Welcome to the table.
Let’s dive into the Dungeons and Dragons movie trailer. What’s that you say? You have not seen it yet? Well, here it is, so strap in.
Fun, right? That feels like a cross between a Tika Marvel Movie and a fever dream I had when I was 14 and had eaten some really old pizza we found in the back of the comic shop we played D&D in. Don’t judge too harshly, my parents did not feed me much and my best friend’s parents, as cool as they were, were doing a lot of healthy diet stuff so he had grown accustomed to eating stuff that tasted like cardboard on the regular. It looked and smelled like pizza and it had only been unrefrigerated for 2-6 days in the back of a dirty mold-infested comic shop so I mean, you can see why we thought it was totally fine to eat.
Anyways, poor decisions aside, this movie looks super fun. There are so many little moments that feel like this thing is going to be packed full of nods to D&D lore and rulebooks. Let’s go through some of them I have spotted.
That is a black dragon spewing its 60-foot line of acid breath. Those troops are going to need to make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, taking 54 (12d8) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Those people look to be foot soldiers, they are done Death Saves out the window… game over for the ones caught in the acidy death from above.
This looks to be Justice Smith as Simon, a Sorcerer (at least that is what a google search is telling me his name is, so take that with a pinch of bat droppings as IMDB has not been updated yet) tossing up a Leomund’s Tiny Hut. Now, this spell normally takes a full minute to cast and that flame bolt-looking spell came at them fairly fast so this could be a variation of the Shield Spell as well or something else entirely. For now… if I was the Storyteller this would be a quickened Lemund’s Tiny Hut and there would be a Happy Meal Toy and at least two action figures that had some kind of Lemund’s Tiny Hut casting action.
Now we get our title. Honor Among Thieves. Clearly some kind of thieves party in play. My guess is with Hugh Grant playing Forge Fitzwilliam, a Rogue (take that with a dash of yellow flower mold), and Chris Pine playing Edgin, a Bard ( again, speculation on this from various internet chatter so it could be as wrong as a goblin winning an arm wrestling match against a storm giant)… who also seems to be into thieving stuff… those are the Thieves the Honor is among. Again, speculation.
This looks to be a statue of Palarandusk. Now Palarandusk, known as the Unseen Protector or the Sun Dragon, was a male gold dragon who lived in the Sword Mountains on the Sword Coast North. Baldur’s Gate, where this movie takes place is the largest metropolis and city-state on the Sword Coast… and Palarandusk is known to associate with wizards of renown from Baulders Gate and pull the wool over the eyes of Bards. One of our main players is a bard.
That looks like a lich siphoning red magics into a horn while wearing the red wizards of Thay robes. The Red Wizards of Thay also known as the Red Magic Cult were a magocratic ruling class of jerk wizards who lived in the country of Thay. They historically owed their power to the fact they were cruel power-hungry demonologists and arcane experimenters. They were also known to be really into undeath so if this is a Lich, an undead wizard, then it would make sense they would be some kind of central villain in this moment. Some part of me thinks this could be connected to Vecna as Vecna has had a glow-up recently. Read more about that at this link. It could also totally be Szass Tam who was a well-known lich who elevated himself to the Regent of all Thay.
I have no idea what is going on with this weird red mold but that red spider on the tree cloaked in shadow is giving me the creepy-crawlies. It would be amazing if Ettercaps, known to cohabitate with spiders and lay traps for adventures were going to set upon the party at this moment… but more than likely this is some kinda “giant spiders attack you” encounter. Ettercap action figures would be so cool though so I will maintain hope. 
Regé-Jean Page playing Xenk the Paladin (speculation that could be as shoddy as the old wooden bridge you need a DC18 or higher to cross) seems to be activating his Holy Avenger here. That, or perhaps smite has a cool visual effect.
My dude just shot his sword off and there is a small dagger underneath. This is such a cool feature that YOU KNOW is going to show up in action figures, Happy-Meal toys, and kids’ play swords, like… how is this not built specifically for merchandise. This one little trick alone is a gold mine worthy of the most greedy of Red Dragons.
This came off as a Helm of Brilliance to me. From a story perspective, it would give the Sorcerer a really strong advantage for a moment and then something could happen to get the gems removed and it would turn to dust. Another great item to make toys out of but not something that would unbalance the party for too long.
