It's Dave's World

Given that 60 Minutes was the gold standard for television journalism back then, this incredibly-alarmist, myopic and one-sided report gave a lot of legitimacy to the growing wave of “Satanic Panic” sweeping across the nation back in 1985.

Looking back on it now, it’s hard to think of Dungeons & Dragons as psychological nitroglycerine but because of alarmist, poorly-researched bullshit like this I was grilled incessantly by my parents who thought the game might be a bad influence.

Recap of my last D&D session:

So, while two of my PC’s went off on a side-quest, four more of them decided to respond to a “Help Wanted” sign posted all over town.

Pretty soon they found themselves locked up and fighting for their lives in an earwig-infested basement! During the chaos, Rincewind the mage (R.I.P. Terry Pratchett) attempted a kamikake-style dive attack from the top of the steps.

Needless to say he rolled a “1″, landed awkwardly in a woodpile and sprained the bejesus out of his ankle. Whoopsie! 

Eventually our heroes managed to rally, secure the room and locate the source of the infestation: a large crack in the stone foundation of the bakery.

Here it is: the very first blog post I ever wrote about Dungeons & Dragons. 

Man, seventies-era D&D ads were seriously weird. But in a good way.

Introduced in Volume One of my book and soon to be a major character in the sequel, the lich-king Noctournis was a recurring villain that plagued my PC's in various forms throughout the years.  

One of my favorite olde skool D&D images from one of my favorite artists: David A. Trampier A.K.A. DAT.  His heavily-detailed, darkly-weird art style literally defined the mystique of the game for me. Sadly he passed away on March 24, 2014.

The story of his departure from the spotlight is a pretty brutal commentary about how we use up and then discard our iconic artists. It's a serious societal failing that we really need to address. 

I knew I was feeling wistful for a reason today. :(

* Raises a glass of mead in tribute *