Mazes & Monsters [Archive] - Wizards Community

Mazes & Monsters [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
abysslin
10-07-03, 02:08 PM 2 different view points on the movie "Mazes & Monsters" starring Tom Hanks as a roleplayer gone mad.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1017854/reviews.php?critic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=16446

Now, if you thought that was funny if not disturbing this next one, a review opposite the 1st perspective, will really give you a laugh. If you're pressed for time scroll down to the "Things to Watch For" section of the review.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1017854/reviews.php?critic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=16445

Here's a link to a website devoted to the movie if you're interested in learning more about it.

http://www.spookylibrarians.com/mazes.html

Personally, I'm somewhat offended people took the time and money to even film a movie with it's anti-roleplaying plot. Better kids are out running the streets doing gawd knows what rather than being at home playing a game with friends. However, I do feel compelled to watch Mazes & Monsters simply to see what gamers past have had to deal with persay. I entered gaming in 90', 8 years later.

Abysslin
StevieS
10-07-03, 03:15 PM heh heh, I remember this shocker appearing on my folks TV when I was a kid and getting into D&D even though it wasn't really their usual variety of viewing pleasure.

Can't say it made too much impact :D
Halberkill
10-07-03, 03:34 PM Yeah, I saw it's broadcast premiere. I think the KoDT "lost in the sewers" backstory was taken from this movie.

The movie wasn't terrible or completely out of possibility, unlike that "DC/911" movie showtime had recently, but it also did not demonstrate a typical, or even unusual group of roleplayers. They were doing mostly LARP in the movie.

Halber
monkeybone
10-07-03, 04:18 PM I remember my folks going out of their way to tell about the made for tv film. Needless to say, I wasn't amused. Nice costumes, though.
Jagermeister
10-08-03, 03:28 AM Originally posted by Halberkill
They were doing mostly LARP in the movie.

The word alone makes me cringe. (LARP)

I never have seen the entire movie. Ignorance of that variety just annoys me too much.
Keolander
10-08-03, 06:43 AM The first reviewer needs to grow some brain cells. The second review was, in a word, HILARIOUS!

Ahh....Mazes and Monsters. I remember in 6th grade my teacher warning me about the evil of D&D. Give me a fragging break!

:88E:
Extempus
02-14-06, 04:52 AM I remember watching it, but at the time didn't think it was anti-D&D (I didn't realize way back then that Hollyweird often has an agenda they're trying to push...). Not long afterwards, one of the guys in our group stopped playing and gave all his stuff away because the religious literature his denomination published said it was evil...
Simpi
02-14-06, 05:06 PM It's a wonderful turkey of a film. Who can forget to classic line (after a groups thief falls to a pit trap) 'Why didn't you use a sonar?' Other classic is of course the 'mine entrance' which is a piece of cardboard strung between two bushes :)

I eventually managed to acquire a copy of it from Amazon, just in case I need it in future. Heck, there even was copy of that Pat Pullings book in nearby public library (actually in vaults because nobody had ever wanted to borrow it) so of course I had to read it and laugh at the womans desperate attempts to find any other scapegoat to his sons suicide than the real reasons.

S.H, the guy from Naerie
Kwint Pendick
02-14-06, 05:23 PM Yeah, I saw it's broadcast premiere. I think the KoDT "lost in the sewers" backstory was taken from this movie.
I think the whole sewers thing grew from the story concerning James Egbert (see this link (http://www.geocities.com/utherworld/seasons/egbert.html))...I remember people who were too 'into' D&D were called egberts...
Kwint
Extempus
02-15-06, 04:50 AM There was an episode of The Greatest American Hero that had a D&D episode. While depicting RPGer's in general as kinda nerdy/geeky, it wasn't anything like Mazes & Monsters where they had mental problems. There was also an episode of Simon & Simon where there was a kid who played a game called "Angels & Demons"...
Valkaun_Dain
02-15-06, 04:47 PM I remember this too but I can't remember when I saw it. I'm sure it bore no resemblance to wheat we were doing or it woulda scared the crap outta me. I do remember joking when someones character would die "Don't kill yourself, just make a new guy."

I remember my pastor "catching" a friend and I playing D&D at a church lock-in. He acted like we were preparing for some dark ritual. He made us put the books away and participate in the youth group activities. Bizarre.

