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Showing posts from February, 2013

The Foundations of Geek: A Blog Challenge

I have a blog challenge I'd like to issue. I am a geek because geekdom has been with me as far back as I can remember. Here are some formative experiences: At the age of 3 years old, I saw Star Wars in the theater.  That was 1977. I have never, ever forgotten that and have very much been informed by that experience. Star Wars has been with me as long as I can remember, and that's why I'm such a rabid fan of it now. Star Wars was probably the single biggest, most important influence on my geekdom. At the age of 5, I played in my first AD&D game, sitting in my grandma's basement with my uncle's group who wherein high school at the time. That was 1979 and was the second biggest geek influence on my life. Our DM, Alan, would create dungeons with the random generator at the back of the DMG. At the time I mostly rolled dice when I was told to, as I barely understood the idea behind the game (though I could totally get behind pretending to be a half-elf fighter).

OD&D Premium Edition Reprint!!!

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So at long last, WotC is really listening to their D&D fan base--I don't mean the "4e uber alles" fanbase, I mean the vast fanbase that was alienated by 4e and way outnumbers the 4e fanboys base. Now that I've undoubtedly (and deliberately) ruffled some feathers with that little D&DINO reference, on to the real news: THEY ARE REPRINTING OD&D.  And now of course begins the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the $150 price tag. To those people who are whining about how it's overpriced, I have a couple basic things to say to you: 1. Don't buy it. Nobody said you have to. 2. It's not targeted at you 3. Guess what? It's objectively and demonstrably not overpriced. I'll elaborate: Consider that I could sell my 5th print plus all supplements tomorrow for probably around $500 ($300 on the low end) and it doesn't include a really nice actual wooden presentation box, plus a $15 set of premium dice. Also consider that to get all