Heroes & Halfwits
Halfwits indeed.
This is a D&D campaign by a group called “Adventure Hunter“. They are not a D&D group. Therefore, I will focus on H & H only.
A youtube playlist for H & H can be found HERE.
Now, it’s fairly important to get this out first. This campaign was done in 2016. Yes, it has been quite a number of years since. I’ve been digging through the internet to find more D&D campaigns I liked, and this one has taken my liking.
Setting
The players are soldiers of King Maximilian the 4th who is the ruler of Einland. They aren’t soldiers by trade and were conscripted for an invasion against the port city of Jackal-Heart.
The relationship between Einland and Jackal-Heart was never healthy. JH exported goods of high demand, and Einland imposed high tariff. Even so, the goods from JH remained in high demand. One day, an ambassador from JH insulted the king of Einland, and a war was declared.
Long story short, the players are tasked to lead a stealthy mission to disturb JH’s defenses before a fleet of 200 warships would siege the port city. Of course, you can expect twists.
The play
There is one aspect I really disliked while watching H&H early on. It’s that the players chitchat too much to a point that it got annoying. They would continue to chitchat even when their DM was trying to get a move on, muffling him. Basically, the DM had no authority, and the players had little respect for their DM.
It may have not been their intention to disrespect their DM, but as an outsider, I felt the DM was disrespected numerous times over the play. I mean, when a DM speaks, let him speak. Don’t cut him off especially when you are trying to crack a silly joke. Out of 5 players, 2 players were usually the culprits.
However, this issue is straightened out by episode 5. I assume the two were talked into not doing that. Even then, you are looking at over 4 hours of some players acting out of control. It was tough to watch through. To be honest, I skipped large parts from episode 1 to 4 because of how annoying it was.
Once the issue I mentioned is ironed out, it becomes much more pleasant to watch as Frank (DM) moves the game along.
Moving on, there are 34 episodes with average of 90 minutes per an episode. It seems their session was about 6 hours each and it’s divided up into multiple episodes. There are also two extra campaigns in the tomb of horrors and the mechs generation.
They use an interesting way for maps. They basically have a large TV within a wood frame laid down to act as a map ground. It displays a grid which they put props onto. This is an interesting way to do maps.
I can see some clear benefits with this method. One, since the ground illuminates, it is easier for viewers to see what’s where. Also, the screen is huge. I think it’s a 50 inch TV. It provides ample space for all the props they use and then some.
The plot has three parts essentially. One third of time is spent on entering and navigating through caves in order to enter Jackal-Heart. Another third is spent within the city and finding out the true nature behind what really is going on and why the war is declared in the first place. Finally, we have the players dealing with the boss.
The story is predictable. It’s really hard not to be predictable in D&D anyway. It does have several twists as it moves along as well as when character backstories are revealed. But overall this is an average story. Not saying it’s bad. What matters in the end is that H&H is entertaining to watch.
Give it a shot. Do expect a rough ride until you hit episode 5.
