Pretty mediocre “Morning Edition” segment this morning about D&D playing on this, the 30th anniversary of the game. While some of the information (the basic explanation of the game, the history of it, the relationship between D&D and computer games) was, if uninspired, reasonable, the extended segments of a bunch of guys (only) running through a combat and talking in “funny voices” was straight out of Knights of the Dinner Table, complete with melodramatic combat rolls and entrails. And while the comparison to going out bowling or eating wings at a bar while watching Monday Night Football was a nice “see, these folks aren’t doing anything too weird” touch, the “I’m 38, what am I doing still playing this game” bit counteracted it nicely.
NPR, next time you want to highlight some folks playing D&D (or — and, yes, they do exist, folks, another RPG), give someone in my gaming group a call. We’ll get something interesting set up for you.
Yes it did have the “Hey, let’s laugh at the geeks” quality to it…or at least some sort of anthropology expedition into deepest darkest geekdom.
And what was up with the whole Lets-describe-the-death-thing?
Plus the guy using the Londo Mollari voice was saying way to much for a free action.
Maybe they should have hooked up with Scott’s group. He’s in the New York area.
On the plus side it did sound as if they were having a good time.
The players were having fun. I was cringing. 🙂
Oddly… http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1152417 “target=”new”> this story from two years ago is much better.
And this print story from a bit back hits a lot of the same themes, too.