D&D Is 30 763
mainframemouse writes "For those who have not seen the Beeb article, Dungeons and Dragons is 30 years old.
After many years of role-playing is wonderful to see the mother of all RPG's given respect and mention in the national press. There's even a note about the false accusations of the 80's." And for the record - flanking & attacks of opportunity in 3/3.5 Edition still irritate me. Combine a familiar with Master Tactician and some rogue levels, and you're off to the races.
Re:E. Gary Gygax (Score:4, Informative)
Re:E. Gary Gygax (Score:3, Informative)
Re:House rules? (Score:3, Informative)
I've also concocted very entertaining critical and fumbles rules for melee, missile, and spell scenarios. Far more fun than "Oh, you get double damage" or "the spell just fizzles" over and over.
re: question from an "outsider" (Score:2, Informative)
RPGs are the activity, but the world(s) in which they are played are the setting.
hope that answers your question satisfactorily.
ed
Re:Logic, Logic -- Who's Got the Logic? (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry to nitpick, but dammit...
I never played until I was almost 20 years old. (Score:3, Informative)
LK
Re:House rules? (Score:3, Informative)
"In my opinion, rules like flanking and attacks of opportunity add a whole lot more tactical depth to the combat without slowing it down much. It's certainly more fun than combat in old D&D."
Depends on the class you play, some such sa the Bard have ben reduced to non combatents by the new rules. You say "I sing" on the first round and then go watch TV or something while the fighters start to dance around with their swords. I liked the older rules, which where more geared to role playing then the new combat/tactics system where the only needed atribute is STR.
Re:Logic, Logic -- Who's Got the Logic? (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, being a native speaker of English, I presume that you already have a very good intuitive sense of pragmatics, and are just conflating the rigid semantics of computers (which have no pragmatics) with the much more expressive power of human languages.
Another common example: "There's some food in the fridge if you're hungry." Of course, there's also food in the fridge if you're not hungry, but that's not the point.
Re:Question from an "outsider" (Score:4, Informative)
The poster above is correct: Tolkein did not invent any of the fantasy elements he included in his works, he just set them down on paper so eloquently to tell a story (and create a language) that he might get credit for them nowadays (especially with the movies being so popular). They were all mythological devices long before Tolkein used them in his novels.
For instance: try reading Beowulf.
A great movie for D&D players... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Some classic Christian D&D FUD (Score:2, Informative)
I'm no fan of Chick, but the original quote is actually about a hypothetical game Chick describes. (The point of the description is to elicit the expected response of righteous Christian horror at eroticism.) Chick's complaint against D&D (and rock and roll, and sex, and modernity...) is stupid on its face; no need to pile on.
Check the library. (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, with the newer editions I'm sure they've tried to make it impossible to play without all 75 books, but back then it was pretty straightforward. Any details we were lacking were pretty darn easy to fill in as an eleven year-old.
I always figured that modules and etc. were created for older players or people with less imagination (and free time).
support your local indie RPG author (Score:5, Informative)
And while you're their, a shout out please for Lumpley, an old friend of mine, and the author of kill puppies for satan: an unfunny roleplaying game [rpg.net]. (I'd link directly to his site, but I doubt it could take the slashdotting. Still, I must advise folks to look him up. And send him money.)
Re:ah the nostalgia (Score:3, Informative)
You can find out--Phil Foglio released the collected Phil and Dixie "What's New?" strips a few years back. They're a little hard to find, but they're available.
Your familiar has been slain! (Score:5, Informative)
First, I don't know what "Master Tactician" is; you are probably referring to "Expert Tactician" which allows you to make an additional attack whenever someone is denied their dex bonus to AC. Since a Rogue also adds sneak attack damage to any attack when the opponent is denied their dex bonus to their AC this is a good combination.
However flanking does not deny the opponents dex bonus to their AC, so the familiar flanking example you used would not work to give you an extra sneak attack as you suggest. Additionally if your familiar is killed there are harsh penalties. You must make Fortitude save DC 15 or lose 200xp per master level (save for half). You also cannot get another familiar for a year unless you raise dead. Since you will be progressing as a Rogue and not a Wizard or a Sorcerer, your familiar will not increase along with you. By level 6 opponents will simply squash your familiar like a bug, costing you 6750gp each time for a scroll of raise dead.
AC: Armor Class, how hard you are to hit in combat.
Dex Bonus: Dexterity is a measure of how nimble a person is, the bonus from this score adds to your AC.
XP: Experience Points, a measure used to determine the level of your character.
DC: Difficulty Class, in order to succeed you must roll a twenty sided dice (d20) and add your relevant bonus and get a result equal or higher.
GP: Gold Pieces.
Re:Ah, D&D (Score:2, Informative)
Nephilium
D&D spawns STDs! No! Really! (Score:5, Informative)
My blog post earlier today, which links to the same Beeb article, was entitled "30 years of playing games with giant herpes viruses"
Re:I WANT TO CAST A MAGIC MISSILE! (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=220487
Warning, it's so funny you may wet your pants.
