DND Essentials: The Shelly Mazzanoble Edition

[Stumblewyk]

Ms. Mazzanoble is more active in the flavor area, and more specifically, in bringing new players (including more female players) into the fold. She isn't a number-crunching game designer and shouldn't be criticized as such.

I bought her book for my wife shortly after she started taking an interest in playing. My wife had been joining our group for a few sessions, and seemed into it, but I thought Ms. Mazzanoble's book would be a good way to say "see, you're not the only girl who does this, and it's not that weird."

My wife loved the book, and has since handed it off to some of the other wives of players in our group as a way to say "this is what your husband is doing, it's not that strange." Hell, even my mother-in-law has a better understanding of what we're doing when we're at my house once a month rolling dice thanks to the book.

I read the book myself, and yeah, it's definitely not for me (not just because I'm XY). It's for a newbie, its for a female. But it's an entryway into the game, and that's a GOOD thing.

(Plus, I'm partial to Shelley. She and my wife have become pen pals of sorts via email, and I think it was thanks to her direct influence that my wife is now trying her hand at DMing.)

 

[Solvarn]

Not a persona

I bought the book for my wife and we read it together, it was pretty funny.

I think that Shelly just does a really good job of putting herself out there. You can get a feel of her personality by her writing style. She is definitely a "girly" type girl, which I think is off-putting to some gamer types who might be more used to emo girls in comfortable shoes.

 

[Zieche]

+1 more for "Gave my wife her book and she loved it"

Also, I remember being quite impressed by one of her columns a while ago, in which she wore D&D clothes for a week as she went out into the real world to attempt to generate dialogue regarding the hobby. I thought that took a bit courage.

But I also secretly cheered when Mearls made fun of Kevin the minotaur dying, on a podcast.

 

[LuckyAdrastus]

Yet another, "I gave her book to my wife and she loved it" vote. That's probably a big part of why I came in to defender her earlier. But also, I just don't think it is appropriate to have a thread in a D&D forum criticizing her on mechanical grounds when that isn't her job anyway. Really, I'm no fan of threads criticizing the actual game designers by name anyway. It's just weird and slightly creepy.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Yeah I'm gonna not say that.

I have some strong negative feeling about female stereotypes, and the gender dynamics of the D&D community. I deleted the beginning of a rant that would likely violate board rules. I started this thread as a silly passive aggressive poke at someone I'm not a big fan of. I am requesting this thread which is not a 4e thread, be allowed to pass quietly into the night.

 

[Terramotus]

Meh. I have no particular use for Shelly Mazzanoble, but she's not bad for D&D. Nothing to see here.

 

[Umbran]

I started this thread as a silly passive aggressive poke at someone I'm not a big fan of.

Ah. Well, that was your mistake, then.

Thread closed.