DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Battle Of The Century, transcript.
- All: Woah…
- Shawn: What’s going on man…
- Jared: First time that I’ve heard of Dungeons & Dragons, probably the cartoon I watched as a kid.
- Chloe: In my University time, SS15 has all those board game cafes; in there you will see some people playing Dungeons & Dragons. That’s all I know about Dungeons & Dragons.
- Pinda: I’ve only heard about it, in The Big Bang Theory, where Sheldon and all… Raj they played, and then it looks so fun because they made up stories, they fight monsters.
- Jinny: I thought it was a series, you know He-Man? I thought Dungeons & Dragons is sort of like a spin off of He-Man.
- Sean: I’ve never given much thought to this game to be honest. I think… I…I’m open to learning more about the game.
- Pinda: I’m hoping I can slay some monsters, open chests.
- Jinny: I think it’s like a never-ending story, anything goes
- Sean: This is gonna be quite fun for me.
- Chloe: I actually don’t know what to feel because I’ve never played it before. So it’s all unknown.Embrace the unknown.
- Jared: You know sometimes in board games, friends become enemies?
- Pinda: I will betray them, and I will win the damn game!
- Sean: If someone made me pissed off, I bottled the feelings up, when it comes to the point when it really matters, What else…
- Jinny: I’m not a team player, I play to win! I’ll just use my team to make me win, and that’s it!
- Jared: Yeah…
- Jinny: Dungeons & Dragons… Doesn’t sound like that right?
- Gray: Adventurers, Welcome to the Dungeon. Today we will be taking you on an adventure. We will be playing the game Dungeons & Dragons. Jared, you’ve become Zyldarol Daichi
- Jared: Hi I’m Jared, a filmmaker from Grim Film. Today I will be…Zyldarol Daichi. My honour is my life and I’m always polite and respectful. And angel indeed.
- Gray: Chloe, you’re Haleth Holimion.
- Lizz: Hi guys, I’m Lizz Chloe. I’m a content creator, radio announcer and also aspiring educator. Today I will be… Haleth Holimion. An innocent person is in prison for a crime that I committed. But…Oh well, I guess it is okay.
- Gray: Pinda, you are Qimoira Evermoon
- Pinda: Hello, I’m Pinda Panda! I stream and play real games, and I will be Qimoia Evermoon. I’m a criminal. I steal things because I take what I want and I will do anything to be rich.
- Gray: Sean…Brother Cutpurse
- Sean: Hello everyone, it’s me Sean! Today I am…Brother Cutpurse! and I will become the greatest thief that ever lived
- Gray: And Jin…You, False Dragon, Lark Highborn
- Jinny: Hey what’s up guys, my name is Jin. I run a youtube channel called JinnyboyTV. But today I will be…Lark Highborn! I’m committed to the people I care about and I’ll do ANYTHING to get my hands for something rare.
- Gray: As every adventure in the Forgotten Realms goes, your journey begins in a tavern. Rather…You all have received a message from your Criminal Contact to meet. Standing behind the counter is a Hulking Bugbear.
- Jinny: I will pay you 1 gold, but then in return for information of the criminal that is supposed to be in this tavern that’s meeting all of us.
- Gray: Roll persuasion check.
- Jinny: Eleven
- Gray: I think you want to see the chef, let me get him for you
- Sean: Chef is the criminal?
- Jinny:You must play cool! You have to come in here, it’s a tavern. Look! It’s a tavern, you come here to drink, and eat food, then they give you information. You know why? That’s how you pay, that’s how they launder money.
- Gray: A very tall Half-orc wearing the chef’s apron and nearly nothing else walks out with all the dishes. I’ve gathered you here, a specific group of specific talents. To attempt to get a…Trinkets! That I’ve been interested in for a while. There is a mountain far in the woods near here. I will provide you with a map, I wish you to go in there and capture the Orb.
- Jared: Dungeon Master, Daichi would like to open the map and read it.
- Gray: Roll the D20, please!
- Jared: Eighteen!
