D&D General Which D&D World Would Make the Best TV Show

[overgeeked]

My top picks would be Mystara/Known World and Hollow World. Al-Qadim. Dark Sun. Spelljammer/Planescape. Ravenloft. Eberron. Each has a particular draw and provides an interesting backdrop to use.

I have Doctor Who on my mind so right now the best would be a Spelljammer/Planescape science fantasy show. It would be amazing. You could easily visit the other settings as a plane/planet of the week.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Unfortunately, that's precisely why I don't think it would work as a TV show setting. The writers/producers can't capture the entirety of that campaign setting, with all of its different themes and flavors, into a single TV show and still have it resemble Eberron without it getting muddled beyond comprehension.

There is no such thing as a good setting that can be fully captured within the body of a single work.

You can tell plenty of great singular stories with great setting, but that setting will inherently fail to be fully explored--which isn't necessary for the work to be great.

A great setting has enough texture and business in it that you can mine little background characters and references, and extrapolations forever.

Saying Eberron has too much going on so it wouldn't make a good show is like saying the city of New York has too much going on to make a good setting for a TV show.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Al-Qadim could work, but the key is doing in the right way. Disney's Aladdin was my favorite Disney cartoon show.

I doubt seriously in TV a setting not updated yet to 5ed, because they have to choose what changes in the continuity are possible or necessary.

In the past I joked about a Kaladesh-Transfomer crossover.

* I wonder if Paramount has got the exclusive licence in the partnership deal. Let's imagine Warner with Birthright or Stryxhaven or a reimagined version of Pirates of the Dark Waters or Hanna-Barbera's Wildfire.

How would be My Little Pony but with ha'ponies (pony+halfling version of centaurs), and gnoats (gnome+goat centaur)?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

They were really expensive back in the day that's kinda the point.

Trek has never been super high budget. Good fantastical tv has been produced without huge budgets for decades.

Yeah, I know...that is what informs my skepticism, compared to the sorts of shows cited in the OP.

this doesn’t track, to me.

I’m saying the level of SF the achieve in some of the Star Wars TV shows is sufficient to pull off live action Eberron IMO.

Absolutely. The most recent couple shows are as visual fantastical as I’d want Eberron to be.

How do the effects in Star Wars help with the major issues Eberron would face...? The world of Star Wars is much more mundane and achievable with practical effects than the High Fantasy of Eberron could be. And what vig special effects ts there are...are mostly blank techy things.

Eberron isn’t high fantasy. Star Wars is full of “fantastical” wide shots, models of vehicles, various kinds of sets, and a really good costume dn props teams to fill the scenes with strange creatures and small detail bits that help keep the audience in the mindset of the fantastical.

There is a reason the two biggest budget productions in history are the Rings of Power and The Wheel of Time...both of which are much, much less gonzp and lower magic Settings than Eberron. It just isn't feasible without some massive cutting edge innovation...which I don't see such a project getting.

Eberron isn’t high magic. 90% of scenes would just be sets and costumes and lighting effects and stuff like the “just add water” bread from Star Wars The Force Awakens. Very minor little “magic as tech” moments no more high budget than any Trek show.

You associate an airship with the characters so that you can feature one often while reusing the same sets and wide shots, you base the characters in Sharn so you can get “fantastical” with a few wide shots heavily featuring recycled images, you build models and dioramas and other practical effects, and get a good costume department.

Like…nothing about the lightning rail requires a huge CG budget. It’s a train that hovers over its track. That’s a model and some sets and some pretty basic “add some electricity arcing for flair” effects in the exterior shots.

Unfortunately, that's precisely why I don't think it would work as a TV show setting. The writers/producers can't capture the entirety of that campaign setting, with all of its different themes and flavors, into a single TV show and still have it resemble Eberron without it getting muddled beyond comprehension.

Why would a show try to capture all of a setting? That sounds terrible for a show set in Faerun, much less Eberron. You pick a focus and a couple secondary “flavors”, and occasionally dip into or hint at or put passively in the background the rest.

I think perhaps you haven’t see all the Star Wars tv has had to offer and not considering the possible film noir approach you could take with Eberron.

No you see Eberron has to be a constant “gonzo” high magic (even tho the setting isn’t) cgi-fest or it will suck…because reasons.

And, no, I don't consider anything from Star Wars, Star Trek, or any other Sci-Fi property as being promising for a high magic Fantasy Setting. Look how many people complain about how The Rings of Power or The Wheel of Time look, and those have bigger budgets and more reaources than any Star Wars or Stsr Trek...and don't require a fraction of what Wberron done right would.

