Live Action D&D Television Series in the Works.

[Anonymouswizard]

Hey, who knows: maybe they'll pull a 3.5 and the fighter slot will be taken by a gruff dwarf with an axe.

And maybe they'll pull a 3e and insert a male human Fighter in the editing stage

[Bartmanhomer]

Are those dragons? Do they appear in a dungeon?

Not that they won't be involved in the plot, probably as a bigger Bad. But for what actually appears, the story is more likely to have a human or demihuman Big Bad who's most likely a Wizard or Cleric (they're unlikely to make the difference between Wizards and Warlocks explicit), who is defeated by our series using hero Conan Thundarr Ridley Jimbob Fahm Boie.

Well, they're from Dun.......hey wait a minute, I see what you did here. You made a joke. Good one.

[Hopeless]

If recent stuff is any guide unless they try using any of the series like Hercules, Xena or the Sinbad tv series (not the newer one) as inspiration I certainly hope they don't look at Batwoman!

What's the most generic group and setting they could go for?

Faerun stick with male fighter, cleric, wizard and a female rogue I avoided races so they can mix and match whilst races I left open although I figured a dwarven male cleric, an elven female wizard and two human for the other two with occasional cameos for the halfling, gnome and half orc.

If they go agenda then they might reverse the gender but as I said generic choice of cast.

Does this mean they start at Baldur's Gate?

Could always start off working for a wizard only to discover the big bad is one of their employers and discovering that leads to them being framed and they have to exonerate themselves and try to thwart the bad guys.

However this is Faerun so either the bad guys fail or its set somewhere where such a change wouldn't be a problem meaning not Badlur's Gate for instance.

If they get someone with a decent enough imagination and understanding of this they could take the original d&d movie and remake it into something Jeremy Irons would want to return to and not just for the pay cheque (okay that might be pushing it as far as the writing is concerned).

So how about try providing some examples of what you'd like to see?

[Spiderswims]

I guess the best they could do is simply do a typical classical adventure. A small kingdom is attacked by a dragon and puts out a call for Dragonslayers. The characters show up and take the job. Part one is where they have to get the ancient spear of Dragonslaying from the Dungeon of Doom . Part two they slay the dragon.

So we'd have a classic band of adventures: a fighter, a wizard, a rogue and...well, maybe a cleric. The cleric has both the faith and religion problem where they might not want to offend people with that, unless they keep it vague and they just 'follow' a generic good force. The cleric also has the problem of how video gamey do they want to make the show: do they want the characters to get 'sort of hurt' in every episode and then have the cleric just wave their hand over them and auto heal.

Of course, as I'm sure Wizards will want to Over Promote how cool 5E is, they might 'demand' that the show has a warlock, even more a cool dark Tiefling Warlock. (and Tiefling make up can be easy money wise they can just have tiny head horns and maybe some painted colored skin)

A druid, ranger, monk or barbarian would fit....but you don't want the group of main charters to be 8 or 9 as that is too many. But maybe you can stretch it to 6?

And, of course, have a mix of real life human races and fantasy races, all mixed up: so like African American Elf Rogue.

The dungeon will be full of all the classic D&D monsters: owlbears, rust monsters, gelatinous cube, mimic, goblins, orcs, undead. The dungeon will have tricks and traps written for each character and for teamwork.

Of course overall the show will be stuck and plagued with the problem of D&D equals kids game..so expect it to be campy and have very little non kids cartoon like content. Hopefully they won't go down to the level of the characters will draw weapons to fight BUT then punch, kick or drop a chandelier on them.

And hopefully they are wise enough to not make 'magic' crazy CGI spam: every magic missile does not need to fill the screen with cgi spam for a whole minute: a small 'zip' of magic is fine.

Though making a "normal people from Earth go to fantasy D&D world MIGHT be fun..............

.............but............

.......You know if they DO go with that Idea, THEY could just DO basically the D&D Cartoon. Except with the spin that they are older teens or maybe even near 20 something collage kids.

