Sigh..here we go again...

[Thunderfoot]

While I'm a bit disheartened at the repeated references to FRPG games, the real controlling issue is his mental state.

OTOH...

He's BLACK?! The last black gamer I saw was in my mirror!

Wait a minute --- you're black, and a lawyer? I didn't think they allowed that down south.

Seriously though, I know of five other gamers of African descent, one is a fellow ENworlder I met at GenCon, I played with three of them in my area, and the other ran a conflicting (schedule wise) campaign. All but one of the four in my area have moved away, that one is currently in my group.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Wait a minute --- you're black, and a lawyer? I didn't think they allowed that down south.

Heh- you're not far from wrong!

A few years ago (shortly after passing the bar), I was at a party at the modest manse of one Ron Kirk, former mayor of Dallas, and a prominent black attorney. If someone had bombed the place, they'd have wiped out every black attorney and judge in the D/FW Metroplex.

While there, I was listening to the stories of those who came before me, including one judge who said (paraphrasing) that he was starting to hear a case against this old white Texan who walked into the court, saw him on the bench in his robes, and yelled:

"G-D D--N! When did they start lettin' N-----S be judges?"

The judge in question quickly slammed his gavel, called for order and swiveled his chair around so he was facing the state seal- away from the lawyers and jury members- so they couldn't see him laughing (silently!) so hard he had tears in his eyes.

Ah, Texas!

 

[Hairfoot]

The guy is a schizophrenic who plays fantasy games, not a product of them.

I still can't believe that murder trials of the mentally ill are broadcast as entertainment in the US. Why not tar and feather him, too, before holding a town-square lynching?

 

[EyeontheMountain]

Avoiding the blacks in roleplaying digression...

I hope noonereally ahs trouble with this psycho who jsut happens to play D&D. He probably drank, went bowling, maybe played golf, and watched TV also. Let's blame them Just as justified.

Add on child abuse, neglect, not enough love, poverty, bad schools, bad teachers, and allthe other typical justifications for bad behavior.

Would this case be different if he used a baseball bat? I think not. D&D is immaterial

 

[Eccles]

He's mentally incapable, but made his own samurai sword?????

 

[Numion]

He's mentally incapable, but made his own samurai sword?????

Either he was really into Oriental Adventures or he just wanted that +1 masterwork bonus.

 

[werk]

http://www.courttv.com/trials/flemons/102406_background_ctv.html

All the more reason not to tease or pick on D&D players.

I may be a harmless geek with a vivid imagination, or I might be schizophrenic with a psychotic obsession.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

And I was thinking this was going to be a Whitesnake thread...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

EyeontheMountain, its a function of how unusual our hobby still seems to Joe American.

Since so many people play golf, it would seem odd on its face for a newscaster to talk about a guy who killed his wife by saying something like "A man with a psychotic interest in golfing clubbed his wife with his 1-Iron..." and similarly, you'll never see someone blame a school shooting on an unhealthy obsession with Texas Hold-'em Poker, even if the killer in question was as disturbed as this guy apparently was.

But since we're still "oddballs," our hobby will continue to get mentions in things like this.

Of course, some of our own non-psychotic behavior isn't helping our image. I still remember sitting around a gaming table a few years ago when news broke about a juror who insisted upon wearing a Starfleet officer's costume to court since "a dress uniform is appropriate courtroom attire." EVERYONE at the table groaned in disbelief.

 

[JPL]

D&D might've seemed threatening when it was being played by teenagers in the early to mid 1980s, but now it's just a bunch of lawyers and engineers and Vin Diesel playing D&D, while the young people are corrupted by new stuff like I-pods and the Intraweb.