Reunions all around for Felicia Day these days: Amid a massive fundraiser for a movie reunion of her series \u201cThe Guild,\u201d Day is reteaming with longtime friend and collaborator Wil Wheaton for a new kind of board game TV series.<\/p>\n
Launching as fan-unlocked content tied to \u201cThe Guild: Ren Faire\u2019d\u201d movie\u2019s ongoing Kickstarter campaign (which has so far raised $5.26 million, surpassing its initial goal of $1.5 million), the new 10-episode series is titled \u201cConludo,\u201d which is Latin for \u201cplay together.\u201d Each episode of the show will feature Day and Wheaton in conversation before they pick a board game that is applicable to their topic and invite some fellow celebs to join them in play.<\/p>\n
Fans will recognize this project as reminiscent of Day and Wheaton\u2019s \u201cTableTop,\u201d a web series that ran for four seasons from 2012-2017 on Day\u2019s YouTube channel, Geek & Sundry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been FOMO-ing for over a decade, and we just want to play again, especially with some of those new content creators,\u201d Day tells Variety. \u201cSome of them I\u2019ve met in the last couple years, and I want to play with them at the table. It\u2019s a wonderful world to be in and I have faith that hopefully the show can last for a long time, and we highlight tons of different products and people from all walks of life, and that\u2019s what I love about the web.\u201d<\/p>\n
Variety has confirmed exclusively that newly booked \u201cConludo\u201d guest stars include Todd Stashwick, Anjali Bhimani, Grace Helbig, Mamrie Hart and John Ross Bowie.\u00a0And this show will be more about Day, Wheaton and those guests than the games they play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith \u2018TableTop,\u2019 it was important to me that we showcase games that are in print, that are available,\u201d Wheaton says. \u201cAfter a few episodes, we realized, oh no, we have to tell distributors so they can up their buys because things are selling out so quickly. \u2018Conludo\u2019 will give us an opportunity to come at it differently because if \u2018TableTop\u2019 about what\u2019s happening on the table, \u2018Conludo\u2019 is about what\u2019s happening around the table while we\u2019re playing the game together. The game is obviously important and fun and joyful, but it\u2019s about the experience that you have when you\u2019re hanging out. We can play games that there are 40 copies of in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Day says she\u2019s excited to get back to her roots of making web content with \u201cConludo\u201d amid the current popularity of actual-play TV series and \u201clet\u2019s play\u201d content.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really early on everything. I was told that people wouldn\u2019t want to be watching people play board games,\u201d Day says. \u201cI was told that the web was not a place for narrative fiction. I was told that streaming D&D was a waste of money. And these are all things that I did first, so the fact that the actual-play world is so robust and so diverse and so well supported financially and just popular in the world now, it\u2019s a wonderful time to come in and try to do something a little bit different because I just have a contrary nature. I always want to be first, or at least doing something that other people aren\u2019t doing. I would rather stand out from the pack doing something different.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to if and how \u201cConludo\u201d could live on beyond the 10 episodes that will be produced under the Kickstarter campaign, Wheaton and Day are both interested in finding a home for it to become an ongoing series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a question of whether we want to have our own channel and build that specifically, or we want to use somebody else\u2019s platform to distribute,\u201d Wheaton says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s something that we\u2019re considering, and we\u2019ll weigh and we\u2019ll do the best thing for the audience because that\u2019s always our first goal. It\u2019s really important to both of us that it\u2019s not difficult for someone to watch \u2014 and difficult can mean a lot of different things. It can mean reaching into their pockets for more money. It can mean downloading some app they would rather not have. Felicia has talked extensively about doing this in a nice, flat, democratic way that gets it out to absolutely everybody, which is another thing that very much puts us at odds with the standard business model in the entertainment industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, Geek & Sundry founder Day says she has \u201cno desire to create another company where I\u2019m making dozens of shows.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve highlighted a lot of other people as performers in the past, and now I\u2019m all about just doing things for me and with my friends,\u201d Day says. \u201c\u2018Conludo\u2019 really will be a focus in that area. I\u2019m hoping that we figure out how to sustain this in as democratically available a way as possible, whether that\u2019s our own YouTube channel or whether that\u2019s another free-to-stream service, we\u2019re going to explore a lot of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the topic of distribution partners, Day has made it a priority to first get \u201cConludo\u201d delivered to the Kickstarter backers behind \u201cThe Guild\u201d reunion movie project. Day plans for the movie itself, which will see Day and the rest of \u201cThe Guild\u201d cast (including Wheaton) reprise their roles for the first time since the series ended in 2013, to release in 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, our backers are No. 1. I want to make sure they\u2019re happy,\u201d Day says. \u201cThey get all their fulfilled goods. They get the movie first in exactly the format we promise them. We are talking to distributors about theatrical release, and then distributing past that, we\u2019ll definitely explore other ways that movies are distributed.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are both digital and Blu-ray editions offered as part of the Kickstarter campaign, and Day says it was the Blu-ray option that \u201cput us over the top\u201d in funding.<\/p>\n