Pre-Rolled Dice Monday, October 27, 2008

I recently started reading Darths & Droids, a webcomic that presents the story of The Phantom Menace as a role-playing game, after the style of DM of the Rings. In strip #99, the author discusses (below the comic itself) the various superstitions that gamers will indulge in with respect to dice. This one blew me away for being at once eminently logical, hopelessly moronic, breathtakingly obsessive, and, above all, unspeakably geeky:

As pointed out so clearly in this essay on dice superstition, if dice are random, then it doesn't matter if you're superstitious about them. But if they're not... well, you better make sure you do the right thing and treat them properly. No use taking risks now, is there?

Pete, being the highly logical, calculating person he is, rejects all of that as superstitious nonsense. He instead applies the scientific approach. Over the years, he's collected somewhere around a thousand twenty-sided dice. Every so often, he gathers them all together. He sits down at a table and carefully and individually rolls each of the thousand dice, once. Of course, roughly a twentieth of them will roll a one. He takes those fifty-odd dice and rolls them a second time. After about an hour of concentrated dice rolling, he'll end up with around two or three dice that have rolled two ones in a row. He takes those primed dice and places them in special custom-made padded containers where they can't roll around, and carries them to all the games he plays.

Then, when in the most dire circumstances, where a roll of one would be absolutely disastrous, he pulls out the prepared dice. He now has in his hand a die that has rolled two ones in a row. Pete knows the odds of a d20 rolling three ones in a row is a puny one in 8,000. He has effectively pre-rolled the ones out of the die, and can make his crucial roll with confidence. Furthermore, being scientific about it means he knows that it doesn't matter who rolls the die for the third time, so he has no qualms about sharing his primed dice with other players, if that's what it takes to avoid disaster.

I think it's the idea of storing pre-rolled dice in roll-proof containers and carrying them with you that got me. That Pete is a man who takes his dice very seriously.

D&D, Past and Present Monday, November 05, 2007

By way of a forum sig, I found this little gem of a rant by Charlie Martin that sums up the commercial and political history of Dungeons and Dragons, the grand-daddy of all roleplaying games; the gaming phenomenon arguably responsible for all modern, medieval-themed games, from Ultima to Golden Axe to Diablo to World of Warcraft.

As a longtime D&D player and an amateur historian of the gaming hobby, I'm surprised at how little of the infighting I actually knew about, as well as who was responsible for which innovations. Surprising tidbits I picked up:

• It was Dave Arneson, not Gary Gygax, who came up with the idea of role-playing as we know it: each player is responsible for playing a single character instead of commanding entire platoons in a wargame.
• The original release of Dungeons and Dragons required both Gygax's older game Chainmail and Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival rules to supplement it.
• Tactical Studies Rules, Inc.'s original founders were Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Don Kaye, and Brian Blume. After the falling-out between Arneson and Gygax, Gygax created TSR, Inc. with Brian and Kevin Blume. Thus, TSR and Tactical Studies Rules are two different companies, albeit with some common owners.
• The split between "Basic" and "Advanced" D&D in 1977 was primarily an effort to appease Dave Arneson, who had sued for both recognition and royalties. Gyagx continued to churn out material for AD&D while relegating the basic D&D line to other authors.
• Lorraine Williams, who took over TSR after the Blume family had basically run it into the ground, was a financial consultant who despised gamers. It was under Williams that the second edition was produced.

Martin sagely notes that "every single person who has tried to screw someone over in the name of getting more money out of Dungeons & Dragons has got what was coming to them. It’s quite a nice bit of justice that is rarely found in the real world."

And for those of you who may not keep up with all the latest happenings in the world of role-playing games, you may have missed this one: Fourth Edition D&D was announced at GenCon Indy 2007. According to the latest scuttlebut, the three core books (new cover art here: PHB, DMG, MM) will be released in June, 2008.

Should I Stop Playing? Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Now that I am married, I have to add a few additional factors into my decision-making process. And apparently, I'm not the only one, because I was forwarded this flowchart from BBSpot on how "married folks" should answer that age-old question: "should I stop playing this game?"

Miss Video Game 2007 Thursday, January 04, 2007

Via The Average Gamer, I've been reading about the tragically misguided Miss Video Game 2007, a beauty-pageant-cum-gaming-tournament that purports to be trying to find the "voice of female gaming". This sounds well and good until you dig into the details. Oh boy. You know it's trouble when one of the requirements for contestants is that they "love the beach". Um... hello? The beach? Sand in your keyboard and sun glare? That beach? Right. That's what female gamers are all about.

Alihja, an actual gamer chick, calls the endeavor "sexism in the name of equality", pointing out that the pageant's website is with mixed messages, and blogger gamingangel wrote to the organization to find out just who was behind this fiasco. The conclusion reached by many who have researched Miss Video Game is that this is a simple appropriation of the popularity of video games in order to turn a profit.

As we all know, women are entering the once-male-dominated video game space in huge numbers, and this shift in the market is affecting the way games are made and marketed. Women need to let the industry know what they want and the industry needs to take stock and ask how they can respond to the shifting market. Sure, we all like to ogle a "gorgeous gamer" now and then. But let's not denigrate women with a meaningless pageant in the name of representing their voice. You can photograph some hot chick holding a joystick and call her "Miss Video Game," but this farce helps neither women nor gaming. Instead, let's celebrate the real women geeks who are bucking the stereotypes. Let's give women equal consideration when making games. Let's offer some diversity in perspective.

At the end of her post, Alihja advises:

On a serious note to my fellow ladies of gaming, if you want to "be the voice of female gaming" then use that voice. Strive to be more than just eye candy, or a beauty queen who is advertising fodder for the male majority. Speak out, game to your heart’s content, and be opinionated.

And I couldn't agree more. Speak out, lady gamers. The smart game-makers will be listening.

This Deception from the Devil Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Playing with Dragon Fire is a 1994 article from a Christian magazine for boys called Breakaway.

... I traded in my Bible for the game's rule book, trying to shut out the voice of Someone who loved me. Then, somewhere in the middle of the "fun", I came back to my senses -- and got back on my knees.

*Lord, what have I done?* I prayed. *I'm sorry for turning my back on You-- again. Give me the strength to resist this deception from the Devil ... and to keep my eyes on You.*

The real evil as described in the article was the obsession with gaming, and I think we'd all agree that obsession in all its forms (including an obsession with the Bible) is destructive.