Sunday, December 12, 2004

D&D 44th best Christmas Present ever

According to TV Cream anyway. I'll even forgive them getting E.Gary Gygax's name wrong.

"Amplified by the almost permanent presence of The Hobbit on ‘70s and ‘80s English Lit. syllabuses, Dungeons & Dragons offered those who were unpopular in the playground some solace in an imaginary Tolkein-esque world they could control. Manufactured in Standard and Advanced D&D flavours by US company TSR, and based on an original premise by R. Gary Gigax, it mixed medieval Britain with magical folklore and monsters to create a fantasy magpie's nest in which an unlimited number of pretend, non-cardiovascular, but meticulously detailed battles and adventures could take place. How to play? Extensive rule books (but no board) and fiendishly complicated challenges (requiring the appointment of a “Dungeon Master” to preside over events) made it difficult to get to grips with, but AD&D soon established itself as a sort of lunchtime school club sub-culture in much the same way as chess, astronomy and orchestra rehearsals (largely due to it being legitimised by an allocation of early-lunch tickets). A typical game exposition: “Your attempt to cast a spell on the Orc fails and he strikes a blow with his axe. You lose three stamina points”. Much talk of druids, clerics and the Call of Cthulhu; players would grow up with real ale and Marillion-aping folk pub bands called Arcadian Pentangle. For the less dedicated, the Fighting Fantasy books by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson were a portable alternative. For the disinterested, there were at least the multi-coloured, translucent resin dice with an unexpectedly large number of sides (our favourite was the tangerine dodecahedron)."

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