[Hopeless]

Or maybe venture along the story line shown in that Timeline movie where a group is accidentally stranded there and those left behind are trying to find a way to get them back unaware those in charge don't want them returning as they see this as an ideal starting point to travel to other worlds and secure a foothold ala Stargate except those in charge aren't benevolent.

Could initially start off as a mystery as your cast suffer amnesia as a result of the trip and begin to recover their memories leading to conflict as some want to go home and aren't above helping their employer with their missions especially if it means they can go home!

Then have them discover they wasn't the first team sent through and eventually discover a survivor of that first team who had no idea they have travelled to another world only that someone back home noticed what they did stole the means thereby trapping those who discovered it on that world and its only now one of them makes contact.

Their employer wants this survivor killed, but they survived here so long they're very capable and unlike their employer isn't interested in seizing power just returning to their family who have long since thought they were dead and moved on.

Then and only then reveal the whole process is a trap leaving both worlds open to invasion and the only way to save both worlds is to seal the gateway permanently!

I wonder how many seasons they could get out of this?

There's been a number of anime series along the same track so maybe you're right about the generic fantasy, but with some schtick to keep it original is a better way to go?

[Eldan]

A druid, ranger, monk or barbarian would fit....but you don't want the group of main charters to be 8 or 9 as that is too many. But maybe you can stretch it to 6?

Firefly managed it.

[CharonsHelper]

Firefly managed it.

I think that they managed it for a few reasons.

1. All of the characters were very distinctive - in looks/dress, personality, how they talked, and their role/job in the group. (As opposed to something like Band of Brothers where they're all young-ish clean-cut men in military uniforms. Confusing who's who in that show is a common nitpick - albeit still a great show.) And frankly - most of them didn't have any major changes to their character over the course of the show. (Which isn't a bad thing - as it makes them more memorable.)

2. Some of the characters came in distinctive pairs which made them easier to remember. Simon/River and Zoe/Wash specifically.

3. Not all of them had significant roles in every episode. Most episodes focused upon Mal & 2-3 other members of the crew, with the rest playing second fiddle for the episode.

Now - a D&D show could & should do the first one pretty easily. The second could easily be done too. I'm not sure about #3, as in Firefly different characters not being around was pretty easily explained by them just being back on the ship (pretty commonly the case for Simon/Kaylee/Wash/River/Book - with Kaylee/Wash just chiming in on the radio, while Inara often off doing companion stuff, and Jayne was left behind if the situation didn't call for violence).

This trick would not really be viable for most D&D style settings - and this alone would likely make 9 characters too many. I think that a standard adventuring party size of 4-6 would likely be the way to go, especially if you had at least two who were paired per #2 above.

[Mechalich]

Firefly managed it.

Firefly got canceled after one season. It managed to juggle a large number of characters for storytelling purposes, but the large main cast represented one of many financial issues that ultimately derailed the show. Science fiction and fantasy TV are expensive to produce, especially if you want high-end productions values or to shoot exotic environments and have them look real. Running production in the Iceland wilderness like Game of Thrones did for North of the Wall sequences is vastly more costly than shooting on a sound stage in Atlanta or Vancouver.

Since any D&D series will almost certainly be produced on a limited budget and shot on a sound stage in Vancouver or Atlanta you need a cast and a story that's favorable to those constraints. That means three to four main characters in the party, one or two major recurring antagonists, and perhaps an important NPC who pops in and out of the narrative Gandalf style from time to time. It means either generic 'medieval fantasy' environments or massively exotic bizarre environments where the backdrop is entirely VFX. D&D actually has advantages here because the various other planes can look like whatever you want. It also means your character races are pretty much limited to human, elf, dwarf, and half-orc. D&D halflings and gnomes are too small to handle without weird and expensive perspective tricks or actually hiring a very small person (that's a limited pool) to fill the role. Dwarves, elves, and half-orcs are also doable without breaking the budget on makeup in a way something like dragonborn simply are not. And, if you've seen The Witcher you'll note that dwarves and elves are the non-humans its got.

