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Cartoon Based on D20 Modern Setting
Despite rumblings of a new Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, the first Wizards of the Coast setting that will see production as a television show is apparently Urban Arcana. UA is one of the canned settings offered by Wizards of the Coast in its d20 Modern roleplaying game. Despite this announcement, it's not going to be in front of your eyes for some time. From the article: "...the Sci-Fi Channel and Fox Television Studios are developing a television series based on the Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast D20 MODERN campaign suppliment URBAN ARCANA for the '06-'07 season."
I mute the commercials with my +4 JVC remote of silence!
It'll be tons better than the Dungeons and Dragons crap^H^H^H^Hmovie, and nowhere's near as good as the original Dungeons and Dragons cartoon from the 80's.
I never played Urban Arcana. For my modern day fix, I prefer Shadowrun. More room for craziness, and I never liked the D20 system anyways.
Another game to tv cartoon? Should we expect a thinly veiled infomercial?
Have you seen the Yu-Gi-Oh cartoon? All that it's missing is the price and a phone number to call.
Still, I'd prefer that to the old He-Man cartoons, where at the end they'll hammer a "moral of the story" on you.
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I'm waiting for a show based off Monopoly.
All comments are properties and trademarks of the voices in my head. Not like I'm gonna claim them.
Me, I'm waiting for the cartoon based on Breakeys.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
And they passed up the Dresden Files for this pablum? Critical Failure!
-EvilMagnus
Just ordered the DVD of the 80s cartoon. Man that was great story telling for a cartoon! I hope they bring it back or at least finish the final story arc.
In fact, in 1990 there was a bad game show based on Monopoly.
Do we all forget the D&D animated series?
So let me get this straight -- we're going to get a d20 Modern cartoon package, and the D&D MMORPG is going to be based on Ebberon and promises a world of magic and science... ...and yet WotC rejects nearly complete modules Bioware was trying to sell for Neverwinter Nights because they aren't "traditional faerun" enough.
Go figure. Wish they'd make up their minds.
The title says it's a cartoon, however the article simply calls it "an action series". Nowhere in the article does it say that it is a cartoon.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
I'd still play if I had time.
But what I can't understand is why anybody would want to watch a cartoon or movie based on it. The appeal of the game, at least to me, is social problem solving. It's play pure and simple. Well, pure at least.
My daughter has a first grade friend with whom she plays this game. They're dogs, Rex and his sister Regina, who go on all kinds of adventures in places like "Diamond Land". Adults may be better at kids at picking up heavy objects; at analyzing; at planning. But one thing kids have over adults is imagination. When they play at flying, they are as close to experiencing flight as anything that isn't a bird could be. Grownups need dice and rules and have to spend time painting elaborate figurines to approach an experience that a child can materialize completely out of his head with the help of a friend or two.
Which is fine and good and healthy. Most adults are impossibly dull and could use a little imagninative play. But from the outside, unless you are into the technical aspects of the game, it's like hanging around with a bunch of people who are smoking weed. They're having a great time, but they're even duller than mundanes. I can't see why anyone would find it entertaining enough to watch.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Unless Hanna Barbara makes it, and has at least one kid with some kind semi-talking animal, it will be a flop. Or maybe I have that backwards...
That being said, this stuff happens so rarely for RPGs that I'd welcome any attempt at it, even a butchered one. It might encourage more to do it and someone might finally get it right.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Let's see...c id=12182177 for why Eberron was possibly the only option for a D&D MMORPG.
UA cartoon: There's plenty of room in that framework.
Eberron: See http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=145400&
Bioware: A proven track record for trampling all over Realmslore.(7 games/expansions. How many broke Realmslore? 6. SoU had the stupidity that was stingers in Anauroch. For some reason, I'm thinking Tales of the Sword Coast broke something, but I can't remember anything exactly, so for now, it's the one that didn't.) The Realms community is one of the most vocal pen-and-paper roleplaying game communities out there, and definitely the most vocal of the groups that WotC is still dealing with. And WotC needs to keep them happy-or they will not only lose a community, but they'll lose the people that keep that product line straight(Boyd, Greenwood, Costa, Krashos). And they care about continuity in everything. WotC is heading more towards giving them stuff to be happy about then the other direction, as they get more of a net benefit from that, actually. And that community enjoys Realms based computer games-to some degree. At the same time, they're compiling a list of what they did wrong. This is different from just straight persistent fandomism-because it matters to their games-it's kind of hard to run a game in Saradush, for example, if Throne of Bhaal blasted it to the ground...So, if this group will scream and cry if Bioware tramples over the Realms again, then they had better make sure Bioware doesn't trample over the Realms in what they're doing. It wouldn't surprise me if they got Boyd or Greenwood to check over the modules before giving them a go or stop signal. It doesn't make creating Realms games impossible, it just makes it a bit harder. Hell, there are still unresolved hooks from 1e(if only Troy Denning hadn't slain the Sleeping Lords-that would make for an excellent computer game!).
Oh, and I'll respond to any parts of either this or the post I linked to, if you've questions or criticisms.
The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
Remember, D20 doesn't refer to a game using D20s, it refers to games using the D20 system-the system first introduced with D&D 3.0, and used in D&D 3.0, 3.5, the last two Star Wars pen-and-paper roleplaying games(the ones WotC has done), the Everquest pen-and-paper roleplaying game, the Wheel of Time pen-and-paper roleplaying game, and the D20 Modern game(including Urban Arcana, D20 Future, and D20 Past), and a few others I've forgotten. The D&D cartoon was based off of 1e D&D, IIRC, which is not a member of the D20 family of systems, but is a member of the D&D family of systems.
The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
damn good to pull me away from Dragon Booster, perhaps the best damn cartoon airing right now.
I happened on this show by accident, just flipping through channels one january saturday morning. It was the quality of the animation and art in the show that instantly caught my eye. I hadn't watch a toon in years, so I gave it a go. I was delighted to find the story telling of the show, while typical of the hero genre, is quite entertaining. I now watch the show religiously every saturday morning at 10:30 am (EST).
There happens to be a mini-marathon tomorrow beginning at 8 am, entitled the "chronicles of the dragon" or something like that. Check it out.
34 years old, and I am hooked on a cartoon. Heh.
http://ebaumsworld.com/gijoe.html
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