Are we on the cusp of a Tabletop Hollywood moment?

[RivetGeekWil]

Given the choice of a relatively unknown tabletop property or a best selling novel series, in the same genre, which is Hollywood more likely to option? Which is more likely to be successful, based on the built-in audience?

I would guess that the built-in audience for a WoD game was bigger than that of the Stackhouse novels. Studios (especially those bankrolled by Netflix and Amazon) are picking up many properties with smaller built-in audiences - Shadow and Bone, the Expanse, etc. They want properties they can turn into eyeballs staring at streams; they don't care where it came from.

 

[RivetGeekWil]

Also, I will pass on this bit from a very well-known game designer:

I wish I could speak openly about this but rest assured that TTRPG properties are being eagerly optioned for film and television

 

[bloodtide]

By that measure, True Blood didn't need to be based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries to be successful. Or the Lord of the Rings movies based on the Lord of the Rings. This is patently nonsense.

Well, I don't know about vampires......but are you saying Tolkien made a Lord of the Rings RPG first and then wrote the novels about them?

This is nonsense too. It would be a show or movie about the property, of which the game was the original expression of. And of which there are scores of screenwriters who would be able to create characters and storylines within the genre, theme, aesthetics, etc. of the property because that's their job.

Again, I would say is how is the content is "based on" or even in any way "from" the game? The GAME is just a bunch of rules. The random fiction is separate from the game.

Yes you can write a story and just use game or "property" words, but that does not make that story in any way "about" the game.

Just because you write a fantasy novel and change "zap of magic" to "magic missle" and change "octo-monster" to "Illithid" does not make it a novel "about" the D&D game.

 

[RivetGeekWil]

Well, I don't know about vampires......but are you saying Tolkien made a Lord of the Rings RPG first and then wrote the novels about them?


Again, I would say is how is the content is "based on" or even in any way "from" the game? The GAME is just a bunch of rules. The random fiction is separate from the game.

Yes you can write a story and just use game or "property" words, but that does not make that story in any way "about" the game.

Just because you write a fantasy novel and change "zap of magic" to "magic missle" and change "octo-monster" to "Illithid" does not make it a novel "about" the D&D game.

I literally can't even with this.

Yes, a TV show based off of a property that came from a role-playing game will have nothing to do with the game, as in the collection of rules that structure play. Any more than the output from playing the game will have anything to do with the game (since the result of playing the game is story).

But a large number of games have unique, identifiable, and characteristic elements to their creative expression. That's what makes them a creative property. The direction that the flow of adaptation follows doesn't matter. It can be a book first, turn into a board game, made into a TV show, made into a role-playing game. There's still continuity of the core, identifiable elements of the property. That's what's important. Nobody cares about this weird fetish of it not being about "the game".

 

[bloodtide]

But a large number of games have unique, identifiable, and characteristic elements to their creative expression.

Well, if they are that easy to list...could you list a couple for me? I'll just copy some from the "best rpg list"

D&D:
Bubblegumshoe:
Dragon Age:
Masks:
Cyberpunk Red:
Fate:

 

[Reynard]

Cyberpunk Red:

Just to be clear, in making an argument against the viability of RPG properties as the basis for successful media, you choose an entry in a 30 odd year franchise that has produced a very well received anime? And, no, you don't get to hide behind "but it's the video game" because everything in it comes from the ttrpg.

That's the point. These properties are worth mining. They have tons of distinct lore and characters and stories rife for the telling. No one is suggesting they are as popular as comics now. The whole point is that they present a potential avenue for a new wave of geek media, if the stars align and things like the D&D movie and Cavill's 40K stuff get Hollywood producers -- perhaps the least creative people in the world -- looking for the next properties to bleed dry.

Also, as an aside: do you know who was a Guardians of the Galaxy fan before Gunn's film? No one. How many issues of Thor were selling per month prior to Hemsworthification? Not a lot.

 

[bloodtide]

Just to be clear, in making an argument against the viability of RPG properties as the basis for successful media, you choose an entry in a 30 odd year franchise that has produced a very well received anime? And, no, you don't get to hide behind "but it's the video game" because everything in it comes from the ttrpg.

I just goggled popular RPGs as I'm not a game expert.

That's the point. These properties are worth mining. They have tons of distinct lore and characters and stories rife for the telling. No one is suggesting they are as popular as comics now. The whole point is that they present a potential avenue for a new wave of geek media, if the stars align and things like the D&D movie and Cavill's 40K stuff get Hollywood producers -- perhaps the least creative people in the world -- looking for the next properties to bleed dry.

I guess it can be said the unrelated lore made next to the game would be good to be made into a show or movie. But that is not a "game" movie. But sure, go ahead and make the content off the lore, but not the game.

Also, as an aside: do you know who was a Guardians of the Galaxy fan before Gunn's film? No one. How many issues of Thor were selling per month prior to Hemsworthification? Not a lot.

I was and am a fan of the REAL ORIGINAL Guardians of the Galaxy.....not the "weird reboot". I also read Thor.

 

[Reynard]

I guess it can be said the unrelated lore made next to the game would be good to be made into a show or movie. But that is not a "game" movie. But sure, go ahead and make the content off the lore, but not the game.

I am.not sure what distinction you are drawing here. Especially since you admitted you don't know about games. What do you think is different between these things?

I was and am a fan of the REAL ORIGINAL Guardians of the Galaxy.....not the "weird reboot". I also read Thor.

Well that changes everything.

 

[RivetGeekWil]

Well, if they are that easy to list...could you list a couple for me? I'll just copy some from the "best rpg list"

D&D:
Bubblegumshoe:
Dragon Age:
Masks:
Cyberpunk Red:
Fate:

I'll bite even though your game is getting really tiring.

• Glorantha
• Traveller's Imperium
• Earthdawn
• Shadowrun
• TORG
• The entire WoD
• Over the Edge
• In Nomine
• Kult
• Nephilim
• Underground
• Heavy Gear
• Tribe 8
• Blue Planet
• Exalted

I'll stop there, because otherwise I could go on quite a while. Each one of those has creative elements (i.e., their setting) that transcends just the rules.

You're not making the point you think you are.

 

[RivetGeekWil]

I just goggled popular RPGs as I'm not a game expert.

Wait you don't know anything about RPGs? Like I said, creative properties such as those originating from tabletop role playing games have been made successfully into entertainment and other media. And the other way around. The fact that they're games doesn't make a difference; nobody's trying to recreate the game rules in a television show, they're using the setting of the game as a backdrop for their own stories. If an order to comprehend it, you need to imagine that the authors of the screenplay or whatever are playing through the game to do so, If that helps you understand the concept then so be it. That doesn't make splitting hairs the they're not basing it "on the game" valid.