Happiness Is Mandatory
Mar. 3rd, 2004 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotnik2004No posts about real life these days. It's kicking my ass too brutally. Escapist retro fantasy juvenilia only until further notice.
My man Gamma Fodder wrote a great post last week waxing nostalgic for our D&D group of old—including him, me,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sneech515, and dreamsanon. I still laugh when I think of Chris' father blowing that stick out of his magic-user's hand. Good times! He also dug up the following picture of a modern day D&D club, a natural complement to the 1980 D&D club pic I posted in January.
To me, these kids look a few experience points more with it than the kids from 1980, but I guess that's partly because their hairstyles aren't two decades out of date. (You can see the two side by side in Chris' post.) I am amused that the ethnic and gender diversity hasn't changed diddly in twenty-four years: again we have one Asian kid, one black kid, one kid that might be Hispanic, and one maternal looking teacher the only female in sight. Here's to ya, boys. Hang in there!
In other "who'da thought you'd still be obsessing over this crap in the 21st century, Rob?" news, a new edition of Paranoia, one of our faves from those days, has been announced for this summer. I offered my thoughts on the new Paranoia XP over at The 20' by 20' Room and the very first comment was from none other than Allan Varney, the author of the new edition. He says he's going for a more serious tone, citing Brazil and Memoir Found In A Bathtub. Which are pretty much the magic words if you want to sell me. We actually converted our version of Alpha Complex to Terry Gilliam's Brazil back in the day, replacing IntSec with the Ministry of Information, etc. And I read Memoir Found In A Bathtub (a black comedy of totalitarianism by Polish sci-fi writer Stanislaw Lem) in 1988 or so because it reminded me of Paranoia and decided it was just about the coolest damn thing I'd ever seen.
My man Gamma Fodder wrote a great post last week waxing nostalgic for our D&D group of old—including him, me,
sneech515, and dreamsanon. I still laugh when I think of Chris' father blowing that stick out of his magic-user's hand. Good times! He also dug up the following picture of a modern day D&D club, a natural complement to the 1980 D&D club pic I posted in January. To me, these kids look a few experience points more with it than the kids from 1980, but I guess that's partly because their hairstyles aren't two decades out of date. (You can see the two side by side in Chris' post.) I am amused that the ethnic and gender diversity hasn't changed diddly in twenty-four years: again we have one Asian kid, one black kid, one kid that might be Hispanic, and one maternal looking teacher the only female in sight. Here's to ya, boys. Hang in there!
In other "who'da thought you'd still be obsessing over this crap in the 21st century, Rob?" news, a new edition of Paranoia, one of our faves from those days, has been announced for this summer. I offered my thoughts on the new Paranoia XP over at The 20' by 20' Room and the very first comment was from none other than Allan Varney, the author of the new edition. He says he's going for a more serious tone, citing Brazil and Memoir Found In A Bathtub. Which are pretty much the magic words if you want to sell me. We actually converted our version of Alpha Complex to Terry Gilliam's Brazil back in the day, replacing IntSec with the Ministry of Information, etc. And I read Memoir Found In A Bathtub (a black comedy of totalitarianism by Polish sci-fi writer Stanislaw Lem) in 1988 or so because it reminded me of Paranoia and decided it was just about the coolest damn thing I'd ever seen.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-03-04 03:48 am (UTC)Having multiple mood settings for new Paranoia seems like a very good idea. GURPS IOU also did this, so you can play it silly and killy or serious and dark.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-04 06:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-04 06:32 am (UTC)I have an effigy of E. Gary Gygax, and I'm hoping to summon him.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-04 07:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-04 08:01 am (UTC)CU
Tiamat spreads her wings with only 2 heads sober.
Date: 2004-03-04 12:54 pm (UTC)Not only is her right hand on the kid's shoulder, but damn, doesn't her hand look like it has claws?
She's obviously some kind of a vampire. She feeds not on blood, nor tears [Read "The Library Policeman" by Stephen King], but _fantasy_.
During each gaming session, when the collective fantasy level peaks, [trust me, anybody off the street would know when this happens] she flaps her arms, and circles the group of gamers.
See, she's actually living the opposite of the "D & D Saturday Morning Cartoon." Not a group of gamers stuck in an animated fantasy world, she is in fact one of the heads of Tiamat stuck in reality, teaching geography. If she keeps this up, these kids will zap her away from reality in a few weeks.
'Don't mind me boys, I'm just Tiamat.' The air she breathes is full of fantasy, gaining her strength to cross the void.
I'll leave it to your imagination as to whose shoulders Tiamat's other heads are resting upon.
Re: Tiamat spreads her wings with only 2 heads sober.
Date: 2004-03-05 06:59 am (UTC)Dude, you are a weird little dude, dude.