Blast from the Past Part 4

Part the Fourth: The Wheel of Time OR Why Authors Shouldn’t Write Prequels Before Finishing a Series

I first started reading the Wheel of Time in middle school. I found the brief prologue in the beginning of the first book to be confusing and slightly off-putting, but I stuck it out and found myself hooked.

What’s the appeal? I’m a little bit of a history geek, so I have to admit, I enjoyed the way Robert Jordan wove different real-world analogs from the history and mythology of other cultures into his characters and setting: Artur Hawkwing, the original Aes Sedai symbol, the game of stones… even the three main characters are references to important figures of different cultures.

It’s a flawed work, to be sure. After book 7 (or six, depending on your tastes) things really bog down, and it becomes impossible to keep up with things without a complex flowchart of all the different minor characters (who Jordan seems to think each deserve two or three chapters of their own). There is a lot of whining and angst from several of the main characters, too- more than is probably necessary. And speaking on a personal note, I find very few of the female characters interesting- I much prefer reading about Rand, Mat, and Perrin, as opposed to Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne.

That said, it does do some things very well. The way swordplay is described is clever and surprisingly evocative- I remember trying to imagine what kind of a move “The River Undercuts the Bank” would look like. There are some recurring jokes that are highly entertaining; I particularly like how each boy thinks the others are good with women, when they’re thinking the exact same thing about the others. The three main characters each have something uniquely cool about them, to the point where I frankly find it hard to choose a favorite (Perrin currently edges out the other two in my opinion). Several members of the supporting cast (which, as mentioned, is far larger than it needs to be) are interesting characters in their own right, and had Jordan not passed away (relatively) recently, he probably could have gone on writing prequels about those characters for quite some time).

The whole idea of multiple versions of reality, and the cyclical nature of time is pretty intriguing. I especially like the scene in book 2 where Rand tries to use a portal stone and ends up visiting hundreds of worlds that could be… or already were… or might be… hard to say, really.

I’m also a big fan of Jordan’s theme of the battle between the sexes. It’s been less apparent in recent books (it must have gotten lost somewhere with all of the action), but it was always a source of great mirth for me, and it helped my wife get really into the series too.

What do you guys think about Jordan’s (as yet unfinished) magnum opus? What do you dislike about how it currently stands, and what drew you into it in the first place?

The Challenge of Scheduling

One of the truly difficult things about D&D is the amount of logistical planning involved. I’m not talking about choosing the right kind of dice, or finding the right DM screen, or even what to eat and drink; I refer here to the great task of getting four to six people to meet for four to six hours two to four times a month.

D&D is a time-consuming activity, and is at its best when consumed in mass quantities. Battles can take a while, and there are often deep, intricate story details that must be carefully revealed through nuanced roleplaying and character interaction. This doesn’t take into account the vast amounts of recapping, reminders, joking, ordering of pizza, and other peripheral activities that devour time. It’s hardly worth sitting down at the gaming table if you can’t devote a good four hours or more to slaying dragons, seducing Duchesses, stealing the crown jewels, etc.

As hard as it is for one person to set aside that much time, it’s even harder for five people to do so, especially when they all have to set aside the same block of time on the same day on a regular basis. As such, games are easily and often canceled due to scheduling difficulties. I think one reason that gamers have the reputation of being isolated social outcasts is because socially active people rarely have TIME for a rousing game of D&D- it’s not that they wouldn’t enjoy it, they just can’t get the logistics to work. For that matter, the stereotype of the gamer as perpetually devoid of female companionship makes sense viewed in this light: girlfriends (and wives) require a lot of time and attention, and it’s hard to justify spending six hours rolling dice and making Monty Python jokes with your friends instead of taking her shopping for new shoes (well, it’s hard to justify it to her anyway).

I bring this up because my group, which has traditionally been very reliable in its meetings, now faces an indeterminate hiatus due to a new work schedule for one of our members. Tragic! My efforts to get a side-game going in the interim have been slow and thus far have met with little enthusiasm, but I hope that my persistence (and an increasingly frustrating gaming dry spell) will win my compatriots over.

