Paul_Klein
Explorer
God, I'd hate to DM for the guy. Make a ruling he doesn't like and... WHAM! You're on the floor 
Vin Diesel plays D&D
Doc_Klueless
Doors and Corners
Ok. Here's my point of view (as if you asked! ),
While I think it's cool that Vin Diesel (and several other celebrities) plays D&D, I personally don't find it any cooler than, say, finding out by surprise that my next door neighbor plays D&D. Ok. Maybe a little bit, but not much.
And I don't think that even if you got 20 top named celebrities to stand up and sing "We Love D&D" that it would change the social stigma surrounding RPGs. The public would just look at them as exceptions to the rule of how they preceive gamers to be. Kind of that "if you're rich, you're not crazy, you're excentric." phenomenon.
What I did find disturbing about the article was the gaming geek that basically accosted poor Mr. Diesel with his tales of his campaign and character woes. What really pointed out the geek's lack of social skills was not his inviting Mr. Diesel to his game (as my grandma says, "If you don't ask, you won't know.") but his obvious assumption that, just because he and Mr. Diesel might* share a common hobby, that they actually have anything else in common and that Vin might want to hang out or see him again (Look at the comments by the geek about whether he was going to see Vin at the XXX premiere and Mr. Diesel's reaction.)
<Rant> (Here's where I might get a little unpopular). I also think that it is telling that some people feel they need to legitimize their hobby by tying the image of somebody cool to it. If you need to justify your hobby to your friends in any way, shape or form, you need to rethink your priorities and/or your friends.</rant>
*I say might because every reference that I noticed in the article about Vin Diesel playing D&D were all in the past tense. He may no longer be a current player for all I know from that article.
),While I think it's cool that Vin Diesel (and several other celebrities) plays D&D, I personally don't find it any cooler than, say, finding out by surprise that my next door neighbor plays D&D. Ok. Maybe a little bit, but not much.
And I don't think that even if you got 20 top named celebrities to stand up and sing "We Love D&D" that it would change the social stigma surrounding RPGs. The public would just look at them as exceptions to the rule of how they preceive gamers to be. Kind of that "if you're rich, you're not crazy, you're excentric." phenomenon.
What I did find disturbing about the article was the gaming geek that basically accosted poor Mr. Diesel with his tales of his campaign and character woes. What really pointed out the geek's lack of social skills was not his inviting Mr. Diesel to his game (as my grandma says, "If you don't ask, you won't know.") but his obvious assumption that, just because he and Mr. Diesel might* share a common hobby, that they actually have anything else in common and that Vin might want to hang out or see him again (Look at the comments by the geek about whether he was going to see Vin at the XXX premiere and Mr. Diesel's reaction.)
<Rant> (Here's where I might get a little unpopular). I also think that it is telling that some people feel they need to legitimize their hobby by tying the image of somebody cool to it. If you need to justify your hobby to your friends in any way, shape or form, you need to rethink your priorities and/or your friends.</rant>
*I say might because every reference that I noticed in the article about Vin Diesel playing D&D were all in the past tense. He may no longer be a current player for all I know from that article.
dreamthief
First Post
I just thought it was funny about using D&D for 'research' and that the writer approached it from that angle, of all things. I don't really see it as validation, more something that tickles me.
dreamthief
First Post
DM_Matt said:
To play the badass characters in Pitch Black and XXX, I presume.
reapersaurus
First Post
Oh, God, please don't tell me some RPG'er in a position to actually affect public opinion totally F^&ed up?!Doc_Klueless said:
I haven't read the article - could someone else describe how they read the RPG'ers comments?
Cause if it's as Klueless says, I would seriously read the riot act to that guy for daring to screw up a golden opportunity like that to help the image that many people unfortunately have.
And BTW - I mostly agree with the other point - that you should be comfortable enough with yourself to talk fairly openly about RPG'ing.
IF the discussion comes around to it, you shouldn't feel bad about bringing it up in normal conversation.
*Stifled personal complaint *
Dragonblade
Adventurer
Vin Diesel plays D&D!
