Recent content by Reynard

I would use the word in its most literal sense. That is, while we are all "creating a story together" when we play, general players doing player things aren't collaborating, they are playing. This includes more open, player driven games where they decide where to go and what to do...

Teachers, librarians, etc: do younger kids today still read and/or watch Harry Potter?

Everyone knows that the best thing to dollop on pizza is mashed potatoes.

I bet we are also probably using different definitions of "collaboration".

I don't really buy that, based on many years of experience with many people. Sure, sometimes it is fully collaborative, but I think that is very much the exception. Most players (again, IME) are not passive, per se, but they definitely eat the meal more than they prepare it. And that's not a...

Guarded? Mine just hang out in there, smoking, drinking and doing unspeakable things...

Sure. I was just trying to drag the thread sort of back on topic. But even so, I think Percy Jackson would be more likely than Dresden.

The satanic panic was when a bunch of child care facilities were accused of satanic ritual abuse and people lost their livelihoods and businesses and even went to jail over completely made up nonsense. I remember the "D&D satanic panic" growing up and it... wasn't. It was just bible belters...

Off topic: the only fad book series I read that actually seemed to hold up to scrutiny was The Hunger Games. Solid storytelling and prose, even if the premise was nonsense.

The real important aspect of this finding is the strong suggestion that sexual reproduction manages to fix errors in transcription that cloning does not catch. I wonder if this is simply because there is, well, less transcription.

I can't believe you folks are still arguing about the definition of Urban Fantasy. In the completely fantastical world where WotC did make a Urban Fantasy D&D setting, I imagine it would end up looking more like Percy Jackson or Scion than Dresden Files.

The pearl clutching has never ceased, but the Satanic Panic was a real thing that hurt a lot of real people. Midwesterners burning copies of HP was not a satanic panic.

I should add The Road Warrior and Hell Comes to Frogtown and other 80s B-movie apocalypses. I love the post Apocalyptic genre above all others.

I discovered them after I had discovered D&D, and after I had already read a bunch of adult fantasy. But 12 year old me loved DL and I still find myself stealing ideas from it to this day (especially the returning gods bit).

I was going to make this a poll, but I realized there were just too many options. So, what do you consider your formative geek media. it doesn't have to be the best, or even your favorite, but rather the geek media that had a real impact on your "geekness". Because this is EN World, of course...