- Gray: So all characters begin their journey deep into the woods. You have arrived at the dark gloomy mountain in the middle of the woods. Everybody roll a survival check
- All: Survival check D20
- Jinny: I got a twenty.
- Pinda: Four.
- Sean: I have a seven.
- Liz: I have a nine.
- Jared: And a twelve.
- Gray: Lark, you have rolled what is called a critical. You’re climbing right in front of everyone else. Everyone else is probably struggling to climb this mountain for whatever reason. Everybody else notices that in front of them, you can hear a sound on the ledge, skittering sounds, like someone is talking. You recognized this sound from all the adventuring, it sounds like a Kobold.
- Jared: I go, Daichi go
- Sean: Okay, forever support, support!
- Jared: Kobold! Hello! Come on man, you can do this. Why ah?
- Sean: Oh my gosh, you got two!
- Jinny: It’s two.
- Sean: He got a two.
- Gray: The Kobold stands at attention, “who goes there”? He starts charging towards the Cliffside. The Kobolds took “Friends?” “More friends to play games with”
- Izz: Haleth says, “Yes, let’s play some games!”
- Gray: As he climbs over the ledge, and you see these Kobolds playing a card game around the campfire.
- All: Wow!
- Sean: I got a twenty.
- Gray: You start playing the game, a few minutes later, you have completely wiped out the Kobolds and take all their earnings. They are still around grumbling. Oh well… We just get more from next week’s wages from the boss I guess. Alright! You may pass, go-ahead!
- Sean: Yay, Thanks man!
- Gray: So you have passed the first encounter, you have entered the Cavern
- Lizz: Let’s go and find the dragon!
- Gray: Now, just as you pass around the corner, an arrow flies out
- Jared: Daichi will rush towards dagger kobold.
- Sean: Team, please support! No!!! Team will support!
- Lizz: I am going to cast a sleep spell!
- Jinny: I will breathe fire. He got a three.
- Gray: And you breathe out a little wheeze.
- Sean: That is so embarrassing, Lark
- Lizz: Where is your fire?
- Jinny : Huh, serious?
- Sean : I would like to do a face stab. It’s a six again.
- Pinda: I would like to draw my crossbow and just aim at the pathetic little creature that my friends fail to
- Gray: The bow pierces the Kobolds head and he dies in a headshot
- Lizz: Finally! Alright, I will go and… use the dagger to cut him and let him die.
- Gray: So you have defeated all the Kobolds in this round. The Kobolds bring you face to face with a giant Gelatinous Cube. Only Qimoira really knows what it is, everyone else just kinda sees it as a giant floating skull there. You attempt to cast Disguise on all your teammates, and it only works on 4 out of 5 of them
- Jared: We are okay, there are 4 of us.
- Jinny: Ya, I’m a dragon
- Pinda: Oh ya!
- Jinny: Oh, you guys look the same!
- Gray: You walk right past the gelatinous cube, no problem getting to the other side. Qimoira, you may look like a dragon born, but you don’t smell like one. The Gelatinous Cube detects something off, Gelatinous Cube moves forward and gulps. Qimoira is inside the cube now.
- Lizz: Qimoira! No!
- Gray: Just floating inside with all the other debris.
- Jared: Daichi dives into the cube to try to save Evermoon!
- Gray: That’s a hit. You sliced through it, and you’re just close enough to reach her. The jelly attempts to move towards all of you. You see it moving along, it’s a little bit slower than all of you; and you see that there is a spiral step going up and there is light shining from the top of the stairwell. So all of you climb the stairs. This place seems to be a giant storehouse of many, many Orbs. As you come into this room, you see there is a giant pile.It’s a pile of Orbs and sitting on top of these Orbs, Appears to be a very large dragon. It’s bronze in colour
- All: Ohhhhhh
- Lizz: Oh my gosh!
- Gray: You see a slumbering dragon on top of this pile of Orbs, and clutched into his arm is an orb glowing ever so slightly.
- Jinny: Hello there! I am your long-lost friend! I have come to visit.
