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D&D Movie on The Way 184

Posted by Hemos from the will-it-be-better-then-the-cartoon dept.
A lot of people have been sending the story at Wired about Dungeons and Dragons, the movie. There's a strong emphasis on how the movie will be based on the rules systems, which seems strange to me. I'm not sure how to visually represent a number system for people - but we'll see. It should be out in October of 2000.
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D&D Movie on The Way More

D&D Movie on The Way

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  • Actually, elves are only taller than humans in the Dark Sun campaigns... in the regular D&D worlds, a male elf averages between 5'0" and 5'5".

  • While maybe the concept sounds good... I'm just afraid it will turn out to be some uber-campy mess... But then again, I tend to think that I have repressed bad memories about the dern cartoon. ;-)

    I'm also of the herd that beleives a Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance movie would be good... I mean why not use some of the uber-Matrix-effects on creating the charector Drizzt Do-Urden from the realms??? ;-)

    Hrmmm Methinks we should have another Slashdot Poll... Does Anyone here still play AD&D or D7D alot?



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    I'm to lazy to spllcheck
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  • these kinds of things always make me giggle. mostly because the big AD&D player in MY family was always my little brother - the same one that's in his second year as a Christian Ed. major. for that matter, he's also the one who plays all the "kill 'em 'n' nuke 'em" video games and listens to Metallica. it's just too bad that so many people equate Christian with being close-minded...
  • A few replies saying in essence "your GM wasn't creative enough, etc." Sorry folks. I've been GMing for twenty years in a dozen systems. The only way to get a halfway plausible, realistic or internally consistant D&D game is to ignore some of the rules, add your own, or both. This is no big deal, every halfway bright GM does that in any system. However, the story was about a movie intending to "follow the rules". I was just pointing out that if they follow the rules too closely they'll be destroying realism.

    Let's put it another way. What possible difference should it make what rules they use, or whether they use any rules at all? Take the same story line, characters, etc., but film it twice, once using D&D rules and once using RM (or RQ or anything else) rules. What kind of difference would you see? If the producers tried to stick with any sort of plausibility, there should be ZERO differences.
  • Sorry, I think since Greyhawk is the world that the entire game is based on it's probably the most popular

    As for 3rd Ed., it sounds a hell of a lot like WotC is just changing stuff in order to make it just different enough to get people to buy a new Ed.

    I mean, who wants to play a game where idiot PC's can have a Halfling Paladin/Mage/Psionicist?

    I don't.
    2nd Ed is good enough for me thank you very much :)

  • How does this get moderated to +2 as opposed to -1 (Flamebait)? Imagine if this drivel were written about some other religion. Substitute:

    Moslems, in my mind, are very often the most violent, evil people around (I'm going on the numbers here, I'd wager that almost all of the Middle Eastern terrorists aare Moslem).

    Jews, in my mind, are very often the richest people around (I'm going on the numbers here, I'd wager that a lot have money).

    It's amazing the sort of intolerance some people have. Somehow Christians are the worst people around in the minds of several of the inhabits of /. for some reason.

    Any other group, and you'd have screams, shouts and lawsuits.

  • If you want to know how that got started, there is an excellent report at The Gamer's Realm [cybercomm.net]. I highly recommend this to anyone who was told that D&D was "evil" or "satanic" in their youth.

    BTW Patricia Pulling died earlier this year IIRC.
  • After all, all D&D players are Satanists or so the radical religious zealots would have us believe. I wonder what these same folks think of Unix and Linux with it's spawning daemons, zombies, magic cookies, and the like? I wonder myself; but then I stop because I figure that the thing is, a lot of those zealots out there don't know enough about Unix and linux to know that there _are_ daemons, cookies, etc, etc...
    There are lots of Christians out there who _would_ love to see a movie like this, (re: me), and I'm all for that magic and stuff. I don't believe it's real, but I enjoy imagining it so. I realize this'll also probably get rated Flamebait, but, so be it.. it's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.
  • I do have the Silmarillion handy, and *nowhere* does it mention pointy ears, and the elves certainly did *not* interbreed with man. There were only two - Luthien and Arwen.
  • Richard O'Brian and Tom Baker!! WOOHOO! :)
    I cant wait to see this one! It doesnt matter to me if its cheesy or not... But then again, im a Rocky Horror fan and Tom Baker is my favorite doctor, so my judgement may be tainted somewhat O:)

    Check out my homepage at ralph.cx [ralph.cx]
  • Several comments have taken shots at the elf height issue, as if that were going to make or break the film. But just to be AR, here's the dope on elf altitude:

    Elf stature is based on the setting, not the game system. Therefore you find elves of different heights depending on which fantasy world you, ahem, "visit."

    Elves from Tolkein's Middle Earth are tall and wiry, and never need sleep.

    Elves from TSR's Greyhawk (the orignal setting) and Forgotten Realms are short, about 4-1/2 to 5 feet.

    The setting for the movie doesn't appear to be established, although it's TSR's policy that if you use the rules and don't explicitly declare otherwise, then you're playing in Greyhawk.

  • I LOVE me some D&D. I think all gamers have sat around and wondered about what a movie like this would be like. What actors to play the parts and what not.. I think this guy has to have had a HEINOUS campaign going on to extract a movie from it. The fun of the game comes from, IMHO, the players, and the roleplaying. To many get wrapped up in stats and dice-rolling. If they can just keep the "numbers" on the back burner, then they should do alright. Hey ..at least they'll prolly get their money back on the film. I'm definately going to see it. I'm damn curious...

    Now if ILM would jump on getting a GraphicsFest movie like Dragonlance.....man.. =]

    By the way.......Save vs. Death ;)

  • 1) Elves are short in AD&D, being 55 (male) or 50 (female) plus 1d10 inches tall. That gives a max height of 65 inches, which is 5'5". Humans have a max height of 6'8", while Dwarves have a max height of 4'5". Seven-foot Elves are from J.R.R. Tolkien, not AD&D.

    2) They certainly aren't using AD&D 2nd Edition dragons. As both 2nd Edition red and gold dragons are immune to fire, but gold dragons have a poison gas breath weapon as well, any red-gold fight between dragons of anywhere near the same size results in a scratched gold and a dead red. Furthermore, the golds have systematically chosen spells while the reds have fewer and haphazardly acquired spells, so that isn't an effective equalizer.

    In short, any massive duel between a group of Gold and Red 2nd Edtiton dragons is a rout for the golds unless massively outnumbered to start with. So these are old-D&D, 1st Edition AD&D dragons, or possibly 3rd Edition (A)D&D dragons.
  • What about Clue? That was a movie based on a board game. It was actually really funny and quite innovative (The triple ending scene. Which always gets shortened when it's on cable. Bastards).

