Dungeons & Dragons Chronicles

Dungeons & Dragons Chronicles is an American fantasy TV series that airs on Netflix and is based on the famous tabletop RPG of the same name. The series follows a Half-Elf who is trying to become the captain of the Royal Guard, his journey there, and who he meets along the way. It features quite a few D&D monsters and characters while making a few of them up. The series is a high fantasy story, meaning that the story is told as an epic which follows the characters conquer the impossible.

Synopsis
Main Article: List of Dungeons & Dragons Chronicles episodes

The series follows Jasper Redsteady, Tifla Hedworthy, Korg The Mighty, Seisel Ulyntine, and Greatback Hall, a fighter, a thief, a barbarian, a ranger, and a wizard respectively, as they set out on a journey to cement their names in the history of the planet Gaia. In the first season of the show, the group faces off against a villain known as the Masked King Elzon, whose goals are very brief and simple: conquer everything.

Cast & Characters

 * Yuri Lowenthal as Jasper Redsteady, a 17-year-old Half-Elf fighter who is working his way up to become the captain of the royal guard. He is very kind-hearted and bright-eyed, caring for his friends above even himself. He goes through quite a lot of traumatic incidents in the series but despite this, he never loses this part of him.
 * Grey DeLisle as Tifla Hedworthy, a Gnome thief who is Jasper's opposite. She is rather cold and cynical, caring for only herself and riches. She almost always has a cold, uncaring expression on her face, only breaking it in moments of extreme anger, sadness, or fear.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Korg The Mighty, a not too sharp Goliath barbarian who cares about nothing but combat. He is almost always seen doing one of four things: eating, fighting, training, sleeping. While lacking the brain to compliment his brawn, Korg makes up for this with his amazingly big heart.
 * Nolan North as Seisel Ulyntine, a Lizardfolk ranger. He is the quiet type, only speaking when either he has to or he has an idea. It's rare to see an emotion from him but when he does show some it is treated as a very special moment.
 * Jim Cummings as Greatback Hall, a Human wizard nearing the end of his life. He is 70 years old and has gone through countless amounts of adventures when he was younger. He believes that the best thing he can do is guide up and coming adventurers into the world.

Production
The series was designed to be enjoyable to both D&D fans and people who have never played. This was rather easy to do, as the spells in Dungeons & Dragons are easy to show and the D&D is very flexible, giving people the option of making up their own monsters, spells, or even countries.

The series' art style is often compared to shonen anime, giving large people over exaggerated muscles, making small characters wield rather large swords and so on. This was on purpose, since, according to one of the creators, that style "just fit" the world that they were creating. The style choice was quite fun for people since it meant the writers could do episodes with rather low stakes and another episode where the world hangs in the balance and neither one would feel out of place.

In the original draft of the series, the main character, Jasper, was older, had a beard, and was a lot tougher. The only other main character was Tifla, the rest of the cast being recurring side characters. However, this turned out to be a lot less fun for everyone involved, as they didn't want to write about a hardened soldier. Once they all came to this realization, the cast was expanded and Jasper was made far younger and less experienced.

A very quick and fun thing about the series is the fact that the seasons are referred to as "Campaigns" and the episodes are called "Sessions", as, in a game of D&D, the current story being told is referred to as a Campaign and each meeting of the players is called a Session.

Reception
The series has received generally favorable reviews from critics. There are obviously a few detractors, but most agree that the series is quite enjoyable and doesn't need an extensive knowledge of D&D to get in to.