For the G33ks- Gary Gygax passed away.

[Arlo]

 You say that as if he was the Easter Bunny. So .... tell me about your mother?

[SunKing]

Did he drop any good loot? 

[batdog]

D&D.... you guys are kidding right?

I would think that AH would be the last thing a dd person would be interested in.   

lazs

DnD got me through a pretty fluffied up childhood. I was "normal"... I partied, went on dates and later joined the Army (11B1P). Hell we played it in the barracks .... imagine that Lazs abunch of Infantryman playing DnD,lol. The game embodied ideals of honor, strength etc that I held dear in those times and it was simple good fun.

The miltary,especialy combat arms is full of guys who played/play the game (then anyway). They're the naive handsomehunk's who decide to risk life and limb for an abstract ideal that is our nation and its consitution.

See you on the other side Mr Gygax <S>

[lazs2]

xbat..  I salute you for your service and admire your courage for admitting in public that you ever played D&D..

An all male barracks does seem to be the perfect place for it tho.. who got to play the princess?

lazs

[Steve]

 

[SteveBailey]

xbat..  I salute you for your service and admire your courage for admitting in public that you ever played D&D..

An all male barracks does seem to be the perfect place for it tho.. who got to play the princess?

lazs

I think we are getting to the root of the problem here. You seem to think that those tht played D&D are somehow unmanly and should keep such admissions to themselves. I understand now.  You probably still play D&D and are worried someone will find out about it because you are so insecure about your own masculinity.  I bet, on halloween you drive to a town far away from your own where you will not be recognized and you dress up as a fairy princess in nice tights and a pink Tutu. I bet you have Barry Manilow CD's in your Healey. 'Fess up  fairy boy, I hear it's quite liberating.     

[NUKE]

I played D&D while in high school. Our high school was new and still under construction....lots of work being done on the thing while school was in session.

We used to find and empty room and play D&D for hours....skipping classes, in these rooms that were under construction. They even had locks on the doors, so we could lock "the man" out.

Many a fond memory of those days.

And by playing D&D, I don't mean dressing up and acting out crap. I mean that it was game played in the mind. It's really hard to explain, but it is almost like an alternate reality played out in your mind.

I'd compare it to the old radio days, when people would be entranced by the stories told over the old radios.

[Maverick]

DnD, as he set it up, was a cerebral exercise of the imagination. It was a great escape and a fun way to interact with some friends. It also was a way to find humor in some really outlandish mental side trips. It wasn't about self image or proving anything to anyone any more than playing a friendly game of cards is. Not everything is bout shoring up your masculinity or femininity (for the ladies that played it). It was just about having a good time with friends and seeing how the game would turn out.

[lazs2]

well... I will admit that I know little or nothing about the thing other than the blurbs I have seen here and there on the internet and articles I read in magazines of the time.

I was never into fantasy.. elves and trolls and princesses and that whole world..  swords and sorcery and magic type of crap..

The articles of the times showed a bunch of teenage boys all dressed up in fairytaleland clothes and sitting around what looked like a basement.   I was giving women rides on Harley's at the time and building hot rods and such... you can imagine that I might have looked askance at the whole thing.

I can't bring myself to read a fantasy book or even watch someone play one of these fantasy world role playing games they have now.. if the words "sorcery" or "magic" or elves or trolls shows up in a science fiction book I know it will be a stinker.

I could not watch the lord of the rings even half way through.

There are lots of ways to stir the imagination..  taking yourself to a world of boys dressed as princesses and elves and sorcerers is not a viable option for me.   

Why didn't you guys just join a drama class?

lazs

[NUKE]

well... I will admit that I know little or nothing about the thing other than the blurbs I have seen here and there on the internet and articles I read in magazines of the time.

I was never into fantasy.. elves and trolls and princesses and that whole world..  swords and sorcery and magic type of crap..

The articles of the times showed a bunch of teenage boys all dressed up in fairytaleland clothes and sitting around what looked like a basement.   I was giving women rides on Harley's at the time and building hot rods and such... you can imagine that I might have looked askance at the whole thing.

I can't bring myself to read a fantasy book or even watch someone play one of these fantasy world role playing games they have now.. if the words "sorcery" or "magic" or elves or trolls shows up in a science fiction book I know it will be a stinker.

I could not watch the lord of the rings even half way through.

There are lots of ways to stir the imagination..  taking yourself to a world of boys dressed as princesses and elves and sorcerers is not a viable option for me.   

Why didn't you guys just join a drama class?

lazs

It was nothing like what you are saying. No Lord of the Rings, no dressing, no acting.
It was game. A game played in the mind.

It's hard to imagine it though. To me, it is one of the best games ever imagined.

[Treize69]

DnD got me through a pretty fluffied up childhood. I was "normal"... I partied, went on dates and later joined the Army (11B1P). Hell we played it in the barracks .... imagine that Lazs abunch of Infantryman playing DnD,lol. The game embodied ideals of honor, strength etc that I held dear in those times and it was simple good fun.

The miltary,especialy combat arms is full of guys who played/play the game (then anyway). They're the naive handsomehunk's who decide to risk life and limb for an abstract ideal that is our nation and its consitution.

See you on the other side Mr Gygax <S>

We played both BattleTech and Vampire: the Masquerade in my barracks, and I was in a combat MOS too (19K). Never got into D+D mainly because the vast library of rule books and the like was far too daunting for a newb, plus I just never got into the whole fantasy scene. I prefer games that are more sci-fi or historically based.

[WilldCrd]

A mind is a terrible thing to laz...means people will THINK!!! OMG somebody get the hose on these folks quick!!

I used to play D-n-D back in the day. was a great escape from the crap that went on in my family....
I used to drive my 78' Trans Am over to my friends house were we got together to play. On sundays we worked on our cars. On friday we raced em and on saterdays we played D&D.
Havent thought about the game in years. I still have some of my 1st edition stuff too.
R.I.P Mr. Gygax <S>

[Arlo]

Why didn't you guys just join a drama class?

Ah ... so it was drama class that made you the melodrama queen over anything you're remotely critical over today, I see. Offered at the school of marginalizing everyone else to appear exceptional?

[Maverick]

well... I will admit that I know little or nothing about the thing
lazs

Really should have stopped there then. If you know nothing about the thing you are hardly in the position to really have an opinion with any merit to it. It's easy, when you know nothing about it, to have a really skewed and totally incorrect misperception about it. Kind of like beetle trying to speak on which handgun is best for defence or target shooting.

Oh and BTW I found that the drama folks in High School had the absolute best parties. 

[Urchin]

I loved reading the books.  Monster Manuals, the class books.... I enjoyed reading the short stories in them.  Never could find a good group to play with - I knew some people who did but they didn't play it "right" in my opinion.. mostly they sat around rolling up new guys and complaining if they didn't have at least 3 traits of 19. 

BattleTech I also loved reading.. I think I had all of the "Technical Manuals" for it.  Couldn't ever find anyone to play that with either, but I did play the heck out of MechWarrior series on the PC.

Lazs - I think more "normal" people than you think do that sort of thing.  I actually was involved with the SCA for a couple years (which is basically LARP without the "magic" stuff... just grown men dressed up in "armor" beating the hell out of each other with bamboo sticks).  I really enjoyed it, and at 23-24 was by far the youngest member of the group I was with (mainly guys in their 30s and 40s ... married, making good money, and raising kids).  When I decided to go back to school I didn't have the time to do it anymore, so I gave em back the armor that they'd gathered up for me, and they passed it on to another younger guy.

I think I'm about as normal as the next guy, and I've dabbled in the geek arts .  Played football and chess in high school too.