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So we went to see the new Dungeons & Dragons movie. “New” because there was a D&D movie in 2000, and that was… not good. But this one is a really enjoyable fantasy romp, if you just don’t think too hard about it.

It’s clearly set in the Forgotten Realms, and has the locations (Neverwinter, Triboar) and factions (Harpers, Emerald Enclave). And it is a typical campaign: you want to achieve some goal, but first you need a magic item to negate some threat, but before you can do that, you have to find out where it is, etcetera.

It is funny, inventive and adventurous. But it is funny, inventive and adventurous because it does not conform to the rules of D&D. None of the fights run according to the D&D rules would look like the fights shown in the movie. Heck, while there is some adherence to how magic works in D&D, some of the effects shown are not possible according to the rules — for instance, a Druid can’t wildshape into a monster, so no Druid could ever change into an Owlbear!

So while it’s certainly a fun movie to watch, you would get a completely different experience if you’d try to emulate it with the D&D rules. I think that’s an important point: what makes the movie fun is because it ignores the rules. And a lot of groups ignore the D&D rules and do whatever, to make it “cool”, so it fits in that grand tradition. (Though I would urge everyone who would be interested in having adventures like they are depicted in the movie to use a ruleset that does support that kind of play!)

There was talk about boycotting the movie because of the bad behaviour of Hasbro (parent company of Wizards of the Coast, publishers of D&D) surrounding the OGL. I think Hasbro does a lot of damage to RPGers, but that’s only to RPGers who have tied their whole hobby to D&D. There is an easy way out of that, and all I can do is shrug.

Crossposted from my blog. Comment here or at the original post.