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View Full Version : That episode where they went all D&D on us



LucianoAr
2015-01-09, 10:58 AM
Bender goes crazy with D&D.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayLOmEgPQt8


what other shows you know have special D&D/Rpg episodes?

Benthesquid
2015-01-09, 11:08 AM
Community has done two- "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons," and "Advanced Advanced Dungeons and Dragons."

It wasn't a major focus, but in the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the night before a big climactic battle, a bunch of the characters sat down to a D&D game.

Yora
2015-01-09, 11:50 AM
There's also a quick joke in an episode of Angel:
"Are you familiar with dungeons and dragons?"
"I've been in lots of dungeons, but I've never faced a dragon before."

Red Fel
2015-01-09, 11:58 AM
"I've been in lots of dungeons, but I've never faced a dragon before."

And then came the finale...

Beta Centauri
2015-01-09, 12:38 PM
Once they were researching monsters on Buffy and one of them realized that they were reading a D&D rulebook.

Lord Torath
2015-01-09, 02:04 PM
The Big Bang Theory has several D&D-related episodes. There's one were they rescue Santa, and another where the girls get to join in, and one where Stewart plays. Possibly a few others. The rules they play by bear no resemblance to the actual rules that I could tell, other than rolling a d20.

Dusk Eclipse
2015-01-09, 02:07 PM
Dexter's Laboratory had a really good one, it was called Dungeons & DeeDee IIRC, basically Dexter is a killer GM and things get weird when Dee Dee takes over as the master. Plus it has the best introduction for a Dragon Encounter EVER.

"You are walking through the Dungeon/Forest and... a Dragon appears!"


And?


"It is evil and wants to eat you"

Beta Centauri
2015-01-09, 02:25 PM
Wizards of Waverly Place had an in-world version of D&D that they played in a few episodes.

mephnick
2015-01-09, 02:42 PM
The rules they play by bear no resemblance to the actual rules that I could tell, other than rolling a d20.

You'd think the writers of nerdy shows like Community or BBT could at least watch a single gameplay podcast or something before putting D&D in their shows. Even Community made the hobby look stupid as heck.

Beta Centauri
2015-01-09, 02:48 PM
You'd think the writers of nerdy shows like Community or BBT could at least watch a single gameplay podcast or something before putting D&D in their shows. Even Community made the hobby look stupid as heck. The kind of RPG session I am used to seeing and hearing and reading about wouldn't make the hobby look any less stupid.

Those scenes were like absolutely everything else you see on TV: nuance and truth tossed aside in order to tell a particular story a particular way at a particular pace in a particular amount of time. You really wouldn't want it otherwise. If you do, then what you want is not TV, but real life.

Grinner
2015-01-09, 02:49 PM
Bender goes crazy with D&D.

You might say he went on a D&D bender.

:smallamused::smallbiggrin:


You'd think the writers of nerdy shows like Community or BBT could at least watch a single gameplay podcast or something before putting D&D in their shows. Even Community made the hobby look stupid as heck.

I thought they were awfully entertaining myself. They also convinced one of my friends that playing D&D is a good idea.

She's a bit of a Community junkie.

mephnick
2015-01-09, 03:02 PM
I liked the Community episodes, but my friends were like "..do people really dress like black elves and talk in stupid voices..?"

"Not in my groups."

They did a better job making it looks like a casual hang-out in the second one though.

Kami2awa
2015-01-09, 05:00 PM
Season 8 of Supernatural has the boys hunting real monsters in the midst of a LARP, on top of about a zillion other geeky references. And the writers generally seem to know what they're talking about. Wouldn't one issue with portraying a published RPG accurately be the risk of infringing someone's intellectual property rights? The Big Bang Theory presumably can't use beholders(TM) and mind flayers(TM) any more than anyone else can.

Lord Torath
2015-01-09, 05:32 PM
Season 8 of Supernatural has the boys hunting real monsters in the midst of a LARP, on top of about a zillion other geeky references. And the writers generally seem to know what they're talking about. Wouldn't one issue with portraying a published RPG accurately be the risk of infringing someone's intellectual property rights? The Big Bang Theory presumably can't use beholders(TM) and mind flayers(TM) any more than anyone else can.True, but they could probably get away with "I power-attack the ogre with my greatsword" rather than just "You roll a fifteen to hit! The ogre dies!" or "I'm going to drink a healing potion.... I get a 4." "You fail to drink the potion."

cougon
2015-01-09, 05:47 PM
There was an episode of the BBC show "The IT Crowd" that wove RPGs and DnD directly into the story for the episode. The series is available on Netflix if you want to check it out.

