A-Ha!

So this is why I saw a kid wearing a black T-shirt with the words "Neutral Evil" written across the front when I stepped out to lunch. It's not just geek chic -- the D&D people are in town! Having once been one of them, I'll raise my First Edition Player's Handbook and say: Happy 30th Birthday, D&D!

(Via Swordstyle.)

UPDATE: Bjurk helpfully provides a link to the Alignment Calculator, so that we all may continue to wallow in the depths of geekdom. Thanks a whole friggin' lot, Bjurk.

Comments

[double-plus-ungood]

Good timing. I was entertaining my kids and their friends during a hike with tales of the Mighty Gronk, warrior extraordinaire in the ten-year campaign that I played in my youth. They have demanded a game, and so tomorrow I dig out the dice, the original AD&D manuals, and run them through a short dungeon. Short but nasty, heh heh heh.

Ahhhh, the sweet smell of geekery reborn.

[sidereal]

Classic.

I need a Chaotic Good shirt.

Of course, I'll be flush with sweet, retro gear after attending PAX next weekend.

[mc_masterchef]

Yeah, I'm with sidereal.. any DnD player worth his dice knows that you always choose Chaotic Good when it comes to alignments. Kids these days, they mean well, but somebody's still gotta learn em.

[engineer_charley]

GenCon. That's the other big con I was thinking of when we were talking about Origins a while back. I never went to either of these biggies, but attended DalCon (Dallas) regularly back in the day. They changed the name after the birth control device came out. For some reason.

Let's play uber-geek: I have the original 3-book boxed set of D&D rules. And the Blackmoor supplement. And Eldrich Wizardry. Can you beat that? Unfortunately, I haven't played in years. I figure it's more geeky to play after your twenties than before your twenties, so I loose points there.

Miniatures were my big thing. I loved playing the big terrain boards at conventions. I still have armies of figures. All boxed up. *sigh* The guy who taught me to paint was a sculptor for Heritage. I won several painting competitions using those techniques. You know what they used as a sculpting medium? Epoxy ribbon!

I always enjoyed playing chaotic good fighter-thieves. The mischevious aspect appealed to me. Must have been that old Errol Flynn Robin Hood movie....

[engineer_charley]

So, why isn't this in Geekstuff? Why WWBBD? And, frankly, I can't remember what Brian Boitano did (besides balance an oversized melon on his neck while doing triple axels) that would earn a coveted category in the ObWings catalog. Maybe I'm dense. Let me in on the joke. I know this violates the basic rule of geekdom, wherein arcane knowledge is power, but come on. I still don't get the ObWings origin, either. But I don't expect the doors to the vault to be thrown wide open.

Oh, and double-plus-ungood, I finally get your name. 20 years late, I'm finally reading 1984....

[Phillip J. Birmingham]

Yeah, I'm with sidereal.. any DnD player worth his dice knows that you always choose Chaotic Good when it comes to alignments. Kids these days, they mean well, but somebody's still gotta learn em.

Ah, fashion. Back in my day, Chaotic Neutral was the alignment of choice among my circle, as it was seen as providing the most freedom of action. Of course, I played a Neutral Good fighter -- no fashion sense then, or now.

[Moe Lane]

Neutral Good Bard's the way to go, especially if you get to start above 1st level. With the right specialized kit, you can approximate a fighter, you get all the social benefits and eventually Fireball will be yours. Best campaign I ever played in*...

Moe

*Although Larry the Elven Psychotic Archer was pretty good. Specialized kit; I could shoot five times per two rounds, or three times per round if I wasn't defending. Perfect for cleaning out temples full of evil priests without missile weapons. Larry's other nickname was the Machine Gun...

[von]

Why WWBBD?

My mistake, Engineer Charlie -- I clicked on the wrong thingamajig.

On the battle-of-the-geekdom: I came in with the first edition (though, somewhere, I -- or, more likely, my parents -- have the "Basic" and "Expert Boxes").

Ever since an old Dragon Magazine article 'bout the dangers of underestimating the nature-folks, it's always been Druids for me. But, then, it's been about fourteen-or-fifteen years since I played with any regularity. (I'm pretty much the same age as DnD.)

[double-plus-ungood]

On the battle-of-the-geekdom: I came in with the first edition (though, somewhere, I -- or, more likely, my parents -- have the "Basic" and "Expert Boxes").

I think I have you all beat. When in highschool I played many Avalon Hill wargames (Panzerblitz anyone?) and Napoleanic tabletop games with minatures. In one of the mimeographed wargaming zines I read were the original rules for D&D, including an article about how much water was required to extinguish dragonfire.

This would have been 1974, 30 years ago.

And I played all the way through my thirties, AND into my forties.

BTW, Chaotic Neutral rocks.

[mc_masterchef]

I don't remember the descriptions exactly now, and maybe it's a 2nd edition thing, but if I recall correctly all the neutral alignments made some point about being dedicated to "the balance". Maybe that was true neutral. Whatever it was, it was lame. I cannot count the number of chaotic good rangers that passed through our games.. CG meant you could tell the prissy councilmen to shove it and not have to rationalize saving the town, because you were just that heroic, man.