D&D has been gone for a 2 decades (Score:4, Informative)
The whole mess is tied up in court over ownership between Gary Gygax, David Cook, some original investors in what used to be TSR, who filed a law suit following the sale to WoTC, and Hasbro INC, the newest 'owners'. Hasbro brought in BIG LAWYERS and claimed ownership over EVERYTHING involving D&D, even stuff which was taken from public domain, or history texts. Much of the legal battle involved the Bioware engine and the rights over use of names and such in electronic publishing. The 'NEW' Pools of Radiance game and publishing house did not help to clear matters at all. Spell names and character names in the background that were allowed for use to Gary, or David but never allowed for transfer, Many things involving games used at CONS that were NEVER licensed for commercial use, or things from the old dragon/dungeon mags that were adopted into the game or offered for non-commerical use to GM's were co-opted by WotC or Hasrbo. In some cases the true owners were even legally threatened by either company, and they did not even know the source of the material they were claiming.
I have been playing since the blue book days and have numerous modules and other minor components published under TSR's aegis, or used at cons or tournaments, and yes I have run many GENCON games as well as RPGA tournaments , that were then 'adopted', used, modified, and then my name was eventually removed totally, while they continue to use the items and spells bearing the characters' name I own and created. It is frustrating and somewhat insulting but I never expected make a profit, I did it for the 'love' of the game. I had an EQ char's last name changed following a report by 'someone', when I am in fact the legal owner. I've had ZERO luck getting the name back as Sony Online Entertainment claims OWNERSHIP of everything that passes a chat screen in EQ.
Sadly the 3rd ed system is aimed at the video game crowd and rather silly in many places, we speculate jokingly that the authors were obviously playing Diablo2 during the development period of the new system. Our long time gaming group, the Saturday Knights, playing continuously for 20 years now, has adopted the GURPS system and we continue in the same game world we've been playing in for almost the entire time.
BTW we are always looking for good roleplayers, we are listed on Steve Jackson's find a game/player service or can be reached at the above email, make sure to put a RPG reference in the title or it will likely get de-spam'd. We are located in California, East of SF, meet at least once every 2 weeks for 8+hours sessions, require mature gamers but age is not the primary factor, and have a family environment to play in. Our group consists of several married couples as well as some younger singles. We've tried remote play but have not found any medium which can yet support the needed presence to really make ROLE-PLAYING possible, and We DEMAND roleplaying over stat-playing. A good guideline to our game style is the Char's disadvantages DEFINE them, and EVERY action has long term consequences in game. Uncle Figgie's guide to power gamers is recommended reading, and you should 'KNOW' what type of player you are
Re:The flagship... (Score:1, Informative)
FYI: Tekumel (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No Girls Allowed (Score:3, Informative)
You might try the SJGames Gamer Finder. [sjgames.com]
It's hit or miss, still, but it's the best consistent resource that I've found to date, and I seem to keep changing states. It's getting harder and harder to find game stores, as most of it is now done on-line, so the postings for "gamers wanted" are also harder to find.
Here's a couple of other things:
Remember: PONDS ARE CASTLES! (Score:3, Informative)
It was not only complete, but OVER complete. It had two map boards!
This was very important, because as old timers out there know the original D&D called for a copy of this map for wilderness (outside of a dungeon) adventures.
There was a note that the ponds on the map should be treated as castles. The whole point of the game seemed to be to put together enough wealth to be able to afford to buy a castle and hire men-at-arms.
This makes sense when you remember D&D's roots in minatures games. All that dungeon delving and monster fighting was just a prelude to playing CHAINMAIL miniatures games with your Superhero (Fights as 10 men+1) leading the way.
Stefan
Re:Where's that mp3? (Score:1, Informative)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105420&
Gary Gygax (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Gary Gygax (Score:2, Informative)
Re:My Quest is for an old D&D-themed book... h (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Foglio's site, Gazebo Boy (Score:3, Informative)
Eric and the Gazebo [dreadgazebo.com] not only describes the origin but mentions Phil Foglio in the process.
I first remember it from the '89 first internet posting in rec.games.roleplaying, the joke was around all geek circles in the college within hours.
Re:D&D has been gone for a 2 decades (Score:3, Informative)
"it was AdvancedD&D because of ownership disputes arising from the original Gygax play group. It is now officially the 'D20 system' and not even a game anymore but a set of leaseable rules.
The whole mess is tied up in court over ownership between Gary Gygax, David Cook, some original investors in what used to be TSR, who filed a law suit following the sale to WoTC, and Hasbro INC, the newest 'owners'. "
Is completely and totally false in every respect.
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Ryan S. Dancey
CEO OrganizedPlay
for more information about Open Gaming, please see http://www.opengamingfoundation.org
Re:Your familiar has been slain! (Score:2, Informative)
A year and a day.