You need a storyline that's amenable to lots of tramping around in fairly ordinary-looking wilderness, discussions and arguments in taverns and town squares, and fights in confined spaces with suitably generic/faceless minions who can be played by a skilled stunt team on repeat. That means your opponents probably need to be mostly other humans. Demons, undead, aberrations, etc. those work as individual monsters crafted digitally, but it's simply too expensive to put hordes of them onscreen on a mid-level TV budget. Something like the Zhentarim, a mostly human organization with lots of troops but supplemented by powerful monsters (notably including Beholders, one of the few legitimately D&D-exclusive monsters) and run by a suitably egomaniacal villain, is actually ideal.

[Vahnavoi]

I have zero faith in the actual product being anything but vapid corporate waste, yet I still find myself appalled by the lack of vision and faith in the source material demonstrated in this thread.

[Hopeless]

So establish your cast swap a couple over for various episodes so you know who they are for odd cameos.

For example your first episode has two adventuring groups vying for a prize this leads to an encounter with say an ogre who poses a real threat and members of both groups team up to overcome the foe.

It doesn't change their rivalry, but can lead to cameo's where your cast for one episode if badly hurt leading to them seeking healer's and of course the healer who helps them is a member of the rival band.

Could even have instances where they're talking together discussing recent events so by the climatic last episode where their home village is attacked forcing another team up we have a good reason for it and it becomes something more interesting as a result leading to the end of the season playing into the start of the next season to give people reason to want to continue watching.

Assume one party consists of;
human male fighter a former soldier who turned to running a caravan route carrying goods to and from the port along with some smuggling on the side nothing nasty just a means to make ends meet and not carrying anything dangerous to him, his suppliers or delivery locations,
human female rogue also a former soldier and acts as the trader even though married to the bard.
human bard actually a concerned parents to their twins and are looking to settling down at this village as it feels a good place to raise their kids.
half orc barbarian and also mercenary a little concerned he's missing out on the decent missions but given most of his former comrades are either dead or thought dead whilst he has managed to build up a reasonable nest egg that he has started looking around only anyone he's interested in aren't as interested in settling down or just looking for the next score except every time that happens he and his team are usually left out of pocket albeit still alive.
the twins one is a prospective healer the other a sorceress but both are looking for mentors but whilst the vicar of the village church is more than happy to recruit their son, their daughter is a different matter.

the rival party consists of

a gnome wizard whose family live in a nearby village and he's often working as the village teacher
an elven cleric whose often tending her shrine but usually overlooked as there's a church run by a vicar whose more respected despite lacking the ability to cast clerical magic unlike her.
a tiefling rogue whose concerned for his family especially his sister and has been delving into forgotten or outright forbidden lore in an effort to help her
half elven pyromaniac wizard prone to blowing things up she's most often at her master's tower where her research is less damaging to everywhere else!

The usual big bads:

Local Guild run by an aging rogue when he isn't hiring help for the main big bad he's arranging "missions" as the village head of the adventurer's guild often very dangerous and for little reward after he's taken his cut.

Local big Bad: The second son of the local lord he's often delving the ruins for the means to replace his older brother as the heir but his vizier is often stealing anything he finds for his own ends leading to much hijinx given his research is almost as dangerous as his apprentice!
Think the Black Baron and Bargle for this role they are evil, but are often caught up in the others schemes that they're easily foiled due to the duplicity of the other.

Main Villain: Can be a dragon, ogre or lich these depend on whats needed and can be switched between them to demonstrate the party's growing competence so Ogre initially leading to the dragon that serves the lich as his residence is being plundered by the heroes or more likely the local big bad and his vizier!

How would you handle this sort of thing?

[Bartmanhomer]

We should predict the pilot episode for the time being.

[Hopeless]

We should predict the pilot episode for the time being.

