Southern Oracle
Explorer
I just saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Friday night with my wife, and I’m jonesing to play D&D. Unfortunately, it being the holiday season, my players’ schedules are all full, and there’s little chance of gaming until 2013. So while I have free time, I’ll be working on evoking the feel of the movie in my games in some way, shape, or form. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m always attracted by the new “shiny,” and seeing The Hobbit has kindled a desire to launch a D&D Next playtest game in earnest. I love 4E, but something about Tolkien just feels “right” with the old school tableaux of D&D Next.
Warning! The book has been in print for 75 years, so nothing I’m going to talk about is really a spoiler, but if you want to be surprised by the imagery and cinematography of the movie, you might want to avoid reading beyond this point.
Dwarves Are Short, but Hobbits are Shorter…
The difference in size between Gandalf, the dwarves, and Bilbo was striking, and it was illustrated by their behavior. When Bilbo and the dwarves fought the trolls, they darted between their legs and nimbly dodged them time and again, reinforcing their difference in size. At one point during the battle in the goblin warrens, Bilbo curled up in a ball on the floor, and the throng of goblins and dwarves surged past him without a second thought (bonus to Hide checks). The goblins also came in different sizes, with the goblin king bigger than Gandalf, but most of the other goblins dwarf-sized or smaller. I know discussion about D&D Next has said that monsters remain a threat to characters over a greater number of levels, and instead of increasing monster stats, you’ll simply increase the number of monsters faced, but I can’t help wanting “champions” of monsters to be bigger and badder than their standard counterparts. Paizo’s new troll champion seen here is a good example, as both it and the “normal” troll in the picture are considered Large size.
...and Elves Are Really Tall
On the other end of the spectrum, the elves towered over even Gandalf when the company visited Rivendell. In flashbacks to the fall of Erebor, the elf king rode a giant elk that was bigger than the horses rode by the other elves, and the king did not look small on his mount. What little we saw of Smaug must make him a Colossal dragon, as one clawed foot covered the space of about three dwarves. And the stone giants were stunning! The mountains themselves were the stone giants…they were very much akin to the elemental titans from 4E, far beyond the power of regular adventurers to battle (and far beyond the Colossal size category).
Magic Is Rare, and the Undead Are Scary
Gandalf says there are only five wizards, making them distinct from “humans with conjuring tricks” referred to by Saruman during a conversation in Rivendell. The wizards are held in awe, but very little magic is actually demonstrated. Gandalf sends a smoke dragon to disrupt Bilbo’s smoke ring; Gandalf splits a stone in twain, letting a shaft of sunlight turn the trolls to stone; Gandalf releases a burst of light in the goblin warrens, knocking everyone down and stunning them for a few moments; Gandalf sets a pinecone on fire without using a tinderbox. That’s all the magic we see Gandalf wield in this movie. I suppose you could also count speaking with the moth about fetching the giant eagles, if you wanted. And the only magic Radagast uses is drawing the poison out of the hedgehog with the stone from his staff.
The idea of undead seems almost ludicrous to Saruman, and he flat out tells Gandalf there’s no power in Middle Earth that could raise the dead. Still, the concept cannot be completely foreign, for they have a word for such a person who can animate the dead – necromancer. Elrond and Galadriel seem afraid at such a prospect, but Saruman considers it only trickery. I found it interesting that the insubstantial ghost wielded a physical blade, and that Radagast disarmed it.
Equipment is Special
Thorin was willing to leave the sword Orcrist behind simply because it was made by elves until Gandalf told him no finer blade could ever be found. Elrond did not begrudge Thorin having the sword after he examined it. Gandalf claimed Glamdring for himself, and Bilbo’s “sword” provided warning on several occasions that goblins were near. It looks like D&D Next is taking the same approach to making magic items special, and possibly unique in many respects. I’ll admit that magic shops abound in my Planescape game, because characters need magic items to survive in 3.5E. However, I like the idea of wonderment and excitement that would accompany the discovery of a magic item in a campaign where magic was too rare to be bought or sold.
