A group of adventurers – a warrior, a wizard, a healer and a rogue – must conquer the world’s most dangerous monsters, as well as each other’s egos, in the new comedy web series ONE HIT DIE, created, written, produced and directed by Spencer Estabrooks. The first four episodes (also known as ‘The Prologue’) will have its world premiere on August 11th at the Globe Cinema in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, before their online debut the next day on Youtube. In addition to the show’s four main episodes, four mini-episodes and four behind-the-scenes videos will be released during the show’s IndieGoGo campaign, one that hopes to raise funds to film 5-10 more episodes to round out the first season.

ONE HIT DIE stars Larissa Thompson as the group’s leader,  Gwen, a young and naive healer, while Julie Orton (of the popular all-girl action stage show KUNG FU PANTIES) stars as Sasha, a tough and courageous warrior who doesn’t take crap from anyone – even her fellow warriors. Andrew Long plays Torvold, a thief more concerned about gold and leveling up than he is about saving the world, and Phil Burke (AMC’s HELL ON WHEELS) portrays Azurus, a powerful wizard with a predilection for booze – and with a shady past. Rounding out the cast is Michael Roik, who plays the wicked goblins – all of them – that the merry band of warriors must face.

Estabrooks was inspired to create ONE HIT DIE by his memories of playing RPG’s with his friends, and the worlds of fantasy and adventure that those games provided. “I’ve had the idea for several years. It came out of a desire to relive my early D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) gaming experiences. Maybe it was just my campaigns, but we always had a lot of inter-party treachery, and I thought it was fun, and wanted to do a show based on that.” The series was filmed under an ACTRA (Alliance Of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) Independent Producer Agreement, and as a result, Estabrooks was able to find the best union and non-union actors to comprise his ensemble cast, and that factor alone also made the production process easier despite  “We shot for four days at the world famous Rafter 6 Ranch. Rafter 6 is about 45 minutes west of Calgary. They were easy days, as our ACTRA agreement limited the actors time on set to 8 hours. We had an extremely small crew, but it was intensely fun for everyone involved.”

Described by Estabrooks as a series that’s stylistically like LORD OF THE RINGS, but more like THE OFFICE in its episodic storytelling style (mockumentary), ONE HIT DIE takes a unique approach to multiple genres, from fantasy and adventure, to comedy. “We’re taking the standard fantasy genre and shooting it like a documentary. I’ll do what I want with this series. I don’t care if it doesn’t make logistic sense, as long as it makes narrative sense,” he says.

In the tradition of popular web series like THE GUILD, GOLD (and its spinoff NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIE KING), and others too numerous to mention, ONE HIT DIE is described by its creator in one word: “awesomeness”, and even though the term may be vague, there’s plenty of it to go around in his series, from the comedy and fantasy situations to its characters. The show’s first four episodes are only the beginning of the story. “If I want people to take anything away from this, it’s that there is more work to do, more stories to tell. I’ve already got plans for the next two seasons. If our crowd funding is successful we’ll get a chance to see these characters pushed further into increasingly ridiculous situations.”

ON THE WEB: www.onehitdie.com

YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/OneHitDieSeries

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/OneHitDieTheSeries

TWITTER: @OneHitDieSeries