D&D Movie/TV New D&D Movie: July 23rd 2021

Jay Verkuilen said:

Evidently "blacker than pitch" and "lives underground" were from the Eddas, though:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drow_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)

Click to expand...

Hm, I'm going to have to reread my copy of the Eddas, I might have totally missed that line, thanks!

Thomas Bowman said:

Why a journalist anyway?
If the journalist is smart, he could make a camera with available equipment in the Forgotten Realms, you just need to know something about photochemical reactions, and how to make paper, film, and a box with a hole in it.

Click to expand...

If the plot of the movie is so plodding that they have time to worry about making a makeshift camera instead of just trying to stay alive then the movie has an entirely different problem.

The thing is, The Hobbit, and to a lesser extent The Lord of the Rings, already does "country bumpkin" as a means of giving the protagonist a sense of wonder at the events that they find themselves thrust into. Hobbits are petite rural Englishmen. You need heroes that can convey through their reaction that these events and set pieces are exceptional, not merely "Tuesday" in their magical dangerworld, and that are not ignorant rubes.

Kaodi said:

If the plot of the movie is so plodding that they have time to worry about making a makeshift camera instead of just trying to stay alive then the movie has an entirely different problem.

The thing is, The Hobbit, and to a lesser extent The Lord of the Rings, already does "country bumpkin" as a means of giving the protagonist a sense of wonder at the events that they find themselves thrust into. Hobbits are petite rural Englishmen. You need heroes that can convey through their reaction that these events and set pieces are exceptional, not merely "Tuesday" in their magical dangerworld, and that are not ignorant rubes.

Click to expand...

It would be interesting to have a party start out at level 1 in game-speak. So many movies the protagonists are already incredibly powerful when they are introduced with little room for growth. So instead of James Bond (or Legolas) level characters, start out with people who grab a sword and whatever armor is lying around to go fight the big bad only to get their butts kicked. Of course you'd have to throw in the mentor who dies tragically at the 3/4 point of the movie.

Hmm ... starting to sound like a certain movie about space wizard.

Azzy said:

Then you can go listen to Miley Cyrus (or whatever the newest manufactured pop sensation is), and I can continue listening to better things.

Click to expand...

No, you can listen to different things. There is no meassure by which they are better except personal taste. It's not like two engines where you can objectively compare certain attributes.

Oofta said:

It would be interesting to have a party start out at level 1 in game-speak. So many movies the protagonists are already incredibly powerful when they are introduced with little room for growth. So instead of James Bond (or Legolas) level characters, start out with people who grab a sword and whatever armor is lying around to go fight the big bad only to get their butts kicked. Of course you'd have to throw in the mentor who dies tragically at the 3/4 point of the movie.

Hmm ... starting to sound like a certain movie about space wizard.

Click to expand...

The Hero's Journey is strong in that one!

Kaodi said:

If the plot of the movie is so plodding that they have time to worry about making a makeshift camera instead of just trying to stay alive then the movie has an entirely different problem.

The thing is, The Hobbit, and to a lesser extent The Lord of the Rings, already does "country bumpkin" as a means of giving the protagonist a sense of wonder at the events that they find themselves thrust into. Hobbits are petite rural Englishmen. You need heroes that can convey through their reaction that these events and set pieces are exceptional, not merely "Tuesday" in their magical dangerworld, and that are not ignorant rubes.

Click to expand...

The character losing his camera and not being believed when he comes back to his World is straight out of the Wizard of Oz. I don't necessarily think a journalist is the best character to send to the Forgotten Realms, I was thinking more in the lines of a Soldier, or maybe an Engineer, who starts out at first level, but has some talents that if used correctly makes him effectively higher level than that. I think a police officer carrying a service pistol would make things interesting for a while. Someone who is trained in combat, but not the sort of combat that is typical of the Forgotten Realms setting. Naturally a Modern character wouldn't have magic, unless it came in the form of a magic item. One possibility is the character is a Sorcerer, but doesn't know it, maybe because magic doesn't work in his world and his parents or grandparents originally came from the Forgotten Realms, and thus passed down their magical abilities down to him. I think once the person runs out of bullets, he will have to learn how to swing a sword or fire a bow.

