The Worst Die Roll Ever

Those who know me know that I seem to have extraordinarily poor luck with dice in games — not all randomizers, just dice. I’m sure some of it is selective memory, but, nonetheless, I have a story to tell of the worst die roll of my gaming career.

I was playing AD&D, and I rolled a natural 20, followed by another natural 20, killing the arch-villain that had been taunting and tormenting our group for a couple years of gaming.

Ok, that’s two die rolls, so I’m stretching a little bit. And for anyone who knows D&D, I probably need to explain why this was so horrible — and then I’ll share the revelation it gave me.

Communicating Online, or, Re-inventing a Useful Medium

OK, I know I’m behind the times and a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to the newest tools and techniques for communicating online, but it’s not all me grumping. There’s good reasons for some of it.

What triggered this post was little better than a wiki walk. My [non-gamer] coworker was asking about Gen Con, and then about RPGs, and then about LARPs. He expressed some interest, so I thought I’d point him at Madison By Night—which either doesn’t exist anymore, or doesn’t have a webpage anymore. [The most-recent page I found appears to have been last updated before the start of the 2003-2004 school year.] However, one of the links for it went to an old friend’s website, because he was one of the original founders of Madison By Night. I hadn’t realized he had a website, beyond the listings for Gen Con events. So I started poking around. And found a couple of essays that mesh well with thoughts I’ve had over the years—not-so-little things that drive me batty online.

Communicating Online, pt. 2, or, TOFU Bad

A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?