Celebrating Dungeons & Dragons' 40th Anniversary 218
disconj writes "With the 40th anniversary of the release of Dungeons & Dragons coming up this weekend, the Internet is ablaze with reflections on its legacy. Dave Ewalt gives an intro for the uninitiated.
Ethan Gilsdorf explains how 'all I need to know about life I learned from Dungeons & Dragons'. Finally, Jon Peterson presents a video show-and-tell of rare artifacts from D&D's development." The real question is how many characters have you lost in Tomb of Horrors?
Recall how it was going to turn us into Satanists? (Score:5, Informative)
Adults in the 60s, 70s and 80s were smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, getting high on grass and coke before they had kids and now were suddenly worried about everyone's grip on reality.
I was probably more obsessive about Star Fleet Battles than D&D but for some reason fears over D&D caught the wind. Why? Sci-Fi nerds were supposed to appreciate science but not people who were obsessed with dragons. Weird.
Re:When?! (Score:4, Informative)
Thankfully it's also a myth. It never stopped me at least. I haven't played in years now except occasionally, but from about '76 through '86 it was one of my favorite non-sport pastimes, and it never got in the way of getting girls :)
I guess YMMV.
Re:When?! (Score:5, Informative)
*shrug* but sorry, you were on a non-fact rant, apologises for interrupting you with some.
Re:Tried playing this game (Score:5, Informative)
D&D was all about the DM ... if you have a good one, it was a blast, if you had a bad one it was snore. The rules were really only there as a guide, a good DM would learn to ignore a bad dice role (and, occassionally ignore a good one :-) ) .. thats what those screens were for :-)
Pathfinder (Score:4, Informative)
That's why my group uses Pathfinder [paizo.com], a fork of third edition D&D that is still supported and thriving. And all your third edition supplements are compatible.
Re:Never understood it (Score:4, Informative)
It's like football, or opera, or country music, or chocolate, so many other things. You like it, or you don't. It's just the way it goes.
Unless of course you happen to be one of those ignorant douche-bags that rag on hobbies you don't understand or don't like.
If that's the case, then I'll just point out that I've made a number of those types miserable and horribly embarrassed in front of their peers and have no regrets for the divine retribution they were slammed with. It's rather easy to do with that type, and their 'friends' tend to be the ones to thoroughly enjoy watching it happen.