GTS 2009 D&D Seminar - the Rouse discusses D&D

[hong]

Hmm... Dungeons and Dragons... as a cartoon....

 

[Dionysos]

Hmm... Dungeons and Dragons... as a cartoon....

I have thought for some time that a new cartoon series is the best first step toward getting D&D back into mass media. I think that the horrific failure of the two movies has made the brand poison in Hollywood, such that getting that dream staff of writers, actors, director, etc is going to be impossible. For now.

Unlike in the 80s, when the original cartoon aired, cartoons are appreciated and followed by large numbers of adults as well as children. A rockin D&D cartoon aimed at teens and young adults on Cartoon Network would be brilliant. It would also neatly sidestep the problem of a live action TV series not having the budget to do the SFX in a non-cheesy way.

Once the brand got some recognition in another medium, you could go back and start worrying about making a new (good) movie. For right now, I think the big names in the film industry wouldn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole, seeing how poorly the brand has fared in recent memory.

But after a successful cartoon, potentially with merchandise, action figures, etc...some doors might open.

Easier said than done, I know. But it would be awesome, and its fun to dream.

 

[JoeGKushner]

One of the things in terms of story potential that the game lacks is support for published campaigns. This fire and forget thing puts a lot of work on... yes, the GM. Unless you're just slotting the adventurers into the game with some help from Dungoen, if you're running the forgotten Realms, the lack of print support means you're essentially home brewing on a skeleton. Stories have to take place somewhere. Coming up with NPCs, locations, background elements, unique magic items, and other things that give the campaign flavor require a lot of work. It's one of the reasons why I so enjoyed previoud incarnations of the Realms in that I could still pull out FR4, the Magister, even when running 3e. Now? Magic items are so different that even that's out.

 

[xechnao]

Sadly—for the Dungeons & Dragons brand, not in general—HBO already has a major fantasy series in the works, and is unlikely to undertake another one for the next few years:

• HBO turns 'Fire' into fantasy series - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety

—Siran Dunmorgan

Go Green Ronin!

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think that's a great idea.

On a bit of a tangent I'd have loved it if this old gem could have somehow turned into a series...

Cool cartoon, I've never seen that before!

 

[César Ayala]

Coming back a bit to another part of the thread, more RP in the adventures and books, I think that Demon Queen's Enclave it's awesome.
Lots of RP moments, and the skill challenges are very cool. The best part is that you can do things with attack rolls or skill rolls .
I mean, there are encounters that can be done talking or fighting. And there's no downside to any of them. Sometimes the players feel that if they don't kill the bad guys the "lose" some loot. It's like "okey, we avoided that dude, but man, look how shiny is that mace... sniff". But in Demon Queen's that doesn't happen (much). And that's cool, you choose a path to play in your game and you shouldn't be "punished" for it for no special reason.

Perhaps now that the first module series is coming to an end, the next one could be centered in the Feywild. This one is clearly 100% Shadowfell (and that's perfect), but if the next adventures are going to be so Shadowfellian (that's not even a word! ) people will end being tired of it.

And the Feywild has an awesome chance of TONS of RP situations. Reading the Manual of the Planes you find things like the Court of Stars, the Summer Fey, Green Fey, Winter Fey, etc. that could provide a really good background for a serie of adventures.

For example, it could start in the material plane, with a town where the people doesn't have dreams. Yeah, they sleep, but they don't dream. The PCs discover there's some kind of evil cult that steals that "dream energy". Later they discover that creatures of the Plane of Dreams (another good idea of the Manual of the Planes) are attacking the Feywild. And the players have to fight against those nightmares, they have to go to the court of stars (the city that stays 6 months here and 6 months there it's also a perfect place for some adventures), make pacts with feys, fight in battles and in the end a demon prince, the Prince of Nightmares is the mastermind behind all of it. That's only an idea, but the Feywild has more RP options than the Shadowfell (I think). And that way the artists can use some other colors I'm sure they are a bit bored of all that grey, sick green, brown and black of the Shadowfell.

 

[ChaosShard]

Hi Scott,

I scanned the thread over and didn't notice any responces to the question I have. My apologies if I missed them.

The online game table was one of the major features that my group was (and still is) looking forward to for 4th edition. Aside from my local friends who I still game with weekly, there are relatives and friends who retired from WoW that would love to play with us, but are too far away (one would have to travel from Kansas to New York, for instance.)

Is development on the game table (hopefully with built-in rules adjudication) continuing, and if not, have the folks in charge of that project considered licensing the type of software that (ex.) Fantasy Grounds produces, and tying the use of the full ruleset to a DDI subscription? Although I'm loathe to speak for others, I know my group is fine with a 2D map, so long as we can all play together.

If it was felt that a 3D viewer was needed, what about working with the folks who developed the CoH/CoV character app to tailor it for D&D?

Thanks for you time!

 

[Brown Jenkin]

For right now, I think the big names in the film industry wouldn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole, seeing how poorly the brand has fared in recent memory.

Nah, you just need to find people desperate for work. I hear Lindsey Lohan is still looking for a job.

 

[Stoat]

Hi Scott,

I scanned the thread over and didn't notice any responces to the question I have. My apologies if I missed them.

The online game table was one of the major features that my group was (and still is) looking forward to for 4th edition. Aside from my local friends who I still game with weekly, there are relatives and friends who retired from WoW that would love to play with us, but are too far away (one would have to travel from Kansas to New York, for instance.)

Is development on the game table (hopefully with built-in rules adjudication) continuing, and if not, have the folks in charge of that project considered licensing the type of software that (ex.) Fantasy Grounds produces, and tying the use of the full ruleset to a DDI subscription? Although I'm loathe to speak for others, I know my group is fine with a 2D map, so long as we can all play together.

If it was felt that a 3D viewer was needed, what about working with the folks who developed the CoH/CoV character app to tailor it for D&D?

Thanks for you time!

Let me second this question and the sentiment behind it. I play in a weekly online game. I am/was very interested in WotC's VTT, and I'd actually prefer a 2D map to a 3D map.

I don't expect Scott to give us launch dates or a lot of detail, but I think its fair to ask:

Does WotC still plan to release a VTT?

Is such a VTT under development now?

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Thirded on the VTT. I have a home party but there is another bunch of us (my old college group) that would play on VTT about once per month is WoTC provided one with all the mod cons.