The Dungeons and Dragons Thread

[troutman]

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/dung...ns-dragons.php

Early Dungeons & Dragons cover artwork played an important role in establishing the mystique surrounding the hobby. To put it succinctly: the early art was strange. Before the realism of AD&D artists like Larry Elmore and Jeff Easley, D&D cover art was primordial, often depicting particular monsters and magic for the first time, and it could be more disconcerting than the contents of the books. Seeing the covers of those first, widely-circulated modules could have the forbidden thrill of glimpsing a freakshow through the curtain. Artists like Jeff Dee, Jim Roslof, Dave LaForce and, of course, the legendary Erol Otus, helped to create the magic of an early Dungeons & Dragons and are celebrated by fans today. We do our part by looking back on some of the strange cover artwork of the late 70s and early 80s.

Funny commentary:

Zack: Everything Erol Otus illustrates looks supernaturally unwholesome. It's like David Cronenberg's body horror fantasies combined with the drug trip you get from traveling into the Amazon jungle, nearly dying from diseases and dehydration, and then licking just the right kind of frog during an eclipse.

Steve: The good news is we found the hidden shrine. The bad news is we all smell like the inside of a buck-fanged monkey dragon.

Steve: In Forbidden City, frog licks YOU!

Zack: "You shouldn't have read my diary!"

[PsYcNeT]

Every WTF D&D? article is a joy. All the ones on Rifts are especially hilarious.

[troutman]

Warner Bros Prepping DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Movie With David Leslie Johnson Serving As DM!


http://www.aintitcool.com/node/62302

[CaptainCrunch]

Another one, that first one was in a word terrible.

[PsYcNeT]

Just in time to coincide with the most watered-down module yet!

Thanks for turning D&D into a pen and paper MMO Hasbro.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Another one, that first one was in a word terrible.

There has been two movies so far, both terrible. And an animated TV series. Jeremy Irons was hilariously chewing up the scenery in a bad way, in the first movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190374/?ref_=sr_2

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406728/?ref_=sr_5

Looks like a TV movie is in production:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733125/...?ref_=tt_ov_pl

There are good movies to be made here, if put in the right hands. The universe is rich with material. If they did something dark and mature (like Nolan's Dark Knight series) it could be very entertaining. Stay away from forcing game rules and concepts into the movie. I'd like to see a trilogy based on Gygax's Against The Giants/ Descent to the Depths of the Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent...s_of_the_Earth

[driveway]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Just in time to coincide with the most watered-down module yet!

Thanks for turning D&D into a pen and paper MMO Hasbro.

Thank Iomedae for Pathfinder.

[troutman]

http://www.deadline.com/2013/05/righ...hasbro-tangle/

Yesterday, I broke a story about Warner Bros making big plans on a live-action feature based on the role-playing fantasy game fixture Dungeons & Dragons. Not so fast, says Hasbro, which claims that it owns the rights to D&D, and that the toymaker company has set up the project at Universal to be developed as a directing vehicle by Chris Morgan, the scribe behind the last five films in The Fast And The Furious franchise (including the upcoming Fast 6) and 47 Ronin.

[troutman]

[troutman]

http://www.geekosystem.com/siri-dm-slacktory/

The latest video from Slacktory puts Siri in the role of Dungeon Master as Nick Douglas tries to play the saddest game of Dungeons & Dragons we’ve ever seen. What happens when Siri applies her cold, calculating computer brain to a rather imagination-heavy task like guiding a player through a fantasy quest? It goes about as well as you’d expect a game of D&D with one player and a phone robot to go.

[CaptainCrunch]

See if I was directing the movie, everytime the party had to make a decision this huge 8 sided die would come rolling through the middle of town killing hundreds and destroying buildings.

"Hey lets go for lunch"

"ok where do you want to go"

rrrrruuuuuuMMMMBBBBLLLEEEE Screams

[troutman]

Zero Charisma will be screened at the Calgary International Film Festival:

http://www.calgaryfilm.com/films/2013/zero-charisma

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by troutman

Zero Charisma will be screened at the Calgary International Film Festival:

http://www.calgaryfilm.com/films/2013/zero-charisma

Nice. Heard about this one when it was at SXSW, I'll have to add it to my list for the fest.

[To Be Quite Honest]

Crit Juice is a great D&D podcast.

[troutman]

Dungeons & Dragons Unveils Full Product Line, Release Dates, and Details - Update


http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...Details-Update

Original Story: Wizards of the Coast has revealed the covers and release dates for not only the core books of the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but the adventures and miniatures that will accompany the release later this year. In addition to the previously revealed dates for the Player's Handbook and Starter Set, we now have dates for the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide for a three month window after the release of the Player's Handbook in August. The covers, prices, and details were revealed via Wizards' website product listings, as well as on Amazon. Among the new reveals are two adventures, Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, both intended as part of Wizards' Tyranny of Dragons story event for D&D. Regarding the extended game launch window, Wizards of the Coast's Mike Mearls said that the development team wanted to ensure that each book was as high quality as possible.

Don't think I will check out this edition - if I had any time for this kind of thing I would stick to Pathfinder.

Why is the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons a big deal?

http://io9.com/5874922/why-is-the-5t...ons-a-big-deal

[CMPunk]

I really wish there were some DMs around here running games. I've been listening to Nerd Poker and I want to get into a game.

[The Coppernian One]

[Trailer Fire]

I've decided to get back into D&D after nearly 10 years out of the game. I'm hoping a few of you can answer my questions for me and help me out.

My old group had two older more experienced DMs, one of which played with us full time while the other helped out with rulings and campaign writing.

The group I'm trying to amass right now has very limited experience with the game, but seems eager enough to play. However, being the senior player, I somewhat volunteered for DM duties, despite having almost no DMing experience whatsoever. Campaign writing isn't a problem for me, but corralling the players and following the rules properly is going to be a learning curve.

I need to choose an edition to play. I've only played 3.5 exclusively, and was wondering if you guys happen to know what edition is easiest on they DM. I've looked into 5e a bit and I don't like how the PCs are built especially regarding attributes (maxing at 20 seems lame...) How detrimental to the game would it be if I augmented the character restrictions as well as item bonuses? Say for example Braces of Ogre Strength in 5e being your Str to a certain level (21 I think?) but in 3.5 they simply added +2 Str. This would benefit a PC who already has high Str. Would I typically break the game mechanics if I augmented items in this way?

If anyone has any experience playing both editions, could you give me a nudge in the right direction? I feel kind of lost.

[Drak]

We just bought all the 5th edition rule set stuff and the boxed set. I've read over the rules etc and will be Dming for my 9 year old this weekend.

[The Ditch]

i like 5e better than 3.5 because you dont get stupid stats like guys with 60+AC and it runs smoother and quicker than 3.5 but you seem to want to min max so why not just run with what youre used to