Cecil Adams and "The Straight Dope" on DnD

[Guacamole]

Just wondering if anyone had ever read this column by Cecil Adams, "The Straight Dope", covering DnD.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_309b.html

Just wondering because of the number of DnD fans on his boards seem to be taking unecessary umbrage at his tongue-i-cheek handling of the material.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=232335&perpage=50&pagenumber=1

meh
guac.

 

[diaglo]

sorry, i can't read it. it must not be work safe

 

[Wippit Guud]

"The rule book is laden with such mystifying pronouncements as the following: "An ancient spell-using red dragon of huge size with 88 hits points has a BXPV of 1300, XP/HP total of 1408, SAXPB of 2800 (armor class plus special defense plus high intelligence plus saving throw bonus due to h.p./die), and an EAXPA of 2550 (major breath weapon plus spell use plus attack damage of 3-30/bite)--totalling 7758 h.p"

What's so cryptic about that? Except it should be 7758 xp, not hp.

 

[Piratecat]

Well, it was written in 1980 and updated in '95. It's a little out of date.

This is especially surprising considering that CDexterHaven, one of the folks on Cecil's team, is the father of an EN World board member and avid D&D player himself.

 

[Rel]

Well, it was written in 1980 and updated in '95. It's a little out of date.

This is especially surprising considering that CDexterHaven, one of the folks on Cecil's team, is the father of an EN World board member and avid D&D player himself.

I'm a long time lurker at the boards over there and there are quite a few roleplayers in residence including at least a couple ENWorld members. It surprises me not at all to see many of them stick up for our hobby.

I think it wise not to level too much ire at Cecil since he's not even a real person.

 

[Orryn Emrys]

I had never thought of myself as "Mansonesque"... but given the opportunity, I wouldn't be surprised if several of my players professed to find the adjective all too appropriate....

The article does seem a tad outdated....

 

[Pielorinho]

I'm Left Hand of Dorkness over there, and just posted. Yeah, Cecil's a bit inaccurate there; no, it's not a big deal.

Back in college, I read a book called The War between Desire and Technology. The author claimed to have done an eight-year participant-observor anthropological study of gamers, by which I assumed she meant she'd hung out during college in a gamer's dorm room smoking pot and schmoozing. From her book I learned such interesting facts as that Steve Jackson, the founder of Dungeons and Dragons, based the game on his experiences in the Society for Creative Anachronism. Who knew?

Daniel