From table top to video game and now the big screen.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves combines fantasy, humour, action and adventure with a stellar cast.

The story follows Edgar Darvis (Chris Pine) as a Harper, quick witted and ready to break out into song who along with his very unlikely ally, a Barbarian called Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez) find themselves imprisoned.

Captured but not helpless Edgar takes us on a fantastical adventure as to how they got in to this predicament in the first place.

While on a mission Edgar tries his hand at being a thief. To give a better life for him, his wife and daughter, Kira.

However the treasure he stole was marked and a Red Wizard came for him. He wasn’t home, but his wife was.

Living a life now with just him and his daughter, Edgar’s thievery is a means to an end to support his daughter, but he was not good at it and kept getting caught. Even with a band of allies to help.

Edgar is also seeking an artefact that will resurrect his wife.

Upon incarceration one of Edgar’s partners in crime Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), a con-man, vows to take care of his daughter.

Years pass and when Edgar catches up with Fitzwilliam he is surprisingly the Lord of Neverwinter and has aligned with a Red Wizard, Sofina (Daisy Head).

As Fitzwilliam’s true intentions become clear as well as the agreement between him and Sofina, Edgar, Holga and their two companions they picked up along the way, a shapeshifting elf called Doric (Sophia Lillis) and a would-be sorcerer Simon Aumar (Justice Smith) not only continue their quest to find the resurrection artefact, but need to strategise and play the game in order to survive.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is a fantastic film. Placing the lore, the skillbase of character classes and interweaving them in to a narrative that would’ve been an excellent table top playthrough.

Fan of the game or not, I fully recommend seeing.

The post Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (Paramount – 2023) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Dungeons and Dragons Dark Alliance is the spiritual continuation of the legendary Balder’s Gate series based on the iconic fantasy tabletop role-playing game.

Balder’s Gate was one of the very first PC games that I played, shortly after building my first PC back in 1998.

The game used the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition rules to mimic the mechanics of the paper RPG in digital form. I invested hours in the isometric RPG journeying through the meticulously recreated Forgotten Realms.

Skipping forward 23 years and nine games later we have Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance.

The game fits into the canon of the tabletop game, going as far as to tiein with the 2020 Dungeons and Dragons module, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is a third-person hack and slash RPG with some (very) light puzzle / exploration elements set in the D&D realm of Icewind Dale.

It’s designed to be played online with up to three other players, but can also be played as an offline single-player game.

The game is set across six three-act missions, with a tutorial mission and an extra dungeon.

Missions are unlocked once the conditions are met. Once each act has been completed once, they can be played again.

This allows for some replay values as at the beginning of each act the difficulty can be selected, higher difficulties yielding better rewards. Players can also complete missions again with each of the four available characters.

Players can choose from a dark elf ranger, human fighter, human barbarian, or dwarf fighter.

These are stock characters that allow for little in the way of customisation. It’s a complete mystery to me as to why they’ve omitted custom character creation.

Also, solo play is exactly that, with no AI companions to help.

The game does look pretty good, especially on Xbox Series X.

The lighting is nice and the character designs look really good. But the character movement animations are awkward and they tend to float a few inches from the ground. As fun as I found the game to play, Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance comes across as unfinished.

The essence is there, barring a few odd design choices, but generally, it’s an unrefined experience. I pity the CG artists that created the elaborate cut-scenes to a game that feels otherwise half-baked.

I found the game to play like an off-brand Warhammer: End Times- Vermintide. Vermintide games coming across as the winners.

This is pretty ironic as Games Workshop’s Warhammer tabletop RPG was inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. Dark Alliance has an onerous heritage to uphold, one that it doesn’t quite succeed in living up to.

Little niggles like not being able to change equipment during a mission spoil the experience. Any cool gear must wait until you get back to the hub to equip.

The trader, despite his suggestions, doesn’t seem to sell anything, he only upgrades the equipment that you already have.

The AI isn’t particularly good, either.

During missions, enemies will stand around happily taking artillery damage until they keel over and meet their maker unless you stand right in front of them.

I foolishly switched to online mode during play. This placed the game in a perpetual, desperate but fruitless, search for a session to connect me to. The only way out was to quit to the title screen.

I found none of these issues to be a showstopper. The rough edges suggest that the game was rushed out the door without that last bit of polish.

Game mechanics aside, the Levels are nicely designed making the exploration fun and the environments interesting enough to keep me engaged.

The combat is a bit scrappy and imprecise, even for a game that’s really a button-masher, but enjoyable, enough. In the end, despite its faults, I had trouble putting the game down.

Without the weight of the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is a passable button-mashing RPG, it looks pretty good, with fun if uninspired gameplay and a few odd design choices.

