Physicist Peter Higgs Answers Your D&D Questions

This has been drifting around in various social media circles over the last few days. Peter Higgs (after whom the Higgs boson is named) is a Nobel Prize winner, theoretical physicist, and emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh. So, naturally, he's the ideal person to ask for some clarification on various Dungeons & Dragons rules. From half-elf wizards falling through dimension doors, parabolic arcs and fireballs, dodging lightning, and more, this piece by Mark Rooke is sure to make you smile.

 

[AlphaDean]

How entertaining... Physics and D&D. LOL

 

[Mr. Flibble]

Coming soon: Stephen Hawking explains why you should never, ever try to store a portable hole in a Heward's handy haversack.

 

[Blue]

Coming soon: Stephen Hawking explains why you should never, ever try to store a portable hole in a Heward's handy haversack.

Actually, I think that Sage Hawking and his friend Sage Thorne will argue that you can never recover anything when you put the two inside each other, but Sage Preskill says that the explosion will be shaped by the contents such that it should be possible to gain information about them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorne–Hawking–Preskill_bet

As a side note, I am completely using that picture of Kip Thorne next time I play a Wizard.

 

[Yaarel]

I feel a bit painful on behalf of Higgs. He does amazing work.

At the same time, I admire his sense of humor. I respect him for understanding the questions.

 

[bjmorga]

I feel a bit painful on behalf of Higgs. He does amazing work.

At the same time, I admire his sense of humor. I respect him for understanding the questions.

This is obviously intended as humorous piece and not an actual interview/Q&A.

 

[TheSwartz]

LOL, my favorite quotes:

HIGGS: ... Dungeons and Dragons isn’t a physics simulator ...

STUDENT FIVE: My level 12 paladin was running full sprint before casting Circle of Power, and —

HIGGS: No, stop right there. This is absurd. Your paladin won’t learn Circle of Power until level 17.

 

[Henry]

If he ever played under Rob Kuntz as his DM, you know Rob would force him to play a wizard called Higgby. "Higg-B"

 

[Rune]

You assume he wouldn't want to?

I want too, now.

 

[Zansy]

Poor guy... It sounds to me like they pulled a prank on him or something. I don't think it's any less real than a bunch of college students pulling a practical joke on an accomplished scientist, or less real than a D&D book being the closest thing some people might own to a 10th grade physics book (you don't need a Nobel prize winning theorhetical physicist to tell you that there's no evasion rules on being struck by lightning in real life) this piece is as just sad as it is funny. Though it is certainly both.