Now I'm a 12 year old and I'm infatuated with D&D but the problem with all the movies about D&D for me at least is that they are either vastly inappropriate for people my age, or are absolute garbage. I am currently DMing a Ravenloft/Curse of Strahd Campaign, and it would be really cool if they did it on that, but yet again it would likely be garbage, or super inappropriate for a 12 year old. Granted I will be 16 by the time it come out, but my parents are really strict. I'm also reading Dragonlance, just now and it would be also really cool if they did it on that. But movie companies are really good at taking awesome books, and making sub-par to terrible movies. So do you guys think it will be inappropriate, or bad. Then again most of you are likely adults so it probably won't be inappropriate for the rest of you.

Just had a brainwave... (if you're listening Hasbro?! )!

If they're looking for a way to give off a D&D feel to a series of movies then I think an excellent way to do that would be to enlist a core group of actors and have them recurrently star in the films. So far so normal... Here's the fun part: dramatically change the theme of each new movie and have the actors play different roles in each one.

So Movie #1: Forgotten Realms based (d'uh)
Movie #2: Ravenloft based (and have one of the heroes in the FR movie play a villain in this one?)
Movie #3: Eberron based (and switch up the roles again)

IMHO it would really reinforce the "you get to play lots of different roles in the worlds of D&D" vibe that I think is important.

And it's super fun to see actors doing new things - it would keep the franchise fresh and yet familiar (and quite distinct from the other ongoing epic series) - and also be a great way to put in witty references to the prior movies.

Azzy said:

Then you can go listen to Miley Cyrus (or whatever the newest manufactured pop sensation is), and I can continue listening to better things.

Click to expand...

Which is close to my point. You want (reasonably so) a D&D movie that fits your tastes. Tastes that you pretty much insist are in a very small minority. A minority that you should not expect Hasbro to care about in the least. This is a commercial money making venture for them, they should and will follow a formulaic approach to the movie that they hope will yield the most profit for the D&D brand. For them to do anything less would be negligent to their shareholders.

TrippyHippy said:

You cannot account for the tastes of audiences that watch them, however - and you cannot account for the millions/billions ? of people who openly think he is the worst moviemaker in the world today.

Click to expand...

Nice exaggeration. This will be my last attempt to add reason to your emotional rants.

The vague number of people I referred to that have watched MB movies can actually be estimated reliable using hard numbers like this.

You "one-upping" me by going to millions/billions is absurd. And rather than supporting your point, supports that you are spewing emotional responses that you haven't even thought through. Or do you really want us to expect that 1 in 7 people in the WORLD think MB is the worst moviemaker? If so, please provide some fact based support.
[MENTION=6563]Azzy[/MENTION] & [MENTION=27252]TrippyHippy[/MENTION], If you want a movie that conforms to your tastes, then go invest your own time in money in such. If you are right, then the critics will love it and you might even turn a profit.

Or you could accept that what you want is of little important to Hasbro and your continued voicing of it and how bad MB is will have no real impact on the world.

I'm done.

Thomas Bowman said:

The character losing his camera and not being believed when he comes back to his World is straight out of the Wizard of Oz. I don't necessarily think a journalist is the best character to send to the Forgotten Realms, I was thinking more in the lines of a Soldier, or maybe an Engineer, who starts out at first level, but has some talents that if used correctly makes him effectively higher level than that. I think a police officer carrying a service pistol would make things interesting for a while. Someone who is trained in combat, but not the sort of combat that is typical of the Forgotten Realms setting. Naturally a Modern character wouldn't have magic, unless it came in the form of a magic item. One possibility is the character is a Sorcerer, but doesn't know it, maybe because magic doesn't work in his world and his parents or grandparents originally came from the Forgotten Realms, and thus passed down their magical abilities down to him. I think once the person runs out of bullets, he will have to learn how to swing a sword or fire a bow.

Click to expand...

Been a while since I have seen The Wizard of Oz. I can tell you for sure thought that a soldier or engineer or anyone with a gun would be a terrible idea. The character is not their to change the world through technology. They are there to experience it. To be on the playing field, not change the playing field.

I had an idea yesterday that would probably be horrible because it is not in the true spirit of D&D which is orphaned murderhobos. Have the main character be a mother with a sick child who needs magical healing or they will die. The healers cannot or will not perform the service for free, since it is complicated and involved, so she opts for the "get rich quick or die trying" world of adventuring and joins/starts a "party". Before she had a kid she was in fact an apprentice to a scholarly wizard, so she she knows some things and she has some skills but what she can do semi-reliably is pretty basic, especially since she is out of practice as components are not cheap.