I saw it with the chick, and it was good fun. It didn’t pretend to be anything else. The non-actress playing the druid really sucked, but it didn’t matter.
Huh, she’s one of my faves. I really like her reserved awkward demeanor. Possibly leftover crush from loving her in I am not okay with this.
I’m not sure it can be fully reduced to this. I say this as I reflect back to my DnD playing, circa 82-83. Right in the OSR time. We played Tomb of Horrors and such. But our characters we often a bit like the characters in the DnD movie. And our DM created adventures could be off the wall, like the magna opus of our group where we were cast down to a demon plane which was populated with Carebears, My Little Pony, and Strawberry Shortcake. It was a profane acid-trip nightmare of a dungeon.
I’m not saying my group wasn’t immune to fooling around and fighting in zany escapades every now and then. I’m just saying that the folks that tend towards OSR D&D aren’t down with the wacky superhero antics and casual sparkle magic of modern D&D where half-demon or bird folks are a dime-a-dozen.
I don’t think it’s a zaniness vs non-zaniness thing, I think it’s the pulp aesthetic of the OSR versus the anime aesthetic of 5e.
That sounds horrifyingly awesome some how.
My favorite 80’s DnD session over one summer involved my Ranger who found an Arrow of Direction and a very creative DM. The arrow would point towards whatever you wanted it to. Like a Locate Object spell. You had to whisper to it so nobody else could here what you asked of it. Soo, I would whisper, slip a note to the DM and off we would go to supposedly towards the big bad Guy but mostly wherever I wanted to go ;) It took about 3 or 4 gaming sessions before the rest of the party caught on. IIRC the thief in the party ended up shooting me with said arrow while yelling show me where the asshole is.
Sure. Potato/potato. The aesthetic and stock D&D setting has evolved over the years and the mechanics have changed hand-in-hand. It went from a dungeon delve where death lurked around every corner for a low-level party as they fought goblins, skeletons, and wolves to a superhero magic fantasy where starting characters wield crazy magic, fight (or consort with) demons, and have a million ways to dodge death. In the old days, not having torches was almost a death sentence. In 5e, everyone has darkvision or some magical doodad that makes torches irrelevant.
You can DM 5e as an almost OSR-feeling experience at the table, but the lore, marketing, and mechanics point to a game where the players act like they’re in an MCU movie. Sure, there’s death, but not random crappy death. Just heroic dramatic death and they’ll probably be able to come back anyway.
Edit: As an example, when Holga drops her axe in the forge, pulls it back out covered in molten iron, and then continues to kick ass with it, well that’s entirely in keeping with the tone of modern D&D. “Hell yeah! Fiery axe!” In an OSR game, that axe would’ve been destroyed and Holga would’ve probably been killed by a couple of guards ganging up on her.
Edit 2: Note also that I’m not saying one approach is better than the other. I have my personal preference obviously, but I’m not downing someone for loving D&D as a superhero fantasy. There’s plenty of other TTRPGs for me.
I watched the trailer for this today. I avoid those if I haven’t seen the movie, but I watched the movie a while ago so hey, I’m free to watch the trailer now!
That was great! Really fun trailer, set to a nice version of Whole Lotta Love I’ve never heard before.
Glad I didn’t watch that before the movie though. It shows a lot of the fun moments in the movie.
Totally agree with Telefrog’s descriptions. Today’s D&D is much more indulgent of players, and every character is set up to be an epic figure. I can see why they made the change; more players will play and keep playing the modern game.
The aesthetic where there are Care Bears in one room, killer cyborgs in the next, Doctor Who fighting Darth Vader in the next, etc. and where the map is actually of your middle school is often referred to today as “gonzo.” It’s a style within old-school play, going back to when adventures were room-monster-treasure filled in by the DM. It’s different from cat-eared furries. I’d define gonzo as the deliberate rejection of “fantasy realism” by means of disjunctions. Rather than submerging your awareness that you’re playing an RPG, you revel in it.
Back in the day gonzo was deployed occasionally, for comic relief (cf. Dave Arneson’s inside jokes in pre-D&D Blackmoor and the Howard the Duck race in Runequest), but there are OSR products that are 100% gonzo, such as Anomalous Subsurface Environment. Not all old-school players like it.
I think gonzo and cat-eared furries are both quite different from the utter weirdness of supposedly OSR games like Troika, which you can be immersed in but which is more fantasy fever dream than fantasy realism. In Troika you can be a Befouler of Ponds, who is compelled by his religion to piss in any pond he encounters, or a Monkeymonger, or a Vengeful Child. I think the OSR has branched into games that no longer have much connection to old-school play, and it ain’t nothing but a good thing.
An entire post from JMJ in which he doesn’t make a porn pun with “gonzo”? I am disappoint.
It’s like jazz–it’s all about the notes you don’t play.
I wannna clck the missing “like” button on this post so much…
Gah, I just need to accept that people want like buttons, even though I hate them with a passion.
If you can’t beat them, perhaps an opportunity. A like button accessory that people can wear as a bracelet so that if somebody likes something about you they can just walk up and press it without saying anything.
+1
I really enjoyed this. It’s kind of obviously Dungeons & Dragons: Guardians of the Galaxy, but I’m okay with that.
This is the best line in the film:
This is mostly where I land as well. Although it was pretty clear with my last D&D group they leaned more heavily into the zany stuff. Everyone was playing some off source custom kit boutique class while I was just a paladin. They also had really strong opinions about things. Suffice is to say I didn’t last very long.
I liked it a lot! I’ll still be calling it Guardians of the Fantasy - they even borrowed the Hulk smash at the end, although I guess technically that’s the Avengers - but it is also every bit as good. It didn’t just feel like a knockoff.
I was surprised by how good the action sequences were, I really liked that they used practical effects when possible, and I absolutely loved the chubby dragon.
I only know DnD from videogames, but I thought it was a nice touch that they made the lawful good dude such an unbearable twerp. I was like “Yeah, that’s exactly what those guys are like!”
It’s sad that we’ll never get an opsis for this. As I was watching it I was imagining Kelly Wand referring to Daisy Head as Jared Leto, and making fun of that one guy and his bluetooth helmet.
Second viewing completed on Sunday with the kid and first viewing for the wife. Wife knows nothing about DnD and thought it was a great movie. I and kid thoroughly enjoyed the second viewing as well. Wife immediately asked about a sequel. :( I’m still holding hope for one and streaming numbers have been pretty solid. The show appears to still be a go at least.
Not at Paramount anyway.
Saw that yesterday and was bummed. They appear to be shopping it around now at least. Really dropping the ball here and missing all the DND hotness right now with Stanger Things and BG3 brining in a bunch of new fans.