D&D General Joe Manganiello's D&D Campaign Includes a Game of Thrones Creator & Vince Vaughn

The entertainment magazine Variety has joined the long list of mainstream publications who have published articles about D&D in recent years. They take a look at Joe Manganiello's home game, which includes Vince Vaughn, plus the guitarist from Rage Against the Machine, and one one of the Game of Thrones creators!

Inside Joe Manganiello’s Epic Dungeons & Dragons Campaign

Go inside Joe Manganiello's Hollywood Dungeons & Dragons campaign, which includes Vince Vaughn, Tom Morello, The Big Show and more.

variety.com

 

[Dire Bare]

You mean the posters? I don't see anything in the above news article from EnWorld that is promoting ridicule.

Pretty sure Prakiti is referring to the folks criticizing Joe as sexist for not including the ladies in his home game.

 

[Fenris-77]

Hmm, yeah, it sounds pretty judgey to me to be getting all up in Joe Manganiello's grill about the lack of females at the table. Maybe he asked girls and they said no. Maybe this is the equivalent of girls night. Who knows, who cares. There's not enough info to make a judgement here IMO. I think 90% of the games I've ever played in have been all sausage. Not for lack of inclusion, or any kind of preference, just the way things turned out.

 

[robus]

How do you know that Joe only wants to play with guys? Simple, you don't.

You’re right.

 

[Todd Roybark]

LOL....want to get Entertainment Personalities, for a D&D game, join a Los Angeles Private School carpool association!

( Well, that was true 3 months ago).

 

[darjr]

Joe has played on lots of streams with folks from many walks of life. So no I don’t think there is an issue. I’m a HUGE fan of Joe’s. Still I get that posters point. I don’t think it’s a big deal though, why try and fry anyone over any of it?

 

[RangerWickett]

I imagine D.B. Weiss is a Game of Thrones fan.

Sure didn't seem that way the last two seasons.

I honestly don't know how HBO didn't say, "Before we give you X million dollars, show us all the scenes of the ending, and then show it to a handful of fans and make sure it doesn't suck."

 

[The Big BZ]

This is totally awesome, but needs more ladies.

I could share a photo of my D&D group and it would be all male and a photo of my Cthuhlu group and it would not be. Maybe best to reserve judgement.

 

[wicked cool]

last night I watched the event with Joe/Big show etc for basically a large encounter. I was impressed with Joes knowledge of the game/how helpful he was to the other players

the big show played a 1/2 giant psychic warrior-If one was to recreate this which book is the 1/2 giant etc in?

 

[Umbran]

Hmm, yeah, it sounds pretty judgey to me to be getting all up in Joe Manganiello's grill

You can't get in someone's grill if they don't even know you exist.

And, I'm afraid that this isn't "just his home table" - insofar as "just a home table" is not worth an article in Variety. Your table wouldn't make for such an article, and neither would mine. This is a table of celebrities. Nearly a dozen named players, and three folks who do ancillary things for the game (like paint minis) - all men.

If a bunch of similarly placed, prominent, and powerful people got together in the drawing room regularly for brandy and cigars, we would look sideways at it. The article itself points out how it is social bonding, the creation of a community... a community of influential men with no women in it is not a good look these days.

In getting their names in Variety for this, they are engaging in PR - "look at us, you'll like us more because we are geeks too!" And yeah, D&D gets a boost from having celebrity names associated with it. But, if you are going to play the PR game, exactly what image you're projecting is up for criticism.

 

[Fenris-77]

You can't get in someone's grill if they don't even know you exist.

Figures of speech, I use 'em.

And, I'm afraid that this isn't "just his home table" - insofar as "just a home table" is not worth an article in Variety. Your table wouldn't make for such an article, and neither would mine. This is a table of celebrities. Nearly a dozen named players, and three folks who do ancillary things for the game (like paint minis) - all men.

If a bunch of similarly placed, prominent, and powerful people got together in the drawing room regularly for brandy and cigars, we would look sideways at it. The article itself points out how it is social bonding, the creation of a community... a community of influential men with no women in it is not a good look these days.

In getting their names in Variety for this, they are engaging in PR - "look at us, you'll like us more because we are geeks too!" And yeah, D&D gets a boost from having celebrity names associated with it. But, if you are going to play the PR game, exactly what image you're projecting is up for criticism.

I guess. You're reading of the PR angle is different than mine. Joe has a very cool home game. Someone wrote an article about it. Does that means 'he's engaging in PR'? Not really, or at least not necessarily. He has famous friends, that's true, but this is LA and he's famous (for a given value of famous). The celebrity angle is indeed why it's worth an article in Variety (to Variety btw, Not JM), but that doesn't mean it's not 'just his home table', because it is, or appears to be. There's no indication in the article that this is publicity sought out by Manganiello. If it was a actually a PR game, then sure, I'd agree with you. Is your contention that this is a PR game based on anything more than his celebrity? You may know more about it than what's in the article, and if so I'd like to know too.