Dungeons & Dragons co-creator dies at 69 - Yahoo! News

MILWAUKEE - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69.

He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.

Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.

I’ve not played D&D for years, but I spent years in my teens and early 20’s playing it along with a host of other pen and paper RPGs. I have many fond memories of hanging out with Bill, Bob, Tom, Mark, Daryl, Dan, and Herb rolling dice and consuming vast quantities of pizza and pop and arguing over rule interpretations. Probably explains my addiction to video games like World of Warcraft which is, in many ways, a pale imitation of those older days.

And, yes, I realize the title for this entry is a really bad joke, but you know I had to use it.

When the City of Heroes MMORPG hit the market I got to be part of the beta team and one of the things I liked about that game was that the character creation system felt somewhat similar to Champions. Obviously it was a much more simplified system than the P&P game, but it felt familiar and I wondered at the time if anyone would try to adapt Champions itself some day.

As it turns out according to this Joystiq article the latest issue of Game Informer has a small blurb at the top of its cover announce a game called Champions Online:

Hidden away in plain sight at the top of Game Informer’s latest cover (yup, the same one showing off Gearbox’s Aliens: Colonial Marines) is a small reference to “Champions Online” - the latest MMO from the folks at Cryptic Studios. We know what you’re thinking. “Crypic Studios ... where do I know that name?“ Cryptic isn’t just the name behind the popular (and recently sold) City of Heroes and City of Villains MMOs, but it was also recently attached to Microsoft’s now confirmed-to-be-canceled Marvel Universe Online MMO. The subject matter of Champions Online? You guessed it: superheroes.

Whether Champions Online is stitched together from remnants of the canceled 360-exclusive Marvel MMO or made from a brand-new cape, Game Informer does say the new title will target consoles (plural) and PCs. In which case Cryptic will be competing directly with their previous tight-clad creation on the PC side (awkward) and - with NCsoft looking to announce their first PS3-bound console title later this year - the console space should prove quite competitive as well. Excelsior!

It appears they’re not familiar with the old pen and paper RPG, but the name leaves me thinking that has to be what they’re basing it on. Turns out I’m not the only one who remembers the game as the folks at Firing Squad contacted both companies to find out and got a big “no comment” with the promise that an official announcement would be coming next Monday.

I have to admit that if they can come even somewhat close to translating Champions into an MMORPG that I’d be highly inclined to check it out. I was never completely happy with Neverwinter Nights as a substitute for pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons, but I thought it was a pretty good attempt (I’ve never played the D&D MMORPG). Considering how City of Heroes felt a bit like Champions to begin with I think the folks at Cryptic have got the best chance of putting out something that approximates the classic RPG. If nothing else it’d be interesting to dig out some of my old characters from Champions to see how closely I could recreate them in the game.

Anyone else outside of me remember playing Champions when they were younger? Anyone still playing? They’re still putting out books, but I never got around to buying the Fifth Edition.

Well, on the plus side, at least I can read the whole thing in a single setting without any of that pesky waiting for the next installment crap. The first comic is here so go there and start reading.

What? You wanna know what it’s about? Trust me, just go read it. What? Oh alright. It’s what you’d get if a traditional Dungeon and Dragons dungeon master had cooked up Lord of the Rings as a campaign for his adventurers rather than it being a much-loved fantasy trilogy. It uses screen captures from the films and is a parody of both the movies and what a traditional gaming campaign is like. If you are at all familiar with either the movies or RPG gaming then you’ll love it.

Plus you can read it all at once without having to wait for new installments.

Sure the TV series is long canceled and the movie is done and out, but that doesn’t mean exciting adventures in the Serenity universe has to come to an end. Not now that there’s a pen and paper RPG you can play:

The Serenity Role Playing Game lets you re-create the action of the ‘Verse, the science-fiction setting created by writer/director Joss Whedon. Fly a ship out in the black, take jobs as they come, and always make sure you get paid. Everything you need to get started is right here! All you need is dice, friends, and your imagination.

• A self-contained role playing game. All the rules are provided for both players and Game Masters!
• Full character creation rules, plus fifteen sample characters—including the crew of Serenity.
• Complete details on spaceships, guns, and technology.
• Emphasis on story, action, and character development with easy-to-learn rules.
• Game details and descriptions of the characters and settings of the film!

I’m always skeptical of RPGs based on licensed series, but occasionally these turn out OK. I’ll bet ***Dave will be happy to hear about this if he hasn’t already.

Second, got wind of a guy who’s starting his own PC tech support business that occasionally has more work than his current staff can handle on their own, but not often enough yet to justify hiring an additional full-time employee so he’s looking for someone to freelance every now and then. So I should have a few spare bucks coming in from time to time in the coming weeks. Not enough to justify as true employment, but, again, every little bit helps.

Third, got a phone call from a contract house yesterday for a technical position back at the Big Three Automotive company I was working for when I got laid off that would put me on a team I worked closely with when I was a planner. Best of all I already know the guy I’d be working for if I get the job and he thinks I’d be a pretty good fit. If I land it the pay rate will end up being $30/hour with full benefits and I can’t complain about that. Not holding my breath, but I’m certainly hopeful.

Later today around noon I’ll be running a one-shot pen and paper RPG session using the old West End Games RPG Paranoia. Some of our friends have never played a traditional P&P RPG before and so it was decided we’d give it a shot and bring in a couple of other friends who are old hands at it to round things out. The one problem I have is that the mission I really want to run is the one I can’t seem to locate among all my old RPG crap.

