We Need The XP!

Twitter doesn’t do nuance very well. There is a debate today about whether online dependence in a table top RPG would be a bad thing. The debate started with this post very little of which I disagree with. Rob Donoghue is talking about the difficulties third party developers face with 4e D&D, some of which are due to the electronic tools that WOTC has put out. Robertson games followed with this post which got me to wondering whether this is true. At this point thanks to the micro nature of twitter the conversation fragments a bit, 4e isn’t online dependent, WOTC should make better tools, etc. I really don’t disagree with anyone in the chat, it would be great it the WOTC tools were more open to third party input, I don’t think you have to use DDI to enjoy the 4e game, WOTC really should do a Mac version of their tools and other good points. What I want to get back to is the idea of whether a table top RPG (lets forget 4e here) could ever be online dependent and still be good. All this is theoretical obvious, this horse doesn’t exist at the moment.

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I am embarassed to admit I have no idea who this guy is. I know he is a celebrity of some sort, but no clue why. However, what he is saying in the video about why we play games and community really works for me. RPGs are a shared story we tell with our friends, but they are also a great place to hang out and just be with some great people.

The Onion brings ethics into D&D with the eternal question: Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?

Is Using A Minotaur To Gore Detainees A Form Of Torture?

Just a reminder to vote in the Ennies, the role playing awards for 2009. It is quick and easy to do, as long as you remember that a 1 is the highest vote, not the 5 as I did before going back and making corrections. Anyhow, you have until July 31rst so go and vote!

Dicey by Fangleman on Flickr

Zachery at the RPG Blog II has a contest up looking for the top 25 PRGs of all time. Head over and enter quick, the contest ends on April 20th. My group has played a ton of games over the years, I had 36 on the list, but here are the top ones judged mostly by the stories we still tell years after we played the games. Some of the top 25 were a bit rough to play, I am not sure why some RPG authors felt they had to try to write rules to the insane level of detail they did, but our group can and has had fun with all kinds of games over the years. Anyway here are my top 25, other than original D&D being first, they are not in any particular order: read more »

Dicey by Fangleman on Flickr

Found a few interesting things today as I poked around the Interwebs that I thought I would share.

The first is a fresh attempt at a miniatures rating site called Paintitsu. It is a bit thin on figures as it just started, but they have some nice models to look at and the site is much cleaner than Cool Mini or Not, the classic mini rating site.

Next up is interesting discussion on the versions of D&D and how they fit the Roll Playing  vs Role Playing model at The Fine Art of the TPK. I am of the opinion that it is all D&D and version wars are over hyped, but the discussion is pretty civil and raises some interesting points. Sad story about his local gaming store in the post, shop owner sounds like he is on the fast train to stupidville to me.

Next up is an interesting discussion on the 4e D&D paladin’s divine challenge at the At Will site. I am not sure why they feel the mark needs a tweek, I think it is the best mark in the game as it is, but it is interesting to see what house rules people are trying. The whole site is well worth a poke around if you are interested in 4e D&D.

Lastly an interesting post at The Core Mechanic pointing out the the new Player Handbook 2 for 4e D&D made it to #14 the Wall Street Journal Best Seller list for the week it came out. I am seeing the new edition of the game bring a lot of people back to Dungeons and Dragons who left for long periods of time, I am pleased to see that is giving the WOTC guys good sales. The Core Mechanic seems to be another very good site for D&D news and ideas, well worth adding their feed.