My mom was concerned when I started playing but she really flipped out when I bought the red D&D boxed set way back when. I finally explained to her "Mom, I'm rolling dice, not joints. Relax." My dad wanted me to play sports and chase girls. The funny thing is I was playing sports and chasing girls so I guess he just wanted me to avoid D&D all together. They still give me grief (married and 33) for hanging out with my pals one (maybe two at most) night a week. I just say "Would you feel better if I was bowling one night a week? Leave me alone."
Scoti Garbidis
02-16-06, 09:23 AM I always find it amusing when I read these because my experience with the church after years of D&D is similar to yours but I actually played my first game in a church.

I was attending a new years eve party for church youth and the youth pastor had asked everyone to bring their favorite game. A few high school guys (I was an eight grader at the time) had brought their D&D campaign with them and were playing a session. I watched intently for probably two hours or so and one of them asked me if I wanted to give it a try. One of the players was gonna leave soon and he said he didn't mind if I took over his character for him. I would probably never do that but I am glad he did. I played a couple hours at the church longer and then we went to one guys house after the new years eve party was over and continued the session.

The youth pastor was really cool and never even questioned our behavior, since he could see we were just rolling dice and hanging out. I bought a player's handbook that summer and eventually the other books. Started my own campaign and until recently had played with the same group of guys for almost 15 years.

So go church roleplaying! :cheer: j/k but seriously, i know it is seldomly that way. I worked for a religious broadcast station for five years and have seen the darker side to. What a shame that some people live without unleashing their true creative abilities and also try to stop others from doing so also.
Amaril
02-16-06, 10:27 AM I think the first reviewer was being facetious. It's a bit obvious in some things he writes.
noser
03-06-07, 11:41 PM There was an episode of The Greatest American Hero that had a D&D episode. While depicting RPGer's in general as kinda nerdy/geeky, it wasn't anything like Mazes & Monsters where they had mental problems. There was also an episode of Simon & Simon where there was a kid who played a game called "Angels & Demons"...

Were there two episodes of Simon & Simon? I just watched the episode of S&S "Trapdoors" about the computer whiz kid with the Apple II and he made a comment to Rick about some figurines to a game ... "it's called Angels and Demons, it's like Dungeons &
Dragons, only better". It was NOT the episode I remember where some kid went off exploring the sewer / mine system that by the end of the episode lost his marbles and ended up living in a mental fantasy world where he paid "the innkeeper and his wife" (his parents) every night with a magic coin that re-appeared every morning in his room.

So were there two episodes that mention "Angels & Demons"? The one I just saw (on Mystery TV) called "Trapdoors" and the other one, titled "Angels & Demons" ?

I've just looked at http://epguides.com/SimonandSimon/ and didn't see an ep. title "angels & demons"... hmmm....
spyone
03-08-07, 12:16 AM I actually saw this movie when it was new. (And I think I haven't seen it since. :) )

I remember thinking it was awful. I was 12, and the writing seemed moronic to me.
I was with my father when I watched it, and I remember being thankful that he had fallen asleep: he might have actually believed it, and I would have to spend time convincing him that it was alarmist crap. Mom would need no such convincing, for it was she that had introduced me to D&D.

However, I suppose this show contributed to my forming the attitude that people who want to act out the adventures of their characters probably have a few screws loose, which carries over into a general (and unfair, I know) disdain of LARP.
noser
03-09-07, 06:51 PM Indeed. The writing was bad, but it was one of the first times I considered that a wholly non-TSR game might exist.

My folks saw it too - thought it was over the top. But as chance would have it there was a Sunday busload (literally) of knights, wizards and monks that gathered near my dad's office to carpool out of town for a day in the forest. Yikes! Needless to say he was a little less enthusiastic about me playing from then on.
CharlieRock
03-10-07, 09:58 PM I can't figure out which was the worse flick. Mazes & Monsters or Dungeonmaster. :cool:
BigJohn01
03-15-07, 07:21 PM My brother was the one who got me into D&D and was also the one who showed me this movie. This has to be a favorite one to just watch and make fun of. My favorite has to be their actual roleplaying scenes with those paper cut outs of their characters and the candlelight atmosphere!
To think that poor D&D suffered so much from people who thought it was the devil's work when really it is one of the safest hobbies. I mean my mother never worried about me when roleplaying because she knew that it meant a long nite of sitting in a basement with other nerdy kids (and I mean nerdy as a compliment :) ) drinking soda and eating chips. A heck of alot safer than some of the other teenage hobbies and activitites.
mysticpot31
04-03-07, 06:27 PM This movie is obviosuly about a guy who is mentally unstable and really he could of flipped out doing anything(going for rounds of golf, fixing a door etc). To use this as a weapon against DnD is proposterous. I play the game and I dont believe in demons and devils...but priests do(or so they say) so really who needs to get their prioroties straight between reality and fantasy;)
WizO_Sith
04-05-07, 11:06 AM Not Greyhawk related.

