Chaotek Thoughts

All praise his glory. To show my devotion to my new lord and master, I will be instituting the following changes to my life:

• I am quitting playing D&D. The game documents accurate rituals for summoning demons and casting spells, all of which is the dominion of the dark one.
• I am burning my comics, as they promote idolatry. Nothing should be greater than man other than god. Super-powers can only be acquired through a devil’s pact.
• I am giving away my washer and dryer as the glass front allows me to see underwear bouncing around, which makes me think sinful thoughts.
• I am also quitting video games forever; aliens and monsters are the spawn of hell and should not be worshiped or even imagined.
• My fantasy novels, especially Harry Potter, will be cast into the abyssal depths of the ocean where the great evil one sleeps.
• I will no longer pay my bills, as the mark of the beast is required to do business and I will not submit my soul to the devil owned bankers.
• I will slay all creatures I choose and burn crop fields. God gave us dominion over the creatures of this world and is disappointed when we plow fields.
• My home has been a sanctuary of sin, I am abandoning it to find a place high up in the mountains where I will be physically closer to heaven.
• I will no longer speak to women, as they are wicked temptresses whose only purpose is to lead men to sin.
• I reject the existence of dinosaurs and the big bang; they are the product of godless scientists intent on corrupting my faith.
• I will keep my pets in accordance to my god given dominion over nature, however they will soon learn what submissive really means…
• I abandon the philosophy of protecting the environment as it is our right to do to it as we wish. If God wanted the world to be different than it is, he would have made it so.
• The smut of the Internet and television is to be eradicated. I will lead a posse to hunt down and slaughter everyone in southern California for their hedonistic ways. Perhaps if I can get my hands on a nuclear bomb, the heathens will get an introduction to the fires of hell moments before they arrive.
• I will no longer utilize technology; it is a distraction from reading the scripture at all times.
• I reject the driving of cars, if God can walk the Earth in sandals then so can I.
• I will spread the fear and terror to the unbelievers; they will convert or die by my righteous hand.
• I believe that before execution, all heretics will be given one last opportunity to convert via the instruments of torture. They will still be executed for their initial rejection, but it gives them one last chance to save their soul.
• I will initiate a program where believers attend church functions on a daily basis. While the faithful should be attending at least 5 times a day, showing up less than once a day is a lack of commitment and the sign of a heretic’s heart.
• I will return prayer to schools, as it is critical to reach all young minds, especially the children of infidels. Bullying will be encouraged against anyone not praying or praying in a different way. Should they still choose to rebel against the faith, stoning to death should be next step.
• I will grow a beard and long hair, just as my Lord has. But anyone wearing such a style who is without faith, such as hippies and punks, will be summarily beaten with a cane.
• I reject modern fashion, as it only provokes sinful thoughts. Rather I think that everyone should wear potato sacks and sandals.
• I believe that murder is a sin, but slaughtering a city of unbelievers is God’s will. Believers will be rewarded in the afterlife with one virgin for every infidel they kill.
• I believe that anyone who doesn’t look like me or who speaks a different language is a barbarian, and we should be careful when converting them. We need them to abandon all cultural beliefs and native languages in favor of our superior customs and language as part of their conversion.
• I reject the preaching of clergy, as no one is between me and my Lord. Suggesting such is a mortal sin which should be punished accordingly.
• I believe that it is a sin to translate the scriptures into any other language. If people really had faith, they would learn my language.
• I believe that the loss of a single unborn human life is against God’s will, however bombing those who perform such operations is also God’s will.
• I encourage the destruction of churches, as they give hope that eternal damnation is avoidable. Man is a sinner and can never be as perfect as God and does not deserve his forgiveness.
• I am planning a crusade to recover the holy city of Washington D.C. from the sectarian government and restore it as a beacon of holiness. Let the world tremble as the might of a unified, god-fearing, nation trains fighters in the tactics of holy terrorism.
• I will sponsor legislation to keep women hidden, away from the eyes of holy men. Any contact between the sexes for a reason other than procreation will result in the death penalty for the seductress.
• I will promote Internet sites which reveal the truth like: http://www.ilmatar.net/~np/gameofsatan

