Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I Hit It With My Axe

NOTE: Mature content. Deal with it.

How have I not heard about this? Combining D&D with adult film actors should have caused the internet to implode, at the very least. Instead here I am stumbling across this by accident a year after the fact.

With the tag line and eponymous blog "Playing D&D with Porn Stars", one's mind starts to summon up images, but
don't get too excited, folks. It's not quite what you think... and that's one of the things I like about it!


I Hit It With My Axe (great title, btw) chronicles the adventures of a group of female players as they negotiate the challenges thrown at them by host and DM, Zack Sabbath.

First Impressions: 

Once you get past the novelty of  "OMG PR0NSTARS PLAYING D&D WTF" or "OMG GIRLZ PLAYING D&D WTF", the show is basically a digest of each of their game sessions. Zak confronts the group with surprises (or the consequences of their previous actions) and the players react. They also bring in guest players from the adult industry for a run of several episodes to keep it fresh.

It's generally true that playing the game yourself is more fun than watching someone else play the game, and certainly more entertaining than listening to other people talk about playing. If you're the kind of person who finds this sort of thing boring, you probably won't get much out of the show.

But I'm a DM myself. I'm used to the sometimes painfully protracted pauses as players draw the wrong conclusions, answer their phones, lose track of the action or generally drag ass. To me it's somehow refreshing; "Ah, I'm not the only one who goes through this!"

In addition to the sometimes hilarious, sometimes cringe-worthy in-game action, there are sidebar discussions that take place while others are playing. Some of these are real gems; "Who was more drunk last time, you or your character?", "This isn't the first time I've been tied up in a dungeon with her...", and so on.

The main website is I Hit It With My Axe, which contains links to the main episodes, as well as links to the blogs and twitter feeds of the players. These linked sites do tend to contain a lot of adult content, so be warned; if you are offended by porn or are underage - steer clear. The show itself would earn at minimum an R rating for "strong language, sexuality, and adult situations" but that only means it's on par with every gaming group I've played with over the last twenty years. Grown-ups talk grown-up stuff, and the MPAA are a bunch of idiots.

The real gem for me, besides the show itself, is Zack's blog, which contains a trove of articles on old-school gaming, house rules and other RPG-related stuff. It's thoughtful stuff and clearly Zack invests a lot of his time and energy in creating a fantastic experience for his players.

Currently Zack is seeking a new site to host more episodes, so the show's fate remains undetermined, but I hope that IHIWMA continues long past the original 1-year schedule drafted for it originally.

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