Suggested Media

[Daniel]

I was trying to explain what I do when playing and the person said: So it's like you play in Lord of the Rings. She related what I was describing to the movies.

So this made me curious, if you were going to recommend five movies or TV programs to offer a taste of the fantasy RPG as you see it, what would they be?

No restrictions in that it could be Anime, live action, illustrated, etc.

So name your five....

[Treebore]

Game of Thrones, Conan, Dragonslayer, Dragonheart, Krull.

[Treebore]

Thing is, pick any movie or TV series, and there is probably an RPG you can do it with. So personally, I'd come from that angle, that you can do anything with RPG's.

[Daniel]

Thing is, pick any movie or TV series, and there is probably an RPG you can do it with. So personally, I'd come from that angle, that you can do anything with RPG's.

I agree, that is why I said a taste for how you see it. I was thinking five that reflect your take on the genre.

[maximus]

Sword & the Sorcerer, Game of Thrones, Hawk the Slayer, Sword of Truth, and Krull.

[serleran]

Movies: Brazil, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Metropolis, The Cabin in the Woods, Fantasia.

[Rigon]

Record of the Lodoss War, Conan, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Excalibur, and Beastmaster.

R-

[ssfsx17]

I'm going to cheat and say a lot more than 5 things

#1: This guy - he is now my standard of what it means to play a Bard
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzmmPRG4smU
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqnuinjk088

#2: These kinds of people, although some would be classified as "Evil" in D&D rules, and I don't personally agree with most of their mentalities. But they were adventurers, and the kinds of things they had to do to survive are inspirational.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophon#Anabasis
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernán_Cortés
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Pizarro
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush

#3: The King Arthur cycle - an exploration of what it means to be a hero who goes out, smites evil, and eventually builds a stronghold and tries to rule
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Morte_d%27Arthur
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Once_and_Future_King
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Acts_o ... le_Knights

#4: Books
- Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian & Solomon Kane - lately I've become much more of a fan of Solomon Kane than of Conan
- J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
- Jack Vance's Dying Earth
- Michael Moorcock's Elric series
- Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & Gray Mouser series
- Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher series

#5: Video games
- Darklands - an old MS-DOS game taking place in a semi-realistic medieval Germany, extremely inspirational for how the setting can be a huge influence on how random encounters can reflect the setting
- Baldur's Gate series - fun action and silly characters, not to be taken too seriously
- Icewind Dale series - brutal dungeon crawling
- Planescape: Torment - gritty personal journey through the Planescape setting
- Neverwinter Nights 2 - comedy game with some D&D elements, but it does show just how committed the characters are to behaving according to their alignment and beliefs
- Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer - this ought to set the standard for what constitutes an "epic-level" experience, as you deal with dark and gritty affairs of the gods
- Alpha Protocol - despite being a modern spy game, it does a good job of making you feel like it is very difficult to please everyone or get a favor from all NPCs, while at the same time, making you feel that it is still urgent to get on the good side of some NPCs in order to make your life easier
- Pillars of Eternity - this game does a very good job of making you want to fight the big bad evil guy, whether you yourself are good or evil, as well as showing how the actions of the big bad evil guy affect the world around you

[Arduin]

#4: Books
- Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian & Solomon Kane - lately I've become much more of a fan of Solomon Kane than of Conan
- J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
- Jack Vance's Dying Earth
- Michael Moorcock's Elric series
- Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & Gray Mouser series
- Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher series

I was thinking that books, as an experience, are MUCH closer to playing D&D types of RPGs than movies. You imagine from the narrative what everything looks like. FAR more interactive brain wise than just watching a flick.

(good choices you gave for books, IMO)

[serleran]

Books: The Holy Bible, The Kalevala, The Malleus Maleficarum, The Complete Far Side, Crisis On Infinite Earths.

[Daniel]

I was thinking that books, as an experience, are MUCH closer to playing D&D types of RPGs than movies. You imagine from the narrative what everything looks like. FAR more interactive brain wise than just watching a flick.

While I agree with the overall thought, the reality is, if I am in a conversation with a person and they are trying to relate, a movie reference is more likely to connect. Among us Game Geeks, then books and rule systems would also help describe our view of what we do when we play. That was why I went with the media format I did in my question.

