Help the new person...

[National Acrobat]

It's also an expensive hobby that has many of us trapped in its grasp. [/B][/QUOTE]

Yes, yes. I forgot about that part. Quite a fine hobby though, from which my friends derive many great hours of fun and camradarie. However, the books are very neat looking and I cannot resist buying them...

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

First you take lessons from Bugaboo, then enroll in Troll school.


Dear Fans,

I just want all of you guys to know that some idiot out there is posing as me and sending emails to various message boards, dissing my fans and just being a jerk in general. One of the email addresses he/she is using is emailavril@aol.com....but he/she keeps changing them.

First of all I don't have an AOL account and I would never put my name in my email address. And most important I love all my fans. I would never take them for granted or say anything bad about them. Please just ignore this pathetic person out there who has nothing else better to do than sit at home by him/herself and pretend he/she is me...obsessed!!!

-Avril Lavigne

 

[Nightfall]

HA!

You guys are gullible.

So I'm gullible. It helps when you're converting people.

 

[Nightfall]

First you take lessons from Bugaboo, then enroll in Troll school.

Troll!!! *needs some more trolls blood anyway.* I need to get my big axe for this one folks!

 

[Tuerny]

Um, she is not pretending to be Avril Lavigne
She is a fourteen year old fan of hers and Lord of the Rings who just happened to find our message board cause she thought it was a LotR forum.

If you don't believe me you can ask her yourself.

She has an AIM screen name in her profile.

 

[Darkness]

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a role-playing game. Of the variety that uses dice, that is.

More specifically, it's a fantasy role-playing game (RPG).

Anyway - in an RPG, the players create fictional characters that they then play in the game.
These characters have certain statistics that quantify their capabilities (like strength or intelligence, but also things like how good you are at riding or weaving or whatever). In many RPGs, characters have some unusual capabilities as well - like the power to cast magic spells.

In the game itself, you then decide what your character should do - usually based on the (general) situation she's facing at the moment.

RPGs, unlike other games, are also not strictly about winning (although succeeding at whatever your character's goals are sure is nice)- at least not against the other players. Instead, they are about having fun with whatever happens, and playing a character (like, say, an actor plays a character in a movie - in an RPG, you don't have to act things out physically, though, but instead just describe verbally what your character does). That is, you should envision what the personality of the character is like - and play her accordingly, even if it's not to her advantage in the game.


Here's part of the introduction that comes with the game itself (with the Player's Handbook, that is):

Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, page 6:

Introduction
Welcome to the game that has defined the fantastic imagination for over a quarter of a century.
When you play the Dungeons & Dragons game, you create a unique fictional character that lives in your imagnination and the imaginations of your friends. One person in the game, the Dungeon Master (DM), controls the monsters and people that live in the fantasy world. You and your friends face the dangers and explore the mysteries that your Dungeon Master sets before you.

Each character's imaginary life is different. Your character might:

• explore ancient ruins guarded by devious traps.
• put loahtsome monsters to the sword.
• loot the tomb of a long-forgotten wizard.
• cast mighty spells to burn and blast your foes.
• solve diabolical mysteries.
• find magic weapons, rings, and other items.
• make peace between warring tribes.
• get brought back from the dead.
• face undead creatures that can drain life away with a touch.
• sneak into a castle to spy on the enemy.
• travel to other planes of existence.
• wrestle a carnivorous ape.
• forge a magic wand.
• get turned to stone.
• get turned into a toad.
• turn someone else into a toad.
• become king or queen.
• discover unique and powerful artifacts of amazing power.

Heh. Of course, that's only one way to play it; you can get by with less martial behavior as well...

BTW, if you've seen, say, the Lord of the Rings movie (or read the books), you'll have a pretty good idea of what kind of world D&D is usually played in.

Heh. I dunno whether that gets the point across, but others here will certainly help clarify it.

So have at it, then, my friends: Criticize this post to your heart's content - as long as you stay on topic, that is.

 

[Elleia]

um, yes, i am not avril and i am jist a fan, i think shes cool and im blonde,not a burneute (did i spell tat right? lol)

 

[Nightfall]

You spelled it fine. Just read Darky post there.

 

[Chun-tzu]

Elleia, please excuse the more cynical among us. Dungeons and Dragons is a hobby that is more popular among males than females, and so there are far more male posters than female ones here. And as guys, there's a tendency to mess with each other's minds and play stupid jokes when we're bored.

These boards are family-friendly, in no small part due to the efforts of our diligent moderators. So people here are from a wide range of age groups, but from past polls, it seems the majority are really old geezers, like 20's and up. Of course, many of us act like 12 year olds.

And Avril Lavigne is cool.

 

[Darkness]

Public service announcement

Attention, please:

I see that some of you have posted quite un-funny "joke" comments that claim that the original poster is a troll.

Stop that - now.


My reasoning:

If you're right and she is trolling, there is no sense in replying (for you, at least), since the best way to get trolls to stop is by not replying.

But if you're not right, then what you're doing is very rude.

C'mon, folks - are we a D&D message board community or not? I'd say we are, and that includes telling new people about the hobby.


So either participate in this thread constructively, or go and find another one that's more to your liking. Thanks!

- Darkness