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Old 06-04-2018, 09:21 PM   #1
Qoltar
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Default Mood or Tone of the 'Dungeon Fantasy' setting, world...

Okay, again related to the DF demo session I am running as part of 'Free RPG Day' on June 16th....

Are there certain Fantasy or Sword & Sorcery movies that are most like the tone and mood of the "Dungeon Fantasy" background world?

In other words, If I am making notes and doing prep work for a Dungeon Fantasy gae session and I have a DVD playing in the background in the room - what is the best movie or TV series that works for a DF mindset?

- Ed C.
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Old 06-05-2018, 05:59 AM   #2
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Default Re: Mood or Tone of the 'Dungeon Fantasy' setting, world...

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Originally Posted by Qoltar View Post
Okay, again related to the DF demo session I am running as part of 'Free RPG Day' on June 16th....

Are there certain Fantasy or Sword & Sorcery movies that are most like the tone and mood of the "Dungeon Fantasy" background world?

In other words, If I am making notes and doing prep work for a Dungeon Fantasy gae session and I have a DVD playing in the background in the room - what is the best movie or TV series that works for a DF mindset?

- Ed C.
Depends entirely on what sort of DFRPG you are running.

Seven Samurai could be as much as much of an inspiration as Jason and the Argonauts.



If you want the party going into a dungeon why not the Dungeon and Dragons episodes of Community
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Old 06-05-2018, 07:15 AM   #3
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Default Re: Mood or Tone of the 'Dungeon Fantasy' setting, world...

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Are there certain Fantasy or Sword & Sorcery movies that are most like the tone and mood of the "Dungeon Fantasy" background world?
There are many flavors of DF. A common flavor, however, might be represented by the Moria sequence in Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring. Or, for all their flaws, the recent Hobbit movies capture some of the madcap shenanigans that DF characters can pull off.
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Old 06-05-2018, 07:19 AM   #4
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Or, for all their flaws, the recent Hobbit movies capture some of the madcap shenanigans that DF characters can pull off.
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Old 06-05-2018, 08:26 AM   #5
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Default Re: Mood or Tone of the 'Dungeon Fantasy' setting, world...

I may also suggest Dungeons and Dragons 2, The Elemental Might. It is a movie with a classic dungeon fantasy high powered adventure feel and well inside the genre.

It showcase the classes doing their job and is not a bad movie.
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Old 06-05-2018, 08:44 AM   #6
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Default Re: Mood or Tone of the 'Dungeon Fantasy' setting, world...

If you go back to the original dungeon fantasy game, Dungeons & Dragons, you'll remember that those guys weren't picky: they threw in EVERYTHING. Tolkien, Lieber, Howard, Moorcock, Anderson, the Kung Fu TV show, Barsoom, Hammer Dracula, folklore, science fiction, psychic powers... everything. There is no bit of fiction they wouldn't use.

Do the same thing.
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Old 06-05-2018, 09:02 AM   #7
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Default Re: Mood or Tone of the 'Dungeon Fantasy' setting, world...

No....


I really need movie specific to 'Sword & Sorcery'(fantasy), just the way I used to play "Star Trek" shows while prepping for my GURPS:Star Trek game ir playing "Firefly" episodes whilst preparing for Maggie's Marauders GURPS Traveller game that I ran years ago.

Would rather not play the "D&D" movies if I can avoid it.
There must have been some movie or TV series made sometime between the '80s and 'now' that fits the tropes in the implied Dungeon Fantasy setting.

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Old 06-05-2018, 10:59 AM   #8
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Default Re: Mood or Tone of the 'Dungeon Fantasy' setting, world...

One thing that makes this difficult is that it's pretty rare for film to portray the hero (or heroes) as motivated by 'take the stuff from the bad guys and sell it, then go out and get more' in the way Dungeon Fantasy expects. Movie protagonists might be motivated by greed, but they also tend to need Named Villains and goals like Stop the Villain's Plot as a sidebar to sneaking around dungeons or castles and getting loot to sell.

The other problem is, frankly, the Sorcery: few movies depict magic done in the way classic D&D (or GURPS DF) wizards do it. Up until recently any time you did see it the special effects were awful, and now that SFX can keep up with expectations, the genre is out of favor because, well, it kept looking awful.

The closest examples I can think of:

Conan the Barbarian (1982) probably hews (ha) closest to the Dungeon Fantasy format: once you get through the origin story, you get a long sequence of 'sneak into the evil temple, find the treasure, sell the loot and spend the proceeds'.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) - your basic quest for a Macguffin, disappointingly whitebread cast for a movie ostensibly set in Persia, but it's not awful.

The Scorpion King (2002) - plenty of Dungeon Fantasy tropes here.

The 13th Warrior (1999) - Not so much of the dungeon, but definitely 'a party of adventurers does heroic things in a quasi-medieval setting'.
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Old 06-05-2018, 12:21 PM   #9
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Default Re: Mood or Tone of the 'Dungeon Fantasy' setting, world...

Second the Conan recommendation. Additionally, for atmosphere (more than point-by-point similarity):

Dragonslayer (1981)

Time Bandits (1981)

Willow (1988)

There's an entire genre of Japanese anime inspired by D&D by way of console video games:

Record of Lodoss War (1990) was explicitly based on Ryo Mizuno's fantasy RPG campaign. Rune Soldier (2001) is a more recent comedy series set in the same universe.

.hack//Sign (2002) is very moody and atmospheric, with first rate background music.

Sword Art Online (2012) is very flashy, with excellent graphics.

Log Horizon (2013) is also excellent, with a more scenarios.

Konosuba (2016) is a straight-up parody of standard D&D-derived video game tropes. The problem is you may lose players to watching it -- it's that funny.

Note that I watch all these in Japanese with English subtitles, so I can't say whether the English dub versions are any good or not.
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Old 06-05-2018, 12:26 PM   #10
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Default Re: Mood or Tone of the 'Dungeon Fantasy' setting, world...

While it only has certain elements, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is also a likely influence.
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