- Gray: The dragon awakes from his slumber, uncoiling his body and turns his head toward you. It seems to the group, it doesn’t seem alarmed at first. But when it sees you, its eyes close to a slit and glares at you! How dare you, Dragon born! Imposter! So do you want to continue or should someone else start speaking instead?
- Sean: Make a wise choice, man!
- Jinny: Maybe you start speaking
- Pinda: Alright! I bow my head to you, sire! Sire, the Orb [is tarnished] it needs to be polished. And we servants, you needed 4 servants and we are here. This dragonborn, he is a friend, he offered to help us. Polish your great Orb, can we please have it?
- Sean: Yes, it’s twenty. Its a two and a twenty
- Gray: So you rolled twenty, I will take it as a crit, it is a perfect score.
- Pinda: Everyone bowed down.
- Sean: Thank you!
- Jinny: Okay, so now, we need to get out of this place and go back to the tavern, right?
- Sean: Shall we advance down?
- Jinny: We’ll walk away because we are going to do our job
- Gray: Except you, dragon born! I have business with you. What are you doing in my cavern?
- Sean: Alright, we will send him back to talk to the dragon
- Jinny: I could never have chosen what I was born with. But, I stay true to the nature of species. If you give me an opportunity, I will serve you well, Master! Show me the way to be a true dragon born. I will take all these Orbs from you, and get the Kobolds to come back to bring them all, Master!
- Gray: Go on, hurry up!
- Jinny: Alright guys, come! We are taking more Orbs!
- Lizz: Take, take, take and leave!
- Gray: So all the Kobolds and dragon born grab a bunch of orbs and march down the stairs.
- Jinny: Carry them properly! I’m role-playing just so that he doesn’t know. Carry them properly!
- Sean: Yes, Master!
- Jinny: We are going to be rich! I mean we are going to do our job
- Sean: Yes, Master!
- Jinny:Let’s go downstairs now on this spiral staircase
- Gray: So…our adventures exit the cavern. You’re holding the one magical Orb out of all of them, the rest are just shining baubles. This one, clearly emanating a power of some kind, glows slightly red. If you stare hard enough, there is probably a dragon motif all over it. At this point, Daichi takes the orbs from his teammate, betraying them. Despite going through thick and thin.
- All: Woah…
- Sean: What’s going on man…
- Lizz: You are bad!
- Gray: The Orb is something Daichi has been hunting for his whole life, it was the Orb that took his lover’s life in the past. Daichi turns against his newfound friends, and flees.
- Pinda: Oh my gosh! I’m not satisfied!
- Jinny: We went through all that, to be conned…?
- Sean: When I play the game, it’s more about how you can imagine with your friends, and have your conversation with your friends
- Lizz: We are able to imagine what kind of circumstances we are in since we are creators. We can sort of imagining ourselves in the movie
- Jinny: If you are really really the kind of person who talks a lot, and sometimes doesn’t make sense, this game is for you! Because Whatever that doesn’t make sense, becomes a world of Lark Highborn
- Jared: It’s established that it’s a game, we are all in this together. We are all in this crazy world of Dungeons & Dragons and anything can happen. You’re slowly just shuffling your way out of that door of being conscious right, and seeing your party members doing the same and finally reaching to a zone where everyone is really comfortable. I really enjoyed that, I really enjoyed it like everyone just all in, No one is half step in, and no one is judging you. So we get to get out, explore this world together as the characters that we have made together.
- Pinda: I got swallowed not once, but twice in that goddamn jelly! And then those people saved me.
- Lizz: I can tell my team will enjoy this, it’s like a bunch of friends and plus more. If you go with common friends, common scenario, common jokes, then it will be very fun
- Jared: Overall, the beauty of this game is the inclusiveness that it gives. No matter how creative you are or not, we are suddenly put into a spot as though we are really stuck in a situation like we are just thrown into an island and gonna achieve the same goal and that creates this teamwork spirit.
- Sean: If you want to be a game master, you really have to know what this game is about, you need to know the world. So if you have that knowledge, I would 100% recommend it.
- Gray: Embark on your very own Dungeons & Dragons Adventures with the starter kit, accompanying books and materials.
