D&D 5E D&D movie, take note...

robus · Dec 9, 2017

shidaku said:
I don't think that's what they've been making D&D movies about.

Agreed, and that’s [MENTION=67338]GMforPowergamers[/MENTION] and my point

- they’re trying for epic when no one really cares about the lore (see Warcraft: the Movie). I know one of the movies went for laughs and that landed with a splat too. Making movies is hard!

robus · Dec 9, 2017

MarkB said:
It's not impossible that something like that could be pulled off well, in a way that does justice to both the story of the players and their characters. But I think it would be a more challenging task than simply making a good fantasy movie in a D&D setting.

I agree it would be hard to pull off, but a “good fantasy movie” is also hard to pull off

I don’t envy the folks working on this.

The Witcher series coming up on Netflix should be interesting to see if this kind of fantasy monster hunting works for a wide audience.

robus · Dec 9, 2017

gyor said:
Is the movie still happening, I don't remember the last time we got news on it.

I think the production company keeps getting cold feet. The expensive debacle of the Warcraft movie probably gave them a heart attack!

robus · Dec 9, 2017

werecorpse said:
I am not a fan of this style of D&D movie or Netflix series.

I would prefer the movie or series be a conversion of the story told by the adventures converted to a different media (film or to) in the same way that Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones is a conversion of the story told by books converted to a different media.

I hear what you’re saying and I think (as we’ve seen with GoT) that D&D lends itself to an episodic series rather than a big movie. Heck each episode could be labeled as Level X: into deeper doodoo (or whatever). A, on the other hand, movie has a very limited amount of time to get the story done (and that’s why for many of the ending seems rushed).

The Witcher series coming up on Netflix sounds quite promising.

MarkB · Dec 9, 2017

The other difficult aspect of basing a movie upon actual play of a specific game is one of accessibility vs. faithfulness to the source. Jumanji gets away with making the rules be whatever they want them to, but a D&D movie incorporating D&D gameplay risks, at worst, managing to alienate both experienced players who feel like it's playing fast-and-loose with their sacred cows, and non-D&D-players who find it too technical and impenetrable.

robus · Dec 9, 2017

MarkB said:
The other difficult aspect of basing a movie upon actual play of a specific game is one of accessibility vs. faithfulness to the source. Jumanji gets away with making the rules be whatever they want them to, but a D&D movie incorporating D&D gameplay risks, at worst, managing to alienate both experienced players who feel like it's playing fast-and-loose with their sacred cows, and non-D&D-players who find it too technical and impenetrable.

That’s an excellent point. Fortunately 5e is at least more rules light so there’s more room for interpretation. So many needles to thread!

ProfessorDetective · Dec 9, 2017

I had always thought there were two ways to do the D&D movie

1) Do the standard High Fantasy Road Trip story just on Faerûn. 3-5 heroes of various skill sets (Caster, Fighter, and Thief OR Divine Caster Arcane Caster, Ranged Fighter, Melee Fighter and Thief) trek across the Forgotten Realms to battle a great evil and passing through famous locations (Waterdeep, Baulder's Gate) and fighting iconic Monsters pulled straight from the Manual (Beholders, Flayers, at least one Dragon probably Red to call back to the Basic Set cover art).

2) The above, but with kids/teens from Earth being pulled to Faerûn through some plot coupon. (the Amulet of the Planes would be the obvious one) They could have been D&D players beforehand or just random folks or a mix (have the token nerd(s) realize where they are and use his knowledge of the setting to their advantage. Get the wish fulfilment in there) but have them travel to fight the Big Bad (who just so happens to have a way back to Earth). Maybe some (or all) of them stay, feeling more at home in the Relmes then back on Earth. Make it a metaphor for growing up or something.

This shouldn't be too impossible to pull off. Right?

Slit518 · Dec 9, 2017

ProfessorDetective said:
I had always thought there were two ways to do the D&D movie

1) Do the standard High Fantasy Road Trip story just on Faerûn. 3-5 heroes of various skill sets (Caster, Fighter, and Thief OR Divine Caster Arcane Caster, Ranged Fighter, Melee Fighter and Thief) trek across the Forgotten Realms to battle a great evil and passing through famous locations (Waterdeep, Baulder's Gate) and fighting iconic Monsters pulled straight from the Manual (Beholders, Flayers, at least one Dragon probably Red to call back to the Basic Set cover art).

2) The above, but with kids/teens from Earth being pulled to Faerûn through some plot coupon. (the Amulet of the Planes would be the obvious one) They could have been D&D players beforehand or just random folks or a mix (have the token nerd(s) realize where they are and use his knowledge of the setting to their advantage. Get the wish fulfilment in there) but have them travel to fight the Big Bad (who just so happens to have a way back to Earth). Maybe some (or all) of them stay, feeling more at home in the Relmes then back on Earth. Make it a metaphor for growing up or something.

This shouldn't be too impossible to pull off. Right?

I kind of want the 2nd idea. That would of been so awesome when I was a kid!

Sunseeker · Dec 9, 2017

robus said:
Agreed, and that’s [MENTION=67338]GMforPowergamers[/MENTION] and my point - they’re trying for epic when no one really cares about the lore (see Warcraft: the Movie). I know one of the movies went for laughs and that landed with a splat too. Making movies is hard!

Yeah but people do care about the lore of other fantasy titles, see: LOTR.

D&D's biggest problem is that as a setting and a game, it's generic and obscure. That is: it's hard to tell D&D-fantasy from any other sort of general fantasy. Caster? Rogue? Fighter? None of this stuff screams "UNIQUE PROPERTY!" And the material that does is obscure. You can't make a movie successful based on "generic and obscure". LOTR is generic, but not obscure. Guardians of the Galaxy was obscure (in comparison to say, Superman or Iron Man) but not generic.

They're either going to need to make the material not generic or not obscure. The obscurity of D&D is fading, slowly but this won't be D&D's first go at a movie, it's got a history of being rather...suck.

Personally the fewer game elements the movie includes the better it will do.

gyor · Dec 10, 2017

robus said:
I think the production company keeps getting cold feet. The expensive debacle of the Warcraft movie probably gave them a heart attack!

If you can the foreign box office Warcraft was profitable, I hear the Chinese loved it.

D&D 5E D&D movie, take note...

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