Ten years ago this month, when The Adventure Zone began as a one-off gaming experiment on the My brother, my brother and I Podcast, two of the four hosts worked here at Polygon. In fact, Justin and Griffin McElroy co-founded this place after we worked together on another video game website back in 2007 (RIP Joystiq). I mention this for completeness because I’m not impartial when it comes to anything McElroy related.
It’s been 10 years since the show began and has quickly grown through many seasons and hundreds of episodes, a bestselling graphic novel series, and countless live shows. I can measure my life by its developments.
When I saw the first episode of The Adventure Zone — this would be the introductory Balance arc that would run on its own podcast feed later in 2014 — I did this while building some basement shelves, partly to house excess kids’ stuff for a 9-month-old upstairs. The last episode I listened to was the pilot episode for TAZthe new season, Abnimals (not a typo) during a recent family trip to the beach, where a now 10-year-old overheard the song. He still can’t get the theme song out of his head (more on that later).
“Imagine a world where all the anthropomorphic animal hero shows of the ’90s and early 2000s existed simultaneously,” explains this season’s Dungeon Master, Travis McElroy (or “Zookeeper,” as the team was called in an early episode I saw). “And in that world, there were three team members who had been removed from their previous teams for various reasons and were now trying to form their own sort of ragtag group that wanted to exist in this world of heroic teenagers. And this time, without any bad words.”
The three team members include Roger Mooer, a Charolais cow – well, technically a bull – with a knack for espionage and a talent for ballroom dancing, played by her father, Clint McElroy; Navy Seal, a water commando who is also a beefy anthropomorphic Ross Seal and, it should be noted, is not and never has been a member of the armed forces, played by Griffin McElroy; and Axe-O-Lyle, an extreme firefighter axolotl who can regrow his limbs… but it’s kind of embarrassing, played by Justin McElroy.
Why the switch to a family-friendly format? “What changed my mind was that I saw how important it was for me to find decent stuff that I enjoyed listening to with my kids,” Justin says. “We have a few podcasts that they’re obsessed with, and it’s nice to find some that I enjoy as well. Making something that could serve that purpose was also, in my opinion, a kind of public good, or at least good for our audience.”
“Recently, when I was doing meet-and-greets and we were at conventions and stuff, there were just a lot more kids coming by,” Travis agrees. “Twelve-year-olds with their graphic novels to sign, and a lot more people talking about their kids being on The Adventure Zone.”
Aside from not using swear words, I asked how they adapt their improvised storytelling for younger audiences. Should we expect an age rating of 6+?
“I don’t know, nobody said it was G-rated, Chris,” says Travis. “PG-13 maybe…”
“I like TV-Y,” Griffin adds.
Travis continues: “I re-watched a lot of the cartoons from the original and thought about what these settings look like, what they do and what is at stake. Because, for example, in the original series from 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesthey built the Foot Clan robots. So we can kick him in the face all day long. They’re robots, man! Don’t worry.”
The pilot episode I listened to featured henchmen who were downed but never killed; environmental attacks instead of weapon-based attacks; a major villain who pulls off a heist (greedy!); and a lengthy plot mystery with a surprise cliffhanger ending. At the same time, the game system Travis developed for the series—which is based on rolling two to three d8 dice—allows plenty of room for the flexibility and improvisation that has defined the series’ last decade, while emphasizing dynamism.
So we can kick him in the face all day long. They’re robots, man!
“I try to keep action and momentum in my head,” Justin explains. “Previous seasons have almost always been about the comedy. So if something is funny but not necessarily driving, we’ll stick with it and play around with it until it’s not funny anymore and then move on. But I was cautious in my mind, thinking, this isn’t going to be interesting when you’re younger; you just want something to happen. Let’s make something happen. And if something hasn’t happened in a while, I’ll make something else happen.”
While this may whet the appetite of the tabletop role-playing child in your household for a seat of their own at the table, it does not provide them with a framework for their own adventures.
“When I developed the rule system, I wanted something that was not too clunky and not too complicated, so that we don’t have to spend a lot of time explaining or adding up different dice. I wanted it to be like this: You roll, good, go
What comes through in Abnimals is a focus on family, says Clint McElroy – in a fitting role for the patriarch of the family. “One thing that runs through everything we do in TAZ This also applies here, and this was a constant in [Teenage Mutant Ninja] Turtles and a lot of those other shows were about family. I don’t think we could do anything that didn’t have to do with family, whether it’s a found family or an actual family coming together. We’ll explore that in Abnimals as well as.”
You can now watch (with or without your family) the first “Setup” episode of The Adventure Zone: Abnimals conveniently embedded at the top of this post. But I also encourage you to listen to the season’s theme song, with music by Eric Near, lyrics by Near, Justin McElroy, and internet star Jonathan Coulton, sung by Coulton.
Despite what you have heard
We are at the peak of our powers
We stand on the highest of all towers
(Now they will never stop us)So take my hand if you trust
That we will do what we must
Until it turns out the way we planned
(We’ll find a way somehow)Yes, the road is long
But our mojo is strong
And if I am not mistaken (which is not the case),
We are at the peak of our powers
Update: Added an embed for the first episode to the post and updated some wording to indicate the season is now live.
