Did you know there were a couple of documentaries about
D&D in the process of getting made? Me either, at least not until a couple
of days ago. The first one, Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary is
produced by Westpaw Films /Iconoscope Films and funded through Kickstarter back
in 2012. The company plans to release the finished film this year, coinciding
with the 40th anniversary of the original Dungeons & Dragons
game. From the Kickstarter page for this film:
2014 marks
the 40th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, a game that is, simply put, a
cultural phenomenon.
Whether you
know it or not, you may be playing Dungeons & Dragons. Any computer game
you play, any role-playing game you play, any online profile you fill out, have
their elements and DNA rooted in Dungeons & Dragons. It's a game that has
had far-lasting, powerful and yet subtle influence in our culture.
From its
humble beginnings in a basement in Lake Geneva, WI, D&D was created by a
group of game enthusiasts and game designers. The story of D&D and its
creation spans four decades and is a complicated, heart-breaking story. Imagine
"The Social Network", the creation of Facebook, but no one ends up
rich. This is a cautionary tale of an empire built by friends and lost through
betrayal, enmity, poor management, hubris and litigation.
Dungeons
& Dragons is a game beloved by its fans. A game that brings family and
friends together, creates communities, societies and sub-cultures. D&D
teaches. We have heard countless stories of gamers who have delved deeper,
studying history, language, science and math purely for the desire to be better
players. Gamers have created lifelong friendships because of this game and come
in all walks of life; firefighters, educators, computer programmers,
entrepreneurs, and yes, even a few documentary film-makers.
Sounds good, right? Well, not so fast. Here comes Fantasy Game Films with
their documentary The Great Kingdom. Yep, you guess it, they have a Kickstarter
too (but don’t plan to release until July 2015):
In 1969, GARY GYGAX, a family man and
an insurance underwriter with an entrepreneurial mind meets DAVE ARNESON, an
idle, yet brilliant game designer. Their collaboration would change the world,
their families and themselves.
This is the remarkable true life story
of the rise and fall of Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and the people behind the
creation of the epic role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.
THE GREAT KINGDOM explores the
personalities behind the game and the families they engendered. This is the
saga of the people who brought a company from its humble basement beginnings
and transformed it to a multi-million dollar corporation. A story for our time
that parallels the rise, fall and redemption of Steve Jobs and echoes the
who-invented-what question of the creation of Facebook.
The story of families, both blood and
personal bond, affected by the success of the game, a game that brought joy to
millions and heartbreak to its creators. What happens to these individuals as
they weather through the success; the excess, the betrayals, the downfalls and
eventual redemptions, all takes place in THE GREAT KINGDOM.
It gets even better though, as it appears the makers of The Great Kingdom worked on D&D: A Documentar, as Iconoscope Films, before
creative differences led to a parting of the ways. Again, from The Great
Kingdom’s Kickstarter page:
Some of you may know James and myself
from a different D&D documentary project that was started on Kickstarter a
couple of years ago. As projects like this go and part of the nature of
filmmaking, there were creative differences that led to our new direction and
separation from the previous project.
We started from scratch, raising
private funds and some of our own to get us to this point. We knew there was an
amazing story to tell. And like any complicated story, there will always be
room for different interpretations.
So, to those who helped support the
previous documentary, we would like to offer a digital, downloadable copy of
THE GREAT KINGDOM for FREE. It's our small way of thanking you for your support
and patience. All you need to do is email us and there will be a copy waiting
for you when the film is done.
Now, Westpaw Films, the original producers of the D&D: A Documentary film
is now suing Fantasy Game Films. From the complaint, Westpaw is suing the
company for:
usurping D&D Production
opportunities through the actions of Pascal and Sprattley (FantasyGame
Films)
who were secretly competing with the
D&D Production by planning and undertaking to produce
a different Dungeons & Dragons
documentary referred to as “The Great Kingdom”
This will drag out the production of both for the forseeable future.
Meanwhile, if you want to watch a D&D documentary, PBS, surprisingly,
has a pair of them. Can Dungeons and Dragons Make You
Confident and Successful? runs on PBS’ Idea Channel while you can find Dungeons & Dragons and the
Influence of Tabletop RPGs at PBS’ Off Book. You will be able to see these much
more quickly than either of the competing D&D documentaries, I’d wager.
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