Dr. Strangenerd, OR How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love D&D

Dungeons and Dragons is a game that, to many, represents the apex (or, to others, the nadir) of geekery. The popular perception of D&D runs thus:

-It is played by socially inept nerds, incapable of interaction with the opposite sex
-Said nerds are usually over/underweight, unhygienic, and completely lacking in fashion sense
-It has something to do with witchcraft and devil-worship
-It has a bunch of overly-complicated rules
-It uses a lot of funny-looking dice

Well I’m here to tell you that’s wildly inaccurate. Well, except for the rules and the dice. That’s pretty much true. And I suppose there ARE a lot of socially inept basement-dwellers who play the game. And strictly speaking, I HAVE played a few games with people who could have used a shower. The witchcraft thing is totally untrue, though, no matter how much Jack Chick may say otherwise.

But as with all stereotypes, the D&D image is based largely upon a mere segment of its population. There are many noted celebrities who are D&D enthusiasts. It would be as foolish to make assumptions about D&D based upon people like this as it would be to make assumptions about sports fans based upon people like this.

So why am I into D&D? I think a big part is escapism: I love getting a chance to take on the persona of someone besides myself- I can be a crafty wizard, a savage barbarian, a noble knight, a crafty thief, or any of a variety of clever characters gleaned from books, movies, television, and my own imagination. The thrill of watching a cool fight scene from Lord of the Rings is multiplied a thousand fold when you get to become Aragorn and start hacking your way through orcs.

I also like the tactical element- I think it’s a lot of fun figuring out how to take down a colossal red dragon without getting burnt to a crisp, or trying to defend a fortress against an assault made by a huge army of lizardmen.

I started getting into D&D back when I was an upperclassman in high school. My buddies and I never really had a chance to play very often, but we bought the third edition rule books and talked about it a lot. By the time we got to college, I found an off-campus gaming group that was playing Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It was great fun, and my first REAL D&D character, Archem the Evoker, was a champ when it came to incinerating the forces of evil with his spells.

That group began to break down after a year or so, as players drifted in and out, and my friend The Ninja and I began to seek out other gaming opportunities. We answered a player’s wanted ad at our Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Store, and we soon joined a game set in the Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting. Aside from a weird DM with way too many unbalanced house rules, it was a great group, and we’ve been gaming with the same people for the past 7 years or so.

But I’ll write more about that in my next post.

Excelsior!

The Joys of Gaming: Part 1 In An Ongoing Series Explaining My Geekery

I am an addict. Of course, the fix that I need is far more insidious than some mere chemical dependency. I crave the rolling of dice, the maneuvering of miniatures, and squabbling over rules. I’m an intelligent, well-read liberal arts major, and I am a gamer.

My love of gaming goes way back. I vaguely, but fondly, remember my father teaching me how to play chess. I loved the intricacies of the game, how each piece moved differently. As I got older, and entered middle school, I started reading chess books and learning about some of the more arcane aspects of the game, such as en passant.

I suppose it was about this time that I was introduced to Hero Quest.

For the unfortunate few of you who never experienced this game, it was, in essence, an extremely simplified and scaled-down facsimile of D&D. Up to four players took control of the barbarian, dwarf, elf, and/or wizard “characters,” moving them around frightening dungeons full of orcs, goblins, traps, and treasure. One player controlled the monsters and pretty much “ran” the game, using a special booklet that described how to add furniture, doorways, and of course, monsters to the game board as the players explored the different rooms. Each time you played, the heroes attempted a different adventure, giving the game excellent re-playability. Even better, the treasures you found in each adventure could be carried over into the next one, meaning that each player felt invested in what they were doing across sessions.

It was an awesome experience. I vividly remember the first time I played, splitting up the band of heroes and quickly getting everyone in over their head. Cornered by Chaos Knights (yes, this was a Games Workshop product) my elf used a spell to escape through the solid walls around him, only to appear in the next room- and get cut down by a hideous gargoyle.

As I said, an awesome experience.

Hero Quest quickly spawned a strategy-based sequel called Battle Masters. Each player took control of a massive army of good guys (knights, archers, footmen, etc) or bad guys (orcs, goblins, chaos warriors, etc) and duked it out on a spectacular fabric map divided into hexagons, with terrain painted all over. A deck of cards would be turned over one at a time, and whatever units were displayed on the card were allowed to move, fight, etc. It was simple, and largely decided by chance rather than strategy, but the awesome models and spectacular decals made this a delight for a geeky kid like me. Each side had a special “gimmick unit” that could devastate the enemy, or backfire and screw over your own army. The good guys got a cannon that could accidentally blow up, killing itself or nearby units, and the bad guys got a crazy Ogre, that might go berserk and wail on nearby allies.

