feel the power of the dork side
via Ace, I can't have a blog titled "geek empire" and fail to note this weekend's big dork news: Dungeons and Dragons turned thirty yesterday.

Ace seems to think that if you played D&D at some point in your youth, you're forever doomed to living on the fringes of geek society. I say, that's a distinct possibility, so why fight it? I have actively persuaded frat-boy football stars to come to the dark side, grab a bag of dice, and embrace their inner geek. They won't let me tell anybody about it, you'd think they killed a hooker and buried her in the desert, but I still know.

Hell, I'm such a geek that, when I ran out of real-life friends, I gave up tabletop D&D and play Neverwinter Nights online. Faced with the option of consigning my dice and DM screen to history or engaging in the mastabatory equivalent of D&D, I chose self-gratification.

Somebody get me a pocket protector. I'll still be playing D&D when i'm forty, if I have anything to say about it, and embrassing my kids by trying to talk their friends into playing. "Johnny, grab some pencils and graph paper, I just got the new 'Fighter's Handbook!'" "But Daaaaaad...." With my copy of the original Gygax Player's Handbook framed, hanging on the wall.

Happy Birthday, Dungeons and Dragons. Get those old rulebooks out of the closet and onto a bookshelf in the light of day where they belong.  ¶ 8:53 PM