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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cryptos" data-source="post: 4588728" data-attributes="member: 58439">I could think of few things that would be more damaging to the hobby than to put it up on the small or big screen as-is for laypersons to try and understand and enjoy, without looking ridiculous.The diverse adventuring party, for instance.  It would take up a lot of screen time to establish what the characters are and what they can do, but then also squeezing in a compelling backstory for each, let alone why they are together would be overkill.  Identifying characters by class would just be bizarre in most cases.  (Actually, I think it's bizarre that people do it in D&D while roleplaying most of the time, too.  In setting terms if some guy weilds a sword in defense of his city, he's a guardsman, not a Fighter like the other guy that uses a sword to threaten and attack people or creatures for loot, a brigand, or one that sells his sword arm, a mercenary.  They can all be done as Fighters in D&D, but really, who among them would go around calling themselves 'Bob the Fighter' all day?)The diversity of anything D&D, really, would be a big no-no for TV or a series of movies.  All of those kitchen sink choices we have for races, classes, gods, abilities, and so forth just wouldn't work trying to condense it all down into a movie.  Why spend time explaining the difference between a cleric of Pelor vs. a cleric of Corellion to the audience if you've got a story to tell and can do it with one or just a few religions?  The things that make D&D work as a game (you can do almost anything medieval fantasy-based with it and there are a lot of choices for everything) would make it flop as a show or movie.The diversity in general would be a serious disconnect with how most people envision the time period the fantasy is based off of, in general.  Those times aren't generally known for religious or racial tolerance.  It would be jarring to most people to see a world where people run around in metal armor with horses, and hang out with the clerics of 10 different religions while chatting about their friends of 10 different races, who practice magic.  Not even real life modern people are as open-minded as the average denizen of a D&D setting.That said, you could probably get away with doing a movie or show that is a story that you could also easily emulate in a D&D campaign.  And that would probably be better for the hobby than an actual D&D movie.You would have to make sure that the writers understood they were telling a fantasy story rather than writing the narrative to an actual game session.  You'd be better off to describe the world, the characters, and in vague terms what the characters can do without the game terminology to the writers until they hit their stride.  Don't let them look at a single D&D rulebook until they've got a solid draft of the script down.No terminology.  The big guy that gets really angry and goes berserker on someone is the big berserker guy, not a Human Barbarian.  You don't call out that he's called something different than the little psychotic guy that is good with knives and stabs people.  Because it's unnecessary in terms of story.  We need that terminology while gaming because it allows us to describe what is happening.  You can just show people what is happening in a movie or TV show.All of this removes any advantage WotC would have in licensing a show... all the things that would help them advertise the game are also things that would detract from the narrative of the story.That said, it would have to be all human, perhaps one character with a hint of the otherworldly, Eladrin, Elf or Half-Elf.  Primarily martial classes, perhaps one primal, with maybe one arcane character at most.I'd look to shows like the BBC's Robin Hood to see how to do it.  And possibly look for non-D&D worlds to do it in, perhaps like the setting of the Thief computer games or an alternate history Earth (probably the best option.  The less time explaining the world, the more time to deal with character and story.)A group of human martial characters, with perhaps a druid or shaman-like pagan character, or a toned-down wizard or warlock.  That's as far as I'd push it.</blockquote>

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