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

[Panda-s1]

aw crap, I forgot about Castlevania. like Dracula is the bbeg, he lives in a castle, and he has a bunch of lackeys that squabble constantly. also the party has a fighter, a wizard, and the powergamer who decided to use the half-vampire template and has a magical flying sword. also Dracula is his dad.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Also?

This is about movies/tv/SCREEN, not literature.

I'm not a big fan of Narnia, myself, but whatever charms the books have ... are more than the screen adaptations. IMO.

My poll inclusion of Narnia was for the movies. The literature reference was just in response to someone asking what influence Lewis had on D&D, that's all.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Maneuvering back to the subject of movies, as of right now the official D&D movies are listed among the lowest of the options:

I'd say that of the sorry lot, the second one feels the most D&D-ish. It's got an adventuring party, items, spells, and monsters identifiable as of D&D.

The first one seems to go out of its way to contradict D&D lore. If anything, it models that time you showed up at your friends house to play D&D after they told you about how awesome their homebrew was, only to be told that they had made some house-rules to "fix" D&D (anytime some random person without any published game design credit says they "fixed D&D," run far away).

The third one, well, it tried to do its thing, I guess. It kinda models a mostly-evil adventuring party, and it's got some D&D stuff in it. But it's easily the shabbiest of them.

 

[Panda-s1]

Well, I don't think Lewis was particularly big on Gygax (see appendix N) or the first wave of RPers.

Not to get into a ... thing, but Lewis and Narnia tended to be somewhat less appreciated by some in the 70s and 80s.

Which is interesting, given the outsize influence of Tolkien, but it's my recollection.

I mean, Narnia always came off as kid friendly, I'm sure explicitly so (I mean friggin' Santa Claus makes a guest appearance). Lord of the Rings definitely appeals to, uh, "mature" readers, and I'm sure better played into the culture at that time for reasons, idk I'm sure someone better explained this bit somewhere else.

fwiw growing up in the 90's I knew about Narnia and saw related media well before I knew about the Hobbit and LotR.

(anytime some random person without any published game design credit says they "fixed D&D," run far away).

idk I can think of at least one game that "fixed" D&D by people with published game design credit coughyouknowwhichgamecough

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Panda-s1]

Yeah, it was more ... that thing. Some allegories are more subtle than others, and I know that Narnia was a little much for some. At least at that time; it was more, "Tolkein is for serious gamers, grrr, and Narnia is for the little kids in Sunday School."

Not making a judgment, just remembering.

I mean even if Aslan wasn't Jesus, it's still a pretty tame story in comparison (I know it has dark bits, but still). also LotR set itself up as this long complicated journey in world full of epic myth to defeat the ultimate evil, but Narnia was like "four kids go on an isekai adventure to defeat some evil witch, also there's talking animals". the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie was the first time I actually saw anything Narnia related all the way through, and I enjoyed it but still thought it was mostly a kid's movie, which was in stark contrast with the time I went and saw the Fellowship of the Ring.

man I wanted to say that maybe Narnia does a better job of the D&D model, but idk if I can even say that. the party gets split multiple times in LotR, but it's still a way more diverse party than what was presented in Narnia.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the most D&Dish of the Narnia films (and books) as it follows an episodic encounter based quest structure, and has a more varied "party".

Also somewhat D&Dish if you filter out the religion: The Silver Chair (not filmed, but the BBC did it a while back).

 

[R_J_K75]

but last I checked it's considered one of the best depictions of playing Dungeons & Dragons in any media.

Ken Jeongs character "Brutalitops" dying instantly was great.

Has anyone ever seen the short movie "the Dungeon Master"?

 

[Sacrosanct]

It appears EN World has decided that if I wanted to watch fantasy movies that best represent what D&D is like, Willow, LoTR, and Conan the Barbarian are the way to go.

Solid choices, actually.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Not bad at all. Between the three of them, you have:

Elves
Dwarves
Rangers
Wizards
Barbarians
Fighters
Thieves
Orcs
Goblins
Halflings
Magic Rings
Magic Swords
Cloaks of Elvenkind
Fire-breathing dragons
Bal....ors
Wraiths
Treants
Raise Dead
Polymorph
Flesh to Stone
Telekinesis
Adventuring Parties

And I'm sure there's more I'm missing

It appears EN World has decided that if I wanted to watch fantasy movies that best represent what D&D is like, Willow, LoTR, and Conan the Barbarian are the way to go.

Solid choices, actually.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Not bad at all. Between the three of them, you have:

Elves
Dwarves
Rangers
Wizards
Barbarians
Fighters
Thieves
Orcs
Goblins
Halflings
Magic Rings
Magic Swords
Cloaks of Elvenkind
Fire-breathing dragons
Bal....ors
Wraiths
Trents
Raise Dead
Polymorph
Flesh to Stone
Telekinesis
Adventuring Parties

And I'm sure there's more I'm missing

Giant freaking snakes!
Evil cults
Trolls (two different kinds)
Pixies
Quite literally "kill them and take their stuff"
witches
Epic small party based battles
Heroic and wacky stunts
Sarcasm. Lots of sarcasm

 

[BookBarbarian]

It appears EN World has decided that if I wanted to watch fantasy movies that best represent what D&D is like, Willow, LoTR, and Conan the Barbarian are the way to go.

Solid choices, actually.

Wait. Did we give good advice? That can't be right.

 

[Gradine]

 

[Argyle King]

I think the foray into the cave toward the end of 13th Warrior is a pretty good depiction of how I imagine D&D.

 

[Parmandur]

Other: Guardians of the Galaxy best represents my experience of the game.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Other: Guardians of the Galaxy best represents my experience of the game.

Agree, certainly closely resembles a typical adventuring party.

 

[Baron Opal II]

Conan the Barbarian, Voyage of Sinbad (that's the one with Tom Baker as the evil wizard, right?), Hawk the Slayer, and the 13th Warrior.