As a Dungeons and Dragons game, it’s a huge missed opportunity and one that the publisher, Wizards of the Coast, should reflect upon.

With the game being free to Xbox Game Pass subscribers, it’s worth a go, especially with friends.

The post Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance (Xbox Series X) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios announced the first chapter of Neverwinter’s three-episode Sharandar module, Episode 1: The Iron Tooth, is now available on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and Arc), and will launch on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on March 16th, 2021.

The Iron Tooth marks the debut for the first phase of the revamped mystical land of Sharandar – originally introduced in Neverwinter’s first ever module in 2013, Fury of the Feywild – where adventurers will find the Ruins of Malabog adventure zone, New Sharandar social hub, Vault of Stars end-game dungeon, along with epic enemies and rewards.

The next episode, Episode 2: The Soul Keeper, will launch on PC in April and on consoles in May 2021.

“The Iron Tooth strikes a balance between new and old, as it not only preserves the spirit of Sharandar that Neverwinter fans have come to love, but also brings several new features that all adventurers will enjoy,” said Chris Whiteside, Neverwinter’s executive producer. “The Neverwinter community has asked for more evolving worlds to explore, so we’re very excited for adventurers to enter the mystical lands of the Fey once again like never before.”

Across three epic episodes, Neverwinter’s newest module has players return to Sharandar to end the unsettling darkness creeping across the Feywild and the area’s age-old elven stronghold.

The Iron Tooth, introduces new and returning players to the Feywild lands of Sharandar, where they must head to the Ruins of Malabog to investigate the disappearance of an elven dignitary. With loutish creatures that will kill any foolish enough to enter the ruins, players will need to join forces to successfully be Protectors of the Feywild and rise against the darkness.

Players will also discover that deep in the forest, a coven of ancient hags have claimed the lands around Sharandar and gathered scattered bands of Malabog’s minions and other creatures long ignored by the Fey courts.

In The Iron Tooth, players must band together to enter the lair of the foul Annis Hag, the first of Sharandar’s three menacing hags, in the Ruins of Malabog. To stand a chance against the hags in each episode of Sharandar, players need to enter the Vault of Stars to steal a fragment of the powerful Night Diamond from the Queen of Air and Darkness, an entity of great power.

Episode 1: The Iron Tooth introduces plenty of playable content and exciting updates for PC players to explore. A full list of game features released with today’s update includes:

• Ruins of Malabog Adventure Zone – Explore the Ruins of Malabog, where the remnants of Malabog’s army have joined forces with minions of the Annis Hag.  Together, these brutal and murderous creatures have begun terrorizing the lands of Sharandar once again.
• New Sharandar Social Hub – The Iliyanbruen elves of New Sharandar have taken the time after King Malabog’s defeat to rebuild their stronghold, making it a haven for travelers and fey creatures alike.
• Annis Hag Lair – The foul Annis Hag has made a lair for herself in the Ruins of Malabog. Do you dare enter its depth to confront this horrid hag?
• Vault of Stars End-Game Dungeon – The Gloaming Court is ruled by the Queen of Air and Darkness, a formless entity of great power. But she keeps within the Vault of Stars a powerful magical item known as the Night Diamond. Could this be the key to defeating the hags?

While pushing back the darkness in the epic new Sharandar campaign in Episode 1: The Iron Tooth, players can also earn new rewards including the Forest Guardian’s armor set, the Sparkling Fey Emblem artifact and the Blink Dog companion.

The next two episodes, Episode 2: The Soul Keeper and Episode 3: The Odious Court will continue the story of Neverwinter: Sharandar.

Players will have the chance to experience the transformation of Sharandar as they take on the sinister hags revealed in the first episode and push back the darkness. More details, including features, for these episodes will be revealed soon.

Neverwinter is a free-to-play action MMORPG featuring fast-paced combat and epic dungeons. Players explore the vast city of Neverwinter and its surrounding lands, learning the vivid history of the iconic city in the Forgotten Realms and battling its many enemies.

Neverwinter is available on PC and is free to play digitally on Xbox One (with Xbox Live Gold) and PlayStation 4 (PlayStation Plus not required).

Everyone that works on STG is a volunteer. If you like the site and its contents please think about donating. Even a small amount helps keep the servers running.

The post NEVERWINTER OFFICIALLY RETURNS TO SHARANDAR appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The Nacelle Company, the people behind The Toys That Made Us and The Movies That Made Us, have partnered with Cavegirl Productions and X-Ray Films to announce they are producing a documentary about the iconic collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. The movie, Igniting the Spark, The Story of Magic: The Gathering, will explore the game’s history, explosive growth, and enduring popularity.

