Videogame tie-ins are a time honored tradition when companies are looking to create products associated with their upcoming movie or television show. There have been numerous iterations of this technique, perhaps the most famously botched version was the 1982 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial game for the Atari, which as gone down in history as the worst game ever made.
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Plenty of other famous examples of these tie-in cash grabs exist, including Enter the Matrix (2003) for the PS2 and (of course) Space Jam (1996) for the original Playstation and Sega Saturn. Given the inauspicious history of such attempts, studios have moved away from this move.
We are in a brave new era however where tabletop gaming is popular enough to begin getting tie-in products in the same vein. The popularity of actual-play shows like Critical Role and Dimension 20 helped Dungeon & Dragons Fifth Edition reach a greater audiance than ever before, and the Stranger Things D&D starter set pushed its popularity in to the main stream. Now that role playing games are a ubiqutious concept, companies are beginning to try their hand at unique games unaffilated with big-name systems.
Which brings us to A24’s The Green Knight tie in tabletop game The Green Knight: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game:
The trailer deliberately evokes a 1980s VHS filter and color pallet, and the game’s box is a direct reference to the classic Advanced D&D Red Box released in 1977. Additionally, The Green Knight: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game uses a d20, or twenty sided die, for its dice mechanics, which anyone with a passing knowledge of Dungeon & Dragons will recognize.
A24’s game does differentiate from Dungeons & Dragons in two important ways, firstly it comes with fixed character sheets and does not appear to have rules for additonal character customization. Second, and most important, is the Honor/Dishonor system. This scale seems to act as a built in character arc progression. Players must balance honorable and dishonorable actions (morality left to the Game Master’s ruling) with the ultimate goal of reaching the peak of the honorable scale.
At only $35 A24’s first roleplaying game is at a low enough price point, and the packaging and contents are pretty enough, that it is worth a purchase as a collector’s item alone. Plus, personally, I am supportive whenever a roleplaying game other than Dungeon & Dragons brings in new players. Hopefully The Green Knight: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game can act as a gateway to new players who continue explore the roleplaying game space beyond Dungeons & Dragons as there is a huge community of dedicated and brilliant game designers creating indie games for any interest and skill level.
Ansel Shipley's Words & Worlds 