Would Honor Among Thieves actually make a good Dungeons & Dragons game?

For those who haven’t played Dungeons & Dragons, the new Dungeons & Dragons movie, Honor of the Thief, is a pretty solid period in cinema — a brisk fantasy thriller full of chases and jokes, with one smug and one creepy villain swapping places on center stage and a few high-profile names. Every movie star does their thing. A non-stop collection of Easter eggs and visual references, a satisfying visual tour of familiar settings, and a chance to see many familiar play elements on screen for the first time.Use of very specific magic (such as item attunements and wild magic surge) to the city of Neverwinter.

Indeed, it seems that the film was designed to start an argument with the audience saying “I had fun” and “This movie violates the next 18 rules”.In the same way, a movie set shot in a particular city might say, “Hey, I know the place, I’ve been there!” the way please do not connection in real life! ” Niche Picker. But for some players, debating how movies and games fit together isn’t a criticism, it’s just a fun thought experiment. increase. Honor of the Thief A fun D&D module to actually play?

[Ed. note: Broad spoilers ahead for the overall plot of Honor Among Thieves.]

Setting aside the question of the characters themselves and the specific ways in which they interact.You probably aren’t going to sit with Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez at your own D&D table. Movie viral marketing is much more granular than we thought.) Honor of the Thief Play the game using official movie character stats instead of existing characters. Even if they do, they’ll likely play those characters slightly differently than their on-screen versions.

Each playgroup has a different version of the story. How to face his Themberchaud, a giant red dragon, or how to break Mordenkainen’s arcane seal, everyone makes their own choices. Dice luck alone tends to change the story significantly. ( Honor of the Thief The scene where Sorcerer Simon accidentally destroys the Underdark’s Puzzle Bridge plays out like the very classic “roll a 1 on Perception check and fail to save Dex” event. A party might find an uncomplicated solution to a puzzle, roll a few natural 20s to find a switch that disables a trap, or perform a Spider Climb or Fly spell. )

Now let’s think about the structure of a virtual module. His two of the players must escape the dungeon and travel to the city, where they must escape execution. They recruit his two other players, search for magical items, meet her high-level NPCs who take them to the Underdark, acquire items and adapt to them, and carry out heists. To do. They then fight in a gladiatorial arena, escape, and choose to escape and become rich together, or return and save the city from a plot to turn the populace undead.

Structurally, the big problem here is that 2 players can’t do anything in about a third of this module. If you’re playing as a campaign and half the players can’t make the first module, no problem. There are some sessions, but not much fun in the actual 4-player game of him. Yes, creative GMs will find workarounds for all the issues raised in this article — starting with the opening sequence, “OK, you four are in this prison together…” — But for the sake of sanity, the movie we wrote would be a good experience at the TTRPG play table. So stay focused.

Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures

Aside from the caveat that only half the party can play in the first session or two (depending on how fast the home playgroup churns up the action or how deep they delve into social situations and settings) , there are many elements in its first third. of attractive possibilities. First, there is Prison Break itself, which can be approached in many different ways. (Including holding off on the actual escape until we know if the persuasion roll works on the parole board.) Then there’s the escape from Icewinddale, which the movie skips over, but requires a fair amount of challenge. (there is a snow golem After all, wandering there! )

Back in warm southern climates, social encounters with Forge Fitzwilliam must more or less get off the ground to make the rest of the story possible. But given that Forge has all the power in that situation, and there isn’t much to offer Forge in exchange for what the PCs want, Rails is too obvious and shouldn’t feel pushy. And there are many ways to approach the battles that follow — most of which require more PC interaction than movies. There, the bard Edgin tends to fiddle with his thumbs out of the way whenever the barbarian Holga joins battle.

From there, assuming the players don’t shy away from fact-finding opportunities in the story, it’s back to the realm where only one of the players takes action. Honor of the Thief is, and often is, consciously modeled to feel like a real tabletop experience — unless you split your party up and let one of them handle all the action. increase. Druid Doric is wildly shaping his way out of an espionage mission. In fact, his Doric escape segment in particular needs a major rewrite to make it fun at his table to play. Since the game’s druid can only change her form twice before resting, her other PCs need a way to get involved, and her actual escape method doesn’t work.

The cemetery-exploring scene where the party tries to figure out who last had the MacGuffin of the Hour helmet is one of the better designed parts of this scenario. This is a very flexible setup, allowing the GM to fine-tune the game to suit the party’s preferred playstyle. The movie lingers it out mostly for comedy, which could work. (including the seeds of story arcs in ), or even turn entire scenes into battles. (“The last party that came here didn’t seem to bother asking anyone who raised five full questions. A small army of vengeful and resentful undead is charging at you. Take control.”)

The entire Xenk arc is the hypothetical biggest problem. Honor of the Thief Modules, at least how they play on screen. Players go to his powerful NPC, listen to his lectures and backstory, follow him faithfully on his journey without any expertise or opinion, and get from him a huge information dump about Zass his Tams. , should step back and observe him. Collect quest items for them and then fight the undead solo? There are many ways to involve the PC in all that action than in the movie, but given how docile the character in the movie is to her Xenk’s every command, this part of the module is about how far away the player is. It feels like it was written to make sure that this is, his Story.

From there, there’s Themberchaud’s run-in. This can be a good opportunity for charismatic characters to pivot into social encounters. That dragon must have at least a little interest in the outside world given his history.or it can work as Extended skill challengeHowever, some PC groups are up and trying to kill him. This he feels like TPK territory. If the GM doesn’t want the story to end there, they’ll need a clear exit. This doesn’t work with the entrainment rules as written, but one-on-one roleplay could easily be discarded for a character who doesn’t like deep exploration of his scenes and characters.

The robbery itself, aimed at releasing all goods ill-gotten by the Forge, could be the core of this module. The characters in the film have found a few different ways to get into the Forge’s large vault, but there are still many more possibilities left on the table. Assuming a group that likes puzzle challenges, this whole challenging setup, complete with rug-pulling surprises and a chance for the whole party to shine in their area of ​​expertise, makes for a strong centerpiece for the module. Who is not?

And the Gladiator’s Ring, which follows as well, has a lot of potential depending on how the party wants to play. options are a lot of fun. Do parties try to get the crowd on their side? Do they recruit other parties running around the arena? You can even invite other players to special one-off events to add to your fun. Will they play everything as head to head, or will they try to control the magic of the arena? It can be a big and dramatic climax.

greatest strength Honor of the Thief As a potential D&D play module, it offers the characters so many meaningful choices. But more importantly, he faces scenarios where the right way to deal with the problem is not the only one. And the ending in particular is a powerful one, as they can take a truly selfish path or a noble path, either path leading to further story options. rich and free And they left behind them a whole city of greedy undead. If they return to defeat Sofina, they will definitely make an enemy out of the Red Wizard, which could start an endless future story.

either way, Honor of the Thief There are pros and cons as a movie and as a play experience, but there seems to be enough potential there. A good GM and a good group of players can find fun in any module, scenario, or scene, but having a good story skeleton already laid out helps a lot. The Dungeons & Dragons movies weren’t explicitly designed for a play experience, but there’s a solid skeleton underneath all the action on screen. It’s just waiting for players to flesh it out and make it work.