Over the last few years, Dungeons and Dragons has seen a massive resurgence. Netflix’sStranger Thingsmade a childhood D&D campaignthe foundation upon which its story was built. College Humor’sDimension 20brought comedians and online personalities together in a goofy, noncommittal setting that garnered a large audience. EvenMy Brother, My Brother, and Me’sDungeons and Dragons podcast,The Adventure Zone, saw significant success as three comedians and personalities played a “homebrew” campaign with their father.
However, adapting a Dungeons and Dragons campaign has been a long-standing problem for Hollywood studios. The game requires an in-depth understanding of how the mechanisms work; each character is subject to the limitations and advantages of their race, class, weapons, armor, and the random fate of chance by the rolling of dice.
Additionally, because this is a table-top board game, the world-building, and storytelling often play out in dungeon master-led narration and commentary. This often results in an “inside joke” atmosphere for the party members that doesn’t lend itself well to audiences.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesis one of the few game adaptations to find critical success on a large scale, and it’s not the only creation to do so. Fans of the film should indulge in Amazon Prime’sThe Legend of Vox Machinain their search for more fun, fantasy-first adaptations.
Why Audiences Loved Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
The 2023 premiere ofDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieveswas met with overall critical success.Critics praised Chris Pineand Michelle Rodriguez’s adventurous, buddy-cop energy, the return of humor to the fantasy genre, and the bold direction of writers and directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley(Spider-Man: Homecoming).
The writers faced what was previously insurmountable: adapting a playable game to a visual medium. Goldstein and Daley were able to succeed where others weren’t–looking at you,Assassin’s Creed–by tweaking the tropes and mechanisms of Dungeons and Dragons while retaining the overall spirit and integrity of its storytelling capability.
By making these essential modifications, Goldstein and Daley were able to jettison the game lore or proprietary D&D knowledge in favor of its storytelling technique: interwoven character and plot-driven storytelling. This resulted in a film where each party member of the group was given equal air-time and attention to complete their story, grow as characters, and aid in one another’s journey throughout the film.
Their stories, each as different as their characters, overlapped in surprising ways. This further enmeshed the beloved fantasy figures while making for convenient, truncated storytelling to maintain a reasonable run-time.
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Another Dungeons and Dragons Campaign
Amazon Prime’sThe Legend of Vox Machinais an adaptation of the Dungeons and Dragons live stream campaign and subsequent media company, Critical Role. The first campaign starred Laura Bailey(The Last of US: Part II, Spider-Man),Travis Willingham(Avengers Assemble, Spider-Man),Ashley Johnson(The Last of Us), Sam Riegel(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles),Liam O’Brien(Asura’s Wrath),Taliesin Jaffe(Hellsing),and Marisha Ray(Batgirl: Spoiled),with Matthew Mercer(Fallout 4, Thundercats)as the “dungeon master.”
The campaign followed an odd mixture of characters, including two half-elf rogue twins, a gnome cleric, a rehabilitated Goliath barbarian, a human gunslinger, a half-elf druid, and of course, a sarcastic, sexually-frustrated gnome bard. Their differences are highlighted in every wacky conundrum the party finds themselves in, contrasting in appearance, ability, knowledge, and capability (or willingness) to work as a group.
In true D&D fashion, the story is both characterandplot-driven, with each character given specific time and focus to develop their own story alongside the overarching plot.The Legend of Vox Machina(i.e., Critical Role) found widespread success because it employed the D&D model of simultaneous character and plot-driven development, something that is typically mutually exclusive in larger, box-office films.
Taliesin Jaffe, the voice of Percival De Rollo inThe Legend of Vox Machina,summarized the narrative directionof the campaign adaptation in a CNBC interview.
“It’s remarkable once you remove all the mechanics of the show you are left with this really remarkable narrative that was designed by group storytelling with no real plan. And yet there it is and it’s compelling, it’s a rollercoaster. I’m constantly in awe of it.”
Related:Every Dungeons and Dragons Movie, Ranked
A Genuine Love of Dungeons and Dragons
Fans ofDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieveswill enjoyThe Legend of Vox Machinafor more reasons than one. The snarky, tongue-in-cheek humor and wholesome group dynamics lend themselves well to an intriguing story. However, at its core, audiences will enjoy both creations because of the creator’s overall love of the source material.
The Legend of Vox Machina(then Critical Role) began as a one-off campaign of friends gathered around a dining room table. Theclose-knit group of voice actorsgathered for Liam O’Brien’s birthday, and from there, the rest is history. They fell in love with the mechanisms of the game, with Matt Mercer’s storytelling, and most importantly, the time spent with their friends.
Similarly, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein have personal reverence for table-top gaming. Not only did the two play, but they both have experience creating entire worlds as dungeon masters. They deliberated on including their previous campaigns before ultimately deciding to keep them in the past.Daley and Goldstein explained their rationalein a Polygon interview.
Goldstein:“My campaigns were a hundred years ago, so I don’t remember too many specifics about them. Except that there were alotof gelatinous cubes. And we did incorporate one of those in the movie.”
Daley:“There was a platform suspended by chains in one of my campaigns. I thought that was an interesting visual, so we incorporated it on a much larger scale in the Underdark dungeon our characters traverse.”
The creators' genuine love of the game shines through in both creations.The Legend of Vox MachinaandDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesdemonstrate that with respect, personal connection, and far-reaching collaboration, the best fantasy stories can be told.