I'd like a big set up revealing the coast is up in flames as a result of an invasion led by a main villain, but then shift to a stream of refugees and the scene shifts to a caravan wagon and its passengers and cargo who are attacked by raiders leading to a few of them teaming up to repel the attackers.

They reach the next settlement where their "heroics" result in them being recruited to check out a local ruin for a missing group of guards.

This leads to them encountering a ghoul and a group of zombies protecting a long forgotten archive.

Appears very dangerous, but thanks to the cleric turning the undead they locate and rescue the survivors fleeing the ruin unaware the undead are under the control of a mysterious necromancer.

Retrieving some treasure and books along with the survivors they return to the village only to discover they've been inducted into an adventurer's guild run by a clearly aging rogue they might have found a place to rest, recover and train but face an uncertain future as adventurers'....

[CharonsHelper]

We should predict the pilot episode for the time being.

The more I think about it, the more I think that (if Hasbro has the rights) it'd be kind of amazing to make it a Baldur's Gate show. (May be because I just replayed the beginning bits of the game. )

Obviously it would skip all of the tutorial stuff, but Candlekeep would make for a pretty solid pilot episode.

1. Start with some sort of training scene showing that the MC (and probably also Imoen) are low-tier badass - though how that played out would depend upon what sort of character they have the MC end up being. Probably a gish? (In part because it'd mesh well with Imoen/Jaheira/Khalid/Minc/Viconia - the group I'd pick for the show - especially since you don't want the MC to be a pure mage for this sort of show. And mixing magic with melee would likely be easier on the special effects budget.)
2. Have Gorian explain that the MC needs to gather his stuff and leave, which the MC is reluctant to do.
3. Have an assassin pop up and try to off the MC add to the rising tension. (Not in the game - but potentially a doppleganger assassin for the foresahdowing.) This could also help get past the MC's reluctance and make him willing to buy into Gorian's worries/panic.
4. Introduce Imoen and the world.
5. Have people complaining about the iron shortage.
6. Escaping Candlekeep in the dead of night only to have Sarevok show up with his goons and off Gorian while the MC runs off into the woods, potentially doing the (albeit overplayed) trope of hitting his head on a branch or something and being knocked out in a hidden spot for the night to have Imoen track him down and wake him up, ending the pilot.

[Ajustusdaniel]

In terms of pitching it as a series to appeal outside of its niche market, let's look at the title.

I'm not sure what the average non fantasy-game-player thinks of when they hear dungeon. I would guess one part "Unpleasant underground medieval prison," and one part "whips and women in leather." None of which is actually outside the realm of the typical D&D game, mind you, but my guess would be that "Multi-level more or less self contained structure containing free-roaming monsters and devious traps," isn't the immediate first association. I assume Hasbro has marketing people who can tell them this in more detail.

Dragons, though, are deeply culturally embedded all over the dang place. I'm as happy as anyone to get into a pointless debate over the taxonomy of imaginary creatures, and what qualifies as a dragon based on size, body structure, number and arrangement of limbs, and why Godzilla may or may not count, but I think at the very least, if you put "Dragon," in the title of your fantasy show, folks are going to expect a Big Scaly Boi.

So, you're going to need a dragon. You're going to need him prominently, and you're going to need him early on. Counterpoint, Dragon CGI is expensive. Budget constraints (and we can speculate a bit more about those when we know more about who is making and who is distributing the show. A D&D Live Action Show on HBO or Starz is going to be a very different picture to one made for Fox, or one made for Netflix) suggest that episode to episode, your opponents are more likely going to be played by human stuntmen in various degrees of costume and make-up.

So, the show's initial premise begins with a dragon, and ends with it, but has quite a bit in between. That gives us an obvious structure- in the first episode, something unbalances the nature of the world, draconically speaking, so now there's a dragon on a rampage, a necessarily apocalyptic scenario. Our heroes are survivors of this attack who set out to put things right. (Does that mean slay the dragon? Seal it away again? Return the stolen treasure that prompted it's rampage? Our heroes may not know themselves when they set out).

