A quick dip into the intersections of Tabletop-roleplaying and franchised movies: Dungeons & Dragons

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

Toys, decorations, collectibles and prints are just few of the franchised products existing next to the accessories and rulebooks of Dungeons and Dragons, 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 Dungeons & Dragons has also been applied to different digital games, board and card games, as well as movies.  

From the world and character building of the movie, the viewer gets a general idea of Dungeons and Dragons. 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. 

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

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

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

 

Basic information:
Directors: J. Goldstein & J.F. Daley
Distribution: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: 31.03.2023
Runtime: 134 minutes (2 hours 14 minutes)
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: PG-13 

Picture credit: 
Banner: Main Cast (Promo material from: D&D Rotten Tomatoes )
1. Movie Poster (Promo material from: Finnkino – Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves)
2. D20 (Dragon Dice Play – Free photo on Pixabay – Pixabay )

 

 

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