Resurrection Spells for Sale

All of the geeks know it. Anyone who ever wanted to slip through a dimension door and live in a permanent Ren–Fest knows it. Last week Gary Gygax went to the great beyond. This death is ripe for the picking. I mean, just look at the title of this post. But along with all of the resurrection jokes and debating over which alignment and gods he followed, there is probably a group of people who a taking some pleasure at his passing.

Certain religious groups have been staunchly against the game of D&D and AD&D since they came on the market. Just like using Ouiji boards, it has been said that anyone who dares to roll the dice is actually opening the door and inviting Satan in. There is even a passage in the Bible, (don’t ask me where, but I have read it myself) that says you are not supposed to cast spells. So I guess that playing this “game” is about as close as you can come to breaking Gods laws.

Now, believe it or not, I have actually played this game. It’s true, I know you probably don’t believe me, but I used to enjoy weekly games of D&D with my friends. It started when I was in the Marines back in the 80s. After the money runs out and you can’t afford to go drinking on liberty anymore, a rip roaring game of D&D is just what the doctor ordered.

We would sit in the barracks on Okinawa and see what kind of trouble we could get into. The first character I ever rolled was a fighter of Nordic origin named Eric Broadaxe. (How’s that for creative?) This was before the Unearthed Arcana rules came out, so I rolled 3 6-sided dice 6 times to get my numbers. This guy came out with an 18/88 strength and an 18 intelligence. Unbelievable!!!

Sorry if I am losing any of the uninitiated.

Eric was quite the dude. Everyone wanted him to run in their dungeons. Twice the gods bestowed extra strength on him, so that his total became a 20. In my arrogance I began playing him with no armor. He could literally kill with a single strike of his 2 handed sword.

But alas, the good times always come to an end. He was punished for an act of murder and could no longer harm humans. No matter how hard he struck someone, they would feel nothing. (Dragons, you were still in grave danger)

Now…back to real life. I have never killed anyone. If I did, I would suffer a worse fate then not being able to harm another human being, (I am getting to old to be doing all of that bending over). And all of the dice I rolled, and all of the evil little critters I killed (on paper) never altered anyone’s life in any way, shape or form. So, am I evil? Have I been corrupted? Should I be held up as an example of what can go wrong if you start down this dark and dangerous path?

There was another group of Marines who did not join us for our weekend games. They would disappear from the barracks on Friday afternoon and show back up at formation on Monday morning. Married and single, they all had one thing in common. They all had a woman in town that they were seeing. Some even lived with these women on the weekends. It was kind of a rotational thing I believe. As one unit rotated out and another one rotated in, the women would hook up with new guy. The men got company and the women had someone to help pay bills and buy food.

The world is a strange place. We keep quiet about the doings of people in their private lives, and we raise hell about people playing a game that might match you against a demon. So what if you have to roll a few dice and caste a fireball spell to defeat your foe.

I never got laid playing D&D.

And that might be the biggest joke of all…lol

RIP Gary. And thanks.

-P