MetaFilter posts tagged with DD and roleplaying

"just numbers on a piece of paper"

Kattullus — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:18:24 -0800

I do not want to spend too much time beating a dead war-horse, but your average D&D game consists of a group of white players acting out how their white characters encounter and destroy orcs and goblins, who are, as a race evil, uncivilized, and dark-skinned. To quote Steve Sumner’s essay again, “Unless played very carefully, Dungeons & Dragons could easily become a proxy race war, with your group filling the shoes of the noble white power crusaders seeking to extinguish any orc war bands or goblin villages they happened across.” I would argue with Sumner’s use of the phrase “could become,” and say that unless played very carefully, D&D usually becomes a proxy race war. Any adventurer knows that if you see an orc, you kill it. You don’t talk to it, you don’t ask what it’s doing there - you kill it, since it’s life is worth less than the treasure it carries and the experience points you’ll get from the kill. If filmed, your average D&D campaign would look something like Birth of a Nation set in Greyhawk.

- Race in Dungeons & Dragons by Chris van Dyke, a powerpoint talk given at Nerd Nite. Via Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog where there's a smart discussion going on about the essay.

DM of the Rings

Bugbread — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 13:19:27 -0800

DM of the Rings (comic). The Lord of the Rings if it were a Dungeons and Dragons game. Mentioned twice in comments on MeFi, but never actually FPP'ed.

Dorkstorm: The Annihilation

ColdChef — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 06:45:22 -0800

Dorkstorm: The Annihilation The ten geekiest hobbies

snarkout — Fri, 24 May 2002 09:40:54 -0800

Fashion comes and goes, but art that might have come from the side of a van is forever. The cover artists from Dragon magazine, a staple of my pimply years, all have websites now, from Keith Parkinson to the ghastly Clyde Caldwell to Larry Elmore (who is putting his old Dragon comic, SnarfQuest, online). The grand master of bodacious barbarian babe art, Frank Franzetta, has a site, too. Relive your adolescence through gleaming swords, vanquished dragons, and hyperdefined musculature! (Warning: Not all pictures are work-safe.)