Dungeons & Dragons in E.T. (movie)

[Ariosto]

In my (perhaps inaccurate) memory of the novelization, there are pretty clear evocations of the Dungeon Masters Guide -- including a paraphrase of the observation on page 21, "Men are the worst monsters" (and implied reference to the insanity table on page 83).

Anyway, I don't really see Spielberg reaching to depict ordinary suburban kids by throwing in a scene of some unexplained esoteric activity that could only baffle audiences. Maybe most grownups would not know just what FRP was all about, but neither would they be likely to know all about (say) the New X-Men. Kids at least would recognize the game that was (iirc) getting widely advertised in comic books, though!

 

[aboyd]

I was pretty sure that I saw a copy of the Monster Manual or DMG in the original theater edition of E.T. However, I may be confusing my memories with the TV show Freaks & Geeks, which featured the books prominently. Also, one of the actors from that show used to frequent this forum quite a bit...?

 

[catsclaw227]

I was pretty sure that I saw a copy of the Monster Manual or DMG in the original theater edition of E.T. However, I may be confusing my memories with the TV show Freaks & Geeks, which featured the books prominently. Also, one of the actors from that show used to frequent this forum quite a bit...?

Really? I liked Freaks & Geeks. Which actor was a forum member?

 

[aboyd]

I don't want to say for sure, I only heard it from my DM. Never confirmed it. But I believe my DM was referring to this guy:

Stephen Lea Sheppard

He played the character who had all the 1st edition AD&D books.

EDIT: Ah! Here, I found him on rpg.net:

RPGnet Forums

So maybe he made his home there. Not sure if he came here.

EDIT EDIT: Huh. Looks like the actor actually got into authoring some 3rd party books, too. Like this one:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=1&products_id=3643&it=1

Kinda cool.

 

[frankbot5000]

The kids make fun of Elliot as "0 Charisma" which was a D&D reference. People didn't score Charisma or any other "attributes" at the time like that.

 

[embee]

The kids make fun of Elliot as "0 Charisma" which was a D&D reference. People didn't score Charisma or any other "attributes" at the time like that.

Almost 12 years... Impressive!

That's how you necro!

 

[Deset Gled]

The kids make fun of Elliot as "0 Charisma" which was a D&D reference. People didn't score Charisma or any other "attributes" at the time like that.

This phrase is possibly a D&D reference, but not necessarily. People did, in fact, score attributes before D&D. Here's a similar phrase from a 1977 concert review that's definitely NOT a D&D reference: "ABBA performed slickly...but with a zero personality"

I could be wrong, but I believe this type of speech (numerically ranking attributes) would have received a bump in popularity when the smash musical "A Chorus Line" was released with the classic song "Dance: Ten; Looks: Three" (aka. the T&A song). This would have been from 1975.

Also, nice necro.

 

[MGibster]

Not to be a pedant, but what does it mean to be in the mainstream? I would agree that in 1982, D&D was not a mainstream game. However, enough of the mainstream audience was aware of its existence that it didn't cause a whole lot of confusion in E.T.

 

[aramis erak]

In the first 20 seconds they roll dice, talk about death spells and the undead, and getting an arrow in the chest.

Even in the 80's (maybe especially in the 80's?), I suspect any of that would have been recognized as fantasy roleplaying, even if the listener didn't really understand what that actually meant. And of, as has been discussed in depth here at ENWorld, I think most people conflate "D&D" and "roleplaying games"; the two are basically synonymous in general culture.

Actually, what I doubt is that anyone at the time would have considered that it was anything other than D&D!

Haven't your D&D sessions always been like that?

It wasn't obvious to me at the time; I was in middle school. All I realized is they were playing a game. No clue which. And, not having seen it since first run, was blissfully unaware of it since... until today.

 

[billd91]

It's almost certainly a D&D-based reference. They were playing a pretty realistic (for teen boys) game of D&D in the movie, arguing about pizza and whether or not to let the younger brother play and ogling Elliott's mom (who had it goin' on long before Stacy's mom, at least relatively speaking). We caught the reference right away while watching it.