On a related point, I think Peter Jackson took a unique and innovative approach to one part of Thorin’s background – his surname. I’ve always known him as Thorin Oakenshield, but never gave much thought to “Oakenshield” until I saw the movie. The name conjured the image of a wooden shield in my mind, not an actual LOG through which the dwarf stuck his arm to block his enemy’s attacks. In the battle where everyone is rescued by the giant eagles, you see that Thorin actually had the log embellished with iron accents and dwarven runes, making it a truly unique and identifiable item even though it’s not magical.
Recurring Villains Are Cinematic Gold
Gollum, of course, is the quintessential recurring villain, stretching through The Hobbit and all three of The Lord of the Rings volumes. His youthfulness in this movie makes him almost endearing and sympathetic, especially his big blue puppy-dog eyes when he realizes his “Precious” is well and truly lost. You can see that Bilbo feels sorry for him and drops his guard a couple times. The more dimension and emotion you bring to an NPC, the more it becomes real for the players, and the harder the emotional hit when the NPC betrays or becomes killed. It might seem cheap to tug on the players’ heartstrings, but entertainment is a big part of playing D&D. Just be careful not to strike too close to home – there won’t be any children in danger in my games for a long, long time, thanks to recent events.
Azog is another character that makes a recurring appearance, pulled from Thorin’s past to make the dwarf-orc conflict more personal. The pale orc with an iron claw for a hand riding an albino worg (or “warg” in the movie/book) is a striking image that sticks in a player’s mind. Until later on in the adventure path, there aren’t really any recurring villains in the Age of Worms, but I’ve had more luck on that front with my Planescape campaign. Doctor Valran has plagued the characters since they first set foot on the planes, and Graz’zt’s agents have harried them almost as long. Since Azog wasn’t in the book, it will be interesting to see what Peter Jackson intends to do with him in the next two movies.
Realistically, I’d be an idiot to devote any resources to developing a D&D Next campaign just to capture the “feel” of The Hobbit, but emotionally it’s where my heart is moving with leaps and bounds. I love my two other campaigns, but they’ve been going on for a LONG time. It will be more work to try and make my existing games capture the feel of the movie without starting from the ground up, but as my players go and see the movie (and they will), perhaps they can actually help me in that regard.
We shall see.
Warning! The book has been in print for 75 years, so nothing I’m going to talk about is really a spoiler, but if you want to be surprised by the imagery and cinematography of the movie, you might want to avoid reading beyond this point.
Dwarves Are Short, but Hobbits are Shorter…
The difference in size between Gandalf, the dwarves, and Bilbo was striking, and it was illustrated by their behavior. When Bilbo and the dwarves fought the trolls, they darted between their legs and nimbly dodged them time and again, reinforcing their difference in size. At one point during the battle in the goblin warrens, Bilbo curled up in a ball on the floor, and the throng of goblins and dwarves surged past him without a second thought (bonus to Hide checks). The goblins also came in different sizes, with the goblin king bigger than Gandalf, but most of the other goblins dwarf-sized or smaller. I know discussion about D&D Next has said that monsters remain a threat to characters over a greater number of levels, and instead of increasing monster stats, you’ll simply increase the number of monsters faced, but I can’t help wanting “champions” of monsters to be bigger and badder than their standard counterparts. Paizo’s new troll champion seen here is a good example, as both it and the “normal” troll in the picture are considered Large size.
...and Elves Are Really Tall
On the other end of the spectrum, the elves towered over even Gandalf when the company visited Rivendell. In flashbacks to the fall of Erebor, the elf king rode a giant elk that was bigger than the horses rode by the other elves, and the king did not look small on his mount. What little we saw of Smaug must make him a Colossal dragon, as one clawed foot covered the space of about three dwarves. And the stone giants were stunning! The mountains themselves were the stone giants…they were very much akin to the elemental titans from 4E, far beyond the power of regular adventurers to battle (and far beyond the Colossal size category).