Who are our heroes? Well, I think we can safely predict a human, a dwarf, and an elf, representing some of the classic D&D variety without the need for extensive make-up. Quite possibly a halfling as well. I'm going to wildly guess that there will probably be exactly one main cast member who requires extensive make-up and prosthetics on a regular basis, which means we'll may have an orc (or half orc) or a tiefling, but probably not both. I could be wrong here, though- there a couple of Star Treks that'll have multiple regulars in fairly heavy make-up.

(Pie in the sky dream casting, Ron Perlman as a grizzled Orc Fighter).

That gives us four to five main cast members, which seems enough to be getting on with. For aforementioned budgetary reasons, I imagine we'll only have one flashy magic user in the main party. (Have a bunch and you're into budget problems, have none and you're off the page of the source material). I'm going to guess they'll be called a wizard, although I'm far from certain that the show is going to dig into the nitty-gritty of Vancian casting (which I believe 5e has more or less backed away from anyways?)

One or two martial types (if, as this thread seems determined to have be the case, we're ignoring the existence of D&D as a system it's not terribly necessary for us to distinguish the non-caster martial types from each other, but you could certainly have both a bowman and a berserker) a rogue and/or bard (bardic magic, insofar as it exists, being subtle and social so as to save on SFX). If you've got a spare caster after that, you can toss in a cleric undergoing a crisis of faith, whose powers will manifest only at especially dramatic moments (like a season finale) and will otherwise wield a mace or flail.

As far as enemies- I don't know how much Hasbro's left hand talks to their right, but the push to reconsider Orcs and Drow might rule out the former as standard mook enemies. I'll guess either undead or assorted humans- in the latter case ranging from bandits up to some sort of elite knight in service of the dragons.

As a tie-in property you'll want to feature D&D specific monsters (so the Beholder, probably as a one-off barring the way to an important plot coupon, maybe a couple of displacer beasts- depending on the tone of the show Owlbears an Flumphs may or may not apply) and maybe introduce a couple of new ones so you can fill out a setting guide for tie-in sales.

[Xyril]

I'm not sure the title will be that much of an issue: D&D has more or less achieved mainstream awareness, if not mainstream acceptance. It's been featured prominently (and fairly sympathetically) on shows like The Big Bang Theory, one of the three major network late night shows talks about it frequently, and numerous actors and artists talk pretty openly about their D&D hobbies (including guys like Vin Diesel and Joe Manganiello who have substantial followings beyond genre fandom.)

This isn't to say that it would necessarily appeal to mainstream audiences, just that it's outdated thinking to assume that everyone outside gaming fandom would have no idea what D&D even is.

[Ajustusdaniel]

This isn't to say that it would necessarily appeal to mainstream audiences, just that it's outdated thinking to assume that everyone outside gaming fandom would have no idea what D&D even is.

Well, yes, but the overwhelming consensus here seems to be that the show should have little to nothing to do with what D&D actually is (a tabletop RPG) and should instead be set in the sort of setting that D&D specializes in, (I.E. Cod Medieval High Fantasy).

Ideally, with dragons. And possibly a dungeon or two, if you've got room for it.

[Xyril]

Well, yes, but the overwhelming consensus here seems to be that the show should have little to nothing to do with what D&D actually is (a tabletop RPG) and should instead be set in the sort of setting that D&D specializes in, (I.E. Cod Medieval High Fantasy).

Is that what the overwhelming consensus is? My general sense was only that people agreed that it should abstract away the mechanical elements that would be most jarring in adaptations (i.e., hit points.) Beyond that, there seems to be a decent amount of debate over what setting to use, or whether to even use a particular setting vs. trying to use no setting, or to somehow combine them.

