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Indeed. In Latin Lent is known as Quadregesima, or "the forty." It also represents, mystically, the forty days and forty nights that Noah spent on the Ark and the forty years the Hebrews wandered in the desert. In the old Catholic calendar there is a period of time before Lent known as...

Are you sure about that? Passover begins on Nisan 14 but the Feast of Unleavened Bread originally began on Nisan 15 (cf. Leviticus 23:6-8, Numbers 28:17). I don't deny that Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are tied together closely and cannot be sundered, but it appears that the...

True, but the dating of Easter always used a calendar date of March 21 (or was it March 20 that was used?) for the vernal equinox, no matter when it fell. I should have been more specific here. It's the start-end. I don't know if the Jewish calendar has changed at all in the last 2000 years...

I think this has more do to with the Gregorian reform of the calendar than anything else. The Orthodox Easter is the first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal equinox according to the old (Julian) calendar. The Julian calendar is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian...

Strictly speaking, it used to end on Holy Saturday before the Easter Vigil. Now it ends on Maundy Thursday before the Mass of the Lord's Supper -- Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are now known as the "Triduum." Of course this means that Lent no longer has 40 days, so it can get a...

TheStiegler has it spot on. Actually, giving up something for Lent, while a popular devotion, isn't a precept of the Church. It has taken off in popularity since the fasting restrictions for Lent were eased. It used to be that one had to fast (meaning: one meal and two smaller meals which put...

"Rules Heavy" I have seen two different definitions of "rules heavy": (1) The game has lots of rules. (2) The game may not have lots of rules, but it has rules to cover just about every situation and leaves little for the GM to adjudicate. HackMaster (and to a lesser extent AD&D), for...

Actually, I understand that there's a whole power series of the gnomish calculus. Either that, or it's a weapon they make from the scrapings off their teeth.

Calculus is Latin for "little pebble." So I'm guessing that it's a small rock commonly carried and thrown by gnomes. :D

Copyright law is based on distribution, not sale. And though I don't know the ins and outs of the various laws covering IP, even if Nintendo didn't have a legal case they could still make life miserable for you and your compadres. Also, you need to be certain to identify any Nintendo trademarks...

Of course -- it would preclude their being licensed to other companies. Greyhawk for 3e is an obvious impossibility as Living Greyhawk is still being supported (after a fashion). AFAIK, Kara-Tur is "officially" part of the Forgotten Realms.

If you had said Dr. Pepper and Diarrhea, you might have been closer. Dr. Pepper has excellent laxative qualities.

My wife likes the name Max, and we briefly considered naming our son Maximilian. Then I informed her that one of my D&D characters was named Maximilian, and I think the thought of naming her son after a game character left a bad taste in her mouth. . . . We wound up naming him Leo, which fits...

Is there such a table in the OAD&D DMG? I don't remember it. (I don't have it on hand.) I know there were a number of such tables in Judges Guild's City-State of the Invincible Overlord.

Re: Boxed Set HOMP Presentation That sounds very palatable. My issue with boxed sets is that they get easily crushed -- and the family has so many books that most of my RPG stuff gets stacked downstairs. The biggest offender by far is the original Kingdoms of Kalamar boxed set -- it's about...

Necropolis by Gary Gygax (published by Necromancer Games)

Curt Schilling is also the president of a wargaming company, Multi-Man Publishing.

I don't know about that. I saw the whole game and I didn't think that either of Trey Junkins' "bad" snaps were really all that bad. The first one in particular should have been handled by the holder. And indeed, he got it down but in a bad position. The second one should have been handled, too...

Actually, men are not to wear anything on their heads. St. Paul specifically forbids men covering their heads when praying or prophesying (1 Corinthians 11:4), while commanding women to cover their heads (1 Cor 11:5). Traditionally women wore hats, chapel veils (called so because in Ireland...

AD&D in Philadelphia I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Allied Hobbies in the Roosevelt Mall (near Cottman and Bustleton Ave. in the Northeast). They have a fine selection of RPGs and still have some AD&D stuff left on their shelves. Last time I was there it seemed to be mostly Lankhmar...