paste-eating geeks the world over will mourn the passing of RPG guru and D&D inventor Gary Gygax. Mr. Gygax helped me get through that awkward period after i started developing acne, but before i discovered girls. between him and shoveling quarters into "defender" those years were barely survivable for me.

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9885383-1.html

"Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and one of the fathers of tabletop role playing games, died on Tuesday at the age of 69. He had suffered from heart problems.

The news was first announced on the message board of Troll Lord Games, the publisher of Gygax's most recent works. It has since been directly confirmed by the company, which will post an announcement on its web site later today. "

i passed that on to a few people i know that are of that realm. i do know know of your culture.

Anyone got a diamond worth 1000GP or know a good cleric? 

RIP, Gary.  And thanks for the memories.

I enjoy computer-based RPGs, but there's no substitute for pen-and-paper with a good group of friends. No AI currently on the drawing boards will ever be able to come up with something as funny as this story about a gazebo -- and yet stuff like the Tale of the Dread Gazebo happens in pen-and-paper groups every night.

Anyone got a diamond worth 1000GP or know a good cleric? 

RIP, Gary.  And thanks for the memories.

I enjoy computer-based RPGs, but there's no substitute for pen-and-paper with a good group of friends. No AI currently on the drawing boards will ever be able to come up with something as funny as this story about a gazebo -- and yet stuff like the Tale of the Dread Gazebo happens in pen-and-paper groups every night.
a neutral paladin? you can't be a neutral paladin, can you?

you know, this game would be fun if it weren't such a pain in the ass. the way we played it in junior high was actually pretty fun -- we couldn't be bothered with 90% of the rules, we'd just go straight to beatin' on orcs and takin' stuff. when i tried to play it a couple of years ago it had its moments but mostly it was like doing my taxes.

i like the gazebo story, though. we had a few times like that. finally the GM would get frustrated and go, dude it's just a door. quit trying to detect evil, speak to it in tongues and poke at it with a stick. just open the damn thing.

RIP Gary, you have given me many hours of enjoyment in my youth.

I also played a great many hours of D&D.  And for me it was a nice escape from reality.  I have not really played though since 1990, when I was last in Japan.  When you are overseas for 6 months with little to do, D&D is a good way to pass an evening, especially when accompanies with lots of beer.

And I agree, there can often be funny exchanges in the game, depending on the sense of humor and intelligence of the DM & players.

And I have to admit, one of my favorite items was also one of my most devious.  And I would normally throw it in with every group I DMed for.  It was often good for quite a bit of consternation until they finally discovered the trick.

I would simply throw in a Dagger, which was obviously magical.  If they cast an Identify spell, they would learn it was a +2 dagger, with another unidentifiable helpfull enchantment.  Of course, this was normally handed off to the nearest Mage.

In every case, I would enjoy telling the character that used this dagger "You struck the Orc, and it smiles and thanks you before resuming the attack."  And no matter how many times they hit or how much damage they caused, it would never kill anything.

Of course, the enchantment made it a "Dagger of Healing".  Stab anybody with it, and it heals 1d4+2 points of damage (normally limited to 2-4 uses per day).  This would normally be used later on for some hilarious roleplay.  Especially when a new player joins the group, that is not aware of the enchantment.

"Oh my, you are down to 2 hit points.  Here, let me take my +2 dagger and stab you with it!"

Any other DMs, feel free to steal my idea.  Just please give credit to me for inventing such a twisted item in the first place.

 
Of course, the enchantment made it a "Dagger of Healing".  Stab anybody with it, and it heals 1d4+2 points of damage (normally limited to 2-4 uses per day).  This would normally be used later on for some hilarious roleplay.  Especially when a new player joins the group, that is not aware of the enchantment.

"Oh my, you are down to 2 hit points.  Here, let me take my +2 dagger and stab you with it!"


*snicker*

The neutral paladin could have been the point of the quest in the first place.  Story from one of our games:

Paladin: "I tip the succubus, umm, I mean, the bar wench 1 platinum."
DM: "She asks you to come upstairs."
Paladin: "Woohoo!  Hay, Foo, can I borrow that ring that gives me resistance to that sorta thing?"
Foo: "Sure, but it'll cost ya."
Paladin:  "I got money!"
DM: "I don't think that's what he meant."
Foo: "What he said."
Paladin: "Gimme the ring!"
Foo:  "You asked for it..."
Paladin: "Now I go upstairs."
DM: "You're really sure you wanna do that?  Knowingly pay for a romp with the local succubus, because you know you're immune to her effects?"
Paladin: "I'm sure!"
DM: Okay!  *rolls dice*  You have a *roll* great time doing *roll* ,*roll* , and even *roll* .  She's annoyed at the lack of effect her charms are having on you.  So's your God.
Paladin:  "Woohoo!  Woohoo!  Woohoo!  Ha ha!  Whu?"
God:  That wasn't a particularly evil thing you did there, but it was pretty chaotic thing.  Wouldn't have been so bad if you hadn't known what she was.  Welcome to being Neutral Good. 
Paladin:  Oh, crap.
God:  You're gonna have to walk a lot of old ladies across the street for this one... 50% XP penalty until you clean up your act!  Impotence for the next six months! 
Party:  *we're all laughing*
God:  And *turning to the party* just because I'm not your God, that doesn't mean the rest of us aren't watching the rest of you either!  Your buddy's antics have put all of you on our radar!

The Paladin's alignment change turned out to the most convenient excuse to send him on a quest (namely the module we were all planning on starting anyways), drag all of us along with him.  Much hilarity ensued when our relatively freeform group had to actually play true to our character's professed ethical beliefs for the an entire campaign -- particularly for our poor assassin, who had to try and get through the quest's underlying icky-yucky goodness without doing too much good himself, but without being so evil that the rest of us would have killed him in self-defense.

By the end of that campaign, he had us completely paranoid. 

DM: "It's not good.  It's a gazebo." 
Monk: "I attac---no, wait, I'm lawful neutral.  I politely suggest that the chaotic neutral fighter work out his aggressions, and I apologize profusely to our Druid for his having to witness such wanton waste of worthwhile wood."
Paladin: Whines, because he has to say a prayer every time we work the words "wanton" or "wood" into a sentence.

(Speaking of which, we also played Paranoia, which was the funniest RPG of all time.  If only the old gang wasn't so geographically-dispersed; the logistics of adult life have conspired to prevent enough us from getting together for a weekend of Paranoia XP...)