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How would you remake the D&D cartoon?
- Thread starter GreatLemur
- Start date
WayneLigon
Adventurer
I'd have it done in a combination 2d/3d style with a mix of American and Japanese art styles ala Treasure Planet. Serious character designs, no face-faults, etc.
The kids are from Earth, and they are on a school trip abroad when they break away from the tour group to ditch the chaperones, and walk into an old tomb uncovered in an archeological dig. Someone touches something they should not, and zip, they are transported to another world. The first episode, they find the great prophecy in the ruined temple they find themselves in; it basically says that once they have done X, then they can depart. They each find themselves marked in a specific way.
We have:
Hank Mason, the boy you love to hate. Handsome as Apollo, captain of the football team, Eagle scout, within days of heading off to the pre-med program at Harvard. Parents bought him a Lotus Espirt as his graduation gift, etc etc etc. For all that, he's also a nice guy, too. If he were a stuck up prick at least you could hate him. Hank bears the Mark of the Hunter, giving his already impressive archery skills a boost, and opening him to the spirits of the forest. He can talk to animals, track, run through undergrowth with no problem, etc. (Ranger)
Albert Preston Ericson, the bookish nerd with some impressive science skills. Slender and handsome, he's almost fatally unsure of himself at the beginning of the show, and he undergoes probably the most dramatic change over time. Steeped in science, he finds himself bearing the Mark of The Crown, the third Great Seal, giving him power of magic. This is totally at odds to his worlview and he starts off as a little whiner, but comes into his own as a dynamic powerful character who doesn't mind using magic to get what he wants. (Sorcerer)
Dianna was going to be a lawyer, but now? Now she has the Mark of Shadows twined around her arm and has the power to go almost invisible in shadows. Always good at track and gymnastics, now she finds her physical abilities boosted to three times what they were, letting her dodge arrows and slap swords out of her way. (Monk/Rogue)
Robert was a runt, a skinny kid who was picked on all the time. Now? Now he has the Mark of the Beast, and he's grown an entire foot, plus filled out with muscles that Hank would have envied. He's also prone to murderous rages that turn him into a thing to be feared. (Barbarian).
Sheila isn't even human anymore! She's become graceful and svelte, a beautiful High Elf where before she was... rather plain and wrapped up in her own problems. She bears the precious Mark of the Star, giving her the power to heal all flesh and occassionally giving her prophetic visions. She was a selfish little brat who now finds that her primary power is to aid other people and not herself. (Cleric)
Azzarasathas, a slender woodland creature, much like a unicorn, who joins with the group when they free it from a hunter's trap. She bonds with Robert, and is the only thing that can bring him out of one of his murderous rages.
Hank is the leader, Dianna his second. They eventually become lovers, though they break up for a time when Hank is seduced by the evil sorceress Tiamat. Sheila and Al pair off as well, and they share a secret: they ain't going back to Earth and they secretly ruin the two early chances the others have of returning to their families and loved ones.
The kids are from Earth, and they are on a school trip abroad when they break away from the tour group to ditch the chaperones, and walk into an old tomb uncovered in an archeological dig. Someone touches something they should not, and zip, they are transported to another world. The first episode, they find the great prophecy in the ruined temple they find themselves in; it basically says that once they have done X, then they can depart. They each find themselves marked in a specific way.
We have:
Hank Mason, the boy you love to hate. Handsome as Apollo, captain of the football team, Eagle scout, within days of heading off to the pre-med program at Harvard. Parents bought him a Lotus Espirt as his graduation gift, etc etc etc. For all that, he's also a nice guy, too. If he were a stuck up prick at least you could hate him. Hank bears the Mark of the Hunter, giving his already impressive archery skills a boost, and opening him to the spirits of the forest. He can talk to animals, track, run through undergrowth with no problem, etc. (Ranger)
Albert Preston Ericson, the bookish nerd with some impressive science skills. Slender and handsome, he's almost fatally unsure of himself at the beginning of the show, and he undergoes probably the most dramatic change over time. Steeped in science, he finds himself bearing the Mark of The Crown, the third Great Seal, giving him power of magic. This is totally at odds to his worlview and he starts off as a little whiner, but comes into his own as a dynamic powerful character who doesn't mind using magic to get what he wants. (Sorcerer)
Dianna was going to be a lawyer, but now? Now she has the Mark of Shadows twined around her arm and has the power to go almost invisible in shadows. Always good at track and gymnastics, now she finds her physical abilities boosted to three times what they were, letting her dodge arrows and slap swords out of her way. (Monk/Rogue)
Robert was a runt, a skinny kid who was picked on all the time. Now? Now he has the Mark of the Beast, and he's grown an entire foot, plus filled out with muscles that Hank would have envied. He's also prone to murderous rages that turn him into a thing to be feared. (Barbarian).