Moved to the rec-room.

*Bamf*
_Jayne_Cobb_
04-05-07, 12:26 PM Now, if you thought that was funny if not disturbing…

How is it disturbing? :confused:
_Jayne_Cobb_
04-05-07, 12:33 PM Heck, there even was copy of that Pat Pullings book in nearby public library (actually in vaults because nobody had ever wanted to borrow it) so of course I had to read it and laugh at the womans desperate attempts to find any other scapegoat to his sons suicide than the real reasons.

Anyone who names her kid "Bink" and then refuses to acknowledge her own culpability in his suicide is a someone more than a few cans short of a six-pack.
_Jayne_Cobb_
04-05-07, 12:40 PM This movie is obviosuly about a guy who is mentally unstable and really he could of flipped out doing anything(going for rounds of golf, fixing a door etc). To use this as a weapon against DnD is proposterous.

That is the best part, IMO. Even in this famous anti-D&D propaganda piece it is clear that the guy who goes nuts has serious emotional problems. It was the loss of his brother - a central plot-point - not the game that made him crack.

Of course in order to get that very clear and simple message one would need to have a functioning cerebelum, which unfortunately seemed to be in very short supply based on most of the reactions this flick - and Pulling's book, and Chick's tract - illicited from the brainless RPG-hating paranoid mobs.
Pfisiar
04-05-07, 12:57 PM i see that most people take this movie as a serious attempt to portray Dungeons and Dragons. Shame on you and all the others who have done so. The movie is so obviously a satire, that it should be beyond saying. If they were trying to make the movie serious, they would have named it something else.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
abysslin 10-07-03, 02:08 PM	2 different view points on the movie "Mazes & Monsters" starring Tom Hanks as a roleplayer gone mad. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1017854/reviews.php?critic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=16446 Now, if you thought that was funny if not disturbing this next one, a review opposite the 1st perspective, will really give you a laugh. If you're pressed for time scroll down to the "Things to Watch For" section of the review. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1017854/reviews.php?critic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=16445 Here's a link to a website devoted to the movie if you're interested in learning more about it. http://www.spookylibrarians.com/mazes.html Personally, I'm somewhat offended people took the time and money to even film a movie with it's anti-roleplaying plot. Better kids are out running the streets doing gawd knows what rather than being at home playing a game with friends. However, I do feel compelled to watch Mazes & Monsters simply to see what gamers past have had to deal with persay. I entered gaming in 90', 8 years later. Abysslin
StevieS 10-07-03, 03:15 PM	heh heh, I remember this shocker appearing on my folks TV when I was a kid and getting into D&D even though it wasn't really their usual variety of viewing pleasure. Can't say it made too much impact :D
Halberkill 10-07-03, 03:34 PM	Yeah, I saw it's broadcast premiere. I think the KoDT "lost in the sewers" backstory was taken from this movie. The movie wasn't terrible or completely out of possibility, unlike that "DC/911" movie showtime had recently, but it also did not demonstrate a typical, or even unusual group of roleplayers. They were doing mostly LARP in the movie. Halber
monkeybone 10-07-03, 04:18 PM	I remember my folks going out of their way to tell about the made for tv film. Needless to say, I wasn't amused. Nice costumes, though.
Jagermeister 10-08-03, 03:28 AM	Originally posted by Halberkill They were doing mostly LARP in the movie. The word alone makes me cringe. (LARP) I never have seen the entire movie. Ignorance of that variety just annoys me too much.
Keolander 10-08-03, 06:43 AM	The first reviewer needs to grow some brain cells. The second review was, in a word, HILARIOUS! Ahh....Mazes and Monsters. I remember in 6th grade my teacher warning me about the evil of D&D. Give me a fragging break! :88E:
Extempus 02-14-06, 04:52 AM	I remember watching it, but at the time didn't think it was anti-D&D (I didn't realize way back then that Hollyweird often has an agenda they're trying to push...). Not long afterwards, one of the guys in our group stopped playing and gave all his stuff away because the religious literature his denomination published said it was evil...