    Anyway someone else mentioned that fantasy doesn't exactly translate well into movies. I have to agree with this (Look at Willow, UGH!), but I think that the guy making this movie has his shit wired tight. Or at least it sounds like that from the article. Basically what I saying is that I have some hope
    Sorry if this is a dupe post. Getting timeouts.

    I am a dervish of declension
    and a conjurer of conjugation, with a million hit points and maximum charisma.
    -Martin Prince (Simpsons, seemed appropriate)


    Pete

  • ok, ok you got me on that one... My first boxed set was from 1981. (Typing before thinking strikes again)
    I received the original little wirebound books as a present from a friend, they might be a reprint, but I got those around the same time.. but I would like to know if anyone has any info about the original book set, I believe there were 3?????
    Meanwhile I'll root around in my attic to find all of the modules etc... Nothing better to do this winter than get my "library of the arcane" back in order. Not only that my 10 year old Nephew is showing a shine to RPG's mayhaps I'll show him how us "old-schoolers" did it
  • How do you pull an interesting plot out of a Drag & Drop protocol? :-)
  • What about Clue?

    Doh...forget about that. That worked well, but mostly because it didn't take itself seriously, imho. Fantasy based works tend to take themselves very seriously - something which (again, imho) does a nice job of scaring non-geek types away.
    --------------------------
  • that should read "Doh...forgot about that." I really should use that preview button more often...
    --------------------------
  • Maybe I'll see my favorite kick ass ranger in this flick. You know who I'm talking about.

  • It is amazing that it has taken this long, and maybe a good thing for a movie to come out. Will always remember the cartoon on Saturday mornings, and playing the two versions of D&D for the intellivision, and of course the role playing game......Hope they do it justice.......
  • I think they could make a movie out of one of the Dragonlance novels, but I think people ought to make note of the Dragonlance novels, the authors didn't follow the "rules" of D&D. A signifigant number of the rules were changed for Dragonlance, and the entire halfling race was eliminated and replaced by the kender, gnomes were changed, etc. This was done so that the stories in the novels would be unique and original compared to other offerings in other fantasy novels. If they had gone "straight D&D" with the Dragonlance novels, I think people would've been irritated by the fact that there was so much Tolkien influence in the stories. Now, the fact that they are making a Lord of the Rings movie (a new one) means that any D&D movie will run into problems if it tries to follow straight D&D. i.e. Humans, dwarves, elves, "halflings" (hobbits) all hanging out together fighting orcs, goblins, ogres, and the like. (I don't think D&D tried to rip off Tolkien, btw. I think D&D was intended to be a game where you could recreate the character types and locales from your favorite fantasy stories or come up with something completely original. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with the derivative nature of much that is in D&D.)

    I think that the movie should be based on one of the Dragonlance novels, not on the game, it would make a lot more sense. Of course, for all I know, that's what they are actually doing.

    Of course, for me, the best D&D movie will always be Army of Darkness. There's a movie that captures the spirit of actually playing D&D, I think. Though I like the serious, dramatic stuff in the Dragonlance novels, it's not like playing real D&D and having your party-mates try to feed you to a gelatonous cube because you're the weakest character (and thus can fight back the least) and they hope it'll distract the cube long enough for them to escape. Sigh... I miss those good times....

    Hmm... if their making a movie like that, that could be cool, too. I don't have high hopes for the movie though.

  • As long as the Cavalier doesn't just carry around a magic shield and whine a lot, I'll be a happy camper. :)
    Why couldn't he just pick up a sword? Jesus Man!

  • Like most (all?) other mentions of D&D, there was no mention here of Dave Arneson. Remember him?
    He was the co-author of the original three D&D books. And Blackmoor, which I thought was a waste
    of $5...
    The story I heard was that Gygax was a major prick and cheated Arneson, then changed the name to AD&D.
    Then, of course, he published the monster handbook, player handbook, and the DM guide. Does
    anyone remember what REALLY happened back then?
    (Yes, I remember Hargrave, too :-)
  • In the old blue book Basic Set, Dwarves and Elves were classes if I remember right. (It's at my parents house so I don't have it handy.) I actually regret that I didn't get into TSRs alternate Basic, Advanced... Immortal D&D series that existed concurrently with AD&D. Of course, by then I was busily collecting all the supplements to Chaosiums Call of Cthuhlu, as well as AD&D modules, books, etc.. (and later Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, and on and on...), so I didn't have the money to spare.

    I think the rational for making Dwarves and Elves classes in the blue book was to simplify things. Dwarves and Elves, I guess, just had the same basic abilities all the time, rather than being a factor which would work into modifying character classes abilities. I don't know how they worked in the upper level D&D books because I only got the blue book (and later the red book sets after my brother wrote all over my blue book) and then moved straight into the AD&D books with the cool, demonic looking covers (that was before TSR became PC). I remember being infuriated when people would say that it was a devil on the cover of the Dungeon Masters guide, and I would exasperatedly try to explain to them it was an Efreet ("Look, see, there's the City of Brass on the back cover.") but no one would ever listen....

    Actually, I think the girl the Efreet was holding was wearing one of those and +5(AC 0) Chainmail Bikini's of Cleavage you were talking about...

  • I read about this in my newspaper this morning, and kinda thought it was odd having a 6-foot 4-inch tall elf King|Lord|Baron|Leader|whatever...but it'd be nice if they made this movie the way that the X-Files movie and the Star Trek movies were made...so you can watch it even if you don't have much knowledge of the game (or, in the X-Files/Star Trek case, the TV series). I think that a well-done mass appeal would be great, but I won't hold my breath.

    **(this may be a duplicate post, since it timed-out, then I had to go back and hit submit again..sorry)

    Dan

  • This is seriously silly (Score:3)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <imipak AT yahoo DOT com> on Monday October 04, 1999 @07:40AM (#1639733) Homepage Journal
    I bet the movie fails it's saving throw against critics (same as for gorgons, I believe). I don't trust any existing movie company to be competent enough to make a D&D (or AD&D) movie that reflects the game in any way, whatsoever.

    (Personally, my favourite AD&D memories were of seriously strange things. I came up with Duodimension Others, which turns anything two dimensional. I had a pad of A4 boulders, which came in handy, especially with antimagical creatures. Another fond memory was the pump-action Wand of Wonder, with an automatic setting. Lastly, there was the modified Unseen Servent, which could cast 3 spells a day - one to generate another Unseen Servent, one to Create Tower, and one to Create Astral Gateway. Anyone spell "Infinite Loop"?)

  • Being a former AD&D player, I think this movie could have potential, especially with the latest special effects out now. However, what I'm afraid of is even if they try to stay true to the D&D rules, it may not come out as many hardcore D&D fans expect.

