After reading one of Dave Barr’s posts in his Prime Time thread, and having seen D&D mentioned there as well in Lonnie Lowery’s old blog, I’m rather curious as to how many T-Men and T-Vixens played (or still play, as some of us do) this fantastic game?
What strikes me is the similarity between D&D and weightlifting. In D&D, you’re consistently gaining experience points and leveling up by conquering various monsters and opponents. In many ways D&D set itself apart from other games in that it stressed responsibility for your actions, and provided a consistent, measurable feedback related to your success.
Interestingly, D&D’s experience point and leveling system parallels the T-Nation lifestyle. Aren’t we all just “leveling up,” putting up bigger numbers or reaching new heights of lean body mass? For those who have played the game, having had a ‘nerdish’ adolescence (or even adulthood), how do you feel it’s impacted your training?
I know this post is out there, but someone had to draw the parallel
Now where’s my vorpal long sword +3? I have a Tarrasque to kill.
I never played D&D but I probably would have if I were born a little earlier. I played videogames instead. I’ve played a lot of roleplaying stuff that has D&D roots.
[quote]zdrax wrote:
After reading one of Dave Barr’s posts in his Prime Time thread, and having seen D&D mentioned there as well in Lonnie Lowery’s old blog, I’m rather curious as to how many T-Men and T-Vixens played (or still play, as some of us do) this fantastic game?
What strikes me is the similarity between D&D and weightlifting. In D&D, you’re consistently gaining experience points and leveling up by conquering various monsters and opponents. In many ways D&D set itself apart from other games in that it stressed responsibility for your actions, and provided a consistent, measurable feedback related to your success.
Interestingly, D&D’s experience point and leveling system parallels the T-Nation lifestyle. Aren’t we all just “leveling up,” putting up bigger numbers or reaching new heights of lean body mass? For those who have played the game, having had a ‘nerdish’ adolescence (or even adulthood), how do you feel it’s impacted your training?
I know this post is out there, but someone had to draw the parallel
Now where’s my vorpal long sword +3? I have a Tarrasque to kill. [/quote]
Uhhhh…NO I WOULD NEVER PLAY THAT GAME!!! NOPE, NEVER would I play that game for SO many years through college and for some years later!
NOPE, not me…
By the way: to kill a Terrasque, a +3 Vorpal sword won’t do it…you need to bring its HP to 0 then get 100HP of NORMAL weapon damage (not magical) then a Wish Spell…
…not that I would know about those type of things…
=D
[quote]SprinterOne wrote:
I played it, but I never liked the “role-playing” part. I really just enjoyed the way your character was able to continually improve. [/quote]
Depends on how seriously you take the role playing. If you make a character that basically acts like you, sessions end up as basically bullshitting with each other with one of you “telling” the story (plus the combat, of course). I’ve found it’s fun with the right people.
Good post. Yeah, I almost forgot how much fun I use to have when I was a kid playing it. And now the loss of the originality of roleplaying everything out on paper for EverQuest.
But I played EQ for awhile and even the new one EQ2 for a bit. Its a time sink… and the funny thing. If you play that, you can forget about staying motivated to weight lifting. lol
Good post. Yeah, I almost forgot how much fun I use to have when I was a kid playing it. And now the loss of the originality of roleplaying everything out on paper for EverQuest.
But I played EQ for awhile and even the new one EQ2 for a bit. Its a time sink… and the funny thing. If you play that, you can forget about staying motivated to weight lifting. lol
Thus, the reason I stopped EQ2 :)[/quote]
Computer games are what inspired me to start lifting weights. I want to be built like PacMan …>
Oh boy, back to my nerd roots. I enjoyed it quite a bit but I wasn’t hardcore - most of our sessions just turned into talking about random stuff, watching TV, playing video games, or some volleyball.
I started with AD&D and then moved to GURPS. I wish 3rd edition had been out when I started, it looks way easier and cooler.
I definetely enjoyed the character improvement part the most. Sometimes I would just spend time making characters, or drawing up a current character at higher levels. Yep, I was/am a dork. But I suppose it parrelled pretty well with improving myself like you said - but it’s certainly harder physically then on paper!
I noticed a lot of the people I played with went into acting or drama related careers, but no one has gotten into lifting, so there’s certainly more to the parallel.
We used to play d&d for days. We also had all of the lead figurines painted to represent the characters and monsters. Their was also a series of Conan The Barbarian comic books that me and my brothers collected, and of course the movie. Those were some good times.
I think I was around twelve when I quit playing and started into hitting the wieghts, reading Black Belt magazine, taking karate, and throwing chinese stars at each other.
Yes, the thrill of leveling up my Samurai and laughing with my friends at the most ridiculous actions we’d attempt in the game. Of course after playing the game for eighteen hours, with breaks only for when the munchies struck, lifting was one of the last things on our minds…
After that I became very interested in the Society for Creative Anachronism but never got involved.
I have been playing RPGs (including D&D) since 1984. And I still do. Mostly Star Trek nowadays, and I’m running 3 campaigns (in the UK and Germany - that means me sitting on a plane every few weeks), some with remote players (even from the US) linked in with Skype. That works well with ST off course.
It’s just the best kind of game ever: cooperative (no competitive crap), complex and never repetitive.
Call me a nerd, but that and shagging is what I am best at.
The SCA? That takes me back. I’d met a young woman with the most beautiful green eyes, and her and I had spent a bit of shy geeky time together.
Anyway, at one point, she asked me if I’d like to join her and her friends, a group in the SCA, and hang out with a bunch of geeks. Now, I was a mondo geek, but I come out with a sarcastic “why would I want to hang out with a bunch of geeks”…
Needless to say, she didn’t catch the sarcasm and her and her beautiful enchanting green eyes were never a part of my life.
I’ve got 4 of them on my desk at work right now, even though I haven’t played in probably 8 years. When I was, I was full throttle into it. We had 4 DMs among us, each running different campaigns in different games (Star Wars, D&D, DC Comics, Battletech). Those were good times.
But, um…I can’t really see a connection between gaming and exercise. Since, when we played, we’d be up until 4 in the morning, and then go to 7-11 for nachos and slurpees!!
I agree. Total nerds. Some friends tried to get me into D&D once about 25 years ago, but the dice were against me: I couldn’t hit the broad side of a ten-foot gelatinous cube with a handful of rice!
Eventually we gave up paper games and started our own Live Role Playing Group, where accomplishing anything relies on your own speed and strength and skill and savvy.
Oh yeah I played alot in the past …tried to run a campaign not that long ago but could not keep players to commit so when they kept missing finally I had to cancel it. But yeah I love me some role-playing. Not as much as Squats mind you …but its a hoot.