Simpi 02-14-06, 05:06 PM	It's a wonderful turkey of a film. Who can forget to classic line (after a groups thief falls to a pit trap) 'Why didn't you use a sonar?' Other classic is of course the 'mine entrance' which is a piece of cardboard strung between two bushes :) I eventually managed to acquire a copy of it from Amazon, just in case I need it in future. Heck, there even was copy of that Pat Pullings book in nearby public library (actually in vaults because nobody had ever wanted to borrow it) so of course I had to read it and laugh at the womans desperate attempts to find any other scapegoat to his sons suicide than the real reasons. S.H, the guy from Naerie
Kwint Pendick 02-14-06, 05:23 PM	Yeah, I saw it's broadcast premiere. I think the KoDT "lost in the sewers" backstory was taken from this movie. I think the whole sewers thing grew from the story concerning James Egbert (see this link (http://www.geocities.com/utherworld/seasons/egbert.html))...I remember people who were too 'into' D&D were called egberts... Kwint
Extempus 02-15-06, 04:50 AM	There was an episode of The Greatest American Hero that had a D&D episode. While depicting RPGer's in general as kinda nerdy/geeky, it wasn't anything like Mazes & Monsters where they had mental problems. There was also an episode of Simon & Simon where there was a kid who played a game called "Angels & Demons"...
Valkaun_Dain 02-15-06, 04:47 PM	I remember this too but I can't remember when I saw it. I'm sure it bore no resemblance to wheat we were doing or it woulda scared the crap outta me. I do remember joking when someones character would die "Don't kill yourself, just make a new guy." I remember my pastor "catching" a friend and I playing D&D at a church lock-in. He acted like we were preparing for some dark ritual. He made us put the books away and participate in the youth group activities. Bizarre. My mom was concerned when I started playing but she really flipped out when I bought the red D&D boxed set way back when. I finally explained to her "Mom, I'm rolling dice, not joints. Relax." My dad wanted me to play sports and chase girls. The funny thing is I was playing sports and chasing girls so I guess he just wanted me to avoid D&D all together. They still give me grief (married and 33) for hanging out with my pals one (maybe two at most) night a week. I just say "Would you feel better if I was bowling one night a week? Leave me alone."
Scoti Garbidis 02-16-06, 09:23 AM	I always find it amusing when I read these because my experience with the church after years of D&D is similar to yours but I actually played my first game in a church. I was attending a new years eve party for church youth and the youth pastor had asked everyone to bring their favorite game. A few high school guys (I was an eight grader at the time) had brought their D&D campaign with them and were playing a session. I watched intently for probably two hours or so and one of them asked me if I wanted to give it a try. One of the players was gonna leave soon and he said he didn't mind if I took over his character for him. I would probably never do that but I am glad he did. I played a couple hours at the church longer and then we went to one guys house after the new years eve party was over and continued the session. The youth pastor was really cool and never even questioned our behavior, since he could see we were just rolling dice and hanging out. I bought a player's handbook that summer and eventually the other books. Started my own campaign and until recently had played with the same group of guys for almost 15 years. So go church roleplaying! :cheer: j/k but seriously, i know it is seldomly that way. I worked for a religious broadcast station for five years and have seen the darker side to. What a shame that some people live without unleashing their true creative abilities and also try to stop others from doing so also.
Amaril 02-16-06, 10:27 AM	I think the first reviewer was being facetious. It's a bit obvious in some things he writes.
noser 03-06-07, 11:41 PM	There was an episode of The Greatest American Hero that had a D&D episode. While depicting RPGer's in general as kinda nerdy/geeky, it wasn't anything like Mazes & Monsters where they had mental problems. There was also an episode of Simon & Simon where there was a kid who played a game called "Angels & Demons"... Were there two episodes of Simon & Simon? I just watched the episode of S&S "Trapdoors" about the computer whiz kid with the Apple II and he made a comment to Rick about some figurines to a game ... "it's called Angels and Demons, it's like Dungeons & Dragons, only better". It was NOT the episode I remember where some kid went off exploring the sewer / mine system that by the end of the episode lost his marbles and ended up living in a mental fantasy world where he paid "the innkeeper and his wife" (his parents) every night with a magic coin that re-appeared every morning in his room. So were there two episodes that mention "Angels & Demons"? The one I just saw (on Mystery TV) called "Trapdoors" and the other one, titled "Angels & Demons" ? I've just looked at http://epguides.com/SimonandSimon/ and didn't see an ep. title "angels & demons"... hmmm....
