Making fun of D&D

[GeorgeFields]

I like D&D. I like fantasy football.

To over-simplify it, in D&D you role-play as wizards and warriors. In fantasy football, you role-play as an NFL coach, general manager, and team owner.

I prefer Blood Bowl. At least, I can kill opponents in it.

 

[replicant2]

Did I miss omething in the article?

Yes. It's called subtext.

The author opens the article by (gasp) asking whether fantasy football is actually just D&D for sports-minded individuals. Then he spends the rest of the article telling fantasy football players that they can breathe easy, knowing that their obsession is above D&D players and other such hobbyists.

There's no knee-jerk reaction from this corner, just an observation that these types of tired old arguments are the very definition of hypocrisy. And as I stated in my original post, this is coming from someone (me) who plays fantasy football and D&D. They're both nerdy, but let's not elevate the former at the expense of the latter.

 

[KenM]

They're both nerdy, but let's not elevate the former at the expense of the latter.

But thats the only way the die hard jocks can feel superior is if they keep beating on the geeks.

 

[pogre]

It's funny how perceptions work. I love football. I'm a high school football coach, I played college football, and it is a great thinking man's game. I love D&D. I play D&D now, I played FRPs in college, and it's a great thinking person's game. I'm always sorry to see stereotypes put forth about football players being idiots and D&D players being geeks.

I'll share a story about perceptions: Back in highschool I ran a D&D group. The group consisted of 3 offensive linemen, a noseguard, a linebacker, and a running back. We met every Sunday night and pretty much all we talked about all week was girls, football, and D&D. We assumed in our own little bubble that pretty much all gamers were like us. One year, 1983, GenCon fell on the weekend before football practice was to begin. We decided at our summer football camp we would all go.

Six football players, two of which had since moved on to college, piled into a vehicle and made the trek to Kenosha, WI. (At least I think that's where it was that year). We went to GenCon and piled out of the vehicle. Across the parking lot we see a massively obese woman, in a chainmail bikini, with fairy wings on her back - we quickly figured out we were not in fact the stereotypical D&D players. We still had a great time and continued to play.

One of the things that has happened in the intervening years is knowledge of the D&D game has spread and with it, the stereotypes. Not every D&D player is a smelly fatbeard and not every football player is an idiot. Now rabid NFL fans on the other hand....

 

[BOZ]

good point, actually. football requires strategy, just as D&D does. playing either without using strategy is likely to get you killed.

 

[genshou]

playing either without using strategy is likely to get you killed.

Or worse...

 

[Geoff Watson]

Is there strategy in Fantasy Football?

I thought you chose players at the start of the season and that was it.

Geoff.

 

[BOZ]

only if your league is no fun.