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2 years ago ::
Jul 07, 2011 - 6:33AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Apr 27, 2006
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D&D in the News
Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary2011 July 7 by Michael Tresca Anthony Savini and producing partner Andrew Pascal are currently starting production to create the definitive documentary on Dungeons & Dragons. Talk about this news here. 
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2 years ago ::
Jul 07, 2011 - 7:23AM
#2
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im surprised there isnt one already and would def watch
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2 years ago ::
Jul 07, 2011 - 7:29AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Apr 27, 2006
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if these guys are as reputable as is suggested by the article, then it might be advisable for wotc to become directly involved, even if only to throw these guys a small bone or two; but that's just my 2 cents.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 07, 2011 - 1:21PM
#4
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I imagine they'll supply some comments. In any case there are so many people out there who have worked on the game in the past I doubt they'll lack for commentary or facts. OTOH if it were a hack job there's not a lot WotC can say that will change that.
That is not dead which may eternal lie
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2 years ago ::
Jul 07, 2011 - 8:06PM
#5
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Date Joined:
May 11, 2004
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I'd be wary if I were WOTC. Quite frankly, sensationalist stories sell better than reasonable ones. SO it strikes me as more likely the gist of this documentary is either "EEEEEK!!! T3H SATAN!!!1!" or "HA HA! Look at the basement dwelling nerds!" than anything realistically showing the game or gamers.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 07, 2011 - 8:26PM
#6
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There is something similar on youtube called Dungeon Masters
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2 years ago ::
Jul 17, 2011 - 5:04AM
#7
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I'd be wary if I were WOTC. Quite frankly, sensationalist stories sell better than reasonable ones. SO it strikes me as more likely the gist of this documentary is either "EEEEEK!!! T3H SATAN!!!1!" or "HA HA! Look at the basement dwelling nerds!" than anything realistically showing the game or gamers.
Did you even read the article?
I'm an RPG advocate and member of the Committe for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games. I lambasted The Dungeon Masters for being precisely the hack job you mentioned (the second one -- mock the freaks-style documentary). I will be in the documentary. I've spoken with the producers at length and they plan to give a respectful but balanced overview of Dungeons & Dragons' effects on the mainstream media -- not just gamers, but fashion, fiction, movies, etc.
There's no guarantee that it will be a popular view, but it certainly won't be a hysterical attack on gamers. The producers are gamers themselves.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 17, 2011 - 6:00AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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SO it strikes me as more likely the gist of this documentary is either "EEEEEK!!! T3H SATAN!!!1!" or "HA HA! Look at the basement dwelling nerds!" than anything realistically showing the game or gamers.
These Boards (an assumedly gamer-friendly environment) gives evidence that there is room for both of these views in any documentary of D&D.
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 17, 2011 - 7:08AM
#9
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SO it strikes me as more likely the gist of this documentary is either "EEEEEK!!! T3H SATAN!!!1!" or "HA HA! Look at the basement dwelling nerds!" than anything realistically showing the game or gamers.
These Boards (an assumedly gamer-friendly environment) gives evidence that there is room for both of these views in any documentary of D&D.
I'm the author of the article, if that wasn't clear from my first post.
Jumping to the conclusion that it's somehow putting down D&D when I wrote "They've asked me to participate and I hope that this balanced documentary will do justice to the hobby we all know and love," seems willfully ill-informed.
As you correctly pointed out, it should DEAL with both sides of the issue -- but my hope is that it won't reinforce negative stereotypes, and my early dialogue with the filmmakers supports that balanced approached.
The final product will speak for itself, I'm sure.
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2 years ago ::
Jul 17, 2011 - 8:21AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Oct 24, 2001
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As you correctly pointed out, it should DEAL with both sides of the issue -- but my hope is that it won't reinforce negative stereotypes, and my early dialogue with the filmmakers supports that balanced approached.
The final product will speak for itself, I'm sure.
Unfortunately, it will reinforce stereotypes and won't speak for itself. Documentaries NEVER speak for themselves. They say exactly what the audience wants them to say, although they can be largely shaped by what the director/editor wants them to say.
People who watch documentaries go to them in order to confirm their views.
- Michael Moore's documentaries confirm the believers that Cuba is the best place to be seriously ill, that everyone who owns a gun is a psycho, and that somehow the NRA is why a bunch of kids were killed in Columbine. And it has those who oppose him convinced that everything he says is a lie and that not a thing in his documentaries reflects any semblance of reality. (Both groups are marginally right and simultaneously wrong.)
- Nobody goes to see Food Inc. for the purpose of having their minds changed about their diet. They go for confirmation that the change they have made (or want to make) is the right one or to provide a series of anecdotes to discredit any opposition to their current diet.
Those who watch this documentary will be just as pro-D&D or anti-D&D as they were when they watched it. The documentary (if not intentionally polemic in its bias and slant) will prove that D&D gamers are unhygienic, fat, slovenly, and socially-inept. It will simultaneously prove that D&D gamers are clean, healthy, organized, well-adjusted members of society. It just depends on which viewer you ask. And the few viewers who do not have either of these views going in will likely be bored, because they don't have a dog in that fight. Thus is the nature, not of D&D, but of documentaries and documentary viewers.
Here are the PHB essentia, in my opinion: - Three Basic Rules (p 11)
- Power Types and Usage (p 54)
- Skills (p178-179)
- Feats (p 192)
- Rest and Recovery (p 263)
- All of Chapter 9 [Combat] (p 264-295)
A player needs to read the sections for building his or her character -- race, class, powers, feats, equipment, etc. But those are PC-specific. The above list is for everyone, regardless of the race or class or build or concept they are playing.
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