Sheila isn't even human anymore! She's become graceful and svelte, a beautiful High Elf where before she was... rather plain and wrapped up in her own problems. She bears the precious Mark of the Star, giving her the power to heal all flesh and occassionally giving her prophetic visions. She was a selfish little brat who now finds that her primary power is to aid other people and not herself. (Cleric)
Azzarasathas, a slender woodland creature, much like a unicorn, who joins with the group when they free it from a hunter's trap. She bonds with Robert, and is the only thing that can bring him out of one of his murderous rages.
Hank is the leader, Dianna his second. They eventually become lovers, though they break up for a time when Hank is seduced by the evil sorceress Tiamat. Sheila and Al pair off as well, and they share a secret: they ain't going back to Earth and they secretly ruin the two early chances the others have of returning to their families and loved ones.
SiderisAnon
First Post
While an excellent series of books, I think that there is quite a bit of subject material in the "Warriors of the Flame" series of books that is too mature for younger viewers ... at least to mature for what I'd want them watching.Wystan said:
In general, I believe that the story would need to stay as far away from "We become our characters" or "We're sucked into the game world" as possible. There is enough bad press about D&D and gaming in general where people get too involved in their characters. (I've met some of these people. We don't want them linked with our game.)
If we are shooting to getting new blood into the game, I think the cartoon has to be aimed at the early teen years. That's who we need. They're old enough to be looking for new things, young enough not to be totally hooked into computer gaming yet, and they're likely to have the freedom to go gaming. (With kids younger, they're going to have to deal with scheduling with parents and such. With early teens, they can usually get together at a friend's house without too much hassle.)
The cartoon would have to focus on the excitement of the game world. Yes, combat is a part of that. You can get around the no killing problem by using a lot of zombies and other undead. It's okay to kill them because they're not really alive. (GI Joe had robots, and that worked well.) You can use constructs or magical creatures made of energy that just dissipate as well. The main bad guys couldn't die, just be captured and thrown in prison so that they can always be recycled when the writers want. (It worked for Batman, why not D&D?)
I think a more Indiana Jones bit where they explore lost places and other "adventure sites" in order to find the pieces of the McGuffin that they need to defeat the big bad guy and send teenager home. That brings up unlimited possibilities in location and plot. Plus they can run into people who need help along the way, plus chances to foil the big bad's plots.
To draw in the "someone from home", you could have a teenager who is somehow sucked into the D&D universe through a portal opened by the big bad guy. The main "party" rescues him or her. However, no one really knows WHY the big bad wants this teenager, which means the party wants to keep them around both to keep them safe from the big bad and to try and understand why the big bad wants them. (Which can later turn out to be a prophecy.) The teenager is joining in to go after the big bad so that they can get home, plus they are realizing that they don't want this big bad to succeed and bring ruin on all these nice people. (Who doesn't want to be a hero after all?) This also allows the big bad to do the stereotypical, "If you betray the party and help me, I promise to send you home unharmed." Heck, you could also do a show where some powerful caster who wants something the party has makes the same offer.
Having that one person not be from the world also gives you the excuse to explain things in the world to the audience. When the party explains to the teenager, the audience learns as well. "Oh, so that's how this kind of magic works. Okay."
I agree with a previous poster on having possible love interest. This pretty much means a male teenager protagonist. People seem much more comfortable with having a teenage male with a crush than a female. Plus, that allows him to get a crush at some point on some older NPC. Again, that can be perceived as cute whereas a teenager girl with a crush on an older male has too much of a chance of coming across as creepy. (Just based on my readings of how things are perceived by American audiences.)
At the end of the first season, they defeat the big bad. Teenager could go home (or maybe not) but wants to stay and keep being a hero. The option to return home would then be available again later. (Like you can come here and use this artifact when you're ready.) This gives a happy ending, but also allows the series to continue. Plus, I hate it when they just can't ever defeat the big bad.
