by Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The huge success of Dungeons and Dragons podcasts, incl Adventure Zone, Not another Dungeons & Dragons podcastand rotating heroes, It helped make the classic backgammon game more popular than ever. Critical rolethe largest and most successful real-life theater podcast, they even turned their campaign into an animated series, The Legend of Fox Machinaon Amazon Prime, but this wasn't the first D&D campaign to be turned into a series. In 1990, the anime Ludus War Record Bringing life to the homebrew game by author Ryo Mizuno.
Actual gameplay before the podcast
Ludus War Record It began as a serialized “remake” in the Japanese Comptiq magazine, as a version of Mizuno's D&D sessions. Use Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition As a base for a high fantasy story featuring the adventuring party of Woodchuck, Slayn, Etoh, Parn, Deedlit, and Ghlim, each representing a different class of the game. After carrying out a quest from the King, the adventuring party sets out to anger a very green dragon, and the stakes go up from there.
Like everyone who has ever played Dungeons and Dragons The campaign teaches that there is a rhythm to adventure, and Ludus War Record It captures the same escalation, complete with grand secrets, betrayals, and a heaven-shaking final battle. no Anime Since then, not even Assassins or delicious in the dungeon, She brought the campaign to life in exactly the same way. The original series is only 13 episodes long, so it's faster than any home campaign.
Old school fantasy throwback
To say that Ludus War Record If it were an instant success that would be an understatement. The original novels written by Ryo Mizuno before the anime have sold over 10 million copies in Japan, over a dozen video games, tabletop role-playing games, and two spin-off series, Legend of Crystania and Rune Soldier. Both shows take place after the end of the original series and explore what happened to some of the group after the final battle. Lodus War Record: Chronicles of a Heroic Knightreleased in 1998, brings (most of) the party together again in a 27-episode series that makes better use of animation and music mixing but doesn't have the same appeal as the original.
To this day, there have been hugely successful fantasy anime, including… Freezing: after the end of the trip that pushed the medium forward with bold, new, brilliant storytelling over old tropes. However, there is something to be said for series like Ludus War Record Which embraces classic tropes from young Parn's rise to leadership, hitting all the classic RPG beats to the solitary elves that Deedlit tries to rescue, and Woodchuck, the thief, and with that one-word description, you know exactly what to expect. There's nothing wrong with a cheesy anime every now and then, and for the most part, the 1990 series has aged well and is still perfectly watchable today.
Role-playing games, incl Dungeons and DragonsIt has changed over the years, which is why “goblin” is no longer a class, and orcs are no longer forced to be an evil race; Back to watching Ludus War Record It's like opening a time capsule containing THAC0. It's rough around the edges, the design of Pirotess the Dark Elf is pure fanservice, and the plot doesn't go beyond the first seasons of Adventure Zone, NaDDPoDor Critical roleBut it's fun to go back to where it all started.
If you've never watched Ludus War RecordYou can stream it on Crunchyroll.
