Stephen Colbert mentions DnD and role-playing in NPR interview

[FalcWP]

Also, 'Heal Light Wounds'? Was this an Olde D&D term that us post-1e people didn't get exposed to?

-TRRW

Eh, I'll cut him some slack on that. I've known folks who didn't start til 3.5 to call Cure spells Heal spells on occasion.

The line, "I know, that's redundant" regarding his Lawful Good Paladin is hilarious, but only if you play. That's the type of thing that only a gamer could add in.

 

[ivocaliban]

Maybe the full text of that bit about his character might shed some light on matters for all you picky nitters. He mentions meeting Len Lakofka at Gen Con 10 (1977) and quitting the game in 1984. That's two decades away from the dice, after all. I think a little slack is necessary.

The real question is...can anyone vouch for Leomund's presence at Gen Con 10?

 

[CharlesRyan]

Yeah, Colbert is definitely proudly letting his freak flag fly, much more so than Vin Diesel ever did.

To be fair, it seems that Vin never had a problem talking about D&D--he did write the foreword to 30 Years of Adventure, and he mentioned D&D in nearly every interview during his media tour promoting Riddick.

I had the distinct impression, though, that the people between Vin and D&D (his managers/agents/publicists) were doing whatever they could to keep him as far from D&D as possible. This culminated in a radio interview I heard (an Atlanta station, I think, in the summer of 2004) in which he completely denied ever playing D&D. He denied it in detail, specifically denying the years in which he played, the classes and names of his characters, the titles of the books he owned, the names of his gaming buddies, and on and on.

 

[Ry]

Wait, was that his joke or the broadcaster's?

Vin: "Yeah, I never played D&D. And I certainly didn't play it with my buddy Ray in his basement, and I definitely didn't own a player's handbook and certainly didn't purchase my own dice. I definitely didn't play an Orc named Thronkar - who definitely did NOT totally kick the ass of the Sorcerer-Lich of Ungrak-Mar and so had nothing to do with the liberation of the Orc people from his necromantic reign."

 

[CharlesRyan]

Wait, was that his joke or the broadcaster's?

Vin: "Yeah, I never played D&D. And I certainly didn't play it with my buddy Ray in his basement, and I definitely didn't own a player's handbook and certainly didn't purchase my own dice. I definitely didn't play an Orc named Thronkar - who definitely did NOT totally kick the ass of the Sorcerer-Lich of Ungrak-Mar and so had nothing to do with the liberation of the Orc people from his necromantic reign."

Wow! That looks like the exact quote! Where did you dig it up?

As for who initiated the joking denial, I have no idea. I just recall getting the distinct impression, after months of dealing with Vin's "people," that this was a way for Vin to deny everything while, of course, actually doing the opposite.

 

[Ry]

I confess, I just made that up.

 

[CharlesRyan]

I confess, I just made that up.

Well, it's pretty much exactly how the interview sounded. No joke.

 

[Hawkshere]

I don't remember seeing Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor back in the day; sounds like old-school fun, though.

 

[an_idol_mind]

Well, it's pretty much exactly how the interview sounded. No joke.

Found this quote online:

No. I never play D&D. For some reason, they thought that I played D&D for 20 years. They thought that I spent years playing Barbarians, Witchunters, The Arcanum. They thought I played D&D back in the '70s when it's just the basic D&D set. They thought I continued to play D&D when it became Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. They thought I played D&D when there were only three books - the "Player's Handbook," the "Monster's Manual" and the "Dungeon Master's Guide." They thought I played D&D as it continued onto the Unearthed Arcanum, Oriental Adventures, Sea Adventures, Wilderness Adventures. THEY thought I played D&D at the time when "Deities and Demigods" was the brand new book. THEY thought I played D&D when I used to get up to a place called The Complete Strategist in New York.

The full interview is here: http://www.ugo.com/channels/filmTv/features/thechroniclesofriddick/vindiesel.asp.

 

[Ry]

Rock. On.