It's happening.
Cats are chasing dogs. Boy bands are actually playing instruments. Republicans and Democrats are set to agree on something.
The end of the world is nigh!
What has brought this on? What has caused the world to be unmade? What has time and space going all akimbo and has enabled pigs to fly and hell to freeze over?!?
I am going to talk about...Dungeons & Dragons.
Are you there? Are you still with me? You might not be for long. I was saving this post for Christmas Day, a special occasion as it were, to announce a series of posts I intend to put up revealing some of the general ideas and a few specifics of my D&D-for-those-who-don't-like-D&D game.
Now I warn you in advance and I shall not be held liable if the material contained in these posts causes your eyes to bleed or your world to crumble. If you are firmly entrenched in the old school you may burst into flames or turn to stone (likely no save). It is also possible you could explode. In my campaigns a lot of stuff explodes.
Now that we have that out of the way, the truth of the matter is that I've wanted to post this for a while but haven't for a variety of reasons. For one thing, I didn't want to talk about D&D and seem hypocritical since its pretty well known that its not a game I favor. I mean, why else would I talk about it except to join in with the popular kids? Well, it's still true that it's not a favorite game of mine but D&D is the game I started with and I developed my current style because and/or inspite of it.
Another thing is its (my post thread) not going to be useful to the vast majority of D&D players out there since I do things very, very differently. Maybe it will inspire someone else to look at it differently. You guys in the OSR do that for me all the time.
Lastly, I'm actually very, very protective of my take on D&D. Its a game so different that I'm certain (paranoid) someone is going to steal it. Silly, I know, but stranger things have happened.
So the trick will be talking about it without really giving away too many details. I think I can do this. Deep breaths.
One of the things that prompted my finally putting these posts up is something the ever gracious Zak Smith said to me in the comments section of a recent post of his...
"Seriously, I get it.
I mean, you like cinematics and swashbuckling and the big-screen effect and narratives of awesomeness and all that. I think old school is about: You can get whatever want outta this game, but you gotta build it up starting off as a plotless disposable schumck with nothing but padded armor and a 10 foot pole and -earn- all that radness one dead gnoll at a time.
If you want to be badass kung fu master in the middle of an epic saga right outta the box, then you definitely do wanna play a different game. That's the smart move. I appreciate you coming around and reminding everybody that just because you roll a different way doesn't mean you're a dick."
That's it right there. I want to show that I'm not a dick but I am advocating a different approach to the ol' gal of D&D. I don't play the game as it was written in any edition and haven't for a while. Maybe I never did. I will tell you my reasons. I will than explain the game I play that I call Dungeons & Dragons even though its quite unlike the published games by that name and their respective retro-clones. Its also very, very similar and I will identify and explain the similarities. I will likely put up a sample character. I will than describe an adventure session we had. Maybe tomorrow's as I am currently running a new campaign of it to tweak it and iron out some kinks.
I hope you will take what I said in the beginning as my usual brand of teasing and kidding around. I want you all to come see what D&D is to me...or rather, what it could be.
Until then, Merry Xmas,
AD
Barking Alien
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