Personally, I think it should be a Dungeons & Dragons show, albeit with the most intrusive mechanical aspects scaled back. Remember, D&D isn't just a set of rules--it's a platform, a starting point for storytelling. Either by nature of the game mechanics or just through how culture has developed, there is a spirit of D&D that has developed beyond rules and dice. While there isn't one single typical D&D game, there's a reason that certain adventure or player archetypes have become recognizable tropes. If you look at Darths & Droids, or DM of the Rings, even if you take away the overt references to the out of character discussions and gags about game mechanics, you still have a story that's recognizable as the sort of narrative-by-consensus, adventure-for-its-own-sake that results from tabletop gaming.

I'd love to see them capture that sort of spirit. Maybe the versatility of the D&D is a drawback in this case, and there are simply too many adventure possibilities for people to agree on what would represent what is quintessentially D&D, but I think it's worth the effort to try to capture something that most of the community would recognize.

[Bartmanhomer]

I predicted the pilot episode will be a low-level arcane adventure party: a male human wizard, a female elf sorcerer, a male dwarf warlock, and a male halfling bard will be facing a gang of goblin rogues in an urban city.

[Hopeless]

You could have your dragon encounter your entire party faces certain TPK then an elven cleric steps out and commands the dragon to flee in draconic and lucks out!

They witness the dragon flying away and their rescuer having cancelled the thaumaturgy that amplified their voice is telling them to start running before the dragon comes back to its senses and returns having realised what just happened!

This leads to them running away as the dragon returning finding no one there looks about confused before flying off.

However the scene was witnessed and now your party now has the reputation of repelling a dragon attack and of course their services are needed once more!

Of course they'd probably take advantage until they're approached for help against another dragon if not the same one and of course their actual rescuer is perfectly fine that they've ignored she was responsible however now with their backsides on the line they seek out her help.

Of course she isn't insane either but imagine she's brought along and the recruits coming along are constantly telling her about how they defeated a dragon enough that's she's wondering are they talking about the same situation she rescued them from.

This ultimately leads into a fight with the dragon and this time she joins in the dragon under the control of an evil wizard is recalled when the elf guiding bolts his champion and legitimately threatens to defeat his pet.

Of course he sends agents to kidnap the cleric and the party now has to rescue her or risk facing the dragon without her help.

She however now understands the dragon is being controlled and when freed instead of going to help the adventurers goes after the wizard seizing the artefact he's using forcing him to flee.

She assumes control of the dragon and recalls it until she can safely release it and then destroy the artefact thus ensuring no one can use it ever again.

Now as far as the party is concerned they have finally sent the dragon fleeing without her help and although one of the recruits knows what really happened she remains silent letting them take the glory so she can return to anonymity despite the wizard getting away and he knows the truth.

Would that work for a first season?

[Spiderswims]

I'd love to see them capture that sort of spirit. Maybe the versatility of the D&D is a drawback in this case, and there are simply too many adventure possibilities for people to agree on what would represent what is quintessentially D&D, but I think it's worth the effort to try to capture something that most of the community would recognize.

Well, you can't get more basic then a dungeon and a dragon. Dragon attacks kingdom, group must get the spear of dragon slaying from the dungeon of doom and then must slay the dragon.

As the show will be an action adventure show, you can't really have much more then five main characters. Unless you just have non combatant characters tag along. The problem comes with just about any fight. It's bad enough that you have the problem vs any big monster of the actors just waving at nothing of the CGI monster that is not there. And even more bad enough they will do the silly thing like 'knock' characters out of each fight. Like the monster will tail slap a character and gently send them over to a pile of leaves so they can be knocked out of the fight. But it gets really hard with human/humanoid foes as you need at least twice as many as the main cast in just minions. So with five heroes, you already need 10-15 bad guys, and that is a lot of extras....even more so extra stunt people too.

You want the show to have good fights and battles and action, but it's also important to have a good story and maybe most of all good characters.

Firefly is a great show because of it's characters, after just one episode you can sure feel a connecting to everyone on that ship. The Avengers movies, and most other Marvel movies also focus on the characters, and that is the big thing that made them great.