This low-budget movie was made by a group of gamers back in 2002. The
story opens with Paula in a co-ed dorm during finals week. While she tries
to concentrate, a bunch of boys are loudly proclaiming the greatness of
their D&D characters. Paula confronts them then storms back to her
room to study. "Gamers!" she curses.
The 5 gamers begin the adventure. Their characters are Ambrose the Wizard, Nimble the Thief, Newmoon the Elf, and Rogar the Barbarian. One player, Mark, is missing, having said he would show up later. The gamers are astonished that Mark would miss game night for a girl. The campaign begins and suddenly the scene changes to a fantasy world with the players in the garb of their characters. The shift back and forth between the game world and the gamers around the table is surprisingly entertaining. In the campaign world, there are 5 characters but Mark just stands silently while the other characters discuss. When Mark finally arrives, his character leaps into action - classic.
The adventure is pretty basic stuff: rescue the princess (who looks exactly like Paula the angry girl) from the Shadow, a longstanding villain in the campaign. It is the stuff that happens along the way that makes the movie fun. The party wizard, Ambrose, dies. One person suggests they bury him and the other characters are perplexed by such a waste of time. Ah, but it will get them piety points. Once the piety points are distributed, the pillaging commences as everyone calls dibs on this or that piece of equipment. Very funny. Shortly afterwards, the party meets Magellan the Wizard who is a twin to Ambrose. Though he is milling outside an evil dungeon, the party gladly accepts him into the fold. Awesome. Then there is the bend bars/lift gates roll. Rogar is the strongest and is almost certain to succeed but blows the roll. So, here comes Newmoon with his 8 strength. You can guess how that works out. Then there are the exchanges like this:
Nimble the Thief, after having been killed by a trap: I should have had a search check.
DM: You didn't say you were looking.
Nimble: I'm a master thief. Of course I was looking for traps.
DM: <sigh> Fine, you look for traps.
Great stuff! The show is full of such comic D&D oddities.
The show is available on YouTube. It is broken into 5 parts of about 10 minutes each. Of note, Newmoon the Elf is played by Nathan Rice who also appeared in Journey Quest as the lying gargoyle. He has been in several gaming-related shows which are likely to be reviewed in the near future.
The 5 gamers begin the adventure. Their characters are Ambrose the Wizard, Nimble the Thief, Newmoon the Elf, and Rogar the Barbarian. One player, Mark, is missing, having said he would show up later. The gamers are astonished that Mark would miss game night for a girl. The campaign begins and suddenly the scene changes to a fantasy world with the players in the garb of their characters. The shift back and forth between the game world and the gamers around the table is surprisingly entertaining. In the campaign world, there are 5 characters but Mark just stands silently while the other characters discuss. When Mark finally arrives, his character leaps into action - classic.
The adventure is pretty basic stuff: rescue the princess (who looks exactly like Paula the angry girl) from the Shadow, a longstanding villain in the campaign. It is the stuff that happens along the way that makes the movie fun. The party wizard, Ambrose, dies. One person suggests they bury him and the other characters are perplexed by such a waste of time. Ah, but it will get them piety points. Once the piety points are distributed, the pillaging commences as everyone calls dibs on this or that piece of equipment. Very funny. Shortly afterwards, the party meets Magellan the Wizard who is a twin to Ambrose. Though he is milling outside an evil dungeon, the party gladly accepts him into the fold. Awesome. Then there is the bend bars/lift gates roll. Rogar is the strongest and is almost certain to succeed but blows the roll. So, here comes Newmoon with his 8 strength. You can guess how that works out. Then there are the exchanges like this:
Nimble the Thief, after having been killed by a trap: I should have had a search check.
DM: You didn't say you were looking.
Nimble: I'm a master thief. Of course I was looking for traps.
DM: <sigh> Fine, you look for traps.
Great stuff! The show is full of such comic D&D oddities.
The show is available on YouTube. It is broken into 5 parts of about 10 minutes each. Of note, Newmoon the Elf is played by Nathan Rice who also appeared in Journey Quest as the lying gargoyle. He has been in several gaming-related shows which are likely to be reviewed in the near future.
Since my review (June 2012), the show has been posted as a full movie:
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