Summary[]
I won Dungeons & Dragons and it was advanced!
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— Pierce Hawthorne, "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons". |
Dungeons & Dragons ™ is a popular role playing fantasy adventure game first published in 1974 by TSR, Inc. It was developed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and later acquired by Wizards of The Coast. It was partially based off a combination of old simulation miniature war games and another Gygax creation called "Chainmail". It has remained a popular game since its inception and its influence can be seen in other games and in pop culture in general. The game's first appearance on "Community" was in the Season Two episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons". |
History[]
Season Two[]
“ | So you guys just suddenly decided to play Dungeons & Dragons? | ” |
–Neil |
"Advanced Dungeons & Dragons"
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The questMarrrrrr formed a party to embark on a quest for Draconis' treasure. He had hoped it would help rouse Duquesne from his recent depression related to an insulting moniker bestowed upon him by his peers. As their adventure began the party was beset by six goblins and Lavernica was injured in the opening assault. Marrrrrr threw a knife which did minimal damage to one of the attackers. Duquesne successfully used the Sword of Duquesne to vanquish several goblins at once which caused the rest to flee. A naked Pierce Hawthorne then suddenly made an appearance. Duquesne gave him his Elven Cloak of Wind Walking for protection from the elements. Pierce seized the opportunity and stole the Sword of Duquesne. Brutalitops tried to recover it but Pierce used the sword to decapitate the magician. Aided by the Elven cloak he received, Pierce fled from the scene with Duquesne's weapon. In a show of disrespect Pierce defiled the sword several times. The party abandoned the Draconis quest and sought to reclaim the honored sword for their friend. They journeyed in search of a town where they could acquire transportation fast enough to catch Pierce. After they arrived in the Elf village of Tallar, Lavernica talked with a gnome waiter at a local tavern. He informed them of a nearby Pegasi ranch which had what they were looking for. When the party got there an Elf maiden greeted them and began to flirt with Marrrrrr. He rebuffed her advances and Hector had to step in to negotiate for the Pegasi. After Hector and the Elf Maiden satisfyingly and thoroughly consummated their deal, the party recieved a flock of Pegasi. As they flew in search of Pierce across the Forest of Engold they spotted a cloak covered body clutching a sword in a forest clearing. They investigated and found it to be the Sword of Duquesne which Marrrrrr gave back to Duquesne. Lavernica recognized the body to be that of the gnome waiter she talked to, Kyle. After the gnome died the dragon Draconis revealed his presence. On top of his head was Pierce who managed to find an amulet able to control the creature. Before Marrrrrr could attack, Pierce had Draconis use a Time stop spell to freeze everyone in place. Pierce taunted the party and used a shape changing spell on Duquesne to make him overweight. Pierce then revealed to Duquesne how Marrrrrr had coined the nickname which was the source of his current melancholy. Instead of anger, Duquesne felt genuine pity not for himself or Marrrrrr but for Pierce whose heinous actions made him look pathetic. The other party members agreed which annoyed Pierce enough to unfreeze them. At the exact moment he was freed, Duquesne threw his sword at the amulet around Pierces neck. His aim was true and the target was destroyed which freed Draconis. The dragon immediately devoured Pierce for his impertinence. In a show of gratitude Draconis flew the party back to his cavern and bestowed upon them his hoard of treasure. Additional Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Season Five[]
“ | So, dad...I'm curious, what is it about Dungeons & Dragons that lept out at you at age sixty? | ” |
"Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons"
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The questThe quest began with eight heroes gathering on a rope bridge to free the land of Galindor from the evil Necromancer's control. Discord occurred when Tristram Steelheart refused to work alongside Tiny Nuggins with whom he had a long standing grudge. Hector the Well Endowed intervened and physically tried to get Tristram to join them. In response Tristram cast a Torvan's Flesh of Fire spell which forced Hector to let Tristram go. The flames spread to the rope bridge which set it aflame. The bridge collapsed and the party plummeted into the Skull River below them. The heroes ended up separated into two groups: Sir Joseph Diehard, Hector and Cruton the Druid ended up with Tiny Nuggins; Fibrosis, Dingleberry and Joseph Gordan Diehard ended up with Tristram. Tiny Nuggins and his party washed ashore near a jungle where the thief recklessly ran into a gang of Hobgoblins. Nuggins attacked but it proved ineffectual; Cruton cast an Entangle spell to defend his teammate and managed to ensnare four of the Hobgoblins. Although the other hobgoblins fled they managed to shoot Cruton before leaving and he died. At the same time, Tristram's party ended up North of the others scaling the Cliffs of Hawthorne. Tristram earned his group's trust after he healed Fibrosis and managed to tame a cluster of Sky Spider's who almost attacked them. After finally embracing teamwork, Tiny Nuggins led his remaining party on an assault of a Hobgoblin encampment. They killed most of them saving two for an interrogation where Nuggins learned the location of The Necromancer's Black Tower. Elsewhere, Tristram inspired his party when he sang a battle hymn while they were flown by the Sky Spiders in the direction of the Black Tower. Secretly, Joseph Diehard sent several messages to his father via a sparrow until one finally got through. After reading his son's missive, Riggs rubbed his half of the Blade of Diehard and a beacon of light showed where the other half of the sword was being held by Joseph. The two teams realized they were close and would be arriving at the Necromancer's lair soon. The reunion proved to be tension filled as the two groups approached each other warily. Tristam's team demanded he should have the right to kill the Necromancer while Nuggin's team claimed he deserved the honor. Joseph Gordan recklessly ran towards his father who had his sword drawn and was accidentally impaled. His death ignited a bloody battle between the two teams. Once it was over, only Tristram and Nuggins were left alive. The two fought and argued up to the top floor of the Black Tower where they learned that the Necromancer managed to escape. The pair reluctantly declared a truce and decided to team up to search for the Necromancer. Additional Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Trivia[]
Streaming Service controversy[]
On June of 2020, both Netflix and Hulu removed the episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragon" from their respective streaming services. Earlier that year Tina Fey and NBC Universal requested that a episode of "30 Rock" be removed from circulation which had the controversial use of blackface. Several online news sites believed as a direct result of this the "Community" episode was also removed since it featured Ben Chang (played by Ken Jeong) in blackface.
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Video[]
As promotion for the first Dungeons & Dragons themed episode a web exclusive video was released by NBC on Community's official website.
Inspiration[]
“ | So I always wanted to do a Dungeons & Dragons episode. I knew that we had predecessors there. I knew that The IT Crowd did one. I knew that Freaks And Geeks did one. I saw that what all those had in common was, number one, they bounced back and forth from the actual game to other stories, and also that the joke, the conceit was that it’s a nerdy game, and that’s the whole point. I wanted to just fade into the group playing the game, and how do you tell a story that way? That was another case of the writers blowing my socks off, because I gave them a Rubik’s cube of a quandary. I said, “Make a game of Dungeons & Dragons". | ” |
–Dan Harmon, AV Club Interview |
Community creator Dan Harmon is an avid "Dungeons & Dragons" player having played the game since he was a child. In an interview with the A.V. Club he described the difficulties he had convincing his bosses at NBC and Sony about going forward with the first D&D themed episode:
While he was disheartened at how poorly it was received by the studio he was extremely proud of the work he and his staff produced. One of his first ideas when returning as showrunner for Community in Season Five was to do a second D&D themed episode. On Harmon's podcast "Harmontown" he ends each show playing a session of the game with his guests. The Dungeon Master used in those games is his friend Spencer Crittenden. Spencer worked on Community Season Five as a production assistant and also appeared onscreen as Annie's brother Anthony Edison.
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