The recent deaths of Robert Jordan, Gary Gygax and Sir Arthur C. Clarke have got me thinking about the difference between the fans of modern celebrity and the cultish following of these influential creators. Each has a legacy of the worlds that they created, weaving words into masterful tapestries. Sadly enough, I can’t really claim much experience with any of them directly, though this is something I would like to rectify as soon as possible. But their impact to me is still profound, as their talent allowed them to transcend their works and impact the future works that I am more familiar with.

Unlike modern celebrities who gain their fame from beauty and wild antics, these legends are famous for their intellect and creativity. And you can tell by differences between the fans. The untalented celebrities that we see everyday don’t have fans, they have voyeurs. These fans are just as satisfied by watching the celebrity fail just as much as they enjoy their work. With Clarke, Jordan, and Gygax there are legions of fans who truly love the creations of these men even if they wouldn’t know it if they passed by them on the street. There are many other talented people out there who will never have the fame or renown of a movie star, but who will impact the world in much larger ways.

One of the differences between D&D and non-interactive entertainment like novels and movies is that D&D is generally only shown from a single point of view—that of the players. In movies and novels, you get to see the villain when the heroes are not around, you get the “BeforeIKillYou,I’llExplainEverything” villain speech, the flashback to all of the clues sequence, and other plot explaining devices. As a DM, one of the most exciting and frustrating things about role-playing games is conveying the meta-plot. Purchased adventures provide beautiful back stories, character motivations, and side plots which are what make DMs drool as they imagine how the adventure will play out and the excitement of the players as the plot is revealed. This is even more the case with adventures cooked up by your DM; he/she thought of a story that they think is awesome and put in a lot of work developing a complex web of historical and motivational background information.

But alas, most of this will never see the light of day (or the game table) as the DM can’t force the players to do what is necessary to be able to explain the plot. This is just something you have to accept as a DM, but in some ways it also robs the players of the extra enjoyment of a good plot. Sure, the DM could blab this information after the adventure is over, but that can cheapen the players’ victory by making them feel like they failed even if they beat the adventure. DMs can use devices like cut scenes to try and expose the plot, but more often then not they seem to be shallow in order to protect the mystery, or they give away too much and ruin the story. But a DM can’t just tell you the plot, or can he? Yes, in fact the DM likely really wants to explain the plot and motivations, but needs a little help in order to do so. Here are a few tips that players can use to help the DM expose the plot for the enjoyment of all:

