11 Times 'The Hobbit' Is Just Like a Game of 'Dungeons & Dragons'

This article over at Zimbio lists 11 things The Hobbit which makes it just like a D&D game. From Bard's critical hit to Bilbo's clear leveling up, the article takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the movie. "Like some massive battle mapped out on graph paper and playmats, The Battle of the Five Armies feels like the cinematic interpretation of a really great Dungeons & Dragons campaign." Spoilers follow.

1. Bard's natural 20
2. Erebor in ruins as the ultimate campaign setting
3. The dwarves and the loot they get from the dragon
4. Everyone's alignments
5. Galadriel turning undead
6. Killing 100 orcs like they were minions
7. Legolas' amazing saving throws
8. Bilbo leveling up and gaining level-appropriate gear
9. The "boss" battle
10. Your character dies!

Click on the image below for the full article!

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[billd91]

20. The player whose character had a tragic backstory in the last campaign played yet another character with an eerily similar backstory in the new one.

 

[billd91]

21. GM showed off with a lot of boxed text and imagery, but it all came down to hack and slashing anyway.

 

[mouselim]

Actually no - that's not just a natural 20 from Bard but a called shot.

Edit: By the way, D&D normally don't play with such epic feel

 

[Klaus]

22 - Purple Worms

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

23. Plot hook delivered in a tavern.

24. GM tries inappropriate NPC-PC romance, again. Still creepy.

25. Warmoose, warpig, warbats, warsheep ...

26. Uber-elves. Clearly, this is set in the Forgotten Realms.

 

[Zansy]

27. The party rogue steals the adventure's MacGuffin without the leader's awareness nor consent.

My friends and I took much delight from comparing the game and the Hobbit movie, snidely whispering to our DM when we saw Smaug's treasure hoard that "This is what a dragon's hoard should look like!"

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

My friends and I took much delight from comparing the game and the Hobbit movie, snidely whispering to our DM when we saw Smaug's treasure hoard that "This is what a dragon's hoard should look like!"

So ironically, there's a direct reference in the 1E DMG where Gygax pointedly says the hoard of Smaug is *not* what a D&D dragon's treasure should look like! Despite the occasional +3 warhammer left lying about under a poof, I see it as evidence that Gary was really quite stingy (particularly when your XP is based on treasure recovered!)

 

[Morrus]

When I wrote To Slay A Dragon I had to deal with the issue of the hoard. I wanted a giant Hobbit-style hoard, but that's a campaign derailing amount. The billions of GP in that hoard could buy entire campaign worlds.

So there were two options I suggested to GMs in the adventure:

1) If this is the end of your campaign, and you won't be using those characters again - go for it! The PCs are now the wealthiest people in the world, and retire to live out their days like gods.

2) If you plan to continue with those characters, then 99.999% of the hoard must be returned to the kingdoms it was plundered from. The PCs are still left with a very sizeable haul each, but not a gamebreaking one.

It seems to work as a solution!

 

[Ryujin]

When I wrote To Slay A Dragon I had to deal with the issue of the hoard. I wanted a giant Hobbit-style hoard, but that's a campaign derailing amount. The billions of GP in that hoard could buy entire campaign worlds.

So there were two options I suggested to GMs in the adventure:

1) If this is the end of your campaign, and you won't be using those characters again - go for it! The PCs are now the wealthiest people in the world, and retire to live out their days like gods.

2) If you plan to continue with those characters, then 99.999% of the hoard must be returned to the kingdoms it was plundered from. The PCs are still left with a very sizeable haul each, but not a gamebreaking one.

It seems to work as a solution!

3) The majority of the hoard is in the form of copper and copper alloys. Kill a bunch of commoners and you'll generally get a few coppers. Even rulers typically have more low coinage, acquired via tribute and taxes, than they do gold and platinum.

If you want to be particularly cruel (I've been known to be such, on occasion ), then you could even devalue copper coins by, say, 50% due to the glut on the market.

 

[Zansy]

So ironically, there's a direct reference in the 1E DMG where Gygax pointedly says the hoard of Smaug is *not* what a D&D dragon's treasure should look like! Despite the occasional +3 warhammer left lying about under a poof, I see it as evidence that Gary was really quite stingy (particularly when your XP is based on treasure recovered!)

Maybe Gygax secretly wanted to hide Smaug-sized treasure hoards away for himself? Dragon Fever is like that...
In all seriousness I can imagine why Gygax would try to shunt people away from unimaginable GP and XP,, but you want to portray wealth , power and greed beyond belief - this is the picture that comes to mind.

When I wrote To Slay A Dragon I had to deal with the issue of the hoard. I wanted a giant Hobbit-style hoard, but that's a campaign derailing amount. The billions of GP in that hoard could buy entire campaign worlds.


So there were two options I suggested to GMs in the adventure:


1) If this is the end of your campaign, and you won't be using those characters again - go for it! The PCs are now the wealthiest people in the world, and retire to live out their days like gods.


2) If you plan to continue with those characters, then 99.999% of the hoard must be returned to the kingdoms it was plundered from. The PCs are still left with a very sizeable haul each, but not a gamebreaking one.


It seems to work as a solution!

I'm also not sure finding and spending mountains of coinage is the biggest issue for some. I imagine just trying to lug it all out from the -Xth floor basement of a cave/dungeon would serve a good post boss challenge Thorin and the dwarves were lucky that Smaug's hoard is so conveniently located in their reclaimed home base!