Roleplaying's just like acting, but with your friends.
May 25, 2015 7:13 PM   Subscribe

You know, sometimes life can be rough. We all got hard things to deal with, right? Sometimes we lose people. Sometimes people hurt us. And some days we're just not feeling it and we don't even know why. When I'm feeling down one thing I like to do is play a game. I feel like games can really bring us together. - Life got you down? Play a relaxing game of Dungeons & Dragons with action star Vin Diesel.
posted by Artw (48 comments total) 49 users marked this as a favorite
 
Vin Diesel would be an awesome DM.

'You're in chains.'

'I flick the knife into the air with my feet, then kick it toward the guy against the wall, severing his cranium at the jawline.'

'And I'll allow it. Roll for initiative!'
posted by obiwanwasabi at 7:16 PM on May 25, 2015 [16 favorites]


Canonically he is Skype DM during all imaginary friendships with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
posted by Artw at 7:22 PM on May 25, 2015 [7 favorites]


the following is absolutely true: Vin Diesel apparently got Judi Dench hooked on D&D when they were filming CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK. Which tickles me in a place I can't reach.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:25 PM on May 25, 2015 [90 favorites]


:-D
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:27 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Half-elf rogues live their lives a quarter-mile at a time.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:28 PM on May 25, 2015 [9 favorites]


Ok, how awesome would a game of D&D with Vin Diesel, Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Colbert, Patton Oswalt, and Ta-Nehisi Coates be?

I'll play a bard and just sit in the corner and watch.
posted by nubs at 7:29 PM on May 25, 2015 [39 favorites]


Ok, how awesome would a game of D&D with Vin Diesel, Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Colbert, Patton Oswalt, and Ta-Nehisi Coates be?

Everything in me just exploded.
posted by verb at 7:40 PM on May 25, 2015 [10 favorites]


They still haven't gotten him on Nerd Poker yet, have they?
posted by prize bull octorok at 7:41 PM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


Oswalt would make a wicked Druid.
posted by clavdivs at 7:42 PM on May 25, 2015


I think Oswalt would make a great bard.
posted by clockzero at 7:45 PM on May 25, 2015


I can see Fury Road radically changing he Bard role.
posted by Artw at 7:48 PM on May 25, 2015 [14 favorites]


And Furry Road would really elevate the role of Druids.
posted by ryoshu at 7:49 PM on May 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


Does Brian Posehn still do Nerd Poker, the podcast where he plays D&D with friends? I think he'd die if Vin Diesel came in as a guest.

Also, I think I read somewhere that Judi Dench liked to pass the time on set by doing cross-stitch of things like "FUCK" and "DAMN," which has pleased me to no end.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 7:56 PM on May 25, 2015 [6 favorites]


Actually, he had a fake tat of his character's name on his stomach during xXx.

Also, Posehn was awesome in Brutal Legend. (I don't know how to do umlauts.)
posted by Samizdata at 8:24 PM on May 25, 2015


So love this :)
posted by Calzephyr at 8:24 PM on May 25, 2015


Been gaming since '81. Had an original Chainmail set. Even got to play in a session of Dangerous Dimensions (later Journeys after a lawsuit) with EGG himself.

Now, if I could only find a way to get my PnP fix... sigh
posted by Samizdata at 8:28 PM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


Baklunish mischief!
posted by clavdivs at 8:38 PM on May 25, 2015


Fury Road was basically Apocalypse World: the Movie.
posted by GameDesignerBen at 8:41 PM on May 25, 2015 [4 favorites]


Ok, how awesome would a game of D&D with Vin Diesel, Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Colbert, Patton Oswalt, and Ta-Nehisi Coates be?

I dunno, too many high-profile players all in one place. Would I even get a word in? Now, if I got to be DM, maybe.
posted by GuyZero at 8:46 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Gamma world on sand
posted by clavdivs at 9:00 PM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


"Alright, why don't we wrap things up there for now?"

WHAT?!
posted by mrgrimm at 9:17 PM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Text at the end seemed out of order too ...
posted by mrgrimm at 9:17 PM on May 25, 2015


ok but is there a twine where vin and i pick up that dropped thread about race and fantasy and how to tell better stories for/about people of color and reflect on our experiences being mixed and the whole "half-(x)" thing and at first it's a little awkward because we've both been wanting to talk about it for a while but worried about pushing the other person into a conversation they aren't comfortable with and we come up with some really great setting and campaign ideas

i need it for reasons
posted by kagredon at 9:40 PM on May 25, 2015 [7 favorites]


Vin ain't here.
posted by clavdivs at 11:09 PM on May 25, 2015




Daily reminder that Vin Diesel is a unique and wonderful presence in action movies, and that he also has a reputation for being a pretty decent human being in real life

There's no joke here, I just think that Vin Diesel is awesome
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:01 AM on May 26, 2015 [20 favorites]


For the most part I don't like the action movies he's in. I am not a fan of the Fast and Furious movies not the XXX films. I think they're pandery and annoying.

But Vin Diesel was terrific in The Iron Giant.
posted by JHarris at 4:36 AM on May 26, 2015 [6 favorites]


Thursday nights on Twitch.tv/geekandsundry a bunch of Hollywood actors and voice-actors play 5e live. None are very famous except for Ashley Johnson who once was a Seaver. (Growing Pains)

It's a lot of fun. Voice actors are very convincing role players.
posted by Bonzai at 4:38 AM on May 26, 2015



I can see Fury Road radically changing the Bard role.