Check this out:
IGN had this on their site:
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/366/366020p1.html
Here is the text of the article for those who don't want to click:
---------------------------------------------
I guess you could file this update under: Something Steve Considered Interesting, So He Thought He'd Share It. The deal is, I was at Barnes & Noble earlier today, on a mission to find a copy of Joe David Brown's Paper Moon, the one with the new introduction by Peter Bogdonovich. Unfortunately they didn't have the book. But while there I bought the August 2002 issue of GQ, which features Vin Diesel on the cover. Now, from Diesel's interview, here's one thing I hadn't expected to read: "Vin Diesel is a Dungeons & Dragons aficionado." I had to re-read that a couple times just to make sure it said what I thought it said; a reading-double-take, if you will. Okay... I'm banishing impressions. The soon-to-be-a-mega-action-star speaks our language.
Being that Diesel is into D&D, the first part of the interview takes place at the Wizards of the Coast hobby shop at the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles. Author John Brodie writes, "the movie star strolled into a Wizards of the Coast hobby shop [and] started reading a spell-casting manual." Brodie also notes that Diesel started playing D&D when he was twelve, when a friend's mother started Sunday-night games and he was invited to attend.
"So, how's your campaign going?" Diesel asks a 23-year-old gamer in the store. They discuss the guy's campaign, and the guy then invites Diesel to participate in an upcoming round, saying, "My buddies will never believe Vin Diesel is into D&D." Diesel declines the invitation, but he autographs the guy's new D&D manual and says, "Bring that to your campaign." And leaving the mall, Diesel and his childhood friend and Dungeon Master, Marcus Abularach, discuss the issues relating to the guy's hybrid character; a half man, half orc.
Now, here's the part that's even more interesting: While Diesel was in the store he purchased around $800 worth of D&D paraphernalia. His reason for doing this, Diesel tells Brodie: research. Research for something he calls, "One of my secret projects." It's this project that Abularach has come to L.A. to write.
Chalk up another "Untitled Vin Diesel Project," something with a heavy fantasy genre slant.
And who said D&D players would never amount to anything? xXx hits theaters August 9.
Check this out:
IGN had this on their site:
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/366/366020p1.html
Here is the text of the article for those who don't want to click:
---------------------------------------------
I guess you could file this update under: Something Steve Considered Interesting, So He Thought He'd Share It. The deal is, I was at Barnes & Noble earlier today, on a mission to find a copy of Joe David Brown's Paper Moon, the one with the new introduction by Peter Bogdonovich. Unfortunately they didn't have the book. But while there I bought the August 2002 issue of GQ, which features Vin Diesel on the cover. Now, from Diesel's interview, here's one thing I hadn't expected to read: "Vin Diesel is a Dungeons & Dragons aficionado." I had to re-read that a couple times just to make sure it said what I thought it said; a reading-double-take, if you will. Okay... I'm banishing impressions. The soon-to-be-a-mega-action-star speaks our language.
Being that Diesel is into D&D, the first part of the interview takes place at the Wizards of the Coast hobby shop at the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles. Author John Brodie writes, "the movie star strolled into a Wizards of the Coast hobby shop [and] started reading a spell-casting manual." Brodie also notes that Diesel started playing D&D when he was twelve, when a friend's mother started Sunday-night games and he was invited to attend.
"So, how's your campaign going?" Diesel asks a 23-year-old gamer in the store. They discuss the guy's campaign, and the guy then invites Diesel to participate in an upcoming round, saying, "My buddies will never believe Vin Diesel is into D&D." Diesel declines the invitation, but he autographs the guy's new D&D manual and says, "Bring that to your campaign." And leaving the mall, Diesel and his childhood friend and Dungeon Master, Marcus Abularach, discuss the issues relating to the guy's hybrid character; a half man, half orc.
Now, here's the part that's even more interesting: While Diesel was in the store he purchased around $800 worth of D&D paraphernalia. His reason for doing this, Diesel tells Brodie: research. Research for something he calls, "One of my secret projects." It's this project that Abularach has come to L.A. to write.
Chalk up another "Untitled Vin Diesel Project," something with a heavy fantasy genre slant.
And who said D&D players would never amount to anything? xXx hits theaters August 9.
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