Just my 2 cents worth.
GreatLemur
Explorer
I've been going back and forth over specifics (and the ideas here have given me more cool things to think about), but basic concept I'm considering right now is a kids-from-Earth bit with a new set of kids (five or six of them, appropriately diverse in terms of ethnicity, gender, and age, etc.) who aren't trapped in a Dungeons & Dragons world, but instead find a way to go there and back more or less as they please (probably with some hassle and limitations, though).
While in this other world, they would gain the skills and supernatural abilities of some standard PHB classes (right now, I'm thinking barbarian, druid, monk, rogue, sorcerer, and maybe bard), which they would get progressively better at using as the series progressed (no explicit "leveling up", but there'd definitely be some "Wow, I didn't know I could do that!" moments of growth under pressure). It's worth pointing out that one of the significant differences between a lot of popular anime and the kind of shows most of us grew up with is that anime (and modern, anime-influenced Western cartoon) character often grow and change over the course of a show (hell, in shows like Dragonball Z and Naruto, it's almost the whole point of the show), rather than returning to a default state at the end of every episode.
Anyway, while the bulk of the kids' abilities would be their learned skills, there would definitely be some magical items in the cartoon, with the kids finding new ones gradually (all the better to emphasize the loot-gathering element of the game). I also really like the idea of each kid getting items linked to the five D&D magic damage types: fire, cold, electricity, acid, and sonic. Each kid could have his or her own thematically-significant damage type. If there are six rather than five kids, maybe a pair of siblings would share a damage type.
The parallels to the game could be made even stronger by the kids' time in the fantasy world almost being spent under different identities. Maybe they take locally-appropriate names (Roger calls himself "Ro-Jar", and so on), and their special skills and equipment vanish when they go back to Earth. And I think their normal and fantasy outfits should be strongly color coded (Roger wears blue and black clothes, just like Ro-Jar's armor). They would, of course, be the only people from Earth (except perhaps some major antagonist) who are even aware of the fantasy world (slight shades of Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia, there).
As for just what they're doing in some dangerous other world if they can go home at any time, maybe there's some threat to both worlds over there, and they're the only ones who can fight it (maybe according to some prophecy, or just the nature of their powers).
As some folks have already noted, the biggest killjoy for action cartoons are all the watchdog groups who have kept such a tight rein on cartoon violence for the past few decades. To sidestep that issue, I'd have the protagonists wielding blunt weapons (which works pretty well with the classes I'm thinking of; even the Rogue could use a sap). Whacking and blasting people is generally okay in today's cartoons, as long as you don't cut them. Also, it'd help to have the antagonists consist primarily of skeletons, incorporeal undead, constructs, plants, oozes, and the occasional monster so big that they have to just run away instead of fighting it. Also, I'll point out that using a Druid instead of a Cleric is a deliberate move to sidestep annoying religious issues.
Oh, and for the specific fantasy world? Part of me really wants to say Eberron, since that's the quasi-official D&D setting, these days. Conventional wisdom would say it's too complicated for kids, but it's full of all manner of cool stuff (warforged, airships, dinosaur riders, etc.) that the target audience would love. Much more so than, say, Greyhawk. I ain't sold yet, though.
Lord, I am thinking way too much about this, and I've actually still got a lot more to say. I'll cut it off here, for the moment.
While in this other world, they would gain the skills and supernatural abilities of some standard PHB classes (right now, I'm thinking barbarian, druid, monk, rogue, sorcerer, and maybe bard), which they would get progressively better at using as the series progressed (no explicit "leveling up", but there'd definitely be some "Wow, I didn't know I could do that!" moments of growth under pressure). It's worth pointing out that one of the significant differences between a lot of popular anime and the kind of shows most of us grew up with is that anime (and modern, anime-influenced Western cartoon) character often grow and change over the course of a show (hell, in shows like Dragonball Z and Naruto, it's almost the whole point of the show), rather than returning to a default state at the end of every episode.
Anyway, while the bulk of the kids' abilities would be their learned skills, there would definitely be some magical items in the cartoon, with the kids finding new ones gradually (all the better to emphasize the loot-gathering element of the game). I also really like the idea of each kid getting items linked to the five D&D magic damage types: fire, cold, electricity, acid, and sonic. Each kid could have his or her own thematically-significant damage type. If there are six rather than five kids, maybe a pair of siblings would share a damage type.
