Old School Dungeons and Dragons Question.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by Rage
Man, I wish there was such an abundance of chicks in my childhood games. I mean check it out, 4 of them!

Seriously. That's proof beyond question that Chick (or whoever wrote that rag) has never actually seen a D&D game.

[Solomon]

Originally posted by KA.
However, it sounds like there is a possibility that they read something somewhat close to what was quoted.
Can anyone verify the time frame for that set?
Does anyone have one laying around to compare the quote to?

KA.

I got my copy out and reread it. Let's check how my theory holds:

Timeframe: The revised boxed set was published in 1983, but I think it was still easily available by the late '80 as the game was still supported by TSR (Immortals was a 1986 production, reprinted in 1992 IIRC).
Also, the introductory adventure is in the first pages of the "Read This First!" Player's Book in that Basic D&D set. Easily the very first pages someone looking into D&D would be reading.

The name is the same, but Aleena is a Cleric, not a princess. She's also not related to Bargle (the evil wizard) at all. The PC does meet her in the room next to the one Bargle is in. She's not asleep, but she's in a meditative trance. The PC has a sword and a knife, Aleena has a mace. At first the PC is unsure if Aleena is friend or foe. Bargle kills Aleena before fleeing.

Despite many similarities, the book departs from the adventure in several points. But then, from what I read, every time the book departs from the adventure, it matches the real case, and every time it doesn't match the real case, it matches the adventure. So I think it might be possible the adventure was misread/misquoted, either intentionally or unintentionally.

The "multiple stabbing gets you XP" part is pure nonsense though. No D&D rulesset or scenario had that IIRC.

[KA.]

Originally posted by Solomon
I got my copy out and reread it. Let's check how my theory holds:

Timeframe: The revised boxed set was published in 1983, but I think it was still easily available by the late '80 as the game was still supported by TSR (Immortals was a 1986 production, reprinted in 1992 IIRC).
Also, the introductory adventure is in the first pages of the "Read This First!" Player's Book in that Basic D&D set. Easily the very first pages someone looking into D&D would be reading.

The name is the same, but Aleena is a Cleric, not a princess. She's also not related to Bargle (the evil wizard) at all. The PC does meet her in the room next to the one Bargle is in. She's not asleep, but she's in a meditative trance. The PC has a sword and a knife, Aleena has a mace. At first the PC is unsure if Aleena is friend or foe. Bargle kills Aleena before fleeing.

Despite many similarities, the book departs from the adventure in several points. But then, from what I read, every time the book departs from the adventure, it matches the real case, and every time it doesn't match the real case, it matches the adventure. So I think it might be possible the adventure was misread/misquoted, either intentionally or unintentionally.

The "multiple stabbing gets you XP" part is pure nonsense though. No D&D rulesset or scenario had that IIRC.

Thank you Solomon,
This pretty much clears things up.
By the way, I don't want anyone to get the impression that my wife is an anti-RPG fanatic or anything. She has actually played a few times, and has no problem with my hobby.

But, we hold ourselves to a fairly high intellectual standard.
Even though the passage from the book sounded suspicious, and the part about the "XP for stabbing" was obviously incorrect, I would not just come out and say:
"Someone in this chain of people is not being accurate!"
without some kind of verification.

Either the writer misquoted the Detective, or the Detective was remembering the way the passage "should have been" instead of the way it was, or this was a story that "grew in the telling".

From the tone of the book, it is implied that the author spoke directly to the Detective, and it is clearly stated that the Detective later spent "days" studying the D&D material, after this "revelation".

So, it looks like someone is trimming the facts to suit the theory.

The sad part is the parents that will read this book, and forever ban RPG's from their home, based on a lie.

Thanks to everyone for their help, and especially Solomon for his steadfast assistance.

KA.

[Law Dog]

Originally posted by Toadmaster
Man what a rip off, I've been playing RPG's for over 20 years and I've spent tons of money on gaming stuff but I'm still just sitting here waiting for a Coven of hottie druid chicks to take me in to "show me the power". Its bad when you can't even trust satan worshiping game developers.

Now imagine the Chick tract with Champions substituted for D&D.

"Bob, you're now a 400 point hero. I think it's now time you learned to really fight crime."

"You mean I'm going to get a uniform and superpowers?"

"Yes, you have the personality for it".

Two hours later, Bob is wearing his underware over his sweat pants and trying to stop jaywalkers, all of whom are pummeling the cr@p out him. Then the police haul his idiot self in and he winds up being held 72 hours for psychological evaluation, just like any little fruit loop that tried to cast D&D spells in real life.

[badger3k]

MST3k does Jack Chick's "Dark Dungeons" - a fan page, which I honestly haven't read yet.

and this one is really good:

http://www.theescapist.com/random011102.htm

the pics are great.

[Armitage]

Originally posted by badger3k
MST3k does Jack Chick's "Dark Dungeons" - a fan page, which I honestly haven't read yet.

http://www.fecundity.com/darkdung/

They even make the point about female Gamers.

Tom: Hey. This isn't a D&D game! Where's all the Mt. Dew?
Crow: And the Doritos?
Mike: Plus, the women outnumber the men!

[AnotherSkip]

ROTFLOL

[AnotherSkip]

After thinking it over for 24 hours there are a few points(after the laughter died down) I would like to make.

The biggie is that after taking extra time on my KS: RPG's skill I realised that there is _One_ system I can think of where you get more xp the more times you hit badguys. Rolemaster/MERP.

And there were modules that had stats for both games so it might have been a cross rendering of the two systems. But this is waaaaay out there.

Another point is that Yes, I have been in groups of AD&D wherein there were at least four hotties, and the women outnumbered the men.
(as of a matter of a fact, my ex wife was one of them)

[AnotherSkip]

here is another lovely series of posts about Jack Chick...

http://forums.rpghost.com/showthread...044#post222044

[lemming]

here is another lovely series of posts about Jack Chick...

Ack! I'm caught in a loop!

[BlackSword]

The sad part is the parents that will read this book, and forever ban RPG's from their home, based on a lie.

I don't think so. If I have kids I don't want to pull my back packing and moving all those books.

[Drakkenkin]

About Stabbing more then once to get more EXP. I remembering playing 1st ED game that the amount of EXP you got during a combat was based off of how many HP damage you did. I don't know if this was home brewed or if it was a rule variant, but it may be what the book was talking about.

That comic strip makes me wounder about some of the people in this world.

[devlin1]

If you really want to see how AD&D and other roleplaying games are evil then check out this link:

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

Wow. I totally thought this was a joke for a good eight or ten panels. The line between satire and reality is razor-thin when it comes to organized religion.

[Blue]

Wow. I totally thought this was a joke for a good eight or ten panels. The line between satire and reality is razor-thin when it comes to organized religion.

The funny part to me is that not only has this guy never been in a D&D game, but he's never been to a church either... he seems to reference them from what he's seen of TV Evangelists. "In the name of Jesus, I order you spirits of the occult, begone from Debbie!"

[devlin1]

"In the name of Jesus, I order you spirits of the occult, begone from Debbie!"

Aw, spirits of the occult are the worst!

Isn't there a denomination that's just, like, constant exorcism and speaking in tongues and miraculous healings and all that? What's it called again?

I did some research just now and couldn't find the name of it, but did stumble upon some fascinating stuff on religioustolerance.org.