A new web series led by the popular YouTube personality Jovenshire is bringing a unique twist to Dungeons and Dragons. Stuff of Legends is a new 6-part web series that combines Dungeons and Dragons gameplay with puppets. The new series brings Jovenshire as the Dungeon Master to a game with Lisa Foiles, Brandon Rogers, Shanna Malcolm and Lasercorn. While “Let’s Play” D&D programs have grown in popularity in recent years, Stuff of Legends it also uses stick-style dolls (similar to Muppets) made by DLUX Puppets in Las Vegas to represent various battles and scenes of interpretation. Jovenshire described the new series as Dungeons and Dragons finds Drunk Story, but with puppets instead of actors.
“I’m a big fan of puppets,” Jovenshire told ComicBook.com when asked about the decision to bring puppets to the D&D table. “Like many of us, I grew up with them. We were thinking of some ideas to help with the narrative aspect of Dungeons and Dragons and we were talking about puppets. Honestly, the question is why not puppets? “
“For me, I worked on some animation projects,” continued Jovenshire. “And what I like about them is that when you work with drawings, your imagination goes a long way and you can do whatever you can draw. But sometimes with drawings, you lose that physical comedy, you lose that physical aspect. And that was very important for me. And with puppets, you understand. You get that slapstick humor, you get that irony, the comedy of the Three Stooges, all while being very lively. And when you have something as wild as 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 represented by puppets. Whenever the game goes into combat or dialogue, Stuff of Legends cut to the puppets of the show representing the scenes as the game continues. To bring this unique blend to life, Jovenshire explained that the show went through two separate rounds of production – one involving players in a closed set and then a second shoot involving the puppeteers representing the scenes played by the players.
Originally, Jovenshire launched Stuff of Legends as a potential project involving Magic: The Gathering, the popular commercial card game produced by D&D maker Wizards of the Coast. “[Wizards] had a green light program to promote Magic: The Gathering, and they were looking for different content creators to make gigantic products to boost the game, “said Jovenshire.” Magic fan, I presented this idea to present the D&D expansions that present Magic: The Gathering the worlds. They loved the idea, but were like, ‘Wait a second. This can really work for D&D itself, ‘and then we started looking at a bigger concept. “
As Jovenshire is working with Wizards of the Coast, he was able to use official monsters from Monster Manual and set the game in Forgotten Realms, the main campaign scenario for Dungeons and Dragons. When asked if he really had puppets made of iconic D&D monsters, Jovenshire mentioned that this was one of his favorite parts in the planning of the show. “I have puppets of classic D&D monsters,” confirmed Jovenshire. “My favorite part about pre-producing this was literally flipping through the Monster Manual and thinking to myself, ‘What will be cool as a puppet?’ I don’t want to spoil who is our greatest evil in the end, but the advantage of working with Dungeons and Dragons is to be able to use these classic monsters and give them a completely new look and feel. So there will be some deep cuts where other DMs will be watching and thinking, ‘Oh yes. I should use one of these creatures. We haven’t done one of these in a while.
although Stuff of Legends will feature iconic D&D monsters, not just a series for tried and tested D&D fans. Each episode will only last 30 minutes to allow for an optimal viewing time. “My big goal when it comes to doing RPG shows is to be able to attract this new audience,” said Jovenshire. “Especially in the past two years, I think D&D has become even more popular with just the new fans. But not all of those fans can skip to a three-hour podcast or show with 50 episodes. So, I wanted to do something that was digestible for new fans, but it also had deep cuts and it was fun for people who played for about 30 years. So the way we tell our stories and using the puppets is a way to stay focused on the show and keep the jokes going. “
Stuff of Legends will debut on Jovenshire’s YouTube channel on Tuesday, February 2nd.