Eberron doesn’t need to be any more fantastical visually than Star Trek: Strange New Worlds or Discovery. WoT and RoP waste a lot of their budget trying to impress people rather than just tell the story.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

triple post lol

 

[Zardnaar]

Trek has never been super high budget. Good fantastical tv has been produced without huge budgets for decades.

this doesn’t track, to me.

Absolutely. The most recent couple shows are as visual fantastical as I’d want Eberron to be.

Eberron isn’t high fantasy. Star Wars is full of “fantastical” wide shots, models of vehicles, various kinds of sets, and a really good costume dn props teams to fill the scenes with strange creatures and small detail bits that help keep the audience in the mindset of the fantastical.

Eberron isn’t high magic. 90% of scenes would just be sets and costumes and lighting effects and stuff like the “just add water” bread from Star Wars The Force Awakens. Very minor little “magic as tech” moments no more high budget than any Trek show.

You associate an airship with the characters so that you can feature one often while reusing the same sets and wide shots, you base the characters in Sharn so you can get “fantastical” with a few wide shots heavily featuring recycled images, you build models and dioramas and other practical effects, and get a good costume department.

Like…nothing about the lightning rail requires a huge CG budget. It’s a train that hovers over its track. That’s a model and some sets and some pretty basic “add some electricity arcing for flair” effects in the exterior shots.

Why would a show try to capture all of a setting? That sounds terrible for a show set in Faerun, much less Eberron. You pick a focus and a couple secondary “flavors”, and occasionally dip into or hint at or put passively in the background the rest.

No you see Eberron has to be a constant “gonzo” high magic (even tho the setting isn’t) cgi-fest or it will suck…because reasons.

Eberron doesn’t need to be any more fantastical visually than Star Trek: Strange New Worlds or Discovery. WoT and RoP waste a lot of their budget trying to impress people rather than just tell the story.

TNG cost more than a million or two an episode.

Stargate was 2 million iirc, B5 was half DS9 iirc.

Adjust for inflation and not cheap.

Reality TV wen it blew up was comparatively cheap.

Shadow and Bone entire season was comparable to a single episode of RoP.

GoT season 1 was comparably cheap to the latter seasons iirc 10 million an episode approx.

MCU and Star Wars shows I've seen 200 million a season being thrown around not sure how reliable that is.

We're seeing budget blowouts on movies animated eg Mario and Spiderman are comparatively cheap.

Ravenloft is one of my least favorite settings buy has best bang for buck potential. Vampires cross over appeal, on location filming various locations, horror cheap genre to film.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Ravenloft is the best option for an action-live movie, something style "Ready or not", "Crimson Peak", "Evil Dead", "Army of Darkness" or "the invitation". It could be a horror isekai in the sense of people from our reality abducted and sent to a dark realm, within or outside the demiplane of dread. And Ravenloft also could allow crossovers with some other horror franchise.

I suspect really the key is a good plot more important than setting itself.

If FXs are too expensive, then the CGI should be the choice.

Spelljammer could allow space for parody of other sci-fi franchises, cinematographic sagas or videogames. And it can help to sell toys about fantasy vehicles.

About marketing strategy my advice is starting with miniseries and one-shot productions.

I don't advice an adaptation of "Mask of the Red Death" because at the most unexpected or inopportune moment you may face a new controversy about horrors from real History.

Does any body remember the 1997 action-live TV show Conan the Adventurer? I don't mean the cartoon.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

TNG cost more than a million or two an episode.

Stargate was 2 million iirc, B5 was half DS9 iirc.

Adjust for inflation and not cheap.

For a high quality tv show, that isn’t a high price.

Nothing about that is remotely prohibitive.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I'm speaking commercially and practically, myself.

I can imagine theoretical ways to approach Eberron: unfortunately, I think for live action those fall into being either impractical or as @CleverNickName suggests, failing to really get Eberron across properly. Like, sure, you could do an Eberron show far away from any of the zany Dragonmark Houses and various organizations, amd stsyijf away from the Last War and it'saftermsth...but then what would make it an Eberron show?

And, no, I don't consider anything from Star Wars, Star Trek, or any other Sci-Fi property as being promising for a high magic Fantasy Setting. Look how many people complain about how The Rings of Power or The Wheel of Time look, and those have bigger budgets and more reaources than any Star Wars or Stsr Trek...and don't require a fraction of what Wberron done right would.

I disagree, but it is not like my opinion matters anyway.