From here it was a downward spiral. Various iterations of Axis and Allies soon followed, and it wasn’t long before Games Workshop got their claws into me again. Before I knew it, I was buying hideously expensive plastic models and doing a pathetic job of assembling and painting them up so I could head to my Friendly Local Gaming Store for a rousing game of Warhammer 40,000 (or 40k, as we in the gaming biz like to call it).

The real appeal of 40k was getting to design and customize your army each time you played. You purchased models and painted them however you wanted, and fielded armies based upon a predetermined number of “points.” Different models had different point values- two light infantry squads might have the same point value as a light tank, for example. Some people really got into the painting and modeling aspect of this, like my friend The Ninja, but I didn’t have the talent or the patience for the artistic side. I was all about the strategy and gameplay.

Of course, it cost a small fortune to play, so the hobby wasn’t really sustainable over the long-term; even the cheapest infantry squad could easily set you back $20.

By this point, I was an upperclassman in high school. But it wasn’t until college that I finally succumbed to THE GAME, the game of games, the game that in and of itself has come to represent gaming geekery to the world at large.

But I’ll save that for a later post.

Dragon Con 2008

I’ve been going to Dragon Con for the past 6-7 years, and every year I work myself into a frenzy of geekish excitement. It is, without a doubt, one of the nerdiest things that I do, which is why I think the wife appreciates that it only happens once a year.

It’s a bit hard for me to put my finger on just why DCon is such an extraordinary event for me. The amount of anticipation that builds up before hand, and the depression that settles in afterwards, is rivaled only by what most children feel with respect to Christmas. Still, it’s hard for me to pinpoint just why I go so crazy about the event every year.

The costumes are definitely part of it. I remember marveling at all of the exotic and well-assembled masquerade pieces on display at the Hyatt, envying the craftsmanship and superior geekery that produced such masterpieces. The first few years I spent a lot of my time snapping pictures of well-dressed con-goers, but more recently I’ve tried my hand at producing a few amateur costumes. I never came out with anything too impressive, being completely unskilled in sewing and such, but with a little thrift-store savvy, I’ve been able to cobble together some passable duds. Past outfits have includes Badger from Firefly, Gabe from Penny Arcade, and Conan Edogawa from Detective Conan/Case Closed (this one attracted an unhealthy level of interest from teenage girls, so I had to retire it).

The celebrity guests are also awesome. There’s always a huge list of actors, authors, artists, and other notables from the creative community. The wife pokes fun at me for being so awed by their presence- I’ve been notoriously starstruck in the past. Still, even just getting to walk by their autograph signing tables has provided a huge thrill for me. Even better is passing by them on their “off time” around the hotels. One year (I think it was my first) I saw Kenny Baker himself (the original R2-D2) hanging out by a snack bar. Awesome!

Overall though, I think it’s just being around so many like-minded people (weird though they/we are). Being as tremendously nerd as I am, sometimes there’s a sense of isolation. A lot of my coworkers (who I’m very good friends with, I might add) have never heard of and would never be interested in a lot of the games, films, television shows, and literature that interest me. There is a very real subculture that geeks belong to (I use the term without any pejorative intent), and it’s great to connect with other people who share so many interests.

That isn’t to say there aren’t some real weirdos who show up- I have to admit that a lot of the goth/punk scene at Dragon Con is a bit creepy to me, but I’m always able to put it into perspective. I’m sure my eccentricities come across the same way to others. If I had more exposure to the goth/punk culture, I doubt I would find it out of place in the least.

Speaking of cool people, this DCon was especially great in the that I got to meet some really neat folks. Ginger, Rucht, and Tony were all super cool (you know, in a geek sense ) and I wish they didn’t live so far away- they’d be fun folks to game with! Oh well. I suppose there’s always a chance I’ll see them next labor day weekend.

I think that’s enough for now. All this blogging has helped me work through some of the post-con doldrums, but it isn’t going to help me get any of the work done that I need to finish for tomorrow.

Excelsior!