February 24, 2014

40th D&D - My D&D Movie

Day 24: First movie that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why?

As I was growing up I saw a bunch of the fantasy films of the 80s that had a heavy D&D vibe to them; Clash of the Titans, Dragonslayer, The Beastmaster, The Dark Crystal, Krull, Legend. However, it wasn't until 1985 and the movie Ladyhawke that I really got a sense of what the vision of D&D and film could be.

Ladyhawke was more of a story than a D&D dungeon/adventure romp.
However, it carries many of the D&D tropes. We have a clever and witty thief, clerics with magic, curses, fighters being fighters. It was what I wanted to run in my games, something more than just beating up on goblins. Ladyhawke was an attempt to do fantasy in a "serious" way. I had moved from simply running one-off dungeon crawls and had been running longer and more "serious" campaigns by then. Ladyhawke reflected what I wanted out of a D&D game.

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