Vin Diesel showed his softer side recently, posting a video on Instagram of his family and actress/model Ruby Rose preparing to play an epic game of Dungeons & Dragons.
“Always engage in your creativity,” Diesel says to the camera. “We are about to engage in an epic night of D and D.”
The video features Diesel’s son Vincent, who is 11, and Rose winking knowingly into the camera.
Vincent says it’s his first time playing the game and he’s pretty stressed out but excited. He renames Rose as “Ruby Rolls” because of how important rolling dice is to the game, and he calls his father “DnD Diesel.”
The table features some DnD paraphernalia, including a copy of Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and the Player’s Handbook. Some spell cards are also visible around a table.
Diesel is a noted DnD enthusiast, and he famously introduced the game to Karl Urban and Dame Judi Dench during the filming of The Chronicles of Riddick. Once viewed as only the domain of nerdy shut-ins, Dungeons & Dragons has become more and more mainstream as a number of celebrities profess their love for it publicly.
Bodybuilder and actor Joe Manganiello famously shut down a pro wrestler on Twitter for making fun of the game.
Wrestler Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) tweeted a picture of himself flexing with the caption “I don’t play dungeons and dragons.”
Manganiello replied “I do” with a picture of himself on Muscle & Fitness magazine.
MJF has since deleted the tweet.
In a conversation with SyFy Wire, Diesel had a little fun when asked about his DnD habits.
No. I never play D&D. For some reason, they thought that I played D&D for 20 years. They thought that I spent years playing Barbarians, Witchunters, The Arcanum. They thought I played D&D back in the ’70s when it’s just the basic D&D set. They thought I continued to play D&D when it became Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. They thought I played D&D when there were only three books – the “Player’s Handbook,” the “Monster’s Manual” and the “Dungeon Master’s Guide.” They thought I played D&D as it continued onto the Unearthed Arcanum, Oriental Adventures, Sea Adventures, Wilderness Adventures. THEY thought I played D&D at the time when “Deities and Demigods” was the brand new book. THEY thought I played D&D when I used to get up to a place called The Complete Strategist in New York.
