WotC "D&D's Best Year Yet"

[Zardnaar]

Ive been hit in the head before but no one has ever managed to land a blow to my face. As a result, im still adorable. Im hoping gen z produces some good sluggers. Maybe i can show them my soon to be "old man strength" in a fun row and finally join the "cold steak on the face" club.

Rough time in the 90s. School was violent and post school. Jocks didn't like D&D players, I worked on farm didn't like jocks.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Rough time in the 90s. School was violent and post school. Jocks didn't like D&D players, I worked on farm didn't like jocks.

Ironically, about half of my rp circle has been jocks. Actually, that means they are over represented. Im actually not surprised though. i guess its only ironic according to stereotype. Jocks and nerds are disproportionately likely to be the same people if you actually look into what the hormones that cause one or the other do and realize they are the same hormones. Testosterone mostly. Higher than typical levels of testosterone in utero is strongly linked to autism and other neuro atypicalities found more commonly in jocks and nerds. Also boosts intelligence. This is a mild effect but a broad one.

Then again, if by jock you literally mean "dumb brute" that not what im talking about. I guarantee you though that if you look at most trackstars you are going to see a lot of oddly high chem and math scores (and more of them will secretly be d&d players like you than the english major with an "original character self insert do not steal" people will be).

Frankly i suppose im an example of this. Loved playing sports. Was far above average at performing them (i detest watching sports though. I do not get it when people get so riled up for the game they arent even playing. Its like zoomers and millenials with their d&d podcast fandoms. I dont get it. I get bored enough to pull out my own teeth.) and im a super nerd. STEM ALL THE WAY BABY.

 

[Zardnaar]

Ironically, about half of my rp circle has been jocks. Actually, that means they are over represented. Im actually not surprised though. i guess its only ironic according to stereotype. Jocks and nerds are disproportionately likely to be the same people if you actually look into what the hormones that cause one or the other do and realize they are the same hormones. Testosterone mostly. Higher than typical levels of testosterone in utero is strongly linked to autism and other neuro atypicalities found more commonly in jocks and nerds. Also boosts intelligence. This is a mild effect but a broad one.

Then again, if by jock you literally mean "dumb brute" that not what im talking about. I guarantee you though that if you look at most trackstars you are going to see a lot of oddly high chem and math scores (and more of them will secretly be d&d players like you than the english major with an "original character self insert do not steal" person).

Frankly i suppose im an example of this. Loved playing sports. Was far above average at performing them (i detest watching sports though. I do not get it when people get so riled up for the game they arent even playing. Its like zoomers and millenials with their d&d podcast fandoms. I dont get it. I get bored enough to pull out my own teeth.) and im a super nerd. STEM ALL THE WAY BABY.

In 90s jocks were rugby players, D&D players were math nerds and chess club players. I had week end job 50kg fertilizer bags. If you can throw them around you can throw round a jock.

Jocks liked picking on the nerds. Nerds were my friends.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

In 90s jocks were rugby players, D&D players were math nerds and chess club players. I had week end job 50kg fertilizer bags. If you can throw them around you can throw round a jock.

Jocks liked picking on the nerds. Nerds were my friends.

we have a different manner of using the term jock clearly. I basically mean "letterman". Not the average sport player. The better they are the more likely they are to directly also be a nerd.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Then again, if by jock you literally mean "dumb brute" that not what im talking about. I guarantee you though that if you look at most trackstars you are going to see a lot of oddly high chem and math scores

We never had the "jocks vs nerds" thing in UK high schools (well, not in London in the 1990s, bullying in general is less acceptable in the UK too, much more likely to get you suspended/expelled, than the US), but it's certainly true to say we have always had a mix of the athletically extremely able and the athletically disinclined in my D&D groups. When I ran a couple of groups with people from school at 14-16, one of them had the most "jock-ish" kid in the entire school (certainly in that age range) in it (huge, strong, good at all team sports, grown-up-looking, full of ill-directed anger). I know I was regarded as neither particularly nerdy or super-sporty myself (I was really good at track stuff until I had a massive and totally surprising asthma attack - no-one knew I had it, least of all me - and my school wouldn't let me do it anymore!).

 

[dave2008]

Aids didn't matter to most people, ...

IDK, I realize you are not in the USA, but if you were having sex in the '80s-90's AIDS definitely mattered here.

 

[Zardnaar]

We never had the "jocks vs nerds" thing in UK high schools (well, not in London in the 1990s, bullying in general is less acceptable in the UK too, much more likely to get you suspended/expelled, than the US), but it's certainly true to say we have always had a mix of the athletically extremely able and the athletically disinclined in my D&D groups. When I ran a couple of groups with people from school at 14-16, one of them had the most "jock-ish" kid in the entire school (certainly in that age range) in it (huge, strong, good at all team sports, grown-up-looking, full of ill-directed anger). I know I was regarded as neither particularly nerdy or super-sporty myself (I was really good at track stuff until I had a massive and totally surprising asthma attack - no-one knew I had it, least of all me - and my school wouldn't let me do it anymore!).

I went to ye olde Victorian English school. It was pretty hard to get suspended unless you put someone in hospital. Expelled was really hard that required extra effort.

Things that didn't get you expelled.

Throwing someone out a second story window.

Sexually assaulting a border with a vacumn cleaner

Gay bash putting them in hospital for three days.

Throwing a mentally challenged student off the top diving board into the diving pool.

Slamming someone's head into a concrete wall.

Taking the rugby team to a strip club in Australia. Aged 16.

Assaulting and throwing a cross dresser into the pool during school sports.

Public brawl with opposing schools rugby team and burning them opposing school flag.

Throwing chisels across the room at people in woodworking class.

Driving a motorcycle into the principals office and using the wheel on his desk.

Stapling the teachers goldfish to the blackboard.

Hitting a teacher with a chair did get one guy expelled. He also assaulted the deputy headmaster.

Trying to blow the school up with nitro glycerine also got you expelled.

Playing D&D wasn't cool. Mortal Kombat 4 fatalities 1993-96. Head boys dad was a teacher then ex all black.

 

[dave2008]

Rough time in the 90s. School was violent and post school. Jocks didn't like D&D players, I worked on farm didn't like jocks.

I was lucky I guess. Our HS group of seven was an eclectic mix: two jocks, one stoner, three nerds, one drama enthusiast (not sure what category that is), and one average joe.

PS: I realize that adds up to eight, I put myself in two categories.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

IDK, I realize you are not in the USA, but if you were having sex in the '80s-90's AIDS definitely mattered here.

i think he meant it had no direct affect on a vast majority of people. Going simply by hard numbers thats pretty true, in every nation, for all of known history as is shown by the fact thay even before modern medicine not that many people died from hiv compared to, say, the flu, hunger, or other common woes. If you get hiv its EXTREMELY bad, and its more common than a lot of other high lethality diseases, but there just arent that many people directly effected.

I dont think he really meant it didnt matter. I think he more or less meant if not for media most people wouldnt really be as fixated on it as they now are and that it took a while for anyone to take it seriously. Because it just never really bore down on the population like a potentially civilization-ending problem so no one was afraid of it on a level proportuonal to that. And media had not yet drummed up a panic for it.

But thats just a guess. I cant speak for him. I could be really far off.

 

[Zardnaar]

I was lucky I guess. Our HS group of seven was an eclectic mix: two jocks, one stoner, three nerds, one drama enthusiast (not sure what category that is), and one average joe.

PS: I realize that adds up to eight, I put myself in two categories.

Stoners listened to Nirvana and smoked. Didn't play D&D although one liked game books.