    I will definitely see this movie when it comes out, but I will expect the worst. Bad acting, actors non-fitting to the movie, and worst of all, changes from the actual books that will make this movie a flop.

    Every movie to date (that I can recall) where a director takes an idea from book and make it a movie is not true to the book. I feel bad to say that I believe this movie will only be a slew of eyecandy and nothing more.

    They should've made this movie a couple years ago, when I still played AD&D. I would've had more appreciation for this idea.
  • Does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?

    I like AD&D and fantasy novels primarily because they allow me to use my imagination. While I was blown away by the Matrix, I don't think this film will have the same effect. I'd imagine that my concept of a transforming or protecting type spell is quite different from the film makers.

    When I used to play D&D, what mattered to me was that it was part of a greater social context, not a "who can cast the best spell" kind of thing. I wonder whether the film will be able to capture the interaction between the characters that made playing so much fun.

    Post-Matrix... I hope the director doesn't go for a wachowski (sp?) clone. While a full on acrobatic/martial arts fantasy battle would be cool, it could so easily look very, very cheesy. And remember, we're going to be inundated by Matrix clones over the next year or so. (I have a bad feeling about X-Men degenerating into something like this)

    Ah well, I hope the director really surprises me. Deep down I want this film to make me drool like a 1 month old baby...
  • It's not based on Forgotten Realms. As much as I'd like to see Drizzt also, he won't be in it. First of all, there's no actors that could match the way Drizzt was described to us by R.A. Salvatore.

    The movie itself will probably consist of some ordinary adventurers fighting some lame-named enemy.
  • I don't think it'll be a problem with the producers being off the mark, the wired article made it sound like they had put in a lot of work. I'm worried about the return of the Christian anti-D&D backlash. I can't count how many times I've been told D&D's a satanic, evil game, simply because it makes kids imagine...


    The Good Reverend
  • OK, I'm now entering Valhalla....
    First I hear about Z80 processors making a "comeback" which makes me pine over the lost days of yore playing Zork,
    Then for my BDay I get Baldur's Gate... excellent :)
    Then I hear about Middle-Earth going to produce an online Game based on M.E.R.P. just getting better :)
    Then I hear the Followup regarding a Movie about LoTR WOW!, can this get any better???
    Yes It Does... This Movie should prove to be an Excellent waste of time/money for me (note.. use of the word Excellent is deliberately being overused to show what a child of the 80's I am :))
    Now I guess It's time to dust off the costumes and dice, get ahold of the old gang, do a massive campaigning weekend.
    Oh can it be any better for an old Gamer/Geek
    (BTW I STILL have my 1st edition Greyhawk and Blackmoor books from 1981...Not to mention a bunch of other books... Now If I can only find them :))
    Happy Happy
    Joy,Joy
  • Except that the one-minute ADnD combat round is abstract, meaning that it represents the ebb and flow of battle, slashes, cuts and parries. IDHTBIFOM, but that's pretty much how the DMG and PHB describe it.

    Of course, they could just be going with the 6-second combat round from the Player's Option books.

    Also, higher level fighters get more than one attack per round :P

  • Except that the one-minute ADnD combat round is abstract, meaning that it represents the ebb and flow of battle, slashes, cuts and parries. IDHTBIFOM, but that's pretty much how the DMG and PHB describe it.

    Of course, they could just be going with the 6-second combat round from the Player's Option books. :P

  • No, you got it all wrong.

    D&D is Dungeons and Dragons
    DnD is Drag 'n Drop
  • Nonono, who cares about 6'4" elves. Have you ever seen Tom Baker? He's PERFECT as an elf, even has some of the mannerisms.

    Go watch some of the older Doctor Who shows -- Tom played the fourth Doctor, just so you know as to the time frame -- short curly hair, wild looking eyes, and an impish grin. Perfect for an elf, I say!
  • Now wait a sec. Noldor elves *do* have pointy ears, as do dark elves.

    (Anyone have the Silmarillian handy to back me up, here??)

    IIRC, the high elves (Firstborn, Noldor, whathaveyou) were given stature, robustness, and, yes, pointy ears. Feanor and his house had them, however, after the (dammit! What was the official name for it?!?) kinstrife, these qualities were lost as his tribe interbred with Man.

    Ug. Time to re-read Tolkien again (for the bazillionth time).

  • So, will they be incorporating the crit hit tables as well? And the 10d6 max fireball damage that any decent 8-9th level Fighter can shrug off?

    I will admit, this is an interesting tidbit considering that Hasbro(?) purchased WotC who, in turn, owns D&D.

    Weird.

    -Vel

    P.S. New Tolkien movie on the way too...
  • Oh, was that you? Sorry about that, but don't steal gold from a fighter mage with eyes that change color ;-)

  • TSR was bought by WotC, which in turn was recently bought by Hasbro, inc.

    Hasbro is the Proctor and Gamble of gaming. I just can't wait for D&D Monopoly.
  • Well... Ok, I'm stumped. I didn't know that! There aren't any mention in the LotR trilogy that Elves have pointy ears. I always saw it as a pure creation of the D&D crowd.

    "There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."

  • Some anonymous coward dun said about Deedlit an' Pirotess:

    These two being from Lodoss War, of course, which is what this movie would probably like to be.

    It's funny you should mention Record of Lodoss War in relation to this thread. :)

    Not many people know the anime "Record of Lodoss War" is actually based off of a Japanese RPG of the same name. So the story goes, the creator of the game spent some time overseas in the States and was introduced to one of the early versions of Dungeons and Dragons; he enjoyed it so much that when he went back to Japan he created a fantasy roleplaying game that was roughly based on D&D (enough is different TSR/WoTC/Hasbro/whatever won't be suing them anytime soon--if they did, they'd also have to sue FASA for Earthdawn :).

    Apparently the Lodoss War game became quite popular in Japan, seeing as it was the first pencil-and-paper RPG sold there...obviously popular enough that several anime series have been done off it.

    So, then, Record of Lodoss War is, in a roundabout way, a Dungeons and Dragons anime. :)

  • Frater219 dun said:

    If you want to see a Dungeons-&-Dragons-like show with some actual plot and no Yoda-oid floating deus-ex-machina, may I recommend the anime series Slayers?