Back in April of last year I wrote about how a new version was being developed called Paranoia XP. Since then it’s hit store shelves along with several supplements and the couple of reviews I’ve read have me interested in picking up a copy eventually. I considered buying it for the session we’ll be doing today, but the core rule book has a MSRP of $39.99 whereas Amazon offers it for $26.37 so buying it in time for today just wasn’t a good idea. Hell, as it is I’ll probably be waiting until I have a full-time job before picking it up from Amazon.

But that’s OK as the Second Edition Rules for Paranoia are still most excellent and I’ve managed to find a few folks who have the mission I want to run in PDF form via the P2P networks so I’m in the process of downloading it as I type this. I feel justified in doing this mainly because I have bought and paid for the source book previously (and have a few pages from it along with the cover to prove it). Plus I’ll be buying it again eventually when I get around to picking up the new version of the game and the Paranoia Flashbacks supplement that takes a bunch of previous missions and updates them for the new rule set (including the one I want to run). So, seeing as I’m gaming later today I suppose I should get to bed and catch a few winks while the file downloads.

America’s Army Special Ops: Abu Ghraib
The United States Army (PC)

The choice of weapons is really interesting, too. You start out with a crate, a cattle prod, and a Bible, and by using them in different ways you get more weapons to use. For instance, after you beat a detainee with a Bible, you get pork and bananas, which you can either (spoiler alert) feed to the detainees or insert into their rectums, or both. But it’s not as easy as it sounds! The detainees will eat the bananas, but they’ll get really angry if they have to eat pork.

Okay, so that was a little predictable.  The last one, though, had me in stitches:
Best Gameplay

Cat Ball Shaver
Otaku Shimbun Kanawasi Studios (XBox, PS2)

There’s just not much more you can say about that one that wouldn’t be putting rubbing alcohol on the ... oh, never mind.

I was considering what I would put into a Stupid Evil Bastard RPG.  Would it involve a combination of tech support, meta-games, shooting at a TV showing Fox News, and a parade of “Don’t Be That Guy” people? Would Jon Stewart pop up in a monkey costume?  If you put on a Hawaiian shirt, there would be a little Brock that would run in screaming, tear it off you, and torch it with a Bic lighter.  There would be cats, of course—but with or without balls to shave?  Maybe John Cleese’s voice as the voice of God would speak up every so often and speak non sequitur lines from various holy books to confuse you just as you were taking aim at Donald Rumsfeld, who’d be cowering in an uparmored thong.

Oh, the possibilities ...

Some of you may have noticed that D&D turned 30 this year (I was not aware that it had happened until Gamespy ran a special, but that’s what news sources are for, heh?). So how far has roleplaying come? Apparently enough for the whole article not having anything negative or cautionary in it.

Earlier times, you could always count on such mentions in news containing some warnings about the purported dangers of slipping too deep into the game/into occultism/into worshipping Cthullu or George Bush*. If they didn’t warn about it, they at least mentioned the controversy. Here we have a major news source which totally skips such talk for a positive view of the game that has brought many of us such fond moments.

Well, we do have come a long way from the time my own Grandma asked me about ‘those games’, and when I tried to explain to her that it was okay, she told me ‘Okay, but don’t play too much, okay?‘.

*I was just joking about Cthullu. And nobody mention ‘Hastur’, please.

Anyway, it seems J1 is planning on running a few gaming sessions of this classic RPG and was unable to locate his copy, or at least all of his copy as the book had started to fall apart awhile ago. Not that mine is in great shape either as pages 41-56 have managed to detach themselves from their binding over the past 17 years. Naturally I extracted a promise of being invited to play in any sessions he actually gets around to running as I’ve always wanted to take a turn as a player in this game; in the past I was always the game master. Being the GM of such a twistedly funny game was a lot of fun, but I’ve always been a little bummed that I never got to try it as a player and now I may get my chance.

Then J1 hit me with news that brightened my day. There’s a new edition of the game being developed called Paranoia XP that is due to be released in August. I was surprised when I hit the web looking for info on the game how much stuff is out there for it and how many people still play it regularly. Not bad for a 20 year old game. The first link I provided above is to a site that lists off the rules for all three editions of the game for free as well as background material and links to other sites with all sorts of resources to take advantage of. Someone has even developed a Java based chat server/client specifically designed for playing Paranoia online called JParanoia. How friggin’ cool is that?! I’m definitely going to have to check that out later.

So some of you are probably wondering what the hell this game is about considering my enthusiasm for it. Imagine a cross between the classics Catch-22 and 1984 with an emphasis on dark humor. The game is set in a post-cataclysmic future where mankind lives in a giant domed city called Alpha Complex which is run by a huge computer AI known as The Computer. The Computer is, due to a number of different factors, well-meaning but more than a little insane. It is also the final authority on everything and rules with an iron fist. Think of it as a cross between a Soviet era dictator and a Christian Fundamentalist. Players take on the role of Troubleshooters who are The Computer’s agents for rooting out trouble and, well, shooting it. Usually this is in the form of treasonous citizens. Problem is, everyone is a treasonous citizen. Players belong to a secret society, secret societies are treasonous. Players also have a mutant power, mutant powers are treasonous. On top of all that, the GM is encouraged to set things up so that every player has some reason to have it in for at least one other player. Good thing you have 5 clone copies of your character as death is never far away in this game. Average life span of a newbie player’s first clone is less than 20 minutes.

In short Paranoia is a lot of backstabbing, bootlicking, conniving, scheming fun. It can take some time for folks used to more traditional RPGs to get into the spirit of it, but once they do they’re amazed at how much fun it can be. Given my sense of humor it shouldn’t be surprising why I love this game.

So I’m ready to try this out as a player. Best of all I’ve already got a home sector picked out for my character: SEB, natch.