[Daniel]

Books: The Holy Bible, The Kalevala, The Malleus Maleficarum, The Complete Far Side, Crisis On Infinite Earths.

So if you were trying to help someone understand what we do when we play RPGs you would refer to the Bible and The Complete Far Side?

You are a better man than I, Sir.

[Arduin]

While I agree with the overall thought, the reality is, if I am in a conversation with a person and they are trying to relate, a movie reference is more likely to connect.

I agree. With most of today's younger people, reading is a lost art and hardly taught anymore.

[Daniel]

I agree. With most of today's younger people, reading is a lost art and hardly taught anymore.

Oh so true. My son's teacher was caught off guard by my son's reading ability. I loved books and found my peace in them when I was younger. So I tried real hard to give him the same gift. But there are several of his friends who seem confused by the idea of reading for fun.

[Rigon]

I agree. With most of today's younger people, reading is a lost art and hardly taught anymore.

Oh so true. My son's teacher was caught off guard by my son's reading ability. I loved books and found my peace in them when I was younger. So I tried real hard to give him the same gift. But there are several of his friends who seem confused by the idea of reading for fun.

That's a parental fault, not educator fault.

R-

[Daniel]

That's a parental fault, not educator fault.

To a degree, true. But there were some shifts in the education route that made reading less important for a while. I have had educators share their thoughts and some do feel that the education system got lost for a while there.

But to go back on topic, movies, TV, anime etc.
What top five would reflect your view of fantasy?

[Tadhg]

1a Hercules
1b Ulysses
2 Jason and the Argonauts
3a Clash of the Titans
3b Adventures of Robin Hood
4 Ivanhoe
5a Black Shield of Falworth
5b Excalibur

[Arduin]

I agree. With most of today's younger people, reading is a lost art and hardly taught anymore.

Oh so true. My son's teacher was caught off guard by my son's reading ability. I loved books and found my peace in them when I was younger. So I tried real hard to give him the same gift. But there are several of his friends who seem confused by the idea of reading for fun.

That's a parental fault, not educator fault.

R-

Partially. A couple decades ago in CA all public schools turned to "whole reading" (word recognition without understanding individual letters) and destroyed the reading skills of hundreds of thousands. So, while the parents didn't hang the State EDU board from the highest tree (literally) and that is the parents fault, the gov has to take a LARGE part of the blame for turning schools into large babysitting institutions.

[Treebore]

I agree. With most of today's younger people, reading is a lost art and hardly taught anymore.

Oh so true. My son's teacher was caught off guard by my son's reading ability. I loved books and found my peace in them when I was younger. So I tried real hard to give him the same gift. But there are several of his friends who seem confused by the idea of reading for fun.

That's a parental fault, not educator fault.

R-

Partially. A couple decades ago in CA all public schools turned to "whole reading" (word recognition without understanding individual letters) and destroyed the reading skills of hundreds of thousands. So, while the parents didn't hang the State EDU board from the highest tree (literally) and that is the parents fault, the gov has to take a LARGE part of the blame for turning schools into large babysitting institutions.

Thats why we home schooled. While I agree the government failed, etc... My wife and I also refused to fail, so we pulled our kids from the public system and taught them at home. So regardless of what the Government does or does not do, it is still the parents failure or success to do, or not do, something about it for their kids.

[Arduin]

Thats why we home schooled. While I agree the government failed, etc...

We also home schooled. Although not an option for all parents due to econ. So, the gov definitely failed too. To think that the gov didn't also fail is weird. I guess the gov succeeded?

[Daniel]

So regardless of what the Government does or does not do, it is still the parents failure or success to do, or not do, something about it for their kids.

Yes, I agree. And that is why, even though I could not afford to home school, I spent a lot of time trying to help my son be greater than the school asked him to be. He was reading 6th grade level in 4th grade for example. So while home school is not always an option, teaching your kids can be.

On a side note: I never ever thought when I started this thread it would become a conversation regarding parental responsibility.