spyone 03-08-07, 12:16 AM	I actually saw this movie when it was new. (And I think I haven't seen it since. :) ) I remember thinking it was awful. I was 12, and the writing seemed moronic to me. I was with my father when I watched it, and I remember being thankful that he had fallen asleep: he might have actually believed it, and I would have to spend time convincing him that it was alarmist crap. Mom would need no such convincing, for it was she that had introduced me to D&D. However, I suppose this show contributed to my forming the attitude that people who want to act out the adventures of their characters probably have a few screws loose, which carries over into a general (and unfair, I know) disdain of LARP.
noser 03-09-07, 06:51 PM	Indeed. The writing was bad, but it was one of the first times I considered that a wholly non-TSR game might exist. My folks saw it too - thought it was over the top. But as chance would have it there was a Sunday busload (literally) of knights, wizards and monks that gathered near my dad's office to carpool out of town for a day in the forest. Yikes! Needless to say he was a little less enthusiastic about me playing from then on.
CharlieRock 03-10-07, 09:58 PM	I can't figure out which was the worse flick. Mazes & Monsters or Dungeonmaster. :cool:
BigJohn01 03-15-07, 07:21 PM	My brother was the one who got me into D&D and was also the one who showed me this movie. This has to be a favorite one to just watch and make fun of. My favorite has to be their actual roleplaying scenes with those paper cut outs of their characters and the candlelight atmosphere! To think that poor D&D suffered so much from people who thought it was the devil's work when really it is one of the safest hobbies. I mean my mother never worried about me when roleplaying because she knew that it meant a long nite of sitting in a basement with other nerdy kids (and I mean nerdy as a compliment :) ) drinking soda and eating chips. A heck of alot safer than some of the other teenage hobbies and activitites.
mysticpot31 04-03-07, 06:27 PM	This movie is obviosuly about a guy who is mentally unstable and really he could of flipped out doing anything(going for rounds of golf, fixing a door etc). To use this as a weapon against DnD is proposterous. I play the game and I dont believe in demons and devils...but priests do(or so they say) so really who needs to get their prioroties straight between reality and fantasy;)
WizO_Sith 04-05-07, 11:06 AM	Not Greyhawk related. Moved to the rec-room. Bamf
_Jayne_Cobb_ 04-05-07, 12:26 PM	Now, if you thought that was funny if not disturbing… How is it disturbing? :confused:
_Jayne_Cobb_ 04-05-07, 12:33 PM	Heck, there even was copy of that Pat Pullings book in nearby public library (actually in vaults because nobody had ever wanted to borrow it) so of course I had to read it and laugh at the womans desperate attempts to find any other scapegoat to his sons suicide than the real reasons. Anyone who names her kid "Bink" and then refuses to acknowledge her own culpability in his suicide is a someone more than a few cans short of a six-pack.
_Jayne_Cobb_ 04-05-07, 12:40 PM	This movie is obviosuly about a guy who is mentally unstable and really he could of flipped out doing anything(going for rounds of golf, fixing a door etc). To use this as a weapon against DnD is proposterous. That is the best part, IMO. Even in this famous anti-D&D propaganda piece it is clear that the guy who goes nuts has serious emotional problems. It was the loss of his brother - a central plot-point - not the game that made him crack. Of course in order to get that very clear and simple message one would need to have a functioning cerebelum, which unfortunately seemed to be in very short supply based on most of the reactions this flick - and Pulling's book, and Chick's tract - illicited from the brainless RPG-hating paranoid mobs.
Pfisiar 04-05-07, 12:57 PM	i see that most people take this movie as a serious attempt to portray Dungeons and Dragons. Shame on you and all the others who have done so. The movie is so obviously a satire, that it should be beyond saying. If they were trying to make the movie serious, they would have named it something else.