Magic: The Gathering, the world’s most popular strategy card game, was created by mathematician Richard Garfield in 1993 and is published by Wizards of the Coast (Dungeons & Dragons), a subsidiary of Hasbro.

The Magic: The Gathering franchise has more than 38 million fans in over 70 countries. Over the years, Magic has evolved from a niche card game into a world-wide phenomenon boasting international tournaments, ever-expanding sets, and enthusiastic collectors.

In 2019, Netflix announced that the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Endgame, Captain America: Winter Soldier) are producing an animated Magic: The Gathering series for the platform.

Igniting The Spark will be co-directed by Brian Stillman (Plastic Galaxy: The Story of The Star Wars Toys, Eye Of The Beholder: The Art Of Dungeons and Dragons, The Toys That Made Us) and Kelley Slagle (Of Dice and Men, Eye Of The Beholder: The Art Of Dungeons and Dragons). It will be produced by Slagle, Stillman, and Seth Polansky (Of Dice and Men, Eye Of The Beholder: The Art Of Dungeons and Dragons), and Brian Volk-Weiss (The Toys That Made Us, The Movies That Made Us, Behind The Attraction) and Cisco Henson for The Nacelle Company.

“We’re honored to be producing this documentary, which is sure to introduce the iconic game to a new audience while at the same time preserving its rich history,” said Brian Volk-Weiss, CEO of The Nacelle Company.

“Magic: The Gathering is a classic success story, a homegrown game that came from nowhere and achieved world-wide success. It’s brought joy to millions of people and along the way completely transformed the game industry. We can’t wait to tell this story,” said co-directors Brian Stillman and Kelley Slagle.
“I’ve played Magic: The Gathering since 1994. Now, 25 years later, I’m beyond thrilled to be able to give something back to the game and the community that has given me so much joy over the years” said co-producer Seth Polansky.

Founded by Brian Volk Weiss, The Nacelle Company develops, produces, and distributes feature and documentary films as well as TV shows – both scripted and unscripted. Nacelle’s vast array of partnerships include: Netflix, Amazon, Disney +, HBO, Discovery, BET+, A&E Networks, Hulu, Viacom, and many more. The Nacelle Company has produced the hit Netflix docu-series, The Toys That Made Us, and it’s upcoming spin-off, The Movies That Made Us, Sony’s Mad About You reboot, CW’s Discontinued, Netflix’s Kevin Hart’s Guide To Black History, and Behind The Attraction for Disney +.

Cavegirl Productions, headed by founders Kelley Slagle and Seth Polansky, began producing independent films in 2004. Among their award-winning projects are the fantasy web series The Broken Continent (2013), the dramedy feature film Of Dice and Men (2014), and the documentary Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons (2019).

Founded in 2006 by Brian Stillman, X-Ray Films is a documentary production company celebrating pop-history and culture. Recent features include Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys (2014) and the award-winning Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons (2019).

The post Magic: The Gathering To Get the Full Documentary Treatment appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Jeremy Crawford, lead rules designer and managing editor on Dungeons and Dragons at Wizards of the Coast, will give the “Storytime” keynote at PAX Unplugged 2018, taking place November 30th – December 2nd, 2018 at Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA.

The lead designer of Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook (5th Ed.), the definitive ruleset for “D&D” players, Crawford joined Wizards of the Coast in 2007 before going on to contribute to many crucial tomes for players and dungeon masters, such as the Dungeon Master’s Guide, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, andMordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. He then leveled up to become the company’s lead rules designer on the renowned tabletop game.

“Dungeons and Dragons is among the important tabletop games ever created, and we still love and enjoy it to this day,” said Penny Arcade co-founder and Acquisitions Incorporated host Jerry Holkins. “We’re honored to have such an influential figure in the game’s history share his experience with PAX Unplugged attendees and can’t wait to hear his stories at the show.”

Jeremy Crawford

Badges for PAX Unplugged 2018 are on sale now.

Established in 2017, PAX Unplugged delivers the PAX experience fans know and love, but with a focus on celebrating card, board, and tabletop games. The second year of PAX Unplugged will build on the inaugural event’s success by featuring more exhibitors, new game reveals, hands-on opportunities, tournaments, and panels with industry leaders than ever before.

Produced by ReedPOP, in conjunction with Penny Arcade, the PAX series of gaming conventions – West, East, South, Dev, Unplugged, and Australia – are some of the largest in the world, each with tens of thousands of guests every year. Every show is a celebration of gaming culture, where the gaming community of fans and creators connect via panels, demos, concerts, tournaments, and freeplay sessions.

The post PAX Unplugged Keynote: D&D Lead Rules Designer appeared first on Shane the Gamer.