[Lurker]

Wow, this discussion took an odd turn, and one that I can't keep from throwing my 2 cents in on

As a teacher, I despise the route taken by government for education - government meaning all levels, federal, state and local all have a share of the blame - & in both of my degrees (with their EDU focuses) I made a habit of arguing against the norm. I would climb the hill plant my flag and invite anyone that though NCLB, Common Core, Whole reading, no critical thinking etc was good for learning to come and play with me. Oh some great debates there were!

That said, I'm lucky to have a very good, but painfully small, Christian Private school that I can afford to send my girls to. If it wasn't for there I'd be home schooling my girls.

Even then with the school being better than public school, my girls are still given my own work to do, books to read etc etc etc.

So regardless of what the Government does or does not do, it is still the parents failure or success to do, or not do, something about it for their kids.

Yes, I agree. And that is why, even though I could not afford to home school, I spent a lot of time trying to help my son be greater than the school asked him to be. He was reading 6th grade level in 4th grade for example. So while home school is not always an option, teaching your kids can be.

On a side note: I never ever thought when I started this thread it would become a conversation regarding parental responsibility.

Daniel, good for you. I can blame government for systemic issues, but a parent is responsible for their own child's success, so they have a hand in it too. With that, great job !!! I might push my girls, but I always try and tamper it where it is leading to then loving and enjoying reading and learning. So, if your 4th grader is reading for the enjoyment of it you are doing it right!

Ok, now off my soap box

To the question at hand

I do agree that most people will get movie references better than books. However, books are my fodder and what I think of 9 out of 10 times so I'll lean on what I know:

1.a JRRT - Hobbit - The opening 2 or 3 paragraphs of it are what ignited my imagination and got me to love fantasy reading, so that will always be my first default description.
1.b. JRRT - Lord of the Rings - expands it to high level play and how I picture the elves dwarves etc

2 - Homer - Odysseus - To me it fits RPG adventuring than The Wrath of Achilles
2.b - various other Myths


3 - Ivanhoe - The best "how a knight should be' book ever

4 - Watt-Evans - With a single spell and other books in the series - good fun read and shows that it doesn't have to be earth shattering save the world

5 - Princess Bride - I guess I can add movies to the list, but I include the book here too
5.b - Stardust

[Treebore]

Thats why we home schooled. While I agree the government failed, etc...

To think that the gov didn't also fail is weird. I guess the gov succeeded?

I am confused. I agreed that the Government did fail, just that my wife and I refused to fail, so home schooled.

While I was a High School teacher in one of our local schools, and she was Head Research Librarian at MUSC. Then, when she went into the Army, I just became a stay at home dad, and did the primary home schooling for our kids. Then when she had her health ruined, and was medically discharged, we both resumed Home Schooling duties. Sure, it wasn't easy, but our kids were worth it to us. So I said that while the Government failed, my wife and I refused to also fail our kids.

On the thread topic, yeah, I would say books are much more of an influence on me than movies, but I have to admit very few people read books for pleasure, and that has always seemed to be the case as I grew up in the 70's onward. I know that by my Senior Year in High School, no one else had read even 1/5 of the books I had read outside of the schools required reading.

[Daniel]

I think we are all agreed. We, as parents, have to insure our children learn what they need for the future.

I believe our local school has some good people who try, with the restrictions they have, to teach what they can. I try to enhance where I can or find tutoring where I can't.

And as for my hobby, reading helps there too. I have had so much fun over the years not just reading RPG books, but many other books. As questions came up, I would go find books and read. Horse care, wilderness survival, Greek history, medieval ships, all examples of game questions that drove me to read more. From the sounds of it, I am in good company.

[Treebore]

Yeah, I showed you a day or so ago just a few of the resources I like to use. Gaming has been my primary motivation for finding them. Except Science, I've always liked Science for Science' sake, which is why I get the weekly Science Journal and monthly Scientific American when I need "Bubble Gum" science writing, because the Science Journal generally makes my brain feel like its melting. I also get Archeology magazine as well as Biblical Archeological Review. I used to get the Astronomy magazine, but that became too much of an advertisement magazine, and the online resources such as the NASA website are just so much better.