    *chuckle* What's funny...nearly everyone I game with (I'll state now my gaming circle tends to be comprised entirely of otaku; those of us who have seen Vision of Escaflowne are very hard at work addicting those few of us who haven't :) is quite convinced that Slayers in general is based off someone's D&D or Lodoss War game that went terribly, terribly wrong. :) (Yes, I mention the latter because Record of Lodoss War was based off a Japanese roleplaying game of the same name that was directly inspired by D&D. See previous post. :)

    We are especially inclined to think Slayers is based off of D&D/Lodoss games gone horribly wrong because, for some reason, EVERY roleplay game we're in--especially D&D or anything involving human and/or elven mages--WILL eventually devolve into something bearing a remarkable resemblance to a Slayers episode. (Example--in a Shadowrun game I am in, one of the mages cast Accident to cause a delay for us to get to someone we were supposed to capture...the Accident spell ended up causing an airplane to crash into a bus full of nuns and schoolchildren, causing a traffic jam that pretty much caused all traffic in Tacoma to stop...I am not mentioning the name of the mage who did this, because the person who played her WILL probably hunt me down and kill me. :)

    The Slayers reference is also especially funny to me for another reason. My husband was creating a half-elven paladin for a D&D game we're in...he was planning to base the character off Folken in Escaflowne (for those who have not yet seen it--and you are poor, poor, POOR deprived children and must correct this Right Now, and no, you don't have to hunt for fandubs; you can go right down the local Suncoast or Anime Nation [animenation.com] and get it--Folken is a rather dark badass).

    He rolls the dice. What he ended up with bears FAR, FAR more of a resemblance to none other than Gourry Gabriev (blonde, strong as an ox, and has the rough Int of an ox too...Str: 25. Int: 9). :)

    I guess it could've been worse, though...he could've ended up with Dilandau... :)

  • I bet the ratio of people who had sex before their 20's will be insanely low in that theatre...

    Hey... I got laid more in my teens than I do now. *sigh*

    Actually, my first two girlfriends were both D&D players. The first introduced me to the game, then left for college. I met the second some time thereafter when she joined our group.

    Ah, memories...

    --
    A host is a host from coast to coast...

  • I'm one of those that believes is virtually impossible to do fantasy well on film

    Hrm, I think The 13th Warrior [go.com] looks pretty good. Michael Crichton, despite spending too long on the played out ER, is a frist rate director.

    Then there's The Lord Of The Rings [lordoftherings.net] Movie comming out god knows when, but it looks excellent. According to Imladris [lordoftheringsmovie.com] They are considering casting Uma Thurman as Eowyn and Cate Blanchett as Galadriel (yummy).

    I think we'll start seeing high quality Fantasy Movies due to the successes of syndicated TV shows such as Xena... What has been missing in the past was high quality CGI and money. You need the computer generated images for the special effects, and the money to spend on A Movie actors and directors.

  • ...and I had all four sets of Basic series books, although I seem to remember the Master and Immortal sets being more important for campaigning (But the concept of a planet as an NPC class was awesome).

    I suppose they did simplify, but that's missing a huge point: the different races have civilizations of their own, hence their own classes,etc...but it leads me to one more thing I'd like to see in an AD&D movie:

    A dwarven thief fumbling around trying to pick a lock. :)

    _____________________
  • D&D elves (can't say much for AD&D, I still have my 1979 edition DM's Manual thou :) have less hit points than humans, and this can only be attributed to being smaller/shorter. I think Gary Gygax [gygax.com] had balance in mind when he made D&D elves physically weaker than humans... why play a human when there are no physical advantages over higher intelligence classes like elves?

    Tolkien on the other hand had no such balance issues to contend with, as he was not creating a game but a fictional universe :)

  • So TSR didn't want to go ahead with anything but a quality product! HA! HA! HA!

    Obviously they weren't thinking of quality product when they authorised that D&D cartoon a few years ago.

    As a role-game-player all I ever got was .. "oh you do that game like they show in the cartoons on Saturday morning Kids Hour. grin."

  • Grunts, by M Gentley

    would make a funny movie too. features such gems as: They're not history, they're FIELDRATIONS!

    //rdj
  • But not before marriage.
  • ...that they will stay true to the game's background and not make stuff up like what happened to the now-deceased Kindred:The Embraced 90210-spoof.
  • While I think a movie that is well done may be cool, I see little if any point to actually doing a movie on this. Syndicated Television has been inundated with hour-long action / adventure shows with a band of adventurers in a fantasy setting.
    Hercules, Xena, Sinbad, Robin Hood, Conan, heck, even Mystic Warriors of Tyr-na-Nog. All of these shows have reasonable special effects, though the acting and plots may occasionally leave something to be desired. But that's to be expected...it is syndicated TV after all :)

    Anyways, the above shows have been in the public's eye for quite some time, and the D&D movie will need to compete against those preconcieved ideas. So they are either going to have to bust out the special effects in ways that we haven't seen before (and we've seen a lot of beasties on TV) or make the story that much more epic and sweeping (more along the lines of Braveheart).

    My biggest concern is this: with a few exceptions, most of the TSR D&D novels have been the fantasy equivalent of a Harleguin romance or Mack Bolan: Executioner book: quick, formulaic pablum. Anything that they put out is really goiong to have to fight against this tendency to get over with the general movie-going public.

    I think Hasbro -> WotC -> TSR might be better served by going the episodic TV route as well. A rotating cast of characters, with interweaving plot-lines, may actually serve them well in the long run.
  • Already in production is a "Lord of the Rings", almost certainly with the full Tolkienian treatment and a lavish production. Probably a must-see.

    Then there's the D&D Tolkienian treatment, which is based on an amalgamation of "the Hobbit", "the Lord of the Rings" and a jumble of greek and norse mythologies. Anything the D&D writers couldn't figure out (like elf heights or actual lifespans, since they apparently skipped "the Silmarillion") they simply made up based on their imaginations.

    The result is a good game that's inspired countless computer/console clones, but I have serious doubts as to how well it'll survive a big-screen treatment. Good games make for terrible drama. (I didn't care at all for the whole Dragonlance series..ick) I'm afraid it'll wind up looking like a sorry parody of "the Lord of the Rings".

    But hopefully we're behind that whole "D&D is the work of satan!" hysteria, inspired in part by "60 Minutes" hack journalism.

  • I once knew a Satanist who told me that he liked playing AD&D because of all of the Satanic references. I never played it myself (giant robots are more my fare) so maybe he was just trying to seem more evil or something.
  • "Elves from Tolkein's Middle Earth are tall and wiry, and never need sleep."

    Hrmmm....ummm...close.

    Remember Legolas? He sat and sang to himself quietly for about two hours a night. Not humanesque sleep, but I think it fits the bill...

  • I personally think it'd be really neat to have a movie that's different. Otherwise, we could just go watch Conan again or something.

    Imagine if the characters all had little HP meters floating beside them.... :)

    Actually, this is starting to remind me of this TV show I saw a while ago with fake Mortal Kombat-esque fighting where the fighters actually did have HP bars at the top of the TV screen. Forget what it was called.
  • I just hope Ignatz will be in there...

