Archive for the ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Category

Still no official news on Captain America, although The Office guy, John Krasinski is thankfully out, as are others, and a few more are in, so who knows at this point.

Looks like Mr. Smith himself, Hugo Weaving, will be playing Red Skull, which I couldn’t be more thrilled about. I’ll keep you posted.

First let me start by explaining what I originally used role playing handbooks for. I owned the 3.5 edition Player’s Handbook for D&D, and White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade early on, but not because I was actually playing either of them with a DM or storyteller, or a crew of fellow geeks. I used them for character creation.

I am a writer, if you haven’t figured that out yet, and not only for ranting opinionated blogs like this one. I write fiction. The format of role playing handbook character sheets and subsequent measurements for, say, strength, as an example, really helps in imagining the actual strength of a character. And it doesn’t just have to be a character for role playing.

You can fill out a character sheet and by the end have a well-rounded character for a story, or your latest role playing endeavor, with a clearer picture of what that character is like and what they are actually capable of.
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I once got into a heated debate over how only an idiot would think Harry Potter wins in a comparison with Lord of the Rings because the writing is so superior. Me? I was on Harry’s side.

To some readers J. R. R. Tolkien drones on and on about the details of a leaf when we just want to get to the story, while J. K. Rowling has readership with children barely in their double digits as well as with their grandparents with equal success.

So what is the definition of ’superior writing’ exactly?

As with my previous blog entry, Star Trek vs Star Wars, I do not want my opinion to further cloud this comparison, as I see great strengths in both franchises. Let us begin then, as before, with a quick history.
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“I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.” — Gary Gygax, 1938-2008

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson—may they rest in peace in a land where skimpy chainmail really does protect better than full body armor on big-breasted women—created D&D and published its first book in 1974.

It was different from tabletop wargames in many ways, allowing for each player to essentially create and become a single character of their design to embark upon adventures in a fantasy setting. This was all guided by the Dungeons Master or DM.

Besides telling the story the players’ characters live through, the DM’s job is to try and kill the characters off. Hopefully, your DM wants you to succeed, but if they’re not throwing challenging monsters and puzzles your way that could potentially kill your character at every turn then they are not doing their job.
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People have been misinterpreting these terms for years. Even people who fall under one of these categories sometimes get wrong which one they actually are. Some people even toss these words around as if they are synonymous, which they are definitely not.

Out of the three terms most tossed around, everyone seems to agree about ‘dork’ being more negative. But if you check the many other meanings given in similar blogs and articles, ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ are still confused depending on who is giving the definition.

Allow me to give my interpretation.
 
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