• Always search desks and bookshelves. These places serve as incredible sources for background information of the plot. If you see a desk covered in papers, or a disorganized bookshelf, you have found the mother load for understanding the plot background. In particular, look for journals, letters, and maps. If you state that you are looking for these types of things when you roll your search, the DM is likely more inclined to at least give you a circumstance bonus to your search if he doesn’t just give the goods to you for being specific. This search in particular will often have the most potential for adding future adventure hooks, not just this adventure’s plot.
• Always search bodies. One of the most common gripes among players is the lack of LEWT. Why not, even if you can’t use it, you might be able to sell it to buy exactly what you want. Everyone wants to have a badass character, and equipment certainly helps. Booked adventures always contain lots of good loot, almost always sufficient for the encounter level. And yet, in the same session that someone complains that they don’t have enough equipment, they don’t search bodies. Alright, enough about that rant because searching bodies isn’t just about getting the good loot, its also about plot devices. Like desks and bookshelves, you can find letters and journals which help explain the plot, as well as major plot devices which can impact the outcome of the adventure. And don’t just search the bad guys; search other corpses along the way. Sometimes the bad guys leave clues on their other victims.
• Use detect magic liberally. Let’s face it, 0 level spells are mostly useless. Why not memorize detect magic few more times. This always helps you find the good loot, but it can also help you find critical plot devices. But don’t let the lack of a magical aura stop you from rolling a search. Sure, you can see the glowing stuff and pick it off, but why not dig around to look for other non-magical stuff like coins and evil business plans.
• Interrogate enemies. Unless you are a paladin, there’s nothing wrong with cutting off a few fingers to get to the plot. Well, you don’t necessarily have to torture fallen foes to get them to talk (though sometimes it helps), a kind gesture, the opportunity to continue living, or a mind-affecting spell can get a captured enemy to spill the beans. Don’t just finish off every unconscious bad guy; take a break from battle to beat some information out of him first. If you are so inclined, you can still kill the bad guy once you’re done with him. Though letting a helpful blabber-mouth go once in awhile will help you justify that goodly alignment on your character sheet. You might not let the fanatical maniac go free, but loose-lipped minion with a good eye for details isn’t likely to cause too much harm if set free.
• Ask first, slaughter second. If your enemy doesn’t attack you outright when you encounter them, use this as an opportunity to get some information out of them. It might even be possible to get one of those “I’llExplainEverthingToProveHowCleverIAm” monologues if you give the villain a chance. When given a chance, use social skills like diplomacy and intimidate to get the big bad guy to make an Ego save against good sense and tell all.
• Don’t fight the plot, fight the villain. You are NOT being railroaded; you are being given an opportunity. If you don’t want an adventure, why are you playing? Sometimes its important to step back and ask yourself, am I helping the adventure progress or am I hindering it? If your character’s RP is anti-plot, perhaps its time to adjust that. You’ve dedicating a whole evening to the game; why not make the most of your time. Be active, follow clues, and talk to people. Don’t expect the story to always come to you; sometimes you have to go find it. Sure, there are going to some red herrings, but even an intentionally bad plot hook can be fun to play out and it will help narrow down to the real plot.
• My name is… Everyone has a name; well at least 99% of people do. But when an NPC introduces themselves, pay attention. While not every named person is important; more often than not they are. Better DMs than me might have a full name and history for every person that you run into, but even those DMs try to highlight the important people. If the person doesn’t introduce themselves, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Here’s a hint, watch the DM. If they start digging through notes before giving an elaborate (impossible to spell phonetically) name, then it’s likely an important person. If the DM makes a quick note after giving you a name (no matter how clever the name is), then they are likely making a note of it for their own memory and the person isn’t as critical. Taking notes or looking up are not sure clues, as the DM might have a stock list of generic names that they are referencing, or the name is so unimportant that they don’t care to write it down. Paying attention to your DM will help you determine which are the important NPCs and which aren’t. But even a un-named NPC minion might be useful for information, so don’t completely ignore them just because the DM doesn’t have a name ready.
• Gather information. Taverns, inns, marketplaces, etc. are great places to get clues and adventure hooks. You can also get that a lot of useful background information useful to the plot. Why would people be talking about an ancient ruin just outside of town (or other random reference) over a beer unless it is important for you to overhear? Odds are the two drunks should be complaining about their old-lady giving them a hard time for not taking out the trash or coming home drunk every night, not about some evil wizard who died 200 years ago. Sure, people get things wrong. It wasn’t a wizard, rather it was a demon that some cultists are now trying to set free, but the clue is important. Many purchased adventures include a table of “random information” full of plot clues and red herrings, but even the completely wrong rumors can be entertaining and might have some useful value.
• Knowledge (Anything) is useful. It doesn’t hurt to have a couple skill points in knowledge skills, even if they are cross-class skills. Don’t depend on general knowledge rolls to get you all of the plot hooks and background information. Knowledge (history), or knowledge (local) if you’re in that area, are perhaps the most effective knowledge skills for uncovering the plot and background information. Even knowledge (nobility and royalty) can provide useful information more often than you might think. Work with your party. It doesn’t make sense to have 5 people with knowledge (arcana) with no other skills. Try to diversify with your group. If you know two other people have knowledge (religion), maybe take something like knowledge (engineering) instead. You never know when it might help you.
• Watch for DM tells. Don’t let your mad poker skills go to waste, use them against the DM. I already mentioned how you can use tells to help understand when NPC names are important, but you can also watch for other tells. In fact, most of the tells are intentional because the DM wants you to follow up on something. For example: when describing a rather ordinary room, the DM might give a little extra description to something. Ding, ding, it might be important! If you say you are searching a room, and the DM never once looks at her notes, then likely there is nothing to be found. But if the DM seems to take a moment looking at her notes, then there might be something in that room that is worth finding. Or another party member rolls a horrific roll when searching (or anything similar), maybe you can try searching it too. “But isn’t that meta-game information that I can’t use in-character?” Maybe, but you can easily justify it in RP. If you know that your teammate rolled a 1 on a search, in character that person thinks that they did a great job searching. But another character in the room can use sense motive (or similar skill) to see that the party member just walked around staring at the ceiling and said that they didn’t find anything on the floor. After you, in character, noticed that they did a crappy job searching you now have the RP justification to search again.