Eldan
2015-01-09, 06:11 PM
Not a show, but Harry Dresden (wizard) plays RPGs that are quite obviously D&D. He even complains that they do fireballs wrong. Though he prefers to play stupid barbarians.

His vampire brother also once played an NPC on a Vampire: the Masquerade LARP. That was then attacked by different vampires.

the_david
2015-01-09, 07:11 PM
There's a scene in E.T. the extraterrestrial.

i have to say that this was one of the better representations of D&D that I've seen. (Not counting Youtube series.)

Mom: So how do you win this game?
Kid 1: You don't, it's like life. You can't win at life.
Kid 2: Money helps!

Beta Centauri
2015-01-09, 07:13 PM
There's a scene in E.T. the extraterrestrial. Good one!

The movie Cloak and Dagger features roleplaying at the beginning. In fact, the first scenes of the movie actually take place IN their game.

Rakoa
2015-01-09, 09:22 PM
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising had one or two D&D scenes, if I recall.

Benthesquid
2015-01-09, 10:03 PM
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising had one or two D&D scenes, if I recall.

So did the original (The Gamers). The third one had a single Pathfinder scene, repeatedly interrupted, but plenty of CCG scenes. The two miniseries were also RPG focused, although one was not!Cyberrun, and the other, Humans and Households, was a bunch of characters in a fantasy world playing a game set in our world.

USS Sorceror
2015-01-09, 10:04 PM
Anyone recall Nick TMNT's Mazes and Mutants episode?

Benthesquid
2015-01-09, 10:17 PM
I'll note on the Community episodes- they weren't how I'd ever play D&D, but given the set-up, with most of the players being ignorant of/uninterested in the rules, and Abed being a bit of a control freak, it didn't seem completely implausible that that's how it'd turn out.

Pex
2015-01-09, 10:31 PM
The SyFy show Eureka claimed they were playing D&D in the last season, but for them it was a board game. It wasn't even the real life board game, just something they made up and used D&Dish words. It wasn't even pretending to be D&D but with a Eureka spin. It was supposed to be the actual game, but it was obvious the writers had no clue as to what it was. Wil Wheaton's character wasn't playing, but he was already a semi-regular. You'd think he could at least tell the writers how the game actually works. I know he is a GURPS fan, at least as a kid during his Star Trek days, but certainly he knows D&D.

goto124
2015-01-09, 10:31 PM
and the other, Humans and Households, was a bunch of characters in a fantasy world playing a game set in our world.

http://lolsnaps.com/upload_pic/HousesAndHumans-77271.jpg

Side note, what do you call the social check that's used to 'avoid an argument'? Diplomancy?

YossarianLives
2015-01-09, 10:53 PM
Humans and Households, was a bunch of characters in a fantasy world playing a game set in our world.
My group plays "Humans and Households". When I say that I mean our characters went on a epic adventure into the dungeon of the coastal wizards to find the fabled rulebook of Humans and Households. We take about 20 minutes off from our usual adventure to have our characters play a quick session. I didn't realize the idea had been conceived before now.

TheSpartanMoose
2015-01-10, 02:50 AM
Homer once played Dungeons and Dragons for three hours. Then he was slain by an elf.

Seto
2015-01-10, 05:16 AM
There's also a quick joke in an episode of Angel:
"Are you familiar with dungeons and dragons?"
"I've been in lots of dungeons, but I've never faced a dragon before."

Yeah, I've rewatched this episode with a friend (whom I'm currently walking through all Btvs and Ats seasons) a few days ago :P The dialogue actually goes like this :

Nabbit: "Are you familiar with Dungeons and Dragons?"
Angel: "Yeah. I've seen a few."
Wesley: "You mean the - ah, role playing game."
Angel looks up at Wesley: "Oh - game. - Right."
Nabbit: "Well, I used to play a lot in High School. You know, it was pretty cool. You get to be someone else for a while, a wizard, a warrior, you know, the whole world is magic, and fighting Troglodytes and romancing exotic - demon princesses and - you know, it's a rush!"
Cordelia: "Did someone find out you were a big nerd?"
Nabbit chuckling: "No that's - ah, that's actually public record. But - ah - some of us got *really* into it. Uh - specially the demon romance part. And then we heard about this place - where - the real... The guys were joking about getting some tail."

Bonus laughs for the fact that our very last session was clearing out Troglodyte caves !
And then Nabbit proceeds to come "hang out" with the team in a bright purple cape because "I was Dungeon Master tonight".

the_david
2015-01-10, 07:40 AM
Vrienden voor het leven, a Dutch show. It seemed to be more of a boardgame, but at least it was hilarious to watch.

