Let’s Play D&D With Metalocalypse’s Nathan Explosion
Dethklock is coming to town for the first time in ten years, and we’re playing Dungeons and Dragons with Nathan Explosion.
I had pretty bad insomnia in college, which meant that I ended up watching a lot of late-night Metalocalypse– and Kim Possible, because my interests are varied. So seeing that Dethklok was back for a finale-slash-movie was a blast from the past. Sometimes you have to take a step back and ask what the heck year it is.
This show was (and I guess is) one of those shows that are just wacky and fun. Random adventures flesh out an entire season of weird encounters with some of the strangest people you’ll ever meet. Y’know, almost exactly like D&D. So since it’s 2007 again and Metalocalypse is back, let’s add a little more metal to our next D&D campaign with…
Nathan Explosion
The whole band is a little weird, but Nathan is probably the most straight forward and easily translated to D&D. Most of his real strangeness is the sort of stuff that would play pretty well at the table as through roleplaying and general goofs.
While I usually make human characters into human characters, in this case I decided to go with half-orc. He’s known for being big and imposing as a figure. So while I didn’t want to make an inhumanly large or imposing character, I did want to give him a slightly more intimidating silhouette than the average Player’s Manuel human. From there, I decided on a dual-class in Bard and Barbarian. Bard because he’s the frontman of an internationally popular band. Barbarian because sometimes his being angry will result in things getting very broken. Sort of like a rage. Plus, he’s a big dude.
Charisma and Strength obviously had to be some of the higher stats so we could dual-class in or out of both of those classes. But Nathan’s also not great with people, and while Charisma had to be above a 13, I thought his constitution could stand to be a little higher, comparatively. Because of stuff like this.
Nathan Explosion is a pretty to-the-point sort of guy and character. So for subclasses, I went with the things that made the most sense on their noses. Berserker is the classic variety of Barbarian and, I thought, the best fit. Though Wild Magic would have been objectively funny. And for Bard, College of Swords made the most sense to me. While he’s an entertainer he’s not in the business of lore or secrets as much as kicking your ass. Hence swords. Is there an argument for how much metal listeners like epic stories? Sure, and that would also be a great direction to go in.
For spells I picked some that read like on-stage special effects, memorizing an audience, or being a little mean while also being useful in an encounter. Realistically though, I think most of the bard spells could have been pretty fun with this group depending on the circumstances.
How would you make Nathan Explosion or any of the Dethklok members for D&D? Have you already seen Army of the Doomstar or will you be seeing it soon? What movie, show, comic, game, or book should I make sheets from next time? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
