Articles by David Wright
Dixon Trimline is a halfling that occasionally (and reluctantly) plays a 40-something human who likes to write, dream, and travel around inside the cobwebby darkness of his own mind. This human grew up with role playing games, but his first love and his first choice was always Dungeons & Dragons.
Bad Alignment
From my first exposure to the game, when there were just the three alignments and I was creating a dwarf named Thorin Silversword, alignment seemed so artificial and unyielding, like a saccharin straightjacket. When complexity was folded into the mix, in the form of good and evil, and the three options ballooned to nine, the straightjacket became vented, silk-lined, and double-breasted, very fancy and good for an evening out, but still, you know, lashed in the back and making dancing a challenge. Yes, I’m pleased that 4E gave alignments a good shake, reducing the number to five, but I still feel like that might be five too many. [Read the rest of this article]
Winners and Losers in D&D
“Where are you coming back from?”
“The gaming store. I just ran a D&D game for some people.”
“Oh yeah? Did you win?”
This is the sort of question you’d expect from those people who somehow survive without D&D in their lives. They can’t imagine a game that isn’t competitive in nature, that doesn’t have winners and losers. These poor lost souls, frequently answering to “Mom” or “Honey” but rarely both, don’t see any value in a cooperative effort where success isn’t measured by the highest score, the most hotels, the fewest contusions, but instead by elements more intangible: “How cool was the battle?” ”How memorable was the scene?” ”How amazing was that moment?”
All of this happens under the impartial hand of the dispassionate Dungeon Master, who fully understands the differences between competition and cooperation, who bears no ill will towards these players, who isn’t interested in dominating the players, battering them down, embarrassing them, showing them who’s in charge. [Read the rest of this article]
