Last week, we attended the red carpet premiere of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves in Los Angeles. We spoke to Sophia Lillis, who plays the shapeshifting druid Doric in the film, and we asked her what she loves about Dungeons and Dragons.
We left the question open-ended. After all, Dungeons and Dragons has now been made into two movies and a 1980s animated series, with a live-action series on the way! To our geeky delight, Lillis chose to talk about the original tabletop roleplaying game.
“I just find it so fun to watch other people and see what they come up with,” Lillis told us. “Because, honestly, when you sit down at that table, you never know what’s going to happen. Just seeing what crazy shit that people come up with is so much fun.”
Before there was Skyrim or Breath of the Wild, gamers would play Dungeons and Dragons by creating their own characters and using their imaginations to dream up an adventure. With the Dungeon Master as their guide, D&D players explore frontiers, engage in epic battles, and forge close bonds with the other members of their parties. D&D campaigns can last for months or even years, with players acting out vast sagas at the table.
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves recreates the fun of a D&D game, with Edgin (Chris Pine) and his party members questing across a magical, danger-filled landscape. To Lillis, though, the original game engages the imagination in a way that other media can’t.
“I think there is a human need to engage the imagination,” she told us, “and I think as we get older, we shame ourselves out of that need. But I think specifically adult fans of this game haven’t forgotten that inner child. They haven’t forgotten that [engaging a sense of play] is just as important as food and water. That’s why the game has such a vast demographic, why there are fans of all different ages. Everybody wants to play pretend. Everybody wants to engage the imagination. It truly is timeless.”
(featured image: Paramount Pictures)
