Watching Avengers: Infinity War I felt like I was watching a D&D group or something similar play out a campaign where the players had complained to the DM one too many times about how easy combat was. To this the DM replied, “Ok, here’s Thanos…”
The following contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War, obviously, but I’m not a monster. You have been warned.
Watching Avengers: Infinity War I felt like I was watching a D&D group or something similar play out a campaign where the players had complained to the DM one too many times about how easy combat was. To this the DM replied, “Ok, here’s Thanos…” I’m not at all saying this is the thought process of the writers, but what follows is my retcon/own narrative of the movie as if it were a massive RPG; the final episode of an epic level campaign spanning years of play and character development. I could not get around this interpretation as I watched the film, starting about fifteen minutes in and continuing through the post credits scene.
Setting the stage, our parties are made up of Fighters (Black Panther, Captain America), Magic Users (Dr. Strange, Scarlet Witch), Barbarians (the Hulk), Rangers (Bucky), Rogues (Black Widow, Gamora) and I’d argue that Thor could qualify as a cleric who multiclassed as a fighter. The large ensemble is split into smaller groups with pairings they are not usually associated with, specifically the Guardians of the Galaxy with Thor and Iron Man. To me it was reminiscent of the Trial of the Take series if you are familiar with the show Critical Role. The usual high functioning party is split with new characters that put them in unfamiliar territory to complete an objective.
Before Thanos teleports to Earth, the final encounter between Iron Man’s group and Thanos may have read something like this:
The players sit hunched around the table staring at the map. Tony Stark realizes that everything they’ve thrown at Thanos isn’t working. Peter Quill failed a Will Save and ruined Operation Strip the Gauntlet. Throwing caution to the winds, Stark uses something like Reckless Attack to gain advantage for a final strike. With Advantage, he rolls a natural 20, dealing what under any normal circumstance would be a metric feck ton of damage. Thanos shrugs it off, “all that for a single drop of blood”, and the DM compliments Tony on the attempt.
The movie overall had the feel of a high level campaign with several parties running around trying to set the stage for the end game. Some of the Guardians with Thor need to get Thor a new weapon, but first they need to restart a star, hold open the aperture, and find a handle for the axe. Another group is trying to save Vision’s stone by going to Wakanda to consult with people who have expertise they do not. And the third group, after clearing out a sub-boss in the form of the Maw, devise a plan to deal with Thanos himself, which goes horribly awry.
Even the battle in Wakanda at the end has that RPG feel. Our heroes are interspersed throughout the lines. What starts as a general’s eye view rapidly devolves into one on one engagements between an unrelenting horde of monsters with higher level NPCs (what’s left of Thanos’ Black Order) waiting for their moment to engage in the background. Those are things I like to pull as a DM. Wear the PCs down with the peons. Drop in the hard hitters after they’ve used several spell slots. It’s just good tactics.
And these are characters/PCs that are used to winning. The entire ten year and eighteen film history of the MCU is predicated on the hero being the hero. And they get stomped. Hard. In the end, the Big Bad that is Thanos wins, resulting in–while not a Total Party Kill–the next best thing, half the PCs dead (how dead that is remains to be seen).
When the all out brawl approach didn’t work, what are they left with? Dr. Strange’s cryptic “it was the only way” line before he disintegrates could be seen as a note passed from the DM to the player, or vise versa, revealing some plot point the player cannot share with the party. Thanos is like the Tarrasque of D&D. He’s a world ending powerhouse that conventional hack and slash isn’t going to cut it against. And Thanos is a Tarrasque that can cast Wish, which to quote the spell itself “is the mightiest spell a mortal creature can cast. By simply speaking aloud, you can alter the very foundations of reality in accord with your desires.” In this case Thanos snaps his fingers, but the analogy holds. His wish? Balance. And in this case Balance is manifested as half of all sentient life being wiped from the galaxy.
Seemingly satisfied, the DM temporarily retires Thanos, the NPC’s objective being completed. Half the table is dead, either prepared to roll new characters or ready to take a break and play something else for awhile. The usual methods of resurrection won’t work here. And it sounds like we will have a new player joining the table in the form of Captain Marvel sometime in the future.
And maybe that’s why Infinity War worked so well for me, personally, thinking all this as I watched it. I’ve seen some reviews that look at the movies flaws, and to quote a Vox review, “There are plenty of things to criticize about the movie, should you want to, but a muddy chronology is not one of them”. Our fictional DM is running a really tight ship; checking in on player groups at the right time, running some great combat, and giving the players an enemy unlike any that they’ve faced. And our PCs have faced down Gods of Death, planetary invasions, terrorist and insurgent plots, demons from other planes, and they keep coming out on top. But Thanos is the Tarrasque that cast Wish.
For our PCs left at the table, what do they do next session?
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