Guardians of the Galaxy Thoughts

Hey Greyhawkers! Tonight I am still basking in the afterglow of watching Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a Marvel guy, and specifically a Thor fan. However, Thor comes second to (and maybe third to Cap) my love of the GotG movies. I cannot give an accurate or spoiler free review of the movie, so instead I will tell you why these two movies are important to me in a Greyhawk/D&D context.

Misfit Groups. I am normally humano-centric when it comes to characters and my story focus. Misfit races bug me. This is a byproduct of working with Greyhawk. But the option to have a multi-racial mix of characters is there, it's D&D after all. GotG is not set on earth either so aliens of all kinds are normal, thus it shows misfit groups can work, with some growing pains of course. After a while you stop thinking about their differences and the group gels into a dysfunctional but strong family just like you'd want your D&D players to do.

Opportunistic Heroes. Much like typical D&D adventurers, the GotG are rogues. They are stealing something for some rich guy or turning someone in for a bounty, etc. They might not be lawful, but as a group they are definitely good. Despite all their own motivations they end up doing the right thing in the end. And hey, if they find some loot along the way, it's well deserved!

Over the top villains and monsters. Another thing the movies has an abundance of baddies. Most are weird humanoids or slimy creatures that you'd swear jumped out of a Monster Manual. The Big Bad Evil Guys are definitely on par with most Greyhawk uber-villains like Iuz. Many are also silly in nature, and that levity keeps the story relaxed, which I think is important to an RPG when you get to the end and want a heavy serious finale. No other super hero movies have this kind of dynamic.

Exotic Locations. GotG is set in space on alien planets of course, so the comparison to a fantasy world is easy. Greyhawk might be human-like culturally. but there are many exotic locations in the setting where the true adventure waits like the Land of Black Ice, the Sea of Dust or the Burning Cliffs. Yes, even a dungeon crawl is considered an exotic location in theory. How the heroes get there isn't always important (unless its a 9 hour Tolkien epic), indeed the destination is what grabs players.

Numinous Objects. Guardians also reminds me that questing for valuable magical objects or even trying to keep the ones you already have out of the hands of villains is always a worthy plot. It' one thing to find the Hand of Vecna. But can you keep the lich and his minions from recovering it later? Sometimes even a mundane object presented at the beginning can have story implications later on. Keep stock of your items!

Saving the World. Lastly, Guardians of the Galaxy moreso than any hero movie so far, shows that a ragtag group of misfits can be coerced by circumstances, into saving the world (or galaxy) on more than one occasion. I used to routinely have my players save the Oerth from some mega-villain-demigod plot then after a while it seemed overdone so I stopped. Now years later, in the age of hero movies, I see that it's not a tired plot after all. Saving the world (or the kingdom at least) is what players will remember the most! That's all for now. What did you think of the movie?