point of view and quite possibly not mine.
Me? I loved it the first time I saw it on TV I loved it. I was 13 years old at the time, and I had to sneak out of my bed early and go into the living room plugging in my head phones so I could watch it on Saturday Morning to watch it before my parents woke up, because if they had known they would have never let me watch it. You see we were and stanch Christian family who believed the hype about Dungeons and Dragons being of the occult and driving teens to kill themselves and or friends killing friends believing they would come back to life through a resurrection spell it worked in game why not in real life? Because Fantasy is not reality that's why but some people even in today's world still think this way! This is really sad to say the least, so I never got to play the game because of this hype.
That is until I was a grown man in collage and decided to go to Gen Con for the first time in my life. It was here I met Bill Webb from Necromancer Games at the time who was Daubing a new Module the Wizards Amulet and I decided I wanted to play ever sense then I was hooked on D&D and never looked backed. You can find a copy of the Wizards Amulet here at Frog God Games updated for D&D 5e as an introductory module for new and old game masters alike.
Now on to the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say on his radio talk show!
In Region 1, BCI Eclipse (under license from Disney) released Dungeons & Dragons - The Complete Animated Series on DVD for the very first time on December 5, 2006. The 5-disc set featured an extensive array of special features including documentaries, commentaries, character profiles and more. This release is now out of print as BCI Eclipse ceased operations in December 2008. I have this DVD set and Animated Series book.
Now my readers are probably asking themselves what is the point of this story?
So despite the silly amusement park ride premise of the show’s opening —
— Dungeons & Dragons landed immediately on my must-watch list of nostalgia DVDs I have collected to watch over the years. Sense I am a DM now running the Heck out of 5e. .I remember being excited the first time I actually watched the show when I’d recognize things from my 3.5 D&D books, like the Monsters Tiamat, Shadow Demon, Orcs, Lizard-men, etc. Venger was a nice touch i thought as the recurring villain you could defeat, but never kill I have had a few of those types in my campaigns over the years. And the closing credits shot of the amusement park always struck an oddly melancholic chord with me, maybe because, at the end, it was a reminder that those kids were still far from home.
I know I’m not the only one with a soft spot for this show; nor the game itself; so I have decided to run a game of Dungeons and Dragons The Animated Series at WesterCon70/ConAlope/LepreCon43/CONflageration (Gaming Event), this year,
Yes, there are aspects of Dungeons & Dragons that are just buried in ’80s cheese — and I’ll admit up front that’s a guilty pleasure — but the show also reflected sincerity and heart and a clear love of the source material. Or maybe I’ve just missed another saving throw versus nostalgia. Wouldn’t be the first time!
See the Dungeons and Dragons Animated Series Here Dungeons & Dragons The Animated Series (TV Series Full Episodes) and please subscribe to my your tube channel please.
For Memberships/tickets to WesterCon70 go here
Yours Captain Earl C, Hedges Jr
