Games to Watch – Seakmony Academy

Team: Seakmony Academy (@seakmony on Twitter)
System: Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition
Gamemaster: Neo (@neosoulgod on Twitter)
Format: Livestreamed via Twitch, VoDs available on Twitch and YouTube
Time: Fridays at 7:00 PM Central

What if Harry Potter but in Dungeons & Dragons and without the heavily questionable author? I can only imagine that was the premise presented when Seakmony Academy was first pitched – that or possibly “The Magicians but with Tortles.” I can speak with a fact that it indeed drew me in fairly quickly and, despite my preference for actual plays featuring video, kept me entertained and enthralled for the entire duration of the sessions.

Set at a magical academy on its own demiplane, Seakmony follows the tale of five first years students as they turn up on their first day of classes – each portrayed by a player who definitely very much gets into the rolls of their characters and quickly sets them up as unique and intriguing individuals. At the helm of it all is at the amazing DM Neo who puts an amazing amount of effort into the custom world they’ve forged to test these new students. Once the game starts, everyone’s super focused on what’s going on and actively engaged in playing through a fun time for all involved.

Even though it’s fairly early days for Seakmony – when I wrote this, their second episode had ran only two days before and the videos for both games only just uploaded to YouTube – the game already has a very strong base and premise for future expansion out to a compelling story which I can only assume will end up covering the totality of the first year at the Academy. As it’s so early, some technical hiccoughs occur now and then – sound balance is sometimes a little off and players and DM both are still sorting out the occasional tick in Roll20 (I don’t blame them; I’ve been using it since launch and still have problems occasionally) – but there’s a level of enthusiasm from all players to this game, complete with well done voices and accents, that made me quickly forget all but the most “in your face” hiccoughs and look forward to what’s coming next.

Oh – and did I mention they have their own soundtrack made by The BomBARDers (@TheBomBARDers on Twitter)? Available on a number of platforms for your listening pleasure, the soundtrack contains (at the time of this writing) seven original songs created specifically for the game. It’s some damn fine music for a new independent game such as this to bring to the table right out of the gate and all the tracks I’ve heard so far have been worth listening to on their own.

You can catch Seakmony’s next episode live on Neo’s Twitch on Friday, February 12th at 7PM Central. Previous episodes can be found on Twitch or on YouTube.

(PS: #QirisKilledTheHeadmaster, RIP Chicken Collins.)

Episode List

Episode 1
It’s the first day of school and five new students set out for their first year at Seakmony…

Episode 2
The five find themselves whisked away into danger to face the entrance test…