Seeing Things the RPG Way

So I was out with a bunch of non-gamers a couple of weeks ago and we all got together to watch a DVD at someone's house.

They pulled out the Spiderwick Chronicles.

As we were watching it, I was starting to notice that some of my friends were starting to doze off at the beginning but one thing had kept me awake.

They tied the plot hook and the adventure location together which I felt was a great stroke to be used in adventure design. Somebody gives the PCs a house/mansion/estate, how could they refuse? Nobody needs to tell them that it is haunted or surrounded next to the goblin lairs.

This should make a good low leveled adventure where they earn their first base of operation.

Then, we kept on watching and I started seeing things in RPG-spect.

Mulgarath isn't just an OGRE. He is definately an OGRE-MAGE and the scene of the old man would have any player fooled.

Going to find Mr. Spiderwick and not getting an answer is just not the right way to reward your players at the end of a journey. At least, there's a little inspiration of the Feywild.

Although at the end of the movie, my friends thought it was a little anti-climatic of how Mulgarath was killed but I was telling myself that is the most brilliant and creative kill a player could try to pull on me!

Overall, my friends thought it was the movie was alright but it was a real learning experience for me.

I guess, playing too much RPGs can really change the way I see things around me.

How about you? Were there anything that you saw differently than others would have?