D&D Movie/TV There's A New Trailer For D&D: Honor Among Thieves

A brand new trailer for the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie has just been released! The movie comes out March 31st. This trailer very much highlights the tongue-in-cheek nature of the movie and is filled with one-liners. The trailer also gives us a good luck at the Red Wizards of Thay, along with the mimic, the owlbear, and other iconic D&D monsters.

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[Ruin Explorer]

But over the editions, bard spellcasting has steadily increased. A trend I do not like.

That's not really true. Bards in 2E were stronger casters than in 3.XE. 4E Bards had a lot of powerful magic, but nobody was exactly spellcasting. 5E Bards are the most powerful casters of the lot. But that's not really a trend and it's definitely not a steady increase. You can dislike it all you like, but Bards were serious casters in 2E, and acting like they weren't just suggests you didn't play with them much.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You can dislike it all you like, but Bards were serious casters in 2E, and acting like they weren't just suggests you didn't play with them much.

I guess that's true in a sense, as they used the thief progression table and thus levelled up faster than wizards. But they where locked out of the highest level spells.

But I've never played any bard much, or indeed at all. The very thought makes my flesh crawl.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Source?

If I remember correctly it was the Director Commentary Break Down of the second trailer, which was filled with all kinds of juicy info, like the name of the female Red Wizard and behind the scene stuff, that no one bothered to watch when I posted it.

It's like the director commentary you get on DVDs, but for the trailer.

 

[Parmandur]

Yes actually he is a Capital B Bard, he does Bard magic. It's just not shown in the trailers.

Do you have something to share with the class...?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The very thought makes my flesh crawl.

I've never got this deal, which is surprisingly common among Men Of A Certain Age (never, ever heard it from a female player or DM - the precise contrary in fact). It feels like it's homophobia-adjacent, but the people who are into it aren't usually homophobes though clearly some others were, given the a lot of the critical language often used about Bards in the 1990s and very early '00s was distinctly homophobic*. Is it like, being afraid of being the centre of attention? Being afraid of making a fool of yourself? Is like, coulroaphobia (fear of clowns), but like, extended out to anyone even vaguely harlequin-adjacent? Just wild stuff.

To be abundantly clear, I'm not accusing you or anyone else on this board of possessing the above fears, but I'm very weirded out by the whole thing, because this has just never made sense to me.

* = A good example of this is World of Warcraft, where the original designers very vocally opposed to Bards (something they often got asked about), and indeed created an NPC Bard who you could kill and dropped the following equipment: Piccolo of The Flaming Fire (because's he's FLAMING, see!!!), The Rainbow Girdle (I hope I don't have to explain that one), The Songbird Blouse (ooh double-feminity - songbird and blouse! Because of course we must stereotype gay men as feminine), and the Woolies of the Prancing Minstrel (the only non-homophobic one name-wise, but definitely making fun, because prancing is inherently silly - also they're short-shorts and brightly coloured to just really dig into that homophobia).

 

[Cadence]

I've never got this deal, which is surprisingly common among Men Of A Certain Age (never, ever heard it from a female player or DM - the precise contrary in fact). It feels like it's homophobia-adjacent, but the people who are into it aren't usually homophobes though clearly some were, given the a lot of the critical language often used about Bards in the 1990s was distinctly homophobic*. Is it like, being afraid of being the centre of attention? Being afraid of making a fool of yourself? Is like, coulroaphobia (fear of clowns), but like, extended out to anyone even vague harlequin-adjacent? Just wild stuff.

To be abundantly clear, I'm not accusing you or anyone else on this board of possessing the above fears, but I'm very weirded out by the whole thing, because this has just never made sense to me.

* = A good example of this is World of Warcraft, where the original designers very vocally opposed to Bards (something they often got asked about), and indeed created an NPC Bard who you could kill and dropped the following equipment: Piccolo of The Flaming Fire (because's he's FLAMING, see!!!), The Rainbow Girdle (I hope I don't have to explain that one), The Songbird Blouse (ooh double-feminity - songbird and blouse! Because of course we must stereotype gay men as feminine), and the Woolies of the Prancing Minstrel (the only non-homophobic one name-wise, but definitely making fun, because prancing is inherently silly - also they're short-shorts and brightly coloured to just really dig into that homophobia).

If one wants to make a very annoying NPC that doesn't do things that rise to the level of killing -- it feels like bards are a great choice. (Making up fake songs about the party's exploits and travelling ahead of them?).

I wonder if the creator of an early meme about bards suffered through that.

And once something is a meme, is it self perpetuating?

 

[Undrave]

And once something is a meme, is it self perpetuating?

A meme is nothing if not a cultural virus. An intrusive concept or thought that self-replicates and propagate through its hosts, mutating along the way with each transmission.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Sometimes I really hate what RPGs and pop culture have done to the bard.

It’s…not remotely a silly concept.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Sometimes I really hate what RPGs and pop culture have done to the bard.

It’s…not remotely a silly concept.

The strangest thing for me is is the idea of the Bard as lothario (or coquette). Snuck up on me from out of nowhere, and now it seems to be somehow ubiquitous.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The strangest thing for me is is the idea of the Bard as lothario (or coquette). Snuck up on me from out of nowhere, and now it seems to be somehow ubiquitous.

Yep. Like how on earth did that become the Bard’s thing rather than the Rogue’s?