Left to Right: Pierre, Shadow, Ruru, and Kane.note
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon D&D: Explorers of the Heart is an Actual Play series based on Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. It is hosted by The Loading Crew, and featuring all of the people behind their Pokémon Tabletop Utopus Region campaign. The main cast is as follows:
- The GM, played by Megami33
- Ruru the Rockruff, played by Lady_Nanaki
- Pierre the Munchlax, played by Stuart of The Loading Crew
- Kane the Litten, played by xthedarkone
- Shadow the Litwick, played by AlainaPraina of The Loading Crew
A playlist for all segments currently uploaded to Youtube can be found here
.
Tropes:
- Badass Family: Treasure Town's local dojo is run by a Marowak couple, with their children all volunteering as minions in their Trial Dungeon.
- Blatant Lies: Episode 4 has Kane, against Ruru's wishes, trying to teach human swear words to Luke the Plusle while telling him they are compliments.
- Brother–Sister Team: Luke (Plusle) and Lily (Minum) of Team Spotlight, who the protagonists rescue and reunite in their first session (Youtube Episodes 1-3).
- Burn the Witch!: The first dream Shadow has of life as a human is a nightmare, in which a girl calling her "Nanna" is mortally wounded by armed townsfolk that think they're a witch.
- Catchphrase: Pierre frequently introduces himself with "Hello there, my name is Pierre, and I am your friend."
- Cats Are Mean:
- Kane is the snarkiest and most self-centered member of the team.
- Treasure Town's bank Persian, who represents the local guild while its true master Granbull is out and their own home is undergoing renovations, is mean and dismissive to everyone... except, of course, Kane.
- The Chosen One: Ruru, Pierre, Kane, and Shadow were summoned to the Pokemon world to be heroes in their time of need. Almost everyone they meet believes them, as apparently, the Pokemon world has a long history of humans being transformed and summoned for similar reasons.
- Cool Old Lady: Shadow is portrayed as much more elderly than the rest of the main party. Her first vision of the past depicts her as an old witch.
- There's also the Duskull that Kane and Shadow meet upon first waking up in the Pokemon world, who immediately puts them on good terms with the local guild with the reward she gives for escorting Luke out of her cave and back home.
- Cutlass Between the Teeth: Immediately after finding a worn-down sword in the secret base of Treasure Town's kids, Ruru claims it for herself, wielding it like the legendary Zacian.
- Death of a Child: At least two of the main cast have had dreams depicting the death of a child they were close to: Shadow's granddaughter and Pierre's friend.
- Demonic Possession: Upon reaching the Apple and Oran Forests, the party has to deal with a feud between the two forests' Oranguru leaders. Kane and Shadow attempt to directly attack one leader, but they're overpowered by a force that reacts to Shadow's Spell Tag. Meanwhile, Pierre and Ruru attempt to overthrow the other leader via a revolution, but Pierre has to fight off mental manipulation when he's gifted a symbol of leadership and Ruru briefly but immediately becomes a tyrant when they take the Oranguru's fan.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Many of the native Pokemon either have the same name as their species, or some derivative of it, such as Chef Zig the Zigzagoon. When X brings this up (by pretending to be a drunk Chef Zig questioning it), Megami says the locals mostly tell specific Pokemon apart by their unique smell, with names just being a formality.
- Drunk on Milk: In the party's first visit to the forest, Pierre introduces a Beedrill to a drink made of berries and coconut. When he returns with Chef Zig that night to help her collect berries, he learns that their colony added honey so strong it acts like mead, and now all of the local adult-age insects are completely plastered.
- Enfant Terrible: After their parents get Drunk on Milk, a pair of Weedles threaten Pierre with their poison needles if he doesn't give them some of the "adult-only" drink, though Pierre manages to satisfy them with a non-alcoholic version.
- Great Offscreen War: The first Youtube episode starts with a story about the Dragon Force, a powerful energy present in both the Human and Pokemon worlds that was unsealed and corrupted during a war in the former.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The Great Offscreen War ended when a human king, who guarded the Dragon Force with his Pokemon partner, sacrificed his life to seal it. However, the actions of humans also tainted the Pokemon version of the Force, requiring additional sacrifices of both natural Pokemon and chosen heroes summoned to the Pokemon world to seal it.
- Hurricane of Puns: Episode 25, "Herdier's Hurtin'", has an "Egg Pun Counter" just to count the rapid-fire puns the players have some young Exeggcute say. It's at least eighteen in the span of two in-game turns.