It’s not just about the plot. This article focused on trying to uncover the adventure background and overall plot mostly from an entertainment point of view. Without this information, the adventure can seem random and haphazard, which is not nearly as exciting as knowing that you just stopped a complex plot which had been in the works for centuries. But knowing the meta-story of the adventure isn’t the only reason for wanting to get all of the clues and background. In many cases, this information can be very useful to your party. It can include clues to get things moving, hooks to future adventures, and even ways to make the adventure more successful. For example, a certain vampire might be powerless when confronted with a relic of his pre-undeath life. Without the relic, your party may have to fight a powerful vampire lord at a much higher risk of death and expensive limited use items. With the relic, you can completely PWN him. Sure, some of the excitement of D&D is the risk and easy fights are less exciting. But an easy fight is not less exciting if you know that you made it that way through your hard work and preparation.

Whether you’ve ever played an MMORPG like World of Warcraft or not, there are lessons to be learned from them that can greatly improve your success in D&D and other pen and paper RPGs. Given the universal application of these roles in many computer games, it should be obvious that the lessons apply to pen and paper games as well. These roles have evolved over the years as they are very effective in reducing party death, party wipes, and speed of game play.

Party roles are basically to know how you best function in a group. MMOs give us 4 roles to focus on: tanks, strikers, blasters, and controllers. To be the most effective, pick one role and focus on it. This doesn’t mean you can’t change from a striker to a healer mid-battle if you need to save an ally from death, but it means you should focus on how you best help the group. Most classes fit into more than one of these roles, so you can work with your group to split up the roles between two similar characters. For example, you can have a wizard and a sorcerer in the same party. Both would generally be viewed as a blaster, but one could act more often as a controller with mind and terrain effecting magic while the other focuses on direct damage spells.

Tank

The tank is the front line warrior of the party. It is his job to stand in the front and take the brunt of the damage the enemy has to offer. Dressed in heavy armor and high hit points, the tank is the most capable of shrugging off attacks. The tank is in the best position to determine which enemy to attack, and once he does the rest of the party should target the same foe. Ideally the tank should focus on protective gear, including shields and magic items which enhance his AC. Leave it to your allies to deal the big damage while you deal consistent damage while absorbing maximum damage. If you are the tank, make sure to carry a 1H weapon and shield when tanking. You can have the dual weapons or 2H weapon on standby for when you are acting as a striker, but maximizing your AC will be a key to you and your party’s survival. Always protect your healer before anyone else, as you may be able to take a lot of damage, but it’s a finite pool. Keeping them alive is keeping you alive.