The parallels to the game could be made even stronger by the kids' time in the fantasy world almost being spent under different identities. Maybe they take locally-appropriate names (Roger calls himself "Ro-Jar", and so on), and their special skills and equipment vanish when they go back to Earth. And I think their normal and fantasy outfits should be strongly color coded (Roger wears blue and black clothes, just like Ro-Jar's armor). They would, of course, be the only people from Earth (except perhaps some major antagonist) who are even aware of the fantasy world (slight shades of Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia, there).
As for just what they're doing in some dangerous other world if they can go home at any time, maybe there's some threat to both worlds over there, and they're the only ones who can fight it (maybe according to some prophecy, or just the nature of their powers).
As some folks have already noted, the biggest killjoy for action cartoons are all the watchdog groups who have kept such a tight rein on cartoon violence for the past few decades. To sidestep that issue, I'd have the protagonists wielding blunt weapons (which works pretty well with the classes I'm thinking of; even the Rogue could use a sap). Whacking and blasting people is generally okay in today's cartoons, as long as you don't cut them. Also, it'd help to have the antagonists consist primarily of skeletons, incorporeal undead, constructs, plants, oozes, and the occasional monster so big that they have to just run away instead of fighting it. Also, I'll point out that using a Druid instead of a Cleric is a deliberate move to sidestep annoying religious issues.
Oh, and for the specific fantasy world? Part of me really wants to say Eberron, since that's the quasi-official D&D setting, these days. Conventional wisdom would say it's too complicated for kids, but it's full of all manner of cool stuff (warforged, airships, dinosaur riders, etc.) that the target audience would love. Much more so than, say, Greyhawk. I ain't sold yet, though.
Lord, I am thinking way too much about this, and I've actually still got a lot more to say. I'll cut it off here, for the moment.
sniffles
First Post
I think the "transported to another world" hook is a good one that would work to draw in viewers who are otherwise unfamiliar with D&D. They could stick with that, just find a more compelling reason for the characters to be transported to this other reality.
Or maybe don't explain it at all. Then part of their "quest" could be to find out how they got there and whether it's possible to get back home.
And no useless cutesy animal companions or wizards in pointy hats!! The cartoon should take its subject matter seriously. It's possible to have a cartoon be funny without having otherwise pointless comedy relief characters.
Or maybe don't explain it at all. Then part of their "quest" could be to find out how they got there and whether it's possible to get back home.
And no useless cutesy animal companions or wizards in pointy hats!! The cartoon should take its subject matter seriously. It's possible to have a cartoon be funny without having otherwise pointless comedy relief characters.
IanB
First Post
I hate the transported from another world hook more than anything! More than cough medicine even.
So that would be the first thing I'd do away with, personally. I'd also probably do away with the characters being children. I think D&D would benefit far more from a 'Batman: The Animated Series' serious treatment than from what it got in the orignal, which I even thought was lame as a kid. I mean jeez, the cavalier guy didn't even have a *weapon*. So annoying.
So that would be the first thing I'd do away with, personally. I'd also probably do away with the characters being children. I think D&D would benefit far more from a 'Batman: The Animated Series' serious treatment than from what it got in the orignal, which I even thought was lame as a kid. I mean jeez, the cavalier guy didn't even have a *weapon*. So annoying.
GreatLemur
Explorer
LoneWolf23
First Post
Keldryn said:The most cost-effective solution: license and re-dub (with better voice actors) Record of Lodoss War and call it Dungeons & Dragons: Record of Lodoss War or something like that.
Come on, like Parn in the first few episodes doesn't just scream "I'm a first-level Fighter!!!"
Actually, Record of Lodoss War was the transcript of an actual D&D session, which was first novelized by Group SNE, and later filmed into an Anime series. The setting was actually offered to TSR back in the days, but due to the policies of senior management at the time, it was believed that the setting would not sell well and it was not purchased.
(partially lifted from Wikipedia)
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
With much rotoscoping and Ralph Bakshi. Otherwise I wouldn't change much, save perhaps 'adulting it up' a bit (dropping the 1980s broadcast television taboos against blood, mild swearing, etc). Then I'd drop it on FOX in the early evening for a single, self-contained, season.