[peppers]

I just stumbled on the fact that IFC has a doc on tonight on Frank Frazetta. And although I can't be certain that he did anything specific if you're into the fantasy angle of art this might be something for you. Personally, I'm interested in seeing Danzig talk about this kind of fantasy....http://www.ifctv.com/ifc/what?CAT0=45&CAT1=5906&TZ=ET&TB=4&CLR=blue&AID=7627

[Dave Schuler]

I played D&D (starting from the old 1st edition days) for many years until our group fell apart due to divorce of all things. I mean have people no priorities? I tried DM'ing a few times but my heart wasn't in it.

In the last few years I've gotten a few good sessions in with my nephews and nieces. But now they're starting to depart for college and I suspect our family get-togethers will become increasingly rare.

[sidereal]

"BTW, Chaotic Neutral rocks."
That's crazy!
Har-har. . little pun there. According to the 2nd edition gloss, CN was supposed to be a freakshow, which was a little silly. 3rd edition description is much more reasonable.

Could have a little ObWi campaign. Moe's Merry Marauders braving the horrors of Blogril to confront the rapacious MechaOverlord Giblets and the ArchMedium Lobster.

[Gary Farber]

"Let's play uber-geek: I have the original 3-book boxed set of D&D rules. And the Blackmoor supplement. And Eldrich Wizardry. Can you beat that?"

I have copies of the first Diplomacy games-by-mail in zines from the early Sixties.

I have copies of rules for fantasy and science fiction games fans were playing in the early Sixties and in the Fifties. Somewhere I have a copy of the rules for Interplanetary from the early Forties, though I lack a copy of the earlier Barsoomian Chess or John Baltadonis' Cosmic Monopoly.

I've had copies of the rules for the war games Fletcher Pratt was running in the Forties (I think I lost these in the fire in '91, though). Can you beat any of that?

[double-plus-ungood]

GF Can you beat any of that?

Ah, but were you playing any of these in the forties, fifties, or sixties? Or are you but a mere collector?

NB: collecting startegic games that ancient is certainly a sign of ubergeekness.

[Gary Farber]

"Ah, but were you playing any of these in the forties, fifties, or sixties? Or are you but a mere collector?"

von didn't say anything about playing; he stated what he had, and asked if anyone could beat that.

I'm not a collector of old games, though; I merely used to have one of the top ten collections in private hands in the world of old sf fanzines and related materials. ("used to" because I stopped collecting many years ago, and an amount that makes me want to cry was lost in a fire and another loss). Fantasy gaming being, like so many things, an outgrowth of science fiction fandom, the game stuff I have (in storage, in another state) is incidental.

[Dave Schuler]

(Off-topic) Gary Farber, I presume you remember when part of Forrest Ackerman's collection was auctioned off some years ago? I picked up a few things (very few). I participated strictly as an absentee bidder. After the auction I got to talking with one of the auctioneers and she told me "Don't feel too bad. You were back-bidder on nearly every lot you didn't win. And the winner on those was either George Lucas or Steven Spielberg." It's a tough world out there.

[bjurk]

all right dorks, grade thyselves:

Alignment Test

[von]

Bjurk, that's very, very disturbing.

[sidereal]

"Smoov B's alignment is: Chaotic Neutral"
Noooooooo.

[double-plus-ungood]

Fantasy gaming being, like so many things, an outgrowth of science fiction fandom, the game stuff I have (in storage, in another state) is incidental.

Cool. And how awful about those losses.

[nagoya ryan]

Ubergeek battle... Can't touch GF, I guess. Still have the crayons that came with the three book sets, and a copy of Chainmail, though. I might as well take a cue from Moe and reminisce, as well. Best character had to be either a 1/2E Cleric-Thief (CG)... or maybe it was Thelonious (a LN monk, natch).

Man. I can remember my folks driving my best friend and I to GenCon in Wisconsin when I was maybe thirteen. That was a pimply, geeky week in heaven.

[sidereal]

Nice try, but there can only be one ubergeek.

[Seth]

As it turns out:

Seth's alignment is:   Neutral Good

With 2 points towards Chaotic
and 14 points towards Good

Nerdy, nerdy, nerdy. My favorite game in my old gaming days was GURPS - wide possibilities, with no need for concepts like "alignment" - as in Greek tragedy, character is nothing more and nothing less than what you do with what you've got and the situations you're presented with.

Now, I'd be curious to see results on the "alignment calcuylator" correlated with results on that Political Compass, where I scored -3.75 liberal and -5.28 libertarian (which I guess correspond with "good" and "chaotic").

[Seth]

The last post should be disregarded because of its extreme nerdiness. The commentator has been forcibly removed from his home to go pound beers and dance with hot chicks for the remainder of the evening.

[Jesurgislac]

My score on the political compass is

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.67

My DD alignment is: Neutral Good
With 3 points towards Lawful
and 17 points towards Good

Go figure.

Total Scores
Good 38
Evil 21
Lawful 32
Chaotic 29