As the most seasoned warrior, it is RP appropriate for you to direct the battle. Feel free to direct allies where to stand and who to attack. This is standard practice in any real-world military, the most seasoned veteran is likely to be directing the course of battle. If there is more than one tanking class in the party, perhaps negotiate the roles with them. Either take turns as tank/striker, or focus entirely on one of the roles. In some battle situations, two tanks can be very effective, one to act as the standard tank while the other stands alone against the most dangerous foe until the rest of the party can mop up the henchmen. If you are not the tank, assist them by targeting their target, keep close to him/her, and try to keep the damage going to the tank rather than yourself. The most common tanks include fighters and paladins, though the knight class in the PHB2 is likely the most effective tank base class I’ve seen. Especially important is the class’ ability to take damage on behalf of an adjacent ally as well as the ability to force enemies to attack you rather than anyone else.

Striker

The striker offers the highest consistent damage in the party. They move around the battlefield, striking like special ops. Hey defining points of a striker include good attack bonus, light to medium armor, and high movement capability. These abilities allow the striker the ability to move around the battle and deal damage where it is most effective. Good strategies for a striker include attacking the tank’s target. This allows enemies to fall faster, improving the odds of success for your team. With your high movement, you should be able to move around very quickly to target threats and rescue allies. As you have lighter armor, try to avoid being the primary target for a foe. This is best accomplished by moving often, with tumble and mobility being an excellent to help you move around without impunity. Use your movement to your advantage, that’s why it’s a defining feature of your class.

When effective, strikers can sneak up on squishy enemies, taking out the foe’s back forces before they realize that you are there. Be careful about leaving the tank and the rest of the party behind, as you will be on your own. Don’t get stuck in a drawn out fight away from the group as you don’t have the resources to survive in the long run. Instead focus on acting like a guerilla warrior, strike with surprise then withdraw. Repeating this cycle keeps your enemy off guard without allowing them the chance to overwhelm you. The most common striker classes are barbarians, rangers, monks, and rogues. Each class deals high damage while allowing for high movement, use these to your advantage.

Blaster

Blasters are the artillery of the party, dealing the highest damage of the roles yet often doing so from afar. However the high damage is offset by the lowest HP and armor of all the roles. To be most effective the blaster needs to stay well away from hand to hand combat, keeping the tank between you and your enemies. This way you can lay down the destruction without fear. If an enemy slips by the tank to attack you, call for help and try to move towards the help. Don’t allow even a weak enemy to consistently beat on you as you don’t have the armor or HP to survive for long. Frequently your ability to deal the most damage is also reduced by having a foe adjacent to you, as they increase the chance of you losing your attack because of an unlucky roll.

General strategy for the blaster is to manage your abilities. As you likely don’t have the consistent damage of a striker or tank, you have to decide when to use certain abilities. Against bosses, use your most powerful abilities early and often. Don’t wait until the boss is almost dead to drop your most powerful spell/ability; you should use it at the start of the fight. Try to manage your abilities to make sure they last. Don’t use your most powerful ability on the first enemy you encounter, because in most situations the first encounter is often one of the weakest foes. Try to use lesser abilities against the minions, but don’t hesitate to lay down your wrath immediately when the boss shows his face. Finally, try to focus on the target of the tank in most situations. This allows the enemies to fall faster. Fewer enemies is always a boon for you as many enemies are more likely to be able to get around the tank and strike you directly. The most common blasters are archers and arcane spell casters.

Controller

From the outside, the controller is the least sexy of all of the roles. You’re not laying down the smack-down like the other roles, yet the controller is arguably the most interesting role. This is because this role is one of tactics, strategy, and finesse. Key defining aspects of the controller is the ability to affect the battlefield as a whole, changing the course of combat in your party’s favor. Common abilities include buffing allies, debuffing enemies, mind-control, and terrain control. The controller shapes the battlefield by altering it.

For example, creating a wall (real or illusionary) to split the enemy’s forces is a great tactic. Turning the enemies against one another with mind affecting abilities allows the enemies to kill one another at little to no risk for your group. While buffing and debuffing isn’t as sexy as dealing damage, it can completely alter combat by increasing your team’s effectiveness while reducing the enemy’s effectiveness. It may not seem sexy, but the other roles recognize the impact that these abilities have on their own success. I categorize healers in this role as well as the healing ability definitely changes the battlefield as well as healers tend to have other abilities which fit this role. Common classes in this role include bards, some arcane spell casters, and divine spell casters.

