A pilot episode based on Knightmare and made for the USA.

The Lords of the Game pilot was made in 1992 following filming of Knightmare Series 6. It was dated 1993. In 2003, Knightmare creator Tim Child gave the following details on the Knightmare.com discussion forum:

'We kept all the staff and cast on for two days at the end of series production and made a 30 minute pilot for the US market, entitled Lords of the Game. All the cast were used except [Hugo Myatt] who was replaced [as dungeon master] by an American actor [also seen in Timebusters]. Players were provided by the US Air base at Mildenhall in Suffolk.'

Later comments have suggested that filming took three days.

Lord Fear, though renamed Veerash, was still played by Mark Knight. Pickle, though renamed Leafinger, was still played by David Learner. Other aspects of Series 6 used in Lords of the Game include the Caverns of Gore backdrops, Motley and Sidriss' 'MOUSE' subplot, Peggatty and a dragon in flight.

The players included a dungeoneer named Chad and an advisor named Virginia. Only one team was seen in the episode. In an interview with Bother's Bar, Tim Child explained:

'Lords of the Game was a lot more like Knightmare, but in common with the French and Spanish variants, my distributors had convinced me that a US network would not stand for rolling game play. i.e. it had to be one game (one team) per show, win lose or draw. I hated this because it just put us on a par with things like Crystal Maze which I did not regard as true adventure gaming. Lords was quite good, but still non-satisfactory for that reason.'

Lords of the Game used the opening credit sequence and theme music that had been introduced for Knightmare Series 6.

Tim Child noted on the Knightmare.com forum that 'the pilot was not successful, US production companies being terrified of Cromakey-based shows, because of the technical complexity' and that 'they weren't prepared to cope with blue-screen issues with less lines and NTSC'.

Lords of the Game was shown at the Knightmare Convention in 2014, on both the Saturday and the Sunday. An attendee's video of Tim Child introducing one of those two showings can be found by searching on YouTube. At the time of writing, further showings have yet to be agreed.

'Fascinating to watch... The game aspect of it was somewhat simplified to the extent I don't think the team could have easily lost, but as Tim pointed out afterwards, the pilot was not intended for a D&D literate audience. It was wonderful to see new footage featuring the characters we know and love, but the main revelation for me was the American dungeon master. Completely different from Treguard, but fun and sincere - I could definitely have seen it working with a few gameplay tweaks.' malibupete (via the Knightmare.com forum)

'I've gotta say America you missed out on a great program!' Glenn Cooney (via Twitter)

See also: ZZAP

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