This appears to be a horse polymorphing into an Owlbear. Sophia Lillis plays Doric, a tiefling Druid (once more, totally based on internet information so it could be as untrustworthy as three Kobolts in a trench coat) could easily be under the effect of the polymorph spell. There is a lot of banter around the internet right now saying Druids can’t wild shape (one of their known abilities) into an owlbear but a Storyteller could easily allow it at their table.
This again could also be something other than wild shape. A spell-like Polymorph could make this happen with no issues. This could also be from 4th Edition D&D where Druids could wild shape into Beasts or Fey Beasts and Owlbears were considered Fey Beasts in 4th. So lots of things could be going down in this scene. So there we go friends, all the arguing… solved by your old pal Anton.
Owlbear eating this armored guy’s leg makes me smile. 
This appears to be the statue of Palarandusk come to life. Could be a golem, could be an illusion, could be the dragon himself. Those gold eyes make me feel more confident that I am correct. 
This very well could be a city in the Underdark. Drow and Duergar (Elves and Dwarves who live deep deep underground where the sun never touches) live in such cities and this could be where our party interacts with them. With the Drow lore getting a revamp and us seeing a new Loth (the Spider Goddess of the Drow) design in the last Magic The Gathering set it would make sense to me much like Vecna’s glow-up that move was made to refresh these often problematic species for a wide audience.
A nice shot of our party with Chris Pine playing Edgin, a Bard, Michelle Rodriguez playing Holga, a Barbarian, Regé-Jean Page playing Xenk, a Paladin not in this image but off shooting his sword at something I am sure, Justice Smith playing Simon, a Sorcerer, Sophia Lillis playing Doric, a tiefling Druid. In all seriousness, this does seem to be the classes these actors are playing but I do not have anything official saying so yet so please, take this as internet hype and speculation in regards to their classes and names until we have something official from the Dungeons and Dragons camp.
This spell is called Green Flame Blade. Basically, you brandish the weapon used in the spell’s casting and make a melee attack with it against one creature within 5 feet of you. On a hit, the target suffers the weapon attack’s normal effects, and you can cause green fire to leap from the target to a different creature of your choice that you can see within 5 feet of it. The second creature takes fire damage equal to your spellcasting ability modifier. My party uses this thing constantly and it really does some serious damage to my monsters.
This looks like a battle mat to me. If you run combat in a D&D game you tend to use a grid map where each square is representative of a 5X5ft space. A blank mat that has the grid on it is typically referred to as a Battle Mat. This totally looks like a Battle-Mat down to the tan color. 
The iconic Mimic in its chest form can be seen in this image from the trailer. Mimics have become as much of a mascot for D&D at this point as dice have.
This strange panther-looking beast with tentacles on its back is the dreaded Displacer Beast. You can also see the party leaping into the acidic Gelatinous Cube. Not sure how they plan on surviving that as when engulfed in the Gelatinous Cube the engulfed creature can’t breathe, is restrained, and takes 21 (6d6) acid damage at the start of each of the cube’s turns. They have to have a few levels on them to have the Hit Points to survive that kind of bold move. 
Oh this thick good boy dragon. I wish I could just name him Grumpus and he was playing with the party but there is a fairly good chance this is Themberchaud, an adult red dragon allied with the Duergar of Gracklstugh in the Northdark of the Underdark. If that Underdark city we saw was any indication this is probably who this is. The horns and girth match the depictions we typically see.
Just a Bard, barding it up.
And finally, we have a release month. I notice they did not give an actual date because, as most D&D players know, nailing down an actual date that everyone can get together and play is the hardest part of the whole hobby.
Well… there you go, it’s well after midnight and I have enjoyed putting this all together.
Until next time, I hope this finds you well and that you have something fun in your life that brings you as much joy as I feel knowing that a major D&D movie is being released to theaters for the second time in my life. I survived the Satanic Panic, abusive grandmothers, and a bunch of bullying, as a kid who loved this hobby trying to grow up in a world that seemed to condemn it. Now I get to see new players coming to the table and I get to write these kinds of articles… it seems like something that was just as unattainable as the magic swords and flying carpets in my rulebooks. It is truly a pleasure to be able to put these kinds of things together for you all.
Until next time, know I am thankful for you.
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