D&D Movie/TV (Yet another) D&D Movie Speculation thread.

[Paul Farquhar]

Drow are rubbish and any D&D movie would be better off without them no matter what colour you made their skin.

Now go away and get a life (or play D&D, which is better). Merry Christmas.

 

[ccs]

Never underestimate the power of social media campaigns...

Whether or not you agree with the "woke" portion of the audience, you have to admit the power a simple campaign.

Economy is important, but communication trumps all other factors in attendance.

Well then a disclaimer/public service announcement is needed on the opening (not buried in the credits like the "No animals were harmed" bit) of the movie.
Pointing out that Drow are black skinned elves because they're inspired by the Dökkálfar out of Norse mythology, and that they are NOT a stand-in for any color of Humans.
Audiences can then be directed to the real world source(s): the Prose Edda & the Hrafnagaldr Óðins.

See? D&D is good for you. You learn things!

Personally, I would dress this PSA short up as the narrator - Volo/Elminister/a bard/etc - turning to directly address the audience in order to give them a piece of context about where he drew his inspiration for the tale to be told from.
Maybe even directly read a passage to the audience from an actual RL book they could track down.

And just to be humorous? I'd open the segment with the title plate "They say knowing is half the battle."
And end it with "And now you know."
(yes, I know that isn't the exact quote/sequence)

 

[Pauln6]

In my opinion, the priority should be a good story with atmosphere and excitement but they should be as traditional as possible for the true fans by putting in easter eggs that nobody else will recognise. A trilogy campaign charting characters from low to mid to high levels would be a nice nod to the game.

I'm probably in the minority because I prefer lower magic scenarios like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, or Conan the Barbarian than Harry Potter style high magic but I can see that choosing Faerun over Greyhawk could let them pick from some spectacular set pieces. That said, there are some awesome magical regions in the World of Greyhawk that could look great on film.

I don't need Moses telling me he's casting Part Water or Control Water to recognise it. Give the spells generic names (an enchantment, conjuring an illusion, reciting a word of power, a spell of healing) and let the nerds nod sagely as they recognise the exact spell and mentally calculate the level of the characters.

I'm not sure I would want to see a massive battle in every movie. The Fellowship of the Rings is my favourite of the trilogy because it evokes a sense of wonder, of mystery, and sinister forces.

An adaptation of the Slave Lords trilogy might work with a few tweaks.

 

[generic]

Well then a disclaimer/public service announcement is needed on the opening (not buried in the credits like the "No animals were harmed" bit) of the movie.
Pointing out that Drow are black skinned elves because they're inspired by the Dökkálfar out of Norse mythology, and that they are NOT a stand-in for any color of Humans.
Audiences can then be directed to the real world source(s): the Prose Edda & the Hrafnagaldr Óðins.

See? D&D is good for you. You learn things!

Personally, I would dress this PSA short up as the narrator - Volo/Elminister/a bard/etc - turning to directly address the audience in order to give them a piece of context about where he drew his inspiration for the tale to be told from.
Maybe even directly read a passage to the audience from an actual RL book they could track down.

And just to be humorous? I'd open the segment with the title plate "They say knowing is half the battle."
And end it with "And now you know."
(yes, I know that isn't the exact quote/sequence)

Exactly, most of these are points that I've made before.

Well said!

 

[Azzy]

Well then a disclaimer/public service announcement is needed on the opening (not buried in the credits like the "No animals were harmed" bit) of the movie.
Pointing out that Drow are black skinned elves because they're inspired by the Dökkálfar out of Norse mythology, and that they are NOT a stand-in for any color of Humans.
Audiences can then be directed to the real world source(s): the Prose Edda & the Hrafnagaldr Óðins.

You mean the Dökkálfar from the Prose Edda & the Hrafnagaldr Óðins that didn't have black skin, weren't necessarily evil, and were overall non-drow-like? I'm sure there may be some people that won't question that I suppose. Maybe even a few.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Drow skin can be dark blue, dark gray or dark puple. And the past spellplague could be the cause of some changes of racial traits. Some drow cities may become more... neutral because for the war of the spider queen when her clerics lost their divine spells revolution started in some cities and male drows allied no-evil factions from the underdark against Lolth, their common enemy.

