{"id":14237,"date":"2023-12-01T18:00:14","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T16:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/?p=14237"},"modified":"2023-11-29T00:35:52","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T22:35:52","slug":"a-quick-dip-into-the-intersections-of-tabletop-roleplaying-and-franchised-movies-dungeons-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/a-quick-dip-into-the-intersections-of-tabletop-roleplaying-and-franchised-movies-dungeons-dragons\/","title":{"rendered":"A quick dip into the intersections of Tabletop-roleplaying and franchised movies: Dungeons & Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this article I will review the new <\/span>Dungeons and Dragons<\/span><\/i> movie and its relation to the Tabletop roleplaying game. Before diving into this comparison, the first paragraphs provide information about the start of <\/span>D&D<\/span><\/i> as a franchise.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Toys, decorations, collectibles and prints are just few of the franchised products existing next to the accessories and rulebooks of <\/span>Dungeons and Dragons<\/span><\/i>, a tabletop role playing game (short: TTRPG \/ TRPG) dating back to the 1970s with its current fifth edition being played all around the globe. The intellectual property (IP) of <\/span>Dungeons & Dragons <\/span><\/i>has also been applied to different digital games, board and card games, as well as movies.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From the world and character building of the movie, the viewer gets a general idea of <\/span>Dungeons and Dragons<\/span><\/i>. The game allows the players to create their character and choose from different classes and origin combinations. Few class examples that are featured in the movie are: Bard, Druid, Barbarian, Paladin, Sorcerer and Rogue.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Main<\/a><\/p>\n

The 2023 fantasy movie <\/span><\/span>Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves<\/span><\/span>, directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley tells the adventurous <\/span>story of the bard Edgin Darvis (played by Chris Pine)<\/span>,<\/span> recruiting other brave <\/span>mercenaries and travelers to join his cause. <\/span>The movie drops <\/span>us <\/span>fairly quickly <\/span>into <\/span>the action<\/span> of a heist focusing on the retri<\/span>eval of a powerful artifact.<\/span> The plot compares to <\/span>playing a <\/span>finite <\/span>campaign in the <\/span>tabletop-<\/span>rpg<\/span>, which is <\/span>essentially a<\/span> story that has a conclusion<\/span>. <\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Visiting the movie theaters on release with friends that did not or <\/span>barely<\/span> knew the <\/span><\/span>Dungeons and Dragons<\/span><\/span><\/em> game and franchise <\/span>showed me something the movie did incredibly well.<\/span> Not only is the story enjoyable, <\/span>but it<\/span> also <\/span>balances<\/span> humor, <\/span>action<\/span> and quirkiness<\/span>, which <\/span>does reflect<\/span> ways a played-out campaign of <\/span><\/span>Dungeons and Dragons<\/span><\/span> can unfold.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>In terms of viewer interpretation and understanding th<\/span>e<\/span> connection<\/span> of rolling a die and <\/span>how these die-<\/span>rolls<\/span> affect success and failure,<\/span> requires<\/span> a certain amount of<\/span> knowledge about the systems of the Tabletop Roleplaying game.<\/span> However, since the movie does not imply these at any level or halt the flow of the story, it <\/span>remains<\/span> a nice watch <\/span>if the fantasy genre and the mix of humor with action appeal to you.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Golden<\/a>
In the tabletop-roleplaying-game you would roll a die, in the movie this happens behind the scenes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beyond the<\/span> massive <\/span>franchising of <\/span><\/span>Dungeons and Dragons<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/span>both the Tabletop Roleplaying game and its <\/span>story <\/span>world remain a niche. Aiming for a broader audience through popular cast<\/span> and <\/span>high production efforts<\/span> seemed not to reach <\/span>th<\/span>e demographic the creators were targeting. <\/span><\/span>Does this mean we will get another shot of the franchise with the same cast? Most likely not but who knows where the <\/span>Dungeons and Dragons<\/span><\/i> IP lands next.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Basic information:<\/b>
\n<\/span>Directors:<\/span><\/b> J. Goldstein & J.F. Daley<\/span>
\nDistribution: <\/span><\/b>Paramount Pictures<\/span>
\nRelease Date:<\/span><\/b> 31.03.2023<\/span>
\nRuntime: <\/span><\/b>134 minutes (2 hours 14 minutes)<\/span>
\nGenre: <\/span><\/b>Fantasy<\/span>
\nRating: <\/span><\/b>PG-13<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Picture credit:<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>
\nBanner: Main Cast (Promo material from: <\/span>D&D Rotten Tomatoes<\/span><\/a> )<\/span>
\n1. Movie Poster (Promo material from: <\/span>Finnkino – Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves<\/span><\/a>)<\/span>
\n2. D20 (<\/span>Dragon Dice Play – Free photo on Pixabay – Pixabay<\/span><\/a> )<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you know this feeling when you meet strangers with weird abilities, and you immediately want to head for a high-risk heist with them because you see their potential…? – Me neither.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":14240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1447],"tags":[1849,863,1873],"class_list":["post-14237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-related-media","tag-dungeonsanddragons","tag-movie","tag-tabletoproleplaying","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14237"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14319,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14237\/revisions\/14319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}