- Idiot Hero: Pierre has a simplistic way of speaking, has a notable curl on his forehead, and once nearly drowned after thinking that his reflection in the water was another Munchlax he needed to save.
- Improvised Lockpick: During the Marowak Trial Dungeon, Kane uses his claws in order to pick open some locked chests, with Shadow assisting by phasing through the material to examine the locks.
- Innocent Innuendo: One of the first moves Kane knows is "Lick". This move is used to knock out Mrs. Alolan Marowak in the Marowak Trial Dungeon. Cue a lot of innuendo from all of the players, Kane's included.
- It's All About Me: At the start, Kane only cares for himself, willing to abandon others and leave them to die unless he requires their assistance.
- Laughing Mad: Shadow's reaction to hearing some Pokemon children reenacting the end of the Human Great Offscreen War for fun, which gives her flashbacks of death and destruction during it.
- Mythology Gag: The campaign itself begins with a godly spirit (represented by a pink ball) starting a Player Personality Quiz, just like in the video games, until another spirit (a violet ball) interrupts and says they don't have time for that.
- Odd Name Out: Among the main heroes, who retained the names they had before being summoned, "Shadow" is the least like a typical human name.
- Ontological Mystery: The four protagonists wake up with barely any memories, only knowing that they were human and were summoned to be heroes, and start out with some odd possessions (such as Pierre's cork).
- Party Scattering: In the first session, after sharing the experience of being summoned into the Pokemon world, the protagonists are split into pairs (Ruru and Pierre, Kane and Shadow) until they officially meet in the forest. Later, the party is split into those pairs once again in order to deal with a feud between the leaders of the Apple and Oran Forests.
- Precursor Heroes: Among the Human-world trinkets collected by Treasure Town's kids that the party finds in their base, there is a journal written by a previous group of chosen ones like them, which they get permission to take with them.
- Production Throwback: After reaching the Hot Springs, the party meets a few shady merchants that have set up a "Farmer's Market", calling back to the shady fighting tournament from Utopus Region.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: In a bit of self-awareness, Ruru refers to the main party as this after clearing the Marowak Trial Dungeon, which leads to their official designation as Team Ragtag.
- Recruited from the Gutter: After reaching Torkoal's Hot Springs, the party crosses paths with an Oshawott that tries to scam them with a literal Shell Game and pickpocket their items. However, after apprehending him and getting their stuff back, they hire him to work with a local merchant and supply them with regular materials.
- Running Gag:
- The beings that brought the heroes into the world are repeatedly referred to as the Bisexual Balls, due to their shape, coloration, and speech about love being the ultimate power.
- One that often comes up in Twitch chat (which is kept on-screen even for the Youtube uploads) is "I can't believe X would [do thing]", (jokingly) blaming the Token Evil Teammate for destructive actions he clearly had no involvement in.
- Scars Are Forever: Kane's sash turns out to be covering up a healed-over scar. His first dream of his human past shows that he's had this scar since childhood, and the sash was a hand-knitted birthday gift from a motherly figure to cover it.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Dragon Force was originally a neutral power, but became tainted with blood and anger by warring humans, bringing darkness to both the Human and Pokemon worlds and requiring Heroic Sacrifice in both to seal it. However, the hearts of some Pokemon are still tainted, and seek to release it for ill intent once more.
- Sleepyhead: Shadow is often in a lethargic state, nibbling on the life energy of others to keep herself conscious.
- Southern Belle: Chef Zig, the head cook of the local guild, is a sweet lady that always speaks with a Southern drawl.
- Surfer Dude: Spins, the Spinda manager of Treasure Town's saloon and Chef Zig's cousin, sounds like one when he speaks.
- Token Evil Teammate: Kane, as demonstrated when he tries to get a Combee's attention by shooting an ember at its tree, and then tries (and fails) to blame Shadow when this angers some Beedrill. Later, he threatens to kill an Elekid if he doesn't reveal his hidden base, though said child is eager to threaten him back.
- Torches and Pitchforks: The witch-hunting townsfolk in Shadow's first nightmare are wielding these.
- Tragic Keepsake: The first dreams of their human pasts had by Shadow and Kane are about their keepsake, and a loved one associated with it. In Shadow's case, it's purely tragic; for Kane, it's bittersweet.
- Tsundere: The rest of the team calls Kane one after he tries to downplay accepting the Elekid's request to help find his missing parents.