Magic Is Rare, and the Undead Are Scary
Gandalf says there are only five wizards, making them distinct from “humans with conjuring tricks” referred to by Saruman during a conversation in Rivendell. The wizards are held in awe, but very little magic is actually demonstrated. Gandalf sends a smoke dragon to disrupt Bilbo’s smoke ring; Gandalf splits a stone in twain, letting a shaft of sunlight turn the trolls to stone; Gandalf releases a burst of light in the goblin warrens, knocking everyone down and stunning them for a few moments; Gandalf sets a pinecone on fire without using a tinderbox. That’s all the magic we see Gandalf wield in this movie. I suppose you could also count speaking with the moth about fetching the giant eagles, if you wanted. And the only magic Radagast uses is drawing the poison out of the hedgehog with the stone from his staff.
The idea of undead seems almost ludicrous to Saruman, and he flat out tells Gandalf there’s no power in Middle Earth that could raise the dead. Still, the concept cannot be completely foreign, for they have a word for such a person who can animate the dead – necromancer. Elrond and Galadriel seem afraid at such a prospect, but Saruman considers it only trickery. I found it interesting that the insubstantial ghost wielded a physical blade, and that Radagast disarmed it.
Equipment is Special
Thorin was willing to leave the sword Orcrist behind simply because it was made by elves until Gandalf told him no finer blade could ever be found. Elrond did not begrudge Thorin having the sword after he examined it. Gandalf claimed Glamdring for himself, and Bilbo’s “sword” provided warning on several occasions that goblins were near. It looks like D&D Next is taking the same approach to making magic items special, and possibly unique in many respects. I’ll admit that magic shops abound in my Planescape game, because characters need magic items to survive in 3.5E. However, I like the idea of wonderment and excitement that would accompany the discovery of a magic item in a campaign where magic was too rare to be bought or sold.
On a related point, I think Peter Jackson took a unique and innovative approach to one part of Thorin’s background – his surname. I’ve always known him as Thorin Oakenshield, but never gave much thought to “Oakenshield” until I saw the movie. The name conjured the image of a wooden shield in my mind, not an actual LOG through which the dwarf stuck his arm to block his enemy’s attacks. In the battle where everyone is rescued by the giant eagles, you see that Thorin actually had the log embellished with iron accents and dwarven runes, making it a truly unique and identifiable item even though it’s not magical.
Recurring Villains Are Cinematic Gold
Gollum, of course, is the quintessential recurring villain, stretching through The Hobbit and all three of The Lord of the Rings volumes. His youthfulness in this movie makes him almost endearing and sympathetic, especially his big blue puppy-dog eyes when he realizes his “Precious” is well and truly lost. You can see that Bilbo feels sorry for him and drops his guard a couple times. The more dimension and emotion you bring to an NPC, the more it becomes real for the players, and the harder the emotional hit when the NPC betrays or becomes killed. It might seem cheap to tug on the players’ heartstrings, but entertainment is a big part of playing D&D. Just be careful not to strike too close to home – there won’t be any children in danger in my games for a long, long time, thanks to recent events.
Azog is another character that makes a recurring appearance, pulled from Thorin’s past to make the dwarf-orc conflict more personal. The pale orc with an iron claw for a hand riding an albino worg (or “warg” in the movie/book) is a striking image that sticks in a player’s mind. Until later on in the adventure path, there aren’t really any recurring villains in the Age of Worms, but I’ve had more luck on that front with my Planescape campaign. Doctor Valran has plagued the characters since they first set foot on the planes, and Graz’zt’s agents have harried them almost as long. Since Azog wasn’t in the book, it will be interesting to see what Peter Jackson intends to do with him in the next two movies.
Realistically, I’d be an idiot to devote any resources to developing a D&D Next campaign just to capture the “feel” of The Hobbit, but emotionally it’s where my heart is moving with leaps and bounds. I love my two other campaigns, but they’ve been going on for a LONG time. It will be more work to try and make my existing games capture the feel of the movie without starting from the ground up, but as my players go and see the movie (and they will), perhaps they can actually help me in that regard.
We shall see.
