RPG Documentaries: The Dungeon Masters, etc..

[jonesy]

...the guys behind something called Robot Chicken.

It's an off the wall zany crazy irreverent show on the equally wacko channel Adult Swim. Go to YouTube and check it out.

 

[jonesy]

Not quite the same thing as a documentary but something I found on Youtube that could be interesting for non-players. It's a 25 part (about four hours) film of a 4E game run by Chris Perkins.

I just noticed that there's a DM commentary for each episode as well:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdFClW2WVmI&feature=related]YouTube - DM's Commentary: D&D Robot Chicken, Part 1[/ame]

 

[DragonLancer]

Cool. I didn't notice there was a commentary for the episodes. I'll have to find the time to listen to those. Good find.

 

[jonesy]

In this thread darjr posted another Chris Perkins series:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...me-ed-greenwood-r-salvatore-larry-elmore.html

This:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy8-NNlE80A&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Celebrity D&D Game, Gen Con 2010 -- Part 1[/ame]

Now there's two. Does anyone know if he's going to be making more of them, or if there are already more? These are really good demos for everyone interested in the game. I don't even have any 4E games going now (or planned), but I find these interesting. I think he was hinting in the first series about returning to it later.

 

[nedjer]

Not quite the same thing as a documentary but something I found on Youtube that could be interesting for non-players. It's a 25 part (about four hours) film of a 4E game run by Chris Perkins for the guys behind something called Robot Chicken. I watched it all this afternoon and while some bits are dull (I think it's the time it runs) it shows a good example of D&D game play.

YouTube - D&D Robot Chicken, Part 1

Please god no, not this again And as for all that other Gandalfbeard rot about "RPGs do attract a certain crowd with all sorts of social, emotional, and physical neuroses."

Does anyone actually don a kobold costume and gather round a mock round table every week for an evening spent re-enacting their childhood 'traumas' in a surreal fantasy version of 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'?

 

[nedjer]

Ok, so I've been going over things and I have decided to outline a documentary that focuses on the good aspects of the game. Too many docs have treated it as a joke, or a closeted fetish. I'm going to take the opposite approach.

My first Gen Con will be next year. Up until then I am going to solicit:

Positive RPG and other hobby gaming stories from the community at large

I'll also look into visiting some local and nearby games (I'm in Maryland, near the PA border; could realistically drive to FLA or even Maine, or as far west as Indy)

I want to highlight:

Parents teaching kids/ bonding across generations
Social outlets
The educational pieces
Minority (non-white male 18-40) game groups.
Active attempts to buck the trends and expectations

One thing I see as a problem is to make the doc easy to digest from outsiders. I'd love to solicit an illustrator/ animator to bring a visual component to the doc, especially when explaining the basics of the game. Let's face it: RPGs are hard to explain with words alone.

I'm just putting ideas on a forum. Anyone ever tried this? Any tips? Should I contact Morrus directly? WotC? White Wolf? Skip Lipman from the Darkon doc? Sarah Palin? (puke)

On a less ranty note . . . that's a whole load of good ideas there. Perhaps the best media could be gathered with a videocam like the new Sony HD handheld. Capture enough clips of enough groups and a percentage of it will capture players enjoying key parts of play, e.g. having a laugh putting a PC together, tension writ large across players' faces, the heat of battle, glorious defeat . . .

There's also a wealth of material around on serious roleplaying around, e.g. the use of roleplaying games for training executives, medical doctors and astronauts . . .

 

[Lord Captian Tobacco]

What ever happened to, what ever happened to, what ever happened to the dolphins?

It’s surprising but no one yet has mentioned the kid who was eaten/disappeared/died in the steam tunnels under (insert name of out of state university). The media was all over this one back in the early ‘80s’ with James D. Egbert.

For the real story read The Dungeon Master by William Dear. Parts are boring but what was ignored by the news services is astounding.

Then again, maybe not…

 

[jonesy]

Please god no, not this again And as for all that other Gandalfbeard rot about "RPGs do attract a certain crowd with all sorts of social, emotional, and physical neuroses."

Does anyone actually don a kobold costume and gather round a mock round table every week for an evening spent re-enacting their childhood 'traumas' in a surreal fantasy version of 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'?

Did you just quote the the wrong thing? I didn't see anything wrong with the Robot Chicken game. I thought that was an excellent introduction.

It’s surprising but no one yet has mentioned the kid who was eaten/disappeared/died in the steam tunnels under (insert name of out of state university). The media was all over this one back in the early ‘80s’ with James D. Egbert.

That was a hoax. By the kid who 'dissappeared'.

 

[Lord Captian Tobacco]

That was the point I was trying to make. Dears' book is specifically about Egbert who was the root of all of those stories, and incidentily, the Tom Hanks movie 'Dungeons and Dragons'.

 

[S'mon]

At the two Gencon UKs I attended, AIR most of the British RPGers there were slim, clean shaven if male, reasonably attractive, and tended to dress all in black. Many would pass for hipster types (Morrus!), or at least as typical students.

I do recall that most of the American celebrity attendees tended towards the stout & bearded, though.

But really, "These people are just like us" does not make for an interesting story.