  • I think they changed the "Official" AD&D world to Forgotten Realms in 2nd edition.
    %japh = (
    'name' => 'Niklas Nordebo', 'mail' => 'niklas@nordebo.com',
    'work' => 'www.pipe-dd.com', 'phone' => '+46-708-444705'
  • So when do they make the film version of Bored of the Rings? :->

    Semi-seriously though, this is a work dying to have Terry Gilliam direct it!

    "Scoff not at the Great White Wizard, for I have many powers! Here, pick a card, any card..."
    - Goodgulf Greyteeth
  • I would be that you're a programmer now, right? If not you should be, that kind of attention to detail is what makes great software.

    LOL Actually an embedded systems designer, so yeah I guess programming is part of the job. :-)
  • Wow...they can do a series of movies for each of:

    Dragon Lance
    Forgotten Realms
    Ravenloft
    Dark Sun
    -generic ad&d-

    They could even use Dungeon Master magazine scenerios to make a tv show out of. Cool.
  • The DM makes the final decision on those things. A DM may very well decide that a theif will not progress significantly without experience pickpocketing. Some of the things you list do make sense. A more experienced soldier probably could fall from a greater height without dying than an unexperienced one, although this should probably have more to do with dexterity, not experience. I would say robin hood was more of a fighter who stole, than a theif. He didn't go around picking pockets for a living.

    Some things are really flawed. Like the magic system. And abilities not improving. And humans only being able to be one class at a time.
  • Quite frankly...the Good Reverend makes a fine point. Most of the war mongers that run the armed forces in the US are indeed christians. So....how's that bashing anybody? Besides, in anyone deserves a little persecution...I'd wager it's the Xtians. Bring on the apocalypse...MF!

  • It's funny, being an European I use the metric system and I thought that 6' was too short for an Elf (I was basing their usual height on Tolkien) and that was because that actor was too short that he was standing up when in fact it was because he was too tall. Funny isn't it?

    How much meters does 6' do? 1,90 or something like that?
  • Actually, FR is the "official" world at the moment. Greyhawk isn't even in publication anymore last I checked (tho WotC said they were gonna res it). Go to a gaming store and take a look. Most of what you will find is the FR boxed set, faiths & avatars (FR), demihuman deities (FR), powers & pantheons (FR), etc. I don't even think the Dragonlance sets are in publication anymore.

    3rd edition, as I understand it, is going to work in much of the Skill & Powers/Combat & Tactics/Spells & Magic rules from 2nd edition, and move the default world back to Greyhawk. They haven't released much info on it thusfar unfortunatly.
  • I have to agree with this (Look at Willow, UGH!)

    What was wrong with Willow?
  • I may be wrong on this (If I was at home with my trusty bookshelf of AD&D manuals within reach, I could confirm...) but I think the big confusion over the height of elves in the D&D universe is that in the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance worlds (made by TSR, based off of D&D), Elves are as tall or taller than humans. Yet in the original D&D manuals and books (as well as the AD&D rulebooks, I imagine) they list elven height as being generally much shorter than humans.

    A lot of readers of "D&D fiction" , ie, Dragonlance and FR (yes, there are more worlds than that, but they are the most popular 2 D&D universes) think of the elves from these works of fiction (and the numerous and beautiful artwork that can be found for them) when they think of elves.

    I'm pretty sure thats where the confusion over the height of elves comes in. Does anyone have any manuals handy they can check out to confirm? (I'll have to investigate after my workday ends.....)

    And I dont know about other AD&D fans, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the AD&D 3rd edition rulebooks comeout, I'm interested to see how they revise the rules-sets this time around. Especially since NeverWinter Nights [neverwinternights.com] will be using this ruleset.
    --
    Chris Warden
    Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards for you are Crunchy and taste good with Ketchup.
  • Uhhh...no. Elves are short...about 4-5 feet tall on average.
  • There's a strong emphasis on how the movie will be based on the rules systems, which seems strange to me. I'm not sure how to visually represent a number system for people - but we'll see.
    I'm not sure they mean the actual dice rolling, just the feel of the game. (Although, it would be an interesting device to intersperse the fantasy parts of the movie with a bunch of D&Ders sitting around the kitchen table and (role)playing the movie. If done well, that could be really interesting. Are they creating the fantasy world by playing it? Is it coincidence? Are all the D&D games ever played replicated in an infinite variety of alternate universes? (Yes, I know, lots has been written on that subject.))

    The feel of a typical D&D game is different from most other fantasy games, and very different from any fantasy books published before 1980. Think about how magic items are used and how some classes are limited in which ones they can use and even carry. Can you think of a way to realistically portray the initiative system in a movie? (You're surprised - for 10 seconds you do absolutely nothing while this guy runs up to you and hits you and (rolling a 1 for damage) nicks you on the pinky.) (Is it 10 seconds? How long is a round, anyway?)

    Things I would like to see portrayed in a movie:
    10. Portable hole
    9. Hammer of Thunderbolts (with a Gauntlet and Girdle)
    8. Sphere of Annihilation
    7. Hand and Eye of Vecna
    6. Any of the Cthulhu mythos gods from the original 'Deities and Demigods'
    5. A 17th level monk falling 1 mile and taking no damage (I meant to do that!)
    4. Prismatic Sphere
    3. Vecna coming back for his missing parts
    2. Breaking a Staff of the Magi in half
    1. Two Words: Meteor Swarm

    This could be really cool. Take all the best parts from: The Sword and the Sorcerer; Hawk the Slayer; Fineous Fingers; Old Sinbad movies; Dragonslayer; Excalibur; Krull; Willow; (and many others). Mix in some of the latest special effects and you could have a really bitchin' movie.

    Hope they get a good script.

  • You are making the assumption that the dragons would just square off and attack eachother. If you ever see that happen, you can be pretty sure that they aren't really dragons.

    Dragons are *extremely* smart, and that tends to mean that they pre-plan things. This would even things out a *lot* in a fight between red and gold dragons, although I would still expect the gold dragons to win. (Red Dragons have a tendancy to be stupid-evil, a condition in which the evilness of an intelegent being counteracts that being's intellegence)

  • Re:Bring Back the Cartoon! (Score:3)

    by Frater 219 ( 1455 ) on Monday October 04, 1999 @10:17AM (#1639786) Journal
    If you want to see a Dungeons-&-Dragons-like show with some actual plot and no Yoda-oid floating deus-ex-machina, may I recommend the anime series Slayers [inverse.org]?

