I cast magic missile...

October 16, 2004 10:22 PM

Dungeons & Dragons Turns 30
posted by falconred (20 comments total)

...still can't get a girlfriend.
posted by TungstenChef at 10:47 PM on October 16, 2004

Hey, at least it finally moved out of its parents' basement.
posted by keswick at 10:56 PM on October 16, 2004

30? That's a pretty good roll for 6d6.
posted by neckro23 at 11:01 PM on October 16, 2004

um... and?
posted by ChasFile at 11:09 PM on October 16, 2004

Someone cast Mordenkainen's Listless Indifference on ChasFile.
posted by euphorb at 11:36 PM on October 16, 2004

Huzzah!

A round of dwarven ale for the room!
posted by geekhorde at 11:50 PM on October 16, 2004

here's 1gp. call someone who cares.
posted by sharpener at 11:54 PM on October 16, 2004

2nd edition for evar!
posted by Hackworth at 12:40 AM on October 17, 2004

I only played it once. Firstly I killed an owl (at a fork in the road you hear a mournful hooting), which turned out to be a sentient owl. Then I ran away from a bear. Then (pattern emerging) I was attacked by an OWLBEAR.

I threw the owl corpse to distract the OWLBEAR. It worked. I slaughtered the owlbear. I got obscenely rich.

I think that's where we stopped playing.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 1:12 AM on October 17, 2004

OWLBEAR

My character was a lascivious blatently-jewish gnome called Mipmap Alfresco.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 1:16 AM on October 17, 2004

/hears noise

/rolls 2d20 for direction

/fails to identify due to age

WHAP

/falls to earth, unconscious, blind-sided by own age
posted by mwhybark at 1:32 AM on October 17, 2004

well, at least the integrity of the game lives on in Neverwinter Nights for both PC and Mac.

i've been a part of a weekly DM'd ( 6 DMs...!) campaign online for almost a year, and it truly allows you the freedom to RP (roleplay) and yet plays like entertainment.

/geek
posted by NationalKato at 1:46 AM on October 17, 2004

D&D, since you're thirty, please add +1 to your wisdom and subtract -1 to your dexterity.
posted by picea at 8:57 AM on October 17, 2004

In celebration of D&D's anniversary, let's everybody go out, find a pimply 30 year old virgin, and beat his ass.
posted by Ty Webb at 9:54 AM on October 17, 2004

Ahh, eliciting a mixture of confusion and ridicule from the general public... that's the D&D I remember!
posted by Hildago at 11:54 AM on October 17, 2004

at least the integrity of the game lives on in Neverwinter Nights for both PC and Mac.

D&D is freeform. Games like NW and its ilk are just highly automated interactive multimedia versions of choose your own adventure style books from the 1970s and 1980s. They're on rails. Very complex rails, granted, but rails nonetheless. Their grammar is closed and context-free whereas linguistic games such as D&D use open transformative grammar. Put another way, NW and other such systems do not enable the intersubjectivity of linguistic role playing systems.

Having said that, the Fighting Fantasy books were fun. My first programming project was coding Warlock of Firetop Mountain as an Atari Basic game.

JOSE CHUNG: Aren't you nervous telling me all this after receiving all those death threats?

BLAINE FAULKNER: Well, I didn't, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage.

JOSE CHUNG: Oh.

posted by meehawl at 2:39 PM on October 17, 2004

I played it when throughout high school and, damn it, I'd still be playing it today if I could. Happy birthday, D&D.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:25 PM on October 17, 2004

Drunken Bystander rudely interrupts D&D game by throwing old copy of TV Guide onto coffee table, knocking over soft drinks, assorted snacks, some scoresheets, and several pewter figurines.

Drinken Bystander shouts "REVERSE LIGHTNING!", further disrupting D&D activites.

Drunken Bystander has now gained a new level!
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:02 PM on October 17, 2004

My 10th level necromancer will teach you the meaning of fear. Cower, mortals!
posted by rocketman at 6:48 AM on October 19, 2004

Nice one, Picea.
posted by COBRA! at 7:06 AM on October 19, 2004