“Open your mind and I’ll transport you to another realm”

July 21, 2024 2:47 PM

The DragonStrike instruction video cassette was like nothing else TSR ever did, a mix of live action and early 90s computer graphics, all in the service of introducing a board game that was “essentially Dungeons and Dragons with training wheels”, as Don Jolly put it in an entertaining essay about it. YouTuber William SRD has also made a video exploring the cult classic video, as the last part of four episodes about the DragonStrike series of games. You can play the original video game at the Internet Archive.
posted by Kattullus (7 comments total)

There's a great compilation of scenes from that type from years ago, I thought put together by the Everything Is Terrible people, but I can't find it in their Youtube account. The narrator entered the lore of our D&D group as the "Floating DM head." I feel like the disembodied head floating around the screen accurately presaged that bouncing DVD logo meme.
posted by JHarris at 4:16 PM on July 21 [2 favorites]

Also: this is the kind of post that I love the most, and I miss the days when fun and absurd things like this appeared here more often.
posted by JHarris at 4:33 PM on July 21 [7 favorites]

I'm just wondering if any of the actors actually played dungeons & dragons.

my dream team party would be Vin Diesel as the fighter. Wil Wheaton as the magic user. Lady Gaga as The Bard. Toby Jones as the rogue. Liam Neeson as the cleric.

with Shohreh Aghdashloo as The illusionist
posted by clavdivs at 6:36 PM on July 21 [2 favorites]

incomprehensible, utterly...enjoyable :-)
posted by HearHere at 8:19 PM on July 21 [1 favorite]

That game looks a lot like HeroQuest, any relation?
posted by donio at 11:23 PM on July 21

It was basically TSR’s competitor to HeroQuest.
posted by Kattullus at 2:34 PM on July 22 [2 favorites]

So, there's been footage released of drone battles over Ukraine that is eerily similar to DragonStrike gameplay footage.
posted by Kattullus at 3:54 AM on July 25 [1 favorite]