    Wizards, fighters, goblins, incantations, elves, demons (well, mazoku ... same thing), magic shops, trolls, dragons, dragon gods ... what else do you want? :)
  • Well now I'm Thorougly disgusted with Sierra...
    First they trash "The Realm" which was my introduction to graphical online adventure gaming
    I checked it out for a year, then trashed it after I heard they sold it out to WON and Conan (the lead programmer) had a bunch of problems with the new management.
    (But I WAS able to get it to run on Wine)
    Now this?
    I used to troll through the discussion groups at middle-earth.com and thought that it was going to be a wonderful game, especially after they were taking consideration from tolkien-philes like myself to help with the game design.
    Oh well, another great idea shot to shit.
    At least Neverwinter Nights is still in production, and I believe they are still planning on porting it directly to Linux
    At least I hope this will remain true

  • ...since they apparently skipped "the Silmarillion"...

    In all fairness to Gygax, the game predates the publication of "The Silmarillion" which I believe didn't actually get out to the world until about 1977. TSR can't be blamed for conflicting there (although perhaps they should have "fixed" it in 2nd Edition AD&D).

    But hopefully we're behind that whole "D&D is the work of satan!" hysteria, inspired in part by "60 Minutes" hack journalism.

    I can guarantee you that we're not beyond that type of hysteria, it's just that D&D isn't the current focus of it. If this movie and LotR succeed, and RPGs regain popularity, all the old attacks from the usual suspects will resume in full force.


    ---
    Have a Sloppy day!
  • Except for one problem: D&D doesn't have a movie to stand on that was already good. Sure, it has a crowd of roleplaying fans, but any group can tell you you need more than this. Look at Star Trek. It was having a hard time getting outside audiences (besides fans) to see the movies until the last one. And that was killing Paramount. Everyone loves Star Wars. Star Wars already had 3 very good movies behind it, so as one person said (here on /. I believe), it wouldn't matter if it was George Lucas's butt for 2 hours, it was still going to break records. This message is WAY off topic, but I just had to say something.
  • I must say that I know nothing of D&D, but I do understand the personality of the majority of people who play imaginitive role playing games. One of the strengths of introversion is a vivid and active imagination. However, this colorful imagination often leads to disappointment for the introvert because very few things will ever be as great as they imagine them. Whether it be the first sexual experience after dreaming about sex for 16 years, seeing a movie after reading the book, or watching a movie based on one's favorite RPG, the results are often disapointing. For those who do not have such an active imagination, doing something for the first time will often be better than they have ever imagined -but only because it is-

    ap

  • Ahhh, a classic. Remember this one, with Tom Hanks as the kid who goes crazy playing D&D and runs around the subways of New York? I remember that live D&D in the fields around our school became big after that (hey, we didn't have many caves to play in, just really tall swamp grass). And who was that kid who whined about only being into computers because he wanted to write videogames? I distinctly remember walking from my room to my parents' room, where they were watching the same thing, and saying "SEE!?!"
  • You've obviously never tried to properly played 'proper'. An incredible roll doesn't mean you sat there and 'took it'. It means you managed to survive by some chance of fate.. You managed to duck a behind a rock, etc..etc..
  • Details over at Steve Jackson Games [sjgames.com] in the December 6th, 1996 entry of the Illuminator [sjgames.com]. Perhaps one of the funniest AD&D references I've seen (the funniest being a column about old-time RPGs vs. the newer ones [rpg.net]).


    -S. Louie
  • The way I see it, while D&D has the most name recognition of the various P&P RPGs, it's going to be very difficult to get right - especially if there's such a great emphasis on being accurate down to the rolls, which is what seems to be implied. Fantasy is difficult to do without appearing very cheesy, which will likely work against it.

    Personally, I'd much rather like to see a good Shadowrun movie, and I think that if a D&D and Shadowrun movie were both made and of equal quality, the SR movie would fare better at the box-office - just because there's more of a market for futuristic, sci-fi type movies.

    I mean, who wouldn't want to see a team of Runners head into Chicago, or raid some corp's headquarters? And there's just more of that "Whoa, that was cool!" factor, IMO - I'd love to see a well-done monofilament whip action sequence.

    But that's just my opinion. I'm sure the D&D movie will make decent money from the geek segment, but probably not do well enough at the box office to change pre-concieved notions or start a new Hollywood trend.

  • It's not impossible to do good fantasy in film -- just very, very difficult. The better Disney animated pictures come immediately to mind -- I'm thinking of Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, the Little Mermaid here -- as does "Ladyhawke" of a number of years ago. These two, however, are quite unusual. Ladyhawke didn't rely on huge, impressive special effects -- just a few camera tricks to suggest the human-to-hawk and human-to-wolf transformations. And of course animation is a genre well suited to fantasy, because if you can imagine it and draw it, you can put it into a movie.

    I also think it's difficult to do science fiction well in film, or at least it historically has been. Most of the reason is that producers and studios tend to equate "science fiction" with zap guns and flying saucers -- the kind of science fiction real SF fans deride as "sci-fi." In the best SF and fantasy movies, as in all movies (and indeed, all literature) the characters come first. That doesn't mean a movie with cardboard characters, predictable plots and dumbed-down dialogue can't be fun to watch -- it just means it isn't good SF.

    This is the first I've heard of a D&D movie, but if I were to guess I would say it will probably rank right up there with "Masters of the Universe" and "Mortal Kombat", evoking Dorothy Parker's immortal phrase, "it fills a much-needed void in the genre."
    --
  • A 10th level fighter gets hit with same, but his experience allows him to twist aside or whatever and takes less damage.

    This makes sense right up to the point that a 1st level fighter falling off a 100' cliff dies and leaves a mess, whereas your 10th level fighter dusts himself off and continues on his way. If you can explain how experience trumps gravity, I'll be impressed.

    Bottom line: D&D wasn't made to make sense, it was made to have fun with. Which I think it's managed quite admirably.
  • . . .(for those who have not yet seen
    it--and you are poor, poor, POOR deprived children and must correct this Right Now, and no, you don't have to hunt
    for fandubs; you can go right down the local Suncoast or Anime Nation and get it--. . .

    Or go to your local Anime convention. I'd suggest
    Otakon, Katsucon, or A-con for all the East Coast folks.

    As for Slayers, yes I agree that Slayers is D&D gone horrible, totally wrong in a cheesy, fun rollacoaster kind of fashion. Definitely worth the time.

    Lodoss Wars always comes across as something too stereotypical for words. While it is visually stunning, its substance lacks a little to make it interesting fantasy fare.

    That's what this new D&D movie could become. A cheesy, stereotypical romp through D&D geekland that everyone will want to see and then be horribly disappointed.

    This movie could be a new cult hit if it shows some depth/forethought in the script ,and avoids ultrahype and all that it contains (ie. heavy merchandising before the movie is even released!)

