NYCC 2017: ‘HarmonQuest’ Panel Recap

The HarmonQuest panel began with VRV, the new home of the show, introducing a couple of trailers for the streaming site and the show. Those clips led directly into a premiere of the fifth episode of HarmonQuest Season Two.

Patton Oswalt, who is a seasoned Dungeons and Dragons player, joined the crew for the new episode,.

Travis McElroy of My Brother, My Brother, And Me came out to moderate, inviting Dan Harmon, Jeff Davis, and the dungeon master Spencer Crittenden onto the stage.

They spoke about making jokes that then become canon. Crittenden edits the show, so he has to leave in certain jokes such as “the world only uses half-idioms” as the new episode has phrases such as “a penny saved,” “the quickest way to a man’s heart,” and “all work,” without the last parts of the sayings.

In the new episode, they crew interrogates Patton Oswalt’s character over tea that he provides them, which was not a part of the script. Crittenden reveals that he encourages the improvisation, with only a few beats written in between.

Harmon spoke about the improvisation being a huge part of the game, realizing how anything can happen at any time.

True to Life

Davis admitted that he has never played Dungeons and Dragons, so that he gets really into it, and bothers Crittenden with his character ideas.

Harmon says that he does not get immersed, inversely, and so he makes characters that are failures based on how he views himself.

Speaking about Aubrey Plaza’s role, they mentioned how her episode was one of the best, because she kept trying to break the game. Davis mentioned how spiteful she was, and how he thinks Plaza hates him, especially after she randomly shrunk his already tiny character for no reason at all.

Before the audience asked questions, Harmon asked the DM if his character would be killed in the middle of the season. Crittenden said he’s not afraid of killing them so long as it doesn’t screw up the current episode they’re taping, because they can cross that bridge later.

Questions and Answers

Asked if he would end Rick and Morty on his own terms or if Adult Swim would cancel, Harmon said theoretically they would end it, but only if the creators realized the audience was getting miserable because of the new episodes. They’ll only stop when the fans get mad at them for continuing, because they’ve made a show without limitations.

Asked who has turned down appearing on HarmonQuest, they say Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson said no because he was filming Jumanji. That made them talk about asking Vin Diesel, who is a huge D&D fan.

When Travis McElroy asked if they’d consider asking him and his brothers on, they spoke about Rob Schrab and his brothers instead, saying that he would be just like Aubrey Plaza in his attempts to break the game, because he doesn’t enjoy roleplaying games.

Asked if they could get any of Davis’ old costars from Whose Line Is It Anyway on the show, Davis and Harmon spoke about Greg Proops being on the show, and how great he would be, especially since he helped come up with the concept on a podcast years prior.

A young fan came up to the microphone, and Harmon joked, “sorry for all the f**ks, 10-year-old me,” apologizing for his cussing. The kid responded, “I’m 11, you piece of shit,” to the laughs of the audience.