After the Minecraft D&D announcement, the D&D Honor Among Thieves movie was the next showcase in the D&D Direct presentation. An extended trailer for the movie was screened, followed by a promo for pre-made character sheets available on D&D Beyond like the movie characters.
That tied directly into a plug for PlayDnD.com, a website that can get newcomers started. The highlight of this portion was the anime-styled cartoon “A Little D&D Tune” that gives a singing explanation of how to recruit and play D&D. While it'll never be a top 10 pop it, the Jocat Animation video was cute and clever.
It was also the perfect lead-in to the announcement of D&D Together, an initiative in which local game stores will be holding Introduction to D&D Games April 6-9 to help people intrigued by the movie try the game.
Emily Bader, D&D brand manager in charge of toys at Hasbro, introduced Hasbro's March Monster Madness, showcasing various new toys. The Honor Among Thieves Golden Archive collection are 6-inch scale, detailed figures that are highly articulated. Cartoon Classics are a line that ties into the 40th anniversary of the 1980s cartoon.
Somewhat inspired by Hasbro's Transformers line, Dicelings are the first-ever d20s that convert to D&D monsters. Golden Archive Monsters including Xanathar the Beholder, an Owlbear and a Displacer Beast to tie into the movie. No prices were listed for any of the figures.
More will be revealed about the toy figures at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT March 29 on @HasbroPulse Fanstream on YouTube. Preorders open 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT March 29. Xanathar and the Displacer Beast will be Hasbro Pulse exclusives and the owlbear will be a GameStop exclusive with limited quantities.
And, of course, Wizards of the Coast has something for Magic the Gathering fans, too. The Secret Lair Drop Series is a select number of cards delivered directly to your doorstep, inspired by D&D: Honor Among Thieves. They're on sale today at MagicSecretLair.com as regular MtG cards and premium foil cards, and include a secret card not revealed.
At the press preview, Jeremy Jarvis, senior creative director at Wizards, and Sarra Scherb, copywriter at Wizards, discussed the cards and a special opportunity Scherb had with the movie cast.
As Jarvis and Scherb explained, not all D&D classes are represented in MtG so that presented some changes. For example, Xenk is labeled a "human knight" because MtG doesn't have paladins. "Paladin" did, however, become part of his card title. Scherb also revealed a tidbit not explicitly mentioned in the movie. Xenk's sword is inscribed in Celestial with his oath, “Neither Virtue Nor Blade Shall Break.” it's a tangible reminder of who he is and what he believes.
Scherb added that the characters do map pretty well to the colors of MtG though. For example, Edgin's card is blue/red. Edgin's role in the Harper's has been very blue – the planner, the infiltrator, etc., but the Edgin we meet in the movie is very motivated by emotion – grief, resentment, e tc., which is red. He's also an artist, which is also red in MtG.
Doric gets a double-sided card to represent her tiefling form and her owlbear wildshape. The cards are legendary so they are available for commander play.
Scherb also ran a virtual one-shot with the cast and directors of D&D: Honor Among Thieves after the actors arrived in Ireland but right before filming began.
“They were all so game, so energetic,” said Scherb. “It was the first day they met in person, Chris, Justice, Regé-Jean, Sofia, and Michelle. Hugh Grant hadn't arrived yet. They thought it would be a great way for the actors to bond.”
“Chris leaned into his role as party planner,” Scherb continued. “He brought good-natured mischief to the campaign. Pine has also played [D&D] with his family and chatted about that in the session zero. He said, 'I think D&D is a great communication tool and every school should have a program' so he believes in D&D.”
Scherb also said that Justice came to his session zero incredibly prepared, knowing his character's parents, background, where he got his magic and more. Only a fraction of it shows up in the movie, but he put a lot of work into his character.
That tied directly into a plug for PlayDnD.com, a website that can get newcomers started. The highlight of this portion was the anime-styled cartoon “A Little D&D Tune” that gives a singing explanation of how to recruit and play D&D. While it'll never be a top 10 pop it, the Jocat Animation video was cute and clever.
It was also the perfect lead-in to the announcement of D&D Together, an initiative in which local game stores will be holding Introduction to D&D Games April 6-9 to help people intrigued by the movie try the game.
Emily Bader, D&D brand manager in charge of toys at Hasbro, introduced Hasbro's March Monster Madness, showcasing various new toys. The Honor Among Thieves Golden Archive collection are 6-inch scale, detailed figures that are highly articulated. Cartoon Classics are a line that ties into the 40th anniversary of the 1980s cartoon.
Somewhat inspired by Hasbro's Transformers line, Dicelings are the first-ever d20s that convert to D&D monsters. Golden Archive Monsters including Xanathar the Beholder, an Owlbear and a Displacer Beast to tie into the movie. No prices were listed for any of the figures.
More will be revealed about the toy figures at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT March 29 on @HasbroPulse Fanstream on YouTube. Preorders open 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT March 29. Xanathar and the Displacer Beast will be Hasbro Pulse exclusives and the owlbear will be a GameStop exclusive with limited quantities.
And, of course, Wizards of the Coast has something for Magic the Gathering fans, too. The Secret Lair Drop Series is a select number of cards delivered directly to your doorstep, inspired by D&D: Honor Among Thieves. They're on sale today at MagicSecretLair.com as regular MtG cards and premium foil cards, and include a secret card not revealed.
At the press preview, Jeremy Jarvis, senior creative director at Wizards, and Sarra Scherb, copywriter at Wizards, discussed the cards and a special opportunity Scherb had with the movie cast.
As Jarvis and Scherb explained, not all D&D classes are represented in MtG so that presented some changes. For example, Xenk is labeled a "human knight" because MtG doesn't have paladins. "Paladin" did, however, become part of his card title. Scherb also revealed a tidbit not explicitly mentioned in the movie. Xenk's sword is inscribed in Celestial with his oath, “Neither Virtue Nor Blade Shall Break.” it's a tangible reminder of who he is and what he believes.
Scherb added that the characters do map pretty well to the colors of MtG though. For example, Edgin's card is blue/red. Edgin's role in the Harper's has been very blue – the planner, the infiltrator, etc., but the Edgin we meet in the movie is very motivated by emotion – grief, resentment, e tc., which is red. He's also an artist, which is also red in MtG.
Doric gets a double-sided card to represent her tiefling form and her owlbear wildshape. The cards are legendary so they are available for commander play.
Scherb also ran a virtual one-shot with the cast and directors of D&D: Honor Among Thieves after the actors arrived in Ireland but right before filming began.
“They were all so game, so energetic,” said Scherb. “It was the first day they met in person, Chris, Justice, Regé-Jean, Sofia, and Michelle. Hugh Grant hadn't arrived yet. They thought it would be a great way for the actors to bond.”
“Chris leaned into his role as party planner,” Scherb continued. “He brought good-natured mischief to the campaign. Pine has also played [D&D] with his family and chatted about that in the session zero. He said, 'I think D&D is a great communication tool and every school should have a program' so he believes in D&D.”
Scherb also said that Justice came to his session zero incredibly prepared, knowing his character's parents, background, where he got his magic and more. Only a fraction of it shows up in the movie, but he put a lot of work into his character.