    Also, avoiding heavy special effects might actually be a good move. A majority of fantasy films had neither the technology nor the budget for high class special effects, but have done well in staying power. For example, LadyHawke, Conan etc.

    As an 80's-90's gamer, I wouldn't mind seeing a Dragonlance/Forgotten Realms movie. Let's see how the D&D one does.

    Personally, I'd like to see Arnie come back and do a final Conan movie. The one where he would become king by his own hand. He's old enough now to do the part realistically. Conan wouldn't need to hack and slash, use an army. >;->

    Give a human a brain and he'll swear he's the center of the Matrix
  • And a Fantasy Game at that.

    Gotta use yer Imagination.

    Our heroes will have no skills.

    An unprotected thief can take the full force of dragon fire face first and leave if the dice roll right.

    Warriors can take dozens of full-on full-force sword hits before they finally succumb to a lack of HPs, but he still won't bleed.

    etc.

    Such 'issues' are easily resolved by clever and thoughtful gamers and DM's alike.

    Player's start out as Talented Normals, with a Certain Special Something that marks them for a life of adventure. Clever DM's give or help players create plausible backgrounds for characters, which in turn help to justify their chosen path (magic user, fighter, etc).

    When a warrior with a lot of HP takes only a few points from an attacker with a three and a half foot bastard sword, it is clearly due to the fact that the damage was minimized by skillful defensive movement on the part of the one who was attacked.

    When a Thief (via a good dice roll) survives a blast-furnace attack of Dragon's Breath, it is due to a clever bit of side-stepping, hiding or distraction.

    The game was never designed to accurately reflect Reality. You can get that at the local Mall.
  • You could maybe make an interesting spoof fantasy based on a D&D universe, with characters (over) acting as though controlled by badly socialized geeks, hordes of insensate orcs attacking at every turn, and improbable bad stuff suddenly happening when the characters look like they're succeeding.

    AWESOME idea!

  • You are right, it doesn't make sense... but if you want to stretch it, the fall doesn't kill the 10th fighter because of a combination of extreme luck, and his deities looking kindly upon him, both due to experience and represented by hit points... Like I said, it's a stretch, hehe.
  • well, hasbro bought tsr, your right but they didnt buy it to get money off of d&d yes it will be an added bonus, but the ral reason was to buy the new craze, pokemon the producres will rape d&d if anyone does, not hasbro
  • To those who have said that good creativity is more important than the rules, I agree. But you need to recognize that when you throw out all the really dumb AD&D rules, and add some of your own, that you can't really say you are plainy AD&D anymore. You are playing a homebrew game *based on* AD&D.

    The fact that pretty much every single group felt the need to so heavily butcher the AD&D rules to make them palatable is evidence for how bad they were. Hence, as to the subject at hand, a movie that was *actually* trying to model the AD&D system properly would be laughable. A movie that does the same thing most gaming groups did, and throws away all the self-contradictory stupid rules, could be rather fun.

  • It would be hard to count how many classes in high school I got kicked out of because the dice rolled off the vellvet bag and clattered on the desk. It would be even harder to count how much money I spent replace said dice after they were confiscated by the teacher.

    Strange how the muscle bound idiots bothered me less when it became obvious that I was in "TROUBLE" more often then they were.
  • 7. Hand and Eye of Vecna
    I remember being told, once, of a RP contest between two different D&D groups where the object was for one group's characters to kill off the other groups'. The winning team succeeded by convincing their opponents of the existence of a Head of Vecna.

    As I recall, to use the $BODYPART of Vecna, you had to cut off your own $BODYPART to make room for the replacement. Therefore, for the alleged Head of Vecna...

  • I'm an old-time D&D geek. I started playing in 1976. I remember when the rules came in three little books in a brown box, and you had to whittle your own polyhedral dice*. My rule books are signed by Gary Gygax. I earned pocket money in collitch writing role-playing stuff for The Dragon and for SJ Games and other companies.

    But I can't imagine why anyone would bother making a movie out of D&D. I mean, other than to cash in on the name.

    D&D isn't exactly the stuff high-quality fantasy. It doesn't encourage interesting drama or require much in the way of imagination by the DM (at least, since they started selling those damn pre-made "modules").

    You could maybe make an interesting spoof fantasy based on a D&D universe, with characters (over) acting as though controlled by badly socialized geeks, hordes of insensate orcs attacking at every turn, and improbable bad stuff suddenly happening when the characters look like they're succeeding.

    Stefan

    * Well, no, not really. But carved wooden dice would probably have been better than the crappy brittle plastic dice TSR sold back then.

  • The quality of the output of the AD&D rules was always directly proportional to the amount of creativity input. If you could see past the stats and die rolls, AD&D gave you a simple, abstracted system for conflict resolution that allowed you to get on with the story without having to worry about exactly how many arteries the sword stroke severed or other such minutae. If, on the other hand, you can't see past the numbers, then I doubt that simply finding a "more realistic" game system will cure the problem. Most likely you will wind up with a morass of detail that does nothing to advance the story, but causes an encounter with a small party of orcs to consume an entire evening's gaming (Rolemaster, anyone?).


    In any case, I doubt very much that that being "true to the AD&D rules" is meant to extend down to the level of individual die rolls. I read that claim as meaning that the characters should be recognizable as something that might crop up in an actual AD&D game; that is, the spells would be actual AD&D spells, mages would memorize them the way they do in the game, thieves would have the abilities you would expect, and so on.


    Actually, I think the main feature that determines AD&D compliance (so to speak) is the magic system. When you think about it, swinging a sword looks the same no matter what the mechanics for resolving it are. Presumably that is because it is based on something that one can actually do in real life, and so we have a pretty good idea what should or should not be possible. Magic, on the other hand, differs wildly between game systems, and the restrictions (or lack thereof) placed on magic use can heavily influence the tone of a story.


    So, my guess is that they have stressed this going on about the AD&D rules means they have stressed the workings of magic somewhat in the movie. This can be either a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, having some hard and fast rules regarding magic can prevent some sorts of plot holes where magic is all-powerful in one scene, but next to useless in another. On the other hand, AD&D magic does have some serious warts. For instance, do we really want to see the mages sitting around for 4 hours every morning memorizing spells? And if the system really does work like AD&D, why doesn't everyone load up with 14 stoneskins before the start of the adventure?


    Still, one hopes they will exercise enough discretion to chuck the stuff that doesn't work story-wise. I mean, if we managed to come up with a workable subset of the rules using only enough funds to supply the group with pizza for the evening, surely they can do the same with $30M, right?


    -r

  • I mean, face it; the movie will be cheesy, the actors will suck. Men will be either 1) built like an ox or 2) weak and thin and wearing mage robes. The females will wear chainmail bikini and show a lot of cleavage.