Fury Road made me desperate to play Apocalypse World.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:25 AM on May 26, 2015


Vin Diesel is the ONLY celebrity I follow on Facebook, because a post from Vin is usually just a nice little picture or something that makes me grin. He is the perfect sorbet to cleanse the palette in between terrible posts by awful people and reposted factually incorrect clickbait.
posted by joelhunt at 5:50 AM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ok, how awesome would a game of D&D with Vin Diesel, Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Colbert, Patton Oswalt, and Ta-Nehisi Coates be?

No love for Wil Wheaton?
posted by Gelatin at 6:01 AM on May 26, 2015


I could see how Dame Judi Dench might have wanted to indulge in some escapism during the filming of The Chronicles of Riddick.
posted by picea at 6:02 AM on May 26, 2015


Melkor was the name of Vin's favorite character

In the clip he acknowledges the source for the name is Toilkein. Melkor was the Vala (major spirit) who turned evil & became Morgoth. Sauron was originally one of Morgoth's lieutenants.
posted by scalefree at 6:09 AM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


No love for Wil Wheaton?

No.
posted by scalefree at 6:10 AM on May 26, 2015 [8 favorites]


This is the unofficial "organize a Google+ Hangout game of Apocalypse World" thread.

It's not a derail because Vin Diesel is totally invited.

I vote for alternating Tuesdays from 9-midnight EST.
posted by anotherpanacea at 6:48 AM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


(I also vote for 2nd edition AW when it becomes available.)
posted by anotherpanacea at 6:50 AM on May 26, 2015


Awwww! That was sweet!
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:28 AM on May 26, 2015


He's just so positive and affirming!
posted by leotrotsky at 7:34 AM on May 26, 2015


Oswalt would make a wicked druid.

I saw Oswalt play a druid at one of the Harmonquest tapings, and he was indeed delightful. All of the other players were bringing it that night, though, so Oswalt (despite being great) somehow was only like the third funniest person there.

I need the full Harmonquest series to be released.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 7:35 AM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ok, how awesome would a game of D&D with Vin Diesel, Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Colbert, Patton Oswalt, and Ta-Nehisi Coates be?

No love for Wil Wheaton?



All respect to Wil, but here's what I'm seeing in my head. Vin Diesel, as the DM, starts the game session with "You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike." This prompts Oswalt to get into a riff on Zork and ETEWAF, which Colbert happily joins into, perhaps with some Monty Python references. Dame Judi Dench, meanwhile, is very sternly trying to stop the OOC conversation while Ta-Nehisi is busy trying to grab everyone's character sheet and see how many day's worth of iron rations they have. And Vin Diesel is checking for random grue encounters.

And I can't see what Wil would add to that beyond sitting there with a grin on his face, and you know, I can do that too.
posted by nubs at 8:06 AM on May 26, 2015 [3 favorites]


Vin Diesel's a greeky icon, and such a great guy all around that I want to stand outside Kevin Feige's office with a big poster of his face chanting 'Nor-Rin-Radd! Nor-Rin-Radd!' even though I know that Marvel doesn't have rights.
posted by eclectist at 9:29 AM on May 26, 2015


One of my biggest nerd regrets is that I never got to play D&D. I was stuck in a rural area when it came out and that situation didn't change for a decade. Even when I got to an urban area, no one in my circle was interested. Now I'm back to the splendid isolation of the prairies and I am the only nerd in the village.

It brightens my day to see such enthusiasm for such a nerdy pursuit. Vin Diesel always has my support at the box office just because of his unabashed passion for D&D.
posted by Ber at 9:30 AM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


One of my biggest nerd regrets is that I never got to play D&D. I was stuck in a rural area when it came out and that situation didn't change for a decade. Even when I got to an urban area, no one in my circle was interested. Now I'm back to the splendid isolation of the prairies and I am the only nerd in the village.

I was in kind of the same boat in high school, but then got to college - and instead of D&D, I did a year-long game using a system that the DM had made up on his own. Don't know how closely he hewed to the D&D system, but it was pretty cool; and it had some of the best in-game exchanges ever, including this one during a fight between a guy playing a thief and a guy playing an actual wolf:

T: "The wolf's biting my arm, right? Okay, so then I take the vial of poison and pour it over my arm, because then some of it will go into the wolf's mouth that way."

W: "Hey, that's really smart! Even if I die, I appreciate that!"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:43 AM on May 26, 2015 [3 favorites]


I get that Vin is just reusing his favorite character as an NPC, but I have to admit I did the o.O when I saw that I was helping a guy named Melkor. It probably says a lot about the people I've gamed with and the games I've played (Amber) that it made me very wary.

But this was an awesome little thing and brightened my day even so.
posted by immlass at 10:35 AM on May 26, 2015


Oswalt would make a wicked Druid.

He showed up on Nerd Poker, having played with them before it became a podcast. Apparently he played a Dwarf. I'm not sure if his character was a Bard, but Patton would compose ditties about their adventures.

Comedian/Host/Podcaster Chris Hardwick is a vet of the group as well. Comics writer Gerry Duggan too. I wish they thought to tape those early sessions.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:27 AM on May 26, 2015


I liked (what I knew of/my perception of) Vin Diesel before the last Riddick movie, which had some pretty problematic elements. I understand he was a prime mover to get the movie made, so even if he didn't write the film, he's still got some responsibility for it.
posted by curious nu at 12:03 PM on May 26, 2015


sio42: "When someone explained, I think on here, that riddick/pitch black was vin diesel playing a dark elf it made a lot more sense. "

Certainly adds a new dimension.
posted by Mitheral at 7:48 PM on May 26, 2015


That was (at least the path I played through) surprisingly sweet and awesome.

(Although I am a bit puzzled about the "ASMR" in the title. I thought that was audio? Ah. Here's some background.)
posted by Lexica at 11:01 PM on May 28, 2015


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