D&D General Best on screen adaptation of D&D

[Stormonu]

Hawk the Slayer made the rounds on cable pretty heavily right about the time D&D was at it's height, I believe.
(And, yes, it was pretty awful).
Even more obscure, there was a made-for-TV pilot, Fugitive from the Empire. IDK if it was trying to be D&D, but for a few years afterwards, there sure were a lot of players wanting "Heart Bows" with exploding arrows. (And, y'know, 3e finally did give us exploding arrows.)

Yep.
And, there's really two things going on here. There's things that informed and inspired D&D (or at least riffed of the same stuff), prior to D&D even hitting the shelves - like Harryhausen's 7th Voyage and Golden Voyage of Sinbad - and things that were unabashedly influenced by D&D, like Slayers or Record of Lodos War.

I have been trying to remember the name of that show for years! My brother and I were into archery at that time and many a day we’d come home to practice with our “heart bows” Against the “orcs” invading our yard.

 

[JeffB]

No doubt the Rings trilogy are the most well done Fantasy movies to choose from AFAIC, but I don't think they represent D&D so well, and thus I did not vote for them.

Conan the Destroyer is completely and totally D&D* - group of misfits hired/coerced by a patron to get the thing, journey to the Evil Wizards tower/dungeon, get the thing, patron double-crosses them, misfits realize the thing is bad, not good and the big bad evil will be released and destroy the world unless the party does something about it.

*or rather D&D is Conan, but I digress...

 

[Nebulous]

Beastmaster!

Oh wow, I didn't realize it was from Don Coscarelli, creator of the Phantasm franchise and John Dies at the End. I'm adding that to my mental Rolodex of useless trivia

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Edit which I"m ashamed of myself for totally forgetting about Lodoss War. I mean, it was literally based off of a b/x game...

Lodoss War is what people expect D&D to be like. In practice, it often ends up looking a lot more like The Slayers.

 

[OB1]

Though I grew up with and love Krull, Conan (81), Dragonslayer and Clash of the Titans (81) I'm gonna go modern for my vote. Only one was on the list, the other two I guess will be "Other"

1. The Magicians (not only the best D&D show ever made, but flat out one of the best TV shows I've ever seen)
2. The Witcher
3. The Dragon Prince

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Tony Vargas]

I have been trying to remember the name of that show for years! My brother and I were into archery at that time and many a day we’d come home to practice with our “heart bows” Against the “orcs” invading our yard.

You might be more likely to find a copy under the title "The Archer and the Sorceress."

I assume it was meant to be a pilot, but it never got the nod.

Another show from the 80s that felt D&D-ish, and had a very short run, was Wizards & Warriors. It was hilarious - intentionally, even, it was a comedy.

 

[Garthanos]

Though I grew up with and love Krull, Conan (81), Dragonslayer and Clash of the Titans (81) I'm gonna go modern for my vote. Only one was on the list, the other two I guess will be "Other"

1. The Magicians (not only the best D&D show ever made, but flat out one of the best TV shows I've ever seen)
2. The Witcher
3. The Dragon Prince

That is a solid list

 

[Ragmon]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail -'nuf said.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*