    But... Who cares? Everyone sitting in the cinema will go, 'Oh, darn, he must've hit a natural 20!' or, 'Good gosh, I never knew a Fireball was so messy... Cool!' or yet again, 'Oh, shit, a Beholder! Do you know how many HP these have?'

    In short: it'll be a geek-o-rama. You bet I'm gonna see it. Story? Who cares! I bet the ratio of people who had sex before their 20's will be insanely low in that theatre... :)

    And then, Lord of the Rings [imdb.com] will come out, and the D&D movie will go down the drain because it won't hold to comparison either on the acting, SFX or story... And the D&D movie will be history.

    I'm not surprised they're putting it out this year... If they put it out after LotR, it'll be too late to ever make cash on it. Now, with the LotR hype building up, the timing is perfect.

    Keep on... Geekin'!

    "There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."

  • Filming In Prague. (Score:5)

    by jelwell ( 2152 ) on Monday October 04, 1999 @07:58AM (#1639829)
    I was in Prague when they were doing filming there. The scenerey is awesome in Prague, very medieval and grandious. Prague is like Disneyland for real, statues everywher - guilded with gold. Castles and towers that have withstood the test of time. Prague is an excellent backdrop for D&D - I know I loved D&D and I get the shivers just thinking of how beautiful and majestic Prague is.

    I can't say much for the movie itself. It's unclear whether it will be as good as the scenery around it.

    Joseph Elwell.

  • Elves aren't short! (Score:4)

    by Tet ( 2721 ) <slashdot@NoSpaM.astradyne.co.uk> on Monday October 04, 1999 @07:58AM (#1639830) Homepage Journal
    What's the problem with a 6'4" elf? Why do they have to make out that elves are short?

    As far as I know, AD&D elves are always tall (presumably modelled after Tolkein elves). Certainly the two in our current campain are over 6' tall, and I don't recall having short elves in any previous campaigns.

    I have to say I'm dreading the movie. I'm one of those that believes is virtually impossible to do fantasy well on film (as opposed to SF, which is easy), and as fantasy goes, AD&D is pretty much at the top of the pile. I'll go and see it anyway, but I'm not expecting much from it. It can't possibly live up to what I see in my mind anyway...

  • Ummm...

    TSR sold to Wizards of the Coast...

    Wizards of the Coast sold to Hasbro...

    D&D movie announced, due late 2000. Just in time for D&D 3rd Edition.

    Can anyone say 'marketing'!

    Binky
    (who's hopes aren't 'high' for this one)
  • I'm not sure how happy I am on the repeated emphasis on how much the movie will be based out of the rulebooks.

    Some of the worst fantasy novels out there are the ones transparently drawn from someone's camapign. I'm not saying that there aren't good novels set in the (A)D&D universe or that some of them didn't grow out of the writer's own campaigns (the Dragonlance books fit both those criteria), but that being aware of the mechanics distracts from the story. Good writing can overcome this, but they're not saying what a great story they have to tell - they're saying how much the viewer will recognize from the sourcebooks.

    Most of the best role-playing campaigns I've been in (D&D or otherwise) have deviated from the printed material one way or another. A book of rules alone does not make a good game.

    Frankly, most RPGs are more fun to play than to watch. The part that needs to translate to the big screen is the story and world, not the stats and die rolls.

  • What about a plot.. (Score:3)

    by cdmoyer ( 86798 ) on Monday October 04, 1999 @08:09AM (#1639865) Homepage Journal
    D&D, and rpgs in general, don't have a set plot... So how do you make a movie out of it? Pick out parts of the world based on the rules of the game and then write the plot? Interesting..

    I think I would be more excited about a Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms movie... Those seetings have some stories and characters that I would love to see done (well) on screen.


    But how do you make a plot from the Players handbook... I guess you could use the examples from the book...

    Scene 1:
    Rothgar is pummeled by several orcs to demonstarte pummeling rules.

    Scene 2:
    Borkfast carefully dons his armor and shoulders his pack to help explain encumbrance...

    Who knows... I'll go see it as soon as it comes out... even if it's dumb as dirt.. Come on, its D&D!!!

  • What a great idea! (Score:3)

    by pb ( 1020 ) on Monday October 04, 1999 @01:20PM (#1639867)
    Okay, this is sure to be a huge success, just like the Final Fantasy Movie. There's an obvious trend here, towards movies slavishly following games... So when are we going to have "Angband: The Movie"?

    I can see it now:

    Our hero, a heroic @ symbol, has against all odds fought his way down to the 40th level of the evil dungeon, with its random maps. After killing countless evil beings such as yellow-capital-T's (Troll Priests) and the malignant capital-D's (Ancient Dragons), holding 23 items, no matter how large, he is ready to challenge the ultimate evil: Level 41!

    This would make a perfect series, too. Endless possibilities, *great* special effects, and whatnot. (3D-rendered ASCII! Just like The Matrix!) I can't wait until "Angband II: Level 50 is in sight"!
  • I remember the backlash. I had a cousin that wanted to get into RPGs, but his father had bought into the D&D-is-Satanism. So I got him Palladium's Robotech RPG. Somehow, transforming jet plains and giant space aliens works.
  • It's not easy to predict vaporware these days, but it sounds like the film will closely correspond with the release of Neverwinter Nights [neverwinternights.com], a massive online game by Bioware [bioware.com] (the guys who did Baldur's Gate...). The game is supposed to be 100% true to the AD&D ruleset, fully 3D enhanced, and allow for separate Dungeon Master and client machines, all networked together. We'll see, but the end of 2000 might mark a nice resurgence in AD&D stuff.

    Now where'd I put that 11th level thief...

  • Based on the rules system? (Score:3)

    by Arandir ( 19206 ) on Monday October 04, 1999 @08:14AM (#1639882) Homepage Journal
    They're going to base this on the rules system? I thought movies were supposed to attempt at least a suspension of disbelief.

    Our heroes will have no skills. Chain mail will ward off arrows better than rigid leather. Rangers can slay dozens of foes in a ten second time period (but only if they're humanoid). An unprotected thief can take the full force of dragon fire face first and leave if the dice roll right. Warriors can take dozens of full-on full-force sword hits before they finally succumb to a lack of HPs, but he still won't bleed.

    And if they also follow the typical and recommended (ala official adventures) economic structures, then we'll have a bizarre economy based on one-ounce gold coins in plentiful supply, dungeons with more gold laying around than all the gold ever mined during the Alaskan gold rush, and these dungeons are always just outside of town. And let's not talk about social structures or I'll have to mentions barons ruling entire kingdoms and kings ruling mere cities.

    I fully understand that "realism" is a filthy word that will get you kicked out of GenCon for uttering it, but at least movies should make some sort of sense.

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