- Jared: Thanks for watching guys, I can’t stress enough the importance of having a good Dungeon Master when you play Dungeons & Dragons. He alone carries the whole story and the whole adventure for the whole team. Once again, thank you so much Gray for bringing us through our first time through Dungeons and Dragons.
- Gray: I wish there’s more time to teach you guys about the spells, but you did use as much improvisation… To any Dungeons & Dragons players listening, I’m sorry if I fudge a lot of the rules. I clearly did put in the modifiers but you know… it’s about the role play with the fun you have in the end, isn’t it? You probably know we didn’t go exactly according to the plan, improvise little here and there. But we got there, we got there in the end.
- Jared: If you like the cards in this show, they come from the Magic: The Gathering, The Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. A magic card set featuring iconic characters and monsters from Dungeons & Dragon. So click on the link in the description if you wanna join in the fun. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow, we’re still alive, we’re still around. not as active as before. But yeah, you get the point. See you guys.
It’s been an honour to collaborate on a Dungeons & Dragons Role-Playing Game one-shot. Originally planned to coincide with the launch of Magic: the Gathering’s Adventures in the Forgotten Realms card set, we delayed the show due to the Malaysian Government’s Movement Control Order (MCO) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia.
Eschewing pre-generated character sheets, we actually organized a session zero to get to know the players, and craft their characters based on their preferences. (Sorry it took so long Pinda!)
Dungeon Master Gray, began work on designing the campaign. There were only two requirements: Dungeon + Dragon
The Dragon
For a dragon, we thought of paying homage to the fact this game is being published by Wizards of the Coast…
So we picked a bronze dragon for the encounter. (It’s a little too powerful for low level characters, but it’ll be a good demonstration that players can resolve an encounter without having to kill everything in sight.) For simplicity’s sake, the dragon’s lair was later changed to a mountaintop… and to accomodate this, our headcanon was the adventure took place in a magically volatile geography.
The McGuffin of the encounter was going to be an Orb of Dragonkind, to be found in the dragon’s Treasure Vault.
The Dungeon
we used an older edition of the Dungeon Tiles to create this map.
It was fun planning each encounter where the players will bump into Kobolds, and a Gelatinous Cube.
The Plot
When game day arrived, though we had planned to railroad the story, the players improvised / roleplayed pretty well. Every player had their dice, miniatures, and character sheets. We attempted to implement Kishōtenketsu into our plot structure:
- ki (起): introduction
- You Meet in a Tavern
- Criminal Contact sends the party on a mission to retrieve McGuffin. They must venture into the Evolving Wilds.
- sho (承): development
- Find the Path: Party ventures towards the coast,
and finds a ground level entrance. - Dungeon Descent: Party enters Coastal dungeon
(actually a Dragon’s Lair, with Kobold minions inside.)
- Find the Path: Party ventures towards the coast,
- ten (転): twist
- Treasure Vault, Well-Organized Wealth: Bronze dragons loot sunken ships and also collect colorful coral and pearls from the reefs and seabeds near their lairs. When a bronze dragon pledges to help an army wage war against tyranny, it asks for nominal payment. If such a request is beyond its allies’ means, it might settle for a collection of old books on military history or a ceremonial item commemorating the alliance. A bronze dragon might also lay claim to a treasure held by the enemy that it feels would be safer under its protection.
- Negotiation: Party reaches a central chamber, with the McGuffin guarded by an Adult Bronze Dragon (clearly too powerful for the players, forcing them to realize not everything can be resolved with violence.) The party parlays with the dragon…
- … and somehow obtains the Orb of Dragonkind (this will be improvised depending on the vibe of the party.)
- ketsu (結): conclusion?
The Game
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Battle Of The Century
Every game is a new campaign.
Everything you love from Dungeons & Dragons meets Magic in the Forgotten Realms! Play cards featuring fan-favourite characters, and battle with iconic monsters like beholders, mimics, mind flayers, and—of course—legendary dragons!
If you want to actually play the Role-Playing Games, check out the fifth edition Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide. These rulebooks introduce you to the vast multiverse of D&D and invite you to create unique characters and worlds within it.