Inevitability
2015-01-10, 10:27 AM
Not a show, but Harry Dresden (wizard) plays RPGs that are quite obviously D&D. He even complains that they do fireballs wrong. Though he prefers to play stupid barbarians.

Aaaaand I just found another reason to go read those books.


Vrienden voor het leven, a Dutch show. It seemed to be more of a boardgame, but at least it was hilarious to watch.

Surprisingly freaky new experiences, part one: reading a thread on an English forum and suddenly seeing something in your native language.

captainswift
2015-01-10, 10:50 AM
There was an episode of Dharma and Greg that always bugged me with a D&D reference. The fathers of the main couple were arguing over something (money owed, I think), and Greg's father recommended playing poker or some other games to settle things, then Dharma's dad said they should settle it with Dungeons & Dragons. Which, you know, doesn't determine a winner, and I don't think that was meant to be the joke. I think the writers just tossed a name out.

A Saturday Night Live sketch about a phone sex network for nerds included references to Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings that were all very accurate, but the D&D references were a bunch of nonsense.

But none of the poorly done D&D scenes I've ever seen bugs me as much as that card game they play on Big Bang Theory, which just involves taking turns setting cards on a pile while saying the card's name.

Benthesquid
2015-01-10, 10:54 AM
D&D as generally intended doesn't have a winner, but on these very boards there are plenty of optimization contests and arena battles.

SimonMoon6
2015-01-10, 11:15 AM
Back in the mid-80's, some of the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes (in their eponymous comic book) would often be seen playing D&D... but in their version, the table had some sort of hologram emitter that would illustrate the characters and what they were doing. It was a very minor background detail, though.

Hiro Protagonest
2015-01-10, 01:11 PM
The sitcom Corner Gas has one episode where two of the guys are supposed to go camping but hate it, so they always end up going to the city. One of them plays D&D (http://youtu.be/3j-RoyI1s5A?t=6m51s). :smalltongue:

Scots Dragon
2015-01-10, 03:47 PM
Back in the mid-80's, some of the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes (in their eponymous comic book) would often be seen playing D&D... but in their version, the table had some sort of hologram emitter that would illustrate the characters and what they were doing. It was a very minor background detail, though.

And then they introduced the White Witch within a few issues of one of their sessions, possibly during the exact same issue but I've only read the storyline (The Great Darkness Saga, to clarify) by way of the hardcover so I'd have to double-check. She was a magic-using heroine who had the limitation that she could only prepare a limited number of spells at once and once she had cast them she had to re-prepare them.

It's safe to say that the Legion of Super-Heroes writers were the genuine article as D&D fans.

J-H
2015-01-10, 04:23 PM
In the second season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Terminator TV series), someone's built an AI that can learn. It ends up playing D&D with one of the programmers, but it's hard to play D&D with someone that can calculate how to always physically roll the d20 to get a 20. They were at least mid-level, because there was a mind flayer involved.

Grinner
2015-01-10, 08:30 PM
Say...Does Adventure Time count?

GoblinGilmartin
2015-01-10, 10:12 PM
.

But none of the poorly done D&D scenes I've ever seen bugs me as much as that card game they play on Big Bang Theory, which just involves taking turns setting cards on a pile while saying the card's name.

That wasn't supposed to be D&D. That was some "totally not a stand in for MtG" called Warlords of Ka'a or something

captainswift
2015-01-12, 04:45 PM
That wasn't supposed to be D&D. That was some "totally not a stand in for MtG" called Warlords of Ka'a or something

Yes. I didn't think it was supposed to be D&D, I was saying I don't think anybody has screwed D&D up as much as they screwed up the entire concept of card games. That game has no rules.

Mutazoia
2015-01-13, 05:16 PM
Yes. I didn't think it was supposed to be D&D, I was saying I don't think anybody has screwed D&D up as much as they screwed up the entire concept of card games. That game has no rules.

Well you wouldn't play MtG and read all the text of every single card you played out loud either. It is assumed the game has rules, and that all they guys know them, so they are just declaring what card they are playing. If I had to hazard a guess I would say it's an MtG like game of "War" where each card has abilities that trump others, and the winner is the one who lays the last card that nobody can counter from their remaining deck.

comicshorse
2015-01-13, 05:42 PM
'Bloodties' ( a supernatural drama/ monster hunting series) had an episode where the heroes have to deal with an evil elf like creature which requires a cold iron weapon to kill it. When asked if it would work replies that the only other way she knows to kill an elf involves rolling a D20