I saw Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

On Sunday night my wife, son, his wife, two of my daughters, and I went and saw the new DnD movie and I thought it was a really fun movie. Everyone liked it (though my 9 year old daughter got a little bored) and my son, 21, said the flow of the story taught him ways to bring a party together and inspired him to run another game after a hiatus of about two years. I'm not sure you can get a much better review of a film based on an RPG than it "made me want to run DnD again".

Full disclosure: I found all of the recent trailers I'd seen very appealing and I went into the film with the hope that we could get at least a good movie and I wasn't let down. I think we got a good film and a fun action-adventure and the creators of the film understood enough about DnD and RPGs to give us some nice easter eggs. The DnD movie exceed my expectations and I'd like to see it a second time so I can look for more of those hidden gems.

I'm not usually a big Chris Pine fan but I found this to be his most compelling performance and I think he delivered a man with little left to lose but who cares about people and doing the right thing even when he messes up. 

I will say that I did guess that a certain situation would play out at the end of the film based on the McGuffin (not a hard leap at all) but was surprised who it happened too.

I like all of the actors and would have liked to get to know more about Dorric, though I understand there is a prequel novel featuring her and I might actually pick that up.

One thing that has surprised me this week is how few of my customers have seen the film. I've recommended it to all of them and maybe it will have some legs at the box office. I wouldn't mind seeing more of these characters and I think it is an easy way to expose non-players to the game. 

I couldn't really ask for a better DnD movie and I highly recommend seeing it to anyone. Its a good ambassador for the game and a fun time for a family and friends.

FLGS Owner on Palladium Books & Their Decision About The OGL

I've been a fan of the Palladium Megaverse since I found a copy of the Magic of Palladium Books at a local store (in Milan, IN) while in college in 1991. I was hooked. The art, the gonzo, the kitchen sink, the hyperbole. All of it. 

Sadly, I'm one of those people that is driven nuts by the Palladium "House System". It's a mess. I was a brand new gamer and I didn't realize that in that era the rules weren't supposed to cover everything and you, the GM, were supposed to figure that stuff out. But in 1991 I actually thought about writing Kevin a letter to find out exactly how many attacks a PC got in Heroes Unlimited. I was just stumped.

It never occurred to me to just set a base percentage chance to every Skill and ignore Boxing and those other skills.

Kevin and his business partner, Sean Owen Roberson, addressed WotC's OGL debacle in a Weekly Update during January. They even addressed how many people had asked for a d20 version of their games with this quote, "[Kevin] patiently detailed multiple reasons he considered [an OGL version] a very poor move, and in the end, I heartily agreed with him. As a close friend put it to me yesterday, Kevin called this one years ago. I don’t think we will hear this particular suggestion as much moving forward, but I wanted to note Kevin’s foresight and expertise in this matter."

The emphasis is mine. 

The OGL and the D20 license have been around over 20 years. How much money and fan good will would they have won in those 20+ years? Would his company have become the next Paizo? Or Goodman Games? Or Troll Lord Games? We won't ever know.

Would that have innovated a newer better system in that time? Again, we won't ever know.

What is wrong with Palladium Books is Kevin and his myopia and it is just one more thing to shake my head about from him.

Hell, he might send me a C&D because I referenced his work on my blog.