Mixed roles

There are many classes which can occupy more than one role. The druid for example can be effective as any of the 4 roles, even changing roles during the course of battle. All classes can fit into almost any role, so don’t feel hamstrung or pigeon-holed into one style of play. Generally speaking, you should pick one role to focus on. Most of your abilities and equipment should be targeted to this role. However there are no hard rules, and the nature of combat demands adaptability. The key is to evaluate how your character contributes to the overall success of the team. While mixed roles may seem appealing, you will never be great at any one of them. Focusing on a single role makes your character dependable and effective while ensuring the success of the party as a whole.

Whether you’ve every played an MMORPG like World of Warcraft or not, there are lessons to be learned from them that can greatly improve your success in D&D and other pen and paper RPGs. Many of these same lessons also come from multi-player first person shooters (FPS). Given the universal application of these strategies in computer games, it should be obvious that the lessons apply to pen and paper games as well. These tactics have evolved over the years as they are very effective in reducing party death, party wipes, and speed of game play.

Reduction in Forces

This strategy is to reduce the number of opponents as fast as possible. This is generally accomplished by attacking the minions first, then finish the boss(es). At all levels, there are limits to how many actions can be done in a single turn. More opponents means more actions to be used against you. Blindly ignoring the minions to attack the boss can leave a lot of extra attacks against your group. In many cases, the minions are very underpowered compared to the boss, and can be killed very quickly—leaving a single boss to face many opponents. This turns the number of actions advantage in your favor instead of your opponents.

Concentrated Fire

This is perhaps one of the most effective strategies I’ve seen in both gaming genres. The idea is for all allies to attack a single opponent, kill/disable them, then everyone moves on to attack the next opponent and so on. This is the most effective way to accomplish the Reduction in Forces strategy as you will eliminate your opponents faster, and reduce the number of actions they can use against you.

Know Your Role

I’ll talk about this more in Part 2 of this article, but this concept is basically to know how you best function in a group. MMOs give us 4 roles to focus on: tanks, strikers, blasters, and controllers. To be the most effective, pick one role and focus on it. This doesn’t mean you can’t change from a striker to a healer mid-battle if you need to save an ally from death, but it means you should focus on how you best help the group. Most classes fit into more than one of these roles, so you can work with your group to split up the roles between two similar characters. For example, you can have a wizard and a sorcerer in the same party. Both would generally be viewed as a blaster, but one could act more often as a controller with mind and terrain effecting magic while the other focuses on direct damage spells.

Stay Together

There is no way this can be said too much. Staying together is always the key to surviving a tough adventure. Unless the adventure forces a split, like a random teleporter, you should always stay together. Wandering off alone will likely get you killed, or at least leave the group vulnerable. In MMOs and D&D, many encounters are scaled to a certain challenge level. Splitting the group allows for running into an encounter scaled for 4 people with fewer people there to handle it. Even if you are all in the same room, moving away from the group is very dangerous. For one, you are now open to attack from all sides, whereas you might only be open to attack from a limited direction if you are standing together. Also it limits the ability to assist or be assisted. If you are off on your own, there may not be a healer or tank nearby to help you. Also if you are away from the group and they get into trouble, it will take much longer for you to get back to them.