Or the drows can be the hated ally against worse enemies, foor example illithid, aboleths, Lovecraftian abominations from the Far Realm or invasion by daos (earth genies). Maybe we could find a good story about drows learning to respect the human dignity.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

All the detailed explanations, rationalizations, or excuses for why Drow are very dark skinned, regardless of what color that darkness is, will not matter to the millions of potential movie goers that have no, or very limited, knowledge of D&D and it's game worlds. Either there will have to be both good and evil Drow or no Drow at all. They are not some non-humanoid monster where coloration will not matter. They are more than enough human-like that if they are all evil, a lot of unneeded trouble will come out of it. I am not even sure the average movie goer would even accept evil elves after the way they were portrayed in the LotR and Hobbit movies. I cannot even think of a fantasy, non-horror movie that did have evil elves. Maybe a D&D movie will have to treat all elves more like the Seelie and Unseelie Courts from Celtic lore than the PHB elves if both good and evil ones exist.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Having given this some thought, here is my movie pitch: D&D: Planescape
Reasoning: I want to include the elements of D&D that have never been seen in a fantasy movie before, so I'm steering clear of the Tolkien-derived stuff (No one has ever done a Moorcock movie )

Story elements (not a full plot):

The movie starts on Earth in the present day (apart from in this world no-one has heard of D&D). Following some weirdness, a mismatched group of people are rescued by their odd friend, who takes them through a portal to Sigil. Reasoning: this represents the idea of everyday people becoming "characters" without going full-on Jumanji, and remaining within the lore of the setting. Their friend turns out to be a tiefling. Reasoning: elves, dwarves and halfings have been done-to-death in movies, tieflings have been in the game for almost as long but have never been seen in live action before. The party will later be joined by a comic-relief goblin or kobold companion. The main plot involves the war between the githyanki and illithid, with both sides treated as horrific monsters. Reasoning: mind flayers have been name-checked (along with a 1st ed illustration) in Stranger Things - I suspect the set of people who have seen Stranger Things is greater than the set of people who have played D&D. To emphasise the horror of the illithid, and that the stakes are "real", one of the human party members has their brain devoured, in as explicit a fashion as the censers will allow for the rating. As well as Sigil (a chance for the designers to really go to town on the visuals) the adventure also travels to Toril (Insert joke about why people from Sigil call it "The Forgotten Realms"). Reasoning: a chance to showcase other D&D settings. Also included in the tour of the multiverse is the Shadowfell. Reasoning: Stranger Things, and a chance for someone to say "It's like The Wizard of Oz, only backwards!". At some point in the movie there is a chase sequence in which the characters pass through many worlds in rapid succession. Reasoning: This is a chance for D&D fans to play "name that world" whilst just having some stunning visuals for everyone else.


Other elements to squeeze into the plot: at least one dungeon and one dragon, to justify the name. Also, rust monsters, owlbears and gelatinous cubes.


Elements not in this plot: Drow, beholders not called Xanthar.

 

[NaturalZero]

I like the idea of having two parallel groups: one of real-life players and one of in-game characters. As for tone? Looks no farther than the Princess Bride.

In the PB, we have Peter Faulk reading a story to Fred Savage in the real world, while we cut back and forth with the very tongue-in-cheek world of Wesley and Buttercup. It's lighthearted, fantastical, and memorable. The characters are charismatic and comical, but there's still action. This is exactly how a real DnD game plays out!

So, we get some well-known faces like Seth Rogan and Wil Weaton to comprise our group of players. They're comedic and wise-cracking, but as we see their adventures play out, we get PCs played by Dwayne Johnson, Chris Pratt, et al, in big budget action scenes. The story has a relatively serious tone, but we have a strong comedy quotient, like we have in a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. The 4th wall is broken, weird stuff happens, and the movie isn't structured as another generic fantasy movie knock-off.

The main thing is that the movie can't just be a straight fantasy movie, or at least it doesn't benefit at all from being such. Having 4th wall breaking antics and a certain measure of comedy would actually make it feel like REAL DnD. Not DnD the IP, or DnD the novel, or DnD the vanilla homebrew, but DnD as it is actually played, as an experience. It should capture what makes DnD special as an activity.

 

[Pauln6]

I don't know. I always felt that chaining the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon to the real world cheapened the franchise even though part of me knows it was intended to broaden the appeal. LotR and GoT have shown that you don't need to do that any more. I'd rather they took the franchise and its storytelling seriously because that's where fantasy is at now. Make it an adult film that youngsters can enjoy, not an excessively violent children's film with infantile characterisation, leaden dialogue, and predictable plots. If I see another villain who spends their time in their giant throne room enjoying being evil with their single evil henchman, I may just crack.