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A Dicebag of Dungeons and Dragons Documentaries
Jason Scott writes "While we're celebrating 30 years of Dungeons and Dragons, Slashdot readers might as well sit back with their DVD players and enjoy a few documentaries that have recently popped up; all of them done by independent filmmakers, too!
Uber Goober: The Movie calls itself 'A Film About Gamers' is a not-taking-itself-too-seriously overview of the life of RPGs and LARPs. Life With the Dice Bag, a 'Documentary about Role Playing Games and the people who play them' looks to take itself a bit more seriously as it covers the last GenCon held in Milwaukee. And finally, who can resist the pull of The Dungeons and Dragons Experience?"
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
When I read this, at wikipedia, I did a little of both.
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I enjoyed the movie... saw it at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX about a month ago. The show sold out and there was a long line of people waiting to get in in case some ticket holders were no-shows. ^_^ Much of the show was filmed in or around Austin (the filmmaker was at the University of Texas). Steve Jackson was in attendance, and there was a funny exchange at the show- apparently, he had been invited to be in the documentary, but he said that it sounded horribly boring and wanted nothing to do with it. The crew of the movie kept that email around for angry inspiration, and they also mentioned it in the credits. ^_^ (SJ was in the bathroom at the time, so missed those, though...)
It takes an interesting look at miniature gamers, roleplayers, and LARPers, how they feel about each other, how random people on Sixth Street (Austin party/bar street) feel about D&D... One of the funnier bits was that they were filming on 6th between midnight and 2AM, getting people's thoughts. One of the questions they asked passer-bys was, "Which would you prefer, a basketball player, a something-I-forget, or a D&D playing girl?" The guys chose the D&D player , "because she would be freaky." ^_^
My favorite D&D humor resource.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
Just exercising my slashdot-posting pessimism. Mod me down for detracting from the glory of D&D by bringing up this blemish on its good name.
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
http://www.cybermoonstudios.com/8bitDandD.html
Since this thread is about Dungeons & Dragons, I thought it would be a good opportunity to plug NWCon 2.5, a worldwide virtual convention for those interested in NeverWinter Nights, a D&D Computer Role-Playing Game
Similar to a real-world convention, NWCon 2.5 will also have conferences taking place both in IRC and In-Game.
NWCon 2.5 will be taking place September 25 & 26. Visit http://www.NeverWinterConnections.com for more information.
check out:
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=38585 60
I hope the link still works when I post, as it has a space in the URL in the preview pane ..
First of all, let me say that I in no way believe that playing D&D makes anyone go insane/think they are a witch/become a devil worshipper.
But I do want to try to show a little bit of why some Christians have a problem with D&D. Let's use another example. Maybe this is a little contrived, but say you were passionate about Native American rights. Maybe you are a Native American. And say there is this new RPG called Wild West which a good portion of the game involves killing Native Americans. While its only a game, it is a bit unsettling right?
The problem that some Christians have with D&D is that a portion of the game involves Pagan Gods and Goddesses. In the case of some classes (ex. Cleric) it involves *praying* to the God/Goddess for spells.
Now, this isn't a big deal to people who are not believers or even to people who are used to jumping in and out of make believe worlds. But to alot of Christians (and probably Jews and Muslims) who believe that serving foreign gods is about the **worse offense possible**, pretending to serve foreign gods, even in a game, is pretty horrific. This is compounded by the fact that throughout the Old/Hebrew Testament are a ton of stories about the people falling away from God and worshipping foreign gods.
Also note that fantasy authors such as Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are not only OK with conservative Christians, but their works are often sold in Christian bookstores. This is because, while similar to D&D, the fundamental worlds of these two authors are extremely Judeo-Christian monothestic.
Now I don't want D&D banned, restricted, or otherwise shut down. Any restriction on free speech and expression is vile to me. But in the spirit of better cultural understanding I want more people on Slashdot to know where some of these people are coming from. These aren't just some "crazy nutjobs" but people with genuine beliefs.
And there are probably alot of believers who are able to separate their beliefs and the game or change the modules to fit their beliefs.
Brian Ellenberger
According to www.ifilm.com, the Summoner Easter Egg uses the audio from the same Dead Alewives skit. Not being a console gamer I didn't know anything about the Summoner version, but some poking around on Google makes me think that there are various animations of this skit, all using the audio from the Dead Alewives.
Can you please point out one Christian holiday that wasn't taked from pagan beliefs?
Ishtar, Imhotep, Dionysus, all taken and put into their religion and holidays.
Read here here, or here?
Really, who doesn't know this stuff here?
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