Manage the Enemy Casters

While reading the reduction of forces and concentrated fire tactics, you may have thought—why attack the minions, shouldn’t I attack the mage first? Perhaps yes. You should always go for the easiest kills first, and in many cases that will be the squishy mage (or other lightly armored, low HP enemy). If an enemy caster is not your group’s current target, then you will still benefit greatly be managing their ability to cast spells, etc. Keeping a spellcaster from casting spells greatly reduces the challenge while offering the same reward. They best mechanism to accomplish this in D&D is the readied action. Pick a blaster (strikers work, but are less desirable because it might split your group up) and let them know their job is to keep the caster busy until the rest of the group cleans up the rest of the encounter. That person now focuses on keep them from casting spells. It doesn’t matter if they cast defensively if you readied an action—you can still interrupt their spell. Once your readied action has occurred, you now benefit from sharing initiative with that person—once again you can interrupt them every round because your actions occur simultaneously. You’ll almost always disrupt a few spells, or at least deal significant damage to them while you wait for your party to catch up to you.

Protect your Healer (and squishy mages)

Above all else, do not let the healer die. If they healer dies, you are looking at a party wipe, or at least you’re done adventuring for the (in-game) day. While the healer comes first, protecting the light armored casters comes in at a close second. Keeping them alive will keep the party alive.

Conclusion

It may seem like these strategies may contradict, but they are complementary. Concentrate fire to reduce the enemy forces. Manage the enemy casters while the rest concentrate fire. Stay together to protect your allies (healer). Know your role so that you know where you should be and what you should be doing to help the party be successful.
Beware though; intelligent foes may use these strategies as well.

What the hell were they thinking? For decades now, fans and the authors have been dreaming of making a feature film of the Dragonlance Chronicles. So they go out, get an accredited cast, then turn out such a lame, cheap movie. With the exception of the insane fan boys out there, who could possibly believe that this is a good movie…

SCRIPT: I will admit that the script followed the plot pretty well. Of course, some things had to be dropped. Other things were added to try and flesh out the story for non-fan viewers. While there were some flaws, like Paladine fighting Takhisis at the end–which made no sense, but they were few in number. The key story and concepts were all there as well as key character attributes. Overall, the script was satisfactory.

ACTING: With such a talented cast, include Kiefer Sutherland, Lucy Lawless, and Michael Rosenbaum, you’d think that the voice acting was going to be excellent. The problem was the voices were good, but there was absolutely no emotion in the voice. It’s like they were given one line at a time, without any context, to record. Given the talent of the actors, it’s tough to say where to place the blame. Was the director, well, not directing? Or were the actors just going through the motions to get a paycheck? While I wasn’t initially sure on some of the choices for the voices, by mid-way through the movie I had grown accustomed enough to not let it bother me anymore.

2-D ANIMATION: I have a theory that this movie was actually animated by an amateur fan about 30 years ago, because that’s what it looked like. It really reminded me of He-Man and the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoons in the 80s. Considering that anime like Dragonball Z are like 20 years old and still look great, why didn’t they do a better job. Maybe they pissed away their whole budget on the voice talent and didn’t have the cash to get the animation completed. The latest 2-D animation is almost photo-realistic, so why couldn’t they take some tips from the anime? There were many cases where the animation was very jerky, like they left out frames. Overall, it just comes across as cheap given the state of animation today.

3-D ANIMATION: Why bother? Its kind of like seeing the Superman Returns movie in IMAX 3D, it made it worse than seeing it all blended naturally together. Some of it wasn’t too bad, but it mostly seemed like a rough cut rather than a final draft. Once again, it just came across like they ran out of money and threw together what they had.

FINAL ANALYSIS: If you’re a fan of the books, then it’s worth renting. There’s no sense in buying it. The special features are a waste of time and the overall quality is pretty lousy. I think that this movie actually lowers the chance of getting a live-action film made. For one, it took about 30 years for the live action to get made after the lousy late-70s era cartoons. I also think this is going to sell so poorly because of the low quality that any studio will look down on its success. The whole film just seems cheap, like they ran out of cash. I have to believe this, because if someone at the maker of this film actually believes that they made a good movie they should be blacklisted from the industry. Same with the guy that green-lighted Tremors the Series on Sci-Fi.

Rating: (if you’re a fan of the novel)
Rating:  (if you’re not a fan of the novel)